Steel Walls and Dirt Drops (20 page)

Chapter
Twenty-Nine

Misha stepped into the training bay. She thought she was seeing a replay of the earlier confrontation between Spacers and APES, except this time, there were spacers laying about the deck, attended to by spacer medical technicians. There was also a large contingent of security forces, but this time their weapons were drawn, loaded, cocked and aimed at her troops. Instead of that wimp Chang, Colonel Britaine stood in the middle between the two groups.

"Colonel Britaine?" Misha asked. She didn't really want to know what had happened. She thought, "Why me? Why can't I just go off in quiet and kill somebody
like I am trained to do?" She saw Second Race Jackson stood in front of the APES…again. She thought that if he had caused two incidents in one day, she would have to take drastic action. Red-lining Jackson for the upcoming operation would be action she could ill afford at this point in their preparation. She wasn’t the only one that couldn’t afford to lose a good second, the unit as a whole couldn’t afford it. She hadn't wanted to red-line Slezak. She needed every able-bodied veteran she could get. Losing a second would be a serious problem. Losing a well-liked second would hurt morale as well as damage their combat effectiveness.

Britaine snarled, "While you were off with your
Marshal Service boyfriend, I had to come down here during my off shift. I thought I told you to get control of your unit?"

Misha said nothing.

"Don't start that silent treatment crap with me again, McPherson. Speak up. And remember this; I am not as easy to push around as Waterboy." At her blank look, he explained, "Major Chang. Because of you and your troops, I am now going to have to discipline a good FAC pilot just before I need him in combat. Because of a disagreement with a grunt, I am going to have to ground a man whose training and career have cost the AMSF millions of credits. That wouldn't have happened if you had been able to control your unit and if you hadn't ordered an official apology."

She waved her hand around the training bay, "Colonel, at this point I don't have a comment
on either what went on earlier or here. As to what went on earlier; that is over and done with. My report has been completed and filed. As for what went on here; I don't have enough information to make a comment."

She turned to Jackson. "Second Jackson, were you involved?"

"Yes, sir. But not how it looks."

Britaine interrupted, "How it looks is that your troops jumped my crew and tried to dismantle them."

Misha replied, "Yes, Colonel. I agree. That is how it looks. However, I am sure that since we are two reasonable and intelligent people, we should be able to use our working relationship to get to the bottom of this. Don't you agree, Bill?" She smiled at him, actually fluttering her eyelids. She placed one hand on his bicep and gave his muscle a gentle squeeze.

Misha was surprised at herself. She had always made fun of her younger sister GeLeann
when she did such girlie things. Gee was a flirt who got her way at every turn with any man in the room. When Gee batted her eyes, smiled and swished her tail, men would rush to her aid. Gee had used those tricks to get Misha out of a jam. Misha’s father, by family arrangement, contracted her engagement to Packet Skeller. Arranged marriages were the norm on her home planet, where only males inherit and females advance simply by marital connections. Unmarried females become the labor forces.

Packet would have been a good husband. He was
her older brother’s best friend with a large and wealthy homestead in the McDonald Highlands. He was a good man who had treated his first wife well. He was a widower with a small son. This proved that he could father sons and this was of great importance on DropSix. Heavy-worlder men have daughters at a rate of four to one due to the effects of gravity on their testicles.

The first accepted r
ecognition that excessive gravity force affected offspring’s gender came in the twentieth-century air forces on Earth One. Jet fighter pilots had a higher tendency toward daughters due to high G maneuvers than the general population. On DropSix with high gravity the constant norm, the rate of sons to daughters changed drastically. Fortunately, it was not enough of a change to make the planet uninhabitable by humans. Many societies would have accepted multiple marriages, but the majority of DropSix's population descended from the ancient Scots, whose sense of morality would not condone polygamy. Instead, their society adjusted to arranged marriages and a vast female work force.

Misha didn’t dislike Packet, but
she couldn’t bring herself to marry him. She couldn’t explain why to her parents, Packet or even herself. All the Skeller Clan was as angry as Misha's own father was at her for breaking the contract. Her sister Gee flirted with Packet for days on end until he relented and took her to wife instead. Misha knew the marriage made GeLeann happy and she would make Packet happy.

Still, it surprised Misha to use the same tricks her sister used. She was even more surprised when they worked on Britaine.

He said, "I suppose we should get the full story before we go off with our guns blazing. Right, Misha?"

She smiled sweetly, even through the bitter taste in her mouth, "Yes, Bill. If you think that's best?"

Britaine turned a cold eye to her second, "Sergeant Jackson, continue."

Misha stopped her eyes from rolling upward. She
made a quick hand signal for the APES to stand fast. She didn't want any APES reacting to Britaine's insult to Second Jackson. She doubted Britaine or his spacers saw her hand movement. If they did, she was sure they would not get its meaning. No matter what the AMSF thought, APES were seconds or deuce and did not react well to hearing sergeant.

Misha nodded at Jackson, "Second, please report."

"Yes, sir. Trooper One Sigget Donnellson of my Foxtrot Squad is the senior weapons tech for the unit." He pointed at Donnellson, held in place by three other APES, who in turn had weapons pointed at them by security forces. "He was meeting with the other weapons techs about the upcoming dirt drop. You know, getting everything in order and all of that. He wanted to make sure the new guys had their act together. Anyway, when I came in to check on them, I had to pull Trooper Donnellson off those three spacers." He pointed to med-techs giving assistance to three men. "There were some other scuffles, but the rest was just pushing and shoving."

"Pussies!"
Donnellson shouted.

