Ponytail Heroes by Melanie Brown (Patreon)

Copyright Melanie Brown © 2023

“The Alliance loves these little hellholes just a little too much,” complained Corporal Perkins for the twenty-seven millionth time. Or almost, anyway.

“Knock it off, Perkins!” I exclaimed. Several of us were gathered in the PX, trying to enjoy lunch. Perkins wouldn’t shut up. “Perkins, you’ve only been on this dirt ball for a week. You’re not allowed to complain until you’ve been here at least a month.”

“Says who, captain?” exclaimed Perkins.

I laughed. “Says me, corporal. The colonel has said the same thing. So knock it off.”

Perkins snorted a growl. “You and Col Sanders? Hell, how do you get out of this chicken outfit?”

Lt. Swanson chuckled, “You got it, Perkins. I know of at least a half dozen new frontier planets that don’t even have breathable atmospheres that are desperate for personnel. After lunch, I’ll turn in your transfer request.”

Suddenly looking terrified, Cpl. Perkins said, “No need to be hasty, lieutenant. I’m just blowin’ off a little steam. Face it, most of these frontier assignments are boring.”

I laughed. “Bored, are we? The courier escort service is always recruiting.” Couriers have vital information holographically imprinted on their brains and are usually instantly marked for death. Their escorts don’t always fair well, either.

Looking defeated, Perkins muttered something I couldn’t understand and went back to reading his device.

Lt. Swanson just looked over at me and grinned as he shook his head. Outbursts like Perkin’s are fairly common on remote frontier worlds like here on G7X-3. The third planet orbiting the star G7X. One day it might get an actual name. Right now, it’s just another dirt ball with rich farmland and potential for colonization. It already has a few farmers living on it. It’s registered with the Alliance, and so here we are. It’s also in disputed space claimed by the Ergon Union.

The Alliance holds its claim with this small outpost with a garrison of two hundred Marines. There’re also a few space-based energy defenses in orbit. That’s it. To defend a whole planet. Perkins is right. These frontier assignments can get pretty boring. They’re too new to have attracted the amenities of civilization. Things like bars and whorehouses. And I guess those other things like schools and markets.

Besides us, the Marines, and the farmers and their families, there’s a third group on the planet that neither the Marines nor the farmers like. A budding civilian government. Their office is currently housed in our facility. But worse than bureaucrats and politicians are the members of the Orgainian Council. They’re an off-branch of humanity and are basically referees between the Ergons and us though they tend to lean towards the Ergon Union. They provide protection for civilian and other non-combatant populations. Sometimes. Everyone on both sides would like to forget about Planet Driscoll.

Lt. Swanson picked up his cup of coffee and moved to my table. “Hey, Cap. Any idea how long the colonel will be inspecting our new orbital station?”

I shrugged. “He didn’t think it would take more than a couple of hours. I expect him back planetside around eighteen hundred.” We were in the process of increasing our observation facilities by creating a triad of essentially permanent deep-space RADAR installations. It would allow us to replace five of the manned probe ships monitoring this sector.

My commlink beeped. “Speak of the devil,” I said as I noted it was Col Sanders calling me. I picked up the commlink and said, “Stewart here.”

“Captain, put the base on full alert!” shouted an excited Col. Sanders. “An Ergon blockade runner just shot through the system, not triggering any of our defense systems!”

“Aye, sir!” I exclaimed. Without waiting for further info, I hit the alert button on my commlink. Alarms sounded across the base.

Someone sitting near Perkins said, “Ah shit. Really?”

Lt. Swanson looked up at me with concern. “What’s up, Cap?”

I frowned at the lieutenant. “An Ergon blockade runner just entered the system without activating any orbiting defenses.”

Lt. Swanson looked at me quizzically. “Blockade runner? What the fuck are they going to do with that? The most personnel they could pack into that thing would be about thirty men.”

As the men were rushing to their duty stations, I shrugged. “Beats me, Swan. The Ergons know we’re fully garrisoned here. Thirty men won’t make a dent.”

With a grimace, Lt. Swanson stood up and said, “Well, let’s go see.”

As soon as I stood up, I was knocked back down as if punched in the gut. There was a bright flash, and we all collapsed.

*  *  *

I felt dizzy and completely disoriented.

“Let me help you up. You’re going to be dizzy for a few moments,” said one of the Orgainian council members. What the hell is he doing inside the base?

“Orgainians!” shouted a gruff voice. I looked around and saw someone wearing an Ergon Union uniform. “Get these children out of our facility now! I’d hate for them to become casualties of war!”

