Last Full Measure - Michael A. Martin [35]
Lieutenant Reed nodded soberly. “I agree completely.”
O’Neill gave the captain and Reed a smile that conveyed little happiness. “So on my first away mission ever, you’re sending me back to stay with the wagon. Why not put Ensign Chandra on that job instead?”
Hayes glanced at Chandra, and noted that he looked unhappy as well. The ensign, like O’Neill and most of the others who crewed the NX-01, evinced not nearly enough discipline under fire, in Hayes’s opinion. Not for the first time, the MACO leader wondered whether Archer’s Starfleet crew, despite its collective expertise, was being hampered by its own lack of focus on the chain of command. How could they hope to deal with the Xindi while such basic personnel breakdowns occurred so routinely?
Archer glared at O’Neill. When he spoke, his tone was stern, almost admonishing. “Right now the shuttlepod is our vulnerable flank, D.O., and I want it protected. Our cooperative Mister Grakka might have warned Trahve that we were coming, so there’s no telling who else he might have talked to, or what whoever he spoke with might be planning to do to us.”
“I understand, sir,” O’Neill said, though she still looked mightily displeased about her redeployment.
“But I agree that you shouldn’t go alone,” Archer said. “Ensign Chandra.”
Chandra snapped to attention. “Sir?”
“I’d like you to accompany Lieutenant O’Neill to the shuttlepod.”
Chandra’s dark eyes grew huge with what Hayes could only interpret as apprehension. But he really couldn’t blame the man. “Aye, Captain,” Chandra said.
Hayes found that Chandra’s fear affected him on an almost instinctual level. “With your permission, sir,” he said to the captain, “I could send Corporal Peruzzi along with them. Just in case.”
Archer appeared to weigh the main mission objective’s need for firepower against the possibility that O’Neill and Chandra might run into trouble that they couldn’t readily handle without MACO cover.
“It makes sense, Captain,” Reed told Archer, apparently surprised to find himself in agreement with Hayes.
Hayes had to admit to himself that he, too, was surprised—and more than a little suspicious of finding himself on the same page with a man who had always seemed more concerned with protecting his own job than with accomplishing the mission.
“All right, Major,” the captain said at length. “You, Kemper, and Money should be able to supply all the muscle we’ll need after we get under way.”
Hayes grinned at Archer. “Semper Invictus,” he said.
The MACO leader saw that O’Neill was aiming a high-amplitude scowl directly at him; just for a moment, he was absurdly tempted to dive for cover behind one of Trahve’s passenger seats. “Thank you, Major, but I think Chandra and I are capable of hiking back to the shuttlepod without a babysitter,” she said frostily.
Before Hayes could respond, Archer spoke in a tone that both soothed and chided. “It’s just a precaution, D.O.”
“Don’t worry,” Hayes said. “I promise that Peruzzi won’t get in your way. Unless she has to.” Which I know she’ll do in a heartbeat, he thought, if your party encounters anything half as scary as you are when you’re pissed off.
“I understand, Captain,” she said, evidently beginning to get hold of her emotions, though she was still clearly reluctant to take a side trip away from the main mission force.
“It’s too bad Trahve’s ship isn’t equipped with a transporter,” Chandra said, scratching his chin. “Couldn’t we make a quick detour to the shuttlepod first? Just drop all of us off using this ship before getting under way.”
“Too risky,” Reed said, shaking his head. “We have to get Trahve’s vessel off the planet immediately, before the spaceport authorities figure out that somebody’s hijacked it.”
Hayes considered the security guards he and Kemper had knocked unconscious and concealed in a large nearby tool locker after they had tracked Trahve to