Lady Celestial Stars wonderful story

Part 191

: Star Captain is Chosen!Chapter Text

Lionus sat rigidly in the ornate wooden chair as he waited for Chief Hawkeye to return from where it was that the man walked off to before their meeting. He was called to the Chief's office immediately after he had received the medical report from Nicodemus about Viper and Wildfire, who had gotten sick beside his healing pod. Viper was still in critical condition, but there was a strong chance that he would recover. That was not the reason that this emergency meeting was called.

Wildfire was pregnant, and Viper was the father.

Lionus knew of that before the report came to the Chief's desk, they were in his Company after all, but that was not the only reason that he was sitting in the Chief's office. The main fact that had brought Lionus there was that it was a vampire and human love affair.

Racism and prejudice was not exempt from even the Rangers, there were some Rangers that refused to work with certain kinds of Rangers. Now if they were not their Squad or Company leaders than their personal preferences meant nothing and they most likely had to work with those they did not want to, and would have to accept it.

When it came to the affairs of the heart, (such as same sex, or inter-humanoid species or perhaps even both) quite a few Rangers that did not seem to be prejudice towards anything would suddenly denounce any sort of support and would be quite vocal on where they stood on the issue. Some would start bringing their religion of choice into the debate and while a few spoke with good intentions, there were others...that did not.

Quite a few Rangers had found love in the strangest of places and had given form to families, but that did not stop violence from happening to the pair of star-crossed lovers. Granted, the assailants were immediately punished by dismissal and possibly imprisonment in Hell's Garden, but that did not stop all of them. Once a Captain took on at least one of the couples and offered their support aloud to the Rangers, the attacks would continue, only on a much smaller scale. For example, simple snubbing, rude behavior during a rest period or the spreading of vicious rumors.

Lionus, Wildfire, and Viper had been content with keeping the affair on the quiet side, just to avoid any hostility, but with Nicodemus following protocol...and not knowing that it was a secret, (the man had the uncanny ability to know almost anything about anybody in the entire Ranger organization) told the Chief.

The pregnancy was not the only thing that Nicodemus told the Chief about, Viper and Wildfire had also gotten married, as he had seen the wedding rings...which were in a very unorthodox place, secured fast to a secret weapon's holster. Now while normal people could elope if it suited them, Rangers had to send in the necessary paperwork in order for them to even contemplate getting married. Then it was necessary for them both to meet a Ranger psychiatrist and see if they were mentally compatible, (As marriages were a one shot thing in the Ranger and you were married for life whether you continued to love each other or not. No one wanted to deal with the alimony or child custody headaches) after that they were given the green light to get married.

After Wildfire and Viper had passionately (it was quite shocking to see Viper have any sort of passion other than an "anger" filled passion) declared that they would find a way to get married with or without the Ranger's approval, Lionus smoothed the way for them to get married and had even acted as Best Man for Viper.

Lionus had taken quite a few liberties in the quiet support of his two lieutenants, while he could easily bring them out as a married couple and declare his support...perhaps it was better if this was held quietly, as there was no Star Captain decided yet and the wrong person in that position could cause the new couple quite a bit of problems.