by Korza, Jay
In the end, the president came up with the idea, and ultimately a direct order, that the heroes who had captured the first enemy vessel should be the ones to depart the shuttle first.
Surgeon stood with Seth and several other members of the strike team and ship’s crew to welcome the special envoy. Seth was surprised at how much his hands were sweating. He had survived one of the most harrowing battles in recent Coalition history and he was more nervous than ever before. Would she remember him? Would that spark still be there? Were his feelings just drug-induced shadows from being roofied by Joker? He was about to find out and the thought almost made him throw up.
The boarding ramp lowered from the side of the shuttle and touched the deck before the first person showed their face in the doorway. Surgeon recognized the operator from his picture in the files; his name was Bloom. Bloom looked around and descended the ramp. He was closely followed by the droid they repurposed, Jeeves. The droid said something that only Bloom could hear and he gave what seemed to be a sharp reply. Interesting.
Two women came next and Surgeon could barely keep himself in one place as he looked at his wife. Daria was scanning the faces in the reception party when her eyes finally fell on Surgeon. Their eyes locked. Daria started to move down the ramp faster and saw that the way was blocked by the slow-moving Jeeves and Bloom. Without hesitation, she jumped over the side of the boarding ramp and landed six feet later in a dead run to Surgeon.
Surgeon braced himself for the oncoming woman, who flung herself into his arms and they buried their faces into each other’s shoulders. Both were crying unabashedly. Daria pulled back just enough so their lips could meet and she kissed her husband as though it was the first time.
After a period of time that left most of the observers feeling a little awkward, Daria pulled away again. “You forgot to take the garbage out again. Dick.”
“I love you.”
“I love you, too, Mike.”
“Seriously?” Seth was looking at his friend and trying not to be obvious about visually stalking Emily as she approached. “After seeing this side of you, I don’t know if I can ever call you Surgeon again.”
“Surgeon?” Seriously?” This was from Daria.
“Hey, we were all given our call signs by someone else, not my choice.” Mike smiled. “And as long as we’re talking about stupid names, The Goonies?!”
“Well,” Daria began, “we were a group of friends who dropped down a hole and had to fight for the buried treasure.”
“Yeah, I read the report. I can’t wait to hear about it in person, though.”
“We aren’t talking later.” Daria didn’t care who was listening. “You’ll be lucky if you can stay conscious later.”
“Um, awkward...” Bloom was now standing with the group.
Seth was the first to greet him. “I’ve read your reports and I’m very impressed with your work. I’ve got a bit of a technology background and I’d love to pick your brain later.” He extended his hand. “I’m Seth, but they call me Cadet.”
“Ooooh, bummer.” Bloom snickered. “Jeeves and I would be happy to go over the mission later. Just show me where we can grab a beer and I’m all yours.”
Seth was about to say something when he felt a light tap on his shoulder. “Excuse me, Lieutenant,” Emily began, “I’m not sure if you remember me or not; you weren’t doing too well when we met back at your graduation.”
How could I forget the love of my life? My destiny? Holy God, I didn’t say that out loud, did I? Nope, still internal dialogue. Good...
“I’m sorry, I guess you don’t. Well, I’m”—”
Seth didn’t give her a chance to finish. “Captain Emily Riley. Of course I remember you. Thank you for being so nice to me that night. I was actually drugged by that nice gentleman over there,” Seth pointed to Joker who just waved and smiled back, “so I could be kidnapped for this mission. Oh, and congratulations on your recent field promotion. Very impressive stuff.”
Emily blushed. “Thank you. I didn’t really do anything other than back the plays of my team.” Daria gave her a little swat on the shoulder for being so humble. “I don’t want to intrude, but I’d like to join your conversation with Bloom later. I’d like to hear firsthand what you’ve learned about the warriors.”
“Of course, ma’am.” Seth cringed at his own formal address. “We’d really love for you to join.” He cringed again at the now excessive sense of eagerness in his voice.
“Awkward...” Bloom had his hand to his face and looked through his fingers as though he were watching a scary movie.
“Query.” Jeeves spoke up in his completely out-of-place British accent. “Are you stating ‘awkward’ because of the obvious sexual interest this male human has in the captain and his apparent inability to function properly in her presence?”
Daria pointed to Jeeves and Bloom. “Leave. Both of you. Now.”
Without a word, they both turned around and tried to find a spot farther along the reception line. The rest of the team was coming down the ramp with Davies just exiting the shuttle. Davies looked around to find Daria and when he did, he also found Mike. He was first confused because his friend was supposed to be dead. Then he was elated that his friend wasn’t dead. And lastly he was ashamed as the memory and imagery of him and Daria went through his mind.
Daria saw Davies and caught the almost imperceptible change of emotion and found herself also feeling a rush of guilt. She would tell Mike. He deserved to know and she knew he would understand, given the circumstances. For now though, she hoped Davies could act natural enough to get through the moment.
