by Jack Colrain
Daniel loved watching her excited expression as they approached the long, colonial-style, pink-walled hotel. Beyond it, bright green palms led down to a white beach and the azure ocean. He had known that Hope would like it because he remembered her being totally blown away by the place in some of the episodes of The Bachelor that they had started watching together when they’d been training with Chief Hammond at Camp Peary.
He suspected, from the way her mind felt, and the way she was reacting to being at the location, that she had pretty much always wanted to go there since the first time she had seen the place in an episode.
“Thank you,” she said once they were ensconced at a small table on a private balcony overlooking the ocean.
Daniel wasn’t sure if this room and balcony had been used in the series, but it was certainly near enough to make Hope happy, and that was what mattered.
“I told you you’d like this,” he said.
“I’ve been worse places,” Hope admitted.
“Me, too.”
She closed her eyes, sipping a cocktail that neither of them could remember the name of. Daniel closed his eyes, too, and somehow saw himself. It took him a moment to realize that she was thinking of her view of him in the instant before she had closed her eyes. That was weirder than most other things Daniel could think of.
He thought of her, and her chuckle.
“I’m glad we came here,” she said. “As relaxations from the mission go...”
“I think I could have relaxed on any beach,” he admitted, “but I wanted this leave to be special.”
“Because it may be our last?”
Daniel didn’t answer. He didn’t want to. They both knew the mission they had been rehearsing was something to do with attacking a Gresian homeworld, and not knowing the operational specifics didn’t make it any easier, or help them feel any more confident about it.
“Every time they’ve gone up against the Gresians,” Hope went on, “they’ve proven themselves to be resourceful and dangerous. This mission’s odds of success must be very long indeed.”
Daniel spoke at last. “And even if we pull it off, there’s a reasonable chance we’re not going to get off the planet.”
“And if we don’t try...”
“Separate lifetime jail sentences, the admiral said.”
“Daniel...”
“Yes?”
“You know I….” She grimaced. “Strange, how it’s difficult to say a thing aloud when we’re so used to being in each other’s heads, and to knowing what the other is thinking and feeling.”
He chuckled, realizing she was right about that. “It makes no sense, does it? I guess that’s humanity for you. So, in answer to your question… I know a lot of things about you.”
“I want to marry you when we get back,” she said quietly. “When we get back from the mission. I know it’s a stupid thing to say, all things considered. But there’s nothing else in life I want more.”
“Is that a proposal?” Daniel wasn’t sure whether to laugh or ponder or cry. He knew he couldn’t think of anything he wanted more, either, but nor could he think of a worse time in their careers to suggest it.
“It is a statement of intent,” she said primly.
“If it was a question, my answer would be yes.”
“Does it have to be? Can’t it just be a decision?”
“It’s what you want. It’s something I want. That sounds like a decision to me.”
“I want a family, Daniel. A home and a family, with the person I love most in the world. Any world.”
“Then that’s what I’ll give you.” He gave a crooked smile. “My only possible response to this overwhelming superiority of force is unconditional surrender.”
She nodded sagely. “That is the wisest course.”
Five
Cape Canaveral, FL.
The charter flight was a little bumpy as it passed through a mild squall on its way to Orlando International, but Daniel and Hope barely noticed. The weather had calmed by the time the plane began its descent to a smooth landing.
Once they’d passed through security and regained their luggage from the domestic terminal’s carousel, Daniel and Hope followed a set of signs for military personnel en route to Cape Canaveral. There were uniforms from all of the services taking the same path, and Daniel wondered how many of them were going to be passengers or crew on shuttle launches to the UES ships in orbit, and how many were merely switching to terrestrial transport or being posted at Canaveral and the surrounding bases.
There were a handful of potential protestors looking at them with a mixture of suspicion and worry, but none looked willing to cause any trouble. ‘Looks like we’re none too popular around here,’ Daniel thought to Hope.
‘Commuters rarely seem happy.’
