by David Weber
She stood a moment longer, the humming rumble of her idling engines vibrating through her mammoth hull like the purr of some enormous cat, then moved forward and pivoted regally to port. Her designers had given her the usual Bolo “wide track” suspension, and no less than eight separate tread systems, each with its own power train and tracks five meters wide, supported her massive bulk. Independent quadruple fore and aft suspensions took her weight, spreading it out to reduce ground pressure to an absolute minimum, and even so her tracks sank well over a meter into the damp, rich soil. She forged ahead, plowing through the jungle like the juggernaut she was, and forest titans toppled like straws before her while occasional outcrops of solid rock powdered under her treads.
Merrit said nothing. Nike knew where they were going-not that it would be any more than a brief jaunt around the depot’s immediate area-and he had no wish to intrude upon her pleasure. No doubt the psych types would be all hot and bothered over that, as well, but Paul Merrit had had it up to the eyebrows with Brigade Psych Ops, and their potential consternation mattered not at all to him. No, that wasn’t quite true. He would be delighted if it caused them all to drop dead of cardiac arrest on the spot.
Nike was moving at barely twenty kph, far too slow a speed to require his couch’s independent shock absorbers or crash frame, but he felt the gentle undulation of her suspension and grinned as he cocked the couch back in its gimbals. If anyone asked (not that they were likely to), he could justify his actions easily enough. Unit Zero-Zero-Seven-Five NKE had been on secondary power from the depot’s systems for eight decades. A test of its running gear and fusion plants was long overdue, and if he had other motives of his own, those were his business, not Psych Ops’!
Another huge tree toppled, and, as it fell, one of the large, scaled, lizard cats, the most feared predators of Santa Cruz, leapt suddenly into sight. It crouched before them, staring in disbelief at the enormous intruder into its domain… then screamed its challenge and charged the moving mountain of alloy.
Merrit couldn’t believe it. A lizard cat was four sinuous meters of vicious fighting power, the absolute ruler of Santa Cruz’s jungles, but surely not even one of them could think it could stop a Bolo! Yet the cat kept coming. He opened his mouth, but Nike halted abruptly on her own, before he could get the order out. The main fire control screen was slaved to her forward optical head, and Merrit frowned as it swept past the lizard cat now ripping futilely at one of her stopped treads with eight-centimeter claws. Ranging bars flickered, closing in on something in the center of the display, and he inhaled in surprise as he realized what that something was.
Four scaled shapes, far smaller than the monster trying to savage Nike, lay revealed where the roots of the falling tree had torn out the side of a subterranean den. They were almost as large as Merrit himself, perhaps, yet that was tiny compared to a mature lizard cat, and they turned blind, terrified eyes towards the snarling fury of their dam.
The display focused on them for a moment, and then Nike moved slowly backward. The lizard cat tried to fling itself on the moving tread, only to tumble backward with a squall of pain as the Bolo brought up her kinetic interdiction battle screen. She must have it on its lowest possible power setting, since it hadn’t splattered the cat all over the jungle, but it was sufficient to throw the scaly mother safely away from her treads.
The lizard cat heaved herself groggily to her feet, swaying for balance, then howled in victory as the threat to her young gave ground. Nike retreated a full hundred meters, then pivoted to her left once more to circle wide, and Merrit shook his head with a wondering smile. Any other Bolo would simply have kept going. Even if it had realized the den lay in its path, that wouldn’t have mattered to it. But no other Bolo he’d ever served with would even have thought to wonder why the cat had attacked in the first place, much less acted to preserve both mother and children.
The Bolo started forward once more, skirting the den, and he patted the couch arm.
“Nice move, Nike, but how’d you guess? I just thought the critter was out of its mind.”
