5

The shuttle set down in what might be a ball field on Safe Harbor. Dust rose, blocking Rev’s sight as he rushed down the ramp. Ahead of him, the ruins loomed in the raised dust like ancient specters emerging from the primordial mist.

Rev hadn’t been too sure of using a shuttle versus the landing craft, but after another two days of intensive scanning, there were still no signs of life. With Clyburn flying cover, the greater payload of the shuttle seemed to outweigh any potential threat.

“Orient on the tall tower at our twelve,” he passed to Tomiko, who was acting as his second in command.

“Tall” was relative. It rose possibly twenty meters above the ground, but the fractured top, along with the rubble beneath it, hinted that it had once been much taller. It served the purpose, though. Rev had briefed the landing force, and he trusted his Marines and troops to take their assigned positions, but he’d rather use an easily identified landmark to orient his force than the back ramp of the shuttle.

If his Marines had gathered rust with the lack of action, they sure didn’t show it. They could be recording a training holo on how to set up a hasty defense.

The Genesians and civilians followed and formed a loose scrum in the center. The civilians were already at it, using their instruments to do whatever the civilians did. It was obvious that they were chafing at the delay. Rev ignored them, though. Security was his call.

And in this case, his call was to set up the Lamix. Until he knew what had caused the destruction on the planet and that the cause was no longer a threat, he was taking full precautions. Njuguna had thought that was overkill, but she didn’t have a say in the matter.

As soon as the perimeter was set, he passed, “OK, Kel. Set up the Lamix.”

Kelly and her team were pros at this by now. She promised to have it set up in twenty minutes.

At nineteen minutes and forty-three seconds, she passed, “Lamix activated. You’re good to go.”

Rev walked over to the civilians and Genesians and told Dr. Teo, “We’re set up, Lian. It’s all yours.”

He then released the shuttle, which rose into the air a few moments later and headed to its station. Both it and Clyburn would cover them for the near term before Clyburn ran into her time-on-station limits.

“Second Team, pull back and help with the set up.”

“Roger that,” Strap said.

First Team was left on the perimeter, which might be the overkill Njuguna had accused him of employing. But he had too many people inside the camp now, and too many hands erecting the shelters could cause more chaos than help, so he left First Team in their positions just inside the Lamix.

With things out of his hands for the moment, Rev had a chance to examine the area. Their objective had been selected due to the relative lack of damage and its size—“relative” being the key word. If this place was among the least damaged, then the rest of the towns and cities must have been devastated.

At first blush, it really wasn’t that different from any billions of human towns. He guessed there was a certain practicality that would exist for specific types of beings, but there was nothing about this place that screamed “alien.” Being essentially destroyed probably had a lot to do with that, but still, he thought it should look at least a little exotic.

The town spread out in a rough, misshapen oval about a klick in diameter along the longest axis. Adjacent to the ball field was a cluster of taller buildings, and beyond them were what looked to have been one-story buildings, possibly residences. And on the far side were larger one-stories, which the Genesians hoped were factories or warehouses.

Rev didn’t know what he thought of the Genesian’s plan to stay. He’d known all along that they were searching for a new home, but this place? It was a planet of the dead, and despite seeing more than his fair share of death and destruction during his lifetime, the place gave him the creeps.

The initial analysis did not reveal any known toxins, but something had not only killed the population, it had also eliminated any trace of the beings who lived here. Could that be a toxin of some sort? The civilians couldn’t rule that out yet, which was why the entire landing force was following 1A protocols.

Above and beyond whether this was a good place to settle, Rev was both relieved and alarmed at the prospect of them breaking off. There was still an underlying tension between the two groups of humans, and Tata Eleven’s veiled ultimatum about coming down to the planet’s surface was a reminder of the actual power differential. Rev didn’t particularly like Command Master Chief Umman, but that didn’t mean the man was wrong about his concern.

Then there was the fact that without the other capital ships, MDS soldiers, and the lost Marine company, the Genesians made up the bulk of the expedition’s combat power. If it were down to Rev and his Marines, they really couldn’t stand up to a strong foe.

There was one additional concern for Rev in particular. If the Genesians stayed here, what would Punch do? He was identical, at least in appearance, to them. And he was spending far more time in their spaces. The more estranged the two seemed, the more Rev thought his long-time friend would choose his new family.

