The Merrimack Event (Shieldclads Book 1)

by David Tatum

  “Well, a dirty little secret about Marine combat is that it’s common practice to defend your ship from boarding by evacuating the atmosphere from a room. No air and sound waves can’t travel, rendering sonic weapons useless.” The corporal grinned half-heartedly. “The defending side is frequently the one hurt the most, because attacking Marines will be better prepared for it, but the losses are usually fewer than permitting their sonic weapons to stay on the field of battle.”

  Beccera winced. “I’m glad I’m regular Army. I’ve never had to worry about suffocation on the battlefield.”

  “At any rate,” the Marine said. “Whenever that happens, it often results in a sword battle. Swords won’t cut through the armored portion of Marine-grade armored biosuits, exactly, but you can often slice through joint material with devastating effect. Being cut open like that is almost worse than never having put on the suit in the first place, as suits are heavily pressurized to maintain combat functionality. The sudden loss of atmospheric containment will sometimes result in explosive decompression... in other words, you blow up inside of your suit.”

  “I did not need that mental image,” Beccera moaned. “I’ve seen enough combat to have been exposed to things just as bloody, but that’s just a terrible way to go.”

  “Even if your suit doesn’t have an explosive decompression failure, once a sword starts cutting at your joints you start losing air very fast. A few seconds, maybe a minute at most before you’re completely out of air. Fortunately for you, sir, you don’t need to worry about explosive decompression or suffocation during this exercise. For drills and war games, we’re issued special ‘practice swords.’ Instead of risking death or injury with the air removal tactic, the lights in whatever rooms are affected will be flashing, and using a sonic weapon in those rooms is a foul.”

  Beccera nodded. “Understood. I hope my sword skills are adequate, although I fear my own practice gives me the tendency to go for the areas which are armored the heaviest.”

  The corporal shrugged. “I suspect you’ll be fine. I saw the recordings of your fight with those two idiots in the lounge. Not bad, there.”

  “Thanks,” Beccera said.

  “There were several of our Marines in the lounge at the time,” he continued. “We should have been there for you, but we weren’t.”

  Beccera grinned. “That’s okay. I enjoyed the fight.”

  “Nevertheless, sir,” the corporal replied, “You earned our respect by stepping in there. You showed us up, which doesn’t exactly make us happy, but that was our fault, and we’re glad to have someone who is capable of showing us up.”

  “It wasn’t your job to help her out, then. Hell, it wasn’t my job, either for that matter. The Marines have nothing to be ashamed of, there.”

  “We know, sir.” The Marine took a deep breath. “When we heard that an Army officer was going to be our commander, we didn’t know what to think. After that fight, sir, we learned all we needed to know. You may not make the most technically proficient Marine, but we know we can pride ourselves on having a CO willing to do the grunt work alongside us, sir.”

  Beccera was surprised by the comment, but merely nodded. “Again, thank you.”

  “When this Wargame is over, though, sir, don’t be surprised if we go back to hating you as a good Marine should always hate any Army officer.”

  Beccera grinned slightly. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

  ——————————

  “Hey, Rachel,” a quiet voice whispered. Rachel blinked her eyes open sleepily, noticing who was leaning over her and shaking her.

  “Wolf?” she whispered hoarsely. “What’s going on?”

  “Shh,” he hushed, putting a finger to his lips. “Don’t want you to wake Chris.”

  Rachel nodded and stated to sit up. She blinked, noticing the partitions raised around her. The sound of music and laughter was coming from around the door Wolf came through, and a very light snore directed her attention to where Chris was sleeping on his own bed. “What the...”

  “Hush!” Schubert whispered fiercely. “We’re not ready, yet. Come with me.”

  “Just a second,” Rachel said, rushing to finish her morning toilette before joining him. She followed him into the rest of their cabin. She was still blinking the sleep out of her eyes when the room hushed at her entrance. She glanced over and saw a sign, letting her know just what event they were celebrating.

  “She’s ready?”

  Schubert nodded. “We got the call two minutes ago. I thought we’d get you up to speed so you can wake up the guest of honor.”

