Echoes of War Box Set, page 107
part #1 of Echoes of War Series
“I must say, not quite what I’d expected all around, David,” Angie said to him as they rounded a corner.
“In a good way, I hope?”
“Very good.”
“How long will you be on Canaan?” David asked, hopeful she’d say “a while.”
“Well, my transfer to the political beat came through, so at least the next two years. There is the presidential election winding up after all.”
“The Lion will be here for another six weeks undergoing refits,” David mused.
“You need to get better about being direct with women,” Angie replied while rolling her eyes but grinning at the same time.
“I’m not exactly experienced in that department,” David said, feeling his cheeks begin to grow warm.
“The answer is yes, and next week would be fine.”
David chuckled. “Well, in that case, I’ll vidcall you and set something up.”
“You do that, Mr. Cohen, and don’t leave me hanging,” she said as she opened the door to her helicar by scanning her palm print on the door. “Take care of yourself.”
“Oh, I just have to oversee a refit. You’ll be doing more dangerous work than me for the foreseeable future,” David replied with a grin as he held the car door open for her. He watched as she climbed in.
“Goodnight,” Angie replied as she settled into the helicar.
“Take care,” David answered, not sure what else to say. Well, that’s not entirely true. What I want to do is lean in and kiss her, but it’s only the first date, and I’d better wait. Hah, she’s right. I have no idea what to do in a relationship. That’d be because I’ve never had one. The door to the helicar closed automatically, and it lifted off without barely a sound. He stood there for a few minutes and then walked back to his helicar, a big grin on his face. That was the most enjoyment outside of my job in I can’t remember when, and I didn’t screw it up! There may be hope for me yet.
44
This ground, so hallowed, is at the same time so peaceful. David walked through the sea of white marble crosses, Stars of David, crescents and stars, among other symbols and tombstones. A simple ritual, he carried with him a single red rose to place on Sheila’s grave. He’d been enough times the location of her plot was forever imprinted on his mind. Every time he set foot on Canaan, David tried to visit her; a small gesture but one that carried significant meaning to him.
David came to a halt in front of the tombstone that had been placed on her grave; a simple white cross, it read “Major Sheila Thompson, Coalition Defense Forces Killed in Action 27 July 2560.” Below that was a verse from the Bible. “No one can have greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends—John 15:13.”
He smiled ruefully as he read the inscription; David was happy her parents had chosen it. It summed Sheila up to a T. He laid the rose on top of the tombstone and sat down in front of it. “Well, old friend,” he began, addressing the tombstone. “It’s been too long since I got the chance to visit you. I know you already know what’s been going on down here, but I find some comfort in just coming by and catching up with you.
“We managed to defeat Seville, yet again. But he got away… I’m tired of him getting away. I want him to pay. Your words reverberate in my mind when the hatred I feel for that man roars to the surface, but it’s so hard to push it back down. I don’t understand why God lets him live. I pray every morning that God will deliver us from this scourge.” A tear rolled down David’s cheek. “Oh, I miss you. I miss you every single day. This would be so much easier if you were sitting in the XO’s chair, offering your advice between those wickedly funny barbs.
“Calvin’s gone off the rails too. I worry about him. I covered as best as I could to General MacIntosh, but if he can’t get his head back on straight, I won’t be able to save him. The truth is, I wonder if my head’s on straight. Are any of us mentally well? Thirty years of this war… how any of us have our humanity left is beyond me.” He paused, searching for a different subject. “I finally asked Angie out.” David smiled a bit as he related that information. “And you’ll be happy to know, I didn’t mess up the first date too badly. I don’t know if it’ll work out, but when I think about her, I feel a little less lost. I think you’d like her, if you ever met her. She’s strong, determined, and intelligent. In ways, she reminds me of you. I can sense she’s wrestling inside of her soul with what to believe, and in a way, so am I. I’m no longer sure that God cares about us. Oh, my heart says he does, but my mind isn’t convinced. Why does all this keep happening? I don’t understand.”
David shook his head. “But don’t worry, I’m not giving up. I’ll fight the League to my last breath. The memory of our last conversation sustains me, though I often hope you’ll visit again.” He reached out and touched the tombstone with his hand. “I hope I get to see you again someday, and I pray all of this wasn’t in vain. I keep up the cheery image to everyone else, but with you, I can tell the truth. I’m troubled. I’m terrified we’re going to cut so many corners and break so many moral laws, we’ll end up as bad as the League.
“Colonel Sinclair said something to me last week that really made me think. He said he was a sin-eater when questioned about working outside of the law to accomplish our objectives. I’d never heard the term before, and I looked it up. It's defined as a person that can take on the sins of others. I wonder… is that we become as we kill more and more of our fellow humans? Where does it leave us? I wish I had the answer… but I don’t.”
David sighed and stood slowly. “I’d do just about anything for one more day with you, Sheila. But I want you to know that I’m marching on. One foot in front of the other. I’ll see you soon, one way or another.” He smiled, pursing his lips together. Slowly walking away from the grave, he wiped away the tears. It is worth it. I have to carry on, for the sake of everyone, and if for no other reason than to ensure that Sheila’s sacrifice wasn’t in vain.
