Casserine (40 page)

“Good, I don’t want to get there, and then start improvising. You know as well as I do, we’ll have to do enough of that anyway.” Jake said. “I’m sorry about fooling around with Charlie and Tim, Sara; but actually, until we get to the Passallion home world, I’d just be in the way on the bridge.”

“I was only messing with you,” Corey laughed. “We’ve been watching you guys screwing around down here from up on the bridge. You three are much more entertaining than mundane drills.”

“Shit,” Mercer said, as all three men looked around the hanger bay, remembering all the live feeds necessary on a ship as large as the Intrepid. “I forgot about the damn vid cams in the bay.”

“You guys were working real hard,” Corey put in. “We had to have a constant watch to be on hand when you took a break, so we could catch all the insults. It seems you were holding back the most outrageous stuff for last. Alien target practice?” Corey shook her head in mock disappointment.

“You’re playing for the cameras, aren’t you?” Dougherty said, interrupting her reverie.

Corey looked up with a quick smile. “A little.”

“Shall I convene a court martial, General Matthews?” Dougherty asked sternly.

“I think we can handle this in house, Tim,” Jake said, moving with blinding speed. In a split second, he had moved around Corey, and pinned her arms to her sides. “Grab her feet Charlie.”

Mercer pulled Corey’s legs out from under her, with Corey shouting commands to stop. In seconds, she was on the hanger bay deck, immobile, but not silent.

“I’ll have you all before a firing squad,” Corey promised, trying without success to twist her body. “Governor Risling will hear of this outrage. Do something, Dougherty, you little red headed worm.”

Dougherty, who had already been doubled over in laughter, now collapsed to the deck upon hearing Corey’s insult. Mercer kicked him lightly in the side while he held Corey’s legs. “Quit rolling around Tim, and get over here. Grab Princess Lea’s legs. I have to get Mr. Snappy out.”

“You wouldn’t dare use that on me,” Corey said smugly.

Jake looked at Mercer, as Dougherty took over for Mercer. “Gee, Charlie, you think Sara here doesn’t know about all the variable settings Mr. Snappy is capable of?”

“I don’t know, Jake,” Mercer smiled, holding up his prized hardware, and firing an arc at full power, “but it’s never too late to learn, right?”

“Before you seal your eternal fate,” Corey said through clenched teeth, as she tried to pull back from the descending Mr. Snappy. “Who the hell is Princess Lea?”

Both Jake and Dougherty lost their grip on Corey, as both turned in gleeful comprehension towards a suddenly sheepish Mercer. Corey took the opportunity to roll out of reach, and quickly to her feet. She skipped away from the three men, but stopped when she knew they would be unable to catch her again, at least she thought, as far as Mercer and Dougherty were concerned.

“He did say Princess Lea. You hypocrite,” Dougherty accused, pointing his finger in Mercer’s face, as he jumped to his feet.

“Charlie, Charlie, Charlie,” Jake intoned, as he stood up, shaking his head. “You’ve been watching Star Wars vids.”

“All the Charlie chatter about what a pack of idiots the rest of us were for watching old Earth vids,” Dougherty added with delight, “and look who’s been firing up the old light saber, but Darth Vader himself.”

“No, Tim,” Jake disagreed, as Mercer put Mr. Snappy back in his pocket, and pushed himself slowly to his feet. “Major Mercer here probably sees himself as Luke Skywalker, right Charlie?”

“A swashbuckler like Charlie? I don’t think so,” Dougherty exclaimed, putting his arm around Mercer, who visibly cringed. “He’d be Han Solo. Charlie would never picture himself as that twit, Skywalker.”

“This disgrace will be all over the ship in the next few minutes,” Mercer said, looking up sideways at a laughing Corey. “You’ll pay for this, Sara. As God is my witness, you will so pay for this. You have broken down discipline on this ship for months with this disloyalty.”

“Oh yea, Charlie,” Corey retorted. “You were just about to burn a hole into my brain, and I’m disloyal? Shame on you, Han.”

Mercer glanced from Jake’s smiling face over to Dougherty’s. “Forget the Alien target practice, you little prick. Give me a second to get in front of the hovercraft, and then put me out of my misery.”

“You ain’t getting off that easy, Mr. Solo,” Dougherty replied, with a sympathetic pat on Mercer’s back.

