by Ian Douglas
Seconds later, the planet grew brighter still, the entire hemisphere facing the Stargate growing intolerably, dazzlingly bright, brighter than the sun. At the same instant, the upper-right quadrant of the planet’s disk seemed to swell, to flare outward…then to detach itself, a slow-motion stretching like that of a solar prominence.
Billions of years ago, during the initial formation of the Solar System, a body the size of Mars had struck a much larger mass indirectly, blasting an immense chunk out of the still-molten orb that would one day cool to become the Earth. The impact created a temporary ring system around the infant Earth that, eventually, would coalesce into Earth’s Moon.
This, Garroway thought, must be similar to that long-ago drama played out at the dawn of Earth’s solar system, except that this time humans, not the chance collision of protoplanets, had been the cause.
What was that ancient line from the Hindu Ramayana…the one quoted by Edward Teller, the man who’d invented the hydrogen bomb? I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.…
Humans, Garroway thought, had just entered a whole new realm, one in which they possessed the power to destroy a planet in an eye’s blink.
He wondered if they could be trusted with so awesome a responsibility.
IST Lejeune
Stargate, Night’s Edge Star System
2218 hrs, TFT
“We got ’em!” Travis Garroway said, his voice soft. His arm tightened around Chrome’s waist. “By God, we got ’em!”
They were sitting side by side in Lejeune’s medical center, watching the download feed on their noumenal displays.
Garroway could still scarcely believe they’d survived. One hundred ninety-three Marines had been plucked from space in the region around the Xul fortress and returned to the Lejeune and the Henderson. All were suffering from heavy radiation exposure, accumulated partly from the detonation of their K-94s, but mostly from radiation emitted by the black hole within the Fortress as it devoured the ruined structure. Garroway, Chrome, and eight others were in a processing room, awaiting their turn to go into the medical tanks. The ship’s medtechs were ushering them through ten at a time. Soon, they’d be in cybe-hibe once more, as trillions of nanobots swarmed through their bodies, repairing the radiation damage in their cells.
“We’ll have to go in close to make sure,” Chrome said. “We can’t leave a one of the bastards alive.”
“I don’t know how anybody could survive that,” Garroway said. He kept watching his internal display, mesmerized by the sight of a huge piece of the planet, turned molten and sent drifting slowly into space by Intrepid’s impact. He was feeling a bit groggy; they’d given them drugs already, to prepare them for hibernation, and the stuff was starting to take effect.
“Does this mean we won?” Nal asked from a bench on the other side of the room. “That the war’s over?”
“Not quite,” Chrome told him. “We just Doolittled them.”
“‘Doolittled?’” Nal said. “I do not know this word….”
“It’s not a word,” Garroway told him. He glanced at Chrome, then looked back at the Ishtaran Marine. “Three hundred years ago, the United States was attacked by a powerful enemy, people from an island called Japan. The attack just about wrecked the American fleet at a place called Pearl Harbor…an ocean fleet, not starships.”
“Please…‘ocean?’”
“A very, very big body of water on a planetary surface. Anyway, an American Army officer, Colonel Doolittle, came up with a plan to strike back against Japan. A few months after Pearl Harbor, he led a formation of B-25 bombers off of one of our aircraft carriers. These were planes that hadn’t been designed for naval operations, see, so the men needed special training to fly off the deck of a carrier.” He saw Nal’s look of bewilderment, and shrugged. “Anyway, they launched a bombing raid on Japan…sixteen aircraft.”
“And these bombers destroyed Japan?”
“Uh…no. In fact, they didn’t do much damage at all.”
“Yeah,” another man waiting in the compartment with them said. “Just one of our modern aerospace strike fighters today carries as much firepower as, I don’t know, two or three thousand of those old bombers.”
Garroway looked at the man, then looked again. “Hey…you’re Maverick, aren’t you?”
He looked startled. “Where…” Then he grinned. “Virginia. Fighting marauders.”
“That’s right, sir. So you were part of our aerospace support?”
“Yeah, not that we could do much. The wing got pretty chewed up.”
Garroway nodded. “So I heard. How many made it?”
“Four. Including me.”
“Shit.”
Maverick shrugged. “Hey, that’s why they pay us so well.”
Garroway wasn’t sure whether he was serious or not. Marine base pay was not good compared to most civilian professions, but the fliers did get flight pay on top of their combat pay, and Maverick was an officer. Compared to what he and Chrome made, Maverick was rich.
He turned back to Nal. “Anyway, those sixteen B-25s blew up a couple of factories, damaged a rail yard. So far as the Japanese war effort was concerned, it was completely insignificant.”
“It did give the Americans a big moral boost, though,” Chrome pointed out. “A propaganda victory, if nothing else.”
