Earth Space Service Space Marines Boxed Set

by James David Victor

  She leaned back and stared up at the ceiling. “Thanks, Mom.”

  By that evening, Andy was released to her quarters. She was restricted from duty or training for a week, but they didn’t require her presence in sick bay. She was definitely okay with being in her room instead of the sick bay.

  She was chewing over everything that had happened and everything she had been told as she lay on her bunk, partially curled on her side as she stared blankly at the wall across from her.

  “Sergeant Dolan,” a voice chimed into her room, “there is an incoming message for you.”

  “Transfer it to my quarters, please,” she replied simply. The computer panel above her head chirped and she looked up. The message was text only and she squinted against the brightness of the screen in the darkness of her room. Once she had read the small number of terribly impersonal words, she felt a strange feeling settle in her chest. She couldn’t figure out what it was, at first.

  Sorrow, guilt, aggravation...

  The short missive informed her that her mother had died during a fight in the prison yard, and that was it.

  She didn’t know how to feel about that, but there was at least one detail she could be sure of: there went her best chance of finding out anything about her father.

  II

  Star Chaser

  13

  Andy was sitting.

  It felt strange to be sitting, like she shouldn’t be, but she had been told to sit and so there she was.

  The leader for gamma squad was sitting in the captain’s ready room, in a chair just across from the captain himself. It wasn’t often, almost never, that a Marine other than the detachment commander got to be in this room, talking to this man, but there she was.

  “You really need to relax, Sergeant,” the captain said with an amused curve to his mouth. “You’re going to hurt something.”

  “Yes, sir,” she said with a slight smile of her own, and even less actual relaxing.

  It wasn’t just the fact that she was sitting and staring at Captain Wallace that made her uneasy, although that was enough. The man was nice enough, all things considered, but he was an intimidating man, tall and broad, with very intense blue eyes. She wasn’t sure if he ever blinked, but she didn’t plan to stare long enough to find out.

  Beyond that, she was the center of attention in this meeting. She wasn’t comfortable with that, either.

  “Thank you, again, Captain, for taking the time for the Star Chaser to take me to Starbase One Thirteen. I know that it is out of the ship’s way, and it’s just for one person,” she said awkwardly, not knowing what else there was to be said.

  Starbase 113 was the most advanced ESS medical facility. It was set “off the beaten path,” as Captain Wallace put it, for reasons known only to ESS brass and its station-building engineers. They were assured that there was a reason, but few were privy to what it was.

  “You’re a member of this crew, Sergeant Dolan. You’re family. We take care of family,” he said, firmly but kindly.

  She knew that he had to be aware of the fact that her mother had just died and she still had no clue as to who, or even what, her father was...but he didn’t reference that directly, and she was grateful for that. Andy was still conflicted over the death of her mother, whom she’d had a contentious relationship with at best.

  “Thank you, sir,” she replied, not knowing what else to say. “I’m sure Doctor Martin has explained that they don’t know how long they’ll be doing tests and so on, so I certainly don’t expect the Star Chaser to wait for me.” She knew she was babbling, but she couldn’t help it, and Wallace had offered her the chance to be blunt.

  It pained her to think of leaving her squad for any length of time. They had been together for a long time, and had been through so much lately. Unfortunately, there wasn’t anything she could do about it.

  Once the “sleeper DNA” in her genetics had “awoken” after their last mission on Daikon Colony, she had no choice but to submit to the will of the ESS. They needed to study it, and her, and find out what was going on. They had no idea if it was dangerous to her or anyone else, although everything they could see so far suggested it wasn’t. With that said, it was a mystery and most people don’t like living with mysteries...especially when that mystery is someone’s very blood, and apparently, their species.

  All Andy knew was that she had grown up thinking herself simply human, but recent events had shown she was something else. She was something that could resist the mind control of the Colirnoid and the lightning blasts of the Kriori, both of which should have killed her. That made her special—and potentially dangerous.

  “We’ll see what the folks at the starbase say,” the captain said, and she knew enough to not argue with him. “Maybe it won’t be long and we can wait. If not, we’ll return for you.”

  Andy tried to puzzle out why he was going out of his way for her like this. She wasn’t a member of the ship’s senior staff, so it was unlikely he had known anything personal about her until the recent events. She knew she had really only came onto his radar because of her resistance to the Colirnoid.

  “Thank you, sir,” she said, carefully keeping her face from showing the uncertainty that she felt.

  Captain Wallace hadn’t given her any reason to be suspicious of him, but since the doctor had told her about the “new” genetic profile emerging in her, she had just been feeling strange, and suspicious of almost everything. She wouldn’t go so far as to say that she didn’t feel like herself, but it seemed to come close.

  “Are you worried, Sergeant?” he asked. She thought it was rather abrupt, at first, but then realized it was a natural thing to ask.

  Yes. She was worried—about what was in her blood, about what was going to happen to her, if she was going to have to leave her squad and the ship and even the Marines? She had assurances from Major Carson that her position as gamma squad leader would be held for her until she returned, with Corporal Roxanna as acting leader in the meantime, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t worried about what might change.

