by Chris Hechtl
Killing the girls was regrettable; there was potential there. But you didn't kill the parents and leave the child alive to possibly betray the Guild in the future. No, that wasn't how it worked. Besides, they had been entirely too trusting he thought as he watched the bodies being loaded into the reefer and tucked in the back out of sight. Their son had been sloppy too. Their deaths would tell others to stay in line and to not go off half-cocked.
“Boss, we've got a new order. Something about a big ass barbeque planned!” a manager called out just as the last body was removed. “From the sound of it, they are going to feed an entire division! We're going to need a whole herd of cows! And they want this in a week! We're not set up for something that soon!”
“Coming,” Giles said as he checked the area and then went back to work.
<)>^<)>/
Major Kodiak, always a pleasure,” the general said as he noted the grizzly's presence in his office. “You're early I believe,” he said.
The bear nodded as he briefly came to attention as protocol required. “Sir, you wanted to talk to me?”
“Yes, sit, Valenko,” the human said as he too entered the office. He went to his desk and took his customary seat. The chair the bear selected morphed into a better shape to take on the bear's massive frame and weight. The general knew from prior experience that it would hold up just fine.
“I wanted to talk to you about this barbeque,” he said, opening the discussion.
“Sir …”
“It's a security risk to have it off base, especially with the hit attempt on McClintock,” the general stated. The bear nodded. “So, I'm giving you permission to have it in your division.”
The bear blinked and then his eyes narrowed. “That was easy,” he said warily.
“Right. We're going to have to step up security. Fortunately, Shep is one of the invited guests so no one will take his alertness as anything other than his acting as his usual self,” the general said dryly. Valenko nodded. “Brutus has been invited too I understand. And we'll try to keep the comings and goings more or less random as people cycle on and off duty. Everyone will have to have an IFF check. It won't rule out a suicide, another damn bomb, sniper, or poison, but it will shoo off some of the looky-loos and uninvited guests,” the general said.
The bear nodded. “If you think we need a cover story, I guess we can put it off as a celebration of us kicking Third Division's ass I suppose,” the bear said thoughtfully. The general pursed his lips but didn't say anything about that dig. “I've got a meat guy in the city who can supply us. I had my people put in a preliminary call. He says he can swing it,” he said. “My staff is taking over the project and keeping Jethro out of the planning so no one gets his name out of it,” he said.
“Point,” the general said.
“We can have banners and stuff made up … but I've never done that before,” the bear mused, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.
“Don't go too out of character for our sake,” the general said dryly. “People will wonder why. You've never rubbed a win in before. Stick to the F Platoon reunion.”
The bear looked up and nodded. “True, sir. If it comes from me, it shouldn't cause too many people to wonder why we want to have an F Platoon reunion now. If I manage it, or …,” he smiled maliciously. “Better yet, delegate it to some trusted people as I've already done,” he said making the general chuckle in appreciation, “then we shouldn't raise too many flags. And with Third moving out in a couple of months, I suppose we could also spin it as a going-away party. But I don't have the budget or facilities to feed all of Dana's people too,” he said, looking thoughtfully up to the ceiling again.
“Yeah, I'll get someone to give you something to offset your budget. You have all earned that much,” the general said. “I'll get the bean counters going to find a way to scare up some funds to supplement your own and keep you from breaking your division's budget with one party,” the general said maliciously.
“Thank you, sir,” Valenko said with a nod.
“This may also serve as something of a going-away party for your division as well,” the general said, eying the bear. The Bear blinked then his eyes narrowed in speculation. “Second Division needs to rest and refit while also integrating the new blood. So, your division is going to relieve them in a few months as soon as we get the shipping.”
The bear opened his mouth, paused, and then closed it.
“That's what I thought,” the general said maliciously. “The same ships that bring your boys and girls in will bring his home. You should be able to lightly blood your troops and be pre-positioned to go further east if called upon. That is, if Protodon doesn't heat up again … and if the Navy can carry the can as they say they are about to do,” he said with a shake of his head.
“I think Admiral White is ready to bring the fight to the enemy, sir. I know a lot of people are saying it is about time,” Valenko said.
“You might say that, but others like me wonder if it is a matter of too much, too soon. Biting off more than we can chew and all that. But we'll see what the future brings,” the general said.
“Yes, sir, I suppose we will.”
“Good. Now that you've been properly forewarned, you have another excuse for the party to add to the scuttlebutt. That should muddy the waters.”
“Yes, sir.” Valenko shook his head. “I have to admit, you caught me off guard with the warning. I was thinking a party to celebrate Jethro getting the medal and married but …”
“I think he's not into that sort of thing,” the general replied. “And the orders aren't official just yet. They hinge on whether the Navy can cough up the shipping in a timely manner. Technically, the Army should be taking over, but since they can't find their asses with a map and flashlight right now, it falls on us as usual,” he said grimly.
“Yes, sir. We'll get it done and show the Army pukes how it's done.”
“Good. Good,” the general said with a nod.
