As usual, stream of consciousness. But I did run this one by a couple of ladies I know to see if I at least came ‘close’ to their attitudes…

Comments and recommendations appreciated as always!

Two weeks later, Fargo and Nicole came into the Copper Mug late Fiveday evening to see a full house, and some changes. A waist high second bar now extended halfway across the end of the restaurant, with people sitting at it. Nicole smiled. “Oh, sushi bar!”

“What?”

She pointed as Kuzu walked around the original bar carrying a stack of platters. “Kuzu must have gotten some of the ingredients he was looking for. And I’m guessing he’s making sushi in front of the customers.”

Fargo dug back through his memories. “Oh, I haven’t seen that in…I guess seventy years. I wonder if we can even get any?”

Nicole snorted. “I’m pretty sure we can, since I own the place.” Walking behind the bar, she spoke to Hank, “Busy tonight. Is Kuzu putting on a show?”

Hank shook his head. “Not really, he’s pretty low key about it. But a lot of folks are curious, and have been since the new bar went in. This is only the second night he’s done anything.”

“What about the regular menu?” A young lady walked by with a platter full of plates headed for a table at the back of the Copper Mug.

“Oh, it’s getting hit pretty hard. I’ve been busy, and we ended up hiring Holly’s friend to come in and waitress for a couple of hours a night.”

Fargo asked, “Holly’s friend?”

Hank nodded. “Audrey. She apparently helps out at the winery too.”

Nicole smiled. “Yes, she’s a hard worker. I remember she was looking for more work, since Holly didn’t have more than a regular shift for her, but she loved working there.”

Hank smiled. “Yep, she’s a worker! Comes in and helps with the salad preps, and I think Kuzu is teaching her how to do the rice thing…”

“Rice thing?” Fargo asked.

“Well, Kuzu found some different rice and he steams it, not boiling it.”

“Sticky rice,” Nicole added.

A div later, Nicole and Fargo finally got to sit at the sushi bar and Kuzu smiled at them. “So sorry it has taken so long, but…” he shrugged, “I have to have a list of people in order to prevent problems.”

Fargo laughed. “Not a problem. I’m used to hurry up and wait.” Nicole elbowed him in the ribs and he said, “Now what the hell was that for?”

“Stop being an asshole!”

Kuzu handed them each a flimsy. “What would you like?”

Fargo looked at the flimsy and said, “Why don’t you surprise me?”

Nicole laughed. “Kuzu, he has no idea what he’s doing. On the other hand, I would like…”

Thiry segs later, Nicole said, “That was fantastic, Kuzu! Even better than what I had on Earth. You are an amazing chef!”

He bowed to her and turned to Fargo. “And you, Colonel?”

Fargo cocked an eyebrow. “Whatever it was, it was good, but that green stuff is a bit strong!”

Kuzu smiled. “It is actual wasabi. I was able to find the plants here and made it myself. It is not the fake stuff you probably had before.”

A div later, Nicole walked back into the library at the winery. “The kids are asleep. I don’t know about you, but I’m ready for bed.”

“Are you that tired?”

“I said bed, not tired. Are you that tired?”

Fargo smiled. “Not yet.”

As they lay curled with each other, the sweat slowing drying on their bodies, Nicole asked, “Have you heard anything about any problems with the militia?”

“Not really. Castro didn’t want the militia in his area, saying his militia was doing what needed to be done.” Nicole laughed, and he continued, “What they were doing was beating down anybody that didn’t toe the line Castro wanted. Horse went down there with the first detachment and…well…”

Nicole laughed again, “Horse was being Horse?”

“Horse decided to go walk about one evening. He was walking down the street and heard a muffled scream in an alley. Of course, he investigated…”

Nicole snorted. “With no back up, correct?”

Fargo nodded. “With no back up. There were four thugs and one young lady. Her blouse was torn, and one of the thugs had scratch marks on his face. Horse told them to let her go, and they didn’t. So he challenged them.”

“Ohhh, bad move!”

“One of the thugs grabbed the young lady and the other three came at Horse, apparently being less than complimentary about what a little guy could possibly do to the three of them.” He scrubbed his hand across his face and continued, “Apparently, he took one down, putting him out cold, when another pulled a pistol on him. According to the young lady, he smiled a not nice smile and laughed, before he killed both of them with his knife. Neither got a shot off, and he came for the last thug, who had the young lady by the throat with a pistol to her head. She was a little hysterical, saying Horse’s knife just appeared in the thug’s face just before he collapsed.”

