He walked with Deloris to where twenty cadets were standing at attention. He got it immediately and walked quickly down the line of assemble cadets, in awe. There were Terran humans and Thonians in that group. They were offering him and his people honors.
No one had ever offered them honors. Not in this fashion. Some of the firefighters had heroically saved lives on Trojack; but none of his people had ever been honored in this fashion. Even from their fellow firefighters. The other fire fighters unconsciously fell into the same formation they did every morning when Army their captain, addressed them before their shift.
“Your developmentals look good miss,” He addressed the developmental, not sure what the insignia on her uniform meant.
“Thank you sir!” the developmental responded, “Can my cadets assist you with your equipment and gear?”
He was speechless for a second; hoping Lady Hawthorne would help him but finally said, “Thank you. But it would be improper for me and my people to accept help from you.”
“I understand sir,” Mitch fired off a salute, and said softly, “Welcome to Trena sir. My cadets may be the first; but they won’t be the last to say thank you for coming to our aid. If you need anything we can assist you with, we will be at your service. Squad! Hand salute!” The cadets came to attention and held it while Lady Hawthorne left the landing pad.
“All right cadets,” the chief called, “get back to your duties. Sergeant Mitchum a moment please?”
“Squad dismissed!” Mitch called. The duty squad drifted back to their posts. Mostly back to study hall or the gym. One or two went up to the admin office where they sat studying, ready to be a runner for Lady Hawthorne’s unit.
“Yes chief,” Mitch asked after her squad was gone.
“You treat that man like an NCO.” The chief said, “He’s an engineer for the Trojack Fire Department. In case you are wondering, the apparatus officers are lieutenants, the station commander is a captain. He holds the same rank as a company commander. The Lieutenant holds the equivalent rank of platoon commander. The engineer is equivalent to a platoon sergeant.”
Mitch nodded she would pass the word to her cadets.
“How much cargo do you have aboard?” the chief turned to the bioman who had reviewed the cadets.
“Not much,” the fire fighter said.
The chief spoke to the bioman, “I’ve got a truck coming this way. We can load everything into it and take it to quarters.”
“That would be nice.” The bioman responded.
When the truck arrived at the landing pad, they backed up the truck and began loading the rest of clones gear. There were twenty boxes that contained the biopeople’s turn out gear were put on first. They were followed by twenty five foot lockers, and twenty five duffle bags. Puzzled the chief asked where the other five kits were. He was told their officers, whose kits were missing, were with their officer’s as they became familiar with the fire district they were being assigned to. Then of all things they loaded several musical instruments into the truck. The bioman shrugged, “Some of the older guys play fairly well.”
Mitch who had nowhere in particular to be, was hanging out on the landing pad, helping a bit and talking with the people from Trojack, including one incredibly good looking young bioman. Something she wouldn’t have done a few months before. She really didn’t know what was coming over her. She saw the instruments. She helped the clones load them, as they loaded a guitar, the chief nodded to clone.
“Well everyone needs stress management,” The chief replied, “I prefer poker but alas sometimes that can be stressful.”
“But teaching youngsters not to bet a pair against a full house can be exceedingly profitable.” the bioman smiled as they latched the tail gate on the truck. The chief replied,
“Exceedingly profitable.”
A few days later Mitch while on her rounds as the duty sergeant found a couple of the clones playing their instruments in the Look Out, Mitch was very tempted to join them. If it had been near the end of her duty shift or had she not been on duty, she might have joined them. Provided no one was recording her. Although she had been a little upset at the School Mistress for distributing their recording, she had gotten over it as it was quite thrilling to have a recording being heard around the kingdom.
###
“The people of Trojack provided not only man power,” General Jones was wrapping her class, “They provided us with several large ships. They were used to transport some very special people. Artificial Intelligences. Many of the AI’s could not immigrate to other worlds, and Home was not built up enough to have many AIs. Some AI’s were so part of Trena that they couldn’t leave. DefConnie the AI that ran the kingdom’s defense infrastructure couldn’t be moved. Others like the Trena Space Control AI was moved to McKay and is still controlling space traffic around the Trena System.
