Command Decision (Project Gliese 581g #1) (24 page)

*.*.*

Josh sat in the small galley aboard the
Tracer
several days later. His fingers absently stroked the rim of the cup in front of him. He jerked back to the present when Cassa walked in. Her cheeks were flushed and she was drawing in deep, calming breaths. An amused smile tugged at Josh’s lips.

“How is the training going?” He asked, sliding to the side so she could sit down next to him.

“Better,” she replied. “Bantu is rusty, but he is picking it up. He is motivated. He is working on a program to work against the Legion forces.”

“His inside knowledge will be an advantage,” Josh replied, playing with a strand of her hair that had come loose. “You’ll have him in shape before he knows it. I know I should regret ordering the gateway fixed, but I don’t. I’m glad I’m here. I just regret that I couldn’t have done more to prevent the deaths of your father and brother.”

Cassa turned and raised her hand. She tenderly placed her fingers against his lips. She had that familiar, fierce expression on her face again. Josh pressed a kiss against her fingers.

“What has happened is not your fault,” Cassa replied in a firm voice. “The Legion’s actions belong solely on the shoulders of the Director.”

Josh reached up and caught her fingers. He tugged her closer, wrapping his other hand around her neck and leaned forward. He paused a second to stare deeply into her eyes before he pressed a kiss to her slightly parted lips.

Josh started to deepen the kiss when the sound of someone clearing their throat broke through the haze of desire. He slowly ended the kiss and pulled back to glare at Bantu, who was standing in the doorway with his arms folded. Josh took his time releasing Cassa. The message in his touch and in his gaze was clear – she belonged to him.

“What do you want?” Josh asked in a blunt tone.

“Food,” Bantu responded with a crooked grin.

Josh didn’t miss the look of disappointment when the other man glanced at Cassa. Sitting back in his seat, he cupped Cassa’s hand in his and waited as Bantu stepped into the narrow area.

Bantu fixed himself a drink and a plate of food and came to sit down across from them. A moment later, Hutu stepped into the room. He quickly fixed himself something to eat and sat down next to Cassa.

“We will be at the base in a few hours,” Hutu replied. “The Legion ships have left Jeslean. We are hoping most of the residents in the cities were able to escape to underground shelters. It will be days before we find out how many survived. Rebel troops have not had a chance to search for other survivors. From the initial reports, eight cities were decimated by the attacks.”

“What about the rebel bases?” Josh asked with a frown.

Hutu glanced at Josh. “They remained undetected. A decision was made not to engage the Legion forces,” he responded.

“What makes the Gallant forces any different from the Legion if they left the people in those cities to die?” Bantu asked bitterly, pushing his plate away from him.

Josh glanced at Bantu. He could see the grief and guilt on the other man’s face. He understood Bantu’s anger.

“It would have been suicide to engage the fighters,” Josh replied in a calm voice.

Hutu nodded. “The loss of the secret bases there would have been devastating to the Gallant’s fight against the Legion. As it is, two of the underground bases will be out of commission for a while. These bases are our only hope of defeating the Director. We’ve spent years building them while trying to undermine the Legion’s defenses. You can help, Bantu,” he stated.

“How? I was a Service Bot programmer,” Bantu muttered, picking at the food on his plate. “I was never a soldier.”

Josh watched as Cassa reached out and gently touched Bantu’s hand. He could see the compassion on her face. Once again, a warmth spread through him at her understanding.

“Neither was I, Squeals,” she said, using the affectionate nickname she had for him. “Remember what we were able to do on General Landais’ Battle Cruiser? We can do this. We have to do this – for our parents, for… Jesup, for our people.”

“Why wasn’t he stopped before? Why didn’t the Knights of the Gallant Order stop Lord Andronikos when they had the chance?” Bantu whispered in a strained voice.

“Bad men have come to power using force, deceit, and treachery for thousands of years,” Josh replied in a blunt tone. “There will always be men like Andronikos, just as there will always be good men willing to stand up against them. Are you willing to do whatever it takes to stop him?”

