“Give me a head count!” Rev shouted as sailors collapsed onto the ground.
Nothing happened, and he called out, “Umman! Where are you?”
“Over there, Sergeant Major,” one of the sailors said, pointing.
Command Master Chief Umman was on the ground, back up against the wall. Blood soaked the front of his belly, and he was gasping for breath. Two sailors were kneeling by him, trying to help.
“Damn it! Get a corpsman on him.”
He scanned the group, trying to spot someone to put in charge. There’d been four officers in the group. Zybar was down and out, he’d seen Beacon KIA, and he couldn’t see the other two. Then he spotted Chief Uwe Klein, arm around a sailor’s shoulder as she consoled him.
“Uwe!”
She turned around. Blood had flowed out of her nose and across the top of her chest, and grime had collected on it, turning her visage into a horror holo.
“Get a head count. Find out who’s missing. And start getting the wounded ready to load on the shuttle.”
She nodded and got on it.
He grabbed Tomiko. All he wanted to do was to hug her, but there wasn’t time for that.
“See those stairs? They lead to what we call the battlement. It’ll give you a good view over the yetis’ village. Get some of you IBHUs and a sniper up there.”
“Are they going to assault this place?” she asked, her voice crisp and professional.
“I don’t know. But if they try, you’ll be in place to convince them that’s a bad idea. How are you doing on ammo?”
“We’re still OK.”
Trust Miko to have that in hand.
“Good. Go. I’ll find you later.”
She reached out a gauntleted hand and put it on his shoulder for a brief moment, the only bit of intimacy they could afford for now. Still, it gave Rev an emotional boost.
And then she was gone, issuing orders and getting Marines up to the battlement.
Several of the expedition’s civilians had been near the entrance at the far side of the courtyard. They were just standing there, obviously appalled at the state of the sailors. Rev jogged over to them.
“Where’s Captain Nyad?” he asked Dr. Kazemi.
Blank eyes faced him. “He went into the yeti village,” he said in a dull voice. Then he asked, “Are they coming to attack here?”
“Into the village? When?”
“Before all this happened. He went with one of the head dragons.”
“And he didn’t make it back?”
All three of them shook their heads.
That’s . . . bad.
“Are the yetis going to attack us here?” Kazemi asked again.
“I don’t know,” Rev said. “But I’ve got Marines watching. What about Njuguna? Where’s she?”
Kazemi tilted his head at the entrance. “In there. But she’s . . . she’s having issues.”
What the hell. Issues? We just survived an attack, so what the hell are the issues?
“How bad was it?” one of the other civilians, who Rev only knew as Bart, asked as he grabbed Rev’s arm, which made the wound on his shoulder hurt.
Suddenly, all of the cuts and gashes he’d suffered made their presence known. Rev couldn’t keep back the gasp, and he pulled out of the man’s reach.
“Bad,” he said before he stepped away.
If Nyad was dead, that meant Norton was the senior Navy officer, but he was on the ship. He didn’t know where the other officers were. Umman was down and looking bad. He needed somebody to take charge of the sailors. The wounded had to be triaged, and those most in need had to get up to Rima on the ship.
Only there were a lot of wounded. They were going to overwhelm Rima and sickbay, and Rev realized that meant some of the more grievously wounded were not going to make it.
It was going to have to be Klein. He started to go to her when six Po, including Pika, came out of the castle and into the courtyard.
Rev’s temper flared, and his warrior tried to surface. All of the distrust that had been bubbling below the surface burst into flame. They had something to do with this. He was sure of it. There was no way that they weren’t aware of the Zfthu’s violent strain, and that was on a best-case basis. Worst case, and they were complicit in the attack.
He veered from his course and ran to the Po.
“What the hell happened here?” he snarled. “You knew this was going to happen.”
Any human would have wilted under the force of his anger. If the Po were cowed, though, none of them showed it.
“I believe that you have wounded who will die if not given medical intervention,” Pika said.
“You think I’m gonna let you touch them? We’ve got Doc Rima on the ship. She’ll handle it.”
Pika stared at Rev for a moment, her three eyes devoid of emotion that Rev could sense. Then, at some unknown signal, the six spun around and headed back to the entrance.
Oh, by the Mother . . .
“Wait, Pika!”
They slowly turned back around.
I can’t believe I’m about to do this.
“Do you really think you can help? We’re humans, not dragons.”
“We do. We have developed an understanding of your species, and we do have a significant capability in the biological sciences.”
Rev was torn. He didn’t trust the Po, but he knew for a fact that more sailors were going to die. From the looks of it, a few wouldn’t even make it to the ship in time for Rima to attempt anything.
As far as the Po being able to help? He sure didn’t know. But if they could uplift races, then they had to be more advanced than humanity in the life sciences.
