Duty from Ashes

by Sam Schal

  Without another word, Shaw led Joss through to the next cabin. As he stepped through the hatch, Joss felt his eyes go wide at the sight that greeted him. Laid out on several makeshift tables was more food than he had seen at one time since his last leave. More enticing than all the food were the steaming pots of coffee and tea that invited him to all but dive in. Not quite sure what he should do, he looked to the Colonel for guidance. A smile that held an understanding he didn’t understand, she reached for a mug and poured a cup of coffee. Taking that as his cue, Joss did the same. Then he brought the mug to his lips, inhaling the rich aroma before carefully sipping.

  “The medics have left some very explicit orders for you, Donnelly” she began, motioning him to one of the benches against the bulkhead. “You are to shower and change. Then you are to eat your fill. Once you have, Admiral Collins wants to meet with you.”

  “But—“

  Part of him wanted to do exactly as Shaw said. But another part rebelled. He was an officer of the Fuerconese Navy. That meant his duty was to give the Admiral his briefing first, before seeing to his own needs.

  “Donnelly – Joss, more than anyone else here, I know what you’re feeling right now,” Shaw said and a cloud seemed to pass over her expression. Then it was gone. “Believe me, the Admiral knows the medic’s orders and agrees. It’s out of your hands. So eat your fill and then we’ll get you into some clean clothes.”

  “Colonel.”

  “Look at it this way. You want to make sure your people from the Tarrant are all right. You want to deal with Kasun and his people, to let them see that they didn’t break you and the others. And you want to reassure your brother that you’re all right. Does that sound about right?”

  A nod was all he could manage.

  “Then do as the medics want. The sight of you, the filth of this place washed off and dressed in a clean uniform, will do more to reassure your people and your brother than anything else you could do or say. As for Kasun and the others, well, seeing you in a clean uniform and back among your own will have more of an impact on them than you going in looking bedraggled and hungry.”

  She was right. That didn’t make it any easier though. Still, he would be better prepared for what he needed to do after eating.

  “All right,” he agreed. “But I’m not sure there’s enough coffee on this shuttle to make up for all of it I’ve missed since the Tarrant was attacked.”

  Laughing, Shaw reached out and snagged one of the carafes and topped off his mug. Then, leaning back, she took a moment to study him.

  “You’ll do, Donnelly. You’ll do.” She lifted her mug in salute. “And I promise, there is more than enough coffee for all of you. If not, I’ll make sure we scrounge some up for you. Now you’d best eat something before the medics come in and have both our heads.”

  Half an hour later, dressed in a fresh uniform, Joss watched as the lift doors slid open. He waited as first Colonel Shaw and then Captain Ortega stepped into the corridor. Then, as the next highest ranking officer, he followed. Close on his heels were Master Gunnery Sergeant Talbot and two Marine ratings.

  Memory of the corridor filled him and his breath caught in his throat. He breathed deeply, fighting for calm. He knew this corridor well, too well. Nothing good ever happened down here. At least this time he wasn’t in chains. It wasn’t his nightmare he was walking into.

  He hoped.

  * * *

  Hearing the door to the room slide open, Collins turned. His expression lit at the sight before him. Ashlyn Shaw and the other Devil Dogs looked ready to handle anything that might happen. They were the muscle. The sword to strike down anyone or anything foolish enough to try to attack. If all went right over the next hour or so, all they would have to do is stand there and put the fear of God in the former Occupation Governor. If something happened, well, he knew enough to keep out of the way as they handled it.

  But it was the sight of Lt. Joss Donnelly that reassured him. Six hours of sleep, as well as food, a shower, change of clothes and medical treatment had eased some of the doubt and distrust from his expression. It would take time for him to get over all that had happened but he would. At least Collins hoped he would.

  “What do you think, Lieutenant?” he asked, motioning to the screen in front of him.

  Donnelly moved to stand beside him, his attention fully focused on the image he indicated. A low growl, no other word could really describe the sound, escaped his lips and he nodded in satisfaction. For not the first time, Collins wondered exactly what Kasun and those under his command had done to the POWs. But this was neither the time nor the place to go into it.