Dmitry Borisov, director of the League’s External Security Service, walked down a corridor in the League Imperial Navy compound on Earth, specifically in Geneva, which was part of what had been called Switzerland hundreds of years ago. No Naval officer or enlisted sailor had any idea who he was. He was sure of this because none of them got out of his way. If they knew who I was, they’d know I could have them disappeared at the wave of my hand, along with their entire families and everyone they’ve ever known. He craved the power being the director of their intelligence arm brought him; holding the lives of hundreds of billions of people in his hand was the ultimate thrill.
Without bothering to knock or announce his presence, he entered Admiral Seville’s office, walking wordlessly by his administrative assistant and throwing open the door to his inner sanctum.
Seville glanced up from his desk, his eyes flashing. “Director,” he said as he stood.
“Admiral,” Borisov replied.
“I’ve been expecting you to drop by,” Seville said icily.
“Oh?”
“You’re here to tell me how to run the war, aren’t you?”
Borisov closed the door behind him quietly and walked over to a chair that was in front of the ornate wooden desk and sat down without asking. “You think in such small terms, Admiral.”
“I’d warn you to watch your tongue, but I suspect you don’t care what I think or say.”
“Quite frankly, no, I don’t. You think only of destroying the Terrans and someday taking over the League,” Borisov said, watching Seville’s poker face barely move. “I think about taking over the entire galaxy and displacing our… alien friends.”
“You’re reaching, Director. I serve the Social and Public Safety Committee.”
“The Social and Public Safety Committee is led by a group of old fools,” Borisov replied dismissively. “I’ve nothing but contempt for them. I’ve also little regard for you, except you do seem to have a tactical and strategic mind. Your failing is you’re caught up on defeating these pissant little capitalists we’ve been trying to occupy for so long.”
“The Terran Coalition is the biggest enemy we have,” Seville began before Borisov cut him off.
This idiot can’t see the big picture. Perhaps I can enlighten him. “Admiral, the Terran Coalition, even with their allies, cannot hope to invade our space.”
“If their ideas spread to our outer planets, we could face rebellions. Which would cause us to crumble from within. The League works when everyone has a place, and everyone is in their place.”
“The Terrans are decadent. They try to say everyone can achieve greatness. They call it the human dream, this fantasy that no matter where you’re born, you can get whatever you want out of life if you work for it. Admiral, if you want to win, you’ll work with me.”
“The intelligence community has little to offer,” Seville replied. “The Navy pays for our socialism in blood while the spymasters skulk about in the darkness.”
“You’re fighting a foe that’s a hot air balloon. Knock a hole in the balloon, and it falls to the ground. We must fight them from within. If we pool our resources and abilities, we can use my intelligence network to cause the Terran Coalition to implode from the inside.”
“I find this difficult to believe, Director.”
Borisov smiled thinly. “Everything is interconnected. These primitive religions they have. They weren’t always so friendly and accepting of one another. Old tensions still exist; all we must do is exploit them. Turn them against each other.”
“And you know how to do that?”
“I do.”
“Then what do you need me for?”
“I am but a master of the shadows, as you put it, Admiral. You, on the other hand, have larger ambitions. Let us show the Social and Public Safety Committee the error of its ways, and someday you will attain the position of leadership that you so covet,” Borisov said.
“How would you propose we work together?”
Aha. There we go, the pragmatic side of Seville that wants to rule the League. Eminently exploitable. “For now, encourage our respective staffs to share information, and allow me to develop a finely tuned fifth column campaign inside of the Terran Coalition.”
“You’ll treat me and my officers with the proper respect we are owed, Director,” Seville stated.
Because small men like this must feel like others worship them. “Of course, Admiral.”
“Then I suggest we try to work together,” Seville replied cautiously.
“I think it would best for us, and the League,” Borisov said as he stood. “I’ll have my adjutant reach out to yours and began the process of us… cooperating.”
“Good. We should also meet in person from time to time.”
“I would hope so. I do love an in-person discussion, as opposed to the cold and distant communication afforded by our technological devices. Good day, Admiral.”
After transiting back up to the Lion, as he fully intended to remain onboard during the refit and make sure the repairs were up to his exacting specifications, David found his way to the shul for evening prayers. Donning his yarmulke and tallit gadol, he entered and sat in one of the back pews. There was no one else present; he assumed most of the observant Jews were planet-side, visiting loved ones back on Canaan. Rocking back and forth quietly, he was about to begin reciting the evening prayer when he heard a throat clearing.
“Good evening, Colonel,” Kravitz said, taking a seat next to David in the pew. He too had his prayer shawl and yarmulke on, as would be expected of an Orthodox rabbi.
“Rabbi,” David replied. “Good to see you, as always.”
“How are you doing?”
David shrugged. “It’s been something of a blur, the last few days. The incredible pain of our loss, then the triumph of victory. Throughout it all, the human cost of the battle won’t leave my mind. I can’t shake the questions that plagued me about where God is, and why He lets this carnage continue.”
The old rabbi put his arm around David’s shoulders. “You must trust in Adonai, David. He alone can see us through the trials that will come before the dawn. We all have free will; evil has a free will too. Remember this. God can’t change the rules of the game now.”
