The Chronicles of Benjamin Jamison: Call Sign Reaper (24 page)

The door to the state room opened and Natalia rushed in crying. She ran straight to the captain and wrapped her arms around her.

“No one will tell me anything,” she sobbed. Emily sat staring, watching the child and the captain, as well as the general, who had a shocked look on his face. The captain hugged her and knelt down.

“Natalia, I am speaking with General Grey right now. Go wait in your room and we will talk when I am finished.” She turned and noticed the general’s concerned face on the big screen. Natalia stiffened up to stand as tall as she could.

“I am sorry I interrupted sir,” she said formally. “Please do not be mad at the captain. Everyone is back on the ship except for my friends that saved me and no one will tell me anything.”

“Natalia, child,” the general said, “you go to your room and I will talk to the captain about our friends. It may take a little time but we will find them.”

Natalia walked towards the bedroom.

“Natalia, don’t mind the mess in there. I’ll clean it up later,” the captain said, hoping Natalia would understand. The general leaned back in his chair, smiling.

“Captain, that mess wouldn’t happen to be sporting bronze major’s leaves on her collar, would it?” he said with a chuckle.

“Oh no sir,” the captain replied quickly. “My steward is poor about cleaning, but a good cook. I don’t make it easy on him.”

“Captain, please. If you’re going to lie to me, you could at least hide the evidence. If you poured me a half glass of Irish whiskey and put it on the table, that’s just cruel,” the general joked.

“That was actually Ms. Brous,” the captain said. “She is a legendary two-fisted drinker but pushed it away so you wouldn’t judge her.” Emily looked shocked, but then they all started laughing.

“I will make sure the major is well by our next meeting, sir,” the captain said.

“That would be great,” the general said. “Tell her I am furious and make up a few other things for her to worry about until then. Let’s not let her off to easy.”

“Excellent idea, sir.”

“Grey out.”

The screen went blank, and Emily and the captain sat quietly. The captain picked up her drink and took a slug. Emily reached over and grabbed the major’s drink.

“I guess I need to live up to my legendary reputation.” she said and they both started laughing.

“Ms. Brous,” the captain started.

“Captain, would you call me Emily?”

“Emily, there are a number of things happening on this ship, and most of them revolve around a man we left on Hyson, the man who carried you out of the embassy and put you on the shuttle.” Emily tilted her head, listening.

“He’s a ghost, Emily.” She knew that Emily was military intelligence and would know what that meant. “The general recruited him a few weeks ago. He sent the major to do it and she is his first casualty, in a manner of speaking. Five spacers were killed before they got onto my ship. But he spared one of the spacers and has her working for the old people he used to live with. Paying a penance, I think you would call it. He then saved a girl from a tiger and got seriously wounded in the process.

“We encountered some pirates on our way to meet you,” the captain continued. “There is only one left, and she’s in my brig. He rescued Natalia from a locked steel box in the floor of the pirate ship. The captain was using her. He asked me to take care of her, and I couldn’t tell him no. As for the other lieutenant, two weeks ago she was the chief engineer’s assistant. Now, after a week with him, she is beating the hell out of three men at a time.”

“She must be a quick study,” Emily responded.

“She is Trillond and a genius. You know how they love to talk about being peaceful,” the captain said.

“I think she has thrown that memo away, Captain.” O’Shaughnessy poured herself another drink.

“If you ever meet him, run the other way as fast as you can,” she told Emily.

“Thank you for the drinks and the entertainment,” Emily said, chuckling. “I think I am going to turn in.”

“Good night Ms. Brous,” the captain said.

“Good night Captain,” Emily replied.

“Jen, honey!” Janet Vander Hoyt called out. “We have company.”

“I’ll be right down,” Jen yelled back. It was early. She wondered who would be visiting at this time.

Nick walked up to the Vander Hoyts door. Harold opened the door and greeted him.

“Good morning, Nick,” he said. “What brings you out to our neck of the woods?”

“I understand from Ben that you have a house guest,” Nick said. “Do you think I can talk to her? It’s about a job.”

“Sure you can,” Harold smiled. “Would you like some coffee? Have a seat and I will get us a couple cups.”

“Coffee sounds great,” Nick said, sitting down. He looked around the house and noticed they had fixed it up nicely since the incident with the spacers.