  Rachel nodded. “How long was I asleep? I thought even with Chris there it was going to take almost a full day, still.”

  “Ah, well, see,” Schubert said, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment. “Chris was being so... stubborn... that Captain Burkhard decided to include a little extra insurance to keep him asleep. And he figured you’d probably need it as well....”

  “Wolf,” Rachel warned. “I might remind you that I’m your superior officer, and I don’t exactly like it when people dance around the subject.”

  “Like you’d abuse your power for something like that,” Schubert snorted. “Look, Captain Burkhard had you two drugged. It was probably a stronger dosage than he really intended, though. You two were out about twenty-five hours.”

  “Twenty five!” Rachel exclaimed. “Hell. Well, I guess I didn’t really have anything I needed to do except finish up those cabin assignments. Give me ten minutes to work on that, and then I’ll go get Chris, okay?” She saw Colonel Beccera walk in along with his escort and changed her mind. “Make that fifteen minutes – I need to talk to the Colonel, first.”

  Schubert nodded. “Go right ahead. We need about that long to finish setting up, anyway.”

  Rachel smiled her thanks at him before dashing over to where Beccera and the corporal who had escorted him to the cabin were talking. She wanted to talk with him before he got too involved in the party. “Gentlemen.”

  “Ms. Katz,” Beccera nodded back.

  “Ma’am,” the corporal added.

  “Corporal Etcheverry,” Rachel said to the man, “If you’ll excuse us?”

  “Certainly, ma’am,” the Marine said, saluting before heading over to help with the party set-up.

  “Okay, Ms. Katz, what is it you want to talk about?”

  Rachel hesitated. “Well, sir, there seems to be a slight problem with the cabin arrangements.”

  Beccera frowned. “I’m not sure I’m going to like where this is going, but go ahead.”

  “Well, sir,” she hesitated. “The housing arrangements aboard the Chihuahua are sparse, at best. To put it bluntly, we have more people than we have bunks.”

  “That certainly sounds like a problem, Ms. Katz, but I fail to see how it concerns me,” Beccera said.

  “I already have most of the crew cabins hot-bunking at four people to a room,” she replied. “Which is rather difficult, since the cabins were designed for one person apiece. I still needed more space for crew, however, so I was forced to have the officers sharing cabins, too. I figured if I assigned two officers to a room, we’d be fine.”

  “So you need to know if I’m willing to bunk with another officer?” Beccera asked, feeling he knew what was coming.

  “Close,” Rachel said. “We wind up with one officer who doesn’t have another officer for a roommate. We’re also one bunk short for enlisted personnel.”

  “I think I understand, now,” Beccera nodded. “You’re asking me if I’m willing to bunk down with an enlisted man, right?”

  “Woman, actually, but yes, sir. I even have the perfect person in mind... largely because she’d probably spend more of her time cramped in with one of your Marines than she would in your cabin.” At Beccera’s curious look, Rachel continued, “My roommate here on the Gnat, Linda Flint, is in a... fairly intense relationship with Corporal Etcheverry – that young man who escorted you here, today. I susp
ect they’ll be sharing a bunk regardless of where they’re officially billeted.”

  Beccera grinned. “Hmm. So, basically, you’re saying I’d be getting probably the only private room in the ship, or more company than I might be comfortable with, depending on where they decide to hang their hats on a nightly basis?” Rachel nodded. “I can deal with that. Not a problem at all.”

  “Thank you, sir,” Rachel said. “With that out of the way, I’ll actually be able to finish the billeting assignments before we head over to the Chihuahua.”

  ——————————

  Chris felt lips that were not his own caressing his mouth. At first, he dismissed it as a dream. After all, it wouldn’t be the first time. Then he realized that it couldn’t be a dream – the one thing which allowed him to separate reality from the dream world was the knowledge he couldn’t close his eyes in his dreams. His eyes were definitely closed right now, and still there was someone else’s lips on his.

  He opened his eyes widely to stare into those of Rachel Katz, just as she broke their kiss. “R-rache!” he exclaimed.

