Exodus road

by Blaine Lee Pardoe

  * * *

  "You!" came a voice from behind Judith as she set down her kit pack. She spun and saw Master Tech Phillip walking across the 'Mech repair bay in a fury, his bulky frame seeming to ball up in anger at her sight.

  Judith had expected this reaction. It had been almost two years, but she was sure Phillip would not welcome her return. He had thought to be rid of her for good. Added to that, she had reported to the 'Mech bay rather than to his office first, a subtle insult intended to spark his rage.

  It was not the most prudent move, but Judith knew she had to end the cycle of his abuse, and the pretext of her return from the homeworlds would do that. Besides, besting him once was all it would take.

  She stood facing him, hands resting defiantly on her hips. "Master Tech Phillip, I was just coming to report to you for active duty."

  He stopped in front of her and drew his hand back to deliver a blow to her face. He had done it before, dozens of times. The memory of the abuse she'd endured at his hands fueled her own wave of rage. Not this time, Phillip. His fist flew toward her face, but before it could make contact, Judith had swung her arm up and blocked it with her forearm. Then, she slammed into his stomach with a rapid jab of her other fist.

  Phillip was caught totally unprepared for her return strike. She had never done anything like that before. He rose slowly to a semi-upright position and rubbed his gut to ease the pain he still felt. Judith stood ready to throw another punch if necessary.

  She did not give him a chance to talk. "You may be the Master Tech, but I am of your caste and do not intend to tolerate anymore of your abuse. This"—she tugged at her bond-cord, holding it in front of him—"no longer grants you permission to strike me at your whim. I have proven myself to the Clan time and time again. I have been to our homeworld, walked in the jungles at night, seen the Smoke Jaguar on the prowl. You will treat me as an equal or you will die."

  "You will pay for your insolence," he spat, finally standing upright.

  "Negative, Phillip. You attempted to manipulate the Star Colonel in sending me and my bondmaster away. But we are back. And if you ever raise a fist against me again, it had better kill me. Otherwise I will take your life with my bare hands. Do we have an understanding, quiaff?"

  Deep red flooded the chubby face of the Master Tech as he stared back at her. He said nothing until she barked out again. "Quiaff?"

  "Aff, Judith. For now, you have the upper hand." As it should be forever, Phillip....

  31

  Smoke Jaguar Planetary Command Post

  Warrenton, Hyner

  Smoke Jaguar Occupation Zone

  30 August 3057

  The hovercar sped out of Warrenton with Judith at the controls. Neither she nor Trent said anything as they drove away from Warrenton. Both seemed to be breathing in the mid-morning sunshine, so welcome after more than a year of traveling by JumpShip from Huntress, not to mention the foul weather of that place. Judith felt the sun's heat penetrating her lightweight jacket and warming her gray shirt underneath. She remembered the first time they had taken this trip almost two years ago, the first time she had brought Trent here, to this special place, the one place on Hyner they could call their own.

  Trent had been pensive since his victory in the Trial of Position, quiet, almost withdrawn into his own thoughts. The contest had, in the end, resulted in Trent's victory. It had been close, but now Trent commanded Beta Trinary, Jez's former command. Russou, despite losing to Trent, had behaved like a true warrior and bore no ill will.

  But Judith knew everything would be fine once they were in the Castle Brian. In that place she was more than a tech and he was more than a warrior. There, in those ruins, they had stood among things that had not been disturbed for centuries and breathed the same air as men and women of a greater time in the history of humankind. There, she and Trent seemed to gather power and strength anew.

  This was their first trip back since returning to Hyner. Both had been kept very busy with duties. Trent was reorganizing his new Trinary of warriors, including Russou and his Star. He had the members of his new command constantly drilling in their new 'Mechs—which in turn kept Judith and the other techs busy.

  As she made the turn onto Braddock Pike heading north, Judith sensed Trent becoming uneasy. She knew why. They would once again drive past the ruins of Chinn, and she knew he had never ceased to blame himself for its destruction. Judith had even more urgent matters to talk about this afternoon, and hoped it would help chase away the ghosts of Chinn.

