Chapter 11 #3
Renn simply glared, absolute disgust and rage building in him. It was one thing to have a complete lack of professionalism and another to be unhonorable.
“Let’s move!” he screamed and turned to leave. But again, no one moved, looking back and forth between Renn and the first officer.
When Rogers realized this, he took a moment before he spoke. He squared his shoulders, hands curling into fits. “If a single one of you defies my order and follows him”—he pointed a threatening finger in Renn’s direction—“you will be dishonorably discharged from the SEA, immediately.”
Renn gazed at each of their terrified, shocked faces—afraid if they ventured into that cave they might not come out, and if they disobeyed there would be life-altering consequences.
He took a deep breath, knowing what he had to do. “It’s okay. Everyone go. I’ve got this.”
Stunned once again, the crew looked to one another.
“Aldrenn, you don’t—” Tanner began, but Renn held up a hand.
“It’s okay. I got this.” He didn’t have to pretend to be confident in his choice; he simply knew there was no other way. Some lingered, waiting till the very last moment until they had to make a decision, but eventually, Renn watched as, one by one, they disappeared into the forest.
The cave was narrow for about 500 feet, progressively getting steeper before it leveled out, expanding into an enormous open cavern.
It was pitch black, so Renn put on his helmet to offer light, keeping his hands free.
The water had carved a small stream into the rocky, uneven floor and Renn followed it, assuming it’s what Laughlin would have done.
“Luitenant Laughlin? Officer Carson?” he continued to call out every several hundred feet. He checked his wrist comp. He had been walking for nearly thirty minutes and still nothing.
It was hard to find any indication that had passed this way—there were no footprints to track against the damp stone.
They couldn’t have been washed away in the stream; it’s too small, he thought.
He pulled out his scanner, to check if it could pick up anything, but then he heard what sounded like rolling thunder. What once was a tiny stream was now a roaring river.
“Oh no,” he said aloud. Maybe they were swept away in the water after all. He called their names again, feeling useless—trying to shout over the raging water. He ventured down the river more, when suddenly, he saw a light.
“Hello?” he yelled once more, and finally, he saw movement.
“Oh, thank God.” It was Laughlin lying on the ground, her thigh covered in a dark stain. Blood. Too much blood. “Officer Anton,” she choked back a sob. “It all happened so fast. I couldn’t do anything, the water . . . she’s gone.”
He followed her gaze to the water’s edge. There was blood splattered on the rocks. He took hold of her trembling hand. “It’s okay. You’re going to be okay.”
She sobbed again, but nodded.
“How?” he asked, taking off his pack and digging through it to find bandages.
“She and I were sitting near the edge when all of a sudden there was a terrible crack and rocks from above . . .” She inhaled a shaky breath.
“It fell mostly on her, and then she fell into the river. I think . . . I think she was dead from the impact, before she hit the water.” Their equipment must have fallen into the river with Carson, hence the no signal.
He found his medical kit, cutting away part of the thick fabric of her pant leg to get a better look at the wound.
“A sharp edge grazed me.” She winced as Renn applied pressure with gauze to the deep cut. “Where is the rest of the team?” She looked around as if she might have missed them somehow.
“It’s just me,” Renn said with a sad smile.
She stared at him for a moment, searching his green grey eyes. “That bastard.”
“Yeah.” Renn nodded, confirming what she had worked out on her own. “You’ve lost a lot of blood, Lieutenant. I need you to lean on me and try not to put any pressure on that leg,” he instructed.
“I don’t think we can make it,” she whimpered as he helped her to her feet.
“Of course we will,” Renn assured her. But in his mind, he wasn’t only worried if they would make it out of the cave, but he was worried about what was going on back to the ship.
Had Rogers somehow convinced everyone to keep their mouths shut? Would the captain believe whatever story he spun?
One step at a time, he told himself.
By the time they exited the cave, it was starting to turn dark. He was exhausted, and Laughlin wasn’t looking good. She had bled through her bandage and was looking paler by the minute.
“I’m going to call for help.” He placed a hand on her shoulder, forcing her to look at him. “Stay with me, okay?”
Laughlin bit her lip in pain, but nodded.
