Authors: Jay Korza
Reaper turned to look at the assailant. “No.”
“Look, man, you're obviously a doctor or
some shit.” The junkie nodded towards his still seizing friend. “Let this
little bitch's dad die and help my buddy.”
“I'm not a doctor, I'm a corpsman. And
even if I wanted to save your friend, I couldn't.” Reaper was still trying to
slowly work on Daria's father as he spoke. “Your friend has been seizing for
over a minute now. That means he's in the last stages of Track Star Delirium.
He can't be saved by anyone, even if we were in the best hospital in the entire
Coalition. He's going to die, end of story.”
Without hesitating, the junkie calmly
said, “Then so will you.”
Daria heard the gun bark at least five
times and she saw the front of Reaper's chest tear apart in more than one
place. Reaper slumped next to Daria's father. At that moment, one of the
citizen shoppers swung a trashcan at the junkie's head and the sound of a solid
connection rang out. The junkie went down and immediately the citizen was
kicking and stomping on the already subdued man.
“You killed my wife!” the man repeated again
and again as he kicked and beat the man, turning the junkie's body to pulp.
Daria turned her attention back to her
father. She knew, or at least thought she knew, what Reaper was going to do
after he exposed the heart: plug the hole. Daria was trying to get herself over
the mental hurdle of sticking her hand inside her father's chest when she saw
Reaper's arm move.
Reaper didn't have enough strength to
move his body but he could still make his arm function. He walked his fingers
along the floor and up his patient's side until he found the surgical opening
he had created. He then slid his fingers inside and found the hole and put two
fingers in it.
Daria instantly saw the blood cease to
pump from her father's body and saw just a tinge of color race up his carotid
arteries and into his face. He had still lost a lot of blood so his color
didn't change very much but she was sure that even a little change was a good
sign.
Reaper's body went slack but his fingers
never moved. Daria was sure he was dead but before she could check, a police
officer scooped her up to take her out of the store and to a safe place. Daria
struggled briefly until she realized the man holding her was one of the good
guys.
Pointing to Reaper, she said, “Don't
move him. His hand is saving my daddy's life.” And with that, all of the
adrenaline that had kept her upright for the last several minutes left her body
all at once. She went limp in the officer's arms, her winning ticket all but
forgotten. A song played, distantly heard in the background...
~
Daria sat on the edge of the boardwalk,
looking into the water. The rolling of the sea always made her feel better: The
rhythmic crashing of the waves against the pillars of the pier. The creaking of
the wood as it stands against one of the strongest forces in all of nature.
It had been twelve years since her
father had been shot in the store, waiting in line to get Daria's telescope.
Twelve years since Daria's life changed so drastically in just five short
minutes. She still looked at the night sky but not in the same way and not with
the telescope that she never claimed. Now she looked at the sky, wondering
where the Marine Corps would send her.
After that day in the store, she became
obsessed with medicine and studied it relentlessly. All of her teachers thought
for sure she would be going to medical school after college, but not Daria.
Daria knew she wasn't going to college, at least not a standard six-year
college. She was sought after by many of the top schools in the Coalition but
she only applied to one school her senior year. Daria applied to a vocational
school to become a paramedic. Her teachers were all aghast at such a flagrant
waste of intelligence and talent but Daria couldn't care less.
To become a paramedic on an all-human
world, the class was only nine months long. But Daria wanted more than that.
Daria was taking the multi-species course that usually took three years. With
all of the studying Daria had done on her own, she was able to test out of most
of the course work and focus on clinical rotations. Daria finished the school
in just two years. Many of the doctors Daria worked with had written her letters
of recommendation for medical schools but she had her sights set on a different
goal.
Daria felt a light touch on her shoulder
and smelled the familiar scent that always made her smile. She looked up into
the eyes of the man standing behind her. “Hi, Dad.”
“Hi, sweetie.” Daria's father sat next
to her on the dock. “Are you ready?”
