Light streamed in through the open window and past the gently rocking gauzy curtains. Martha Vir stood at the sink absently washing dishes and watching the sunlight glitter across the wet grass of her front yard. It smelled like summer.

The screen door at the front of the house opened, and then crashed closed almost violently making her jump and spill soapy dishwater all down her front. "Shoot." She muttered drying her hands and turning her head towards the door, "Adam?" She wondered, but all she saw was a discarded backpack by the door.

She set the dishrag down on the counter and moved back into the house peering past the doorframe and into the last room on the left.

The small, skinny, blond boy wearing tan shorts and a black T-shirt lay flat on his bed face in his arms. His oversized sneakers hung over the side of the bed. His shoulders shook softly.

Inside she felt a twinge of anger knowing what this might be about, but she kept her composure and sat down next to him resting a hand on his back, "Adam, sweetheart what's wrong." He didn't answer immediately, but he never did, so she waited. Adam never liked showing emotion in front of anyone, so it would take him a minute to calm down enough for him to speak. She looked around the room, at the Star-Wars, Star Trek, Alien, Predator, Battle LA, Interstellar, and a multitude of other posters new and VERY old covering the walls. A big white telescope pointed out the window, and a big-headed stuffed little green alien sat slumped on the bed.

Eventually a mumbled voice.

"What was that?"

The boy sat up angrily chest heaving with the occasional after-sob. He turned his head away quickly, but his big-green eyes were wide with tears. "I-I don't w-want to g....go to school a-anymore."

"Those other kids being mean to you again."

A slight nod, "They s-said I'm stupid b-because aliens aren't real. I t-tried to explain how b-big the universe is and s-so their m-must be aliens but, but they just wouldn't listen,"

Martha shrugged, "So, Guess this just means you'll have to prove them wrong."

***

"If I start taking classes early, and then graduate, I can have my Bachelors in Aviation. Plus Staff Sergeant Jackson said that if I join the ROTC program, the army will PAY for everting, and I might be able to get my pilot's license." The lanky teen bounced on the balls of his feet scruffy blond hair bouncing with him, she very much wished he would cut it. The way he had it now made him look like a boy band reject. "And then if I become a fighter pilot, they'll have to let me into the Space Corpse."

Across the room Thomas snorted from where he sat watching TV, "Good luck with that little bro. You gotta pass a PT test to join the army, and you get blown over in a strong wind."

A loud SMACK, and Thomas yelped, "Shut up, Adam can do whatever he wants." David grinned at him from across the room, "Go for it kid, you'll do great."

Martha Smiled David and turned to Adam again, "David's right Adam, we believe in you, and if this is what you really want than we have no doubt you can do it." She glanced at her second youngest son, "Even Thomas."

***

"I Adam Allen Vir having been appointed a Lieutenant in the United Nations Space Corpse, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend planet Earth against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office upon which I am about to enter."

Martha Vir felt her eyes fill with tears, which she wiped quickly on her sleeve. Her boy stood tall in his sharp black uniform, white gloves, belt and cap. When had he gotten so big! About 6. 2 and 180 pounds he had really come into his own, and that serious face. She watched as the other young men and women took the oath as well before the ceremony broke, and she watched that same characteristic smile split the young man's face. He waded through the crowd pulling off his cap and hugging her as she hugged him back.

Tears in her eyes she straightened out his uniform as his father and brothers swarmed them clapping him on the back.

"I'm proud of you." she whispered quietly

***

She thought she was going to be sick watching as the jet roared over the staging ground one taking right the other veering left, and the last one tipping into a stomach churning vertical climb spinning upside down and then plunging towards the ground with a distant roar She covered her eyes.

I'll be in that middle one.

At her side, her husband cheered with all the strength he had in his lugs, clapping and whooping like a madman as if their son wasn't piloting that 30 million dollar flying metal death trap. Her daughter and her oldest son stood close by keeping her granddaughter, Kimber, entertained in the hot afternoon sun.

She was relieved standing on the tarmac watching as the fighter-jets powered down, and their occupants stepped down from the cockpits. Adam came down the ladder wearing his jumpsuit, oxygen mask hanging off to the side under his helmet. Upon seeing them, he came jogging up pulling off his helmet to hang under his arm.

"Seven Gs!" He chimed enthusiastically, "Better than any rollercoaster ever." He was grinning in that way he did only when super excited about something, and why shouldn't he be?

