18

“Not no never way! I can’t believe you’re even considering this!” Command Master Chief Umman shouted.

He shifted to focus on Nyad directly. “Captain, your responsibility is to the ship!”

Nyad bit his lower lip, then said, “Doctor Njuguna makes a good argument. This is our mission.”

“Our mission is to get the IBHUs out of human space,” Umman snarled. “The rest was cover.”

He gave Rev an apologetic look and said, “No offense intended. But that’s the reality. Maybe to find some resources, too, while we’re at it.”

“And why the First Contact training, then, Chief?” Njuguna asked.

“Cover. And even if we want to make First Contact. You want to do it with these guys? Did you see them? Demons, I tell you.”

Njuguna wasn’t budging, and Nyad was noncommittal.

“Surely you see this, Rev,” Umman said. “You’re in charge of planet security. Do you want to take your Marines down into a trap? What about your girls? Do you want to put them in danger?”

The problem was Rev did want to. Once the shock wore off, the possibilities intrigued him. There were ways to protect the ship and his girls. But a small team . . . and maybe those whose time was limited?

Rev knew his remaining time was precious, and he wanted to spend as much of it with Tomiko and the girls as he could. His fear that they wouldn’t remember him had faded a bit as they got a little older, but if he were to accomplish something in whatever time he had left, this would sure be a big one. Not that long ago, he was mentally chiding Njuguna for worrying about her place in history. Maybe he wasn’t all that different?

Rev had been pretty quiet as the others had watched, discussed, watched, and discussed the message again. He’d let the others do the talking, and they had. Lots of them. This wasn’t a meeting of the big three. Njuguna had requested all department heads and equivalents to be present, and Nyad had agreed. But now that Umman had directly addressed him, the others seemed to be waiting to hear his answer.

He cleared his throat as he tried to put his thoughts in order.

“The fact that this supposedly fifteenth century-level race was able to hack into our battle projection, create images of three of us, and convey the message that they wanted us to come down to them makes it pretty clear to me that they have the technology to pose a threat to us.”

Umman smiled in agreement.

Not so fast, Hank.

“If they are a threat, though, it’s up to us to find out and warn Titan. I don’t think we can do that if we just run.”

“Wait a minute, Rev. We’re no longer a combat fleet. Do you think we should risk ourselves just to find out they’re a threat? That’s like telling me to shoot you to see if your armor is good enough.”

“Hank, let Rev speak,” Nyad said.

Umman looked like he had more to say, but he backed down.

“As I see it, we don’t have to risk more than a single person. Maybe two. Take one of the shuttles and have them make First Contact. Launch them, take the Explorer out of here, and then see what the FC team discovers.”

He looked at Nyad, who was still playing cool and not revealing his thoughts.

“How far?” Norton asked.

“You’d know better. Minimum bubble jump. Or farther. Whatever you think is safe.”

“And who would be this person? Or team?” Njuguna asked, her eyes narrowed.

Rev could see she wanted to be the one to make First Contact, and she was suspicious by his choice of words.

“Someone who doesn’t have much to lose,” he said.

“Rev!” Rima said from her seat behind in the back of the room.

“Doctor Rima, do you have something to say?”

She glared at Rev, but he just nodded at her.

“I think what the sergeant major is getting at is that he should be on the team.”

“And why is that?” Njuguna asked, her eyes spitting fire.

“Because he has an advanced case of Weislen’s Syndrome. The rot. His prognosis is poor, and his thinking is that if this is a trap, then he hasn’t lost much.”

If everyone wanted to hear what he had to say before, that had only intensified now.

Miko’s going to kill me.

Rev hadn’t wanted to make his condition public, at least not until he couldn’t hide it. And now Rima just put it out there before everyone. And he’d essentially said he was willing to risk his last few whatevers with his girls to volunteer for what could be a suicide mission.

Captain Nyad broke the silence. “Is this true, Sergeant Major?”

“Yes, sir. It is.”

The captain stared at him for a moment, and without taking his eyes off of him, he asked, “Doctor Rima. How long does Sergeant Major Pelletier have?”

“That’s hard to say. The rot affects everyone differently.”

“A month? A year? Ten years?”

“If I had to guess, I’d say no more than six months. And that’s if his case progresses at the same speed.”

