Get Me Up There
I was so tired from doing sticks that my hands and fingers were numb. But, everyone in the escape caves had been vaccinated. The only problem now was up where I should have been.
Dammit, even Mariana was up there and here I was to borrow a phrase from Gabe “Stuck Like Chuck,” there was not even anyway to get the vaccine up to Mayflower and the Strike Force.
“You done good Doc,” came the voice of Joe Fortson from behind me.
“Two years ago I would have given you a snooty answer and blown you off. Now I just haven’t done enough.”
“Duty and Honor are a Bitch aren’t they Doc?
“By the way, your Wife and SGT Petersen just called on the land line and they have us four Human prisoner’s, one of which does not seem to be at all happy to be here. I think you have done everything Andy asked you to do!”
“No Gunny, Karl did that. How many did he take with him, do we even know?”
“No Kurt, and we won’t for quite a while but, he hurt them big time! Connor and his crew are stinging them and a bunch of them tried Ft. Stuart. I understand that wasn’t pretty. Bart can’t put the Dora up with this kind of crap going on, so it’s a ground fight down here.”
Suddenly the sky split with two new Skull ships flashing in, I was stunned until Joe spoke.
“That’s a Dust Off. They are pulling out, Why?”
“Just a little higher you Asshole,” he breathed as a Skull skimmed the South Ridge just below the line of sight from Ft. Stuart. The .50’s and the 25 MM’s hammered the air but, the ship never got high enough for the main armament to fire. “They are pulling out and we have nothing that can get to Space.”
“That’s not exactly true Gunny,” came the voice of Jan Christopher from behind us. “Ash and JoAnn were fairly adamant about that if I was going to be Alchibahs first commercial Pilot, I was going to be Classically trained. Ash and Andy put a full blown System Dive in my Cargo Bus. So Doc, if you can stand the G’s we can get to the Mayflower!”
Gunny Joe just stared at me, “What the hell are you still doing here Doc?”