Star Trek: Bendross
Days of Auld Lang Syne

By
Jay P. Hailey
And
The Bendross Players

Bendross 2113

Rudy was conscious of how he looked as he walked into the house where he lived. Ten years gone was the flamboyant image and all the work it took. Ten years gone was the man in his early 40's trying to pretend you could stay young forever, and that somehow fashion mattered.

Rudy was as thin and lithe as ever. His face was more lined and less made up. He showed the effects of working outside everyday for the last ten years.

Stares-Into-Night was with him, hovering nearby out of some instinctual awareness that his friend was disturbed.

Rudy lived in house that he'd have called "barely adequate" on Earth, but it was a castle to him now, made from prefabbed parts of the Bendross III's hull and just the right amount of hand made fittings here and there. The house was weathering the environment well and promised to last for a long time.

Rudy lived there with Priscilla and Bethany, a lesbian couple. Working out an acceptable friendship and partnership wasn't easy. Judy and Timothy were Priscilla and Bethany's children, now ten years old and at school. Lines of responsibility were complex to an outsider, but Rudy intuitively navigated them.

Rudy was wearing his brown betacloth coverall. He had one with lace sewn into the edges, that Bethany made for him as a joke. But he wore the old one because it was broken in and could take the abuse.

Integrating with the Ecology of Bendross Alpha was a challenge that Rudy felt would never be complete. He always had work to do helping Michelle and the rest of the biology crew keep the crops and animals alive.

As he walked into the house and into the living room, Rudy felt the tenor of the place. It was tense.

Putting his hand on his weapon he peeked and then walked around the corner into the are where the kitchen/dining room was.

He was looking at three ghosts. It was the Staad triplets. He'd last seen them as children on Earth. Now they seemed surprisingly grown up. Elizabeth was just shy of six feet, Her brothers were every inch of their father's six four. Jeffery and Alexander were spitting images of their father. It took Rudy's breath away.

They all had the sculpted Aryan look that Nazi propagandists would have killed for. This was heavily leveraged by their black fatigues with military logos on them, and their short, but exquisitely coifed hair and their PPG rifles.

Rudy stunned said "Oh, my God. Kids!" A grin started to break out on his face.

A stone cold look from Elizabeth stopped the grin in it's tracks. It was plain she wasn't very happy with him.

"It is you, isn't it, Elizabeth?" Rudy asked.

"Yes. It's us." She breezed.

"Well, It's certainly a pleasant surprise to see you." Rudy said. "You came with the EarthForce Cruiser?" It was useless to say. The Cruiser over head, currently dominating the hell out of what was left of the Bendross I and the Bendross III was the first earth ship they'd seen.

"I'm sure you're surprised." Elizabeth's tone was brittle. Rudy noted that Jeffery and Alex's expressions were also hard. He also noted that they'd placed themselves around the room to line him up for a cross fire.

Priscilla sat stonily in the dining room. For a lot of people the EarthForce troopers were bring back a lot of very bad memories.

"Please, sit down. Can I get you something? How are your parents?" Rudy's voice didn't betray his throat's rusty dryness.

"Our parents are dead." Elizabeth said. It sounded like an accusation. Rudy was struck by how much Elizabeth resembled her mother. Jacqueline didn't like him very much either.

"What happened?" Rudy asked.

"They were in Los Angeles when it was nuked." Jeffery said, he sounded just like Bryant.

"We evacuated like everyone else, but they went back to try and help." Alexander sounded like Bryant, too.

Rudy winced. "I am so sorry. I didn't know." Somehow, some way Rudy expected to see Bryant again. He could feel his heart starting to break, a million miles away.

"Of course you didn't. You ran away." Elizabeth's accusation came out casually, breezily, with years of pain driving it.

Rudy blinked and looked at her like she slapped him. "I what?"

"You bailed out, retreated, ran away." Alexander clarified.

"You left us behind and fled like the coward you are." Jeffery further clarified.

Rudy stared at them. The extent of their resentment was palpable.

"We were stuck there." Elizabeth growled. "We had to grow up, fist up and clean up the mess you and people like you left behind."

"We've done a good job." Alex said. "Earth is a world that works now."

"Yeah." Rudy rasped. "Okay."

Elizabeth stepped forward "Uncle Drake was in Los Angeles, too."

Rudy was aware that even Elizabeth was bigger than he an they had the solid muscles that Rudy associated with commandos. With a shock Rudy realized that these three together could Probably take Martin, a realization that shook him.

"Oh, God." Rudy was stuck between primal fear and terrible sadness. "Do you..." he rasped "Do you know anything about Simon?"

Elizabeth shook her head, her eyes glittering. She was enjoying Rudy's pain. "You left us all behind."

