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“Your fellow officer candidates testified, though. The review board had all the evidence they needed tocourt-martial your CO. They put you on report and dropped all further disciplinary actions.”
He said nothing. His head hung low.
“That is why you are here, Lieutenant—because you have an ability that is exceedingly rare in themilitary. You can keep a secret.” She drew in a long breath and added, “You may have to keep manysecrets after this mission is over.”
He glanced up. There was a strange look in her eyes. Pity? That caught him off guard and he lookedaway again. But he felt better than he had since OCS. Someone trusted him again.
“I think,” she said, “that you would rather be on theMagellan . Fighting and dying on the frontier.”
“No, I—” He caught the lie as he said it, stopped, then corrected himself. “Yes. The UNSC needs everyman and woman patrolling the Outer Colonies. Between the raiders and insurrections, it’s a wonder it allhasn’t fallen apart.”
“Indeed, Lieutenant, ever since we left Earth’s gravity, well, we’ve been fighting one another for everycubic centimeter of vacuum—from Mars to the Jovian Moons to the Hydra System Massacres and on to
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the hundred brushfire wars in the Outer Colonies. It has always been on the brink of falling apart. That’swhy we’re here.”
“To observe one child,” he said. “What difference could a child make?”
One of her eyebrows arched. “This child could be more useful to the UNSC than a fleet of destroyers, athousand Junior Grade Lieutenants—or evenme . In the end, the child may be the only thing thatmakesany difference.”
“Approaching Eridanus Two,” Toran informed them.
“Plot an atmospheric vector for the Luxor spaceport,” Dr. Halsey ordered. “Lieutenant Keyes, makeready to land.”
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CHAPTER TWO
1130 Hours, August 17, 2517 (Military Calendar) /Eridanus Star System, Eridanus 2, Elysium City
The orange sun cast a fiery glow on the playground of Elysium City Primary Education Facility No. 119.Dr. Halsey and Lieutenant Keyes stood in the semishade of a canvas awning and watched children asthey screamed and chased one another and climbed on steel lattices and skimmed gravballs across therepulsor courts.
Lieutenant Keyes looked extremely uncomfortable in civilian clothes. He wore a loose gray suit, a whiteshirt, and no tie. Dr. Halsey found his sudden awkwardness charming.
When he had complained the clothes were too loose and sloppy, she had almost laughed. He was puremilitary to the core. Even out of uniform, the Lieutenant stood rigid, as if he were at perpetual attention.“It’s nice here,” she said. “This colony doesn’t know how good they’ve got it. Rural lifestyle. Nopollution. No crowding. Climate-controlled weather.”
The Lieutenant grunted an acknowledgment as he tried to smooth the wrinkles out of his silk jacket.
“Relax,” she said. “We’re supposed to be parents inspecting the school for our little girl.” She slippedher arm through his, and although she would have thought such a feat impossible, the Lieutenant stoodeven straighter.