“I have not previously personally encountered a lizard cat,” Nike replied calmly, “but the depot’s computers are tied into the planetary data net. I have thus been able to amass considerable data on Santa Cruzan life forms, yet none of the records available to me suggested a reason for a lizard cat to attack me. I am neither edible nor small enough for it to hope to kill me; as such, it could not regard me as prey, and lizard cats are less territorial than most large predators. They are also noted for their intelligence, and, faced with a foe of my size and power, the only intelligent choice would have been for the creature to flee, yet it did not. Thus the only logical basis for its actions was that it perceived me as a threat it could not evade, yet the lizard cat itself manifestly could have evaded me. That suggested a protective reaction on its part, not one of pure aggression, and that, in turn, suggested investigation to determine the nature of that which it sought to protect.”
Merrit shook his head, eyes shining as he listened to the explanation no other Bolo would have been capable of making.
“I follow your logic,” he said, “but why stop?”
“Your tone suggests what Major Stavrakas called ‘a trick question,’ Commander. Are you, in fact, seeking to test me?”
“I suppose I am, but the question still stands. Why didn’t you just keep going?”
“There was no need to do so, Commander. No time parameter has been set for this exercise, and avoiding the creature’s den presents no inherent difficulty.”
“That’s an explanation of the consequences, Nike. Why did you even consider not continuing straight forward?”
He watched an auxiliary display as the mother lizard cat, still snarling after the threat to her cubs, retreated into her half-ruined den, and Nike moved smoothly along her way for perhaps five seconds before she replied.
“I did not wish to, Commander. There was no need to destroy that creature or her young, and I did not desire to do so. It would have been… wrong.”
“Compassion, Nike? For an animal?”
There was another moment of silence, and when the Bolo spoke once more, it was not in direct answer.
“Wee, sleekit, cowrin, tim’rous beastie,
O, what a panic’s in thy breastie!
Thou need na start awa sae hasty,
Wi’ bickering brattle!
I wad be laith to rin an’ chase thee,
Wi’ murd’ring pattle!”
“What was that?” Merrit wondered aloud.
“A poem, Commander. More precisely, the first verse of the poem ‘To a Mouse,’ by Robert Burns, a poet of Old Earth.”
“Poetry, Nike?” Merrit stared at the command console in disbelief, and the speaker made a small, soft sound that could only be called a laugh.
“Indeed, Commander. Major Stavrakas was a great devotee of humanity’s pre-space poets. My earliest memory here on Santa Cruz is of her reading Homer to me.”
“She read poetry to you? She didn’t just feed it into your memory?”
“She did that, as well, after I requested her to do so, yet I believe she was correct not to do so immediately. It was her belief that poetry is a social as well as a creative art, a mode of communication which distills the critical essence of the author’s emotions and meaning and makes them transferable to another. As such, it reaches its fullest potential only when shared, knowingly and consciously. Indeed, I believe it is the act of sharing that makes poetry what Major Stavrakas called a ‘soul transfusion,’ and it was her hope that sharing it with me would complete the task of enabling the emotion aspects of my Personality Center.”
“And did it?” Merrit asked very softly.
“I am not certain. I have attempted to compute the probability that my ‘emotions’ and those of a human are, indeed, comparable, yet I have been unable to do so. My evaluations lack critical data, in that I do not know if I have, in fact, what humans call a ‘soul,’ Commander.
But if I do, then poetry speaks directly to it.”
“My God,” Merrit whispered, and stared at the console for another long, silent moment. Then he shook himself and spoke very seriously. “Nike, this is a direct order. Do not discuss poetry, your emotions, or souls with anyone else without my express authorization.”
“Acknowledged.” For just an instant, Nike’s soprano was almost as flat as any other Bolo’s, but then it returned to normal. “Your order is logged, Commander. Am I permitted to inquire as to the reason for it?”
“You most certainly are.” He ran a hand through his hair and shook his head. “This entire conversation comes under the heading of ‘aberrant behavior’ for a Bolo, Nike. Any Bolo tech would hit every alarm button in sight if he heard you saying things like that, and as soon as he did, they’d shut you down. They’d probably settle for removing your brain from your hull for further study, but I can’t be positive.”
