“I came because I need you to tell me about my father,” Andy went on, since nothing else was going to come of this.
Her mother instantly shut down, shields slamming up, like they always did when Andy brought the topic up. It was obviously not the first time she had tried, and she was sure that it wouldn’t be the last. Maybe once she had considered letting it go, but she knew now—after what happened on Starbase Zenith—that she just couldn’t.
“No,” Leta replied.
“Mother,” Andy said, trying to keep exasperation out of her tone. “This isn’t just curiosity anymore. It’s important. I actually need to know about the other half of my genetic heritage.”
Dark brows drawing down, Leta stared at her for a long moment. There was something in the older woman’s dark eyes that Andy couldn’t remember seeing before, but she couldn’t figure out what it was.
“Why?” Leta finally asked.
Andy blinked. She had expected more stonewalling, not a question. She couldn’t let herself be shocked for too long, however, because it wasn’t her training to be frozen in the middle of a battle. And this conversation was just that: a battle.
“Starbase Zenith,” Andy said. She went on to describe the events on that station, at least what was need-to-know for this conversation. The sergeant told her mother about the species that controlled people’s minds. Everyone on the star base was lost, yet she wasn’t; she was able to resist their power, even as she stared down the alien. She was the only one who could, so she knew there was something different about her.
She wanted to know what that was.
After she finished her story, her mother was quiet for a long time. Andy didn’t want to disturb her thoughts, because she hoped that the silence would end in some answers, at long last. The silence went on so long, however, that Andy began to worry she’d fallen asleep, or died, or something.
“I can’t,” Leta finally said quietly, shaking her head and looking at her hands where they were folded on the table. “I wish I could, but I can’t.”
After all that waiting, Andy felt frustration rise in her throat like bile. “Why not?” she demanded before she could check herself. “Do you realize that this could be a matter of life or death for me? I need to know what’s going on in my own DNA.” She realized just how strange it sounded that modern medicine couldn’t do that, but so far, no tests had given her an answer, so she had to go to other roots.
She needed the answers that only her mother could give.
“I’m sorry, Andy,” Leta said, taking her daughter by surprise again by using her nickname, which she never did. “I really wish that I could tell you, but I can’t. When I say I can’t, I mean it.”
The older woman didn’t bother giving Andy another chance. She stood up and walked right to the guard and the door. There, she paused and looked back over her shoulder, and Andy thought she saw true regret in those dark eyes for the first time...ever.
It was only a moment, though, before she was gone and Andy was left no better off than she had been when she arrived.
1
Two weeks later...
“All right, people, sit down and shut up!”
Major Carson walked into the room like a storm cloud, ready to strike everyone down with bolts of lightning. It would have surprised and concerned Andy more if this wasn’t pretty much the way he always walked into the briefing room. He was firm and no-nonsense, ready to knock heads and get things moving.
The five other squad leaders for the 33rd sat up a little straighter and turned away from whatever casual conversations had been taking place. They all knew that the Star Chaser was en route to their next mission, and now they would find out what that mission was and what their part in it would be.
For the past two weeks, the Marines of the Star Chaser had been training hard, both on the squad level and the detachment level. After the events at Starbase Zenith, time had been needed to heal mentally, but now training was just as needed to work back to unit cohesion. Everyone had unraveled a little during that time on the station, even as short as it was, but it was time to get back to business.
Meanwhile, Andy felt like it had taken those two weeks since coming back on board the ship to get her head back on straight after that...depressing visit to her mother. The rest of her team had known that something was going on with her, but after one initial foray and rebuff, no one asked again.
“We are presently heading to the Daikon Colony,” Carson was saying. He tapped a button on the remote in his hand and an image of a distant star system appeared. With the press of another button, the screen zoomed in on the Daikon Colony. It wasn’t an ESS colony, that much Andy knew right away.
“I presume it’s not for a further vacation,” the leader of beta squad—Atad—said with a small smirk. She was the new squad leader, promoted from within after the previous leader had been sent on medical leave following Zenith.
“No, no more of that crap,” Carson replied. Andy recognized her commander’s dry sense of humor, but he was serious as ever. She thought she saw a tightness around his eyes that suggested this mission wasn’t going to be a happy one, or easy. Then again, they rarely had missions that were either. Easy, happy situations rarely called for Marines.
Before Carson continued, Marcus Krall, leader of delta squad, chimed in, “Isn’t daikon also a type of radish on Earth?”
The major looked at him and blinked, very clearly, three times. “How the hell would I know? I didn’t name the bloody place; I just know that we’re going there. Now shut your yap and listen, before I put you on latrine detail.”
No further comments were forthcoming.
“First, we are going to talk about the Kriori,” Carson went on, changing the image on the screen to a Kriori male.
He looked about the size of an average human male, with pale orange-red skin and several antennae rising out of the pale hair. The eyes were black with blue irises but no pupils.
