Dubious Heroes: a novel

by Nicholas Blue

  No one wanted Big Mike along, either, what with him having a conscience and all, but in the end, he just showed up and said he was going. None of us cared to try and tell him otherwise, so we made space for him. No one could talk him into carrying a weapon, even though I’d learned that he’d been responsible for all of the casualties aboard the Princess. Kyra privately suggested that Doctor Urbano had likely been a soldier, at some point in his life. I suspected she was right.

  I also suspected that Kyra too had a significant amount of military experience. This meant that I would be the only member of the raiding party who didn’t have a clue what they were doing. I kinda doubted that my two years as a Lunar Scout counted for much.

  We knew that just like the first time, we’d be met with a welcoming committee as soon as we entered the planet’s atmosphere. We might have done away with the UPDF frigate, but the interceptor ships were still there. On the plus side, the Lancelot could actually fly. On the downside, that would prove difficult if we got our asses shot off with missiles, which was a distinct possibility, since the shuttle had no countermeasures at all.

  That left the Enigma, which was jammed full of ECM gear, but flew about as well as a rock. Cozi did have a fondness for gadgetry, and, following our first landing on the planet, had developed a severe aversion to being shot at. Once we made port in Babylonia, if he saw something that looked the least bit useful, he bought it. I wasn’t even remotely familiar with everything he added, beyond knowing how much it had cost.

  Still, he wasn’t amused to find out that we were going to be putting his handiwork to the test; the Enigma would go in first, and make herself a nice big, slow target, which we hoped would draw off the interceptors. He assured us that their missiles wouldn’t touch the Enigma. I sincerely hoped he was right.

  While the UP ships were busy doing their level best to shoot down Cozi, we would come in hard and fast aboard the shuttle, and ideally, land before they could shoot at us. The plan loosely called for the Enigma to pick us up when we were done, making our ride up a bit safer than our ride down. I don’t think any of us believed it would work that way, but it beat having no plan at all.

  Lola had asked to be on the landing party, but was quickly outvoted by everyone, including the mercs. Instead, she’d be aboard the Enigma with Cozi, which she chose, over the other option I gave her, which was to stay on the Princess of Arabia, in orbit around New London. I left Angie with some very specific instructions on dealing with the pair, which would hopefully keep them out of trouble.

  The Enigma left New London several hours ahead of us, practically crawling along. They would build up some speed for re-entry, but nothing like we’d done on our first trip down. We left orbit in the Lancelot, using every bit of thrust we could muster. Using the kind of timing that only a pair of AIs could pull off, we’d be in Tzing’s atmosphere at the same time as the Enigma, moving at three times her speed.

  Kyra had insisted upon radio silence between our ships, since the UPDF over Tzing Ma Chu would certainly be listening in. No sense in telling them anything we didn’t have to. If we heard anything from the Enigma, it would mean there was a problem, and vice-versa.

  Eric the AI was piloting the shuttle, since none of us were qualified to do so, and we’d declined the Director’s offer of a pilot. The last thing I wanted was one of her people around, keeping tabs on us. Landing on a planet is never a walk in the park, but that’s what shuttles are designed to do, and ours was even reasonably comfortable. There were vidscreens at each of the twenty seats, to which you could link to your Pod, or display the view from several external cameras. But the shuttle wasn’t just a people mover; the main cargo hold in the belly of the craft could carry several tons of cargo.

  As we jetted along between New London and Tzing, I called up our intel package on my Pod, and linked it to the vidscreen. We’d been given everything from satellite photos of the city, which were easy for anyone to get, to detailed blueprints of every government facility in the area, the latter coming from New London's own intelligence service.

  The city was home to over a million people, which accounted for the bulk of the planetary population. Settlements tended to be large, since everything had to be ringed with multiple layers of barriers. Most of the fences were electrified, otherwise, the larger predators tended to ignore them. With no serious threat in the neighborhood from other humans, the Council of Mao hadn’t bothered with putting together their own military. Instead, they had a basic security force about the size of your typical city police force. While there were more of them than us, we didn’t expect any serious opposition, if we could just make it to the ground.

