“Take it easy, Ryck. I’ve got it,” Sams assured him.
Sams might be able to run things, but this was still Ryck’s responsibility. He was the one who was tasked with extracting the civilians.
A shadow flitted across the grass, and it took a moment for Ryck to realize what it was. Two Navy Experions were making a run over the plateau. Of course! The shuttles would not come in without an escort!
At that moment, Gutierrez and Caruthers opened fire down the slope. Ryck heard the sharp report of one of the blunderbusses. The capys had to be almost to the plateau. Ryck scanned the sky, but no shuttle was in sight. Even with one on approach, it would be too late. They couldn’t board it in time.
I’m an idiot! he berated himself. We can’t get into a Navy fighter, but they’re pretty powerful birds, even within the atmosphere.
Ryck turned on his monocle, hoping he had comms with the fighters. Nothing. Well, he had something else.
“Sams, the fighters are coming in for another pass, probably just to count us. I want everybody up and pointing to the slope where the capys are. Have them jump, have them scream, but point!
“Rancer, can you throw? You ever play ball?”
“Yeah, handball at my uni,” Rancer said, looking puzzled at the question.
“Take these,” Ryck said, lighting off two of the flares. “Wait until the fighters are almost over us, then toss these over the edge and down into the trees. Toss them high, so they arch. Don’t wait too long, don’t throw early. The fighter pilots have to see them. Think you can do it?”
“Hell, yeah I can!” he said, taking the flares.
“Do it, then!”
Ryck watched Rancer run almost to the edge of the plateau. He stopped and looked back, watching for the Experions.
The two fighters came back down to overfly them. The civilians all started jumping up and down. Not all were really pointing in the right direction, or pointing at all, to be honest. But Ryck hoped it was enough.
“Now!” he shouted at Rancer, but the man had already leaned back and thrown the first one.
It arched up, a bright red beacon, before falling out of sight into the trees below. He threw the second one, pushing it up higher. Ryck had envisioned both at once, but this made more sense. It gave the pilots a better chance to spot them.
The Experions pulled into an immediate climb. Had they seen the flares? Did they understand the message?
“Frack it!” Gutierrez shouted, jumping up and down, holding an arm. “Pull back five, then let them have it as soon as they poke their noses over the edge!”
The two Marines and two civilians stepped back from the edge and got down, ready to take on the first capys to make it up.
Caruthers reached into a pocket and pulled out a toad. He lit it off, then tossed it over the edge. Throwing blind didn’t give him a good chance to hit one of them, but any action was better than inaction.
Ryck looked back up, trying to see the fighters. The sky was clear. Had they gone?
A low rumble filled his ears, and the tops of the trees not ten meters from the edge of the plateau began to come apart. The fighters had not left, and the pilots had understood the message. They had gotten altitude, and then swooped down on the trees below Ryck and his charges. They were chewing up the slope. The two Marines and two civilians pushed their faces into the dirt, hands covering the backs of their heads as pieces of trees flew through the air, pelting them. With one pass over, the second bird was starting its pass.
Cheers erupted from 31 throats. If Ryck wasn’t the loudest, he had to be mighty close to it.
“Shuttles are inbound!” Sams shouted, barely heard over the roar of the Experions firing.
Ryck could see two shuttles gently coming in as if there wasn’t a hellacious air-to-ground pounding occurring only meters off the LZ. All of Ryck’s charges could fit on one shuttle, but the Navy had been prepared for the security and research teams as well.
Both set down and lowered their ramps. Several of the civilians rushed to the nearest one and climbed inside.
“Shart, get your team back and load them up,” Ryck shouted.
“Shall we?” Rancer asked, coming back to Ryck and offering his shoulder.
“I’m going to take you up on that. Let’s get the St. Chuck’s Hell out of here.”
Sams was standing by the ramp, counting each person as he or she got onboard. Mr. Saunders was carried by two others, and Reiko was helped up and into the shuttle. A younger woman was carried piggyback by another woman who had to be in her 50’s.
