Aircar

  Amarat Veneer Junior was driving to clear his head. The aircar, like some great monster floating above the pelagic depths was responsive, agile. Bringing back fond, but now bittersweet, memories.  

I wanted to howl.   I felt insensate, inarticulate rage.   She was no longer there.   My best, most comprehensive, complete friend.   My Soulmate   No longer with me.   Taken from me.   What's worse, she hadn't been taken away by war. As horrible as that was to contemplate, we were both soldiers.   With death in battle would have come a way to deal with this rage, this grief, this helplessness.  

— Amarat Veneer Junior's memoirs, the night of rage.

  Beedle-beep.   Beedle-beep.   My communicator was ringing, let it...   Wait, that was... home, calling me? Had there been another tragedy? I picked up.   "Yes?"   "Daddy? Nellun fell and hurt is head, and we don't know what to do..."   "Bihar, my brave, brave girl, I'm coming, and sending help, is everyone else fine?"   "Yes, Nomi is eating cereal, Vneef-Sparkle Veneer is studying and Sookie just had her bottle, Nellun fell after setting her in her chair."   "My brave, wonderful girl, are you ok?"   "I'm going to be ok. I'm not ok right now, I miss mommy too much."   "I miss her too, that's why I went away, I needed to clear my head. I'll be back there soon."   I called emergency services, then I called ahead, to what had been my destination a moment ago.   "Yes, Zim?"   "Cancel flight prep, I'm not going anywhere for at least a week."   "What is the matter Zim?"   "Nellun's been injured. Head injury."   "Sorry to hear Zim, I'll let his daughter know, she is right here with me..."   "Senya?"   "Yes, Zim, I was checking your plane for bugs, as we do every month. Will daddy be ok?"   "I'm coming to pick you up, I don't know myself. Just stay there."   "All right."   My aircar's souped up engines weren't the hyperjets the flyer on the pad boasted, but I had covered four hundred kilometers in an hour, I could do it again. Also that flyer wasn't going anywhere it wanted to, it always had to go where it was told.   "Thank you Zim."   Beedle-deep.   "Yes?" I picked up.   "Nellun's hurt?"   "Yes Mother."   "I'm... "   "Don't say cancelling your trip, you spent months preparing for it."   "Argh, is he going to be ok?"   "I don't know yet, but you called me ahead of the lifeguards, so he's probably fine."   "No, they called me, they had apparently tried to call you, but didn't get a good signal, you were flying too fast in that aircar."   "Oh."   "Nellun will be fine though, he's conscious, just a massive headache. I'm worried about you, son. you went a hundred over the limit for neck of the heart airspace."   "Hmm, mom, I'll be more careful."   "And Son?"   "It's about her, isn't it?" She didn't need to say which her.   "Yes, mother."   "I will miss our Aumhavar."   "She's so much more than that." He shouted.   "Calm yourself."   "But she is so much more than that. Your daughter-in-law, the mother of your grandchildren. I even gave her the Wedding Ring of Aumhavar Peebee."   "We all cope differently, son, I cope by not focusing on how close she was. It'll be my turn soon. And your daughters will have that ring to take to their marriages."   "No!" Amarat gripped the wheel so tightly, the plastic whined.   "But it will, you're my heir, and you're my heir because I will die, and someone needs to take care of my people. Nellun is the oldest of my people, quite probably, and we're lucky he hasn't left yet, but... This numbers game doesn't have any winners. Everyone dies eventually."   "I'm here, I'll call you when I'm in Nellun's hospital room, Mother."   "Where's here?"   "Megamisama Hyperbase."   "You were going someplace son?"   "I thought I'd go, anywhere, just in the clouds, to remember her..."   "At a million an hour, that's an expensive memorial."   "I'd have paid it, and counted it a bargain, if it brought peace to the storm in my soul."   "Why are you still there though?"   "Picking up Senya, she was checking the plane for bugs."   "That doesn't sound right, the plane was checked two weeks ago. Why would she lie?"   "Oh, the usual, new Grib."   "What, you..."   "My pilot's only three years older than me, mother. I'm sure he's just Senya's type."   "I thought she was dating Firrson."   "They broke up, Firrson's dating her sister now."   "Ugh. I don't want to know..."   "Me either, Mother, but I do know..."  

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  "Thank you for this, it'd have taken me hours to get official transport."   "No worries, Senya, your father did it for me so many times over."   "He wasn't using his vehicle to do it, most of the time."   "The one time he did, it counted. The day I was born... He picked Mother up and delivered her to the hospital in his own aircar, so she wouldn't have the paparazzi in a tizzy."   "Why would the paparazzi be in a tizzy?"   "You don't know?"   "I suspect, but no one ever said..."   "Nellun could have, Senya, I'm illegitimate. Hiding my actual time of birth gave mom a bit of time with the media to finesse the story."   "Uh huh."   "How's Kinnear doing?"   "Kinnear's doing fine. I can't fool you, can I?"   "If you can fool me some of the time, and my Mother, some of the time, fooling us both at the same time appears beyond you..."   "Oh, Noyjitat!"   "Watch the language."   "Excuse me, and don't take this the wrong way, but I didn't mind you knowing, I just really didn't want your Mother to know me and Firrson broke up."   "I goofed then, I told her. And I told her about Venya."   "Oh. They're just better for each other, you know?"   "No, not really, but if it makes them happy, I won't give them a hard time, and you and Kinnear? Just be careful, he IS seconded to the lifeguards, for all of his creds as a FlyForce pilot, don't land yourself a title 64."   "He's seconded to third fleet, which seconded him to First Meihomei Lifeguards, I checked. I can't issue him orders without the insulation of someone from FlyForce. Ugh."   "What?"   "Just remembered who I used to channel my orders to him through."   "Who?"   "Your late wife." The steering wheel whined again. "I'm sorry, I wanted to present my condoleances a long time ago."   "But there was never enough time, right?"   "I'd say that, but I had time to hook up with Kinnear. I'm so sorry, she never treated me like an employee, more like a family member, once she learned who I was."   "You and your sisters are next in line as my closest friends, along with Firrson, after some of my actual relatives, and just behind those two in-laws."   "How did you get close to your in-laws? I thought you said..."   "Because they treated me like their brother. So I practically adopted Linni and Lusi."   "Oh, those in-laws. Yeah, I forget just how close they are, to being actual royalty, at this point."   "Lusi is Electoral Princess of Saer-Natthingham, she is royalty."   "I meant in Kagomei, they're next, after your daughters, by now."   "Yes, and Lusi's pregnant. But, I have... extracurricular children, myself."   "What? I..." She closed her mouth, everyone knew how crazily in-love Amarat had been, with Flora...   "Flora and I were open, at her idea. Nomi and Vneef aren't mine, but I have two girls, with some dear friends."   "Frick me sideways with a pinetree."   "Language."   "Sorry." She tried not to giggle at his expression.   "Obviously, this doesn't go beyond this car..."   "My lips are sealed. And thanks, for the show of trust."   "Yeah, of course, I better not find out my trust was misplaced, understood? That little stunt with Kinnear, I'm not super bothered by it, but it's not a good way to build trust."   "Oh, quite."  

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