Valor's Choice

by Tanya Huff

  Since he’d probably been thinking about that as well, Torin let it go since he’d clearly come to terms with the order he’d had to give. One down, and one to go. And sending others out to die was the harder order of the two.

  Knowing what she’d see, she glanced around the compound. There were two Marines stationed on the roof of each building and the walls between were waist-high and a half a meter thick. They had food, they had water, they certainly had more artillery than the enemy. They had a medical station set up, and an actual doctor on site. “There’s nothing more you can do, sir. Nothing but wait.”

  “I know. And it’s strange, in spite of what happened last night, waiting’s still the hard part.”

  Torin found herself taking a step forward, aching to physically comfort him. Fortunately, she recognized the impetus. “Sir. Your masker.”

  It was lying on the side of the well.

  “My…” He followed her line of sight. “Oh. Sorry, Staff.”

  He sounded more amused than sorry.

  At least he’s got his good mood back, Torin thought, waiting until the masker was safely hooked to the lieutenant’s belt before she drew another breath.

  “I thought there’d be no problem, what with being outside and the lower temperature and, well, being alone.”

  “Understandable, sir.”

  “Of course you’d be more susceptible, having been exposed…that time that didn’t happen,” he finished sheepishly, his original thought stopped cold by her expression. “So, according to the emmy’s targeting scanner, the Silsviss are only just leaving the swamp. There’s a chance that the authorities will find us first.”

  “The authorities?” Not the Berganitan. If the ship had returned to a planetary orbit, they’d have already been found.

  “The Silsviss authorities.” His hair emerged from its rubdown flying off in all directions, and it took him a moment to bring it under control. “Even if Captain Daniels didn’t get off a message they could read, they certainly know we’re missing and, as primitive as their planetary satellite system is, they must know where we are by now.”

  “Unless the Others drew the Berganitan off so that they could slip in and overthrow the planetary governments unopposed.”

  “I think the Silsviss would oppose, don’t you?”

  “Yes, sir.” She firmly squelched an unvoiced offer to dry his back. “But that would leave them too busy to come for us. And if we were shot down by a non-Confederation faction within the Silsviss…” He shook his head, but she continued, still unwilling to elevate one theory over the others. “…there’ll be fighting going on as well.”

  “So no matter how we look at it, no rescue.”

  “Not this morning, sir.”

  Draping his towel over the side of the well, he shrugged into his shirt and moved his masker from his belt back to his throat. “You know, Staff…” He shot her a sideways glance from under long lashes. “…I was actually enjoying the morning until you showed up.”

  “Sorry, sir.”

  “But I’m sure it’s part of your job to keep my feet on the ground, to examine all possibilities, to keep me from unwarranted optimism.”

  A di’Taykan in a teasing mood was damned near impossible to resist. In spite of herself, she smiled. “Yes, sir.”

  “You’re doing a good job.”

  “Thank you, sir.” She fell into step beside him as he carried the bucket toward the north wall. “Uh, Lieutenant, where are we going?”

  “I’m just dumping my wash water, Staff. There’s no point in making mud inside the compound.”

  He had a point, Torin acknowledged, especially since anticipation of an attack would place a second latrine pit inside the barricades.

  Angling away from the place he’d gone over the wall the night before, Jarret braced his legs against the grain bags and threw the water from his bucket.

  It arced through the air, hit the ground, and…

  A brilliant flash of light erupted into the northeastern sky, visible in spite of distance and in spite of fog. A few seconds later, a sharp crack of sound split the morning, then died to a low, lingering rumble felt in bones and teeth more than heard. The silence that followed came without any ambient noise at all. The dawn songs of birds and insects that had been providing a background so constant it could be ignored were gone.

  Drifting down from the roof of the west building came an incredulous, “What the fuk was that?”

  “The self-destruct on the armory,” Torin answered grimly.

  Hair flat against his head, Jarret turned wide lilac eyes toward her. “Our armory? On the VTA?”

