At the bridesmaid’s table, Miriam took over, thanking each of them, women she’d only met the week before when she’d arrived. Noah and Skeets stood to the side, out of the way.
“Good wedding,” Skeets said. “Thanks for inviting me.”
“You seem to be doing OK for yourself,” Noah said.
“Hell, Noah. Look at her,” he said, nodding his head to indicate Ruth. “And I can’t help it if she thinks I’m a Prime Alpha Stud.”
“Grubbing hell, Skeets. Only you think that,” Noah said, punching his friend in the arm.
“Just ‘cause you’ve got the cream of the crop here, doesn’t mean I can’t try for the second hottest girl around.”
Yeah, I do have the cream of the crop at that, Noah thought as he watched his wife thank each bridesmaid.
Finally, they were at the head table. A few more minutes and they could leave. Noah shook hands with his Uncle Barret and got kissed by his Aunt Lysa. Noah had no idea how he was actually related to most of his “aunts” and “uncles” within the Torritite community. Uncle Caleb was his mother’s brother, so he knew that, but most of the time the title was simply honorary. But his Aunt Lysa was his father’s sister and Barret her husband. Lysa, along with her children, were the last blood relatives he and Esther knew of on their father’s side of the family.
“Thank you for coming,” Noah told his aunt.
“It’s been our pleasure, Noah,” she said, taking his face in her hands. “You remind me so much of your father, you know.”
To you I’m my father, to Grandmama, I’m my mother.
Uncle Barret slid the key fob into his hand when they shook, saying, “It’s the red Hyundai Tonora in the reserved parking. Just have Miriam keep it until she leaves so she can get around.”
His grandmother had told him his uncle was lending him the Tonora, but he hadn’t been sure how to approach the man to ask about it, so that was a relief. His aunt and uncle were wealthy, and lending him the car wouldn’t put them out, but it was a big boon to Noah and his sergeant’s salary.
He turned to see Miriam and Esther, arms around each other, speaking quietly. Noah had the feeling that Esther didn’t quite approve of his wife, and he was happy to see them chatting. He felt that if they just got to know each other, they’d learn to like each other.
Noah took the opportunity to hug his grandmother, saying, “Thanks so much. We couldn’t have pulled this off without you.”
“Like I told you, this was for us. I know you wanted to go the easy way, and I know you don’t follow all of our customs, so I be thanking you.
“But go say goodbye to your sister and take your bride to the Westin,” she said, referring to the Dry Falls Westin, where they had a room for their wedding night. She pulled him close and whispered into his ear, “Light up her G-bud.”
“Grandmama!” he shouted, pulling back in shock.
First Miriam, and now Grandmama? What’s going on?
Esther and Miriam looked at them in surprise, while his grandmother struggled to hold back a smile.
And suddenly, Noah had to laugh. He’d thought Miriam had slipped “My O” past his grandmother, but the old lady had been too quick on the uptake. She’d known from the beginning, most likely, the lyrics to the song, and she’d played along.
Both his sister and wife were looking at him with questions in their eyes, but he ignored them, still chuckling as he took Esther’s hand.
“Thanks so much, Ess. This was really important to us.”
“Like I said on Tarawa, we’re family, you and I. Now with you too, Miriam,” she added. “I was happy to come.”
“We’re getting ready to leave for the Westin. Are we going to see you tomorrow?”
“Miriam just invited me to join you two for dinner tomorrow night. Is that OK?”
“If Miriam invited you, I guess you’re invited,” Noah said.
“Smart boy, little brother. You keep that attitude up, and you’ll be OK.”
Noah rolled his eyes, then asked, “You’re going back on Tuesday?”
“I think I’ll hang around until the weekend, you know, catching up with the family. Aunt Lysa wants me to meet the cousins, and I think I will.”
After their parents had been killed, Esther had pulled away from the family on Prophesy while Noah had spent a year there. The fact that Esther wanted to re-connect was welcomed news to him.
“That’s great, Ess. I think you’ll find that—.”
Esther reached out a hand and put a forefinger on his lips, saying, “Once he gets going, Miriam, it’s sometimes hard to get him to shut up. Just take your husband and get out of here before he starts spouting obscure historical facts about the planet.”
What? Noah thought before it hit him, and he could feel his face redden. I’m not that bad, am I?
“We’ll talk tomorrow, Ess, OK?” Miriam said as she took Noah’s hand and starting leading him off. “And now, Mr. Lysander, will you get me the hell out of here so we can do some serious connubial consummation?”
“Your wish is my command, Mz. Lysander, your wish is my command!”
QUINTERO CRAG
Chapter 17
“Keep your head down,” Miriam said, her hands on Noah’s hips.
Noah could see the worry on her face, despite her obvious attempts to hide it.
“I will. And don’t worry. The Anvil will keep us safe.”
The tanks hadn’t kept the Alpha Company Marines safe, but he didn’t bother to mention that.
