Horizon Storms - Kevin J. Anderson [222]
“It was within the parameters of the exercise, Commander,” said the scolded cadet. “As a representative of our team, I wanted us to win.”
“By abandoning all your comrades? I don’t care if we did have pickup teams waiting. That’s not what we do, Cadet Elwich,” she said. “We don’t leave members of our team behind. I have half a mind just to give the lot of you to the drogues.”
“It’s what the EDF did at Osquivel,” one of the cadets grumbled. “They left a lot of people behind without even trying to rescue them. Didn’t they, Commander? You were there.”
The implicit question stung her. How many did you leave behind, Commander Tamblyn?
Tasia stared at them, reminded of the horrors of that battle. Even though she had gotten her own ship and crew out of danger, they had left behind innumerable wounded soldiers, damaged ships, and floating lifetubes. And Robb was gone, too…
“We were all under fire. Nobody was guaranteed to get out alive. There were no pickup squads. You think that’s comparable to goofing around in an empty canyon to win a game? Shizz, I’m trying to teach you what I know. Listening may increase your chances for survival when you face a real enemy.”
“What’s a Roacher going to teach us? How to run and hide?” the same cadet muttered, barely loud enough for her to hear.
“Elwich!” she roared, and the young man moved to attention, slower than she would have liked. She stepped close to him. “Do you know how to read a rank insignia? Do you understand what this means?” She indicated the polished clusters on her lapels.
“It signifies that you are—were—in command of a Manta battlecruiser.”
“And tell me your rank again, kleeb.”
“Private, ma’am.”
“And in which military does a private speak with such disrespect to a commander?”
“In…in none that I’m aware of, ma’am.”
“This rank means that you are a worm beneath the heel of my boot, regardless of where I was born, how I was raised, or the clan I belong to. Spend less time thinking about my parentage and more time remembering my military service record, Private Elwich. I fought the hydrogues at Jupiter, Boone’s Crossing, Osquivel, and Ptoro. I wiped out a whole drogue world with a Klikiss Torch. My piloting scores are the best the EDF has on record. If I looked into your parentage, Private, what species would I find? How much inbreeding?”
Some of the cadets snickered, but she silenced them. “This is the Earth Defense Forces. There is a chain of command. I am your ranking officer, and in all probability I will forever outrank you. Now, as a token of your newfound respect for me, Private Elwich, I want you to give me a hundred push-ups.”
The cadet looked at her in calm surprise. Here on Mars, with only forty percent of Earth’s gravity, simple physical exercise was easy. “Ma’am, yes ma’am. Right now in your presence, Commander?”
“No, Private. I want you to do them in the gravity chamber at a setting of 1.5 Earth normal.”
At last, he gave a satisfactory gulp.
“If anyone else would like to insult my parents, my clan, or my service record, please volunteer now.” When no one answered her, Tasia continued to stare, making sure they understood she meant business. She could not hide her Roamer heritage, nor did she want to.
Instead, she intended to be the best EDF officer they could ever hope to serve under. And sometimes, she very much enjoyed strictly enforcing the military regulations.
Chapter 114 — ZHETT KELLUM
It made no sense, even when Zhett tried to look at it from the warped Eddy point of view. She still could not see what had driven the EDF prisoners to concoct such a ridiculous escape plan, to take such unwarranted chances. What were they thinking?
“They must have a brown dwarf for their Guiding Star,” she muttered.
After the debacle with the ore processor crashing into the admin dome, her father had been enraged to discover the missing prospector scout ship. At first he’d feared that one of his Roamer prospectors had not returned from a scouting run. For days, the EDF prisoners had been