Speed of Darkness

by Tracy Hickman

Cutter strutted to the lift, missing completely Merdith’s rolled eyes and soured face.

  It was not, however, lost on Lieutenant Breanne, who now stood facing them from the island with her arms folded across her chest. Her short-cropped hair seemed to bristle on its own. “My name is Lieutenant L. Z. Breanne of the Confederate Marines. And you are?”

  Merdith eyed the lieutenant carefully, sizing her up. “I’m Merdith Jernic. I am . . . well, was . . . an engineer down at Oasis Station.”

  “An engineer?”

  “Yes, that’s what I said.”

  “And what did you engineer?”

  “Thermal wells and condenser systems for the water supply.”

  “I see.” Lieutenant Breanne stepped down from the island, her hands still folded across her chest. “And you were found in possession of that case.”

  “Well, I . . . don’t know,” Merdith replied levelly. “I believe I was unconscious at the time.”

  Breanne chuckled darkly. “How convenient for you.”

  “Well, ma’am, if you’re about to be eaten by the Zerg, I certainly recommend being unconscious first.”

  Breanne’s eyes leveled with Merdith’s. “Do you know what is in that case?”

  Merdith hesitated for a moment, then responded, “Do you?”

  Breanne smiled thinly, then strode directly over to where Littlefield and Ardo still held the metallic box between them. “Let’s find out.”

  “Wait,” Merdith said quietly.

  Breanne snapped open two of the latches in a swift move.

  “Wait,” Merdith spoke more insistently.

  The lieutenant turned her icy eyes toward Merdith. “You have something to say.”

  Merdith licked her lips.

  Breanne took two quick steps, her sharply angled face suddenly within inches of the civilian’s. “What is so important in this case?”

  Merdith looked away.

  Breanne’s voice was low and dangerous. “I’ve had a very long day, lady, and I don’t have any intention of making it any longer. The Confederacy Marine Command sent me and my people here to retrieve this damn box . . . and I don’t ask any questions. They drop me in the middle of some godforsaken planet in the outer colonies . . . and I don’t ask any questions. Now that I’ve got the damn thing, I’ve been left here high and dry, my evac has deserted me, a tactical nuclear device drops behind me unannounced . . .”

  Unannounced? Ardo thought. The lieutenant had not even been warned of the incoming?

  “. . . half my platoon is wasted dragging their asses out of this mess only to find my sortie base is suddenly a ghost town . . . and now, now at last, I have some questions. And you are going to answer them.”

  Merdith’s eyes flashed with anger.

  “What is in this case?”

  “It’s proof.”

  “Proof of what?”

  “Proof that the Confederacy brought the Zerg to Mar Sara,” Merdith snapped. “Proof that the Confederacy is developing a terrible weapon capable of destroying the civilian population on entire worlds.”

  Breanne let out a grunt of disbelief and walked back to the case. She once more began flipping open the latches. “So now you show up with a box full of papers and documents and other such ‘proof’ and expect me to believe—”

  “Please, stop!” Merdith shouted.

  Breanne pulled out her side arm in a single swift motion, leveling the muzzle between Merdith’s eyebrows. “Why should I?”

  “Because,” Merdith spoke quietly, her voice as level as her eyes fixed on the lieutenant’s gun, “that box contains the device that called the Zerg here. If you open it, you’ll activate it, and every Zergling, Hydralisk, or Mutalisk within ten thousand clicks of this building will move heaven and earth to get into this very room.”

  “You’re insane,” Breanne murmured.

  “No, ma’am,” Merdith countered, her voice subdued. “With all due respect, I think you are describing the people who would build such a thing.”

  Ardo held his breath. He felt almost detached as he watched the exchange taking place not more than a meter in front of him.

  Breanne’s gun remained steady. “You stole this . . . this device?”

  “No, ma’am, like I told you: I’m an engineer. Some members of the Sons of Korhal brought it to me for examination.”

  “ ‘Sons of Korhal’?” Littlefield tilted his head skeptically. “Who the hell are the ‘Sons of Korhal’?”