  Holding his gaze for a moment longer, she took a slow breath in. “Yes, sir,” she admitted quietly. “Doctor Martin has told me what he could, but there’s still a lot of uncertainty. They say it’s only human to be nervous, but it seems I’m only half-human. That’s kind of a big change to one’s sense of self after more than twenty-five years thinking one way.”

  If he was surprised by her candor, he didn’t show it. He smiled a little, but it was a sympathetic expression. “Yes, it is,” he agreed. “However, it just means you have...we can call them hidden talents. You are still the person you thought you were before. Starbase One Thirteen is the best that the ESS has, so if you are going to get answers anywhere, it will be there.”

  There seemed to be an almost fatherly tone to everything he was saying, although having grown up without a father, it took her a moment to realize it. Was that why he had asked her in here? He was... It sounded odd to wonder if he was trying to act as a surrogate parent, given the fact that she now had none, but he was the captain of the ship. Why would he do that?

  He had said this ship was a family, and she was part of it. Maybe that really was how he felt.

  Andy found it in herself to smile slightly back at him, feeling almost warmed to the idea that this ship was her family. Maybe it would be okay after all. She would just have to keep telling herself that while playing test subject to the folks at Starbase 113. She tried not to think too much about that part.

  “Yes, sir,” she said with a nod. “I hope you’re right.”

  14

  Andy recognized the children’s home where she had grown up until the age of sixteen.

  It was a small place, but nice. She knew that she had lived with her mother in the prison nursery for the first six months, but then she had been placed in the children’s home. There were about a dozen other kids during her early years, though the numbers shifted at times. Some kids were reclaimed by their paren
ts, and others adopted. Many, like her, stayed there until they left to live on their own.

  When she was sixteen, she enlisted in the ESS Marines.

  She had never been back to the children’s home as an adult, but it all looked just like it had when she was a child. She was sure it was a dream, so this place undoubtedly looked different in the real world than it had a decade ago. Although, it hadn’t changed much in the fifteen years that she had been there, so maybe it hadn’t.

  The three-story house had somehow survived since the early 1900s. It was called a “Victorian” and had been updated with modern technology, although it still looked like its original self on the outside and for much of the inside. There were several bedrooms, but with a dozen kids at a time, they all still had to share.

  Andy walked up the steps to the wraparound porch and then inside.

  The house was empty. As she moved from room to room, she felt more like a ghost than a person.

  She climbed up the steps and into the room that she had spent her childhood in. It looked exactly the same too, and was just as empty. There was a bunk bed in the back left corner and a single on the other side. She sat down on the single. That bottom bunk had been hers until she was about eleven, and then she’d been moved to this one.

  The blue and white checkered quilt was still there, and it was smooth over the top of the mattress, just like she’d always made it.

  When she was six, a girl named Macy had slept in this bed. It was a girl named Donna by the time she was nine. Also, a Selerid named Alana had taken it for a short amount of time just before Andy got it.

  She could still remember it so clearly.

  There was a window in the wall where the head of the bed was, between the two beds. Andy looked out the window where dark storm clouds were rolling in. She couldn’t remember ever seeing darker, more ominous looking clouds. Earth had weather control systems, which still permitted storms—it was necessary—but nothing too destructive.

  This storm looked destructive.

  The room was already growing dark, but none of the lights were coming on. On a whim, she opened the window and could instantly feel the electricity in the air. Andy shivered and left the room, heading back down the stairs and out into the yard.

  She thought briefly about being struck by lightning? Somehow, she was not afraid.

  As she took the last step off the porch, the clouds grew even darker. It was dark as night, even though it had been a sunny afternoon just minutes before. She could see a shape ahead of her, and she recognized the amorphous man from somewhere, some other time and place. But how could you recognize something that wasn’t...a something?

  “Who are you?” she asked, and she knew that she had asked this question before.

  Thunder cracked overhead, but her eyes remained focused on the man.

  “You don’t belong here.”

  The voice startled her more than the thunder had. The form in front of her didn’t have a mouth, so she didn’t know if he had been the one to speak or if it had come from somewhere else. It seemed like it came from him, but it also seemed like it had come from above her, and from within her own mind. Did it come from everywhere?

  “I’m not here anymore,” she said slowly. “I haven’t been here in a long time.”

  “You don’t belong here.”

  She narrowed her eyes. “You said that already.”

  Lightning flashed, the storm building not only above her, but inside her as well. A heavy sense of dread began to cloud her thoughts, and she felt physically weighed down. There was pressure building, but to what end, she couldn’t tell.

  She didn’t want to. That was the feeling that grew beside it. But what was it that she didn’t want to do?

  “You don’t belong here. You need to come home.”

  “Put me back on the Star Chaser then,” she said with a trace of defiance. “I’ll be home.”

  This time, the thunder was a low, rumbling noise. It was more like a growl. Could the weather be displeased with what she had said?

  The sense of foreboding grew, and she felt like she had her answer.

  “No,” she said simply.

