by Terry Mixon
The destroyer commander smiled. “True enough. Even if they ask us where we’re going, a decent lie might get us through. Like you said, people are inclined to believe stories that make sense.”
“And what story might we have for bypassing the carrier and heading for the recovery ship?”
“Damned if I know,” she said. “I’m going to be thinking about that before we take off. When do you plan on going?”
He considered the time. “We need to leave as soon as it gets dark again. We don’t want the people below seeing us lift off from the volcano, but we have to get out of here.”
“What about our prisoners?”
There was something odd in her tone. He wondered if she suspected he’d executed the Dresden senior staff.
If she did, she had to realize why he’d done it. He couldn’t allow the enemy to have access to the manufacturing equipment. The ability to produce Marine Raider implants or re-create the lords would be a disaster.
Yet he didn’t expect her to accept that without some misgivings. She was a Fleet officer, not a security officer. Summary executions to protect the Empire were outside her normal duties.
“We’ll take them with us,” he said in his best reassuring voice. “The intelligence they can provide is worth the risk.”
“Having someone guard them while we hijack the recovery ship is going to be awkward. We don’t have enough bodies as it is.”
He smiled widely. “As much as it pains me, I suppose we’ll have to stun them again. Justine will be most put out with me.”
Raul imagined the noblewoman would be quite angry. Yet, he had to confess it would give him great pleasure to take her down. Her shrill voice was getting on his very last nerve.
“Everyone needs to get as much rest as they can,” he said. “Get a good meal, take a nap, whatever it takes to relax. Once we start moving, things are going to be tense and stay that way for quite some time.
“With any luck, we’ll be out of the system before they realize we’ve left the planet. By the time they grasp that there’s another flip point, we might even be several systems away. Once they lose us, we’ll be able to make our way back home eventually.”
Then the war would begin in earnest. With his help, the Empire would crush the last remnants of the old dictatorship and the ghosts.
The lords were quite generous to those who pleased them. He could only imagine the rewards he’d earn for his part in this. He could retire a wealthy man. One raised to the higher orders by their decree.
Oh, yes. The days ahead were going to be very nice indeed.
31
Annette woke slowly. She remembered almost immediately that she’d been stunned, but her groan ruined any chance of pretending she was still out.
She opened her eyes and tried to ignore the stabbing headache. She was still outdoors, but the landscape had changed. Instead of being in a small clearing in the forest, she was on a mostly open hillside covered with large rocks.
Some were big enough to block the wind, and a large overhang of stone provided a break for a cheery little fire. The flames bathed her with warmth.
An alien—presumably the same one she’d been fighting—sat nearby. His hands were busy with a small knife and piece of wood, possibly carving something, but his eyes never left her.
“I see that you’re awake,” he said levelly. “Good. We have some talking to do, you and I.”
He’d bound her hands in front of her and tied her ankles together. Her captor was taking no chances.
“What makes you think I’m going to cooperate with you in that conversation?” she asked as she sat up slowly.
“I could make some grand statement about how I have you completely in my control, but I’m not certain that’s the best course of action,” he admitted. “You seem to be a woman of action. One in possession of unusual and unique equipment.”
The alien gestured to his right where she saw her weapons. Since he’d had a stunner of his own, he probably knew what the flechette pistol was too.
Her night-vision goggles were missing. He must’ve overlooked them in the dark when he’d kidnapped her. Pity. She’d loved those things.
“There are a finite number of these weapons in existence,” the alien continued, his tone almost lecturing. “While it is not unheard of for one to turn up in an unusual location or in the possession of someone who should never have had it in the first place, it is never functional.
“You see, it takes power to charge the magazines. Yet, I must assume you know that. Both these weapons are fully charged. I confess to a great curiosity in how you managed that.”
He smiled, his expression almost human. “Perhaps we should begin by introducing ourselves. My name is—as you might expect—not a comfortable one in the human tongue. You may refer to me as Derek. That is similar enough to be useful in interspecies communication.”
“Annette,” she said. “My people are going to find me. When they do, I suggest you surrender peacefully or risk getting seriously injured.”
The alien’s smile widened. “I do like your confidence, but we’ve traveled quite some distance. The likelihood of your friends finding us is very small.
“While I am a civilized man, it would behoove you to remember that my people do not take well to threats or intimidation. Even if only implied.”
Annette laughed. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. Frankly, you’re the first person of your species that I’ve ever met. Based on what I knew, I never expected you to be able to speak Standard as well as you do.”
He frowned slightly. “I find that aspect of your story…unlikely. Humans might be standoffish, but none of them live in such isolation that they wouldn’t have ever met one of my kind.”
“That’s where the problem comes in. I’m not part of the population on this world.”
The alien considered her for a long moment. His smile slowly faded until his face was expressionless.
“That is a serious and frightening statement.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Serious? Yes. Frightening? It doesn’t have to be.”