  “Damned if I know,” Breanne sniffed. “Some local troublemakers, probably. Korhal is a planet in the core Confederacy worlds that rebelled some time ago. I think it was under quarantine blockade last time I heard anything about it. We’ve seen a lot of these lately—small, isolated rebel groups trying to undermine the integrity of the Confederacy.”

  “We’re growing,” Merdith sniffed proudly. “We may be small now, but soul by soul, house by house, planet by planet we threaten this so-called Confederacy.”

  “Terrorists,” Breanne snapped.

  “Revolutionaries,” Merdith returned.

  “Gnats with delusions of grandeur,” Breanne snorted. “So these terrorists brought the box to you . . .”

  Breanne’s voice lowered to a whisper.

  “And you opened it . . . didn’t you?”

  Merdith continued to gaze at the gun muzzle, but remained silent.

  Breanne lowered her weapon and holstered it.

  “Merdith Jernic, I’m placing you under custody pending an investigation into the theft of Confederacy property.”

  Merdith smiled to herself as she shook her head. It struck Ardo as ludicrous to arrest the woman, but Breanne always seemed to do things by the book, regardless of how little sense it might make.

  “I will investigate your statements and, if they are found to be substantially truthful, you will be released. Do you understand?”

  Merdith nodded with a chuckle. “More than you may know.”

  “Littlefield, leave that ‘evidence’ here with me and escort this woman down to the barracks for some chow. Have her back here in an hour.”

  “Begging your pardon, ma’am,” Ardo spoke up.

  “You have something to contribute, Private?”

  The iced steel eyes swung on Ardo, making him most uncomfortable. “Yes, ma’am. I’ll take the duty, ma’am. I could use some chow myself and it might relieve the sergeant for more pressing duties.”

  “You’re volunteering, Private?”

  “Yes, ma’am . . . if it’s quite all right.”

  Breanne shrugged. “Be my guest. Littlefield, find that Tech Sergeant Jans and get him up here. We’ll see if we can get this puzzle put together. And, Melnikov . . .”

  “Yes, ma’am?”

  “Have her back here in one hour,” the lieutenant emphasized. “I want her none the worse for wear, but don’t lose her.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Ardo took Merdith by the arm and guided her toward the lift. The lieutenant may have no more questions, but Ardo had plenty of his own, and he had no intention of losing Merdith now.

  CHAPTER 15

  MIND’S EYE

  ARDO PROPELLED THEM BOTH DOWN THE MAIN ramp of the Command Center and toward the nearest barracks entrance just to their left. The wind was howling out of the west, whipping the dry dirt in the compound. The whirls of sand whispered and moaned between the buildings. Ardo, still in his combat suit, was relatively unaffected by the gale. The woman next to him, however, was exposed to the elements. Her right arm held the lapel of her worker’s coveralls across her face, her left arm still held firmly by the Marine. Ardo was in a hurry to get her inside, and not because of her exposure to the weather.

  They passed between the massive landing struts and repulsor pads of the southern barracks. A column of golden light poured from the access ramp, making it easy to find.

  He loved the barracks, he thought suddenly, but wondered why they always made him feel queasy in the stomach. He did not take time to think about i
t, however: there was too much to think about as it was. Still holding Merdith’s arm in a firm grip, he marched them both up the ramp and into the deployment room.

  Deployment was one of the larger spaces in a very cramped arrangement. It sat at the top of the ramp and was used by Marines for staging. All around him there were weapons and equipment racks. Most were ordered and locked, although a few of the cabinets hung open. A maintenance kit sat on the floor in front of one of them. Someone apparently working on a battlesuit had just left it there.

  The entire site had been abandoned, apparently without much notice. More questions. They made his head hurt, but he thought he might have some of the answers quite literally at hand.

  “You all right, ma’am?” Ardo asked casually. “That wind is pretty awful tonight.”

  Merdith coughed a couple of times as she patted the dust off herself with her free hand. “That wind is pretty awful every night, soldier-boy. We’re raised on sand here. It doesn’t bother us.” She sighed and then winced, looking up at Ardo through his faceplate. “Say, if I promise not to run away, do you think you could let go of my arm?”

  Ardo blinked, letting go. “Oh, uh, yes, ma’am. You wouldn’t do anything stupid, would you?”