"Rudy, my friend." Stares into night said, in his soft, high-Pitched voice. "Who are your friends?" His accent lilted.

The Staad Triplets looked at Stares-into-Night. Their cold faces seemed caught between surprise and disdain. No one said anything for several beats.

"This is Elizabeth, Jeffery and Alexander." Rudy introduced. He noticed a spine of fur ruffed along Stares-into-Night's back. He was exercising the Lemurite equivalent of a massive poker face not to be bushed out to twice his normal width. Rudy sympathized with the feeling.

"The Cubs of your hunt mate on your own world?" Stares-into-Night worked hard to put enthusiasm into his voice. "What a happy occasion! A reunion of family!"

"He's not our family." Elizabeth almost spit.

"Is this not so?" Stares-into-Night said. "But Rudy has often told me of his days as a hunter of wrong doers with Bryant of the Mighty Strength, Jacqueline of the sublime skill, Drake of the keen eye, and the house cleaning naked, of Simon fierce struggle with his mental demons that came to life for all."

Climbing up on the table, Stares-into-Night attained something like face-to-face level with Elizabeth. "Long have I heard of the cubs of Bryant and Jacqueline, and I have heard how Rudy's heart ached to leave them behind." he turned "How did you describe the relationship, Rudy? Nieces and nepheweses?"

"Yes, he loved us so much he left us behind to face Armageddon on our own." Elizabeth's voice was harsh.

"Why did you leave?" Jeffery demanded. "Why did you go?"

Rudy looked at them. "You really don't know?"

Alex peered at him and looked confused. Jeffery looked defiant. Elizabeth looked brittle.

Rudy looked at them. "Kids, I loved Bryant passionately. I pined for him. I died a thousand deaths for him. When he married your mother I stay drunk for three months. I tried to be a good sport about it. I tried to stay friends. But your mother always knew and always hated me for it. Bryant and I..." Rudy struggled for the words "We... dated a couple of times. Then he dumped and met your mother. Our little group was never really the same after that. Simon was going insane and abusing the hell out of Artie. Drake was dithering about his own issues, and your Mom and Bryant decided that they were going to play Leave it to Beaver come hell or high water."

The three large, tough, experienced, commandoes were looking at Rudy stunned.

"Soon, their life had no place for me in it." Rudy continued. "That's why my visits were tapering off. Your Mom especially, but Bryant, too, let me know that I was disrupting their carefully cultivated straight life style."

"You and Dad?" Alex looked like he'd been hit in the head.

"Only a couple of times. I always thought that he was Bi, but after he married you Mom he was solidly, grimly, white knuckle straight." Rudy said.

Jeffrey looked a touch ill, but looked away.

Elizabeth sneered. "So you ran because you got your heart broken in a little queer melodrama."

"I was willing to be a good sport. I was ready to be Uncle Rudy the whole way, but you Mother wouldn't LET ME!" Rudy yelled. "If they'd let me I'd have been right there! You were the family I should have had, but your mother and father sent me away!"

Elizabeth was caught mid sneer. It broke but she held the pieces. She was old enough on the day that Rudy left to catch some of the tension.

Jeffery looked back at Rudy. A decision was made, like throwing a switch. "I'm sorry it worked out like that." And he started for the door.

Elizabeth and Alex Watched him leave.

Elizabeth looked at Rudy, her face red and some tears showing. "People like you, you caused the problems, you caused the messes and then you left it for us to clean up. I won't ever forget that!" She turned and stomped after Jeffery.

"That resentment got us through." Alex said. "There were a lot of cold, hungry, dark nights. We always thought on some level that you'd come to rescue us. After all, you were the last one we knew of alive."

He walked toward the door. "The longer you didn't the more the resentment burned, until we made it, somehow."

Encouraged by Alex' tone Rudy said. "Maybe we could talk..."

Alex turned in the door. "I don't think so. Elizabeth isn't good at letting go of grudges. Old habits die heard I guess."

He turned and left.

The sunlight streamed into the silent kitchen. Nothing was harmed nothing was out of place, but to Rudy it felt as silent as the grave. It felt like devastation.

"Rudy." Priscilla said.

Rudy looked. He could see his long time room mate and friend doing her best not to blame him, and failing.

"I don't want those people in my house again." Priscilla said. There were vast undertones to her voice.

Rudy nodded slowly. Suddenly fifty-two years old felt ancient.

Stares-into-Night turned on the table to face him and took his hand. The Lemurite hand was warm, and oddly shaped.

"I am sorry, Rudy-Friend."

Rudy put on the old grin and took a deep breath. Showtime. "Let's go Stares-Into-Night. You can teach me how to make a tree house."

Rudy and Stares-into-Night left the Kitchen.

Priscilla stayed seated at the table, Fear and conscience warring. Fear won.

 

-end-

Jay P Hailey

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