Tebrey felt uneasy.
There was something wrong, and he couldn't quite figure out what it was. The day had begun so well, but now, after hours of walking through the ruins under the dark looming clouds, he couldn't regain his sense of wonder. Now it was just a pile of old rocks and dirt.
He tensed as he heard someone walk up behind him. He dropped his hand to his pistol and turned.
"Hello!" A lithe blond woman waved to him. She was about six meters away.
He couldn't shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen, and he had learned the hard way to pay attention to those feelings.
He stared intently at her as she walked up, but the feeling wasn't from her. She was good to look at, but he didn't want to be distracted just now.
"Hello," he replied cautiously. "I don't believe we have met."
"Jane," she answered. "Jane Svenson. I'm working on my thesis. I'm one of Dr. Anderson's assistants, but don't hold that against me." She winked and held out her hand.
"Lt. Commander Tebrey. How do you do, Jane Svenson?" he said, shaking her hand.
"Well, aren't we formal? Just call me Jane. Got a first name, Commander?"
"Yes," he replied, not paying much attention to her. There was definitely something wrong.
"Douglas told me that you've been working together in the lab."
Tebrey sighed. She wasn't going to go away. "Yes. I've been trying to assess the military potential of the metallic artifacts."
"Oh, like the one that made us all sick?"
"Excuse me?"
"When Mark and Wendy died," she replied. "Some kind of radiation made us all sick."
"Oh, yes," he replied. "Things like that."
Jane was irked. The man had to be lonely, and that was a waste because he was really good looking. She was tall herself, and liked men who were taller than her. Douglas was by a few centimeters, but Tebrey was a lot taller. She liked that.
She had decided on the 'innocent college girl' routine while walking over. Now she was wondering if she should have come on stronger. He didn't even seem to be paying attention to her, and she had unzipped her coverall far past where it was polite to do so. Her breasts were large and natural; they had never failed to attract a man's eyes before.
She made a moue and tried again to get his attention, but he kept looking anywhere but at her. It was insulting, really. She was about to walk away when suddenly he looked right at her, and the expression on his face made her blood run cold.
"Down!" he shouted, drawing a large pistol from the holster on his hip.
She couldn't move. This can't be happening, she thought frantically. His left hand flashed out and grabbed the front of her jumpsuit. She found herself flung to the side with a casual strength that was frightening. Then she saw what he had seen, and a ragged scream was torn from her throat.
Corporal Melanie Cook heard someone shout. Then she heard a horrific scream and the loud report of a large-caliber weapon. She didn't see Johnson around, but she was already running to the far end of the dig site. She flipped the switch to charge her rifle as she ran.
Johnson had been watching them talking.
The woman was quite attractive, and he could feel his need for her burning inside. He wasn't sure what they were doing. The hellspawn was looking around, almost like he knew Johnson was out here. He wanted so badly to raise his rifle and fire until there was nothing left but a smoking corpse. He could almost see it happening when he closed his eyes.
Then he saw the beast throw the woman to the ground.
Johnson was stunned. Was he really going to take her here? Was he going to give Johnson an excuse to finish him off and become the hero at the same time? Maybe the woman would be grateful to him for saving her.
He stood and raised his rifle.
Then he saw what the woman was really screaming about and screamed himself.
Tebrey shouted, "Down!" and drew his pistol. He was startled a moment later to see Jane still standing in front of him. Without thinking, he reached out and flung her to the side.
He'd read about the predatory carnivores that had been spotted roaming the wilds of Cedeforthy, but reading an entry on a data screen and seeing sixteen tons of reptilian horror come charging out of the trees were two very different things. Most of the impressions of the animal came to him later. His attention was held by its seemingly endless rows of teeth and cavernous maw that looked like it could swallow a man whole.
It ran across the ground in a series of five-meter strides, consuming the distance between them, and the ground shook with each step.
He would only have time for one shot before it was on them.
The cool logic of his neural computer came online to process the flood of raw data, linking with his pistol. A targeting reticle slowly moved up the creature's flank as his hyper-accelerated senses watched his arm move so slowly into position. He watched the range data blur as the creature closed.
There! he thought. The reticle flashed as the computer picked the most vital location, and he pulled the trigger. The world blurred back into normal time for him.
Tebrey carried a positron pistol with him when armored. As the creature bore down on him, he wished he had it with him then – not that it was safe to use unshielded. What he had was quite sufficient for the job, however, no matter what doubts he held.
The heavy pistol fired a twenty-millimeter, high-explosive caseless round that had been designed to damage light vehicles. The round went through the roof of the creature's mouth and blew the entire top of its head off.
It fell heavily to the ground and slid almost to his feet, the large hole in its head scooping up dirt and rocks. The sauriod's long-clawed limbs still spasmed in senseless fury, but the creature was quite dead.
Only then did Tebrey realize that Jane was screaming.
By the time the scientists had come over to see what the fuss was about, Tebrey and the two guards had managed to calm Jane down. She still shivered any time she looked toward the sauroid carcass, but she was able to stop crying.
