by GARY DARBY
Rosberg’s sigh was deep and long. “Shortly afterward, a Star Scout Honor Officer and a chaplain showed up and informed your father that ‘Deklon Marrel’ was missing and presumed dead on Veni.
“On the heels of those two was a snotty major who introduced himself as a Chapter Thirty-Two investigating officer and began to interrogate him about ‘Deklon Marrel.’
“Not about the switch or anything related to it. Instead, this snoot nose started laying out serious charges against Jadar, or rather Deklon—cowardice, dereliction of duty, theft of Kolomite ore, and desertion, among others.
“He alleged that Deklon’s team had died because Jadar had fled, hooked up with cronies, mined the Kolomite ore . . .” he stopped and waved a hand. “Well, you know all about that.”
Rosberg’s mouth turned up in a half grin. “Deklon took that guff for about three minutes before he literally, and I mean literally, threw the man out of the room even though the officer outranked him.”
Dason interrupted and asked, “Sir, do you know what actually happened on Veni? Did my uncle—”
“Of course he didn’t,” Rosberg snapped. “Jadar Marrel was every bit a loyal, dedicated Star Scout in the same vein as your father.
“But can I tell you exactly what happened on Veni?” Rosberg stopped to scratch at his grizzled chin. “In all honesty, yes and no. There are certain facts that I feel reasonably assured that I know, but there are other circumstances where I can only guess at what happened.”
He started to shrug but winced in pain and stopped. “And there are parts that only Jadar Marrel knows. I will tell you that from my viewpoint, stretched out over all these years, it’s my belief those charges against him were trumped up.”
He reached over, took a water ball, and popped it in his mouth. “As I mentioned, I was the brigade ground commander on Veni.”
After swallowing, his mouth skewed to one side as if he’d bitten into a sour lemon. “And Colonel Ri Romerand was the sector commander over me.”
Painful memories came flooding back, and Dason said soberly, “Alena’s father.”
Rosberg’s face became hard. “And the husband of Bethany Simms, who died on Veni.”
Dason nodded in sudden understanding of Alena’s statement that her father had “been there” when her mother had died. “Sir,” he asked slowly, “did Colonel Romerand know that his wife was—”
“On Veni?” Rosberg finished for him. He shook his head and frowned. “In all fairness to the man, I don’t know. You can ask Lieutenant Romer that question.
“What I can tell you is that at the sector commander’s level, for an operation the size of Veni, you normally don’t get involved with individual scouts, or even teams; the pieces you play with are battalions and brigades.”
A grim look crossed his face. “It may well be that he didn’t know until he reviewed the casualty list and saw her name there.”
Dason stared at the floor as he thought over the general’s comment. Rosberg’s explanation gave him a deeper understanding of Alena’s pain, and her father’s tortured psyche.
“A sobering thought, isn’t it?” Rosberg asked, seeing Dason’s expression. “To find out that you sent a loved one to her death? To live with that must have been like hot, inextinguishable lava forever searing one’s soul.”
Dason turned his head at that. “What do you mean, sir?”
A deep scowl accompanied the general’s reply. “Because the operation was a total fiasco from the start. Romerand was a brand-new sector commander, whereas I had been a brigade commander for a couple of years. I knew what I was doing; Romerand didn’t.
“At first, I assumed his poor decisions and confusing orders were the results of his being new to his job. However, as things went along, even that didn’t hold water.
“I should have sensed something was wrong when Romerand called off the pre- survey drones and robo-mechs and sent in live teams instead. We didn’t have near enough initial recon info to start the op, but he went full-bore anyway.
“Once on the ground he directed me to make a number of changes in our tactical doctrine; told me that he was testing new field concepts. I strongly objected, but he overrode me, even going so far as to give direct orders to my battalion commanders.”
“Such as, sir?” Dason asked.
Rosberg eyed Dason and asked, “What’s standard procedure for a team’s survey radius on a noncatalogued planet?”