Chapter 8
Jethro and Al were in charge of returning the group to base. It took two trips to ferry everyone to Litchfield. He had to refuel the truck and then return it as well. The group waited patiently for him at the airport as he trudged back at a trot. It would have been nice of the locals to have given him a ride back to the airport, but apparently, someone had been a little put out over the length of time they'd rented the truck for and the lack of a large tip for doing so. It hadn't been up to Jethro; he hadn't made the arrangements for the truck nor was he about to pay the woman out of his own pocket.
Flying was a new experience for the selkie. Something Kuvageegai, Sangila, and Nauja enjoyed, but Akrittok and Miki were terrified of. Akrittok was terrified of heights but had never known until that moment, despite diving in deep water. She closed her eyes and did her best to sleep like Tia and Al.
Tia got Sangila interested in the engineering of the aircraft enough to pester the pilots for answers on everything about how the craft flew to why. Jethro did his best to tune the nonstop questions out.
With such a large passenger list, the bush plane had to stop once to refuel before it continued on back to the nearest major airport.
On the ground while the air crew refueled the craft, Zanjeer tried to school a yawning Akrittok, Sangila, and Kuvageegai on what it would be like in the Marines. He warned them it would be tough. “You're going to get yelled at a lot. Remember, it's not personal; they are trying to toughen you up—to show you that you can handle it.”
“Like my father,” Miki said with a nod.
Zanjeer looked over to the young selkie and then nodded. “Yes. But there is a method to it all. And again, it's not personal.”
“I … think I see,” Sangila said. He still shivered. Zanjeer looked concerned to Jethro. Jethro shrugged. The juvenile would have to find his own way through boot camp.
“You can always opt to go into the Navy instead. It is much easier to go through the initial training since you don't need to know so much combat,” Lieut
enant Johnson offered.
“But you talked about the SEALs, right? Miki asked, now confused.
“Yeah, um …”
Jethro snorted. He fought not to roll his eyes at the mess the lieutenant had stepped in. He did his best to tune it out as they continued on their way.
It was crowded in the aircraft, but they made it back to civilization two hours later. At the airport, the lieutenant made the arrangements to board a commercial flight to the capital spaceport while the recruiters fed the awed selkie at a local diner. Jethro noted some of the odd looks the group was getting. From some of the expressions on the selkie's faces, it bothered them a little bit. Kuvageegai defiantly glared at a few who looked at them with expressions of disgust. “What? What are you looking at?” he asked, jutting his chest out at them. The looky-loos looked away after that.
From the airport, they hopped a commuter flight to the base. “You didn't say we were going to an island!” Miki accused, looking out the window.
“We're not staying long. Well, I should say you won't be,” the lieutenant said. All of the selkies looked at him. “You'll be going to Pyrax. That's in a neighboring star system,” he explained.
“Isn't that the Marine base though?” Kuvageegai demanded.
“Yes,” the lieutenant said.
“So, I don't need to go further, do I?”
“Well ….” The lieutenant was saved from answering when the pilot came over the speaker to make certain everyone was buckled in for the landing.
<)>^<)>/
Once the commuter plane landed at the Marine base, the recruiters shepherded their charges through security. Kendra and Tia escorted the three maimed selkies to the local Navy hospital to get a jump on their repairs. Al and Zanjeer took charge of the remaining duo and escorted them to a civilian motel where they could spend the night. Jethro was glad he wasn't in their shoes. Five got you ten the selkie had never been indoors and had therefore never encountered creature comforts like a bed and carpet … or indoor plumbing he mused.
It was near dark before the sergeant and lieutenant arrived at the lieutenant's stop. “Come on in. You're going to have to be debriefed too, Sergeant,” the lieutenant said.
“Yes, sir,” Jethro said as he gathered his bag and followed the lieutenant into the building.
<)>^<)>/
“Five, eh? Not a bad haul. Not as good as I'd like …,” Captain JG Olaf Smearof said with a nod to the lieutenant and sergeant after they reported in. The Navy captain was a paper white chimera with blue eyes and a long, thin aristocratic nose. “Come into my office so we can get through the debrief. I imagine you want a shower and some downtime,” the captain said.
“Yes, sir, that would be nice,” the lieutenant said. “We didn't get a chance to shower much in the field.”
“So I … smelled,” Olaf said, being careful to breathe through his mouth instead of his nose. “I'm not happy though that three of them want the jarheads,” he said, turning to look at Jethro. “No offense to our current member of that branch,” he said dryly, waving a hand to the sergeant.
Jethro was tempted to say none taken but remained mute. Bast put the captain's bio up on his HUD. He was standing before the senior-most naval officer on the planet, quite possibly in the star system. He technically wasn't in the chimera's chain of command but he also didn't know how relaxed he could act. So the best outcome was for him to play it cautious he thought. Cautious and professional he thought.
The captain eyed him for a long moment then turned to the lieutenant. “So, what gives, Nail? You slip up?” he demanded. “Helmsman. That's what we need. Kendra said one of the females wants to be a medic? And one of them wants to be an engineer? And two want to be Marines?”
The lieutenant heaved a heavy sigh. “No, sir, it is the nature of the beast.” His eyes cut to Jethro and then back to his boss. “They are ground dwellers, Captain; they belong in the sea. Making the jump to space is hard. Several are also natural operators, like that Patriot fellow.”
