“Enter.”
Rear Admiral Reynolds called as he heard a rap at the hatch of his office. Scarecrow and Major Cooper ducked through the entrance and saluted.
“As you were,” the rear admiral said. He stared at the wraith-like display of his tablet for a moment, a scowl of intense concentration on his face. Then he looked up at his officers and offered them a broad smile. He stood and walked out from behind his desk and stopped in front of his tablet to obscure the monitor like a winning poker hand he wasn’t ready to divulge.
“I just got off the comm with Admiral Maddox …” he said as he paused for effect, “…congratulations, you two. It appears you’re getting married.”
Reynolds stepped aside and spun the tablet around for them to see. They looked at the screen, containing their approval forms. Sandy gasped as she covered her mouth with her hands, then turned and threw her arms around Scarecrow, who reciprocated with a profound smile. They turned to the rear admiral.
“Thank you, Sir. That’s the best news we’ve had in a very, very long time.” Scarecrow offered his hand. Reynolds shook it with enthusiasm.
“What he said, Sir,” Cooper added.
“That was fast,” Scarecrow said. “We only submitted our requests two days ago. It usually takes months for these things to worm their way through the system. I’d have thought it would take even longer with everything going on right now. The threat of invasion and all.”
“I was a bit surprised myself. But it appears you two have an advocate. Don’t thank me. Thank Lieutenant Vickers.”
“Sir? They spoke in unison, both flashing a puzzled expression.
“It seems,” Reynolds said, “that Lindsay saw your request, Steve. As Tom’s aide, she handles everything that comes across his desk. Her father rubber-stamped your request, probably because of you rescuing Lindsay.” Reynolds paused, his countenance morphing to one more somber. “However, General Patrick wasn’t so eager. He initially rejected it. Something about marriage being a distraction.” The rear admiral rolled his eyes as he shook his head.
“Yeah, Hutch figured as much. He warned me about the General.”
“When Lindsay heard of it, she went to Tom and made an impassioned plea. He went to Mike and they argued for almost an hour. Mike was adamant, but so was Tom. He wouldn’t relent.”
“The General dug in his heels and wouldn’t budge. He stated that you were too important an asset, Sandy, being the commanding officer of the Marine company stationed onboard the flagship of the fleet, and that he needed you to be able to focus on your job without martial entanglements.
“Apparently it got pretty heated, and they could be heard all the way from Mike’s office to the foyer. Maddox reminded Patrick over and over that we owed you for everything you’ve done, Steve. Mike warned Tom that if he had to hear about you destroying a BCMS singlehandedly one more time, he was going to pull out what was left of his hair.”
Everyone smiled.
“And then Tom warned him that if he didn’t capitulate, there might be the very real possibility we could lose you both. That you’d end up going AWOL, elope and seek a civilian wedding back on Earth. That put it over the top. Patrick signed off, although he warned Maddox there would be hell to pay if it ended up ruining the best company commander he had.”
At the compliment, Cooper softened.
“Bottom line, thanks to Lindsay and her father going to bat for you, I hear wedding bells.” Reynolds smiled once more.
“Sounds like we dodged a bullet, Sir.” Scarecrow sighed as he looked over at his fiancé.
The rear admiral moved back around his desk and sat. He peered at his display for a moment. “So, now we have to choose a date for you,” Reynolds said.
“I’m sorry, Sir. We?” Cooper’s brow knit.
“As your commanding officer, I have to approve the date of your wedding. I thought we could have it aboard Nautilus, since you’re both stationed here. It would give the crew a much-needed boost. How does the 23rd sound?”
“Boy, no moss grows under anything around here,” Scarecrow said with a smile.
“Yes. The 23rd is perfect,” Cooper replied, adamant.
“Will that give you enough time for preparations?”
“We’ll make it work, Sir,” she said as she looked at Scarecrow.
“That’s only three weeks away,” Scarecrow said. “You’re okay with that?”
“Lover, I would marry you right here, right now if the admiral would agree to it.”
Now it was Reynolds who was surprised. “Let’s not get hasty, Major. I think the 23rd will suit all of us much better.” He stood once more. “Sandy, you can return to your duties and start planning your wedding. The Commander and I have another, unrelated matter to discuss.”
“As long as it doesn’t involve kegs of beer and peelers.” She cast a warning glance at Scarecrow.
He threw up his hands in self-defense. “The thought never even crossed my mind,” he said.
“Nor mine,” Reynolds agreed. “No, this is official business. You’re safe with the two of us, but I would watch out for some of the junior officers in the air wing. They may have other plans.”