The Orgainian holding my arm to help steady me said, “Please. We must hurry.”

As we stumbled out of the PX, I looked back at the guy in the Ergon uniform and asked, “Who the hell is that asshole?”

As he led me from the room, the Orgainian said, “He’s the new commander of this facility. His name is Captain Volkov.”

I stopped suddenly to turn around. Long strands of dark brown hair fell across my face. “Who the fuck does he… what the fuck is going on here?” I outstretched my arms. I looked around and saw little girls being escorted from the PX by Orgainians. “What the fuck?”

Looking annoyed at me for delaying, the Orgainian said, “Please. Colonel Sanders wants everyone brought to the Johnson Barn immediately.”

I had trouble walking as my feet were too small for my boots. My clothes no longer fit properly. “Will you tell me just what the hell is going on?”

The Orgainian frowned. “Let’s get to the barn first.”

As we exited the base facility, I saw young girls kicking their ill fitting boots off and trying to pull their pants up so they could walk. There were dozens of girls, some by themselves and some helping each other, while others, like me, were being helped by Orgainians.

When we entered the barn, I could see the colonel standing on a makeshift dais. He was looking around, obviously confused. “Is Captain Stewart here? Lt. Swanson? I need my officers up here now!”

I waved, and in a girlish voice, I shouted, “I’m Captain Stewart!” He motioned me towards  him. When I got close to him, I shouted, “What’s going on here, colonel? We’re all girls. Except you.”

Colonel Sanders pointed at a chair. “Sit down, captain. Our base has been captured by approximately thirty Ergon marines. They exploded a new secret weapon that, on detonation, instantly changes males to twelve-year-old girls. Around the age of puberty.”

I looked enviously at the colonel, who stubbornly remained male. “You weren’t affected because you were off-world at the time.”

“That would appear so, captain,” said the colonel. “Do you know where Lt. Swanson is?”

A new girl with flowing blonde hair came running on. “Here I am, colonel!”

The colonel shook his head. “This is catastrophically bad, men. All two hundred of my command and even the male farmers have been changed into little girls! Any ideas, gentlemen, on what our options may be?”

Lt. Swanson shook his head. He said, “We don’t have much time, colonel. I overheard a couple Ergon marines talking. In less than two days, two Ergon troop transports arrive along with a capital ship for protection. Sir, our troop ship, just one, isn’t due to arrive for three days. It’s escorted by two frigates. They may even have managed to recalibrate and program our orbiting defense systems.”

Colonel Sanders sat down, his head in his hands. “Well, shit. We’ve lost this planet. And we can’t warn off the troop ship. They’ll be committing suicide.”

I sat down cross-legged on the dais and played with my hair for a moment. “We need to recapture the base!”

The colonel frowned at me. “With what, captain? They have thirty men. We have three.”

I shook my head. “No, colonel. We have our complete garrison.”

Colonel Sanders laughed without humor. “Yeah. Two hundred little girls.”

I grinned at the colonel. “Yeah. Two hundred little girls. Two hundred fully-trained and battle-hardened little girls!”

The Orgainian jumped up and exclaimed, “No! I forbid this very idea. We will not allow not only civilians, but civilian children to be used in combat! It is our preeminent rule!”

I jumped up to stand next to the Orgainian. I shouted, “We’re soldiers! Our job is to prevent this planet from falling into Ergon Union hands! We have a duty to fulfill!”

The Orgainian said bluntly, “You are civilians now. You have no official duties. You now fall under our protection.”

I poked my finger into his chest. I wish these Orgainians had names. I asked, “Is this official? Have you contacted the Home World?”

The Orgainian frowned. “You know we lost communications when the Ergon forces captured the facility.”

Grinning, I said, “Then we’re not officially discharged. Colonel, we’re running out of time.”

Scowling, the Orgainian said, “Another consideration, my rash young captain. Right now, all of you fall under Orgainian protection by default. If you proceed with this attack, should you fail to defeat the Ergon forces, they can have all of you executed as spies.”

I frowned at the Orgainian. “Even though I have the right by virtue of my rank given to me by the Alliance Space Command, I’ll put it to a vote. Now that they are little girls, they might have changed in their attitude. So, if any one of them decides to not join in the effort to retake the base, those girls will be handed over to the Orgainians for protection. Everyone will be informed of the risk.”

Frowning at me, Colonel Sanders growled. “Have you forgotten your oath, captain? This is not a democracy. They are under your command.”

