Captain Cee's Last Stand Read online

  She had always been body proud- athletic and fit, resourceful and capable. She had gotten past the loss of her eye, and the scars, and had thought she'd gotten past family as a bad job. Then, along the way, family had become the mission, too. A child for a dead friend, and blood of her blood, bread cast upon the waters... The body which had dutifully fought pain, which had moved to her will, and which had, always, carried her forward, it had been a source of pride. Now, now it had let her down. She tried to make her right hand uncurl her clawed fingers, and could not.

  She heard the noise from the great room and wheeled herself after it, wondering why she bothered. There was yet another argument, with her No. 1 Daughter-in-law losing her temper at yet another defection. And yet the bitch was winning, not making any friends, but winning still... Hannah had always despised her. She understood her kind all too well; she sought power, to run the Clinkenbeard outfit through her son.

  Hannah knew she would lose this fight. In time, she would be dead. Best to let it go. To rest.

  No! Suddenly anger at her own cowardice flared. She had never backed down from a fight! She didn't always win, but she had never accepted defeat. She had been a starship captain for those nineteen months and her people still called her 'Cap'n Cee' after fifty years on Tienshan, the Heavenly Mountain. She would fight this woman!

  In her mind's eye, Hannah compressed her will down to an infinitely small point, then rotated the universe around that singularity. And then she stood, or tried to. Her body failed her, weak... and then she felt hands helping her, her No. 2 daughter-in-law at one elbow and her namesake granddaughter at the other. Triumphant, heart pounding in her ears, she heard the clapping, the applause of a dozen witnesses. Her No. 1 Daughter-in-law joined in late and came over.

  "The poor dear... what can we do for you, Mother," she asked, all sickly sweet, the Yamato Nadeshiko doll in her hands.

  Hannah firmly took it back. "Get. Out!" She barked. Not great, but intelligible. 'Enunciate!' was her new battle-cry. "You! Not wanted! Not needed!" She gasped. "Git!"

  Sophia boggled. "What!?" She glared at Patricia. Hannah and her namesake stood firmly as Patrica left them and took her sister-in-law by the elbow.

  "She said to get out," she said sweetly. "'Kicked to the curb', in her words."

  "What about you?!"

  "She. Stays!" Hannah beamed.

  "No! I'm the wife of your eldest son! I will not be treated-"

  "Shut up, Sophia! You've said entirely too much," Kevin said, entering the room and taking her other elbow. "We need to talk. I need to talk and you need to listen, if you still want to be 'Mrs. Kevin Clinkenbeard'!"

  They left the room, and the house.

  Hannah realized that she still had the Yamato Nadeshiko doll. With her granddaughters' help she walked over to the child's mother.

  “Yers, n-now,” Hannah said, handing the doll over to Patricia.

  “But this is the only thing you have from your father! I can’t take this…”

  “Izza d-dead th-thing. Mah-nee ‘ings fro’ m-my Fah-der, I ‘ave here!” Hannah said. “Living ‘ings. Ee-pull, s-sons ‘n dah-ters, more!”

  “She means us, Mom,” Hannah the younger said. “It’s Bujold- ‘All true wealth is biological!’”

  “Zact-lee!” Hannah was so proud of her granddaughter. She turned back to the girl’s mother. “You are, Yah- mah-“ she grew flustered as the words fought her for control once more.

  “Yamato Nadeshiko?”

  Hannah nodded. “I f-fight! Live. Love. To. Fight! You live. Service! You protect. What you. Love!”

  Patricia looked down at the dirty old doll in her hands; the naginata, broken and repaired (so many times!), in its hands. An emblem of an idea that was wilder and freer and more powerful than the patronizing patriarchy that had imagined it could know.

  “You are,” the Captain said. “Keep it. For me.”

  ***

  I'm always interested in the meanings of names and except for Malcolm (Hannah is a Big Damn Browncoat) I chose these without any real purpose, but they all hit the mark-

  The Hebrew word "Hannah" has many meanings and interpretations, including "beauty" and "passion". from- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannah_(Bible)

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jules_Brunet

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_Reynolds

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin

  George, from the Ancient Greek γεωργός (geōrgos), "farmer" or "earth-worker", which became a name in Greek: Γεώργιος (Geōrgios), and Latin: Georgius. The word Γεωργος is a compound word, formed by the words Ge (Γῆ), "earth", "soil" and ergon (ἔργον), "work". from- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_(given_name)

  Margaret is a female first name, derived from the Greek word margarites (μαργαρίτης) meaning "pearl." It may have originally been derived from the Sanskrit word मञ्यरी mañjarī.[1] from- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_(name)

  Patricia, in English pronounced /pəˈtrɪʃə/, is a common female given name of Latin origin. It is derived from the Latin word patrician, meaning "noble." The masculine form of the name is Patrick.from- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patricia

  Sophia is a female name derived from σοφία, the Greek word for "Wisdom." (ironic usage here) from- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophia_(name)

  The concept I find so arresting (yeppers, I'm weird! 8-)

  https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/YamatoNadeshiko

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamato_nadeshiko

  Easter is coming along (when I first started writing this 8-). I’m not a church-going man, but I live and breathe symbolism and ritual-

  https://genestrother.com/this-is-my-body-take-eat

  My favorite duo in all of fiction is Modesty Blaise https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modesty_Blaise and Willie Garvin. Peter O'Donnell had his reasons for keeping them from being a romantic couple, while being, in all other ways, a perfect partnership. With Jules and Hannah, one has always been the leader, and one day I'm going to look deeper into what I'm doing here. Jules worships her, 'mon capitan', and even when he comes to see that she isn't perfect, she is still his captain.)

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charism

  Thank you for reading books on Archive.BookFrom.Net
Share this book with friends