  "I have encountered some problems in reaching my contacts," she said.

  Trent stirred slightly, as though unwilling to break the silence in the hovercar. "Problems?"

  She did not take her eyes from the road. "My contact was present on-planet when we first returned, but when I tried to contact her again, she was gone."

  "Do you think she has been discovered?"

  Judith shook her head. "Neg. I know several techs in the medical center of the command post. If someone was being interrogated, I would have been able to find out. I think my contact has gone to ground for some reason."

  "We have no way to pass on the information we have recovered then," Trent said.

  Judith shook her head, but did not take her eyes from the road. "Not at this time."

  He pounded his fist into the dashboard, startling her with this uncharacteristic show of rage.

  "This is beyond belief, Judith. We have traveled to the Kerensky Cluster and back. We have managed to plot the position of every jump point between Huntress and the Inner Sphere. We possess information that every House Lord would kill for, and we cannot get that information away."

  "I have an idea," she said. "With my ComStar contact in hiding or otherwise detained, it might be possible to make use of the HPG here on Hyner to get a coded message out."

  "Do you think your Com Guard compatriots would come to Hyner to attempt to recover us?"

  "I assume you want me to answer honestly."

  "Aye."

  "No," she said. "I do not think they will come here to extract us. The risks of crossing the Occupation Zone border are much too great. To do so might be interpreted as a violation of the Truce of Tukayyid. Besides, our entire Cluster is here. The Stormriders are a potent threat—a front-line unit. Somebody would have to show up with nearly a regiment of their own troops."

  "There has to be a way for us to get off Hyner and take the information with us," Trent said. "I have heard reports of the Wolves carrying out raids against Jaguar targets, but I see no way for us to leverage that to our advantage. Even if the Stormriders are pressed into that fight, we would not be sent anywhere that would put us within reach of ComStar."

  She understood the urgency of his need to pass on the Exodus Road data. Trent had told her all about Galaxy Commander Benjamin Howell and his operation. They had spent many hours discussing the small-time smuggling operation during chess games aboard the Dhava on the long trip back from Huntress. Some of Benjamin's lower-caste cronies had been trying to contact Trent, but he had managed to evade them thus far. He had never really intended to get involved in that operation.

  The problem, as she had pointed out to Trent, with such operations is that sooner or later they unravel. And when they do, all parties connected with them are exposed. In this case, that would include Trent. And the Exodus Road data stored in his wristcomp would fall when he did.

  This was not a time to panic, but the moment for making careful plans. After all they had been through, a foolish and hasty mistake now might cost them everything.

  "I suggest that we both remain on guard, but otherwise exercise patience," she said. "Sooner or later something will present itself, some way for us to leave Hyner. When it does, we will take advantage of it and depart. It is also possible that my contact will surface at any time. If she does, we can at least get some direction from ComStar on how to proceed."

  "Affirmative," Trent replied. "There is nothing we can do but wait. The problem is that
patience is not a virtue drilled into us in the sibkos. The Smoke Jaguar is always first to pounce into battle. I do understand the tactical necessity of waiting for the right moment to strike, but it does not come naturally to me."

  Judith nodded. "I had the same problem," she said.

  "What changed you?"

  She looked over at him. The man next to her was horribly scarred, and despite the synthetic skin that covered half his face, a stranger would probably see him as a monster— burned and disfigured. She saw something else, something beyond the scars, something deep inside him. He was a man of honor and integrity, and she respected that.

  It is time to say it out loud, to speak it to him. "My lesson in patience was you."

  "Me?"

  "Aff. I told you that I was once a member of ROM, which is an intelligence branch of ComStar," she said, watching the road carefully. "What I did not tell you was that I never left ROM. I had been trained for special missions, covert operations, black operations. When the Clans invaded I was posted to the Com Guards, not as a soldier so much as an infiltration—should the opportunity ever present itself.

  "My superiors were sure the Com Guards would one day engage the Clans in battle. If they did, I was to use any and all means at my disposal to penetrate the Clans and learn all I could. If possible, I was to search for clues to the Exodus Road. My mission orders left plenty of room to improvise. My Com Guard superiors had no idea that I was still in the employ of ROM. Only the Precentor Martial himself was aware."

