"Certainly."
"Thank you."
"Tempest, Supply Alpha," I said into the comset. "Suggest aircars, repeat, aircars. Expect a hot zero. Alpha out." I know there would be no answer. I didn't want them using the shuttle—it was too big a target. But I had to let them know that aircars could now penetrate the Taka zone. Unfortunately, the bad guys would be listening as well.
"Do you think ConFree can hear us?" Redhawk asked.
"Probably," I replied. "I imagine they're listening to every word we say. We can assume they're on the way. Valkyrie and I will need E's."
"That's not a problem."
"Gildron," I repeated, handing the comset back to him, "Do you have the Star?"
"It is with me always, Three." He was looking sadly out to the rising sun. "We are all driven by secret demons. And mine is named Cinta." He raised the comset to his lips. "To my beloved warriors. This is Starmouth. The time we spoke of has arrived. I must leave, and I must bring the power with me so it will not destroy Southmark. Tell your brave soldiers to defend their Queen. There is only one order: Fight until the intruders are driven from your land. A thousand generations of dead warriors are watching you. Do not betray your heritage." He turned his face away from us. I knew it hurt him deeply, to leave the Taka in their hour of greatest need. It hurt me, too.
***
"Supply Alpha, Tempest Air Six Two, please nova your pickup zero, confirm." They were calling us! We were on the very top of Mount Light, picking our way through a tangled forest in the clouds, an eternal rain forest that covered the flat top of the peak like a great wet sponge. Cool misty clouds sliced through the trees, erasing them. It was quiet and spooky. Redhawk and Valkyrie were right beside me. Gildron was up ahead, and the area was saturated with Taka warriors. We were all heavily armed with E's and grenades. Redhawk and Valkyrie and I had our comtops on, and Valkyrie had a micronuke clipped to her A-vest. The tacmods were working perfectly, now that Gildron had shut down the power source. I tossed another one of Tara's novas off into the trees. It exploded with an ear-shattering blast and began burning brightly. It would guide the Tempest's aircar right to us.
"Novas going off all around the mountain," Redhawk reported. ConFree was getting in on the act.
"I can see the aircar!" Valkyrie said. I could see it too on my tacmap, a brilliant dot illuminated on my visor, approaching the mountain.
"Tempest Air Six Two, Supply Alpha," I said into the comset. "Have you ID'd us, respond."
"Attention! Three aircars approaching from the Southwest, masked Legion ID, as marked," my tacmod reported.
"Attention! Four aircars approaching from North, masked Legion ID, as marked."
"Damn," I said. ConFree had just realized that Taka country was no longer closed to aircars. It was Lowdrop, coming at us.
"Tempest Air Six Two, Supply Alpha," I said into the comset, "Intruders approaching. Hot zero. Request extraction if at all poss, respond." If it was not possible we were going to wind up dead or in the cage with Bobo, I knew.
"Stand by, Supply Alpha." Stand by! They were coming! A burst of pride shot through my system. Legion troopers, riding right into Hell, for us!
"Full auto x, gang!" I shouted. "Don't hit the Tempest's aircar!"
"They're all going to be dropping right in on our heads!" Redhawk exclaimed. It was true. Seven enemy aircars were going to be landing right on our nova.
"The Tempest's car is going to arrive first!" Valkyrie alerted us. I watched its progress on the tacmap. Valkyrie was right, but it was going to be close.
"Taka warriors, for your clans!" Gildron shouted into his comset. "The first manbird is friendly. The others are not. When the doors open, attack!" The forest was silent, but they heard. I know they did. I looked up. The trees danced gracefully against a misty white sky. There was a faint, rising whistle—the Tempest's aircar, coming right at us.
The forest erupted behind us, flashing like an exploding star, multiple detonations, multiple concussions, hitting us through the air. A quick glance back there, a sky full of shredded vegetation.
"Stunstars!"