Davies walked to Mike and embraced him while lifting the only slightly smaller man off his feet. “Don’t ever die again, jerkface.”
“I love you, too, buddy, but even my wife didn’t hold me this long.” Mike slapped his friend on the back as he was put on his feet again.
The small group grew as the operators from both groups mixed and were introduced to one another. By the time the president made his arrival at the door, no one was paying attention to the shuttle any more. The president laughed a little to himself as he heard the protocol officers from all three groups complaining about how their hard work had gone to waste and that no one was even paying attention. Exactly, the president thought, this is the way it should be.
~
Hours later, Daria and Mike were walking to the general debrief that had been set up in the largest conference room the ship had. The conference room was more of an auditorium with its stadium seating, monitors everywhere, and personal datapads placed on every seat waiting for their intended occupants.
The general debrief was going to be huge and necessarily time consuming. Every member of both ground teams, along with key personnel from Surgeon’s infiltration ship, would be debriefing the Coalition president, Nortes empress and Detrill emperor, along with their respective staff members. After the general assembly ended, the plan was to have a much smaller briefing two days later with the key team leaders and ship commanders who would be leading the next phase of the assault.
As they walked, Daria looked to Mike. “I still don’t understand what all of the faked deaths and kidnappings were for. Special Ops guys get deployed on secret missions all the time. Why all of the theatrics?”
Mike sighed. “It’s been explained to me a few times, and I still don’t get it myself. I was pretty angry to say the least when I found out what they were putting you through. The short story is that they were so afraid of what was going on in the outer colonies, they didn’t want to risk any security leaks whatsoever. They went to extremes to ensure that nothing about this mission got out.”
“Well, we all know that ‘Military Intelligence’ is the most profound oxymoron in the universe.” Daria gripped her husband’s arm a little tighter as they exited the lift and walked into the conference room and took their assigned seats.
As the rest of the team members entered the room, Daria saw that there were quite a f
ew people she knew from the various trainings, deployments, and duty stations she’d been a part of over the many years. She also saw that Emily and Seth were paired together and looking like two pre-teens at a junior high dance.
As more operators entered the room, Daria saw one who instantly caught her eye and tugged at a very old but always prominent memory in her mind. She stood and seemed almost zombie-like as she approached the man who had already taken his seat.
The man looked up at her and squinted a bit as though he thought he should be able to place her face but was unable to. Daria reached down and placed her palm on the man’s chest and whispered, “Reaper.”
Reaper’s mind clicked the puzzle pieces together and stood to embrace the woman who had grown up so much from the little girl he had met in the electronics store many years ago. “Your father?”
“Alive, because of you.” She embraced her father’s savior and her inspiration. “They told me you didn’t make it!”
They separated and looked at each other. “I didn’t. I died in the ambulance. Twice. Once more on the operating table. I’m kind of a glutton for punishment that way.”
Mike walked over. “Holy Christ. I never put two and two together! This,” he pointed to his friend, “this is THE Reaper you told me about?! I never even thought to ask after I met him. I guess there was just so much stuff going on with this mission from the get-go that I didn’t think about it.”
“Aren’t you getting a bit old for this kind of stuff?” Daria brushed her fingers through his hair as though she were looking for gray hair.
“Whoa there, missy, I was sixteen when we met.” Reaper ran his fingers through his hair in a subconsciously defensive gesture. “I was in the delayed entry program and had already gone through corpsman school on my summer break. I’m not THAT much older than you, or your husband for that matter.”
“We are going to have a long talk after this debrief. I need to show you pictures of my dad and stepmom.” Daria gave him another quick hug and then went back to her seat with her husband in tow.
Daria and Mike were chatting about Reaper and the coincidence of everything, when the lights dimmed a couple of times to signal the debrief was about to start. Security teams for the dignitaries came into the room and took their places in locations that seemed to be an attempt at being discreet. More than one of them looked ill at ease considering the company they were in. The security forces were no match for any one of the operators in the room, not to mention an auditorium full of the guys.
After everyone was seated and ready, the president stood. “It is nothing short of extraordinary that you are all here today. Let us take a moment to remember those who could not be here with us because they made the ultimate sacrifice so the rest of us could be.”
The screens in the room all came to life with the picture of the general along with a short bio on the side of the screen. “The general.” The president chuckled. “I’ve met with the man many times in my life and I don’t think I’ve ever called him by any other name.” The group let out a small laugh in return.
The screens continued to show images of each person lost from the ship’s crew and both Special Forces teams. The president spoke every one’s name and added a one or two sentence anecdote for those he personally knew, which was surprisingly quite a few of them.
When the presentation was over, the debrief started in earnest. Introductions of the VIPs were made before the dialogue began. Not everyone was expected to give a detailed account; a specifically arranged outline was followed and presented primarily by the ship’s captain, Seth, Emily, Wilks, and Mike. Other operators would add bits here and there as they felt it was appropriate but none took up any more time than was necessary to make their point.
