Battle of Earth

by Chloe Garner

  And he drove to base.

  Stewed quietly in the odd knowledge that there were no Palta on the planet. They had two of them, and they were both gone.

  A cadet saluted him as he went through the gate to get on base, and he nodded back, driving by habit to the portal building and badging himself in. The woman at the desk, who was required to look up when he came in to make sure that his picture matched his badge, stood.

  “Major,” she said. “Major, you have a meeting waiting for you.”

  “Why didn’t anyone call me?” Troy demanded. She shook her head.

  “They said to send you over when you got in,” she said.

  “Where?” Troy asked, turning back toward the door.

  “The General’s offices,” she said.

  Troy stopped.

  He didn’t like being this far out of the loop compared to a woman whose job it was to push a button if someone came in with a badge that wasn’t theirs, but he needed to know.

  Badly.

  “General Donovan?” he asked.

  “Gone, sir,” she said.

  He nodded.

  “Thank you.”

  He walked much more quickly out to his car and drove to the building specifically sanctioned for the base general and his staff. A man with a folder tucked under his arm met Troy at the door and showed him through to a small conference room. It was one that Donovan apparently hadn’t remodeled after he moved in, because it had all the feel of General Thompson - heavy wood door, shelves from floor to ceiling lined with ancient books, and a solid table that only sat four.

  The man with the folder closed the door behind Troy and Troy stood, looking for a moment.

  “Colonel,” he said. “Ma’am.”

  “Please sit, Major,” Senator Kate Greene said. Colonel Peterson had his elbows on the table, his sleeves rolled up to his biceps.

  “You were in Washington last night,” Troy said, sitting carefully. He lay his hat down on the table next to him.

  “Planes fly at remarkable times of day,” Senator Greene said. “Especially when you have someone resourceful like Malcolm arranging them for you.”

  Troy nodded.

  “I bet they do,” he said.

  “You get everything squared away out there, Rutger?” Peterson asked.

  “Yes, sir,” Troy answered his onetime head training officer. Paterson nodded.

  “Give ‘em hell like you did here?”

  The corner of Troy’s mouth crept up, the thought of the dwarf unconscious on the floor, the clever, impossible little device in Cassie’s hand spinning down.

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Gentlemen,” Senator Greene said. “We’re here to talk about this planet, this morning. This base, in specific.”

  Troy nodded.

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “It needs leadership,” Senator Greene said, “and I’m not going to turn it over to anyone who might decide to use it as their personal science project again. We have hearings to hold, and it’s going to take quite a while to get everything straightened out, and you have people in the line of fire, here, that we need to take care of.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Troy agreed.

  “Yes, ma’am,” Peterson echoed.

  “It’s going to be one of you,” Senator Greene said. Troy nodded.

  “I expected that,” Troy said.

  Peterson turned his head with an air of sarcasm.

  “You assumed it’d be you?”

  Troy shrugged.

  “You manned a DMZ,” Troy said, raising an eyebrow. There had actually been a pair of checkpoints between the base and jump school property. Peterson grinned.

  “Well, it’s reunification day.”

  “You’re up to it?” Senator Greene asked Peterson.

  “Hell no, all due respect, ma’am,” Peterson answered. “I’ve got my hands full rooting out everyone Donovan shoved at me as instructors. Need to actually graduate some jumpers, too.”

  “Then it’s me,” Troy said.

  “You’ve got commitments, too,” Peterson said. “We need that Jalnian.”

  “She’s gone,” Troy said, not batting an eye at the human name they’d given the Palta. He glanced over at the Senator, but didn’t address her. “She and Jesse… they didn’t come back with us.”

  “That’s what scuttlebutt on the floor said,” Peterson said. “But I didn’t believe it. I’ve heard all kinds of stories about them coming back. No one noticing them hardly seems unlikely.”

  “Cassie came back as a fish, once, sir,” Troy agreed. “But they stayed. They sent me and Olivia back on our own.”

  “Why?” Senator Greene asked.

  Troy shook his head.

  “They both knew, but they didn’t tell us,” he said.

  Probably had something to do with the fact that Jesse was in love with her, but that wasn’t the kind of thing Troy was going to speculate about, with these two.

  “And you permitted it?” Peterson asked.

  Troy laughed.

  “It’s not like I’m in charge out there, sir,” he said. “They sent us back here. They’ll come back when they’re ready to.”

  “We do need them,” Senator Greene said. “We don’t have the weapons or the intelligence to deal with foreign terrestrials coming here, and apparently that’s already happening.”

  “It wasn’t up for discussion,” Troy said. “I know that they know it’s important, which means that this is important, too.”

  It wasn’t actually true. Not really. They were Palta, which meant they were going to do whatever the hell they felt like doing, but, by virtue of being Palta, they were going to show up in the nick of time and save everyone from whatever terrible thing had been going on and was just, right this moment, ripe to shut down. It was whimsical and playful and annoying as hell, but Troy was beginning to get the hang of it.

  “So it’s settled,” Senator Greene said. “You’ll run the base as my interim senior officer, and I’ll work through the President and Congress to get someone approved as quickly as politically possible.”