Valkyrie tore the micronuke off her A-vest and activated it, clutching it tightly in one hand. Her eyes were frantic. If she dropped that, we'd all die. Another stunstar detonated, closer, rattling my teeth—not yet in range! The forest was shaking itself apart to our front. The Tempest's aircar was dropping right in on our zero, slicing through the forest like a great cenite fist, branches and trees snapping and exploding into dust before it. I caught a quick glimpse of two aircars, darts, flashing high overhead, wheeling. There was a sudden wild windstorm of flying twigs and leaves, and then it was there—a dull black aircar, floating like a cenite butterfly, darkened plex, muted Legion cross on the fuselage. The assault doors snapped open and a Legion trooper in a camfaxed A-suit leaned out, armed with a Manlink.
"GET IN!" A highly amplified voice, totally inhuman.
I started forward, my E up. "I confirm arrival of Tempest aircar," my tacmod informed me. Redhawk appeared to my right, advancing warily. Valkyrie was just to my left, her E pointed right at the car, the micronuke clutched in one fist. We were not a trusting bunch.
"Gildron, where…" The aircar detonated, exploding right in our faces, a mighty soundless flash and I was on my back trying to make sense of all the buzzing, sparkling stars that were swirling around me like angry bees. I struggled up to a sitting position. I was sitting in a burning forest, a mighty conflagration. Blazing white-hot wreckage was strewn everywhere. Before I could even get my thoughts straight a titanic blast shattered my ears and dazzled my eyes. There—micronuke, rising through shattered trees, an ugly mushroom cloud rolling into the sky. Valkyrie! Dead! An aircar shot overhead, firing chainlink, an eerie screech. I screamed and staggered to my feet, firing wildly after it, auto xmax hammering skywards. The forest was coming apart to my right, shaking itself to pieces. I whirled and charged at it blindly, crashing through burning palms, shrieking mindless rage. Another black aircar burst into view in a hail of debris, the assault doors snapping open. I ran right at them, my finger locked on the trigger, auto xmax, and a whole squad of fully armored Legion troopers leaped from the car, right into my line of fire, right into Hell. The x flashed and burst, blasting awful chunks off their armor, chopping off arms and legs and helmets, white-hot liquid cenite splattering wildly, the whole aircar lighting up, and they were on the ground spraying blood but I was still firing, auto x to end it all, auto x to end the universe. The aircar erupted, the whole squad caught in the blast, red faceplates reflecting only death, the forest around me going up, some of them firing. I switched to laser and sliced back and forth blindly and it was a knife from the stars screeching on their armor, crawling on my skin, burning, spitting. The aircar swung wildly right over my head but I ignored it, hunting down the living like a mad dog from Hell, stepping through a glowing charnel house of quivering, twitching death. One trooper was on his knees, screaming. He had lost both arms and his pitted, smoking armor was dripping with blood. I switched back to xmax and shot him in the face. The aircar floated past me, derelict. I fired flame into the open assault door and vaulted in, totally adrenalized, twitching, numb. There was movement from the burning cockpit. An A-suited pilot was struggling to get out—his armor was riddled. I fired auto x, blasting him apart, raw meat splattering on the walls. The car crashed into a tree and settled in at a crazy angle. I fell out the assault door onto a bloody field of glowing armor and burning corpses. Holy angels, killed on sacred ground. A whole squad of them had been shooting at me, and I was untouched. Evil Gods, watching over me. Gildron came striding out of the mist, a fearsome giant, his E at his shoulder. The forest was burning all around us. The sounds of battle were still popping in my ears. Redhawk knelt beside me, pulling me up. A couple of Taka warriors appeared, clutching their nerve guns.
"Thinker. Thinker! Deadman, what happened? What the hell happened?"
I seized him by the shoulders, my face twisted with rage. I
was shaking uncontrollably. "They're Legion soldiers, Ten! Soldiers of the Legion! Just like you—and me! It's KCA! It's Two Four One! Those bastards did this! Not me!"
"Gildron!" Redhawk shouted. "Get in the car! Where's Valkyrie?" He went hurtling into the aircar, fighting his way into the bloody pilot's seat. The car was on fire but he ignored it. Gildron pulled me into the aircar. I was looking around wildly, ready to fire. I guess I was pretty much out of action by then. Gildron seized a fire extinguisher and blasted the flames with vac. I was on my knees in the aisle, twitching. I raised my arms. They were covered with blood and tiny little flecks of bone and brains and cenite shrapnel. My E was still at my chest. I couldn't stop shaking. I stood up.
