by Chris Reher
Another condition for allowing the Union to control the nearby jumpsite was the construction of Skyranch Twelve and, soon, Thirteen. Solar power and light ensured a boundless crop of produce grown in microgravity to feed Bellac’s growing and diverse population. The elevator guarded by their Air Command garrison delivered water, air, and supplies over a three day trip into space. Eventually, it would carry the orbiter’s harvest and electricity surplus back down to the surface.
She looked up at the scanner on top of their hover while she adjusted it. Of course, providing a skyranch over Bellac also meant a very effective orbital communications and surveillance array for military use, making it a worthwhile expense.
“Too quiet, you think?” Reko reached back into the hover to fetch a bottle of water.
“Could be the heat.” She accepted the bottle from him and pointed it at her screen. “Look. Caravan’s stopping.” They watched idly while the long line of people, animals, carts and a few well-used skimmers gathered into a tight knot. The smaller beasts where herded together in the center and most of the people got busy with digging a circle of shallow ditches. “Storm coming?”
Reko scanned the sky of the northern horizon. The nomads bred a peculiar sort of desert animal, short-legged crawlers called churries whose bodies were so flat and wide that they were actually used as shelters during a sandstorm. The herders merely dug a shallow depression into the sand and directed the ruminants to cover them. Efficient, warm, safe and probably not very sweet-smelling. Once the tan-colored animals settled on the ground, they became nearly impossible to spot from a distance.
“Want to bet that our skimmers aren’t going to make it out there and back again before the storm hits?”
Nova smiled and tapped the com system on her data sleeve. “Base, Unit Four reporting herders digging in to the north-west.”
“Heard, Four.”
“You are spoiling my fun,” Reko said but both of them knew that, if the caravan had been tipped off about the approaching patrol, the ditches might well be dug to hide rebel infiltrators. There had been no warning about an approaching sandstorm today and winds were calm over the plains. “Though if we get a storm we won’t have to worry about an air strike today. They’re not going to fly Shrills in here.”
She nodded and sent a request for a more detailed weather analysis. Shrills, the small, single-seat fighters used primarily by the Shri-Lan, were nimble and powerful but far more delicate than Air Command’s sturdy Kites. For days now, their scouts and spies had reported a possible air strike mobilizing on a continent outside Union influence. So far, the skies were empty of aircraft and would remain so during one of the choking sandstorms so common here.
But the rebels’ most effective weapons were not machines of war. The methods that made Air Command’s traditional operations useless in places like Shon Gat were rebel infiltrations into both civilian and military populations, explosives carried under clothing or lobbed with crude trebuchets, poisoned water, poisoned air, hostages and booby traps. Looking for threats inside the town and protecting the cadre of engineers working on the elevator base had become their main occupation.
Most overt rebel attacks featured elaborate schemes to disrupt the power transformers near the base. The tether itself was heavily shielded and bore missile defense mechanisms at intervals along its length, presenting a far more difficult target.
“Storm confirmed, Four,” they heard from the direction of Nova’s wrist. “Not until dusk, though. Proceed to Unit Five rendezvous point and overnight there.”
“That storm’s going to wreck my lungs for a week,” Reko grumbled.
Nova reached over and tugged on his scarf. It was made of a flexible filtering material and she let it snap back against his face where it was most appropriately kept during a stand storm. “Maybe you should use the proper gear instead of trying to look suave without it,” she said.
“I don’t like to hide this pretty face.”
“Your face, my boot.” She ducked when he swung his arm to take her into a headlock. “You’re far too slow, shekka’an.”
He shook his head. “You need to put more emphasis on the last syllable,” he instructed. “Really put feeling into that part to include my family. Much more insulting that way.”
She practiced the Centauri expletive a few times until he was satisfied. “Now you got it. Stick with me, you’ll go far.”
She grimaced and looked out over the arid landscape. Scrubland from one horizon to the next, little grew here along the equator beyond what kept the local herd animals fed. Rocks, the occasional oasis of matted trees and mud-brick settlements, caravans. Far to the south in lusher landscapes, prosperous cities had sprung up with the wealth brought to Bellac by the Union. Out here little of that was in evidence. Of course, out here was one of the few places where the space tether could be built. The other was planned for a floating platform in the ocean, also along the equator.
He guessed her thoughts. “Can’t wait to get out of here, huh?”
Nova shrugged. “I want to be in my plane.” She gestured at the thin line that the distant elevator etched into the sky. “We were told that we’d be patrolling the jumpsite and the new orbiter. Not blowing up Rhuwacs on the ground. Not beating up Bellac rebels that don’t even know what they’re fighting for. I’m less than sixty hours in the Kite away from qualifying for Hunter Class trials.” She kicked at a stone to watch it tumble down the slope into the valley at approximately the same speed at which her hopes for a quick advancement were disappearing. A Hunter Class pilot was practically guaranteed a post on some of the most desirable Air Command bases. Which, right now, was any place but Bellac Tau. “I’ve been waiting for that since I was about five.”
