“Dek,” Major Remm’s voice intruded
into her thoughts. “Commander needs you to see you in SecCom. Now.”
She replied subvocally, her com
equipment translating the muscle movement in her throat and mouth. “Give me
five. Targets penetrated barrier and have retreated. Need to ensure they exit
the area.”
“Sergeant Garr is en route to
relieve you.”
Dek’s attention remained on the
teens until the slight reverberation of the steel circ-stairs below clued her
in to the man’s arrival. The kids out on the beach wouldn’t hear him, but it
peeved her that Garr was often so lax in the stealth department.
“Hey, cuz,” he subvoced.
Dek grimaced. Cuz. Ancient
tradition behind the LaGuardian four-letter surnames meant she and Sergeant
Garr had shared ancestors at some point on the planet’s timeline. But if they
were cousins, it was probably something like sixty times removed. And it sure
hadn’t deterred her junior team member from hitting on her. Which, in her
assessment, made him not only bungling, but completely unprofessional.
“Coming up behind you.”
Like I could miss you.
Dekessa waited until the sergeant
settled into his watch beside her then pushed away from the rock to descend the
stairs. “Be sure those kids are okay.”
“Right. Hey, loan me your vid, cuz.
I left mine in my quarters.”
Bumbling, unprofessional, and
forgetful.
Dek gave an impatient sigh and
tossed him her vid unit.
“What, no kiss before you go?” he
taunted as she started down the steps.
“Put a hatch on it.”
His subvocal laughter echoed inside
her head. If the ComCenter picked up his pointless chatter, they didn’t
verbally reprimand him.
When Dek reached the bottom step,
she turned left and headed into the maw of darkness.
The commander’s office occupied an
alcove of the great cave her team called home—in reality a massive lava tube.
In ancient times, glowing magma had carved stark horizontal grooves into the
curved walls and left lavacicles hanging from areas of the ceiling where molten
rock had once dripped. Eons later, wind and huge waves had brought in megatons
of sand from the beach outside, covering much of the jumbled basalt floor and
providing easily navigable paths through the cavity. The floor sloped downward
from the entrance point, but mid-cave, the incline leveled off into an area
free of large rocky outcroppings.
This was where most of the
infrastructure huddled: the quarters, mess, detention cells, and security
command office—or SecCom—where their commander had transformed a couple of temp
structures into his makeshift office complex. Dekessa passed the modular staff
barracks and mess hall and made her way across the smooth sand path to his
location.
A breach in the rock ceiling high
above the complex illuminated the underground lair in daylight hours. The
opening had been sealed by a plasma barrier, allowing light to pass, but not
weather or the prying eyes of air- or spaceborne spy craft.
Their overlord enemies, the Ithian
Alliance, were always watching. Especially this planet.
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