“Yes but you didn’t explain.”
“That’s because I needed to be sure Ken could make it all work. I have a couple of new scanning units made to fit your people now, so you can keep this one after we make sure it works. We used one of our helmets for the chassis. You remember what they look like?”
Shima remembered them well. Viper helmets, like the Marine helmets she had seen used in battle, fully enclosed the head with a visored section that could polarise depending upon lighting conditions. She would not have been blinded if she’d had one; the visor would have changed to protect her eyes, but her people did not use armour of any kind. That would probably change soon due to association with Human warriors. Marine helmets were a drab green in colour, but could be programmed to blend better, and the visors were silvered by default because the inside surface was used for various displays like comm, sensors, and targeting. Viper helmets were black to match their uniforms and armour, and they also had comm to use with non-viper forces, but vipers had internal displays for sensors and targeting among other things. Their visors were black by default, but could be set to other colours and conditions the same way a Marine helmet could.
“I remember,” Shima said when she realised Hymas was waiting for an answer. “You put your medical scanner into one?”
“Basically yes,” Stone said. “The hardest part was reshaping the helmet. Programming the nannies to do the work took a bit of time. I broke down a few spare scanners for parts. It worked out fine. I’m sure it won’t win any prizes, and I won’t bother with patents, but it will work.”
Hymas chuckled. “Now your people are joining the Alliance, Shima, a lot of companies will be scrambling to make new products to sell to your people. Even medical equipment, I should think.”
“Agreed,” Shima said. “Kazim and I spoke of this. Our people must be careful.”
“Yes,” Stone said a little grimly. “There are good and bad people everywhere. I’ve no doubt there are companies that would bleed your economy dry if they could get away with it.”
James had expressed his concern over that, and if she had heard right, Captain Colgan and James had both spoken with the elders about it before the war. They were forewarned. James seemed to feel that all of her people were kind and good, and would never do any wrong. After Shima stopped laughing, she had reassured James that her people were not innocent younglings, and that there were plenty who would give any Human scoundrels a run for their money.
“If it’s as good as Kazim says, maybe you should sell it to my people,” Shima said. “Before someone else does.”
“I don’t need the money,” Stone said. “I could give the specs to Kazim and he could take it with him when he goes home. A gift to you and your people, Kazim.”
“I am honoured!” Kazim said. “My people will have nanotech soon. We could make them and other things for ourselves then. You are generous.”
“It’s nothing,” Stone said. “There are ways to do the same thing without a helmet, but we can’t do it here.”
“Well,” Shima said. “It might be nothing or might be something. Can I try it to see for myself?”
“Sorry,” Hymas muttered. “Didn’t mean to talk over your head that way. Of course you can try it. We made it for you.”
Shima sat still while Hymas put the helmet on her. It did indeed fit much better than the first one, and it even had room for her ears. She could only imagine what it must look like. Did it have holes in it for her ears or bulges? She couldn’t tell. She ran her hands over it. Bulges, but subtle bulges and the visor was down. There was a long bundle of optical fibres coming out of the back connected to a computer of some kind. The old one didn’t have anything like that, and she wondered why this did.
“It’s so you can use it in your cabin if you want to,” Stone explained. “The rec room has screens on the walls for watching shows and playing games. Your helmet can connect wirelessly to all of that here just as the medical scanners do in sickbay, but your cabin doesn’t have the interfaces you would need.”
Shima considered that and because her ears were hidden, she nodded in the Human manner. “What can I do with it?”
“Well let’s see,” Stone said. “Here we go.”
Shima gasped as the wonderful light appeared in her mind, but it quickly became so much more. At first there was a blue light filling her vision, but then she realised it wasn’t a blue light. Clouds drifted by. It was a sky! Shima heard the others talking about it, and realised they saw the sky as well.
“You see it too, Kazim?”
“Yes, on the big screens. We saw it before you came. Watch.”