Silence descended around the table as everyone thought about what he had said. He bowed his head as he thought about his question. The gauntlet was not just for Bantu, but for himself as well. What was he willing to risk to stand up to a man like Andronikos? This had not started out as his war, but it became personal when the Director attacked Cassa’s family searching for him and the rest of the crew of the Gliese. His jaw tightened and he looked up at Bantu with a steely gaze and waited.

“Yes,” Bantu replied in a quiet voice filled with resolve. “I resisted it when the Legion came and took me from my family nearly ten years ago. I learned very quickly what happened to those that didn’t follow their rules. Over the years, I’ve done what I can to help the resistance.” His gaze flickered to Cassa before he looked down at the table. “I know it wasn’t much, but I knew sharing things with Cassa would get back to her father. I’ve never been much of a soldier,” he continued, looking up at Josh. “Until now. If my family… if they are dead, I have nothing to lose anyway.”

Josh didn’t miss Bantu’s second glance at Cassa. Turning his attention to Hutu, Josh thought of what they knew so far. The video that Devona sent had cemented the fact that Ash was alive. The image had been grainy, but Josh would know his friend’s easy gait anywhere.

“Once we’ve reach the base, we can coordinate with the teams we have around the galaxy to find the freighter your friend was on. Devona erased the video stored on the service bot, but that is no guarantee that there weren’t others. If we found information about your man, so can the Legion,” Hutu said, pushing back and rising to his feet. “I need to relieve Pack.”

Josh nodded and rose. “I’d like to go over the video again and see if there is anything else I can discover,” he said.

“I’ll help you,” Cassa murmured, standing.

Josh reached for her hand. “Thank you,” he murmured as they stepped out of the narrow galley.

“For what?” She asked in surprise.

Josh turned her so that her back was against the wall. “For being you,” he whispered. He covered her lips with his, giving her the long, deep kiss that he had started earlier. A soft sigh escaped him when he released her lips and pulled back. Turning his head, he returned Bantu’s sardonic stare with one of his own. “You have terrible timing,” he muttered to the other man where he was standing in the doorway.

“Not from my perspective,” Bantu retorted, turning on his heel. “You should get a room.”

“We have one!” Josh snapped before releasing a surprised chuckle when Bantu raised his hand and extended his middle finger. “I’ll be damned! You use that gesture, too?!”

Chapter 24

Several hours later, Josh walked along the wide corridors inside the Tesla Terra One rebel base. The variety of species on the other planets were nothing compared to what he was seeing here. All of them were working toward the same goal – freedom.

He turned when he heard his name called. Cassa was hurrying toward him. She had changed into a heavier tunic and pants. The moon was covered in ice and deadly storms made landing and taking off difficult at best, impossible at worst. He had been shocked when Hutu had asked him to sit in the copilot seat so he could see the base first hand.

*.*.*

“It looks like Antarctica on steroids,” Josh remembered mumbling as they broke through the thin atmosphere.

Hutu chuckled. “I do not know what your Antarctica or steroids are, but from the sound of it, they must be impressive,” he reflected.

“Yeah, you could say that,” Josh muttered.

Josh was surprised when he saw a line of lights along the frozen surface. Hutu had followed the line to a thick, snow-covered mountain. At first, the blizzard made it difficult to see that the side of the mountain had opened into a long, wide hanger. They passed through a protective shield that hung like an invisible curtain across the entrance to the cavernous area where hundreds of fighters were lined up.

“What you see has taken years of planning,” Hutu murmured. “Time is running out, though. The Legion forces grow more powerful every day and more and more planets are falling under the Director’s iron fist. If we do not strike soon, I fear nothing will stop him.”

“You don’t have to convince me, Hutu,” Josh responded in a quiet voice as Hutu landed the
Tracer
. “I’ve seen first hand what the Legion can do. As I told Pack, the Legion brought the war to me. It’s personal now.”

Hutu shut down the engines and turned to him. Josh held the old Knight’s thoughtful gaze. He saw the look of approval and something else – almost like a sense of relief in the man’s eyes.

“You are a good man, Josh. The Gallant Order is very fortunate to have you here,” Hutu finally said, rising from his seat. “Come now. I will introduce you to some of the best fighters in the galaxy.”