  “Yes, sir.” If there was another armory in the immediate area, no one had told her about it.

  He stared into the distance, as though waiting for debris to come falling through the fog. “I guess we won’t be making that supply run,” he said at last.

  Half expecting some kind of angry outburst, Torin was impressed by his calm. A calm officer was a good thing for a besieged Marine awakened by an explosion to see. “We’d have had to run through the Silsviss,” she pointed out, her tone matching his.

  “Very true.” The ends of his hair started to lift. “Well, let’s look at the bright side, shall we? At least we know they didn’t get through the security protocols. And that explosion very likely took out a number of Silsviss. If it took out enough, they might think twice about attacking.”

  “You told me that the tracking scanner on the emmy put most of the Silsviss on their way out of the swamp,” Torin reminded him. “The VTA would have contained all but the vertical blast, so I expect it deafened more than it killed.”

  A tentative birdcall broke the silence. And then another. A moment later, the morning refilled with sound. A moment after that, Torin winced as her implant went off-line. The techs insisted it wasn’t supposed to hurt. What did they know?

  “Did your…?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Do you think they left someone behind? Told him to keep trying while most of them started out after us?”

  “No, sir.” From what Torin understood about pack leadership, she didn’t think that was likely. “Perhaps someone, thinking to challenge the leader, went back on his own. Even one of our weapons would significantly change the balance of power.”

  “Then it’s a good thing they didn’t get one, isn’t it?” As they turned together to face a compound full of questioning Marines, he added, “And you were right, Staff. We should have blown it ourselves.”

  “Thank you, sir.”

  Of course she’d been right. She only wished she felt better about hearing him admit it.

  * * *

  “They will try to draw you out into battle, to goad you into attacking them out where their numbersss will give them the advantage even over your weaponsss.” Cri Sawyes stared out over the north wall, his head slightly cocked. Torin wondered what he could hear. Was he listening to the small clump of Marines grouped around the emmy or beyond that to the approaching battle?

  “Cri Sawyes, regardless of who or what shot us down, these adolescents are not the enemy. We have every intention of fighting a purely defensive battle and causing as few casualties as possible.”

  Wearing her best noncommittal expression, Torin turned to face the lieutenant and realized he sincerely meant what he’d just said. The deaths of eight individual Silsviss didn’t add up to actually being in combat and he still had no firsthand experience of how fast good intentions got blown to kingdom come. She kept her own opinion on the type of battle they’d be fighting locked firmly behind her lips. He’d learn soon enough; she had no desire to rush the lesson. Provided that they weren’t endangering her Marines, she always found it a little sad when second lieutenants lost the last of their shiny, untried ideals.

  Cri Sawyes had been a soldier. “Thossse are good intentionsss, Lieutenant Jarret, but asss we sssay where I come from, it takesss two to haylisss, and I doubt the pack will cooperate.” He continued watching the
crest of the low purple hill to the north. “If you won’t come out, they will come in after you.”

  “But we have an entrenched position…” Jarret’s gesture took in the buildings, the compound, and the black-clad Marines filling it with shadow. “…and they have only primitive weapons.”

  “Yesss. Ssso?”

  “And it’s the same entrenched position they threw themselves at one at a time last night, isn’t it?”

  “Yesss.”

  “They won’t be thinking, sir, they’ll be reacting.” Torin echoed Cri Sawyes’ explanation for the lieutenant. “As far as they’re concerned, we’re another pack. The reaction to another pack is to defeat it. Our weapons alone are a prize worth the risk. If taken, they’d allow the pack to rule the preserve.”

  “Then we’ll have to see they aren’t taken.”

  All officers liked to state the obvious. In Torin’s experience it was a habit they never outgrew. “Yes, sir.”

  His gaze shifted out to the Marines at the emmy, and Jarret exhaled loudly. “Looks like you were right again, Staff.”

  Again, he states the obvious.

  “The sun’s been up for three hours, and there’s no sign of the authorities. Any authorities.”

