"It's wonderful, isn't it, Annie?" Marlene said from the window of the house.
"I've never had a birthday like this," the teenager was saying.
"I don't think any of us have had a birthday like this," said Rook. And it's really happening...it's not a dream!
The women could see the skywriting now, and Rook read the words: "Happy...Birthday..."
Up above, Rand said: "I'll bet Admiral Hunter never had you guys doing this with your Alpha Fighters, huh, Scott?"
Scott smiled, then realized that Rand was off course somehow. "What are you doing down there?" he asked.
Rand made no response and completed his part of the skywriting moves. From the window, the three women watched as his Alpha spelled out "Mint" under the birthday greeting.
Rook snorted. "So that's why Rand wanted to write your name."
"Oh, well," Annie sighed, turning away from the window for a moment. "I guess it's a lot better nickname than 'Peewee.'"
CHAPTER NINE
The planet [Earth] secured, the Regis then had to decide what to do about the surviving Human population. She knew from past experience that Humans could be a dangerous lot, even these Terrans, who seemed somehow inferior to the Tirolian species. Eventually it would occur to her to use a percentage of the survivors as laborers in the Protoculture farms, but that was only after what can best be described as a trial-and-error period, during which an unlucky assortment were subjected to experiments too gruesome to dwell on. Fortunately, most of the laboratory cases died outright or soon thereafter, though a scant few remained to wander their ravaged homeworld less than Human.
Bloom Nesterfig, Social Organization of the Invid
As Rand told it:
"The soldiers had been dead a week, but the town was just getting around to burying them when we rode in...I have to admit that I had put no stock in the rumors we had been hearing on the road, but sure enough, the town had its own contingent of Robotech soldiers, Mars Division, like Scott, survivors from that same ill-fated assault on Earth. It was remarkable enough to come across a populated village so near the Invid control zone, but to find fellow soldiers as well was almost more than Scott could bear. I still have an image of him parked in the middle of that town's dust bowl of a main street, straddling the Cyc with a big grin on his face and broadcasting our arrival to one and all over the mecha's externals. When only a handful of folks wandered out to greet us, I remember thinking: Here we go again; just another ghost town run by a bunch of rubes and rogues. But then we learned that everyone that counted was at the graveyard."
"That's where Scott ran into the robbies. Not straight away, though; there was a funeral service in progress, so we all just hung around on the outskirts of the action until the crowds thinned. There were church bells
ringing in the distance. After that, Scott went in to introduce himself to the one soldier who seemed to be in charge-a tall officer, wearing shades and a high-collared gray uniform like Scott's. I never did catch the dude's name; come to think of it, I don't think the two of us exchanged more than a brief handshake the whole time we were in town."
"It turned out that they had been there for some months; they had put down as a unit somewhere south of Reflex Point and worked their way into the Northlands, hoping to come across other Mars Division survivors. They saw a lot of action early on, but now they were just hanging on, waiting for the big one to go down. They had all heard of Scott and were excited to learn that the Expeditionary Force was indeed on its way. They had a good deal of intelligence dope on Reflex Point, but there was something they needed to talk about before getting down to basics."
"There were three fresh graves in the cemetery, marked by simple wooden crosses, one of which was crowned with a 'thinking cap,' its faceguard shattered. I naturally assumed that the Invid had paid the town a visit and left their usual calling cards, but that wasn't the case. It seems that the three had been gunned down by some lone biker who went by the name of Dusty Ayres. These latest murders brought the total to eleven."
"Scott was flipped out to learn that someone other than the Invid were killing soldiers; he asked the officer about Ayres."
"'We don't know much about him,' the man replied. 'Except that he seems to have it in for soldiers.' The officer threw his men a dirty look. 'Some people claim he can't be killed.'"
"I didn't like hearing this, but for Scott it explained how three soldiers could be brought down by one loner. I didn't bother to point out that a man needn't be invulnerable to get the better of a group, because it was obvious that Scott was already thinking Invid. No Human could do such a thing. As if he had to be reminded about the sympathizers we had met along the way. Wolff, to name just one..."
