Casserine

by Bernard Lee DeLeo

  Jake put a hand on her unmoving shoulder. Adrian tensed at his touch. She let him ease her body over facing him as she lay on her back. Her hands were clenched over her left side, Where Jake could see two of the blind shots from the pirate ship had burned a furrow under her rib cage, and an equally nasty looking one across her right calf. Adrian smiled up crookedly at him.

  “Hummmm…me sorry Ke-mo sah-be,” she said weakly, imitating the disc recording of the old radio tapes Jake had ordered in. Adrian tried to lower her voice to match the Lone Ranger’s Indian sidekick, Tonto.

  “If you weren’t already wounded, Tonto, I’d shoot you myself. What part of ‘get the field communicator to the cave refuge’ didn’t you understand? Has English all of a sudden become your second language? Remember our job descriptions? You know, the ones which state I handle military operations and you communicate with base.”

  “Make Ke-mo sah-be feel better…if.Tonto bleed to death…on cold…ground?”

  Jake sighed. “Tonto not bleed to death, because luckily, bad shots cauterized the wounds as they burned pieces out of Tonto’s disobeying hide.”

  Jake put his rifle down and braced himself against the rock wall. He reached down with his right arm. “Come on Tonto, you will have to ride Trigger to safety, where the Ranger can patch up his un-trusty sidekick’s wounds.”

  “Trigger. was. Roy Rodger’s horse,” Adrian corrected haltingly as she pulled herself up.

  “Whatever, I knew I should never have let you listen to those tapes.” Jake helped her up onto his back. He leaned carefully against the rock wall again, and picked up his particle beam rifle, slinging it around his neck. Straightening slowly, he eased himself away from the rocks. “We’re going. to have. to cut back on Tonto’s eating habits. if Tonto makes a habit out of disobeying .the Lone Ranger’ s orders. It feels…like the…Lone Ranger has Trigger…on his back instead of Tonto.”

  Adrian giggled in spite of her wounds, as Jake trudged slowly in the direction of the cave, staying close to the steep side of the mountainous terrain, where they had built their refuge. Jake almost lost his footing. He stopped immediately, waiting to regain his equilibrium.

  “You did at least…get the…communicator into the cave, didn’t you, Tonto?” Jake asked, as he steadied himself with his right hand against the rock wall.

  “Yes.white man, Tonto.not fail. Tonto thought…to help ungrateful Ranger after completing…task.”

  “Lone Ranger not impressed,” Jake grunted as he pushed off again towards the cave.

  With only twenty-five yards left to cover, Jake slipped and went to one knee, as his right leg slid slowly out from under him. He leaned away from the sliding leg, grabbing hold of a jagged mound jutting out of the surface. His leg stopped sliding, as Jake stayed still. Working it back up into a position he could push off with, he regained his feet. Each of the jarring steps over the uneven ground had evoked a muffled groan from Adrian.

  “Are we there yet?” Adrian whined comically. “Can’t…you…go any faster?”

  Jake chuckled and shook his head. “Don’t push your luck, Tonto.”

  Jake cleared the entrance to their refuge. Adrian had left one of their portable illuminators inside, so he did not have to stumble around in the darkness. He turned when he reached one of their chairs, and eased Adrian into it. She cried out involuntarily as her wounded ankle grazed the chair base. Jake went over and turned on the portable heater. Although he dripped sweat from every pore, and had soaked through his inner clothing, he knew what would happen in the near freezing temperatures. He helped Adrian out of her clothing and used the pre-coated field dressings out of their first aid kit to bandage her wounds. Along with the healing mix, the dressing contained a pain analgesic. The pain, etched in her face, eased as the bandages did their work.

  Jake helped her get dressed again, and then peeled out of his sweat soaked clothes. While they dried by the heater, Jake heated some of his special tea elixir on their makeshift stove. It had already been made up and sealed in a container to be easily dispensed. Jake wiped himself down quickly with a towel and some of the water they had stored. He brought another towel with some water on it and wiped Adrian’s face and neck off. Her eyes looked clearer and almost pain free. She reached up and cupped his face with her hands.