“The Kriori are not part of the inter-species alliance with the ESS, which is why you don’t see any of them serving in the Earth Space Service,” Carson went on, gesturing at the picture. “They take issue with our stands against the enslavement of sentient beings. We know that they routinely send out ships to find new bodies to traffic and we do what we can, but typically they manage to avoid detection. We only see the aftermath. We try to find and shut down their trafficking hubs and processing centers, but usually with very little luck.
“Until now.”
What he had said up until those last two words was something everyone already knew. The Kriori were practically galactic bogeyman tales. Be good or the Kriori will get you. They knew that people, entire ships, had been taken, but they could never catch them in the act or find where they had gone. Those people were usually never heard from again. Even when they were, they couldn’t provide any useful information.
“In the past few months, ESS has tracked a drastic uptick in the number of raids.” Carson gestured for everyone to quiet their murmuring. “That is a big change from how they have operated for decades. We don’t know the reason for the increased activity, but it’s allowed us to gather more information than we ever have. They have even started targeting some of the more remote ESS stations and colonies.
“They have now taken not just members of ESS alliance races but ESS ships and stations as well. This is going to be their downfall.”
Andy had been listening intently and now spoke up for the first time. “One of the ESS members they took had a tracer, didn’t they?”
Carson smiled and inclined his head toward her. “Very good, Sergeant,” he said. “You are correct about that. I’m sure the ESS wishes they could say that it was part of some skillfully executed plan, but...it was little more than dumb luck. That’s where we come in.
“Thanks to our ability to not only trace but gain some basic information from the device, we know that they are on Daikon Colony. This colony is in neutral territory and is run by a corporation of alie
n business magnates. We have known it for a hub of business, but now we know there is something else going on. Further reconnaissance has discovered an entire underground segment to the compound there, which is where the Kriori are trafficking slaves. We’re going to shut them down and rescue our people. “
Atad spoke up then. “Do we expect any issues from the corporations? Do they maintain any security, or anything else we’ll need to be aware of?”
Carson shook his head. “While it’s not an ESS locale, they do trade with us and I’m sure the threat of sanctions should keep them from giving us too much trouble.”
Every head in the room nodded thoughtfully, absorbing the task at hand. “So what’s the plan, sir?” Andy asked after a moment.
Carson clicked again and a general map of the compound and surrounding terrain popped up on the screen. “The first thing you need to know is about the Kriori themselves. I am sure you noticed the antenna in the picture of that handsome fella from before. Well, those are part of the species’ ability to use their bodies... Well, long story short, they shoot lightning from their hands.”
There was some intrigued murmuring, although Andy just listened.
“They prefer to use their bio-electric abilities before weapons, but don’t let that fool you, they do have and use weapons.” He gestured at the map. “We’re going in hard and fast. We’ll take out any resistance before they know what hit them. Here’s what each squad will be doing...”
2
Andy and the rest of gamma squad were taking a turn in the Star Chaser’s gym. Their own briefing about the upcoming mission had been notably more informal than the other, but it didn’t really need to be anything else.
“Are we going to get capes? I feel like we should get capes,” Dan said as he lie on the weight bench, Anallin spotting him to make sure the fairly old-fashioned device didn’t drop and squash him. “We’re gonna charge in and save the day for some poor enslaved souls, rescuing them from the evil grips of villains that actually shoot lightning from their hands. I mean, come on, this is legit superhero stuff. I think we should get a cape.”
“One cape for everyone, Dan?” Roxanna quipped from the leg-press machine, her skin swirling with her concentration. “I know we get along pretty well, but I think that’s too much even for us.”
Jade laughed from where she sat on the edge of a bench, drinking water and watching the rest of the squad. She was young, and seemed to not just absorb everything from those around her but actively tried to do so.
“You know what I mean, smart-ass,” he returned without rancor, before grunting and bench pressing a weight that far exceeded Andy’s entire bodyweight. The image of her laying straight and him just lifting and lowering her amused her for a moment.
“Thomas, this is just our job,” she pointed out, although without admonishment. “I’m fairly certain we will not get any special uniforms with capes for the occasion.”
“Aha!” Dan said, putting the weight-bar back on its cradle and pointing at her like she had just made his argument for him. “You’re only fairly certain. So we might!”
Andy chuckled and shook her head, lying on the bench beside him. He sat up and Anallin moved to spot her. Andy wouldn’t stop Dan when his humor was running away from them. It wasn’t something she’d been inclined to do before, because it was integral to who he was, but after what had happened to him, and them, on Zenith... Well, it had taken a long time for his humor to return. Now she was glad to hear it.
They had all been effected, in some way, but her fellow humans—Dan and Jade—seemed to have taken it the hardest in the aftermath. Jade wouldn’t have left her quarters if she had been given a choice, but the Star Chaser’s counselor was very proactive.
Andy was just glad she hadn’t lost any of her squad. Others weren’t so lucky.
“Sergeant,” Jade chimed in, “do you think we’ll meet a lot of...resistance?”
There was a hesitation in her voice that hadn’t been there a couple of months ago. Andy couldn’t help but notice it, but she didn’t call the girl out on it. She was going to give them all the time they needed. As much as possible, anyway.
