“Of course not, ma’am.” The words spilled out and landed flatly on the desk between them. The colonel’s eyes never left Eli’s and she bobbed her head in a manner that let him know the seriousness of the issue. She let the air and the warning settle for the space of three heartbeats before continuing.
“And so we’ve arrived at the final topic we need to discuss today.”
That sounded ominous and grew even more so as the colonel rose from her chair, circled the desk and put her hand on his shoulder. Her grip was iron and her blue eyes drilled into his brown.
“It’s time you used your real name, Captain. You won’t get any special treatment from me, and I already know who you are.”
It took Eli a few moments to compute the words, but he finally realized their meaning. He struggled to form a response, offer a reply, provide an explanation, but came up with a big fat zero, just like his new rank. He realized she was right. He also realized he had to close his mouth. It had unconsciously gaped open at some point.
“Yes, ma’am,” he finally acceded.
* * *
Lieutenant Colonel Becca Conway watched the young captain exit her office with mixed feelings.
He reminded her of his father, certainly, which brought back long-buried memories of their struggles together against the Minith in the Battle for Waa. She was a young sergeant (4) when that fight went down.
The younger Justice had his mother’s dark eyes and hair, but his body and his military mind seemed on par with his father’s. Well-honed muscles, obviously developed through years of exercise and training, sat atop a tall, angular frame that could only be passed down through good genes. The vid reports she had viewed revealed another trait that had been passed along from father to son: the refusal to give up, despite poor odds. The younger Justice’s actions on the Telgoran plain in the tower assault exercise were nothing short of . . . amazing? Inspired? Becca was never very good with words, so she decided finally that “creative genius” was the description she’d go with. He also displayed flashes of true leadership at times and hoped he would develop that trait to mirror his father’s ability. If he could manage that, he’d do well for himself. And for her, and the Shiale Rangers.
She hadn’t been completely honest with Captain Zero, though. She had studied most of the vids and reports that came out of his training unit. She knew the reasons why Sergeant Twigg had been named first sergeant, and she knew the issues that Private—lieutenant, now, she corrected—Crimsa had caused within the unit. She approved of the younger Justice’s decisions on both counts and was pleased that he hadn’t taken the easy way out with a problem subordinate. Shipping poor performers to another unit rarely solved the real problem. And most importantly, while she had given up her top-rated company to make room for the new, armored unit, the change hadn’t been forced on her. No. She had lobbied long and hard with her Minith superior for the new unit to be assigned to her battalion. When word of the advanced armor had gotten out, she immediately saw the benefits of having a company of mechanized soldiers to complement the Shiale Ranger Battalion that she led. Putting the PEACE-armored company under her command only made sense, she had rationalized. Her battalion of ranger forces consisted of two companies of Minith and one company of humans. It was recognized as the most elite unit on Telgora, designated to be the first unit deployed when the shout hit the air. But the Minith colonel had balked, for whatever reason. It was often hard to understand why the Minith who ran the forces on Telgora did what they did. In Colonel Conway’s opinion, the Minnies just liked to flock over their human counterparts whenever and wherever they could because . . . well . . . because they could.
In the end, she had finally reached out to her old commander, General Justice, the man in charge of all of the alliances forces, not just the ones on Telgora. She didn’t like going over anyone’s head, even when they were green and firmly planted in the anal cavities of their Minith owners, but she felt strongly about the situation. Fortunately, the general had seen the logic behind the suggestion and immediately put the wheels in motion to make it happen.
Although she hadn’t known before making the request, Becca intuitively understood that the general might have been swayed in his thinking by the fact that his son would be in her unit. According to the father, his son wanted to earn his own way, so was using an assumed name. She respected that, but it no longer mattered. She had met him first as a seven-year-old child, then continued to observe him from a distance on regular occasions over the years at various events and training exercises. To the younger Justice, she was just another face in a sea of nameless military uniforms, but she had watched him grow up. There was no reason to keep his identity hidden in her unit. She already knew who he was, but more importantly, she didn’t care about his lineage. She suspected the general’s decision to put his son under her leadership had a lot to do with the fact that Lieutenant Colonel Becca Conway would never give preferential treatment to anyone. In fact, the general knew she was likely to expect even more from someone with Captain Zero’s parentage. In that, he was correct.
Captain Zero had a lot to prove, and she was committed to making sure he proved it.
* * *
“No flocking way,” Lieutenant Gale Benson, the new leader for Eli’s former platoon argued. He was having a difficult time wrapping his mind around the news. “Your dad is not General Grant Justice.”
As had become their routine during the Sift, the newly appointed officers for Alpha Company of the Shiale Rangers were seated together in the mess hall. As usual, they were at a table at the rear of the room, surrounded by the normal hubbub of activity and the buzz of conversation of fellow soldiers sharing their mealtime. It was their first meal together at their new unit and Eli had just informed the group the truth about his background. Tenney sat to his right. Lieutenants (0) Johnson, Benson, and Crimsa, the platoon leaders for first, second, and third platoons, respectively, sat on the other side of their table.