‘True, but wait till we’re on our helo and you get the aerial view.’
They were met by an Air Force sergeant who checked their IDs and guided them out to a fenced and guarded helipad on one end of the domestic terminal. A couple of Navy people were already aboard behind the pilot and co-pilot. The co-pilot leaned round towards his passengers. “Best to keep your heads and any limbs you feel particularly attached to inside the doors.”
“Protestors still taking pot-shots at military transports?” Daniel asked.
“More than ever. When the Mozzarrellas splintered, some of them took up worshipping the goddamn Gresians. Fuckin’ traitors. They got LAWS rocket launchers and IEDs now. God help us if they get hold of any surface to air RPGs.” Leaving his passengers with that cheerful thought, the co-pilot turned back to his instruments, and the helo’s turbines soon whined into life. A moment later, the pilot nodded to him and the aircraft lurched into the air.
Daniel held Hope’s hand tight, out of sight of the other passengers, and the chopper headed east towards Brevard County. Below, there were already tents and lean-tos visible, and the sprawling camp that he’d seen last time had evolved its own streets and thoroughfares between the masses of tents, shacks, and crumbling vehicles that looked unlikely to ever move again.
If anybody took a shot at the chopper, the fire didn’t come close enough for Daniel to notice, though he saw the pilots react to something at one point and climb a little higher. Instinctively, he searched the crowds below for muzzle flashes, but didn’t see anything. Most of the mass of humanity down there looked more like they wanted to get aboard a flight out than shoot one down.
He couldn’t really blame the fearful for wanting to protest about the government chickening out; those people, he could understand, but he couldn’t wrap his head around anyone siding with the Gresians. The ordinary people who knew that the rich and powerful, like his father’s friends, were fleeing the Earth like the proverbial rats from a sinking ship knew they were being abandoned to fend for themselves if and when the Gresians showed up to wipe them out. And they knew there were assholes among them willing to help the aliens do just that. His stomach churned at the idea of Gresian sympathizers, the thought making it rebel against the lunch he’d eaten on the jet and leaving his head spinning, but he couldn’t bring himself to hate or blame the others. It was natural to want to flee danger, or to want to hurt the people you perceived as trying to hurt you. He didn’t agree with it, but at least he understood it, especially since his mission to the Lyonesse colony.
He felt Hope wince slightly as his hand tensed unconsciously, almost crushing hers. He felt the sudden urge for a hot shower.
The transport helo landed on a dispersal apron, a wide expanse of concrete where aircraft and shuttles could be parked in rows near a runway some distance from the old vertical assembly building. The space was needed because several other helos and shuttles were idling in a sprawling group, unloading personnel and picking up or dropping off equipment.
Checking with a logistics noncom that all their gear was going where it needed to go, Daniel and Hope looked around for the next leg of their journey. An MP corporal was checking off IDs on a tabl
et. When it was their turn, the MP directed them to a Jeep whose driver took them across the base to its main reception building. ‘I wonder why they’re not just sticking us straight onto the shuttle,’ Daniel thought to Hope.
‘Thank heavens for small mercies, Dan.’
‘If it’s quotations you want, I think mine is ‘Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.’’
She chuckled aloud in response.
The drive was short, taking them to the administration building, where the familiar face of Sergeant Erik Palmer greeted them at the door.
“How did it go?” the musclebound sergeant asked quietly. Since he was keeping his expression neutral, Daniel knew he was asking about Evans’ memorial rather than his and Hope’s vacation.
“About as you’d expect,” Daniel said at last. “Harry was an asshole about it…. But he was right to be. It was a nice service, though, like she’d have wanted.” Palmer nodded, and the somber mood passed, along with Palmer’s slightly clouded expression. Daniel knew he would have wanted to be there, as all of the Hardcases would have, but they hadn’t been allowed by their superiors. None of them had been specifically invited by Harry or the family, either, now that Daniel thought about it, and now he could see why.
