Chương 72: Duty

Sea Cliffs South of San Teodoro, Vidako Imperium Stellarum February 11, 2848"It's dawn, sir," Arc told Christina, keeping his voice low. The slanted light of sunrise painted her features in pink, gold and purple. She blinked away, and for a moment he wasn't certain that she knew where she was, or what was happening. He imagined that, in that moment, she might have wondered whether what had happened the day before had been a dream. A nightmare, really.

Then, she sat up, and looked at the two occupied sleeping bags, and her shoulders slumped.

"How are they?" Christina asked.

"Neither one of them is fit to pilot a mech," Arc told her.

"All they have to do is get back to the academy," Christina said, and rolled out of her sleeping bag before standing up. Her red hair was lank from days of sweat, and her jumpsuit was rumpled.

"Well get them up, get some food into them, and be on our way." Arc sighed.

"I don't think that's a good idea, sir."

"It isn't your decision," Christina said.

"We pick up the mechs and head home, and that's the end of it." She turned away from him and walked over to their supplies, where she unzipped one pack after another and began to pull out ration pouches. Arc stood, and looked out again at the ocean, where the second of Vidako's two suns was now raising its head to the east. I believe you would be justified in relieving her of duty, at this point, Iceni pointed out. I don't know how that would go, Arc admitted to his AI.

It's just the two of us healthy, and we've each got a gun. You don't really think she'd go that far, do you? Arc couldn't help but shake his head. I didn't think she'd do this. He glanced down at Christina's sleeping bag, and saw that she'd left her flechette rifle there when she got up. He looked over to where she was arranging four packs of rations against a rock, and shifted his own rifle from being slung across his back, to in his hands and ready.

Then he walked away from the two sleeping cadets to join Christina.

"We're not currently a combat effective unit, sir," he told her.

"We have two wounded who both need immediate medical attention. We should have called for an evac last night. Neither one of them is safe to pilot a mech, and if we get in a fight on the way back, we can't count on either one of them to help. That puts our patrol at only half strength." Christina waited until she had all four pouched steaming before standing up.

"I've made my decision, Cadet Sandhurst," she said.

"My orders are not up for debate." I don't want to do this, he could admit to himself, and to Iceni. Not just because, when he was thinking straight, he liked Christina. She'd saved his life on their first patrol, with a shot that gave him time to draw his plasma blade. But you have to, Iceni said. Would he have felt this frightened, this hesitant, if he'd had a decade of service in fleet first, Arc wondered? Would it have made him more certain?

When he'd entered that tournament on Zurah V, the whole idea of this had seemed much simpler. Four years at the academy, get the tools he needed to hunt down the pirates that killed Phoebe, and go do it. Whatever happened after that... was fine. He hadn't counted on meeting a friend like Pika—a friend who could die, if Christina was allowed to do what she wanted. He hadn't planned on falling in love with a girl like Cassie. It was the thought of her that finally did it.

If nothing else, he at least wanted to be able to look her in the eye when he got back, and honestly say that he'd at least tried to do everything he could, that he'd at least tried to do the right thing. He didn't want to see disappointment in her eyes.

"At this point, sir, I believe that your judgement is compromised," Arc said.

"You are endangering your subordinates, and it is my obligation to relieve you of command."

"What?" Christina said. Her eyes dropped to the flechette rifle he was holding, finally, and he saw the moment she realized she'd left her own weapon with her sleeping bag.

"You're relieved of command, Cadet Fortin," Arc said. His mouth felt dry, and he couldn't swallow. There was going to be a disciplinary hearing over this, at least, if not a court martial or two. If they didn't agree with his decision, his career in the imperial fleet could be over before it even got started. He almost felt like laughing at the thought that he might never even make it to his duel against Fletcher Radecki.

"I thought I could trust you," Christina said, bitterly.

"You can," Arc said.

"I had your back, probably for longer than I should have. I should have insisted we call for evac last night. That was my mistake."

"I've worked so hard for this!" Christina said, and her lip twisted.

"If you do this, they're going to take it all away, Arc. Please. Don't do this to me." There was a rustling from the sleeping bags, and Arc prayed that Pika was the one who'd woken up, not Semirye. He shifted, so that he could keep Christina in sight while also getting an eye on the other two cadets.

"What's happening here?" Pika asked, from where he sat upright.

"I'm relieving Cadet Fortin of command," Arc said.

"Watch her for me while I call in an evac." Pika shook himself, and for a moment, Arc worried that his friend was too out of it to do anything. Just what did six blades of deathroot flowers do to a man that big?

"Affirmative," he grunted, a moment later, and picked up his own flechette rifle. He didn't point it at Christina, but the meaning was unmistakable. Arc kept his rifle in his hand until he reached his own ladder, then slung it over his shoulder so that he could climb. Once he was in the cockpit, he opened a comm channel back to the academy, and prayed that the open bluff would give him a clear transmission.

