I am Jade Falcon

by Robert Thurston

  Joanna bit her lower lip to keep from reacting visibly. Someone else might not have decoded the notation so easily, but Joanna carried the same of Twycross and its date forever engraved in her memory. The notation was attached to a name, MechWarrior Fredasa.

  The name meant nothing to her, but it was undoubtedly that of a warrior killed in the Great Gash on Twycross. She had not been personally acquainted with any of the Falcon Guard warriors who took the field on that day of dezgra, had, in fact, only been with the unit for a short time. A slower DropShip delivering replacement warriors and she would have missed the battle—and the disgrace—altogether. Joanna did not even remember the battle very well. She knew that she had killed at least one warrior from the Tenth Lyran Guards, and perhaps disabled another's 'Mech. But the confusion of the battle and her sudden burial under an avalanche of rocks had left the earlier part of the battle less vivid in her memory. Every suffocating detail of her escape from her 'Mech through an ocean of rocks was, however, too graphic.

  She did not like thinking of Twycross. And she had thought of it every day since it had occurred. The Falcon Guards had been virtually wiped out on Twycross. The unit was only revived and Aidan Pryde given command because the Jade Falcons needed all the troops they could muster for the showdown with ComStar on Tukayyid.

  Flipping officiously through the papers as though searching for some significant bit of information, Joanna noted that the entries were all of the same kind—a warrior's name, a placeIdateIunit code, and another number giving an aisle and place location. But all this was mere data. What did it mean?

  Glancing around, she noticed a series of shelves built into the cavern wall, apparently with oversized screws set into deep anchors. The shelves were lined with tall, bright-colored volumes, many of which seemed to have page markers poking out from them. She decided to investigate.

  "Keep up the act," she said to Karlac. "I will be right back."

  Karlac looked frightened.

  "I am just going over there," Joanna said, thinking that the fate of a solahma was a pitiful one. To become such a shrinking ball of fear ... Taking a sheaf of papers from the table, she strolled in her best tech manner to the shelves. Selecting a volume at random, she opened it with studied casualness as if merely checking some data. The volume was a binder holding many pages of sheets similar to those on the desk and containing the same kind of data. Most of the names were checked off with a notation that said dispatched. More confusion, more strangeness.

  Flipping through the pages, Joanna was about to shelve the volume when she noticed a whole page of names whose coded notation contained the letters TUK. Following the letters was the date of the battle on Tukayyid. Turning the page, she found four more sheets of names, all with the TUK designation in the code.

  This time Joanna also noticed some names whose notation contained a JFGUARD. Looking closely down the list, she suddenly found one that was familiar, that of Star Commander Jula Huddock. Joanna had known her well.

  Jula Huddock had been an older warrior on the verge of being relegated to a solahma unit, when she was suddenly reassigned to serve under Aidan Pryde and his newly organized Falcon Guards, a unit composed mainly of old warriors, troublemakers, and misfits, like Joanna, Horse, and Aidan himself. When Jula Huddock spoke, which was rarely, it had been in an astonishingly beautiful voice. Otherwise, she was someone who could be counted on to fight with silent eloquence in battle. Her combat skills had averted disaster at the fake city of Olalla, a collection of hastily constructed buildings intended to represent the genuine city.

  She had fought well when the Com Guard ambushers had emerged from the counterfeit structures.

  And Jula Huddock had been killed in action. Her Executioner had been destroyed by a missile from a ComStar 'Mech launched just before Jula Huddock's fatal fire exploded it.

  Joanna sought another familiar name and found it. Mech Warrior Obdoff of Trinary Charlie Talon, drowned during Aidan Pryde's daring maneuver at the Prezno River in whieh BattleMechs became stepping stones for other 'Mechs to cross the raging waters.

  Checking for another name, then another, and still another, It did not take long for Joanna to see that all the TUK names belonged to warriors killed during the battle of Tukayyid.