Hutch arrived at the rear admiral’s office shortly after Cooper left, surprised to find Scarecrow already there.
“Before we begin, Steve has an announcement,” Reynolds said as he smiled at his CAG. “Go ahead and tell him. Or should I?”
“Our requests to get married have been approved.” Scarecrow tried to appear as nonchalant as possible.
“Woo-hoo!” Hutch shouted as he gave his friend a violent bear hug. “Way to go, buddy. Congratulations.” Hutch’s smile faded. “Be wary of some of the other pilots and their crews. Scuttlebutt is they’re planning a boomer for you. I even heard rumors about a sortie to Vegas. Something about the Mandalay.”
“You better shut that down, CAG,” the rear admiral replied. “I warned Cooper about such antics, and for good reason, I can see.”
“Perhaps we should put the bachelor party plans on hold for the time being, and get back to the business of squashing snakehead snake-heads,” Scarecrow said. “What’ve you got, Sir?”
“It appears you two are taking a little side-trip. You’re going to do some moonlighting.”
“Oh? Do tell?” Hutch’s interest was piqued.
“Remember a few weeks back I got a call from Admiral Stanton on Oleander?”
“Yeah, that rogue saucer harassing her Boat,” Scarecrow replied.
“It turns out the saucer is back. It took out two of her birds when they tried to engage it, and then re-broadcast its demand for you to show up.” He nodded at Scarecrow.
“Black Bart.” Scarecrow’s countenance darkened at the news of losing two TR-3Bs and their crews.
“Oleander’s CAG engaged it with two more birds, but it splashed them and the CAG barely made it out with his life.”
Scarecrow was silent.
“You two are going to deadhead it on Destrier out to Oleander and deal with this threat. Louise doesn’t want to risk any more of her pilots and their crews. She’s requested you take care of him for her.” He motioned to Scarecrow. “You’re our top pilot, so she wants you to eliminate the threat. I’m sending Hutch with you.”
“No need, Sir. I can handle this threat by myself.”
“I’m sure you can, but when are you going to learn that’s not how we operate? I don’t care if this is Black Bart, there are no cowboys, especially ‘Lone Rangers’ allowed on my ship, remember?”
“Aye, Sir. But Nautilus needs her CAG–”
“Hutch is going with you. End of discussion.” Reynolds’ tone was hard. He softened as he continued. “He’s your CAG too, and I don’t want you facing this threat alone. As we already discussed, this could be a trap. I want Hutch to watch your six.”
“Aye, Sir.” Scarecrow sighed.
“How’s this gonna play out, Skipper?” Hutch asked.
“We have to finish loading all the equipment for Mars. That’ll take another two days.”
“Longer than you anticipated, eh?”
“I know. I promised Louise I would deliver you two by now, but she’s going to have to wait a bit longer, I’m afraid.
“Tomorrow, another company of Marines will be transporting over from LOC. Finally, we’ll head for Mars and offload all the equipment and personnel. That will take another three days. While we’re doing that, Destrier is already there. Admiral Lopez has just dropped off another Marine company from Deep Space Platform One and he’s waiting for you. He’ll pick you up and run a speed course for Neptune to rendezvous with Oleander. From there you’ll use two of Louise’s birds, since we’ll need yours here to continue defensive counter air with crews from your air wing. Then you’ll deal with Black Bart. It’ll take you three days to get there, but I told Louise that was the best we could do.” He stared at his pilots. “Take your flight crews with you and get back here as soon as possible. I don’t want to be without the two best pilots in the fleet for too long.”
Just then, the comm chirped.
“Comm to Admiral Reynolds.”
“This is Reynolds. Go ahead.”
“Sir, I have a message coming in from Captain Nakamura of the Parallax. He’s says it’s urgent.”
“Pipe it down here, Lieutenant.”
“Aye, Sir.”
“You two may as well stay and hear this. It may be pertinent.” Reynolds keyed up the message on his tablet and spun it around so his two officers could see it. He rose and walked around his desk to stand between them, then tapped the accept message icon on his ethereal screen. Captain Nakamura’s face flashed on the monitor.
“Reynolds here. What can I do for you, Ken?”
“Your two boy wonders are there–good. Admiral, we’ve got a situation here. I’d love to get you and your pilot’s read on it.”
“Go ahead. We’re standing by to assist.”
“Well, it’s the craziest thing. It appears I have a stowaway. Actually, three of ‘em.”
At Nakamura’s declaration, realization flashed across Scarecrow’s face. “A reptilian and his two little gray-skinned cronies.”
