“Why hasn’t the ground force been evacuated?” Rev demanded as he barged into Captain Nyad’s stateroom.
The captain gave Tata Eleven a quick glance before responding. “We understand that you encountered some sort of automated force on the asteroid, but that doesn’t necessarily mean we need to give up on the planet. That station was abandoned long before we ventured into space.”
“We lost three Marines. The station wasn’t abandoned,” Rev snapped.
The Charon had docked twelve minutes ago. Rev had made sure that Randigold and the dead were taken to sickbay, then asked when the ground party would be returning. To his shock, he was told that there were no plans to retrieve them.
He asked where Nyad was, and without bothering to molt from his PAL, he ran to the stateroom and barged into what looked to be a meeting with Tata Eleven, Lieutenant Commander Norton, Dr. Njuguna, and Command Master Chief Umman.
He briefly noted that they hadn’t invited Top Klipsinger, as the senior Marine aboard the ship until Rev returned, to the meeting.
The four remained seated while Rev, in his PAL, stood over them.
“We understand that,” Tata Eleven said. “And we offer our condolences. But as Captain Nyad said, that station was abandoned by the actual BGs long ago.”
“How do you know that?”
The Genesian leader leaned back as if confused by his question. “Our analysis is rather clear that they left the station almost sixteen years ago.”
“But how do you know the BGs left?”
“There is no sign of life inside the asteroid.”
“You, of all people, should know better,” Rev said in full warrior mode. “You told me Punch is sapient, right?”
Tata hesitated before saying, “Yes, it is.”
“If you scanned him, would you see your so-called signs of life?”
“Well, no.”
“Then why the hell are you so sure that the soldiers who killed my Marines weren’t the BGs? Why do the BGs have to be organic life as we know it?” he asked, his eyes blazing.
Rev didn’t really think that the things that attacked his Marines were the BGs. But they couldn’t discount the possibility.
“It’s been sixteen—”
“And all life has to fit into your preconceived little box?”
“Sergeant Major,” Captain Nyad interjected. “Let’s say that whatever attacked you was, in fact, the BGs. They’ve been in, shall we say, hibernation for sixteen years? From the reports I’ve seen, Lieutenant Nissen was able to destroy two of them with his landing craft. I agree that we need to keep an eye on the station, and with that in mind, I’m dispatching Pilot Clyburn and the Shrike to watch over the place. If a Charon can so easily destroy these things, then I know that you’ll agree a Shrike would have an even easier time of it.”
“I don’t give a Mother-loving damn about the station,” Rev said in exasperation.
Nyad seemed honestly perplexed by that. “Then what is your problem?”
Rev took three deep, calming breaths. “My problem is that the station is obviously important to the BGs. It wouldn’t be kept in running condition if it weren’t.”
He looked around at the others. Umman and Norton grudgingly nodded.
“How do they keep it in working condition? I don’t know. Maintenance trips? Good engineering? But my point is that it’s a working station. And when we went into it, we triggered something, awakening the place, including those fighter bots.”
He mentally winced. By calling them “bots,” he’d just ceded that he didn’t think those were the actual BGs.
“Now, if the BGs are advanced enough to have built this station at least a couple of thousand years ago, and if they think it’s important enough to keep operational for the last sixteen after they left, don’t you think that triggering the place back to life would alert their forces that their station was in danger?”
Lieutenant Commander Norton visibly paled at Rev’s words.
Nyad opened his mouth to say something, closed it again, and after a moment, said, “We don’t know that’s what happened.”
“Damn it! We don’t know that it didn’t, either! And are we in any position to take a chance that they aren’t coming to see what woke their station?”
Nyad’s face clouded over. “Sergeant Major, you are approaching insubordination. I am the commanding officer here—”
“And I am the ground force commander. And I say we pull the ground force.”
“I own the shuttles, Sergeant Major. Can you fly on your own?”
“And I own the guns, Captain.”
Despite his anger, Rev knew he’d gone too far with that. Nyad stood to face him, and Rev could see he was about to explode.
Rev didn’t apologize, though. He just stared at the captain.
It was Umman who stepped between them. “We’re all on the same side here,” he said. “Let’s not let our tempers take us somewhere we don’t want to go.”
Rev slowly turned his head to look at the man. He thought Umman was an egotistical asshole, and he frankly disliked the man. But that didn’t mean he was wrong. And if he could pull them back from the precipice, then Rev was ready to grab at that life ring.
