by Sam Schall
“Did they explain how they were to deal with the captain?” Santiago ground out the words.
“They didn’t need to. The implication was clear.”
For a moment, Santiago didn’t say anything. “Captain, my apologies. Neither I nor any member of my staff issued such an order. I promise I will find out who did and there will not only be an investigation but charges will be brought. You have my word on that.”
“Thank you, sir.” She took his outstretched hand in hers. His promise might not have been enough to reassure her but that, combined with his reaction to hearing what had almost happened, most certain was.
“Now, before we compare notes about what’s going on, there are a few things I need to deal with.” For the first time since their arrival, Santiago looked a bit unsure. Then he smiled and there was a twinkle in his eye that had Ashlyn watching him closely. He was up to something but, from the way he was looking at Tremayne, it had to do with the senator and not with her. Fortunately. “Senator, I’ve been instructed by FleetCom to inform you that you have been recalled to active duty for as long as this current state of emergency is in effect. You should be receiving formal notification shortly. Until it is safe to transport you to the Intrepid, you will be stationed here to help coordinate our ground forces with our air strikes.”
“I can’t say I’m surprised. Who is senior officer groundside right now?”
“For the Navy?” Santiago waited until she nodded. “Senior officer is Admiral Liat. SecDef has been evacced to safety along with the president, vice president and the cabinet.”
“I’ll report in to both of them then.” She nodded and stepped to one side, pulling out her com-unit as she did.
“Gunny, escort the captain to the medics. I want her checked over ASAP,” he continued. “Ash, by the time they’re done with you, we’ll have gotten something for you to wear other than that damned jumpsuit. Get dressed and then get your ass back here for a briefing.”
“One thing first, sir.” She reached up and her hand closed over her dogtags. “How did you get them?” She didn’t explain what she meant. She didn’t need to, not when he looked at her hand fisted around the tags.
“When your parents found out I was looking into what happened, they gave them to me to return to you. They said they figured I’d see you before they would.”
She swallowed hard and nodded. Tears burned in her eyes. Her parents had trusted him to help free her. He’d managed to carry out his part. But what about them? Were they all right? She couldn’t let herself think about them being in the middle of the attack but she couldn’t deny her worry either.
God, she had to get out of there and find them.
“Sir, I’m fine, really. Just give me a few minutes to get out of this jumpsuit so no one mistakes me for an escaped prisoner and then I’ll be ready to do whatever needs to be done.”
“Medics first.” He took a step closer and dropped his voice. “Ash, right now you look like hell. It’s more than the smoke and debris from the fight to get here. I can tell you’re hurt and hurting. You know as well as I do that you need to get treated before anything else happens.”
She wanted to protest but didn’t. For one, now that they were away from the fighting, she felt every ache and pain, especially those from her broken nose and ribs. For another, she knew he was only doing what the regs required. They weren’t in immediate danger of being attacked. So, as the senior officer until Tremayne assumed that role, he had to make sure all the people under his command were at their best. She didn’t have to like it, and she didn’t, but she did understand it.
“Yes, sir.”
“Good.” Now he smiled again, his relief plain to see. “Gunny, stay with her and let me know what the medics have to say.”
“Understood, Major.”
“Go on, Ash. The sooner you let them do their magic with you, the sooner you can get back here.”
She nodded and turned to the gunny, indicating she was ready to follow orders.
“Captain,” Talbot began a few moments later as they moved through the lower level of the building. “Before we get to the medics, I have a couple of things to say,” he continued and Ashlyn tensed.
Was he about to damn her for what happened back on Artarus? He’d known many of those who’d been lost or injured. Surely he’d understand that she’d done everything possible short of mutiny to prevent having her company sent into that Hell.
“Ma’am, don’t.” He reached out and touched her arm. It was so brief as to be almost non-existent, but it was enough to reassure her. “I want you to know that none of us who served with you believed that line of bullshit the brass tried to feed us. We knew you wouldn’t have purposely disobeyed orders, much less put your command in jeopardy like that. There was no way you’d have done anything to harm innocent civilians. I’d also like to say it’s good to know that the injustice done to you and the others has finally been corrected.”
“Thanks, Gunny.” She blinked back the tears suddenly burning in her eyes. “When this is over, I owe you a drink. I know you went out on a limb and tried to testify for me at my court martial and the Board wouldn’t let you.”
“Ma’am, there were more than two dozen of us who were on-planet and who tried to do just that. Dozens more who were off-planet at the time sent their recorded statements supporting you and the others in your command.”
Ashlyn swallowed hard. Her attorney had told her that he’d received a number of requests to testify on her behalf from former squadmates. What he hadn’t said was just how many. It wouldn’t have changed the outcome of her trial, but the knowledge that so many of those she’d served with had come forward to testify on her behalf might have helped her cope with her conviction. At least then she’d have had hope that someone might have been working to free her and the others.
“And you don’t need to buy me a drink. I know for a fact there are a number of our former squadmates just waiting for the chance to buy you a drink, myself included.” Now he smiled down at her and laid a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “You’re home now, Cap, and you’re safe. The others will be soon.”