  The realization came as such a shock that she had to reach up and grab at the edge of the shelf for support. These, then were lists of dead Jade Falcon warriors.

  Glancing around to see if anyone was watching, she slipped the pages listing Falcon Guard warriors killed on Tukayyid out of the binder and casually fastened them onto her clipboard.

  Returning to the table, she quickly whispered her discovery to Karlac, who seemed more befuddled than ever by the information.

  "Why would there be dead warrior names on these lists?"

  "That is what we must find out. It has something to do with this storage area, and perhaps others like it. It also has something to do with the big tanks we saw being unloaded from the black DropShip. Remember when you said that they reminded you of cryogenic tanks?"

  "Well, yes, but I did not mean literally—"

  "You might have been on to something. What if they are storage tanks containing warriors or the giftakes of warriors?"

  "Oh, Joanna, I do not think—"

  "The techs, remember how they struggled to carry the tanks? That is consistent with my theory, quiaff?"

  "Well, aff, I suppose. But there might be other theories that fit it too. The tanks might have contained combustible supplies or—"

  "Do not even speculate. I understand that there are other possibilities. The only way to find out the truth is if we investigate what is in the tanks.”

  “You mean, actually go look?"

  "No, I mean, go up to a tech and ask what is going on in this secret underground place where just a few minutes ago we killed three people by an elevator and two more in the passageway outside. Of course, I mean go and look. What are we here for, anyway?" Even as a falconer charged with shaping warriors from silly little sibkin, Joanna did not think she had ever come across a Jade Falcon so unwarriorlike as Karlac.

  "I wish I was sure of—"

  "What is wrong with you, Karlac? You may be solahma now, but you were once a warrior—and even the least of our warriors is fearless. What happened to change you into a spiritless—"

  "Do not be angry with me, Joanna. I will go with you. I just want to be sure we consider the conseq—"

  "Yes, Karlac, yes, and the more we discuss, the more time there is for some tech to notice we do not belong in these filthy repellent uniforms of theirs. Let us go."

  Dressed in their green coveralls, Joanna clutching her clipboard and Karlac her noteputer, the two walked casually to the nearest aisle, the third from the right. Joanna glanced over at Karlac, whose gaze was fixed steadily forward. Among all the strange things the other warrior had said or done, what bothered Joanna most was what she had not done. When she had called Karlac spiritless, Karlac had not so much as protested the insult. Any other Jade Falcon warrior would have taken a swing at Joanna, almost by reflex. A Jade Falcon was nothing if not fierce. Was this what the life of a solahma did to one?

  Walking beside Karlac in this strange place, Joanna had never felt so alone.

  25

  Jade Falcon Warehouse 893

  Dogg Station, Dogg

  Jade Falcon Occupation Zone

  3 November 3057

  The last few steps before reaching the third aisle, they would have to pass a tech emerging from it. This tech's outfit was rumpled and he had obviously not shaved for some days. Although Joanna did not mind facial hair, stubble disgusted her. Dark and patchy, this man's growth of beard was particularly repulsive. She resolved, however, to show no reaction.

  "Casual," she muttered to Karlac. "I am, I am."

  The tech glanced at them as they passed, giving them a brief nod, which Joanna quickly returned.

  Two more steps and they were in the aisle. It was longer than she had thought
, the structures on either side of it higher.

  Farther down the aisle, techs worked busily. One drove a tall cart with a long crane on the end of it. He was using the crane to lift one of the big metal storage tanks to a position near the top of one side.

  "We have to find out what is in these tanks," Joanna whispered to Karlac.

  "If you say so, Joanna."

  Though annoyed by Karlac's laconic response, Joanna merely led her companion to the nearest storage tank, set nearly at floor level.

  On a metal plate on the tank's side were numbers that resembled the ones on the sheets of paper she'd examined a few moments ago. They might be registration numbers, Joanna thought. At the top of the conical storage tank was a plexiglass circle that looked like a DropShip viewport.

  Stretching her body, she looked down through the glass.

