Ballistic (The Palladium Wars), стр. 84
“What does it all mean?” Midshipman Boyer asked from the helm station. Dunstan turned his head to look at her.
“What it means, Boyer, is that someone out there is wishing for a war. And it looks like fleet command is about to grant them their wish.”
CHAPTER 21
IDINA
Idina had packed her gear the previous night like any good trooper did before a transfer, but that left her nothing to do in the morning. She didn’t want to scrub down her quarters for the fifth time, and there was no point in making herself more miserable by drawing out the goodbyes with Fifth Platoon and the rest of the company, so she went for a walk around the perimeter of the base one last time, committing all the details to memory.
She was standing at the fence between the main part of the base and the air and space field, watching the flow of shuttles and gyrofoils taking off and landing, when her comtab sounded an incoming vidcom alert. She opened a screen in front of her with her thumb and forefinger. The caller was a Rhodian lieutenant she didn’t know, but from his surroundings, she could tell that he was in the security office at the main gate.
“This is the officer of the watch. You have a visitor at the liaison building, Colors Chaudhary. Can you confirm that you know this person?”
He sent an image of her visitor as required by the gate guard security protocol. Idina looked at the face on the hologram and smiled.
“Yes, sir, I do. On my way. Please tell her I’ll be there in ten minutes.”
“I almost didn’t recognize you,” Idina said to Dahl when she walked into the JSP’s liaison building. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you in civilian clothes before.”
The Gretian police captain stood at the front of the room next to the briefing lectern, just like she always did at the beginning of their joint patrols. She was wearing her hair in the usual tight braid, but the civilian trousers, shirt, and thermal vest she was wearing looked so wrong that it almost caused cognitive dissonance in Idina’s brain.
“I am sure you are surprised to find out that I even own any,” Dahl said.
Idina walked up to the lectern, and the two women regarded each other for a few moments.
“You shouldn’t have come all the way out here on your day off,” Idina said. “I’m sure you have better things to do than to see me off.”
“Oh, please,” Dahl said. “Like what? I would just have breakfast, clean the living space twice, and then go to the office anyway by lunchtime, out of boredom. And we have been patrolling together for three months. It would seem wrong not to say goodbye properly.”
“Well, I’m glad to see you one last time,” Idina said. “I’m sorry I have to leave you to deal with this mess by yourself.”
“I am sure Sergeant Noor will be an able replacement. But I would rather see you in the other seat of the gyrofoil tomorrow night—that is true.”
“I’ll try to get another deployment,” Idina said. “And when I do, I’ll volunteer for a JSP assignment from the start. They usually give preference to troops who have done the job before. Cuts the need for familiarization.”
“I am sure I will still be on patrol when you do,” Dahl said.
“I hope so. Things are getting hot out there. You’ve done your share. Let someone else stick out their neck for the JSP for a while.”
“I am afraid I have done this job for so long that I am just no good for anything else at this point.”
“That’s supposed to be my personal lament,” Idina said.
“Maybe we both are exactly where we need to be.”
“Maybe,” Idina agreed. “Gods, I hope that’s the case. We’ve got fifty years in uniform between us. It’s a little late for second thoughts now.”
“You are still young. I am the one who is three years from mandatory retirement. Maybe I can come visit you once they push me out of the door with a pension. If they allow Gretians on your planet again by then.”
“I’ll make sure they allow you in,” Idina said. “You’ve paid for the privilege, I think.”
“I am glad you think so. And I hope you think a little better of this place now. Not all of us agreed with the war. Or the invasion of Pallas.”
“I’ve lost too much here to ever forget,” Idina replied. “And I sure as hells can’t bring myself to forgive. But you don’t need my forgiveness. You had nothing to do with any of it. And if I gave you the impression in the beginning that I thought all Gretians were the same, I’m sorry.”
Dahl nodded.
“It would be nice to see you again one day. Here or on Pallas. Or anywhere in between.”
Dahl had a bag slung over her shoulder, which she now swung around to the front of her body. Then she opened it and took something out.
“I do not know if this is a Pallas custom, so do not be offended if it seems inappropriate to you. I understand you may not care for a keepsake from your time on Gretia. But I wanted to give you this as a token of my gratitude for our time together.”
She handed the item to Idina. It was a folded piece of clothing. When Idina touched it, the unmistakable organic feel of real animal hide greeted her fingers. She unfolded it slowly in her hands. It was a jacket made from heavy cowskin that had been tanned black.
“They issued these until about ten years ago,” Dahl said.