  “What are you telling everyone happened?” Peterson asked. Senator Greene arched her eyebrows.

  “Misappropriation and abuse of power,” she said. “We’ll work through the individual cases, discover who knew what and when, discharge those who we can’t trust any more, and then it will all be over and things will go back to normal. You should know that Secretary Young retired last night.”

  Troy frowned, thinking it through. The base commander reported to the Secretary of the Air Force. He wasn’t sure what that was going to mean for him.

  “Everyone is going to want to know what was going on here,” he said. Senator Greene stood.

  “And that is exactly what we must not tell them,” she answered. “There’s much too much at stake for them to know how much was going on.”

  Troy looked at her for a moment, then slowly took to his own feet, taking his hat off the table and tucking it under his elbow. Was she dismissing them, inexpertly?

  “We have a tour,” she said. “I identified the individual responsible for the new facility, and they are going to, with the utmost transparency, show us, this morning, the mess that you’re going to have to clean up, Major.”

  Troy looked at Peterson, and the Colonel shrugged, picking up his own hat and going to get the door.

  “After you, ma’am,” he said. The senator walked out of the room and Troy shook his head at Peterson.

  “Under-staffed and in over our heads,” he muttered.

  “At least they stopped pouring in more water,” Peterson answered.

  *********

  Malcolm was waiting for them outside with an uptight woman with well-bound red hair.

  “Major, this is Bridgette. She’s going to be your assistant until I find a general to replace you.”

  “Um,” Troy said, looking at the woman. She narrowed her eyes a fraction and inspected him back. “I would prefer to choose my own assi
stant,” Troy said. “If I actually need one. Nothing personal.”

  “You’re going to need one,” Bridgette said. “You have no idea how to run a base.”

  “I run a multi-billion dollar lab,” Troy said. “And I did that all on my own.”

  “Your friend, Conrad Leal,” Senator Greene said. “His father is very well-respected among multiple military circles.”

  “Yes, the colonel,” Troy said.

  “His CO called me late last night and said that I was going to need an assistant for whatever poor man had to come in here and fix what broke.”

  Troy frowned.

  “How did he know?”

  “Your friend, Conrad Leal,” Senator Greene said, again, her tone unchanged. “His father is a very well-respected man in many military circles.”

  Troy shook his head.

  “I’d still like to choose an assistant from within my own staff, ma’am.”

  “You may have staff you like, and you may have staff you trust,” Bridgette said, “but you don’t have staff who can do what you need them to do. Juggle meetings, debriefings, appointments, calls, and crises. Keep the ones in front of you that you need to fix first and keep the rest away from you. I’ve assisted in two combat situations, and from what they tell me, this is going to be my third.”

  Troy stopped, taking a harder look at her.

  “You couldn’t possibly be that old,” he said. She gave him a tight smile, the corner of one eye ticking in what might have been a twinkle.

  “I am not at liberty to say,” she said. Troy looked over at Senator Greene, but she was already getting into the car that was waiting for them, with Malcolm holding the door and Peterson getting into the front seat.

  “We should get moving, sir,” Bridgette said. “There’s a lot of work to do.”

  “Name and rank,” Troy said.

  “Captain Bridgette Levine, sir,” she said, standing at attention.

  Troy licked the corner of his mouth.

  “Olivia’s gonna have a field day,” he said, turning to go to the car.

  “Olivia, sir?” she asked.

  “Civilian who used to work for me,” he said.

  “Is she the one you were off-planet with?” she asked. “The unnamed woman?”

  “Yes,” he said.

  “What relationship does she have with the Jalnians?”

  “She was there because of me,” Troy said. “Personal reasons.”

  Bridgette frowned at him.

  “What personal reasons could have possibly inspired the Jalnians to include her in the jump off-planet?”

  “You don’t have the security clearance for that answer,” Troy said. He didn’t think he could prove it, if he needed to, but it worked to keep her from asking anything else. From the outside, he could empathetically understand how it seemed critical to keep track of exactly who was involved with the Palta and why, but from the inside, it was just personal relationships. It wasn’t about security and it wasn’t about tactics. It was that Cassie had messed up his relationship with Olivia, and she’d done what she could to fix it.

  Whether or not it was going to work was going to take some time to find out.

  More importantly - or less, depending on whose perspective you took - Troy had a rather punitive contract with Cassie that precluded him from saying anything to the military about anything that happened while he was out on a jump.

  They got into the car, facing Malcolm and Senator Greene, and it rolled away from the curb. Senator Greene and Malcolm were on their phones. Bridgette took hers out.

  “I’m going to need access to your calendar so I can start organizing and tracking it,” she said.

  “I don’t… really keep one,” Troy said. She put her phone down in her lap.

  “Excuse me?”

  “Donovan cut him off from all meaningful work on base as punishment for not helping control the Jalnian,” Senator Greene said absently.

  How did she know all this? A day and a half ago, none of them had known anything. Troy had spent all of three hours off planet and six hours asleep, and suddenly he was a universe of knowledge behind.

  “Then I’ll create a new one and send you the access information to it when I’m done,” Bridgette said. “I need you to log me into your e-mail.”