“Many were able to be evacuated,” General Jones continued, “Many are still in stasis to this day.”
“General,” the girl from Trojack spoke up, “Wasn’t the Trojack Hostage Rescue
Team one of the groups Trojack sent to Trena?”
“Yes they were,” General Jones answered the question, “and they became one of the heroes of the evacuation.”
The bell rang and the general dismissed he class.
Chapter 24: A Stretch of the Marshal’s Legs
“Over the next few classes we will discuss one of the major incidents of the evacuation.” The General said sitting on her desk instead of standing at the podium or behind the desk. “At this time the evacuation command had lifted almost three quarters of the people of Trena.
“Salvage companies were working around the planet salvaging what they could.” The general continued, “We were getting word from Home how tough things were. People were living in the containers that had brought their goods to Home. We were not being able to keep up with the housing needs on Home. The crown reps were being ruthless when it came to using the planets resources to build homes. But there were now four factory ships in orbit and they were being fed by ships from Trena. But they couldn’t keep up with it. But progress was being made in getting every last mother’s child off Trena.
“In the middle of this the Marshal found time to do other things. It is amazing now that I think of it how he managed to be where he showed up.” The general commented,
“Yet I learned more about leadership from him than from anyone else.” “It started out as an ordinary day…” the general began.
###
It started out as an ordinary day. Lisa had prepared breakfast with Maggie for her family. She and Mike had compared their schedules. Mike wanted to get back to the palace to hear first-hand Lisa’s doctor’s report. He felt a bit guilty for not going with her. He had a full morning, with meetings with the Queen, As well as Bob Dupree from Boeing Space Works. Lisa was okay with him not going with her to the doctor, she sometimes like being alone with her doctor. Wilson then took Jill and Lamile to the academy. Both girls along with Mitch had stayed the weekend at the palace. Michael had made arrangement to do his morning run with the cadets. The cadets didn’t know he was going to do this. Jill and he had planned it the night before. So dressed in his running clothes he took the girls to the academy and shortly before sun up he was standing on the quad with his daughter, her best friends, a couple of his protective agents and the school’s NCOs. Wilson turned to one of his friends from the police academy who was the Academy’s lead PT instructor and drill sergeant. “May I call your cadets out?”
“By all means Marshal,” The man chuckled.
It had been a long while since Wilson had stood in the near dawn hours on a marine company’s drill field, and called a unit to join him for PT. He wondered if he still had the voice to do what had once came naturally to him.
“It is now 0530, and your Marshal requires the presence of the Queens Own Corps of Kaydet to join him on the exercise field!” Wilson bellowed. He had refound his d
rill sergeant’s voice.
The effect was nearly instantaneous. Out of the six dorms surrounding the quad, cadets of the Queen’s Own Corps of Cadets flowed onto the quad. They formed up quickly and presented themselves to their officers and finally to Jill who snapped an about face and reported to her father. “Lord Marshal Wilson!” She called, “The corps of cadets are assembled. What is your pleasure Marshal?”
“I wish to stretch my legs this morning.” Wilson said straight faced, “Would the cadets like to join me?”
The front rank of cadets answered for their commander, “yes sir!
“Then Sir Wilson, Marshal,” and with devious grin his daughter quipped, “Daddy, my cadets would enjoy running you to the ground.”
“Let’s go!” Wilson called doing an about face and started out at an easy pace. As they passed the NCO barracks, the schools NCOs who lived on the grounds, were finishing up their morning roll call and the start of their own PT fell in behind the cadets. A few hundred yards on the biopeople from the Trojack fire department fell in behind the NCOs. As they ran through the grounds Wilson led nearly a thousand cadets, Black Guard, militia, and clones on their morning PT. And yes the cadets nearly ran him into the ground. He was used to running five miles a couple times a week to stay in shape; but he set a leisurely pace it would take him maybe an hour to run five miles. With the cadets nipping at his heels he ran the distance in almost 45 minutes. As they did their cool down walk, Jill and Lamile both walked without being winded. He chuckled remembering when he used to be able to put in that type of endurance and with a combat pack to boot.
