Capital City
Lummatii
Lothian League
Marian Hegemony
The Periphery
5 February, 3150
Freyja woke to a knocking at her door. She ignored it the first time, slowly sitting up in bed and pulling a robe from the nightstand to wrap around herself. As she pulled her shoulders together, savoring the soft warmth of the robe, the knock repeated itself.
"Come in," she called out. She heard the clicking of the outer door, and as she ran her hands through her hair, the inner door to her bed chamber opened, and Clarissa Bakker's head poked through cautiously.
"I wasn't trying to intrude dear, I just wanted to check on you." The older woman walked over to Freyja's bed and sat down beside her after Freyja patted the mattress in an invitation. "Are you doing alright dear? You've been through a lot and you've not really come out to see anyone."
Freyja nodded a faint smile. "I'm ok, Clarissa. Really I am."
Clarissa rubbed her back gently. "Gunnar Logan wants to talk to you."
Freyja closed her eyes. "I don't much want to talk to him. Truth be told I don't particularly feel like talking to any of you, but him especially."
"For what it's worth, dear, I'm sorry. My first instinct was to tell you. But we came to realize that it was best not to. I know that, as a woman you would have wanted to know, and as a mother you would have wanted to know. But you have to ask yourself, as a leader, would you have wanted to know?"
Freyja turned. "I didn't ask to be a leader. I don't want to be a leader. I'm not a leader."
Clarissa turned to face her, pulling one knee in, and taking Freyja's hands in hers. "I know you may not have asked to or wanted to, but you are a leader now. You led the defense of an entire world."
Freyja shook the statement off. "I stood up and did what I had to, nothing more."
"Sometimes that is what being a leader is all about. But you did what you had to, and you did it well. You probably kept my son alive with your actions. He won't stop talking about it." She smiled softly, reassuringly.
"I still wish someone had told me. Maybe I'm just being selfish, but that's how I feel."
Clarissa nodded in that calming way she seemed to be able to so easily. "You're being far from selfish. Have you given thought as to if you're going to keep the baby or not?"
Freyja let out a deep breath. "I don't know. I can't imagine not keeping it. But it's not entirely my decision either. And I don't even know if it's still alright, after all this chaos."
"We can go and get you checked out today. I have contacts in the hospital, we can get it done quietly. And it absolutely is entirely your decision."
Freyja squeezed Clarissa's hand. "I don't even know how I go about making a choice like this. I don't know if it's Gunnar's, or that monster's. I don't even want to talk to Gunnar about it. I just don't know."
Clarissa put a hand on Freyja's cheek. "Dear girl, you will make the right decision. I have faith in that. And remember this, no matter who is the father, the child is still yours. But think on this. All these choices running through your mind now, can you imagine having to fight the battle you just did with all that in your head? Would you have had the resolve to fight that beast? Would you have been able to put not only yourself but your child at risk? And would worrying about making those choices have caused you to hesitate, or hold back at the wrong time and gotten yourself killed? That, dear Freyja, is why we chose not to tell you. Think a little about that before you decide how you feel about him not telling you."
Freyja paused, then nodded. "Thank you, my lady. I will. I promise."
"You know you don't have to call me that anymore. You are a free woman. You owe me nothing."
Freyja shook her head. "I know. And you never made me feel like I did. Thank you for that, as well."
Capital Building
Lummatii
Lothian League
Marian Hegemony
The Periphery
3 February, 3150
It was now much later in the day, and Freyja sat at a triangular table. She had dressed professionally, with black trousers and knee length boots, and a white blouse cut crisply along almost military lines. She wore her hair up, and away from her face.
The other two men in the room both wore crisp suits. Gunnar Logan wore his tie slightly loose, and his jacket open, and was obviously trying to give off a more relaxed vibe, in spite of the setting. The other man, planetary Senator to the Lothian League Chester Ghant, wore his tighter and more buttoned up, clearly trying to give off an air of authority. Freyja already didn't like him.
"I'm glad everybody could come. With this pirate business behind us, we're at a crossroads, and we have to give the people the leadership they're looking for. They want security and unity, so it's going to be up to us to give it to them. As the only of the three planetary senators currently on world, obviously it's my duty to keep things running smoothly, and I have very important tasks for the both of you."
