Lost destiny

by Michael A. Stackpole

  Hilda seized the opportunity offered by the momentary silence. "Kay—if you do not mind me using your nickname—you can wash up and I will get you some clean clothes, if you like. Then you can eat something."

  "Bitte." Kai smiled.

  "Deirdre, why don't you take Kay to the pumphouse out back and show him how to fill the tub." Erik Mahler shrugged with notable stiffness in his left shoulder. "After years of service, I retired and determined to get back to the land and avoid the technological trappings of society. I find it more relaxing. And with the Clans cutting down on the amount of power available to outlying areas, we are less affected than others."

  Kai smiled politely. "Having lived off the land for the past two weeks, your home looks to me like a lost Star League depot of stuff." He picked up his cloak and pack, then turned to Deirdre. "If you will lead the way, Doctor, I will become more human."

  * * *

  Kai stripped off his soiled jumpsuit and tossed it onto the pumphouse bench. His almond eyes and bronze flesh bespoke his Eurasian blood, though his dirty face and hands were dark enough to suggest African origins for his family. Catching sight of himself in the door mirror as he pulled off his cooling vest, Kai saw that he'd lost what little fat he'd been carrying. He combed his fingers back through his short black hair, pulling at two snarls, then shuddered.

  His fingernails were as black as his hair.

  His mirror-image slid away as Deirdre opened the door. "A bit underfed, but you look healthy." She placed the towels and soap she was carrying on a stood next to a huge wooden cask. Her voice grew a bit distant. "Am I allowed to ask why you've appropriated the identity of another member of the Guards, or is that some secret you nobles keep to yourselves?"

  The ice in her voice stung Kai, but he reined in his hurt. "Mahler saw the name on the jumpsuit and figured me to be David Jewell. As he had a shotgun on me at the time, I decided going along was easier than explaining the truth."

  "Really? Or is it that you think a disguise will make you less valuable as a hostage when the Clans capture you?"

  Kai pulled off his own dog tags and tucked them into the small pocket inside the waistband of his shorts. "I don't intend to be captured."

  Deirdre gave him a hard stare. "What happened to Jewell?"

  He suppressed a shudder as he recalled climbing into the Wolverine's cockpit and looting it. "He was killed in battle. He died protecting Prince Victor."

  "Of course." A sour expression sharpened her face and scored lines at the corners of her eyes, but those eyes reflected sadness. "What happened to you?"

  Kai crossed to the silver pump beside the tub and began to work the handle up and down. "I was left for dead after it looked like my 'Mech had been destroyed." As water gushed into the tub in frothy pulses, Kai felt his anger getting the better of him. He decided to change the subject to something more neutral. "You said the Clans overran your hospital. What happened?"

  Deirdre's face took on a dazed expression and she lowered herself like a zombie to the bench. "It felt like a replay of Twycross. Elementals came into our area and began to shoot up what vehicles we had. Meanwhile, the veterinary hospital we had converted into a clinic offered us no cover. Things just started exploding and there were fires and glass flying everywhere." She covered her face briefly with her hands, as though the memory were too painful. "So much blood. I was working on a boy who'd been hit in the chest and we couldn't stop the bleeding. And then one of my nurses got hit and I realized they were shooting at the hospital."

  Tears rolled from her red-rimmed eyes. "I told someone to call for you on the radio because you'd told me you had our sector and that you would protect us." Her hands curled into fists and she stared defiantly at him. "I should have know better."

  Kai ground his teeth. "Victor was in trouble. The Clans had trapped him. I was on the way to help you, then his call came through. I knew I was the only one who could reach him in time. I had to go to him."

  "Blue blood is thicker than red, isn't it, Leftenant Allard-Liao?" Her lip curled up in a snarl that blasphemed her beauty.

  "Come off it, Doctor!" Kai posted off the top of the pump and leaped over the tub. He grabbed her by the shoulders and dragged her to her feet. "It was triage, just the same as you practice in your hospital. Yes, I'll say it, Victor was more important than a whole DropShip full of wounded men. Do you know why?"