Feeling tired and much older than my twelve-year-old appearance, I said, “It’s only fair, colonel. The game has changed. I’ll ask them.”

I had the girls gather in a circle around me, and I explained the situation. My heart was very heavy.

*  *  *

After a thirty-minute discussion, going back and forth, I walked slowly back to where the colonel and the Orgainian were waiting.

Arms folded, the Orgainian looked coldly at me and asked, “Well, captain. What did the children decide?”

I looked down at my feet and said, “Not one child volunteered.” The Orgainian smirked at me.  “But two hundred Marines did.”

*  *  *

Naturally, we no longer had access to the base’s computer systems, but all of us knew the facility like the back of our hands. At least we all knew the sections we worked in

Using a stick, we each took turns drawing the site’s floor plan on the barn’s floor. We tried to fly a few of the drones we had outside of the facility, but the Ergons shot them down. So we sent several groups of girls out to play games like hopscotch and jump rope while they observed the site as best they could and reported back. And since we all need to have sewing skills to repair uniforms or to do field sutures, we had set aside a team to take in all our uniforms so they’d fit…at least somewhat. We couldn’t do anything about our boots, so rather than run around barefoot, everyone wrapped their feet in cloth to avoid cuts.

Finally, I called everyone except the observers into the barn so we could work out a plan of attack. I stood next to the drawing on the floor, holding a long stick so I could point without stepping on the drawing itself.

“Marines!” I shouted. “Listen up.” Everyone that could was gathered around the floor plan. “We are quickly running out of time before the Ergons manage to break the codes and get access to the communications and data rooms. We now have less than a day before their reinforcements arrive. It’ll be dark in an hour. Even though we only have possession of one night vision unit, this gives us a tactical advantage. We know the lay of the land, and the Ergons don’t. Another advantage we have, and I hate to use it, is that we’re all little girls. Even the Ergon monsters don’t like shooting kids, so they’ll hesitate on our initial attack. But that hesitation won’t last long.

“Our biggest disadvantage is lack of weapons. We’ll have to pick up dropped weapons as we go. As I’m sure you know, the Ergons use microwave pistols as side arms that are very similar to ours. On the scout ship, the colonel was out in space on when we were attacked by this girl bomb or whatever it was, we have four rail pistols. But we have limited ammo. We also have two satchel charges. We can use one to breach the wall at the side gate. The other we’ll use to breach the telecommunications entrance. The problem with the satchel charges is that they are too heavy for one twelve-year-old girl to carry. I’ll need two volunteers to carry each charge in order to blow the telcom door off its hinges. Then we’ll rush in after the door is breached.”

“Cap? Question,” said one girl raising her hand. I had no idea who she was. Everyone looks different as a little girl.

I nodded toward her. “Make it quick.”

“Why assault the telcom entrance? It’s very narrow there. The main entrance is more open.”

“Good question,” I said. “They’ll expect us to assault the main entrance. Their troops have been living it up in our PX. They don’t eat as well as we do. So there’s a large concentration of enemy forces there. We’re going to feint an attack on the main entrance, and then we’ll breach the wall and blow the door at telcom. It’s just too bad we can’t get heat signatures of troops inside the building. Those rail pistols will penetrate anything.”

I stepped back to survey the room. I said, “It’s almost dark. I’ll need twelve volunteers for the breach teams. The rest of you get with your squad leaders. Sadly, our battle plan is just to rush in after the breach. Rail gun carriers will try to clear the entrance by blindly shooting through the walls. Okay, girls. Let’s get ready. Breach teams on me.”

Lt. Swanson and Cpl. Perkins were the first ones to join me. I looked at Cpl Perkins and asked, “Are you bored yet, girl?”

Perkins grinned and said, “No, sir!” And then, looking a bit worried, Cpl Perkins said, “We’re going to get slaughtered, aren’t we, captain?”

Lt. Swanson shook her head. “You didn’t want to live forever, did you Perkins?”

Shaking her head, Perkins said, “No, sir. But I was at least hoping to make it to my prom.”

I laughed and shouted to the colonel, “Colonel! If we’re successful, you’ll owe Corporal Perkins a dance at her prom!”

Colonel Sanders looked up from inspecting the rail pistols he was removing from the scout ship and said, “If we take back the base, I’ll give her a kiss, too.”

