Duty, Honour, Love

Mark was shocked to see Cloiytie lead Daisy into the Hall her face streaked with tears. “What happened!” He demanded. Daisy was the last of his crew to cause any trouble.

Cloiytie grimaced hard. “A failure on our part!” she said bleakly.

Mark thought quickly. “Sharon!” he called.

Sharon ran up and saluted smartly. “Yes sir!”

Sharon and Daisy were roughly the same age. While Sharon could talk ten to a dozen Daisy was the quieter of the two more a listener than a talker.

“Take Daisy out to the back and pour her some coffee.”

“Sharon saluted again. “Yes sir!” she took Daisy by her hand and led her to the back of the Hall.

Mark turned back to Cloiytie once they were out of earshot and repeated his question. “What happened?”

“As I’ve said failure on our part. The Security officer that was supposed to escort her back to the Hall didn’t. He was seen speaking to Daisy’s attackers!”

“She was attacked!” Mark said out loud getting the attention of the rest of his crew. Those still here and not assigned elsewhere.

“Luckily she was rescued before we reached her.” Cloiytie sounded angry. “The former officer is in cells awaiting charges. Daisy’s attackers are in custody, those that could walk that is. The rest are in hospital they will be charged once they have recovered enough to answer the charges we are levelling against them.”

“Ok,” was all that Mark could say. He worried about Karasena and those of his crew helping the people of Erikino. “What about the rest of my crew?”

“We’ll make sure such incidents don’t happen again.” Cloiytie paused. “The Chief is weeding out any other undesirables.”

“That doesn’t help us with the raider problem?”

“The Chief’s reassigning them to other posts outside Hawthorn. Some of the places are real far out of the way. We’ll be bringing the good ones back. ”

“Good!” Mark felt better for that.

Cloiytie nodded. “I have to go. If it’s ok with you I can send a counsellor to talk Daisy through with her trauma?”

“Yes do so,” Mark replied counsellors weren’t common in the Empire and he knew most Confed ships did have them. Another good idea the Empire shunned.

Cloiytie had only been gone a few minutes when Sergeant Fox approached. Mark dreaded seeing him it could only mean there had been another what Cloiytie had called an ‘incident’.

“Sergeant?”

Fox saluted. “Sir?” he said respectfully. “A couple of civilians here to see you?”

“To see me?” Mark was surprised. “About what?”

“Best you talk to them sir.”

“Ok,” Mark said dreading what this was about.

An older man in a suit and woman in a green dress waited for him just out side the door. The man had sparse hair and the woman’s hair was done up in a messy bun and was streaked with grey. Neither he recognised.

“Can I help you.” Mark was polite falling back in the training he had with his father when dealing with customers.

“I’m Abe, and this is my wife Jenny we’re here to talk about Daisy.”

Mark stared at the couple remembering that was the name of the man Daisy worked for.

“Mr Johnson?”

“We need to ask your permission?” Abe said.

“Permission?” Mark uttered trying to process what Abe was saying.

“Yes, for Daisy to come live with us.” Abe glanced at his wife. “It was Jenny’s idea. “I don’t want what happened to taint her view of our world. We aren’t like that.”

Mark was taken aback. “I’ll have to ask Daisy about that?”

“That’s what I’m asking. We want to show Daisy we are not the same.” Abe glanced at his wife again. “To tell the truth I’m loath to lose such a good employee. We’ve been struggling for years. I don’t want to lose her because of some idiots. She’ll be like a daughter to us.” Abe paused. “To reassure you I will pay her a fair wage if she keeps working for me?”

Mark wasn’t sure what to say. “I’ll have to talk to Daisy?”

“That’s all we can ask.”

Mark watched them leave. He turned to see Sergeant Fox watching him. “What do you make of that?”

“They’re genuine. They call him Honest Abe I’ve no clue why?”

Mark understood the reference it was about an ancient American President Abraham Lincoln also named ‘Honest Abe’. He explained the reference to Fox.

“Ok sir.” Fox saluted.

Mark walked back inside unsure if Fox actually understood.

One of his crew sat on his bed while another bandaged his bloody hand.

Mark sighed, it looked as if it was one of those days. “Sitrep Davies,” he asked the crew with the bloody hand.