  "He's an adventuristic noble who leaves broken and bleeding bodies wherever he goes." Her eyes blazed with fury.

  "No!" Kai shook her roughly. "No, the reason Victor was more important than your wounded men and women is because he is important to all of them. If Victor died, or was captured, we'd all lose the heart to fight. Every one of those people who died in your hospital had been fighting with Victor to oppose something they felt was evil, something destroying their way of life. Saving Victor gave their sacrifice meaning."

  "Dead is dead, and there is no meaning in it!" Deirdre pulled away from him. "Damn you and Victor and Hanse Davion and the Clans and everyone. You all see wars as the place where glories can be won. You all brag about courage and bravery and sacrifice as if that ennobles the death of some half-trained schoolboy who's blown apart while carrying a gun. That's obscene, because it fosters the mistaken idea that life is cheap enough to waste if the cause is right or just."

  She thrust her right hand toward the Mahler house. "Look at him, look at Erik. He's an old man crisscrossed with scars. He's got a scar on his left shoulder that looks like someone tried to take his arm off with a sword. He's stiff and he moves slowly, but when he decided to wait for you to return to steal food, he was like a commando out there. It was a return to some malignant time that made him feel wonderful, and quite probably would have, gotten him killed."

  Kai saw her tremble with rage, but he said nothing. He understood that her fury, though vented on him, was not meant for him alone. Her ranting struck chords in him, and brought back memories of the battlefield he'd greeted after escaping his 'Mech.

  "You don't know what war really is, Leftenant, you really don't." She slapped her hips in frustration. "I have a boy brought in and I open him up as soon as they can put him under anesthesia. But when I open him up, I find his insides are a jigsaw puzzle. His bowels have been perforated with shrapnel, and feces is mixed with blood and whatever he last ate. I can clean him up and I can resect his small intestine into a colostomy, but I know he's going to be septic and I don't know if I have enough drugs to deal with him. Still, I put him back together.

  "Have you any idea what it's like," she demanded, pounding her fists against his chest, "to have a kid ask you to let him die? I had a boy who was looking forward to a professional sports career come into the clinic with the lower half of his right arm hanging on by a tendon. He was out of his mind with pain, but he wouldn't let us put him under until I'd promised that if I couldn't fix it, I'd just let him die. And, dammit, I almost wanted to because I knew, for him, having to adapt would be impossible."

  Kai settled his hands gently on her shoulders. "I know. My father lost his forearm."

  "Yes, your father lost his forearm." Her voice grew cold as she twisted out of his grasp. "Well, let me tell you, not everyone is such a good friend of Hanse Davion that he gets the New Avalon Institute of Science to make him a new arm that functions better than the original. No, you and your father and Victor are all special, and why these people are willing to catch the bullets and missiles meant for you, I will never know."

  She picked up the bar of soap from the bench and tossed it into the half-filled tub. "There, Leftenant. Go ahead and clean yourself up. See if you can ever wash all the blood from your hands."

  6

  Avalon City, New Avalon

  Crucis March, Federated Commonwealth

  1 February 3052

  Hanse Davion, First Prince of the Federated Commonwealth, lay his half-glasses down on top of the report on his desk. As he did so, one of the massive bronze doors across from his antique desk swung open on well
-oiled hinges. Through it the Prince saw a veritable phalanx of security guards and the tall, slender form of his acting intelligence secretary. Good, Alex, you're right on time.

  Alex Mallory entered the room with a limp that was a remnant of torture suffered on the Liao homeworld of Sian more than twenty years before. Hanse knew the limp only showed up when Alex was tired, and he sympathized with the man. While his gray eyes were still bright, the dark crescents beneath them spoke of too much work and not nearly enough rest.

  The Prince smiled wearily, realizing Mallory's face was probably a mirror of his own. "I apologize for sending for you, Alex. I know you did not get to sleep before three this morning."

  Alex shrugged, but settled gratefully into, a wing-backed brown leather chair facing the desk. "No matter, Highness. I am well used to working on four hours of sleep, or less."