*  *  *

Darkness had finally fallen across the small town. There were no street lights, and the only illumination was from inside the base’s building. In the darkness, my teams scrambled across the main street. I had to smile at the sight of thirty girls with ponytails swishing back and forth. The Ergon’s would send out a four-man patrol every hour to walk the perimeter. It wasn’t really a good idea. I had a team following them to take them out when we launched our attack. I kept most of my force in reserve in case the first attack failed. At least we had secure team-level communications.

After the patrol had passed, I signaled the first breach team to come to the gate. The two girls struggled with the satchel charge. I wished we had had a real breaching device that would actually blow a hole in the wall instead of just a hole in the ground. Using their trenching tools, they quickly dug a pit to bury the charge in by the gate.

In my commlink, I whispered, “Ready Assault Team 1. Assault Team 2 and Breach Team 2 on me. Wait for my mark.” I had hunkered down a safe distance from the gate as my teams assembled behind me. I was using the only pair of night vision goggles we had. I saw the breach team give me a thumbs up and then run to get clear. Thirty seconds to breach.

I took a deep breath. Here’s where I send my teams in to die. In my commlink I said, “Move in Assault Team 1. Rail gunners, try to clear the entrance.” There was a sudden staccato popping of the rail guns firing blindly through the walls. You could hear yelling from inside the base. The assault team opened fire on the Ergons who tried to rush out of the main entrance. Added to the noise of the combat was the distinct hum of the microwave pistols. I heard a girl scream.

The commlink growled, “Patrol neutralized.”

And then the charge detonated, sending the gate into the air in a blinding flash.

Into the commlink, I shouted, “Breach Team Two, go! Go! Assault Team Two on me!”

Lt. Swanson and Cpl Perkins were my second breach team. They struggled with dragging the charge up to the external door outside the communications room. I was hoping it would be an easier breach as the building had a wall-length window. Okay, it was armored glass, but at least it wasn’t a steel-reinforced wall.

Like the other team, Swan and Perkins started to quickly dig a hole to lay the charge into. I ordered the rail gunners on team two to fire over the heads of Swan and Perkins through the glass to take out any Ergons rushing the back wall. One of the Ergons managed to fire his microwave pistol through the glass and struck one of the rail gunners right in her chest. She went down instantly. As I tried to grab the fallen rail gun, an Ergon fired through the glass and hit Swan in the shoulder, knocking her down. She grimaced but got back up and finished digging.

My second rail gunner managed to take down two Ergon Marines just as they both fired. One shot struck Perkins in her leg, shearing it at the knee. The second rail gunner went down. Ergons started filling the hall. This was a really bad place to be.

Perkins picked up the falling rail gun and started popping off rounds through the glass. I fired several more rounds, and then my gun was empty.

“Cap!” shouted Swanson. “We have a problem! The satchel got hit! The timer function doesn’t work.”

I made a few more shots with the microwave pistol I’d picked up. “Well, hell. That means it has to be manually set off.”

Perkins fired off her last round of depleted uranium. She shouted, “Get out of the way, Lt. They shot my leg off. I’ll detonate it.”

Looking like she was in a hell of a lot of pain, Swanson groaned. “I’m already dead. I can’t survive this wound. Get clear, Perkins.” From the direction of the main entrance, I heard another girl scream. I took a few more shots to keep the enemy’s heads down.

Angry, Cpl Perkins shouted, “Fall back to Cap’s position, Swan. I got this.”

Swanson lifted her leg and placed her foot on Perkin’s chest. She shouted, “Go to your prom, Perkins!” With her foot, she shoved Perkins clear. She shouted, “Fire in the hole!” An explosion followed, covering me and the wall with Swanson’s blood and shattered glass, slicing two Ergon marines in two.

I stood there in shock for a moment. Oh my God! Swanson blew herself up! I shook my head and shouted into the commlink, “Assault Team Two! Let’s move!”

The first girl through the new opening took a hit and went down. I dropped two Ergon marines with the microwave pistol. At this point, the Ergons were outnumbered and outgunned, but none surrendered. We pushed on from both ends of the complex.

Over the commlink came cries, “Telcomm clear!”, “Main Entrance Clear!”, “PX clear!”, “Barracks clear!” Finally, the voice of Colonel Sanders said calmly, “Building secure.”

I sighed and fell to the floor, leaning against a wall. Into the commlink, I said, “All teams stand down. Repeat. All teams stand down.”

The Colonel came running down the hall towards me. He held out his hand to help me up. “Come on, Cap. We have to re-activate and re-program our orbital defenses!”

I sighed heavily as I was lifted to my feet. “Yes, sir.”

