by Ricky Sides
Pol nodded his agreement with the plan and said, “Of course, Jim. I’ll see to the drone at once.”
“He would need water, and he knows he can eat watercress, minnows, and crawfish. I think he’d head there in view of our recent activities centered on using streams for survival purposes. That would be freshest in his mind. Most likely, he’d set up a shelter of sorts near that water source.”
“I’ll have us there in minutes,” Tim said from his position at the pilot’s seat.
“I’ll be in the cargo bay getting ready to go in on foot,” Jim stated.
“Stop by the infirmary. Maggie wants to treat your wounds,” Pete stated. He added, “I’m going too. I’ll see the lieutenant and have him get ready to set up a perimeter guard and get a couple of the boys to go with us.”
The cook rushed into the control room with a cart of sandwiches and coffee before the men could leave. “The rest of the crew has already been served. You should eat something and have the coffee to clear your minds for the search,” the cook explained.
Gratefully, they took a sandwich and a cup of coffee with them as they made their way through the ship. Pete paused with Jim just outside the door to the infirmary. “Jim, Maggie and I want you to know that we are devastated by this tragedy. If there’s anything we can do, anything at all, please don’t hesitate to call on us,” Pete said.
“There is one thing, Pete,” Jim replied.
“You just name it, it will be done,” Pete reassured Jim.
“You need to take command of the ship for a while. I’m not fit for duty yet. I need a little time to adjust to the loss of Lacey,” Jim said, his voice breaking as he said her name.
“Of course you do, Jim,” responded Pete. “Anyone would, under these circumstances. You just say the word when you’re ready to transfer command back to you. Until then, I’ll take over,” Pete said reasonably.
“That’s a load off my mind. Thanks, Pete. Tell the guys that I’ll be there in a few minutes. I may need a stitch or two in this head wound. I definitely need an aspirin,” Jim said.
“I’ll see to the details, and then I’ll see you in the cargo bay,” Pete responded.
In the infirmary Maggie reiterated Pete’s offer of assistance should he need any, and then she examined the bullet impact zones. The doctor winced. “I can’t be sure without x-rays, but I’d bet you have a broken rib here,” she said and touched the spot.
Grunting in pain, Jim said, “It may be broken. It hurts enough, that’s for certain.”
“Well, there isn’t much I can do for that wound, other than tell you to take it easy for a few weeks. Would it do any good for me to make that suggestion?” she asked.
Jim just looked at her without answering. “That’s what I thought,” Maggie said with a smile.
Then Maggie examined the head wound. “What did you hit with your head?” she asked.
“I think it was a rock embedded in the ground,” Jim answered.
“It needs stitches, but I assume you’re leading a rescue party immediately, so we can do that in the morning. But we need to handle it early or it’ll be too late. I’ll just bandage it for now,” Maggie said.
“Can you give me something for the headache?” he asked.
“You still have a headache? Jim, this wound is several hours old. The headache should have passed by now. Do you have a ringing in your ears?”
“Well, now that you mention it, yes I do,” he responded.
“Dizziness?” she asked.
“When I first woke up, but that passed in minutes.”
“Nausea?” she continued to probe for symptoms.
“Like the dizziness, but it passed too. Why, Doc?” Jim asked.
“Jim, you have a concussion. It’s not uncommon in head wounds,” she explained.
“Concussion or no concussion, I’m going after Evan, Maggie,” he said pointedly.
“I’d never try to dissuade you. Just be careful. You go find him, but then I want to see the both of you in my infirmary for treatment, if needed,” she said.
Pulling off her latex gloves Maggie tossed them into a waste container and looked Jim in the eyes. She said, “I’ve known you for years, Jim. I think I know how your mind works. What that man said about you failing Lacey would bother you. Therefore, what I’m going to tell you now is something I think you should know for your own mental wellbeing. As a doctor, I know what I’m talking about in this matter. It’s amazing to me that you woke up from that wound as quickly as you did. There is no way in hell, you could have gotten up after that blow to the head and fought off multiple attackers.”