  “It’s fitting, Sir.” Joss said softly. “He would have us taken in there to be questioned. But, as you can see, it is really more for his own amusement.”

  Joss nodded to the various instruments that hung on the wall behind Kasun’s chair. As he did, it was Collins who all but growled in anger. Joss had just confirmed his fears. Now he wanted nothing more than to use some of those same instruments on the man responsible for the injury and deaths of so many others. But he couldn’t, no matter how badly he wanted to. But he could do something else, something he felt sure would scare Kasun as much.

  “Are you ready to face him, Lieutenant?”

  “Yes, Sir.”

  For a long moment, Collins studied the younger man. The last thing he could afford was for Joss to do something foolish. Then he nodded in satisfaction. He saw Joss’ anger, even his thirst for vengeance. But he also saw young man’s control, a control that was almost as scary as his need for revenge because of how it had been forged.

  “Then let’s go.”

  With that he led Joss out of the room, Ashlyn and the other Devil Dogs on their heels. As they entered the interrogation room, Collins had to fight to hold back a laugh of satisfaction. Almost against his will, Kasun had turned his head to see who had entered. The fear that leapt onto his expression had been priceless, especially as the man’s eyes locked on Joss. Then Kasun began struggling helplessly against the metal bands securing him to the chair, all but keening in panic as he realized just how helpless his situation was.

  While Collins moved to sit at the opposite end of the table, Joss walked to stand behind his former captor. Collins eyed him warily, not sure what the lieutenant had in mind. Then, as he gave an almost imperceptible signal to Ashlyn to stand ready, he began to relax. Instead of acting, Joss simply stood there, his eyes never leaving the top of the former governor’s head. That was enough. Sweat pricked out on Kasun’s face and he turned pleading eyes to the Admiral.

  “K-keep him away from me!”

  “Quiet!” Collins snapped in return. Kasun flinched, biting his lip to keep as if to keep from saying anything else. “Lieutenant Donnelly is here at my request not only to represent the POWs but to also make sure you tell us the truth.

  “Now, you were told yesterday that the only way to insure we didn’t leave you here to face your own people was to give us the access codes to the computers. That meant all the computers. It seems you failed to do that. I’m going to give you ten seconds to comply.”

  “All right,” Kasun sobbed, rattling off a series of commands one of the Marines took note of.

  “Now, are there any POWs, either Cassian or Fuerconese, on planet housed anywhere besides here?”

  “No!”

  “He lies, Sir,” Joss said simply, coldly.

  “I said, no lies.” Collins pinned the man with a steely look.

  Before he could continue, Collins sucked in a breath in fear. Joss had leaned over Kasun, his hands sliding down the man’s shoulders and across his chest. Then he put his mouth next to the man’s ear and whispered something that drained all the color from his face. A thin line of spittle dribbled from one corner of Kasun’s mouth and his eyes all but rolled back in their sockets. Joss whispered something else and then straightened, leaving his hands on the man’s shoulders.

  What happened then was something Collins would
never forget. Kasun began speaking so rapidly he had to tell him to slow down. The former governor listed several other locations, remote sites, where POWs who had been selected to be sent off-planet as slaves were taken to be trained. Once he was done, Kasun collapsed against his bonds, sobbing uncontrollably.

  “You bastard,” Joss said softly, venom all but dripping from her voice. “If anyone else has died because of you, I will make sure your worst nightmares come true.”

  Listening to him, Collins swallowed hard. The hatred in Joss’ voice spoke volumes. Whatever had happened since the destruction of the Tarrant had left a mark on the young man, one that would be a long time in healing.

  “Captain, let’s leave it now to Colonel Shaw and her people. They’ll keep us informed of the status in the search for the other locations,” Collins suggested as Joss moved almost reluctantly away from Kasun.

  “Sir, I’d like to accompany them,” Joss said. “Please.”

