The Mammoth Book of SF Wars

by Ian Whates

  Toggled, her node answered.

  Soz spun out of the captain’s grip. The world slowed down; everyone else seemed to move at a fraction of normal speed. She kicked up her leg as she whirled, jamming her boot heel in the captain’s stomach. As he slammed back into the wall, she swung her fist, her aim fine-tuned by combat libraries in her node. Her knuckles smashed the wrist of the woman with the gauntlet sensor, and the crack of shattering bone broke the air. The woman screamed, a counterpoint to the captain’s bellow. In Soz’s speeded-up state, their voices sounded eerily deepened and drawn out.

  People converged on her in slow motion. Soz kicked the gun out of one man’s hand while she broke the arm of another pirate, a woman who was raising a pistol. Shouts rang out, strange and sluggish. She caught the flicker of someone’s hand an instant before he fired his laser, and she dropped out of the beam’s path as it shot across the room. Rolling across the floor, she tackled him in the knees and knocked him unconscious when he hit the ground. Yaetes fired his pistol, catching one of the pirates in the torso. Another pirate swung his laser carbine around to shoot, and Soz lunged into him, knocking the gun out of his grip. Someone else fired and Soz jumped high, flipping over the path of a projectile bullet. She glimpsed the carbine she had liberated spinning through the air towards Hypron, and in the instant she landed, Hypron caught the laser.

  Someone slammed Soz in the back. An agonized scream penetrated her mind as she went down. Not her cry; a bullet had struck one of Yaetes’ men. Its serrated edges barely touched him, but its shock wave slammed through his body, and his reaction reverberated in Soz’s hyper-sensitized mind as if she had also been hit. Her training kept her going even as she mentally reeled from the blow. She threw her attacker backward, then flipped her over and pressed against the woman’s windpipe, using enough pressure to knock her out.

  The frigate captain was trying to fire the jumbler. Aiming at Soz, he jammed his thumb on the firing stud again and again. When nothing happened, he swore furiously and hurled the gun away. It crashed into the wall, then slammed down onto the floor.

  Get ready, Soz thought to the jumbler, her thoughts accelerated.

  Priming, the gun answered.

  Soz rolled across the floor and grabbed the jumbler as she jumped to her feet. She had a glimpse of Yaetes sprawled on the ground. He was in pain, vivid and intense, but it meant he was alive. With

  Yaetes down, it also meant Hypron was wide open to attack.

  In the same moment Soz realized the frigate captain was looking straight at Hypron, she felt the pirate’s horrified recognition. He thought Hypron was a man he had already killed on the very dock of this house before he had left for reinforcements to take the homestead itself. In that instant, he believed was looking into the living face of a dead man.

  Oxim.

  The captain’s reaction burst over Soz, both his memory of the warped pleasure he had taken in Oxim’s murder and his nightmare that someday one of his victims would rise from a gruesome death to exact revenge. Hypron’s face contorted as he caught the images of Oxim’s death, and his horror blasted over Soz. Rage filled him, so intense it seared. He had never shot another person in his life, but he raised the laser carbine without hesitation.

  The entire time Soz kept moving, swinging around to face the pirates. Standing with her feet planted wide, she fired her jumbler, sweeping its beam across the ground in front of the intruders. The floor exploded in a blaze of orange light. As it collapsed, some of the pirates fell to their knees and others stumbled back. One shouted as his gun discharged, blasting a projectile into the wall. The captain was still standing, staring at Hypron with his face contorted in a raw, unthinking hatred. He raised his gun to finish a man he believed he had already destroyed—

  Hypron fired.

  The laser beam shot across the room in a brilliant red streak. When it hit the frigate captain, his body flared so brightly it threw the room into a sharp relief of light and shadow. He blazed, and the stench of incinerated skin scorched the air.

  The impact of his death slammed into Soz’s mind, and she reeled. Hypron picked it up as well, and it hit his untrained mind like an explosion. He had no mental shield that could withstand that onslaught. As colour drained from his face, Soz instinctively reached out to protect him. Her node spurred neural transmitters to block her synapses, muting what she felt, and she tried to do the same for Hypron. It couldn’t completely turn off their empathic reception; interfering with that many synapses would knock a person unconscious. But it could make the shock more bearable.

  Soz stopped moving.

  She stood in the middle of the room, breathing hard. The place was in shambles, the floor ravaged, the furniture broken, the window-wall networked by shatter patterns where bullets had hit the supposedly break-proof glass. The stench of the atmosphere leaked inside, and mud seeped into the trench in the floor.