“I don’t want you screwing with us. No messing with our DNA. Only the injuries. Nothing more.”
“We will limit our treatment to only the injuries suffered today.”
Rev stared at Pika as he tried to see if he’d left a loophole for them to do only the Mother knew what. He realized they could be lying, but if they were telling the truth, then it seemed that he’d covered them.
“Do it.”
The six headed to the gathered sailors, but as they passed Rev, he grabbed Pika and pulled her in close. Either the dragons were much weaker than they looked, or she didn’t resist.
“After this, you and I are gonna have a talk. I know you dragons aren’t innocent here.”
Pika didn’t say anything, and Rev let her go. But he followed. He wasn’t going to just give them a free hand with his wounded.
It looked like three of the ship’s corpsmen had survived, and they were struggling to maintain order. Between triaging to get people into the shuttle and administering emergency life-saving treatment, all while dealing with their own shock and injuries, they were being overwhelmed.
Rev grabbed HM2 Littleton. “The dragons are going to help you.”
“Fuck if they are. What do they know ’bout humans?”
“You can’t handle all of this. Doc Rima can’t, not with the size of the sickbay.”
Littleton didn’t like that, and Rev could see he was going to protest.
“This isn’t anything against you. They’re just offering help. But keep an eye on them. I don’t . . . just keep an eye on them, OK?”
The five Po with Pika had already split up and had selected wounded sailors.
Rev patted Littleton’s shoulder. “It’s already done, son. Just watch them.”
One of the Po went to Umman.
There was still fire in the command master chief’s eyes as he glared at the alien, and if he had the ability, Rev knew he’d yell at the Po to get off of him. But Rev had seen enough gut injuries to know that Umman was on the slippery slope to the dark right now. He was surprised the man was still alive. That much damage not only always resulted in death, but it also had one of the worst success rates for resurrection—and that was with the full facilities back in human space, much less the very limited capabilities Rima had.
The Po seemed to settle down beside Umman before they waved two small cylinders over Umman’s body, then again specifically over his belly. The Po put a strap around his upper arm, then removed a tube from a belt. It looked like the Po was entering something on the tube when to Rev’s surprise, they thrust the tip of the tube directly into Umman’s belly.
The command master chief convulsed and shouted in pain, and Rev started to lunge for the Po when Umman seemed to collapse and go limp. Rev stopped in shock, convinced that Umman had just been killed, but the steady rise and fall of his chest, where it had been ragged and tortured just a few moments before, belied that.
Rev edged closer. White goo was growing in Umman’s belly, filling in between the ravaged flesh. Rev wasn’t sure if he should be fascinated or revulsed.
Umman’s face was relaxed as if he were merely napping. That was what convinced Rev that this was OK. And maybe that Umman could possibly survive in the end.
The Po continued to work while the humans followed them like sheep in mute awe. One more sailor died, but twenty minutes later, all of the seriously wounded had been treated.
“What do you think?” he asked Littleton.
“Vitals are strong,” the corpsman said grudgingly. “I can’t believe it, but I think the dragons saved some lives here.”
“We can’t count on that. Let’s get everyone on that shuttle and back to the ship.”
“Roger that. I’m on it.”
Rev stood back and watched the wounded being loaded on the shuttle—which had arrived five minutes before—mentally exhausted. The adrenaline was long gone, and his body felt like it had been through the wringer.
He spotted Chief Klein and motioned her over.
“What’s the count?”
“I need to do it again to make sure, but it looks like we’ve got forty-two, twenty-one being wounded. Thirteen of the dead were brought back with us.”
That was a gut shot. Including Randigold, Punch, and him, 105 people had left for the party. That meant fifty-eight sailors had been lost, of which forty-five were still out there. And Punch, and that was becoming harder and harder for Rev to push to the back of his mind. He’d deal with that later. He couldn’t afford that at the moment.
Not just Punch. He looked around until he spotted Tiktik. He realized that Boom was gone.
“OK,” he said with a sigh. “Get that count again, and start compiling names.”
“What’s the captain going to do?” she asked. “We can level that village and all of the fuckers in it.”
Rev realized that no one else knew yet about Nyad. He was tempted to put it off, but the chief deserved to know.
“He was in the village when they started their attack. I don’t think he made it out.”
“Mother fuck!”
“Get those names,” he said gently. “We’ll figure out what to do next.”
She was swearing under her breath as she stepped away. Rev totally understood. Revenge was pretty high in his own mind as well.
“Would you like treatment?”
One of the Po had come up behind him.
Rev was about to wave him away when he thought, Why not?
He nodded and faced the alien, who gave him the once-over with their scanning device. The Po didn’t read it like a human might read a scanner, but they evidently decided what Rev needed, and that looked like goo.
