He placed the bottle of water on the table next to her. She went around the plates, taking bites of everything. She made faces and noises that told Ben she liked everything. She ate the chicken, mashed potatoes and apple pie with a bottle of water. When she was finished, she sat back in the bed and sighed. Ben moved the tray. She watched him like a hawk.
“Don’t worry!” he said. “I’m just sitting it over here. Why don’t you try to get some more sleep. I’ll be here, or E’Aria will be.”
Natalia closed her eyes. She was asleep in seconds. Ben turned his chair around so he could rest his feet on the wall. He put his head down and closed his eyes for what he thought was a few minutes and turned out to be a few hours. Andrea woke him up when she left Gunny, who had fallen asleep. She shut the door and stood behind Ben. She rubbed his shoulders and neck. She looked over at the young girl lying in the bed.
He always wants to save someone, she thought. Jen, the Washburn girl, Natalia, and Andrea Andersen. He even saved E’Aria from a lifetime of boredom. Who would have guessed they would have a telepath who was also a trained swordswoman on the team?
Chapter 11: Dreaming of the Past
The captain and the major both received a com that the general wanted to have a meeting at 1300. It was 0800, so Andrea decided to get a few more hours sleep, shower and put on a fresh uniform. She leaned in and told Ben her plans and kissed him good-bye. Ben looked over at Natalia, who was still sleeping. His childhood suddenly came to mind. He hadn’t thought about his family in awhile.
He thought about his grandparents, who had raised him after the accident that took his family. They did a great job, but it wasn’t until he was older that he realized how much pain they had lived with, losing their only son and his wife. His little sister Naomi was the baby of the family, and everyone loved her so much. He remembered being jealous at first after she was born. But before long, she had him wrapped around her little finger.
His dad had once had a talk with him about being the older brother and having to protect Naomi. Ben took it seriously and made sure she didn’t play with anything dangerous or wonder to far from him. He knew he didn’t understand when his grandparents told him about his family. The planetary news played the wreck and reported on it for at least two weeks. His grandparents would turn off the news when he was awake and at the home.
He saw the news one day while he was at Emily’s house next door playing. Emily’s mother didn’t know they were watching from the next room. The pretty lady on the news said his father’s name as she talked about the people who had died that day.
Ben was drawn away from his thoughts as he heard Gunny and sergeant major outside talking. He got up quietly and went out to say hello. Gunny was going to finish his recuperation in his quarters and stop in every day for his meds, a checkup and session in the tank. He was sore but feeling good. Nurse Tanaka saw Ben standing with the two men and walked up like she was on a mission.
“You need to come with me.” She maneuvered herself into the group and cut Ben out like a she-wolf cutting a deer from the herd. He looked at the sergeants for help and they just smiled and took a couple steps back.
She led him to the room with the regen tank.
“Alright sir, out of the clothes.” She was enjoying ordering him around. He took off his clothes and stepped into the tank. He slipped the mask over his head and she brought the hoses over and hooked them up. Ben laid back in the tank and relaxed. He felt the effects of the drugs and was asleep in minutes.
His subconscious must have been still reminiscing about his past because he was thinking about Emily when they were in 7th grade, her sandy blond hair and blue eyes. She had a tomboy build and did everything Ben did, just like a best friend should. Ben was a natural athlete; he played to win and so did she. Along the way he had made a few enemies. Four boys from 9th grade didn’t like that he could beat them at just about anything. They decided to jump him on his way home from school. Emily wasn’t walking with him that day.
The older boys weren’t too worried about where they jumped him. It was right out in the open on the street. They came between the buildings from both sides of the street. Ben didn’t see it coming when the first boy hit him from behind. He went down hard. They proceeded to kick him from all directions. He pulled his knees up to protect his stomach and covered his head with his arms. The kicks to the back hurt the most. He heard the surprise in their voices as one tripped over him and fell. Another started yelling.
Ben looked quickly and saw they weren’t paying attention to him, so he kicked out quickly and caught the closet boy between the legs, who bent over immediately. Ben punched him in the face. He rolled away and got up. Emily had a boy by the hair and was trying to rip it out of his head. He had a grip on her arm, trying to pull free. The boy who had tripped had landed hard on his elbow and was just sitting rubbing it. The last boy looked like he was going to run. Ben made a decision. He took two steps and put his whole body into a punch that landed on the boy’s face, busting his nose. Emily let go of her opponent’s hair and stepped back. Ben punched him in the stomach hard, knocking the air out of him. Emily pushed him down. Three down on the ground and the fourth took off running. Ben was sore and bruised but he walked away with his best friend, headed for home.
Emily walked in his grandparent’s house with him and told them about the fight. She said she saw them push Ben down and start kicking him. Ben’s grandmother pulled his shirt off of him and surveyed the damage. She had been a nurse and was now retired. She pushed, poked and prodded him until she was satisfied.
His grandfather took him the next weekend to sign up for martial arts class. He told the sensei what had happened and that he wanted Ben to know some fundamental self defense. Two months later the self defense class ended and Ben signed up for karate class with Master Watanabe.
