The Light Years

by R. W. W. Greene

  “What the fuck you do that for?”

  She toed the corpse. “He had a grenade behind his back. I saw it in the reflection of the window there.” The explosive rolled free of the boy’s body. I picked it up.

  “This really doesn’t make sense,” I said. “Kids are precious here. They wouldn’t–”

  “Come on!”

  I kept the rest of the thought to myself and followed Odessa to the stairwell. I remembered the family I’d had to climb through the last time I visited my mother. We encountered more children and a couple of old ladies but didn’t stop to chat. Tina shot a crying woman who didn’t take our disinterest for an answer. The woman dropped a pistol as she fell.

  “This is fucked up,” I said. “I’ve never played a game where you had to watch out for civilians.”

  “I guess there are no civilians in a revolution.”

  Our armor creaked as we climbed. Glass and trash crunched under the heavy soles of our boots. The people we’d seen in the building hadn’t been wearing shoes, another anachronism. People who lived in La Merde were resourceful. If they couldn’t buy it, they made it themselves.

  “You’re thinking again,” Odessa said.

  “Is this what people really picture when they think about refugees? A bunch of dirty people with one hand out for a donation and the other hand with a bomb in it? I’ve been to La Merde. It’s not all like that.”

  “It’s just a game, Hisako.”

  We made it to the roof without getting killed. The snipers were NPCs, their combat AI so focused on sniping that we barely had to sneak to get behind them and riddle them with bullets. Mission accomplished.

  Odessa peered down the building and opened her pack.

  “What are you doing?” I said.

  “Rappelling down the side. I’m not going back through all those people with you. You’re as bad as Adem when he gets back from one of his walks.”

  Back at street level, we ordered more ammo from Tina and reunited with Vee. She offered us both high fives.

  “I found them.” Vee brought up her holographic map again. There was a red smudge on it now.

  “I think that’s supposed to be the Square,” I said. “It’s an outdoor market and festival thing down near the space elevator.”

  “It’s also guerrilla HQ and the missile launch site.”

  “Human shield?” Odessa said.

  “Right out of the guerrilla-warfare handbook.” Vee’s grin was savage. “Let’s get this done.”

  “Don’t feed the widows and orphans,” Odessa warned. “They have grenades.”

  The trip to the Square was easy, although we had to stop to give Odessa time to disarm a doorway that was rigged to explode. Vee checked in with Tina who was having a hard time finding a good position.

  “No sniper support,” Vee reported. “The clock’s ticking. We’ll have to risk it.”

  The market stalls inside the Square were empty, but they’d definitely been modeled on the ones I saw when we found Marjani. The programmers probably watched the documentary, too.

  “The elevator tower came down on all of this before we left,” I said.

  “Nostalgia later,” Odessa said. “We’ve got about ten minutes before the missile launches, and I don’t want to give Tobey bragging rights.”

  “You just don’t want to have to sleep with him again. You need to stop making that bet.”

  “You could loan him Reg,” I said.

  She said she’d think about it, but five seconds later a sniper’s bullets streaked out of nowhere, and she was dead again. Vee and I ran full tilt toward the Square’s second corner.

  “I didn’t see that coming!” Vee said.

  “Any chance Tina can get a drop on him?”

  “Maybe. If we keep moving, we should be all right.”

  The missile launchpad was in the Children’s Village which, for the game’s convenience, was not deserted. Maybe the kids had nowhere else to go.

  “Keep an eye out. Mateo likes to pop out and–” The bullets cut her off. Vee fell, nearly out of health, and I dragged her behind one of the low huts and slapped a bandage on her chest.

  “Go.” She gritted her teeth. The neural feedback was making her pretty uncomfortable. “There’s no time for anything else. Shut down the missile.”

  “I don’t have any tech skills.”

  “Shoot it then. Or blow it up.”

  I left her bleeding and crept around the other side of the hut. Tobey was guarding the missile emplacement, and I emptied my gun at him. I hit him, but not enough to take him out. He dove for cover. “You’re almost out of time, Hisako!”