Dason was quick to answer. “Five kilometers, sir.”
“Right. Nevertheless, Romerand pushed it out to ten times that, fifty kilometers. What’s procedure for planeting SciCorps techs on an NC planet?”
‘Uh,” Dason began, “I believe that the ground commander has final authorization, after a risk survey is done, and if it is within criteria, for techs to land.”
“Close enough,” Rosberg grunted. “Well, Romerand authorized twelve techs to be embedded with scout tactical teams from the get-go, without a risk survey being done.”
Dason nodded at Rosberg’s comment. “Instructor Scout Grolson said that Team Marrel had one of those techs with them.”
“That’s right,” Rosberg answered. “A fellow by the name of Kavon Franklin who came with orders that stated he was a SciCorp tech second class.
“So our teams were saddled with greenhorns, they were pushed out ten times farther than normal from their support and emergency backup, and to make matters worse, our tactical comms went on the fritz.”
Rosberg’s jaws tightened, and he rasped out, “Veni has an unstable magnetosphere field and we kept getting wave pulses from geomagnetic flares that would disrupt our communications. Our signals people had a heck of a time trying to compensate for the spikes and variances.
“Sometimes we’d have communications, most of the time we didn’t. Forced me to fly to and from my brigade headquarters to the battalion head sheds. Not an easy way to coordinate ops or to get a good picture of what was happening on the ground.
“To top it off, none of our pre-survey workup had shown any credible life-form threats, but we soon found out that Veni harbored a vicious winged carnivore that attacked in packs.”
“Pasado’s Winged Lizard,” Dason stated. “Or, as IS Grolson called them, Veni’s flying stomach.”
“An apt name, ‘flying stomach’,” Rosberg grunted. “Four wings, four clawed legs, a T-Rex head sitting on a scaly body the size of an elephant that ended with a double-spiked tail made it one of the most vicious, ravenous beasts we’d ever come across on any previous op.
“It wasn’t more than an hour after Scouts Out that the teams started getting hit. Even with our snoopers, scouter sensors, and LifeSensors, we couldn’t react fast enough. The beasts would sweep out of the clouds by the dozens, attacking from all directions and rip into our teams.
“We’ve since learned that their ability to see and hear through the fog is the equivalent of a Terran whale in the North Pacific hearing his cousins sing in mid-Pacific equatorial waters.
“It wasn’t long until wounded scouts flooded the brigade med unit.” He took a deep breath and a sad expression caused his mouth to turn down. “And the fatalities started to mount.
“I tried to get Romerand to change his orders, but he refused. In fact, he told me to increase my ops tempo, adapt to the situation, and ensure that those SciCorps techs were out in the field.
“I decided to ignore those crazy orders. I pulled the teams back, established defensive battalion positions with heavy-weapon sections, and had scouters sweep the perimeters.
“For some reason, our scout craft scared the dragons off, and that saved a lot of scouts—but not all.
“I believe you know that a distress signal from Team Marrel was picked up, and a search party went out. And how the remains of Team Marrel were found and that Jadar’s prints led out to the Kolomite field and disappeared?”
“Yes, sir,” Dason answered in a small voice. “Instructor Scout Grolson laid that out.” He nodded toward Tarracas. “The
Scoutmaster told me how the saurian carcasses bore tissue disruption signatures that resembled the effects of Faction weapons.”
“That’s right,” Rosberg replied. “Kolomite stolen, Faction weaponry apparently on the site—those two facts alone were pretty damning at the time. But more recent events certainly have knocked that apple out of the tree.”
Dason jerked his head up in sudden understanding. “The Mongans—”
Rosberg raised a hand to quiet Dason. “Yes, but hold that thought for now. Let me get the rest of the story out first.”
He turned a little more toward Dason. “As soon as word of the Kolomite’s disappearance hit Romerand, he shut the operation down. In fact, Star Scout Command pulled us completely off planet within twenty-four hours.
