He had of course been careful, straddling the line between too much aggression on the one hand which would have frightened her (that was why he had pi...ked the library where she knew inwardly she could stop what was happening at any moment ) and her need for him to be the aggressor (she might be frustrated, but with her upbringing she simply could never bring herself to make the first move, thus she could assuage her conscience by telling herself he had "forced" himself on her). So he had. I have watched you sleep many many nights since we first got together, you had always looked happy, secure and satisfied, a glow on your cheeks accentuating your beautifully red lips, that night was no different. I left you to sleep, I cleaned up the kitchen, threw out the dinner and washed up. I fell asleep watching some dodgy horror flick on the telly with a bottle of whiskey for company. Yes I was hungover when you came down in the morning, yes you were polite when you opened your presents,. She was dancing with this big guy and between dances I could tell she was knocking the drinks back too. Perhaps they had a bust up, who knows and who cares but when I found her flat out drunk in the hallway, I just couldn't leave her lying there, now could I."You ok?" I said as I bent low and whispered in her ear.She mumbled something I couldn't understand."Come on, love," I said taking her under the arms and lifted her to her feet. "What you need is some fresh air."I half carried her outside. Weather cameras, communications repeaters, weapons platforms, all gone. On the other hand, when the surviving Confederacy ships had recovered from the attack, they had eliminated all remaining alien ships and promptly replaced all our satellites with new ones that worked better than the originals. A satellite linkup would be far clearer than a land-line.I picked up the phone and heard Rani's voice saying "General Rasmussen is on the line now. Thank you for holding." My brother, this is General.