  He had set the missile up in the thickest part of the Children’s Village, so he could use the kids and their ratty huts as shields. I slid the grenade I took from the orphan out of my bag and pulled the ring, keeping my fist tight around the handle.

  “Do you have any food?” A little girl with matted hair stared at me from out of the crowd of children. Her face was dirty. Another could-have-been little sister.

  “What are you waiting for, Sako?” Vee shouted. “Save La Mur!”

  “I’m really hungry,” the girl said. “I haven’t eaten in days.”

  I threw the grenade. Any good EuroD would.

  ADEM

  Adem slid open the stim capsule. Yet another play-through without getting so much as a scratch. He’d found the perfect hiding place atop the wall surrounding the Square and had taken down Odessa, wounded Vee, and had been about to shoot Hisako when–

  Tobey was still laughing his ass off at her bobbled grenade throw. The explosive had bounced back and landed at Hisako’s feet, obliterating both her and Vee. Tina showed up in time to finish what Hisako had started with Tobey, but it had been too late. The missile launched on schedule, blowing apart maybe a sixteenth of La Mur. Score a small win for the common man, subtract all the kids who died serving as a shield. A rare victory over Vee’s Furies. Tobey would be bragging about it for months.

  Drinks at Terry’s Place were the post-game ritual. The players would razz each other’s strategies and argue over who’d made the best kill. Adem’s narrow bed was calling loudly, but beer promised a muzzy end to the long day. He finger-combed his hair and followed Tobey and the rest of the team down to the bar.

  Adem ordered a beer and helped push several mismatched tables together to form a single big one. He took a seat on the boys’ side and saluted Tobey with his beer. “This is, what, the second time in history you’ve beaten the Furies?”

  “Third, if you count the time that nuke went off and wiped out everyone on the map.” Tobey scrubbed his mouth with the back of his hand. He was drinking Dooley’s latest concoction, and it looked like a fast worker.

  “You can’t count that one,” Mateo said. “Both sides wiped, and we failed the mission.”

  “They failed, too, but we’re the ones who set the bomb off,” Tobey said.

  The door slid open. Enter the Furies.

  Tobey waved. “Hey, remember that time with the nuke…?” He was already getting mush-mouthed. Adem resolved to stick with the beer.

  “You’re not still claiming that as a win, are you?” Vee said.

  “At worst it was a draw,” Tobey said.

  “How can it be a draw when it was a complete fuck up?” Odessa snorted. “We need to pull that game out of the archives and play it again or put this to rest.”

  Vee ordered drinks for her team and sat with them on the other side of the long table. “I can’t believe you went for a human shield, Tob. Kids! That way leads to the dark side, pal.” She sounded unimpressed.

  Tobey put his glass down too carefully. “That’s what terrorists do.”

  “If it wasn’t for that sniper, we would have stopped you cold.” Vee squinted at Adem. “I didn’t even know you were playing.”

  “Tobey caught me on the way back to my suite.”

  Odessa was arguing with Mateo. “If we’d had another couple of minutes, Tina could have come a
round and nailed you both.”

  “I had you in my sights when Sako’s grenade went off.” Tina had set the elaborate cocktail aside and, like Adem, was sticking to beer.

  Hisako put her head in her hands. “I’m never going to live that down, am I?”

  “A healer against a human shield?” Tobey hooted. “Your accuracy was absolutely blown. I’m surprised you were able to throw.”

  “A lot of games don’t have the human shield option,” Vee said. “You can only use it in this one if you play the terrorist side.”

  “They’re not terrorists,” Adem and Hiasko spoke simultaneously. Their eyes met for an instant, and they shared a smile.

  “That’s not what the game says.” Vee ordered another round of drinks for her side.

  “Forget that,” Hisako said. “If the guerrillas – still not terrorists – were really fighting for a better life in La Merde, there’s no way they’d put their kids in danger. However, I could see the EuroD side threatening the Children’s Village as a deterrent.”