  And grunted.

  "What is it?" Karlac asked.

  "There is a corpse inside, floating in some kind of clear solution. Nine-six-seven-three ..."

  Karlac did not catch on to Joanna's use of the numbers at first and looked momentarily puzzled, but she recovered and quickly faked entering the numbers into her noteputer as a pair of techs sauntered by, paying the two intruders no attention.

  Joanna turned to Karlac. "All right," she said. "This is what I have so far. These storage tanks contain dead bodies of warriors who seem to be KIAs from our battles. They are being placed in preservative solutions in these storage tanks, shipped here in the black DropShip, labeled and numbered and stored on these shelves. But what is the purpose?"

  "Are they being saved for genetic reasons, do you think?"

  "Perhaps. I thought maybe it was to ship them back to the homeworlds so their ashes could be mixed with nutrient solutions. But since when did they preserve bodies for that? Last I knew, chosen bodies are cremated near the point of battle, after any necessary ceremonies, then the ashes are placed in an urn and shipped back. Whatever else is useful from the bodies—organs for possible transplant, bones for insertion in prosthetic devices, blood for reconstitution—is collected, and what remains of the remains is disposed of. Do you not think there is something wasteful as well as ghoulish about preserving an entire body, Karlac?"

  "Of course. I would be afraid to be in such a tank. What if they are still conscious, even when dead?"

  "What? What nonsense are you talking? When we are dead, we are dead. No consciousness at all. The only way we go into the future is through the gene pool or the nutrient solution. Why would you even imagine consciousness after death?"

  "Well, I heard something about life after death once. Ever since they sent me here my mind is filled with strange thoughts. Perhaps it is the idleness."

  Joanna could barely believe her ears. "And so now, you, a Jade Falcon warrior fear death?"

  "How could I? As a solahma warrior, the only honor that remains is to die so that younger warriors might live to see another day."

  "I see fear in your eyes when you speak of such stravag waste as consciousness when you are dead."

  "I am much changed since the day I came to Dogg Station," Karlac said sadly.

  Joanna stared at Karlac for several seconds, then said, "Perhaps we should have this discussion for another day. We came here to investigate, quiaff?"

  "Aff, Joanna."

  "Follow me." Using a tech stroll and making frequent clipboard notations, Joanna began to study the numbers on the metal plates of the storage tanks she could see. Soon she realized that there was a pattern. Victims of a specific battle were kept together, and it looked like those from a specific skirmish within the battle were also grouped together. The numbers helped the techs to locate specific tanks.

  Joanna glanced down at the list of Tukayyid numbers. Calculating mentally she figures they had to be in another aisle, probably two further down. After showily checking a lower-level storage tank, she and Karlac went back to the head of the aisle.

  Just as they were about to pass into the open area, Joanna glanced toward the portal and stopped in her tracks at the sight of Bailly coming through it. He was again dressed as a tech and was not aping an aging warrior in his demeanor or movements. He glanced around, but did not notice Joanna and Karlac in their tech disguise.

  Hurrying a little, Joanna guided Karlac past the next aisle and turned into the one she suspected was the storage section for the Tukayyid bodies. Glancing back, she saw Bailly walk by. He seemed headed to another part of the facility, and definitely seemed to know where he was going.

  "That was Bailly," she told Karlac, who gave a start.

  "How—"

  "Later," Joanna said sharply. "We have work to do." Karlac nodded but said nothing. She seemed distracted, even troubled. Well, no time to waste on her now, Joanna though. The important thing now was to find the storage tanks for the Tukayyid warriors.

  They had gone almost two-thirds of the way down the aisle when they finally came to the Tukayyid section of this strange complex. Along the way they passed one or two techs at work. One adjusted a valve that no doubt controlled some aspect of the preservative solution. Another was engaged in wiping down some storage tanks. Other techs climbed like monkeys up and down the shelves using rungs welded onto girders as their ladders. Other pitonlike extrusions were set along the base of each shelf and they saw a tech moving hand over hand along the pitons to reach a different location.