Rev winced. He’d never actually pinned her down before. Now, with her words, it seemed more real.

For a moment, he was tempted to say no, he wasn’t going. But in his heart, if not him, then who? He’d have volunteers, he knew. But could he risk someone else who still had a long life ahead of them?

Nyad broke his gaze and looked around the room. “Losing a shuttle would be a blow, but I think we can all agree that better a shuttle than the ship.”

“We don’t have to lose anything,” Umman said, but in a defeated voice.

“We still have our mission, Command Master Chief.”

The discussions continued. Everyone avoided his eyes as they weighed the pros and cons. The decision hadn’t been formally made yet, but it was obvious where it was going.

They were going to accept the alien’s invitation. And Rev was going to be the one to meet them.

How the hell am I going to tell Miko?

Miko didn’t take it well at all.

“It’s time. I’m leaving,” Rev told her after a rough two days.

She ignored him.

With a loud, audible sigh, he kissed each of the girls on the head before trying to give her a kiss, but she turned away.

He’d known she was going to be angry, just not that it was going to last this long. He heard it all, from he was the sergeant major, not the rifleman, and this wasn’t his job to the fact that he might be depriving his daughters of a last few months with him.

What made it worse was that he couldn’t refute any of her arguments. They were all true. He tried to counter that he had the most experience of anyone on board in dealing with new beings, if not in all of humanity. That was true, too, but she wasn’t accepting that.

What made him feel guilty was that he knew the real reason he put himself on the FC team. He wanted to be the one. Yes, he had the experience. Yes, he trusted himself to do the job. But once the initial surprise had faded, he’d been overcome with the desire to discover who these beings were. The curiosity was overwhelming, and coupled with his desire to go out of this corporeal plane with a truly unique accomplishment and give his daughters something to be proud of, well, he was going to fight tooth and nail to do this.

Rev gave the back of Tomiko’s head one last look before turning around and walking out the door. He kept listening for her to say something, but she didn’t call out as he made his way toward the hangar.

It seemed as if half of the expedition was crowded there to watch the send-off. Rev made his way through the press, enduring back slaps and statements of encouragement until he reached Randigold.

“You ready for this, Eth?”

“You know me. I’m always ready.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of. You’re always ready to kill at the drop of a credit, but we’re on a peaceful mission here.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll be a good girl.”

There had been some debate on whether Rev should go alone or not. Once the general consensus was reached, Njuguna had aggressively made her case to be included. It had been a knock-down, drag-out fight before Rev prevailed, using the same Weislen’s Syndrome argument. With Randigold having the second-worst numbers, she was the next in the queue.

Who Rev really wanted was Punch, but that had been immediately squashed by the others. “Punt Six” was a Genesian, and this momentous occasion should be the purview of “normal” people.

If he couldn’t have Punch—or Kelly, or Tsao—then Randigold was a pretty good option.

Captain Nyad pushed through the spectators to reach them.

“Are you set?”

“After five hours of rehearsals, I think we’re ready,” Rev said.

At both Nyad and Njuguna’s insistence, the two had gone over the protocols several times, then they’d rehearsed their coming meeting. Rev wasn’t sure how valuable that was. No one knew anything about these creatures and how they thought. The others tried to mix it up, acting aggressively during one rehearsal, then welcoming the next. Even after six different scenarios, Rev doubted they’d come anything close to what was going to happen. He and Randigold were just going to have to play it by ear and hope for the best.

“I don’t have to tell you that this is history,” Nyad said. “Don’t screw it up.”

“We’ve met aliens before,” Randigold said.

“This is the first time we’ve initiated it, and without a war going on. So, let’s not start a war, huh?”

“We’ve got it, sir.”

“Are you two hooked up yet?” Nyad asked as he pointed at the cam hanging from Rev’s neck.

“No. It still needs to be done.”

Nyad frowned and spoke into his wristcomp. The two IBHU Marines were subjected to more admonitions and instructions from the ship’s CO until Bartosiewicz moved forward to them.

There was no way that the two were going to be going blind to the ship. And as they would not be in PALs—that could be deemed too aggressive—they wouldn’t have a PAL’s ability to beam real-time images.