"Jane, it's okay. The creature is dead."
She sobbed again.
"I'm sorry I had to throw you aside. I didn't have time to explain."
"It's okay, you saved my life."
"Where are you from, Jane?"
"Jotunheim," she whispered. Jotunheim, in the Epsilon Eridani system, was a stable world with rich, verdant forests and a few tame native animals.
"I'd never seen anything like that. I saw some animals in a zoo on Freya when doing my undergraduate work, but never up-close and personal. To be so close to such a creature and to know that it wanted to eat me…" She shuddered. "I'm sorry. It's just that I'm a Gaian. My society believes in the peaceful harmony of nature."
"It's hard to face the loss of a cherished belief," Tebrey replied. "Jotunheim is a beautiful world, but it isn't typical."
"You've been there?"
"I have."
Tebrey helped Jane back to the landing pad where the two shuttles sat. Under the circumstances, it was decided that her condition needed medical attention. She was still in a deep state of shock.
The shuttle ferried them both up to the Loridell a few minutes later.
Johnson stayed behind and fumed.
Chapter Ten
"We are gathered here today to honor those who gave their lives in the defense of this great Federation of worlds. To give your life for the Earth Federation is to give your life in the defense of freedom. It is to..."
Hrothgar Tebrey stood in the shuttle bay of the Descubierta and listened to the words he had heard so many times before. No matter how many times he heard them, he was always moved by their simple eloquence. All of the military personnel who were not on duty, from the four starships, were in the bay for the memorial service. The rest would hear the words at their posts. He didn't know – or care – if the scientists listened or not.
The words brought back painful memories of friends he had lost, but that was part
of the healing process. He didn't know any of the crewmembers who had died this time, but they were Fleet, and that meant they were family. All the family he had left. He remembered his parents, long gone, and his last companion, who died to give him time to reach the bridge of the Kirov.
"...don't try to make sense of why you were spared when your friends and fellow shipmates were killed next to you. Remember only that they died protecting the Earth Federation, and honor them..."
It was natural to blame yourself, Tebrey thought, when you survived and others didn't. There was a random brutality to war. You never knew who was going to die on a certain mission. It could be the rookie, fresh out of boot, or a twenty-year veteran. If you tried to make sense of it, it would drive you insane. Tebrey's gear was designed to keep him alive, no matter how severely wounded he was. Only critical brain damage would kill him. So far he'd managed to avoid that, if nothing else.
"..remember that all lives are fleeting. All people die. All things come to an end eventually…"
Except war, Tebrey thought. That doesn't seem to ever come to an end. His thoughts inevitable took him back to a woman he had once fallen in love with, now dead. His body ached at the memory, but he couldn't stop the flood of emotion, and didn't want to. It was all he had left of her.
The dark waters of the Indigo Sea lapped gently against the pale sands as the two of them made love under the lurid light of Kaleido, Prism's volcanic sister world. They unintentionally moved to the rhythm of the waves while their companions frolicked on the beach and shared in their lovemaking.
It was a desperate attempt to freeze the moment, to make time stand still, but it came to its inevitable end and they lay together under the stars and whispered of what life would be like when the war was finally over. Ripper and Stalker had come near then, and they had made plans together, knowing that the chances were slim that they would all survive, but daring to hope.
"Hrothgar, what do you want from life?" Jessica asked.
Tebrey propped himself on the blanket and brushed her silky blond hair from her eyes. "I want you." They had scrimped and saved, hoping to settle on a Frontier world after the war: eating at the base, wearing uniforms everywhere instead of civilian clothes, saving every credit they could. They almost had enough to start anew.
Jessica laughed. "You know what I mean, silly man."
He rolled onto his back and stared into the depths of space. "I want everything we've talked about. I want a life without war."
"What about a family?"
"We have a family," he replied, gesturing toward their dozing companions.
"I meant children."
"Now you're scaring me," he teased.
She punched his arm and then snuggled against his shoulder. "I think I may want children."
"You should have thought of that before you let the military sterilize you."
"I'm sure that they could reverse it. They can grow us whole new limbs!"
"Good point."
"So how about it?"
"Jessica –" he started.
"No, don't say it," she warned. "We're going to make it. The war can't last forever, and even if it does, we don't have to be a part of it. My service contract is over next year, yours the year after that. I have a good feeling about our future."
"Okay."
"You don't believe me?"
"I want to believe you," he replied. "Does that count?"
"Good enough for now." She kissed him deeply, and they were distracted again.
"I love you," she whispered later.
"I know," he replied.
She hit him again.
"Well?"
"Well!" she mocked.
"I love you, too. You know that." They could feel each other's emotions in a way that a non-psion could never understand. When they made love, they were one being.
"I still like to hear it." She sat up and watched the waves. "Have you gotten your new orders?"
Tebrey sighed. "Yeah."
"I did, too." She began pulling on her clothes. "Where are they sending you?"
