“That is not logical.”
“Hmmm. You mean you noticed he’s nutty as fruit cake, too?”
Niles frowned, clearly considering her comment. “He appears to have suffered a psychotic break.”
“Duh! I noticed that. That’s what I just said. What the fuck are we supposed to do? I don’t mind telling you guys, I’m uneasy as hell. Some fucker is stealing extra rations and we should be on half rations! To say nothing of the fact that nobody seems especially worried about the enemy or the fact that the hab-suits require sunlight to recharge! If we get overrun most of the humans left are going to be popsicles before their suits can fully charge.”
Dane had returned with her helmet in time to hear her complaint. He frowned and looked at the others questioningly. Both Seth and Niles also looked puzzled. “What is popsicles?” Seth asked finally.
Danika blinked at him a couple of times and then snickered at their expressions. “A frozen treat.”
They looked appalled at her explanation. “How do you mean ‘treat’?” Dane asked cautiously.
“I didn’t mean something to eat!” Danika snapped, irritably. “You’re missing the point.”
They looked confused. “What is the point?” Seth asked.
Danika let out a huff of breath. “The point is that we aren’t prepared for an enemy attack. And the longer we all sit around kicking our heels, the worse it’ll be. Morale and discipline are already about as low as they can go … and we’re running out of supplies really fast.”
Seth frowned. “It has been a month, Earth time, since we were dropped here. If they are sending supplies and reinforcements from Krytalis they should be here within two weeks more at the most.”
Danika considered that and finally shook her head. “I don’t know if we have enough rations left to make it that long—definitely not if they keep disappearing. Not that anybody would starve to death in that short a time, but we’re going to get really hungry before they get here even so. And we don’t know they’ll be sending supplies from Krytalis.”
“That is the nearest confederation base.”
“I know but what if they’re low on supplies there, too? I mean, it’s a long ways out. What would the next closest be, time wise?”
“Three months.”
“Shit!”
After considering the situation for some time, she decided to hunt down the non-com officers in their group. They wouldn’t act without orders, but she thought they might have better luck getting through to Brown.
She spoke to the master sergeant and then both staff sergeants and pretty much hit another brick wall. It was clear they knew she’d already gone over their heads and spoken directly to the lieutenant and they weren’t happy about it. Despite their assurances that they would discuss her concerns with the commanding officer she doubted they would. She thought they probably already had and that was one of the reasons they were pissed off—one; because they hadn’t been any more successful than she’d been and two; because she’d ‘questioned’ their authority by ‘going behind their backs’ and taking her concerns directly to the commanding officer.
It was a hell of a time to be worried about the pecking order in her book!
Sergeant Sheila Whitaker at least gave her a better perspective of the situation, pointing out that munitions were critically low and they ran the risk of losing the entire sector if they launched a campaign they weren’t equipped for and were overrun and/or were captured by the enemy. The primary goal was to hold the sector and the base camp they’d set up was in control of the sector.
Danika was damned if she could see how they could figure that when they had no idea how many enemy soldiersalsooccupied their sector but she supposed they were basing that supposition on the battle when they’d landed.Ifthe enemy had thrown everything they had at them, and the cyborgs had pretty much wiped out the opposition in the last battle at Slaughter Ridge, then it was likely theydidhave undisputed control of the sector.
Someonehad bombed their original base camp site, however.
Of course, it didn’t necessarily follow that that someone was land based. They could’ve done it from space. Or they could have launched from another sector.
Supposedly, the Confederation was far more technologically advanced than the Andorians, but how much of that was based on actual Intel and how much on arrogance?
* * * *
Danika thought she was imagining things when she first noticed the brooding looks. After the third she happened to catch, she decided it wasn’t imagination at all. A short search for the reason produced the possibility that her fellow soldiers weren’t exactly happy with her for trying to prod the officers into action. That idea made her both uneasy and resentful—uneasy because there had already been a number of arguments that had escalated into fights; resentful because her efforts had come to nothing anyway and she didn’t see why they would have a problem with it.
She supposed it was due in part to the fact that it seemed unreasonable that she finally arrived at a different conclusion for those brooding looks, but it was also the fact that she noticed she wasn’t the only one getting those looks—the men were staring at all of the women in the group like hunting cats waiting to pounce.
It scared the hell out of her when that dawned on her. It wouldn’t have if not for the fact that discipline had all but broken down completely in the ranks. The non-com officers had broken up the fights and disciplined the soldiers involved by putting them to work patrolling with the cyborgs, but the fights were becoming more frequent and harder to break up every time they erupted.
And there were only a handful of women in the battalion.
And of that handful only a few were having sexual relations with any of the men.
