Joseph suddenly wondered if they had suffered the same fate Levi faced. What good was a broken Marine in the middle of the apocalypse?

  West nodded, lips tight. “I’m not going to ask where you’re taking him.”

  “It’s better if you don’t. I need you to help us restrain him.”

  “Okay, Sarge.”

  “Captain, do you mind waiting here?” Joseph asked. “We’ll bring him up.”

  “That’s fine, Sergeant,” Grant replied.

  Joseph and West made their way through the module together, all the way back to where Nori stood guard over Levi in the corridor outside the door to his quarters. The Marine was still in his armor, rifle in hand. He looked more somber than Joseph had ever seen him.

  “Sarge,” he said when Joseph stopped before him. “I…” He trailed off. He didn’t know what to say.

  Joseph could hear Levi inside the barracks room, sobbing. Nori stepped aside so he could enter the room, West remaining right behind him. Levi was sitting on the bunk, head in his hands. He looked up when Joseph came in.

  “Sergeant,” he said softly. “I’m sorry. Tell Morales I’m sorry too.” He rubbed his forehead. “I can’t do this, Sarge. I can’t do this. I’m supposed to be in Metro. I’m supposed to be with my kids. Please. You need to talk to the Captain. Tell him I need to be with my kids. Or the Governor. Maybe you can talk to the Governor.”

  “Why don’t we go talk to the Captain together. He’s here.” Joseph said.

  Levi’s eyes lit up. “Really? Thanks, Sarge.”

  Joseph’s stomach clenched. He hated to lead the man on this way. “You’re a good Marine, Corporal. You deserve to have your voice heard.” He glanced back at West. She didn’t look happy either. “Come on.” He put out his hand. Levi took it and he pulled the Marine to his feet.

  Then he passed Levi off to West, who guided him out of the room and then out of the barracks. Joseph leaned in close to Nori, speaking quietly. “Don’t let anyone else out into the CIC.”

  “Wilco, Sarge,” Nori replied.

  Joseph caught up to West and Levi as they passed into the CIC. Captain Grant was waiting at the front of the room near the door. Doctor Okoye stood off to the side.

  “Are you Captain Grant?” Levi asked from across the room. “Captain, I need to talk to you. There’s been a mistake. I’m supposed to be in Metro, with my kids, not here. That’s what I was promised.”

  “You’re Corporal Levi?” Grant asked.

  “Yes, sir. I can’t stay here, Captain. I can’t. I need to go to Metro to be with my kids. They’re waiting for me. I’m all they have and they’re all I’ve got.”

  “I understand that, Corporal. And I’m sorry. We took heavy casualties before launch. We need every available Marine to serve as a Guardian for the duration of the mission. In fact, the security detail assigned to Pioneer will be joining you here shortly.”

  “What?” Levi cried. “You son of a bitch!” He lunged at Grant, but West grabbed him in a quick neck restraint, holding him back. He continued to struggle until Okoye came at him from the side, jabbing the needle with the sedative into his neck, just above West’s arm.

  The medicine worked almost instantly. Levi slumped in West’s grip, and she lowered him gently to the floor.

  Okoye went back to the module’s entrance. He opened the door to one of his nurses and the gurney she’d been ordered to bring up from medical. He sent her on her way before pulling a gurney into the room positioning it next to the prone Marine. Joseph went around to Levi’s feet, and he and West lifted the corporal onto the gurney.

  Grant sighed heavily. “He’s dangerous, Sergeant.”

  “Yes, sir,” Joseph agreed. “I didn’t want to believe it, or accept it. But he is. West, stay here.”

  “Sarge, I should—”

  “No. Nobody else needs to be part of this.”

  “Copy that.”

  Joseph pushed the gurney to the door.

  “I’ll take it from here, Sergeant,” Grant said, moving in front of him. Joseph noticed his hands were trembling.

  “Sir, you don’t have to—”

  “I do. It’s my responsibility as Captain. I won’t let anyone put blood on their hands that belong on mine. Doctor Okoye will do your ID injections. Doctor, Sergeant Cross is now Guardian Prime. Corporal West is his second.”