Tara and the other man who carried the blunderbuss rushed by, the man shouting his inarticulate joy. Gutierrez and Caruthers came up and offered to help Ryck.
“No, Rancer and me, we’re fine. Right Rancer?”
“Right, lieutenant!”
Ryck wasn’t fine. His leg was no longer working at all, and he was lightheaded. The pain, thankfully, had faded a bit, probably because the nerves were just too mangled to transmit the signals. But he had only ten meters left, and nothing was going to stop him.
“We got everybody?” he asked Sams.
“Nine on the trail bird. Twenty-two on this one. We didn’t lose anyone. You got all of us out.”
“One more headcount, then we’re out of here,” Ryck said.
He looked back as the ramp slowly closed, cutting off his view of GenAg 13.
FS Frierson
Chapter 25
Ryck lay back in the rack, his leg in a portable stasis tube. The ship’s doctor took one look at the mangled flesh and said he didn’t even want to attempt working on it. The Frierson was a supply ship, and its sickbay was not fully capable. But it was an extra platform with plenty of room, so it made a decent emergency transport for the civilians while the warships did their thing.
He really wanted a drink, though, and he was abandoned. The stress of the avacuation had induced labor in Reiko, and all the medical staff was attending to her. Even for a supply ship, it was not often that someone gave birth on a Federation Navy vessel, and everyone wanted to be there for the event.
Mr. Saunders was resting comfortably in the next rack over, softly snoring. The old man had never complained, and Ryck had to give him credit for that, but age had been his enemy, and the man had been a liability to the entire group. Then again, he was part of a terraforming team, not expected to go into combat. Ryck listened to the snores, oddly pleased with the sound. They were proof the man had made it.
“Hey, Rycky Recon, you hanging in there?” Kylton said, sticking his head in the sickbay hatch.
“Kyle, when did you get in? How did things go for you?” Ryck asked, pulling himself into a sitting position.
With his leg in a semi-stasis, there was no pain, so Ryck was feeling much better. His nausea (simple shock, the doc had said) had completely faded away.
“Got a halfer. My pickup was nowhere to be seen. No sign, nothing. We pretty much sat on our butts until pickup. Cornball, though, he picked up 110 people and got them all out. No capys.”
“You mean I’m the only one to run into capys?”
“No, the Second Recon guys were in it pretty deep. I got some of this during my debrief. It’s not too clear yet for us here on the Frierson, but it looks like they lost a number of Marines and had heavy casualties with the civilians.”
“That must have come in after my debrief. We were the first ones back. Still waiting for Klepto, though. This no comms BS is really grating on my nerves,” Ryck said sourly.
“Did I hear my name being taken in vain?” Gunny Schmidt said, coming into the small sickbay.
Ryck’s face broke out into a smile. “Thought you weren’t going to join us for our leisurely voyage back.”
“Wouldn’t miss it for the world, sir,” the gunny said, shaking hands first with Ryck, then the captain.
“So, how’d it go?” Ryck asked.
“Not so good,” Gunny began as Ryck’s heart fell.
Who’d they lose?
“The team’s fine. A little banged up, but fine. You know those misters really worked? I never would’ve believed it. Ask Rabbit about it when you’ve got the time. His ass is numb, but he made it back.
“Our civilians, though, I didn’t know how to handle them. They wanted to do things their way, not ours. The jimmyleg captain, he thought he knew more than us, snares and dead falls and such. Said they needed to ride it out. In the end, I took fifteen researchers and got out of there and to our pickup. I . . . I don’t think those guys made it out,” he said soberly.
“I’ve already briefed the failure to the skipper. He wants a full written report.”
“Failure? You got 15 researchers out, and who knows what needed intel they have. You didn’t fail,” Ryck protested.
“It kinda feels that way, though,” Gunny said. “But what’s with this shit?” he continued, pointing at the stasis bubble around his leg. “Shart says you went hand to hand with two capys, ghosting both of them, breaking your leg doing it?”
