TNE 02 To Dream of Chaos

  "Roger that. Red Sun out."

  "So," Tom said, "think we can go now?"

  "Affirmative," Coeuf said, pushing the brooms tk k back into motion and diving toward the distant spacers at the far end of the depot floor. The sooner we get out of this place, the happier I'll be."

  "Hey, skipperl" vink called to Tom when she and Coeur sailed in gently to a soft landing. "We about ready to leave?"

  "Almost, Vink. What do you think, Red, about an hour?"

  "I think so. If we give the slaves a one-hour head Start, then set the bomb for a lour-hour delay, that should be plenty of time to let them get out."

  "I hope we're not going to just assume that everybody gets out," Physic said, rising from the prone forms of Fubar and Gremlin, "Actually, Physic," Coeur said, "it's going to be a problem checking all the lower living quarters, because that fire down there's blocking all the access ports to the lower floors. But we'll check all the access tunneis to the surface before the bomb goes off all the same."

  "All right,"

  Physic's pleasure with the present stateol affairs would last no more than another 15 seconds, however. That was when red emergency lighting blinked on overhead, and a strangely laconic voice boomed out over the depot loudspeakers.

  "Spaceshipcommander... I require that you remain within the sale area. .. You have not neutralized me.... My ordnance is operational, and I have displaced my.. operations center to a preregistered location so that you can not Interdict my missions. ... Your maneuvers and countermcasures are Ineffective.. . My range and area of effect allow me to counler your operations.... Observe the eftects if you fail to support and coordinate with my missions.... I am equipped with the power of destruction and no-fire over all targets within thrs defended sphere.... Observe...."

  "Oh crap," Tom said, "Red Sun, you were right! There was a backup."

  "Hm," Bonzo mused. "The way Its speech has changed. It must have moved to some system with smaller and more specialized language abilities."

  Like a fire control computer, Coeur thought. Oh Cod, don't let it be a fire control computer.

  "Fuck," Coeur swore under her breath, rushing to the elevator shaft so she could a clear uansmlssion to the ship's boat and C-carrier above. "Boomer, you read me?"

  "Hell, yes, Captain D' Esprit, and you won't guess what I just picked upon the ship's boat sensors—a huge mother of a meson blast over in Soledadl"

  Domnit! Coeur thought. Damn it, why didn't I know this wos going to happen?

  "Understood, Boomer. Continue monitoring the situation. Red Sun out"

  "Ohfikk," Tomsaid, speakingfortheknotofboth herownand Coeur's people that had suddenly formed around the elevator door. "What are we going to do? It would lake us hours to find the hidden entrance to that meson gun!"

  "Maybe we could try reasoning with the computer," Physic offered.

  "Yeah, right," Drop Kick offered, from his open turret hatch, "Our people are probably getting nuked right now In the city. I don't think the depot computer's In any mood to negotiate."

  "No," Coeur said abruptly, "there's only one thing we can do. That backup computer has got to be part of this facility, so we're going to have to nuke the depot."

  "But what about the slaves?" Physic asked. "We can't just them be pulverized In those maintenance shafts when the bomb goes off I"

  "Fuck that," Vtnk said. "Even if that meson gun only fires once every couple of minutes, it could kill everyone In the city by the time all the slaves get to the surface."

  "But not," Coeursaid, "if we hurry them along. All right, here's the plan—we've all got guns, so Whiz Bang and Widget are going to show us where all theexit passages are, and we're going to split up and cover every passage the slaves are in. Shoot at 'em, kick at 'em, do whatever it takes to get 'em up to the surface faster."

  Addled, perhaps, by the magnitude of the task, neither the Arses nor the pirates moved for a moment.

  "Goddammit, what do you want me to do, drawyou a map? Move it!"

  That snapped the spacers out of their confusion. Coeur, Tom and the spacers closest to Widget followed her toward the north wall of the depot, and the spacers closest to Whl2 Bang followed him to the south wall, leaving only Physic behind to begin preparing the two stretchers that would hang from the side of the Intrepid for the transport of the comatose Marines.

  Cod, I hope this works, Coeur thought, Imagining the destruction just one meson blast could cause, because I sure don’t wont to trade 800,000 lives in Soledad for 200 in this depot....

