May 17 2051 Iberian Spaceport Lisbon Portugal Brian Kinney, Director of Planetary Defense, is addressing the 18 fighter pilots who’ll be taking part in the opening gambit of Operation Revenge. While the Director is 80 years old he could easily pass for 15 years younger. “Gentlemen, I’m not worried that you’ll do your duty to Earth in the next few days. My only fear is that some of you won’t return home. Yet all of you knew the risks when you joined Space Force and even more so when you volunteered for this operation. Your assignment is to find out as much as you can about the Empire, and the Legion. In this early part of Operation Revenge information about our sworn enemy is more important than damage that you can give them, we’ve time to hurt them, and so if the choice is coming home with valuable information or causing damage but not coming home then you are commanded to come home. The Battle Cruisers will be ready for active duty in a few months; so your real mission is to find targets for them instead of fighting yourselves. That being said if you see an opportunity to bloody the nose of the fucking Legion then you have my permission to bloody their nose and any other body parts you can. Even if you don’t find anything concrete that will help in our further operations. Since it is just as important to know where they aren‘t located as it is to know where they are located. We’re hoping that our locator devices will enable you to know if there are ships in a stellar system while you are still in N-space. Random jumps into stellar systems will never be of any use. We know that the devices can find our ships from N-space, so make sure if there is any chance of your ship being captured that you destroy the device. The engineers assure me that the locators are wired so that the destruction of them will not harm your ship in any other way. Remember to seed the beacons both in normal and N-space in any system that you believe is worth being able to find again. Each of your ships has several hundred of these beacons so don’t worry about using them. Above all, look for signs of the Legion; you know what we think are the symbols of that fucking organization. Empire planets are important but the Legion is what Earth really wants revenge against. The Legion paid the Horab to steal our citizens and it must pay for that. We think that the Legion is just an elite organization of the Empire’s military though it’s possible that it’s the name for the entire military organization. Finding out which situation is true would be very helpful in making our future plans. I’m not sure how you would be able to determine that from space, especially since we can’t read or speak their languages but just observe whatever you come across. Any Questions? None? Squadrons dismissed and good luck for your hunt. The good wishes of the people of Earth go with you.” *** “Major Peterson may I have a word in private?” “Of course Director Kinney, how may I help you? “We’re in private Taylor, I don’t think you have to be quite so formal with me. I did change your diapers at times.” “That is not how Grandma Mel told it Grandfather.” “I’m sure I intended to change them.” “From what Grandma Mel told me you probably had Mikey do it for you.” “Do you think that your Grandma Mel didn’t like me?” “Grandfather I think that is one of the most profound things I’ve ever heard you say.” “Taylor I could still get you out of this assignment.” “If you ever want to speak to me again Grandfather you’ll do no such thing. I am an officer in the Space Force of Earth, I am qualified for this assignment and I’ll do my duty. I’ll do my part to help in the implementation of Operation Revenge. The Stolen will have Revenge done in their name. The Legion shall pay dearly for buying our young men. The Horab will be utterly destroyed for daring to steal citizens of Earth.” “Taylor I knew all of those sayings, long before you were born, I wrote them after all, how do you really feel about this.” “Grandfather, I’m elated and I’m afraid. I’ll do my duty and if at all possible I’ll avenge The Stolen by destroying anything I find that is connected to the Legion.” “Taylor have you spoken to your father recently?” “Last night before the countdown began, and I could still call off base, I talked to Mom and Dad for over an hour. I gave them the information necessary to get my sperm sample out of storage in case something happens to me and they want to keep the family line going. Since that is the only way I’m ever going to have a child they might want to do it even if I do come back.” “Is your father truly OK with your sexuality?” “Wasn’t yours and weren’t you OK with Dad’s? “Taylor I keep forgetting how different the world has become since The Raid. I didn’t tell my father that I was gay until a few months before his death and he didn’t take it well. Of course he never took my mere existence well. I’ve always been happy with how your father has lived his life. He hasn’t been happy with how I’ve lived mine though.” “Grandfather he just could never get over the fact that you loved Justin more than him. It hurt him that he wasn’t enough for you. If he’d known Justin it might have been easier for him to know that you loved someone else. He missed having a father during the years he was growing up. The fact that you dedicated your life to The Department of Planetary Defense didn’t help either he just saw that as more evidence that you loved Justin more than him. Then the family was never your biggest supporter either to me or to Dad. Dad listened to them more than I ever did. By the time I got old enough to really know what was going on they were too old and tired to make as much trouble as they did when Dad was growing up and missing his Daddy.” “I wish that things could’ve been different between me and Gus but he was only 6 when I became Director and I simply didn’t have as much time to spend with him as I would’ve liked. I should’ve done a better job with him