Alpha Company had been on Novyy Ural for four months, a blocking force between the two opposing sides. Things had seemingly quieted down, and Charlie had been relieved as the Hot Alert by Bravo, then just re-assumed it two weeks prior. Yesterday, Novyy Ural time, things had fallen apart. The details weren’t too clear yet, or at least, the word hadn’t been passed down to the rank and file, but a hot-headed grandstanding had resulted in a skirmish between the Pytor Velikiy naval infantry and the Novyy militia, one that Alpha Company had tried to break up. Caught in the middle, four of the company’s Davises had been destroyed, with six Marines KIA.
The orders were given, and Charlie was deploying to the planet to reinforce Alpha. They’d be joined by a mechanized infantry company and a section of arty a week after arriving, but with the situation still unsure, this was being treated as a combat insertion.
Noah put his hand on Miriam’s belly. Sometimes, he thought he could feel the baby inside, despite everyone telling him it was too early.
“You just take care of yourself. If you think working is too much for you, go ahead and quit. We can manage.”
With them officially married, Noah was now receiving a married allowance. It wasn’t much, but they could squeak by on his pay if they had to.
She put her hand over his and said, “Don’t worry about me. Women have been working and having babies for hundreds of thousands of years. I’ll be fine. You just make sure you’re back before he’s born.”
“That’s in five months, Miriam. We should have this wrapped up by then.”
“You’d better hope you’re right. I don’t want to go through this alone.”
Noah pulled her into a hug. Over her shoulder, he could see the Marines and sailors standing around, many with families gathered around with the single and geographic bachelor Marines and sailors gathering in loose groups.
Just a couple of meters behind Miriam, the first sergeant was sitting cross-legged on the ground, one of her four children sitting in her lap, another standing, his hands on her shoulder, while she read a book to them. Her husband, a former corporal himself, if the rumors were correct, stood silently, a tiny red-headed girl asleep in his arms. He looked resigned, but the oldest child, a skinny, frizzled-haired girl of maybe seven, looked like she wanted nothing of this, of her mother leaving.
Miriam’s belly was up against him, and he wondered about his future son inside of her. They’d known his gender for over a month now, but neither of them had suggested a name ye
t. If Noah reenlisted again after this enlistment was up, would his son understand when he deployed? Would he resent his father leaving in the same way that the first sergeant’s daughter was resenting her deployment?
One of his earliest memories was crying with Esther while his father left on a deployment. Time had a way of fuzzifying memories, and he wasn’t sure if he was crying because his father was going to be gone for a long time or if it was because their birthday party celebration was going to be postponed. Whatever the reason, he remembered crying, and he remembered the look on his mother’s face as the bus that was taking his father to the shuttleport pulled out.
“Hey, Miriam,” Chili said, walking up behind Noah. “You doing OK?”
“Yeah, no problem. It’ll be good to have some freedom for a while. Noah’s been trying to wait on me hand and foot since we found out I was pregnant.”
Noah didn’t buy that for a moment, and he was sure Chili didn’t either.
“Enjoy your freedom, ’cause I think we’ll be back before you know it,” Chili said.
“I hope so,” Miriam said quietly.
“Check out the first sergeant,” Chili said. “Four kids.”
“What? You’re her gunner, and you didn’t know that?”
“Hell, I knew she had kids, but she’s pretty tight-lipped about her personal life. This is the first time I’ve seen them . . . or him.”
Noah didn’t need him to specify who “him” was. He’d been checking out the first sergeant’s husband, too. First Sergeant St. Cloud had proven to be a hard-ass, a polar opposite from the skipper. She wasn’t unreasonable, and Noah respected her, but she could make life tough for her Marines. When he’d heard that she was married, and that her husband might have served as a Marine, he’d wondered what kind of man would have ended up being her husband. “Pussy whipped” was the crude term thrown about when conversation drifted that way.
He wasn’t talking much, simply standing beside her, but he seemed like any other guy. Give him a high-and-tight and a uniform, and he would fit right in with the rest.
There was the whine of hover fans, and everyone looked up. A moment later, a line of three buses entered the quad. It was time.
“I’m serious. Keep your head down,” Miriam said hugging him tighter. “No hero bullshit.”
“Don’t worry. Nothing’s going to happen to me.”
“Easy for you to say.”
“Charlie Company, say your goodbyes and mount up. We’ve got a zero-one-thirty liftoff,” Gunny Michealson shouted out.
“Hurry up and wait,” Chili said, checking the time. “We’ll be sitting on the apron for three hours, mark my word.”
There was a general movement towards the buses, initially with the single Marines, then as the stick leaders scanned them off, the married Marines and sailors started to break away from their loved ones.
Miriam wasn’t letting go, however, and Noah was fine with that. He could feel her tears, hot on his neck. The first sergeant was saying her goodbyes, and the smallest boy suddenly wasn’t having any of it. He grabbed her leg, looking up at her with tears in his eyes. Her husband stepped in, kneeling, and after a few words, the little boy released her leg and took a step back, hand clasped together, tears still welling.
“I’ll meet you on the bus,” Chili said.
“Take care, Chill-man,” Miriam said, her mouth muffled by Noah’s shoulder.
“I will. You know me.”
The first sergeant hugged each of her kids, then her husband, giving him a surprisingly passionate kiss.
Why am I surprised? he wondered. He’s her husband.
