by Sam Schall
“Very good, sir.” Pawlak turned and said something to someone off-camera. Then he turned back, his expression serious. “The first shuttle returning topside will be carrying half a dozen prisoners, including the former commandant of the prison and former head guard. Lieutenant Liu will be returning with them. The other JAG is going to remain here to continue the onsite investigation. Gunny, I want guards on the prisoners 24/7.”
“Yes, sir,” Talbot said from where he stood behind Ashlyn’s chair.
“Captain Shaw, you have command of the Devil Dogs for the return trip home,” Pawlak continued.
Ash sat up, her eyes going wide. “Sir?”
“You heard me, Ash.” Now he grinned. “Lieutenant Marshall is a fine young officer, but he doesn’t have the experience or reputation to run this prison until reinforcements get here. So I’ll be remaining with them. Take the Devil Dogs home and get them ready for war, Captain.”
“Until you get back, sir,” she said.
“Have someone collect my gear and send it down with the shuttles, Captain. I’ll do my best to brief the Devil Dogs down here but will leave it to you to brief the entire team once you break orbit.”
“Understood, sir.”
God, what else was going to happen?
“Captain, with your permission, I need to get things moving on this end.”
“Of course, Major. The first shuttle will drop in half an hour.”
“We’ll be ready, sir.” Pawlak nodded, his expression calm and confident. “Ash, we’ll talk before you pull out of orbit.”
“Yes, sir.” Before she could say anything more, the video feed ended.
“All right, we have a lot to do. As more information comes in from FleetCom, it will be passed on. In the meantime, get your departments prepared for immediate departure. Dismissed.”
Ashlyn waited as the others filed out of the ready room. Then she turned to Talbot, a thoughtful expression on her face. There was so much to do, more than she felt ready for. Not that she had any choice. The major had made it very clear that she was to step up as his XO and make sure their orders were carried out. Fortunately, she knew she could count on the gunnery sergeant to help.
“Gunny, this is going to be a lot like when you were wiping my nose back when I was still a green second lieutenant,” she said. “I won’t lie. I need your help. You know the team and you are certainly more up-to-date on what’s going on.”
“Cap, you know what to do,” he assured her. “You just have to trust yourself. But don’t worry. I’ll be glad to kick your rear – respectfully of course – if you start to screw up.” His grin did more to reassure her than anything else could have.
“All right, Gunny. Just don’t be surprised if I kick back.” She grinned in return. Even as she did, she knew he was wrong. The last two years had taken their toll on her and it was going to take time to learn to trust herself and her superiors again. “Go see if you can be of any assistance to Lieutenant Marshall and his people. Have someone pack up the major’s things and get them on the first shuttle down. I’ll make sure the Captain has everything set for the prisoners.”
“You need to check in with the CMO as well, ma’am,” he reminded her.
She nodded, her expression grim. So far she’d done exactly as she’d promised Dr. Ahern and had spent time almost every day with the CMO. What she’d learned her very first day onboard the Magellan was that Dr. Bischoff had not only read Dr. Ahern’s reports on her medical condition and treatment plan but had taken them to heart. How she would react to Ashlyn having to assume command of the ship’s Marine complement worried Ash.
“I’ll do that just as soon as I speak with the captain,” she promised. “Let’s get going. There’s a great deal to do to make the personnel shift.”
With that, she left the ready room, her mind working feverishly to figure out what her first step should be after talking with Captain Carlisle.”
She could do this. She had to.
God, she wasn’t ready for this.
* * *
“The final shuttle just arrived, sir,” Ashlyn reported.
She sat in the small office that had, until twelve hours earlier, been assigned to Lieutenant Matthews. Now that he and his unit had transferred planetside, she had formally assumed her role as the Magellan’s Marine CO. Even though she’d protested that it wasn’t necessary, she’d had little choice but to move into the office for the return flight home, especially after Captain Carlisle reminded her that she had an image to uphold as well as a duty to perform.
Part of that duty was informing Major Pawlak that the Magellan was ready to break orbit and return to the home system. Close as they were to the planet, there was no lag in communications. Normally that would be something Ash appreciated. Just now, however, she wished there was at least some lag. Maybe it would have given her time she needed to think of a convincing argument for Pawlak to return to the ship. After all, they could leave the Gunny or one of the two staff sergeants with Lieutenant Matthews. That ought to be enough to run the prison until FleetCom got reinforcements out to them.
“Very good, Ash.” Pawlak’s face looked out at her from the comm screen. “I doubt you will see any trouble on the way home. Still, I recommend you and the Gunny run the team through sims to keep them on their toes.”
“Yes, sir.”
“I’ve transmitted my report and my recommendations about what should be done concerning the situation here as well as the prisoners. Be sure to append your report to it as well.”
“Understood.”
“Lieutenant Liu will also be taking statements from you and those sent to this hellhole with you.”
“I’d expected as much, Major.”
“Ash.” He smiled at her and shook his head, his expression revealing that he understood what she felt just then. “It’s just the two of us. So tell me, are you all right?”
For a moment, she didn’t say anything. Then she smiled slightly. She’d answer his question and do it truthfully – and she knew he’d never hold it against her.