  Adem nodded agreement.

  “Where’d the guerillas even get that missile?” Hisako continued. “I could see guns, maybe, although I’m not sure where those would come from either, but a high-tech missile? No way.”

  “They must have bought it,” Vee said.

  “With what money? From whom?” Hisako brandished her cocktail. “Someone else had to be involved.”

  “The scenario didn’t make a lot of sense,” Adem said. “Arming old ladies and kids and putting them in stairwells? That’s not an attack. That’s a last-ditch defensive measure. The EuroD had to be the aggressor.”

  “Ooh, listen to Mr Earth History.” Tobey’s eyelids were drooping. “It’s a game. We played by the rules, and we won.”

  “The rules are stupid, then,” Hisako said.

  “Stupid or no, Tobey’s right,” Vee said. “They won fair and square. Next time, it will be different.”

  “For now though,” Mateo’s smile said it all, “I understand there was a bet made.”

  Tobey blushed. “You don’t have to. I mean just because we…”

  “I never welsh on a bet. Sets a bad precedent,” Odessa said. “I’ll send Reg over later tonight. Hisako’s idea. It’s very gentle.”

  Tobey paled.

  Adem risked another smile at Hisako, hoping that she’d appreciated the fact that he saw things her way. “I talked to folks in La Merde when the tower came down. They think the EuroDs did it or paid to have it done.”

  Hisako frowned. “How does that make sense? La Mur depends on the elevator.”

  “La Mur wasn’t underneath the tower when it fell, though. Only the refugee community lost homes and lives. The elevator was probably back up, business as usual, in a few weeks.”

  “My father was part…” She looked down at her drink. “Let’s say he knew some of the angrier people in La Merde. They were always talking about doing something like that.”

  “Maybe. But talking is one thing. Makes no sense that they’d bring the tower down on their own people, barely affecting the EuroD, yet giving them the excuse for a crackdown.” He twisted his wedding ring absentmindedly. “I just don’t see it.”

  “Bad planning?”

  He raised his glass. “To not making bad plans.”

  They clinked glasses. Further down the play-by-play continued. Tobey’s head was on the table, and he appeared to be asleep. Odessa was re-enacting the battle in the Square using silverware and salt-and-pepper shakers. Vee was challenging Mateo to an arm wrestle.

  Adem drained his beer. “I’m going to turn in.”

  “I won’t be far behind you. This project is kicking my ass.” Hisako rested her forehead in the palms of her hands. “Before you go…”

  “Yeah?” Adem froze, half-out of his seat.

  “I want to apologize.” Hisako lowered her hands. “It’s not your fault I’m here, and I’m going to try acting like I know it.”

  “That would be nice. Being married doesn’t mean we can’t be friends.”

  HISAKO

  Three months out of Gaul

  “My sources tell me things are going well.” Rakin waggled a bottle of vodka at me. “I am here to help you celebrate.”

  Sources, plural. It wasn’t a big surprise. The crew was small and tightly quartered, and the most innocent slip made loud echoes. We’d told no one but the captain about our testing schedule, but everyone aboard seemed to know the first worm-drive trial was only a few weeks away. There was even a trial-date pool filling up one whole wall at Terry’s.

  “It’s late, Uncle.” I leaned against the doorway. It felt like the conversation might take a while. “Does your source list include the blond guy, the bald gaming addict, or the woman who sleeps with robots?”

  “I won’t waste time trying to convince you it’s my niece, but what makes you think it’s not your husband? How is he, by the way? Are you two settling in well together?”

  Rakin’s smile made me feel like he was imagining me naked and dead at the same time. It reminded me of some of the EuroD fathers I’d met. “I’m sure your sources have filled you in on that, too.”

  “My sympathies. I was married once.”

  “You must have gotten on well.”

  “Much better after she died.” He lowered his voice. “You should let me in. I assure you, Nov Tero vodka is an opportunity,” he stressed the word, “not to be missed.”