It seemed like she tore herself away, and then the first sergeant he knew, the hard-ass, hard-charging Marine, reappeared as if turning a switch.
“OK, Sergeant Lysander, time to go,” she said as she caught him looking at her.
With a sigh, Noah leaned back and with his hand on the top of her head, tilted her back and gave Miriam a deep kiss. He could taste the salty tears, and she returned his kiss with passion.
“I’ve got to go,” he told her, dropping his hands.
She gave him one more hug, then released him.
“Come back,” she said.
Noah turned and went to the second bus. His gear had been put into the mount-out boxes and was already on its way. All he had was his assault pack with what he needed for the transit. Staff Sergeant Cremineli was the stick leader, and he scanned off Noah with an “About time, Lysander.”
Noah spotted Chili, who’d staked out two seats on the right side of the bus, leaving him the window seat.
“Thanks, bud.”
They waited on the buses for another ten minutes while two more checks were made to make sure everyone was onboard, which was ridiculous as their wrist chips could simply be scanned again, but sometimes, the Corps worked in mysterious ways. Or as Lessa liked to remind them, if the Corps did something inane like this, it was because at another time, Marines had screwed it up. That was probably true, even if Noah couldn’t imagine how a chip scan could have gotten screwed up.
Finally, the numbers must have matched, because the bus lifted off the deck and slowly started moving. Noah could see Miriam standing next to the first sergeant’s husband, waving. A few of the Marines from the left side of the bus crowded over to the right to wave to their loved ones, but Noah had an unobstructed view thanks to Chili.
And then they were leaving the quad, on their way to a potential fight.
NOVYY URAL
Chapter 18
“We’re up,” Noah told Staff Sergeant Cremineli.
“About time. I’ll report it in.”
“About time,” you say? It might have gone quicker if you’d helped Jankowski and me, he thought sourly.
Davis tanks were transported powered and locked down. The fusion generators were turned off, and no fewer than 284 digital and manual switches were thrown to keep the tank as rigid as possible during transit. Upon arrival, the generator had to be powered up, which took almost two hours in and of itself, and each of the lock downs had to be released. Many of them had to be released in particular order, and most of the manual releases required special tools to turn them. The bottom line was that with the two Marines clambering over and inside the Anvil, sometimes contorting themselves enough to make a circus performer proud, it had taken close to seven hours to make the Anvil combat ready.
Noah sucked on his bloodied knuckles, courtesy of balky releases in confined spaces, and resisted making a comeback. Cremineli knew he hadn’t helped with the scutwork, so nothing Noah would have said would render the TC suddenly apologetic.
At least the Anvil was in good shape. For a piece of very robust equipment, tanks often had issues after interplanetary transport, which made no sense to any armor Marine. The Navy had huge ships that flew through space, and simply sitting in a ship’s hold could affect a tank’s calibrations? But the Anvil’s readings were all far into the green, exactly as they’d been back on base. She was ready to go to war.
And she might have to. Charlie was moving out in the morning to take a position where Alpha had been hit. Nine Alpha tanks were still out there, trying to keep the two sides apart.
Noah looked over to the opposite ramp. Two of the Alpha tanks had been deadlined—they were not repair-worthy. Another two were now being fixed, or at least, the attempt was being made. One had its 90mm torn right off. Normally, a damaged cannon could simply be replaced with one of the other three systems, and Alpha had brought three of each with them. However, in this case, whatever had blown off the 90mm had torn the coupling ring out of the tank as well. When Noah had first seen it today, he’d been sure that if it was ever going to fight again, it would have to go back to the factory. But the Cat 4 crew was working hard on it, and they wouldn’t be wasting time if they thought it was beyond them.
The Roar’s gunner, Olia Destaffney, had been killed when the tank was hit, and she’d been damaged too much for resurrection. Noah hadn’t really kn
own her well, but the fact that she was a gunner hit him hard. Of Alpha’s six KIA, three had been gunners.
Both the Novies and the Peters, as the Alpha Marines had taken to calling them, had thrown accusations at the other side for starting the skirmish, and they had accused the other side for hitting Alpha, but it was pretty clear that the Peters had fired the shots that had taken out the four tanks.
Not that Charlie Company could take any punitive action. No public acknowledgment was to be made, and Charlie’s mission was to keep the two sides apart, just as Alpha’s had been.
And look where that got them.
“Go get cleaned up, Ski,” Noah told his driver. “And get some chow. We’ll be on field rats for the next whatever.”
Jankowski nodded, then wiped his own bloody knuckles on his tank suit, leaving two red bloody swathes on each thigh.
Noah shook his head and said, “And go get Doc to clean you up. Your nanos can’t fight off every infection with you grinding the crud in.”
He hopped off the Anvil, giving her a pat on the nose. She would be all he had between the two sides to keep him safe.
Chapter 19
“I’ve grubbing got you,” Noah said, hitting the tag command as his AI registered the myriad of details about the vehicle that would enable it to locate and target it if given the command.
The small armored car had too many transmitters on it. He was sure this was the elusive command car for the Novie forces facing them. He felt it in his bones.
Noah's Story: Marine Tanker (The United Federation Marine Corps' Lysander Twins Book 3) Page 12