Merkiaari Wars: 02 - What Price Honour

by Mark E. Cooper

  The hatch slid shut, hiding his smug grin.

  “Shit,” Kate whispered and frowned. Why was she still talking like a foulmouthed retro? “Damn! I was going to ask him about that…”

  She sighed and lay back on her bunk to read the section about her family. It described in brutal detail how Gerald Whitby had used his influence with the Baxters to ruin her father. It didn’t say why, and Kate had long ago given up trying to find that out. None of it was important until she found the section on her brother. It listed his vital stats, much like it had hers, and she only skimmed them. Then she saw the shattering revelations on the last page. Paul was alive and well, living and working off world. He was alive! She had hoped and prayed for it, but all her searching, all her shady deals had turned up nothing. He had ceased to exist. How could Stone find her brother in mere weeks? He couldn’t have searched harder than she had these last few years. A lucky hit on his first try? No way, she didn’t believe in luck.

  Kate read further and found part of the answer. It was a mission overview detailing an op that took place not long ago on Thurston. She whistled, realising how close she had come to being tangled in a viper operation staged against the Freedom Movement. Paul had been there, they had missed each other by a week. No more than that! There were photographs of him exiting a shuttle and meeting someone. She read the results of the operation, not caring about the Freedom Movements annihilation, interested only in her brother. Thankfully he had not been part of the fighting and had left well before it got messy. The ship was owned and operated by…

  “Noooo,” she hissed. “Whitby you bastard, you took my father from me. I’m not letting you have my brother too!”

  Kate leapt off the bunk and nearly smashed the compad against the hatch in her rage. She had to do something, but what could she do? Paul was god knows where, and she was stuck on Luna. Even if she weren’t, Gerald Whitby was one of The Ten. He was a member of Bethany’s ruling council. What the hell was Paul thinking linking himself to that family? It might have been the Baxters that ruined their father and ultimately killed him, but Whitby was the puppet master.

  Kate’s thoughts raced. She finally had a lead on her brother’s whereabouts, she couldn’t quit now and let the trail go cold. If she couldn’t trace a single ship and all its passengers she would eat her damn computer. Paul was as good as found. It would still take some digging to ferret him out, but she would find him. There was no doubt in her mind any longer. She would find him and soon.

  Kate sat at her comp. Stone had given her what amounted to an ultimatum, and she didn’t dare disobey. She would remove her shunt and other hacks from the comm system as ordered, but first she had to warn her contact that his cover was blown. Maybe he could beat the odds and escape, though she doubted it.

  “You’re three hours late!” her contact snarled.

  Kate smiled. “Yeah, sorry about that, I had this thing. Listen—”

  “No you listen. I need your report right goddamn now! I think they may be on to me.”

  Her smile slipped and she nodded. “Yeah, I think you’re right. You better disappear.”

  “That’s what I said. Now send the damn report and let me get out of here!”

  “Ah, about that… there’s no report and I resign.”

  His face darkened. “You can’t resign, no one leaves ISS.”

  “I can, I just did. I quit.”

  “Kate, be reasonable. Just send your data and we’ll talk about this later. I know you want to find your brother. I’ll help. You know you’ll never find him on your own.”

  Kate smiled coldly. “I have a better offer,” she said and broke the connection. A few more commands and her comp reset itself to its default configuration leaving no evidence of her tampering.

  * * *

  Colonel Dan Flowers studied the faces of two hundred and twenty young men and women. The youngsters were silent and sitting at attention waiting for him to speak, while Stone, Marion, and the other vipers he had brought with him stood silently along the walls looking on.

  His eyes sought out Richmond, and found her sitting quietly in the second row. She looked pale and distracted. Of all the recruits, she was one of those that concerned him the most. Stone and Marion had worked their miracle to keep her in the program as he had asked, but something deeper seemed to be going on in Richmond’s head than a Bethanite’s fear of cybernetics. She was withdrawn and moody with the other recruits, but wouldn’t talk about it. Neither would Stone. Marion was a qualified Psych Tech as well as an MD, but she wouldn’t break confidence. All he could do was hope that she was keeping a professional eye on the situation, and that she would intervene if and when the time came.

