Free Lieutenant Colonel (The United Federation Marine Corps Book 6) by Jonathan P. Brazee Page B

contingencies.  How would Cennet react?  What would the St. Regis battalion do?  This could wind up being much ado about nothing, or it could quickly escalate into full combat.  Ryck might not care for how things had shaken out, but he had to be ready for anything.
    Sandy had worked out a pretty good framework, but now it was time to break into groups to discuss and coordinate.  Ryck suspected Sandy might not get any sleep during the night, but that kind of came with the billet.
    “Commander Briggs, thank you and your staff for your assistance.  The rest of you, let’s break up for now.  See to your men and get some chow.  Principal staff and commanders only, let’s meet in my stateroom at 2100 for a quick, and I mean quick update session.  That is all, men,” Ryck said, dismissing them.
    “Sergeant Major, if you have a moment, please,” he called out as the men started filing out of the wardroom.
    “Sir?” Hecs asked as he came up.
    “I want you to send Çağlar to see me,” Ryck said.
    “You sure?  I was going to talk to him,” Hecs said.
    “No, I think I need to see for myself where he’s at,” Ryck responded.
    “Roger that.  I’ll have him up in about ten.”
    Ryck grabbed a cup of the brewed coffee that had been free-flowing during the planning session.  The Derne had real coffee machines in both the officers’ and chiefs’ messes, which was a nice and much-appreciated luxury.  Fabricators had been making coffee since their inception, but there was something about a good Italian coffee maker that just could not be duplicated by any fabricator.  His forefinger firmly hooked around his coffee mug handle, he walked right across the passage and into his stateroom.
    He sat down in his chair and leaned back.  His mid was swirling, and that was dangerous.  He had to focus on the mission.  The politics were way above his pay grade, and to get embroiled in them took his mind off what had to be done. 
    Focus, focus, focus!
    A knock on his hatch interrupted his thoughts.
    “Enter!”
    “You wanted to see me, sir?” Sergeant Hans Çağlar asked as he came into Ryck’s stateroom.
    “Yes, pull up a seat, Hans,” Ryck said, indicating the two folding chairs leaning up against the bulkhead.
    Çağlar took one, unfolded it, and sat down on the edge, his body rigid in a sitting position of attention.  Çağlar and Ryck had spent a lot of time together, but still, the big sergeant never seemed to relax around him.
    “You know the mission, right?” Ryck asked.
    “Yes, sir.”
    “Do you have any issue with it?” Ryck probed.
    “No, sir, why should I?”
    Ganziatep was a strange world in many ways.  Originally settled by Turkey, the planet kept many of the old customs as if they were the ordained protectors of Turkish culture.  Turkish was still widely spoken by the bulk of the populace.  The entire planet was originally one government.  To help pay for the terraforming debt, the government had granted Skyways Industries a charter to operate in the unpopulated eastern sector of the main land mass.  Twenty-six years later, the people who had migrated out to that sector for jobs had voted to secede from Cennet.  There was no doubt that Skyways had orchestrated the move, but the Cennet government had honored the vote.  Forty years after that, Skyways was taken over in a hostile bid by IGA, and relations between the two members of the Babbit Association grew further apart.
    Hans Çağlar was a citizen of Cennet.  He was now assigned to a battalion that was landing on the planet to oppose his own country and support its adversary. 
    This situation happened more often than one might expect.  When it did occur, Marines were given the opportunity to sit out the mission.
    Ryck looked at the sergeant for a moment, weighing his words.  “You do realize that you don’t have to participate.  You can stay here on the ship.”
    “I know what you’re getting at, sir.  I’m a Cennetor.  But