“Somehow, word had already filtered back to Cheyenne Mountain that a Star Scout had allegedly conspired with the Gadion Faction to steal an enormous quantity of Kolomite.
“The High Council ordered us into a lockdown, and to this day, I don’t know how he did it, but Romerand convinced the powers-that-be to let him head up the official investigation and write the final report on his findings.
“That, of course, was completely irregular. Every investigation I’ve ever been involved with had a neutral officer heading it, someone who could look at the facts impartially and draw an objective conclusion.
“But not this one.
“When Romerand’s report came out, well, I got a minor shiner from it, Romerand took a dinky ding, but it landed a horrific haymaker right on Deklon Marrel.
“After receiving the report, the High Council ordered immediate changes to our operating procedures regarding the discovery and handling of Kolomite.”
Rosberg let out a long sigh. “I have to tell you, son, that at the time, what happened on Veni sent shock waves throughout Star Scout Command. Even to this day, it stirs up a lot of passion in old-timers such as me.
“There are a few who refuse to believe Romerand’s report, whereas there are some others who feel that a thousand kilograms of Kolomite is enough to tempt even the most decorated and loyal scout among us.
“And, to be frank, Romerand’s report turned the attention away from all of his shenanigans and turned the spotlight on what happened to Team Marrel, instead.”
Dason thought long and hard about the general’s comments and then said bitterly, “I understand your point, sir, but does any of this change anything? If we can’t prove or show what actually happened, the Marrel name is still associated with—”
Rosberg held up a hand. “Tamp down your jets, scout, there’s more. Shortly after Veni, I went Earthside to a staff job at the mount. A few weeks later, your father contacted me.
“At first I thought it had to be someone playing a cruel joke. You see, I’d known Deklon Marrel before Veni, served with him on a number of trails Out There, knew him for not only being one of the best trail walkers to come along in many a day, but also as a decent, fine man.”
He gestured toward Tarracas. “In fact, we were among his earliest mentors after Deklon came out of the academy.”
Dason let his mouth hang open and then blurted out, “Scoutmaster, my father served with you?”
“Yes, but just briefly,” Tarracas replied. “I was his first battalion commander. We walked the star trail together for just a few months until my own transfer and promotion.”
In a warm tone, Tarracas continued. “He saved my life; I saved his. When that happens, there’s always a special bond. After we parted, I was starside on an op when I received a nice message from him saying that he had ‘married the girl of his dreams’.”
His face took on a thoughtful expression. “I never knew her maiden name, which is why the name ‘Thorne’ never registered with me when you were a novice.”
Rosberg took up the discussion. “I was Deklon’s second BC. We walked the trail together for almost two years until I got my brigade command.
“On Veni, I knew his team was in the brigade’s table of organization, but I didn’t get a chance to visit with Team Marrel before they jumped off; too busy with other things.”
He drew in a breath and let it out in a sigh. “I take it pretty hard when any scout under my command steps off on their Final Trail, but Deklon’s ‘death’ was a little tougher than most simply because of our previous close association.
“So, you can imagine my feelings when I took his call. It took him several minutes to convince me that I was actually speaking to Deklon Marrel, a man who I thought had died on Veni.
“I was overjoyed at first, of course, but then my head started spinning faster than Barton’s Star. I began to question him, but he didn’t want to speak over the comms link, so we met at a private location, away from the mount.
“I was a little shocked at his appearance. He was haggard; his face was pasty, his eyes red and bloodshot; as if he hadn’t slept in days. He was agitated and upset, even a little incoherent, but I finally got the whole story out of him.
“When he was in the hospital, after the full realization of what Jadar had done hit him, he was angry at his brother, but in a quandary, too. He understood Jadar’s motive, but the knucklehead had gone about it all wrong, had put both of them in a bad spot.”
Dason nodded in understanding. “If my father went along with the charade, it could be viewed as being dishonest, not to mention that if it were ever found out, then they both could face charges. If he spilled the beans, then his brother would be in a lot of trouble.”