“Thank you, Maggie, but that failure is something I’ll have to live with the rest of my life,” Jim said soberly.
“You’re so stubborn. You’re just like Pete. You demand so much more of yourself than you do of any man under your command. Let me ask you this, Jim Wilison. Would you fault any of your men when they couldn’t get up from such a wound? I don’t recall you faulting Lieutenant Wilcox, the day the base was attacked, and one of his men died because he was unconscious.”
“That wasn’t his fault, Maggie, and you know it!” Jim said angrily. Then he stopped and gave a halfhearted smile.
“I think I’ve made my point. Good luck finding Evan,” Maggie said and hugged him. “Lisa is frantic you know. I think she may be suffering a case of young love. Those crushes at that age are killer hard on a young girl.”
“I had no idea,” Jim said.
Maggie laughed and said the first thing that popped into her mind when she responded, “The father’s always the last to know.”
Jim’s eyes clouded up and his lower lip quivered as he stood up to leave. “Oh Jim, I’m so sorry,” Maggie said.
“I know,” Jim said and looked down at the deck. “This is just so damned hard. And it isn’t fair,” Jim said.
Maggie hugged him again, “You go find Evan. We’ll help you through this. I promise,” Maggie reassured him.
When Jim softly closed the infirmary room door, Maggie said, “Oh, way to go, Maggie. You couldn’t have possibly said anything more insensitive.”
She sat down and cried then, because Jim was right. It wasn’t fair. Lacey had been too good a person to have her life ripped away in the manner that she had died. Yet if there was one thing that Maggie had learned in her years of medical practice, it was that life wasn’t fair.
***
Pol flew his drone carefully along the trail looking for any sign of Evan. When he came to the stream, he hovered there and slowly spun the drone on its axis as he scanned the area with the infrared camera. When he completed the circuit he decided to fly to the opposite bank, stop, and repeat the procedure. Again, he saw nothing.
He decided he would move the drone about ten feet on each search. That was enough to change his perspective by shifting the angles. Such a search would reveal things that may have been obstructed by intervening objects in the last search.
***
Evan awoke to a noise outside his shelter. He lay there quietly, listening in an effort to determine what had awakened him, just as he had learned to do from one of the survival books Pete had given him.
At first, he didn’t hear anything, but then he felt the tree shake and heard a shuffling sound outside the shelter, followed by a grunt. Evan eyes opened wide in fear. He’d heard a similar grunt when he’d studied predators. He thought that sounded like a bear.
The tree shook violently for a moment, and Evan let out an involuntary scream of fear. The tree immediately stopped shaking. The grunt he’d heard before was repeated. It was followed almost immediately by a low toned growl.
Evan was in trouble and he knew it. He knew that bear attacks at night were rare, but they were deadly when they occurred. He tried to weigh his options, but none of the available options was good. He could shake the tree and scream in the hopes of frightening the bear away, but that might just cause the bear to react violently. He could try to fight the bear off, which was a
n act of desperation that he knew was a last resort option, because the odds of successfully fighting off the bear were terrible. He could remain silent and motionless, hoping that the bear would just go away, or he could try to escape. Running from the bear would trigger its hunter instincts, and the bear would then regard him as prey. But it was already hunting him.
Evan knew that the tree offered no real shelter from the animal. The spruce tree would no more stop a bear than the thin wall of a tent stopped the carnivores, when they decided to attack humans. Evan held his breath as he waited for the bear to make the next move. The grim articles he’d read about bears dragging people away from campsites in their sleeping bags thrust themselves upon his awareness.
Outside the shelter, he heard the bear begin to circle the tree. It was noisy as it scratched at the ground and leaves around the spruce tree. He waited until the bear was on the side of his shelter opposite the trail before making his move, and then Evan darted out from under the tree and lunged to his feet. He was almost to the trail when he heard the bear let out a roar. Behind him, Evan heard the sound of the bear running in pursuit.
