“Yeah, but this one killed a bunch of my kin and I’m gonna make her pay.” He reached to the tree and with his knife cut the rope holding Wendy up.
Wendy landed face down and Homer immediately jumped on top of her. He attempted to pull her helmet off. “You’re gonna feel what it’s like to be taken by a real man. Not one of those Jew fags you hang out with.” There was a reason Marines work out in full packs and Space Force pilots learn to use their flight suits to their advantage. Wendy rolled to one side crushing his leg underneath the pack and then quickly back to the other. Homer lost his balance and fell off. Before he could recover, Wendy fired the laser embedded in her sleeve. The shot stunned him. She rolled a little more so that still on the ground she could bring both sleeve lasers to bear and pierced a hole in his throat that went through and severed his spinal column. She quickly regained her feet.
Jethro backed away with his hands in the air. “Don’t look at me! I wanted to bring you in. I didn’t want to hurt you!”
“Why shouldn’t I kill you, too?”
“Cause there’s four choppers on their way here right now. Homer signaled ‘em when we saw you come out of your hidey hole. You ain’t gonna be able to fight off four choppers and if’n you do, there’s more where they come from. Look lady, I don’t want to die and I know you don’t neither. Just set here quiet until the choppers get here and we can take you back to camp.”
“Then what happens?”
“I dunno fer sure. Colonel said we couldn’t bargain for nothin’ if’n you was dead so we was to keep you alive. I guess that means he wants to trade you fer somet’in.”
“Jethro, how far is your base from here?”
“It’s a short chopper ride.”
“Walking distance?”
“Couple o’ days.”
“Well, Jethro, you’re probably a nice guy and all that so I’m going to give you a choice. I can kill you now and leave without you or you can walk with me back to base.”
Jethro stood with his mouth open. He blinked and swayed as if he was about to faint.
“I guess that means you’re coming. We start by walking upstream in the water. You go first.”
Stunned into silence, Jethro walked down the bank to the water and turned upstream.
Within minutes of starting out, Wendy said, “Now we turn and go downstream.”
They had been walking for a while when Wendy said, “Jethro, do you have a last name?”
“Yes, ma’am. It’s Flatt.”
“Jethro Flatt, are you married?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Any kids?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Boys or girls?”
“One boy, one girl.”
“Look, Jethro, if you want to see them again, you help me and I will do everything I can to see that you get safely home to your wife and kids.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“How long has it been since you’ve seen them.”
“Six months.”
“Long time.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
DEPLOYMENT - CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE
“THEY’VE CAPTURED WENDY!” Mimi screamed into the comm from her watch position at Daisy’s pilot seat. “Heard it on their radio! They’re dispatching helicopters to get her!”
Captain Alina Darwin had established four hour watches with two persons on each shift. One watch station was always in one of the P I ships to take advantage of the P I’s sensor suite. The other station rotated based on who was standing watch among the several control locations in the med-evac ships. J T was on watch from the flight engineer’s station in the med-evac ship that he and Mimi had flown when they left the Schweitzer. They generally stood watch together because it meant they were also off watch together. He was refining the MMARV software when Mimi called in.
“Wendy alive!” J T yelled out to the rest of the occupants of the ships. “Swordsmen capture.”
This was the first confirmation that Wendy had survived. A kind of electricity filled the cabin. They already knew that the others of her crew had been found and captured. Apparently capturing them had been no easy task as there had been injuries among the captors. The assembled crew waited for further reports. Minutes stretched and time stood still as they waited for the helicopters to arrive at the site where Wendy had been taken captive.
J T dialed in the frequency the helicopter pilots used to communicate and they waited. One of the helicopters descended while the others stood guard. Within moments of landing, the airwaves came alive with excited and angry conversation. Wendy had apparently killed one of her intended captors. The other was missing.
“I’m going after her!” Mimi yelled. “Daisy, initiate flight procedures! Let’s go get Wendy.”