  “No, Lieutenant. I need you to remain here.”

  “Admiral, you don’t understand. I need to do this.”

  “Joss,” Ashlyn began, taking a step toward him.

  Collins watched as Joss turned to her. For a moment, rebellion filled the lieutenant’s eyes. Then he inhaled deeply and nodded once. At the same time, he stepped away from Kasun. The moment he did, Talbot motioned for the two ratings to take the lieutenant’s place.

  “Yes, ma’am?”

  ‘Joss, I’ve been where you are. I’ve been a prisoner, completely at another’s mercy, unable to help myself much less those I was responsible for. God knows how much I’ve wanted to be able to get vengeance on those responsible for what happened to me and to them.”

  Collins waited, wondering how Joss would react. When he didn’t say anything, Ashlyn continued.

  “Right now, you need to stand down. It is my job to make sure those responsible for what happened to the Tarrant and to the Cassians are taken into custody. Believe me, FleetCom will take care of them.” Now she reached out and lightly rested her right hand on his arm. “LT, what’s going to happen isn’t your kind of mission. I’m sorry but you would be a distraction and a liability. I can’t let you go with us.”

  “Colonel Shaw is right, Donnelly,” Collins said. “But, so you know what’s happening, we’ll make sure you’re tied into the battle-net. That way you can monitor the mission. Will that be satisfactory?”

  “Just find them and then take us home,” he said softly. “Please.”

  “Lieutenant, nothing would give me greater pleasure,” Collins assured him. “Colonel, will you see to it that he’s tied into the ‘net?”

  “Of course, Sir.”

  “Very well. We will let you continue the interrogation, Colonel. Keep me informed if the governor has anything else of import to say.”

  “Roger that, Sir.” She paused and looked at Donnelly. “With your permission, Admiral, I’ll leave Captain Ortega to conduct the interrogation while I get the rest of Alpha Company ready to follow up on the information he gave us about the other POWs.”

  “Very good, Colonel. See to it.” He nodded and started out of the room. At the door he stopped and turned back. “Donnelly, you’re with me.”

  It was better to remove the lieutenant from the temptation to do something foolish than to leave him there.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  DAMN THEM ALL to Hell and back again!

  Evan Moreau angrily paced up and down the length of her office. She desperately wanted to throw back her head and scream in frustration. That bitch Ashlyn Shaw and her supporters had done it to her again. Despite everything she had done to find out what FleetCom and the government had planned, they had managed to send a mission to the Cassius System without word of it leaking until it was too late. Now, not only had FleetCom sent ships in an attempt to break the interdiction around the system, they had managed to liberate the system and retake Cassius Prime. Worse, the Devil Dogs, under Shaw’s leadership, had played a major role in it all.

  That was bad enough. Worse was the fact that her employer would not take kindly to finding out that her government sources had apparently dried up. If she could no longer pass along information about what Harper and his allies planned before they managed to put it into action, she lost much of her value to those who currently employed her. Worse, if they decided to make an example of those they held responsible for the loss of the Cassius System, she knew her life would be forfeit.

  Damn it!

  But they hadn’t beaten her. Not yet. She still had sources she could squeeze. Better yet, she had people she could offer up to her employers in her stead, starting with that idiot Kannady. All she had to do was stay one step ahead of everyone. She’d made a living doing just that for years and she wasn’t about to stumble now.

  First things first. She would make sure those arrested in connection to the false charges against Shaw received another reminder about what would happen if they even thought about cooperating with the authorities. O’Brien was still confined to the medical ward. So he was out of reach. Too many questions would be asked if anything else happened to Sorkowski. But there were others who could be used.

  Yes, that would work and it would satisfy her employers that she had at least that part of her assignment under control. As for the rest of it, she’d simply be proactive. She’d send a report tonight to her handler outlining how one of her political contacts had betrayed her by giving her bad information. It would mean sacrificing that contact, so she needed to be careful about who she named. Not that it really mattered as long as it bought her time to cover her own tracks.