The moment he made it to the trail, Evan turned toward the stream, running as fast as he could. He had a desperate hope of crossing the stream before the bear was in position to see him, and then hiding on the other side. He hoped the bear would think he was in the water and seek him there. If he did so, then Evan planned to slip away and make his way to the open field. He’d hide there for the remainder of the night. In that field, he’d have a chance of seeing the bear coming.
Evan could hear the bear running behind him. It sounded to him as if the bear was right on his heels, so the boy redoubled his efforts. Fear produced adrenaline made it possible for him to run faster.
The boy felt the hot breath of the bear on the back of his neck. His terror caused him to emit another involuntary scream. He wouldn’t have thought it possible, but he ran even faster. Then his foot hit a snag and the young man went flying face first toward the ground.
A laser lanced out from above the trail and struck the bear boring through its skull. The animal collapsed to the ground and skidded into Evan, shoving the boy’s body several feet along the trail.
In the Peacekeeper, Pol’s hands shook. He took a deep breath to calm his nerves. Then reaching toward the switch that would activate the external speaker on the drone he asked, “Evan, are you alright? Evan, speak to me!”
Patricia was already radioing the search party about the incident. Even as Pol was speaking to Evan, he saw the first members of the rescue team rush past the drone into view. Jim was the first to arrive. He turned the boy over on his back and examined him from head to toe. “Evan, wake up.”
The boy’s eyes opened and he saw Jim’s worried face hovering over him. “Jim!” Evan said. He reached out with his arms and hugged Jim tightly.
Jim returned the boys embrace. When he broke that embrace, he looked at the bear lying dead, mere inches from his son. Picking the boy up, he turned and walked to stand in front of the drone. “Pol, thank you. If I’d lost Evan too I would have been truly lost,” Jim said. “I owe you for this my friend, and as God is my witness, I’ll find a way to repay you someday.”
“No thanks, are necessary, Jim,” Pol said. “I would have fired sooner, but couldn’t without endangering Evan.”
“Tell him I said to get back to the ship. I see multiple lacerations on Evan that need tending,” Maggie said.
“I heard her,” Jim said with the trace of a smile. The microphone was still open. “We’re on our way,” he reported and moved out of the view of the camera.
***
Two days later, every peacekeeper ship that could attend, arrived at Base 1 for Lacey’s funeral. Lieutenant Wilcox and the five core members of his strike force team acted as Pallbearers. The rest of the crew stood near Jim and Evan. Lisa held Evan’s hand as the coffin was lowered into the ground.
When the coffin was covered, Jim delivered the eulogy. He spoke of Lacey’s devotion to helping others and her love of her fellow peacekeepers. He spoke of her warmth and the depth of her character. He spoke of her belief that the peacekeepers were making a difference, and her pride of being a part of the group.
He then revealed little tidbits of information regarding her thoughts concerning several people that she would want them to know, and he wanted to make certain that they did know.
With hands that only shook a little, Jim removed a few folded pieces of paper from his pocket. “These are some thoughts that Lacey wanted me to share with you in the event of her death,” Jim said.
“Lieutenant Jack Wilcox, I owe you so much that I can’t begin to know where I should start in thanking you. I can’t even count the times that you and your men have put yourselves in mortal danger to protect the rest of us. Nor can I count the times that you helped to keep my son, out of mischief aboard ship. Thank you, Lieutenant, and know that you have my utmost respect,” Jim quoted, and nodded his head toward the lieutenant. “Know that I share her sentiments in this regard,” he said solemnly, before moving on to the next person.
“Maggie Damroyal, thank you for taking me under your wing and helping me find a useful slot aboard ship. Know that you were ever the best of friends. In many ways, I considered you the older sister that I never had. I dearly loved our time together, and thank you for sharing your time with me, even when we were off duty.” Jim nodded at Maggie who was quietly crying. “She adored you, you know. She was so happy when you found her acceptable as a protégé. Thank you Maggie.”
