Retired

Chapter 47

Chapter 47

Once we were on the carrier the captain tried to give me his quarters for the voyage. I refused, telling him we would only be here for a day or two. We were given an officer's room, though.

I sat in the room after I had a shower. It felt good to be clean again. Then Lizell came out of the shower. She still had drops of water on her skin, and they glistened like diamonds in the soft light. I wondered if she was regretting anything yet.

Then she came over to me and sat in my lap. She threw her arms around my neck. "What are your plans now, my love."

"I am going to see the duchess safely hanged. Then I will return to Mud and finish retiring."

"Drake, you can no more retire than I can become a duck. You need this life. What made you want to retire anyway?"

"I wanted to find someone and get married. Then I wanted to start a family. As a Praetorian Guardsman, I can't get married."

Lizell looked at me. Her face assumed a slightly shy look. "Does that mean..."

"Does it mean, I am going to ask you to marry me? Yes, it does, as soon as this is over."

"Why not ask me now?"

"Because, I want to do it right. You should be asked in a romantic setting. You should be surprised and delighted to be asked."

Lizell looked into my eyes. "I really don't care about that, Drake. I just know, I cannot think of any man who would be a better husband, and father to our children."

"I do care, my love. You will only be asked one time. That is a once in a lifetime event and it should be something special."

Lizell's lips met mine. Damn, she could light my fires quickly. Then she pulled back her lips and looked into my eyes with an expression of pure love and trust. "Make love to me, Drake."

"You never need to ask. I am yours."

...

My eyes snapped open a little later. Footsteps in the hall had awoken me. There was a polite tap at the door and a voice spoke softly. "Sir, the grand marshal requests your presence on the bridge."

"I will be there shortly," I answered. My voice woke Lizell.

"Is something wrong?" I could hear the fear in her voice.

"I don't think so. If something was wrong, the ship would be at alert. Why don't you get dressed and come with me?"

"Will they let me on the bridge?"

"I doubt it, but we will ignore that," I smiled as we climbed out of bed to get dressed.

I was delighted to watch her beautiful body as she dressed with me. I refused to put on my uniform. I was retired.

We arrived on the bridge. Lizell was in awe of seeing space through the huge windows on the bridge.

"Status, Angel," I said, as I approached the grand marshal.

"We are Status Green. All systems are responding normally. I asked you up here to inform you that the emperor authorized, no, I should actually say demanded, we use long jump protocols. We made the jump while you slept. We will be pulling into orbit around earth in about twenty minutes."

Lizell's eyes grew wide. "You mean these ships can make a jump from rim to Earth in one step?"

"Yes, ma'am," Angel replied. "It is not an ability we like to advertise." Then Angel looked back to me, "The emperor requests that you escort the prisoner. He has waited a long time to catch this bitch with undeniable proof. He does not want her to get away."

"I will escort her. Is she allowed to have bruises when she arrives?"

"Protocol does not allow the mistreatment of prisoners. Make sure they don't show. You should be in uniform, sir. It is normal escort protocol."

I gave Angel a hard look. "I didn't bring a uniform with me."

"I have one, sir," she said, with a malicious smile.

My uniform was laid out on our bunk by the time I arrived at the cabin. Lizell took her shower first. Then while she dressed, I climbed into the small shower.

When I got out of the shower, Lizell had my career bars in her hand and was looking at them. "Drake, I have been through a lot of military information while doing my job. I know what medals most of these ribbons represent. But this one is unfamiliar to me. And what are these extra stripes on the ribbons for the Bravery, Valor, and Honor?"

I sat down and lifted the bars out of her hand. "For the standard medals they have the medal itself, if you win it a second time they give you a bronze cluster, which is shown by the metal bands at the end of the ribbon. If you win it a third time, they become silver, then gold, and finally platinum. The problem was that my career taught them people can win them more than five times. Each of these black stripes represents another medal."

"Okay I can understand that, you won each one of them more than twenty times. You also won so many other medals it is sickening, including five IMoH. What is this platinum ribbon with the black stripe?"

"That is a medal that has not been seen since the early days of the empire. It is the Knight Protector's ribbon. It is only awarded to someone who has saved the life of an unborn member of the imperial family."

"Tell me about it."