  Flowers stood at parade rest before his audience. “My name is Flowers, Colonel currently commanding 1st Recruit Training Battalion, 501st Infantry… you lot in other words. You will be seeing a lot of me over the coming month.” That caused a stir. His name was not unknown in the Alliance. He raised a hand to silence the murmuring recruits. “Quieten down people. We have time to answer a few questions.” He pointed to a woman in the third row. “You are?”

  The woman stood at attention and replied. “Sir, Lieutenant Fuentez. Alliance Marines, sir… I mean I used to be.”

  “Ask your question, Recruit Fuentez.”

  “Sir, I heard the Council ordered a hold put on new construction of vipers after the war, sir.”

  “You heard right, but policy does change. After the war, we were allowed to recruit back up to a nice and even one hundred units. A lucky thing for the Alliance. We can train you and more like you.”

  No one was really comfortable with nano enhanced cyborgs. One of the first major uses of nano technology was that of nano-bots injected into the blood stream to protect from disease. In the military, the idea was enhanced with the bots being tasked specifically to heal battlefield injuries. During the war, ever more applications were discovered until the first viper unit was created. Using nanotech to enhance bone structure and musculature, a stronger faster soldier was produced that eventually led the Alliance to victory after victory.

  The downside was that vipers scared people. They were designed specifically to maim and kill Merkiaari in milli-seconds. No one was easy around a loaded gun with a hair trigger. It was the same with vipers. They were feared and respected—but mostly feared. Only another viper was truly content to be near one. Everyone else shunned them. If asked, most would say it was only good sense to fear them.

  Cyborgs and neural implant technology were feared partly because of what happened when Douglas Walden and his hackers began their reign of terror in the mid 3300s. The so-called Hacker Rebellion saw the end of widespread use of implant technology. Before that time, nearly everyone was fitted with neural interfaces that allowed them to access AI controlled networks spanning systems all over the Human sector of space. Walden and his fanatics changed all that when they tried to free what they called the oppressed mentalities that humanity had enslaved.

  Millions of people died horribly—turned to mindless zombies when Walden unleashed his viruses and worms upon the networks. Economies of entire planets went into free fall, defence nets and power grids had to be shut down for months to prevent damage to critical systems. What Walden failed to consider, or perhaps didn’t care about, was that those same AIs he wanted to free couldn’t function separated from the network. They were the network. Thousands of AIs were destroyed by those same hackers—men and women that had sworn to free them.

  Almost four hundred years later, there were no more AIs and a ban was in force to prevent construction of more. There were no solar system spanning networks, very few neural networks or interfaces of any kind existed anywhere in the Alliance, and all because of one man—Douglas Walden. His name was universally despised. He was known throughout the Alliance as one of the most evil and hated men in history. Being called a hacker by someone was the worst insult imaginable.

  As for the vipers, an army of cyborgs controlled by ha
ckers was a nightmare scenario that no one wanted to contemplate.

  Flowers nodded to another recruit. “You have a question, son?”

  “Sir, Lieutenant Cragg, Alizon Rangers. My question is: why are they increasing the number now, sir?”

  Flowers pursed his lips. “The answer to that question is classified, Recruit. You are not to discuss it with anyone outside of this room. The simplest answer is that we have discovered another alien species.”

  That caused quite a stir. Everyone started talking at once, all trying to ask for details.

  “Simmer down people. You are soldiers, act like it.” He glared around the room. “We haven’t been attacked, and I have no reason to expect we will be, but we’re not taking chances. I’ve seen some of the data. I believe we may have found allies rather than enemies. In any case, I have been tasked with recruiting and training you lot, while Colonel Stanbridge will look for another group to test.” He paused for more questions but there were none. “Attention to orders: All those here present will immediately embark a shuttle to ASN Washington.