  “Yes, sir,” Okoye replied.

  “Captain...” Joseph paused, unable to find the right words.

  “Remember this, Sergeant,” Grant said. “Always remember this and what being a Guardian means. What this ship means to all of humankind. The sacrifices we have to make for the good of all, and the unpleasant actions we sometimes need to take.” He paused a moment, voice trembling like his hands. “God help us all.”

  Then he wheeled the gurney from the room.

  17

  Cross

  Pioneer. Guardian Module. 11.11.2052. 1545 hours.

  “All right, Marines!” Joseph shouted, loud enough his voice carried through the doors and into every room of the Guardian module. “All hands to the CIC, ASAP!”

  Corporal West was already there. Nori was close by and came in next, followed by Morales, Hoffman, Chun, Turani and Bourne. They lined up to the side of the workstations, standing at attention.

  “They should have put a briefing room in this thing, Sarge,” Morales said.

  “Did I tell you that you could talk yet, Private?” Joseph asked.

  “No, Sergeant!” Morales snapped back.

  “We’re still Marines. We still have a job to do. That isn’t going to end. Not for the rest of our lives. Corporal Levi couldn’t handle that. He cracked.”

  He gave the words a moment to sink in with the rest of the Marines. They all knew what it meant. Levi was done as one of them.

  “Sarge, permission to speak,” Morales said.

  “Like I can ever really stop you,” Joseph replied. “Go ahead.”

  “What’s going to happen to Corporal Levi?”

  “This ship is all we have for the next two centuries,” he replied. “Everything is limited. The food, the air, the power. If you aren’t part of the solution, you’re part of the problem. Is that understood?”

  He sensed the sudden discomfort in the room. It was better to get it out of the way quickly and move on. None of them had to like it. He didn’t either. That didn’t change the reality of their situation, even if that reality hadn’t completely sunk in with any of them, including him.

  “Yes, Sergeant,” Morales said, followed by simple acknowledgements from the others.

  “This was Captain Grant’s decision,” Joseph said. “On my recommendation. If you have an issue with that decision, I expect you to come and see me about it. We need one another now more than ever. There are forty-thousand lives under our protection. Is that understood?”

  “Yes, Sergeant!” they responded more forcefully.

  “Good.” Joseph turned and motioned to Okoye. “This is Doctor Okoye. He’s the ship’s physician. If any of us get sick during this trip, he’s the man we’re going to wake up.”

  “Please don’t wake me up,” Okoye said, smiling. “I prefer to make it to Avalon relatively young.”

  It was supposed to be a joke, but considering the calculations they had done and how old the Guardians would be when they arrived, it landed flat.

  “Doctor Okoye is going to provide the identification chips we need to access the secured areas of our module and the ship. Once that’s done I’ll be able to get access to the CIC controls and begin assigning permissions. Also, as soon as he’s finished you’re no longer officially Marines. You’ll be Guardians, and your only role is to protect this ship and its inhabitants at all costs. Is that understood?”

  “Yes, Sergeant!”

  “Doctor Okoye?” Joseph said, indicating it was time for him to do his thing.

  Okoye placed his satchel on the nearest workstation and opened it, taking out an injection gun. He held it up. “This will inject the chip beneath your skin. Almost every chip is identical, except for the first two. Guardian Prime and Guardian Second have additional permissions. Sergeant Cross, you’re required to go first. I recommend putting the chip in the wrist of your off hand.”

  “Of course,” Joseph said.

  He held his left hand out to Okoye, who adjusted its position and pushed back his sleeve. Then he pressed the needle into the skin before pulling the trigger on the injection gun. It made a soft pop, and Joseph’s eyes narrowed slightly at the pain. He had expected it to hurt more than it did.

  “West, you’re up,” Joseph said.

  Okoye plugged the injection gun into a small device, tapped on it a few times, and then nodded to West. She held out her right wrist, and Okoye repeated the procedure. He followed a similar process with each of the Marines, taking their names and programming the chips to them before insertion. The whole thing took about thirty minutes.

