by Korza, Jay
He gave a small nod and finished his sentence to Fang, who then turned and walked towards the other members of the recon team. “Can I help you, Lieutenant?”
“As you know, I’m new at this command thing. I put Daria as my second because she is my friend and I trust her. But you were right, corpsman aren’t put in charge for a reason.” Wilks tried to interject but Emily waved him off and continued, “It might be even worse command judgment to go back on my decision in the middle of things but I think that it’s the right thing to do. From here on out, you’re my second, as it should have been from the start. Daria will understand, and probably even be a little bit relieved.”
“I think you’re making the right decision. Daria is a good soldier and outstanding corpsman, but she isn’t a field leader. Yet.” Emily looked at Wilks quizzically. “Snyder was my second and I’ll need another. I think that Doc has the right temperament and instincts to do it right. It’s just that no one’s ever taken the time to show her how it’s done, because no one ever thought that she’d be doing it.”
“Isn’t Fang next in line?” Emily asked.
“Yeah, but he’d sooner run the team into a death trap than try to think his way out of it. It’s just his way but it’s not a way that I’ll condemn the rest of my men to if I’m not around to protect them. No, Doc is the next best candidate. I’ll make her a part of as many of the decisions I make as possible so that she gets a feel for it.”
“Good. And thank you.” Emily looked out towards the center of the hole. “Now, let’s go over the watch rotation and a few other things I have questions about.” Wilks raised an eyebrow as he cocked his head towards his CO. “What?” Emily asked.
“Oh, nothing. It’s just, well, that’s the first time an officer ever admitted to having a question. And especially to a non-comm.”
“Well, get used to it. I’m sure there’ll be plenty more.” The two soldiers talked for another hour before finally hitting the sack.
~
Bloom was the first one up that morning. He had been anxious all night and barely got any sleep at all. He was too excited to see whether or not his translation program had worked.
“Yee haw!” Bloom shouted from the console. He heard thirteen rifle bolts being worked and turned to see everyone aiming in his general direction. “Sorry to wake you guys up. But it worked! My program deciphered their language.”
All weapons were put to safe and groggy marines roused themselves to walk to Bloom. Davies tried to get up but he was still a little weak. Daria put her hand on his shoulder. “Just lie there. I’ll be back in a few with some breakfast.”
“Where’s the can?” Davies asked.
“We’ve been using that room in the back. It didn’t really hold anything that looked too important.” Daria helped her friend to stand and then walked towards Bloom.
“After the first two hours,” the excited linguist started, “the scanner started to only get repeated characters so it guessed that it had a complete alphabet to go on. After a few hours of decoding, it realized that the position of the character in a line was just as important as the character itself.
“For instance, take the human letters b and e. Put together they spell be. Put them together with other letters like “in-between” and they help to make a different word but those two letters still sound the same. Everyone follow?” His teammates nodded. He continued, “They have ninety-three characters in their alphabet. Each character has a different sound depending on its numbered position in a sentence. In English, a letter has one of several different sounds dependent on the letters surrounding it.
“So to us, the be in in-between sounds the same as just a regular be whereas for them it would have a totally different sound because the letters occupy the third and fourth positions instead of the first and second.” He was bouncing like a puppy now.
“Well, that’s all wonderful, Mr. Wizard, but have you actually learned anything?” Wilks was glad that his friend had cracked the language, but alien dialect wasn’t as interesting to Wilks as history or other fun subjects.
“Oh yeah, tons.” He gestured towards the scanner. “It’s been reading all night.” The lieutenant pulled up shipping logs and it seemed to be about six standard months’ worth of manifests.
“This hole was a main cargo bay with weapons storage as well. My guess is that the team from site two set off the weapons cache by accident somehow.”
“These shipping manifests.” Emily was looking over the translated data. “They have food lists that show they had quite a diverse population of species at this outpost. Many of these foods represent the dietary needs of some of our Coalition members.”
“I ran a tissue and cellular analysis of each of the aliens last night.” Daria spoke up from the back. “They have a high level of animal proteins and very little or no plant proteins in their make-up, suggesting that they are strict carnivores. They probably eat their food just after death or even live. Either way, I don’t think that they cook it beforehand.”
“That assumption would fit with the large amount of game animals on this list. Some are things that I’ve eaten before.” Emily continued to scan the list. “Let’s set the program to search for keywords, like weapons, ships, and fuel. Anyone else got ideas?”
“How about prisoners, charts, intelligence, and quarters assignments?” Wilks asked from Emily’s side.
“I’ll get right on it.” Bloom took the device from Emily. “I’m going to set up a relay system that will allow this unit to send information to a portable one that we’ll have with us. That way we don’t have to wait around here for the data; we’ll just get it as we go.”
“All right, you’ve got as much time as it takes for us to get our descent planned and rigged. Think you can do it?” Emily asked, walking towards the group’s gear.
“All that and a few surprises to boot”, Bloom answered without lifting his eyes from his console.