“I can’t answer that for sure, Martin,” she said, gripping the metal bar above her head. “I imagine we’ll run into some trouble, yes. We know there are guarded checkpoints and I’m certain that there will be guards once we’re inside. However, the Kriori don’t have any telepathic or empathic abilities that have ever been recorded. It’s just, you know, lightning coming out of their hands.”
“Oh, is that all,” Roxanna chimed in again.
“Are you just here for comic relief?” Andy teased with a grunt as she lifted the bar, bringing it down and up again slowly.
The Selerid woman laughed. “That’s Dan’s job, you know that.”
For the first time, Anallin decided to join the conversation with a verbal presence as well as a physical one. “You seem to be competing for the title, Roxanna.”
Corporal Roxanna turned to look at the Hanaran and grinned. “Another country heard from,” she teased.
“I am not a country,” Anallin said, eyebrows shifting downward and iris-less eyes clicking a couple times in confusion before settling back to normal. The Hanaran had either figured it out or decided to not care. Anallin didn’t always follow what the others said, but only actually cared about half the time. Roxanna had picked up on far more human mannerisms and idioms, adapting them into her own speech patterns. It likely had something to do with the empathic nature of her race.
“Perhaps the good corporal just doesn’t want Dan to have to carry the comedic burden all on his own?” Jade supplied with a glint in her green eyes. Andy wondered if her name had come from that at all. As good as it was to see Dan joking and Jade out of her room, it was even better to see Jade interacting with Dan after they had nearly killed each other on Zenith.
“Yes, that’s it exactly,” Roxanna laughed. She swung her legs over the side of the leg-press and set them on the floor. Her purple skin, which began to swirl in a disconcerting show of iridescence when she was under emotional or physical stress, was calming down as her body eased off the workout high. “I’m just trying to help out. You know, I’m a very helpful woman.”
“Are you sure about that?” Dan returned after a swig of water. He wiped sweat away from his forehead and neck, but was grinning across the small expanse between him and his squad-mate. “You might just be trying to steal my title.”
Anallin’s eyes clicked. “Title?”
Dan shook his head and waved at the Hanaran. “I’ll explain it later.”
Everyone laughed, except Anallin, who gazed at the others in the squad, eyes clicking in confusion again. Although the Hanaran race was notoriously hard to read, Andy felt pretty confident in recognizing what was what. This time, the clicks lasted a little bit longer before quieting down into understanding or apathy.
From there, the room quieted down as each person moved to a different machine or a different state of taking a break.
Watching Anallin’s eyes hovering nearby just in case, Andy brought the bar up and down a few more times before setting it back on the cradle. “Regardless of who is cracking the jokes, the job is the same,” she said. “And I have all confidence that we will do it to the utmost of our abilities and achieve our objective.”
“Oorah,” Jade said quietly.
That made Andy grin.
3
It was just before 0500 when the call came down.
“We are on approach to the Daikon Colony. All squads are to be geared up and in the shuttles in thirty minutes. Repeat. We are on approach to Daikon. All squads, thirty minutes. Any Marine who is late gets put out of the airlock.”
Andy swung her feet over the edge of the bed and set them on the floor. She chuckled and shook her head. “Love you too, Major,” she quipped in the privacy of her small, but personal, quarters. Her rank and position gave her a room of her own, and she wasn’t ever unhappy about that.
“Nice to see you up and about so early, Anallin,” Andy said with amusement.
The Hanaran looked at her with some surprise, seeming to recognize there was an emotional tone to the sergeant’s words but not recognizing what it was. Andy simply waved and the lance corporal nodded back, understanding that no explanation was forthcoming.
Roxanna arrived a few moments later, with Dan and Jade not too far behind. No one wanted to face the Major’s wrath, even if getting pushed out of the airlock was just an idle threat…probably.
The group all greeted one another, but they were quiet and focused while getting themselves geared up and ready to go. Daikon was on a Class M planet, which meant no need for atmospheric suits. It was standard protective gear for this mission. That started with lightweight clothing, which was kindly designed of a material that was breathable but still with high fire resistance and some puncture resistance.
Straps and armor plates added to the protective layers; still relatively lightweight but beginning to be a little more restrictive. None of them were going to complain about the extra protection, though, but Andy did have to wonder how any of it would hold up against lightning.
Helmets. Boots. Gloves. Then they were off to the armory.
Each was assigned a pulse rifle with a spare energy pack as well as a conventional sidearm with extra magazines of ammunition. There had been painful lessons learned by ESS Marines about the necessity of not relying entirely on energy weapons.
Geared up with weapons in hand, Andy and her squad headed to the shuttle bay. They joined other Marines who were already clustering in the shuttle bay, each moving toward their shuttles. Each squad had its own, along with a pilot to take them where they needed to go. By the half-hour mark, every little ship loaded and Carson was in for disappointment if he had really been looking to send someone into space by way of his boot.
Earth Space Service Space Marines Boxed Set Page 6