“Gentlemen,” Risling said sharply. “You three are a disgrace.” Jake, Mercer, and Dougherty were standing in the command cabin of the Intrepid in front of the large communications monitor there. The hatchto the cabin had been closed to block the session with the military governor from the rest of the Bridge.

“How do you think it looks, General Matthews, to have the supreme commander of Earth’s space forces grab assing around on the hanger deck with these two other adolescent dolts?” Risling asked rhetorically. “Imagine my surprise, when in the frame of a twenty-four hour period, the video history of this obscenity gets all the way to Genoa, not to mention every colony we have. Who in hell is in charge out there?”

“Would an apology be sufficient, Governor?” Jake asked in return, “or would you like us all to cut off the first joint of our pinky fingers and crate them up for shipment to you?”

“Why you insufferable, arrogant.” Risling began, but simply lost all pretense at his continuing bluster, as he burst into laughter.

Mercer looked quizzically at Jake, who shook his head sharply, and kept his eyes on the screen. Finally, after long moments, in which Governor Risling tried unsuccessfully to continue his discussion, he managed to regain his composure.

“God only knows how you manage to find the time to command an armada, rescue colonists and Aliens, and still manage to become the laughing stock of all the known universe,” Risling sighed.

“I believe you meant to say entertainment, rather than laughing stock, Sir,” Mercer injected, receiving a painful kick to his ankle from Jake for his trouble.

“I meant exactly what I said, Major Mercer,” Risling retorted, getting back some of his former bluster. “How does it feel to be a cartoon, Major?”

“Pretty much like it did when we saved the known universe, Sir,” Mercer replied, sidestepping Jake’s second attempt at a kick. “Just another day in the Corps, Sir.”

This brought a smile to Risling’s face. “Very well then, I didn’t expect anything of a more contrite nature from you three. You used to be a fine crewman, Lieutenant Dougherty. I see time spent with these two other miscreants has been of a highly damaging nature.”

“Yes Sir,” Dougherty replied smartly. “You are absolutely right,

Sir.”

“Great, another smart ass,” Risling said, leaning back in his chair.

“Yes Sir,” Dougherty snapped. “May I have another, Sir?”

“Call me when you get off the Passallion home world, Jake,” Risling said, ignoring Dougherty. “Fill me in on the situation. President Constantine told me to be sure and send his congratulations on your rescue mission. Your action against the Aliens has united Earth as no other force ever has. The Passallions have achieved celebrity status already back there, as the first video references of the rescues reached Earth. The population of Earth has become the General Jake Matthews’ fan club.”

“I appreciate that, Sir,” Jake replied. “I hope to end this Tattallias threat for all time, and cover all known approaches to Earth. I take it President Constantine has had no further problems with the former Earth Command countries?”

“Only on two occasions,” Risling replied. “The President handled them as you would have handled them. He picked out the center of the disturbance in each instance, and removed them from existence. No other actions have been necessary.”

“I’m glad,” Jake said. “When all this is over, I’d like to go back and visit him. How has the search for relatives of the rescued colonists been proceeding?”

“They’ll be completing the final tally today, and I will send the information to you as soon as I have it,” Risling promised.

“Great, hey how goes the Governorship? You haven’t said anything about how the change went over on the Colonies.”

“Very smooth, Jake,” Risling answered. “The usual confrontations with fuel pirates, and smugglers still goes on; but all the work I did consolidating my position while you were on Earth, went a long way to keeping things smooth when I actually received the commission from the President. Your idea of putting all Colonies, and military under the United States Flag was pure genius. You cannot believe the nationalistic fervor even out here. The Stars and Stripes is flying everywhere.”

“Sounds good, Governor. I will call you before we move on the Bugs again.”

“Take care of yourself, Jake, and those two thugs with you. Rislingout.”

“See,” Mercer quipped, “that wasn’t so bad, right Tim.”

“Oh yeah,” Dougherty agreed quickly. “The Governor was just pleased as.”

“Forget it, Tim,” Jake said, waving him off as he sat down heavily. “I don’t need any blow by blow accounts of a conversation I was part of. If he didn’t need us so badly, we’d be on our way to Tannengate in irons.”

“Jake,” Colonel Peters’ voice came over the intercom. “The Tennyson just came into sight. They’ll be docking shortly.”

“The three of us miscreants will go down and greet them,” Jake replied, getting on his feet again.

“Miscreant?” Peters laughed.