  Chapter 23

  According to the plan agreed on earlier, An-Wing should expect tohear the warning to lake cover from the rebel headquarters about an hour after she got to the Defense Ministry. She therefore reasoned that the rebel assault was still a half-hour away when Resguardo the nightjack finally decided to stop taking orders altogether.

  By this time the discussion between An-Wing and Kilalt, both reclining on leather ottomans—had turned from vague talk of Orillammen-Mexitan alliance to particular details of an Oriflammen Invasion of Autaine, supported by weapons from Kilalt's depot.

  Yeah, An-Wing thought, I con just Imagine whot the captain would think if she heard us discussing that idea.

  Oh well, she told me to do whatever it takes to keep him listening, I just hope the rebels start their assault soon, because sooner or later I'm going to run out of 35 to sell this guy.

  Either that, or he's gonna get tired of It and want to see some proof.

  "lady An-Wing," kilalt said, "I really must admit you are a refreshing oerson. You really seem to have a grasp of the meaning of power."

  "Perhaps. But it will be much easier for both of us to exercise our power when Aubaine Is neutralized."

  "I think that calls for a drink," Kilalt said, "Resguardo, fetch us a bottle of one of the oetter vintages."

  "Yes, Your Holiness," the nightjack said, moving over to a massive wine cabinet and drawing a bottle from it. "Will this Blanco Espinoso 1123 be satisfactory?"

  "Yes, quite. But pop the cork, too, Resguardo,"

  Whether or not this was onecommand too many for Resguardo An-Wing couldn't guess, but for whatever reason the nightjack abruptly stopped and dropped the wine bottle.

  "Hey!" Kilalt exclaimed, jumping sideways from his seat to escape the glass of the shattering bottle. "What the hell's the matter with you?"

  The nightjack did not answer. It merely stood mute, frozen in place.

  "Your Holiness," An-Wing said, also sliding off of her seat to take cover behind it, "I think you need to have somebody look at your robots."

  "Yes, they do seem to be acting up a bit lately."

  "Is it possible that the/re having their command signals jammed somehow? From Hcmet maybe?"

  "No, that's impossible. Craylord assured me the microwave transmitters between here and the depot are too powerful to be jammed."

  Ah, so these machines aren't autonomous, An-Wing thought. Good. Then maybe this one being frozen means Red Sun's nuked that depot Neither An-Wing nor Kilalt was so confident of the silent machine's state that they dared to move, though, so both were still frozen In place a minute later when Resguardo spoke again.

  "Attention...this building...has been targeted,..for demolition. Do not...attempt...to escape."

  "Oh flkk," both An-Wing and Kilalt gasped, realizing simultaneously that their only hope was to dash for the door. Cioser to the door, An-Wing got through It first, millimeters ahead of the grasping hand of Resguardo. Kilalt was not so lucky, being grasped across the collarbone and forced to his knees by the robot "An-Wingt" Kilalt cried, through the open doorway "Help mel"

  But something suddenly flared in the window behind Kilalt and Resguardo, a blazing flash In the direction of the Old starport so bright it turned The night for a second into day, then shook the entire Defense Ministry with its propagating shock wave.

  The meson gun, An-Wing thought in a moment of blind panic, oh my Cod, the meson gun does work...I

  But An-Wing
didn't stand there long enough to see the gouts of flame rising from the berths of the starport, or the abject terror in the face of Kilalt as he clawed helplessly at the metal arm that still pinned him to the floor of his apartment.

  Instead, she ran—her heels clacking across the marble tiles spelling out Kilalfs name—for the elevator she'd come up In, hoping It still worked and further hoping that the holy grav barge was still benhed on the roof.

  Good Caia, she thought, collapsing against the inner wall of the elevator when she got it moving. I'm never volunteering for anything ever again. ..

  Twenty kilometers away, Red Eye fell the same rumbling blast from the area of the old starport and immediately dashed out of Lemos' headquarters tent with the general, Masaryk, V-Max and a gang of rebel officers.

  "Defender preserve us," Lemos gasped, watching a tower of flame rise up from Just over the horizon, "what the hell is that?"

  "Could it be a nuke?" a Junior officer asked.

