Enterprise 06 - The Expanse (c) by Star Trek

Author:Star Trek [Star Trek]
Language: deu
Format: epub
Tags: \Star Trek
Publisher: Pocket Books
Published: 2011-01-02T08:00:30.636000+00:00

Chapter 10

In the Enterprise mess, Hoshi Sato picked up her tray of tofu Thai curry and gazed out at the crowded room. There was little room left at the tables—which had been her intention. Normally, she took lunch at a later hour, in order to avoid the rush, but she had noticed every day when she arrived that the MACOs—the soldiers belonging to the Military Assault Command Operations—were just leaving.

For the past month and a half, Hoshi had had little to do. She’d managed to finish reading Languages of the Sub-Sahara after all; for some reason, she’d assumed she’d be too busy to get through it. So far, the Expanse hadn’t been dangerous at all…only boring.

It wouldn’t last, she knew…but at the moment, there was nothing for a linguist–cum–communications officer to do, no alien languages to translate, no incoming messages—only a great deal of tension on the bridge while everyone waited.

In the meantime, Hoshi wanted to be helpful. One thing she’d noticed was that the soldiers assigned to help with the mission weren’t mixing at all with the crew; after all this time, she didn’t even know their names, and she figured it might be a good thing to make friends with them. Perhaps she could serve as an unofficial liaison of sorts.

And so she pretended to scan carefully for vacant seats, then to notice that there just happened to be room at the table where the MACOs were sitting.

MACOs. At first she’d mispronounced it “May-co,” and when Malcolm Reed had corrected her, saying, “That’s ‘Mah-co,’ ” she’d retorted, with linguistlike speed:

“What are they, sharks?”

She hadn’t understood then why the normally repressed Reed had burst out laughing—not until she had seen her first soldier, and noticed the insignia on the breast of his gray camouflage jumpsuit: an inverted delta of a blue shark, teeth bared, aswim in a dark sea. The MACO probably had no idea why Hoshi smiled at him so broadly as he passed.

Since then, she had learned all she could about the organization—there’d been little else to do, anyway. She had known little about the military then, but she knew now that the MACOs were regarded as the most elite of all the organizations. Ninety-five percent of all cadets dropped out of the program within the first three months, and those who remained would be further tested until a mere one percent made it, three hard years later, to graduation. Their motto: Ever Invincible. A MACO never surrendered…and did whatever was necessary to win. She’d noticed wryly during her search for information that getting a MACO mad at you was considered tantamount to suicide.

At the same time, the organization’s members were legendary for their courtesy and strict code of honor. That fact had crept into Earth languages, too, producing the expression, “I’d sooner trust a MACO than my own mother.”

Now, Hoshi smiled at the four soldiers who sat, off to themselves, at a table in the corner of the mess hall, and moved over to the table.

“Is this seat taken?” she asked warmly.

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