“He is, Benson,” Tenney stated simply, speaking for the first time. She had remained quiet, her eyes on her tray as Eli laid out his background and upbringing for the other officers. “The captain and I spent time on-planet when we were just kids. His father is the general.”
It was Eli’s turn to be shocked. He had assumed that Tenney hadn’t remembered their time together on Earth—it hadn’t been long, no more than six months or so, and it was more than a dozen years ago—but apparently, he was wrong, and he had put off asking her about it. She had kept it to herself, though.
“I didn’t think you remembered,” he said, looking at his XO.
“It took me a while, honestly,” she admitted. “I didn’t recognize you. We were only seven or eight years old the last time we saw each other.”
“I was six. You were nine,” he corrected automatically. His XO furrowed her eyebrows and frowned. The look alerted him to the fact that the detail wasn’t important—or perhaps it was the age difference that bothered her. He had no clue and dropped his eyes to his food tray. “Sorry.”
“As I was saying,” she continued. “I didn’t remember what you looked like then. It was so long ago. What clued me in was how you took charge and got us all moving in the same direction. After that forced march, remember? When you went back to help the stragglers.”
“You mean where I nearly washed out?”
“You can look back on it at as nearly washing out if you want,” Tenney chided. “The rest of us remember it as the turning point. Where we finally realized it was us against them.” She nodded her head in First Sergeant Twigg’s direction to reinforce who she meant by “them.” The Minith warrior sat on the far side of the room, eating his meal alone.
“I didn’t figure it out all at once,” she continued. “I just had this nagging feeling at first. But it came to me over the next couple of weeks as I worked it over in my mind. Your mannerisms. The way you think about a problem, put a plan in place, then act on it. It was the same when we were playing at paint ball
and blades. Remember the last battle against Jonah and his team? We totally flocked their reps with the older teams.”
Eli smiled, remembering. He hadn’t thought about the simulated battle games in years, not since he had turned his focus to training for real battles. He wondered what Jonah was doing now.
“I remember.”
“Anyway, I figured you had your reasons for hiding who you were, so I kept it to myself.”
“Thanks,” he replied, grateful for her consideration. “I’ve been worried you’d out me ever since I first saw you. I recognized you right away. It was almost like we were kids again, to be honest. You were the older kid I always looked up to.”
“Really?” she asked. She beamed with pleasure, then looked down at the table. Her eyes squinted, and she seemed to be searching for a way to say what she wanted to say. “You were younger than the rest of us, but we were the ones who always seemed to be looking to you for direction. Your dad was the general, of course, and that was part of it. But you had this . . . way . . . about you. You could see a problem and knew within seconds the best way to meet it. It was both strange and endearing. Honestly, most of us didn’t know what to make of you, but we were glad to have you on our side.”
She nodded her chin at the rest of the table. “Just like we’re all glad to have you on our side now.” The rest of them nodded in agreement, and Eli felt his cheeks redden.
“Thanks,” he offered weakly, unsure of what else to say. He decided to return to the matter at hand. “Now we need to decide how to tell the rest of the company. Ideas?”
“Seriously, Jayson,” Benson began. “I mean Justice—”
“Captain Justice,” Tenney corrected. They were still getting used to the new ranks and needed the occasional reminder to use the correct title.
“Ahem, sorry,” the other lieutenant started again. “Captain Justice . . . Hey, that sounds like one of those ancient superhero characters!”
“Yeah,” Crimsa added. “Captain Justice. Defender of the Shiale Alliance!”
“Captain Justice! Peace Warrior of Earth, and a man among men!” Johnson made his contribution to the teasing, and the four lieutenants fell into a round of chuckles and grins.
Eli placed his elbows on the table, put his head in his hands, and rubbed his eyes. This was quickly turning into one of those situations that he had hoped to avoid, and that had caused him to hide his name in the first place. He silently thanked peace that his first name wasn’t “Grant,” like his father. He knew it was a lifelong irritant for the man, and now he fully understood why. Captain Justice sounded hokey enough. Captain Grant Justice would have been even worse.
He briefly considered keeping the “Jayson” moniker, but tossed the idea almost as quickly as it entered his head. Everyone would soon know his real name was Justice anyway. He couldn’t hide it, and frankly, he didn’t want to. He was proud of his father and proud of the name he had been given—despite how corny it sounded. It was something he would have to live with, and there were much worse burdens he could have been asked to bear.
Chapter 16
“That’s politics, Captain Zero. Surely you’re familiar with the concept of politics?”
The inference was clear. Because of who he was—correction, who his father was—he should know that politics often influenced military decisions. And she was correct. As much as the notion grated upon his sense of right and wrong, he had observed his father grapple with similar situations on too many occasions to claim ignorance or naiveté. Instead of continuing to argue further, he recognized the case was lost, and focused on negotiating the best compromise he could. It was a tact his father often used when presented with a no-win scenario.
“Colonel Conway, what if we find a place for him in one of the support teams? Mechanical, supply, or food service. His presence there could benefit the unit without causing distraction or being a hindrance.”
