“General, may I give you some additional information that we received from a source late last evening?” Captain O’Shaughnessy stood as she addressed him.
“Go ahead, Captain,” he replied.
“It seems that Reaper has made a much larger friend than just the Trillond. You heard the conversation between Reaper and the prime minister and his captain yesterday. You know they are leaving him a gift in the name of their God King. As I understand it, this is another great honor. My source told me that if by chance they were to com and find out he has been incarcerated that they would take this as a huge sign of disrespect for Reaper and their empire. Enough of one that they would blast us to space dust without a second thought. Maybe Mr. Antonio could query the Trillond government on the validity of this information. They may have information about Reaper’s new friends.”
Marcus Antonio had been typing on his com very quickly. He stopped and returned his attention to the group.
“Lieutenant Aok,” the general said, “until we get this situation straightened out I would like you to fill in as the major’s second. You have proven yourself a very capable officer.”
“Thank you, General,” E’Aria replied. “I hope we have this straightened out before the end of the day so it won’t be necessary to change anything.”
“That may be optimistic, Lieutenant.”
“I hope not,” she replied. “If you listened to the Allond, Captain, give Reaper the warning of what might be coming. I will tell you this is no matter to debate. My people have lived in this Galaxy for many millennia. The Cjittan will destroy everything in their path. If you remember your Earth, you might remember there is a insect that live in colonies. You call them ants. There are a few ferocious kinds of ants that would rise out of the ground and clean giant mammals to the bone in a matter of minutes. Do you remember those army ants, General? The Cjittan are the same, only the insects are all sizes and hungers. We have to destroy them on their ships in space. If they board a ship or land on a planet, they will devastate it. If you do not believe me or the Allond, Captain, my government can tell you, and they need to be notified of the pending threat anyway.”
Mr. Antonio had been typing fast and furious as the lieutenant spoke. The Trillond government now knew of threat.
“Captain, we will be there tomorrow,” Grey said. “If we are agreed, let’s gather intelligence from as many sources as we can find and sit down tomorrow on the Warhammer and come up with a plan.”
“Are we going to head for Hyson, General?” the captain asked. “It’s not far from Allond space and may give us a good vantage point to warn the colonies and the Trillond.”
“That sounds like a good idea. We will discuss the Cjittan on the way. Mr. Antonio will be with us tomorrow. He needs to spend some time with his client.”
“Major,” the general added, “do you have anything you wish to discuss?”
“No sir, not with her or her in the room.” Andrea motioned to the admiral and Emily. “They are not a part of my chain of command and are not in turn going to be a part of any discussion I wish to have.”
“Captain, you have anything?”
“I’m with her,” the captain replied. “There is a witch hunt in progress and we will not be a part of it. It’s just counter-productive bullshit.”
“Captain, Major,” the admiral said, “may I remind you I am an admiral and can order you to answer any questions I may have.”
“Yeah, whatever, just try it.” The captain cut off the vid.
The major looked at her and smiled. “He is really rubbing off on you.”
“She is an egotistical bitch and not really that good at what she is supposed to be doing,” the captain snapped. Emily sat and stared at the table top.
“You can tell her I said that, Emily, if you feel you need to. You can also tell her if she starts any shit on my ship I will lock her ass up with Reaper in the same cell.” Emily said nothing.
The day went by with few disruptions. They got the message from the Allond ship with the frequency to the beacon; it also contained a message that a few Cjittan scout ships had been tracked on the outer edges of the Allond space. They were headed towards Hyson.
Different crew members had been down to visit Reaper. They brought him food, drink and things to read. Natalia made pictures for him to hang in his cell.
The Trillond government sent the general information on both the Allond and the Cjittan.
Reaper just sat in his cell. The whole team came to visit as a group. The lieutenant was leading them. They were behaving, surprisingly enough. He called Lorelei over. They all remembered her.
They sat down and made their own plan for what would happen if they went into battle. The lieutenant gave Lorelei the codes for the shuttle. Snake, Hillbilly and Genius were to get Lorelei, Natalia and this lawyer that she found on the shuttle and make sure it detached from the Warhammer. Lorelei said she could pilot it without any problem. She had orders to head for Anubis. Reaper wrote down a list of contact names for her. He would be along behind her in the gunship, depending on how things went.
The lieutenant showed him her letter of resignation that she would give the captain on her way out the door. There wasn’t much they could do to her, as long as she did things by the book. Plus, she wasn’t a Colonial. Her government wasn’t going to do anything to a hero who didn’t want to serve with a military who put heroes in jail. The captain was a high enough rank to sign it and make it official, and as long as that happened she was free and clear. She was going to pilot the gunship with Reaper. Everyone else was stuck unless they wanted to be a deserter. Ben wasn’t going to ask anyone to do anything like that. He gave everyone the contact list on Anubis if they needed a job later.
