“You and Springer are field trials,” agreed the Reserve Captain. “Early prototypes. My work with the augments on Beowulf too.” The ancient Jotun bowed to Indiya. “I did not fully understand myself when I met you, McEwan, despite being involved in the Renegade Conspiracy for nearly a century. Such is the nature of conspiracies. Deception becomes an unbreakable habit.”
“What else are we humans underestimating, sir?” asked Xin. She made the sir sound like an accusation. Arun reckoned the Reserve Captain was the only Jotun in the galaxy who might pick up on that.
“This is my speculation,” said the Jotun. “I have learned much since reaching Tranquility. I have guessed more. I think the Night Hummers have been moving in the shadows for at least half a millennium in order to bring about the present, the fruition of their Renegade Conspiracy. The three leaders of the Renegade Legion that they planned—”
“That is now the Human Legion,” insisted Arun.
“Because you wish to spread your liberation to all the dispossessed. Yes. And that distinction may become crucial for good or ill. The three leaders of the Renegade Legion, as the Hummers foresaw it, are here present. Lee Xin, you are the aspect of charisma, if you will. The leader. You are the inspiration for countless followers of many species. It is you they will follow into battle.”
Arun glanced at Xin. She gave a slight nod, as if being told she was about to lead vast armies across the galaxy was an everyday statement of the obvious.
“Indiya, you are intended to be the warrior. Strategist. Tactician. Ruthless Resolute.”
“Where does that leave me?” asked Arun.
“You, boy, are cursed with the most terrible role of all. You are the decision maker. History will admire Xin Lee, study Indiya, and blame you.”
“You’re wrong about me for a start, sir,” said Xin calmly, to Arun’s surprise. “I’m a leader? That’s a joke. We’re led. All of us, by the Hummers. This whole frakking deal. And this civil war. This great opportunity we must seize with all our limbs… is this war another Hummer setup?”
Artificial laughter came through the Jotun’s speech synthesizer. It was an inhuman sound, impossible to interpret. “Yes. Thank you, Lieutenant. I think you’re right. Oh, how could I have been so blind?”
The Jotun gazed into the sea of uncomprehending human faces before continuing. “To succeed in their coup, the rebel faction of White Knights needed military allies. The Muryani provided those allies.”
“The Muryani?” queried Nhlappo. “But we’ve fought them for thousands of years. They’re the enemy.”
“Bitter enemies, yes. But the Muryani are desperate. They are being pressed hard by a rising power on their external border deep to spinward, far beyond the charted regions of the Trans-Species Union. Little is known about this new force in the galaxy, but we have learned maybe more than anyone. And what I have learned shows the awesome ability of the Hummers to project power across the galaxy. Seemingly across time itself.”
“Please, sir,” said Indiya. “Who is this new force?”
“You have already encountered them. Though Themistocles found them first.”
“The mystery ship?” said Xin.
“The Bonaventure?” added Indiya.
Pain scratched at Arun’s head. He imagined teeth engaging in thundering brass gears. He squared his jaw against the intensity of the subconscious machinery the Jotuns had forced into his head. Tried to take in what was being said.
“There were many unanswered questions about that ship,” said Indiya. “They manipulated space-time in a way I can’t even express other than in metaphor. It was as if they had edited an unwanted version of reality and spliced in an alternate run of events. Amilx, they called themselves. And they were human. Are you telling me that humans have set up an empire hundreds of light years to spinward? If not, then how did they get on that ship? Who the fuck are the Amilx?”
“I know,” gasped Arun. He held his head in his hands, the sweat dripping through his fingers.
“Oh,” said Xin.
Arun looked up and saw Xin’s eyes wide with shock. “I guess you get it too,” said Arun bitterly. “Of course you would. The name Amilx… It’s the Hummers taunting us.”
“Or a clue,” suggested Xin.
“It’s not a clue. It’s an order. An order so crude that even we barely evolved apes can understand. I need to ask one question, one last chance to be proved wrong. Lieutenant Xin Lee, many of us choose to claim a link to a cultural region of old Earth. Our way perhaps of remembering whence we came. For you—”
“Chinese. No need to drag it out, Major. And in accordance with that cultural tradition, my preference is to put my family name first. If I had my own legion to play with, my name would be Lee Xin. Go on, Major McEwan, finish what you started.”
