Free Siege of Terra (The Mavrik Woods Series, Book 1) by Robin MacMillan

were captured for questioning.”
    “Well it sounds to me that you didn’t fail in your mission, you saved lives today, and that counts for something.”
    “Hmm, we lost over half of the civilians on the escape, I wouldn’t call that a success.”
    “Well, you made it out alive, and that’s what counts.”
    She looks at me once more in the eyes, in an odd way, kinda like the way that Syreena looked into my eyes when we first met. She opens her mouth slight as if to say something, her eyes dart from my eyes to my hand. She quickly closes her mouth.
     Before I can ask her what she was about to say she walks away from me and quickly disappears from view. I glance down to what she was staring at. My ring. Maybe she was about to ask me out for drinks or something sometime but noticed that I’m married. Strange, no one ever did that to me, ever.
    I shake my head and try to focus on what I’m supposed to be doing. “Captain, you done over there?”
    “Yes Sir, just finishing up.”
    “Ok, we got under forty minutes, don’t be late.”
    “Where are you going?”
    “I’m gonna hit the showers, and then make a personal call.”
    “Alright, see you at the debriefing.”
    I walk out the door and down the hallway to the locker rooms. Just as I’m about to go through the door into the locker room my ear piece chirps.
    “Woods here.”
    “Honey, it’s me.” Syreenas voice speaks through the receiver.
    “Hey, what's up? Did you burn down the house or something?” I say.
    “Hah, you’re funny. I saw on the news about those two buildings, but I couldn’t finish it because the power went out.”
    “Oh, um, yeah that was me, sorry ‘bout that.”
    “How are you getting any work done if you have no power?” She asks.
    “Well, the base is powered by secondary independent generators. This is a military compound, it’s important that we have power in times like this.” I say.
    “Alright, I was just worried about you. That’s all. When are you able to come home?”
    “I’m not sure, it may be days or hours, I’ll know soon enough.”
    “Ok, just let me know when you are coming home ok?”
    “Don’t worry, I’ll be home soon, I promise. Bye Hun.”
    “I love you.”
    “Love you too,” I finish. There were couples like me and Syreena, who said our goodbyes and then ended the conversation. Then those who were always like ‘no you hang up first.’ Those are the people that really irritated me. I had seen a couple like that before in one of the Cafes in the downtown region when I had gone shopping with Syreena. A man had been sitting there in the corner constantly telling his girlfriend to hang up. It had gone on for several minutes before I had just walked over to him and took his intercom and just switched it to off. The look that had erupted on the man’s face was priceless.
    I walked through the locker room while I was talking to Syreena. It almost felt like I hadn’t walked there myself though, one second I was on the intercom, the next second I was already staring at my locker that was marked Lt. Col Woods.
    I begin to strip down to nothing, ready to jump into a nice relaxing shower. I walk into one of the water cubicles. They have very little privacy, but I’m in the army, there was never any real privacy when it came to showering. The cascading water feels good on my battered and bruised body, I hadn’t felt any of these injuries happen at the time. But after examining my body I’m astounded that I’m not in any real pain. My adrenaline buzz that I had while in combat had made me impervious to pain.
    It was almost hard to not fall asleep while I was standing here, just to drift away forever, and the scary part was that I could care less if it happen. The one thought that I would stay awake for is Syreena, she is my connection to reality.
     
     
    ****
     
     
    I sit here in the briefing room, T-Rave is late; he’s probably just caught up somewhere.
    An awkward silence has been in the room for