Captain Darwin was on the comm in a heartbeat, “Miriam Abrams, I order you to stand down. Do not take that ship anywhere!”
“I’m going to get Wendy. I’ll be right back!”
J T joined his voice to Captain Darwin’s “Mimi no! Stay here!”
“Shutting off comm!” Mimi shouted. “See you soon!”
Short of shooting her down, there was really nothing Captain Darwin could do to stop Mimi from leaving. Daisy’s programming gave preference to Mimi who she had known for a long time over anyone she did not know as well regardless of their rank. Even though Daisy had flown with Captain Darwin, she had flown with Mimi longer and Mimi took priority. The fact that Mimi was not listening to J T was surprising, because the two of them had become close in the time they had been confined to the small ships on the moon waiting for the opportune moment for the team to do what Mimi was setting out to do on her own. As Mimi and Daisy roared off on Mimi’s own personal unauthorized rescue mission she was the only one in the small group not aware of the potential for disaster that lay before her.
DEPLOYMENT - CHAPTER THIRTY SIX
JETHRO TURNED OUT to be a manageable if not exactly talkative captive. He was nice enough and kept his complaints to a minimum. Other than the fact that he was married and had two small children, everything else about his private life was private. After weeks of no company other than her own, Wendy was starving for conversation. At dusk on the second day Jethro pointed ahead. “The base is the other side of the gully maybe two kilometers.”
“This, my friend, is as far as you go.” She pulled a flexible steel cable with pre-made eyes at the ends from her supply pouch. Normally used to tether workers to the space craft, the thin cable was strong and would take someone with a knife a long time to cut through. She ran a polymer fiber cable tie through one end and fastened it to a tree. She used another tie to fasten the other end of the cable to Jethro’s leg. He had enough length to reach the stream for drinking water and enough that if he had to climb the tree to avoid predators he could do so.
“I promise you won’t die here,” she told him. “We need to get you back to your wife and kids.”
Jethro did not look as if he believed her.
“Your career as a Swordsmen soldier is probably over.”
She gently lifted his chin so he could look her in the eye. “They’re not going to be happy you let me get the drop on you. Let me make this up to you. In Sector 56, there’s one habitable planet. You go to the office of any attorney you can find. Ask for Buzzy Markowitz or his son. Tell him I sent you. Remember this. You must tell him that Rose and Avi send their regards or he will not help you. When you get home, you leave with your family and you go to Sector 56. Find Buzzy Markowitz. Tell him I sent you. Tell him Rose and Avi send their regards. Got it?”
Jethro’s face looked like an old hound dog. “Yes ma’am.”
Wendy approached the base under the cover of darkness. She was surprised to find a familiar shape on the edge of the rudimentary flight line. Her first thought on seeing the silhouette of what she took to be an enemy P I ship in the darkness was that she could steal it and fly it home. The lock-out code in the controls could not be that tough to deal with. The electronics bui
lt into her suit were designed for engineers to take control of any ship they needed to work on. As she drew closer to the massive shadow, she thought about her crew. She could hardly abandon them. Now that she had tied Jethro to that tree she had an obligation to him as well. He had led her safely to the base. Well, maybe if she got to the ship she could ransom all of them out of there.
She slithered on her belly across the ground taking advantage of every recess she could find to stay as invisible as possible. She could see that the ship was damaged. It had taken a missile strike and the hyper drive modules were torn open. Fortunately the reactor had not been breached or the ship would have exploded. The severity of the damage meant that this ship was not going to be her ticket home, but if the standard drive worked, there was hope that she might escape to somewhere where she could devise a plan to free her crew. As she approached the silent shape guided only by the light of the stars she realized that the ship was painted neither the red of the Swordsmen nor the gray of the Federation, but white. The ship was from Eretz. What was it doing here? Wendy wrestled with the issue of why a ship from her home planet would be here. There was only one answer that made sense and she dreaded the truth. She continued to approach the ship cautiously until she realized that she did know the ship. It was Daisy and Daisy was hurt. Sliding underneath the ship, Wendy found the small hinged panel that hid the access code pad. She keyed in her code and the emergency hatch silently slid open. Wendy climbed inside and removed her helmet.