“Just a few more days and you’re back on the base,” he reminded her. The members of Rudjo’s company out here in Shon Gat had only a vague idea of why she had joined their squad. Not having been given a command, she had clearly not been promoted into this assignment. Some rumors were mongered that she had gotten into an altercation with a senior officer but no one had asked for details. She was glad for that, also aware that a reputation for getting into brawls was probably helpful out here.
Then again, she had been relieved to find that the other grunts in her company were, for the most part, amicable and likable men who treated her as one of their own. Nova was not the only female combat soldier stationed here and her presence was not exceptional. This is what she had come to expect from her assignments, in the air or on the ground. There was no tolerance out here for those not doing their share to keep them all alive and so far she had given them no reason to doubt her abilities.
“Yeah, can’t wait,” she said. But was that even true? What was waiting for her back at the base? Captain Beryl whose personality probably hadn’t improved after thirty days in lock-up, his devoted followers who would surely find ways to retaliate, her own squad of pilots who’d probably rather not get into the middle of things. Despite what Major Trakkas had guessed about her, she was tempted to apply for transfer away from this dreary planet.
“You pilots have it made,” Reko said. “Real beds, real showers, real food!”
“Sort of,” she amended, her attention back on the screen in her hands.
“I’m thinking of quitting the military, did I tell you that?”
She nodded. He spoke of it daily.
“I’m heading back home to Magra. I have the sweetest girl in the world. She’s a teacher. Languages, mostly. And music. Can you believe it? They teach music on Magra!” He smiled happily as he stared into the distance, perhaps in his mind seeing the planet from here. “I can get a job on the base, I think. Mechanics. What’ll you do when you get out?”
She looked up, puzzled. Get out? Out of what? She had spent her entire life on one military installation or another, always assuming that that’s what everyone did. Her father had moved his family to where he was posted, as was common among senior officers and his only child had learned to adap
t. Instead of music she had learned physics and ballistics and aviation. The languages she knew had come to her by listening to the rough talk of soldiers and cadets from a dozen different planets. Planes were her passion, weaponry her expertise. And not once had she thought about doing anything else. “Fly,” she said.
“Boring, Whiteside! You need a hobby!” He put an arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer. His violet, mildly glowing eyes gleamed with mischief. “Hey, how about a boyfriend?”
Nova launched from her perch as if he had stuck a knife in her arm. “Don’t!” she exclaimed before she caught herself.
He blinked, confused by her reaction. “Easy, Nova,” he said, but there was a hurt look on his face. “I’m just kidding around. I just told you I had a girl.”
She took a deep breath and shook her head. “Sorry, just jumpy, I guess,” she said although until this moment she had been perfectly at ease up here. “I know you didn’t mean it.”
Reko shrugged in an effort to make light of the awkward moment. “Of course I meant it. You’re a pretty lady when you’re cleaned up a bit, Lieutenant.” He sighed dramatically and settled his helmet on his shaved skull. “Much too pretty for a Centauri grunt with a face like a boot.”
Nova smiled. “Damn straight.”
She packed up the remote scanner display and climbed after him into the hover plane. These compact vehicles were used to move silently among the hills, barely raising a plume of dust even at low altitudes. Not even remotely as powerful as her Kite, they were little more than a souped-up, armored skimmers, but at least she was airborne some of the time. It made her banishment to this isolated post more bearable than she had expected.
“Point the way, Sarge,” she said when they had lifted off. He was studying their maps to look for the next point along their surveillance route. After a moment he sent the information to the onboard navigator and she let the plane coast through a gap in the bluffs, away from Shon Gat and into the rugged hills to the south. Gradually, the foothills gave way to more densely-treed slopes. Ahead of them lay a saddle between some cliffs through which a narrow stream had carved its way through the ages. Beyond that, they knew, lay a village where they would rendezvous with another squad.
Nova tapped the ship’s com system to hail them. “Do you think they’ve got any dinner for us up there?” she said to Reko. “I hear the people up there know how to roast those little goat-things without incinerating them.”
“Probably helps to use a real fire. Would be nice to get some of that.” Their quartermaster at the base had taken to purchasing herds of churries to augment the mess hall menu. Their use as an almost daily protein offering was decidedly underappreciated by the troops.
“Is everyone asleep up there?” Nova hailed the detachment again.
Reko looked up from his display. “No reply?”
“Nothing. From any of them.” She tried an unencrypted com band. “Unit Five, come in. We’re en route with your supplies. Got the ointment for your piles, Beamer, just so you’re grateful.”
Still no reply.
“I’m not liking this at all,” she said. “Let’s get a visual before we land.”
They continued in silence. Nova scanned for airborne threats in the distance, Reko’s attention was on the ground below them. They overflew gullies, rockfalls and several creeks meandering through the hills and onto the flats where the water sunk through fissures near Shon Gat to fill a vast subterranean reservoir.
“There,” Reko said to his screens. “Those don’t look like herdsmen. Groups of three or four, moving near the tree line.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah. Weapons. And there’s a troop moving two by two. Definitely not villagers.” He zoomed the real vid for a closer look. “Rhuwac!” He cursed and reached for his rifle.