Jen walked in with two cups of coffee and handed one to Nick. Everyone sat down.

“Thank you,” Nick said, sitting the coffee down and reaching out to shake Jen’s hand. “I’m Nick. I own the repair shop Ben used to work at. He told me before he left that if I had any extra work to look you up.”

She had not been awake too long and needed coffee to clear the fog. “What would I be doing?” Jen asked.

“I have just acquired a starship,” Nick replied, looking her in the eye. “I’m putting a crew together to get a cargo delivered. It should be a two week trip, give or take. I’m in the process of starting a freight company, at which time I could offer you full-time employment, but until then it will just be part-time work delivering cargo.”

Jen looked at Nick. She knew what ship and what cargo. She knew there would be a good profit on that load and she could make a nice paycheck. She looked at the Vander Hoyts.

“Do you mind if I go for a couple weeks?” she asked them.

“No dear, you go ahead,” Janet said. “The farm will be slow for the next two months. If Nick gets any more work, you will probably have time to take a couple more jobs.”

“I’ll need to talk to Gus,” she said out loud to everyone. She had been working part time a couple of nights a week for him at the bar since Ben left. It had slowed down since the night of the fight. The incident was old news, but a few of the regulars still brought it up every day.

“Good. I’ll contact you again in a few days and let you know when we have a more definite schedule.” Nick sat his coffee cup down and stood up.

“I won’t keep you,” he said. “It was good to see you again, Mr. and Mrs. Vander Hoyt. I have to get back to the office. Nice to meet you, Jen.” He walked out to his hover car.

Ben moved around the Trillond town from shadow to shadow. He had managed to avoid any wandering bands of Allith. He went into a number of buildings and homes, searching for anything that might help in their survival. He found food and clothing. Most of the people had left their homes in a hurry.

He started a pile in one of the empty houses of clothes for the children and the mother, as well as some for E’Aria if she wanted to change out of her armor later. He found the majority of the Allith had set up a camp outside a large office complex. They had a large group of Trillond and a few humans inside a guarded area. Even as he watched, an Allith picked out a Trillond female and had the guards bring her into the building. The screams started about two minutes later. The children and adults were crying. The guards started to beat them into silence.

Ben knew what was happening inside the building. He knew then he had to find a way to free the captives. He took up a position inside a building that offered a clear view of the office complex. He stood back in the shadows and watched and waited to see if the guard changed, or if they had fewer guards at any point. He knew he couldn’t take on so many Allith by himself and live. He needed to find a weapon that would do some damage on a big scale. He needed a ship.

He left his spot and headed for the spaceport. The Allith had landed wherever they saw an area big enough. There would be ships scattered everywhere. If there were any at the spaceport they would be in better condition. The only good thing about the Allith ships was that all the ships would be either Colonial or Trillond.  The bad thing was, he didn’t know how to fly a ship. But he had a feeling E’Aria could. If E’Aria was awake and feeling up to it, he would bring her to pick out something.

Reaper couldn’t spend a lot of time in the search tonight; he needed to get the food and clothing to the Trillond family. He scouted the landing area. There were Allith moving around all the ships that weren’t theirs. They probably needed parts. They would be better off to just take a new ship. He saw a gunboat that would be perfect, as well as a small frigate. The prisoners could cram inside whatever he brought. He wasn’t going to take them into space, just into the jungle or mountains — wherever they could hide.

Ben went back to the house where he had the stock pile. He took some bedding and laid it on the floor. He put food and clothes and another blanket inside and pulled the corners up making it into a big bag. He had to get E’Aria on her feet soon. He couldn’t let the Allith kill and eat all those people.

When he got back he was happy to find her sitting up and talking with the family. She stood up when he got to the camp fire. He sat the bag down and walked up to her. He didn’t say anything, just leaned in and hugged her. He tried not to squeeze too hard. The family just sat and stared. It was not what they expected to see.

He told the mother to open the bag and take what they needed. After she had picked through everything, he told her he had more and needed to go get the rest.

“We will be back shortly,” he said. “E’Aria, if you’re up to a walk, come with me.” She fell in beside him as he walked off into the woods. He stopped far enough away they wouldn’t be overheard.