"'Sounds like a real mystery man,' Lancer offered. 'And nobody knows why he's here, huh?'"
"Scott said more firmly, 'You must know more about this guy.'"
"I was glad to see that I wasn't the only suspicious one among us. But the officer wasn't swayed to say any more about Ayres. 'I wish I had more.' The man shrugged. 'Everything's just rumors right now.'"
"'Dusty Ayres, you say,' Scott repeated."
"'That's the only name I've ever heard him called.'" "Lancer brought up the sympathizer idea."
"Lunk punched his open hand. 'I just wish he'd try to start something with us. I'd break his face.'"
"Terrific, I thought. I looked at the three graves and wondered how our helmets would look on those crosses."
"'He's got to be hunted down,' the officer told Scott. 'Will you join us, Lieutenant?'"
"Scott was wary. 'I'm not going to involve any of my people until I know more about this matter.'"
"'Sure thing, Lieutenant. You take your time. While the rest of us die...'" "I sucked in my breath; you just didn't go around saying things like this
to Scott unless you were already holding an H90 to his head. Fortunately, Lancer stepped in to intervene. Only thing was, he actually took it upon himself to volunteer our services. Lunk, the big lug, seconded it, and I guess that was enough for Scott."
"'You won't regret it, Lieutenant,' the officer thanked us."
"I, of course, already regretted it; but everyone else was talking tough and anxious to get started."
"We left Annie and Marlene behind-much to our birthday girl's dismay. After all, she had been 'seventeen' for a full week now, and didn't that entitle her to share in the 'fun stuff'? Those were her words: 'It simply isn't fair!'"
"Rook got a big charge out of this but didn't bring it up until later, after we had split up into several groups."
"'Fair? Did she really say "fair"?'"
"I repeated Annie's exact words into my helmet mike and laughed. We
were both in battle armor now and cruising side by side across the barren stretch where Ayres had last been seen, close to where the bodies of the three soldiers had been found. The area had once been called 'the Panhandle,' for reasons unknown, but it was just plain desert to us, no different from the wastes we had been traveling through since leaving the mountains behind. Scott and Lancer were off somewhere south of us, and Lunk was riding with a few of the other soldiers."
"I confessed to Rook how pissed off I was by the whole deal. 'I mean, what happened to Reflex Point? Suddenly we're a posse for hire, or what?'"
"For once, Rook actually agreed with me. Strange, because she had been ignoring me since the stunt I pulled at the bathroom window. I had been taking a kind of apologetic, conciliatory tone with her ever since and now suggested that we split up to cover more ground. But she didn't want to hear it."
"'If it's all the same to you, I'd feel better about this if we stayed together.'"
"I certainly didn't need to be told twice, and I'm sure I was smiling inside my helmet when the Invid ships appeared over the hills."
"'Guess we're just not meant to be together!' Rook shouted over the net just before we separated."
"There were five ships bearing down on us: four rustbrown pincer-armed combat units led by
one of the new blue and white monsters we had been up against in the underground city. It was bound to happen-our Cycs were probably putting off the only 'Culture vibes for miles around-and I had said as much before we split up, but nobody wanted to hear it."
"The leader dropped some fire at our tails, but we were flat out now and just out of range. The big guy stuck with me after we separated, but Rook had her hands full with the Pincer craft. I saw her slalom through a field of explosions, then launch and reconfigure to Battle Armor mode. She put down almost immediately and took out one of her pursuers with a single Scorpion loosed in the nick of time. I wanted to applaud her, but I was too
busy dodging blasts from that leader ship. There was a low mesa directly in my path, and I used it to my advantage by snaking around its base and going over to Battle Armor before the Invid ship completed its own turn. I hovered near the eroded wall of the butte, trading shots with the ship, but I couldn't zero in on any vulnerable spots. The Invid was up on its armored legs, towering over me, loosing anni discs from two small weapons ports tucked under its chin-guns I didn't know existed until just then. But after a minute of this I took off to find Rook. As the two of us landed side by side, she said, 'We've gotta stop meeting like this.'"