  "So I understand. Justin always said you were a workaholic."

  Pain shot through his eyes, but Alex forced a gruff chuckle nonetheless. "Coming from him and you, that is high praise, indeed." Alex opened one of the folders he'd brought with him. 'This is the latest we have on the front. It looks as though the Clans have momentarily stopped their advance and are consolidating their positions."

  Hanse tapped the report on his desk. "They did a lot of world-hopping in their last set of attacks. It makes sense for them to want to consolidate their rear area."

  'True." Alex tugged at the cuff of his black woolen jacket. "The Draconis Combine has apparently inserted some forces to their rear. They are staging from Wolcott, but the Clans have so far kept their vow not to attack that world again. Another force went out from Pesht, but did not meet with the stunning success of other Combine operations. Given that two old hardliners were in command of the forces, I am not surprised."

  Hanse leaned back in his chair, idly wishing for the days when he could have piloted a 'Mech out against these Clansmen. Then again, on Outreach, Kai Allard took me down right quickly in his test. And the Clans have taken him. How long would I survive?

  "Alex, have we had any word from Alyina?"

  The Intelligence Secretary chewed his lower lip, then shook his head. "Nothing. I think there is little doubt that Kai Allard perished in his attempt to save Victor. I've had people review the battleroms from Victor and Galen Cox's 'Mechs. Even if Kai survived hitting the water, the shelf goes down for a kilometer in that area. If the cockpit had somehow been pressurized to withstand the weight of the water at that depth, Kai might have lived, but there would have been no way for him to ascend to the surface. His 'Mech did not have a modular escape pod like a Hatchetman or Wolfhound."

  Hanse swallowed hard against the lump in his throat. "So he's dead?"

  "He's listed as 'Missing in Action.' Given the other tragedies in the Allard-Liao family, I think it is best we release no information about Kai." Alex grabbed a handful of white hair at the back of his neck. "When the time comes, the battleroms will prove Kai every bit the hero to the Federated Commonwealth that his father was."

  Hanse nodded solemnly as little tentacles of pain seemed to wrap around his heart with a squeeze. "Still, you did let ComStar know that we will pay to have priority transfer of any message from of about Kai."

  "I did." The growing smile on Alex's face piqued Hanse's curiosity. "In doing so, I learned something very interesting. I am having a report prepared, but I will give it to you as a thumbnail brief now."

  "Please do." Is there good news possible from ComStar?

  "We have always figured at least benign complicity between ComStar and the invaders."

  Hanse grinned slowly, still very much the Fox. "We know that because of the black-out of important data from worlds the Clans have taken. We have also assumed, given the overwhelming successes of the Clans, that ComStar has been feeding them data in preparation for their attacks."

  "Right." Alex steepled his fingers in a gesture Hanse found chillingly reminiscent of Justin Allard. "When I got into contact with ComStar, I was instantly transferred to speak with Huthrin Vandel—Precentor New Avalon himself. Vandel assured me that any message by or about Kai would be relayed immediately. He said he was heartsick that this war would cost the lives of so many brave citizens of the Federated Commonwealth. He also let slip some concern within the First Circuit about the Clans and hinted that ComStar might be willing to turn its Com Guards loose on the Clans, given support by the other Successor States."

  "What!" Hanse stared blankly at his Intelligence Secretary. "Do you think Vandel is playing some power game against the Primus, or is this official-line material?"

  "Too little data to be sure, Highness, hence my wanting an analysis before reporting this. We know that Huthrin Vandel and Ulthan Everson have long opposed the Primus and her activities, but they've never done more than mildly rebuke her. If they are plotting against her, I would ask myself why now? What could she have done that would prompt them to finally make a real move?"

  Hanse scratched his head. "Wouldn't aiding and abetting the Clans be enough to make them want to depose her?"

  "Surely, Highness, but then we have to assume that ComStar has been doing that all along, so the timing of their move appears questionable. If they had deposed her at the beginning of the invasion, then worked with everyone to defeat the Clans, ComStar would be in a powerful position. Now, having helped the Clans to their series of victories, the Primus would be quite strong. These two would never dream of openly opposing her, in that case. She could have them expelled from the First Circuit and replace them with one of her favorites, as she did with Sharilar Mori, the successor she handpicked as Precentor Dieron."