Ben’s dream jumped forward three years to when he had really started noticing Emily as a young woman. He had never signed up for another sport after starting karate. He never missed a class or exhibition and worked out at the dojo anytime he had spare time. He would go watch the more advanced classes and the kendo class was one of his favorites to watch. The school taught many disciplines. Ben was lean and strong. His body was changing from boy to man. Emily was filling out and sporting curves where everything used to be flat. She ran track in the fall and was a cheerleader the rest of the year. They would run together in the evening and Ben realized how much he liked looking at her.
Fast forward two more years as he remembered teaching Emily’s boyfriend a lesson. He was actually an ex-boyfriend, which was the problem. He didn’t like that Emily had dumped him. They had only been dating less than a month. It had always been just Emily and her mom. Her dad had left when she was a baby. He flew into the yard, sat the hover car down on Emily’s mom’s plants and started banging on the door.
Ben and his grandfather could hear someone banging on Emily’s front door. They heard Emily ask him John to go away. They heard Emily’s mom say, “John you need to leave.”
“Shut up,” the quarterback responded, “I’ll leave when I’m ready.” He could hear Emily say, “Don’t talk to my mom like that!” and then heard a slap. Ben was out of his chair and out the front door in a second, his grandfather not too far behind. Ben saw John standing in front of Emily with his arm pulled back and Emily already holding her face. Tears were streaming down her cheeks but she wasn’t crying.
“Hey asshole,” Ben yelled, not slowing his pace towards the house. “Don’t touch her again! Mind your own business.”
John pulled his arm back to slap her again and was grabbed by the arm stopping the swing. “Emily,” Ben said, “you and your mom go inside. They both turned and walked in. Emily had a smile on her face, knowing what was going to happen. She and her mom took up a post at the window to watch.
Ben dragged John away from the house then let go of his arm. “You like slapping women around?” he taunted. “Why don’t you try that with me?” John did
n’t wait a second before he swung a big roundhouse open hand at Ben’s face. Bens left arm shot up and caught John’s swing. He slapped John with his right before it registered to John what had happened. He let go of John’s arm and slapped him again with his left hand. It all happened very fast.
The women heard a pop-pop and saw Johns head move left, then right. John made a fist and tried the same punch again. Ben caught it and John tried to punch his body with his left hand. Ben slapped him with his left hand first this time and followed with his right after, blocking the left body shot. Pop-pop, the women heard again. John’s face was so red it looked sunburned. Ben moved faster than John’s blurry eyes could follow and grabbed his wrist and started twisting. John started yelling and went down to his knees.
Ben made a fist and punched him square in the jaw. John’s head snapped and stayed as Ben let go of his arm and let him fall down.
Ben walked into the house. Emily’s mother stood at the window. She walked over and hugged Ben. “Thank you,” she said kissing his cheek and hugging him again.
Ben knocked on Emily’s door. She sat on the edge of her bed. Her face was red but the left side was darker. She still had tears on her face. He sat next to her arms at his side. She leaned over and put her head on his shoulder.
“Are you okay?” he asked. “Can I get you anything?”
“No Benji, just sit with me,” she said.
“I’ll be back in a minute.” He walked down the hall and ran cold water on a wash cloth. He came back, sat down and started wiping the tears off her face. He folded the wash cloth and held it against her cheek.
“I broke up with him a couple of days ago and he hasn’t stopped harassing me since,” Emily said.
“Hopefully he will stop now,” Ben answered. “Instead of breaking his wrist I knocked a couple of his teeth loose. I still want us to win some football games.”
She smiled. “Thank you, Benji, for being here for me.”
She turned his face to hers and kissed him on the lips. It was awkward at first then got much better. She pushed him back on the bed and lay on her side kissing him, holding the side of his face with her hand. They broke the kiss and she laid her head on his chest. They lay there for a few more minutes until he had to leave for dinner.
Ben was coming out of his dream as the mixture in the hose changed to something to wake him up. He hadn’t thought about Emily in a while. His body had reacted and he didn’t want to get out of the tank right away. He thought about how clear his dream had been. It made sense; they were very important events in his life. He wondered if he would ever see her again.
Ben sat up and removed the mask. He climbed out and wrapped a towel around himself and headed for the shower. Nurse Tanaka brought him another clean towel and hung it on the hook outside the shower, making sure she took her sweet time. She went back to the room and brought his cloths to him. He was drying off. He walked out and found her waiting. Ben walked over and sat. She looked his wounds over and made sure he hadn’t pulled any of the synth skin loose. The wounds were all tight and the redness and swelling was going away.
“So is that what your job is with the marines?” she asked, “saving little girls from monsters?”
“That and killing the monsters,” Ben said seriously.
“I guess that’s what you are here for. Some of the corpsmen were whispering about having to do some work on a female prisoner. It looked to them like she had a finger cut off.” She looked at him for a reaction.
“Pirates live a dangerous life, Nurse Tanaka. Most of them have lost something. A finger is a small price to pay for your life. But I’m sure I don’t know anything about the incident you are referring to.”
