There was a few minutes in which order was almost impossible. In these situations a commander has to make the right choice or risk doing damage to the mental status of his command. Immediately shutting everyone down after making a statement like that can breed discontent or even rebellion. I let them talk, grunt, laugh nervously… whatever they needed to do to react. Order was finally restored when Hardass barked a command.
“This is your one and only chance to ask questions. After this we’re going straight to full alert status. Go.”
Several people started talking at once so I raised a hand to halt everyone. “Giant, go.”
Giant stood slowly and drew himself up to his full height, barely taller than Tiny still sitting beside him. “We’ve been sitting here for two fucking days, doing shit fuck all, and now you waltz in here and tell us that Monsters are real. We’re supposed to just trust you on this? How in a endless pile of shit do you expect us to believe that you haven’t just gone charging headlong out of your mind?”
“Meadow,” came a small voice from the back of the room, “Who will stand in the meadow while the sea rises?”
We all turned to look at Gaga. It was the first time she had spoken since the incident with her radio. She very slowly smiled a slightly too wide smile but said nothing further.
“To your first question,” I said, pulling my gaze from Gaga’s grim grin, “Yes, you’re supposed to trust me. Keep in mind that I just learned this two days ago as well and have done enough to convince myself. As for your second, you have two choices. Put the trust in your commanding officer, or desert and face the court marshal. If you believe you have sufficient evidence to convince a tribunal that I’ve, to paraphrase, lost my marbles, that is your choice.”
Our eyes connected and a silence fell. I could feel everyone tense, all eyes watching us. Finally, he snorted and sat again, folding his arms and leaning back in his chair. Tiny lent over and whispered something in his ear. He nodded, keeping his eyes on mine.
“Ceilidh, ask.”
She pulled the cigarette out of her mouth and blew a puff. “Roight. If , whit th’heel ur we gonnae dae?”
I did my impression of artist-with-painter’s-block’s canvas. I turned to Hardass and raised an eyebrow.
“Roughly, ‘If you’re not full of shit, what do we do?’”
“That’s whit Ah said, ye scunners.”
“Ah. We prepare. I will detail our orders and plan in a moment. Twinkle, you had something, floor is yours.”
I had never seen Twinkle look as tired as she did at that moment. She gave a quick glance to Dee who nodded encouragement.
“Cap… you know that we’ve always followed orders without question.” She began wringing her hands together and looked down to the ground. “What you did to Dum though… and Tiny… you should have died being hit there. What’s going on with you?”
I saw several heads nod in agreement with her question. I glanced sideways and Hawkeye tilted his head down a fraction. Since we had determined through our communications that in all matters Kaiju, he actually outranked me, I needed his permission to say what needed to be said.
“A fair question that needed to be asked.”
Twinkle looked up at me the relief obvious in her eyes. “Thanks Cap.”
I took a breathe and let it out slowly. “As far as we can tell, the book that Hawkeye had is somehow connected to the sudden appearance of the Kaiju. It’s an artefact found in Mayan ruins by the Abnors, given to Hawkeye to study while here. This appears to have been a mistake considering how it has reacted. We’re not sure, but we believe that the symbols are related somehow to the end of days. By picking up the book in the state it was in, with the current status of the Kaiju…” I hesitated a moment, steeling myself for what had to be said next.
“I’ve started the countdown to Armageddon.”