The major came down to see him and found most of her team there. Matt and Gunny were absent, but the lieutenant and misfits were all there. The lieutenant got up and walked over to the major.
“I brought them down to see him and to make sure that there are no problems for the sergeant and his crew here at the brig. You remember last time.” The major relaxed some and nodded. “I will take them to eat.”
Andrea stood outside Ben’s cell looking in at him. He was writing out something on paper. He knew she was there but he didn’t say anything. A couple more minutes went by.
“Are you waiting for an invitation, or for me to get naked?” he finally said, looking up.
“Both.” She smiled for the first time in a couple days.
“Would you come in, Major.” He started unbuttoning his shirt.
“If you think we are going to do anything here in this cell you’re crazy,” she said.
“I’ve been wearing these clothes for two days and I am going to remove them before they get too ripe,” he said, eyebrows raised. “You can sit wherever you like.”
“The general and the admiral, along with your lawyer, will be here tomorrow. We are heading for Hyson to get the intel and do some recon,” she said. “Your lawyer wants to come and talk to you. I guess you are suing them for wrongful imprisonment and asking for a monetary settlement on top of it.”
“Interesting, someone is looking out for me. That is nice.”
“It’s probably your Lieutenant Aok.”
“Well good,” he said. “I suppose you like seeing me here, so you wouldn’t do anything like that for me.”
He might as well have just slapped her. Tears welled up in her eyes.
“No matter,” he continued, “whether I am right or wrong you will always take the side of the military. You think I deserve to be in here, so you wouldn’t help me. The admiral has overstepped her authority, but it’s okay with you because she’s an officer. You could have argued for my release.”
“This is all very hard for me, Benjamin,” the major said quietly.
“I know it is. You are one hell of an officer, Andrea, and I’m grateful for you,” he said. “I am here because of you and you only. I just wanted to be with you. I don’t care about th
e rest of it. Although, I will admit to taking advantage of situations where I can benefit in the future.”
“You have. I can’t believe the things you have gotten away with.” Some of the stress drained from her face as they changed the subject.
“All of them legal though!” He wanted to lighten the mood a little. “You know we have had these talks before. I have caused you a lot of distress and stress in the past month that you are not used to having.”
“Ever since you made the contract, I’ve felt I have had my hands tied,” she told him. “The general thinks you walk on water and you have done some things that seem to back up his faith in you. He would never admit it, but I don’t think he cares when you tell off a senior officer.”
He laughed. “He does have a particular attachment to me, and I swear I don’t know why. He has a lot of faith that I will do the right thing.” He paused. “I have a couple things on my mind we need to talk about.”
She tensed up a little, wondering if it was what she had been thinking about. “Go ahead,” she said.
“I think there is a spy in the general’s office. The admiral should have no reason to be so directly involved in our activities. I insulted her to shut down whatever she had planned for our meeting. It made her mad enough to go over the top on getting back at me. Try to get the general alone for a meeting and tell him my thoughts about a mole in his organization. You don’t have to stick your neck out for me, just pass it on.” He looked at her, took a deep breath and continued.
“Secondly, when this mission is over I am going to leave. I’m going to go back to Anubis and work on my company. I think I had this fantasy that we would be this great couple with a team of good guys cleaning up our galaxy. We have done some good things as far as missions go, but we are far from a great couple.”
She tried to be strong but she couldn’t. She didn’t say anything, just let the tears roll.
“Don’t you think that would be better for you, Andrea?” he said softly. “I will talk to the team, smooth things over, and you can get back to the way things were before I came along. I would like to be gone after we arrive at Hyson. You guys get your intel and I will get my present and we can all go our separate ways.”
“You would leave before we know what we are up against? We will need you here,” she said.
“I have things I need to do back on Anubis.”
“Yes, your company. I forgot you are a entrepreneur now.”
There was the ice that she was known for. He was watching her, half-expecting the tears on her face to freeze.
“There is the major that everyone knows,” he said. “The ice princess.”
She launched herself at him, fists pounding. He covered his head and hoped she would burn herself out in a minute or two. She did and just sat on the edge of his bed. He sat up behind her and pulled her into his chest. He put his face next to hers and kissed her cheek
“What kind of planet is Anubis, Andrea?”
“It’s an Ag planet.”
“Right, and if you had a army of insect soldiers you had to feed, would you play around dead planets and an asteroid belt on the edge of a galaxy or head for the inner systems? Hyson will be a refueling stop for the scouts. Even with the Trillond gone, there is still a lot on that planet that they could feed on.”
“Yes, I can see that.”
“The Trillond will probably not send a ship there to defend a planet they now have no people on. If the Cjittan are organized and tactical they will set up command stations on Hyson to work from.”
“That makes sense, if they smarter than the Allith,” she said. “They may be just like them in larger numbers.”
“My gut tells me they are more intelligent than that.”