“We’ve reconfigured our gear for the next leg of this trip”, Snake, the intelligence officer began. “We can dump a lot of this commo and scanning equipment as we won’t be setting up a base camp. We’ll need to be much lighter because we’re on the move now and just in case we run into anymore of the indig pop around here.”
“I’ve got our descent planned and ready to go as soon as we piton this side of the lift shaft and assign everyone their positions. We should be ready for descent in fifteen mikes”, Fang offered.
“Get it ready and let me know when it’s done.” Emily turned towards Daria. “Doc and Wilks, you’re with me. Everyone else, get to work.”
“Aye, aye, ma’am”, came back at her in unison.
Daria and Wilks walked to Emily, who laid out the new chain of command to her soldiers. The threesome got casual glances from the rest of the team; they knew what was taking place. Doc was a good soldier, no one disagreed on that, but after what they encountered yesterday, Wilks was the one for the job.
“Actually, el-tee,” Daria sighed, “that takes a load off my shoulders. Wilks, you’re a good man. Piss poor drunk but a good man.”
“Don’t think that you’re off the hook entirely.” Wilks took over. “You’re still my second and you need to remember that when the shit hits. And you know as well as I do, it’s not ‘if’ it hits but ‘when.’ Especially after yesterday. I’m certain that we’ll have an opportunity to test ourselves against those guys again.”
“You can count on me”, Daria said while thinking, just like Snyder knew he could count on you.
“We’re all ready, el-tee”, Fang said.
“I’m just finishing up, too.” Bloom walked out from the room he was in. “I was able to access their data banks and sequence the download. It’s going to cycle through base operations first, then their history files, and finally their personal logs.
“I’m going to set these little devices,” he held up a device that was about two times the size of a standard comlink, “about every three to four hundred meters. They’l
l relay the data to my portable console. I should have enough for almost ten kilometers of travel. More if there aren’t too many things down there to disrupt the signal. And, of course, less if there is.”
“Corporal Davies reporting for duty, ma’am”, Davies said from behind the group.
“Is he OK to travel?” the CO asked.
“Yeah, a little slower and more clumsy than usual, but he’s OK.” Daria walked over and took Davies’ weapon. “Now, c’mon, you know the regs. No weapon will be carried by a soldier who has had a recent head injury. When I think that you’re safe, you’ll get it back.”
Daria locked the weapon down to a pack that was being strapped on to Scan. His strength would allow him to handle the little bit of extra weight better than anyone else, even with only one hand.
The first team stepped up. They had decided to use their two ropes to have two people to go down at a time rather than one person on one with a backup rope shouldered. As they double-checked their harnesses, Bloom spoke up from behind.
“By the way, I thought that everyone might be interested in this. I still haven’t found out what planet they come from, but apparently they didn’t name their species after their planet like most species do.”
“What do they call themselves?” Snake asked as he readied himself for descent.”
Bloom simply said, “Extinction.”
Surgeon
Chapter 22
The Vanguard – Sensor Deployment
“So, got anyone back home?” Seth asked Surgeon from the co-pilot’s seat.
“We’re coming up on site one-A for scanner deployment”, Surgeon said with a complete absence of emotion.
Seth eyed his friend and knew not to press the question any further. “Fire team one.” Seth’s helmet automatically opened a channel to his wingman after he announced their call sign. “Perform a twenty-meter perimeter sweep of lead vehicle and then settle into a covering position as we deploy our first sensor array.”
“Fire team one, on our first sweep. See you guys in about five mikes. Out.”
Surgeon’s movements became more deliberate and focused. More so than a veteran of his caliber needed to be. He was obviously thinking of something, or someone, else. Seth couldn’t help but feel bad for bringing up such an obviously sore subject with Surgeon.
In their line of work, it seemed to be one of three stories that most professional soldiers had when it came to women. First and most common was that some farm boy had met the woman of his dreams, most likely the first woman to make him cum harder than a freight train, and she turned out to be a whore. No surprise there. He woke one morning to find her and most of his belongings, especially money, gone. And through all that, he still loves her. So he joins the military to forget her and with the secret dream of finding her again while stationed on some planet far from home. And of course she runs back into his arms at the first sight of his face, apologizing out her ass for how much she hurt him and how she had no choice because her mom, sister, dad, brother, aunt, or grandparent was ill and she had to get the money somehow for their much-needed kidney, liver, lung, or heart transplant. This, of course, never happened, at least not that Seth was aware of.
The second most common love story was of a dedicated soldier who had the most beautiful and loving wife at home that any man could ever want. She was dedicated to their marriage and to the man in the uniform. Unfortunately, the man was almost always more dedicated to the uniform than the woman. And although she tried to deal with it and he tried to change, nothing ever gave and the vid-calls from light-years away changed from “I love you’s” to “Fuck you’s” and everything went to shit. Either she started drinking or he did, and more commonly both did. And in the end she either leaves him, sleeps with some REMF while he’s out on tour, or kills herself. Sometimes it gets real dicey and she sleeps with his best friend, leaves him, and then kills herself. But that’s only if you’re lucky.