“Captain,” Colonel Conway pushed herself up from her desk and leaned toward Eli. Her tone was firm and measured but carried the unmistakable authority of command. She was speaking to a subordinate, and obviously wanted that subordinate to recognize the situation for what it was—unarguable. “You have three platoons in your company. I don’t care which one you put him in. Any questions?”
So much for negotiating. Eli fell back to his standard approach when dealing with his new commander.
“No, ma’am.”
“Good. Will there be anything else, Captain Justice?”
“No, ma’am.”
The colonel gave a slight nod, pointed to the door, and sat down. Her eyes never left Eli.
Dismissed, Eli turned on his heel and walked through the door without another word. His mind was already worrying over the problem of integrating a young Telgoran civilian into his company of mechanized warriors.
* * *
“He doesn’t have armor! How’s he going to keep up with the rest of the unit?”
“Benson, it’s obvious you don’t know much about our planetary hosts.”
“Don’t tell me, EJ—I mean . . . Captain Justice,” Benson began. Like all of them, he was still adjusting to the recent changes in rank and authority. In his case, he had gone from being Eli’s friend and peer to being his friend and subordinate. “You’re an expert on Telgorans as well?”
“Not an expert,” Eli replied. “But I’ve just finished up some quick research.”
They were alone in his new office, so he let the lack of title slide without a second thought. Shedding their old roles and sliding into their new ranks was anything but seamless. It was a work in progress.
“Telgorans are a lot more complex than they appear at first glance. In addition to being taller than a human, they also possess quite a bit more strength.”
“Those skinny guys? No flocking way!”
“Yes, flocking way. Their arms and legs might look like they’ll break in a strong wind, but they’re . . . wiry, I guess you could say. Their muscles have been compared by human scientists to steellike bands, which makes them both incredibly strong and extremely quick. You saw how fast Free led us through the tunnels. We were sprinting, but that pace is roughly half of what they can maintain, and for much longer periods of time.”
“Whoa.”
“Yeah. I haven’t seen a Telgoran at a full sprint, so I can’t say for sure how accurate the info in our systems is, but that should be easy enough to test. I do know how strong Free is, though. He pretty much had his way with me back in the cave. I felt like a rag doll being tossed about when I grabbed his staff.”
“Looked like one too,” the lieutenant offered with a smile.
“Yeah, let’s see how well you do against him, shall we?”
“Hey, he’s an ally,” Benson argued, his hands raised in mock surrender. “Besides, if he’s going to be one of my subordinates, I’d just as soon enter into the arrangement with my ego intact.”
“Good call.” Eli grinned. It was good to know he and Benson could still joke, despite being placed onto separate rungs in the chain of command. Eli never wanted to lose that.
“So, where do we go from here?”
“I’m going to ask First Sergeant Twigg to set up a schedule so we can bring him up to speed with team maneuvers and protocols,” Eli answered. “I want you involved, so make some time. Ideally, we have him integrated fully in a few weeks.”
“That’s a bit optimistic, don’t you think?”
“Yes, but I’m not sure how much time we have. The colonel hinted we might be up for a deployment soon. Plus, we don’t have to train him on armor, so that will shorten our timeline. We also don’t need him to know everything that we learned during training—just the basics. Everything else he can pick up along the way.”
“I’d like to set up some tests to see just how quick and strong he is.”
“Good idea. Let me know when those are scheduled. I’d like to observe, if I can.”
“Will do, Captain Justice,” Benson chimed with a halfheart
ed salute and a wide grin. His emphasis on “Captain Justice” was not meant to go unnoticed. Eli understood, with a clarity that he’d never experienced, why his dad was always rolling his eyes at his own name. Having Justice as a last name was tough, but having a full name like “Grant Justice” had to be doubly bothersome and hokey. Thankfully, his father had studiously avoided any first name that was similar to his own when christening his firstborn.
“You get a kick out of saying that, don’t you?” Eli asked.
“I’m not sure what you mean, Captain Justice.”
* * *
Colonel Drah paced around the path in his too-small office and considered the device in his hands and wondered how such a thing was possible. Even the Waa, with their technological advances couldn’t match this marvel. He had been given the device, and the instructions for its use, three years earlier by the Zrthn Trade Minister, who was posted to Waa.
Drah, a major at the time, had been in charge of the Shiale Delegate’s Guard. The Guard’s purpose was to ensure the visitors’ security and to serve as local guides. That was the story offered to the Zrthns anyway. The truth was something completely different and was recognized by all parties. The real purpose of the guard was to watch over their visitors, report on their activities, and prevent them from wandering into areas where they weren’t welcome.
Drah had unfettered access to the minister, and had used it to his advantage. The long, three year wait since that final meeting seemed to be reaching a tipping point—a point Drah had worked for tirelessly since agreeing to the minister’s plan. He had lobbied for, and received, a promotion and a posting to Telgora. That posting was leveraged at every possible turn to set the stage for a change in control. Humans were a weak scourge that had somehow managed to destroy his home planet and despoil his races’ legacy. As a result, the Minith colonel was committed to their downfall with every muscle, tendon, and drop of purple blood in his body.
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