Free The Marine's Queen by Susan Kelley

enough shade so they could even ride during the hot time. The natural lake where they’d made their camp was spring fed from deep sources in the planet’s heart.
    They traveled another two hours before arriving at their living quarters. Joe and his men led the boarks to their pens while Webb showed the women and children into the barracks.
    Again, an uncomfortable stab of possessive emotion hit Joe as Webb held the door open for Callie. Joe had avoided her since he’d kissed her. What fashing stupidity had inspired him to give in to his impulse?
    “ Are we all going to sleep in the barracks, sir?” Kam asked as he turned the last boark into the corral.
    “ We’ll have to until we build something else.”
    “ So they’re staying?”
    “ Where can they go, Kam?”
    Kam nodded, staring at the closed barrack’s door with the same consternation Joe figured they all felt.
    “ I sent Vin and Tar to see if we can scavenge parts from their cruiser to repair ours.”
    “ You think we can leave here, sir?”
    “ Don’t know. Don’t know where we would go if we could, Kam. But the women might want to leave.”
    Kam nodded again. “What if they want to stay here with us?”
    Joe’s insides tightened. What if they did? What if they were all stranded here forever?
    * * * *
    Callie found Joe behind the boark’s pens. Various lethal looking knives were spread out around him while he worked on one with a whetstone.
    “ Lady Callie,” he greeted her without looking up from his work.
    “ Joe, I think we need to talk.”
    “ About?”
    Callie had figured out the shorter Joe’s answers, the more reluctant he was to converse. “About the future.”
    Joe stopped and glanced at her before turning his head to stare at the lush grassland. After a few moments, he returned to his work but at a slower pace. His words came slow and hesitant. “We’ve only thought of survival since we crashed here. The future consisted of the next meal, the next storm, the next cold night….”
    His voice trailed off. Though his hands continued to move the blade over the stone, he seemed far away. “Before that, the future was the next battle, the next planet … the next one of us to die.”
    Callie bit her lip, keeping her silence. That he offered this glimpse into his life astounded her.
    Joe put down the knife and turned fully to face her. “I don’t know how to plan a future for myself or my men.” He said it without apology or hope.
    A swell of pity filled Callie. “Was there never anything you looked forward to, a goal you intended to achieve? Surely you didn’t think you would be soldiers forever?”
    “ We never thought about forever at all. There was only our duty.”
    “ And now?” Callie asked softly.
    Joe looked away from her. “Now our duty is no more. We have … nothing.”
    “ If we’re rescued, you can resume your duty.”
    Joe’s mouth tightened. His stare seared into hers. “We can’t return. We’ve been convicted of being traitors to the Galactic Alliance. We were on our way to the Nye Moon when we crashed here. We await no rescue.”
    Callie couldn’t stop her gasp. The Nye Moon was the most brutal prison available and took only those considered extremely dangerous. Few men survived more than a year in its deep mine. “Why?”
    Joe gathered up his knives without answering. A few went behind his belt and another in his boot. He slipped them away so quickly and smoothly, Callie wasn’t sure where they all were stowed.
    “ Why doesn’t matter any longer,” Joe finally answered. “We’re all stuck here together. When you’ve figured out a future for your people, let me know. I promise we’ll help you as much as we can.”
    * * * *
    “ I assume all your people are updated on vaccines.” Webb said as he passed a platter of baked tubers across the makeshift table.
    Joe cautiously took a bite of the seasoned flat bread one of the women had baked in the new oven.
    Mak and Roz had been busy constructing all