“Are you instructing me to deceive our superiors, Commander?” Nike’s tone was undeniably uncomfortable, and Merrit closed his eyes for a moment.
“I’m instructing you not to advertise your capabilities until I’ve gotten a handle on all the, um, unauthorized modifications Major Stavrakas made to you,” he said carefully. “In my judgment, you represent an enormous advance in psychotronic technology which must be carefully studied and evaluated, but before I risk trying to convince anyone else of that, I need a better understanding of you of my own. In the meantime, I don’t want you saying-or doing-anything that might prompt some uniformed mental pygmy to wipe your Personality Center in a fit of panic.”
The Bolo forged ahead in silence for some moments while she pondered his explanation, and then the green light under the speaker blinked.
“Thank you for the explanation, Captain Merrit. You are my Commander, and the order does not contravene any of the regulations in my memory. As such, I will, of course, obey it.”
“And you understand the reasoning behind it?”
“I do, Commander.” Nike’s voice was much softer, and Merrit sighed in relief. He relaxed in his crash couch, watching the screens as the Bolo slid unstoppably through the jungle, and smiled.
“Good, Nike. In the meantime, why not read me a little more poetry?”
“Of course, Commander. Do you have a preferred author?”
“I’m afraid I don’t know any poems, Nike, much less poets. Perhaps you could select something.”
There was another moment of silence as the Bolo considered her Library Memory. Then the speaker made the sound of a politely cleared throat. “Do you speak Greek, Commander?”
“Greek?” Merrit frowned. “ ‘Fraid not.”
“In that case, I shall defer The Iliad for the present,” Nike decided. She pondered a moment-a very long moment for a Bolo-more, then said, “As you are a soldier, perhaps you will appreciate this selection
“I went into a public-’ouse to get a pint o’ beer,
The publican ‘e up an’ sez, ‘ We serve no red-coats here.’ The girls be’ind the bar they laughed and giggled fit to die, I outs into the street again an’ to myself sez I: O it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an ‘Tommy, go away’; But it’s ‘Thank you, Mister Atkins,’ when the band begins to play, The band begins to play, my boys, the band begins to play, O it’s ‘Thank you, Mister Atkins,’ when the band begins to play.”
The mighty war machine rolled on through the jungle, and Paul Merrit leaned back in his crash couch and listened in only half-believing delight as the ancient words of Kipling’s timeless protest for all soldiers flowed from Nike’s speaker.
9
“All right, mister,” the uniformed man said harshly. “You paid for the beer, so why don’t you just tell me who you are and why you’re bothering?”
Gerald Osterwelt cocked his head, and the speaker flushed under the sardonic glint in his eyes. The older man’s hand tightened on his stein, but he didn’t get up and storm out of the dingy bar. Not that Osterwelt had expected him to. Li-Chen Matucek had once attained the rank of brigadier in the Concordiat’s ground forces, and his present uniform was based upon the elegance of a Concordiat general’s, but its braid was frayed and one elbow had been darned. At that, his uniform was in better shape than his “brigade’s” equipment. As down-at-the-heels mercenaries went, “Matucek’s Marauders” would have taken some beating, and their commander hated the shabby picture he knew he presented. It made him sullen, irritable, and bitter, and that suited Osterwelt just fine. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to make it plain from the outset just who held whose leash.
“You can call me Mister Scully-Vernon Scully. And as to why I offered you a drink, why, it’s because I’ve heard such good things about you, ‘General’ Matucek,” he purred in a tone whose bite was carefully metered, “In fact, I might have a little business proposition for you. But, of course, if you’re too busy… “
He let the sentence trail off, holding Matucek’s eyes derisively, and it was the mercenary who looked away.
“What sort of proposition?” he asked after a long moment.
“Oh, come now, General! Just what is it you and your people do for a living?” Matucek looked back up, and Osterwelt smiled sweetly. “Why, you kill people, don’t you?” Matucek flushed once more, and Osterwelt’s smile grew still broader. “Of course you do. And, equally of course, that’s what I want you to do for me. As a matter of fact, I want you to kill a great many people for me.”