*.*.*

“You look warm,” Josh commented, returning to the present and wrapping his arm around Cassa’s waist as she came to stand near him. “And rested.”

“You left me alone,” she teased. “Of course, I was able to get some sleep. What are you doing?”

“Learning,” Josh admitted, staring around the vast area. “In some ways, this is very reminiscent of my world, if you take out the fact that there are aliens, spaceships, and that we are on a frozen moon.”

“Oh, not that different at all,” she murmured, trying to keep a straight face. “Do you miss it? Your world?”

Josh stopped in the middle of the hanger and looked around. Did he miss the Earth? He thought about it for a moment. In some ways, it seemed more like a dream than a reality. Tilting his head, he brushed his hand along her cheek.

“No, I don’t miss it,” he said with a slight frown. “I want to find the members of my crew and stop the Legion forces. I’ve been so focused on that, I haven’t thought about Earth.”

Cassa bit her lip and bowed her head. “When this is over, if you find your crew, do you think you will want to return?” She asked in a slightly husky tone.

Josh slid his hand down under her chin and lifted it so that she could look into his eyes. He ran his thumb along her bottom lip. His eyes swept over the markings that ran across her forehead and down along her cheek. Bending, he brushed a light kiss along her lips before following the markings along her cheek to her forehead. When he had kissed each section, he drew her into his arms and held her close to his body – to his heart.

“No. I’ve found where I belong,” he said, gazing over her head at the fighters and the men, women, and service bots that worked on them. “I told you this was forever, Cassa. I meant it. I love you.”

He felt the shudder that ran through her body before she relaxed against him and wrapped her arms around him. Releasing a deep sigh, he reluctantly released her when he felt a faint vibration and stepped back. He glanced down at the communicator Hutu had given him.

“There is to be a meeting,” he said. “I was going to come get you. Hutu wants to meet with the leaders down on the planet. We are going to head down there to coordinate a plan of attack against the Legion forces and see what we can do to help the survivors on Jeslean.”

Cassa nodded. “I heard Pack talking about it,” she admitted.

“Josh,” Hutu said, walking toward him with a grim expression on his face.

“What is it?” Josh asked with a frown.

“We’ve just received word that Andronikos has ordered Legion Battle Cruisers to destroy additional cities found to be harboring rebel forces. This time, though, he has instructed that every major city on the planet be leveled,” Hutu said.

“Which one?” Josh asked.

“Tesla Terra,” Hutu responded. “Not only that, the short range freighter that your friend was last seen on has been located.”

“Where?”Josh demanded.

“Heading for Telsa Terra,” Hutu stated, holding out a helmet and uniform. “We need every pilot that we have. A decision has been made to strike back. Will you fight beside us?”

Josh reached for the uniform and helmet. He glanced down at it for a moment. His jaw tightened and he nodded.

“Of course,” Josh stated.

“Good. You are going to need some time in one of the fighters. Gear up. I will meet you back here in ten minutes to take you out. We don’t have much time,” Hutu stated. He turned and hurriedly walked away.

Cassa stepped back. “I’ll make sure your fighter bot is ready,” she said. “Good luck.”

“Cassa,” Josh murmured, catching her arm when she started to turn away.

“Yes,” she whispered, looking up at him, her eyes filled with emotion.

“I want you to know that meant it when I said I love you,” Josh said in a gruff voice. “I’m coming back.”

A slight smile pulled at the corner of her lips. “You’d better,” she said, pulling and walking away with a strong, confident stride.

“Damn, I’m a lucky man,” Josh muttered before he turned to locate the fighter that matched the symbol on his helmet.

*.*.*

“This is Phantom One, coming in to refuel,” Josh said.

“Phantom One, clear for entry,” the voice on the other end stated.

Josh eased the fighter around and cut through the sheets of icy sleet. Hutu had started out slow, giving Josh time to get familiar with the fighter. It hadn’t taken long for Josh to realize that the spacecraft was actually easier to fly and more maneuverable than the jets he had flown back home.