  The engineers and architects who’d designed Huang Chi Ho had done a decent job of preparing for the violent weather; most of the structures could easily withstand the frequent large storms.

  A large square occupied the center of the city, ringed by government buildings, including the prison. The pictures and video were strange and exotic, like watching a travelogue of some distant, foreign place. Like Earth.

  The practice of placing things aboveground, and connecting it all with streets and walkways, seemed both inefficient and archaic, to me. While they did have a rail system, most of the people got around the city either by walking, or via small electric vehicles.

  The intel showed that the locals were also engaged in what they ostensibly called a pest control program. Had they been back in the Sol system, the xeno-environmentalists would have been raising hell with them, mostly because Tzing’s definition of a pest was anything that walked, crawled, slithered, swam or flew, and was native to the planet. Having seen some of the local denizens first hand, I couldn’t say I blamed them. They’d been at it for the better part of forty years, and thus far, the indigenous life had neither noticed, nor declined.

  The cabin began to shake, which made it difficult to read, so I put away my Pod, and switched over to the external view. The wide-angle lens showed us just nosing into the upper atmosphere, which explained the bumpiness. Tzing still lay far below us. Suddenly, the vidscreen went dark. I tried switching cams, but none of them worked.

  “Eric, did we just lose all the cameras?” I asked.

  “Negative, Sir”, he said. “They automatically port themselves when external temperatures rise to a certain point. Once we’re at a lower altitude and the hull has cooled, they’ll re-deploy.”

  “Gotcha”, I said. “Hey, can you keep an eye on the Enigma, and let us know what she’s doing?”

  “I’ll try”, he said. “Of course, I can’t actually see her right now, thanks to the whole camera thing we just discussed, but she is showing up on tri-d radar. Also, I am listening in on the UP ships; they tend to chat between themselves, and we cracked their encryption a couple of years ago.”

  “How are they doing?”

  “She’s still in the upper atmosphere, and hasn’t fired her ramjets yet”, he said. “All four UP ships are on an intercept vector, and they’re closing fast. Wait… there. The Enigma just fired her ramjets.”

  “Won’t she be a sitting duck, that high up?” Cisco asked, looking up from his own Pod.

  “That’s kind of the idea”, I said. “Besides, Cozi says it’s not a problem, and if the King of Worry isn’t stressing out, then I’m not going to, either.”

  The shaking intensified, as we plowed deeper into the thick atmosphere.

  “We’ll be in smoother air in just a few minutes”, Eric said. “We’re on schedule to land approximately six minutes ahead of the Enigma.”

  “How many gees are we looking at?” Cisco asked.

  “No more than four, unless I have to engage in any evasive maneuvering”, Eric said. “That is a possibility, since the city itself is protected by a battery of surface-to-air missiles, and gamma ray batteries. But, you already knew that.”

  Kyra opened her eyes, apparently not taking a nap, as I’d assumed. She looked across the aisle at Big Mike, who returned the look, slightly lifting a hairless brow
. I’d have given my left nut to know what had just passed between them.

  While there were only seven of us aboard, Kyra and her team had packed enough gear to supply a small army. We’d looted the armory of the Montreal, and from the look of it, they’d brought it all. The only weapons I had were my usual pistol, plus a blaster I’d snagged from the Montreal haul. I also found a duffel bag full of those nifty little grenades, so I took a couple of those and stashed them in my belt pack.

  Kyra had noticed the blaster when I boarded the shuttle, but hadn’t tried to take it, choosing instead to just scowl at me.

  The turbulence increased even further, as the wings began to bite into the air and slow us down. Our entry into the atmosphere wasn’t anywhere near the Enigma, as she was plunging straight in. We were taking a much longer path, gliding in, to shed our considerable speed.

  “The Enigma is taking fire”, Eric said, interrupting my woolgathering. “From what I can tell, it doesn’t appear as though they’re hitting her. T-minus eight minutes until touchdown.”