  “Good morning,” she breathed, her face flushed in embarrassment. “I had to wake you up, and that seemed like a good method for doing it.”

  Chris sat up, glad he had chosen to wear pajamas that evening. “Don’t get me wrong – I loved it – but I have to say, you sure move a lot faster than I would have expected you to.”

  Rachel grinned at him. “Yeah, well, don’t get used to it. This is a special occasion. Time for you to rise and shine.”

  “Er, right,” he said, grabbing a dressing robe and slipping it on under the sheets. Standing up, he started to pick out a uniform from his footlocker when he finally noticed the sound baffles active on their partition walls. “What’s going on?”

  Rachel laughed. “Go on, get dressed. I’ll explain it all in a minute.” She ushered him over to the bathroom, stuffed a fully assembled uniform in his hands, and shut the door on him. About fifteen minutes later, he emerged fully dressed. Rachel inspected him quickly, brushed out a wrinkle on his shoulder, and smiled. “You’ll do. Come on, let’s go.”

  “Go where?” Chris asked, bewildered.

  “Just outside the door,” Rachel said, then stopped at the exit. “You first,” she said, shoving him through.

  He stumbled to a halt and gaped at the forty or fifty people crowded into the small cabin, cheering. With the furniture for eight people condensed into the wall partitioning his and Rachel’s bunks from the rest of the cabin, the room was actually large enough for everyone present. In the crowd, Chris spotted Schubert, Colonel Beccera, Weber, Flint, several of the other officers of the Chihuahua, and the entire company of Marines.

  “What’s all this for?” he sputtered.

  “It’s a party to celebrate our last minutes here on the Gnat,” Schubert explained over the cheers. “While you were asleep, Mr. Rappaport finished getting the Chihuahua airtight... using your plans, by the way. It took him about two hours more than your last set of estimates said you could finish it in, but he got it done.”

  “But... how long was I asleep, anyway?”

  “Almost twenty-seven hours,” Rachel said. She hesitated before adding, “You must’ve been really tired.”

  “Anyway, we figured it’d be nice to throw a party in honor of this event,” Weber explained.

  “The ship is hardly ready for combat. We have a lot of work to do, still,” Chris said.

  “True, but we’re only this far this early because of you,” Schubert countered. “Just relax and enjoy it. You are the guest of honor, after all.”

  Chris started to protest, but when Rachel and Schubert jointly sent a glare at him he backed down. “Well... I’m not going to be the one to stand in the way of a good party. Let’s celebrate!”

  Cheers and laughter followed that statement, and the assembly quickly broke down into several small groups of people enjoying themselves. Dance music started piping through the sound system as fresh food and drink was revealed behind the parting crowd.

  Rachel dragged Chris off for a few dances, and Lauren Weber grabbed Schubert. Flint dragged Corporal Etcheverry into the walled-off section of the cabin for a few stolen moments of passion.

  The party went on for some time before Chris was able to disengage himself from Rachel. He truly enjoyed dancing with her, but there was something else he wanted to do in the informal setting of the party.

  “Colonel Beccera,” Chris said, greeting the Army officer during a breather.

  “Mr. Desaix,” Beccera said. “This is a party, we’re from different service organizations, and I’m only a few weeks away from retirement anyway. What say we relax on all the ‘colonels’ and ‘misters’ and ‘sirs,’ okay?”

  Chris nodded and grinned. “I prefer it that way, thanks.”

  “So... Chris, is it? What can I do for you?”

  “Well, Andrew—”

  “Call me Drew.”

  “Drew, then. I just wanted to thank you for helping Rachel out in that fight.”

  Beccera examined the young man closely. “Not a problem, I was glad to do it. Forgive me for asking, though, but why are you thanking me? I wouldn’t think it was your place.”

  Chris grinned half-heartedly. “Well, Rachel and I are friends. Very good friends.” He looked to see if the Colonel had grasped what he was saying, and continued when he saw the man nod in acknowledgement. “The thing is, I honestly feel as if I should have done something more to have kept the incident from ever happening.”