  She handed him her phone, and Troy mentally reviewed security protocol.

  “She has explicit clearance for anything you are allowed to send by e-mail,” Senator Greene said.

  The woman with the tight red hair raised one eyebrow at him and he shook his head, putting in his identification and his password. He didn’t use his e-mail for much, anymore, either.

  Bridgette clicked her tongue and scrolled.

  “Anything that you don’t want me to read, you should put into a private folder,” she said. “But I wouldn’t recommend it. I can help reschedule your personal schedule around your obligations on base.”

  “Okay…” Troy said.

  “Takes some time to get used to having someone else manage your schedule for you,” Senator Greene said, still without looking up. “But you’ll find it saves you considerable energy.”

  The car stopped a moment later at a fenced checkpoint and Peterson rolled down his window to show the Airman stationed there his credentials.

  “They don’t use cadets?” Troy asked as Peterson started to roll his window back up.

  “You have been gone a long time,” Senator Greene said. “This is Donovan’s private playground. Security here is tight, and up until yesterday, you couldn’t have gotten in.”

  “How did you do that?” Troy asked. The senator glanced up, now.

  “Malcolm, of course,” she said. “I told him I wanted him to find all of the barriers and knock them down.”

  Malcolm shifted, looking behind him as a building Troy had never seen before came into view. If he wasn’t mistaken, the last time Troy had been aware of this space, it had been a corn crop.

  “My speed dial is filled with amazingly useful people,” Malcolm said. “We’re here, ma’am.”

  The car stopped and everyone got out. Troy looked up at the three-story building, mostly concrete and glass, and shook his head.

  “How did they get this up out here without anyone knowing?”

  “Airtight NDAs,” Senator Greene said. A man came out of the building, a Major by his insignia, and he saluted Peterson, then offered his hand in handshake to Senator Greene.

  “Major White,” Senator Greene said, putting away her phone and shaking his hand. “I’m very glad you were able to meet with us.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” he said. “I don’t… really know where to start, ma’am. No one has actually seen all of the facility. There’s a lot that’s off-limits even in the regular portal room.”

  “Regular portal room?” Troy asked. Major White nodded.

  “Yes,” he said, motioning to the building. “This is the secondary portal room.”

  Troy felt his mouth drop open.

  “Well, damn.”

  *********

  Roasted meat, seasoned with salt and herbs that Cassie had never had before, and set on fire using a rendered fat that had a warm, buttery flavor.

  “They really are good here,” Cassie told Troy, serving herself a portion of the meat and settling into her chair quite contentedly.

  “Calista du Charme,” Troy said. “It’s time.”

  She closed her eyes, feeling the way the cold washed around inside of her, sloshing when she walked, when she moved, when she thought about it.

  “So,” she said. “Sirens can possess people.”

  Troy blinked.

  “That’s why they didn’t know how to describe what happened,” he said. “Tell me more.”

  “If she’s just raw energy and she likes water, my body is going to do just fine for her, for the time being, but I’m pretty sure neither of us are going to be happy about it, in the long term.”

  He shook his head.

  “I’ve never he
ard of it before. Why would she even do it?”

  “Because she needs help,” Cassie said. “And she found a Palta. And it seems like a disproportionate ratio of species in the universe know that, if you can get a Palta’s attention and get them to help you, your odds of success go way up.”

  “What did she say to you?” Jesse asked.

  “Help me,” Cassie answered, stabbing her meat with a two-tined fork-cousin and chewing on it with satisfaction. Yes, it was about as crude a meal as a place like this was going to be willing to stoop to serving, but it reminded her of the steaks at Cal’s the night before a jump. Just a happy memory.

  “You suppose they’ve got hot sauce?” she asked. Troy shook his head.

  “Not that kind of a place. I’ve never heard of a siren being anywhere but the water. It’s not going to be a good biological fit for her.”

  “No,” said Cassie, “I’m too warm by a lot.”

  Troy frowned.

  “They do prefer colder water. They’re okay in hot tropic water, but… No, you’re right. It’s also that they form a field. As a group. I don’t know how well she’s adapted to being alone.”

  Cassie turned her attention inward again, feeling it out.

  The sloshiness.

  It wasn’t just a sense of gravity and water. It was unstable energy.

  “Tell me more about them,” Cassie said.

  “They’re performers,” Troy said. “They actually do sing, but they’re very elite. You have to be someone special to have them show up on command and perform. They wander, some, so there are a lot of people out there who have caught glimpses of them, but…”

  He licked his lips. He was watching something in his mind.

  “They performed on Palta,” Cassie said. “Routinely.”

  He nodded.

  “Only the best ones. They have beautiful voices. And they’re beautiful to watch. Getting tickets to see them wasn’t easy, but I did manage to go a few times.”

  “Wouldn’t have thought they were your style,” Cassie said, and he shrugged.

  “That’s why I only went a few times. I preferred to be… Well, doing other things.”

  Cassie nodded.

  The list of things that that could have been was intriguing to her. She wanted to tie him down to a chair and pull them out of him with a fishing line full of hooks, but it wouldn’t have worked.