Shima was watching. The scene moved as if she had looked down. It made her just a little dizzy, but the sensation soon faded. A yellow sun was in the sky, and now she could feel the warmth. How did they do that? More sensations came to her. A breeze ruffled her fur, but that was impossible!
“Did you feel that?” Shima gasped. “A breath of wind and now I smell... something.”
“That’s great, Shima,” Stone said sounding pleased. “I hoped you would.”
“We can only see and hear what you can, Shima,” Varya said. “We would need your helmet for anything else.”
“He’s right,” Stone agreed. “What you’re watching can be played on screens like the ones in here, or uploaded into our simulators. The simulators are far more capable machines, but your helmet uses similar principles, Shima.”
“And the differences?”
“In a simulator your body is connected to the matrix as well as your mind. The helmet lets you see, hear, taste, smell, and feel the data, but you can’t actually interact with it. If you use one of our simulators, you become part of the story. You would be able to walk, run, pick things up and do pretty much anything you can do in real life. In our training sims you get shot and it hurts. Everything feels real. Even eating.”
“I would like to try that,” Shima said.
“This ship isn’t equipped with simulators,” Hymas said. “It’s just a troop transport, but perhaps we could arrange a session or two on Snakeholme if you’re still interested by then.”
Shima was more than happy with the helmet; it was so much more than she’d had before, but the sims did sound interesting. She watched the show as the view changed. There were mountains and deserts, oceans and forests all under that yellow sun.
“Is this your homeworld?”
“Not mine, no,” Stone said, “but it is Earth. I wasn’t born there. I have other clips of Alliance worlds like this for you to watch, and there are proper entertainment shows if you get bored with them, but they’re meant for Humans. I’m not sure they’ll make sense to you.”
“They don’t have to make sense,” Shima said. “That I can see at all is a miracle, Stone. I owe you and Healer Hymas so much for this. I’ll not forget.”
“It’s nothing really, finding and editing the data together wasn’t too hard—” Stone began.
“It’s not nothing to me,” Shima interrupted. “It’s everything! To be able to see again, even if only this way gives me hope.”
“I’m glad you like it.”
Shima watched entranced as world after world was displayed for her. Varya and Kazim became bored long before Shima was ready to stop. They left to find a meal leaving Shima alone. Hymas went back to sickbay and Stone to wherever his duties called him, but Shima stayed in the rec room basking under alien suns in her head.
* * *
Part II
8 ~ Snakeholme
Early morning, Petruso Base, Snakeholme.
General George Burgton, CO 501st Infantry Regiment stood at attention on the parade ground squinting into the sun. At his side was his exec, Colonel Dan Flowers. Clustered a few steps to the right and a half dozen back stood his senior officers, and way behind them and centred on Burgton stood the entire 501st regiment, all at attention for this ceremony. The solid block of the recently constructed 2nd Battalion looked splendid, its six hundred pl
us viper units all wearing their Sunday best—the regiment’s Class A or dress uniform. All of them newly recruited, enhanced, and elevated from Colonel Stanbridge’s now denuded training battalion. Every man and woman stood ramrod straight in precise columns and rows, squinting into the sun and emotionless. They weren’t, they couldn’t be emotionless. No one could be after seeing the broken but still proud remnants of 1st Battalion making planet fall.
1st Battalion stood at attention to the side of the parade ground in front of the Tech Centre. Their columns and rows intentionally left ragged, the gaps in the formation left open for wounded and dead comrades who were yet to land. They were a pitiful sight. They wore their battle dress blacks; their armour well used and scarred, but repaired back into service like the men and woman who wore it. They had the look in their eyes now that all veteran vipers achieved. The look that said they had seen hell and survived it. 1st Battalion had lost two-thirds of its number in battle against the Merkiaari, and most of them were true dead. Less than a hundred units were sleeping the little death of hibernation waiting to land still snug in their cryo units.