“Sergeant Major, can you come here?” Strap asked over the P2P.

“What is it?”

“The civvies, of course. They’ve already started erecting their lab where you wanted the barracks. I told them where their lab should be, but they basically told me to pound sand.”

Rev sighed and gave the town one last lingering look.

“I’m on my way,” he told Strap as he strode off to put out that fire.

* * *

The wash sprayed Rev, momentarily blocking his view. Rev stood, arm and IBHU raised above his shoulders as the liquid slowly dripped off. His sight came back as his face shield cleared. He was at the end of the line of four Marines and eight civilians. Lance Corporal Dante “Jellyroll” Leek ran his scanner over Dr. Teo. It took almost thirty seconds as Jellyroll covered the civilian—head, arms, legs, and torso. On command, Teo lifted one foot, then the other to be tested.

Jellyroll gave the civilian team leader the OK, and the civilian stepped through the overpressure hatch and disappeared into the shelter. Rev sighed. It was going to take almost eight minutes until he was checked. In his PAL, he could lock-stand like this forever, arms raised as if he were surrendering, but that didn’t mean he liked it. And without being jacked into his wristcomp, he couldn’t listen to music to pass the time.

Rev had insisted that they remain in Protocol 1A until they knew what had killed the former residents of the planet. Over the last three days, though, not only did they not know that, but they also knew next to nothing about the beings. Other than organic traces on spots on the ground where something might have lain in the distant past, they had nothing.

It made no sense to him. They were here with some of the most sophisticated equipment known to humankind, and in three days, they had squat? A planet full of beings couldn’t just disappear like that without a trace. It was impossible.

Rev was beginning to think that maybe they hadn’t been killed at all, rather that they’d abandoned the planet. But what about the other life? Certainly, there were animals other than the primary beings. But while they found plenty of dead vegetation, there was no animal sign.

Finally, it was Rev’s turn. Jellyroll scanned him, checked the readout, and said, “You’re clean, Sergeant Major. You can enter.”

Rev resisted a smart response. The lance corporal was only doing the task assigned to him. So he just said, “Thank you,” and entered the shelter.

All eyes turned to him. Rev knew what they wanted, and, to be honest, what he wanted. Protocol 1A was a royal pain in the ass.

Screw it.

Rev cracked his helmet and walked over toward Juul Han from the bio team. He had to turn sideways to get through the stations—a Marine in a PAL, particularly an IBHU Marine, took up a lot of real estate.

“Anything?” he asked Han.

“Nothing. No known pathogens. No known anything, in fact.”

“And the Frankenblob?”

“Still Frankenblobbing along, as healthy as can be.”

The Frankenblob was a torso-sized cube of an organic simulation, complete with “breathing” and “circulation.” It was grown from bioengineered human tissue, and its purpose in “life” was to act as a canary in a coal mine. Without a real human’s ability to fight off infections, a Frankenblob should show signs of infections that would be harmful to human life.

Just because all the readings showed that it was healthy was not an absolute guarantee that there wasn’t something on the planet that could doom the humans. Sometimes, though, you just had to trust the system.

“We’re now in 2C,” Rev said, to the relieved sighs of everyone within earshot.

They still would suit up while outside, but the civilians would be in their basic enviro suits, and the decontamination station would be shut down, as would the hourly personal checks.

“Go molt,” he told his team. The lab was too crowded as it was for four Marines in PALs to be taking up space.

Rev waited a few more minutes to see if there had been any significant revelations since he’d gone out, but the lab was humming along, and he didn’t think any of the science types would appreciate having to brief him on something he might not understand.

He was just about to head to the armory with plans to molt from his PAL and then hit his cot for a much-needed nap when his comms buzzed. He hadn’t shut down his helmet, so he hurriedly put it back on. The display indicated that Petty Officer Sandoval was calling. Rev knew who Sandoval was, but he hadn’t had much contact with her.

“Sergeant Major, Captain Nyad’s requesting you come back up to the ship.”

Rev’s eyes narrowed. He wasn’t due to return for two more days, and anything that broke the routine got his attention.

“Do you know why?” he asked.

“Not really. I was just told to pass the word to you. The shuttle’s ETA is in forty-two minutes.”