Rev shuddered as the nozzle got close to the large gash on his side, but he held still, even as the tip penetrated, causing a shooting lance of fire. But then the goo was injected, and almost immediately, a wash of coolness swept over the area. Rev could feel the goo expand, filling the entire gash, but the pain was gone.
He grunted, then tried to bend over to see what was happening. The emerging goo looked disgusting, but it felt pretty darn good when compared to where he was a minute ago.
The Po applied the tube to half a dozen places on his body. Each one immediately felt better. The bruise on the side of his face didn’t get the same goo. Whatever it was came out of the same tube, but it was a clear, almost floral-smelling salve.
“Thank you for allowing me to treat you,” the Po said when it was done.
“Uh . . . yeah, sure. Anytime.”
The Po left him to find another patient, and Rev tentatively tested his side. It was tight, but it didn’t hurt. He didn’t know if whatever they’d done actually helped with the healing, but he appreciated that the pain was gone, and all said and done, he felt better and more energetic.
It looked like this had been a good decision. If Littleton was right, then lives were saved. But that didn’t let the Po off the hook. They’d been part of this, and sailors and civilians had died.
He looked around until he spotted Pika’s distinctive crest and strode over.
“I’ve got something to do. We need to try and recover our dead. But as soon as that’s done, you and me, we’re gonna go see whoever the hell runs you guys, and we’re gonna have ourselves a talk.”
* * *
Rev stood on the battlement with Randigold, his heart beating like a jackhammer. It wasn’t the occasional bolt that arched up from the civilian camp. At this range, they were easy to see, not very accurately fired, and if they were, they were easily dodged.
The reason he was so nervous was down closer to the octagon and into the creek bed.
Tomiko had put her foot down.
“You’re not coming.”
“But you don’t know where to go,” he protested.
“Bullshit,” she said. “You just pointed it out to me, and it’s pretty obvious. You’re also hurt. But the big thing is that you’re not in a fucking PAL!”
Rev turned to Kelly, who’d joined them on the battlement.
She hunched her combat suits shoulders, the PAL version of a shrug. “She’s right.”
“And you haven’t trained with us. I’m not going to have you screw this up.”
Rev wanted to argue. His heart told him that it was his responsibility to recover the dead. Maybe some were still alive.
But his gut knew that Tomiko was right. The PALs seemed to be impervious to what the Zfthu had thrown at them, and as his goo-filled wounds would attest, Rev wasn’t so protected.
“Look, time’s a wastin’. We’ve got to move before the yetis reorganize. You stay here, and if you see them changing the script, then you let me know.”
“And you’ll come back if they do?”
“I’ll do what the situation calls for.”
Rev knew that was the best he was going to get from her.
“Be safe,” he said as he leaned over to kiss her face shield.
She and Kelly left the battlement, and Rev and Randigold shifted position to be able to overlook the courtyard. While it had seemed huge before, now, with the Charon, the sailors, thirty-six combat Marines, karnans, Legionnaires, and their lone carabinieri, it looked a lot smaller.
But they’d needed the landing craft, and not only so the Marines could resupply in ammo. The Charon had performed admirably with an AI piloting it, but Rev felt more confident with Nissen at the stick, and they’d made the switch.
Tomiko and Kelly emerged down below. His wife gave her warriors and Nissen a last-minute brief, and it was go time. Nissen hopped into the Charon, and a moment later, it lifted off. Tomiko then gave the order, and her team moved to the gate, which opened for them.
“Keep your head down, Miko,” Rev passed over the comms.
“Always.”
Both Marines shifted to the other side of the battlement so they could observe. Rev clutched his M-51 assault rifle. Each of them had grabbed one out of the Charon while the other Marines got their ammunition. Rev felt much better with that instead of just his MF-30, even if they were not going to initiate fire at any Zfthu who exposed itself.
The plan, which had been developed in three minutes, was that the Marines would only engage the enemy if they attacked first. The hope was that fighting would not break out. But if it did, Rev was sure the heck going to do what he could from his vantage point.
In a tight, impressive formation, the rescue/recovery party marched out of the castle. Nissen brought the Charon around to station it two hundred meters above them.
Their appearance sure caught the attention of the Zfthu. Hundreds, if not thousands, started to appear at the edge of the village, and they didn’t look happy.
That was not difficult to understand. Their bodies littered the area, in some places piled two or three deep, from the looks of it. Some of them loosed bolts that fell short. The Marines withheld their fire, but Nissen broke his position and swooped at them, coming in low and mean.
Zfthu broke and tried to get out of his path, but Nissen didn’t fire. He made a dramatic climb after passing them, turned on a dime, and went back to his station.
Hopefully, the message had been taken.
The team reached the octagon without an attack breaking out. The Zfthu were milling about, but they didn’t go beyond the edge of the village. And if there were enemy in the civilian camp, they kept their heads down and out of sight.
