Numbers do not lie and these jumped off the pad and cut me
like a knife through the heart. My family’s crystal farm was in danger of not surviving
out the year if things carried on as they were. The last pirate raid caused
enough damage that it would take most of our next harvest to pay back the loans
we would need to take out to replace the damaged equipment and buildings. If
the pirates came back and made off with that harvest we would be finished and
would starve.
I looked up from the pad and at my father sitting on the
other side of the table. He was backlit from kitchen window. Smoke was still
rising off the blasted service drones and smoldering outbuildings. This was
coloring the sunlight and changing the warm colors in the room to a garish scene
of horror and dread. His face had a few more lines in it from worry and his
skin had a pale cast suggesting his heart was bothering him again. He looked so
much older than his actual years. If our fortunes did not change soon I feared
he would find an early grave. Taking a deep breath to clear my head and steel
my nerves, I reached into my pocket and pulled out the tattered flyer I had
pulled off a bulletin board from our town’s only pub. The paper rasped as I
pushed it forward across the table towards my father. The noise attracted his
attention and his eyes focused on the logo at the top of the page and filled
with a wild mix of anger and despair. My eyes met his and I braced for getting
hit with both barrels as his lips parted with a ragged breath.
“Ron, you know we can’t pay the required fee for those Mercenaries
to protect our farm from pirates” He raged. “If we did that would kill the farm
as sure as the next pirate raid. Besides ‘Jan’s Ragers’ are little better then
pirates themselves” He growled.
This was an old argument and I knew where it would end. It
was time to change the script. “Dad we can afford it if I enlist with them.
They would protect us for free while I am in training.”
“NO!” He howled. “We have lost so much already I can’t lose
you too!”
“You would not lose me or the farm that way and all it would
cost us is my time” I firmly replied.
He grumbled. “They will not pay you anything during training
or your first year of service. You will be little more than a slave.”
“They will pay for my food, gear and a roof over my head so
it will cost you less to run the farm so there will be more profit for the
family. Besides, if I do well in a battle I will get a share in the salvage” I
retorted.
“You could be killed! He sobbed.
Now we are getting at his root fear. “I could be killed in
the next raid like David was last year.” I sadly stated. My older brother David
had been killed protecting one of my younger brothers and my mother never
recovered from the shock. She left us all and went to one of the core worlds in
the hopes of never seeing another pirate again for as long as she lived.
“I know” He hoarsely whispered. “I am going to bed.” He got
up from the table and zombie walked down the hall to his room. Know all I have
to do is survive the wait until tomorrow and see if I had won the war.