“Yes, and it’s possible the attack against the Japanese home islands made them pull back and think for a while. Not long after the Doolittle Raid, the Japanese Imperial fleet suffered a major naval defeat that marked the turning of the war.”
“So the Americans did win this war?”
“Oh, yes,” Garroway said. “We won. But when Chrome says we Doolittled the Xul, I think she just means that all we did was singe them a little bit. We haven’t really hurt them. Hell, we can’t even guess yet how big the Xul empire is…or if they even have something we could call an empire. There must be thousands of planets like Objective Tripoli, though, and any one of them has enough firepower to turn Earth into a new asteroid belt, once they find us.”
“That was why we came here,” Chrome said. “To make it so they can’t find us.”
Garroway could feel his initial elation slipping away. Comparing Operation Seafire to the Doolittle Raid put things sharply into perspective. It was a victory, yes…but a very minor one. And a victory that could easily backfire, with terrible consequences for the entire human species.
“Yeah,” Maverick agreed. “We just have to hope they haven’t spread the word yet about Earth and humans. Otherwise, we could get back to Earth ten years from now and find nothing left at all.”
Chrome looked at him, her head tilted. “My, but you’re being cheerful. I’d thought you’d be happy about this. We did win, after all.”
“We did win. For now.”
A Navy corpsman entered the compartment. “Okay, ladies, gentlemen,” he said cheerfully. “You’re up next. Remove all of your clothing and leave it here. We’ll pop you into the tanks and in a few short years you’ll come out good as new.”
Garroway was a little disappointed not to be able to see the rest of the mop-up. Scuttlebutt had it that the task force would be scouring through the Night’s Edge star system, looking for Xul holdouts, and a large Marine force was to be inserted into the Stargate in this system. When the task force returned to Sirius, they were going to pull the plug behind them, destroying the local gate and, it was hoped, any clues as to where the attack on Edge of Night had come from.
But he was also exhausted, though some of what he felt might be due to the drugs in his system. It would be so good to sleep….
He began stripping off his utilities.
“So,” he said to Chrome. “We have a date in ten years?”
She grinned. “Ten years objective,” she said. “Tonight, subjective. Assuming the Earth is still there, or course.”
“Assuming Earth’s still there.”
“And if it’s not?”
“Hey, there’s always An
dromeda. And we’ll still have the Corps.”
Epilogue
15 OCTOBER 2333
Linked with Interface Shuttle Rutan
Approaching Earth
0915 hrs, GMT
“Damn, but it’s good to be home,” Travis Garroway said, looking out through the virtual viewscreen across the achingly beautiful curve of azure blue and mottled white that was Earth.
In fact, he was still on board the Lejeune, in Earth orbit, but he was linked in with his uncle, who was on board the shuttle en route to Earth. He had a good, solid link, which felt as real as actually being there.
Earth, he saw, with a rush of pent-up relief, was still there. He’d known it was, of course, ever since he’d emerged from cybe-hibe the day before, but this was the first time he’d actually seen it, even over a virtual reality download.
It looked good.
“Yes, it is,” General Garroway said, leaning back on the circular sofa in the main lounge, studying the view. “I think a lot of us thought we wouldn’t see the place again, one way or another.” He seemed thoughtful.
“So…is there a problem, sir?”
“Eh? No. Not at all. They’re ferrying me down there for an awards banquet, you know.”
“So I heard. You and Admiral Gresham are the golden-haired boys, I hear.”
“I suppose you could say that. It’s this ‘Saviors of the Earth’ crap that’s bothering me.”
“Why’s that? You’re a hero.”
“We’re all heroes, son. But…that’s not the point. We’re in a war, now, and it’s going to last a long time…assuming the Xul don’t find us. I’m a little concerned about this hysteria on Earth, like we just pulled off the biggest coup since the discovery of fire.”
Garroway grinned. “Seafire, you mean.”
“I guess so.”
“So, let ’em lionize you. Because of you, the human race might just have a future after all. We got home from Night’s Edge, and Earth was still here, and that means the Xul don’t know about us, or don’t know where we are, at least. Mission successful.”
“Affirmative. But what about the next mission?”
“I don’t know. What is it?”
“Neither do I. I just found out they’re building those asteroid starships, anyway, to kind of hedge our bets. But the rest of Earth thinks we’re going to go back out there and kick the Xul clean out of our Galaxy.”
“And maybe we will.”
The general looked up at him, then grinned. “Semper fi. Anyway…I only called to congratulate you. I heard about you and Staff Sergeant O’Meara.”
“Shit. How’d you hear about that?” He’d not told anyone about their plans for a long-term contract.