  The fog had quickly burned off with the rising of the sun, and the temperature had begun to rise. The early damp had long since dried. There was already a promise of scorching heat in the still air. Torin suspected that as the day progressed, the di’Taykan would be pushing the limits of their environmental controls.

  “The fact that we have not been ressscued…” When both Marines turned to glare, his tongue flicked out and he amended his statement. “…sssay rather dissscovered, leadsss me to believe it wasss not the Othersss who shot down the VTA but a disssident group of my own people. That would mossst certainly keep the variousss governmentsss at each othersss’ throatsss for daysss.”

  “Based on what I’ve seen, I don’t think your people have the technology to take us out.”

  The tongue flicked out again. “And you think you sssaw everything?” He raised a hand to cut off the lieutenant’s answer. “Of courssse you don’t. My apologiesss.” When the lieutenant graciously allowed that the apology would be accepted, he continued. “I, persssonally, am more curiousss about why the pack hasssn’t arrived. At that age, we run to a fight.”

  “Run to a fight?” Torin repeated, changing the emphasis. “Teenagers.” She closed her teeth on what usually followed when sergeants got together to complain about new recruits. Can’t live with them, can’t use them for target practice. From the sound of it, they’d be using them for target practice today.

  “Yesss. Teenagersss. Ssstill, they should be here by now.”

  “The explosion probably slowed them.”

  “Perhapsss.” But he turned to stare over the north wall again.

  “Sir! We have a reading!”

  The ambient noise in the compound dropped as Binti yelled in the results from the emmy.

  This was it. The beginning of it, at any rate. Torin felt her heart begin to beat a little faster as Lieutenant Jarret asked, “And?”

  “The Silsviss are just under two kilometers away.”

  “How many of them?”

  “Just a minute, sir.” Binti reached down and gave Ressk a shove.

  The Krai glared at her, then turned his attention back to the data in the emmy’s targeting scanner. He frowned as he used his slate to work the program, shook his head, and stood. “I can’t tell, sir. But since there’s Silsviss reading at both two and three kilometers, I’d say there’s more than a few.”

  “I’d say there’s a whole fukking lot,” Juan muttered.

  * * *

  Haysole was awake and smiling when Torin walked over to his corner of the infirmary, although she suspected that had more to do with Corporal Mysho’s having just left than with her arrival. According to one of the corpsmen, everything but the di’Taykan’s legs worked fine.

  “Morning, Staff. I hear about three million underaged liz…Silsviss are about to come bouncing down on our heads.”

  “That’s an exaggeration, Private. No more than two million, tops.”

  “Is that all?” He snorted. “Well, you won’t be needing me, then.”

  “Good thing, since the doctor seems to think I should give you another day off.” She squatted down beside his stretcher, one hand on the metal edge for balance, the other resting lightly on the back of his wrist. His skin still felt warm even though the temperature within the thick-walled building was noticeably cooler than outside in the compound. When she checked his environmental controls, they’d been set almost as low as they’d go. “How are you feeling?”

  His smile crumbled a little at the edges and long fingers plucked at the hem of his tunic. “Like I’d give almost anything to get up and clean a crapper.” The pause wasn’t quite long enough for Torin to reply, even if she’d known what to say. “Or these days I guess it’d be digging a latrine.”

  “I don’t think so, Private. We need that latrine dug before the Silsviss attack, and you,” she added wryly, “are a galaxy-class master in the fine art of looking like you’re working when you’re really doing piss all.”

  “It’s a skill,” he admitted smugly, looking pleased with himself.

  Torin snorted and held her hand by his head. She didn’t bother hiding her relief when the turquoise hair lifted and stroked gently across her palm.

  “The lieutenant was in earlier.”

  “Was he?”

  “Yeah.” Turquoise eyes sparkled. “He’s a cutie. Even if he is from a high family—talk about people doing piss all. He asked me what he could do to make me feel better.”

  Which, given the patient, was either very naive or very di’Taykan. “And you made an explicit suggestion.”

