Valkyrie's Daughter (The Lunar Free State Book 3) by John E. Siers

Author:John E. Siers [Siers, John E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Theogony Books
Published: 2021-10-07T16:00:00+00:00

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Chapter Eight

Earthlight Restaurant—TerraNova City, Luna

Earthlight boasted a domed view of a breathtaking Lunar landscape and a black sky full of stars. At the moment, it was Full Earth—the middle of the two-week Lunar night for the LFS capital city—and the landscape was mostly dark, illuminated only by the soft glow from which the restaurant took its name, but Earth was bright in the sky, dominating the view with its cloud-wrapped blue, green, and brown features.

Unfortunately, Carla was not in the proper frame of mind to appreciate the view or the elegant setting of the restaurant. She was nervous, had been so ever since her mother had invited her—summoned her—to this dinner meeting. She had brought Bjorn along, hoping his presence might moderate any mother-daughter discussions. She decided her instincts were correct when she discovered her mother had reserved one of the private dining rooms along the dome’s upper balcony. Her nervousness escalated another notch when she noted the armed Marine sentry at the door of the compartment and the green secured indicator glowing on the door panel.

Earthlight often catered to high-level meetings for LFS officials, fleet officers, and commercial executives. The private dining rooms were equipped with security systems that prevented electronic snooping. Any of the restaurant staff who needed to enter would press a touchpad next to the door and wait several seconds for the door to open. Doing so caused a chime to sound inside the room, letting the diners know someone was about to enter.

The restaurant didn’t usually secure the room that way. Such arrangements had to be requested by the person making the reservation, and Carla was pretty sure she knew why her mother had done so. Bjorn, on the other hand, wasn’t as knowledgeable about such things as his Luna-born wife and didn’t seem to notice anything out of the ordinary. He was used to seeing his mother-in-law surrounded by Marines, so he didn’t comment about the guard at the door.

When they entered the room, Lorna greeted them with a smile that was cordial but did not seem to have much humor behind it. Carla had seen that smile before. Uh oh, it’s going to be a prayer meeting, she decided. She’s going to speak, and I’m going to pray. In her youth, she’d been amused by Aunt Ronnie Bartley’s description of that form of Marine Corps counseling, but after she’d experienced it once or twice, she’d found it far less amusing.

The waiter took their drink and dinner orders, then returned almost immediately to serve the drinks. He exited hastily, and the security light on the door barely turned green when Lorna cut to the chase.

“So, not even three months married, and you’re planning to go off on an interstellar expedition without your husband. I’m sure he’s thrilled about that.”

“We talked about it,” Carla replied, watching Bjorn’s reaction. “It’s a unique opportunity for me, but he has his own responsibilities, starting a new position and all.”

She hoped her mother wouldn’t notice the beads of sweat she was sure had appeared on her forehead.

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