  “You will be issued new uniforms on the shuttle. Put them on immediately. You are forbidden to wear anything else until I say otherwise. Your old uniform will be disposed of, and any personal items will be locked in my safe until we reach base. Don’t think this trip is a vacation, people,” he warned when he noticed shoulders relaxing throughout the room. “You will be taught the anatomy of a viper, including the construction process on the way. While aboard Washington, you are forbidden to enter any unauthorised compartment. In fact, you are authorised only three areas. One, your sleeping area. Two, the refectory that I will show you. Three, the toilet facility.

  “You will not fraternise with crewmembers. Any recruit seen discussing viper business, or anything else for that matter, with a crewmember will be dismissed and mind wiped. Any infraction of the orders I have just made clear to you from this point on, will lead to instant dismissal and mind wipe. Embarrassing me, or any other viper unit, will result in instant dismissal and mind wipe. All understood?”

  Silence.

  He scowled. “My hearing must be defective. Is all UNDERSTOOD?”

  Two hundred and twenty voices said as one, “Sir, yessir.”

  He glanced at Stone. “Carry on, Sergeant.”

  Stone braced. “Sir.” Turning to the recruits he gave his orders. “Listen up. From this point on you are viper recruits. Any one of you can prove himself worthy to be an officer, and the reverse is also true. The first fifty men, starting from the man on my left closest to the hatch, stand and follow your sergeant.” Stone watched as fifty men and woman followed his instructions. He went through all the rest until the last group. “Sir, we seem to have seventy men here.”

  “Why, I do believe you’re right, Master Sergeant. I’ll take the last twenty personally.”

  “Yes, sir,” Stone said. “The next fifty follow me. You are now Fourth Platoon.”

  Flowers studied his twenty recruits, among them was Richmond and Fuentez. “You know the drill by now. Follow me Fifth Platoon.”

  * * *

  Gina marched automatically in step with her new comrades. Her situation was hard to take in. It had taken a police action on a border world not yet officially part of the Alliance to gain her stripes, and another on Thurston to gain her commission. Being a recruit again felt unreal, as if the last fifteen years had been a dream. All her achievements had been wiped away by two little words spoken quietly yesterday in her room.

  “I volunteer.”

  The Colonel had nodded solemnly and shook her hand before leaving her to ponder all he had told her. He had been almost brutal with his descriptions of the surgery and the consequences of it, but that had not been the hardest thing for her to take in. She had already been aware of some of the details through her association with Eric, but not all them. For one thing, she hadn’t been aware that all viper units were sterile—a consequence of the process used to create them. By volunteering to join those elite soldiers, she was giving up the possibility of a family and children in the future. She was agreeing to leave her humanity behind. She understood Eric so much better now.

  She made her way to the shuttle and pondered what they had and hadn’t been told. The news of another sentient race was astounding. Everyone knew humanity’s old enemies, the Merkiaari, were still out there, and because of that the drive to go out specifically looking for new races had waned. It sounded as if the Council was being cagey this time. A good thing. Mishandling first contact could send humanity into war with another alien race. How many times could the Alliance win against a superior force before going down into defeat?

  Once aboard the shuttle, Gina pulled on her new uniform. The only insignia on it was her name on the pocket over her right breast, and the viper patch on her left shoulder. The battledress uniform was the same as every other she had ever worn except in colour, but this one made her feel different. No rank now, but that wasn’t it. It was the mental baggage that came with the black uniform and the viper patch that caused it.

  She had made an irrevocable decision when she hadn’t backed out at the briefing. The rumours of what happened when you became a viper were rife throughout the Alliance. Some said vipers were nothing but robots and were not human. Others said they were cyborgs and too powerful a threat to the Alliance. There were many other rumours, but one thing they all agreed on was that vipers were not completely Human any longer. By not backing out she had chosen to give up part of her humanity. She had seen Eric in action, and she had watched the Colonel and his sergeants throughout the testing. She couldn’t distinguish any external differences between them and any other person, except the weapon’s data bus in their right palms.

