Recon Marines III: The Marine's Doctor (21 page)

“
We’ll have it ready.
Hector is finishing up the last of the DNA uploads to send out.”
Molly pulled Dr. Shear back toward the lab though the older woman
scowled over her shoulder at Mak.

Once outside Mak set up varying
targets for the two soldiers to practice on. He made minor
adjustments to Box’s grip and the corporal’s aim improved to
surpass Pender’s. Mak taught them a simple version of the sign
language used by the Recon Marines.

“
I’ll be the enemy. You’re
going to prevent me from taking the ship.” Mak took a rifle and
pistol. “In each facility we’ve investigated the soldiers have been
more advanced than the one before. The last group could have been
taught weaponry. We have to assume the worst case. Armed, skilled
hostiles.”

“
Shouldn’t we call for
reinforcements, sir?” Pender asked. “There’re only three of
us.”

“
The army wants as little
knowledge of this mission to get out as possible,” Mak said. “I’ll
signal you when I’m ready to begin the attack. Use the portable
heat and motion detectors.”

Over the next three and a half hours,
Mak took the ship from them seven times. But they improved each
time. They could have stopped a regular soldier or even half a
dozen regulars. But Mak worried they wouldn’t face regular
soldiers. One like the huge man they’d seen on the vid defeating a
Recon Marine would certainly overrun them.

But Box and Pender acted pleased with
their progress, and Mak praised them for it. He only hoped they
didn’t have to test their new skills against another
monster.

After they returned to the ship, Mak
sent his men to rest while he took care of all security checks for
the night. The barren moon was lifeless with a thin, dry
atmosphere. The physical demand of training outside had left Pender
and Box exhausted.

Mak set the sensors to send an alert
to his cabin should any living being approach the ship or if
another craft entered the moon’s atmosphere. Then he sent an
encrypted status report for the general’s eyes only, telling him
they would be out of communication for at least four or five days
after their last check in on the morrow.

A quick glance on the ship’s log
showed the doctors had already sent their own messages to the
general though one communication blurb went elsewhere. He noted the
code category indicated the receiver as a civilian ship but the ID
on this side of the message didn’t match any of the doctors. And
his men had been outside with him at the time stamp.

Mak’s radio chirped, interrupting his
investigation of the message.

Molly’s voice sounded like a caress in
his ear. “Lieutenant, I have something important to discuss with
you in your cabin. Immediately.”

Mak’s heart took a hard stroke with
what he’d learned was fear. Though no logical explanation of danger
being present on the ship came to him, he leaped from his chair and
cleared the steps to land in front of his door. He slid in, every
muscle in his body ready to pounce on an enemy.

Molly sat on a blanket in the middle
of the floor, food and drink spread around her. She wore only a
sheer dress. But it didn’t quite look like a dress. It seemed
designed to lead his eyes to her breasts, her naval and the dark
patch of hair between her legs. Somehow the see-through material
made her look more naked than having no clothing on at
all.

He pressed the door closed behind him,
but otherwise couldn’t move. The only danger here was that his
heart might explode.

“
I know you haven’t eaten
for hours, lieutenant, and as the lead doctor on this crew it’s my
responsibility to make sure you eat in a healthy manner. If you eat
your protein and fruit, I’ll allow you to have dessert.” She leaned
back in such a way that her breasts thrust against the sheer
material.

Mak forced himself to look away. A
quick sweep of his gaze told him there were no dessert sweets
amongst the food she’d spread out. “I don’t see any
desserts.”

She laughed and shook her head. Her
long, thick hair bounced around her shoulders. “Come closer and
I’ll show you where I put it.”

He took the two steps needed for her
to reach up and take his hands. When she gave a slight tug, he
knelt in front of her. “I don’t feel hungry right now. Not for
food.”

“
Now you begin to
understand.” She fell back onto the floor and pulled him down on
top of her.

Her lips tasted soft and sweet beneath
his. Each time they came together like this it seemed better than
before. He intended to take his time, but sweetness gave way to
need.

They made love on the blanket on the
hard floor. Mak worried he’d hurt her on the unforgiving surface.
But Molly urged him on until he couldn’t go slower or easier, only
deeper and harder.

Mak folded their clothing afterward
while Molly gathered up their meal that had been knocked aside. How
they didn’t spill anything proved more luck than purpose. He found
he was hungry for food after all and still had room for more
dessert.

****

The ship banked hard, a dangerous turn
that sent instruments sliding off desks and tables. Molly fell
sideways and slammed her hip against a chair.

Hector swore as he dove after his AI
tablet. It landed on the floor and skittered across the room. The
ship righted itself but almost immediately the floor tilted in the
other direction. “Is the lieutenant giving Andy more piloting
lessons?”

Helen clung to a counter, her frown as
fierce as Hector’s continuing curses. “This is a science vessel,
not a star cruiser. What is it about men and their need for
speed?”

Andy stumbled into the room, gripping
the doorframe for support. “The lieutenant says to strap in
somewhere.”

“
What is going on?” Helen
shouted over something falling off a counter. “I don’t care if he
is in charge, we’re not going to put up with his desire to show off
his fancy flying.”

Molly knew Mak well enough to know he
wouldn’t show off. Even if she hadn’t, Andy’s tense expression told
another tale. “What is it, Andy?”

Andy braced himself against the
doorway as the ship changed direction again. “Please, doctors, sit
down on the floor at least so you don’t get thrown
around.”

“
Do it,” Molly ordered
Hector and Helen as she slid down along the wall. Andy started back
out the door but Molly called out to him. “Please tell us what’s
going on, Andy.”

