Chapter 21: A War Is Won, a New Daughter Is Born!

John was met at the top of the steps by Gaia, “Is Frank, okay?”

“You would know if he wasn’t.” John giggled.

“Daddy. Please?”

“He’s right behind me by maybe an hour. We Won. No more Spiders Kido.”

“Thank you, daddy. Those spiders scared me.”

“I think they scared all of us. I think they even scared God!” John laughed.

“Mama needs you. She has been keeping the baby in until you got here.”

The bed with Jenny was over against the bookcase. Jenny had one of the managers of a Seattle care unit holding her left hand. John stopped at the hung sheet, “Knock, knock.”

“JOHN.”

John still holding Gaia lifted the sheet, “Hi honey I’m home.”

“You guys get rid of the spiders?” Jenny asked.

“They are all gone. Over 500,000 rounds of anti-mater. Ceca showed up and over half of the ships were using lasers. She had as many ships as possible bring 100 rounds for the rail guns. The AI’s said we had four hundred rounds left. Bubba came. He is Lord Sky.”

“Yes, I met him and his wife.” Jenny said.

“John, make a pit stop, wash your hands and get back in here. The baby’s coming possibly in the next five minutes. Hurry, please. Wash your hands.”

“You stay until I get back to talk to mommy.”

“Okay, daddy. Mommy, are you going to be, okay?” Gaia asked.

“I had you right?” Jenny asked Gaia.

“Yep.” Gaia smiled. The one word her mom got upset about.

“I’ll let you use it until tomorrow, okay.”

“Where’s brother?” Gaia asked.

“He’s staying overnight with Jimmy. Is Frank, okay?”

“Yep! He’s about an hour behind daddy.”

“Why do women have to have the babies?”

“Women create life. Oh, it takes a man to help, but we create life. You will someday. When I held you, I forgot about the pain. When I held your brother, I forgot the pain. It’s magic. Someday you’ll have babies, and you will be so proud when you show them to Frank. Don’t be in a hurry. He’s not ready to be a daddy yet.”

“Can I?” Gaia asked a very private question.

“Welcome home your man?” Jenny wanted to clarify just a bit.

“Yes please?” Gaia was asking to sleep with her love.

“He’s leading the troops home,” John said.

“You’re not ready to be a mom yet?” Jenny asked.

“No Mother,” Gaia assured her mom.

Carol and her team were getting John covered in one of those silly gowns. They put a real face mask on him that covered his face and tied it back in two places. She put latex gloves on him and covered the hair on his head.

“How soon Mama?”

Jenny looked to Carrol. Carrol had gone back to school and received her Practicing RN license.

“Gaia honey I’m about one or two breaths away from telling your mama to push that baby out.”

“That’s almost now, Gaia.”

“OKAY.” Gaia turned to disappear into the arms of Frank, “Babies coming.”

“I could use a hug,” Frank said.

“Mama said I could sleep with you.” Gaia whispered in Frank’s ear, “But no sex. You and I are not ready to have babies.”

“That’s a fact. But someday after we’re married. Oh, I must tell you something. Brien asked Lucy to marry him after the battle with everyone listening. His mama said whenever and wherever. Lucy answered Brien by saying she wanted to be married at the white house with daddy John and momma Jenny performing the rituals. Lucy turned 16 the other day out there in space.

“AHHH! She was planning to...”

“I know.”

“Is that what we want to do?” Gaia asked.

“I’d only be twenty-five. There are other things we can do to show our love.” Frank licked Gaia’s ear.

Gaia giggled.

“This is pretty wonderful. This shows me, I have a dam good reason to come home alive.”

“How many ships?”

The AIs tell us we fired over 510,000 times and we only had two misses where both times the rounds glanced off the ship we were shooting at and hit another ship blowing it up. There were times I was terrified that we weren’t going to be able to end it before they got to Earth. From the time we started shooting until we were done, they had traveled 24,000 light-years towards Earth.” Frank had sat in John’s lazy boy with Gaia in his lap.”

“Can we sit with you?” Doug and his wife asked.

“Sure,” Frank said.

“How are you doing?” Doug asked his Commandant of Space Corps.

“I’m pretty pleased with how things turned out. Holding onto this beautiful creature that puts out millions of watts of love has made me pretty mellow.”

“Did you know we had Tina and Scott and her niece and her cameraman filming everything?”

“Lieutenant General is a nice rank. Robert Delaney is a force all by himself and is certainly going with us to talk with Congress.”

“I heard a slap on the butt and a little voice cry out,” Frank said.

John came out, “Gaia you have a sister. You are now a big sister. In a year or so, the questions will start, probably a million of them. I have a little sister, I love her. I taught her how to walk, math, all kinds of things.”

“You will love it. I had a big sister and I drove her crazy asking questions. Then mom gave me a little sister I was about the same age as you. I had to learn as fast as I could because my little sister asked me a million questions. I taught her to read so she could read the encyclopedia and find out her answers. Now I suppose it’s the internet.” Betty said.

“What’s her name, John?” Doug asked.