"Valkyrie's dead," I said shakily. "I'm going after her body. You go ahead if you want. Don't wait for us. You've got to get the Star away from here."
"Thinker!" Valkyrie came charging in from the burning forest, weaponless, vaulting into the aircar right into my arms. I could only gape at her. "Thinker!" she repeated, "Are you all right?"
"Liftoff!" Redhawk shouted from the cockpit. The two Taka warriors raised their arms in farewell and Gildron returned the gesture. The assault doors slammed shut and we burst through the forest roof and shot down off Mount Light, falling like a brick for the forest below, then levelling off at the last possible frac and rocketing along like a shooting star, max speed, just above the treetops. I could see ConFree aircars wheeling in the dirty sky, but I wasn't worried. I knew Redhawk was the best aircar pilot in the galaxy.
"Tempest, Supply Alpha," Redhawk said. "Your aircar has been lost. We're on our way in an enemy car. Please note our zero. Request intercept and recovery, respond."
"When the Tempest's car went, the blast blew that micronuke right out of my hand," Valkyrie said. "Lucky for us it didn't land anywhere near us."
"Legion troopers," I said. "They were Legion troopers!" Soldiers of the Legion, I thought, doing their duty. Just like us! I had known it was eventually going to come to this, but it didn't make it any easier. KCA, I thought, and Lowdrop. ConFree. Criminals! Traitors! And soldiers of the Legion were their pawns.
"I'm not going to rest," I told Valkyrie, "until they're dead!"
"It's all right, Thinker. We're all alive. Please calm down. It's all right."
"It's not all right! And we're not alive! They're going to pay, Valkyrie! They're going to pay!"
"Calm down, Thinker. Please. Calm down."
"They're going to pay!" I was crying with rage.
Chapter 11
Lost Souls
Green eyes. Icy, empty green eyes, melting me slowly. Another heart, beating against mine. Soft pale lips against my chest. A face like a tormented child, and hair like golden flax. Slim pale satin arms, gliding over my body.
We floated away in her bunk, lost and lonely, clutching each other for solace. She was as lovely as an angel, I thought—a naked angel. How long had we avoided each other, and to what end? I had never lost my longing for her. My heart beat faster whenever I neared her. And now she was back, just as she had promised—despite all I had done to avoid it.
I had always known I could never resist her. I was not that strong. There had been reasons, before, but the reasons were all gone now. It all seemed suddenly so foolish.
"Kiss me," she whispered. Sharp fingernails sliced into the back of my neck. I cupped her head in my hands, and looked into those emerald eyes. How could any human be this fortunate? I tried to think of Moontouch, of Priestess, but it hurt. It was so much easier to just lie there, in Valkyrie's arms, and dream of what might have been.
We were on the starship C.S. Tempest on vac run red in the eye of the hole, on our way back to Dindabai. Tara had been absolutely right about the Tempest. The instant our nova had appeared they had broken with ConFree. But breaking with ConFree is not easy. They had launched four aircars to pick us up, but only one had gotten through—and that one had been destroyed on the ground.
A lot of troopers had died for us.
We mated like a couple of crazed alley cats, totally without shame, grappling with each other on Eleven's bunk under a blazing ceiling light, riding to an explosive climax, then crashing to the deck with the bedding, laughing, delirious with joy and relief.
We lay there in each other's arms under the lights, spent, sticky with semen and sweat, tangled up in damp sheets.
"Again," she said.
"Good plan," I responded. "I always missed you…Valkyrie. I never forgot you. I was so happy when we got you back on Coldmark."
"Do you miss Priestess?" She looked into my eyes calmly. I looked away, up to the ceiling.
"Of course."
"I know. I miss Scrapper, too. I think of her all the time. Every day. Every night. She's like a ghost, haunting me. Do you think of Priestess that way, too?" Scrapper was Beta Twelve, Valkyrie's girlfriend. They had become very close, after Mongera. I brought my gaze back to meet hers.
"Yes. That's exactly the way it is with Priestess. She's just like a ghost…as you said. I wake in the night and I can still see her face. It's almost like she's calling out to me, from somewhere."
"They can't still be alive, can they?"