“Hello, Daisy.”
“Wendy. You’re alive!” Daisy’s tone was childlike and full of pain. “Wendy, I’m hurt. I’m hurt bad.” Daisy had a reputation for being whiny, but this was not the normal whine. This was real pain.
“How bad are you hurt?”
“My hyper drive is dead. Many of my sensors are gone. Two of my weapons pods have been torn away.”
“What about your standard drive?” Wendy asked.
“It’s about 82%.”
“Enough to get us into orbit, right?” Wendy said.
“Yes, but so what? Buddy can’t carry me home,” Daisy sniffed.
“Is Buddy still here?”
“Yes.”
“Who else is still here?” Wendy asked.
“Raphael’s destroyer, the other P I ships and their crews and two of the medic ships.”
“Who’s on the medic ships?”
“Mimi and J T came on one. Rashi and Esther came on the other.”
“Why didn’t they go back with the Schweitzer?”
“To help rescue you and we were too far away to get to it before we would be attacked.”
Wendy nodded silently. “How did you get here?”
Daisy explained about Mimi launching the attack on her own. They were coming in low over the base following the helicopters when they were hit by a barrage of shoulder fired missiles. At close range, the small missiles can be quite effective.
“Where is Mimi now?” Wendy asked.
“She ran towards the helicopters. When she realized you weren’t on them she tried to come back, but they surrounded her and captured her.”
“I’ll bet she put up a fight,” Wendy said.
“There were a lot of them. She didn’t have a chance.”
“Where is she now?” Wendy asked.
“They took her to the tall tent.”
“I see. Run a complete damage assessment. I need some time to think.”
“Do you have a plan?”
“Not yet.” Wendy settled into the pilot’s seat to think. She had no idea how to rescue her crew and get her warship friend off the ground.
Daylight slowly brightened the cabin as Wendy watched the diagnostics reports displayed on the pilot’s console. After several hours of indecision she still had no idea as to what she should do next. She looked out the view port surprised to see a man standing in the basket of a personnel lift holding a sign. The sign was made out of packing material and had been crudely lettered with a soft marker.
The sign read, “Please Surrender.” The man pointed to each word. Then, like the cheat cards in an old television show, he put the first one behind the others in the stack he was holding.
“You are surrounded.” The second one was written with a much better hand.
The third card read, “We will not harm you.” The man checked to see that she had finished reading before he revealed the next card.
“You could try to fly.” The man shook his head. “But we will shoot you down.” The man tried to look apologetic, but came off as clown like.
“Please come out with your hands up.” He nodded.
“We need to talk.” The man smiled as he put the last card down and lowered the lift.
“Daisy, are we surrounded?”
“Yes.”
“Can we shoot our way out?”
“No.”
Wendy descended the crew ladder with her helmet on. A squad of security personnel stood with their fire arms pointed at her. A gunnery sergeant approached her. “Lieutenant, regulations require that you be handcuffed while we escort you to the holding area. Please do not resist. The Colonel would like to meet with you. We intend you no harm.”
She was marched by a very wary detail of security guards into the largest of the tents. A corner of the tent had been draped off to make a small interior room. In the center of this room was a table made from boards and shipping crates. At one end of the table sat a disheveled looking man wearing a soiled and rumpled uniform with the insignia of a Colonel in the Swordsmen army. He had a distinctly harried look about him. Dark circles framed his eyes. He had a large bruise on his cheek which had scabbed over. The guard motioned for Wendy to sit on one of the cases at the opposite end of the table.
The Colonel fielded half a dozen calls on three different communication devices before he looked up at Wendy. He addressed the man standing behind her. “Corporal, on the top of her back pack is a circle two centimeters in diameter. Hook your thumbnail under the recess in the right hand side and pry it open. Press the button inside the hole.”