"Rhyr," he replied. "Should be a simple assignment. The Rhyrhans want to start using companions. I've been assigned to help train the first cadre. Apparently they asked for me, specifically."
"That's unusual. I didn't think they involved themselves much in human affairs. How did they learn your name? Have you had dealings with them before?"
"No." Tebrey started getting dressed. "I guess they just picked my name off a list. Where are you going?"
"Sorry, that's classified."
"Seriously?"
Jessica laughed. Tebrey loved that laugh; it was deep and full of life. "I'm headed out to the Republic of Ber-dan. The Wolf Empire has been snooping around. We're just going out there for a show of force to convince the Republic they would be better off as an ally of the Earth Federation. Should be a cake walk."
"Don't trust the Wolf Empire," Tebrey said with heat. "They're lying, cheating bastards."
"Hrothgar, you'll wake Stalker and Ripper."
"I'm serious."
Her deep blue eyes locked with his green. "When have I ever trusted anyone but you?"
He smiled.
"Just be careful."
"You, too, love."
They had packed up their gear, woken their companions, and gone back to Camp Forester. They were shipping out that afternoon.
Tebrey never saw her again.
He received a message later that Jessica and Stalker had boarded a Wolf Empire ship for negotiations and been murdered in cold blood. They and the rest of the diplomatic team hadeach been shot in the head and then blown out an airlock. Their bodies were never retrieved. He and Ripper had been devastated. All of their plans, gone in a single instance of stupidity. And then Ripper had died six months ago on the Kirov. But they were not forgotten, never forgotten.
And that was the meaning under the words. It didn't really matter what was said, and each captain said their own words. What the words meant was that the dead would never be forgotten. Their sacrifice wouldn't be in vain. The Fleet would make sure of that. It would always remember. Their names would be added to the roster of the ship's crew forever. Even if the ship was destroyed, the new ship to gain the honor of its name would have a bulkhead with their names upon it.
It was cold comfort, but it was the way that things were done.
Tebrey wondered where his name would be recorded. Back on Luna, he supposed. I don't belong to any ship of the Fleet, but to the Earth Federation as a whole. He had never bothered to ask. Jessica, Stalker, and Ripper were gone forever. Seeing their names engraved on a piece of bronze didn't seem like it would help much.
The captain's final words rang out through the ship, and then Tebrey felt the vibration through the deck plating as the control interlocks on the far shuttle bay door were overridden and the bodies were consigned to the void.
Gunnery crews on all four ships stood by to target the bodies on their executive officer's orders. The lasers would lance out and the bodies be vaporized, their ashes to fall to the planet below or drift forever to the stars. It was a final salute to the heroic deeds of the three hundred forty-six shipmates who had lost their lives in defense of that which they all held dear.
Chapter Eleven
Dr. Mason looked up from her air screen at the knock on her doorframe. She'd left the door to her office open, and the knock was so anachronistic that it took her a moment to respond. Lt. Commander Tebrey stood in the doorway.
"Hello, Doctor. Do you have a few minutes?"
"Of course, come in, Commander. Have a seat."
"Thank you." He settled his tall frame into the contoured chair in front of her desk.
"What can I do for you, Commander?" she asked.
"I hadn't seen you since the meeting. How have things been with you?"
Mason closed the file she'd been working on. "Worried, mostly. I keep thinking about what you said about the Nurgg. I can't help but think this is all a mistake. We s
houldn't be out here, so far from Federation Fleet support."
"I can't argue with you there, Doctor."
"I have a first name, you know."
"I'm sure you do."
Mason studied the young man and decided that he was more anxious than he let anyone see. "You don't like to get personal, do you?"
Tebrey smiled, and Mason was struck again by how unusual some of his features were. He was handsome, by anyone's standards, but there was an ethnicity there that she couldn't quite place. That was odd, since her specialty was anthropology, and she had good knowledge of all of the major cultures in the Federation. But then, Tebrey had said his father was from the fringe somewhere. She'd love to know where.
"I'm sorry, Doctor. It's just habit. I usually work alone."
"I thought you usually worked with a companion."
He stiffened, suddenly even more closed off. "Maybe I should go."
"Please don't, Commander. I didn't mean to offend you. You're just so private. We've known you for what, ten days?"
"Eleven," he said.
"Okay, eleven days. You need to loosen up. Relax. People like you, in case you hadn't noticed. Saving Jane the other day didn't hurt, either. You're something of a hero to many of us. Get to know people a little. Talk to us. What could it hurt?"
"Me," he said quietly. "When I let them down and they die."
"You won't let us down. You didn't let Jane down."
He shrugged uncomfortably.
"Okay, well, I'm not going to call you Commander anymore. What's your first name?"
"No."
"I'm sorry?" She was taken aback by his flat refusal.
He sighed. "People whom I've loved, who are now dead, have called me by my first name. How about you just call me Tebrey?"
"It's a bit formal, don't you think?"
"Not in the military."
"Okay. Tebrey it is. You can call me Amber or Mason. I've got a Ph.D. but I'm not the President of the Federation."
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