  Everyone was staring at her. The pirates were crouched on the ground or lying still. Yaetes’ people had taken shelter behind a pulverized table. Soz kept her jumbler up and primed as she swung from side to side, watching everyone, her mind focused like a laser.

  Hostiles neutralized, her node thought. Kill or capture?

  Hold, Soz answered.

  Motion flickered in her side vision.

  In the same instant Soz whirled, her gun thought, Primed to fire.

  No! Soz told it. That’s Yaetes. The racer captain was climbing to his feet with careful movements, his gaze fixed on Soz.

  He is too close to the psion you are protecting, her node thought. Advise attack.

  She wondered why her node singled out Hypron as the person she was protecting. I’m here to defend everyone. Including Captain Yaetes.

  The captain took a deep breath, holding his pistol by his side. He let the gun drop, and it clattered on the floor. Then he limped towards Soz, holding out his hands to show he had no other weapons.

  Defence primed, her node thought. Attack?

  No attack, Soz told it.

  Yaetes stopped a few metres away. “Secondary Valdoria, it’s over. You can stand down.”

  Soz considered him. He had a point. Combat mode off, she told her node.

  Toggled off.

  With an exhale, Soz lowered her jumbler.

  “Gods almighty,” one of the pirates muttered.

  Doctor Carlon spoke, his voice easily carrying in the stunned silence. “She’s a Jagernaut, asshole.”

  Soz looked around at the pirates. “And all of you,” she said, “are under arrest.”

  Hypron sat on the edge of his bed in the dark, fully dressed, worn out but unable to lie down. Nothing could erase the images burned into his mind. He had killed today, and lived that death as if it were his own. Worse, he had felt that monster’s pleasure in murdering Oxim.

  After the battle, he had said nothing. He felt as if amber encased him. While Soz and the others had guarded the pirates, he had worked on repairing the mesh circuitry in the backup EI. When the racer returned with patrol authorities from the mainland, the officers asked for his statement, and Hypron had somehow given it, his voice numb. He had watched them take away the surviving pirates and the remains of the frigate captain. The ashes. No one arrested Hypron. No one condemned him. Self-defence, they said. He couldn’t respond. Too much had happened, too much loss, pain, grief, violence. It seared his mind.

  The door creaked, and an invisible cloak of calm spread over his thoughts. Soz.

  Hypron closed his eyes. He didn’t understand how her mind could be so luminous given what she lived through in battle, experiencing the injuries of her enemies, their pain, fear, cruelty, whatever they felt. Their deaths. He knew now, from Soz, what to call himself. Empath. Perhaps even a telepath. How could she survive it? ISC was even worse than he had thought, sending empaths into combat, even technologically enhancing their abilities, all so they could become better killers. He was surprised Jagernauts didn’t all commit suicide.

  “Hypron.” Her voice w
as soft in the dark. The bed rustled as she sat next to him. She laid her hand on his shoulder, but he didn’t move. He couldn’t accept comfort, not after what he had done. She stroked his cheek, until finally his resolve crumbled and he pulled her close, resting his cheek on the top of her head.

  “It’s all right,” she whispered. “You’ll be all right, I swear.”

  “Soz—” His voice cracked. Nothing would ever be right again.

  She touched his chin with her fingers and turned his face towards hers. Her lips were warm as she kissed him. He knew he shouldn’t hold her, that making love wouldn’t fix anything, but gods, he needed the refuge. He was breaking inside. He pulled her close, and she drew him onto the bed, caressing him.

  As they came together in the deep, quiet places of the night, his mind blended with hers. She wrapped her legs around his waist, and he moved within her, strong and steady, until he finally lost all thought in the oblivion of a healing as old as the human race.

  Hypron was drowsily aware of Soz turning over in bed. He lay on his back, one arm thrown over his head, the other feeling cold as she moved away. He wondered if she would leave.

  “Not unless you want,” she mumbled, her voice deepened by sleep.

  “Stay,” he murmured. She was shielding her mind somehow, but he picked up her contentment. After a moment, he added, “How can you hear what I think?”

  She rolled over and nestled against his side. “I can’t that much, only if the thought is intense and on the surface of your mind.”

  “I’ve never met anyone like me.” He put his arm around her, settling her head against his shoulder. “Someone who feels moods.” The closest he had known was with Oxim. Hard on the heels of that memory came a sharp pang of grief.

  “You must have loved him a lot,” Soz said. Then she muttered, “Gods, that sounded trite.”

  “It’s fine,” he said softly, leaning his head against hers. “I’m glad you stayed tonight.”