but I didn’t know how. The first 5 years after The Raid was a terrible time for me. I had finally admitted to myself that I could love and be loved and then the love of my life was stolen away. The worst part was that I couldn’t do anything about it.” “Grandfather I’ve heard the stories about you and Justin. Everyone in the family knew that you loved Justin, why didn’t you know? No one in the family was surprised when your answer to The Raid was to trick and drug even more than usual. What surprised them was when you became the Director of Planetary Defense and became the most hard hearted of the revenge seekers.” “Looking back I realized that I fell in love with Justin the night I met him, the night your father was born. I wouldn’t admit it to myself because I was so afraid that once I let him into my heart he would walk away from me. Fifty years ago tonight I did something incredibly stupid, luckily it turned out well since Mikey got upset, because I didn’t come to his going away party, and came to my home to find out why I missed his party. In his stumbling around way he made me realize that I could love Justin and that Justin truly loved me. I made all kinds of plans for our lives after that eye opening moment with Mikey. I finally admitted to myself that I loved Justin; I went to his Prom, danced with him, kissed him in front of everyone there and had the most romantic hour of my life. Then the fucking Horab picked Pittsburgh out of a hat and raided the St James Prom and stole Justin away from me.” “Grandfather you don’t have to tell me this.” “Yes Taylor I do, it’s time I told someone. I was always a bastard to those around me, especially those who cared about me, but after The Raid I really went to new extremes. I tried to convince myself that I had been wrong about loving Justin, if I truly loved him then how could the Universe steal him away from me? So like the fool I was I started tricking even more than usual, which considering my usual was a lot of men. But no matter whom I fucked, whether in a bed or a backroom, I always ended up seeing Justin. The guy could have been 7 foot tall with black hair down to his ass, purple eyes and fat as a hog and I would wake up to see a beautiful blond haired, blue eyed twink. I finally admitted to myself after a couple of years of this that I wasn’t solving anything by doing what I was doing. I straightened up my life, gave up my chemical vices and started working for something important. The desire for revenge had been great from the day after The Raid but it had no focus and was starting to waver. Using my advertising skills and calling in some favors I had myself appointed the Director of Planetary Defense. It wasn’t as powerful a position as it is now, and truth be told was never intended to be as powerful as I’ve made the position. The politicians should have known better than to appoint an adman as good as I was to a position with so much potential and with so many loopholes in the way they set up the department. I worked very hard to get to the point where I had as much power as I have. Earth no longer has to fear being raided by space monsters; due to my hard work and organizational skills. I worked even harder to develop the ability to attack the space monsters that decided that we were fair game to be bought and sold for their nefarious purposes. I’ll admit that underneath my desire for revenge is the hope that I can get my Sunshine back.” “Grandfather you have my word that we’ll do everything possible to find the Legion, hurt it as much as possible and find out anything we can about The Stolen.” “Just follow your orders Taylor, don’t let personal concerns get in the way. If it’s meant for Justin and me to be together then we’ll be together. I let my personal desires to get Justin back ruin my relationship with your father. By the time he was old enough to really know what having a father in his life meant I had become Director and all of my energy was directed into developing the ability to get to where we’re today. I knew that he resented me for not being there for him but I simply didn’t know how to do both. I had to get Justin back; Gus would always be there was my thinking. Of course he wasn’t always there. I managed to find the time to be at some of his major life points but not all. I was there for his marriage to your mother but not for your birth. Times had changed enough and I had developed a strong enough staff, so that I could delegate responsibility, so that I could spend more time with you while you grew up. That was another bone your father has with me. Then you joined Space Force against his will and he hasn’t spoken to me since.” “I’m sorry about that Grandfather, I knew how much he didn’t want me to join but I simply had no choice, it was the right thing for me to do just like going out into the Universe tomorrow is the right thing for me to do.” “Taylor do you know what is interesting about my continued fantasies about Justin?” “Since I had no idea that you have fantasies about Justin; no I don‘t know what is interesting about them.” “I’ve never been able to have sex with anyone else in the 50 years since The Raid without that guy looking like Justin in my mind’s eye; yet somehow the Justin I dream up has aged right along with me. When I see Justin in my bed he’s no longer a beautiful blond haired blue-eyed twink but a handsome gray haired blue eyed man. I love him more today than I did yesterday and I know how silly that sounds since I haven’t even seen him in person in 50 years. I have to believe that if you were to bring him home to me, no matter what has happened to him in the last 50 years, we would be right in sync with each other like nothing had happened. Thank you for listening to an old man Taylor.” “No problem Grandfather. Don’t worry we’ll find out what happened to The Stolen and bring any of them left alive home.” “Thank you Major Peterson, may your mission be as successful as is humanly possible.