I spent some time with my thoughts before returning to the reception. At first I thought it must have ended, so quiet was the room, but then I heard a sweet, almost ethereal voice start to sing. The Coridians had an incredible fascination with our music and everyone knew that Julie had the best voice most of us had ever experienced; so I shouldn’t have been surprised to realize that it was her voice we were all so captivated with. Except for a few Coridian males that were glancing around apparently trying to figure out what all the fuss was about everyone in the room, Largan, Coridian, and Earther alike, were mesmerized. I found myself activating one of the new devices Major Reagan had given me, a holo-recorder. I wanted to remember this.
With everyone begging her for a song she had chosen one made famous many years ago by a singer named Mariah Carey. It was called ‘Hero.’ Julie’s eyes found me in the crowd and although something in my eye was keeping me from seeing perfectly I could have sworn she was looking only at me when she sang the last line; something about finally realizing that there was a hero inside of me…
Chapter 33
Major Mathew Reagan, US Army
“For the first time since this mission started I’m finally in a situation I was trained for,” said Major Mike ‘Iron Jaw’ Reynolds.
We were sitting in the quarters the Coridians had assigned me in their ring above the Protectorate Planet Larga. We’d just arrived earlier that day, met the Largans, and finally gotten a message off to Earth. It was a tremendous burden off my shoulders; now at the very least I’d done my duty to warn the world of the true alien threat. I’d had nightmares about not being able to get a message home and then arriving at Earth to find it was too late.
I’d thought I would feel better once I’d relieved that burden but why then did I still feel tied-up in knots?
Now that most everyone else had retired for the night I’d pulled Iron Jaw in for a private planning session.
“I’m glad somebody feels that way,” I responded.
“Well, Dr. Schein kind of put it in perspective for me when she talked about taking out the Noridian ship. Frankly Matt, I’ve been so consumed with either the immediate needs of keeping everyone alive or the long term challenge of Noridia swallowing Earth that I was overlooking the obvious next step - that Noridian ship that Jaki controls can decimate Earth’s defenses. Julie’s right, it has to be taken out before we can do anything else.”
Few commanders were instinctively good at both strategic and tactical thinking. It was easy to focus on the big picture and lose sight of the immediate next step or conversely, not be able to think about anything other than staying alive for the next 24 or 48 hours. Command school focused on this challenge and Mike was making the kind of admission that few combat commanders would make - and it wouldn’t be happening now if Mike didn’t trust me to both understand and to make good decisions.
“Listen Mike, you’ve done pretty well so far and I trust your judgment. As a matter of fact that’s a big reason we need to talk; I need to make some decisions.”
I continued, “I’ll admit I was relieved to hear back from the Coridians on Earth that Jaki hasn’t arrived yet. I’m pretty confident that Silva’s people got our message through to the President but I’ve been worried about what type of orders might come back through the pipeline. I have no idea if Colonel Memphis or Dr. Helmer have been sending messages back home but if they’ve convinced everyone that we’re the rogue element we could be facing orders to stand down.”
“Now wouldn’t that be a pretty pickle,” responded Major Reynolds.
“If those orders to stand down did come through,” I continued. “I’m thinking I would have to disregard them.”
There was a long silence while we both leaned back in our chairs and looked at the ceiling, or looked at anything else other than each other. I needed to know where Mike stood. Even though he was good at playing the ‘I’m only a simple soldier’ act you don’t reach his rank and carry his command record without being able to make tough decisions. He knew exactly what I was asking him and he wasn’t going to give me an answer until he’d thought it through.
The US military had for decades now trained a doctrine of individual initiative. Unlike the old Soviet or Chinese Armies where even high ranking commanders were afraid to make important decisions (even critical on-the-spot improvisations while in the throes of combat were ‘discouraged’), the US military encouraged everyone working autonomously in the field—at any rank - to assess, adapt, and overcome changing obstacles and circumstances. This versatility was a major reason for many US military victories going back as far as WWII and beyond.
Of course, ‘autonomous’ was the key word. If your ranking superior was standing next to you and had access to the same tactical information as you did you had better obey his or her orders—because disobeying a direct order was an oath-breaking career ender except for the most extreme of circumstances.
I was telling Mike that I was prepared to disobey a direct order; possibly from the President of the United States herself.
After a long while Mike started talking. “It’s true that we’re in a unique position to know the Noridian’s true agenda but we’ve forwarded that information to our government and we can’t know what other information the President might be privy to that we’re ignorant of. We have no legal right to disregard her orders.”
After a pause he continued, “On the other hand, disinformation is at the core of the Noridian aggression and they will soon have a ship in Earth orbit that poses a clear and present danger to our cities and our military infrastructure - and they have clearly demonstrated their willingness to use that force against us. We will be, for a short window of time, maybe the only ones on Earth in a position to remove that threat - and our actions could very well be considered a continuation of our defense against their unprovoked attack on Stiger.”
I was somewhat hopeful that Mike might find a way to rationalize taking out the Noridian ship, perhaps something as simple as telling me not to inform him of any such differing orders, but he surprised me with what he said next.
“I’ve spent my whole career trying to stay out of politics yet it’s affected me it at every turn. Whether it’s watching good troops die in a war that nobody with a straight face can give a good reason for us fighting or as simple as watching a numbnutz like Memphis get promoted for how many asses he can kiss.
“This is probably the first time in my entire career that it’s totally black and white for me; the first time that I don’t feel the need to wonder about the motivations or just need to take for granted the justice of our mission. I’m going to do everything in my power to take out that ship and I don’t care if I have to kick ass on the Noridians, the Coridians, or even the Joint Chiefs and the White House itself.
“Matt, I told you back on Stiger that I was willing to follow your lead,” he continued. “And I still am but I need to know if you’re as committed as I am—even if we have to protect our planet from threats both foreign and domestic.”
Now we were looking each other in the eye and he took my extended hand and sealed our compact.
“We need to get back to Earth as fast as possible but there are a few things we need to do first.”
I was talking to the group I had assembled in my quarters the next morning. Among others that included Iron Jaw and Captain Garvais (his second in command), Dr. Spencer, Dr. Spelini, and Dr. Decker, Silva, Toni, Semi, and Ashima, Captain Hiromi and of course Julie.