  “How long before they start hunting us down?”

  Jake knelt down in front of her and put his hands over hers. He took the right one away from his face and kissed her left palm. He gently squeezed her hands and stood up to get them some tea. He returned shortly and handed Adrian her cup. She leaned back and sipped it gratefully. Jake sat down next to her.

  “How long ago did you send out the message? A Force Cruiser should be here before they can even get enough energy to cry over their downed ship. You remember your first day on Casserine. How do you think them boys are handling our little gravity setup here after preparing to steal a warehouse full of solid fuel for the last few hours. You can bet seeing their ship blown out of the sky didn’t help their moral.”

  “Jake, I know you had everything planned down to the.”

  “Last detail,” Jake finished for her. “Yea, I did, until someone decided a change in my plan would be appropriate in the middle of a battle. Now, when did you send the message?”

  “I sent it as soon as you called in from the tracking station. I have some bad news Ke-mo sah-be, they can’t get a cruiser to us right now. An ion storm hit the base, and they have no idea when it will let up. They said we were on our own until it ended.”

  “Uh oh.”

  “I thought maybe if I got the information to you in time, you would not have shot down their ship. They could have taken the fuel cells and been on their way. It’s possible they knew about the ion storm and decided to take advantage of it.”

  “I believe you have deduced correctly about them knowing when the storm would hit,” Jake agreed. “Tour reasoning in wishing to warn me, so I could just wave at them while they flew off with the stores I guard, tells me you do not think much of the Lone Ranger’s mission here on Casserine.”

  “Okay, I admit it. I thought your plan to pretend like we headed for the hills, while in point of fact you lay in wait for them to bring the mother ship down to be obliterated, did strike me as a suicide mission.”

  “Why didn’t you say anything when we were building the refuge here?” Jake asked, exasperation plain in his voice. “You knew we built it so I could carry out my plan, while you kept the base informed from in here.”

  “I just played along. I never thought we would actually have to do this.” Adrian conceded.

  “Look, we get to stay here, Tonto, because the solid fuel stores we guard are the most valuable commodity in the quadrant. We only met on the base because I ended up in the sickbay for a wound fighting off these fuel pirates. I planned it close; because I knew when their cruiser came down to load the solid fuel, they would be scanning for heat signatures. They aimed at the moving heat signature first, babe. If not for the rock wall, you would have been afterburner dust.”

  Adrian stuck her lower lip out and lowered her head while still looking over at him.

  “Don’t pout, I hate it when you pout. I vow to never send for another old radio show or movie ever. They’ve been nothing but a bad influence on you.”

  “I was just trying to help,” Adrian whined comically.

  “Not funny, Adrian,” Jake said, fending off her attempts to grab his free hand. “You have gone too far this time, little missy. You almost got yourself blasted out of my life forever.”

  Adrian folded her arms in front of her and looked off across the room haughtily. She glanced back to see him watching her. “Oh, you just think you are so smart. Mr. Big Bad Marine takes on the space pirates with his ‘blow up their ship and catch them in the act plan’.”

  Jake shook his head in exasperation as the line between what he knew to be real started to shimmer in the haze of her movie mimic act. “Okay, I give up, Admiral Byers. Ex
plain to me again what our real mission here on Casserine entails.”

  Adrian could not hold on to her pose. She started laughing uproariously, until the pain from her rib injury lanced into her consciousness. Dropping her empty teacup, she gripped her side over the bandage, and the color drained out of her face. Jake put down his cup and knelt again in front of her. He waited until the pain subsided before he spoke again.

  “Adrian, look at me, you little twit.”

  Adrian, her laughter silenced, looked straight into Jake’s eyes andnodded.