“More than you know.” No matter how old
Daria got, she knew that holding her father's hand would always be the best
feeling in the galaxy.
“Okay, we should probably get you to the
transport then.” As they both stood, he added, “You know you don't have to go.
Your contract isn't in effect until you scan-in on the shuttle.”
“I know, Dad, but I want to. I know you
think I have some deep-seated need to go but that's not it.” As they stood, she
looked up into his eyes and put one hand over the area on his chest where
Reaper had opened him up so many years ago. “I'm not doing this because he
sacrificed himself for
YOU
, I'm doing this because he sacrificed himself
for another person. In that moment, I knew that I could do more than look at
the galaxy—I could be an important part of it.”
“I know, sweetie. I'm just going to miss
you.” As an unabashed tear rolled down his face, he led her towards their
transport. “Just do me one huge favor, please.”
“What's that, Dad?”
“Please, for the love of all that is
holy, get stationed somewhere with beaches and sand so I can visit and find
myself a little honey to spend all of my retirement money on.”
“You got it, Dad.”
Coalition Military Installation
- Clandestine
Late August on Terra 12-2772 meant that
total darkness would cover the marine installation for another two months. The
branch of government known as the Earth Interstellar Expansion Department had
long since given up trying to assign names to new planets taken into the
Coalition, and had simply started designating them by number. Terra 12-2772 was
a marine base on the outskirts of charted space and was almost always in total
eclipse by its nearest neighboring planet. The first marines to colonize this God-forsaken
frozen wasteland decided that because it was almost always shrouded in
darkness, “Clandestine” was the most appropriate name for their new home.
Daria sat on her bunk with the slightly
melted dogtags of her husband clenched tightly in her hand. The dogtags alone
survived the explosion that had just two weeks ago lit up the sky over
Clandestine and destroyed two fighters in a training exercise.
Gunnery Sergeant Mike “Marvel” O’Connor
was weapons officer aboard one of the two-seater crafts when the explosion
occurred. The official report stated that O’Connor hadn’t shut down his weapons
panel in time after the computer detected a leak in his cold fusion lasers,
which resulted in an explosion that ended up taking out his wingman as well.
Daria couldn’t—wouldn’t—believe that her husband would make that mistake. She
had known him long enough and been in more than one battle with him to know
that Mike didn’t make mistakes like that, especially during a routine training
mission.
Daria was a navy medic, a battlefield
medic, and held the respected title of “corpsman.” Hundreds of years ago when
Earth ventured out into the cosmos, there was a political battle over which of
the armed services would be the conqueror of space. In Daria’s opinion, too
much ego and testosterone were involved, which led to a couple of
assassinations and much political blackmail. Eventually the president of that
time made the decision that the Navy would be the primary military service to
explore the cosmos. Of course, the marines are a part of the Navy, so they were
included in the first push beyond Earth’s solar system. The Navy continued to
take care of the transportation and almost all the air and space aircraft
support while the marines continued with their role as ground troops.
Corpsman was the only rating from the Navy
that integrated with the Marine Corps in such a way that made the corpsman more
marine than sailor. They could choose to wear Marine Corps uniforms and abide
by Marine Corps regulation if they wanted to, and most field corpsman did.
Their long history of distinguished service in battle had raised them to a different
level, which almost made them an individual entity separate from both branches
they served. Many of the grunts in Daria’s platoon had often kidded her, saying
that Mike had married her just to get the better quarters and choice of duty
stations that corpsman received.
She laughed aloud as she thought of
that. If she had had her choice of duty, she and Mike would never have been on
this rock of ice and Mike wouldn’t be dead. Why were they here anyway? This
outpost held no strategic significance that she knew of, especially considering
Earth hadn’t been in a major war in more than fifty years.
Nonetheless, Clandestine had a complement
of more than a hundred thousand marines and it was the first time a whole
planet had been designated as a military installation. On the other hand, what
sane terra former would want to live on this block of ice? She couldn’t
understand it and for the time being decided to just stop trying.