On the far side of the parade ground, Colonel Stanbridge had hastily ordered stands erected for Snakeholme’s civilian delegation to sit when Grafton arrived back in system. Every city had sent a delegation to show respect, and Burgton appreciated it. They had never failed him, but it had been many decades since the regiment had last sallied forth in numbers requiring any kind of ceremony upon its return. This generation of civs certainly had never seen it before, but they had stepped up like their grandparents before them to show support.
One last small group stood alone, and Burgton was beginning to regret that state of affairs. The Shan had landed with him and 1st Bat, but having no official positions, they were now a lonely island standing off to his left. Apart. Abandoned. They looked confused and unsure what to do. Burgton made a snap decision and activated his comm.
“Gina, take charge of our guests. Make them part of your formation until after the ceremony. Shima and Varya deserve it. They fought with you.”
“Thank you, sir. I was starting to feel wrong about them standing there,” Gina replied, sounding embarrassed.
That pleased him. She was going to make a very fine officer. “I feel the same way. Next time, speak up.”
“Sir!” Gina replied accepting the order. “Fuentez out.”
“Burgton clear.”
Out of the corner of his eye, he watched Gina gather up the Shan and lead them back to her command. The few extra bodies did little to fill the holes in her formation. Alpha Company was barely there at all. Kazim as always was using his camera, and Burgton made a note to speak with him about that. He wanted to support Kazim in the furtherance of Kajetan’s aims, but there was still security to consider.
He could put limits on Kazim’s movements, but he instinctively felt that was the wrong move. He didn’t want to come across as hiding things, even though he intended to do just that. First and foremost, Snakeholme’s location was to be kept secret. That was non-negotiable, the rest of what he filmed here they could debate and edit before Kazim left for home, but he wanted that clear from the start. Nothing that could help ships find this system must leave the planet.
There were other things he didn’t want even the Alliance to know about his operations here, and it was certain that anything Kazim showed his people would filter back to the Alliance eventually. Humans were in Shan space now and forever in one capacity or another, so he had to be careful what he revealed. Burgton didn’t think, for example, that revealing the extent of his little navy would be a good idea. He had, technically at least, stolen all those ships. Even though they were headed for the breakers at the time, and he had rescued them, he doubted the Council would see them as legitimate salvage the way he did.
Two high velocity targets blinked into existence on his display appended with their designations. They were Grafton’s dropships. Both ships hammered into the upper atmosphere in formation. They performed the evolution as if this were just another combat drop. The fiery entry into the atmosphere was a thrilling sight on the big screen set up for the civs to watch.
The dropships came in hot, but aborted the usual finale—the high speed landing—by roaring over the base, the sonic booms of their passage a salute to the audience. They separated and circled back, slowing to a gentle landing ready to offload their precious cargo.
Ramps came down and a few moments later the cryo units appeared in column floating on their grav cradles. Two columns, one from each dropship, proceeded toward the tech centre escorted and controlled by a score of medical personnel walking in step beside them. Almost four hundred cryo units entered the building, while the regiment watched holding their salutes to the wounded and the fallen.
Burgton’s thoughts were far away, seeing all the other times this scene had played out for him. He had seen the like so many times. Faces and numbers changed, but the situation never did. Of these four hundred, less than hundred units would return to duty. It might take weeks or months, but they would rejoin 1st Bat. The others were true dead. Their databases, their logs, and everything they were would be uploaded to the archives kept safe under the mountain. Their memories and experiences would never truly be lost, but still he mourned them. How many more names would he add to the thousands already inscribed on the regiment’s memorials before his own name joined them?
The civilian audience stood in silent respect as the cryo units entered the tech centre. The regiment ended their salute when the last unit was swallowed up and the dropships launched to go back to Grafton. Burgton dropped his hand and turned to dismiss his men. He nodded to his exec.
Colonel Flowers saluted and in his best parade ground voice roared. “Regiment! Disssss-miss!” His order was taken up and repeated by his subordinates.
“Battalion...”
“Company...”