  "On Tukayyid I fought you in order to survive. It was sheer luck that you took me as a bondsman. It has been years, but now we are on the brink of achieving what I set out to do."

  Trent was silent for a moment. "I am merely a mission to you?"

  She bit her lip. "Neg, Trent, you are more than that." So much more. Judith felt a longing for him that sometimes left her whole body tingling with frustrated desire. Even as she drove, she felt the air between them charged with invisible sparks of electricity. "I have come to care for you, Trent."

  Trent lowered his head. "I understand what you feel, Judith," he said almost softly.

  "You do?"

  "Aff. But here, now, we are still Smoke Jaguars. Coupling between the castes is illicit. Perhaps Judith, once we leave here ... we can be . . . more."

  She was about to try again to express her longing and desire, but something in the road ahead suddenly took all her attention. Two laser rifle-armed infantry stood behind a barricade in the road, weapons in hand. Their armored vests, thigh pads, and tinted-glass helmets made them appear totally menacing. She took her foot off the accelerator and let the hovercar slow.

  Trent shot her a quick glance, then smiled. "Remain calm, Judith. I will deal with them."

  She stopped the vehicle, and the guards moved to either side of it, looking in at Trent and Judith, who had lowered their windows. The faces of the helmeted troopers filled the open windows, air hissing out of the filter systems in their headgear. "This area is restricted access only."

  Trent held up his wrist codex, which the trooper on his side scanned with a hand-held device. "I came here to walk, relax. I am Star Captain Trent, Third Jaguar Cavaliers."

  "And her." The trooper motioned to Judith with his rifle butt.

  "My bondsman. I pressed her into service as a driver. It is a task befitting one of her position, quiaff?" A lie, but a necessary one.

  The trooper nodded and spoke in a muffled voice. "Affirmative, Star Captain. You must be new to Hyner."

  "Neg. We have been away for some time, however."

  "This is sacred ground, Star Captain. Our scientist caste discovered a Star League Castle Brian in the hills there." The man pointed up toward the mound.

  Trent feigned surprise "I had no idea, trooper. Such a site—where the Star League once stood. I should like to see such a place."

  The trooper shook his black-helmeted head. "Negative. I am sorry, Star Captain, but Star Colonel Moon has declared that only the bloodnamed of the Clan can visit this site."

  "But I am a trueborn warrior," Trent said.

  "Aff, but not blooded, sir. Bloodnamed from other units come here under invitation of the Star Colonel, but we have orders that no other may pass."

  Trent took the words like a physical blow. He lowered his head and wiped his face with his hand. "Very well, trooper," he replied. "Judith, take us back to base."

  She nodded, sure he must be feeling the same suppressed rage as she. The Castle Brian was their place. She had discovered it first. She had brought him there. It was there that Trent had become more than a bondsmaster to her. Now the Smoke Jaguars had taken that from them. What had once been their place of freedom was now restricted to the elite bloodnamed of the Clan. She was sure that this was Paul Moon's way of using the site to play the game of political favors with other units.

  Judith reversed the hovercar and closed the windows. Neither she nor Trent said a word on the trip back to Warrenton. They did not have to. Their secrets had bound them together more tightly than any bondcord.

  32

  Smoke Jaguar Planetary Command Post

  Warrenton, Hyner

  Smoke Jaguar Occupation Zone

  23 April 3058

  Trent entered the briefing room along with all the other officers of the Third Jaguar Cavaliers Cluster, but he might as well have been alone. There were hostile glances in his direction from the likes of Oleg Nevversan and Ramon Showers, but he did his best to ignore them. Only Star Captain Nanci of Binary Elemental seemed willing to have anything to do with him. She stood at his side, dwarfing him with her massive muscular bulk, oblivious to the looks the other officers were giving him. She, like me, is unblooded. In her eyes, we share that in common.

  Trent looked up at her, his own arms crossed in a relaxed, yet obstinate mode. "Do you know why we were summoned, Nanci?"

