Нэнси Кресс - Terran Tomorrow

“All right, I get it. For somebody just out of anesthetic, you’re very articulate. You’re going to direct the whole operation from this bed, aren’t you?”

“I’m going to get up.”

“No, you’re not. Not yet. Speaking of Farouk, she and Marianne are desperate to see you. Something about equations.”

“Equations can wait. Send the guard for Major Duncan, please. And send in Sergeant Hillson, if he’s out there.”

“Of course he’s out there—when is Hillson not ready to do whatever you need him for?”

But I wasn’t sure this time. He didn’t say it aloud. Instead he said, knowing that he was begging, “Lindy?”

She shuddered, a long visible jerk the entire length of her body. She still scowled: his prickly, independent, maddening wife. If she refused, if the past lay too heavily between them for her to overcome it, he didn’t know if he had the heart to colonize World. The will, yes, but maybe not the heart.

“Lindy, I need you. Desperately. And I love you. I always have, despite… everything. Your choice is your own, but…” He couldn’t finish. All he could do was hope.

“Yes,” she said, her voice thick. “I’ll go with you. You seem to keep needing a doctor.”

He fumbled for her hand, but she snatched it away. “Not now—neither of us has time. I love you, you idiot. Now I’ll get Hillson. Do not try to get up!”

He stayed flat in bed, although he hated it. Pain mounted steadily in his side; he tried to ignore it. Hillson, who seemed to have aged ten years since yesterday, said, “Sir, Major Duncan asked me to make a report to you, she’s directing the evacuation. Lieutenant Li went back to the signal station, and the Return reports that the convoy from Fort Hood is maybe six days out.”

“Moving too fast.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Go ahead, Sergeant.” It hurt even to lie still, to focus on what Hillson was saying. How much blood had Jason lost? Tubes ran into him in various places, but none of them were red. So maybe he had all the blood he needed. It would be nice to have all of something he needed.

“The Awakened, military and civilian, were all talked to by Dr. Jenner and Ms. Ka^graa, and given the chance to ask questions about World. We have nine Awakened troops, including Corporal Porter, who attacked Dr. Jenner.”

“Porter is still drugged?”

“Yes, sir. As per your orders.”

“Who shot me?”

“Private Perry.”

A perpetual troublemaker , Hillson had said weeks ago. Jason didn’t have to ask what had happened to Perry; he knew. You did not get to shoot your commanding officer in front of J Squad and live.

Hillson continued, “All eight soldiers have agreed to be transported to World. You wanted agreement, sir.”

“I did.” Hillson had wanted only orders: This unit is being deployed. But this was hardly a normal deployment.

“Three of them have family members here, who will also go. Of the remaining troops, those whom you are allowing to choose deployment or separation from the service, the division is about fifty-fifty.”

That surprised Jason. He’d expected far fewer to choose World. A sudden pain seared his side; briefly he closed his eyes.

“Sir?”

“Continue, Sergeant. The officers?”

“Major Duncan, of course. Captain Goldman. Lieutenant Li.”

None with a choice; they were all coconspirators.

Hillson continued, “Lieutenant Allen. Lieutenant Parker and some of her nurses. The rest—captains Frazier, Gardner, Vargas, and Sullivan and Major Holbrook—all are staying here. Majors Sullivan and Vargas are furious that you released the birds and that you’re going to destroy the dome. I have a detail loading up scientific equipment onto a FiVee under their direction.”

“Go on,” Jason said.

Hillson spieled off more names, finishing with, “The civilian Awakened are… in a lot of disagreement.”

Of course they were. “Who else will leave?”

“All the aliens, of course.”

Jason would never get Hillson to think of them as anything but aliens. But Jason was relieved that Jane agreed; she might have tried to stay with Colin. But on second thought, perhaps Jane, with her increased insight, understood better than any of them.

“Dr. Jenner and Dr. Farouk agree to go, of course. Also Dr. McKay—his wife and child are both Awakened. He’s not happy, but he’ll go. Also some of the civilian scientists who are not Awakened, and a lot of the civilian base staff. They don’t want to try to live here without the base. A child, Devon James, is still in a coma, and his parents have finally agreed to go with him, but they’re not happy. In total, a hundred and three people have agreed to leave Earth. But some of the Awakened are saying they won’t go.”

“Who are… the holdouts.” Damn, he hadn’t expected to be this tired so soon. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t been shot before, in Congo. But he’d been younger, and hopped up on combat drugs, and not striving to move an entire Army base off-planet.

Hillson said, “Holdouts among the Awakened are two Settlers, one parent of a Settler girl still in coma, and Dr. Steffens.”

That shocked him. “Toni Steffens?”

“Yes, sir. She wants to stay here and continue her bird experiments. And to keep her wife here. The wife is in a coma.”

Jason thought rapidly. He hated the only alternative he saw. Toni Steffens was so intelligent, so stubborn, so commanding that Jason would have hated to face her in battle. But she could not stay. “Have her straitjacketed by force, and then drugged. Get Holbrook to do it, on my orders, with whatever troops it takes. She gets put on the ship, along with Nicole.”

“Yes, sir. Dr. Patel wants to stay here. She wants to go with the new Settlement your brother is planning.”

A loss. But Jason had allowed the choice, Claire had not been in a v-coma, and Colin’s people would need a doctor.

Hillson said, “Your father is going with the new Settlement, too.”

Expected.

Hillson coughed. “I haven’t talked to Dr. Ross.”

“Dr. Ross has agreed to go with us.”

Hillson nodded. “Yes, sir. About the Settler child in v-coma and her parents…”

“They have to go. Put the kid aboard the ship under armed guard and the parents will board. The other two Settlers get the same treatment as Dr. Steffens.” Colin was going to have a fit. Jason didn’t like it, either; he was kidnapping two families. But he had no choice. “Do it as quietly as you can, Hillson. And as soon as you can.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Good job, Hillson. Has the… Return … landed?”

“Should I get the doctor? You’re—”

“I’m… fine. The ship?”

“She’s landed, sir. Supplies are being loaded. The deserters… sorry, sir, the evacuees are being given transport and supplies and weapons. They leave tomorrow.”

“Good. Hillson… you didn’t name yourself.”

Hillson straightened, which would have seemed impossible given that he was already straighter than a rifle barrel. His homely face looked even more wooden than usual. “I go with the United States Army, sir.”

Cold slid down Jason’s spine. “Which army? Staying or going?”

“You are my CO, sir. You are deploying this unit. I go where you send me.”

“Thank you,” Jason said, and Hillson scowled at the breach of protocol, the gross violation of chain of command, as he had not outright scowled at any of the other fantastic and unprecedented things Jason had said so far.

Lindy bustled in, took one look at Jason, and said to Hillson, “Out. Now.”

Jason said, “I have people to—”

“No, you don’t. Not yet. I shouldn’t have even allowed Hillson in. Bye, Sergeant.”