  “It’s been a long time. I mean, since, you know.” She slid her hand across his chest. “Since I’ve done this.”

  He hadn’t expected that from so sensuous a woman. He knew little about Jagernauts, though. It wouldn’t surprise him if they had trouble with the softer aspects of life given what they endured in battle.

  “Why with me?” As soon as the question came out, he wished he had kept his mouth shut. He had no desire to know if she had slept with him out of pity.

  Soz just said, “It seemed right.” She shifted against him, slight movements, but erotic. “Such a sexy man.”

  Sexy? Good gods. Her brain was fried.

  “You really have no idea, do you?” Her voice trailed off, sleepy and warm. “Foolish women here. Their loss … my gain.”

  He didn’t know what to make of that, but he liked it. He was less comfortable with her hearing his thoughts. He imagined a shroud over his mind. Then he thought, You have green tufts of fur on your ears. He smiled, imagining her reaction.

  After a moment, when nothing happened, he thought, I wish you weren’t leaving.

  Nothing.

  He imagined his thoughts forming outside his mental shroud. Did you catch that?

  She stirred against him. Catch what?

  So. He could hide his thoughts. I wondered how long you would be here.

  Until we finish the evacuation. Then she added, We won’t strand you, Hypron. We’ll help you resettle.

  He closed his eyes, relieved. That’s good to know. Just those moments of exchanging thoughts made his temples ache. He mentally retreated, settling his shroud around his mind.

  After a moment, Soz spoke. “Does it bother you that I have augmentation inside of me?”

  He blinked, unsure how to answer. “It’s different.”

  “The system is called a biomech web.”

  He supposed it should make him uncomfortable. She was probably the most dangerous human being he had ever met. But she felt so human, her body lithe and female against his. Even if this was only for one night, it was hard to believe a woman like her actually wanted him. Hell no, it didn’t bother him.

  “I’m all right with it,” he said.

  “I have an enhanced muscle system and skeleton,” she said. “Hydraulics, bioelectrodes, neurotrophic protections, bio-active threads, ear and optical implants, all that.”

  He wondered why she wanted him to know. “Sounds impressive.”

  “You’re sure you’re fine about this?”

  “Really, it’s no problem.”

  “Good.” Then, in a perfectly normal voice, she shook his universe. “Because we can get the biomech for you. Not a weapons-grade system, but certainly the structural mech. So you can walk again.”

  Walk again? She was serious! His instant of euphoria died as fast as it had come. “I’m sure I can’t afford that kind of treatment.”

  “Hell, yes, you can.” Her voice was low, but none the less ominous for that. “Make a claim against Newland Corporation. I’ll help you file. They owe you. Big time.”

  “Aren’t you an ISC officer?” He wasn’t sure, but he thought Jagernaut Secondary was a high rank in the military. “ISC helped Newland set up this colony.”

  “You’re damn right. That means I know how to deal with the system. When I get back to HQ, there will be hell to pay. Newland might as well have given you colonists a death sentence.”

  “Oh.” He hardly knew how to absorb her words. Then he wanted to kick himself. She was offering to give him back his life, and the best he could do was Oh? He was a dolt.

  “Thank you.” He wished he knew how to express how much it meant to him. “I don’t have the words to say that right.”

  Her voice softened. “You don’t need words. You shine inside. You must be an artist or something.”

  “My brother used to say that.” He doubted he would ever again talk about his life without remembering Oxim. “I really don’t know. I’ve been too busy trying to stay alive.”

  “We’ll have to find out what you like when you don’t have to worry about just surviving.”

  “It’s hard to imagine.” Nor had he missed what else she had said. “‘We?’”

  She tensed against him. “If, uh … you’d like that.”

  The night’s quiet suddenly seemed thick. “You would want me, too?”

  She spoke awkwardly. “Unless you don’t like the idea.”

  Gods, she was serious. Of course he wanted her. “I do,” he said. “Like the idea, I mean.”

  She exhaled, her body relaxing. They lay together in a silence after that, their limbs tangled together. An emotion came to him, one so rare it took a moment to sink in. He was glad to be alive. He had been dying inside for so long, he almost didn’t recognize the lightness. Even if she left tomorrow and he never saw her again, she had given him a reason to pick up his life and learn to deal with his grief.

  “I won’t leave,” she said. “You’ll stay with me, yes? Let’s see what happens. See if it works out.”

  He pressed his lips against her forehead. “Yes. Let’s do that.”

  For the first time in years, Hypron drifted to sleep looking forward to the morning.