“Hell, Hammer, you know I’m not.” She shook her head and dropped her defenses, letting him see her worry. If he didn’t recognize it, the fact she’d called him by his call sign, something none of them did except on the battlefield or in informal circumstances, should have let him in on just how worried she happened to be. “Just being this close to Tarsus and the penal colony has me on edge. Add in the fact that you’ve just dumped the team in my lap without warning and I’m looking for a hole to hide in.”
“C’mon, Angel.” His use of her call sign, given during her first mission as a Devil Dog, brought a slight smile to her lips. Back then, the squad had dubbed her Angel, short for the Angel of Death, because of her skills as a sniper. “You know me well enough to realize I wouldn’t be doing this if I had any doubts about you being able to do the job.”
“You knowing it and me knowing it are two very different things right now, Hammer.”
“Then trust me, kid. You know I’d never turn the Devil Dogs over to someone I didn’t think up to the job.” He waited until she nodded, albeit reluctantly. “Use the trip back to run sims with the team. You’ll see that you aren’t as rusty as you think you are.”
“I hope you’re right.” She said it softly, not really meaning for him to hear.
“I am.” Now he cocked his head to one side, a slight smile lifting one corner of his mouth. “Besides, one of us has to stay until reinforcements get here and you have a young man expecting you home in time for his birthday.”
The thought of little Jake was all it took for Ash to nod and admit that she wouldn’t – and couldn’t – remain behind. There was no way she’d miss another of her son’s birthdays.
“You do realize that you’ll have to make it up to him for not being there, Hammer. You are one of his godfathers.” Now she grinned, remembering how honored the man had looked when she first asked him to stand as her son’s godfather.
“Of cour
se. Tell him I’ll see him as soon as I return home.”
“Will do. Now, anything else I need to know about the team?”
“Nothing the gunny can’t tell you.” He paused and turned away from the screen for a moment and she guessed someone off-screen was talking to him. “I need to run, Angel. I have a meeting with the prison doc that was supposed to have started five minutes ago.”
“Watch him, Hammer. He’s not necessarily bad, not in the way Coreal and the others are, but he also didn’t stand up to them.”
“Which is why I’m meeting with him. He may find himself occupying your old cell before the day’s out. Pawlak out.”
Ash sighed and leaned back. Like it or not, she was now in command of the team. She just hoped they managed to get back home without anything else happening.
Chapter Fifteen
“The general sends her apologies, Captain Shaw, but she’s running a few minutes late. May I get you a cup of coffee or something else to drink?”
“Coffee would be fine, Corporal Narjang.”
The young man nodded and excused himself. Alone, Ashlyn moved to stand before the windows lining the far wall. Looking outside, she watched as men and women hurried through the streets of the capital. Some were rushing to work and others gawking at the damage from the attack. Even though much of it had already been repaired, the worst of it would take longer. At least the fear she’d felt in those she’d passed her last visit to the capital seemed to have passed. Replacing it was an anger she understood and approved of.
She’d been back on-planet for almost a month. When the Magellan returned, she’d received new orders. She had ten day’s leave and then she had to report to the medical facility. Since the orders had come directly from General Okafor, she knew better than to try to argue. Before she’d been able to ask for clarification about what to do regarding the Devil Dogs, at least until Pawlak made it back to the capital, she had received another packet from Okafor. The Devil Dogs were given a corresponding leave and then they were to begin running sims for both boarding enemy ships as well as groundside assaults. Since Ashlyn’s treatments at the medical facility would not take all day every day, she was to review the sim results and give guidance for each day’s work.
When she returned home from the medical facility the day before, she’d found a request to meet with General Okafor waiting for her. Request. She smiled slightly at the thought. When the Commandant of the Marine Corps requested your presence, especially if you were a Marine, you damned well better present yourself on time and in mess dress uniform unless told otherwise. At least she’d been spared that much. She’d been instructed this was an informal meeting and BDUs were appropriate.
“Here you go, Captain,” the corporal said as he handed her a mug of coffee. “The general said you take it black.”
“I do.”
She nodded her thanks and turned back to the window. Part of her wanted to ask the young man if he knew why the general had sent for her. But another part, the veteran, knew better. Okafor would tell her soon enough the reason for the summons.
Ten minutes later, Corporal Narjang escorted Ashlyn into the general’s office. As the door closed behind her, Ash faltered slightly. Of course she’d expected Okafor to be there. On a certain level, she’d even expected Major Pawlak’s presence. What she hadn’t expected was to find her mother and Rico Santiago there as well. More than that, the two of them, as well as Pawlak, all wore rank insignias she hadn’t expected.
“Mom?” It was out before she could stop it. “Captain Shaw reporting as requested, General.” She braced to attention before Okafor’s desk, mentally kicking herself for breaking protocol upon entering the office.
“Stand easy, Captain,” Okafor told her. Then she smiled. “And quit looking like you want to find a hole and climb into it. I understand what you must have thought when you saw everyone, especially your mother."
”Permission to speak, ma’am?”
“We’re not standing on protocol right now, Ash. Speak away.” Okafor motioned for her to be seated.