“Your lieutenant compared them to the army ants of Africa, only on a larger scale.”
“That would mean they are large in numbers and organized. Those ants have a chain of command that usually goes all the way to a queen. There are workers and warriors and they pass information all the way to her.”
“I think your lieutenant is more than she seems,” Andrea said, turning to look at him. “She had someone flying at max speed to catch the general’s ship and did so in about 12 hours. That is not the kind of clout a first-year lieutenant usually has at their disposal.”
“If she has a secret, Andrea, it is hers to have and none of our business.”
“You’re not curious?”
“She is my friend,” Ben said, “and digging around trying to find answers that I don’t care about would be a violation of her trust in me.”
“I want to get to Anubis,” Ben continued, “and get a plan of action going for the whole planet. If we can’t defend it we need to be able to evacuate it. If we can get the people off, we can at least come back and rebuild it later. The other thing is, it’s just not about the people of Anubis; our whole alliance relies on the food they produce. I am worried our military leaders will not see the big picture. They will spend all their time protecting Ares and all the industrial planets with the political and the rich, and later when they are starving and can’t eat the bright shiny tech around them they will see the error of their ways.”
She leaned back farther and kissed him. “I’m sorry, when we started this conversation it sounded like you just wanted to take care of yourself. I should have known better, because you never worry about what happens to you. I see you have thought this out and have put a whole planet, a whole galaxy even, in front of your own desires. The only problem I see is that it is based on an unknown. We don’t know if they will even invade.”
“Andrea, you love me but you don’t trust me,” Ben said. “Everything you thought I did for myself was for a greater good. The team, the people I love, a planet, a galaxy. Until you can trust me, you will never be happy with me or us together.”
“If they are sending scouts in our direction and they arrived to find a fleet of Trillond warships and our four colonial warships, then they might change their minds,” he continued. “But that isn’t what they are going to find, is it? Look, forget all this for now. I want you to come with me or join me when you can. Please just think about it. Right now the plan was to start a company. That is done. Now with the addition of the new starships, we can branch out into some other avenues of work besides just freight hauling.”
“You mean like merc’s?” she asked.
“Depends on how you look at it. If we stay on the right side of the law we can be a specialty team capable of doing a number of legitimate operations.”
“Sounds interesting,” she said, “and we already have the skill set and equipment.”
“Andrea,” he said seriously, “I love you. This would allow us to have a relationship that works. It’s all I have to offer. I hope you think about it.”
The lights flickered on and off. She sat up and moved away from him. She looked at him and he looked as puzzled as she did.
The captain stood at the cell entrance with Lorelei standing back behind her. She winked at them.
“There must be a short somewhere for the lights to flicker like that.” She looked back over her shoulder at Lorelei.
“Major,” she said, “the general and his entourage will be here in about an hour. They pushed it harder than we anticipated to get here. They are going to come aboard and we are going to have a short meeting before retiring for the night. If you like, I will notify the lieutenant when I notify Emily.”
“Thank you, Captain. Any idea what it is going to be about?” the major asked.
“I’m hoping we are going to mend some fences before getting started tomorrow on the real issues. There may be some backlash for me for hanging up on them, but I don’t care.”
“Captain,” Ben cut in, “would it be possible to get some clean clothes and take a shower? I give you my word that I will cause none of your crew any problems.”
“Make it quick.”
“Yes ma’am.” He got up wearing only his boxers and pulled on his pants.
He didn’t bother with his shirt or shoes and didn’t really care what anybody thought. The door opened and he made a run towards his quarters.
E’Aria, I’m going to be in my quarters in three minutes, can you meet me there? he thought.
Yes, she replied, but what are you doing out of the brig? Did you break out?
No, I got a 20-minute leave to shower and change. We need to talk while we have the chance.
“You know we can talk anytime. I am totally synced with your mind now, so just start talking.
I want to get out of here as soon as I get released. Pack up my room for me and get it all on the gunship. Get Natalia to pack whatever she is taking. I will have Lorelei get ready. Let’s all travel on the gunship and slave the shuttle behind us. I know you already know all of this, but I have to say it get things straight in my head.
Yes, it is a mess in there
Not you too, he thought crossly. Does everyone want to mess with me?
I think they do.
If you need help, get someone you can trust, he thought. Could you see if the chief got our second set of armor done? My other one has scratches now from saving your ass.
I will have it all done, she replied. It will be better to do this after everyone has turned in. We should be ready to go tomorrow. Do you still need me to come to your room, or are we finished?
I guess we are done. So no, you don’t need to.
Damn! She said. I heard you put on a good show.
You’ve been hanging around humans too long and eavesdropping on their thoughts, it seems. He changed the subject. The general is going to be here soon and there will be a meeting. The captain is going to let you know about it if she already hasn’t done so. Did you hire the attorney for me?
The Chronicles of Benjamin Jamison: Call Sign Reaper Page 32