“Amilx,” said Arun. Understanding began to switch on across the human faces like status lights on an equipment bank powering up. Arun McEwan. Indiya. Lee Xin. AMILX. Anyone here prepared to tell me that’s a coincidence?”
Anger burned in his heart as he looked out at the faces, desperately looking for any hint of doubt. He saw nothing but shock on every face but one. For the merest instant he saw a flicker of triumph on Xin’s face. And he knew why, the little veck.
The list of the great and good that the Jotun had listed… the leaders of the Legion. Springer’s name wasn’t on it!
The next face to fall out of shock was Indiya’s. Anger clouding her face, she released herself from her chair, and pulled herself across the gleaming table to Arun. She placed a hand on his shoulder.
“I’m sorry, Arun. CIC is picking up multiple broadcasts all over Tranquility. The final solution has begun.”
“We’ve got to stop it,” snarled Arun. Rage pumping fuel to his muscles, he began to release himself from his seat, but the sorrow in Indiya’s face was so total, that he slumped back down.
“Your report on the labor camp raid mentioned cages,” she said, her words drained of emotion.
“Sun protection. Yes.”
“They’ve added nerve gas.”
Horror gripped Arun. He was out of his seat and shooting along the cabin, aiming for the exit hatch. “The Stork gunship is fueled and ready,” he said. “We will be back on the surface within ninety minutes. We can’t save them all, but we will save some.”
Indiya overtook Arun and forced him to look at her.
Tears welled in her eyes. “It was a simultaneous broadcast event. Every camp released the poison at the same time. Arun, they’re already dead. Every human on the planet. We’re the only ones left now.”
Arun snarled through his teeth. “Just the way the Hummers planned it.”
— Chapter 76 —
Springer pulled herself up the ladder rungs, heaving hard against the 0.5g acceleration. If she didn’t speed up, she was going to be late!
“You wouldn’t understand,” Springer sub-vocalized.
“No.”
She switched her visor to survey mode and linked in to Heidi, the Beowulf’s security AI. Her route up Deployment Tube Beta was still on course to intercept Arun. One more deck and then she could step through a hatchway and just happen to bump into him. Timing was tight, though.
She wasn’t even sure she had anything to say, just wanted to see him with her own eyes. Since that Day of Xenocide on Tranquility, when Tawfiq had slaughtered every human being, she’d relied on Heidi to show how Arun was handling it.
He looked as if he felt personally responsible for every one of those murdered people. Tens of thousands of manslaughter charges to which he had already pronounced himself guilty.
“I love him, Saraswati.”
&
nbsp;
“I can’t.”
Heidi updated. Arun was slowing his pace because someone was about to pass him on his passageway. Good, that would give Springer more time to head him off.
Springer laughed. “I can’t see myself with the sergeant somehow.”
“You do know you aren’t really female? You’re a machine. So’s Heidi.”
Saraswati gave the impression of a tearful sniff.
“Now I know you’re crazy.”
“Stop it!”
Springer sighed because she’d reached her jump-off point. On the other side of that hatch was her friend, and she was going to see him whatever her AI said. She checked Heidi’s latest update and perked up. Up on Deck 4, Arun had stopped. Looked like he was talking with whoever had chanced into him. That gave Springer a little more time to figure out what she was going to say. And to shut up her annoying suit AI.
“It’s complicated, Saraswati. Human-complicated.”
Springer shook her head. “No, it really isn’t simple. My relationship with Arun might have started with deceit, but the connection has been real for years now. I know he’ll prong anyone with a heartbeat, given half a chance.” She shrugged. “I wish it weren’t that way, but our menfolk are all the same. It’s how they’ve been programmed. What you don’t appreciate is how his feelings for me are rock solid. He might momentarily be distracted, but he soon remembers that he loves me.”
“How? To anyone but him, I’m broken. I’ve lost a leg. My burns mean I’m ugly—”
This conversation is getting tired, thought Springer. She moved off the ladder onto the ledge by the hatch, and asked Heidi to relay a real-time video feed of Arun.
