Ascendant (Book 2) by Jack Campbell

Author:Jack Campbell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Titan Books

9

None of them disputed her statement. Mele hadn’t expected any of them to do that, but she had wanted to see how they reacted. To see if any of her new Marines suggested abandoning the militia to their fate. Anyone who would do that might later decide to abandon their fellow Marines.

But they just sat, quietly absorbing her words or looking toward the militia.

“We can try teaching them a few things,” Yoshida finally suggested. “How long do we have?”

Mele nodded approvingly before checking the time on her pad. “We’ve got two hours left before the estimated time the invasion fleet gets close enough to the planet to start dropping shuttles.”

“When will they try to send shuttles here, Captain?” Buckland asked.

“You know, I may look like I know everything, but I don’t.” Mele tried looking for information in some other parts of Major Brazos’s command net. “Ah, this will help. It’s a look at the outside, where the ships are operating. There’s the enemy destroyer. If Commodore Geary is right, when that destroyer lines up to hit Shark, it will be our warning that the enemy is about to send shuttles here.”

Corporal Giddings looked up from his own pad and around at the food stalls. “Excuse me, Captain,” he said as he got up.

“What’s he up to?” Mele asked Corporal Gamba as they watched Giddings walk quickly to an unobtrusive stall whose lack of decoration implied either a bare-bones operation or one so well-off that it could ignore the need to try to impress potential customers.

After a couple of minutes, Giddings walked back, unsuccessfully trying to look casual despite the bulging bag he was now carrying.

“Open up,” Mele ordered. Inside the bag was . . .

“Chocolate,” Lamar whispered.

Mele pulled out one of the bars and examined it. “Old-Earth-origin chocolate. Do you rob banks on the side, too? How much do these things cost?”

“They told us everything was on the house,” Giddings said defensively.

“These are all the bars they had?”

“Yes, Captain. I was able to remotely pop the lock on their storage.”

Corporal Gamba spoke up. “We shouldn’t leave them for the enemy, Captain. That would be wrong.” The other enlisted Marines nodded in solemn agreement.

“It would be,” Mele agreed. She looked around the food court, counting the militia members present. “Giddings, you and Gamba divide up those bars into enough pieces for everyone in this area.”

“Everyone?” Lamar asked plaintively.

“Yeah, everyone.” Mele stood up to attract attention. “Hey! Kosatka militia! Come on over. We got something special here.”

As the militia and the Marines shared the unexpected feast, Mele was able to speak to Kosatka’s defenders. She knew people like them. She’d led people like them. The similarities with the eager and naïve enthusiasm and the worries and barely hidden fears of those Mele had trained and commanded three years before were painful, calling up memories of the ones who hadn’t survived. She wondered how well she was hiding the reactions those memories were creating in her.

Like other newly settled worlds out here, the

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