Stark's Crusade by John G. Hemry Read Free Book Online Page B

anymore. Not to govern individual movements, anyway. You gotta have a coordinated timeline when you're working together, but having one just so people will jump through hoops when the planners wanted them to never did make all that much sense."
    "That reminds me, speaking of the old days, it was also nice knowing our action wasn't being broadcast as a vid entertainment. We were all sick of that."
    "Damn right," Stark agreed. When the Pentagon had needed to raise large sums of money to fund the lunar operation, some unsung SOB had realized they could use the audio and video feeds from soldiers' command and control equipment to fashion almost-real-time programs for commercial broadcast. Programs that quickly became popular enough to earn a good chunk of advertising revenue. For a time, the need for high vid ratings had played at least as large a role in military operations as the desire for victory. "That'll never happen again. Not if we have any say in it. What about us, though, back here? Were we on your shoulder too much? Was there something we shoulda been doin' that we didn't?"
    Milheim shrugged. "You seemed pretty transparent, truth to tell. I kept looking over my own shoulder wondering what was missing, and realizing I didn't have some bozo back at headquarters telling me to take one step left instead of one step right. I liked you keeping an eye on the big picture. That was a good call focusing on the warehouses, and I appreciated being asked my opinion based on my feeling of the scene. No complaints, I guess."
    Stark gazed at Milheim, chewing his lip while he chose the right words. "Look, no offense, but I don't know you very well. Good reputation and all that, and you handle your unit real well.
    But I don't know if you're the kind of guy who'd tell me to my face if I'd screwed something up. Would you?"
    Milheim didn't have to feign indignation. "I look out for my people. If you were doing something that'd mess them over, I'd let you know."
    "Good. I knew you took care of your troops. That's why they put you in charge of your battalion, right? Because they trusted you."
    "Yeah. Lucky me. At least I didn't get put in charge of the whole shebang like you did."
    "Hey, it's not so bad." Stark grinned with obvious self-mockery. "Maybe someday you'll take it over from me."
    "No, thanks."
    "I'll buy you a beer."
    Milheim laughed. "You couldn't get me drunk enough to say yes to that proposition."
    "Now, that sounds familiar. I think I've heard it on every date I've ever been on."
    Another laugh. "I didn't think you had to worry about dating. Everybody knows about you and Vic Reynolds."
    Stark blew out his breath in exasperation. "Everybody but me and Reynolds, you mean. I wouldn't have made her my second in command if we were involved like that. That'd just have been asking for trouble. And it wouldn't have been right. We're tight, Milheim, but not that way."
    "Really? How come?"
    "I dunno. Just the way it works, I guess. You got a steady girl?"
    Milheim smiled. "Nope. My wife would frown on that. Wives get touchy about that sorta thing."
    "I'd heard that. Kids?"
    "Yeah. They're all up here, thanks to that swap we worked out, trading our old officers for our family members. Come by the quarters sometime and I'll introduce you."
    "How are those quarters, anyway?" With the arrival of military families, the Colony had voluntarily begun excavating a large bloc of new residential construction for the creation of an ad hoc 'fort.' "I haven't had much time to check on 'em, and I know they're being built without much in the way of frills."
    "They're okay," Milheim temporized. "It doesn't take much to equal the sort of base housing we're used to, does it? But the kids love the low gravity. They're bouncing off the walls. Literally. Like I said, come by and see it sometime."
    "Thanks. When I get the time, I'll be sure to take you up on that."
    "When you get the time? I guess it'll be a while, then, won't it?" Milheim sobered abruptly,