Jim found his place on the page, and then he read the next message.
“Pete, I was so happy for Maggie when she finally worked up the nerve to tell you how she felt. You’ve made my friend happy. You’ve also been responsible for saving my life on occasions, both directly and indirectly. The things you taught Jim enabled him to share them with me. Because of that, I’ve been able to defend myself successfully in the past. Eventually everyone’s luck runs out. If you are hearing this because mine has finally run out, I don’t want you to think you failed in any way. I believe that we are each appointed a time to die. I think that I will live the full measure of hours I have allotted to me. But until that day, God will bring guardians into my life. Guardians such as you, Lieutenant Wilcox and his boys, and of course, my loving husband, Jim,”
Jim’s voice broke for a moment, but he steeled his resolve to go on. “Pete, you know I share her sentiments,” Jim said and nodded to his mentor who was holding Maggie’s hand and wiping his eyes with his free hand. When Pete looked up and nodded, Jim added, “She didn’t add that she loved you for the interest you took in Evan, because she’d told you that several times. But know that she did appreciate that aspect of your personality.” Pete nodded his understanding.
Jim looked out into the audience and spotted his brother. Once more, he found his place on the page.
“Tim Wilison, know that you are as dear to me as an older brother. That you loved me as a sister made me happier than you will ever know. You filled a void in my heart that had existed since the loss of my brother. You always treated Evan as if he were a blood relative. That acceptance of my son was a comfort to me. It meant that Evan has a hope of acceptance in the wake of my passing and security for a mother’s offspring is a primary concern. I know that you will ever be the faithful uncle to Evan, just as you have been the faithful brother to me,” Jim said nodding to his brother in the audience.
Tim sniffed and nodded in return. “Thank you for making Lacey so comfortable in her new family, brother,” Jim said, and Tim nodded again and lowered his eyes because the tears had started all over again.
“This next is for you Patricia,” Jim explained.
“Patricia Huxley Wilison. You first welcomed me aboard the ship when I was unqualified and uncertain if I should even be granted a slot on the crew. Yet you quickly put me at ease and helped me learn the things I needed to learn to make myself a useful crewmember, beyond my medical tr
aining. I’ll never forget the times we shared or the kindness you’ve always shown me. You’re also the smartest woman I’ve ever met, yet you never made me feel inferior by flaunting that knowledge. You’re a good woman Patricia. I’m so glad Tim landed you as a wife. He deserves a special wife, and you’re certainly special,” Jim said.
Looking at Patricia, he added, “I agree with my wife. Tim couldn’t have done better.”
He paused a moment before continuing, “Pol Bleakman, you are probably the smartest man I’ve ever met, and like Patricia, you are so unassuming. No peacekeeper I know has more right to brag than you do, Pol. Yet bragging is something that is foreign to your nature. You just accomplish great things and then move on to the next project. Your drone project alone has saved countless lives. I want you to know that I felt privileged to have you as a friend, Pol. It is my hope for you that in the fullness of time you find the right mate who will fill a void I sense in your heart. Meanwhile, know that you had my love and respect,” Jim said, and looked to Pol who was overcome with grief.
“Know that Lacey never said she loved someone or called them friend unless she meant it, Pol. On the day of Lacey’s death, I would have also lost Evan, if not for you and the very drone project that she wanted, mentioned in her eulogy. I will never be able to adequately thank you.” Pol looked up through tear-stained eyes and nodded his acceptance of the gratitude, but was so overcome by his emotions that he did not speak.
Jim turned the page and continued, “Bill Young. I’ll never forget the day you flew the Constitution into the teeth of all those machineguns to save the rest of the big ships. I also remember the many times that you stubbornly insisted my husband take precautions with his safety. I always appreciated that trait in you. You’re a fine man, Bill, and you were a great friend. I didn’t get to know you well, until the period when I nursed you after the tiger mauling. I regret that I didn’t take the initiative sooner. You have my utmost respect,” Jim said.