“Glass shards all over the exercise yard I didn’t realise until I started exercising.”

“Glass?” Mark said thinking he should really cut down on his one word questions. “Do you need to go to hospital?”

“Don’t know?” Davies answered.

“Marie?” Mark addressed the woman bandaging Davies hand, She was the only one of his crew after Olivia that had first aid skills. There were others Olivia had trained but she was the best.

Marie glanced at her captain pushing her wiry brunette hair out of her eyes. “I’m can’t be sure I’ve got all the fragments out. Doc is the expert, with your permission I’d like to send him to her.”

Of course she’d trust her own over a Confed. Mark walked back to the exit and called up to one of the guards that patrolled the mezzanine floor.

“I want to talk to Sergeant Fox?”

“Yes sir,” the guard said. “Getting him on the comms now.”

Fox was quick in coming. He saluted Mark. “Sir?”

“I need transportation for one of my crew to the hospital.”

“Why sir?”

“He put his hand in glass shard in the exercise yard.”

“I’ll arrange it right away. There shouldn’t be any glass shards I inspected it last night at twenty hundred hours?” Fox looked at Mark. “Transport is one the way. With your permission I’ll inspect the yard again.”

“You have it, I’ll come with you.”

Mark surveyed the yard. A high fence ran the length of the Hall. Opposite the Hall was a deadly sheer cliff that dropped into a river far below. Flanking either side of the fence on the other sides was a parking lot. There was a number of sensors and camera’s on top of the fence. No one could come close without setting off an alarm. Mark could see the floor of the yard shining in the dying light of the late afternoon sun.

“Sergeant Fox,” Mark said quietly.

“I see it sir.” Fox tapped on his combat armour wrist comms unit. He stood for several minutes staring at the images flashing across the holo screen of his comms. “Sorry sir we seem to have a problem.”

“Problem?” Mark said silently cursing himself for that.

“Yes sir there seems to be ten minutes of data missing from the records. I know who was on duty at the time. Sergeant Nanyo will not be pleased this happened on her watch.” He tapped in a few commands on his comms. “Sending a copy of my report to Captain Karasena and I’ve recalled those on duty last night.”

“Ok sergeant I’ll be leaving it in your hands.”

“I can only apologise sir. I’ll make sure I find out what happened and deal with it.”

They went back inside.

Two hours later Fox returned with several soldiers in their grey jumpsuits, they were pulling a floor cleaning machine. He saluted Mark. “We’ll have this cleaned up.”

“Carry on sergeant.” Mark returned the salute using the Confed one.

“Right!” Fox ordered his soldiers. “I want the yard cleaned like yesterday and if there is so much as a splinter of glass left on the floor you’ll be licking it clean with your tongues. Am I clear!”

“Yes sergeant!” the soldiers chorused.

Sergeant Fox halted in front of Mark and saluted again. “May I speak frankly Captain Stillway.”

“Go ahead sergeant.”

“I’ve given my report to Captain Karasena she will be along presently to apologise herself for the behaviour of our soldiers. We’re GF there shouldn’t have been a lapse in discipline. They were busy gaming instead of doing their duty.” He hesitated. “I can’t be certain but it seems odd that they were suddenly lax with Nanyo out of the way.”

“Where was Sergeant Nanyo?”

“She had a call from her father that her mother was being taken to hospital.” Fox halted then continued. “The odd thing was when she reached the hospital her mother was not there. In fact she was home and her father never sent the comms. We are investigating.”

“You think there are those opposed to us being here?”

“That’s for sure and one I’ll be turning over to Security to deal with.”

“You do realise that there are those in Security equally opposed to our presence?”

Mark said remembering what had happened to Daisy.

“That’s why the captain is taking it straight to the top.”

“Thank you sergeant,” Mark replied.

“Ah sir Captain Karasena is here?”

Mark turned to see Karasena in full dress uniform. Mark could see the worry in her eyes.

“Captain?” he said formally.

“Captain Stillway will you walk with me.”

Mark followed out of the Hall to a sleek looking ground car in dark blue. She stopped by the car.

“I’m sorry about that.”

“I know,” Mark said simply.

Karasena reached out and grasped Mark’s hand. “I’ll show you how sorry I am.”

“The hotel?”

“Certainly.”

With that they climbed into the car and drove off.