“What?” Kylton asked in disbelief. “You did what?”
“Calm down. It wasn’t quite like that. I did take out a capy with my blunderbuss, and I sort of did hand-to hand with one of them. My Hwa Min, the one you said was bullshit, Klepto, by-the-way, saved my ass, and I came out on top.”
“You ‘came out on top,’ even with a broken leg?” Gunny pressed.
“Well, not exactly. After the fight, I sort of tripped on an irrigation pipe and broke it.”
There was dead silence for a good ten seconds before both of the other Marines broke out in laughter.
“You what?” Gunny managed to get out.
“I tripped and broke my leg. What of it? It could happen to anybody.”
“But not to the almighty Ryck Lysander, hero of the Federation,” Kylton roared, tears coming from his eyes. “The mighty Lysander, master death dealer, trips on a water sprinkler! You couldn’t write this stuff. This is brills, simply brills.”
Ryck tried to glare at the two Marines, but he couldn’t keep it up. He did see the humor in it. He chuckled, and that grew into a laugh. Then an uncontrollable laugh.
“At least . . . I tried . . .” he began before giving up.
He’d almost gained control when the gunny mimed walking along, weapon in hand, then tripping. That started the laughter going again.
The laughter was a release for Ryck. He’d been tight, both physically and mentally. Ever since Joshua’s death, since Hannah left him. He’d been miserable. Recon was a refuge for him, where he could run away from it all. But he hadn’t been happy, not like when he was a PFC, exploring his position in the Corps, finding out just what kind of man he was.
For the first time in a long time, he’d simply let go. He’d forgotten all the bad and just celebrated life. Maybe he was ready to move on.
The three Marines had finally gotten control of themselves when Sams and Tara walked in. Tara had on some sailor’s overhauls, which were about four sizes too big. Both the leg and arm cuffs had been folded several times to shorten the sleeves and legs. Dressed, she looked like a much younger woman.
“It’s a boy,” Sams said.
“One of our civvies went into labor,” Ryck said, cluing in the other two.
“Tell him the name,” Tara prodded Sams. Literally prodded him, elbow to the ribs.
“Uh, well, she named him Bobbi.”
“Bobbi, as in Bobbi Samuelson?” Gunny asked, eyes wide.
“Yeah, she named him for Sams. For what Sams did for us,” Tara said defensively.
Ryck didn’t know how to respond to that, and all five people stared awkwardly at one another.
“Well, I’ll leave you here so you can visit with your friends. I’ll see you at the first lunch seating,” she told Sams, then “I hope you recover soon, Lieutenant.”
Sams seemed interested in the end of Ryck’s rack, rubbing his hand over the frame, looking down at it.
“‘I’ll see you at the first lunch seating, honey, and that’s an order!’” Gunny said, his voice in falsetto.
“What the grubbing heck, Sams? I thought you said she was a bitch who threatened you? She was sure on your case about the boots,” Ryck said.
“”Yeah, but you didn’t see her out there. She could be a freaking Marine. She was great, and without her, I don’t think we would have made it. I just respect her, OK? Nothing wrong with that, right?”
“The great Sams, womanizer extraordinaire, with a girl in every port,” Ryck began.
“Girls in every port,” Gunny corrected.
“Yes, girls in every port. So do I hear the sounds of the ball and chain being dragged into position?”
Kylton started humming the wedding march, and the laughter grew the longer it went.
“Ah, screw it,” Sams said. “So I like her. Big deal”
The Navy doc came in, drying off his hands. “OK, now that I’ve performed my first birth, we can get to you, lieutenant. As I told you, we don’t have the facilities to do this kind of surgery on board. I’ve got your leg quieted down, so it shouldn’t degrade while we’re in transit. Francis here,” he said, nodding at the corpsman who had followed him in, “will give you a shot, and that’s going to make you drowsy. Then we’re going to put you out for the duration. This isn’t a true coma, like you’ve had for regen. I just don’t want you moving about and putting any more stress on that leg. You’ll wake up back at the Naval Hospital, primed and ready to go. Any questions for me?”