  “I promise I won’t dance with anyone else all night.” She smiled, then looked around for a moment. There were numerous exits from the Ready Room that led deeper into the barracks. “So, where do you go around here to buy a girl a cup of coffee?”

  “That hatchway on the right,” Ardo gestured with the muzzle of his C-14. “You first. . . . I insist.”

  Merdith arched her eyebrows and smiled casually. Ardo smiled back, pressing open the visor on his combat suit with his free hand. Merdith nodded and moved ahead. The massive pressure door swung open easily.

  Dim light illuminated the corridor beyond. The passage was lined with large transparent tubes. Each appeared to be filled with a blue-green liquid that circulated constantly. Monitors above each showed them to be in ready mode. Each had its own separate panel of controls, while at the end of the corridor to the left of another pressure door stood a raised control booth.

  “By the gods,” Merdith spoke almost reverently. “These are neural resocialization chambers, aren’t they? These are the things they put you people through.”

  “Keep moving,” Ardo said. “Just through to the other side.”

  “What’s wrong? Are you all right?”

  “Just keep moving,” Ardo snapped.

  “You don’t like this place, do you? You’re frightened of it. I can feel it.”

  “Lady, I said move!”

  Merdith winced at the shout and quickly walked to the opposite door.

  “Go right,” Ardo ordered. He felt slightly dizzy. He loved resoc . . . he hated resoc . . . he looked forward to resoc . . . he would rather shoot himself than do resoc again.

  Merdith quickly opened the door and stepped off into the brightly lit corridor beyond, with Ardo too closely on her heels. They moved past the barracks cells proper, including the one where Ardo had stowed his gear earlier, and passed through the final doorway to the galley.

  It was a cramped but efficient room. Whatever had happened to take the personnel of the base away had apparently not been during anyone’s regular dining shift. The compartment was pristine. Ardo was just as glad that no one had left anything behind. He was weary of the constant reminders that the place had been so fully occupied hours ago and was now so completely desolate.

  “Nice place you have here,” Merdith observed casually. “Sterile, but nice.”

  “The food dispensers are back along that wall,” Ardo said, motioning with the rifle again. “They’re not hard to operate. Just—”

  “I know my way around a kitchen, soldier-boy.”

  Merdith stepped toward the bank of meal and drink dispensers. “You want anything? Cup of coffee?”

  “No, ma’am. Don’t drink coffee.”

  Merdith pulled a cup from the dispenser and began filling it. “Really? That’s interesting. Did you know that coffee was one of the things most people begged to have sent with them when the original colonies were exiled from Earth?”

  “Yes, ma’am, I’d heard that.”

  Merdith turned around with her steaming cup and leaned back against the wall. Silence fell between them. There was so much that Ardo wanted to ask, but the questions tumbled through his mind, running into each other. What was she saying before Littlefield came in? Something about it all being a lie? But now that he thought about it, he couldn’t recall what they had been talking about exactly.

  “So, we gonna be disturbed anytime soon?”

  Ardo came back from his thoughts, realizing angrily that letting himself drift away like that while guarding this woman might well get him killed. “Sorry? What, ma’am?”

  “Are we alone? Anyone gonna be bothering us for a while?”

  Ardo flushed. “Please, ma’am, I really don’t think you ought to be talking that way. It isn’t . . . isn’t right.”

  Merdith started to answer but stopped. Her slack mouth quickly became a delighted smile. “You thought I wanted to—”

  “Now, ma’am, it doesn’t matter what I thought.” Ardo could feel his face going beet red and knew there was not a thing he could do to stop it. “I’m . . . I’m guarding you and it wouldn’t be proper.”

  “Proper?” Merdith was having entirely too much fun and Ardo knew it was at his expense.

  “Yes, ma’am! Proper!”

  “I don’t believe it.” Merdith took a long sip of her coffee and then tipped it in salute toward Ardo. “You’re a virgin.”

  Ardo knew his voice was too loud when he opened his mouth. “I don’t see that it’s any of your business, ma’am!”

  “Now I know I’ve seen everything!” Merdith was delighted. “A virgin Confederacy Marine!”