When he didn’t respond, Annette continued. “It’s obvious that I’ve stumbled into something that I didn’t expect. Frankly, that isn’t too surprising considering how very little we know of your people. All we were trying to do was have a quiet word with the human traveling on the road.”
“Allow me to make certain that I understand you correctly,” the alien said slowly. “You are claiming that other humans have now found us?”
“That’s right, and my compatriots won’t stop looking for me.”
“And that is why you frighten me. If what you say is true, it might best serve my interests to shoot you in the head right now and walk away.”
That shocked her. “Why in the world would you kill me out of hand just because I’m not from this planet?”
“Because humans are dangerous, unpredictable, and dogmatic on the very best of days. Without access to the technology that was once theirs, your kind is relatively safe. If more of your kind has arrived, war is at hand.”
Her mind raced as she tried to figure out what the hell he was talking about. Why would the ghosts be such dangerous people?
“Do I appear unpredictable and dogmatic? I’ll agree that I’m dangerous, just on general principles, though.”
The alien’s smile returned. “I like you. That isn’t to say that I might not have to kill you before the night is through. I suggest you tell me enough of your story to convince me that you should live.”
“Since I have absolutely no idea why being human would be inordinately dangerous, I’m not certain what I can say to reassure you. Perhaps if you told me why you feared my people so much, I could explain why that’s not true.”
He considered her for a long moment. “Very well, I’ll play your game for a little while. If you want to pretend that you don’t know your history on this world, I will explain it in greater detail.
“Rest assured,
however, that I do not actually believe you come from somewhere else. I’m uncertain what game you’re really playing, but it’s not going to work out in the way you hope.”
The alien took a deep breath and launched into a short story. “This story begins just over six human decades ago. That’s when Clan Dauntless arrived on my world. We knew nothing of your people or the war you wage with one another before a great burning streak filled the sky.
“Dauntless itself came down with a great clap like thunder heard across the kingdoms. None knew if the gods had decided to smite us or if some other great calamity was at hand. Then our people began finding humans.”
He reached over to his side and grabbed a small pack. He opened it and pulled out what looked like beef jerky. He used his knife to cut part of it off the chunk and handed it to Annette.
She held it in both hands and tore a strip off. It tasted good.
“These humans came from escape pods, or so we eventually learned. Your clan chief ordered Dauntless abandoned when it came crashing down. A wise decision, as none survived the crash. All who remained on board perished.
“Over the next several months, my people gathered the surviving humans in our territory. We did not speak Standard, of course. Some humans chose to fight. They died. Others surrendered. They lived.
“That turned out to be natural selection. Survival of the fittest. Those who could not set aside their warlike natures culled themselves from your gene pool. Only those who could be reasonable remained.”
He smiled a bit coolly. “Which isn’t to say that humans are not wily and capable of fighting. No. Only now the unthinkingly violent are gone.”
The alien extended his hand toward her. “You do not seem to be the type who is prone to lashing out at anything or anyone that opposes you. That disinclines me to believe your story, because if you are not of Clan Dauntless, then you are either from a different clan or from the great enemy. Both of those possibilities seem unlikely to me.”
“That’s an interesting story,” she admitted, “but there are a few holes in it. You see, it turns out that there are other humans in the galaxy. Some that are neither associated with the humans on this world or their enemies.
“Which brings me back to why I came in the first place. We’re trying to find the associates of the people who crashed that large ship. I’ll assume that the battlecruiser in question was Dauntless. I’m not certain how clans come into this, but I’m hoping that becomes clear in time.
“My name is Annette Vitter. I am a Fleet Captain belonging to the Terran Empire. Not the Empire these people would have been fighting. My people also escaped the great civil war that we call the Fall. We’re only just now beginning to struggle against the AIs.”
She smiled widely. “If you don’t mind taking a little trip, I can prove my story. And, my commanding officer would no doubt make it worth your while to listen to what she has to say.”
The alien leaned forward. “It sounds mad to me,” he said softly. “One of my closest friends belongs to Clan Dauntless. It was him that you tracked along the road.
“Which, allow me to assure you, would not have turned out the way you hope. He is one of the smartest men I have ever met. Confronting him would not have turned out the way you’d planned.”
He sat silent for a long minute. “I find myself uncertain what I should believe. If you want me to go back toward where the ambush happened, that isn’t going to happen. I left my men to eliminate our enemies. They will rejoin us here tomorrow. That will be soon enough to find out the truth of what you’re saying.”
The alien added some wood to the fire. “I suggest you get some sleep while you can. Once they arrive, we’ll be traveling quickly and not back the direction we came from.”
Talbot stared at the cutter. “Is it normal for a grav drive to just fail like that? I thought these things were pretty robust.”
The marine crew chief shrugged. “Me too, Major. We still haven’t tracked down what’s wrong, but I suspect we’ll be able to fix it relatively easily when we do. I’ve never seen anything like this, frankly. It has to be some bizarre combination of factors we’ve never seen before. The drive is probably fine.”