“They’d better,” was all she said, her voice rough with emotion. ”Now, let’s find the medics. I don’t think either of us want to keep the major waiting.”
The next hour was a blur of medical tests. Ashlyn’s protests that she was all right fell on deaf ears. Nothing she said swayed the Navy doctor or the two medics working with him. In fact, the longer the doctor worked on her, treating her broken nose and ribs, as well as other injuries she hadn’t registered, the grimmer he looked.
Had she been hurt worse than she thought?
Then realization dawned on her. It wasn’t her new injuries that upset him. It was the scars she bore from the last two years on Tarsus. Well that was just too bad. She neither wanted nor needed anyone worrying about what happened in the past. Not right now, at any rate. Not when the capital was under attack and she didn’t know if her family was safe.
“Doc, just give me a painkiller and let me out of here.” She sat up on the makeshift examining table and looked around the small room for her clothes. Then she remembered how one of the medics assisting the doctor had taken the black jumpsuit and left with it almost as soon as they’d had her stripped. “And find me something to wear or I’m walking out of here in the clothes I was born in.”
She climbed to her feet, convinced her bluff would work. Instead the doctor drew himself up to full height – meaning he now came up to her shoulders – and crossed his arms. His expression reminded her of any number of her teachers at the Academy when she’d said or done something extremely foolish.
Damn it.
“Go ahead, Captain, if you want the Marines here to mutiny.”
Mutiny? What the hell was he talking about?
“You really don’t know, do you?” His expression softened and he motioned for the others to leave them alone. As the door closed, the doctor pointed to the examining table an
d waited until Ashlyn sat. “Captain, the Devil Dogs, at least the core unit, is here, in this building. If they saw you and saw the scars you bear, nothing could keep them from haring off to Tarsus to exact their revenge. I’d even join them. I might be Navy but I spent time as a corpsman for the DDs. That makes you mine almost as much as you are theirs.”
The Devil Dogs.
Her heart skipped a beat and memories washed over her. If she’d been thrilled to be selected to join Special Forces, she’d been much more than that the day she’d been tapped for the Devil Dogs. To know they were here, in the building . . . .
Relief filled her. Marines looked after their own and Devil Dogs went even further. She was safe now. She could relax and trust the DDs to make sure nothing else happened.
“Point taken, Doc, but you have to know none of my injuries are serious enough to keep me from reporting back to Major Santiago.” She shook her head, a bitter smile touching her lips. “Believe me, they’re nothing compared to what I’ve suffered the last two years.”
“I know, Captain, but you have to understand that I need to document everything.” His voice was hard, flat and she looked at him in time to see the flash of anger in his pale eyes. “I have my orders. I’m to make sure every injury you suffered after being transported to the penal colony is noted in my records. FleetCom and the major have been very clear on that. Just as they’ve been clear that I’m to treat what injuries I can right now. I just wish I had the equipment here to bring your implants back online and get them calibrated.”
“You and me both, Doc,” she admitted. She’d feel a great deal better when that happened. “But, as you said, we don’t have time. Now, if I promise to be good, will you hurry up and finish?”
He shook his head, a slight smile touching his lips, and told her to lie back. As she did, he reactivated his medi-scanner. Ashlyn closed her eyes, willing herself to relax and let him work.
Half an hour later, Ashlyn stared at her reflection in the mirror over the sink in the small bathroom that connected to the room where she’d been examined. For the first time since before her conviction, she wore the daily uniform of the Fuerconese Marines. The pattern of colors had been optimized to help them blend into any background. But, just then, those muted colors were the most beautiful she’d seen.
Maybe it wasn’t all a dream after all.
“Ma’am,” Talbot began from the doorway. “As soon as you’re ready, the major sent word asking if you could join him and Senator Tremayne now.”
“Thank you, Gunny. Please tell him I’ll be there shortly.”
Ashlyn took a moment to study her reflection one last time, shaking her head as she did. Santiago had surprised her again. When Talbot arrived at the examining room a few minutes before with a change of clothes for her, she’d been happy to have something, anything that wasn’t prison issued. Then, when she’d recognized the pattern for the BDUs, she’d smiled slightly, relief filling her. There was no way she’d be allowed to wear the uniform if she hadn’t been pardoned. So the document Tremayne had her sign before they’d fled the security complex had been real. Hope filled her because surely that meant the other pardons had been real as well.
But that relief had blossomed into something else as she shook out the BDUs once in the privacy of the bathroom. This set looked like it had been made for her, down to the proper rank insignia and name tab. There was no way Santiago could have gotten them from the quartermaster, not in the middle of a firefight. Had he been so sure he’d be able to win her freedom that he’d had them made up ahead of time or was there another explanation? Not that it really mattered. What did was being able to wear the uniform that had meant so much to her. It was almost as if the last two years had never taken place.
Almost.
All she had to do was look in the mirror to know those horrible months had been all too real. The scar marring her cheek and the other bisecting her right eyebrow had been acquired early into her imprisonment. Other unseen scars marred her body. There was a haunted look to her brown eyes that had never been there before, not even when she’d been about to go into battles she knew she might not return from. Her face was thin, almost gaunt and her complexion pale from lack of sun. It was made worse by the swelling and bruising to her nose and left cheek. At least those newer injuries had been properly treated and would soon be nothing more than a bad memory.
