Suborbital 7, p.30
SubOrbital 7,
p.30
“Yep… um, yes sir. But—waffles.”
“Waffles it is.”
Burkett showered and shaved, which left him feeling even better. He put on some civvies, jeans and sneakers and a Hawaiian shirt, and took Nate’s hand for the walk over to the officers’ mess hall. On the way he admired the blue of the sky. What a pure blue it was, today.
“I’m starting to like the sky way better from this side of the atmosphere,” he said.
Nate laughed. They ate, and then Lieutenant Colonel Baxter came in, waved to Nate, grinned at Burkett, and sat down.
“Got some news for you, Art. You’re no longer a lieutenant, as of tomorrow.”
“Busting me to private like my man Nate?”
“You’re gonna be a captain. The President’s arranged for every damn Ranger on that ship to be promoted. Even Lemuel Dorman.”
“He’ll hate that.”
“He kicked up a fuss. The man just does not want to be promoted, but—it was the Commander-in-Chief’s idea. It’s his orders, so Dorman has to suck it up. Dabiri will be a sergeant. Sergeants are getting ‘battlefield commissions’ to become lieutenants. Ike will be a captain.”
“I’ll be damned. That’s good, anyway. He deserves it. They all deserve it.” Sergeant to lieutenant was something that didn’t often happen—non-com to commissioned—but the Commander-in-Chief could make it happen.
“You’re all getting festooned with medals. Congratulations.”
“They should give Ike his own SubOrbital.”
“I’ll support that if he wants it. You going to give that interview to WorldTalk?”
“Not for the foreseeable future. I’m going to pretend I’m too ill, hope they lose interest. You think about what we talked about, sir, on the phone?”
“Art, it’s not like I would dare deny you anything. You want to transfer out of SubOrbital combat duty, you can do it. What I’m hoping is, you’ll take the offer to be an instructor.”
“If you mean a ground instructor. After I finish being a lobbyist, then—yes sir.”
“You’re going to be a lobbyist?”
“I’m going to push for retrofitting the S-series. Funding to get escape pods, more oxygen, more and better supplies, a couple of exterior laser cannons—at least. Whatever those soldiers need. Those vessels need to be more than fancy buses. They need to be ready for extended periods in orbit, and capable of defending themselves. And every new piece of combat gear needs to be fully tested.”
“Damned right it does,” Nate said.
They both looked with astonishment at the boy.
He shrugged. “That’s what Mom would say.”
Baxter laughed. As if on cue, Ashley walked up to the table.
“Talley! Good to see you,” she said.
“Now it’s ‘good to see you’? She gave me such hell, Art!”
Burkett smiled at her. “Did she? That’s interesting.” He admired the tight-fitting white dress she was wearing. Showing some legs and cleavage.
Baxter stood up. “Art, I’ll testify at those hearings, whatever you want. I’m behind you a hundred percent. Ashley—” He kissed her on the cheek. “—I still love you no matter what.”
She laughed. Baxter gave a small salute to Nate and walked off.
“I’m transferring out of combat duty, Ashley,” Burkett said, as if it were just a casual remark. He took a sip of his coffee.
“I know you are. I know everything that goes on in Baxter’s office now. I have my spies.”
“Sit down and have some waffles, Mama,” Nate said. “They have raspberry syrup.”
“I’m not sitting down, I’ve had my breakfast,” Ashley said. “You guys are coming with me.”
Nate got up and took her hand. “Where we going?”
“We’re all going home. To our house in town.”
“Daddy, too?”
“Why shouldn’t your dad come home to his own house, Nate? He lives there.” Ashley looked at Burkett. “Well? You coming or not, soldier?”
Burkett stood up and gave her a brisk salute. “Let’s go home, ma’am.”
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thanks to Jeff Conner for godlike patience, Steve Saffel, Daniel Carpenter, and Dan Coxon for editorial sweat, Brock Hinzmann for futurism input, and Carl Rogers, Andrew Kosove, and Broderick Johnson from Alcon Publishing.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
JOHN SHIRLEY is the author of numerous novels, including Demons, Wetbones, Cellars, City Come A-Walkin’, A Splendid Chaos, Bioshock: Rapture, The Other End, and the Eclipse cyberpunk trilogy. His newest novel is Stormland. His story collection Black Butterflies won the Bram Stoker Award. His new story collection is The Feverish Stars. He is co-screenwriter of The Crow and has written teleplays and animation.
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John Shirley, SubOrbital 7
