She went back to her desk and sat down, motioning for Jason to sit on her bunk.
He settled down, putting his helmet and gloves down and loosening his survival suit collar.
“Something to drink?”
“I’m flying again shortly. I’ve got to be back aboard ship before the next jump.”
She nodded, and then reached into her desk draw, pulled out a small silver flask. She poured out a cap full, downed it in a single gulp, and then put the flask away. The action shocked him a bit, the Svetlana he remembered would never touch a drink.
“Why did you have to come back into my life now?”
“Janice told me your unit was with this convoy. I couldn’t stay away. Last I heard you were way the hell out past the Niven Section.”
“We got pulled from the front.”
“To go with this convoy to practice exercises in the rear?”
“You’re fishing for information, Jason,” she said, and a smile brightened her features.
He felt a quick tug, her smile could always melt him.
“Well it does seem a bit strange, Svetlana. Nine regiments of marines and a commando battalion getting pulled for landing exercises. Hell, your division had five combat jumps in the last year alone. Last thing you marines need is a milk run practice landing.”
“So you’ve been following our record have you?” and she looked over at him curiously.
“Who hasn’t?” and he realized he had fumbled it yet again. “And besides,” he quickly added, “I knew you were with the unit.”
“Yeah sure, and all filled with concern.”
He lowered his head.
“Anyhow, it does seem a bit strange to be pulling vets off the line, especially with all that talk of another Kilrathi offensive in the works.”
She hesitated for a moment.
“That’s bull. It’s just a security cover.”
She hesitated again.
“There have been too many security leaks. I heard they had some major problems with that on the Concordia.”
“That traitor damned near killed everyone on board. It was before I got transferred there, but they’re still talking about it.”
“By the way, I heard how you handled things on Gettysburg. It took a lot of guts to rebel like that.”
“I wasn’t about to kill unarmed civilians asking for sanctuary, even if they are Kilrathi.”
“They sure as hell did it on Khosan and a hundred other worlds, Jason. I’ve seen the results.”
“Just because we’re fighting in the gutter doesn’t mean we have to get down and wallow in it the way the cats do.”
She smiled sadly and nodded as if he were a child who had yet to grow up.
“I guess I can tell you,” she finally said, her voice dropping to a near whisper. “Your captain’s most likely getting briefed right now by the convoy commandant. Colonel Merritt, my CO, and I just got out of briefing an hour ago. Next jump has been changed. We’re turning about, and doing a high-speed run back through the sector. In three days standard we’re going to jump into Vukar Tag and take the planet.”
“Vukar Tag? Never heard of it.”
“Take a look.” She turned back to her desk and punched up a holo map display of the sector.
Jason watched as she first scrolled through a strategic map and then focused in on the planet, data about the planet’s size and defenses flashing up on the screen.
“I don’t get it,” Jason said softly, “no strategic materials, no juncture point for major jumps, it’s a backwater rock floating in the middle of nowhere.”
“Yeah, I know. It’s a worthless rock in a worthless corner of the Kilrathi Empire, but something’s cooking. We’re taking the planet with a full ground assault and with orders to smash everything on it. Our units received a special assignment to blow a palace complex, though why they need to send us in to do the job when we could smash it from the air is beyond me. The place isn’t fortified and shielding is minimal.”
“Resistance?”
“We’ve been briefed that they’re at least two regiments of Kilrathi Imperial Guard from their 23rd Claw division garrisoned there.”
“Imperial Guard. What the hell for? The planet looks like a crap hole and not worth the cost of a single life.”
“Got me, Jason, but that’s the scoop.”
Janice punched a key and the holo map image dissolved to be replaced by the strike map she had been working on. Jason leaned over and studied the map intently.
“Yeah, I’m still doing air-to-ground strike coordination for the battalion.”
“It must hurt,” he said quietly.
“They figured that with my flight background I was the best one for the job and I’ve been the Talker, the air-to-ground coordinator for the commando battalion, ever since I joined. For this operation I’m working with the Commandant for the entire show, since he’s going in with us.”
She hesitated.
“I’d have made a good pilot. It kills me to watch you hotshots come in and make your runs, me talking you through.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Nothing to be sorry for. I do my job well. I save a hell of a lot of grunts from getting fried, and I get my strikes in where they’re needed. I guess I’ll be your liaison for ground support. You people will be flying combat cover for our sector in the landing. We’re coming straight in on the Imperial Guard barracks area next to the palace.”
“So we’re going with you?”
“That’s the plan.”
“Damn. I barely got my pups flying right in space. Now you’re telling me they’ll be flying atmosphere and doing ground strikes?”
“We’re hooking up with another CVE at jump through but as far as I know Tarawa’s crew has the ground-pounding work.”
“I guess I’d better get back,” Jason said, softly.
“I guess you’d better.”
He stood up, not sure of what to do. She stood up as well, and the two looked at each other awkwardly.
“If only you’d stayed with the fleet, or simply gotten out, I’d have married you,” Jason said. “But there was no sense to it. It’d have been years before we saw each other again.”
“And it has been years,” she sighed.
He stepped forward, ready to take her up in his arms but she backed away.
“It’s over, Jason.”
“Someone else then?” he asked, his voice suddenly cold.
“None of your damned business. And what about you, Jason? With that little boy smile I bet more than one ensign has melted for the chance to claim a fighter pilot.”
“None of your damned business, either.”
She looked at him coldly.
“Get the hell out of my room and don’t come back.”
CHAPTER IV
“That’s the mission then, any questions?”
Jason looked around the room, feeling a deep sense of uneasiness. His pilots were of course displaying the expected level of excitement, this was after all the virgin mission for everyone in this room except for Doomsday, Janice, and himself—and that was exactly why he was worried. He would have preferred another month or two of training first, several more quiet convoy runs to polish their skills, but that, quite simply, was not going to be the case. There never seemed enough time to get ready when a war was on.
Svetlana was right on the mark. Less than an hour after he had returned to the Tarawa, O’Brian called a staff meeting to brief them on the reassignment. The captain could barely conceal his displeasure, and made more than one passing reference to half-baked, last-minute ideas, but Jason instantly picked up as well that O’Brian was miffed that he had been kept in the dark that the story of a training mission was nothing more than a security cover for this mission.