Still, all those hours spent exercising in her cell to keep from going mad had given her arms a definition they’d never had before, something she hadn’t realized until she’d rolled the sleeves of her BDUs.
“All right.” She drew a deep, bracing breath and winced as pain lanced through her ribs. This was real. She had to remember that.
“This is yours, ma’am,” Talbot said as she stepped into the treatment room once again.
Ashlyn’s fingers closed tightly around the datapad he handed her. For a moment, she just held it, then she swiped a finger across the screen, waiting for it to activate. The first document in the queue was one that meant everything to her: her pardon. Following it were copies of the documents reinstating her to the Corps and removing all mention of the charges leveled against her, her conviction and her sentencing to the Tarsus military prison from her file. Then came the pardons for those convicted with her. Attached to it was a copy of the orders being sent to the commandant of the prison, instructing him to release her people and see they were well cared for until transport arrived to bring them to the capital. Everything was there, everything she’d spent so long hoping for and knowing she could do nothing to bring it about.
Then the gunnery sergeant was there, his expression concerned as he handed her a tissue. Until then, she hadn’t realized she was crying. Tears ran down her cheeks and she swallowed hard. It was over. Finally. Or at least it would be as soon as she’d seen for herself that her people were safely away from Tarsus.
But this was a start – a damned good start.
“Ma’am, I can’t begin to understand what you’ve been through. But I’ve seen the scars you bear, scars I damn well know you didn’t have when you were brought up on charges.” The gunny’s voice was a low growl. His anger slowly penetrated and she looked up, brushing away her tears with her right hand. “Ma’am, I promise you this isn’t a trick. You are free. Your name and the names of the others have been cleared. I wish there was time for you to accept and adjust to everything that’s happened. Unfortunately, we’ve got a damned battle to win right now and we’ll win it a lot quicker now that you’re back.”
“Sorry, Gunny.” She slid the datapad into the pocket at her left thigh and scrubbed her face, doing her best to pull herself together.
“No, ma’am. You’ve got nothing to apologize for. But we should get on our way before the major and Senator Tremayne start to worry.”
“All right. I’ll be just a moment.” With that, she ducked into the bathroom to wash her face. She might not totally feel like a Marine yet but, by God, she’d look like one. After all, her parents had always told her the looking the part was often as important, if not more so, that acting the part.
* * *
Miranda Tremayne looked up from the small holo-plot she’d been studying as the door to the room Santiago had appropriated as the control room for the FOB opened. For one moment, she was transported back in time almost four years. That day, the newly promoted Captain Ashlyn Shaw entered then Admiral Tremayne’s ready room for her first briefing as Marine CO onboard the Pegasus. Shaw had worn the same expression of disbelief and determination then that she wore now. The only difference were the scars that now marred the young woman’s face and the band of white in her dark hair. Those scars, if anything, made her look more determined. Of course, she probably was. She had a lot of reason to be. Her family lived in the capital. Also, unless Tremayne missed her guess, Ashlyn was determined to prove not only to those who had so willingly thrown away her career and her freedom – as well as the careers and freedoms of her people – but to herself that she
was still one of the best Marines around.
Ashlyn stepped forward, Gunnery Sergeant Talbot a step behind her. She stopped before Major Santiago and braced to attention. Her right hand snapped up in a perfect parade ground salute which she held until Santiago returned it. Then, still braced at attention, she stared forward, waiting for his command.
“Stand easy, Captain,” Santiago said before dismissing the gunnery sergeant. Talbot executed a perfect about face and then took up a position beside the door. “I have to admit, it’s good to see you in uniform again, Captain.”
“Believe me, sir, it’s even better to be back in uniform.” Ashlyn paused, her expression clouding. “Sir, I want to apologize for my behavior the other day–”
“No need, Ash.” He waved aside her protest. “I – we –” He nodded to Tremayne – “should have done our homework better. For that you have my apology.”
“And mine,” Tremayne put in. There was so much more she wanted to say, but it had to wait until the current crisis was over.
“Ash.” Santiago surprised both of them by reaching out and lightly touching her scarred cheek. “I wish there was time for you to adjust to everything that’s happened, but there’s not. Just as there’s no time for your injuries to heal and your implants to be brought back online.” Anger filled his voice now, an anger Tremayne shared. They’d had a few minutes to study the doctor’s report before Ashlyn joined them. Those in charge of the military prison had a lot to answer for.
However,” Santiago continued. “I have managed to get you assigned to SpecOps, at least for the time being. Until Major Pawlak gets here and carries you off to prove to the rest of the Devil Dogs here that you’re really back, let’s go over what we know of the situation.”
Ashlyn nodded and stepped toward the plot. As she did, Santiago entered a command into the control panel and a three dimensional display of the center of the capital appeared before them. From where she stood to Santiago’s left, Tremayne watched as her former protégé studied the plot, her brow furrowing as icons lit to show the current locations of fighting.