The debrief took almost five hours with four well-placed twenty-minute breaks. When it was done, the empress made a brief speech of gratitude to the men and women of the Coalition for their actions and for what they were about to do. The president allowed the empress’ speech to be the last word as he stood and gave a slight bow to her before leaving the room. After the dignitaries left, the group broke up of their own accord and left in mostly the same groups they arrived in.
The rest of the night drained the ship’s stock of alcohol and a shuttle was actually brought from the president’s ship to resupply the crew. Daria spent the night with Mike, Emily, Seth, Bloom, Wilks, and Reaper. Jeeves had been sent to the holodeck to make friends with the computer there and go over training scenarios that would help them practice fighting the warriors; Bloom seemed a little sad that his new friend was exiled from the land of organics.
The next day was spent as an informal debrief time for the operators of both teams to get to know one another and break into specialty-related groups to go over specific information. The now much larger group of operators also scheduled workout time in the holodeck to practice old skills and learn new ones.
Daria and Reaper were kept busy that afternoon while they checked out the multitude of injuries that were going around. The two groups were testing each other, trying to push the limits but not going too far. If the injuries started to get bad, Daria would put a stop to the excessive training. But for now, everything was fine and the injuries were to be expected.
That night the alcohol stock held its own as most of the operators felt like their one night of letting loose was enough for now. It was time to get serious again and their training today was a good reminder of how you didn’t want to feel on a mission after a night of too much fun.
Daria and Mike were in his cabin again. She hadn’t even set foot in the one that had been assigned to her and Emily. Space was at a premium on the ship so most people bunked together, officers and enlisted alike, but Mike’s position on the mission granted him his own space and Daria was thankful for that.
Daria decided to tell Mike about her and Davies. Mike’s eyes welled up but not with anger or sadness; it was an emotion that even he couldn’t explain.
“God, I’ve showered with him before.”
“You are such a shit head.”
“It’s just, well, are you ruined now?”
“I’m seriously going to kill you if you don’t stop.” Daria was trying not to smile but Mike was actually making her feel better about it.
“Look, I can’t be mad. I was dead. I actually thought about it once and figured if this mission took too long I’d come back to find you guys together. Given what you were going through on that mission, I can understand having a moment when you both needed that.” Mike brushed her hair aside and looked into her eyes. “But in all fairness, when we get back, I’m nailing that freaky hot blonde at Starbucks who always gives me extra whipped cream for free.”
Daria smiled back. “If we’re trying to be fair, then you need to pick someone from your mission like I did. Maybe Joker or Cadet?”
“Shut up.” Mike kissed his wife and they made love a few times before finally going to sleep.
~
The next day, the team leaders met with the VIPs and their advisors to go over new information and the analysis that had been on the debrief information.
Mike was a little distracted as he thought about Daria going to tell Davies about their conversation. He hoped his friend would believe her when she told Davies that Mike had no ill feelings about the situation. Daria and Mike agreed that unless Davies wanted to talk to Mike about it, it would be best if the two men never spoke of it with each other.
Mike was pulled back to the meeting as the Detrill emperor stood. “As you know, my people are fascinated with shipbuilding. We were the primary designers and builders of the ships from the Nortes’ old empire.”
The emperor touched a panel and an image, of a fleet of ships in a solar system, came up on the screens. “These images were brought to us by the team who has been in this system for the past five months. They used their stealth craft to sneak in to our target system and obtain these photos.”
As everyone looked at the images changing
on the screen, Mike spoke up. “Sir, those aren’t the same ships we saw departing the interrogation planet’s system.”
“Good eye, Surgeon.”
Mike was a little surprised that the emperor used or even knew his combat call sign.
The emperor continued, “When we first saw these images, we were taken aback. We couldn’t believe that the warriors had been able to design, much less build, ships of these magnitudes on their own. We thought it might have been plausible that they found another species to subjugate and take over the shipbuilding for the Detrill.
“You see, during the uprising, the ship designers were either involved with the separation or were killed back in the empire to ensure that the legacy could not continue. There were plenty of Detrill left behind to repair ships and sustain the fleet for a short period of time, but we felt confident they wouldn’t have any ship designers because education among the slaves was strictly controlled and enforced. With all of the advanced designers dead, there would be no one left to teach the next generation of Detrill slaves how to do that job.”
The emperor then changed the images on the screen. “Then we came across information that was gathered by Captain Riley’s team at their dig site. The warriors had a war with a species called the Cherta. Ultimately the war was a draw and both sides receded back to their home territories, with very little ground gained or lost by either side.
“The interesting part is, based on the information we received from the dig site, we believe the ships we are seeing in the target system are of Cherta design.”
The emperor brought up images from the history files along with the new recon images. The ships were definitely similar, though there was about six or seven hundred years between the designs.
“Though the ships are obviously different,” the emperor continued, “you can see enough similarities in the design and manufacturing technologies to know they came from the same species.”
The screens were now highlighting areas on the images, showing the similarities between the ships. Technical information was scrolling along, also showing similarities in design and function.