"I would have laughed if another blast from the leader hadn't forced us into a rapid launch. And when we put down again, there was panic in Rook's voice. 'It's bad, Rand! There's just too many of them!'"
"'It's always bad!' I shouted back. 'Just range in on the big one and give it your best shot!'"
"The four remaining ships had regrouped and were closing in on us. We both raised our forearm launch tubes, and it was then that Rook spied something atop one of the nearby hills. I turned in time to catch a metallic glint."
"'What is that?' Rook asked."
"I told her I had no idea. 'But if it's not friendly, we're in real trouble.'" "The Invid had also caught sight of the thing, and it was apparent an
instant later that they found it to be a more appealing target. The ships zoomed past us without a shot, making straight for the hilltop. I thought it might be Scott or maybe Lunk in the APC, but I had to guess again, because instead of attacking, the ships simply moved off, as though recalled unexpectedly."
"'I guess it's friendly,' Rook was saying, stepping out for a better view of the thing. But that didn't make sense, I told her, following her lead. If it was friendly to us, it would have been fired upon. My guess was that it was an Invid command ship-perhaps that orange and green one we had been seeing lately."
"But as the thing came into view, we saw that it was some kind of
side-carred cycle, piloted by a man wearing a poncho and Western-style hat. We were trading looks with him when he suddenly fell off the bike, obviously shot!"
"The rogue was hurt, but well enough to ride. Rook insisted on seeing what she could do for the wound in his arm, and he led us to a patch of forest that bordered the river we had crossed on our way into town. He was tall and good-looking in a derelict sort of way. His hair was parted in the center and fell below his shoulders, and he was in need of a shave and a good scrubbing, but none of that seemed to bother Rook. She was playing nurse to his silent cowboy and enjoying herself. I pretended to interest myself in the guy's mecha, which was unusual-it had twin scrambler-type exhaust stacks and a multimissile launch rack (the thing I had taken for a sidecar)-but I didn't miss a word of their conversation. I had already convinced myself that the guy was an Invid plant. He claimed to be as surprised as we were that the Invid had flown off without frying all of us, but I wasn't buying any of it."
"Rook and I had taken off our battle armor. The stranger was sitting down with his back against a tree, the poncho draped over one shoulder, letting Rook probe around inside his wound with a pair of tweezers from one of the Cyc's first-aid kits. What she fished from his arm turned out to be an old-fashioned bullet! But even this didn't seem to faze Rook."
"'This should help some,' she said, dropping the small projectile on the ground and treating the wound with antiseptic solution."
"The man thanked her in the same flat, clipped tone I was already beginning to dislike. A breeze rustled through the woods just then, and I gazed up and saw something that reinforced my suspicions about the guy. The wind revealed what the poncho had intended to hide: that his arm and a good portion of his chest were covered with some sort of gleaming alloy. Rook must have seen it, too, because I heard her gasp while asking the rogue's name."
"'Excuse me, mister. I didn't mean to embarrass you,' she hastened to
add. 'What happened to you?'"
"'Well, I'm glad you didn't run away when you saw it,' the stranger drawled. 'That's how most react...Let's just say it's a little present from our friends the Invid. You could say I'm just lucky that they left me alive at all.'"
"Rook made a face. 'I guess it could've been worse... ' She asked the man to remove his poncho and dabbed at the wound with gauze before beginning to dress it. 'At least you got away from them.' Rook winked at him flirtatiously. 'Now, I'm no doctor, so you better not let this rest until you see one.'"
"The rogue almost smiled-or maybe that tight-lipped grin was his idea of a smile. But in any case, he said: 'What'd you say your name was, missy-Rook? Well, Rook, I just can't thank you enough for helping a stranger out.'"
"Rook had a blushing response all ready for him. I saw her gesture to the bullet. 'But this isn't from any Invid,' she started to say. 'They don't have anything this primitive in their arsenal.'"