The third, and absolutely least common type of military romance, is also the worst kind. It will chew up a professional like Surgeon as though he had stepped on a bouncing betty while getting hit with flechette rounds at close range. It’s almost like romance type number two. A soldier finds his perfect soul mate. The two lovers intertwine mentally and physically as though they were the same radiant energy trapped in different bodies. And no matter how many times duty calls him away, she is always there for him when—if—he comes home. Her strength does not waver and his love for her never fades. But again he is torn from her when duty calls and he never knows whether he’ll see her again. Death doesn’t scare him, but the thought of leaving her all alone and without his love to hold her does. He can’t bear the burden that is weighted on his soul. He knows what pain she’ll go through when the base commander knocks on her door carrying an envelope that contains a letter coldly outlining the death of her beloved. It’s too much for any one man to bear for any length of time.
Seth looked at Surgeon and decided that it was romance number three that made his face turn to stone at Seth’s inquiry. Seth thought that he could empathize with Surgeon, for he, too, felt as though he had found his soul mate. They had only touched briefly for an instant but he just knew what she could—would—mean to his life if he ever got back to find her again. He would get back to find her again; he had no other choice.
“Hello!” Surgeon knocked on Seth’s helmet. “Would you like me to wake you when I’m done setting up the sensors or would you like to help?”
“Yeah, uh, sorry.” Seth’s helmet hid his blushing. “I’ll get the drilling equipment and survey gear. You get the sensor array.”
“Hold on a second.” Surgeon started patting down Seth’s uniformed body. “I’m just looking for the general you have shoved up your ass somewhere, because I know that you by yourself wouldn’t be ordering me around.”
“Yeah, yeah, let’s just get on with it.” Seth couldn’t tell but he was pretty sure that Surgeon was grinning behind his visor.
“Survey team one,” the pilot of fire team one called, “we have finished a perimeter sweep and are taking up position on your six for rear guard. We did detect a minor power fluctuation from bearing two-six-three degrees of your present position, at fifteen meters out. It looked like it could be just a stray radioactive isotope. Probably nothing but you’re gonna be walking around anyway, so you might wanna check it out.”
“Copy, fire team one. Thanks for the intel. Now just sit back and start on that picnic lunch you brought while Cadet and I do the work.” Surgeon picked up his gear and started the pressure hatch’s decompression cycle.
The asteroid’s gravity was about equal to that of Earth’s own moon. It made the ninety kilo drilling gear that Seth carried much easier to manage than if he would’ve had to carry its entire weight unaided. Surgeon took the lead and used his handheld positioning sensor to find the exact coordinates of the predetermined spot the computers had picked out for their first sensor array.
As they neared the point, Surgeon’s sensor began to detect the energy reading that fire team one had told them about. “Hold up here.” Surgeon put his gear on the ground and Seth followed suit. “I want to find out what this reading is. You know, make sure that it won’t interfere with our sensors.”
“I’m with you on that. I’d hate to have to relocate an entire net after setting it up.” A sensor net was a precisely set circuit of sensor arrays over a one kilometer square area. Each sensor had to be placed within five cubic centimeters of a pre-designated computer plotted coordinate. If the energy reading that Surgeon was detecting interfered with signal quality, and they found out after setting up the entire net, they would have to take it all down and start over just because their first placed sensor was getting fuzzy signals.
The signal suddenly vanished. “What the hell?” Surgeon whispered.
Seth approached him and looked over his shoulder to review the sensor’s data. “It could’ve been a space rock with a radioactive isotope in that had a short half
-life. Maybe it landed here right before we began a sweep of the area and then faded out. It happens all the time in space.”
“Possible, but I want to keep an eye on this area just to be sure. I’m gonna set my scanner up to relay info back to us from this position.” Surgeon tapped the keys on the instrument’s panel and set it down before heading back to the drill site.
Seth set up the drilling platform and began his excavation of the fifteen-meter hole that would be necessary to plant the first of ten sensors that would make up the net. “I set it for automatic. The computer estimates thirty minutes for completion.”
“How about you?” Surgeon asked. Seth had no idea what he was talking about. “Do you have a woman back home to talk about?” Surgeon clarified his question.
Behind his opaque visor, Seth’s eyes stared blankly into space. “Not really. There was one girl back home before I went to boot, but she was a superficial bitch who didn’t love me enough to stand by me when things got rough. But then I met someone, someone I really wanted to get to know.”
“What happened to her?”
“You broke my nose and I ended up here with you. Not much of a trade-off, to tell you the truth.” Seth patted Surgeon on the back. “I mean, you and I are buds, but c’mon, you don’t hold a candle to her.”
“Why don’t you tell me about her? Sometimes it’s nice to hear about home from someone other than your own memory.” Surgeon just didn’t want to think about his own home right at that moment.
“Well, she has”—” Seth didn’t get a chance to finish; the small explosion that came from the drill stopped all conversation.
The explosion was the drill bit heating up and fracturing at its weakest point. The lack of sufficient oxygen limited the flames to an initial small chemical burn, which ceased when the self-oxygenating fuel source from the magnesium burned itself out. “What the hell was that?!” Seth said, jumping to the drill’s display screen.