Corporal Davies sat at the bar waiting
for Daria to walk in. Davies had loved Mike like an older brother and felt he
owed it to him to watch out for Daria now that Mike was gone. He thought about
that for a minute and smiled. Truth was, Daria could take care of herself
better than Davies could. Davies was six foot four inches and about two hundred
sixty pounds but as clumsy as a toddler just learning to walk. Mike had pulled
his ass out of the fire on more than one occasion in battle and Davies wasn’t
the type of guy to forget that.
If it weren’t for the fact that Davies
could hit a penny at a few thousand yards out with a sniper rifle, he would’ve
been booted from the corps years ago. He was the best sniper in the Coalition.
So what the hell was he doing here? He couldn’t figure out who he had pissed
off to get hung out to dry, or rather freeze, like this.
Just then, Daria walked through the
doors and gave the place a once-over. Davies always admired the way she could quickly
size up any situation. Her stare was penetrating and she never missed a thing,
but there was always warmth behind her eyes that until now only Mike and Davies
could see. But as she stood there, Davies realized that the little bit of
warmth that used to reside there had been replaced with something much colder—colder
than the core of the ice planet they now stood on.
To anyone who didn’t know her, Daria was
just the opposite of what you’d expect a marine to look like. She was slight of
build, only five foot six inches tall but weighing in at a well-hidden one
hundred forty pounds. A lot of muscle was neatly tucked away inside the small
frame that stood in the doorway. She was also lightning fast, a trait that
Davies wished he shared. Her ability with knives was unmatched. She had taught
him many ways to get beyond his awkwardness and kill someone quickly and
quietly from less than a kilometer away.
Her abilities had resulted in more than
one or two marines ending up with broken faces or other body parts after trying
to get a little too friendly with Daria after a night of drinking. More often
than not, the MPs would show up, only to find Daria skillfully attending to the
wounds she had just inflicted on a whole squad. After all, they were all marines
in the end, right?
Davies saw three Force Recon guys
sitting nearby who looked as though they were about to make the mistake that
many before them had also made. They weren’t part of the normal complement that
now resided on Clandestine and had just that day come in from a several months’
long scouting mission.
They had been drinking and bragging for
hours and now saw at the door what they perceived as R&R. Davies heard them
talking about Daria and was about to warn them but he stopped himself. He
decided that a little R&R was EXACTLY what Daria needed right now.
Daria had completed scanning her new
environment and started towards Davies when the first Recon approached her,
holding two beers.
“Hey Doc,” he said, with a beer extended
towards Daria, “how ’bout you check my dick! It’s a little dry from my last
mission. I think it could use a little lotion or something.”
Much to Davies’ surprise, Daria just
walked on by—that is, until the second Recon blocked her way. “What’s the rush?
We just want to buy you a drink and maybe play a little doctor later. What do
you say, Doc?”
With a motion faster than even Davies’
sober eyes could see, Daria grabbed the beer bottle from Recon Two’s hand and
twirled to land a crushing blow to the first Recon’s face, shattering his nose
and cheekbone, not to mention the bottle. Before he could react, Recon Two had
his balls trapped inside a vise-like hand from Daria and was up on his toes,
trying to stumble away.
“Well, your testicles are extremely
small and I can’t seem to find a penis anywhere,” Daria said as she put her
other hand on his throat and began to lift him off his feet. As Recon Two sailed
over the bar and landed against the mirror, shattering it, he faintly heard
before he passed out, “Oh, and by the way, you might want to get that
concussion checked out too.”
As she turned toward Recon Three, who
was still sitting at the table and trying to decide whether he wanted to help
his friends or even whether he COULD help them, she stated in a very quiet,
reserved voice, “Would you like to play doctor, too?” He didn’t get a chance to
answer because the first marine was up again and wielding his field knife.