Free Jethro Goes to War (Wandering Engineer Jethro's tale) by Chris Hechtl Page A

pressure. Ease up on the schedule for a few days. Then
buckle down to keep their minds off the surgery. Work on the
agoraphobia problem. Build up to it slow though. We don't want a
repeat of this mess.”
    “ Aye sir.”
    “ I am this
close to swapping you with another team. Unfortunately I don't have
one to spare. Don't screw this up again,” the Major said
turning to them. He locked his eyes with each of them. “We've
got a quota. I need three hundred and fifty marines minimum at the
end of this. Screw them up any more and my taking a rolled up
newspaper to you both will be the least of your problems. You get
me?”
    “ Aye aye sir,”
they said in unison. They came to attention. The Major did as well.
The two noncoms saluted. He returned the salute.
    “ Dismissed.”
    ...*...*...*...*...
    “ Damn what a
rush,” Sergei said, shaking his head.
    “ The fall or
the sudden stop at the end?” Hurranna asked amused.
    “ Both.”
    “ It wasn't
realistic though. I'm surprised we had problems with the others,”
Valenko said softly.
    “ What do you
mean?” Sergei asked, looking over to him. Deja, the selkie down
the way looked up over to them. The selkie was one of the few who had
actually enjoyed the ride. Probably because of his nature, the big
Liger thought with a flicker of annoyance. “Are you kidding?
That's as real as it gets. That was probably a hack from the
archives.”
    “ No he's
right,” Jethro said sitting up on his rack. “I mean it,”
he said as the others eyes him. “Think it over. In a drop we'd
be confined in pods. Claustrophobia. Tight coffin. Going straight
down. This was a freaking video game and people lost it. Knowing that
it was all fake they still lost it.”
    “ Damn,”
the selkie shook his head. “You would remind me of that.
Digging our own grave,” he shook his head and ran a flipper
hand over his brow. “Did we really do that?” he asked.
    “ No we played
a VR game. That's my point. No drop pod, no gravity, no heat, no fire
from below, no atmo, remember that folks. All a game. Just a sim. Put
it in perspective. It was a gut check.”
    “ A fun run you
mean,” Valenko replied with a nod.
    “ Fun run?”
Hurranna asked. She wrinkled her nose. Her whiskers twitched. “Dare
I ask?”
    “ Gut check. A
run. Hard run. Just to see who will stay in the game. Who's too
stupid or stubborn to quit. Who hasn't an ounce of quit in them. We
did one before on our first day.”
    “ Ah,”
she winced. “I don't remember doing so hot then.”
    “ Yeah well,
just be glad you were sober and not too full at the time,”
Jethro said smiling.
    “ Um...”
Valenko scratched an itch.
    “ Old trick my
ancestor made sure to point out,” Jethro looked around as the
rest of the squads out of sickbay came over to hear. “See they,
the noncoms or the officers do a fun run or something nasty right
after a party or leave. From what I heard running forty clicks hung
over with a full ruck in the mud isn't something you want to do.”
    Hurranna winced.
“That's fracked. Totally screwed up.”
    “ That's the
way things run. You have to pay for your pleasures,” Valenko
sighed. “I remember something about that too. But I think the
gunny is paying for his now.”
    “ What do you
mean?” Jethro asked.
    “ You and I
both know he did that because we dropped the ball and clued the
platoon in on what is up. Unfortunately I think it backfired. We lost
a few good people because of that,” he shook his head. Eight of
their people were out for good. Most of them were Veraxin. The last
one was still in sickbay. She would be released later today
hopefully.
    “ Which is my
fault. Not yours.” They jumped to their feet as the gunny came
into the bay. Valenko glared at the watch.
    “ Deal with it
later,” the gunny said, slightly amused as he passed. He walked
the bay then came back. “I pushed before you were ready. My
mistake,” he growled. He looked around.
    “ Sir no sir. We needed the
gut check.