Duty from Ashes Read Online Free PDF Page A

about what had happened, not only before her court martial but after she’d been sent to the military prison on Tarsus. One of them had even required her to sit through the vid of her sentencing hearing, just to see how she’d react. But she’d done it and had managed to convince them that she was all right. The funny thing was, she really was all right as long as you didn’t count the occasional nightmare and the need, a very primal need, to see those responsible for the deaths of her people brought to justice.
    “True but, from what I can tell, in each case Hines told the review board that he was against any attempt to return the COs, including Ash, to active duty. Each time, his recommendations were ignored by the others doctors. So he went to the review board with his objections and, when it ignored him, he went to Brodsky. Together they would alter the parameters of the upcoming sims, all in an attempt to prove Hines was right.”
    “What the hell!” Now it was Talbot who pushed out of his chair and paced the length of the office. When he turned back, Ash held up a hand, silencing him.
    “Stand down, Kevin. I knew that bastard had tried to keep me from returning to duty. He actually took his objections to the commandant when the review board shot him down.” She inhaled, striving to keep her temper in check as she remember being called to Okafor’s office not that long ago. “Fortunately, at least in my eyes, she pulled the reports from my primary physician as well as the other doctors who had seen me and the medical review board. None of those records contained any concerns, outside of the normal ones they always have about Marines in general and Devil Dogs in particular, about letting me return to duty. Dr. Ahern was very careful to document not only my medical progress but the reports he’d gotten back from the shrinks. And, no, there was no report from Hines on the record, not that I expected one since I only saw him once.”
    And that had been one time too many. There had been something about the man that had rubbed Ash wrong from the moment she entered his office more than a month earlier. Of all the other doctors and counsellors she’d seen, Hines had been the only one who hadn’t gotten to his feet to greet her and try to put her at her ease. Instead, he’d watched with what could only be described as a sneer of disdain as she moved across his office to one of the two chairs in front of his desk. She’d given him a moment to invite her to sit. When he didn’t, she finally took it upon herself to do so, noting the aggravation that crossed his expression as she did.
    The next hour had been an exercise in frustration. Hines had proven, in Ash’s mind at least, that he had no desire to help her cope with any remaining problems she might have had. Instead, he spent the time poking and prodding, trying to get her to admit that she’d joined the military, the Marines in particular, because her parents had forced her to. Then he suggested in no uncertain terms that she’d been insubordinate on her last assignment, deserving the reprimands O’Brien and Sorkowski had put in her record. Worse, he’d tried to make her admit it had been her own negligence that had caused the disaster that had been the Arterus mission. In short, he had taken a page out of the prosecution’s handbook and had run with it.
    Her response, as soon as she’d left his office, had been to contact Dr. Ahern, as her primary physician, and tell him not only that she would not agree to see Hines again but also why. Ahern had been quick to assure her that she would not have to meet with Hines again. There had been something in the doctor’s voice during that short conversation that had caught Ash’s attention but she hadn’t dwelt on it. Now, after the events of the morning, she knew what it was. Ahern hadn’t been surprised by what she’d reported and that was something that, after the morning’s events, bore looking