Gunnar Logan flipped his pen onto the table. "I'm sure you have plenty of ideas and plans, Senator, but what you don't have is any actual authority. Oh yes, you're a Senator and all that, but all that means is that you're one of three people elected to convey our views to the League Government." He turned to Freyja. "What he's hoping is that you don't understand the complexities of government out here, and don't realize that all he basically does is act as a messenger boy from us to the Grand Mistress on Lordinax and vice versa. We elect three senators to the senate, they go to Lordinax and supposedly represent our interests, and return and let us know what we need to about the directions from the League Government, which is basically the Grand Mistress. With everything up in the air, it seems, as though the good Senator assumes everyone just accepts him as de facto planetary ruler. Is that about the size of it, Senator?"
The thin man rolled his eyes. "Count Logan, you're hardly one to lecture me on principles. You're well regarded as just a noble playboy. Your parents died and left you a big grant and title, and you just live off the fat. I, on the other hand, happen to be the only one here who has been granted the vote of the people."
Count Logan leaned back and laughed. "You were voted to be a mouthpiece, not to lead anything. Hell, you only own barely enough land to live on to keep residency, you just make all your money off world."
The senator leaned on the table with his fingertips. "So what, you happen to have inherited a big chunk of land that includes the capital and a lot of people to pay you taxes. It's not like you run the capital or lead it or anything, you just run it as your personal brothel, the city government handles all the municipal business."
Freyja cleared her throat. She was getting annoyed at the back and forth testosterone competition. "Can I take this opportunity to remind you both that I'm the only one with a force of BattleMechs and combat vehicles, and who just so happened to have saved the planet?"
Gunnar chuckled softly and threw his hands up in a gesture of mock defeat. The senator, on the other hand, was not be cowed so easily. "With all due respect, Miss McCarron, you're a soldier that did a job. We thank you, but don't get delusions of grandeur here. A few days ago you were a slave. You still legally don't even have the right to cast a single vote. Don't go thinking you control the militia or anything."
Freyja sat back and frowned. "Senator, you don't have a planetary militia. All you've got is a few companies of infantry and a handful of armored vehicles, and I don't even think they would follow you. I on the other hand have a company plus of Battlemechs, another company of conversions on top of that, two ad hoc companies of armored vehicles, and probably damn near a battalions worth of infantry. I'm the one that pulled them together, I'm the one that led them in battle, and I'm the one that kicked the pirates asses. You didn't even want to fight him, you wanted to try to pay him off. I'm the one that cut his damned throat. I'll cast my vote with that."
The senator harrumphed angrily. "You still have no standing, girl. By all rights I could have you arrested for killing that Trogg fellow. The fight was over and he was a prisoner, and you killed him in front of thousands of witnesses. Don't trifle with me, girl."
Freyja stared at the senator. "Cheering witnesses."
He shot her a confused look. "What?"
She stood up and fixed him with a glare. "Those thousands of people who watched me slit his throat. They cheered. So go ahead and arrest me, Senator. But you won't, will you? Because you don't have the balls for it, for one. Secondly, even if you did have the balls to do it, good luck finding even one of your men who would follow the order to arrest me. And three, who are all those people going to back in the end? The little man who pissed himself and wanted to give up, or the bitch that stuck a knife in the pirate bastard's throat? Go ahead, Senator."
Count Logan stood up and coughed slightly. "As entertaining as this is, the discussion is pointless." He flipped a folder to both the senator and Freyja. "That right there is a directive from Grand Mistress Claire Logan. Communication might not be what it was, but I took the liberty of sending word to Lordinax asking for help when this whole Raiden Trogg situation hit us. She couldn't spare any forces to come help in our defense, but she wished us well, and in the event that we should come out on top, she wanted to invite all interested parties to an audience with her on Lordinax at our earliest convenience to discuss, in her words, 'the matter of more coordinated planetary government' here on Lummatii. If you look at the list of interested parties, it contains four names. Count Gunnar Logan, as the lord of the largest fiefdom on the planet. Senator Chester Ghant, as the longest serving representative from the planet. Lord Governor Ethan Killorn, as provincial governor of the largest province on the planet in terms of population and land mass. And Freyja McCarron, as the leader of the largest military contingent on the planet. Now, as we know, the Lord Governor was killed when Trogg's people rampaged through Abercrombie trying to draw you out, Freyja. So that leaves the three of us to answer the Grand Mistress' call."
