The Unincorporated Future by Dani Kollin, Eytan Kollin Read Free Book Online Page A

with the regrowth ability, the agony of having an arm or leg blown off was not something any of them ever wished to repeat.
    In the midst of the combat training, it was decided that Claude and Taffy, the medic he’d been seeing of late, should admit what the rest of the unit already knew and tie the knot. As it turned out, the impromptu wedding was becoming a focal point of sorts. The punctilious captain was very cautious about things like fraternization, and though he loved Taffy, he’d decided to make that love official only after the war. But with the very real possibility that they’d all be dead in the next few days, Claude’s concerns seemed less important. Besides, Taffy could be very demanding—a fact Rabbi discovered when she barged into his busy office and demanded to see him. Rabbi had her wait, but was not so foolish as to make her wait longer than necessary. In fact, he’d sooner have gotten between a UHF cruiser and its target than get in the way of a bride seeking her groom. But after her impassioned plea that Rabbi talk with her “stubborn mule of a man,” Rabbi acquiesced and so, in the end, had the captain.
    That had been six hours ago. The compromise had been that the ceremony not interfere with the Unicorns’ training schedule and so had been set during one of the unit’s brief fifteen-minute downtimes. Rabbi turned around when he heard the company jogging over a frozen dune. He also heard the captain’s thunderous voice shouting the words, “C’mon, you laggards, I will not be late for my own wedding!” The team, with Taffy in the lead shooting arrows with her eyes to her six-hour fiancé, flew over the hill and within a minute parked their gear near Rabbi. Rabbi raised his brow slightly and tapped on his empty wrist with an accusatory look toward Captain Brodesser. The captain, tapping on his wrist—covered in battle armor—returned Rabbi’s look with one of his own, indicating that it was Rabbi who was holding things up. Private joke completed, they both smiled broadly and then embraced.
    Sergeant Holke knew everyone because he’d taken advantage of having a fully experienced combat unit on Ceres to train with his TDCs. It had meant that the thirty members of the President’s protection squad had to give up all their free time to train in groups of ten with the combat unit, but there had not been even the hint of a complaint. In fact, it had been more along the lines of a growl of pleasure. But if the training had been hard—and between the captain and Holke, it had been exceedingly so—the two units did not seem to have left any grudges behind. Though the TDCs had not been allowed to socialize with the Unicorns, both the captain and the sergeant turned a blind eye to some of the fraternization that naturally resulted from good camaraderie.
    Rabbi viewed with concern some of the sidelong glances thrown by the Unicorn women toward the ten TDCs in attendance. I wonder how the TDCs feel about conversion?
    Some religious articles were procured from a rucksack and a line quickly formed with crossed assault rail guns for the bride and groom to walk under. At the end of the line, four of the assault miners created a tentlike structure by holding up the four corners of a traditional Jewish prayer shawl with the tips of their rail guns. The unit’s gear was left in place; however, it had been set up for a defensive operation. To the captain, the ceremony had been all business, notable by the way he inspected everyone’s stance—to Taffy, it was anything but. That much was evident by the large smile plastered across her face, letting everyone know she’d gotten what she wanted—even if at the end of a grueling hike and a less-than-romantic ceremony.
    Rabbi took his official position beneath the impromptu tent, otherwise known as the chuppah.
    The sounds of klezmer music wafted over the frozen seas as Claude and Taffy, donned in full combat armor, came down the column of heavily armed