Observe and Honor

UNITED EARTH STARFLEET VESSEL ATLANTIS
REGISTRY NX-05
EARTH ORBIT
DECEMBER 28, 2156

"Major Balthazar Edison, Military Assault and Command Operations. West Point graduate, Class of '43. Reporting for duty aboard Starfleet vessel Atlantis NX-05 as ordered by General George Casey as of this date, December 28, 2156. Requesting permission for myself and my unit to come aboard and assume our assigned duties, sir!"

Captain John Jackson "Jack" Greene reclined in his chair in his ready room and studied this distinguished new arrival. He'd met several MACOs since the war started but this was the first high-ranking officer he'd encountered and the first assigned to serve aboard Atlantis. If Major Edison's recent and very impressive military record in the fight against the Xindi was any indication, these mysterious Romulans were in for some nice surprises when his ship and Edison's unit of exemplary and well-equipped soldiers reached the frontier.

"At ease, Major. Atlantis isn't a military ship. Relax a little before you wet yourself and ruin my new deckplating."

Edison released his bodily muscles and permitted himself to loosen up, expelling an almost inaudible sigh. Looking down at the young man sitting at his ready room desk eyeing the official orders he'd just been handed moments before, he studied the Starfleet captain who for all intents and purposes was going to be his CO for the duration of this mission. He'd heard a few stories about Jack Greene and he didn't know what to believe, but he was sure that this was going to be one memorable duty assignment.

"Captain Archer of Enterprise speaks glowingly of you in his official report. As does your old CO, Major Hayes. They say that you performed admirably in the line of duty and helped ensure the success of the mission to locate and defeat the Xindi. You as good as they claim?"

Edison gently arched both eyebrows in a bemused expression and allowed a small smile to creep across his lips. "Permission to speak freely, Captain?"

"In my ready room? Always. Unless otherwise noted."

"Yes. I am. And so are my men. We're damn good at what we do, and there are a lot of Xindi corpses strewn across what used to be called the Delphic Expanse who could attest to that. Were they still alive."

Returning to the contents of the padd before him, his eyes scanned down the paragraphs of personal data about this new arrival in camouflaged military fatigues. Spotting something of interest, Greene smiled. "West Point, huh?"

"Yes, sir. Graduated near the top of my class and with personal honors bestowed by none other than the Commandant herself."

"I had an ancestor go there about two hundred years ago. Good soldier. One of the best in his unit. Didn't stop him, though, from getting himself killed in the Vietnam War. You're a good soldier, too, Major. Try not to get yourself killed in this war, okay? I don't want to have to send a long-winded and apologetic report to Starfleet Command and to your family saying that you got your head blown off trying to save mankind from an enemy we've never even seen face-to-face."

"Wasn't planning on it, sir. They didn't train me for that. Just as your superiors in Starfleet didn't train you to go flying off on a failed mission. We'll beat them, Captain. You mark my words. They haven't begun to get a taste of what humanity can do."

Greene stood up from his chair and walked over to the oblong, transparent aluminum window looking out onto the stars beyond his vessel. He turned his back on Major Edison, gazing out upon the vast blackness of space and at the warm, incandescent curvature of Earth looming below his vessel. "I never got a chance to fight the Xindi. I didn't even set foot on an NX-class starship until after everything was over.  Never even saw what a Xindi looked like until a few images from Enterprise's mission logs were declassified and made public. I had no idea there were five different kinds of Xindi. Five. Any enemy with that range of biological diversity and adaptability...heaven help us if the Romulans are anything like that."

Edison's jaw tightened as he fought the impulse to say something he knew he'd regret. Only a handful of Starfleet officers and MACOs of the United Earth Military Assault and Command Operations organization knew what it was like inside the vast and menacing region known as the Delphic Expanse. It was one of the most terrifying alien enviroments ever encountered by human beings. The year-long journey and struggle to find the Xindi and then locate and terminate the weapon they were constructing to destroy Earth was the most challenging and punishing assignment any human soldier or explorer had ever been given by their superiors. Starfleet was an organization of science and exploration, and not a very old one at that. They weren't men and women of war. Soldiers trained to destroy and take life and then live with the harrowing decisions made in battle.

He sometimes wondered if Starfleet had what it took to win any conflict without the help of trained soldiers. Jonathan Archer adapted to the mission at hand and became a tougher and more resilient officer, a man capable of making the decisions necessary to complete that mission and get his ship and crew back home. Home to a world that they'd managed to save. Jack Greene was going to have to be a lot like Archer if they were going to outwit and vanquish these so-called Romulans. Whomever and whatever they were.

"Sir....whatever the Romulans are. Whatever their agenda....they're living, breathing creatures. We know that much. And all living and breathing creatures share many of the same weaknesses. They bleed and they die just like we do. They'll either surrender or we'll destroy them."

Greene turned away from the window and locked eyes with Edison, a steely and determined gaze penetrating deep into the soldier's soul. "You'd better be right, Major. I have a wife and family to get back home to. And my son isn't going to grow up without his father. Have you and your men already been assigned quarters?"

"Yes, sir. We were assigned guest quarters on E Deck."

Greene nodded his head in the direction of his ready room door. "Then you'd better get down there. The ship's galley is open and available to all crew and guests at all times. You know where to find me if you or your men have any questions. Dismissed."

Edison snapped his bootheels together and offered a rapid but sharp military salute. "Aye, sir." Turning on his left foot he reached for the wall control panel and pressed the button that opened the door, stepping outside into the hallway connecting the Captain's ready room to the bridge and disappearing from view as the silver door slid shut behind him.