“Yeah, probably not.” she said. “They also said something about the cell next to hers and a lot of blood. They said the sergeant in charge just looked at them and told them to mind their own business.”
“I think those are wise words to live by, Nurse.” He looked her in the eyes. “You might want to mention that the grim reaper does not distinguish good or bad when he comes for you. You would be doing them a great favor if you can get the point across.”
“Are you making a threat against my troops?”
Ben smiled at her as he stood up. He stepped within inches of her, looking down at her face.
“Nurse Tanaka, I like you and have no feelings one way or another about your troops. Loose lips sink ships and I will not have any scrutiny come to the captain or this ship because of idle chatter. Do you want that to happen?”
“No,” she said, “but—“
“No buts,” he said forcefully. “Follow me.” He walked into Natalia’s room. She was sleeping on her stomach. Nurse Tanaka stepped up next to him. He pulled her blankets back a few inches. He took his finger and traced the scar across Natalia’s shoulders. Nurse Tanaka watched his hand moving slowly along the bright red line.
“If something did happen in that cell, Nurse, it was judgment.” He looked at her his eyes burning. “Do you understand?”
“Yes.”
“Great,” he said. “Now tell your troops to forget whatever it is they think they know.”
“Yes.”
“Good,” he said. “Are we still friends?” She cracked a smile and said yes again.
“I’ll see you later then,” he smiled. “Ensign Aok should be here soon to sit with Natalia.”
Colonel Randolph Thomas had been in FTL for about two weeks. He had left Ares with a company of marines on the Colonial Destroyer Morningstar. They were en route to the Trillond planet Hyson. The planet sat out on the rim and was usually the target of Allith raiders. Trillond intel had seen a recent build up of Allith ships, three times more than they ever saw in raiding parties.
Trillond had sent a battle group and requested that the Colonials try and get a ship to evacuate all colonial citizens. Word had gone out across the planet to be ready for transport to the destroyer. The Trillond would be using every available shuttle to get people off the planet. The Colonel would shuttle down with two platoons to oversee the evacuation.
Emily Brous sat in her office at the embassy on Hyson. She never thought she would be posted out on the rim. She had graduated with two degrees, paralinguistics and parapsychology. She was hoping to sign on with Colonial Explorers and maybe be involved in the first contact with a new race. Trying to understand a new language or a species that uses telepathy in a matter of minutes was not a easy job and could lead to a terrible outcome.
But instead of the colonial explorers she had been recruited by the military intelligence division. After training, her first and only assignment had been Hyson. It had been rumored that there was another race of beings living out beyond the rim in the same galaxy as the Allith. It was also rumored that the Allith feared this race. Emily’s assignment had been to collect as much data as possible on this new race and monitor for contact. The Trillond had been pretty tight lipped about the inhabitants of the next galaxy; they knew something that they were not telling. It had been a long six months.
She had collected old manuscripts and recorded conversations. Although she didn’t have any hard information, she felt there was truth behind the story. Now they were going to evacuate the planet before she could get any actual facts. She was supposed to wait for extraction by the CNS Warhammer. She had been sending burst transmissions of her data to an unmanned data station 40 light-years away that had been sending it on to the Warhammer. She hoped the Warhammer would get to her soon.
General Grey was on the vid looking at his warship.
“Captain,” he said, “you have to make way today. I can’t afford to have you babysit the freighter any longer. We have gone above and beyond and now our mission is getting to a crucial point. You need to rendezvous with the Falchion, get the rest of the major’s team and get to Hyson at the fastest possible speed. Once you reach Hyson, you are to extract a member of military intelligence. I will send you sealed orders just prior to your arrival with the name of the off
icer. She is your mission. If there are any others that need extraction, and it won’t hinder the mission, then you may do so. Major, do not use the name of the officer at all if you can help it. I will have a description of the officer in with your orders as well as a safe word phrase and answer.”
“Yes sir,” the captain and major chimed in unison.
“How are Reaper and the new Ensign doing?”
“Ensign Aok has been a surprise, General,” the major replied. “Her hand-to-hand needs work, but if you put a weapon in her hand she is quite deadly.”
“Did Reaper know any of this before we put her on the team?” he asked.
“I do not believe he did,” Andrea answered. “I think he will tell you it was a gut feeling.”
“His gut feelings are probably better than most. How is he doing?” the general asked again.
“He is healing well and exercising. He only fought against one pirate. But he was the biggest man I have seen him take on so far. Even in his condition, he took him down in about a minute.”
“Impressive,” the general said, shuffling some papers before continuing. “I have one more bit of information for you, Major. Our old friend Colonel Thomas will be at Hyson with a company of marines helping to evacuate the colonial civilians. Just keep that under your hat; I didn’t want you to be blindsided.”
“Thank you, General. Just when it sounded like a boring snatch and grab, you go and drop a bomb.”
“Yes Major,” he said drily, “that is in my job description — bomb dropping. I will contact you both again when you rendezvous with the Falchion and we will have a team meeting. Grey out.”
The Chronicles of Benjamin Jamison: Call Sign Reaper Page 17