“You’re good,” Nakamura replied with a nervous chuckle. “And you’re right. They’ve been wreaking havoc for days, sabotaging my carrier every opportunity they get. We initially thought it was just incompetence on the part of the crew, but then people started to go missing. Security began a sweep of the ship, and we found them holed up in an access port, surrounded by body parts!”
“Do you have them in custody?” Reynolds asked.
“Custody? No! That snakehead ate four of my crew! Then it killed three more of my security team before we finally brought it down. I’m going to have its head removed and mounted on the bulkhead in my office. Right above my daishō!”
“That’s unfortunate, Captain,” Hutch said. “If you’d taken it alive, you could have interrogated it. It may have provided us with important intel.”
“Intel? You’re worried about intel, CAG? You didn’t see what it did to my crew. It ate four of them. Not to mention the havoc it wreaked on my systems with its little minions, running all over my ship, pulling plugs, opening valves, and stealing vital components. We’re lucky we didn’t self-destruct from something going critical.”
“How can we help you?” Reynolds asked.
“Have your boys put on their thinking caps on and figure out how this trio of Kaijū got onboard my ship. Then figure out why, aside from sabotage.”
“They transported onboard,” Scarecrow said. “From one of those mother ships you destroyed in the Luhman system.”
“But how–”
“It makes sense.” Scarecrow added. “When was the last time you had any contact with the enemy?”
“It’s been several months.”
“Then that’s got to be it, Captain.”
“Except you’re forgetting that the transporter can’t operate through shields,” Hutch said. “Neither ours nor theirs. And am I correct in assuming that your shields were up during your attack on the mother ships, Sir?”
“Yes. They were at full power.”
“Then that would preclude any opportunity for them to transport over during your engagement, Sir,” Hutch said. “Was there any time that your shields were down?”
“No. We dropped out of FTL with our shields up. At no time were they lowered. Not even for a moment.”
“You said that you destroyed two of the mother ships with the improvised depth charges, correct?” Scarecrow asked.
“Yes.”
“And the other two when they exited the atmosphere?”
“What are you getting at, Commander?”
“What kind of shock waves did you experience when the mother ships were destroyed?”
“Pretty severe, I can tell you that.”
“So is it possible, that maybe, just maybe, your shields fluttered or fluctuated, even for a second or two when you were struck by those shock waves? Maybe just long enough for the big lizard and his two little helper monkeys to squeak through?”
“I guess it may be possible–”
“Ken, check your power readout logs,” Reynolds said. “See if what the commander is suggesting is so. Then check for a power spike from one of the mother ships during the moment you were struck by the shock waves. If you find one, then you have your answer.”
“Yeah, but Admiral,” Hutch said, “the shock wave would have hit Parallax after the mother ship exploded. They would have been destroyed before they had the opportunity to activate their transporter.”
“Not if there was a portion of the ship that was still intact after the initial detonation,” Scarecrow replied. “Large enough to house the transporter, still functional, at least long enough for the three of them to jump over to you.”
“This is all just wild speculation!” Captain Nakamura said. “I need a solid explanation how this snakehead got on my ship. We need to find how they did it, so we can take steps to make sure they’re not able to do it again.”
“Or what if they’ve figured out a way to transport through our shields?” Scarecrow said.
“That’s a scary thought,” Reynolds replied as he glanced over at his pilot. “If they can accomplish that, they could park a mother ship right beside us, then transport troops over at their discretion. They could overrun us anytime they pleased.”
“That is a scary thought,” Hutch agreed.
“We’re forgetting that you still have a saboteur on your ship,” Scarecrow said. “He may have manipulated the shield frequency so the snakehead and his minions could beam over before the mother ship was completely destroyed. I would check your shield logs and see if the frequency was tampered with at the moment of transport.”
“The spy could have transmitted the shield frequency, so there wouldn’t be any evidence of manipulation in the logs,” Reynolds said. “You need to find that spy. Find him and interrogate him. Then you’ll have your answer.”
“Y’know Captain, this gives me an idea.” Scarecrow said with a knitted brow.
“I like it when you say that.” Hutch smiled. “Snakeheads have a tendency to get dead when you have ideas. We should change your call-sign to ‘Mongoose.’”
“Care to elaborate, Commander?” Reynolds asked.
“Not just yet. I need to do some research first. And I need to hear what Captain Nakamura discovers.”
Scarecrow turned to face his CAG. “And if it’s all the same to you, thanks, but I’ll stick with ‘Scarecrow.’”