by Ian Douglas
“The Purple Heart,” Alexander said. “And the Medal of Honor. There’ll be a formal ceremony later, when you’re recovered, but I wanted to be the one to let you know.”
“I…I don’t know what to say, sir.”
Alexander shrugged. “What is there to say? You earned them both.”
“But it wasn’t just me, sir. I was just stupid enough to volunteer.”
“You’re right, of course. But, well…you and I both know it’s not about medals.”
“No, sir.”
He gestured at the Medal of Honor, gold star gleaming beneath a blue silk ribbon, a design a millennium old. “I did some checking. I gather you’re not the first Garroway to win that little blue ribbon.”
“No, sir.” Sands of Mars Garroway had won the coveted award some eight centuries before.
Tradition.
Duty.
Brotherhood.
“General?”
“Yeah?”
“Thanks for coming after me. For looking for me. I…I guess I kind of lost faith out there. I didn’t think you would find me.”
“Hey, Marines never leave their own behind. Never.”
“I…know.”
“Semper fi,” Alexander told him. “Semper fi, Marine.”
Acknowledgments
My special thanks to David Plottel, friend, programmer, mathematician, and ubergeek, for his insights into Leonhard Euler and the God-equation known as Euler’s Identity.
About the Author
IAN DOUGLAS is the author of the popular military SF series The Heritage Trilogy and The Legacy Trilogy. A former naval corpsman, he lives in Pennsylvania.
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By Ian Douglas
Books in the Inheritance Trilogy
STAR STRIKE: BOOK ONE
Books in the Legacy Trilogy
STAR CORPS: BOOK ONE
BATTLESPACE: BOOK TWO
STAR MARINES: BOOK THREE
Books in the Heritage Trilogy
SEMPER MARS: BOOK ONE
LUNA MARINE: BOOK TWO
EUROPA STRIKE: BOOK THREE
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
STAR STRIKE: BOOK ONE OF THE INHERITANCE TRILOGY. Copyright © 2008 by William H. Keith, Jr. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Mobipocket Reader December 2007 ISBN 978-0-06-157368-2
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