  “It wouldn’t be honorable, ma’am . . . not to either one of us. Now, why don’t you just sip your coffee and relax . . . I mean . . . we’ve got an hour before you’re due back . . .” The more he talked, the worse it seemed to get. Finally Ardo just let his words trail off into a frustrated silence.

  Merdith looked away, amusement still in her eyes. “Don’t worry, soldier-boy, your secret is safe with me.” She sat down smoothly at one of the tables. “Besides, that really isn’t what I meant. You’re a nice guy and all, soldier-boy, but all I honestly want to do is talk. That is what you had in mind, isn’t it?”

  “Yes, ma’am. I—”

  “Call me Merdith.”

  “Oh, I don’t know if I—”

  “Sure, it’s just us. Let’s be friends.”

  “Okay . . . Merdith. I’m . . . I’m PFC Ardo Melnikov.”

  The woman tipped her cup again in thanks. “Okay, Ardo. It’s nice to meet you. So . . . tell me. How is it that you fine Marines came to rescue my sorry soul?”

  Ardo thought for a moment. “I’m sorry, ma’am, I can’t discuss mission details with—”

  “With a civilian, I know,” Merdith finished the sentence for him. “I’m just curious about how you got me out of there. The last few days are a bit hazy for me. Where did you find me?”

  “Oh, I didn’t find you, ma’am. That was Cutter—PFC Koura-Abi. That big guy you met earlier in Ops.”

  “Of course. So where did he find me?”

  “Don’t really know, ma’am. First thing I saw he had you over his shoulder and was running back to join the rest of us at the barricade.”

  Merdith’s eyes smiled warmly at him. “I see. So how did we get out of there? The lieutenant mentioned something about her ‘evac’ deserting her?”

  “Oh,” Ardo shrugged. “There was a Dropship with us that was supposed to extract us when we had that box. We fought our way to the extraction landing zone, but . . . it never showed up.”

  “I thought you said it was with you?”

  “Yeah. Strange, that. I heard it talking about its final approach to the landing zone—it’s all on the
com channel—but we never saw it. It just—I don’t know—wasn’t there. The Zerg had cut off our retreat and it looked like it was time for us all to cash our last paycheck. The lieutenant, though, she had us fight our way out of there. We lost a few along the way, but what’s left of us are still here. If the Dropship had come, we’d have been okay. Some sort of SNAFU, I guess.”

  “A SNAFU?” Merdith nodded absently with a slight smile playing on the edge of her lips. “Yeah, I guess it could be that, although your lieutenant seems to have more than her share of them. What was all that about a nuke?”

  “Oh, that,” Ardo shrugged again, but his face settled into an uncertain frown. “Well, after we hightailed it across the Basin, the Confederacy nuked Oasis. Just a little tactical. Good thing, too, or those Zerg would have followed us and taken us all out at the wall.”

  “Well, we wouldn’t have wanted that,” Merdith sighed, but her brows were knit together in deep and troubled thought. She came to a conclusion, her brow smoothing as she looked up again with a quickly flashed smile at Ardo. “Well, we made it thanks to you—me to my life of thermal wells and you to thoughts of that girl of yours. What was her name? Oh, yeah, Melani.”

  Ardo swallowed. “What do you know about Melani? You said she was a lie, or something was a lie. What were you talking about?”

  Merdith gazed down into her coffee. She looked for all the world to Ardo as though she were reading the swirls like some kind of gypsy divination rite.

  “The truth is dangerous, Ardo. You’re a nice little soldier-boy. Maybe it’s better not to discuss these things.”

  Ardo put his boot on the bench opposite where Merdith was sitting and leaned forward. “Ma’am— Merdith—a wise man once told me that truth is the only thing that is real. Truth is what’s left when all the shadows and darkness are torn away. I believe that and I think you do, too.”

  “What I believe isn’t the point here,” Merdith replied, looking at Ardo as if for the first time. “The point is what you believe.”

  Ardo did not understand what she was saying. All he knew is that he wanted to know the truth, that he was tired of the shadows haunting his mind and driving him slowly mad. “What happened to Melani? What happened to my parents? What happened to my world?”