Begin Part IX - Conclusion Coleman leaned back in his chair and whistled when Ratislav finally stopped talking about DRAGON and MESSENGER. It had taken nearly three tapes to get the whole conversation and it looked like this could be the greatest story of his life. Fleet intrigue, pirate intrigue, hell you even got the hero pretty much riding up with the cavalry. This would be the story he would tell his grandchildren sitting around the fireside whenever he felt the need to gloat. "If you must know," Ratislav started to say, which broke James out of his reverie. "The only time I ever broke the rules on that mission was years later." James asked in confusion: "Wait, I never found anything except the diary that said anything about you and your squad even being involved. I'm simply amazed that the Fleet could actually cover something so well and no one found out until now." Ratislav smiled, "Son, you missed the point. Of course you can't believe that Fleet covered it up because the only thing you ever hear about is the Fleet mistakes. I've seen a few things I my time that would probably make you want to just curl up in a corner in fear. What I was about to say is that about three years later I heard that one of my guys from DRAGON bought it on a mission. I actually went to the funeral which pissed the hell out of O'Bannon. She tried to rip me a new one when she found out I went so far as to talk to the man's wife to tell him I had once served as his commander." "I have to ask did any good come of that mission. Sure you saved the hostages, but just think you never found out who the mole was and at least one or more of the pirates got away." "Yes some good did come of it, I finally started a serious relationship with Kristin unfortunately that would not come to fruition until some years later. There are also several things besides that, such as the Admiralty accepting the idea of the Rangers and just how useful a truly fast insertion squad can be when surprise is of the essence. It also put me on the fast track to a command, and left everyone in the squad with a sparkling recommendation in their records." "Whatever happened that pirate named Clark. I found several records that mentioned him in passing but nothing ever mentioned if he is still alive or if he died." "I heard around the end of the war, that Clark led a raid on a Neo base which had been converted from a pirate warehouse. Scuttlebutt says that he might even have taken the base but that he managed to get into a knife fight with a Neo officer and he even killed the Neo. I met a ex-pirate later who would swear that he knew a guy who was there who saw Clark actually walk away carry his arm which had been disconnected at the shoulder." Coleman leaned back in his seat, pale at the ghost of bleeding to death from a wound like that and then the thought of your arm ripped out. Kristin was also sickened by the though, but Ratislav remembered the true story of Clark and knew that was a story he could more that likely never tell anybody. Ratislav looked down at his desk when one of the lights started flashing and then turned back to Coleman. "Well mister Coleman it would appear that your shuttle back to the station is ready to depart. I guess it is time for you to depart." Coleman stood to shake Ratislav's hand and then Kristin's as well. He collected all of his things and then looked around the office one last time to make sure that he would remember all of the details. The story had so many details he was amazed that O'Muirdagh had even remembered them all. It would be a miracle if he could even get all of the nuances right just using the tapes that he had made, James so wished that he had used video and not audio because it was less noticeable. "Remember to write a good story, James, or I'll blow up your house." Coleman froze on the way to the door. Turning back to look at O'Muirdagh, his eyebrows nearly hit his hairline. "I'm joking boy, you can relax." Coleman let out a heavy sigh and smiled before turning again and walking out the door. Ratislav was smiled and laughing so hard he never see Kristin come around the corner until she hit him over the head. "Hey, you're not supposed to hit your superior officer. That will get you thrown out of the service, doing things like that." This got a smile out of Kristin before she said, "Offensive weapon? You insensitive shit, you're going to pay for that. Just you wait until some one comes to interview me about something I did to save lives and I'm going to call you something even worse. Probably something like the 'Fallen Angel' or 'the dumbest man to ever get through OCS.'" "Thanks, Saibh. That means a lot to me, that ever since you married me you remember all the guys who you flunked out of your class." "Ooh, Angel, one of these days you're going to pay for this big time." "Yeah, but how about until then you just come over here and quit your whining." Kristin smiled and moved around so that Ratislav could hold her by the waist as they stood side by side and watch the stars float by in the port hole. After a few minutes they saw a shuttle slide up onto the deck and fire it's thrusters. In seconds the shuttle was falling behind and then in a flash the rockets fired and the shuttle flew off leaving a wake of fire. End