"I…I don't know. I don't think so. Of course not. Where could they be? They've got to be dead. There's not a trace of them—Snow Leopard, Psycho, Priestess, Scrapper, Twister. Not a trace. Chances are they were all vaporized in the starmass. We left Psycho and Twister to face the O's. Priestess and Scrapper were last seen in a bust of starmass. And Snow Leopard was near you—and that O."
"He was the bravest man I ever knew."
"You were just as brave as he was, " I said. "You saved us from that O."
"I was terrified. Look—we were all listed as dead. How do you know the others aren't out there somewhere as well?"
"Redhawk found Dragon, and you. He saw how they covered his disappearance, accessed the personnel lists, and ran his programs. They worked. He found Dragon, and he found you. He even found that A-suit girl and the fellow from Recon Control, with help from Tara. But he didn't find anybody else. He thinks it's because they're not alive."
"He didn't find you, did he?"
"No. My disappearance was handled a little differently. I didn't continue in the Legion. They wrote me off as dead on Uldo, and didn't have to worry about disguising me as anybody else. They actually made me into someone else. Even I didn't know who I was."
"Do you think they're all dead?"
"Probably."
"If they're dead, they should leave us alone. We can't help them. I loved Scrapper—I still do. But I can't help her if she's dead."
"Yes. That's true."
"I can see her face, even now." She bit her lip, and turned away. I pulled her closer.
"We're all that's left, Eleven. Don't you leave me."
"I know you're going back to your sorceress, Thinker. But until that day, I'll not leave your side. You'll have to shoot me dead to get rid of me. We've been through too damned much, Beta Three. I have no more pride, no more vanity. You hurt me so much, with Priestess, and it hurts still, but somehow it's not important any more. We've each had our lovers torn from our arms, and our oldest comrades lost in battle. And here we are again, together again. It's a miracle, a holy, obscene miracle!" She buried her face in my chest, and could not say any more.
A holy, obscene miracle, I thought, looking up at the lights. It's the story of my life.
***
When the Tempest's shuttle entered Dinda Port's ground traffic system, it glided gently over the hardsite toward the main milport personnel terminal. We were getting door-to-door service. I was impressed. I was sitting next to Valkyrie as we peered out a viewport. The entire panorama of Dinda Port was all around us. There appeared to be a great deal of military traffic—more than I remembered. Redhawk and Gildron were in the seats behind us, chatting excitedly. The shuttle was full of Fleetcom officers and techs from the Tempest, and Legion soldiers from the strike force.
I was not hap
py about returning to Dindabai. It beat Bobo's cage, but that was about all I could say for it. I felt totally helpless, a grain of dust in space rushing headlong to destruction. I had lost everything on Andrion. Moontouch and Stormdawn were beyond my reach now. They were so far away they may as well have been in another galaxy. Valkyrie's thigh was pressing close against mine, and one hand was resting gently in my lap. We had taken each other without a word, for the moment, and as long as the moment would last. It didn't even require any thought. It seemed as natural as breathing and as inevitable as death. I think we would have gone crazy if we hadn't each been there, for each other. I thanked the Gods of Hell for sending her to me, but it didn't mean I was happy.
"Check out the crowd," Valkyrie said. There were, indeed, a whole lot of people swarming around the terminal as the shuttle glided to a halt directly in front of it and gently touched down. A flicker of color caught my eyes—flags, unfurling. The Legion war flag, the ConFree banner. A squad of Legion troopers in formal blacks snapped to attention. A nervous crowd of officials peered expectantly at our shuttle.
"Look at that," I said. "There must be some VIP's on board." I looked around, scanning the passengers in our shuttle. I didn't see anyone who looked even remotely important. What the hell?
"It's us!" Valkyrie exclaimed. "We're the VIP's, you dummy!"
Gildron laughed, delighted. "Of course we are! Cinta is greeting us! You do not realize the historical importance of this moment, Three. You do not realize the historical significance of our mission. The balance of power in the galaxy has just shifted, decisively. Because of us!" He stood up, smiling. "Of course it is us."
"Oh no," I said. I just sat there, my head in my hands. I felt terrible. And this welcoming committee was not going to help.
"Thinker, Gildron is right," Valkyrie said. "Look at all those scanners! They're going to record it all! Generations of schoolchildren will see us just as we are, right now. Don't you dare look gloomy! You cheer up right now, soldier!"
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