  “Those guys will take a few hours to swear and figure out what happened to them. The ship probably radioed the heat signatures to them before opening fire, so they know it did not dematerialize in a cloud of smoke by coincidence. We were damn lucky they didn’t figure I’d have a MAG50. If they have any strength, they’ll try and take what little revenge they can before the Force Cruiser gets here and smokes them. They have no options. We can hope for them to be so demoralized they come out with their hands up, but if that happens, I will send my trusty sidekick Tonto out to accept their surrender.”

  “What will keep them from just blowing up the storage area if they’re mad?”

  “The fact they could not get clear, and the blast would wipe out the living quarters. They would not last half a day outside.”

  “How many of them were still in the storage area?”

  “I counted fifteen.”

  “You told me you thought maybe four at most,” Adrian gasped and pointed her finger at Jake accusingly.

  Jake shrugged. “I didn’t want to worry my little sidekick.”

  “Even considering their disadvantage with gravity, they will have blasters out here.”

  “It will be a bit more difficult to take them if they resist,” admitted a now smiling Jake.

  “You egocentric worm. You self-absorbed cretin. You…you.”

  “Jarhead?”

  “Don’t you dare put words in my mouth, you Jarhead,” Adrian ranted, waving one hand in Jake’s face, while the other kept her side from moving.

  “I think you have some color back in your cheeks now,” Jake pointed out. “I see we have managed to turn this entire thing full circle, back to where the real responsibility lies: me. Somehow I found out about the ion storm, tipped off the pirates, planned the attack on Casserine, sent you to the refuge, secretly knowing you would not go, carried your wounded butt back here after exiling fifteen pirates by blowing up their only way out of here, all for the purpose of having them hunt us down.”

  “Exactly,” Adrian nodded.

  “Flawless logic, my dear, flawless,” Jake replied, getting back in his chair, and reclining tiredly. He shut his eyes for a moment. Jake felt a cool hand on his arm, and squinted over at Adrian’s smiling face.

  “You took a nap. I let you sleep for about twenty minutes.”

  “Good, I have to go out and retrieve my launcher.”

  “Will you get me some more tea before you go?”

  “Sure Tonto, how do you feel?”

  “Sore.”

  “We have something for that if you want,” Jake replied while getting their tea. He stopped long enough to get dressed, and then sat back down next to Adrian, handing her the warmed tea.

  “When should we risk another call out?” Adrian asked.

  “Not until I go out, get the launcher, and check on the whereabouts of our guests. If they can pinpoint us when we call out, they might come hunting. We will give them a little surprise when they get here.”

  “Oh thank you, Jake,” Adrian said laughing a little, as she scrunched her face up and lowered her voice. “What you mean we, white man?”

  Jake laughed at the little play on words Adrian had picked up from the radio tapes and movies. She had been working the phrase every time he said we in conjunction with any chore. “You must be feeling a little better. When should I change those bandages?”

  “Not for another day. They will knit up the damage, but I will have a lot of scarring. You probably won’t love me anymore.”

  “Good point.”

  Adrian gave him a slap in the back of his head.

  “Have I mentioned before about the rule forbidding lieutenants from striking captains?” Jake said leaning back again in his chair to get out of range.

  “Yes, but I don’t like that one, so I ignore it.”

  “The chain of command around here has become a joke. If Colonel Risling knew how you treat me.”

  “He would be giving me a medal,” Adrian finished.

  “Right, well I better get moving.” Jake put on his outer environmental suit, including his gloves, and slung the particle beam rifle. “If I’m lucky, they won’t be monitoring the area around the storage bays, and I can get a close look at how they’re handling Casserine gravity.”

  Adrian reached up and grabbed his gloved hand. “Jake, don’t do anything stupid.”

  “You mean like running around unarmed while a cruiser fires atyou?”

  “Well, if you have to have an example, I was thinking about the one where you try to kill them all inside the solid fuel storage area with a knife and end up with your head blasted.”

  “Tonto has long memory.” Jake said ruefully.

  “But seriously, just grab your launcher and take a quick peek. I know you. Don’t go trying to even up the odds by yourself.”