“You got it,” Rosberg huffed out. “Deklon wrestled with his emotions and had just about made up his mind to go to the base commander and inform her of the situation, when that death notification team showed up, followed by the pompous field grade officer.”
His eyebrows furrowed in deep lines as he recalled the sobering memory. “It was a triple whammy for your dad; Jadar missing and presumed dead, Deklon’s teammates dead, and like two protons smashing into each other in the Hendrix Collider it hit him that your mother must have thought he was dead, too.
“His supposed ‘death’ had occurred a few weeks earlier while he lay in a coma. Of course, command notified her within days of her husband’s status. He sent an n-space message to her, but she didn’t respond. He tried several times over several days with the same result.
“Still pretending to be Jadar, he finally got a message to a nearby neighbor, and asked if they could get in touch with Jenn, your mother.
“Their response was that you and she had disappeared some days prior and no one had seen them since that time. Now, Deklon not only had a brother who was missing, but also his wife and child.
“He admitted he wasn’t thinking straight, but his gut told him that something was terribly, terribly wrong. Also, he felt that if he now went to the command, with everything else, they wouldn’t let him go home and search for his family.
“In desperation, he kept the charade going, ostensibly just long enough to find his wife and son. As soon as the doctors released him on medical leave, he headed Earthside.
“He went to your home, quizzed the neighbors, the local law enforcement people, anyone and everyone he could think of, all to no avail.
“He searched everywhere. Neither of your parents has any family to speak of, but he did turn to two people who he thought your mother might have contacted. Myself and—” he stopped and gave Tarracas a meaningful glance.
Tarracas nodded and took up the story. “He did contact me, as Jadar Marrel. I’m not entirely sure why. I suspect that he hadn’t sorted out in his mind what he was going to do, and perhaps he didn’t want to put me in an uncomfortable position.
“In any event, our conversation was fairly brief. Yes, your mother had left me a message, but unfortunately, I was off-planet at the time, and I didn’t get the message until I returned.
“Her message simply asked if she could speak with me, nothing more. No mention of her concerns or plans and that’s what I passed along to him.”
Something in Tarra
cas’s body language prompted Dason to ask, “But you suspected something wasn’t quite right, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” Tarracas answered truthfully. “I had never met Jadar Marrel, though I knew that he and your father were identical twins.
“However, the man I conversed with, his posture, his mannerisms, his form of speech, all spoke to a man who was in an emotional conflict much deeper than even the most loving of close relatives.
“I ended the conversation wondering just who I had spoken to, Jadar Marrel or Deklon Marrel?”
“But you didn’t know for sure?” Dason queried.
“No,” Tarracas answered frankly. “And because of that uncertainty, I kept the conversation to myself.
“In fact, it was only a few weeks ago, on the very day that your no-notice began, that I learned the truth when ‘Jadar Marrel’ called me from Cheyenne Mountain. He had seen your name on the exam list under my program.”
Tarracas gazed at Dason as if he remembered the scene. “It was quite an emotional moment and it was what I saw in his eyes that gave him away. None but a father, having grieved for a lost child all those years, only to suddenly find him alive and within his reach could achieve the depth of feelings that I witnessed.
“I knew then without a doubt that I faced Deklon Marrel and not Jadar.”
“But Scoutmaster,” Dason asked, “when I was in your office, why did you let me go on thinking that my ‘uncle’ was dead, when he wasn’t?”
Tarracas met Dason’s eyes, and there was no guile in them. “For two reasons; first, I didn’t feel it was my right to tell you. My intent was to contact Jadar Marrel, discuss the situation with him, and let him make the decision of how he, as your closest family member, wanted it handled.
“I consulted my Star Scout database, which showed that he was starside and sent him a message to contact me immediately. I didn’t put in anything about you because I didn’t want others to know, as I felt it was a private matter.
“Unfortunately, his battalion had just gone into an op and by the time the message was rerouted to him on Earth, he had already found your name and contacted me.