  “What’s her altitude?” Kyra asked.

  “About fifteen miles”, Eric said. “Ha. It looks like she’s shooting back at the interceptors. They’re talking about it, and taking some evasive action of their own. I wasn’t aware the Enigma was armed.”

  “Neither were we”, Kyra said, looking over at me. “Doon? What did Cozi buy on Babylonia?”

  “Beats me”, I said. “I told him to clear everything through you.”

  “That sneaky little shit”, she said. “I told him to clear everything through you.”

  “In that case, I suspect he is indeed shooting back at them”, I said.

  “Shooting and hitting them”, Eric said. “According to the UP ships, the Enigma just nailed one of them. I can see it dropping like a rock on tri-d. The Enigma is firing missiles, by the way.”

  “Fuckin’ A”, Donner said, enthusiastically. She and Malach bumped fists.

  “Shit”, Kyra said. “We need to know what’s happening. Cozi is not sticking to the plan. Eric, break radio silence and raise the Enigma, please.”

  “No response from the Enigma“, he said. “ECM may be jamming our signal.”

  “I kinda doubt Cozi has time to chat right now”, I said.

  “Angela does, though”, she said. “Try again.”

  “Still nothing”, Eric said.

  Our ride smoothed out even further. I knew we were still screaming along, but that was business as usual for a shuttle. I reached over and pushed a button on the bulkhead, next to my seat. It occurred to me that I could actually look out of the window. The shielding slid up. All I could see was darkness, which figured; we’d scheduled our raid for the middle of the night.

  “Four minutes until touchdown”, Eric said. “The UP ships are reporting hits on the Enigma. They’re not saying where she was hit, or with what.”

  “Shit”, Cisco said. “Isn’t there something we can do to help them?”

  “They’re doing exactly what we need them to do”, Kyra said. “Which is providing cover for us. The Enigma’s a tough ship; she’ll be fine.”

  Cisco shifted uncomfortably next to me. He didn’t look all that convinced. The Enigma was hardly a warship; she was a cargo ship with a bunch of crap tacked onto her. Cozi said she couldn’t be touched, and while other people tended to believe him, from experience, I knew he wasn’t always right. Maybe this was one of those times.

  “Another UP interceptor was just hit”, Eric said, managing to sound excited, which was quite a feat, for an AI. “It’s leaving under its own power, but it’s definitely leaving.”

  “Strap in tight, people”, Mike said. “We’re about to land.”

  “Get ready”, Kyra said. “I want us out of here pronto. This shuttle makes for a nice big target.”

  “We’re good to go”, Cisco said, glancing around at the other mercs.

  “Intel loaded and cued?” Kyra asked.

  “Maps and floor plans”, Cisco said.

  “Let’s try not to blow up anything we don’t have to”, she said, looking over at him. They both grinned at each other like a pair of juvenile delinquents, and turned their attention to their Pods.

  “Two minutes”, Eric said. “The Enigma’s still ten miles up. We just passed under her descent path. Wait… there might be a problem.”

  “Can you be a little more fucking specific?” Kyra asked.

  “Yeah, there’s definitely a problem”, Eric said. “She’s coming in way too fast, and she’s no longer decelerating. Touchdown, ninety seconds.”

  “What do you mean by too fast?” I asked.

  “Eleven thousand miles an hour”, Eric said. “More or less.”

  No one had anything to say to that.

  “Revision”, Eric said. “Touchdown in thirty. Prepare for evasive-”

  The shuttle veered hard to the left, slamming us all against our harnesses. Someone’s Pod went flying across the cabin.

  “-action.”

  We took a jog to the right, then immediately back to the left. Briefly, I felt us rise, and then the ship seemed to fall out from under us as we plunged sharply. I felt the gorge rise in my throat, but managed to keep from throwing up, barely avoiding a messy situation.

  Seconds later, we landed with a solid thunk, the ship ringing like a struck bell. We bounced along a couple of times, the metal landing skids screeching at each contact. Finally, we slid to a stop.

