Atk. Butterfly - Rust Bucket

I answered, “I’ve got a year’s supply for three people right now. I’m still trying to add some more to it.”

“You think we’ll have to stay in there a year?” she asked in alarm.

I said, “No, but I’m being overly cautious. I’d rather have too much than not enough when it’s you and the children who are concerned.”

“How will we know when it’s safe to come out?” she asked.

I answered, “I’m not sure how you’ll know. Hopefully there’ll be broadcasts that it’s over or that it’s safe to come out from cover. Just don’t take any chances.”

I think it was from that moment on that Annie saw what I was going through as she paid more attention to what I was doing in my spare time and saw that it wasn’t so much for my enjoyment as our survival. She paid more attention to what was in the cavern and added some items herself, items that were necessary for infant care that I missed. When the items showed up, I realized how much I needed her help if our survival plan was to succeed. Then I was glad that I quit shielding her from the truth.

The more I thought about how I was shielding Annie from the truth, the more I realized that maybe Sarge had seen this even sooner than I realized. Maybe the war and the war to come were what the Sarge had been talking about. Was that what was so obvious that I couldn’t see it at first? Were he and Pennyweight working to see to it that our interplanetary nation was prepared to survive? It was a possibility, but not a strong one. After all, I could see no need for secrecy if that were his or Pennyweight’s goal. I was sure that it had to be some other purpose than that, though that might have been a piece of the overall puzzle. I wondered just how much more of the puzzle remained.

Then the incident came that threatened to make the whole pot boil over. The Ape-oids captured a small passenger ship from within our territory and returned with it to their home planet. They swore up and down that the ship violated their sector of space and that they weren’t going to release it unless certain demands were met.

The diplomats went into their motions to find out what the demands were. For awhile, the Ape-oids no longer made incursions into our sectors as they negotiated for release of the ship and passengers. They started off by demanding additional sectors of space. They actually demanded that the Union give up some of its territory for a ship and some passengers. They also wanted an apology and reparations for their losses during the war, dismantling of our military, and for our government to turn over certain specified persons to their government for trial as war criminals.

For the first time, I discovered how badly I hurt them when I discovered my name at the top of the list. Even more than before, I was glad that Annie and the children were invisible. With some of the crackpot groups that existed on every planet in small numbers, there was no telling what one of them might do to get at me to please the Ape-oids whom they seemed to have aligned themselves with. I resolved to increase my efforts to get the cavern fully stocked for an emergency. That meant I was going to see retired Admiral Cunningham again soon.

At the same time, I felt a certain pride that they had me at the top of their list. It helped validate some of the techniques I used against them during the war. I didn’t see that it would ever help me to get a regular commission, but I did think that it would give my recommendations to the military some additional credibility.

Annie and I talked some more, especially when she saw my name at the top of the war criminal list.

I said, “It’s nothing. They’re just doing that to use as a bargaining chip. I mean, look at this list. It’s made up with a few correct names. Some names are people who are already dead or didn’t even participate in the war. Look, here’s Sergeant Clark’s name. He was at the Academy the whole time. That’s being a war criminal? If our government gave in to this demand, they’d have to turn over to the Ape-oids almost everyone before it was through. Then the aliens would just demand more people as a result of interrogations of the war criminals.”

Annie said, “Still, Dave, I’m worried that they know who you are. What if they come looking for you?”

I replied, “They’ll find that I’m ready for them. That’s why I want you to go to the surplus store in town and see retired Admiral Cunningham. He’ll sell you a gun and teach you how to use it properly in case you have to defend our children while I’m not home.”

“Me? Handle a gun?” Annie exclaimed.

I replied, “Yes, you! You once told me you’d do anything I told you to do. I’ve tried not to ever tell you what to do, but I’m going to make an exception this one time because it’s for your own good and the welfare of our children. I want you to purchase a weapon and learn how to use it. Don’t worry about what weapon it is. Admiral Cunningham will pick out a weapon that you can handle safely and teach you completely about it. You’ll walk out of that store feeling a lot more secure and knowing that I feel better, too.”

Annie sulkily said, “Okay, I’ll do it. I did tell you that I would do anything you told me to. I’d rather be told to do something else, though.”

I said, reminding her, “You also told me that you wouldn’t ever give up our child. I figured you not only meant me when you said that, but everyone. Well, think of this gun as helping you to back up that statement for the sake of both our children. Now you’ve got two reasons to get a gun and they’re both your own statements.”

Annie reluctantly gave in.

The diplomats, thankfully, refused the initial demands. The days went by while the process stretched into weeks. The only good thing about it was the lack of Ape-oid incursions. But that was all part of their overall plan to lull the diplomats into a false sense of security. The Ape-oids even stated publicly that it was a part of a crackdown on their part to make their military perform proper maintenance on some of their ships in order to maintain good relations and not stray into Union space. Our diplomats sucked up to the Ape-oids instead of recognizing it for what it was.

The Ape-oids countered the first refusals by our diplomats of the initial demands by demanding rights of passage through certain Union sectors, an apology, a greatly reduced demand of reparations, grounding of our military, and for our government to punish the war criminals they identified. Our diplomats continued to refuse, but they were weakening, mostly on the rights of passage. After all, we wanted to look like good guys to the rest of the universe, although the only other beings we were really trying to convince were the Ape-oids. The few non-aligned inhabited planets we knew of were either inhabited by humans or the Blues on Leuion. The Blues were very much astounded at the Ape-oids unreasonable hostility and not at all sympathetic to the Apeoids. I don’t think the diplomats ever reasoned that part out.

Still, I wondered why Sarge was listed on the war criminal’s list. The more I looked at the list, the more singled out he seemed to be. He was virtually the only person on the list who had nothing to do with them, yet his name remained on the list.

It took a couple of months before the Ape-oids reduced their demands to rights of passage, an apology, and restricting our military away from the sectors nearest Ape-oid territory. Even before any of the negotiations were finalized, the politicians were leaning on the military to limit their operations away from the Ape-oid territory and to training only. The politicians didn’t want the military operating any patrols and to stay near their own bases.