“Thomer, report,” I said, my hands trembling around the microphone.
“We set off the nuke.”
“There’s a night sky above Norristown,” I said. “Did you take casualties?”
“No sir. We did not see any opposition.”
“That’s good news, Thomer,” I said. “That’s really good news.” I clung to the words “no opposition” as if they were a lifeline in a stormy sea.
“I’m not sure what kind of damage we did to the planet,” Thomer said. “We did a flyby, several mountains caved in after the explosion. Those mines ran several miles deeper than the ones on New Copenhagen. We never reached the bottom.”
I should have expected the mines on Terraneau to be bigger than the ones on New Copenhagen. Those mines only ran a few hundred feet deep, but the Avatari had only worked on them for a couple of weeks. Who knew how long the aliens had been burrowing on Terraneau.
“Well done, Sergeant,” I said. And then I told him about our defense of Norristown. Considering what we had accomplished, I did not paint a very glorious picture.
“They outnumbered you, sir,” Thomer said. It helped a little. I thanked him and told him we needed to report back to the Kamehameha as soon as possible.
Thomer congratulated me, then he signed off.
It only took me a minute to reach Admiral Thorne. Having seen the ion curtain disappear from the atmosphere, he had expected the call.
“Congratulations, Captain.”
“Thank you, sir,” I said. “How does the planet look from topside?”
“The radiation readings around the Dansforth Mountain Range are off the charts. People will be avoiding that site for the next few thousand years.” Thorne gave a perfunctory laugh.
Looking through the windshield of the transport, I watched Hollingsworth lead what was left of my men. Five Marines stood where 150 Marines had recently landed.
“What’s the damage look like?” Thorne asked.
“I lost sixty percent of my men.”
“A small price to pay to rescue a planet, Captain, but I wasn’t asking about casualties. What does Norristown look like? Are there many survivors? If you know who is in charge, tell him I want to tour the city.”
“The city is almost gone. I can’t say what the rest of the planet looks like, but Norristown is just about a bust.”
“What about Colonel Doctorow? Did you find him?”
“Yes, sir, we found Doctorow. You want the leader of Norristown …he’s your man.”
“You’ll give him my message?” Thorne asked.
“Yes, sir. If it’s all right with you, sir, I’d like to stay here this evening to debrief him. He should be landing shortly. I can …”
“As you wish, Captain. I will need to speak with him separately.”
“Yes, sir,” I said, my curiosity turning to paranoia. What did I know about Thorne? I still trusted him, but I wondered what he wanted to tell Doctorow.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
The people of Norristown might not have welcomed our visit, but they were glad to be freed. The party they threw lit the horizon.
Most of my men headed into town to join in the celebration, but I stayed back to deal with my regrets and my ghosts. I wanted some time to myself.
I spent the night in a transport, sitting in the pilot’s seat. The cockpit faced east. Beyond the gates of the airfield, I saw the outskirts of Norristown. A myriad of lights marked the part of town where the locals held their celebration. I stared on past the lights to the mountains just visible on the other side of town. Beyond the mountains, the sun had already begun to rise. The sky looked like it was carved from the skin of a very ripe peach.
Romanticizing sunsets and starry skies did not fit in my nature; but after the ion curtain, I welcomed the brindle sky.
Thomer came into the cockpit and sat with me.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
“I didn’t feel like having a good time, so I came to see you.”
“Thanks,” I said.
“It was either that, or I could have shot up some Fallzoud.”
Three or four minutes passed before we spoke again, then Thomer asked, “Do you think they’re gone for good?”
I started to answer, then took a moment to consider the question again. The sun had begun to rise. Glare shone through the windshield.
“Those sons of bitches must have a million million planets under their thumb. I think they can afford to let one or two slip away,” I said.
Thomer nodded. “A million million planets,” he repeated. “What is that, a trillion planets? You really think that many planets exist?”
“Damn it, Thomer, I’m a Marine, not an astronomer,” I said. “How the hell should I know?”
“Yeah, good point.”
After that, neither of us spoke. We sat there, staring out the windshield, glad to see a sunrise.
“Captain Harris, are you in there?” The voice came from the rear of the transport.
I walked to the door and called back, “We’re up in the cockpit.” Without waiting for an answer, I returned to the pilot’s chair and sat down.
I recognized the voice; the Right Reverend Colonel Ellery Doctorow had come to invade my privacy. Would he congratulate me for liberating his planet or berate me for killing so many of his men? I didn’t care either way.
The metal soles of his boots clanged against the floor of the kettle. I heard only one set of footfalls. At least Doctorow had come alone.
He struggled up the ladder, then he said, “Permission to come aboard.” There was irony in his voice, but the attempt at observing protocol seemed sincere just the same.
“Come on in,” I said.
“Want me to leave?” Thomer asked.
“Don’t leave on my account,” Doctorow said.
Thomer did not leave, but he abandoned the copilot’s chair so that Doctorow could sit. The Right Reverend looked out of place in that seat with his long hair and beard. He had not come empty-handed. He had brought a basket with a dozen bottles of Earth-brewed beer. Under different circumstances, he might have been able to sell those bottles for a hundred dollars apiece
“Are you thirsty, Sergeant?” he asked, offering Thomer the first beer. He offered me a bottle, then opened one for himself.
“Have I come at a good time?” Doctorow asked.
“It’s fine,” I said in a quiet voice.
“You know, Captain Harris, you had me scared when you first arrived. I thought fleet intervention would only make things worse. I was wrong.” He held out his beer in a gesture of salute.
“I spoke with Fleet Command an hour ago,” I said. “The last atmospheric readings came up completely clean. From what they can tell, the aliens are gone.”
“Yes. Admiral Thorne gave me the same report,” Doctorow said, a warm smile showing from under his beard. “A toast then, to a free planet, with afternoon skies and stars at night.”
“Afternoon skies and starry nights,” I repeated. We traded nods instead of tapping bottles, then we drank. Somehow he had chilled the beer. It tasted cold and fresh.
Thomer sipped his beer, enjoying the flavor. Doctorow downed most of his bottle in one long drink. I drank more like Thomer, enjoying the feel of the alcohol on my tongue.
“It almost doesn’t seem real,” Doctorow said. “After all those years, you chased the aliens away in a single day. Who would have known?”
“It did not go as well as I hoped,” I said. “Have you spoken to O’Doul?”
“Oh yes, Kareem,” Doctorow said. “He’s a man who understands sacrifice. You did what you had to do. He knows that.”
“Does he believe it?” I asked.
“Down deep, yes. He’ll never come out and say it; but, yes, I think that is precisely what he believes.
“So what’s next for you, Captain Harris?”
“Now we rebuild Terraneau,” I said. “We have enough engineers and equipment to have Norristown lit and self-sustaining by the end of the month. We’re all going to go hungry if we don’t start building some food stores soon.”