Free The Red Queen by Gibson Morales Page B

lap. The raging fires and billowing smoke of Sector 20’s massive pod-like structures haunted him frame by frame. The video cut to Fleet Services Commander Ramses at a podium.
    I won’t lie, the subtitles read. We were hit very hard. At this time, we are not yet able to deploy the same weapons we used in the Alkebulan Drop.
    Zubren didn’t know if he should praise or condemn the commander’s honesty.
    “You’re right. I’m sorry,” he told Elaine dismissively.
    “And yet you’re still glued to that thing. You know the replays will be up for weeks.”
    “That doesn’t mean I’m not sorry,” his words grew rigid. He’d really screwed the pooch now. “I’ve just prioritized this over proving my apology.”
    “Your son is dangling over the edge of the pond. Wants to swim with the fishes. Should I let him?”
    Zubren glanced up. Asher sat behind the layer of bricks surrounding the pond, no closer to jumping in than the fish were to jumping out.
    Exhaling, he reclined back into his lawn chair. But he didn’t feel at ease. In the recesses of his mind, he’d bought into the hope that the Alkebulan Drop would actually end the War. Instead, the Crawlers had struck back and knocked their technology back a few years.
    Eager to shield his family from the chill in his mood, Zubren scooped up a handful of pellets from the plastic container at his feet. “Check this out, Asher,” he said as he dashed them across the pond’s surface. A school of goldfish launched up.
    Asher giggled, tore out blades of grass and threw those in.
    “Asher,” Zubren warned.
    His son made a squirting noise with his tongue and wrenched another handful of grass from the lawn.
    “Someone’s ready for bed,” Elaine said, lifting him up. She cocked her head towards their house.
    Zubren clicked off his MobileScreen and followed them across the patio. Inside their living room, the fossil imprint of a small terrestrial insect ornamented the fireplace mantle. His wife’s recent find. Nice to know not all insects were trying to kill humans. Seeing it beside their family photos, he realized he should embrace his time with Elaine and Asher. That was the best way to honor the victims of the Sector 20 attack, wasn’t it? He pictured the engineers’ loved ones in tears. If he ever died in combat, the last thing he wanted was his family wishing they’d spent more time together.
    Elaine set Asher in his crib and Zubren pulled his fuzzy blue polka dot blanket up to his chest.
    Asher garbled something, perhaps his earliest attempt at a thank you . Elaine exchanged a smile with him. Soon Asher would start to talk. Then he’d ask questions. Why can’t we ever win the Crawler War, Dad? Zubren shuddered at the imaginary voice of his son. He’d lived his whole life pondering that same question, and yet after seven years in Fleet Services the answer was no clearer to him.
    A lime green pallor painted the sky, the falling sun creating a ghastly hue. The spore clouds were a constant reminder of the Crawler Haze surrounding Oras. Elaine caught him staring and shut the curtains as if that would solve the problem for good. Surely she dreaded the day Asher would ask about the Crawler War. Every parent did. The War had existed as long as anyone could remember and yet, somehow, every human child sensed the innate wrongness of it. They could tell that this wasn’t how things were supposed to be, that things had been different in the past.
    Maybe it was finally time to try the other path. The path he’d toyed with taking for years. He slipped a hand over his wife’s and collected his thoughts.
    “I’ve had a good career with Fleet Services,” he said.
    “They call you the Exterminator at work, right?” she said.
    “Yeah. I’ve got a lot of dead Crawlers on my conscience.”
    “You’re the pilot, not me,” Elaine shrugged with a knowing smile. “Whenever you think you’ve done your duty, I’ll go with it.”
    From time to time, they joked around