  "No," Red Eye said. "The blast area is large, but the fireball's not intense enough. That's a meson gun blast."

  "A meson gun?" Lemos asked. "But I thought that was knocked out!"

  "Apparently It's noL ' Newton said, stepping out of the communications tent with Cardinal Vazquez. "We just received a signal from the rebels preparing to assault Kilalt. They say that blast was in the vicinity of the Vt et Armis."

  "What!" V-Max exclaimed. "Why would anybody target her?"

  "Unknown," Red Eye said, "butyoucanbesureofone Thing— there's probably nothing but a black spot where that ship used to be."

  Utterly demoralized, V-Max staggered a few steps In the direction of the blast and then stopped, too stunned to say any more.

  "Well, whatever it's targeting," Lemos said, "I don't like that it's going off so close to my men. I'm going to cancel the assault."

  "General," Vazquez said, "do you thinkthafswlse? This might be our best chance to defeat Kilalt, while the young lady has him detained In the building."

  "That may be true. Your Holiness," Lemos said, "and I don't want to sound like I don't believe that the Defender is watching over us, but we have no idea what's being targeted out there. Our men will have to take cover."

  Vazquez reluctantly conceded the point with a nod, and Lemos hurried back to the radio tent with Newton.

  "I still don't get It," Masaryk said to Red Eye. "Why would anybody target a perfectly good starship? I mean, it wasn't as if it could escape with Its drives all torn out,"

  "I don't know," Red Eye said, turning to the most senior of Lemos' aides, "but I think we'd better watch our own butts out here. Major Badillo, we've got to make sure no nightjacks even so much as get at look at this place. They could be directing fire, and even a close miss from that gun could destroy this whole camp,"

  Major Badillo, a bearded little slump of a man, didn't have to be told twice. He had two children and a wife among the civilians at the camp, hidden In and among the area's nibble.

  "Right I'll see that the perimeter guard Is doubled immediately."

  Sadlllo then ran off toward his task, dragging along a couple of rebel sergeants to help him gather up more forces.

  "V-Max," Red Eye said abruptly, "snap out of It. I need your help."

  "For what?"

  'To keep these people alive, damn It! Now move."

  "All right, all right, what do you need?"

  "I need you to fly one of the broomsticks for me. We're going up hunting for nightjacks."

  Perceiving, perhaps, that this was a way todo something other than mourn for his tost ship, V-Max qukkly followed Red Eye to the one broomstick not already in use.

  "You know, of course," V-Max said, piloting the broomstick Into the air from Its front seat, "those nightjaots are masters of camouflage. I don't think we'll spot one if it wants to stay hidden,"

  "You just let me worry about that," Red Eye said, checking the magazine of his fusion rifle and commencing a careful scan of the base's perimeter with his suit's Synthetic vision.

  He managed to scan about a quarter of the camp's perimeter when the next meson blast hit—not a kilometer away from the camp.

  Neither Red Eye or V-Max knew what had happened at first. The shock wave from the blast—less forceful than the supersonic hammer of a nuclear explosion, but powerful all the same— slammed into the from of the broomstick, snapped its central trunk and flung both riders headlong into the ground.

  Walloped into unconsciousness by hard contact with a collapsed concrete wall. Red Eye nevertheless recovered quickly, thanks to the incredible strength of his battle dress, and rolled over as soon as he discerned that none of his more critical parts were broken.

  Oh, man—thonk Cod and the guys who made this armor Red Eye's relief evaporated, however, when he saw the flaming detonation at the edge of the camp—a meson detonation—and its effect on his surroundings. Both the headquarters and communications tents strained against their guy wires as a steady wind howled across the camp, and chunks of churned-up debris pelted both Red Eye and V-Max, who lay Inert on the nibble nearby.

  "Hey, V-Max," Red Eye said, crawling up to get a closer look at his pilot. "V-Max, snap out of it"

  V-Max would not snap out of his present condition, however. At closer range, Red Eye saw that his neck was broken, and his eyes were rolled up lifeless in his skull-

  Poor likk. Red Eye thought, pulling off one of his armored gloves tofeel fcr a pulse at the pirate's neck and wrist. First you lose your ship, then you lose your fife.

