[A special thank you to HeyAll who helped me edit this wall of text. Another Thanks is to all the comments people were leaving. They help me immensely. Thank you all.]
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A cape could be seen leaving the area by the time reality smacked me over my face. Snakey left the ceremony with his entourage while Anna was holding my hand, she tried to fend off my unit from crushing my bones after the unexpected promotion. I was a general.
I did not know what that carried, but surely my tasks will increase in the coming days. After some time my unit started to get bored with their antics and started to dissipate. Moving to their own time off, I was left with Anna, Pam, Jerry, Tom, Paul and Matt. After the four men shook my hand they left as well, leaving me with Pam and Anna. Three of us looked at one another then started laughing, Pam and Anna were visibly more happy than I was, Anna was first to kiss me then Pam which I found quite strange. I was taken aback at first then looked at Anna to see her reaction, but she was just smiling, still my hand firmly clasped in hers. I couldn't say what I was feeling, but my emotions erupted, I started to shed tears. I know it's not manly but she means so much to me and her acceptance means a lot.
Since the room had people besides us she gently grabbed my head to hide my tears, "I know you do not care but people talk, and they say cruel things behind our backs. My love you have no worries I love you and always will be with you."
Pam smiled and left us to tend to his duties. With the corner of my tear soiled eyes I saw people pointing towards us, some had smiles on their faces, but others had a strange cruel look, probably envious that this gorgeous female was hugging me. A fat fuck.
A gentle buzz on my Data Pad told me I got a new message. I did not want to break my hold of this woman.
"I love you so much." I whispered to her, probably tired of hearing my nth confession not even 2 days passed.
Who's going to let go first? Me or her? I never wanted this hug to end, this loving woman to break her hold, but something inside me nudged the images of those poor refugees. A woman and her beloved child was in my mind constantly. Not to haunt me but a loving memory, scary at times, but at this moment it provided me with a sense of urgency.
Asteroid probably has some kidnaped people. Human or otherwise. Some will probably be in the same position, starving, not able to do anything about abuse that had come or is coming. Humans are cruel. But we aren't alone in this galaxy that have members of the same species loving the idea that they can cause pain and misery.
I had to release the hold, tears still dripping down. She even wiped my tears smiling gently. Why is she so good to me?
I took my Data Pad and started going thru my new message, the contents just said I was needed in the CO's office for further debriefing regarding my new rank. "Love I have to go to CO's office. Something about my promotion."
I left her there standing and moved to the CO's office. I heard the inside of the closed doors say "Enter." I did and was greeted by huge oval room with a man on its end behind a tall huge desk sitting. A man was in his 50's the same one that debriefed us about the Solanje refugees problem. The woman and the man were not around, probably on their duties, but I was a bit sad about not meeting the woman again. Since I was a general this man was still in command of the station so technically my train of thought was the same as with Captain Connor.
I came near his table and clasped my hands behind me in form of attention, the commander stared at me and just silently said "At ease, general you don't have many people that you have to salute anymore. In fact I'd say I have to salute."
His smile was gentle and he sounded a bit disappointed.
"Thank you sir." I had nothing to say to the man since anything I did say would just seem that I was talking down to him, "I reckon you running your station, and being my former CO would be enough for me to continue to do that. In no way am I looking down on you by doing this, sir."
"Back on track, I called you back here to give you your current rank permissions. Your old rank only had few like giving you the right of commanding any ground tactical combat situations. Executing any order however you see fit and permission to marry, on top of these you'll get more."
He turned to get a Data Pad behind him that was lying on a small desk lamp. Wedding permits are gotten once one gets into military or individual has to issue one from the government, after few screening tests, to see the individual is healthy, has no prior criminal record then he's granted a permit to marry his loved one. Army just gives you that when you graduate from the boot camp. Much faster option.
He was back and reading from the Data Pad. "Your previous privileges remain and new ones are already implementable. They include, your own Carrier ship with a crew of 2000, your old ship and crewmates will remain and any new ones can be added as you see fit. No special permit is required, they just need to designate who orders them. You can decide never again to go into combat but then your current military progress will be frozen at this rank. Your wedding permit is upgraded to status rank 5 which means you can have up to 5 partners at one time, as well no child-bearing has been lifted and you can start a family whenever you want. And exclusive to you, you may freely choose your missions or plan them without reporting it to command, just when they are finished. Full report on that still stands."
He kept clicking "One more thing. 100 acres of farmland is available as well for you to do as you please."
I was confused so many new things at once. Marry more than one person is pretty standard but a carrier of 2000 people, 5 mile long ship that few people in our Gal Federation knew how to fly. Well there were only 13 of them. They weren't just ships but living breathing cities underneath capable of housing up to 20000 individuals if cargo and everything else is disregarded. But carriers often carry 500 craft that can attack or defend any point in space. It's a ship that not many people can handle and often get forgotten when warring with other races. But I see an untamed potential when using such a force.
But still I was anxious to serve on board one. "Will I command said carrier or will it have a trained captain?"
"It's under your own command, it's up to you weather you'll take a captain to manage the bridge while you concentrate on other duties, or escapades." He smiled here, "To be clear, it is a fairly new ship built just a year ago. Never has flown so it's naming and maiden voyage is up to you. The only thing you need to do is board it on the shipyard."
He now set his Data Pad on the table and interlocked his fingers looking straight at me.
"I want to board it immediately and rush for the Asteroid where deserter's base is. I have some fears that it has more slavers on it with potential victims."
"I see no problem with that take your unit and you can settle on your Carrier. Be sure to call back at least once a while." Commander said standing up and offering his hand. "General, I am happy to push you off on this maiden voyage good luck."
"Thank you sir." We held our grasp a little too long then we parted ways.