"The stranger was about to reply, but I stepped in with my Gallant drawn and aimed at his midsection. 'You're right, Rook. And those Invid ships didn't just forget about us, either. This rogue's a spy.'"
"'What are you doing?!' Rook shouted at me. 'Put that thing away!'" "'Not till I find out what it is about his guy that makes the Invid run
away, or how he ended up with a bullet in his arm.'"
"The rogue just stared, like he was sorry for me or something. 'If you have to know, the bullet came from my own gun. It discharged by accident. Check near the seat of the cycle if you don't believe me, kid. You'll find an antique six-gun under-'"
"'You're an Invid agent,' I snarled, ignoring the bit about the gun because it sounded too much like the truth."
"'If that was true, you'd be dead, kid.'"
"This also sounded right, but I ignored it and motioned with the blaster for him to get up. Rook was already on her feet, cursing me."
"'He's not our enemy, Rand. Besides-he's hurt!'"
"I told her to stand out of the way and ordered the guy to his feet. He got up slowly, almost tiredly, and said we had helped him and he was grateful. 'I don't want anybody to get hurt.'"
"I had the weapon straight out in front of me, and I guess I really didn't expect him to go for his gun. I even fired a warning shot into the tree behind him as his hand inched toward the holster, but he went for it anyway, confident that I wasn't about to kill him in cold blood, and caught me in the right hand with a stun blast, knocking the Gallant from my two-handed grip."
"That made twice when I should have fired first and asked questions later-first with Wolff and now with Mr. Clint McGlint. But so help me, if I'm ever drawing a bead on someone again..."
"Anyhow, Rook ran over to me to take a look at my hand, dismissing it roughly when she saw that I was only mildly burned."
"'I hope you're satisfied!' she seethed. "You could have been killed!'" "The stranger threw me a look. 'Like I said, kid, if I was one of them,
you woulda never left the sands alive.'"
"I looked over at Rook, trying to sort through my feelings, and decided that it was all her fault for being so...friendly."
"Back then I was still struggling with jealousy."
"I let Rook and the stranger have a few moments of privacy by the river while I nursed my hand and wounded pride. But I didn't let it go on for long. The sun was going down, and I was certain that Scott and the others would be worrying about us. I had all bu
t forgotten about Dusty Ayres and the search that had brought us out here to begin with."
"Rook and her new hero were too far off for me to, hear, but I could tell by her posturing that things were getting a little too chummy, so I finally banged the Cyc into gear and rode in to break it up."
"'Sorry to interrupt, but it's time we headed back to town,' I told her. 'Thank your friend for his hospitality and let's get moving.'"
"The stranger regarded me, then turned back to Rook. 'I have to leave
anyway.'"
"'Sorry to hear it,' I said."
"He ignored the comment. I tried to hurry Rook along and roared off, wanting no part of whatever good-byes the two planned to exchange."
"Rook caught up with me a few minutes later, and we rode a long way before either of us spoke. She repeated that I had been wrong about the man from the start-the man with no name. As he told it, he had been used as a guinea pig in some gruesome experiments the Invid had carried out shortly after they had defeated the Earth forces; apparently, the whole right side of his body had been vivisected and replaced with prostheses and alloy plating. Worse than that, his friends had stood by and made no attempt to rescue him. He was an unusually sensitive man, Rook insisted, and I had acted like a complete moron."
"I don't know why I didn't put two and two together then and figure out who the stranger was; I guess I was just too wrapped up in Rook's attachment to him to see the obvious. 'I have some unfinished business to take care of,' he had told her in response to her invitation to join us."
"Well, by the time we got back to town, I was convinced that I had been wrong and full of forgive and forget toward Rook. The open invitation didn't exactly thrill me, but I somehow managed to swallow my protests and keep still about it."
"'Rand, level with me,' Rook said when we were getting off the Cycs. 'Was I wrong to befriend that stranger?'"
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