“Don’t pretend you were not letting the Bridge crew eavesdrop on our conversation with the Governor, Colonel Peters,” Jake retorted. “I know how you and your co-conspirator, Major Corey, work.”

“Well, you have to admit, it’s not everyday you can listen to the military commander of all the known universe get his ass chewed out,” Peters offered.

“It’s all for morale, right Jas?”

“That was my intention, General.”

“How did it work?” Jake asked.

“Oh, we had a good time in here,” Peters answered cheerfully.

“I’m coming out there, Colonel,” Jake warned, “and every crew member on the Bridge better snap to like they don’t want to spend the next three days in the brig, because that’ll be what’s on the line.”

“Aye, aye, Sir.”

Jake turned to his cohorts. “Didn’t I tell you Sara would coerce Jas into bugging our conversation?”

“It didn’t sound like it took much coercion, Jake,” Dougherty remarked.

“Tea, Jake, I think you’re losing control over your command,” Mercer added.

“Let’s go meet the Tennyson, before you two say anything else inspiring.”

“Think of it this way, Jake,” Mercer pointed out. “At least we’re already in our dress uniforms to greet the Tennyson in.”

“How sweet of you to put a happy face on this, Han,” Jake retorted.

“Hey, I thought we agreed,” Mercer snapped, “no more Star Wars references.”

“You agreed.” Dougherty replied.

Chapter 38 

Complications

The Tennyson had already docked with the Intrepid by the time Jake, Mercer, and Dougherty walked down to the docking bay with Colonel Peters and Major Corey. Colonel Stedman disembarked from the Tennyson, with a small retinue of Tech’s who would be supervising the unloading procedures. She saluted as Jake walked up to her. He returned her salute, and shook her hand enthusiastically.

“Thanks for getting out here so quickly, Jan. We’ll be leaving shortly after you off load the materials and take the captive colonists on board,” Jake said.

“Glad to be part of it, General,” Colonel Stedman replied as she shook hands with Mercer, Peters, and her former shipmates Corey and Dougherty. “Governor Risling told me to relay a message to you, Sir. He wants you to have a medical checkup done before we.”

“Okay, where’s Adrian?” Jake cut in, looking up with a smile towards the docking hatch. He looked back down at Stedman when his wife failed to appear. “C’mon Jan, do I look like I just sprouted up out of a corn field on Arcadia?”

Stedman’s mouth opened as if to protest, but the laughter from the others with Jake made her change her mind. She simply shrugged. “I really don’t know why I let myself get talked into these games. I’m never any good at them, but Major Byers begged me to go along with it. She.”

“Major Byers?” Jake remarked.

“Governor Risling promoted her, and awarded her the Cross of Valor for her actions in captivity,” Stedman replied. “Anyhow, she wanted to surprise you, and with all the extracurricular, non-military behavior going on here, I’ve seen in communication vids the last day or so, I figured the request would fit right in.”

“Good one, Colonel,” Mercer complimented her, giving Jake a disapproving look. “He had that coming.”

“Are you addressing me, Master Solo?” Stedman retorted, folding her arms across her chest in a stern manner.

The laughter over the next few moments, lightened things up, as Colonel Stedman went along with the on going gag at Mercer’s expense. “Byers will think I tipped you off,” Stedman said finally.

“I’ll let her know you gave me my orders, and that I figured out this childish scheme on my own,” Jake replied. “I guess I’ll leave things in your capable hands while I go get my ordered physical.”

“Don’t forget to make sure the com units are off in the med lab, Jake,” Corey warned him as Jake walked towards the Tennyson, stopping him for a moment in his tracks, much to everyone’s amusement. Jake ignored the impulse to spin around, and continued on his way.

“Am I out of the loop on this one?” Colonel Peters asked, looking around at his laughing companions.

“C’mon Colonel,” Corey said, taking Peters by the arm. “I’ll tell you about it on the way to the Bridge. Tim can probably scare up a recording even. How about it, Tim?”

“I respectfully refuse your request, Major,” Dougherty said quickly, “on the grounds Jake will rip off my arms and legs, and use me for a door stop.”

“I understand your point,” Corey replied. “I think I can do the story justice without audio backup.”

The Med Lab Techs snapped to attention with a call for attention on deck the moment Jake walked through the hatch door.

“Carry on,” Jake said with a smile. “Can anyone here direct me to where I am supposed to get a physical?”

