Recon Marines III: The Marine's Doctor (7 page)

Perhaps it had meant nothing to her.
Civilians talked freely with each other in ways soldiers never did.
What did he know of the emotions hidden in a woman’s soft gaze? But
she had held onto his hand, a simple gesture that probably held
little meaning to her.

Dr. Loren was speaking as Mak entered
the lab. “The hair shows severe nutrient deficiencies, Molly. Just
a guess about the age, but I think he’s in his early forties or so.
The bone samples we took from the cadavers in the lab should tell
us with more accuracy.”

“
Maybe we should leave
some food for them,” Dr. Shear said. “These poor things haven’t the
means to take care of themselves.”

“
Feed them?” Corporal Box
sneered. “We should have killed every one of those
freaks.”

The arguments weren’t unfamiliar to
Mak, including Box’s prejudices against any genetic manipulations.
Box certainly included the Recon Marines in his distaste. Mak
didn’t care how much Box hated him as long as he followed
orders.

“
We’re not going to feed
them,” Mak said as he entered. “They’ve survived this long on their
own. Providing food would only confuse them and probably make them
sick. And there’s no need to kill them, Box. There’s five males
left, and they’ll die soon enough without the chance to
reproduce.”

Dr. Drant looked up from the
microscope she’d been using. Something sad and warm shone in her
eyes. “The lieutenant is right. They’ve been mistreated enough. The
most mercy we can offer them is to leave them alone.”

Mak didn’t need her opinion to back up
his orders, but he liked it. “Pender and I found a possible second
site. He’s plotting a course unless one of you have discovered
another clue that would indicate where another lab is
located.”

“
How did you figure it
out?” Dr. Shear asked.

“
From the data collector
left behind on their communications station. Twenty minutes then.”
Mak rejoined Pender on the bridge, not waiting or caring for the
doctors’ input of the flight plan.

Pender had the course ready for Mak’s
approval. “Forty hours of flight time, sir.”

Mak checked the outside sensors. The
lab humanoids had crept close to the ship since Mak had come
inside. “Turn on the low altitude burn engines, Pender, scare them
away. Otherwise take off might injure them.”

“
Yes, sir.”

They watched on the scanners as the
humanoids scrambled away. “Take us out of atmosphere.”

Pender worked the engines to provide a
smooth climb that shouldn’t disturb the scientists. Once clear of
atmospheric pull, Mak set the ship on auto flight. The onboard
intelligence would set the best speed for optimal fuel expenditure.
He heard the doctor approaching as he finished up.

“
Lieutenant, could I have
a private moment with you?”

Mak couldn’t help but think of their
time alone on the slope. Had it touched her also? “How about the
break room?”

Dr. Drant led the way, making it
impossible for him to ignore the sway of her hips and the strength
in her legs. She was a field scientist, used to the rigors of
working on uncivilized planets. Once inside the room, she closed
the door behind them.

“
Lieutenant, I’m sure
you’re an excellent military commander and have led many excursions
into battle, but this is a scientific endeavor. I have always been
in charge of my own exploration units.”

“
Until this
one.”

“
Including this
one.”

“
General Drant gave me my
orders, doctor.”

“
I’m sure you can
understand that my father is being overprotective. This is a
science mission first and foremost.”

“
I don’t understand what
overprotective means. And the general described this as a covert
military mission first and foremost.”

“
My father wouldn’t use my
team in that way.”

“
He instructed me to allow
you to gather as much data as you could without placing yourself in
danger.”

“
To allow me?” She put her
hands on her hips, her voice getting quieter, yet somehow she
seemed to be shouting. The same trick the general had.

Mak knew he’d said something wrong
though he’d tried to be diplomatic. After all, he was just passing
on the general’s orders. “Didn’t you get everything you needed on
Julian?”

“
Yes.”

“
Were you not in charge of
the scientists?”

“
Yes.”

“
And I was in charge of
security and the overall mission. A mission I altered when you said
you needed more samples, Dr. Drant.”

“
Molly.”

“
Pardon?”

“
Call me
Molly.”

“
I’m not sure that would
be…proper.”

“
After seeing the way you
came down on the corporal for not following orders, I’m rather
certain I can’t talk you into disobedience to my father in any
way.”

“
The general’s orders make
complete sense.”

“
Did he order you not to
call me by my first name?”

“
No. Molly.”

She smiled for some reason. “Then,
Mak, you and I need to work together on this mission so I get what
I want and you can follow your orders.”

His name sounded different when she
said it. Somehow personal. “I thought that’s what we did on
Julian.”

She laughed, the sound tightening his
insides. “I guess we did. But it would help if you asked me to do
things your way instead of ordering me like you do Kory and
Andy.”

“
We can try that.” Mak
thought the look in her eyes was satisfaction. Had he just lost an
argument? It hadn’t seemed like a disagreement, but he felt he’d
conceded something. “I expect instant obedience to any orders I
give.”

“
Yes, sir.”

Mak had learned of sarcasm from
Acacia, but he detected nothing mean behind Molly’s grin. “Forty
hours until the Martin space station.”

“
I have lots of work to do
before then. Thank you for having this discussion, Mak.” She strode
by him, the scent of the sunny grasslands still clinging to
her.

Mak stood still for a few moments,
replaying their conversation. Had he lost command of some part of
the mission? And did he care if he’d lost it to Dr. Molly
Drant?

****

Molly sat at the dining table with
Hector and Helen, none of them interested in the food in front of
them. They’d finished most of the tests and examinations of the
samples from Julian. Their horrible findings led Molly to question
the sanity of the people who had conducted the
experiments.