“We should even be able to commiserate over that tonight.”
Daniel blinked. “Aren’t we launching for the Sydney?”
“Tomorrow,” Erik said. “We just heard a couple of hours ago. Space Command’s press office wants to hold a news conference before we go.”
“Why would they do that?” Hope asked, astonished.
“Search me, but they must figure there’s some propaganda cheer-on-the-troops value in it.”
“Another GOBI,” Daniel muttered. “That’s all we need.”
“They might think their ideas are bright, but they’re clear as mud to me,” Palmer agreed. “That’s generals for you.” He turned to the building’s door. “Anyway, come on in. There’s a bit of a party going on.”
Daniel and Hope followed the big platoon sergeant through a lobby filled with soldiers and civilians, many of the civilians either elderly or children. Parents, grandparents, and kids, Daniel saw at once, and realized that they must have been brought in to see their relatives off to war.
‘I hope the Gresians aren’t going to be watching the press conference,’ Hope thought.
‘You must be reading my mind,’ Daniel agreed.
They found the main gathering in an unused hangar behind the building, which had been fitted out as a giant reception space with a band, a stage, tables for drinks and hors d’ouevres, and the largest U.S. flags Daniel had even seen in person draped from the walls.
Daniel recognized many old friends among the faces. All of the surviving and current members of Hammond’s Hardcases were there, of course, ready to ship out. Daniel was surprised to even see Rausch and Silva, two of the original Hardcases who had since been recalled to their home countries. The German and the Brazilian were both in civilian attire, and made a bee-line for Daniel and Hope as soon as they spotted the pair.
“Captain Ying, Lieutenant West,” Rausch exclaimed with a grin. “It’s good to see you again.”
“Really good,” Silva concurred.
“It’s good to see you, too,” Daniel said with a smile, and it was. It was also good to know that they were still doing their parts for Earth. “Are you coming with us?”
“I wish,” Silva said, Rausch nodding beside him. “But our defense minister says I’m too valuable—needed for training our Exo-suit wearers.”
“And it’s the same in Germany,” Rausch added. “I’m the only combat-experienced suit-wearer they have, so they keep me locked away in a verdammt training school.” He grimaced, and Daniel shook his head in sympathy.
“That’s a very valuable position to be in,” Hope said.
“It doesn’t feel like it. I’m not a natural teacher.”
“Me neither,” Silva sighed. “There are a lot of older, higher-ranking instructors who could do a better job at Resende than I do.”
Hope chuckled. “No. In my experience, experience outranks everything else.” They were interrupted by the arrival of a ten-year-old girl carrying canapes, which she held out in front of Palmer.
“Mom says you have to eat something as well as talk,” the girl said. Palmer laughed and took a couple. “OK, Lucy, you can tell her I ate.”
“Wilco,” the girl said, and vanished into the scattering of people.
Palmer saw the faces of the others. “My daughter,” he explained. “She’s come to see me off.” He glanced at the ground. “Feels like yesterday I was changing her diapers, and tomorrow I ought to be worrying about her first semester living away at university…. If that was tomorrow, at least I’d know I’d see—” He shook his head. “Never mind. Plenty of time for me to get back from wherever, right?”
“I didn’t know you had a daughter,” Hope said with a slight wonder in her tone.
“She lives with her mom; we separated about three years ago. Just before Chief Hammond first brought me into the program. She’s doing a better job of bringing her up than I probably would,” he admitted. “But I’m damn proud of Lucy.”
Hope smiled, Daniel muttering some positive agreement.
Kate Kinsella came over next. The former MP had a proud-looking elderly couple in tow, and Daniel could see the resemblance; Kinsella had her mom’s bone structure, but her dad’s hair color and expression. “Kathryn has told us all about you,” Mr. Kinsella said when introductions had been made.
“That’s worrying,” Daniel said with a smile.
“All good things, don’t worry,” Kinsella said.