  “Welcome to the Guardians,” Joseph said when Okoye was done.

  “I don’t feel any different,” Morales said. “What are we supposed to call you now, Sarge?”

  “Prime,” Joseph replied. “And Second. You aren’t privates or corporals anymore. You’re Guardians. You all have the same responsibilities.”

  “And the same pay grade,” Morales joked. The paychecks had stopped coming over a year ago. Nobody cared about money when the whole world had gone to hell.

  Joseph went to the CIC’s command station and tapped on the control board. One of the displays at the station activated, asking for a password. He put his wrist to it and the password box changed, requesting a new entry. Joseph typed in a password and hit enter. He wouldn’t need it to get into the system, but he could give it to one of the other Guardians in the event of an emergency.

  The display changed, showing him a menu of options. He was never supposed to have access to the administrative part of the system, so he was never trained on it or given the manual covering it. Computers were computers though, and Joseph was comfortable with new software and user interfaces. He tapped through the menus until he found Personnel. All of the current Guardians were listed there, with West right under him, and the others further below. They all had basic access to the systems, but he found the list of permissions and began checking them off for all of his subordinates, deducing through the settings that one of the doors led to the stasis chambers and the other led into the armory. Not that he hadn’t already guessed.

  He gave them full access to both as well as to the CIC terminals and most of their functions. This was his team. He knew them and trusted them or they would have gone out the door with Levi. And being short handed, it was better to give them as much control as possible.

  The other Guardians and Okoye waited patiently while he looked through the settings. Then one of the secondary displays turned on, showing a camera feed from outside the door. Four Marine MPs were standing in front of it. One of them looked up at the camera.

  “Sergeant Cross, sir,” he said. “I’m Sergeant Tran, head of the ship’s security detail. Captain Grant ordered us down here for reassignment.”

  It took Joseph a moment to realize the security into the module had activated with his chip, locking the MPs out. He looked at the control board, trying to find the button to open either the comm or the door. Finding it, he tapped on the control and the door slid open.

  The MPs came in a few feet and then stood at attention. Sergeant Tran looked across the small room at him. “Guardian Prime, sir,” he said. “Pioneer security team reporting.”

  Joseph rounded the workstations to stand in front of them. Tran was small and lean, with a square jaw and a head of thick dark hair. He eyed the name tags of the others. Madani, a younger woman with hazel eyes that stood out against her dark olive complexion. Sykes, fit and muscled, and Alesso, a nearly equally fit woman.

  “What are your orders, Sergeant?” Joseph asked.

  “We’re to be reassigned to the Guardians, sir,” Tran replied. “Under your command.”

  “And you’re aware of the role and responsibilities of the Guardians?”

  “Yes, sir. I was an applicant. I didn’t make the cut.”

  “Why not?”

  “Too many better applicants, sir. They told me it was a lack of overall experience. I just joined the Marines last year.”

  “After the war had already started. Volunteer or conscript?”

  “Volunteer, sir. I didn’t need to be convinced it was in the best interest of our country to kill as many trife as possible.”

  “But you wound up an MP.”

  “Only on Pioneer. I was infantry before that.”

  “You were Army?”

  “Yes, sir. Before being transferred to the Space Force.”

  Joseph turned to Madani. “What about you?”

  “Army, sir. Three years. My first combat was against the trife.”

  “And you’re still here.”

  She smiled. “Yes, sir.”

  “Do you have any family inside Metro?”

  “No, sir. The rest of my family is gone. Between the virus...and the trife…” she trailed off, looking a bit sad.

  “I’m sorry for your losses, Corporal.”

  “Thank you, sir.”

  Joseph nodded. “Sykes, what about you?” he asked.

  “Marine Corps,” he replied proudly. “I was an applicant too. They should have picked me. I had eight years in the Corps. Did a tour in the Middle East. Another in South Korea.”

  “Any combat?”