The lab specimens had all been
modified in their early adult life when they’d been fed or injected
with massive amounts of testosterone and pituitary hormones to
encourage unusual size and strength. They could only guess at the
physical abuse heaped upon the poor subjects. They imagined
emotional and social crimes against the men had matched or exceeded
the physical.

The scars on the brains indicated
attempts to isolate certain sections of their minds and had
destroyed others. But the clumsy surgery had damaged greater parts
than they’d surely intended. After a close look at what they’d
done, Molly was amazed any of the men managed to survive on their
own like the five they’d seen. And as Mak had guessed, it appeared
the dead men in the cages had been left to starve. The five
survivors must have somehow freed themselves.

“
Why do you think they
took their voices?” Hector pushed aside the sandwich on his plate;
even his ponderous appetite couldn’t overcome what they’d
discovered.

“
Probably so the
scientists couldn’t hear their victims’ cries of terror.” Helen
sighed. “They must have performed the surgeries in that room, the
ones in the cages witnessing what was going to happen to
them.”

“
I’ve never seen such
cruelty in any modern culture.” Molly’s stomach churned. She could
no longer think of the pathetic creature Mak had stood watch over
as anything but a horribly tortured man. “They worked on them for
years. How could any human do that to another?”

Helen sat up straighter and pulled her
tablet in front of her. She tapped the screen and brought up a time
line. “We placed the age of these men at around forty-five, give or
take a year or two at most. They probably would have picked young
men in prime health, perhaps not yet done growing to have achieved
the size they did. The Recon Marines are nearing their thirtieth
anniversary. It’s possible this program predates the epigenetics
program or ran concurrent to it.” She typed in some
notes.

“
They probably figured out
early on that these boys would never be the super soldiers they
wanted,” Hector said. “The testosterone alone would have made them
very aggressive and difficult to control.”

“
That might have led to
the brain surgeries,” Molly guessed. “They tried to regain control.
And with all that testosterone, their subjects wouldn’t have worked
well together. They probably attacked each other at every chance
like the five that are left.”

“
What do you mean?” Hector
asked.

“
That’s why Mak stayed
with the one he stunned until he woke up. He guessed the others
would attack and kill it.”

Helen smiled. “Mak?”

“
Yes?” Mak stood in the
doorway, his silent entrance startling them all.

Molly felt her face heating though she
couldn’t remember the last time a man had made her blush. She
wasn’t sure why she did now. “We were discussing our findings. I
shared with my colleagues what you said about the others attacking
the unconscious one.”

Mak went to the cooling unit and took
out a packaged sandwich. He looked at the exit door and then the
table, clearly considering escape.

“
Please join us.” Molly
considered his discomfort fair payback for making her
blush.

After a long moment of indecision, Mak
took a seat beside her. “We’ll be circling the station in one hour.
I’ll run full sensor scans before we land. From what Pender and I
learned, it’s an abandoned military outpost, having been used as a
refueling and cargo exchange base when this quadrant was first
being explored.”

“
Do you expect trouble?”
Hector asked.

Mak did the funny thing with his
eyebrow. “Standard safety procedures for approaching a possible
enemy base, doctor.”

Molly thought she’d figured out when
he raised his eyebrow in that adorable quirk. She tried an
experiment. “You suspect we might run into something
dangerous?”

Up went his eyebrow at her silly
question. “Yes.”

“
Do you want to know our
findings from Julian, lieutenant?” Helen offered her tablet to
him.

Mak stared at it, something Molly
thought was sadness in his dark eyes. He stood up, taking his food
with him. “I know everything I need to about that place. I’ll
inform you when we’re about to land.” He left as silently as he’d
entered.

Helen pulled her tablet back. “I bet
he could tell us stories about the things we can only guess from
our physical findings. Even if their creators used less physical
torture on their subjects, I’m sure the Recon Marines suffered
plenty of emotional and mental torture at their masters’
hands.”

“
Damage like that can
never be fixed,” Hector said.

Molly thought of a man compassionate
enough to stand guard over an unconscious, dangerous freak. A man
who dreamed of learning everything about everything as she did.
“Only someone incredibly strong could survive that. Like fine steel
melded into something unbreakable.”

****

Something about the spinning station
raised the hairs on Mak’s neck. He knew to trust his instincts.
They’d flown around it twice, scanning every level of the ten-story
structure. The second level from the top was for ship docking. One
old derelict ship sat in a bay but the rest of the space was empty.
The landing lights responded to the standard military signals,
opening a door to welcome them.

Nothing living showed on the scanner
though power still operated on all the levels. Most military bases
like this one would have barracks on the floors right below the
docks and below those would house work areas and perhaps officers’
quarters. It made little sense for the power to still be on. A
careless oversight when the base was evacuated quickly?

Pender flew the ship into the bay with
a casual perfection. “Same formation as on the planet,
sir?”

Mak waited until the ship settled onto
the platform. Outside scanners still showed no movements or signs
of life. He would have preferred to explore the entire base by
himself but that would take hours. The doctors might spot
indications of lab work if any was performed here. Julian might
have communicated with this station about supplies and nothing
else. If they couldn’t find anything, they would be at a dead
end.

“
I want you on rear guard,
Pender. I’ll keep Corporal Box in front with me.” Mak left unspoken
that he didn’t trust Box and wanted to keep an eye on him. “We’ll
be searching through any communications equipment we find. You and
I will explore the control tower on the top floor after we escort
the doctors through the sublevels.” The top floor would have all
the scanners used when the station was active, the actual brains of
the spinning platform. “Gravity is normal and air quality
acceptable. Arm up, Pender. I’ll make sure the doctors are ready to
go.”