Green World

by B. V. Larson

  “Easy enough to check.”

  Claver was looking at me with the same narrow-eyed suspicion Abigail had given me, but I didn’t mind. If I were him, I wouldn’t have trusted me, either.

  “Come on, dammit. Up to the comms building.”

  We trudged over the beach. The two ape-dogs half dragged me over the sands. I didn’t mind, as I had nowhere better to be.

  Inside the comms building was a deep-link machine, as I’d expected. Claver got on it and sent a few choice messages. He soon got an answer back from Rigel.

  The Rigellian voice sounded like they all did, kind of wavering, like he was underwater or something. “It is confirmed. The commander of the Saurian legion has failed us. He teleported away with an Earth agent.”

  Claver shut down the unit and turned slowly to eye me. “I’m not just suspecting you of lying now, McGill. This is much worse. I’m suspecting you might be telling the truth!”

  I shrugged. “As God is my witness, Armel is working with us now.”

  “How does that change things?”

  I examined the ceiling of the comms hut. “Well now, a genius like yourself might be able to figure out this riddle. You’ve got a man who was, until recently, working for the Skay in Province 926—”

  Claver stood up suddenly. “As their local enforcer! He’ll have the codes! Dammit, I never should have trusted that French snake!”

  He threw me out of the place and made several more desperate calls. After about ten long minutes—during which I learned that there is no creature among the stars less interested in conversation than a couple of gorilla-dog-men—he finally reemerged.

  “That could have gone badly,” he said. “Earth can’t be allowed to fly ships through our borders. Skay command has been alerted, however. The codes will be changed. Oddly, I’m in your debt, McGill.”

  “Yep—and it’s time to pay-up.”

  “What?”

  “You said it yourself: you’re in my debt.”

  Claver laughed. “And what is it I can do for you, McGill?”

  “Send me home, of course. A quiet transmission through the deep-link. Maybe a revive upstairs in that VIP lounge they’ve got for that purpose up at the top of Central. That’d be nice.”

  “You heard about that place, huh? All right, as you’re useless and fairly harmless… and you did me a turn, I’m willing to do just that. After your legion ships are met at the border of 926 and blasted out of the sky, of course.”

  I blinked at him. “Uh… what?”

  He laughed and slapped me on the cheek several times—hard. “Did you really think I was going to put a lollypop in your mouth and scoot you out the door like a scamp that’s been shop-lifting comic books?”

  “Sorta… yeah.”

  “That’s not happening. When Earth’s fleet hits the border and is turned back—or better yet is destroyed—I’ll give you a private back-rub if you want one. Until then, you’re my least welcome guest. Take him away, Rover.”

  * * *

  Six long days passed after that. I ate paste, watched the waves through some rusty bars, and teased the dog-men as best I was able. During that entire time, none of them so much as lifted his leg and pissed in my face. They did snarl, now and then, but they obviously had orders to avoid my enclosure.

  I’ll tell you, I was a sorry sight. Here I was, the late great James McGill, a prisoner of dog-people. What a grim fall from grace for a man like me.

  Abigail never even came to visit, despite my constant asking for her. Either the dog-boys didn’t get the message, or she had reasoned that it was best for her not to come and see me. She might have felt sorry for me and either killed me or let me go.

  It was on the sixth day, however, that everything changed. It was about noon local time, as best I could estimate, when the whole camp came alive. A weird siren began to wail. It didn’t sound like a traditional horn-sound. It was more of a deep moaning, like someone had caught a sea-dragon and begun to viciously twist its monstrous tail.

  I could tell it was a warning sound from the reaction of everyone in sight. All the dog-men, the squids, and even the occasional Vulbite starting racing around. They kicked up sand and rocks in an all-fired hurry. There were some gun emplacements and missile stations along the beach, and they moved to man these as quickly as possible.

  Looking up, I didn’t see anything. Shifting my gaze out to sea, I found that it was empty, too. Even the horizon was bright and clear. A few scudding clouds maybe, that was about it.