“Well colonel, major, sergeant,” Wilson said standing to one side as he let cadets pass him. “Your people look good. Thank you for letting me run with you.”
As each company of cadets passed them they fired off a salute. He had expected that, and for the military to salute as they went by but not the company of firemen who dressed up their lines and as a unit did an eyes right and their officer saluted him. He was still getting used to the honors that were his because of his rank. He was still a little awed that he, a retired marine sergeant, would be entitled to the same privileges and honors of a general officer. It made him all the more conscience that he needed to do his job right.
McGregor came up with his car and waited quietly while he said his good bye to his daughter and walked to the car. Lady Hawthorne was waiting for him in the staff car.
“Delores,” Michael said getting in the back, “You have done well with those kids.”
“Thank you sir,” Lady Hawthorne replied, “It’s not what we thought I would be doing for you when I first approached you what six seven months ago?”
“No it certainly is not,” he responded as his car began to drive to the main gates.
“I am concerned about all of these guys,” Lady Hawthorne nodded to a bunch of young people walking to the mess hall who were not part of the cadet corps.
“So am I Delores,” Marshal Wilson remarked, the children they had found and were still finding. “So am I”
“A couple of us have been talking,” Delores turned to her boss, “hoping that the academy and the orphanage will become a crown institute on Home.”
“I am worried about what will become of these kids when we get to Home,” The Marshal expressed his concern as they approached the main gate. “I’ll make sure these kids have a place on Home! These kids are our future. We have to do what it takes to make that future happen!”
“That we do,” Lady Hawthorne replied as Mac stopped the car and let her out.
###
As Jill turned to walk back to her quarters to get out of her running clothes she spotted a young Gamma clone standing silently watching her and her officers. She had seen him with Kellogg a couple of times, she wasn’t certain what he did with Mr. Kellogg. He seemed to report to Lady Hawthorne once or twice a week.
“Who is that?” Jill asked seeing the very handsome young bioboy.
“Now! Now!” Rhonda who was walking with them as they cooled down said. “I saw him first.”
“She did,” Mitch injected, as the young man walked over to them.
“Will you be able to get away tonight,” the young man asked Rhonda.
“Yes,” Rhonda answered, “But not to get off the grounds, I don’t have duty, but the
Marshal has restricted us to the grounds it is getting too dangerous for us.” “I’ll see you later then,” the young clone said as he left.
“Nice catch,” Jill replied seeing Rhonda blush a bit.
“He is at that,” Rhonda replied. She would never make her date with Stephen.
###
Her protective detail who normally lounged in the teacher’s lounge with only Jenny standing post in the back of the class room, suddenly swarmed into the class room and took up positions near the door and the back of the room. Jenny went to the instructor and spoke into his ear, Sergeant Hanks, a retired Militia NCO was teaching the class. He turned and looked at the agent who just nodded.
“Colonel Wilson you are dismissed,” the instructor said, “Colonel, my prayers are with you and your family.”
“Thank you sir,” Jill didn’t ask what was going on. She just picked up her belongings and left with the protective detail wondering what was up. She knew something was up; but knew now wasn’t the time to ask questions. They hustled her out to the quad where a landing craft was waiting light on gear for her. It surprised her that it was sitting on the quad not on the landing pad. When she was seated and secured, she asked, “What’s going on?”
Before Jenny could answer they heard an explosion.
“Pilot! Get us out of here now.” Jenny yelled as she turned to Jill.
“We have a Mountain Event.” Jenny replied using the code phrase for a national emergency. It was the code phrase Jill had been taught to listen for, “we were instructed to pick you up and get you to the palace.”
“We have an insurrection or something?” Jill asked.