Nicole raised up on an elbow and looked down at him. “You’re saying he killed three of four by himself?”

Fargo nodded again. “Yep, it wasn’t until then that he bothered to call for backup. The fourth thug had a broken arm, a concussion, and…Horse apparently kicked him in a sensitive place. So he’s in the hospital and it’s going to be a while before he is released.” He sighed. “And, according to the surgeon, he’ll never have children.”

“Good!” She leaned over and kissed him. “What is Castro doing?”

“Well, he’s disbanded his militia, saying he had no idea what was going on.”

“Sure he didn’t…Castro is going down; it is just a matter of time. I know his type. His ego has taken too many hits for him not to strike out.” She snuggled down next to Fargo. “I’m sleepy now.”

***

Mac and Fargo sat in the kitchen of the winery, slurping bulbs of coffee and talking when Nicole finally staggered in moaning about coffee. Fargo got her one and started cooking breakfast as Nicole tried to force herself to function. “Where are the kids,” she asked.

Mac chuckled. “Holly is turning barrels, so the kids wanted to help.”

Glancing at her wrist comp, Nicole bolted up. “Crap, I told her I’d help!” She ran out of the kitchen toward the storage area as Mac and Fargo laughed. “You’ll pay for that, asshole,” she said over her shoulder at Fargo as she went out the door.

Fargo, a puzzled expression on his face asked, “What did I do to deserve that? I don’t keep track of her schedule or the winery?”

Mac shrugged. “Women…who knows. Eggs over easy, please. As soon as Holly gets done, I need to go do the liquor barrels.”

Fargo plated the eggs and sausage patties and gave them to Mac. “How is the liquor side doing?”

“Once I figured out how to age the liquor, our sales went up.”

“What did you end up with?”

“Using vibration, heat/cooling, and humidity variations, I can do a year a month right now. I don’t think I can beat that.”

Fargo whistled. “A year a month? That’s impressive.”

Mac said, “Well, I did a lot of research and found where some of the scotches improved after trips at sea, so…”

Holly, Nicole, and the kids came back into the kitchen and Alan said, “Aunt Holly let us help! I got to turn a barrel, daddy!”

Amy said, “I did too, daddy!”

He hugged both of them. “Then you’re hungry, correct? Pancakes or eggs?”

Eva piped up. “Pancakees, Grampa!”

Fargo bowed. “Pancakees it is, Eva!” He turned back to the stove as Nicole rolled her eyes, and Holly poured juice for the children. Nicole hit the autochef for another bulb of coffee and sat between the children. Fargo cocked his head, then started flipping pancakes on the griddle, and sausage in the pan. A seg later, the women and kids were digging into breakfast as Mac slipped out to take care of his liquor barrels.

Nicole asked, “How are you doing for barrels, Holly?”

“I did another run last month. Mr. Remington brought me some nice oak, I ran it through the machines, and Mac burned them in for me.”

“Okay.”

“He’s got one more set to do, and he has to go prep the barracks today.”

Fargo sighed. “Yeah, GPS Agamemnon is pulling in for a liberty stop and training.”

Nicole cocked her head. “What is Agamemnon doing out here?”

“She’s the duty ship for this sector. And…she’s got the Templars on board.”

“Oof…so what are you going to do with Aphrodite?”

Fargo sniffed. “I don’t know. If I give her time off, she’s going to be pissed. If I don’t, the Templar officers are going to go…ballistic? I don’t know.”

Nicole snorted. “Yeah, her hermaphrodites kicked their asses, didn’t they?”

“That was five years ago! But they’ve got long memories to any slights. And that…was beyond a slight.”

Holly smiled. “From what Mac said, it was a plain old beat down. And he enjoyed the hell out of it! The Templars always play high and mighty…”

Fargo nodded. “They do have a reputation, but one they’ve earned.”

Alan asked, “Dad, what’s a beat down?”

Fargo looked at Nicole, who smiled and said, “Your boy, your question to handle.”

Fifteen segs and four more questions later, Mac walked back in and Fargo finally said, “Okay, it’s time for you kids to go play. Mac and I need to talk some business.”

Amy and Eva beat Alan to the door, squealing and laughing as they squirted through and headed for the play structure Mac had built for them.

