Here is some proof that no matter how far into the future and cosmos we travel, no matter how big our territories are, how big our armaments are, and how powerful we get, at our heart of hearts, we are still quite…human.
“I should know better than to try to impress you with a starry sky, Admiral.”
Amonring shrugged. KL-28 didn’t have a moon, and its system was close enough to the Galaxy Core. The stars were so numerous and bright, they fused into dense multi-colored swirls. The view was spectacular by most standards.
“Thank you for letting me enjoy your grounds, Madame Governor.” As commander of the Crystal Linda, Amonring outranked her in the Coalition hierarchy, but at the moment, he was a guest on her planet.
They walked farther down the gentle slope, away from the bright lights of the governor’s palace. Local grass-like flora made a soft susurrus under their feet.
“This planet is honored to be chosen by the Supreme Command as the launch point for the Crystal Linda.” She replied with equal formality, but then added, smiling, “Honestly, it’s a pleasure to meet you, Admiral.”
He was grateful she didn’t say, to meet the famous Admiral Amonring. “The whole planet must be lousy with my crew tonight.”
“The people here love it. A visit from a Battle Base! This is the most excitement KL-28 has had in decades.”
“But you didn’t choose to join in the revels, Madame Governor?”
“You didn’t feel like partying with your fellow officers, Admiral?” Her shrug was barely noticeable in the half-light.
“Planet leave is a tradition before a deep mission. Even if I want my crew to see me as a human being who occasionally walks on dirt, it doesn’t mean they can truly relax around their superior.”
“Sounds familiar.” She led him further into the gloom.
“This is a party of our own then?” Amonring discarded the formal address as he gestured to a small knoll.
“Yes, this is one of my favorite spots.” The governor nodded and lowered herself to the ground, heedless of the lush vegetation staining her outfit.
Amonring carefully sat down next to her, guiding himself by the starlight reflecting off of the light fabric of her formal dress. His own dark uniform swallowed the light, except for the sparkling gems of his insignia.
In unison, they leaned back against the knoll, turning their gaze upward.
“Do you often see them?” the governor asked.
“See what?”
“The stars . . . for real, I mean.” She swept her arm indicating the planet-wide video projection on the firmament.
“I used to, long ago, before the service, before the War.” Amonring answered, clasping his hands behind his head to make a pillow. “We can no more look directly at the stars from a spaceship than you can from a planet. Less so, in fact. All light in front of you blueshifts into the gamma spectrum, and every stray hydrogen atom becomes a high-energy missile that can blow your vessel apart.”
The Governor propped herself on the elbow and turned towards him.
“Yes, I know… But you do orbit or drift at times, don’t you. Like now?”
“Indeed. It’s not the interstellar gas we are worried about though. If a single photon from outer space can reach your eyes to be observed, so can the Enemy’s energy weapon. We are always shielded. Always. Even at a base, we see an image of the cosmos, but never the cosmos itself.”
She sighed. “Military! Even on an indestructible battle base, you still observe the protocols.”
“I wrote a few of those protocols. They happen to work.” Admiral’s smile was lost in the darkness.
“Yes, I know…” She repeated.
Amonring turned and propped himself up as well, mirroring the governor’s posture. A blade of grass tickled his face. Its sharp pungence was unique to KL-28, but at the same time carried some familiar flavor, present in everything green, tracing all the way back to the Old Earth.
“Do you want to see them? With the Crystal Linda in orbit, no one will bother your planet.”
The governor smiled back. Their faces were close enough that they could discern each other’s expressions. “Orbit is such an archaic term. I think our sun could have a chat with your Battle Base to decide who is orbiting whom.”
Amonring shrugged. The joke was closer to the truth than the governor knew. Most of the enormous structure of the Crystal Linda was undetectable and its gravitational signature camouflaged. “What can I say? I am a relic.”
“I suspect our subjective ages are not far apart, Admiral. How old are you objectively?”
“About three-hundred-and-fifty. Not so young subjectively, either.” Amonring ran a hand through his now-silver hair. Despite decades of anti-aging treatments, his timeline was catching up with him.
“So, you’ve flown around a bit . . . .”
“Yeah . . . Relativistic travel, distortion tunnels, accretion disks, warps . . . my personal world-line is so tangled, I can no longer make sense of it.”
The governor nodded. “KL-28 is remote. I doubt our world-lines will intersect again.” She sat up and in turn ran her own hand through her short crop of dark hair.
“Madame Governor, if by some strange chance we were ever to meet again, our subjective timelines might not match. You might be decades older or younger than me.”
The governor stared at him intently, the small creases around her eyes etched with starlight.
“Attention. Executive Order,” she enunciated, “turn off the Mirror-Shield. Effective immediately.” She paused listening for the reply. “Correct. I repeat. Turn off the Mirror-Shield.”
Amonring wasn’t entirely sure if he caught the moment when the simulated sky was replaced by the real one. The projections were usually quite faithful.
Maybe the stars jumped just a little and became slightly fuzzier. Maybe he was just imagining it. He drew a deep breath and lay back again, stretching. Somehow, he felt as if there was more oxygen in his lungs.
The governor also reclined, this time much closer to her guest.
“There shouldn’t be any difference, but I feel so much lighter without it,” she mused softly. “Will humans ever be able to look at the stars again?”
“We are doing what we can. Tomorrow, the Crystal Linda is launching on a mission to make the skies safer. Once we are gone, you’ll have to restore the shield.”
“I wonder if I have to. What are the chances of the Enemy bothering to attack us here? And if they do, what are the chances of the shield making a difference? Can it hold long enough for reinforcements to arrive?”
“Is there anything to gain by risking being taken out by a stray missile?” Admiral asked.
“What are we gaining looking up there tonight?”
Amonring moved his arm slightly closer to her, opening his palm. “Will you let your people decide for themselves what the stars are worth to them, Madame Governor?”
Their hands touched.
END