“...Disssss-miss!” the orders echoed into silence.
Burgton watched his men pivot right face, stamping the ground in unison, and the sound hammered the air. With that last manoeuvre accomplished, the ceremony was over. Formations broke apart and murmured conversations filled the previous silence. Burgton moved toward Gina who had stuck with her charges. The Shan were watching everything with interest and she was chattering away with them in their own tongue. Burgton caught a few things. She was telling them about the base, where things were and what each of the buildings were used for.
“Welcome to Petruso Base and Snakeholme,” Burgton said to the group as he approached. “I’m sure you’ve noticed the gravity here is greater than you’re used to. It will take a few days... cycles for you to become accustomed. Please be careful and take that time to learn your way about the base. I’m going to ask Gina here to show you around and look after you.”
“Just standing here is tiring,” Shima agreed. “I feel very heavy.”
Chailen and Sharn murmured similar things. Varya was watching the vipers milling around and didn’t comment. Kazim filmed everything, but he was listening. His ears were canted toward them.
“Gravity is 1.29g Earth normal,” Gina explained. “That’s roughly 1.35 times Harmony’s gravity. You’re a third heavier here, Shima. You’ll get used to it, but until you do, I want you to be careful. Especially on stairs. We have no spiral ways as you’re used to.”
Shan used ramps instead of stairs, it was something to do with their physiology, but they could climb. Stairs would not be impossible for them, just uncomfortable. Maybe they would just go to all fours. Burgton wondered in the decades ahead whether Human architecture would take Shan comfort into account. Would new buildings have elevators, stairs, and spiral ways incorporated into them? Stairs might become extinct in favour of spiral ways. They worked for both species equally well after all. Snakeholme would be the first Alliance planet to need them, he realised, and other things too. He needed to discuss that with his department heads. Even things like signs would need to be dual language... or would they? Wou
ld it be better to encourage the Shan to learn English? He frowned uncertainly. He shook his head, time for that later.
“Gina, I’m allocating some of our spare officer housing to our guests. I believe the services are all in good order, but you’ll need to draw on stores for furnishings.”
“With your permission, sir, I’ll have a couple of my men start on that now.”
Burgton nodded, and Gina took a moment to contact her people via viper comm. While she did that, Burgton was thinking ahead to the work that had no doubt piled up on his desk while he was away. There were some projects running that he was very interested in, and one in particular was on his mind. He needed to talk with Liz, soonest. Liz Brenchley was head of industry, an extremely important position. Her department controlled Snakeholme’s industrial complex including its single weapon’s factory and the necessary smelters in orbit. Unlike some of his department heads, she was more than an able administrator. Liz was a very capable engineer and design theorist in her own right. He relied upon her expertise, especially for that certain project. He was eager to learn how far along with it she was.
Yes indeed, he needed to catch up on things here on Snakeholme, but 1st Battalion needed urgent attention also. He was reluctant to undo the splendid work Colonel Stanbridge had done building 2nd Battalion. He didn’t want to rebuild 1st Bat by taking units from 2nd. Those vipers were a cohesive unit now, and they valued their identity. That meant he needed to send Stanbridge on another recruitment drive, and soon. He could foresee meetings, meetings, and more meetings over the coming days.
“I have a squad heading over there now,” Gina was saying in Shan, and Burgton brought his attention back to her. “If you’re ready, I’ll show you where you’ll be staying, and then we can get something to eat. After that, I’ll arrange a tour.”
Burgton nodded his approval and made another decision. Gina would oversee Shima’s welfare before, during, and after her treatment. In fact, he would make the entire Shan operation hers for now. She would need to help Kazim and Varya explore Snakeholme and pick a likely spot for a colony. That would require her to ferry them around by shuttle and protect them in the wilds. The Ranger and Forestry Commission had enough to do keeping the wildlife under control near the cities. Gina and one or two of her friends could handle protection of the Shan while they explored.
Merkiaari Wars Series: Books 1-3 Page 91