Free Star Carrier (Lost Colonies Trilogy Book 3) by B. V. Larson Page A

to press her harder. I could tell she was holding something back, but I figured she would tell me about it when she felt the time was right.

-9-
     
    After a few days of blissful reunion, Chloe and I had to part ways again. We weren’t a couple, not like before, but we’d certainly enjoyed one another’s company. We’d never again brought up her possible resignation from public service, but I felt her backing away from the idea.
    By the end of my visit, she left to return to her duties. Satisfied with this, I didn’t say a thing.
    For me, the whole vacation together provided a sense of closure. After our breakup a year or so ago, she’d remained in the back of my mind. Both of us had had a number of affairs, but we’d still felt something for one another that we’d never found with anyone else.
    “Well, this is my last day of leave,” I said. “I need to return to Defiant by tonight. I’ll miss you.”
    “I’m so glad you’re assigned to defend Earth now,” she told me at breakfast. “We can see each other more often—can’t we?”
    “That’s indeed possible, but you should keep in mind that it’s also possible I’ll be sent to the stars at any moment. That’s the life of a Guardsman.”
    She glanced at me in surprise. Looking back down, she played with her coffee cup.
    “But… your parents told me this assignment would be permanent. They were quite adamant about it.”
    I froze. In that moment, a number of inconsistencies knit together in my mind. Why would someone as important as the Chairman insist a particular captain be kept close to Earth to guard her while all the rest flew to the stars?
    Because of politics, that’s why. My parents had already demonstrated they were aware of the Chairman and the Council. They weren’t without their own influence. Perhaps, as a favor from a loyal patron, they’d requested that I be shackled here.
    “…like a dog on a leash…” I muttered.
    “What’s that, William?”
    “Nothing, love. I was merely regretting that I must depart.”
    “So soon? I thought you had until this evening to report—”
    “A captain’s duties never cease.”
    Reluctantly, she let me go. We embraced warmly and parted ways. I paid the hotel bill, despite her complaints. It was true she was a dozen times richer than I was, but as a starship captain whose pay had recently been doubled, I wasn’t without resources.
    I also possessed an access chip to my family accounts. After a moment’s hesitation, I used it to pay the bill. If my parents or their accountants wanted to complain, I would counter with a list of my own complaints.
    Angry, I took public transport back to my parents’ estate. I didn’t want them to know I was coming.
    But along the way, I lost heart and redirected the pilot to the spaceport. After all, what was I going to say to them? Would I demand they stop meddling in my affairs? I knew they wouldn’t. Should I suggest they get over the idea of trying to protect me? That too, would be fruitless.
    The office of a Public Servant was a lifetime appointment, and since I was my father’s seventy-percent clone, I’d already been elected according to current law.
    That particular law had always troubled me somewhat. It seemed unfair. A lifetime appointment, I could grasp that. But the idea that such an important office should become permanent , passing down from parent to clone…
    It occurred to me as I rode the sky-lift up to Araminta Station that others must have complained about the injustice of that law in the past. How could they not have? But even so, I couldn’t recall a serious public debate on the issue during my lifetime.
    A cold chill ran through me. Could the Chairman and his Council of oldsters truly wield that much power? Could they edit what people knew to be their history? Had people protested in the past and been expunged?
    By the time I reached Defiant , I was thinking about just how such a thing might be accomplished. Where might the