Battalion 1

Fisher disconnected his interface from the other SAMs on the way back to the barracks. “That went well, I thought,” he told Rhodes.

Rhodes checked that the three recruits were far enough away not to overhear him. “It went better than I expected.”

“Wild and Lauer worked well together. I didn’t expect that. I expected Lauer to resist the SAM.”

Rhodes glanced over at Lauer. All three recruits walked down the hall holding separate conversations with their SAMs. Even Lauer talked into thin air.

Rhodes did his best not to listen to any of their conversations. This was going to become an ongoing problem. Each person would have to find a private place where they could talk to their SAMs away from everyone else.

Rhodes would have to do the same thing. He would have to be careful that none of his subordinates ever heard him talking to Fisher about anything personal.

Rhodes would also have to be careful that none of his subordinates heard him talking to Fisher about any of his subordinates.

Rhodes never had this problem in the Legion. He never carried his closest confidant around in his head before.

“You handled them well,” Fisher went on. “It seems to help them when the person training them has been through it themselves.”

“That’s the point, isn’t it? You and Neiland couldn’t explain it to me because you didn’t really understand what I was going through.”

“You are the best officer for them, Captain,” Fisher agreed. “I see that now.”

“Thank you for handling the interface. I appreciate your help.”

“Thank you, Captain!” Fisher exclaimed. “That is such high praise coming from you.”

Rhodes winced and looked away. He shouldn’t have waited this long to express his gratitude to Fisher.

The four soldiers returned to the barracks. Lauer looked around. “I’m hungry. I want to eat something.”

Rhodes looked up. This was the most Lauer had spoken since he woke up.

“You shouldn’t be hungry,” Rhodes replied. “The conversion cycle should take care of that.”

“I mean I feel like eating something. I always ate whenever I came back to my quarters after a battle. It doesn’t feel right not to.”

“I know what you mean,” Rhodes replied. “It doesn’t feel like we’re human at all without that.”

“Maybe we can do something similar,” Thackery suggested.

“How can we if we don’t eat?” Lauer asked.

“We can sit around the table, talk, and…..I don’t know. We could gamble or something.”

Lauer burst out in deep, chesty, rumbling laughter. “Gamble?! You want to gamble?! What are you—a hustler?”

“Well, what else is there to do around a table instead of eat? We have to do something.”

“I have an idea,” Rhodes interrupted. “All of you sit down at the table.”

The three recruits sat down at the table. Rhodes went to the end of the bench and used his laser to cut a block of wood off one of the boards.

“Are you sure this is allowed, Sir?” Fuentes asked.

“I’m making a command decision in the interest of our long-term sanity. If someone has a problem with that, they can let me know.”

Rhodes sat down at the table next to Lauer. Fuentes and Thackery sat across from them. “What are you going to do?” Thackery asked.

“I used to play this game with my kids. It will take our minds off how hungry we are.”

“A nice slab of steak would be nice about now,” Lauer muttered.

“We’re taking our minds off it, not talking about it,” Rhodes pointed out. “Talking about it will make it worse.”

“So what’s with the wood?” Thackery asked. “It doesn’t look very interesting.”

“Watch and learn, children.”

The three recruits laughed. Rhodes used his laser to cut the block into five equal squares. Then he used his thermal cannon to burn dots into each side to make dice.

“I don’t get it,” Thackery complained.

“You haven’t seen much of the world, have you?” Lauer growled. “You’ve been too busy pushing around a broom while the rest of your ship crews see the world.”

Rhodes held up the first die. “Roll a six—that’s the ship. Roll a five—that’s the captain.”

“That’s you, Sir,” Fuentes exclaimed.

“That’s right. Roll a four—that’s the crew. You roll all five dice until you get the ship, the captain, and the crew. Once you do that, you add up the other two dice to find out your cargo. That’s your score for the turn and you pass it on to the next person. The first person to get a hundred points is the winner. Got it?”

Thackery grinned at him. “Got it.”

Rhodes turned to Fuentes. “Do you understand, Corporal?”

Fuentes frowned. “I was never good at math.”

“I’ll help you.”

“Just don’t cheat,” Lauer countered.

Rhodes’s hand flew to his heart. “Me—cheat? I’m offended, Lieutenant.”

Lauer snorted, but Rhodes definitely saw Lauer fighting back a grin under that beard. He was starting to come out of his shell—or it appeared that way.

Rhodes handed the dice to Thackery. “Ladies first.”

She didn’t try to hide her smirk. She rolled once and got a six, a five, a four, a three, and a two.

She shot both fists in the air and hooted. “Straight flush! Read ‘em and weep!”

“It isn’t a flush,” Rhodes pointed out. “They’re all the same color.”

“What the hell do I care? I got it the first time.”

“It isn’t that good a hand, you know,” Lauer told her. “You only got five points.”

“See if you can do better.” She shoved the dice at him.

He picked them up, rolled them, and got two sixes, two fives, and a four.

“That’s what I’m talking about!” he crowed. “Eleven points. Eat it, baby.”

Thackery pretended to sulk. “Cheater.”

Rhodes took the dice. “My turn.”

“Get five sixes, Sir,” Lauer told him and laughed.

Rhodes couldn’t help but grin back. This game was turning out to be the best thing for all of them, including him. He actually felt like this unit was coming together.

Maybe these people could somehow replace what each of them lost—or partially replace it.

Rhodes rolled and got a five, a three, two twos, and a one. “Damn it,” he muttered.

“Nice try, Captain,” Thackery added.

Rhodes rolled everything but the five and got a four, a six, a three, and a one.

“Dragging up the rear, Sir,” Lauer teased.

“Are you gonna be a bastard about winning?” Rhodes countered. “This is supposed to be fun.”

“What’s funner than trash-talking? You can talk trash about me all you want. I won’t mind.”

Rhodes had to laugh and passed the dice to Fuentes. Rhodes got up and rummaged in the bookshelf until he found a piece of paper and a pen to keep score.

Rhodes had to help Fuentes a lot when it came to keeping track of both numbers he was supposed to be rolling for and what score he got at the end.

“Is there a point to this game?” Fisher asked after they quit for the night and crawled into their capsules.

“The point is to take our minds off reality,” Rhodes told him. “Trust me. This game is going to be the best thing that ever happened to us.”

“I’ll take your word for it. You know so much more about human nature than I do.”

“Didn’t you enjoy it?” Rhodes asked.

“I enjoyed seeing you in a better mood than you have been since I came online. I never thought I’d see you like that. If you ask me, it’s the rest of the battalion that will be the best thing that ever happened to you—not this game.”

End of Chapter 13.