“No one said anything as to why?”

“Not to me. I’m just letting you know.”

“Is anyone else being asked to return?”

“I’m not in the loop, Sergeant Major. I’m not contacting anyone else, but I may not be the only one doing this.”

“Well, did they say how long I’ll be there?”

“No. Nothing like that.”

Sandoval wasn’t giving him anything, but he didn’t get the feeling that she was purposefully holding anything back.

“OK, I’ll be on the shuttle.”

At least I can get a good meal. Hopefully.

There was no use molting, only to don his PAL again. But he could ditch Pashu. She was just as much an obstacle aboard the ship as she was down on the planet, so he could just leave her in the shelter.

He’d started to walk through the tunnel to the armory when he realized that someone else needed to know.

“Hey, Miko,” he passed through the comms.

“I heard you took us to 2C.”

He couldn’t tell what she thought of that, so he gave a cautious, “Yeah. I did.”

“Thank the Mother. That was really getting old. Is that what you called me about?”

“Uh, no. Nyad wants me back on the ship.”

There was a momentary silence before she asked, “What for?” in the same wary tone that Rev had just a few minutes ago.

“I don’t know. Maybe we’re short of toilet paper, and he wants a meeting of the Three Musketeers to address the issue.”

She laughed, then said, “Not the Four Musketeers?”

“The gennies don’t use toilet paper. I think.”

She laughed again. “Maybe you’re right. But really? You don’t know?”

“Nope. I might be back down in a couple of hours, for all I know.”

“Well, check to make sure the girls haven’t killed Kat or Cheetoh.”

“Of course. I’d already planned to.”

“What about Eth’s squad?”

“What about them?” Rev asked.

“They’re due to rotate in the morning.”

Rev was rotating Marines up to the ship to give everyone a break. Randigold’s squad was due to go back up, but that relied upon the shuttle making a trip. Sometimes, it was better to use transport when it was actually there than to wait for a scheduled landing.

“If they can be ready in thirty-five minutes, send them. And let Top know so he can get the next squad to come down.”

That would leave them one squad short until the follow-on shuttle, but they could afford it. With no life on the planet, there wasn’t an identified threat, and he still would have enough personnel to accompany any civilian excursion going out.

Not me. Miko. She’ll be in charge until I get back.

“Believe you me. They’ll be ready. This is one boring mission.”

“Roger that. OK, have them meet me at the LZ.”

They cut the connection, and Rev hurried to the armory to get rid of his IBHU. He didn’t know why he was heading back, but he might as well make the best of it.

* * *

Rev sniffed his armpits.

“You smell like a rose,” Daryll said.

“Eat me.”

“In your dreams. What do you want me to do with it?” he asked as he pushed Rev’s PAL along the overhead conveyor to the side.

“Keep it handy for me, but put theirs back in the racks,” Rev said, hooking a thumb at Randigold and her squad.

All of the eager Second Squad had made it to the LZ with time to spare. Randigold had kept her IBHU, though, and there hadn’t been time for her to run back and change to her social arm. She’d be one-armed for her respite on the ship.

“Keep mine ready for a quick getaway.”

“So, you’re going back down?”

“I’m assuming so.”

“You know what assum—”

“Yes, it makes an “ass” out of “you” and “me,” Rev said with a scowl, repeating the oft-told saying. “I don’t know how long I’ll be here before I go back down. It could be in an hour, for all I know. And with that, I’ve gotta go. Can’t keep Nyad waiting.”

“OK,” he said before motioning Morehead forward.

“You shoulda ditched your IBHU back on the planet,” Rev said as he passed Randigold.

“And if we’re attacked by space fairies, Sergeant Major? I need to be ready to close with and destroy the enemy at all times.”

Rev rolled his eyes. “Space fairies,” he muttered as he left the armory.

He gave his armpit another sniff and considered heading to his stateroom. He could take a quick sonic and say hello to the girls before heading to see the CO. But while he’d been speaking somewhat tongue-in-cheek when he said he couldn’t keep Captain Nyad waiting, there was some truth to that.

The fact that he hadn’t been briefed or that no one had met him in the hangar led him to believe that whatever the reason he was brought back wasn’t galaxy-shattering. At the same time, if it was something inconsequential, then he wouldn’t have been summoned. All things being equal, he knew he should find out what was going on.