Andy swayed with another sharp turn.
“Space mines scattered across our path. If anyone but Mak had been
at the helm….” He shook his head and staggered out the
door.

“
You mean we could
explode?” Hector shouted after him.

Andy was gone. The next twenty minutes
passed with the ship diving and climbing. A loud burst of noise
banged against the side of the ship. The vessel shuddered. Molly
held her breath, expecting hull breach alarms to blare. They didn’t
though the tension remained. The flight smoothed out but they held
their places on the floor.

After another tense five minutes
passed Andy reappeared. Sweat stained the front of his uniform
shirt but he gave them a shaky smile. “The lieutenant says we’re in
the clear.”

Molly helped her colleagues put the
lab to rights though she wanted to rush to the bridge and question
Mak. She suspected he was busy. Andy helped them though he looked
constantly toward the bridge.

“
Go on, Andy, we’ll do
this. Mak might need you.” Molly appreciated that Mak had sent Andy
to reassure them.

Andy jogged from the room, clearly
eager to be a soldier more than a scientist.

Hector looked over his AI device. “I
think it survived. Who would seed a dark region of space like this
with mines?”

“
Someone who doesn’t want
us following this cursed trail,” Helen muttered, kicking at a
broken glass vial.

Kory entered the lab. “Dr. Drant, the
lieutenant would like to speak with you on the bridge. I’ll help
here.”

Molly hurried forward, passing Andy
going the other way to the engine room.

Mak sat in the pilot’s seat, his
fingers dancing over the controls. He spoke into his radio.
“Corporal, check the reset on the gravity adjustment circuits and
redirect damage control to the starboard hull.”

Molly slid into the copilot’s seat,
waiting while Mak gave Andy more directions. After another minute
of terse exchanges, Mak sat back and looked at Molly. “Are you all
right?”

“
I’m fine.”

“
The others?”

“
We’re all uninjured. Did
we really run into space mines? I thought they were illegal in
interplanetary law.”

“
They are. The army
doesn’t even use them.”

“
Were they old, left over
from some previous excursion out this way?”

“
No. They were recently
placed, probably within the last few days and meant to stop
us.”

“
But no one knows we’re
here except my father. Did someone intercept our communications
with him?”

“
No. This is my fault,
Molly.” Mak had never looked quite so grim. “I meant to ask you
about it last night. But then I forgot…over dessert.”

Even with near catastrophe, Molly
fought a smile. “Dessert was fine.”

Mak nodded but didn’t look any
happier. “But I had noticed an outgoing call when we parked on that
moon. Someone sent it out when we were training outside so it had
to be from one of the doctors. It went to an unidentified ship, a
vessel capable of cloaking its ID codes.”

“
Hector has a wife working
on another science vessel. He might have sent her a
message.”

“
That’s against security
protocols of our mission.”

“
I know, but they’re in
love.”

Mak’s eyes narrowed. “That isn’t an
accepted reason to disobey rules.”

“
It could have been Helen.
She has many friends in the medical community.”

Mak turned his gaze toward the front
viewing screen. “Molly, whoever sent that communique betrayed us to
an unknown enemy.”

She stood up. “I’ll go ask
them.”

He reached out and with a firm hand
guided her back to sitting. “No. Let them think we’re unaware of
this attempt.”

“
Mak, why would either of
them kill themselves to interfere with us?”

“
The mines weren’t ship
killers. They were meant to disable us not fracture the hull. We
would have been adrift and able to be boarded with the right
equipment. They might have expected us to welcome them as
rescuers.”

A chill chased across Molly’s skin.
She didn’t doubt Mak’s interpretation of the trap set for them, but
how could one of her friends have done this? She’d known Helen for
most of her profession career and Hector had been her assistant for
almost three years. “What are we going to do?”

“
Be alert. Try not to give
away our suspicions.”

“
Do your men
know?”

“
They will. I’m going to
assign them to keep an eye on your doctors. One of them will be
with you in the lab when we land. I would turn around and go back,
but we can’t chance that minefield again. It appears to surround
the planet so we’ll go forward. When we make our landing you’ll
stay at my side.”

“
Yes, sir.”

“
Molly, that really is an
order.”

She put her hand on his arm. “I’ll
obey. Do you think we’re being followed?”

Mak looked out the front viewer again.
“Why actively protect this plant? I’m worried that someone is
waiting for us.”

Chapter Thirteen

Mak ran his hand over the warped outer
shell of the ship. Despite the nearby detonation of one of the
mines, the integrity of the hull held. Someone had gone to a lot of
expense to seed such a thick belt of explosives to protect this
planet.

If he had five Recon Marines with him
instead of two half-trained soldier and three civilians Mak would
feel confident to face the enemy he sensed waited for them.
Instincts alone warned him that something or someone lurked on the
verdant planet. The ship’s sensors picked up no signs of human
life, only a few indigenous wild creatures that thrived on the
fertile planet. Not one human-built structure showed up on the
flyover they’d conducted. That meant a top of the line modern
cloaking system. The only way to unveil the hidden facility would
be to physically move behind the borders of the
covering.

The correct course of action would be
to retreat from the planet and flee to radio distance so they could
call for help. Mak touched a twisted edge of an insulation panel.
Only luck and his superior piloting skills had seen them through
the minefield without disabling or destroying their ship. They
might not be so lucky if they tried to fly through again. They
could only go forward. Somewhere on this planet lurked the research
facility. If it was still active as Mak now feared, there would be
ships there. Military ships.

The army designed their vessels to
withstand lightweight space mines and would also have armament to
shoot a clear path through the field. He would see the civilians to
safety and have them call the general for reinforcements to deal
with whatever danger crouched in watchful readiness.