Free Hellfire (THEIRS NOT TO REASON WHY) by Jean Johnson Page B

beginning, don’t get me wrong, but I knew going into it that it would take me time to win her over. Others adapted more quickly…
    …Harper? Yeah, of course Harper was there—look, I had less than a third of the crew normally needed to run a combat ship of that size, and only two months in which to cross-train everyone to cover all the missing stations. Even the married couples in my crew didn’t have the time to spare for that sort of thing, we were pushed that hard. Not to mention continuing to scout the future and write prophecies, plus the double-indemnity clause if any of my crew smacked into a Fatality—all of thatweight on my shoulders, and you think I had time for a relationship? Have you not been paying attention in this interview?
    ~Ia
    OCTOBER 25, 2495 T.S.
    “You know, you never answered any of my mail? Vidletters, texts, nothing. No correspondence. Do you know how that made me feel?” Harper demanded the moment they were alone.
    The only good thing about his accusation was how he waited just long enough for her office door to slide shut. Mindful of the pickups hidden in her office, pickups she knew about but didn’t want to tamper with for this first “private” meeting with Harper, Ia hoped a version of the truth would be palatable enough for both him and her two superiors.
    “I can guess how you felt, but there really wasn’t much to say. We parted as friends, Meyun, and attended to our separate duties. Anything further at that point was physically impossible and logistically improbable, so what more
could
be said?”
    He stared at her, then flung out his hands. “Maybe something like, ‘I missed you’? Or ‘Let me tell you about my crazy day’…? Okay, maybe not
that
one, given we both ended up on Blockade duty,” he allowed. Swiping his hands over his hair, Meyun sighed. “I just…You never replied.”
    He wasn’t going to let it go. She couldn’t check this moment in time; Meyun Harper was too much of an anomaly point for a clear reading. But she could check the most likely outcomes of this meeting, in regards to Genibes and the Admiral-General. A quick skim of the waters took no more time than the amount it took her to blink twice and sigh.
    “…Fatality Forty-Nine, Harper?” Ia reminded him gently. “I didn’t want either of our careers derailed by accusations of fraternization. And now that we’re serving together again, that’s not going to come into play, either.”
    She could see the protests forming in his dark brown eyes. Moving closer, Ia picked up his hand in hers, cupping it in both palms. Verbally, she addressed him as she would have the Grandmaster of the Afaso Order, as a good friend butnot a romantic interest. Underneath it, however, she sent a different message.
    “Come on…where’s the roommate who put up with my awful study habits?” she asked out loud, then carefully sent, (
Meyun, this room is bugged for audio and visual surveillance. The Admiral-General wants to make sure
everything
I do is aboveboard.
) “The man who wanted me at his side during the zombie apocalypse, because I’d be the one running to nuke them all from orbit, like a
sensible
soldier should?”
    He widened his eyes for a moment, then narrowed them in comprehension. Ia continued her dual conversation.
    (
I have five months left in my
carte blanche
to convince her to give me ongoing free rein in handling all of this.
) “We had a brief fling, but it didn’t work out. Our real relationship, the lasting one, has always been a working one.” (
Help me out here,
) she cajoled. (
Don’t mess it up. A year or two from now,
if
everything goes right
…then
we can talk about this.
) “I’d like to get back to that.” (
I’ll have the prophetic leverage for all sorts of things,
if
we play it straight and by the book, right now.
)
    Meyun looked down at the hands cradling his. He sighed and covered her fingers with his other hand. “You’re right. It’s just…Ah, your earlier