  Until they moved.

  They seemed to glide along, as if they might take to the air at any moment. She knew the illusion was caused by the strength they embodied, but the grace was surprising. Images of clanking, clumsy robots were very far from the reality.

  She handed her Marine Lieutenant’s uniform to the sergeant that came to collect it with a pang of loss. She was a Marine no longer, not really. The saying: Once a Marine always a Marine, came easily while still in the corps, but from the outside looking in, there was a world of difference. The corps was all her family… had been all her family. She glanced around at her new one and hoped she had made the right choice. Being a Marine was more than wearing the uniform. It was doing one’s duty no matter what, being ever faithful to what the corps and the Alliance stood for. Wearing black didn’t change who she was, and she was determined her transformation into a viper unit would not change her either.

  She strapped into her seat, knowing what would happen if she didn’t. The shuttle was much too small to have an internal gravity field. She was used to living and working in micro-gee environments and did not concern herself when the shuttle accelerated hard just a few moments later. One or two of the others were caught off guard, and she didn’t think much of their chances at promotion. They had been given plenty of time to change, but she noticed with amusement that some of the recruits were shy about undressing with men in view. They were probably from Bethany’s World. It was surprising to see viper recruits from there, especially when Bethany’s government had voted against their creation during the Merki War, but she supposed there had to be some normal people living there.

  The Alliance had only been a dream back then. Earth, though highly respected as humanity’s homeworld, had been only one of many separate voices. It had taken a war to make the dream of the Alliance come to life. Worlds had banded together to resist the aliens, but they failed to hold the enemy at bay until Earth finally stepped to the fore with its forces. The Alliance was born and the Merki advance was slowed but not stopped. Ten years of harsh fighting culminated in the creation of the first vipers, and they slowly reclaimed the lost worlds. The war lasted almost twenty years—twenty years, and an estimated sixteen billion people died before it was done. It could have been many more—th
e Merkiaari were very thorough. They left little evidence of their genocide behind them. No one knew the exact figures.

  The Alliance did succeed in pushing the aliens out of its systems, but at a high cost. Gina thought they should have pushed on and annihilated the Merkiaari down to the last male, but she understood why they hadn’t. Eighty percent of the new Alliance had needed massive reconstruction, and resources were at an all time low. It took almost fifty years to bring those worlds back to their pre-war condition. During that time, the Alliance Council became a way of life. Headquarters of the combined military remained in Sol system on Luna. Earth, as humanity’s homeworld, became the capital and therefore the centre of the Human sphere of influence—though of course it wasn’t central in purely spatial terms.

  Peace and the rule of law reigned within the Alliance, but those yearning for a frontier type life had an outlet. These became known as the Border Worlds. They offered a hard and violent life to their citizens, but their sparse populations preferred it that way. They were left alone for the most part, but the Alliance did offer membership to them if they could reach a consensus among their people to join. Some of the Border Worlds had turned to piracy to supplement their lack of trade. Fleet was kept gainfully employed suppressing such outbreaks.

  Gina studied the faces and postures of those around her. Most seemed cheerful and nodded to her before continuing their conversations. Her eyes locked on one woman who was silent and brooding. The woman’s eyes sharpened when she noticed Gina’s regard, and her hand twitched as if reaching for a weapon. The woman was a killer, pure and simple.

  Gina forced her eyes to move on and the chill in her spine eased.

  She couldn’t see outside. The shuttle was a military vessel and not a cruise ship, but she still knew the moment they arrived. Gravity returned as the shuttle crossed the threshold in the bay, and moments later a slight bump heralded touchdown. Various clanking noises announced the ship was secure and she unbuckled her harness.