Voyage From Yesteryear

“Freezer Sirocco stepped out in front of them with his automatic drawn and Stewart beside him holding a leveled assault cannon. Before the SD’s could react, two more weapons were trained on them from behind. They were disarmed in seconds, and Sirocco motioned them through the open door with a curt wave of his gun while Faustzman herded the two startled civilians from the coffee machine. Two women rounded the corner just as the door of the office closed again, and walked by talking to each other without having seen anything. Moments later Sirocco left the office again with two privates. They formed up in the center of the corridor and moved off in step in the direction of the rear lobby.

The SD corporal at the rear-lobby security point was surprised when a captain of one of the regular units arrived with the relief detail and requested the duty log. “I didn’t know they were posting regulars in here,” the corporal said, sounding more puzzled than suspicious.

Sirocco shrugged. “Don’t ask me. I thought it was because a lot of SD’s are shipping down to Canaveral. I just do what the orders say.”

“When was it changed, Captain?’

“I don’t know, Corporal. Recently, I guess.”

“I better check those orders.” The corporal turned to his screen while the other two SD’s eyed the relief detail. After a few seconds the corporal raised his eyebrows. “You’re right. Oh, well, I guess it’s okay.” The other two SD’s relaxed a fraction. The corporal called up the duty l~g4nd signed his team off. “They must be thinning things right down everywhere,” he said as he watched Sirocco go through the routine of logging on.

“Looks like it,” Sirocco agreed. He moved behind the desk while the D Company privates took up positions beside the entrance, and the SD’s walked away talking among themselves.

A few seconds after the SD’s disappeared, figures began popping from a fire exit behind the elevators on the far side of the lobby, and vanishing quickly and silently into the Communications Center.

Meanwhile, the SD sergeant at the main foyer was being conscientious. “I don’t care what the computers say, Hanlon. This doesn’t sound right to me. I have to cheek it out.” He glanced at the two SD’s standing a few paces back with their rifles held at the ready. “Keep an eye on ~ while I call the OOD.” Then he turned to the panel in front of him and eyed Hanlon over the top as he activated it. “Hold it right where you are, buddy.” Hanlon tensed but there was nothing he could do. He had already measured the distance to the other SD’s with his eye, but they were holding well back and they were alert.

Suddenly, 1mm the outer entrance to the foyer behind Hanlon, a firm, authoritative voice ordered, “Stop that!” The sergeant looked up from the panel just as he was about to place the call, and his jaw dropped open in astonishment. Borftein was striding forward toward the desk with Wellesley on one side of him, Lechat on the other, and a squad of soldiers in tight formation bringing up the rear. Celia and Malloy were between them. The two SD guards glanced uncertainly at each other.

The SD sergeant half rose from his seat. “Sir, I didn’t- I thought-”

Borftein halted and stood upright and erect before the desk. “Whatever you thought was mistaken. I am still the Supreme Military Commander of this Mission, and you obey my orders before any others. Stand aside.”

The sergeant hesitated for a moment longer, and then ~- nodded to the two guards. Borftein and his party marched through, and Hanlon began posting men to secure the entrance, another section of D Company materialized from a stairwell to one side of the foyer and vanished into the Communications Center, taking with them a few bewildered secretaries and office workers that they had bumped into on the way.

But no Borftein was present to save the situation at the side entrance. “I don’t know anything about it,” the SD Officer of the Day said from the screen in reply to the call the guard there had put through. “Those orders are incorrect. Detain those men.” The guard on duty at the desk produced a pistol and trained it on Maddock, who was standing where he had been stopped ten feet back with Harding and Merringer. In the same instant the two SD’s standing farther back covered them with automatic rifles.

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