The marine officer had barely made it back to the island before the crew of the cutter reported the problem. Luckily, this wasn’t a critical mission. One of the other cutters would be able to take care of business until they got this one fixed.
“I suppose asking you how long it’s going to take to fix this would be an exercise in futility,” Talbot said. “Do the best you can and let me know as soon as it’s functional again.”
The crew chief nodded. “Will do, sir. Any word when we’ll be done down here? The insects are starting to bug the hell out of me.”
Talbot laughed. “Insects. Bug. Nice. I’ll bet you’ve been waiting all day to use it on me.”
The marine-enlisted man shrugged. “I was bored.”
“They shuttled the last of the prisoners down about an hour ago. I figure they’ll have moved the last of the cargo in about four or five hours. Then we can focus on searching this blasted planet.”
The other man considered him for a moment. “I’m not sure we’re going to find the escapees, sir. Now that they’ve managed to evade discovery for this long, the odds of them just turning up have to be falling dramatically.”
“You’d think so, but that’s not really true,” Talbot said. “They’ve got a limited amount of oxygen on board. They can’t just hide at the bottom of the ocean forever.
“At this point, we’re pretty certain they’re not on any of the landmasses along the equator. We’ve got cutters and pinnaces searching the frozen north and south, but they’re even less likely to be able to hide there for a long period of time.”
“Why’s that, sir?”
Talbot gave him a chilly smile. “They’ve got survival gear but nothing that will allow them to live in the frozen tundra for very long. No. They might manage to continue hiding for another two or three weeks, but they’re going to have to come out and get some food or air. When they do, we’ll get them.”
The other man excused himself to head back inside the cutter and get back to work.
Talbot stared off into the forest. It was maddening. Patience was going to win the day, but he wanted to do something now.
Well, he should just focus on doing his damned job. Sooner or later, the rebel officers were going to make a mistake. When they did, he’d have them.
The key was going to be getting ready ahead of time. Opportunities were fleeting. When the other guy made the wrong choice, you had to be ready to capitalize on it. He’d be ready.
32
Kelsey watched her human prisoner as he began to shrug off the effects of the stunner. She’d relocated him to the cabin her mother had used when she’d been on board Persephone. It would provide a more relaxed setting in which to question him.
Now that he was unarmed, he was no longer a threat to her. She suspected he was a very resourceful man. Not only had he carried a flechette pistol and a stunner, but he’d also had a worn marine knife.
She’d thought the metal immune to scratching, but the blade he’d possessed had obviously seen hard use. The surface of the blade had actual nicks. Maybe he’d carved his way through a bulkhead, as she’d once hypothesized such a blade would allow her to do.
The young man blinked and sat up. His transition from unconsciousness to wary wakefulness was immediate. He took her in and then scanned the rest of the compartment.
“It seems my confidence in myself was ill-placed,” he said. “You’re much quicker than you look.”
“That sounds about as insulting as saying I’m smarter than I look.”
The man grunted softly in apparent agreement. “No insult intended. Or perhaps I should say no further insult intended. Would this be the appropriate time to say I regret trying to kill you?”
“I think that’s a great place to start,” Kelsey said. “Why did you feel the need to
attack me?”
“Shouldn’t you be concerned that I’ll do so again? I rather expected to wake up in chains.”
Kelsey had a stunner at her waist, but it was the concealable one. She undoubtedly looked unarmed.
“I’m not nearly as defenseless as I appear. If you feel the need to get up and take a swing, please, be my guest.”
The man smiled wanly. “Perhaps they treat guests differently where you’re from. It’s generally considered poor form to attack one’s host.”
“Yet it would be very instructive for you,” she said. “I’m not going to call a guard in. I’m not going to pull some hidden weapon and disable you. If you want to determine that I’m telling you the truth, let’s settle this right now. I am not the defenseless woman I appear to be.”
Kelsey stood and advanced to stand in front of the couch where he sat. “Here I am, right within your grasp. You tried to kill me. Don’t tell me that you’d shy away from hitting me.”
He remained seated. “Under the circumstances under which we met, I felt justified. That justification does not hold true now.”
She sighed. “You just had to ruin my dramatic moment, didn’t you? Well, I feel justified in making my point.”
“If striking me atones for some of my actions, then feel free,” he said calmly.
“Thank you.”
She grabbed him by the front of his shirt, hauled him to his feet, and raised him as close to the ceiling as she could. His feet dangled just above the floor.
He stared down at her smiling face, his mouth agape. The moment drew on, and she held him there effortlessly with one arm.
“I feel confident in expressing that you have my full attention,” he said in a quiet voice.
Kelsey set him back onto his feet and pushed him back onto the couch. When she was certain he’d stay seated, she walked back to her chair and sat.
“When I say that I’m not from around here, that means I am not from your planet.”