“They have your people in the town,” he told her hurriedly. “I don’t need to tell you what’s happening to them. The only plan I can come up with to free them is to take a ship and attack the camp, load as many as we can carry and fly somewhere safe. There are plenty of ships sitting around. Question is, can you fly one?”

She looked at his face. She saw the sadness. “Yes, I can most likely fly any of the starships we might find,” she said.

“I was hoping you could,” Reaper said. “We need to contact your people and tell them what to do. We won’t have time to run around trying to gather up everyone. Tomorrow we need to get close enough to see if there are any telepaths there. That would make it easier. There are a few humans there with them.”

“I guess they didn’t want to leave their homes,” E’Aria said.

“Well, now they may pay the price, and us with them,” Ben replied. “Let’s walk back and get you something to eat.”

They passed out the blankets after everyone had eaten. Ben loaded the fire up then sat down on a blanket. He took off his swords and his belt and laid them next to him. The mother was going to take first watch, then E’Aria and then Ben. He would get about eight hours of sleep if he was lucky.

He fell asleep almost immediately. E’Aria was close behind him. He had taken his helmet and his gloves off but left his armor and boots on. He woke up two hours later to whispering. The children must have decided he was okay, because they were lying next to him. They had moved there after E’Aria fell asleep.

The mother came back from watch and woke E’Aria. They sat and talked for a few minutes while they stared at the children huddled against the warrior. E’Aria went to stand watch and the mother lay across from the children. She thought about her mate. He had tried to defend them. He had also tried to get them to leave the planet, but she been stubborn, not believing they were in danger. Now he had passed on and would not be reborn.

She wept as silently as she could. There would not be time to grieve properly until the monsters are driven away. She decided then that she would see her children safe and then she would fight alongside the two warriors in black.

Ben woke up after about six hours. The mother was sleeping across from him and the children. It was quiet and peaceful. His mind drifted to the last time he had defended an outpost from the Allith.

It was the beginning of the end of his career. The intel they had been given was flawed. There were twice as many Allith as they were led to believe and they overran all their positions. That’s when the colonel had left running, leaving everyone to decide for themselves what to do. His team decided they would work their way back to the ship and help cover some of the other soldiers who were retreating. They came across the colonel trying to fend off two Allith. His team attacked them and drew them away, but he ran again. They took them out and headed for the ship, getting there just as the crew chief was about to close the doors. He looked scared as they crowded around him.

“Why were you closing up, chief?” one of them demanded. “You weren’t under attack. Didn’t the colonel tell you we were on our way?”

“Sarge, I’m sorry,” the crew chief said. “He told us he was the last, and to shut the door and go.” The XO tracked them down later and apologized, blaming the chief.

Two weeks later Ben had a locker full of drugs.
I’m pretty sure they don’t promote known cowards to the rank of general,
Ben thought.
His day will come, and I’ll be there to make sure he gets what is coming to him.

Andrea woke up a gigantic, pounding headache. Natalia was curled up beside her in bed. Andrea smelled coffee and got up. She hoped she could get to her quarters without anyone seeing her. She opened the door and looked out first to make sure there was no one but the captain around.

“Good morning sunshine!” Aisling said cheerfully. “You want some coffee?”

“Can you stop fucking yelling?” Andrea growled. “You’re doing that on purpose.”

“Yes I am,” Aisling said. “While you were snoring and drooling all over my pillow, I slept on my couch.”

“I didn’t drool,” Andrea protested.

Aisling walked into the bedroom and walked back out with the pillow Andrea had slept on. There was a wet spot on it. She pointed to the spot, then tossed the pillow at Andrea’s head.

Andrea tried to dodge it. The sudden movement brought a blinding pain to her head. She pulled out a chair and sat holding her head with both hands. Aisling walked up with a glass of water and some pills.

“Take these and drink all the water.” Aisling sat a cup of black coffee down in front of her. She took the seat across from Andrea and poured herself another cup. “You missed the vid with General Grey,” she said.

“Ok ,” sighed Andrea, “you can rub it in.”

“You’re much nicer drunk than you are hungover or sober,” Aisling jabbed right back.

Andrea sipped her coffee. The door chimed. It was Ronnie with a clean uniform and underwear for her.