  “In Syria.” He pushed the collar of his uniform away to show a scar. “Got shot there. Went back as soon as I was cleared. I got another nasty scar on my leg from a trife, but I’d have to drop trow to show you.” He grinned widely. “They almost gave me a prosthetic replacement, but I fought to keep it.”

  “You should have taken the replacement,” West said, getting Sykes’ attention. She pulled up her pant leg to show off the metal. “It’s a hundred times better than the real thing.”

  “No, ma’am,” he replied. “I prefer flesh and bone.”

  Joseph turned his attention to Alesso. “What’s your background, Private Alesso?”

  “Air Force, sir.” She looked a little uncomfortable admitting it.

  “You’re actual security, then? Not like these jarheads and grunts.”

  She smiled. “Yes, sir. I was assigned to Nellis when the trife hit us.”

  “What?” Morales said. “I heard Nellis survived the first six slicks that came at them.”

  “That’s correct,” Alesso said, her discomfort fading. “We lost a lot of good people holding them back while we evacuated the site. I was one of the last to leave. The only one who opted for service instead of Metro.”

  Morales whistled. “You’re one bad mamma.”

  “Do you have any family in the city?” Joseph asked.

  “No, sir. Not in Metro. But my brother is on board Pioneer. I thought he had died, but he came in with a group of scientists a week ago.”

  “What do you mean not in Metro?”

  “You didn’t know? There’s a research module behind the main hangar, a few decks down and further aft. My brother Pietro, he’s a geneticist. He’s supposed to work on editing technology to improve survivability when we reach Avalon.”

  “I’m not sure what that means,” Joseph admitted.

  “Me either,” she replied, smiling. “It was important enough the Vultures pulled him out of the middle of a slick to get him here.”

  “He met Caleb Card?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “What did he say about him?”

  “That the stories are mostly true.”

  Joseph nodded. “I need to know that having your brother on board and available to you won’t affect your duties as a Guardian.”

  “Of course not, sir. I’ll defend Pioneer with my life.”

  “Hopefully you’ll never need to. Welcome to the Guardians. Doctor Okoye will get you chipped, and then I’ll introduce you to the rest of the team.

  “Thank you, sir,” Sergeant Tran said. “But we already have chips. They just need to be reassigned.”

  “I can do that now,” Okoye said, approaching them. He was holding a different device that connected to the small tablet. “Give me your wrist.” Sergeant Tran held out his wrist, and Okoye ran the device over it, scanning him. “Here we go.” He made a few changes, and then took the device away. “He should be in your personnel records now, Guardian Prime.”

  “Thank you, Doctor,” Joseph said. He went back to the terminal to check, finding Sergeant Tran added to the list. He could click on his name to view his entire record, but decided that could wait. He entered permissions for him, giving him a little less access than the others. Just until he knew all of the MPs better.

  He liked having four more Guardians on his team. They were up to six pairs, reducing the number of rotations to seventeen. Thirty-four years outside stasis. They’d age approximately ten more inside the hibernation pods. Forty-four years total by the time they reached Avalon. He’d be seventy-two by then. That was a hell of a lot better than ninety.

  He glanced up, eyes catching Alesso as Okoye reprogrammed her chip. He hadn’t known about the research module or that there might be other people wandering the passageways outside of Metro once they put the ship on auto. It was important information to have.

  Genetic editing? Survivability? He didn’t know exactly what that was or how it was possible. If they could change people to make them harder to kill, they probably should have done it already. It would have helped against the trife.

  It seemed strange Command thought they needed something like that headed for Avalon. Did they know something about the planet nobody else did?

  An uninhabited super earth. That’s what Colonel Hale told him it was.

  Had she told him the truth?

  18

  Grant

  Pioneer. Passageway. 11.11.2052. 1630 hours.

  Tyson stopped at a junction, looking both directions and trying to determine if he had already been down this way. Corporal Levi lay on the gurney in front of him, still out cold, his breathing slow but steady. Damn it, he should have made sure he knew how to get where he was going before he tried to get there. He wanted to keep this whole situation quiet, and getting lost on his own ship was hardly the way to do it.