Mathadar will listen to anything I have say right now. “We don’t have any more carriers. How will we transport them?”
Her expression wavers for a second. “I will collect them in this crystal container. As long as there is water, they will survive.”
My bullshit detector is going off a mile a minute, but she’s right about one thing. We never leave a man behind; not if we can help it, anyways. I nod. “It might take me a few hours, but I can make this happen.”
She hops up and throws her arms around my neck. “Thank you for helping me save my friends. They are sweet beings who deserve to live long healthy lives.”
“Yeah, don’t we all?” Pulling back, I pat her arm gently. “Go and prepare yourself. Put on some sturdy shoes if you have any.”
“I will. How will I know when you are ready?”
“I’ll text you a message with the code word, Akiramenai. You meet me at the downside of the tarmac where it fades into the ridge line. Do you know the place?”
Nodding, she sucks in a deep breath. Her eyes fill with tears and she tries to blink them away. “It is an appropriate code word for this endeavor.” Her breath catches in her throat, and she whispers a thank you before bolting from the chair.
Akiramenai is the Japanese word that means never give up. I know it’s a word that holds cultural significance, but I never expected its use to provoke this kind of emotional response. Then again, it was the do or die trying attitude that motivated their samurai and the legions of soldiers that came after, so it shouldn’t come as a shock that she responded the way she did.
I take a moment to ground myself. This rolling from one stressful situation to another can’t last forever. I just have to hang in there and keep trying to do the right thing. Bringing my com device to rest in my lap, I attach the scrambler that makes my transmission undetectable by the Draconians and text my chain of command.
Alliance in jeopardy. Need transcontinental transport to Fukuoka, Japan immediately. Suggest retrofitted warthog mini-jet.
The tiny two person transport jets are fast as lightning, which make them the perfect choice for this particular mission. I receive approval almost immediately along with a meeting time and place. I carefully go through the multistep process of removing evidence of the contact from my device before disconnecting the scrambler and slipping it back into my pocket.
It makes me mad that Earth Gov approves every request I make in real time but they had Chantel doing it all on a shoestring budget. It almost feels like they set her up for failure.
My blood runs cold when I realize the most likely reason for doing something like that would be to watch her fail so they could put me into action. Someone just forced me out of Earth Gov military in the sneakiest way imaginable. They had to know that I’d accept the assignment to be with Chantel even though neither of us would ever be accepted back in the city. It gets my wheels turning. Since the Draconians have been administering an inoculation against contracting the parasites, why won’t they let any of us back in?
Everything seems so overwhelming. Then I remember the good advice my grandmother once gave. Every detail of that conversation clarifies in my mind. I was whining that some task was too big, too hard and would take forever. She said, “Ain’t no use complaining, child.” Bending down, she looked me in the eyes. I remember the laugh lines around her eyes and the faint amusement in her expression. “Do you know how you eat an elephant, Juliet?” Shaking my head, my brain filled with images of trying to eat something so gigantic. She quickly reached out and pinched me gently on the side. “You eat it one bite at a time. Best get started. It’ll be bedtime soon.” Memories like this of my gran always put a smile on my face. Today is no different. She was a strong, no nonsense kind of woman and the one I patterned my life after.
Since I’ve got a little time to kill, I decide to check in on Borak. Time to suck it up, set aside my pride and apologize for landing him in hot water. I head down the corridor of the shuttle in the direction of his quarters.