“Well, He ought to,” David replied. “I remember being tortured by a League interrogator. Nothing that man could have said or done would have shaken my faith. But now? Seeing Calvin implode, watching all those men and women die under my command… my faith is low.”
“We don’t go through life alone,” Kravitz observed. “God remains with us.”
David glanced over at Kravitz and smiled. “Yeah. That reminds me, I need to thank Private Waters for giving me that word.”
“I’m sure as the commander of this ship, you’ll be able to do so,” Kravitz remarked dryly.
“We live in hope,” David said, equally dryly. “I want someday for it all to end, Rabbi. I want to one day wake up and not have to think of the most efficient ways of killing my fellow humans. That’s what victory looks like for me. For the life of me, I can’t figure out why the League won’t simply leave us alone.”
“Jews have been asking the same question for a very long time, haven’t we?”
David nodded sadly, thinking through the history of the holocaust back on Earth, to the League, and every struggle for rights and equal treatment throughout the ages. “I suppose we have. Which makes the Terran Coalition worth the cost to defend her,” David said, a fire returning to his eyes. “In this place, in this nation, all of us are free. Maybe it’s worth the blood and tears.”
“I think it is,” Kravitz said. “God never said our way would be easy, nor the land flowing with milk and honey would be simple. Personally, I enjoy a challenge,” the old rabbi said, grinning. “Shall we pray?”
David nodded, and the two men bowed their heads.
The next morning, as he walked briskly through the passageways of the Lion, David knew he was about to be late for a meeting with the master chief; for some reason, despite vastly outranking her, the thought of doing so made him shiver. He strode through the open hatch to his office, precisely three minutes after the top of the hour, to find Tinetariro waiting for him, standing in front of his desk. As he entered, she brought herself to attention.
“At ease, Master Chief,” David began, closing the distance quickly to his desk and sliding behind it. “I apologize; the engineering walk-through took a few extra minutes.”
Tinetariro smiled. “Of course, sir. I wasn’t here long.”
“Please, have a seat,” David said, gesturing to the open chair directly in front of his desk.
“I’ve prepared a list of replacement crewmembers and their associated MOSes, sir,” Tinetariro began with, referring to military occupational specialties; ensuring that they had the right mix of soldiers to accomplish the mission. “You’ll find it in your email box with digital sign-offs.”
David nodded. “Thank you, Master Chief. Please send me an updated list of all casualties as well.”
“It’s the next message from me, sir. I included some personal information on each, as you’ve requested in the past.”
“I appreciate it. Writing those letters is the least I can do to honor their sacrifices.”
“We lost a lot of good people in the last week,” Tinetariro commented.
“That we did, and losses on the Lion were exceptionally light compared to other ships, especially the ships that were destroyed. We got lucky and rescued a few half-dead soldiers from the destroyed hulks, but a few of those ships had one hundred percent crew loss rates.”
“I can’t think of a worse way to go. Sitting inside of a half-destroyed starship, waiting to die as the air slowly suffocates you to death,” Tinetariro said while shaking her head.
“I’m with you there. I’d rather it be quick,” David replied. “When the day finally comes,” he continued, staring at Tinetariro for a moment before changing the subject. “On to something a little brighter. How’s the crew’s overall morale?”
“All things considered, exceptional,” Tinetariro answered in her posh British-accented English. “It was touch and go for a couple of days, but taking the station and sending Admiral Seville on his way back to Earth buoyed everyone’s spirits. I think we all recognize the road ahead is going to be difficult… but it’s better to be fighting the League on its turf for once, rather than constantly defending our homes.”
“I can’t fault that line of thinking one bit, Master Chief. Heck, it mirrors my own.”
“If I may, sir, I understand you turned down a promotion to brigadier general,” Tinetariro began before David started to laugh.
“Master Chief, I swear, the RUMINT on this ship is exceptional. Yes, I did. I’ve got no interest in flying a desk… besides, serving with the crew of the Lion of Judah is where I need to be. It’s my home, and all of you are like family. There’s no stepping out on that. I’ll be here until we’re done, or they won’t let me command her anymore.”
Tinetariro broke into a genuine grin. “You have no idea how good it is to hear that, sir. I’d hate to have to break in another senior officer. You’re a stubborn lot.”
David snickered. “I’ll take that as a compliment, Master Chief.”
“Anything else, sir?”
“No, I think we’re good for today…oh, there is one item I wanted to ask you about. Could you send Private Jason Waters down here later this afternoon? I’d like to talk to him about a personal matter.”
Tinetariro’s face clouded over with a grimace. “I’m sorry, sir, but Private Waters was killed in action.”
David’s eyes fell as he frowned. “I see. Do you know how? I wanted to thank him for something he told me.”
“I’m not sure, sir. The truth is, I’m not sure when he was killed. The doctor’s notes are incomplete, and we’re not sure if he died in the first battle or the second. I apologize greatly. I know that’s outside of normal procedures.”
David’s eyes snapped up, and a puzzled look swept over his face. “I spoke to him between the battles, the night of the funeral services.”
