Chapter Nine

James leaned on the window frame and stared out into space, watching as stars flew by as the Guadalcanal traveled at superluminal speeds. He toyed with a small leather box in his hands, spinning it. Inside was a gold oak-leaf, the insignia for his new promotion to Major. He turned around and sat on the frames ledge, reached up and removed his Captain's bars from his neck, replacing it with the oak-leaf from the box.

"Permission to speak to the Major, Sir!" Amanda said with a sarcastic tone, and an equally sarcastic salute.

"Don't look so cheerful, 'Mandy, they got one for you too." James said, tossing her the same box his leaf was in, which now had his old Captain's bars inside. She opened the box and stared at the small piece of tin inside.

"I just got our orders. Admiral Valco wants me in the CIC during the battle. I won't be going groundside with you. Platoon's all yours now." James said matter-of-factly.

"Sawbones said that? Well… shit." Was all Amanda could say.

"You can say that again." James replied, holding up his hand to stop Amanda, knowing full well that she'd say it again, which got a smile out of her, only to have it fade when she noticed he wasn't returning it.

"James. What's wrong?" she asked, taking a seat next to him.

"I've just been thinking. We've always been together. Boot, OCS, flight-school. Hell, it's a miracle we've survived this long in this damn war." James replied. "If things on Orias go as planned, this war could be over soon. I was thinking about the future. About us."

"What about us?" Amanda asked, unable to hold back the nervous tone that crept into her voice.

"Amanda… I…" James tried to say, but Amanda stopped him by putting a finger over his lips, and moved in to kiss him.

"Come with me." She said quietly, taking his hand and led him down the corridor.

James' eyes opened with a start. He looked over at his chronometer on his end table, and then started to rub the sleep out of his eyes when he saw it was only three in the morning.

"Milk, warm." James ordered from the replicator, getting up from his bed. Holding his beverage, he walked over to the window in his quarters. Below him was the Reezen home-world. The Endalla was passing over the dark side at the moment, and James marveled at the way the planets city lights spiraled out like spider webs made by spiders back on earth.

Letting a sigh escape from his lips, he walked over to the small couch facing the window and sat down, and started to wonder why he was dreaming about Amanda. He hadn't seen or heard from her in almost six years. She was trapped on Orias for three months, and James' duties kept him from visiting her while she recovered in the hospital, and Starfleet intelligence had already sent her off on whatever mission she's been on these past years when he actually got the chance.

By the time the view from his window showed the sun rising on Reezen, James had already fallen back asleep…

"Where the hell did they come from?!" Admiral Henry Valco yelled.

"They must have masked their presence in the sun's corona, sir." James said, ducking under a hail of sparks as the lighting above him overloaded.

"Well, it doesn't matter where they hid now; they're tearing the fleet apart."  Henry said, his voice seething with anger. "Give the order to stop troop landings, we're retreating to fall back beta."

James felt his face turn cold as the blood drained from it, and only stood there for what seemed like forever to him. The Admiral's next worked snapped him back to reality.

"Give the order Major! Now!"

"Guadalcanal to all ships, cease landing operations, recall all fighters, and retreat to fall back beta, repeat fall back beta, full retreat. We'll be back." James said, glaring at Admiral Valco, unable to hide the vitriol from his eyes.

James awoke to shooting pain coming from his hand. In his sleep, he had crushed the glass his milk was in and it was now bleeding badly. He quickly ran to the head and grabbed a towel and carefully wrapped his hand in it, then made his way down to sick-bay.

"What th'hell ya do to your hand, laddie?" Dr. Macmillan asked, as he started to remove the shards of glass from his hand.

"Fell asleep with it in my hand. Had a bad dream I guess." James said, not wanting to talk about it.

"You too, huh. Understandable, tis'been six years since that nasty business on Orias." The Scottish doctor said, pulling the last shard from his hand and started to use the dermal regenerator. "Good news is, ya won't need surgery." He said with a smile. "Take it easy for a few days."

"I didn't know you were at Orias." James said getting up from sitting on the biobed.

"Aye. Planet side. Hey, don't beat yer self up. Admiral Sawbones dealt you a shitty hand, forcing you to give tha order." The old doctor said, trying to cheer him up.

"Thanks, Doc."