***

Fargo met with the Templar commander, Lieutenant Colonel Vincent Clotaire at billeting at the spaceport. After the ritual greetings, he started the standard briefing, but Clotaire waved it off and said haughtily, “We know the drill. This is not our first ride on the wheel. We will beat you tomorrow, then I will give my troops liberty, such as it is, in this backwater town, if it can be called that.”

Fargo shrugged. “Fine. In that case, here is your start point, and the end point, if you can get there.” He passed the data chip across the table, got up, and left. Meeting WO Boykin and Mac at the admin building, he said, “The usual egos, but this guy…is something else. Mac, be prepared for trouble in Rushing River. Warrant, let’s head back, I need to have a few words with folks.”

Boykin’s smile didn’t quite match the Ghorka, but a lot of teeth showed as they walked out to the shuttle. “We get to have fun?”

“Maybe…it depends on what Horse or Lal have up their sleeve.”

Two divs later, the planning team sat around the conference room at Camp Cronin as Horse briefed the plan for the OPFOR for Twoday. Aphrodite said, “Horse, why do I not get to play? I know that…officer and he does not like Herms. I could be a nice little distraction for you.”

Horse chuckled. “No CSM, we will leak that you are here, but keep them in suspense. You will not be seen at all.”

Aphrodite laughed. “Oh, you are just…evil, Horse. I love it!”

The next morning, at the final prebrief, Clotaire said, “I am missing one man. Legionaire LeClerc was not present at the morning muster.”

Fargo cocked his head. “Why is that our problem? He is your troop.”

Clotaire sighed. “He…was sent yesterday afternoon to get…intelligence here.”

Fargo looked at Horse and Lal. “You know anything about this?” They both shook their heads, but looked at each other. Esha brought in another pot of coffee and Fargo glanced at her. “Esha, have you…heard anything about a man coming in here last evening?”

Esha bit her lip. “Ummm, well, Achal caught a man in the women’s head here. I heard something about bugs, but…I don’t know what happened to him. But I heard that Hajurāmā Sitai got involved.”

Lal paled, turned to Horse and said something in the Ghorka language. Horse paled and turned to Fargo. “Ekavir, if Achal caught him…and Grandma Sitai is involved, we might get him back in one piece…maybe.”

Lal got up and all but ran from the conference room, as Clothaire sputtered, “What do you mean, in one piece?”

Horse replied, “All the women carry knives. Esha, if you would?”

Esha turned sideways, showing the knife at her belt, and slipped it halfway out of the sheath, showing the wickedly curved blade and smiled. “We use them for everything. We can harvest food, use them in the kitchen, and other chores was required.” She slid it back in the sheath and asked, “Need anything else, Ekavir?”

Fargo shook his head. “Not right now, Esha, thank you for the information.” Turning back to Clothaire, he said, “Lal is looking into what might have happened to your man. And I am not happy that you sent a spy into our camp.”

Clothaire shrugged. “I do what I need to, to win. I want my legionnaire back!”

“We have an exercise that needs to be run. Lal will do what he can, but that is not my problem. We will start on time in two divs.” Fargo grabbed his cup and walked out of the room back to his office.

***

A div later, Boykin dropped him on the back side of the leading ridge, after having flown a circuitous route to get there. She told Fargo the Templars had refused her offer to fly support with a small QRF force from their battalion aboard, simulating a standard force support flight of attack shuttles. She had grinned when she said the lieutenant colonel had said it wouldn’t be needed.

Fargo made sure he had the white band on his helmet and jacket, as he on a convenient boulder and asked, “Nial, are we running the same OPFOR as we did for the reserves?”

Nial nodded, saying, “Well, Horse liked the way it played out. All the hard points are manned, but we’ve added a few new tricks.”

Sweeping the canyon with his helmet vid, Fargo saw hot spots in each of the hard points build out of rocks that would stand up to anything but heavy artillery fire. The problem was, they were all in predictable places, as expected. He knew there would be bobbers, electronics and hydraulics that simulated troops, including a heat signature and they present on the drones as troops, since Camp Cronin was providing drones in place of the Templar’s combat loadout.

The Templar’s battalion came into view on the plain, in the standard combat spread, and he selected their channel in one ear, while keeping the OPFOR channel in the other ear.

His HUD started filling with more troop symbols in the various hard points and on the ridgeline, and he chuckled to himself as the bobbers acted like troops popping up to shoot before dropping back into cover.

