Last Full Measure - Michael A. Martin [99]
And found himself facing both Major Hayes and Captain Archer, who were staring intently at one another. Since Peruzzi had been injured as a consequence of the captain’s emergency airlock-jump maneuver, Reed braced himself for the inevitable confrontation.
“I have to admit, Captain, your evac method was brilliant,” Hayes said, the MACO leader’s unexpected praise startling Reed almost as much as the major’s almost crimson eyes, which looked at least as bloodshot as the captain’s. “What you did had to be nonregulation, I’m sure. But it was still an outstanding tactic.”
Reed noticed then that Kemper and Money, both of whom were as cerise-eyed as their CO, also nodded appreciatively.
Whatever works, Reed thought, though he was still keenly aware that the shuttlepod wasn’t out of the proverbial woods yet; unless Trahve had greatly exaggerated the perils of traversing this gravitic particle cloud, the ship could still be destroyed by a single high-velocity chance encounter with some infinitesimal bit of exotic matter before reaching the relatively clear space that lay beyond the cloud’s boundaries. Where we’ll only have to face the Delphic Expanse’s ordinary brands of weirdness.
“Did you pick up that maneuver from Starfleet’s advanced tactical training program?” Hayes asked, his gaze darting from Archer to Reed and back again.
Archer grinned, first at Reed, then at Hayes. “Something like that, Major.”
Reed had absolutely no idea what to make of that.
Hayes nodded in response, still looking impressed, then moved to the aft portion of the shuttlepod, apparently to assist Money in checking on the unconscious corporal.
Following Archer forward to the flight console where O’Neill sat, Reed cast a backward glance at the MACOs, none of whom were paying any attention to him. Maybe Hayes and his people could teach us lowly squids a thing or two about combat tactics, he thought. But I think we may have just taught the sharks that they don’t know everything there is to know, and that they might also benefit from learning a little humility.
Just as we could, Reed added silently, thinking of Chandra—and of how close to death everyone on this mission had come.
As Archer took the seat beside O’Neill’s, Reed turned toward the captain. Speaking sotto voce, he said, “Captain, I’ve taken every scrap of advanced tactical training Starfleet has ever offered. But as far as I can recall, every one of my instructors considered going EVA without an environmental suit to be a spectacularly bad idea.”
“Same here,” O’Neill said with a wry smile.
Archer paused as though carefully composing his reply, then spoke in a conspiratorial whisper, his words obviously intended only for the ears of Reed and O’Neill. “You’re both right. And I hope I won’t have to make another exit like that any time soon. Let me make a confession—I didn’t really pick that tactic up from anyone at Starfleet.”
“Then where did you get it, sir?” O’Neill asked. “If you don’t mind my asking, that is.”
“Truthfully? I came across it late last year, months before the MACO company came aboard Enterprise,” the captain said. “So it’s no surprise that Hayes isn’t familiar with the maneuver. After all, we haven’t had a movie night on Enterprise since before we entered the Expanse.”
Reed shook his head in confusion. “Movie night, sir?”
“That’s right. I cribbed the emergency airlock flush from a twentieth-century science-fiction film we showed in the crew mess last December.”
Reed quickly rummaged through his crowded but able memory for minutiae. Which old-style flat film had been showing in the crew mess all those months ago?
“Are you talking about that two-hundred-year-old First Space Age story that had an exploration ship’s computer go insane and murder the crew?” O’Neill said with a thoughtful frown. “The one where the astronaut gets trapped outside his ship, then has to storm the airlock without his helmet to get back inside?”
“The same.” Archer nodded, displaying a grin that Reed had seen only very rarely over the past couple of months.
Reed laughed