  "Affirmative," she said in her voice so deep it sounded almost masculine. "At least I think so. Rumors have been flying that Galaxy Commander Hang Mehta is here with the commander of the Nineteenth Striker Cluster."

  "A raid then, quiaff?"

  "One can only assume that Star Colonels Paul Moon and Thilla Showers are bidding against each other for some sort of mission. And since the bidding is taking place here, it is only logical that the strike would be against the Draconis Combine." Trent thought her logic sound, given that Hyner was poised on the border with the Draconis Combine.

  Trent held back a grin. A raid into the Combine would give him a chance to remain in the Inner Sphere and pass on the information he and Judith had gathered. "I hope you are correct. I would welcome an opportunity to get my unit into battle."

  "Only if you have been bid. Though you have nothing to worry about there, Trent."

  "Why do you say that?"

  She shrugged slightly and lowered her tone so that their fellow officers would not hear. "All in this room know the contempt Star Colonel Moon feels toward you."

  "Aff," Trent replied softly. "I would expect him to keep me out of the bid for this fight."

  "Neg," she said. "I have heard him speak openly of you. Paul Moon will make sure that you are bid, no matter what. His intentions toward you are, I believe, crystal clear."

  Trent understood. Unable to dispose of Trent by shipping him off to a sorry fate on Huntress, Moon would make sure he was killed in battle. Trent had no illusions. Even if he were successful and died a glorious death, Paul Moon would find a way to sully his name. No matter what, there would be no honor for him.

  Before he and Nanci could say more, the door at the far end of the room opened and two figures entered. Trent recognized one as Star Colonel Paul Moon. The other was a shorter warrior who wore the rank of Galaxy Commander. It had to be Hang Mehta, Moon's commanding officer. Though much smaller than Moon, her stride was a full step ahead of the big Elemental, and the cast-iron expression on her face easily identified her as the superior officer. Every officer in the briefing room snapped to attention as the pair came
to the head of the room.

  "Third Jaguar Cavaliers, Stormriders of the Smoke Jaguar," bellowed Galaxy Commander Mehta in a ceremonial tone, "you will once again draw blood in the name of our Clan and show that we are not as wounded as our enemies think. The Wolves attempted to raid us to restore their own honor, and Khan Lincoln Osis has decreed that Delta Galaxy will show both our kindred and the barbarians at the gate that we are far from weak."

  "Seyla," came the solemn approval of all the Jaguars in the room.

  "Our target is the Combine border world of Maldonado, one jump from here. There are several military bases there. This strike will stun the forces there and demonstrate to both the Combine and our fellow Clans that the Smoke Jaguar can still hunt and destroy." She looked up and over at the Colonel who stood at her side.

  "Star Colonel Moon has successfully won the bid to attack Maldonado. Under his command, you will strike with a fury that will echo across the stars."

  "Seyla," they all responded again.

  Moon stepped up beside his commanding officer. "Storm-riders, my bid was as bold as the fires in your hearts." He glanced over at Star Captain Oleg Nevversan. "Trinary Assault, you will rend our foes." He pointed to Ramon Showers. "And Supernova Striker, you will send our enemies howling in fear." Then he turned to Trent, his voice dropping an octave. "And Beta Striker Trinary, you shall rush into the valley of death to slay those who would oppose us. Two DropShips are being prepared and you depart in three days' time."

  "Into the valley of death they rode..." Trent remembered the words from an ancient poem he had once read many years ago. His sought the eyes of Star Colonel Paul Moon, who fixed him with an icy stare.

  * * *

  Trent sat in the cockpit of his Cauldron-Born, adjusting the seat again for what seemed like the thousandth time since his return. He missed his Timber Wolf, which had been reassigned since he had left and returned to Hyner. Instead he had been assigned one of the replacement 'Mechs that had come with him from Huntress. Though he had successfully tested at a higher weight class, he had opted for the Cauldron-Born. Trent was still having trouble getting used to the fact that the 'Mech's stance was lower than the Timber Wolfs.