One of the male techs pointed down the hall to Jake’s right. “First door on your right, Sir. The Doctor will see you right away.”

‘Tea, I’ll bet she will,” Jake said, as the lab tech grinned. He walked down the hall, indicated by the tech, and opened the hatch to the examining room. His wife was standing with her back to the door. When it opened, she spun around.

“I told.” Adrian began, but when she saw Jake standing inside the doorway, she simply ran and jumped into his arms. “Oh God, Jake, I’ve missed you.”

Jake held her tightly to him. They stood motionless for many moments, before Jake eased her away from him to arms length. She wore an all white lab suit, very similar to the clothing she wore when he had first met her on Genoa. “You look great, but how do you feel?”

“I’m fine, Hon,” Adrian said truthfully, stroking the side of his face gently with her right hand. “I’m all healed up, and no more pain. I saw the comic routine you, Tim, and Charlie decided to try out with Sara. I concluded you were in good health anyway.”

“In my defense,” Jake replied. “We had finished a lot of work, and we had forgotten about the vid cams. No one pays attention to those vid cam feeds unless they get an alarm from a particular area up on the Bridge. We were set up, and your partner in crime, Major Corey, was the instigator.”

“Oh, so now I’m a party to your goof up?” Adrian laughed.

“The Governor had a great time reaming the three of us out just a little bit ago.”

“Knowing you, he probably didn’t get far,” Adrian remarked.

“I took it in good humor, but he knows the deal with me,” Jake added. “He can relieve me anytime he wants.”

“He can’t, and you know it, Jake Matthews,” Adrian said, pushing away. “The people on Genoa would hang him when they heard about it, and a general revolt of the Marine Corps would soon follow. Being married to you is like being married to one of those old time video stars.”

“Maybe,” Jake allowed, pulling her close again, and kissing her with passion. When he pulled back, he whispered in her ear. “You feeling well enough to consummate this visit?”

Adrian smiled up at her husband, and pulled away. She unzipped her lab suit and pulled it open. She wore a bright pink lingerie teddy underneath, Jake could see covered very little. “How does it look like I feel?”

“If you’ll close that uniform up again, and give me a few minutes, I’ll take you up to my cabin on the Intrepid and answer that question in detail.”

Adrian giggled, and closed her uniform up again. “Okay, but I came out here on the Tennyson for a reason. I’ve got work to do.”

“Like what?”

“I’ll be caring for the freed colonists while in transit back to Genoa, or wherever we end up taking them. I picked out and trained a medical team on Omaha to handle it.”

“Most of the cases are just some malnutrition,” Jake said. “They were treated okay as far as physical needs go. They’ll be more in need of help getting back where they belong.”

“Oh, you’re a doctor now, General?” Adrian asked sharply.

“I was not belittling your efforts, Major,” Jake replied quickly. “I think it’s a good idea. By the way, congratulations on your promotion and Cross of Valor. You sure earned it the hard way.”

“Thanks, but is there some other reason for worrying about tying up medical personnel, Jake?” Adrian asked seriously. “You wouldn’t be expecting to incur a bunch of casualties on this next mission I’ve been hearing about, are you?”

“I don’t expect anything, because I am clueless as far as how the mission will go down,” Jake admitted. “I am going to go slow and careful. If you saw my faux pas with Charlie and Tim, you know how I feel about losing Marines in defense of the ET’s.”

“Yea, I heard the target practice jokes,” Adrian replied. “When I saw the vid with the other personnel, they came up afterwards to me, expressing the same reservations, and you received far more laughs than I expected.”

“Folks are getting tired of leaders being worried, as in the past, about everyone but our own people,” Jake observed. “The ET’s even expressed amazement we would help them. They were planning to enslave us, when a civil war on their world halted their plans. I will help them if I can. The casualty figure will be very low, or I will lose interest quickly in halfway measures.”

“Meaning in Jake Matthews speak, bring out the planet killers.”

“Possibly,” Jake allowed, “but remember, I didn’t invent this situation. The Bazantlan’s wanted to kill off the ET’s they had in custody, and erase all trace of them. They only relented when they understood we knew they had seeded the ET home world, and we’d be going there anyway.

The ET’s have been through a lot, and their home world may have been eaten already, with three queens working on it.”

“God, I hope not,” Adrian shuddered. “Are you going to send back video feeds?”