"This is Osprey Three calling base," Arc said.

"We have two wounded and need immediate evac. Sending coordinates."

"Copy that, Osprey Three," a thin voice crackled back.

"What is the condition of Osprey Actual?"

"Osprey Actual has been relieved of command," Arc said. There was a moment of silence.

"Say again, Osprey Three?"

"Osprey Actual has been relieved of command," Arc repeated.

"What's the status on that evac?"

"Birds are in the air, Osprey Three. Sit tight." For just a moment, he allowed himself to slump back into his ejection seat. It was done, and there was some relief in that. Whatever happened now, he'd made his decision, and he would have to live with it. 𝝮 Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

It took nearly two hours for the Sakers to arrive from the academy—not one, but four of the VTOLs, each rigged to carry a mech beneath it, and with a full complement of medics led by Doctor Nara Seung herself. The entire time they waited, Arc and Pika kept Christina Fortin under watch. They let her eat, and they let her feed Semirye what she could, but they didn't give her any chance to get her flechette rifle—in fact, Arc had ejected the clip, the moment he'd climbed back down from his cockpit.

Nor did they let her get close to the rope ladder which would let Christina climb back into her Outrider. Seung and Lieutenant Commander Libby were the first off the VTOLs, and Arc met them with a salute while Pika kept Christina under guard. Arc's friend had yet to actually stand up, and from time to time Arc caught him swaying.

He might have been wrong, because he hadn't grown up knowing any Alu'kans, but he thought that Pika's eyes were dilated from eating the leaves, and the big man seemed to only hear half of what Arc told him.

"Report," Libby commanded, without preamble.

"Cadet Fourth Class Pika has at least one zombie fly egg somewhere in his chest, beneath the bandaged incision," Arc explained.

"He's been treated with a dose of death root flower to keep it from hatching. Cadet de Ligne has been concussed since yesterday, and is only occasionally conscious."

"Since yesterday?" Seung exclaimed.

"Then why didn't you call it in yesterday?"

"Cadet Fortin was in command at that point," Arc said.

"I made the call for evac as soon as I had relieved her of duty." He felt a bit like he was voluntarily stepping out in front of some archaic firing squad. Libby shot a glare at Arc, then rounded on Fortin.

"Cadet, why did you decline to call for an evac as soon as you had casualties?" he demanded. Doctor Seung, in the meantime, gathered up her medical team and hurried over to Pika and Semirye. She began giving orders, and the area around the sleeping bags became a bustle of activity, but Arc couldn't give his attention to that at the moment. He just had to trust that his friend was in good hands—finally. Christina stood at attention, back ramrod straight, staring ahead woodenly.

"I thought with a night's rest, we could make it back, sir."

"You thought you could make it back." Libby's face was so red, Arc saw, that it looked like his heart might burst at any moment.

"This is not a war zone, Cadet. You are not retreating from a Na'xir assault or stranded on a Singularity world. You're in friendly territory, on a routine patrol, with access to medical care. Why did you put the lives of the soldiers under your command at unnecessary risk?" Christina was silent.

"I asked you a question, cadet," Libby said, stepping forward so that he loomed over her.

"I am invoking my right to silence, sir," Christina said.

"That may be the most intelligent decision you've made yet," Libby growled.

"Get in the Saker." He jerked his hand to the VTOL he'd come on, and turned back to Arc.

"You and your girlfriend are causing me a lot of problems, between the two of you."

"My apologies, sir," Arc said.

"How did Cadet Pika come to have deathroot flower in his system, cadet?" Libby demanded.

"Was that Fortin's decision, too, or was that some other idiocy?"

"I invoke my right to remain silent, sir."

"God-fucking-dammit," Libby growled.

"You're going to have to answer for that, cadet. Are you wounded?"

"No, sir," Arc said.

"Get in your damned mech," Libby said.

"I'll take the Outrider. That way they can take two of those Sakers right back to Academy Hill and get our wounded to the infirmary post-haste. I notice there's no Culverin here? I presume it's been destroyed or some-such nonsense."

"No, sir," Arc said.

"Damaged. We had to leave it because we didn't have a conscious pilot. But I have the coordinates marked for pickup. You just need to watch out for all the zombie flies. It's near an estuary, sir. Right next to a cornibus carcass."

"An estuary." Libby half turned away, looking like he very desperately wanted something to punch.

"Alright. Get in your mech and get your systems online. Don't do anything else until I give you an order."

"Yes, sir." Arc practically fled up his rope ladder, retracted it, and connected to unit seventeen. He watched, with the mech's optical sensors, as Pika and Semirye were loaded onto one of the Sakers. Just as Libby had promised, that was one of the two that left immediately—the other was the VTOL in which Christina had been confined. A tech crew set to work attaching towing cables to Pika's Tyro, while the fourth Saker lifted off, presumably to pick up the abandoned Culverin.