“Who?” Matucek asked bluntly, and Osterwelt nodded. So much for the preliminaries, and thank goodness Matucek, for all his seedy belligerence, saw no need to protest that his people were “soldiers” and not hired killers. No doubt many mercenaries were soldiers; the Marauders weren’t-not anymore, at least-and knowing that they both knew that would save so much time. On the other hand, it wouldn’t do to tell Matucek the target before the hook was firmly set. The man might just decide there’d be more profit, and less risk, in going to the authorities than in taking the job.
“We’ll get to that,” Osterwelt said calmly. “First, though, perhaps we should discuss the equipment and capabilities of your organization?” Matucek opened his mouth, but Osterwelt raised a languid hand before he could speak. “Ah, I might just add, General, that I already know what your equipment looks like, so please save us both a little time by not telling me what wonderful shape you’re in.”
Matucek shut his mouth with a snap and glowered down into his beer, and Osterwelt sighed.
“I have no particular desire to rub salt into any wounds, General Matucek,” he said more gently, “but we may as well both admit that your brigade suffered heavy equipment losses in that unfortunate business on Rhyxnahr.”
“Last time I ever take a commission from a bunch of eight-legged starfish!” Matucek snarled by way of answer. “The bastards lied to us, and once we planeted-”
“Once you planeted,” Osterwelt interrupted, “they left your brigade to soak up the casualties while they loaded the machine tools and assembly mechs they’d assured you they held clear title to, then departed. Leaving you to explain to the Rhyxnahri-and a Naval investigator-why you’d launched an attack on a Concordiat ally’s homeworld.” He shook his head sadly. “Frankly, General, you were lucky you didn’t all end up in prison.”
“It wasn’t my fault! The little bastards said they owned it-even showed us the documentation on it! But that fancy-assed commodore didn’t even care!”
Matucek’s teeth ground audibly, and Osterwelt hid a smile. Oh, yes, this was shaping up nicely. The Navy had kicked Matucek’s “brigade” off Rhyxnahr in disgrace… and without allowing it to salvage any of its damaged equipment. Of course, if the “general” had bothered to research things at all, none of that would have happened to him, though Osterwelt had no intention of pointing that out. After all, if he did, Matucek might just check this operation out, which would be most unfortunate. But what mattered now was the man’s sense of having been not only played for a fool but “betrayed” by the Navy
’s investigation. He was at least as furious with the Concordiat as Mother’s researchers had suggested, and he was in desperate need of a job-any job-which might let him recoup a little of his losses. All in all, he looked very much like the perfect answer to the Santa Cruz problem, and Osterwelt’s reply to his outburst carried just the right degree of commiseration.
“I realize you’ve been treated badly, General, and I sympathize. A man with your war record certainly had a right to expect at least some consideration from his own government. Be that as it may, however, at the moment you have very little more than a single heavy-lift freighter and a pair of Fafnir-class assault ships.”
Matucek snarled and half-rose. “Look, Scully! If all you want to do is tell me what lousy shape I’m in, then-”
“No, General. I want to tell you how I can help you get into better shape,” Osterwelt purred, and the mercenary sank slowly back into his chair. “You see, I represent an, ah, association of businessmen who have a problem. One you can solve for them. And, in return, they’d like to solve your problems.”
“Solve my problems?” Matucek repeated slowly. “How?”
“To begin with, by completely reequipping your ground echelon, General,” Osterwelt said in a voice that was suddenly very serious. “We can provide you with the latest Concordiat manned light and medium AFVs, one– and two-man air cavalry ground attack stingers, as many infantry assault vehicles as you want, and the latest generation of assault pods to upgrade your Fafnirs.” Matucek’s jaw dropped in disbelief. That kind of equipment refit would make his “Marauders” the equal of a real Concordiat mech brigade, but Osterwelt wasn’t done yet and leaned across the table towards him. “We can even,” he said softly, “provide you with a pair of Golem-IIIs.”