He picked up the pace and hurried to the CO’s stateroom. He rapped on the sill and entered.

The XO, Ops O, First Lieutenant, and Lieutenant (JG) Sampson, the Intel officer, were seated at the conference table.

Nyad made a pointed glance at his wristcomp and said, “You hit the hangar forty-one minutes ago.”

“I didn’t think you wanted to see me in my full combat rig,” he said, placing his left social arm on the table with a thunk.

He’d left Pashu on the planet, but he wouldn’t mind if they assumed he had her here on board.

Nyad pursed his lips, then said, “No matter. We started without you, but we can take a few moments to bring you up to speed. Lieutenant Sampson?”

The Intel officer turned to Rev and said, “Remember how you wanted us to focus part of our attention on the rest of the system.”

Rev gave Nyad a sidewise glance. As far as he knew, the captain was the only other person who knew that was Rev’s idea. He wasn’t sure why Nyad would have shared that.

“Yes, that’s true,” Rev said.

“Well, we might have found something.”

Rev’s ears perked up, and he forgot about Nyad.

“And . . .”

Sampson touched his wristcomp, and an asteroid or rocky moon appeared over the middle of the table.

“This is designated EFP-07-A100.”

Asteroid, then.

“It caught our attention because it isn’t where it’s supposed to be.”

“What does that actually mean?” Rev asked.

Sampson’s eyes lit up. “There are two asteroid belts in this system that are in Lagrange resonances, the inner one with planets One and Two, the outer with Five and Six, which means they're stable. This particular asteroid is not. It's almost in a Kirkwood gap, maybe heading toward a chaotic orbit—”

“Quit with the science-talk, Lieutenant, and get to the point.”

“Oh, yes, sir. Certainly. Um . . . what I mean to say is that this asteroid shouldn’t be here. It is my belief that it was moved into position.”

Rev let that sink in, then asked, “Could it have been an interstellar traveler that got caught by the primary’s gravitational pull?”

“Not when we examine the asteroid’s composition. It’s an exact match for the second asteroid belt. No, it’s from the system. But something took it out of its previous path.”

Rev gave a grudging nod. “I guess our dead friends down there might have had better capabilities than we estimated.”

“It wasn’t them,” Nyad interrupted.

Rev turned to look at him. “Why do you say that, sir? Who else?”

Nyad nodded back at Sampson, who continued. “I was curious about its position, so I added some additional scans, and we uncovered something very interesting. There are traces of something else on the asteroid. Traces of BGs. Some are quite ancient, to be sure, but other traces are more recent, and it’s unmistakable.”

The hair on the back of his neck stood up. Lieutenant (JG) Sampson had his full attention now. And Rev had the captain’s as he watched for Rev’s reaction.

“You’re saying that this is the BGs’ home system?”

The chances of them stumbling on the elusive race’s home system were infinitesimally small, but here they were.

“No, I’m not saying that. And I don’t think that’s a possibility. The trace readings we’ve achieved on the planet don’t match what’s on the asteroid. They’re not even close. There’s no doubt that we’re talking about two unrelated life forms here.”

“When you said some of the traces were more recent, are they about sixteen years old?”

“Some are two or three millennia old, but the latest, give or take, are about that recent. Roughly the same time as whatever befell the planet happened.”

“Then what . . .” Rev started before he realized that he didn’t know what to ask.

“And there you have it. What we’re here for is to determine what we do now,” the captain said.

And it clicked into place why he was called. “You want to go explore the asteroid, and you want to know if we’ve got the Marines to do it.”

The captain nodded. “That’s one consideration, yes. So, do we have the forces to do that?”

“I . . . I don’t know, sir. How big is that thing?”

“It’s only 650 meters long,” Sampson said.

Which was smaller than Rev had expected. And at that size . . .

He started doing some calculations, wishing he still had Punch.

After a minute or so, he said, “Given the surface area of the asteroid, and assuming no surprises, I can cover it with a single platoon—”

“It’s not the exterior,” Captain Nyad said. “Lieutenant?”

Instead of a simple rock floating over the conference table, suddenly sections appeared, and it took a moment for Rev to realize they symbolized spaces within the asteroid.