Renn stood, looking for a clearing in the foliage to help the signal, and he hoped his fears weren’t true. But when he turned on his comms, there was no signal.
“Son of a bitch,” he said under his breath. Rogers must have shut it off in case they did make it out. Renn refused to let him get away with this, though.
Lucky for him, his best friend was a genius and had shared some of his knowledge from time to time.
Years ago, Nate had explained how to reconfigure the comms to send out a signal like an old AM radio.
He ran back to his pack, looking for the tools, and after tinkering with the device for several minutes, he gave it a try.
“Anton to Vision. Can you read us?” he called. Satic was all he heard on the other end. Laughlin had her head leaned back against a rock. She wasn’t going to last the long journey through the forest if they tried to make it on their own.
“Vison, do you copy? This is Officer Anton. We are still on the planet’s surface. Do you copy?” Static again. He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Come on, come on,” he repeated under his breath. “Anton to Vision, do you copy?”
“Officer Anton, we read you.” It was hard to make out the voice—the signal was fizzy but they had heard him. It worked. Thank you, Nathan Hayden. Renn dropped to his knees in relief.
“We need an emergency evac. Please hurry.”
The medical team swiftly took Laughlin to be examined and tended to when the shuttle landed back on the Vision, but Renn was called to the bridge immediately to debrief. He was filthy—covered in blood, sweat, and mud.
He may have looked a mess, but Renn was stoic entering the bridge; it was only the captain, Rogers, and a few other head lieutenants waiting for him.
“Officer Anton, where do I begin?” The captain asked cooly. Renn knew he wasn’t really asking for him to answer that. “So, you defied a direct order from Lieutenant Rogers, correct?”
Renn stared at Rogers who looked less than thrilled to be there.
“Correct, sir.”
“And then you saved Lieutenant Laughlin’s life?”
He hoped she was okay, she wasn’t out of the woods yet.
“Yes, sir. I tried to.”
Everyone was still for several seconds, all eyes fixated on him.
“Never would I have thought Aldrenn Anton would disobey an order for a senior officer.”
Renn put his hands behind his back to steady himself for what would come next.
“And it seems I was foolish to think so because you demonstrated the capabilities of a true SEA crew member by doing so.”
The other Lieutenants smiled, while Rogers looked at the captain, aghast.
“Officer Anton, I am making you my first officer.”
If the bridge wasn’t dead silent before, no one dared breathe now.
“Excuse me, Captain?” Roger asked, stepping forward.
“You heard me. Anton is my first officer and you will be removed from this crew and this ship immediately.”
“But this . . . he is too . . . Sir, this has never been done before—someone of his age.”
The captain completely ignored him.
“Lieutenant Anton, I’ll spare the absolute ludicrous story Rogers here shared with myself and the other senior officers.” He stood from his captain’s chair, standing directly in front of Rogers.
“You disgust me, Rogers. What a waste. To throw away your entire career? And for what? There will be invasive action when you return to Earth . . . Leaving crew members to die . . . that is grave indeed.”
Rogers moved to speak, but the captain held up a hand. “Have security escort him to a holding cell. We will arrange for his departure soon.” Within seconds, two security officers entered the bridge and dragged Rogers away.
“Captain, thank you for this honor, but are you sure?” Renn was still trying to catch up with what all had happened in that span of minutes.
“Quite sure, Aldrenn.” He smiled, pride in his gaze.
“Thank you, sir. Thank you very much.” He bowed his head slightly, the other lieutenants doing the same.
“You’e earned it. Now, go clean up and rest. We’ll handle all the logistics tomorrow.” He returned to his seat.
“Sir, one more thing. I can’t speak for Lieutenant Laughlin, but there is more that happened before we reached the gully that I think you should know about.”
The captain cocked his head. “I’ll be sure to get a full report from Lieutenant Laughlin once she has recovered,” he said with a grateful nod.
Renn turned to leave, satisfied with his answer, but this time, the captain had one more question for him.
“Why did you do it, Aldrenn?”
As if had been waiting for him to ask, Renn didn’t hesitate and didn’t balk as he looked into Thomas’s eyes.
“Because it’s the right thing to do. And because . . .” He paused, ensuring the captain didn’t miss his meaning. “I can get it done.”