“Thank you, Lieutenant, thank you. With all my heart, thank you.”
“My pleasure, sir. Believe me.”
But then Andrew Helfort’s growing happiness collapsed as he suddenly realized that the Federated Worlds were in the middle of the biggest military action against the Hammer in almost twenty years and he had no idea where Michael was. His last message had been just before 387 had left for the Kashliki Cluster, and that had been weeks earlier.
His mouth was suddenly dry, his heart thudding. “My son. What of him? Is DLS-387 involved? Tell me.”
The young officer’s eyes skidded off Andrew Helfort’s face to look into the far distance. He couldn’t help it as he was asked the one question he dreaded. “Well, sir, as you know, operational security means I cannot say…”
The young lieutenant’s voice trailed off under the full force of Andrew Helfort’s best “I’m a Fleet captain and you’re not, so don’t fuck with me” look.
“Er, yes, sir,” he stammered unhappily. “Well, as I was saying…”
Andrew Helfort threw his hands in the air. “Young man, for God’s sake, get to the point. Is DLS-387 directly involved in Corona. Yes or no?”
“Yes, sir,” the man said reluctantly.
“Right. Are you allowed to tell me in what role?”
“No, sir.”
“Fine. I don’t like it, but I do understand. When can I expect confirmation that DLS-387 is all right and on her way home?”
“The operation is scheduled to complete no later than 09:00 UT. I can tell you that Fleet will be in touch with you as soon as they have received 387’s jump report.”
Andrew Helfort nodded. He knew that was the best he could expect. “Thank you, Lieutenant. Now that the business is over, can I persuade you to stay and have some lunch?”
“No, thanks, sir. Another time maybe. This is a great place you’ve got here.”
“It might be, Lieutenant, it might be again one day,” Andrew Helfort said softly. But not until the whole family was back sitting alongside him. Which, God willing, they would be soon.
Thursday, November 19, 2398, UD
Eternity Base
Digby settled down in the thinly padded seat of the big half-track as it swung out of the security compound and made its way down the road toward Eternity Base.
The half-track splashed through the puddles of water left over from the day’s torrential downpour. What little twilight there was was fading fast, the setting sun obscured by thick gray-black clouds scudding across the sky, driven by a blustery swirling easterly wind; the humidity was about as bad as it ever got. Digby didn’t much care. Bad weather or not, it was now part of his routine to drive around the base, making sure that all was as it should be before climbing Humpback Hill to think about the day that just past and what the next day might bring.
Therein lay the problem that was taxing him. He could not understand why the Feds had done nothing. It had been weeks now, and the Feds had to know that the only thing stopping them from walking in was the Myosan, and that was not much of a threat. Anyway, there was nothing more he could do except sit and wait and hope that Merrick didn’t decide he was past his use-by date and call him back.
Fifteen minutes later and with the routine slow drive-by of the base finished, Digby’s driver stopped the half-track at the foot of Humpback Hill.
“Back in thirty, Corporal.”
“Sir,” said Erdem as he and his partner, Lance Corporal Korda, settled down to wait for Digby’s return.
Digby made short work of the shallow slope of Humpback Hill, settling himself down on his favorite rock, looking across the western end of the lander runway; the rock’s wind-sculpted surface provided a perfect support for his back. For once his mind was not on work but on Jana, unimaginably far away and gone now for almost three months. Well, at least she’d seemed happy in her last vidmail. Thankfully, he had three months before she would even think of coming back, so all being well, that would give him enough time to secure his own position and work out how he was going to get out of the mess he was in.
His breather squeaked in protest as Digby sighed deeply in frustration.
The comm jolted Kerri upright in her chair, her heart beginning to pound as adrenaline flooded her system.
“Commodore Helfort, Lieutenant Kerouac.”
Oh, thank God, Kerri Helfort said to herself. It’s time. The awful dragging wait was almost over.
“Yes, Lieutenant?”
Kerri’s voice gave no hint of the terrible churning in her stomach as every fiber of her body cried out for this to be over and for her to be at home with Andrew. Her fingers were tightly interwoven with Sam’s as they sat waiting in Hut 1 for the word to move.
“Everything is in position, sir. The landers are on their way in and will be here on schedule. So start moving people out now. What about the red list?”
“We have the red list nominees under control.”
“Roger that. Start autojecting them now. Good luck.” With that, Kerouac was gone.
Kerri stood up, pulling Sam to her feet with her.
“Come on, Sam, let’s go,” she said, her attention focused on getting the guides moving and, most important, getting the red list nominees autojected so they could be herded out of the camp like the sheep they’d be until the binary mind-control drug wore off.
A quick check to confirm that the coldlamp groups were where they should be, blinding the holocams, and she was able to wave the first groups through, out from under the low eaves of the wall-less hut that had been home for so long and on into the darkness and the welcoming arms of the waiting marines.
Every so often, a group was diverted to the end of the hut and given a coldlamp to make things look normal, but soon the trickle of people became a flood to the point where Kerri and the guides had to hold them back physically, so strong had the urge to flee become.
Twenty minutes later, everyone except Kerri, Sam, and half of the escape committee had vanished into the night. For a moment, Kerri marveled at how easily and quickly almost a thousand people could disappear. Even the four occupants of the makeshift camp hospital had been extracted without incident, carefully maneuvered clear of the camp, out of sight of the Hammer’s holocams.
“Okay, everybody. Our turn. Sam, grab a lamp. Let’s go.”
And so with no further fuss and no regrets, the last non-Hammer occupants of Eternity Camp moved into the night, the ground ahead speckled with pools of light cast by almost a hundred lamps scattered through the darkness. No more than 50 meters out, the chromaflaged shape of a marine reared up so suddenly that Sam and Kerri flinched in surprise.
It was the familiar face of Corporal Gupta, his face crinkled by a wide grin.
“Sorry about that, Commodore. Just to confirm, you are the last ones out, so keep going and please make sure that everyone stays put at the rendezvous point until we come to get them.”
“Will do, Corporal, and thanks. I can’t tell you how much this means.”
“You don’t have to, sir. I think we know.”
Kerri nodded, and the pair hurried on. Once they were across the stream, which was a lot deeper than usual because of the rain earlier in the day but still fordable without too much difficulty, she picked a dark spot to put down the lamp. Then, their hands still tightly locked together, she walked with Sam up the banks of Base Creek as fast as a dangerous blend of gloom and broken ground would allow.
Seven hundred meters farther on they were at the rendezvous point, joining the huge throng of Mumtazers waiting nervously in the dark, the night air sibilant with half-whispered conversations.
Kerri hoped they wouldn’t have to wait long.