“Kuvageegai,” Jethro supplied quietly.
The lieutenant's eyes cut to Jethro and then back to his boss. “Yeah, him. Natural leader. Hunter from his background. None of them have more than an extremely basic education. I'll be surprised if they know how to read and write honestly,” he said with a fresh grimace.
“Ah,” the captain said. He sat back and then indicated the duo should take a seat. Once they were seated, he nodded. “Perhaps we should start at the beginning?” he asked. The lieutenant shrugged. “Okay, let's start there,” the captain said expansively as he leaned back and slowly rocked from side to side as he listened to them.
Jethro and Lieutenant Johnson each took turns filling in the details as they were debriefed. “You know we need helmsman, Nail. I'm disappointed that you couldn't net a few more. And you let the two turn away from the Navy?”
“At least we kept them, sir. They didn't walk away completely,” the lieutenant said, clearly at the end of his patience. The captain grunted in agreement of that statement. “Since two of the selkies who want to be Marines are maimed, they'll most likely need to go to the Navy hospital in Pyrax for cloned replacement parts. On the way there and while they are being treated, we'll get another crack at them,” he said. The captain nodded again. “I think with a bit of arm twisting and some healthy guilt trip over everything we're doing for them we might get them to fold, sir,” the lieutenant said.
“Possible,” the captain said. “You said you had two of them on the fence already, right?”
“One was about ready to go Navy when he heard about Qilaq,” he said with distaste. “He changed his mind and went Marine out of spite. It's an impulse thing. He's got a lot of pride in him.”
“Damn,” the captain murmured. “Given time to cool off he might reconsider I suppose,” he said thoughtfully.
The lieutenant shrugged but then nodded. Lieutenant Johnson finally admitted that the news from Caroline was going to have a mixed effect on their future recruiting efforts. “It'll get worse if the ship returns I suppose. Maybe, maybe this Qilaq has cooled off since then. I think we made some headway, and we certainly made some good contacts. The master sergeant was a big help to get our foot in the door. But having reality smack them in the face like that …,” he shook his head.
“We'll have to let things settle down. Give them time to forget then try again,” the captain mused.
“What about the demand for more selkies?” Lieutenant Johnson said. “We need all we can get, sir,” he reminded his boss.
“We'll do what we can with other clans I suppose. There are a few others, but not many. It will take time for the news of Caroline to reach them.”
The human lieutenant winced. “Can we do something about that, sir? Block it? Censor the news or mail from her and the others?” Johnson asked.
Jethro stiffened internally but did his best not to react.
“I don't know,” the captain said, eyes turning to the Neocat. “Do you have anything else to add, Sergeant?”
“No, sir.”
“Very well then. We can dispense with your services then. You can return to your quarters and your duties in the morning. Dismissed.”
“Aye aye, sir,” Jethro said. He about-faced and left the office.
<)>^<)>/
When he got to his building, Jethro was stopped at the CQ check-in. He was annoyed to be directed to a different set of quarters in a different building. “We had some issues, and we had to move you. Nothing was damaged. We're sorry about the inconvenience, Sergeant, but these things happen sometimes,” the charge of quarters sergeant said when he protested.
Bast accessed the network through the Wi-Fi, got a map of the new building. It was almost identical to the current one. Once Jethro had a room number, she generated directions to his room before the desk clerk was finished with him.
She silently directed him on his HUD as he stomped to the quarters in a foul mood. She even used his implants to access the lock and open it fo
r him. He grunted; she judged it was in thanks as he pushed the door open, slipped inside, and looked around warily.
He found everything there, neatly packed on the bed as he set his travel bag down. It still didn't explain why they'd moved him. He glared at his stuff and did a quick inventory before he looked at the bag.
“I don't want to have to go to the laundromat now,” he muttered. Instead he stripped, got into the shower to get the salt and smell off, and then dried off with a large bath towel. Since no one was around, he didn't bother worrying about his nudity as he pulled his gear out of the travel bag and then dumped the dirty clothes in the laundry bin. A whiff of the bag made him dump that into the bin as well.
Finally, he pulled out an energy bar and ate it, chasing it down with a bottle of water. When he was finished, he checked the clock and decided he'd better get some rest.
“Can you wake me before dawn?” he asked.
“Of course,” Bast replied softly, flicking her ears as he yawned. “Rest,” she said.
“Right,” he said sleepily. He flicked his tail as he took to the bed, then tossed and turned a bit before he found just the right comfortable place to settle into. She did her best to sooth his restlessness until his brainwaves indicated he had slipped into sleep. Then she turned to her own internal chores.
<)>^<)>/
Bast checked the tell-tale bots she had left behind to monitor Jethro's quarters and work area. Like Jethro, she was concerned about the sudden move. She did her own investigating into the situation since she had more access than Jethro did and was willing to not only apply it, but also to go a step further if need be.
She found the recordings of the corridor to Jethro's old quarters had been deleted. That told her something was up. Unfortunately, she couldn't learn anything else since the data had been erased. She checked the video records prior to and after the time gap. There was nothing remarkable prior, but after showed MPs milling about as if they were securing a crime scene.