Jenny’s instructions were to get her charge to the palace, not to tell her charge that her step mother had been abducted and her grandmother injured. It went against everything she knew to be right, not to tell her. Jill was like a niece to her. That made her decision easier, “Jill, Lady Wilson has been abducted about twenty minutes ago,”
“Oh fuck,” Jill cursed and got a stern look from her agent, “How’s Dad?”
“Not certain,” The agent said, “but he said to get you back to Serenity.”
“Was any of the detail harmed?” Jill asked. There were a couple of agents on her step mother’s detail that she liked. Georgia in particular.
“They used a stun grenade to take the detail down.” The agent replied.
“Stun grenade,” Jill said she had once suffered a stun grenade blast. She had been some place where she wasn’t supposed to be, near a training area on Mars where the marines were having war games. They were not fun to suffer through. The killer headache would be around for at least a day. Then it dawned on her. Her step mother would have been hit with the grenade also, “Jenny, what happens when a pregnant woman gets hit with one of them?”
“Spontaneous labor if they are within the last month of their pregnancy,” Jenny said, “But Lady Wilson was still a couple of months form delivery. She is a biowoman, and from what I know her type of biowoman is somewhat immune to those effects. It might not be fun but she shouldn’t lose the children.”
“Anyone else hurt?” Jill asked as the LC landed on the palace pad.
“Your grandmother,” the agent said, “she was shot. I don’t know more than that.”
“Look!” Tom was point out the window where a pall of smoke was filling the sky near the academy.
“What the hell is going on?” Le’Gant, normally their driver asked.
Jill took her phone out and spoke into it, “Dad priority one,” She told the phone. The phone would call her father’s phone and even if it
was shut off for a meeting it would come on. Seconds later his voice came on the phone. “You heard.” “Jenny told me,” Jill said, “Dad, are you at the palace?” “Yes. Where are you?” Mike asked his daughter.
“I am on the palace pad.” Jill said, “Dad. Get your bones out here. Jenny, please tell the pilots to stand by to take us where grand mom is being treated.”
“Aye-Aye,” Jenny walked to the front of the landing craft where the pilots were.
“You’re right. I’ll be there in a minute.” Mike replied.
“What about Abby,” Jill asked.
“She’s staying with Sally” her father answered.
In minutes the marshal with his detail, and personal assistant were on the landing craft, he stopped by the pilots and commanded “Take us to the Valliant.”
“Aye,” the pilot replied, “All stations combat lift!” With that the landing craft took off. As it sped to the orbiting hospital ship; four Space Air Superiority Fighters surrounded the landing craft. No one was going to get to the marshal and his family this time.
###
Near the old Trenaport Boarding School, the Evacuation Command was using a shopping mall near the school as an assembly point to evacuate people to the orbiting transports that would take them to Home. There was large crowd of well-wishers seeing people off. One of the well-wishers had walked away from the crowd to check out the large landing craft. He became fascinated by the landing gear. He found them extremely interesting. He felt the around one of the landing gear for a while leaving a small package. The man, part of a terrorist team sent by the theocracy, walked away from the landing craft his work done. He wondered why he had been told to sabotage this landing craft. By the time the landing craft was loaded the terrorist was several blocks away.
The landing craft carrying nearly five hundred evacuees suddenly exploded when one of its six landing legs encountered the package the priest left in its well. Although not a large bomb it was enough to cause the landing craft to crash and roll onto a small home.
Mitch had been searching for one of the little guys, who had turned up missing from the orphanage part of the school/academy. This was not the first time the kid had gone missing. Every time he had been missing, he had been found in an older couple’s home just off the grounds. They usually called when he or any of the other children wandered into their home. No one knew how the kids were getting off the grounds. School Mistress was going nuts trying to find out how they were getting off the grounds. She knew there was a hole in her sensor net. There had to be. The kids were getting off the grounds somehow; but School Mistress had so far found no holes in her perimeter sensors. The kids would not tell them how they were getting off the grounds. They were eight, nine, and ten years old. So they knew how to keep a secret.