“Am I right in assuming you’ve finally found a permanent slot for my mother?” As much as it had hurt to be brought up on charges, the knowledge that her mother had been punished as well was almost worse.
“You are and we’ll get to that in a few minutes,” Okafor assured her. “But there are a few things to get out of the way first.” She leaned back and watched as Corporal Narjang appeared, carrying a tray with several coffee carafes on it. He placed one of the carafes on the general’s desk and the other on the table in front of the sofa where Elizabeth Shaw and Rico Santiago sat.
“First of all, I’ve reviewed your report as well as Paul’s about what you found on Tarsus. I’ve also had a chance to speak with Lieutenant Liu. I hope you and your people will be satisfied to know that the JAG is wasting no time in bringing charges against Coreal, Haritos and the others you brought back onboard the Magellan. The charges range from murder and attempted murder to misuse of office. I promise you that they will never see the light of day again.”
For a moment, Ashlyn simply sat there. Even if she’d wanted to, she wouldn’t have been able to say anything. She’d waited so long to hear those words, or words like them, and she suddenly realized she’d convinced herself that she never would. Even knowing that Coreal and the others had been removed from their positions at the penal colony hadn’t been enough to really convince her they’d be made to pay for their crimes.
Then she felt tears pricking at her eyes and blinked them back. That brought another realization. Despite everything, she’d still been waiting for those who’d freed her and her people to turn around and betray them again. She’d known intellectually that they wouldn’t but her heart hadn’t yet accepted it. Now, hearing how they were taking steps against their tormentors at the penal colony, she knew she’d wronged them.
More than that, she knew she could finally allow herself to trust them as she once had.
Even if there was still that small voice in the back of her mind telling her that she shouldn’t drop her guard just yet.
“Thank you, General.”
“There’s more, Ash.” Now Okafor smiled, a predatory smile Ashlyn remembered from the time she served under the then colonel. It was the same look she’d seen whenever one of their missions worked out exactly as Okafor planned and their Marines were about to spring the trap on the enemy.
“Ma’am?”
“Rico has been looking into the two Marines who were supposed to take care of you during the attack on the capital. Rico?” She nodded to where Santiago sat.
“Let’s just say those two will soon be out of our beloved Corps with Dishonorable Discharges. Since they didn’t actually take action against you, we can’t prove they had the intent to do anything. But the investigation into them has given us enough evidence to prove they’ve been taking bribes from others in the brig and from those operating on the black market to look the other way when certain deliveries have come in.”
It wasn’t enough, not by a long shot, but she’d accept it.
For now.
“Don’t get me wrong. We’re going to keep an eye on them. If they so much as sneeze wrong, I’ll have them up on charges.”
“Did they identify who gave them their orders?”
Ashlyn looked at her mother, surprised by the barely repressed anger she heard in Elizabeth’s voice.
“Not yet. However, we’re continuing to look into it. My people are checking all their comm traffic and we’ve tagged their personal comps and comms. We’ll find out. I promise.”
“Sorkowski and O’Brien?” Ashlyn wanted to know.
“We’re still working on building a case against them.” Before Ashlyn could interrupt, Santiago held up a hand. “Yes, we have enough to arrest them and charge them with falsifying military records, impeding an investigation, perjury and other charges associated with your trial. But ask yourself something, Ash. Why? Why were they willing to risk so much to
set you and your team up?”
God, did he think she hadn’t asked herself that every day for the last two plus years? She’d wracked her memory trying to find the answers. There were any number of possibilities but nothing that made any sense.
“What do you know so far?”
“It’s obvious that they were working, at the very least, with the comms officer. There’s no other way all your transmissions, not to mention your personal log, could have been altered as they were. I have some of my best people looking into who else might have been involved. My gut tells me it can’t be any more than one or two or someone would have let something slip by now.”
She nodded.
“But, as we look into the ship’s logs and Sorkowski’s personal records, it is becoming clear that his ships were always well away from illicit runs being made in that sector. The state of his various bank accounts, it is obvious he has had an income source that paid him far beyond what his military pay did. That tells me he was aiding the local smugglers. We’re looking for enough evidence now to tell us who he was working with. But we are also looking to see if he had dealings with others, folks worse than smugglers. I can’t believe he’d sacrifice you and your team because you were close to discovering what was going on. It would be too easy to simply make sure you were assigned elsewhere whenever a smuggling run was about to occur.”
“I’m not so sure.” She almost drawled out the words as she remembered her days onboard Sorkowski’s flagship. “He doesn’t like anyone rocking his boat. I saw him put a steward on report for serving coffee that wasn’t hot enough for him. But I also know I’m not the most unbiased person when it comes to the man. I suggest you look at his previous commands and compare them to what happened this time.”
“We are doing just that, Ash,” Okafor assured her. “And, before you ask, we have eyes on O’Brien. We know he met with Sorkowski shortly after the attack and it was obvious the former admiral did not appreciate the visit. Witnesses said their conversation, while hushed, was very definitely tense. Sorkowski seemed to be in control of his emotions, for the most part, but O’Brien was almost panicked. It’s not going to take much to get them to turn on one another.”