Of course. The BGs were using it as some sort of station, either to observe the planet or . . . or as a forward base from which they could attack it.

Rev’s warrior self, who’d been rather quiet lately, started to surface, and Rev had to push it back down.

“You said the traces were old. Are there any signs of life inside?”

“No signs of life. No signs of anything. No power emanations.”

“We don’t know what’s inside, but we want to find out. Any alien tech left behind could be an immense help in trying to figure out the BGs,” Nyad said.

Ah, now it becomes clear. Nyad wants the tech.

“So, do you have the forces?”

“Without an enemy defending it? Yes, I have the forces. That’s a lot of space to secure, but given enough time, we could do that and recover whatever is left there to recover. That would strip most of what we have on the surface, though.”

“Where there is no threat,” Lieutenant Commander Norton said.

“No known threat, sir.”

“Come on, Sergeant Major. They’re all long dead.”

“And we still don’t know why.”

“I think we do. The BGs killed them.”

“Leaving no trace?” Rev asked.

“OK, they took them as slaves. I don’t care. They aren’t there now.”

“Crispen, that’s enough,” Nyad said, then to Rev, “So, you can do it?”

“Given enough time, yes. But if there’s a lot there to recover, that might make it more difficult.”

“I’ve got sailors who can do the grunt work.”

“What does Njuguna say?” Rev asked.

“Nothing yet. I haven’t briefed her.”

Why the hell not? Her people would probably be better at figuring out whatever we might find.

It was interesting that Nyad had boxed out Rev about this mission, and now he was boxing out Njuguna. What was he playing at? Rev would bring that up later, though. But there was one additional thing that was more important, and he wanted to address that now.

“What about the gennies? And the lemmings?”

“What about them?”

“With all due respect, the gennies, in particular, need to be brought into the conversation. First, as you know, my forces have been attrited.”

That’s a civilized way to say it, Reverent. Don’t pussyfoot around.

“We’ve lost a lot of Marines, sir. If there’s any danger in that thing, well, their forces would be useful, especially assuming whatever it is has got negligible gravity.

“Second, they’ve been our allies, and if they’re trying to decide if they should stay in the system, don’t you think they should know that the BGs have been here?”

He stopped to try and gauge how the captain was taking this. The man might as well have been a statue.

Give him the real reason, Reverent.

“Third, and this is the big one. I mentioned back in Point One that we’ve lost a lot of Marines while they are still at full strength. We’re walking on eggshells now, sir, for fear that they might just decide to take over the expedition. Something like this,” he said, pointing to the projection, “do you really think this can be kept secret? Do you think you can recover objects and have them not know about it? And if they do find out, are they just going to laugh and say, ‘Good one, meat humans. You sure got one over on us’?”

The captain finally flinched. Rev didn’t know if he really hadn’t considered that. He should have. But Rev was sure that the restraint the Genesians had shown so far would vanish. They’d gone to war with humanity before, and they were far enough from human space now that if they disappeared—not just them, but the rest of the expedition—no one would be heading out to find out what had happened.

Rev waited for an answer, just staring at the captain.

It was Nyad who blinked.

“No decision has been made on the gennies. Or the lemmings. But what I would like you to do is come up with a plan to explore and clear, if necessary, that asteroid.”

Rev nodded. “When do you want it, sir?”

“By zero-six.”

Eight hours. Not much time, but doable.

“If someone can give me a detailed diagram of the asteroid, then no problem.”

“I can get you that,” Lieutenant Sampson said.

“Then, if there’s nothing else, I’ll get going on it.”

He was afraid the captain was going to keep him there while all of the officers gave him their take on things, but to his welcome surprise, Nyad just nodded and said, “Go to it then, Sergeant Major.”

Rev jumped to his feet before anyone else could butt in and was out the door. Short timeline or not, nothing was going to happen until he checked in with the girls and got something to eat. He couldn’t function on an empty stomach, after all.

But his heart was singing. He was about to create a Marine operations order. He was going to Marine again.

He’d forgotten how much he missed the normal Marine life, and he was anxious to get back into the saddle again.

His warrior self kept pushing, and as he hurried down the passage to his stateroom, Rev let him surface just a bit. The adrenaline rush was just too tempting to hold back.

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