“Emphasis on the last syllable, remember?” She kept the plane low to keep them camouflaged against the backdrop of the hills. “We’ll come back for them. I want to see what’s going on up there before we start shooting Rhuwwies.”
“I never get to have any fun,” he grumbled but took his hands off the door he was about to slide open.
Nova signaled the base. “Unit Four here, Sarge. Rebel movement heading north toward Shon Gat. Counting Rhuwacs. No response from Unit Five. Taking a closer look.”
“Negative,” came the static reply after a moment. “Synchronized rebel attacks throughout Shon Gat. Casualties on both sides already. Everything south of the canal is blocked off. Return to base immediately. Join Reko’s squad at the north gate when you get here.”
“Heard, base.”
“Look at this,” Reko showed her his hand-held scanner. “Picking up two drum shields down there. What do they have that’s so important?”
“Crap!” Nova swung the hover around hard enough to make Reko grab for the console to steady himself. “Coilers.”
“Out here?”
She did not reply, busy with swooping in an erratic pattern away from the bluffs. But this wasn’t a Kite and they were close enough to touch, it seemed. Reko had no further objections when they saw the tracer with its telltale spiral pattern angle toward them. It whipped by close enough to rock the plane in its wake. She climbed higher and pushed the hover to its limits to escape the next volley from the ground. “We’re one great big target up here.”
Reko said nothing, unaccustomed to trusting his life to a vehicle never meant for engagement. No shielding, limited armaments, an explosive fuel tank at his back – it suddenly seemed safer on the ground, taking one’s chances with the Rhuwacs.
She had finally come about and headed back to Shon Gat, taking the most direct path through the valley. The plane’s system reported incoming laser fire from the rebel groups that Reko had spotted on the way up.
“Feel free to pop yourself some Rhuwacs, Reko,” she yelled.
“Are you crazy! I’m not opening that door with you flying like this. Just get us out of here!”
She punched his arm. “Use the onboard guns. It’ll at least distract them.”
Reko returned the fire as well as he could through her twitching evasive maneuvers while she hailed their commander. “Base, this is Unit Four. We took fire below Sarasun. Sighted two anti-aircraft positions. Clear now and approaching from the south.”
“Heard,” came the static reply after a moment. “That’s a no-fly over Shon Gat for now. Land at the lift.”
Nova and Reko listened to a burst of static and cross-traffic that included the sound of some very large explosions. “Cazun,” he whispered. “What’s going on down there? Did they get tired of trying to get at the transformers?”
“Must have been filtering people in for weeks now,” she said. They now saw the town ahead of them, forming a broad triangle as it spread out from the base of the hills into the plains. Dust or smoke billowed into the air from more than one location. “You’d think those damn caravans—”
“Incoming!”
A shudder went through the hover and then alarms started to complain from the console in front of them. Whatever had hit them sent it into a wobble which she corrected quickly but the indicators showed a steady and troublesome power loss. “Not going to make it,” she yelled.
“What the hell does that mean!”
“We have to land, what do you think it means? Hang on to something.”
He groped for the seat restraints while she fought with the hover’s definite preference for landing at a problematic velocity. She worked quickly to override some of the automated scripts which, although faithful to safety protocols, were useless now. The hover started to shimmy dangerously as she dropped lower. It tilted, corrected, and then landed with a thump.
They sat still for a moment, stunned by the realization that they were still alive.
“Damn, you’re adequate, Whiteside,” Reko said finally with a forceful exhalation of air.
Something whistled overhead and then an explosion sent a shower of rocks and dust over the hover.
They grabbed their guns and gear to abandon the vehicle. There should have been Air Command patrols all along this end of town but they saw no one. In the distance the decommissioned shuttle they had been using for their patrols stood open and deserted, its com array a twisted wreck. Someone lay sprawled halfway down its entrance ramp.
“Which way,” she said. With a half dozen years of combat behind him, Reko’s instincts on the ground were something to study and emulate and she was bothered not one bit about outranking the sergeant on this mission.
“Into town,” he replied after studying the terrain for a moment. “We won’t be as easily found as out here. Might have to ditch the uniforms.”
A rattle of gunfire tore up the ground not far to their right, leaving them little choice but to go with Reko’s suggestion. They ran toward the first of the low buildings, dodging fences and farm animals along the way. Once past the first of the structures, they entered a maze of alleys that had never had to accommodate anything wider than a push cart. The single-storied houses huddled close to each other, made of some mortarless arrangement of interlocking triangular bricks common to this part of Bellac Tau.
An explosion shook the ground under their feet.
“Let’s get indoors and figure out where we are.” Reko knocked loudly on the wooden door of one of the buildings. No one answered.
Nova checked the scanner on her data sleeve. “Three in there. Bellacs. Hiding in a back room.” She looked around the empty alley, deserted by locals who cowered in their darkened homes, hoping to be bypassed by both rebels and soldiers alike. Distantly, explosions thundered at uneven intervals and the sharper rapport of projectile weapons added to the sounds of battle. “Everything past that is jammed. We won’t get through to the base in here.”