In his other ear, he heard Clothaire, “No surprise. Predictable, we’ve seen this OPFOR before. Scouts, press to contact. Launch drones as planned. Check the heights for snipers and mortars.”

Less than a div later, the Templars were fully engaged at the mouth of the canyon, when the mortars fired from the ridgeline for the first time. The first rounds were ‘smokes’, that actually had chaff and what were called sparklers in it, effectively denying the Templar’s armor any of their capabilities, basically rendering them deaf, dumb, and blind. Moments later, the Templar’s net erupted with voices, “Contact rear! Heavy contact rear! I don’t know where they came from!” Fargo’s HUD suddenly showed almost a company of OPFOR popping up behind the battalion, coming from the plains they had just crossed, and he couldn’t help but laugh as the snipers started taking out the leadership though the smokes.

Fifteen segs later Fargo said, “This is referee, exercise is FINEX. All units hold position. I say again, this is the referee, exercise is FINEX. All units hold position and clear the net.” He triggered the unlock code for the vests allowing the ‘dead’ to get back up and added, “Leadership debrief in two divs at the main conference room.”

***

Clothaire stomped into the conference room, still in his undersuit and snarled, “That OPFOR was not realistic. There is no way those snipers could have made those shots!” He rounded on Lal. “Where is my legionnaire?”

Lal calmly replied, “He is alive and is waiting next door.”

“Bring him in,” Clothaire demanded, ignoring the rest of the room with a haughty stare.

Lal raised his voice, “Hajurāmā Sitai, Achel, if you would bring in Legionnaire LeClerc, please.”

Sitai led the bound, naked legionnaire, bent over and shuffling along, a bloody bandage over his groin, into the conference room, Achel following with her knife out and poking him when he didn’t move fast enough. Clothaire exclaimed, “Mon Dieu! What did you do? I will have you brought up on…”

Achel rounded the table and confronted Clothaire, startling everyone, even as Fargo sensed the absolute hatred all but boiling off Achel. She waved her Khumri under his nose. “You will do nothing, unless you want to be next! This…” she spit on the floor. “This…fohar does not deserve to live. I caught him planting vid and audio bugs in the women’s head.” She reached in her pocket and threw a handful of micro bugs on the table. “These are the ones he had left. This trash told me the reason he was doing it was because ‘women cannot control themselves and talk all the time, in addition to leaving things laying around all the time’. We found vid bugs in the stalls! He wanted vids of women doing their business, so we gave him the business.”

Clothaire took an involuntary step back, but snapped, “What did you do to him?”

Sitai, her voice sounding a gravel, said, “Oh, we just turned him into a Jew. We gave him a bris.” She dropped a bloody rag on the table as LeClerc moaned, tears running from his eyes. Fargo and the other men winced and some of them almost involuntarily grabbed at their crotches. Horse turned pale as a sheet.

“A bris?” Clothaire asked. “But you’re not…”

Sitai interrupted, “I was once married to a Jew. He’s a little old,” she shrugged, “But Lal,” she glared at him. “He said we couldn’t kill him and had to give him back. So we took turns taking a little piece off here and there. Too bad we didn’t have any anesthesia or pain killers for him. Anupa will never live down how dull her khumri was.” She snorted. “Poor girl had to saw on him, with him screaming his head off, which upset her even more.”

Achel quietly said, “Never again, never will you send anyone to spy on us. If you do, we will not only kill that one, we will also kill you.” The two women marched out of the conference room, heads high, as LeClerc slumped to the floor moaning in pain.

Fargo went to the door to his office. “Esha, could you call for a medic and stretcher, please, and ask CSM to come in?”

Five segs later, Leclerc gone, Aphrodite started the debrief after a glare at Clothaire. A div later, Clothaire complained, “Those…mortar rounds were cheating. That kind of projectile doesn’t exist!”

Aphrodite smiled, showing a lot of her teeth. “On the contrary, lieutenant colonel, in the Eklor incursion in Sector Four six months ago, the Dragoons were using something very similar. After recovering a dud round, we sent it here for testing. We’ve duplicated, well, duplicated and improved it. You will see something like it in the future. I would suggest you figure out a way to deal with it. Now, if I may continue…” A div later it was done, and Clothaire and his staff departed, their tails parenthetically tucked between their legs.

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