  Squinting and shading my hand with my eyes… what was up there? On the horizon? A gray shape, lurking just above the clouds? Could that be…?

  Yes, it was a ship. A big one in low orbit.

  “Hot damn,” I said to myself. “They finally got here.”

  -37-

  Dominus had arrived. Confirmation came when a loud speaker made an incomprehensible announcement that rang out all over the base. Then, the missiles started flying.

  Seven missile pods. That’s what I counted. They were set along the island’s highest ground, like bumps on a gator’s back. Each one opened with a spreading flower of metal, rolling back their blast shields. Twin missiles on every platform swung with precision and released two big flaming meteors. Seven pairs arced into the sky side-by-side and roared away to the west. They raced up and up to meet the big ship malingering in orbit.

  “A front-row seat to an invasion,” I said to nobody. “Cool.”

  Small footsteps crunched on the sand. Panting, Abigail stopped at my cage and looked inside. I could have grabbed her and maybe strangled her—but what would have been the point to it?

  “McGill? What’s this? That ship is invading our planet!”

  “Yep. Just like I said. Now you know I was telling you the truth.”

  “But we warned the Skay. They should have changed the codes by now.”

  I nodded. “Maybe they did. I only see one ship—maybe the Skay got the others.”

  All this talk of more ships was horse-hockey, of course. There had never been more than one ship, and it had slipped through the gates long ago. But, from her point of view, I’d been as honest and helpful as the day was long.

  Abigail breathed in small gasps, and she looked up at the sky in fear. “Shit… We’re not ready for this.”

  “I gave you a week’s warning, girl!”

  She looked at me, and I could tell she was doing some hard thinking. “I’ve been avoiding coming out here, you know.”

  “I noticed. It’s been kind of lonely.”

  As I said this, a second volley of missiles leapt up into the sky. The defensive batteries had reloaded, and they weren’t taking any chances. We couldn’t talk for a while due to all the roaring of rocket engines.

  I got the feeling from Abigail’s visit that she thought we were doomed. I figured she was probably right.

  After the roar died down from the second launch, Abigail looked at me again. “I… I didn’t trust myself. I’ve been lonely on this rock, too.”

  That kind of surprised me. I’d figured she didn’t give two shits about me. Hmm… Her admission had possibilities.

  “Uh…” I said. “How could you be lonely? As far as I can tell, you’re the only female on this base.”

  “So what?”

  “Well, I thought that with all these men around… you know, dog-people are probably into humping legs. Then there are several Clavers of various flavors.”

  “My brothers and these stinking dogs? You thought I would be interested in them? Ew! No way, McGill. What do you take me for?”

  “Uh… sorry, I guess I wasn’t thinking like a girl.”

  While we talked, we couldn’t help but watch the sky. The first volley of missiles had broken the line of clouds to the west by this time. Without warning, they all blossomed into brilliant points of light. A rippling set of flashes went off, and we both averted our eyes, cursing.

  When I got up off the piss-stained floor of my dungeon, I saw Abigail’s head wa
s up as well. She had sand dripping off her face.

  “How did they set off all the warheads?” she asked.

  “I don’t rightly know. Some kind of field-manipulation, I’d suspect. Our ships are getting more advanced these days, you know—oh, and you should probably take cover.”

  “Why’s that?”

  “The shockwave will be coming our way in the next few—”

  I broke off, because I saw a white wall of mist, water and force spreading toward us. It came over the sea at about three thousand kilometers an hour, if I remembered my schooling correctly from my days of being a weaponeer.

  Abigail made a noise—it was kind of a little squeak. She looked around desperately, but there was no bunker in sight she could reach before that wave hit us.

  Feeling an ounce of pity, I popped loose one of the bars I’d been grinding on over the last week. It came free like an old tooth and made a space just wide enough. I reached out a long arm and dragged her down into my dungeon with me.