Senator Ghant threw up his hands. "This is outrageous. Governor Killorn is dead because you were too cowardly to fight in his defense, for one!"
Freyja pointed angrily at the senator. "Don't you dare. I was out there fighting while you were cowering. And I followed the plan we laid out. The Lord Governor knew the risks."
"And how the hell does the Grand Mistress even know who you are? You're just a little upstart!"
Count Logan interrupted. "The Grand Mistress knows because I have been sending her dispatches as best as I could. I don't know what all has gotten through, but obviously enough. This is her directive, and I don't think you want to ignore that, senator."
A few hours later, darkness had fallen and Freyja stood next to Gunnar on the balcony of the Logan estate. She had her hands tucked inside a soft, fur muff, and the hood of her coat lay back just enough that the soft fur lining rubbed softly against her neck. If there was one upside to this back end of the Periphery, she thought, they certainly had amazing furs.
"You really put the Senator in his place," Gunnar quipped.
Freyja smiled. "He needed put in his place. But I think your letter from the Grand Mistress went a lot further in the way of that. By the way, this Grand Mistress, Claire Logan. Any relation I should know about?"
He shook his head. "Not that I know of. Logan is a pretty common name out here. The Lothian League was founded by a Logan, but we're not all related to the ruling line. At least not in any meaningful way."
Freyja watched as flurries fell to the ground. "What is she like? I always thought of the Lothian League as a sort of free state. A title like Grand Mistress doesn't exactly seem to fit in with that."
Gunnar shoved his hands in his pockets. "It's not like the old days. The League of our ancestors was more about trade than anything else. Most of our planets are rich in ores, and historically we did a good amount of trade with the bigger periphery powers. But when the Marians came, and the Jihad in the middle of it, somewhere in the back and forth of freedom and subjugation to the Marians, things just got harder. Don't get me wrong, the League still isn't a military powerhouse by any means. Hell you saw that, there weren't even troops to come fend off the pirates. But it's a lot, I don't know, harder these days. More cutthroat. Mistress Logan is hard, cold, calculating. She doesn't rule harshly or anything like that, but she does rule firmly. Has to be that way. It's part of the reason I never really got into politics."
Freyja smiled, and bumped her shoulder playfully into him. "Easier to be the playboy, right. Playing among the hordes of adoring young courtesans?"
He accepted the barb gracefully. "I guess I just never had direction before. Nothing to focus on. Until now."
She stared off into the gently falling snow. "It might not even be yours, Gunnar. You know that."
He put an arm around her, and she didn't fight it. "Have you gotten checked out since the battle."
She nodded but kept her gaze fixed on the darkness and the falling snow flurries. "Everything seems fine. I asked Miss Clarissa, there won't be any way to determine paternity until I'm past the point where I'd be comfortable making a choice."
He moved to stand behind her, wrapped his arms around her, and rested his chin on her head. "What are you going to do, Freyja?"
She let out a long breath, watching the condensation form in the chill air. "I don't know Gunnar. I just don't know enough. I don't know."
He turned her around to face him, pulling her close and looking her in the eyes. "Don't have a test done."
She tilted her head, puzzled. "What are you talking about?"
"Paternity, don't test for it. I'll claim the child as my own. No need for a test. No need for explanations."
She shook her head. "I don't understand. You don't want to know?"
"Part of me, yes. Of course. I won't lie. But if we have a test done, it will only complicate things. I'll help raise the child as my own regardless, but if we test and find out that I'm not the father, there's always going to be that hanging over us. Plus, no matter how quiet we try to keep it, it creates a record. Then our child has to worry about challenges to his or her legitimacy. What if we have more children? Then suddenly the first is somehow.....tainted. We can't un-ring that bell once we ring it."
"Is this honestly what you want? It's early enough I could end it, we could start over with a blank slate. Or I could just go off and raise it on my own. You can go back to your high society parties and rotating women. You don't owe me anything, Gunnar."
He leaned in and kissed her on the forehead. "No, I can't go back now. That's not who I am. It never really was. I just needed someone special enough to show me."
She nestled her head into his chest. "Then we're in this together."
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