Blood Contact
Page 34
Tait laughed and sipped his coffee. "This is my last voyage, Gunny. I've decided to hang it up when we get back. Just as well. They'll have my ass in a sling for delaying our return. The drones will have reached Old Earth by now, and the government's going to be in a real turmoil over what happened on Society 437. They'll want to court-martial me for letting you kill all those nasty skinks instead of negotiating a treaty of friendship with them. And when they find out I took this side trip to reward your men instead of heading straight back, well, there'll be hell to pay." He shrugged. "And to make it even worse, we've got the remains of the exploratory party on board."
"Thank you for excusing my Marines from that graves registration detail, sir," Bass said with feeling. Once the skinks had been dealt with, the crew of the Fairfax had formed shore parties to gather the remains of as many of the scientific party as could be found. The remains would be taken back to Old Earth, identified through DNA samples, then returned to their families.
"Somebody's going to accuse me of desecration for not moping all the way back to port playing funeral dirges. Fuck 'em if they can't take a joke. I must be the prize of all the navy screw-ups, Gunny."
"No, sir, you are not. You may be a bit careless of your status on the promotion list, but you, sir, are definitely not a sc—er, you know." He felt a very strong surge of affection for the grizzled old captain. It had been officers like Tait who'd kept him in the Marines all his adult life, officers who thought first of their men and second of their careers.
"That former ensign of yours, Baccacio, is he going to make it, Gunny?"
"No, sir. Dr. Bynum says no way. She'll keep him and his woman on ice if they don't die before we reach port. Maybe they can do something for them once we're back. But I doubt they'll last that long."
"Damn shame. Baccacio came through in the end, though, didn't he?"
"He did, sir. So did Lieutenant Snodgrass."
Captain Tuit nodded firmly. "Always knew that boy had it in him. All he needed was a swift kick in the ass to get him started in the right direction. Will you go to bat for Baccacio, put a word in for him, if he lives long enough to be turned over to the authorities?"
"You bet, Captain. I owe him that much."
"Well, okay, Gunny, we've got one day standard before we make the jump. We'll get rid of those dead pirates before we go, and if your two are still alive, we'll take them along with us. I'll keep the female pirates in the brig the whole voyage. That's about the only jail they'll see, and it serves them right for hanging out with such bad company."
An hour later Dr. Bynum informed Captain Tuit she'd taken Baccacio and Minerva off life support. He had been listening to Handel and half resented the interruption. He turned to the watch officer. "Notify the padre. Assemble a burial detail. Get it done right away. You preside. Damned if I will, not for a bunch of goddamn pirates. I want the whole shebang over in an hour. Make the standard burial-in-space entry in the log afterward."
"Aye aye, sir," the watch officer answered. "Uh, Captain, do you have the names of the deceased handy?"
"No, Lieutenant," he answered, annoyed the officer would bother him with such a question, "you'll have to get them from the sickbay. Who cares? Good riddance. Don't waste any time on them. Oh, hell, just say ‘Deceased pirates consigned,’ words to that effect. I don't see any reason to waste any verbiage on a bunch of criminals." Humpf, he thought, junior officers these days can't think for themselves.
After the Fairfax made planetfall on St. Brendan's, a group of Marines emerged from the port district to slake their thirst and passion among the bars and bordellos of New Cobh. Two, a man and a woman, shook hands with their comrades and disappeared into the fogbound night. They were not missed when the Fairfax resumed its voyage three days later.
Some years after these events, three young men, all brothers, walked into the Confederation Marine Corps recruiting office in New Cobh. They were determined to follow proudly in the footsteps of their deceased father, who had once been an officer of Marines. Their family name was Cameron.