  She poured and drink and stared at the amber liquid in her glass. How had things gone so wrong so quickly? It was rare when she was caught this much off-guard. She had to find her center again and do so quickly. Either that or she had to go off-world. If she didn’t, she had a feeling her days were numbered.

  The only problem was she didn’t know by whom.

  * * *

  “Donnelly, I need a moment of your time,” Admiral Collins said as he entered prefab that served as field hospital until they could transport the POWs shipboard.

  Three days had passed since Task Force 119 retook Cassius Prime. Since then, the Devil Dogs has been scouring the Capital, looking for any of the invaders that had managed to slip away in the confusion of the initial attack. Now, as they were slowly returning the POWs to their families and helping the surviving members of the government figure out just where the System stood, Collins knew it was time to start thinking about sending the survivors from the Tarrant home.

  The one truly negative note from the last three days came from Ashlyn Shaw. She had led Alpha Company as they attempted to locate the remote compounds Kasun told them about. Unfortunately, when the Callusian overseers learned they were surrounded, they had killed their prisoners and then themselves. Forty seven POWs, half a dozen of them from the Tarrant, had died and Collins would never forgive himself for not getting to them sooner.

  Now, standing in the field hospital, Collins frowned and shook his head in resignation. Medical teams from every ship in the taskforce had been working around the clock to treat the POWs, civilian and military alike. Even so, too many of them were so badly injured they might not recover.

  They had learned from Kasun’s records that close to three dozen crewmembers from the Tarrant had been picked up after they’d abandoned ship. Most of the rest of the crew had died when the Callusian ships had simply destroyed their escape pods. Of those three dozen, only a dozen still survived. But they had fared better than the embassy staff had. The Callusians had killed most of the Marines assigned to guard Fuercon’s embassy. Only four Marines still lived and the civilian staff hadn’t fared much better.

  “Yes, Sir?” Ryan Donnelly asked as he braced to attention.

  Collins put him at his ease before continuing. “How’s your brother?”

  “Sir?” His brow furrowed in question.

  “Son, I know you’ve been spending
as much time as you can with your brother. Colonel Shaw has been keeping me informed. What I need to know is how your brother is and if he’s said anything about what happened to him and his shipmates that I need to know?”

  “Honestly, sir?”

  Collins nodded and waited for the young man to continue.

  “I’d gladly give up my career, even my life, to kill Kasun, Peltier and all the others for what they’ve done to him,” Donnelly said.

  “I happen to agree. But that’s the last thing we can do, no matter how badly we want to. Not yet at any rate.”

  “I can’t say I like it, Sir, but I do understand.”

  “Frankly, Donnelly, I don’t agree either but we have no other choice right now. If we do anything else, we will prove ourselves no better than the Callusians.” He pinned the young man with a firm look and held his gaze until he nodded reluctantly.

  “Now” Collins continued. “I really do need you to answer my question.”

  For a long moment, Donnelly said nothing. Then he blew out a breath. “Sir, I think Joss is damned lucky to be alive. He tried to argue when Lt. Commander Sykes ordered the bridge crew to abandon ship. It’s a miracle his escape pod wasn’t one of those destroyed by the enemy and it’s a miracle those sadistic bastards didn’t kill him later. It’s going to take him time to get over what happened, but he will.”

  “I happen to agree,” Collins said. “But has he told you anything you think I need to know.”

  “No, Sir. To be honest, he hasn’t said much of anything about what happened to him. He asks about his people, even the civilian POWs, but that’s about it. As I said, it is going to take time for him to get over what happened.”

  Collins frowned. He understood. He had seen too many of their people after they’d spent time as guests of the Callusians. The enemy had turned torture, mental and physical, into an art form. No one who spent more than a very short time in their custody emerged unscathed. Not that it helped the taskforce just then. They needed to know if the Callusians were going to be sending more ships to the system anytime soon. Until reinforcements arrived from Fuercon and their allies, they risked losing the system again if the enemy sent a large enough force.