The regular Marines and the rest were doing the recovery, while the IBHU Marines presented a united front facing the village.
But instead of continuing down to the swimming hole, Tomiko called Rev and said, “We’re coming back.”
“Why? I know we’ve got people in the creek.”
“We don’t have enough of us to carry and maintain our posture. We’re just going to have to make two trips.”
Shit. We should have thought of that.
It was such an obvious thing, but in the rush to get going, it had been overlooked.
Rev was worried that the Zfthu might break and attack when they saw the Marines going back into the castle, but they held. The bodies were turned over to eager sailors, and the Marines immediately went back out.
They passed the octagon, and then came the hard part. As they went into the creek bed, they passed out of sight. The mass of Zfthu were shifting to their left as they moved to keep watching the humans.
“This sucks big time. We can’t see what’s happening,” Randigold said.
“You’ve got that right.”
Rev had to restrain himself from calling Tomiko. He didn’t need to be distracting her.
But finally, after what seemed to be hours, Tomiko passed, “We’re on our way back.”
“Punch?”
“I’m sorry, Rev. There’s no sign of him.”
Rev shifted his gaze to the area beyond the swimming hole. His battle buddy had given him and the rest the distraction and time they needed to get inside the octagon. All he could hope was that somewhere, under that canopy, Punch was safe and biding his time to return.
His gut told him that Punch was gone, but he refused to acknowledge that to himself.
Five minutes later, the first of the Marines appeared in sight. Their return went much as their first time. The Zfthu were agitated. That was obvious. But either because of what the IBHU Marines had achieved the first time, or more likely, the menacing Charon hovering overhead and ready to pounce, they held back.
“Keep watching,” he told Randigold before descending back to the courtyard.
To his surprise, one of the Po was back in action, working over a sailor.
“What’s that?” Rev asked.
“Justine’s still alive. The dragon’s trying to save her,” another sailor told him.
Rev felt a little light-headed as the words registered. If they hadn’t gone back out to recover the dead . . .
He shook it off and went to the gate, reaching it just as it slid open. Sailors stepped up to relieve the Marines of their shipmates.
Tomiko was the last one in.
“How many?” Rev asked.
“Forty.”
Forty. That means five are still out there.
Leaving anyone behind was an anathema to Rev, but he had to be practical. It really had been a successful operation.
Especially for Justine, he thought as he glanced back at her.
“One of the first ones you recovered is still alive.”
“Thank the Mother.”
“You did good, Miko. Real good. Not just with the recovery, but with everything.”
It was difficult to see body language when someone was in a PAL, but he thought he could see her straighten up just a bit.
“Can’t let them take away the father of my girls, right? What would they do—”
She went quiet. Rev knew why. With the rot, that was going to happen anyway.
Rev closed his eyes for a moment. He was exhausted, mentally and physically. It seemed like it had been a week since he’d slept. Emotionally, he was spent. And while the Po-goo seemed to be effective, he was very conscious of it, if that made sense. And he didn’t like it.
He wanted nothing more than to go back to the ship, kiss his two girls, and hit the rack.
But he couldn’t.
He spotted Kat and waved her over.
“Good to see you made it, big brother.”
“I’m too ornery to kill. You know that. Hey, go find Kelly or Tum. We need to get all of the dead back up to the ship. I don’t know if any of them can be resurrected, but we owe them the shot. And that sailor over there. If the dragon’s done, get her up there, too.”
“The Charon? Or wait for a shuttle?”
The remaining shuttle had been sent off in a holding pattern under its AI pilot after Nissen had switched to the Charon. It could get back in short order, but with resurrection, sometimes minutes counted.
“The Charon. But tell whoever it needs to be that I want the shuttle circling the castle, low enough to be very visible.”
“Got it, Rev,” Kat said before hurrying off.
“What now?” Tomiko asked.
“How about you molt out of your PAL. Keep Nemesis, though,” he told her, referring to her IBHU.
“Uh . . . OK?”
He waited until she was out, then together, they walked over to Lieutenant Zybar, who was sitting on the ground, his back up against the wall.
“Hey, Sergeant Major,” he said with a smile but a weak voice.
“You look a lot better than you did an hour ago.”
“They told me you carried me back. Thanks.”
“You’re not the biggest guy around, sir. It was nothing.”
“It was something to me. So, again, thanks.”
“Accepted. But how do you feel now? Can you get up?”
“I think so.”
He started to stand before Tomiko stepped forward to help him.
He was a little unsteady on his feet, but he said, “I can do this. What’s up?”
Rev looked over to the entrance where Pika was dutifully waiting.
“We’re gonna grab Njuguna, and then we’re gonna get ourselves some answers.”