  Staring at the sky for a moment and then back at the shape of the man, she took a step back and held up her hands. It wasn’t quite a defensive combat-ready pose, but it was pretty close. The man did not move toward her, but she still felt like she could feel the weight of his gaze as she took another step back. It was heavy with judgment and disapproval.

  “You do not belong here.” Now, there was anger.

  “No,” she said. “And I plan to be away from you.”

  The darkness grew even deeper, nearly rendering her blind. There were no lights coming from the house and very little light breaking through the thick cloud cover. Somehow, she could still see the shape of the man, though, and she refused to take her eyes off him. She didn’t know who or what he was, but she didn’t trust him. She didn’t trust this.

  She continued walking backward until she felt the back of her heel hit the step. She carefully moved her foot to step up, and then the next, and then the next, until she was fully on the porch and backing up to the door. The entire time, the man did not move. He did not approach, and she only turned around when she felt the door against her back. She opened it and hurried into the darkness behind her.

  15

  A day full of training was completed, the day after she’d had that strange dream. It was just after dinner and the 33rd had some downtime now while the Star Chaser was swiftly on its way to Starbase 113. Gamma squad had taken possession of a table toward the back of the recreation room and was playing an old-fashioned game of poker.

  “Shouldn’t you be in quarantine or something, Sergeant,” Dan muttered as he threw down his cards and Andy drew the pile of chips from the middle of the table towards herself, having just won her third game in a row. The training and time with her squad helped her keep her mind off the dream—and the lingering emotions that followed.

  “Thanks for your support,” she replied, smirking because she knew he was just a sore loser. He really should have been used to it, though, because he never won. He couldn’t bluff to save his life, or his money.

  Roxanna, who had slightly better luck and a definitely better outlook, collected the cards and used her slender purple fingers to shuffle. “I hope they don’t keep you for long. I do not aspire to lead.”

  “I hope they don’t keep me for long either,” Andy agreed. “I have no doubt that you will do just fine, but I also hope that it won’t be tested too much.” She took her new cards as Roxanna dealt them out. “Captain Wallace said that the ship will wait for me if the doctors don’t take too long.”

  “Oh yeah, you got to sit down with the captain,” Jade said with a small smile. “What was that like?”

  Andy chuckled, moving her cards around in her hand. “Weird.”

  To wake up on the ship had been a relief that morning. Everything in that dream, from the empty house to the storm to the figure of the man, had been dreadful. She had an inner feeling of despair and almost felt afraid, but she knew that wherever that voice had wanted her to be was not where she wanted to be.

  Here, on the Star Chaser with her squad, was where she wanted to be. She didn’t even want to leave it for Starbase 113, but she knew she had no choice. At least it would be temporary...she hoped.

  Andy refused to ponder the idea that they might find something and make her stay there.

  She had just pulled two cards out of her hand when the lights flickered then dimmed. Everyone stopped what they were doing, frozen in various poses, and looked at the recessed lighting above them. No one spoke. A moment later, red lights began to flash along the line of the ceiling.

  “There is an unidentified ship rapidly approaching. They are not responding to hails. We are presuming their intentions are hostile. Everyone, battle stations. Prepare for possible intruders.”

  Who would be attacking the Star Chaser here and now? The ship
was still in ESS allied space, heading for an ESS station. There had been no reports of enemy ships in the vicinity.

  The cards were still fluttering on the table as the five Marines of gamma squad hustled through the door.

  The 33rd trained for this kind of thing, so there was a plan. They didn’t need Major Carson to tell them what to do, because they already knew. They trained, and they ran drills, and could probably respond in their sleep. Fortunately, that part of things wasn’t about to be tested, but there was still tension in the air as they wondered what was going on and who was out there.

  The inside of the locker room looked like someone had kicked over a hornet’s nest, as the room buzzed with busy bodies and murmuring voices, occasionally accented with a loud curse or the slamming of a door.

  “Who do you think is knocking on our door?” Dan asked as he fastened his body armor. “It could be the Kriori. They didn’t like us too much.”

  “At least we can rule out the Colirnoid,” Roxanna said. “They do not come on so directly.” Her purple skin was swirling with its pearlescent hues of agitation, adding a nice visual to the sound of Anallin’s emotional eye-clicking. They were things that people back on Earth who didn’t live in such a mixed atmosphere would probably feel strange about. To Andy, they were almost comforting now.

  “Knowing our luck,” Andy said as she snapped the last snap, “it’s going to be someone completely new.”

  Armored up, the squad headed for the armory. Beta squad was finishing up with their weapons as gamma moved in to get theirs. Just as they each began to take up their pulse rifle, the ship shook as it was hit by weapons fire. Every Marine swayed but stayed on their feet.

  Dan handed a rifle to Jade. “Definitely hostile,” he declared dryly.

  “You think?” Andy replied, checking her weapon over before nodding once and leading the team out of the armory. As they walked swiftly through the door, the ship shook again. She wondered again who would be bold enough for a direct attack in ESS space. Had they responded to hails since and made any terms without the rest being notified, or was it all just silence and shooting?