Chapter Ninety-One: Reunion
Kentares IV, December 21st, 3018
"Mommy!" David ran up to Natasha as soon as she walked off of the dropship that she had been on. "I missed you." He buried his face in her hair. Automatically defusing any possible tension that might have arisen.
"I missed you too." Natasha held onto the five year old. "I promise to never be gone that long again." After Natasha and David had stepped to the side, an older gray-haired man stepped out of the dropship.
"You must be Marcus Hull." The man greeted me with a firm handshake. "We have heard a great deal about you from your wife over there." He indicated the two redheads loving on eachother out of the way of the people disembarking from the dropship. "But I gather she is a bit preoccupied at the moment."
"I'll have to agree with you there." I stated as I released him from the handshake. "I take it you are Khan Ward?" I asked, "The Wolf Brothers spoke highly of you."
He was about to start speaking again when my wife interrupted him with a flying tackle that brought me to the ground.
I tried to speak, but was smothered by a kiss instead.
"I'll set up a meeting with you later." Khan Ward chuckled, as he began to coordinate the sorting of the passengers. "I think you will be busy for a while."
December 22nd, 3018
"Natasha," I rubbed my eyes. "Why are there six women in our living room with workout clothes on?"
"Well," She wagged her eyebrows at me. "I figured that if one kid wasn't enough to keep you out of trouble then six would probably work." She grinned at me impishly. "Well? Do your new concubines meet your approval oh Duke Hull?"
"I think that you're messin 'with me." I raised my eyebrow at her. "But right now I can't tell." I turned around and went back into the bedroom. "Wake me up again when I can process this properly." I called over my shoulder, Natasha just laughing at me the entire time, and smacked my butt as I crawled back into bed.
"I've been working on that joke for a year now." Natasha crowed in victory, "And it was worth it for the expression on your face!"
"Was it now?" I questioned as I pulled her back into bed and began tickling her. "Was it really?"
"Yep." She rolled me onto my back. "Worth every second."
Later that day…
"So, you're leaving about fifty thousand people from Clan Wolf here?" I asked Khan Ward
"Yes, there were quite a few freebirths that wished for an opportunity at a new life." He responded. "And while I have plans to address many of the issues with the Clan way of life, they will all take time to implement."
"So taking over the former RWR worlds?" I asked him. "Hopefully you manage to reverse some of the destruction that the SLDF left on those planets."
"That is the goal." He agreed. "There should be a decent amount of resources left, and we still possess terraforming equipment that the Terran Hegemony used."
"I hope you met with Archon Steiner before passing through her space on your way here." I stated.
"Indeed I did." He leaned back in his chair, we were sitting on the ducal estates front porch for this meeting instead of my office for once. "Her and her Husband are both wise individuals for their age."
"I have taken your measure, Hull." Ward said as he leaned back in his rocking chair. "It takes an individual with character to accomplish what you have done." He stroked his beard. "Now all that is left is for me to see what kind of character that it is you have."
"To most of my people, you are a freebirth and by definition inferior." He started. "But I am not most of my people." He took a sip of some of the sweet tea that I had set out earlier. "I spent yesterday speaking with your people after Kerensky distracted you." He inhaled. "And do you know what I found?" I just shook my head and raised an eyebrow, not knowing where he was going with this.
"I found people who are absolutely devoted to you and the way of thinking that you have developed over the years." He paused for a minute to get his thoughts back together. "I do not think you realize how interesting it is that you have people of more than three nations here, and cooperating as more than a mercenary unit. Even the people that Colonel Wolf left here have integrated well and managed to make lives for themselves. It takes a special kind of place to do that."
"Thank you? I said with uncertainty.
December 24th, 3018
"Well, I guess that works as a decent Christmas present." I said as I looked at what Natasha had just handed me. "What am I supposed to do with six Clan Bondsmen, a dozen Dropships, and half a dozen jumpships?"
"Put them to use." Natasha shrugged. "I'm leaving that sort of thing to you to figure out." She laughed. "And you will not have to worry about the Bondsmen." She smirked, "I've already broken them in."
"Now, you're going to have to tell me how you managed to take two Khans, two Galaxy Commanders, a Star Colonel, and a Star Captain as Bondsmen at some point." I said. "And you've got to start telling me when you take my Warhammer's on trips."
"Why would I do that?" Nat asked me. "When you spec them out so well?"
"Because David found a nice Nightstar in the mountains and we're upgrading it for you specifically." I smiled. "I think you won't have much need of my Warhammer anymore."
"Did he really?" She asked. "He was trying to tell me about a castle that he and you had found before he fell asleep last night."
"You should have seen the look on his face when he was describing it to me." I said as I pulled out the pictures that David had taken on our trip to the mountains.
"He had you take these?" She asked me.
"He took them actually." I said proudly. "He's also three to five levels higher in schooling than the other kids in his group."
"I am sorry that I missed so much of it." Natasha said sadly, tears starting to shine in her eyes
"Hey." I made Nat look at me. "Sometimes things happen that make us have to physically be apart from our loved ones." I pulled her in for a deep hug. "But, we get to make new memories, and you get to be a big part of his life now." She quietly sobbed into my shoulder and chest for a few minutes. "I love you." I told her as I stroked her hair.
"I am expecting a full report on all of the things you got up to while I was gone." Natasha said as she rubbed the tears out of her eyes.
"We can trade stories tomorrow after we're done with Christmas festivities." I told her with a small laugh.