"Frankowski,.Leo.-.Tank.3.-.Kren.Of.The.Mitchegai" - читать интересную книгу автора (Frankowski Leo)

Something very expensive.

When what was left of my battalion got home, there wasn't anyone
waiting for us. Military receiver stations aren't set up to handle
crowds; the few operable transmitters on Earth's wrecked Solar
Station took four days to get those of us who had survived back
home, and that's a long time to keep a brass band going. Anyway,
all we really wanted was a long sleep in a real bed. The parades
and awards could come later.

The War With Earth was over, and the good guys, those of us from
the colonies, had won. My unit was the only one to take really
serious casualties; I was the commander, and so somehow in the
public imagination that made me a hero. A strange way of looking
at things, praising the guy who had done his job the worst, but it
has always been that way. Maybe the psychology of it all is that, "If
it cost us that much, it must have been important."

I left orders that all of my men, mostly Gurkha mercenaries, were
to go on R & R for an indefinite period. They could do whatever
they wanted to do, provided that they kept in touch.

For myself, all I wanted was to go home to my wife.

When the elevator got me from my garage up to my apartment, I
found my Kasia standing there wearing nothing but a glorious
smile. She was on maternity leave, and three months pregnant, but
it didn't show, except that she looked even more beautiful than
ever.

"You lived," she said. "Thank you."

She kissed me, and the war, the deaths, and all of the ugliness was
somehow worth it. I picked her up, stepped back into the elevator,
and then carried her over the threshold once more, just as when
we had first been married, and the other times when I had come
home victorious.

She squealed in her usual way, and I said, "Family traditions must
be upheld, once per victory!"

And then, I carried her to the bedroom.

After a wonderful night, we rolled out of bed at the crack of noon,
and we went to the kitchen looking for something to eat.

Our servants, military combat drones decorated to look like
medieval knights, and operated by the artificial intelligences in our
tanks, had anticipated us. They had a fine spread set out for us.
We had everything from smoked salmon that I had caught on our