She put a hand to her head, "Don't sound so excited about being close to death, Adam, it worries me."

He laughed walked over and hugged her, "Sorry mom.... but.... I didn't just call you here to see my fly."

Jeremy stepped forward, still holding Kimber, "Yeah, woo wanted us to see the Enterprise launch."

"Well yeah..... I, because I got onto the crew. I'm going with them."

And she had to watch him go..... Knowing that he might never come back, but she kept quiet. If he did vanish, he would do so doing what he always wanted.

***

She still remembered the day she got the call, before the news outlets, before the neighbors, after the government. It was full of static, barely audible, but she would have known her son's voice anywhere. "Mom-we-found-them! I-found-them....."

She felt her body go cold and warm and then just shock.

He actually did it. They actually did it.

***

She got updates from him regularly, from all across the universe. It felt surreal, but then the pictures started showing up. The crew of the Enterprise standing on an alien planet taking selfies with..... with CREATURES, Adam always in the middle with a thumbs up for her and a big grin.

***

And then a video call. A video chat of her boy sitting there wide green eyes staring solemnly into the camera.

"The Galactic Assembly has asked Earth to offer some assistance with an upcoming conflict. The Drev made contact about the same time we did, but they are warlike, they are dangerous, and they could potentially bring the Galactic Assembly to its knees, if we don't help.... There's nothing else to do. "He shifted nervously in his seat, "We are heading out tomorrow..... I really don't want any of you to worry, but, the ash clouds will be too dangerous for our jets, so they are putting me in with the infantry. The captain said my unit would probably be well back from the main fighting, so, it should be ok.... I love you guys, stay safe."

And then they lost contact. She kept her eyes closely on the news looking for any clue as to the infantry divisions and the positions watching as the red dots changed weak by weak, and then watching as her son's position was supposedly overrun.

She remembered talk of the Steel-eye division, but still no contact.

She remembered when they won, and she remembered when they received the call, to pick up their son because he was coming home.

***

She remembered watching him limp from the terminal doors on crutches..... and a metal rod instead of a leg. Her heart had frozen. She looked into his face and saw the emptiness in his wide green eyes. The wonder, the joy, the fun snuffed out like a candle. All she saw was emptiness, and pain. He had been hurt, betrayed by the one thing he had most loved.

She had never understood what hatred was.

They had cried together that first night, and for the first time in almost a year she held him in her arms, and then.... Nothing. He wouldn't let her touch him, he wouldn't talk, he lost weight, and he gave up on living trapped in a continual state of fear, paranoia and emotionless apathy.

She had never understood hate, until she knelt outside his door , tearstained, desperate hoping and begging that he would be alive come morning. Pleading that he would just unlock the door, just let them in.

She had never understood hate until she watched him struggle from the hole those alien bastards had put him in dragged from his misery by a real good girl, an angel with four legs. She watched the spark come back, watched him smile for the first time in months, watched him gain back the weight, watch him run for the first time on the shiny new prosthetic, and she had cried when he made his decision to return to the stars.

And despite all his recovery, his promotion, the christening of his own starship, and his first voyage as captain, she never totally forgot the hatred that she felt on that day, let it burrow inside her and fester.

When he brought home the little Doctor alien, Krill, she had been so relieved. Finally someone sensible, logical, with enough fear to keep her son in check, someone who might be able to take care of him. An alien friend that was safe, that would make him smile.

***

And so she sat, harboring that hatred from so long ago as she stared out the open back door and into the night. Watching as that THING sat with her son. The thing that called itself Sunny, a cute happy little name like it wasn't a war machine, the killer that had stolen her boy from her, stolen pieces of him.

The creature lay on her back gazing at the stars as her boy walked up nudging her arm with a foot Krill trailing behind in a warm June night, "Come on, Sunny, make some room. Least you can do is give me a pillow for an hour."

She felt her blood go cold as the creature moved an arm, and her boy made himself comfortable in the cook of its arm. The same arm that had caused him so much pain not so many years ago, her like she was a pillow.

"See that Sunny, Pretty sure your planet's in that system if I have my astronomy correct." The creature hummed as if in pleasure.

A soft set of footsteps behind her, arms around her, and the soft voice of her husband, a man who never spoke, "You need to let it go. Can't you see what you'll do to him if you don't?"

The empty green eyes stared into her soul from the past.

"I don't know how."