“This isn’t a coma?”
“Nah, just a deep sleep. Nothing to it.”
“OK, I guess you’d better have at it.”
“Hey, buddy, I’ll catch you on the boomerang, OK?” Kylton said as the corpsman tried to usher them out.
“Don’t worry, Toad, I’ll manage the crew while you’re in dreamland,” Gunny assured him as he left.
The corpsman pushed a button, and Ryck’s entire rack lifted up and moved to a center examining table.
“You’re going to feel drowsy, and you should fall asleep within 20 or 30 seconds. Then we’ll take you deeper so you don’t move around while under. You ready?”
“Go for it,” Ryck said.
He immediately started feeling the effects. Snoring filled his senses, and he briefly wondered if that was Mr. Saunders or him before sleep overtook him.
Zephyr-Hadreson
Chapter 26
Ryck was surprised to see he was being wheeled through a corridor.
Has something gone wrong? I thought I was supposed to be asleep?
It took him a moment to realize that he wasn’t on a ship. The white corridors were too wide, and there were too many people moving back and forth.
“Good morning, sunshine!” a totally too-cheery orderly told him. “Welcome home! Dr. Larkin is going to check you over, then we’ll get you into surgery right way. You’ll be good as new before you know it!”
Lord save me, he thought. It was too early for spunky overload.
He tuned out the orderly as his thought processes came back online. His leg felt fine, so it had to still be in stasis. But he knew they would want to get him to surgery as soon as possible after the bubble came off.
He was wheeled into a room, and the ever- chirpy orderly told him, “Dr. Larkin’s our best, and he’ll be here in just a spiff. If you need anything, press this button, and I’ll be here in a jiff!”
Oh, just go, he pleaded in his mind, while saying “OK, if I need you, I will” out loud.
“I’ll be here in a jiff,’” a voice said from the corner of the room.
Ryck raised his head to see Bert Nidischii’ sitting there.
“What are you doing here?” Ryck asked, happy to see his friend.
“Oh, you know, just in the neighborhood, so I decided to stop by and see how you were. You know how it is.”
“Just in the neighborhood? And just when I get wheeled in to prep for surgery? Is this a command visit?”
“Could be.”
�
�Maybe, to see where my head’s at?” Ryck prompted.
“Well, I was asked if I could make the trip. You are a ‘Federation asset,’ as they told me, and they wanted to see what your plans are. You were ready to resign before, and now that the war is probably over—”
“What? Run that by me again?” Ryck asked incredulously.
“Ah, yeah, you’ve been out for a bit on your slow boat back. Well, it’s not really over, but things are progressing. We took GenAg 13 pretty easily, with less than 1,000 killed and maybe that many or more of the capys. Did it in a day, too. But then over 2,000 capy ships appeared just outside the Blue Line
[41], and they took an SOG ship captive, of all things.”
“Two thousand ships, ships of the line?” Ryck asked.
“Yepper. Two thousand of the suckers, just appeared. They took this SOG ship, gave them a kind of book of pictures, is how it’s being reported, and all 2,000 ships retreated some 130,000 kilometers and simply waited. The SOG ship hightails it back to one of the Navy’s secret outposts and delivers the picture book.”
“The SOG knows about secret Navy outposts?”
“Yeah, imagine that. Well, anyway, that gets copied and zapped back, and the xenobiologists and all their high-powered AIs are adamant that it’s a request for peace. Sort of you stay on your side, we’ll stay on ours.”
“And we believe that?” Ryck said, trying to digest this.
“The Brotherhood is adamant about it, and they said they’ll stop any more aggression until we figure it out. They threatened us with war if we pursued the capys before more was known.
“We’re all still on full alert, but the capy ships are all still sitting there, unshielded. We’ve got a couple hundred facing them, well within our side of the Blue Line, though.”
Lieutenant (The United Federation Marine Corps Book 3) Page 22