As we rushed into the telecommunications and weapons control room we saw evidence of a firefight, but no systems damaged. The Ergon must have finally figured out how to bypass the security, but they were too late.

The colonel started flipping switches and punching buttons. “Come on, Stewart. Let’s get these systems back online.”

I looked up at the now operational status monitor. “Ah shit, Colonel! The Ergon fleet has already breached the heliopause. They’ll be making orbit around G7X-3 less than fifteen minutes from now.” The fleet that the Ergons were bringing in were two troop transport ships similar to ours, each carrying two hundred marines along with a capital ship in order to secure this mud ball to the Ergon Union.

Colonel Sanders, looking grim, said, “Not anymore.” He flipped a row of switches and pressed a large button. Several status lights switched from red to green.

Text began to scroll across the status monitor. “WEAPON SYSTEM CHARGING: 10%”, “TARGET AQUIRED: LOCKED, TARGET AQUIRED: LOCK, TARGET AQUIRED: LOCK WILL FIRE AT 120% CHARGE”,

Sweat trickled down my brow. “Less than one AU and closing. Charge is at fifty percent.”

Colonel Sanders didn’t take his eyes off the status monitor. He said, “Order your troops to take up defensive positions.”

I looked over at the colonel. “Sir! Even if we hadn’t changed, we can’t defend against four hundred marines! That capital ship probably has a squadron of tanks they’ll bring down!”

Not taking his eyes from the status monitor, the colonel said calmly, “Order it, captain.”

Nodding, I said as sharply as I could in my little girl's voice, “Yes, sir!”

As I called the order over my commlink, the status monitor reported the charge at ninety-five percent.

The colonel looked over at me. “Cap, can we manually override the system and force it to fire at one hundred percent?”

I nodded. “Yes, sir. It just might not be as effective as the overloaded charge.”

Returning his attention to the status monitor, the colonel said, “Fire at one hundred percent.”

I wiped the sweat from my face. “Sir. The weapon won’t be as effective…”

He looked down at me. We used to be roughly the same height. Now he towered over me. Again I nodded. “Yes, sir.” I flipped the cap up to expose the manual override button. I watched the power meter click up.

At one hundred percent, I punched the button. All the orbital weapons systems fired at once on their locked targets. System charge dropped to forty-five percent.

Target 1: Destroyed

Target 2: Destoryed

Target 3: Critically damaged…Destroyed

Maybe it was because I’m now a little girl. Or maybe it’s the realization of the loss of my friend Swanson or even the confirmation of seventeen deaths of the thirty-five casualties of our garrison. Not sure what it was, but the thought that twelve hundred men just died instantly by my hand couldn’t stop the trickle of a tear down my cheek. This is why we automate these things. So no one can point a finger and say YOU!” Yes, given the chance, the Ergons would have done the same to us. Still…

Colonel Sanders grinned broadly and reached over to ruffle my hair. “Excellent work today, captain. Outstanding!”

In silence, I just stared at the control panel. The recharge cycle had already started and was going much faster than when the system was dead cold and fully discharged.

My eyes rimmed with tears, I said in a tiny voice. “Colonel, I can’t do this anymore.”

The colonel turned to look at me. His expression softened. After a moment of hesitation, he reached down and touched my cheek, wiping away a tear. He nodded and said in an uncharacteristic soft voice, “I understand completely, captain. You won’t be asked to do so again.”

Three days later, our ships arrived. Instead of enhancing our presence on the planet, they merely replaced it. Our fallen would be returning to Home World in a few days in seventeen flag-draped containers. The container for Lt. Swanson was empty since she had been vaporized. The containers were sealed, so no one would see the dead little girl inside.

Colonel Sanders, myself and the Orgainian stood by the pallet of the containers prior to being loaded onto an Alliance ship. Grimly, we saluted our fallen. Using real instruments, they played taps. It was an interesting sight. The colonel in full dress uniform. I, along with the other officers, were wearing pretty dresses provided by the Orgainian orphanage. The Orgainian? Who the hell cares?

Colonel Sanders, said, “Dismissed!” Everyone started walking slowly away. All us girls would soon be discharged from service and handed over to the Orgianian orphanage.

I lingered for a moment, staring at the containers, wondering how I could have done things differently. The Orgainian remained standing next to me.

The Orgainian started, “Well, Miss Stewart…”

I scowled at the Orgainian. “I haven’t been discharged yet.”

The Orgainian inclined his head towards me. “My apologies, captain. As I was going to say, Captain Stewart, was the loss of all these precious young girls’ lives worth your victory?”