Finally, once everyone else was gone—which took more than an hour—Libby mounted the rope ladder and took a seat in Christina's Outrider. A moment later, Arc's comm crackled to life.

"We are proceeding directly back to the Academy at best speed," Libby said.

"If you know what's best for you, cadet, you won't put so much as a toenail out of line."

"Yes, sir," Arc answered. It was the only thing he could say, really. For most of the day, they ran silently. Libby piloted the Outrider with an ease that would have made Arc envious, if he wasn't terrified about what might happen to him. In fact, he wouldn't have been at all surprised to see Libby maneuver any one of the imperial models that well, whether it was a ground model or built for zero g—or even one of the last gen, obsolete machines, like those used in Duke Montalban's guard.

When they stopped for the night, and made camp, Arc went about his duties without needing to be told. Only once the latrine was dug, the netting and tarps were up, and the chemical repellant pouch had been dumped into the fire did he pick out a ration pouch. Then, he joined Libby at the fire, and sat down to eat.

"The pound cake is still the best," Libby said, after a moment of chewing and swallowing.

"What the hell happened out here, cadet?" There was something in his posture that had relaxed, as if some of the anger had drained out of him during their long march north.

"We found a cornibus kill, and tracked it south to try and get an idea of its range," Arc said, in between mouthfuls.

"It surprised us at the estuary, and charged Semirye's Culverin. I think she would have been alright if the ground under one foot hadn't given out. It was just—bad luck. She went down, and it pounded on her cockpit pretty badly. I didn't know she had a history of concussions at the time," he admitted.

"Christina didn't tell me that until later. I just knew she wasn't getting up."

"Pika climbed out of his cockpit to check on her while we stood watch," Arc said.

"But then the flies swarmed. He threw her over his shoulders and carried her up the ladder into his mech, and when one of them stung him, he killed it with his hand. If anyone deserves to come out of this in one piece, sir, it's him." Libby considered for a moment, while he ate.

"I can understand pulling back to that sea cliff," he said.

"It was a good place to evac from. Up above the foliage, better comm signal. Room for the Sakers to land." Arc nodded.

"I can even see why you tried to get the eggs out right away," Libby went on.

"But the Sakers should have already been in the air by that point." Arc sighed.

"Christina was convinced that we could head back in the morning. I pushed back, but—I should have pushed back harder."

"It's a tough thing, to relieve someone of command," Libby said.

"A frightening thing. But you can't hesitate to do the hard things, Sandhurst. This time, everyone came out alive. They might not have. Either de Ligne or your friend could have died in the night, and you'd have to live with that." Arc lowered his head, and nodded.

"What happens when we get back to the academy sir?"

"Like I said, you're going to have to answer some questions," Libby said.

"There's an argument to be made that you did your best to save a fellow soldier with the resources you had available to you. That's something your judge advocate is going to work out. Certainly be easier if Doctor Seung gets him through this in one piece." For a moment, Arc felt like he couldn't breathe. He remembered that room, with a panel of officers and Sareth Khan all alone, every accusing eye on him. Was that what he had to look forward to?

"Might be a disciplinary hearing, might be a full court martial," Libby went on.

"That's a decision for Commandant Marlowe and Rear Admiral Townshend. All you can do is be honest with your judge advocate, and take whatever comes on the chin. Look em in the eye, you understand? Whatever happens."

"Yes, sir." Arc thought for a moment.

"Do you think they'd let Judge Advocate Courtenay advise me, sir? I at least have met him before."

"I'll put in the request." Libby sighed.

"I think you have potential, son. You got served a shit sandwich here, and everyone's gonna have to take a big bite. I sure as hell hope you learned something from it."

"I can't help wondering if there's something wrong with me," Arc said.

"Some kind of curse following me around. Both patrols I've been on..."

"You can't think like that." Libby shook his head.

"We're soldiers, Sandhurst. Shit goes sideways all the time. You got your people out in one piece, and that's what matters. I think maybe I know one doctor who needs to keep her trap shut about those flowers next year, though." Libby let out a laugh, and somehow, Arc couldn't resist joining in. Once he started, he couldn't stop, like something inside his chest had broken open and the laughter was just pouring out.

Finally, when he was struggling for breath, Libby stood up, came around the fire, and patted him on the back.

"That's just how it is sometimes," the older officer said.

"Sometimes the only thing you can do is laugh." The next day, they made it back to the academy. Once Arc had backed unit seventeen into its hangar, and climbed down from his cockpit, the academy military police were waiting for him. As they walked him past Natalie Ramírez, Arc looked her right in the eye.

"Tell Cassie," he said.