“We are going to call her Gail. Gail Taylor.”

Doug looked to his wife with a big smile, “We get to act like grandparents again.” The two giggled because it was true.

Ceca came in and hugged everyone. When she got to General Franks, he asked her to sit down, “What’s the story about this man from the State Department?”

“The Rapture Continues Sir.” Ceca smiled.

General Franks laughed, “Can you when you have a few minutes, write me up a report.”

“I can do that Uncle Doug.” Ceca giggled, “If people get promoted, what are we going to do about all of my Full Bird Colonels?”

John sat down, “Promote them all.”

Mona Jackson along with General Delaney also sat down, “Promote who?” Mona asked.

Susan Delaney, Shellie Stockley, and Joe Cambridge sat down, “Why are we talking about promotions?”

“The warriors deserve their recognition for their accomplishments.” Lucy was holding onto Brien’s hand with his parents standing behind them.

“What’s the discussion?” President Tripp asked.

“General Ceca asked about promotions. I suggested we promote everybody.” John said.

“What do we do with the full bird Colonels?” General Doug liked this. He was having fun.

“How many full bird Colonels do we have?” President Tripp asked.

“About thirty, plus or minus.” Ceca said, “I have the most, one of the new rules given by congress was they wanted a command officer Full Bird Colonel or above on every convoy to Funston.”

“We also ran into that, so we promoted one to be in charge of every Regiment of 5,000 to 10,000,” Lucy said.

“I remember we had a dinner where you and Brien were stressing over it. We talked it out and it seemed to be the most sensible solution.” President Tripp said.

“What seems to be the problem now?” The First Lady asked.

“First Lady, this goes back to the beginning of recorded history. The winners use to get horses or shields or swords or pieces of gold or silver whatever the loser had. In modern times promotions. The winning side ends up with experienced soldiers like we do today.” Frank answered, “Congress did this in their trying to guide us, the Space Cadets. I think we need to go there in mass and ask them for a solution.”

“And what are we going to answer when Congress throws up their hands and asks us for our recommendations?” John laughed.

“Father is that why you said to promote them all?” Frank asked.

“Yes, I think you would look good in three stars,” John said to his adopted son the Commandant.

“Do you want to try on my cap to see if it fits?” Lieutenant General Delaney chuckled.

Frank took his cap with two stars off and handed it to Brien and Lucy. Mona was standing next to them, and Frank nodded to her. She squealed. Now she was into the twilight zone. She had already broken all the windows when she got her one star.

“I have a possible proposal to put on the table when congress throws this back at us.” General Franks said.

“I’ll bit. What is it?” John asked.

“We double the Cadets again.”

“Do you think the powers to be will jump for it, Sir?” Mona asked.

“I think they might. We have reduced our arm forces by almost a million men and women. We have reduced our budget by more than half. There is still more to cut from each of the Army, Navy, and Marines.” There are several programs in the three other services that need to be moved into Space Corps. Plus, we add five more Divisions. So, there are half of the positions. Congress is talking about NASA becoming part of Space Corp.”

“Lucy, Mona, and Brien how many hours do you guys work every week?” John asked.

“Father John, the Third Division is my baby. 80, 90, 100 hours a week. It’s okay.” Lucy said

“Everybody, someday we are going to be attacked internally. Somebody...” John started.

“Edward Rockefeller Johnson.” J. F. Kennedy said, “General Ceca that is the name of that little overbearing rude disrespectful guy from the State Department. I cannot say I am sorry he is gone.”

“What did he do.” President Tripp asked.

“Sir, I was being gentle with him. He came from his visit with the coffee machine and picked up the pistol from the floor screamed that I had committed Treason, pointed the gun at me, and fired. I blocked the round and gave it back to him.” Ceca said.

“Ceca, I am going to give you the Congressional Medal of Honor.” The president said.

John stood up and led the applause.

“I want a list of every man and woman by the division that fought the spiders.”

“Bedtime. We have a job to do. ABC of the ships and Frank and I and a few others will put together a form for us and all our platoon commanders, company commanders, battalion commanders, regiment commanders, and division commanders. I love everybody here. I thank you all for that incredible feat that we did together.”

“Take care of your wife, Papa John!” President Tripp and the First Lady said good night. Brien and Lucy also left right behind them.

“Who has been making breakfast?”

“We have had pancakes and French Toast. Oatmeal a couple of times.”

“I’m going to go find my wife. Good night kitten. See you in the morning, Frank.”

“Good night, Dad,” Frank said.

John went in and took off his shoes and pants and fell asleep by the time his head hit the pillow.

On the other side of the Galaxy two months later:

“It’s been a while. Do we need a new Emperor?”

“I think our days are numbered. That man named Beway knows too much.”

“What’s the word?”

“The emperor is fine and well.”

“His power bases?”

“The word is the earthlings did not lose a single man, woman, or child in their battles with the Spiders. The spiders are all dead. And so are the Blue People’s ability to fly in space.” The shorter man (6’9” tall but big and muscular) did not like his friend’s attitude.