Wendy’s back pack powered down. “Remove the cuffs. She’s not going anywhere.”
The guard removed Wendy’s restraints and she took off the helmet.
The Colonel fielded more calls and looked back at Wendy. “I don’t have a lot of time for you. If I had somewhere to put you, I’d lock you and your bunch up and throw away the key, but I can’t. We need to talk.”
“I am only required to give you my name, rank and military ID number.”
“By the Sword of the Samurai! You Jew women are tough! I know your rank from the insignia on your flight suit. I know your name from your name stripe. I don’t give a shit about your ID number.”
“I resent being referred to as a Jew woman.”
“Lieutenant! I don’t care!” His tone was more exasperated than angry. “Let’s be real. I have your three crew members. They are working in the hospital tent. They are not in prisons. Your foolish friend Miriam Abrams who tried to rescue you by her own damn stupid self is also in the hospital tent chained to a post. If she hadn’t tried to escape twice she wouldn’t be chained and she wouldn’t be injured.” He shook his head. “I know that you have two med ships, a destroyer and three P I ships parked on the moon. If I cared, I could probably figure out the identities of most of the crew on the ships or torture the information out of Miss Abrams, but I really don’t give a shit.” The Colonel answered some calls. A Corporal handed him a document which he scanned and signed. A Lieutenant handed him a document.
“Good call, Lieutenant. Excellent work. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome sir.”
The Colonel rested his hand on the Lieutenant’s arm. “Lieutenant, stand by.” The Colonel turned back to Wendy. “You are Lieutenant Wendy Solomon Cohen, younger daughter of Greg and Avi Solomon, sister of Rachel and wife of Joshua who is a medical technologies engineer. Your entire family was instrumental in planning and executing crushing defeats of Swordsman initi
atives at Homestead and Eretz. Was anything I said inaccurate?”
“No.”
“We understand each other. Lieutenant Mancini will take you on a tour of the facilities. When you return we will talk further.” He turned to the Lieutenant. “Handcuff your wrist to hers.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Lieutenant Cohen, Lieutenant Mancini will help you stow the back pack over there in the corner. Dismissed.” Wendy stood. The Swordsman Lieutenant helped her disengage from the back pack and set it on the dirt floor. They set the helmet on top of the back pack. Wendy did not have use of her suit’s lasers, but she still had her knife hidden against her back. Once the two were cuffed together, the guards drifted away.
Lt. Mancini escorted her out of the tent. Without being prompted, he started to speak. “We arrived here hoping to establish a new community. We knew about the P A F’s poison gas plant and were prepared to take it in a land assault. We considered it a threat and intended to destroy it and the stockpiled gas. We had planned a surgical strike which would have prevented the release of the gas. Frankly, I find what you did to be rather clumsy.”
“Clumsy?”
“Yes. We could have taken the plant without poisoning everything in sight. As it is we will spend months decontaminating the area before we can settle there. It was our intention to free the slaves and convince as many as possible to remain here with us. We would have repatriated the rest.”
“And we spoiled that.” Wendy somehow did not see things in the same light. “What was your anticipated level of losses?”
“We would have lost a thousand troops.”
“Our entire ship’s company was fewer than a thousand. How does that make what we did clumsy? What about civilian losses?”
“About as you did.”
“Looks like something went terribly wrong with your plans. Surely it wasn’t us. Our ship was already gone when you arrived. You should have been able to land unopposed.”
“When your cousins were taken, your aunt was obvious about her intent to find you and your sister and to convince you to rescue them. She told the other families who had lost relatives to the slavers that her brilliant nieces would rescue all of them. She bragged on you a lot. A story like that flashes through the intelligence community faster than courier missiles. It didn’t take too much to figure out you and your sister were coming here. We knew before you did. Apparently one of the officers in the defense system at Everest was a P A F spy. He reported on your victory over the P A F fleet and your intention to come here. One of our spies in the P A F alerted us and we raced them to be here before you left. You know the rest.”
Solomon Family Warriors II Page 91