Read Online Alien Enigma by Darrell Bain, Tony Teora - Free Book Online Page A

during initial explorations. Some worlds were wimps while others had been very tough customers indeed, with high casualty counts. But this trip seemed different.
    First Sergeant Watkins noticed that Corporal Barbara Zembra, a rifle expert and backup loader for the heavy machine gun of the second squad in the first platoon of A Company, was sitting up front near the podium, listening attentively. She was also sitting rather closer than necessary to Corporal Bullet. He smiled, but only to himself. Opening up the combat arms to females added a bit of extra elan to the special units, but also gave senior sergeants such as himself extra worries as well. Zembra had a nice-looking if rather plain face but her exquisitely curved body more than made up for any deficiencies there. He saw her and Bullet in a relationship and knew it probably wouldn't be long before those two were an item. Mixing the sexes in combat had worked better than even the enthusiasts had predicted and if it caused a few extra problems as well, it was no more than any new innovation in the military did until the bugs were worked out.
    "Do you know what ship we'll be on, First Sergeant?" A young PFC who had just joined the unit asked.
    He had heard something about their prospective ship being a brand new one called the Doc Travis but it hadn't been formally announced yet so he couldn't say anything. However ..."I believe all you young heroes would be well served if you prepare for a long mission and a ship that has plenty of room. That's about all I know at present."
    "How about environment? Any data there?" A private piped up.
    Watkins thought momentarily of chewing him out for such a stupid-ass question but quickly stifled the urge. The boy might not be coming back. Instead he said: "You're all volunteers so you should know this may be a hairy sonofabitch. You also should be aware if you'd bother using a few brain cells that we won't know what kind of climate we'll be operating in until we fucking get there, so there's no specific environment for us to prepare for-except I suspect it'll be raining bullets, grenades, and bombs on any assholes that get in our way. That right Marines?"
    "Oorah!" yelled out the unit.
    "But what you should do is make damn certain all your equipment is in shape and then find some way to sneak an extra ammo load or two on board. I don't have to tell you old salts how, so you be sure and instruct our young comrades properly. Clear?"
    "Oorah!" the NCOs shouted in unison.
    "All right, then. Get to it." Watkins turned and walked from the room, shoulders back and body as ramrod straight as it had been at eighteen, thirty years ago when he'd kicked that Seal's ass.

Chapter Five: Nice to know I'm wanted

    I didn't mean to say that the Enterprise should be hauling garbage. I meant to say that it should be hauled away as garbage" - Korax (The Trouble With Tribbles)

    Brian climbed out of the golf cart and paused long enough to stare up at the huge bulk of the starship. Even though he had been around them all his life this was the first time he had seen the new C class by itself, away from the factory. It was even more impressive seeing it this way, he decided. He was proud of the part he had played in its design, giving it more power and thrust and a much more finely tuned gravitic regulator despite its greater size. He wondered what had been done internally since it left the Wannstead assembly building. He hoped any improvements DARPA had come up with would be enough to overcome whatever enigma that made ships in the Bolt Cluster disappear. He also wondered if the Navy knew that there wasn't a clue as to whether the ships were destroyed going into the cluster, trying to land on Xanadu, or even whether they were held captive by some unknown force and not hurt at all.
    Whatever, he figured it wouldn't be too long until he found out. He made some minor adjustments to his new uniform and climbed the ramp up into the bowels of the Doc Travis . He