  “You could have?” Beccera asked. “What could you have done? As I understand it, you were on the Chihuahua at the time of the incident.”

  “I was,” Chris answered. “But I knew what those idiots were capable of, and I predicted they just might do it. I second-guessed myself, figuring they wouldn’t dare risk it. If I’d taken the threat seriously, like I should have, then maybe I could have prevented it.”

  “Like what?” Beccera asked. “Did you have enough to go on to report it to the authorities?”

  “Well, no...”

  “Then, could you have arranged to have security tag them wherever they went?”

  “Well, not without more justification than my gut instinct, no....”

  “Then what could you have done?” Beccera asked. “You weren’t here. They were.”

  “I could have made sure that she and Lauren stayed together,” Chris replied. “I might even have been able to bring her with me to the Chihuahua, if I thought it was necessary.”

  “If you’d known for sure, maybe,” Beccera said. “But you didn’t know, did you? All you had were some educated guesses. Chris, this is meant as a training cruise. Perhaps the first thing you should learn is that you can’t afford to blame yourself for what you don’t know. If you start falling into that trap, it’ll quickly drive you insane.”

  “Perhaps,” Chris replied uncertainly.

  “I accept your thanks for defending your lady,” Beccera said, giving him a courteous half-bow. “But I won’t accept you blaming yourself for this incident, got it? Besides, from what I could tell, she was more than capable of handling herself.”

  Chris grinned. “I heard.”

  “So let’s move on,” Beccera said. “This is a party, Chris. I think we’ll all have enough to worry about soon enough, so find your lady and enjoy yourselves for the rest of the evening. Lord knows when you’ll get another opportunity.”

  Chris grinned and nodded, leaving the Army officer to watch him leave. What an interesting kid. I feel sorry for him, though... I suspect that young Ms. Katz may almost be too much for him to handle. Then again, I thought Kimiko would be too much for me, and look how that turned out.

  ——————————

  The party had been over for some time. Flint and the rest of the Environmental Engineering team were the first to be sent over to the Chihuahua, with the goal of restoring the antigrav systems as soon as possible. The knowledge that everyone would have
to wear magnetic boots for at least the first few days didn’t deter the enthusiasm everyone felt about boarding their first ship.

  Chris and Rachel were fortunate enough to be going up in the second shuttle, accompanied by several of their classmates, Colonel Beccera, and Captain Burkhard. Weber would be flying them over, but Wolf would be waiting for them at the airlock to take over for the return trip.

  “Any hints on who our roommates are, Rachel?” Emily Mumford asked. Rachel was growing to like the Admiral’s granddaughter – she was the only one of the network of officers in the command staff that always called her by her full first name. She was strapped down in a bank of seats beside the Captain and Jeff Cohen, facing Emily, Chris, and the Chihuahua’s ship’s doctor – June Ehrlich.

  “I don’t think anyone will be too disappointed,” Rachel said. “I tried my best, anyway. While things are going to be crowded, I’m confident you’ll like your roommates. If you have problems just let me know and I’ll see what I can do.”

  “I want a name,” Mumford said. “A full name. I don’t want to be surprised.”

  “Tough,” Rachel said, grinning playfully. “You’ll find out when you get to the ship, same as everyone else.”

  “I thought we were supposed to have perks as officers,” Jeff groused good-naturedly. “Why do we need to have roommates, anyway?”

  “The enlisted have to put up with four people hot bunking a room. The Chihuahua wasn’t designed for the staffing requirements she now has. Deal with it,” Rachel said.

  “Hey, I outrank you, Jeff,” Mumford said. “And I’m the daughter of one of the highest-ranking officers in our Navy. If I have to deal with a roommate, you do, too.”

  “I outrank all of you, and even I have to put up with a roommate,” Burkhard chimed in. The mild bickering ceased instantly – remembering who they were talking in front of.

  “Yes, sir,” Cohen muttered, sufficiently chastised.

  Chris, however, was never one to be cowed by authority, even if he respected it. Technically, this was an informal setting, and he would treat it as such. Smirking, he said, “So, Rache, why don’t you tell us who we are bunking with anyway?”