I wanted to punch the Orgainian. Not looking at him, I said, “They’re Marines. They didn’t die for me, or this mud ball, or even the Alliance. They died for the Corp, their brothers and for their honor.”

The Orginian shrugged. “Pretty words, captain.”

I turned to look him square in the eye. “Those are things you will never understand or possess.”

The Ergon Union was forced to pay Planet G7X-3 restitution for their use of an illegal weapon. The one that turns us all into little girls.

*  *  *

“That’s a beautiful dress!” I exclaimed to Roxanne Armentrout, who at one time had the last name of Perkins.

Roxxy grinned back at me. “Yours’ too! Can you believe it, Steph we finally made it to prom?” It had been five years since our desperate battle with Ergon over our little base. We had both stayed on the planet and got adopted by the new local farmers. We were not allowed to talk about our previous existence as Marines, so we became farm girls and had to return to school. We both had boyfriends and were attending our high school prom. A different life from being in combat.

While my boyfriend was getting me some punch, I watched Roxxy dance with her boyfriend.  I shook my head in amazement. With modern medicine, you could never tell her leg was a prosthetic.

A half-hour into our prom, we were all taking a break from dancing to chat with friends. One of our friends pointed in the direction of the ballroom entrance. “What’s a Marine doing here?”

While hostilities still officially existed, the war with the Ergon Union had mostly settled down to border skirmishes. You’d think after twenty-five years of war, everyone would be tired.

I watched the Marine talk for a few moments with the people at the reception table. They pointed in our general direction. The Marine nodded and headed towards us.

I poked Roxxy in her side. “Hey look. That can’t possibly be Colonel…um, now General Sanders can it?”

Roxxy’s eyes grew wide. “Oh, my God! It is!” She stood up and walked towards him. I stood up to follow her.

We all stopped and faced each other. And even though as civilians, we’re not supposed to salute an officer, we both snapped to attention in our high heels and saluted.

General Sanders grinned and returned our salute. “As you were.” We both relaxed our stance.

Still smiling, the general said, “Ladies, I’m here on official business. Some things got neglected in all the confusion. For starters, I owe this lovely young woman a dance….”

Interrupting, I grinned, “And a kiss!”

Sanders nodded toward me. “And a kiss.” He pointed at me. “And don’t you run off, either.” Sanders was holding a few items. Our boyfriends sat silently, gawking at us.

Sanders said, “Miss Armentrout, one thing I need to take care of is to belatedly hand you these. Your dress doesn’t count as a uniform to pin these on. Prior to being discharged, you were promoted to the rank of 2nd Lieutenant.”

I stepped up to Roxxy’s side. “Congratulations, girl!”

The general held up something else. “I can pin this to your dress, if I may?”

Grinning, Roxxy said, “Pin away, sir.”

General Sanders held up what looked like a medal. As he pinned it to Roxxy’s dress, he said, “For conspicuous gallantry above and beyond the call of duty, I present to Roxanne Armentrout the highest military award the Alliance can to recognize acts of valor, the Alliance Medal of Honor.” General Sanders took a step back and saluted Roxxy, who snapped her heels together and returned the salute.

One of our friends asked Roxxy’s boyfriend, “Dude! That’s a Medal of Honor! It’s got an Ergon campaign ribbon and a Johnson’s Planet Service ribbon!” Our lovely little planet was renamed Johnson’s Planet a few years ago.

Another friend said in hushed tones, “Is that for her dad? She is an orphan you know.”

I looked over at our friends and said, “Roxxy earned that medal when she was twelve. What were you doing at twelve?”

One of the boys shook his head. “Horse shit! She was feeding chickens at twelve!”

Her boyfriend said in awed tones, “I’m dating a national hero!”

The general smiled at Roxxy and bent over, and kissed her cheek. He said, “I promised you five years ago, Miss Armentrout, that if we survived the day, I’d dance with you at your prom. I came all the way from Home World to keep my promise. May I have this dance, Miss?”

Roxxy threw her arms around the general and said, “Yes, sir!”

Sanders looked over at me and said, “Don’t worry, colonel. I’ll dance with you next.”

Roxxy gave me a shocked expression. “They made you a colonel?”

I laughed. “Up where the eagles fly. We’ll talk about it later.”

As I watched the general take Roxxy out on the dance floor, my boyfriend leaned close to me and ask, “What the hell is all this about?”

I gave him a kiss. “It’s nothing. Just girl stuff.”

Two hundred girls’ stuff.

I kissed him again.

The End