And I want to make the Lieutenant proud

From The Lieutenant Wouldn’t Like It by Sarah Hoyt.

Recently I was talking to a friend, a fellow “child of Heinlein” who has suffered a pretty significant setback, and I told him “you’re not giving up, are you? The Lieutenant wouldn’t like that.” No more need be said.

The phrase comes from Starship Troopers. The Lieutenant who gave the name to Rasczak's Roughnecks (and the reason my fans call themselves Hoyt’s Huns) dies in battle, rescuing two wounded soldiers.

For a good long while, Sergeant “Jelly” Jelal continues running the Roughnecks, treating the situation as though the Lieutenant has merely stepped away and will eventually be back. And the way he shoots down bad ideas is “The Lieutenant wouldn’t like that.” Nothing more need be said.

Heinlein’s final rank in the navy was Lieutenant.

And those of us whom he influenced, all also pretty much behave as though he just stepped away and will eventually come back. Impossible not to believe it of that outsized a personality.

When it seems like I’m even failing at achieving that “entertaining” level in my fiction; when I get tired and disgusted by the mess my field is; when I run up against “we have to take care of this planet, and why would we invade other worlds” or “we have to learn to live with less” it would be so easy to give up.

But the Lieutenant wouldn’t like that.

And so I pick myself up and try again.

Because somewhere, out there, in the future, is space travel, space colonies, new inventions, and limitless possibilities. Time and space enough for love for all of us. For me, for my children, for the human race.

And I want to make the Lieutenant proud.