“As much as I can, although if we knock out this infestation, it may be the last we see of these Bugs,” Jake replied. “My main purpose in recording these missions was to have a training guide for future run-ins with them. Since we found out where they came from, it’s just not as important. I may leave it up to the men.”

“I bet they enjoy the celebrity status it brings them,” Adrian said. “I’ve heard they’ve broken down the recordings to separate platoons, and their dependents and anyone else interested, can buy them.”

Jake laughed. “Leave it to the Corps to figure out a way to make some credits on Bug battles. Well, Major, do you want me to leave you alone here to get back to work as you say, or do you want to go get coffee, or what? You name it.”

“I want to do two things,” Adrian replied, slipping out of her lab uniform. “I want to say hello, and then I need to do a work up on you, Governor’s orders.”

Jake’s enraptured look at watching his wife disrobe turned quickly serious. “I’m feeling great, babe. We can skip.”

“Okay, what’s wrong?” Adrian asked, undoing his uniform tunic. “You’ve been getting periodic check-ups behind my back for years, and now all of a sudden you’re shy? Don’t even think about holding out on me, Jake Matthews.”

“You know,” Jake commented, as he let Adrian pull off his tunic, “it’s no wonder I’ve never missed having a Mother, with you around.”

Adrian pulled Jake’s undershirt off gently over his head, and ran her hands over his scarred, but intact upper body. “You feel okay. I…hey…you feel different…what…”

Jake pulled back slightly, with a wary look on his face. “It’s nothing Hon, you’ll see…I…”

“You feel like you’re turning into rock under your skin, Jake,” Adrian observed fearfully, as she rushed forward to continue kneading his chest and arms. “Why…”

“Look, I wasn’t hiding anything, Adrian,” Jake protested, pulling her close to him, but still looking into her eyes. “It would be difficult to make love to you, and have you not realize I may feel different to you. I just wanted to ease you into it.”

“How long?”

“Since I went egg chamber diving, with this slash open,” Jake said, indicating the vivid scar across his left torso. I’ve been checking my weight, because it shot up after the incident. I think whatever was going on has stopped now, because I haven’t gained any more weight. The difference you feel is the density of my body. Everything else feels normal.”

“No trouble breathing?” Adrian asked, continuing her inspection.

“No, if anything, I feel stronger than before.”

“I’ll do a blood and DNA workup. I brought your medical records with me, so we can check on how much different you really are. It can’t be good if your organs get harder,” Adrian reminded him.

“Well, I’d sure know if I was getting problems with blood flow,” Jake said scooping Adrian up in his arms.

“I noticed.”

“I’ll let you check me out,” Jake said, kissing her, “but I think you should do something about my blood flow before you do anything else.”

Adrian wrapped her arms around his neck. “Okay, we’ll take care of that blockage first, but then you get a work up.”

“I’m as worked up as I think I can get,” Jake whispered, as he carried her over to the examining table. “One drawback though, I can’t put my full weight on you, or something like your examining table.”

“We’ll think of something,” Adrian murmured.

“Doesn’t it bother you that I can’t hardly get a blood sample from you?” Adrian asked between bites of food. The two of them sat in a corner of the officers’ mess on the Tennyson. Everyone who came in gave the Commander of the space fleet, and his wife, a wide berth.

“What’s to get bothered about?” Jake asked in return, sipping his tea. “I’m getting harder to hurt. What’s not to like? You said yourself my DNA has only changed marginally from before, and my weight was actually down ten pounds from when I checked it myself.”

“Promise me you’ll stay away from the Bugs altogether when you go to the Passallion home world.”

“Adrian,” Jake said with some irritation. “I can’t do that.”

“I can make a medical report, and Risling will order you to stay away from them.”

‘Tea, he knows how much leverage he has with me, and it was you who pointed out they’d hang him from the nearest tower. My fans will never permit me to be upstaged,” Jake kidded her unsuccessfully. He reached over and covered her hand. “No going chamber diving with open wounds, okay?”

“This could be spearheaded by someone else, and you know it,” Adrian retorted. “You’re only insisting on leading this thing because you’re a stubborn, cement head, and arrogant too. In fact, it’s the height of arrogance, in your position, to insist on leading every mission.”

“You forgot, Jarhead,” Jake added. “I’m a Marine. This is what I do. You never used to mind.”

“I don’t mind now,” Adrian smiled. “I just want you around for a while longer. You’re too young to be a General. I’ll have the Governor bust you back down to Captain, so I can out rank you.”