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Issue Number 30
He is there for a few frames and then he is gone. Sometimes he is by her side, a sturdy support before the cameras zoom in and the sound comes up. Other times he is in the background, a watchful presence willing her safe and sound, ready to trade his life for hers in a heartbeat. Those who have only seen the public face of Jack Armstrong can never truly know the man that gives Our Hope his heart's own strength to carry on.
Most of Regina knows that Jack Armstrong followed Corina Ling-Raleigh out of the safe corporate world that he had been raised in to eventually stand at her side. Few people know how hard that choice was to this most loyal of men, this man who knows Regina comes first in the heart of the woman he loves.
His story starts years ago with his parents on Glisten. Jack was a stand out student throughout his school years in the demanding Ling Standard educational system. By the time Jack Armstrong had graduated from Ling Melon University he had impressed his teachers enough to have recommendations to every division of Ling Standard. Jack followed his father and grandmother into the hard edged world of corporate security. Glisten was exciting but even then Regina Subsector was where the action was, and young Jack followed adventure's call.
For several years Jack fought pirates and corsairs along the borders of Ling Standard's trade routes. One day a corsair piloted by the notorious Kharlohz Garvorr crossed the path of the freighter Michelle Ling-Paxton. When the last shot was fired Kharlohz Garvorr was floating in space without his vacc suit helmet and the last living Security Specialist, Jack Armstrong, had half a dozen wounds serious enough to warrant two years of rehabilitation therapies.
After Jack had been certified for duty he volunteered for the elite Executive Protection Detail where he met Margaret Hollis. Jack's friends from this time describe Margaret as a strong-willed, dedicated woman who came from a long line of Ling Standard employees. They were married in 1119 but often had competing schedules. They were in love and made the most of their brief times together.
One year later Margaret Armstrong gave her life to protect the Director of Ling Standard, Spinward Marches Region when a planetary based terrorist group tried to kidnap Milton Ling-Paxton. After the large funeral Jack Armstrong placed his wedding ring on his right ring finger and volunteered for the most dangerous of the high risk protection assignments in Ling Standard. The new Regina Director, Corina Ling-Raleigh, was his assignment. Rumor at the time was that her protective detail could consider ninety days the rest of their life because the situation was so unstable. The rest is history.
Now we see him rarely, in the corner, behind her on the dais. All of Regina can feel safer knowing he watches over Our Hope, ready to trade in an instant his life for hers. But let us pray it never comes to that for this most loyal man, for without him, his strength and his gentle, sad blue eyes, would Our Hope wish to live on?