  "Some show," Joanna muttered.

  "Show? What show?"

  Joanna did not bother to reply. She had little use for Karlac now, and was only keeping her near to prevent her getting into trouble.

  Examining the numbers on the sides of the tanks, Joanna saw that they were grouped according to unit. She glanced into one tank and saw there a Mech Warrior whose face in death was still fierce—proper and fitting for a Jade Falcon warrior. But this particular section was devoted to a Cluster of Jaegers. "Where are the Falcon Guards?" she wondered aloud.

  "Why them?" Karlac asked.

  "Star Commander Jula Huddock," Joanna said. "I fought side by side with her."

  By working out the number sequences, it was not long before Joanna located the Falcon Guard section. Unfortunately, all the tanks had been set in the upper reaches. Standing in the aisle, looking up, Joanna thought the shelves seemed higher than ever. "Well, if I have to climb, I have to climb."

  "You are going up there?"

  "Aff"

  "Are you sure?"

  "Why? Do you think I am too old to scale such heights?"

  "No, I guess not. But heights make me dizzy."

  "Why am I not surprised by that? Here, take my clipboard. I have Jula Huddock's identification number memorized. Wait here, and look busy. Remember you are a tech."

  Without waiting for another dreary response from Karlac, Joanna grabbed the nearest rung and pulled herself up. A sharp pain immediately surged through her upper arm. I am getting too old for this kind of thing, she groaned inwardly, but stopped the thought immediately. No, it is just that I have been around this stravag Karlac too long.

  Ignoring the pain, Joanna kept climbing, rung by rung, with a certain spry efficiency—the way she had seen the other techs do it. Stopping for a moment to check numbers, she noticed a tech at her level a few shelves away glance over at her curiously. She waved and went on.

  Finally she came to the Falcon Guards section. Unable to resist a look into the first storage tank, she saw that it did not contain any Falcon Guard warrior she remembered. She was not even certain the man's face was familiar. Death had perhaps transfigured him.

  Making a quick mental calculation, she figured that Jula Huddock's tank had to be three levels up and one over. Laboriously, now too tired to emulate the grace and skill of the typical clambering tech, Joanna managed to rise three levels; then, with a weary sigh, she swung hand over hand to the proper compartment. Thinking back to the day she had hung off the factory roof in the duel with the prydelings, she wondered how many more times she would have to perform such acrobatics.


  Pulling herself up to the level of the storage tank, she checked the number on its side. It was the one she had memorized for Jula Huddock.

  Swallowing once, she leaned over the top of the tank and peered in through the plexiglass. What she saw almost made her gasp aloud. To verify, she re-checked the number on the metal identification plate. It was correct. According to the manifest Joanna had examined, it was Jula Huddock's number. She looked back through the view glass.

  The corpse in the storage tank was definitely labeled as Star Commander Jula Huddock, hero of the Olalla skirmish.

  Only problem was, it was not Jula Huddock.

  26

  Jade Falcon Warehouse 893

  Dogg Station, Dogg

  Jade Falcon Occupation Zone

  3 November 3057

  After checking one more time, examining the almost characterless, smooth-skinned face of the body that had been substituted for Jula Huddock, Joanna prepared to descend once more. Peering down, she saw Karlac pretending to record data while inspecting some storage tanks.

  Then she scrutinized the rest of the aisle, which was almost deserted now. A tech with a badge, apparently a supervisor, walked briskly down the aisle, then stopped to speak to another tech, who abandoned his task and left.

  Joanna watched the badge tech come closer till he was only a few steps away from Karlac. What would he say to her? And would Karlac respond properly? Karlac was so intent on her pretense that she did not see him coming. Just as well. The fool might have tipped Joanna's presence with a quick tearful glance upward. Joanna waited tensely for something to happen, but the supervisor passed Karlac without a look, continuing on down the aisle and then disappearing around the corner.