  She struggled a little, and she might have even bitten me, but I ignored all that. I got her down by my side, hugging the wall and crouching.

  Then, the blast-wave rolled over the island. Dirt and debris shot straight through the bars of my crappy window, and I couldn’t hear a thing for about thirty seconds.

  When the smoke cleared, we were both choking and wheezing. Alarms were beeping everywhere. It sounded like we’d tried to steal every aircar in a parking lot at once.

  “James? Are you going to let go of me?”

  I blinked and tried to wipe my eyes clear of dust, but it was a losing proposition. My sweat and spots of blood had turned the coating on my arms into gray grime.

  “You got any water?” I asked her.

  She handed me a bottle, and I squirted it into my eyes. I’d let her go by then, but she didn’t even try to climb out of my cell again.

  “Do you think we got a dose of radiation?” she asked.

  “I don’t see how we could have avoided it.”

  “Dammit. My brothers were crazy to start all this up again with Earth. We’re going to lose all over again.”

  “That’s what Armel said. He figured the rebels almost always lose rebellions, so he switched sides again.”

  “Then he’s not as dumb as I thought. Shit…”

  “We should be getting out of here.”

  I could see her face now, and she looked at me in honest concern. “Why? Are they going to bomb us next? You think they’d use their broadsides?”

  “Maybe, but I doubt it. They’ll want prisoners. They’ll want to see if this has spread to more planets.”

  She dared to peek up out through the bars again. “They’ll land, then? A drop from space?”

  I shook my head. “Not yet. That’s not protocol. We’ve still got air defenses, so they’ll send a wing of fighters first, to knock out all your guns and missiles. After that, the troops will land.”

  “I don’t believe this is happening… come on, let’s get out of here.”

  Abigail took my hand, but she didn’t go to the barred window and wriggle her way out. Instead, she pressed her arm against the door where the door handle should have been. It recognized her tapper and popped open.

  Frightened dog-men growled at us, but they let us go. She ordered them out to man the AA guns. They humped away with a loping gait.

  “They looked like they were about to shit themselves,” I laughed.

  “They should. Come on, that door has an alarm on it. My brothers already know you broke out of prison.”

  “Uh… okay.”

  I felt like mentioning this was all her idea, and she was the one that had done all the breaking-out, but there was no point to that. I was either in this escape or not, and I didn’t see any percentage in waiting in my cell until I was atomized.

  We ran down a few dirty, cramped tunnels until we reached a chamber with rocky walls. A metal dome stood overhead, and a parked copter sat under it.

  “This is the heliport. Should we launch now, or should we wait until the fighters hit us?”

  I put my hand lightly over her mouth. She flinched away. “Let me listen and think for a second.”

  She shut up, which was nice of her, and I listened. At first, I didn’t hear anything ominous, but then I caught it. A distant screaming sound of wind moving fast through turbo-props and ram-jets.

  “Get up against the walls.”

  That’s all I had time to say, and we moved close and hugged stone. Soon, explosions echoed. The ceiling bled dirt, and the chamber rocked. Everything in sight vibrated and every light flickered. We were being bombed.

  The AA guns chattered, of course. They sent up thousands of hot bolts into the sky. I thought I heard a fighter go down, crashing onto the island somewhere, but it could have been something else.

  “They must have launched the wing even before they took out the missile barrage,” I told Abigail. “The fighters couldn’t have gotten here so fast otherwise.”

  “I’m glad to know Earth pilots are so efficient.”

  “Just hope they don’t pop open the roof on this thing, or we’re toast.”

  We huddled down there for several minutes while the air raid went on. It seemed like a long time, but soon the screaming fighters were fading back to the west.

  “It’s now or never,” I told her, and we scrambled into the copter.

  That’s when we got our first serious push-back from the dog-boys in charge of this place. One of them thought he was a pilot, and that this was his vehicle. He snarled at me, and even lifted his lips at Abigail.

  “Listen,” she told the dog, “we need to take off pronto. I’ll fly, just go back to your bunk.”