“Good morning, Major,” Ronnie said. “You don’t look too good. Do you want me to get my bag?”

“No, Ronnie that won’t be necessary. The captain gave me something,” Andrea said.

“Would you like a cup of coffee?” the captain asked. Ronnie nodded. The captain got another cup and filled it.

“Captain, permission to speak freely?” Ronnie asked.

“Go ahead, Corporal,” Aisling said.

“I just wanted to let you both know that we don’t blame either of you with what happened to Reaper,” Ronnie said. “He’s always saving whoever he can. He even saved that chickenshit coward of a colonel last year, and you see were that got him. What we are hoping to find out is, when will we be going after him? You know he’s having all the fun, killing lizards while we’re floating along in space playing with ourselves! You also know by the time we get back he will have saved the planet, the girl, the governor, a school full of kids, and whoever else needed saving.”

“Corporal, even though I gave you permission, you cannot talk about a senior officer like that. The permission doesn’t cover those kinds of remarks,” Aisling told her.

“Captain, I apologize to you and the major if you feel offended, but the truth is our colonel ran. He ran and left his troops like a coward without even an order. The team brought up the rear, covering for the wounded and those helping them. We came across the colonel, and we saved his ass, and while we were protecting him he ran again. He tried to leave us behind, Captain!” Ronnie was fired up. “This is why I’m telling you we don’t blame you. The team just wanted you to know.”

“Those are serious accusations, Ronnie. Why wasn’t this ever told before?” Aisling asked.

“We never told anyone. We were just going to forget about it.  Look what happened to Ben — I mean Reaper. What do you think would have happened to all of us if we started singing that tune? We may be jarheads, Captain, but we aren’t stupid. Thank you for the coffee. I’m going to get out of here before I get into any more trouble.” She got up and left.

The captain walked back to her desk and touched a button on her personal recorder.

“You recorded all of that?” Andrea asked.

“I did. I do that just in case, and usually just delete the recording later. I never make it part of the log.”

“Do you think the general knows this story?”

“Hard to know. It’s all hearsay right now,” the captain said, frowning. “They never came forward to make anything official; which was probably smart, or they would have had their careers cut short.”

Andrea had her shower and took her time getting ready.
Time to face the music
, she thought,
and get what’s coming to me from the general.
She sat at the table in the state room drinking coffee. She was worried about Ben and E’Aria. Ben was probably running around saving little girls from monsters and playing judge, jury and executioner. She hoped E’Aria was safe and sound.

She didn’t understand what the relationship was between the Trillond lieutenant and Ben, but it wasn’t sexual. Maybe it was more like having a younger sister. She missed him already and wasn’t sure when she would see him again. They had to get Emily Brous to wherever command wanted her to be’ then she hoped they would be headed back to Hyson with a fleet of ships.

Ben and E’Aria left the camp and took the long way through the forest to get to the space port.

“If we get enough people who can help, I say we leave in whatever ship we steal,” Ben told E’Aria. “I’m not sure what they will do when we take their food supply. Maybe they will leave. Either way, I’m not sure when help will arrive, if it comes at all. Let’s just try and head for friendly space.”

“Let’s just see what we end up with, and then we can figure out the rest,” E’Aria replied. “I hope we get time for me to look our options over carefully. With a sound ship, we can be in FTL in ten minutes after everyone is on board.”

“I know,” Ben said. “We can’t afford to take too long deciding, though. You know what’s happening there.”

“If we can find two ships by the same manufacturer, it’s possible we can slave two ships together. They use a lot of the same software, and some are designed with this feature in mind. I will control them both from one bridge. It will give us lots of additional space.”

“Alright,” Ben said. “You pick the ships, and let’s hope they aren’t heavily guarded.”

They made their way from hangar to hangar. Ben stood guard while E’Aria was checking the ships over. When they were done, they moved away from the port and towards the town. Ben wanted to get a look at the prisoners. He dropped his head and stared at the ground after he caught sight of them.

“What’s the matter?” E’Aria asked.

“There are about 25 less than yesterday,” Ben answered. “We have to do something. Did you find what we needed?”

“Yes, and there is a prisoner telepath,” she answered. “I’m telling him to quietly let everyone know that we will be coming for them as soon as we can secure a ship.”