“Scuttlebutt. The only human agency that travels faster than light.”
“At least for now.”
“At least for now.” General Garroway nodded. “That reminds me. I’m told the stuff we picked up out at the Edge is going to go a long way toward cracking the light barrier. And that includes your insight, back there in the Fortress. Quincy was able to get a lot out of the Fortress network, too, I’m told. A guy in the Physics lab on the Henderson was telling me last night that the human mind is going to be the key to faster-than-light travel, FTL communication, nullification of inertia, everything. The N’mah and the Xul both use some pretty heavy technology to do that kind of stuff now, but we haven’t had a clue as to how to get down to the quantum base state and do it directly. Even the N’mah don’t know how they gimmick inertia. Not really. Using Weiji-do, or some form of mental discipline like it, we just might be able to do it some day ourselves.”
“How soon?”
The general shrugged. “You can’t put breakthroughs on a timetable. But the physics people are saying we should have an FTL drive by the end of the century.”
“And then?”
“And then we can start thinking about taking on the Xul on their own terms. And you, my boy, and the Marines of 1MIEU, may have bought us the time necessary to do just that.”
Garroway stared at the gorgeous planet spread out beneath them. He was looking forward to seeing it again with his eyes, to walking on its surface, to feeling the breeze on his face.
According to what they were saying on the Lejeune, things were a lot better down there now. Ice sheets still covered much of Europe, northern Asia, and the Americas, but the surviving populations had been fighting back against the encroaching ice. Enormous sheets a few atoms thick and coated with a nanoreflector surface had been in geosynchronous orbit for four years, now, reflecting sunlight onto those areas of the planet that needed it. There was talk of building orbital particle accelerators out there, too, which would fire low-power beams into the icecaps, gradually melting them away and reducing the high albedo that currently kept Earth in an icebox.
And they were building, building on a scale never before imagined. Nanufactories at L-4 and L-5 were already beginning to turn asteroids into titanic orbital structures that soon would be linked together into a geosynch habitat constructed 36,000 kilometers above the equator and completely encircling the Earth, similar in design to the ring around Objective Tripoli. When complete, it would be able to house many times Earth’s current population. In time, in fact, Earth’s surface might be largely uninhabited, with Homo sapiens having at last made the transition to a fully technic, fully space-dwelling species.
It was, he thought, Humankind’s legacy from the vanished Ancients.
“So, what’s ahead for you, General?” he asked.
“I’m not sure. I’m not ready to retire, yet.”
“You could run for office.”
“Don’t be vulgar.”
“Why not? You’re a hero. And I hear Alena Fortier is the new World Union president.”
“That bitch.”
“Yeah. The NAU will need someone to keep her at bay. Isn’t she the one who’d like to shut down the military entirely?”
“She was. I doubt that she feels that way now, at least publicly. It would be political suicide to criticize the military now.”
“Well…think about it, sir. We’re going to need people leading us who know the score. Who know what we’re really up against.”
“I’ll consider it. How about you?”
“I’m still thinking about it. Chrome and I have some leave coming. We need to see where we stand. I don’t want another out-system deployment. Maybe it’s time to leave the Corps and do some real work, building.”
“Once a Marine, always a Marine. And we do our share of building.”
“I know.” He looked up from the blue and white sweep of the Earth at the blackness of the sky above, and shuddered. “It’s just…well, floating out there at Edge of Night, I’d never been that alone in my life. I don’t want to ever be that alone again.”
“I hear you, Travis. Maybe Earth is where you need to be. At least for a while.”
“Yeah. Although…”
“What?”
Travis Garroway looked back down at the Earth, spread out beneath the shuttle in azure splendor.
“The more I think about it, the more I think that it’s not Earth that’s home. It’s the Corps.”
“Semper fi, son.”
“Semper fi.”
About the Author
IAN DOUGLAS is the author of the popular military SF series The Heritage Trilogy and The Legacy Trilogy. A former naval corpsman, he lives in Pennsylvania.
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Books
by Ian Douglas
Star Carrier
EARTH STRIKE
CENTER OF GRAVITY
SINGULARITY
DEEP SPACE
DARK MATTER
And the Galactic Marines Series
Star Corpsman
BLOODSTAR
ABYSS DEEP
The Inheritance Trilogy
STAR STRIKE
GALACTIC CORPS
SEMPER HUMAN
The Legacy Trilogy
STAR CORPS
BATTLESPACE
STAR MARINES
The Heritage Trilogy
SEMPER MARS
LUNA MARINE
EUROPA STRIKE
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
STAR MARINES. Copyright © 2007 by William H. Keith, Jr. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub © Edition NOVEMBER 2008 ISBN: 9780061978999
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