Illuminae (The Illuminae Files #1)(36)
Chau, A, Capt: Jesus, David, two days ago you were unwilling to let my people near your systems. And now you’re telling me they can’t stop?
Torrence, D, Gen: Is it any wonder I was reluctant to allow your people access, given the current circumstances?
Chau, A, Capt: My crew are civilians. They’re under MY command. I will NOT allow them to participate in an action that places my ship and personnel in danger.
Torrence, D, Gen: Then they’re not civilians anymore.
Chau, A, Capt: What?
Torrence, D, Gen: I’m conscripting your commtech staff into the UTA, effective immediately. You will have them assembled on your main hangar deck and ready to depart in 30 minutes. A shuttle is being sent to get them.
Chau, A, Capt: You can’t do this.
Torrence, D, Gen: A full complement of UTA Marines will accompany the shuttle and help escort your personnel back to Alexander. I would recommend you refrain from resistance.
Chau, A, Capt: David, think this through, please
Torrence, D, Gen: 30 minutes.
Torrence, D, Gen: Centrum tenenda. Torrence out.
INCEPT: 07/28/75 (06:58 shipboard time)
LOCATION: Wallace Ulyanov Consortium Science Vessel Hypatia
OFFICER IDENT: Winifred McCall (UTN-961-641id)
RANK: First Lieutenant
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At 02:07 (shipboard time) on 07/28/75, Sigma Squad and I were scrambled to a Code Blue alert issued by Alexander command staff. Squad mustered in a timely fashion to deck 146, where we were briefed by General Torrence.
The boss looked tired. More tired than I can ever remember seeing him.
Sit-rep: Hypatia’s commtech crew had been forcefully conscripted into the UTA after an (unspecified) act of espionage instigated by Hypatia officers. A shuttle was being sent to bring the conscripts back to Alexander where our TechEng crew could keep closer watch on them.
My boys were still jumpy after the incident in Hangar Bay 4, but my vets had more experience than the Alexander’s other marines, so we were up. Having lost McNulty, Henderson, Parker, Montano and Gandolfini, I had no choice but to put my Kerenza rookies in the firing line. Corporal Sykes had been in a darker mood than usual since Bay 4—if it was up to him, I’m sure he’d have flushed every civi in the fleet out an airlock.
“We expecting resistance, boss?” he asked.
“Negative,” Torrence replied. “These are civilians, they’ll do what they’re told. Still, you’re packing hot ballistics. The chipheads are off-limits, but if anyone else is stupid enough to get in your way, you be the push that makes them move.”
Sykes’s smile put ice in my belly. “Roger that, sir.”
“Sir,” I asked. “Aren’t we there to pacify rather than neutralize?”
“You are there, Lieutenant, to bring back personnel vital to fleet operations. If we didn’t need all our own people, I’d have already brigged Hypatia’s commanders and replaced them with UTA personnel. So if anyone gets in your way, they are to be considered enemy combatants and dealt with accordingly. Is that understood?”
“Sir, yessir.”
“Good hunting.”
On the way down to Hangar Bay 1, we passed the airlock to Bay 4. I tried my best not to think about the man trapped inside it, the people beyond it. Who they were and what they’d become. The gold UTA sigil on my sleeve caught the light of the alert globes spinning above the sealed doors. Red as the blood on my hands.
The trip across to Hypatia was taken in complete silence. I should’ve been talking to my people, making sure they were chill. I could barely stop my teeth from chattering. One of my Kerenza rooks was looking at me—Doherty was her name. Staring from behind her wire-rimmed spectacles like I had the answers. I kept my eyes to the floor. Spoke to no one in particular.
“Follow my lead. Do not fire unless I give the order. The first itchy trigger on my watch gets to learn what the outside of an airlock tastes like, crystal?”
“Ma’am, yes ma’am!” came a dozen barks.
We came into Hypatia’s docking bay at hard burn. The artificial grav kicked back in and dropped me into my seat and I was up and out of it before I could get cozy. If I’d let myself, I’d have stayed there forever—buckled in tight and wondering how it came to this.
I spoke to the pilot as we touched down. “Kilpatrick, keep engines running. We may need to jet quick.”
“Affirmative, LT.”
“All right,” Sykes barked to the squad. “Suit up, let’s roll.”
Out the shuttle door and across the bay, the stink of fuel and char in my mouth. Patching myself into the local Command frequency and speaking through gritted teeth.
“Hypatia, this is First Lieutenant Winifred McCall from UTA Marine Squad Sigma. We are here to escort Hypatia commtech personnel in accordance with Alexander Command directives. Please open internal hangar bay doors, over?”
“Lieutenant McCall, this is Captain Chau of the Hypatia, over.”
“Roger that, Captain, I read you. Please open internal hangar bay doors, over.”
“Negative, Lieutenant. You’re not taking my people.”
I tried not to sigh then. Tried not to acknowledge I knew exactly how she felt to have one of my guys ripped away from me, or remember McNulty’s face as that airlock slammed closed.
“They’re not your people anymore, Captain. They’re UTA conscripts. Now you can open these doors, or the plasma missiles on our shuttle can open them for you.”