  “We’ve landed”, Eric said.

  “Crash landed is more like it”, one of the mercs said, as we all unbuckled from our harnesses. I still felt a little green and wobbly. I stood, and steadied myself with the seat back. Mike noticed, and put a hand on my shoulder.

  “I’m okay”, I said.

  “I’m sure”, he said, smiling.

  “Sorry about that”, Eric said. “They launched missiles at us. I may not have ECM, but I can dodge like nobody’s business.”

  “I’ll say”, Cisco said, as he grabbed a duffel bag and an assault rifle. A moment later, he vanished out of the airlock, the other mercs following.

  I fiddled with the combat headset, and immediately picked up Cisco’s voice on the main combat channel.

  “-eyes open, defensive posture. No firing unless we’re fired upon.”

  “This place looks deserted”, Malach said, sweeping the area, assault rifle at the ready.

  “Can it”, Cisco said. “Stay frosty, soldiers.”

  I grabbed my own bag, and jumped the few feet from the airlock to the ground. We’d landed in Huang Ho Chi’s huge central square, which was at least a third of a mile across, paved with some sort of stone. A large monument sat in the center of the square, but we were well away from it. Off to one side, I could see what could only have been a huge Chinese pagoda, the bright paint visible even at night.

  Streetlights along the perimeter provided some illumination, and the monument was lit with floodlights, but otherwise, the square was dark. After the noisy landing, the place seemed eerily quiet and deserted, the only sound that of cooling metal, creaking and ticking.

  “Above”, Cisco said, pointing up.

  A line of fire, blue-white, streaked down from the night sky, almost directly overhead. Away from the fiery trail, I could see stars, twinkling in the spaces between big puffy clouds. Outside the square, beyond the circle of low government buildings, taller structures rose into the night, sparkling with lights of their own. It was the first time I’d seen a real city at night, and I realized why someone might want to build it the way they had. It might be impractical, but it was beautiful.

  The artificial meteor continued its path downward, as we stood watching, mesmerized.

  “Tell me that’s one of the UP cruisers”, someone said.

  “Too big and fast”, Kyra said, never looking away. “That has to be the Enigma.”

  The blindingly bright blue line edged off to our west, before vanishing below the skyline.

  “Don’t look”, Mike said, but I coul
dn’t tear my eyes away, as the Enigma fell to earth.

  Then, she was gone.

  Chapter 28

  A brilliant fireball lit the night sky, extending well above the taller buildings of the city. An instant later, the ground rumbled, and the quiet slumber of the city was torn by a sound a thousand times louder than thunder, the death knell of a once and beautiful ship.

  The darkness closed in around us again, the roll of the explosion fading, punctuated by a few smaller ones we could hear, but not see. Nothing remained of the cataclysm beyond an afterimage in my eyes. The memory, however, would remain.

  “Motherfucker“, someone said, and I realized it was Kyra. Mike, standing beside her, wrapped her in a huge arm, and held her to him. I thought I could hear her softly crying, via the comm link, though it might have been someone else.

  “Um, guys”, Cisco said. “All the lights just went out.”

  I looked around, and saw that he was right. All the streetlights and all the buildings were dark.

  “Looks like the Enigma hit something and knocked out the power”, I said.

  “The power plant, west of the city”, Cisco said, looking through the heads-up display in his goggles. I lowered my own, and tapping them, activated the night-vision function.

  “Nothing but a crater there, now”, Donner said.

  “Where’s their backup plant?” Cisco asked.

  “Pretty close to the primary one”, I said. “Looks like it was only a quarter mile from it.”

  “The blast was that big?” someone asked.

  “Yeah”, Kyra said. “It was.” She pulled away from Mike. “Sorry about that.”

  We all mumbled various things about it being okay, none of us really knowing what to say. She continued.

  “The Enigma was two hundred tons, and she was moving at over ten thousand miles an hour. That’s probably as much kinetic energy as a small nuke. Took out both power plants, and probably a good bit of their fencing on the west side of the city, too.”