Chapter One Hundred and Fifty-Seven: Explanations
The first Cryo pod opened with a sharp hiss, and one of the medtechs on standby helped ease the Black Watch member onto a nearby stretcher.
"Let me know when the Major wakes up," I told the people giving MacIntosh a checkup. "Natasha and I will be handling this part personally."
"Yessir." The medtechs and engineers responded.
"Now we sit and wait," Natasha said as we watched the man slowly wake up from the deep stasis that he had been under.
"You're not SLDF," Were the first words out of Major Ian MacIntosh's mouth as he jolted upright and tried to take the medtech nearby hostage. But, the medtech slipped out when MacIntosh didn't find purchase on his Mithril. The Medtech moved behind the fireteam that Mathis had stationed and waited for further orders.
"No Major, we're not SLDF, although you could argue that I once *was* a member of the SLIC." I shrugged. "But that's a long story, and you don't look like you're willing to listen to it yet."
"Wake up my lance, and then we'll talk," the Major replied, moving to keep a part of the cryo pod between him and the weapons pointed in his direction.
"I'm going to pass you a 'noteputer loaded with all of the most recent history loaded onto it," I responded. "We'll wake up the rest of your lance once you've had time to process everything." I set the now out-of-date computer down and slid it over the ground to his location. "We're going to lock you in this medbay until you've gone over everything." We began to leave the room in pairs while he watched warily. "Please just take the time to look everything over," I said before I left the room. "It'll be a lot to process but a lot has changed since you went under." I closed and sealed the door behind me. "Mathis, I want two full fireteams on standby until he's ready to talk, I don't know what kind of extra tools or capabilities the Black Watch had, but I'm not willing to risk our people's lives to find out."
"Understood," Mathis replied as he directed two fireteams to our location. "They'll hold down the fort."
"Good, Natasha and I are going to be checking on the rest of the facility," I began to walk away. "Let us know when he's ready to talk."
"Are you certain that this was the best path to take?" Natasha asked as we walked towards the storage facilities of the bunker complex.
"It was the only one I saw that ended with the Major alive," I responded. "So much has changed Nat. I understand that it'll take time for him to truly grasp what has changed over the last two hundred years."
"He is all alone right now," Natasha said in response. "Should we have not woken up his lance along with him?"
"No, it'll be easier for the rest of his lance to comprehend everything if he can explain it." I shrugged. "It's not easy to make calls like this, especially when I have been in a similar circumstance. But I'm going to try and make the orientation as easy as possible for our new guests."
We continued walking until we reached the other medbay where two toddlers were laughing and playing together.
"To think that the rumors were true and there were Cameron Twins," Natasha smiled at the two children before picking Ian up to hold for a minute. "I want to keep them," Natasha said as she began to play with the two children.
"Good luck talking the Black Watch into that," I muttered as I helped take care of the twins.
"Who said I was going to ask?" Natasha raised an eyebrow at me. "I might leave the lance stranded here while we take the children with us.
"We'll have to wait and see what happens," I said noncommittally. "I hope the Black Watch members can see reason, but we'll have to wait and see."
April 7th, 3035
"You said you were ready to talk," I spoke to the Black Watch major sitting across from me. "So let's talk."
"How am I supposed to know that you gave me true and factual information?" MacIntosh asked.
"You can ask any of my men and they can give you a summary of history that will line up with those documents," I shrugged. "It's not like I carry around doctored historical documents around, and we don't even use 'noteputers in my forces much, if at all."
"Let me see the sun again before I make my decision," MacIntosh closed his eyes and sighed. "As long as the children are safe then I will do as you ask."
"Come on, take a walk with me," I said as I stood up. "There are some things you should know before you wake your lancemates up."
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"You're fucking joking," the Black Watch Major swore as I finished telling him my "story" about surviving the Manassas Misjump.
"I had no way of knowing where the rest of the Exodus fleet went, and my orders were to make sure that they didn't betray the Terran Hegemony, they were already deserters, we didn't want them coming back." I shrugged, "I did have some data on a couple of caches though, and you've already read through the rest of the history that includes what I've done since then."
"You've done well, and if I agree with your plans on the Cameron twins then I'll assist you in whatever way seems fitting."
"We can discuss that once we wake up the rest of your lance," I replied as we stopped walking to look up at the stars. "It's a whole new galaxy, and there's a great deal of things that you're still not caught up on."