  The dog-man shook his head and sat there, snarling.

  “Bad dog!” I told him. “Shoo! Git!”

  Abigail pushed me back. “Okay, okay,” she said soothingly. “This is your copter. You’re the pilot. Just fly it, and take us back to the lab island. Let’s go.”

  We climbed in, and the pilot looked at us wonderingly, but he did as he’d been ordered. He revved the engine, and the rotors began to spin.

  Automatically, the doors overhead slid back, and we glided up into the sky.

  “If one of those fighters is still around, he’ll shoot us down for sure,” Abigail complained.

  “True, but I don’t see any of them. They’ve gone back to Dominus.”

  Abigail swung her head in my direction suddenly. She wasn’t a dumb girl, whereas I’m mentally challenged on the best of days.

  “Dominus? Isn’t that your legion’s transport? How did you know which ship it was up there? You said there was a flock of them coming.”

  “Uh… just a guess, really. But Dominus is one of the newest models. It looks like that big thing, and it’s faster than most transports. It only makes sense that if one of them survived, it would be my ship.”

  She seemed to buy this, and she went back to looking out to sea.

  We rose up over the island, and the scene below was one of destruction and carnage. The three big warehouses were all shattered and smoking. Craters marked the spot where every one of the seven missile batteries had been. The AA gun batteries were knocked out as well.

  “The boys really did a number on this place,” I said with a hint of pride.

  “They sure did. Will they drop next?”

  I pointed up at the sky. Overhead, white contrails marked objects falling from above. There were hundreds of them.

  “Looks like they dropped already. That’s a full cohort, if I had to make a guess.”

  The radio squawked right then, and the dog-pilot cocked his ears. He listened, then swung the ship around toward the island again.

  “Hey! Don’t turn around, rover!” I told him, but he ignored me. I turned toward Abigail. “Can you fly a copter?”

  “No.”

  I shrugged. “Well, it’s time to learn how.”

  Then I struck the pilot from behind. It took seven hammer-blows t
o the skull to put him out, and he wasn’t even wearing a helmet. I was impressed.

  By that time, the airship was spinning and losing altitude. I pushed the body out the open canopy and made room for Abigail to take his seat.

  She fought the controls, but the best she could do was land us on the rocky beach—and when I say land, I mean crash.

  When we climbed out of the wreckage, I looked up and gaped at the sky.

  “Wow! A Legion Varus drop is a thing to behold, isn’t it?”

  The fighters had pulled out and left our island a smoking ruin. But the fun wasn’t over with yet. The troops were coming down now, scads of them. Their pods were firing retros at the last possible moment to break their hellish descent.

  Right nearby, not fifty meters down the beach, a pair of pods came to rest. The explosive bolts blew with loud popping noises, and two light troopers sprang out, guns up and ready.

  Abigail turned to run. “Let’s get out of here, McGill!”

  I reached out a long, long leg and hooked her ankle with mine. She did a facer on the sand, and I landed on top of her. Pressing my mouth to into her hair and her ear, I said one thing.

  “Sorry.”

  This was a lie, of course, but it was a heartfelt lie. I really wanted it to be true, see, and so I guesstimated that the Good Lord would give me a pass on it when I someday died my final death.

  “You fucker, James!”

  “Get a grip, girl. We’re on a burning island. Running away will only get us shot in the back.”

  “Okay, okay. Let me up.”

  Reluctantly, I did as she asked. I eased my weight off her, and she rolled onto her side.

  She gave me a funny look. “What do you think we should do now?”

  “Play dead until they’re sure all resistance is broken, then surrender.”

  She ran her quick eyes over the scene. Legion Varus troops were crawling over the island. There were brief fire-fights here and there. For the most part, the dog-gorilla-boys took the worst of it. They were still shell-shocked from the air strikes, and nowhere near as well-trained anyway.

  “We’ve lost this base,” she said. “Did you arrange this somehow?”