Initially, the thought was to jack a repeater, which in turn would be connected to a Q-phone, into each of them. It was a little bit of a Rube Goldberg, but the big problem from Rev’s perspective was that without Punch, he’d have to consciously control the feed, something he was afraid he could mess up.

He argued for a hidden cam, which would be paired with a Q-phone, using the excuse that would eliminate one step and that the feed would be more secure.

Bartosiewicz connected the phone, then slipped it into Rev’s front pocket. She ran through the setup, then gave Nyad a thumbs-up.

“We’re good to go on the sergeant major’s. We’ll give it one more test after we’re in position.”

She repeated the same process with Randigold. Now, providing it was done correctly, the expedition should be able to hear and see everything that was happening in real-time.

A petty officer put his hand on Nyad’s shoulder and whispered into his ear.

Nyad looked back at Rev and said, “We’ve got the holographer ready.”

Randigold snorted beside Rev, but he understood. This was momentous, after all. There should be a record.

The master-at-arms had roped off the area in front of 403, the shuttle that would be taking Rev and Randigold to the planet. The two IBHU Marines were positioned before it, and the holographer’s mate spent a minute or so recording the moment.

Then they were joined by Clyburn, who, for once, wasn’t being a smart aleck. She’d be staying behind in the system as well as sort of a guardian angel—not that she’d do anything if things went bad on the surface.

Clyburn was a fail-safe in case comms with the ship went down. As long as Rev and Randigold were alive, they should have normal comms with her. And then, if things really did go south, the Shrike could make it back to the ship and let them know what happened.

The FC team, being in a shuttle—which didn’t have bubble space capability—would be stuck in the system, but at least those on the ship would know what happened and take whatever course of action they thought best.

After Clyburn, it was Nyad, then Njuguna, then Nyad and Njuguna. And after that, it was a parade of others. It was almost thirty minutes before they were done. Rev kept looking into the crowd, but he never saw who he was hoping to see. And that was upsetting. It wasn’t going to stop the mission, though.

Nyad gave a mercifully quick speech to the crowd, and it was time.

“Let’s get it done,” Nyad said.

The two Marines started to the shuttle’s ramp when Randigold gave him a nudge. He turned around to see a rather short woman with a three-year-old in each hand.

Tomiko walked up to him. “Hug your daddy.”

Rev knelt and enveloped them.

“Blue unicorn,” Aspen said, holding the toy out.

“Yes, blue unicorn, baby,” he said before kissing her cheek.

He kissed Willow, and Aspen said, “Blue unicorn,” again. “Her name is Tina.”

“What? You want me to take Tina with me?”

She nodded and placed it in Rev’s prosthetic hand.

“Thank you, honey. I’ll bring her back.”

He stood and looked at his tight-lipped wife. Despite the excitement that coursed through his body, he wasn’t feeling too good about this.

He thought she might just gather the girls and move back, but she surprised him by coming forward.

She grabbed his collar, pulled him down to her level, and whispered into his ear, “Don’t do anything stupid, and make sure you come back to us.”

“I won’t, and I will.”

She squeezed him tight for a long moment, then released him.

“Come on, girls. Let’s let Daddy get to work.”

Rev slipped the unicorn into his pocket, then watched them step back before he turned to join Randigold on the ramp.

“That was a made-for-holo sweet-ass moment,” she said.

“Don’t make fun of me. That’ll be you soon enough.”

She scoffed as they entered the passenger compartment. “Not in a million years.”

“I know about you and Daryll.”

“Daryll? That’s just pure, unadulterated sex, Sergeant Major.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

“That’s funny. That’s not what I’ve heard.”

“Well, you’ve heard wrong.”

“Then why are you blushing?”

Rev let her off the hook as they took their seats. The ramp closed behind them as the AI put the shuttle through its prep. They had a long wait ahead of them. The shuttle and the Shrike would launch, and while the Galaxy Explorer jumped to the RP, the shuttle would be making its way to the fifth planet. It would take eighteen hours to make the journey.

But every journey began with the first step. They could feel the tractor beams take a hold of the shuttle and maneuver into position.

They got the two-minute and one-minute warnings, then the ten-second.

“This is it, Eth,” Rev said as he raised his shiny prosthetic arm.

“Sibs in steel,” they said in unison as they clicked their arms a moment before the shuttle was launched into their mission.