Out of the Dark by David Weber Read Free Book Online Page B

gotten out, just like she wanted. God knows you’ve put in more than your share of time in places like this! And she had a point about what you owe the girls, too. You knew she did. That was why you got so pissed at her for playing that card. Because you knew she was absolutely right to say it . . . and you were too much of a coward to admit it. You’re just lucky—
damned
lucky—she wants your daughters to grow up knowing their daddy. How many cases have you seen where it went the other way?
    He thought about the perversity of his own nature, but he knew the real reason he’d reupped so many times and why he was where he was. His dad had put it into words years ago, when Commander Buchevsky had finally retired and taken over a small church in his South Carolina hometown.
    “Son,” Alvin Buchevsky had said sadly, looking somehow like a stranger out of the uniform he’d worn as long as his son had been alive, “you’re not just a lifer, you’re a
combat arms
lifer. You’re just never going to be satisfied doing anything else, and that’s the way it is. I’ve seen it in plenty of others. In fact, to be honest, I was afraid I saw it in myself, once upon a time. Might be I really did, too, looking back on it. That’s the real reason I was so relieved when I realized I had a genuine call to the ministry.”
    The Methodist pastor had looked up at his towering son and shaken his head.
    “You’ve got that protective bug, too,” he’d said. “That crazy notion—probably your mom’s and my fault—that you’re supposed to
fix
everything. Just don’t have it in you to not answer to it, either. And you’re good at leading Marines, and you’re good at killing people you think need killing. I don’t say you
like
doing it, because I know you don’t, and I hate what Iknow that’s costing you. But the truth is you’d never be happy leaving ‘your job’ to someone else—someone who might not be as good at it as you are and got more of your Marines killed because they screwed up where you might not’ve. I know better than most that sometimes people like you are exactly what we need, too. There’s always going to be plenty of bad people in the world, and that means we need people like you to stop ’em. You know I’ll never condemn you for it, either. Never love you any less. But what you do . . . it can be hard on a man’s soul, and it’s hard on his family, Steve. It’s awful hard.”
    You were right, Dad
, he thought now. Accepting that hadn’t been the easiest thing he’d ever done, yet he’d had no choice, in the end.
And sometimes I think the real reason Trish is working so hard on “keeping the channels open” is because she wants to make damned sure she and the girls stay close to you and Mom, thank God. I don’t know what I did to deserve you, but whatever it was, I’m glad I did it
.
    He gave himself a shake. He had a lot on his plate organizing the Company’s rotation home, and he turned back towards the command bunker to inform Gunnery Sergeant Wilson that his platoon’s Army relief would begin arriving within forty-eight hours. It was time to get the turnover organized and Second Platoon back to its FOB to participate in all the endless paperwork and equipment checks involved in any company movement.
    Not that Buchevsky expected anyone to complain about
this
move.

. IV .

    The gathering in
Star of Empire
’s conference room consisted of Thikair’s three squadron commanders, his ground force commander, Ship Commander Ahzmer, and Ground Base Commander Shairez. Despite the fact that Shairez was technically junior to Ground Force Commander Thairys, she was the expedition’s senior ground base commander, and as such she, too, reported directly to Thikair.
    At the moment, the flagship, along with the rest of the fleet, lay on the far side of KU-197-20’s single large moon from the planet. Only the highly stealthy scout ships had been permitted to approach closer to the objective than