“About both of you,” Mrs. Kinsella added. “I’m glad to finally meet you at last.”
“It’s a pleasure, Mrs. Kinsella,” Hope said.
“And it’s cool that you were able to come see me off,” Kate Kinsella said, hugging her parents.
“Just make sure you visit more often after this mission....” With that, Mr. Kinsella turned her towards the nearest buffet table, his wife following them. Daniel tuned out momentarily, thinking on how his visit to his own parents had gone. The thought occurred to him that if Nathan and Maria had come out here, it would probably have been to board a ship to their expensive bolt-hole for the rich and powerful. The thought depressed him.
“You look down, L-T,” Kevin Bailey’s voice said. Daniel turned to see the bespectacled sergeant holding a toddler with remarkable ease in the crook of one arm and a wine glass in his other. Hope was greeting a cheerful black woman next to him. Daniel nodded to her, too, saying, “Hi, Michelle. And this must be Sam.”
“I guess Kevin has mentioned him.”
“Once or twice,” Daniel said drily.
“It’s pretty clear you and he are everything to Kevin,” Hope said. Michelle blushed.
“Your parents here, too, Superman?” Daniel asked.
“Sure are.” He beckoned them over, and a moment later made introductions. “Lieutenant West, meet Louis and Jane Bailey.”
“Kevin and Michelle have always been good together,” Louis Bailey said, “but I have to say, Jane and I think they’ll be even better now that he’s made an honest woman of her.”
“Now that Michelle has made an honest man out of Kevin, you mean,” Jane corrected him. Louis didn’t argue the point, but merely grinned.
Daniel felt a faint pang, but he forced a smile. “It’s great to see everybody having a good time,” he said. “Which reminds me, I need to grab some of this chow before it all disappears.”
“Quite right, too,” Louis said approvingly.
Daniel stepped aside; the hubbub was getting a little wearing, and every smile and hello he could see somehow felt like a cut into him. He couldn’t put his finger on it at first, thinking he was probably just jealous, but then he looked beyond the smiles and small-talk and saw something else. He saw love and tears, but also tension and worry.
‘I’m going to h
ave to step out,’ he thought to Hope.
‘Is something wrong?’
‘Nobody here knows whether they’ll ever see their loved ones again, do they?’
‘No… No, they don’t. But that’s always the way.’
‘It’s weird, but...’
‘Did you want your parents here?’
‘NO… well, maybe Mom, but...’
‘Then you can always call her. I’ll be Skyping with my mother later.’
‘Maybe I should.’
Then something caught his eye—or, more accurately, someone—talking to a group of sailors. He wasn’t in uniform, but was instantly recognizable. Taller than Daniel, wearing a kind of safari jacket with leather elbow patches. He had a hawkish face with a sharp nose, piercing eyes, and a furrow to his high brow that looked as if it had a razor edge on it. “What the hell…?” Daniel asked aloud
“What is it?” Hope frowned.
“You see that tall guy?”
“The one with the thin mustache like in an old 1930s movie?”
“Yeah…. That’s Doug Wilson. The leader of the Lyonesse colony. Some sort of archaeologist.”
“What’s he doing here?”
“That’s what I’d like to know.” He started to wend his way towards Wilson, in the hope of simply asking him that question, but, by the time he got near the sailors, Wilson had vanished into the crowd and Daniel found himself in the midst of a group of Hardcases and their families, all bigging him up. He just felt the urge to be somewhere quiet and prepare for their mission, but, right now, that wasn’t an option.
“Look,” he called out at last, “gather round. Hardcases and families!”
They did so, looking at him expectantly.
“The military wanted to hold this send-off,” he began, “I guess because the journey that we’re about to embark upon is a particularly important one. We’re not just scouting or escorting colonists this time.
“I can’t tell you exactly what our mission is, for reasons of operational security.” He added a silent aside to Hope, ‘And because I don’t know any more than they do, really.’ She nodded.