  Four months is a long time to form relationships. Vee and Lucy were great. Mateo was fun. Odessa was charmingly quirky. Even Adem was starting to grow on me. Maneera, though… The thought of making her life more difficult had its appeal.

  Rakin followed me inside and twisted the stopper off the bottle. I pointed out the shelf of glasses. He poured two then relaxed his bulk into my desk chair. “Nov Tero gravity is a few points lower than my sister likes to keep on the ship. I miss it.”

  The ship’s gravity suited me just fine. It was a little less than the pull I’d grown up with and made waking up with a hangover more bearable. I sat on the edge of the bed before Rakin had the audacity to ask me to take a seat in my own place.

  “Where did we leave off?” he said.

  “Either with a nebulous proposition or histrionics about why the worm-drive won’t work.”

  “Even if it does, we’ll still be delivering groceries for a living. No great improvement.”

  “It could make the family a lot of money.”

  “Money is just a way to keep score.” He edged the second glass toward me.

  I ignored it. “What the fuck do you want, Rakin?”

  His face darkened, either at my failure to use an honorific or the fact that I, a mere woman, used foul language in front of him but, with an effort, he redonned his composure. “I have friends who are interested in protecting themselves. You are in possession of something that can help.”

  “There’s only one worm-drive.”

  “And little protection it will be, as my sister will discover in time. I’m looking for something more immediate.” He made a pistol shape with his hand and pretended to shoot me with it.

  The back of my neck prickled. “You want weapons.”

  “And my sister foolishly left all of them behind on the warship. However, you can help me get something nearly as useful. I’m told the files we downloaded from the Hadfield’s computers are full of–” Rakin snickered, “–interesting things.”

  I tried to keep the panic and anger off my face. Odessa must have hacked me. It was the only way Rakin could know about the UA files. If I had a better computer tech, I’d fire her.

  “Operating manuals for ship systems mostly.” I bit my tongue to fight off the sudden attack of dry mouth.

  “Perfect. I’m interested in one of the manuals. For a weapon.”

  There was a roaring in my ears. I was surprised Rakin couldn’t hear it. If all he wanted was one of the operating manuals, maybe he didn’t know everything. “You said yourself there are no weapons.”r />
  Rakin poured himself another glass of the icy vodka. “It’s a charade, a bluff. If one side can make the other believe they possess something very frightening, it’s possible to win on the threat alone.”

  “How frightening?” Missiles were frightening. Bombs were scary, too. Rakin wouldn’t need manuals for guns, and those were probably the least scary. The only UA weapons system terrifying enough to make a good bluff was… Shit.

  “Frightening enough to destroy a planet. You’ve heard of Makkah, I hazard? I don’t need such a threat myself, but I would be happy to supply it to others who do.”

  The MCD. The United America’s mass-compression device. The beauty of mass-grav control perverted into a weapon. The planet crusher. The squeezer. Used only once in a war a millennium ago, it destroyed an entire civilization. I felt sick. “Who would possibly want that?”

  “I could sell it easily on Nov Tero, and I have connections elsewhere. Most want weapons more than they want the threat of weaponry, but I’m sure they could be made to see the practicality.” He held up his hand. “I don’t have to offer it on Gaul, of course, but in the right hands it could bring about a world order better suited to people like your charming, overworked mother. I suspect your father might have approved.”

  Too close. “You don’t know anything about what my father would have wanted.”

  “This is really fine. Don’t let it go to waste.” He clinked his glass against the one I hadn’t touched. “I researched your family, and I can make some good guesses about your father and his time in prison.”

  “That was a mistake. He wasn’t involved in anything.”

  “But the EuroD didn’t care about that. He was just a worker from La Merde. It wasn’t even worth trying his case properly.” He drummed his fingers on the desk. “Once word gets around about our salvage trip to the Hadfield, the manual for the squeezer would give pause to the powerful. They don’t know my sister is a fool. I think they would be very hesitant to call that particular bluff.”

  “I can’t believe you’re asking me this.”