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will do everything in my power to keep all of this safe, Augustus.  And ready.”  Vance sighed softly.  “For the day we need it again.”  There was sadness in his voice, but not a shred of doubt that day would come.
     
     
    *        *        *        *        *
     
     
    “Three days isn’t much of a honeymoon, is it?”  Jarrod Tyler was sliding his neatly folded clothes into a small duffle bag.  The room was pleasant, a small bungalow on one of the tropical islets that dotted Columbia’s equatorial zone.  Tyler had known Lucia his entire life, but it had been much more recently he’d realized he loved her—and even less time since he’d discovered she reciprocated his feelings.
    “Indeed it is, my love, but duty calls.  A soldier like you should know that.  The election is less than three months from now, and I can’t spend my days basking in the sun while Walker and his people slander me mercilessly, now can I?”  She lifted her head and gave him a warm smile.  The sun had lightened her normally dark brown hair, and her nose and forehead were dotted with pink, peeling skin.  Three days in Columbia’s searing equatorial sun had certainly been enough to give her a sunburn.
    “Like you can lose.  I’m not even sure why that fool is running against you.”  Lucia had been the president of Columbia before the final war against the Shadow Legions.  She’d yielded her powers to Tyler, in accordance with the crisis provisions in the planetary constitution, and the erstwhile general—now her husband—in turn yielded his dictatorial mantle as soon as the enemy was defeated.  Lucia had spent most of the past two years struggling to hasten the recovery of her battered world.  Indeed, even her wedding had been delayed, continually postponed to make way for her herculean workload.
    “You can always lose, my love.  Neither one of us should ever forget that.”  Her voice was pleasant, teasing, but there was a nugget of seriousness there too.
    “What were you up in the last poll?  Forty points?”
    “Forty-one,” she replied.  “But people are fickle, Jarrod.  A smart politician takes nothing for granted.”
    Tyler made a face.  He detested politicians with a roiling passion.  He’d never thought of Lucia as one, but of course that was foolish.  She’d been a politician for years, and an enormously successful one at that.  And one of the very few he’d ever seen who always seemed to stay focused on the good of the people and not the accumulation of personal power.  He couldn’t imagine the population turning on a leader like that, not when most of the others were corrupt and focused on their own political gain above all things.
    He glanced down at the chronometer on his wrist.  “You don’t have anything scheduled until tomorrow, right?”
    “No,” she said, some confusion in her tone.  “Why?”
    “Well…”  He moved quickly across the room.  “I thought maybe you could squeeze in a small—very small—political rally down here…”
    “On this island?”  She stared at him questioningly.
    “In this room.”  He slid up behind her and slipped his arms around waist.  “After all, you will be wanting my vote, won’t you?  How do you plan to earn it?”
    She turned her head and leaned back.  “Oh, so is that how it is?”  She leaned back into him, a wry smile on her face.  “Well, I suppose I can spare twenty minutes for a loyal voter.”
    He pulled her closer and kissed the back of her neck softly.
    “Ok, ok,” she said softly.  “An hour.”
     
     

 
    Chapter 3
     

Outskirts of Petersburg
Planet Karelia, Gamma Hyrdus II
Earthdate:  2317 AD (32 Years After the Fall)
     
    “With all due respect, General Akeem, over fifty of my Eagles are missing, and contract or no contract, we are not leaving until I know what happened to them.”  Cain stared at the Raschidan officer, not even trying to mask his contempt.
    “General