Before Misha or Britaine could
respond, Jackson spun about and planted his fist deep into Donnellson’s face. "Shut your burger hole, Sigget," Jackson spat the words into his face. "One more word, boy, and I mean one more small word, and I am going to shove you into your suit and weld it shut. Then I will just leave you there. Got me, Sigget? Do you get me, damn you?"

Donnellson
nodded slowly, blood oozing from a cut on his lip.

"Mister Jackson
," Misha said. "I think we can do without more violence at this point."

"Sorry,
sir, but that wasn't violence. That was just to get his attention, wasn't it, Siggy? Did I get your attention?" Jackson said.

"Yeah, Race. I got ya
,” Donnellson nodded. "Sorry, Third. I guess I screwed up. I kinda lost my temper."

Britaine interrupted, "
Kind of screwed up? I should say so. Look at those men. Are you going to tell me you did that by yourself?"

"No,
sir," Donnellson said. "Mostly they got in each other’s way. But, yeah, I guess it was me."

Britaine said, "What could possibly possess you to
attack three innocent men?"

Misha said, "Sir, suppose we ask these men what happened and why the
y were in the APES training bay in the first place before we decide guilt or innocence. Please?"

Little by
little, it came out. Donnellson and the other weapons technicians had been running through schematics of the new mass driver intake feeds when a dozen spacers sauntered into the training bay. The spacers appeared confident. There were twelve of them and only eleven APES. The APES had known what the spacers didn't. The spacers were effectively outnumbered two to one.

A
low-ranking spacer spoke first. "Man, it sure smells in here. It smells like my daddy's pig farm."

Donnellson
replied, "Strange. It didn't use to smell that way. Juarez, did you notice a change in the smell?"

Miguel Juarez of
Able Squad sniffed their air and said, "You know, now that you mention it, I did notice a change. Hey! Can you vacuum-heads fix the air recyclers in here?"

Krani
ch of Bravo Squad said, "Play nice, people. Can we help you, gentlemen?"

One of the spacers replied, "Help us? I don't think I've ever needed help from an APE."

Kranich replied, "Hey. Up until forty-five days ago, I was in the AMSF just like you guys. I was a four striper, a gunnery command sergeant on the Durango. There isn't any need for hostility here."

"Shut up, you!"
a spacer shouted. "You may have been a spacer at one time, but you are no better than a traitor or a deserter now."

Kran
ich shook his head sadly.

"
Are you going to take that crap, Kranich?" Juarez said.

"Yep, I am just going to consi
der the source and let it go," Kranich replied.

Another spacer said, "
Chickenshit! Just like all you others."

By this
time, both groups of men stood face-to-face. Fists clenched and blood was running hot.

Donnellson
stepped forward, "Enough already. We've got work to do. You vacuum breathers move on out."

A trio of spacers stepped forward to meet him. The tall one said, "Yeah, we ain't leaving until we get a look at your new boss. We hear she
’s a slut who likes to take on AMSF officers and even a marshal or two. We wanted to know how she felt about taking on a few enlisted men."

Donnellson
launched himself forward. He was a typical APE veteran, physically at his peak. GerinAid kept his body a youthful twenty-five. Combat nanites kept him as healthy as medical science could make him. And after three decades of martial arts in both practice and in actual combat situations, the trio of spacers saw only a blur. It was a blur whirling around them like a tornado on steroids. All three men threw punches at Donnellson. None of the punches connected.

Second Jackson
arrived in time to literally pick Donnellson up off the men and throw him across the deck. The three men wouldn't move again until the med techs carried them off to sick bay.

Misha shook her head at the story. It seemed rumors about her were at the heart of the issue again.

"Colonel Britaine. Bill," she said. "I apologize. My man threw the first punch. Whatever the provocation, he should not have resorted to violence. You have my sincerest apology."

"That is very gracious of you, Misha. Thank you
," he smiled. "It does seem there may have been some provocation, and my crew may have been where they didn't belong. I can assure you that you will receive a formal apology from the spacer who insulted your honor."

"
An apology is not necessary, Bill. I am not offended by what small minds think of me," she smiled sweetly.

Misha turned to Second Jackson. "Mister Jackson, please have Trooper
Donnellson escorted to your squad bay. We will have to consider if he is red-lined for the next dirt drop. Don't argue with me, Race. I can't do anything about it. He attacked. He was the aggressor. I don't want to lose him any more than you do, but we don't have a choice, do we? We will make time for a full review of the incident before exercising punishment, if any."

Jackson said, “No, sir. I guess we don’t have a choice.”

Britaine spoke, "Excuse me a moment, Misha. I want to see to my crew and get them out of here."

"Yes, of course, Bill. I
’ll be here when you need me," she replied.

Misha turned back to Second Jackson. "And Race, you are on the edge yourself. I do not condone
seconds striking troopers for any reason. We will be discussing that, I can guarantee it."

"Wait a minute, Third
," Donnellson shouted. "Race didn't do nothin'. I won't press charges. Hell, I was just protecting your honor. It’s those damn vacuum suckers who should get strung up, not me."

Misha replied, "Trooper, what makes you think that I need that kind of protection? You validate their insults by your actions. Plus, I don't need you to press charges against Second Jackson. He publicly struck you."

Jackson nodded. "She's right, Sigget. What I did wasn't any better than what you did."

He turned to face Misha. "I will red-line myself, Third. You have my apologies."

"Negative, Second Jackson," Misha said. "I don't have a choice but at least to red-line Donnellson until we do a review of this mess. However, we’ll hold on the rest for review. We just need to get a review scheduled before the upcoming dirt drop.”

Misha looked over at the rest of the
APES gathered in the training bay. A large number gathered with the weapons techs to watch the proceedings. She spotted Trooper Juarez in the crowd. She called him over, "Juarez, who is the next most senior weapons tech. You?"