  “I have no intention of doing that. You know, you’re lucky that cruiser didn’t just blow the whole area, instead of taking potshots. If they had known I was waiting with a MAG50 launcher, they would have made the area we were at into a big smoking crater. You used up all of our luck, so I will have to rely on skill and daring.”

  “Give me a kiss before you put your helmet on over that swelled up head of yours.”

  Jake knelt down in front of Adrian as she took his face in her hands and kissed him softly. She pulled away and looked into his eyes. “If you aren’t back from playing Cowboys and Indians in one hour, I will come out looking for you.”

  “Great, that’s all I need, a deadline. You just keep the tea warm, and I will be back as quick as I can.”

  Jake put on his helmet, and with a little wave back at Adrian, he went out into the Casserine darkness. Resetting his vision to low light, he retraced his path back to where he had left the bulky launcher. He checked the power pack on it, and then set it upright against the outcropping he had hidden behind to wait for the pirate cruiser.

  Taking his time, and stopping every hundred yards or so, he traveled to within sight of the storage area. Jake switched the viewer on his helmet lens for distance. After making sure none of the pirates were wandering around outside, he closed to within fifty yards of the storage area. They had left the hatch open, and Jake could only see darkness beyond the entrance.

  He then traversed the pathway leading to their living quarters. He saw the lights through the windowed structure. Jake could see the fuel thieves clearly. He smiled knowingly. Every one of them within his sight was laid out. An idea formed in his head, which he chuckled at, as he thought of what Adrian’s reaction would be to it.

  Jake went back to where he had left the MAG50, and then returned to the solid fuel storage area. He went inside and buzzed the living quarters. He kept buzzing for a few minutes, as he imagined one of them crawling over to the communications counsel.

  “Who is this?” A gruff voice demanded.

  “Jake Matthews, Captain of Marines, and you would be?”

  “Never mind who I am, wise ass. What the hell did you do to myship?”

  “MAG50”

  “Shit,” the man exclaimed in fury. “We’re going to cut you up into little pieces for that, you prick.”

  “You couldn’t cut your fingernails in this gravity. If you have any brains at all, you will listen closely to a deal I have worked up.”

  “I’m listening.”

  “You and your buds there just enjoy your stay in my living quarters, and I will call down a Force Cruiser to pick you up. I�
�ll see if I can get you a reduced sentence if all of you cooperate.”

  “No way in hell are we going to Tannengate Penal Colony. We’ll blow this planet up before we take a deal like that.”

  “You couldn’t blow your nose from where you are. I’m in solid fuels right now, and I have the MAG50 with me. I can vaporize the living quarters if you all don’t come along quietly. If I see even one of you slow motion toads move towards the entrance, I’ll turn the living quarters into the same shape your ship’s in. Now, how about it, Brainiac?”

  “Damn it,” the man hissed. “I know you guys from base don’t execute people. You wouldn’t fire on the living quarters.”

  “I served on Omaha mining colony during the Bug war there. You little weenies would do well not to trust in my generous nature. Talk it over with your friends. I’ll call you back in fifteen minutes. Remember, I have the MAG50 trained on you.”

  “I’ll tell ‘em.”

  As soon as Jake heard him disconnect, he grabbed up a portable unit and headed for a position where he had a clear shot at the living quarters. He set up the MAG50 on its portable base, and zeroed in on his target. Jake saw a couple of them moving a little; but even news of going to Tannengate probably seemed preferable to Casserine’s gravity, and then death. He called at the appointed time.

  “What guarantees do we have you won’t let them kill us all when the Force Cruiser gets here?”

  “My word, and the fact I could kill you all right now.”

  There was a lengthy pause. “Okay, what do you want us to do?”

  “Stay put,” Jake ordered. “I’ll have my assistant call the base. When they get here I will need you all to come out of there with hands up or on all fours. Leave everything you have inside. Are we clear.”

  ‘Tea, I understand.”

  “Okay then, relax until I contact you again.”

  The man grunted out his acknowledgment and hung up.