But for the moment, he couldn’t face Nyad. So, he looked at Tata Eleven instead, who had remained mostly quiet during the exchange.
“Given what I just said, what’s your take on it,” he asked her.
She paused for an eternity, and not for the first time, Rev wished he could accurately interpret the Genesian expressions and body language better.
“We intend on settling EFP-07,” she said. “Captain Nyad has been informed of our decision.”
“That isn’t an answer,” Rev said.
He went to Njuguna next. “And you?”
“I don’t . . . we’ve got a good deal of equipment on the surface. It would be a significant effort to quickly bring that back to the ship.”
“That doesn’t answer my question, either.”
He placed Pashu’s muzzle and his right hand on the table and leaned forward. It gave him a perverse sense of pleasure to see Nyad flinch. But the man didn’t back down. Rev could see him steel himself to face the IBHU Marine looming over him.
“Our command is a three-legged stool. Unwieldy, maybe, but it has served us so far. As is my authority, I am formally ordering the withdrawal of the ground force. So, I am putting it to you. Will you release your assets so that the withdrawal can take place?”
He glared at Captain Nyad. He could see the coming denial in the man’s eyes. And what was he going to do then?
Rev wished he still had Punch with him. He wished he had Tomiko with him, but she was down on the planet. He’d challenged the captain and taken them to the precipice, and he didn’t know how to get them back off of it.
Nyad was going to say no. He could see it in the man’s eyes.
But once again, it was Umman who came to the rescue, arrogant bastard that he was.
“The sergeant major is right. There is a risk that the BGs know we’re here and that they’ll come to investigate.”
If Nyad was angry before, he was about to explode now.
But Umman was not done.
“However, as Dr. Njuguna said, we had a shitload of equipment on the planet, not to mention all the genny gear we’ve taken down.”
Rev glanced at Tata Eleven. She hadn’t mentioned that they were already transferring their equipment to the surface.
“That’s not going to be an easy or quick task to get them back up here.”
“What are you saying, Command Master Chief?” Nyad said, the anger in his voice biting.
“I’m saying that we don’t have to bring it up. Leave it for now. Let’s recall the people and jump out of here to our RP. Send the Shrike back to hang out on the outskirts of the system to watch for the BGs. Give it some time. When they don’t come, we return, and it’s business as usual. If they do come, well, we sneak off back into bubble space and go to our next objective.”
“And if they do come, then what about our equipment?”
Nyad just acknowledged that the BGs could actually come, but Rev didn’t jump on that. He’d been full of righteous anger a moment ago, but Umman—fucking Umman, of all people—had just come up with a viable course of action. It killed Rev to admit that the command master chief had a good idea, but he couldn’t deny the viability of it.
And if it kept the situation from exploding, then Rev would go along with it.
“Better to lose the equipment than any more lives,” Umman said.
Rev leaned back upright, lessening his aggressive stance, and looked at Nyad. The man’s emotions were warring across his face, but while it took twenty seconds, he must have come to the same conclusion.
“Would you accept that, Sergeant Major?” he asked.
“Yes, sir. I would.”
“Dr. Njuguna?”
The good doctor was pale and looked like she would rather be anywhere else but there at the moment.
“That’s half of our remaining gear down on the surface, but if we can return to retrieve it, uh . . . yes. Yes, we can do that.”
“Tata Eleven?”
Rev was fully aware that the Genesians were looking for a home, and he’d known this abandoned world fit the bill with them. They wanted this place.
“You’ve waited this long. If my caution is misplaced, and I hope it is, a bit more time won’t make any difference in the long run,” Rev said.
“And if your caution is warranted?”
“Then do you want to be on the planet when the BGs get here?”
She grunted just like an organic human would. “Your logic is unassailable, as much as I wish it wasn’t. Captain, we accept this plan.”
All eyes turned to Nyad. It was obvious that he didn’t want anyone, whether Rev or his own command master chief, to tell him what to do. But he had to realize that a downright schism with the Marines would be a disaster for the mission, and unless the Genesians joined him, which didn’t seem likely given Tata Eleven’s agreement, an absolute disaster for his sailors.
With his jaw set, he raised his wristcomp to his mouth and said, “CIC.”
The rest of them waited for what he was going to say next.
“Lieutenant Beaton, commence evacuation. Personnel only. I want every single person up on the ship in four hours.”
Rev let out the breath he was holding. They’d come close to a disaster, and he’d been part of that, much to his chagrin. But he’d gotten what he wanted, even if it took an asshole command master chief to find the way to get it done.