  “Oh, yeah.”

  “And he said?”

  “Later.” When Torin raised an eyebrow at him, Haysole gave her a look of wounded innocence. “I wouldn’t lie to you, Staff.” Wounded innocence became something more salacious. “Ask him yourself.”

  “I don’t think so.” She touched her slate to the stretcher, downloading the data on his condition. “And if the lieutenant is coming back later, I’d better go so you can rest up.”

  “You think I’ll need it?”

  He’s only speculating, Torin reminded herself as she straightened. He can’t know. She flashed him her best staff sergeants know everything smile as she moved away. “Not as much as he will.”

  Neither of the other Marines who’d been injured in the crash of the VTA were as coherent. Torin spent a moment with each, discovered the lieutenant had spoken to them as well, and then moved on to Captain Daniels. The pilot still hadn’t regained consciousness, and according to the stretcher, her vital signs were barely holding. If not for the near constant attention of her aircrew…

  Torin chased the thought away. This was a diplomatic mission. No one was supposed to die. She thought about saying something to Aircrew Trenkik, who was spooning a gruellike food into the captain’s open mouth and then massaging her throat until she swallowed, but she’d long ago overcome the need to speak meaningless comfort in order not to feel helpless in the face of inevitability.

  Her helmet chirped a summons, so she headed for the door.

  “Staff?” When he saw he had her attention, Haysole touched the masker at his throat. “Remember your promise.”

  “If I die, take off the masker before you bag me.”

  She could have reminded him that she hadn’t actually agreed. Instead, feeling the weight of the four cylinders over her heart, she said only, “I remember.”

  * * *

  This time, she found the lieutenant standing with six or seven other Marines by the south wall near the site of the protected latrine.

  “Make sure that dirt pile is away from the wall,” she said, pausing. “Let’s not be building access ramps for the enemy.”

  “How about I dump it there, Staff?” Strippe
d down to a sleeveless vest over her exoskeleton, Chandra Dar pointed a heavily laden shovel back into the compound.

  “There’s fine.”

  “How deep do you want it?” the heavy gunner asked, dumping her load and driving the blade in for another.

  Torin glanced over her shoulder, but the lieutenant had his attention firmly fixed on something outside the wall. “How deep were you told to dig it?”

  “Not as deep as the water table.”

  “Then I suggest you follow the lieutenant’s orders.”

  Dar looked down at dirt so dry she couldn’t have got the blade into it without her augmentation and then up at the staff sergeant. “Well, yeah, but he’s…”

  “Your commanding officer.”

  Golden-brown skin blanched at Torin’s tone. “I didn’t mean anything against him, Staff.”

  “Good.” A gesture suggested the heavy gunner return to work. Torin watched another shovel load removed, then continued toward Lieutenant Jarret. It wasn’t difficult to fill in the end of Dar’s protest.

  Yeah, but he’s never done this before and you have.

  Heading into combat, that sort of attitude was going to crop up a lot more often. With some justification. It hadn’t mattered while they were marching up and down before various governments, but no one wanted to die because a brand new second lieutenant gave the wrong order. So I’ll just have to see that he gives the right orders. After all, if the job was easy, everybody’d be doing it. “You wanted to see me, si…”

  The ground under her boots trembled.

  “What was that?”

  “That,” Jarret told her, smiling, “was what I wanted you to see.”

  She followed his pointing finger, moving close enough to the wall so that the eastern building didn’t cut off her line of sight. “That’s…”

  “Your herbivore. I apologize for ever doubting your ability to correctly identify a pile of shit.”

  “Thank you, sir,” she answered absently, her gaze locked on the creature chewing a path through the vegetation. From the lines of drying mud high on its haunches, it had recently come up out of the swamp. “That thing’s bigger than our sleds.”

  “It’sss a ghartivatrampasss.” Cri Sawyes announced, joining them. “I’ve heard of them, but thisss isss the firssst I’ve ever ssseen. Video doesssn’t do it jussstice.”