  Well, don't worrypel 111 get the bastard who did this.

  Red Eye then pulled his glove back on and, rising back to his feet, found his fusion rifle lying a few meters away. The broomstick, he saw, was snapped clean In two, so he gave up any hope of repairing It. Instead, he hefted the battered rifle—which was at least In one piece—and moved off to find the meson gun's spotter.

  Not having a way to get airborne. Red Eye knew, was a clear disadvantage. Nightjacks were not only masters of camouflage, but fair flyers as well, and could quickly elude a pursuer.

  So where could he be7 Red Eye thought, walking closer to the meson gun's beaten zone, where no other human appeared to remain. I cant let him get the jump on me, or he'll kUi me and call In even more accurate fire-

  Red Eye hadn't made gunnery sergeant by being Indecisive. Respectful as he was of a night jack's steallhand firepower, it was still a machine, and he was a man. It would employ predictable tactics, and he could anticipate them.

  That first shot wasn't Inaccurate, Red Eye suddenly realized. It was aimed right at the center of the perimeter defenses. That means the nightjack must hove taken them out to gel an unopposed look at the center of the camp Itself.

  Which, Red Eye reasoned, meant the nightjack would be moving through the very area It had just called meson fire into.

  Well, it'so nice theory anyway, Red Eye thougnt, kneeling down behind a broken wall at the edge of the beaten zone and bringing up his weapon. Now let's see if I'm right.

  If he was wrong, he knew he was dead. If he didn't catch the nightjack, Itwould call In a second shot, and everybody In the area would die—Lemos, Vazquez, Masaryk, all the rebels, all their children....

  And Newton. Ironic that, since he seemed to think this was the safest place to be.

  But Red Eye was not wrong. Not 30 seconds after he set up his ambush, a looming shape materialized in the midst of the swirling smoke and flame before him—perhaps 100 meters away, three meters tall and obligingly oblivious to the sergeant's presence.

  Soy cheese, you homicidal bastard. You're toast.

  And a moment later the nightjack exploded, seared through Its gigantic chest by a bolt of fusion fire. Ils fuel storage tanks detonated Instantaneously, and the entire robot blew apart In a fiery hydrogen fireball, flinging debris across a wide area.

  Aware that there might be even more nightjacks around. Red Eye remained behind his wall, scanning carefullyln all directions, but no more came, and there were no more d
etonations at the camp. But far off in the direction of the Federal District, Red Eye quite clearly heard the distant thunder of a meson detonation a few secondslater—almost certainly thefire order that would have annihilated the rebel base, shifted to another target.

  Well, Red Eye thought, I sure hope that wasn 'f lemos' soldiers being targeted, As it happened, the target of that particular volley wasn't Lemos' soldiers.

  It was the Defense Ministry.

  A though they had seen thelirst meson blast a few minutes before, over in the old starport, the men of General Lemos'chief subordinate, Colonel Caideron, did not fully grasp what it was, and protested the general's orders to hold back from an assault on the Defense Ministry. Six minutes later, they owed the general their lives.

  Hiding in buildings all around the Ministry, careful not to be seen by the handful of nightjacks still at large in the city, Calderon's men were first-hand witnesses to the destruction of the Defense Ministry.

  One instant the building stood before them as a titanic fortress. The next instant, the entire lower half of the massive building disintegrated. Tons of concrete, masonry and steel burst outward in a cataclysmic cloud of flame, smoke and debris, the result of an explosion within the building, but below ground level, In one of the basements.The topmost lloors of the building hung unsupported above the explosion for a moment, then fell Into the roiling cloud and were lost from view, their crash merging with the continuing roar of the first explosion.

  "Good Cocl and Defender!" a rebel soldier exclaimed, from the cover of a building facing Enea Avenue. "What was that?"

  "Hell on earth," Colonel Caideron said simply. "The devil himself is loose among us."

  "Sir," another soldier said, "what about the spacer woman? She was still in there!"

  "I'm aware of that, soldier."

  "But sir, shouldn't we...well, go look for her?"

  Caideron merely shook his head.

  "Where would we look? No, absolutely not. Stay undercover, like the general ordered."

  "Yes, sir."

  "All we can do is pray," the colonel said. "Pray and keep our heads down."