Please, let it be anyone but Xin.
It wasn’t Xin, but the scene from the far side of the hatch still managed to send a chill through the vast emptiness of her heart. Arun was talking with Lieutenant Nhlappo, who was carrying the two babies rescued from Tranquility. It had been Springer who had first encountered the children but no one else knew or cared about that now. Nhlappo had long-since claimed Romulus and Remus for her own.
Those wide baby eyes drenched in fascination, the undisciplined mouths, even the weird purple scarring on their foreheads – from a skin parasite they’d picked up – every delightful detail about those two little ones induced a confusing swirl of emotions. Feelings that were too powerful for her to control. After a few seconds, she told Heidi to cut the feed, unable to watch any more.
She needed Saraswati to understand why.
“It isn’t just my skin that was burned,” she whispered to her suit AI. “I’m damaged on the inside too.”
Saraswati kept a respectful silence for a few moments, before saying gently:
Springer forced herself to look once more. The moment the fearsome Lieutenant Nhlappo came across the babies, the officer had instantly assumed an additional role of even more fearsomely protective mother. Arun had seen Nhlappo in a new light since then, awed by the uber-competent older woman. As for the babies, Arun was so silly. He wouldn’t touch them himself, scared that he’d break them if he did. But he clearly adored them all the same.
“What? That I wanted children?”
To Springer’s amazement, the AI’s words took effect. Springer instantly felt revitalized. Even the thought of unburdening herself was opening up blocked portions of her mind. This was her real superpower: the ability to spring back from whatever life threw at her. “You’re right, Saraswati. Thanks. I will.”
The AI made a virtual sound of clearing her throat.
“You’re a compulsive sneak. I know that.”
“Not you too,” Springer retorted crossly. “They aren’t visions. If you’ve really snooped inside my memories, you should know that they’re not more than vague feelings. An eddying fog out of which I sense vague impressions.”
She did. A hot tear leaked from Springer’s eye. The tear turned into a stream, which in the low-g took on the viscous appearance of drool.
“Say the words,” she demanded.
“Are you certain? I… I have felt this future but I’ve never been sure. It’s the most confusing of all my predictions.”
“I don’t need fancy pre-cog rewiring to guess who,” spat Springer, her mind bringing up a recorded image of Lieutenant Xin Lee. “I’ve always loathed her. Until now I just wasn’t sure why.”
“Shoot.”
The hatch hissed open.
<…walk through that door.>
Cursing her mischievous AI, Springer came to attention on that little ledge. Unfortunately, protocol demanded that she make her visor transparent too.
Arun peered at her, probably noticing the recent tears. “At ease,” he said. “Still stalking through the ship, calibrating Saraswati and your new su
it?”
“Yes, sir.”
He rolled his eyes, exasperated. “Let’s have none of that for a moment, Springer. Please. I’m talking as your oldest friend. I want you to assure me you’ll be at the… event tonight.”
The event…
Arun leaned forward. “And, Springer…” he gestured at her battlesuit. “Do come in something more flattering.”
At first it had been officially referred to as a wake, soon changed to a commemoration, before settling on the more neutral event. Today they were finally accelerating away from Antilles, headed for whatever awaited them at a planet she knew nothing about other than a name: Shepherd-Nurture-4. They were also leaving behind Zug, Brandt, Kalis, and many others who had fallen on Tranquility. For many their hopes had died too, but there were also a few positives, for those who could bear to think of them.
Tonight they would wake the first of the ancient Marines she had helped to discover on Antilles. She had to admit, she was intrigued. Umarov was born ninety years before her and was weird in so many ways. But these sleepers… they had been frozen for centuries!
“Are you all right?” Arun asked. “You’ve gone blank.”
“I was thinking.”
He nodded his understanding, and looked away for a few moments. When the fighting stopped, they had all been forced to come to terms with thoughts and memories.
Frakk it! The Tranquility Campaign was over. Springer’s unit would be going into hibernation once the new recruits had been absorbed, and no one knew what they would face if they were ever awoken. She couldn’t just hide in her quarters.
“My attendance at the event,” she said. “Is that an order, sir?”
Renegade Legion (The Human Legion Book 3) Page 31