  "So," Hanse mused, "that means either ComStar sees the Clans as a threat and wants to stop them now, or Vandel is feeling us out for support in some move against the Primus. Why?"

  "Again, Highness, I have not enough data to venture more than a guess."

  "Guess."

  Alex smiled. "I think, Highness, that ComStar finally perceived that the Clans' attack vector takes them on a path that includes Terra. Myndo Waterly must feel the hot breath of the Wolf Clan upon her neck, and she's finally going to call in some support."

  Hanse rubbed at his chest. "What are the chances she'll get it?"

  "From us? That is up to you, Highness. We could cut some Regimental Combat Teams loose, but that would hurt us on the front with the Jade Falcons. I don't think the Combine has troops to spare, either, but Theodore might be persuaded to throw some of his 'Ghost' regiments to her."

  "And Romano Liao would refuse her support. She'd refuse anyone support." Hanse opened a drawer in his desk and pulled out a small roll of anti-acids. "What about Thomas Marik? He was a ComStar Adept before he assumed the Captain-Generalcy of the Free Worlds League. Will he back her? His troops are not pinned down. He could respond."

  "He could, but remember how hard he bargained with you and Theodore Kurita on Outreach. All you were asking was for him to start upgrade-kit and 'Mech production for you, not to commit his troops to your defense. He bargained hard and only acquiesced after you offered to bring his son Joshua here for chemotherapy to treat his leukemia. What could the Primus offer him in exchange for defending Terra?"

  Hanse swallowed the last of the anti-acid tablet. "A very good question. God alone knows what secrets ComStar has found and hidden on Terra. The Primus would have to offer Thomas something incredible because Thomas knows his troops have no idea how to fight the Clans. He's aware that sending his troops into battle against them at this point would be a sentence of death. That would raise a ruckus at home, which Thomas can ill afford."

  Hanse's blue eyes narrowed for a moment, then his vulpine grin grew. "By the way, how is young Joshua Marik doing?"

  "Very well. The leukemia is in remission and he seems to be tolerating the drugs we use far better than those his father's doctors were using. The Marik physicians did not take well to the New Avalon Institute of Science staff referring to them as 'witch-doctors,' but we managed to smooth things over. We w
ill keep Joshua here with us for at least another six months to keep an eye on how he is doing."

  And time enough to start the field modification kits for our 'Mechs flowing from the Free Worlds League. "Very good, Alex. You have my compliments. I am especially impressed at your ability to slip into Justin's shoes in such an able manner."

  Alex shook his head. "I appreciate your praise, Highness, but I do not deserve it. I have a staff of seven helping me do what Justin used to handle by himself before he, ah, went away. Every day seems to turn up another matter he had been holding down that I knew nothing about. His loss is not one from which we will quickly—or possibly ever— recover."

  Pain nibbled at Hanse's heart again. "How well I know that, my friend. It's odd. I had envisioned Justin and me handing over our jobs to our respective sons in five or ten years. Now...." Hanse's hands dropped to his desk and lay there like dead things.

  "Yes, Highness." Alex opened another folder. "You will be pleased to know that we managed to trace the laser pistol used on Justin and Candace. It has identifying marks consistent with those found in a cache of weapons we located in the Sarna March. It is unlikely the assassin carried it with him from there, so we have been searching for the ship that might have delivered it. We have the suspects narrowed down to three independent trading DropShips and are currently going over the passenger, crew, and cargo lists for each trip those ships made to New Avalon in the last ten years."

  Hanse's right hand closed into a fist. "Good. I want every single one of the individuals in that chain. I want them all to stand trial for murder, then I will be pleased to witness their executions for high treason and regicide." Hanse's anger flooded a tightness into his chest. "I only wish the head of the serpent could be brought here for trial. It infuriates me to think Romano Liao and Tsen Shang are beyond my reach."