Armor World Page 12

  My head jerked toward Winslade. “What’s the hog doing aboard?”

  Winslade looked me up and down and pulled his neck back a ways, like he was a cat that had smelled a dog.

  “I’m here at the request of the praetor,” he told me stiffly.

  “Drusus sent you?” I said, then I grinned. “Let me guess: He told you it was an honor. That you were his best man, and you had experience with Varus, so he figured you were perfect for the job.”

  Winslade narrowed those already narrow eyes of his. “Something like that.”

  I laughed. “You’ve been turfed, Winslade! Wrapped up with a bow on top and dumped on the nearest unsuspecting dupe.”

  “James,” Turov said, “you’re being disrespectful.”

  “Sorry, sir.”

  “As I was saying, we’re aboard Legate in pursuit of the enemy ship,” she continued, “the battle on Earth to knock out the enemy base killed sixty percent of our legionnaires. As a consequence, we’re reviving our people as we go. Another transport is nearby in space, carrying Solstice. Both ships have an accompanying near-human legion with them, of course. There’s also an escort of nearly a hundred naval vessels.”

  Winslade snorted. “Not that the navy can do much against this sphere of death we’re chasing.”

  Despite Winslade’s cynicism, I was encouraged. Solstice and Varus—we might not be the most prestigious outfits, but two experienced legions were better than one. All the other big-name legions were stationed on various other planets as garrisons.

  I was also glad to hear we were to be supported by Blood Worlders—zoo legions, as less charitable people called them. Altogether, that put our combat strength at around fifty thousand ground troops.

  “Do we actually have a fix on the enemy ship?” I asked. “Or are we flying blind?”

  She shook her head. “We have better technology these days. We can track them—even in warp.”

  This was news to me. My eyes widened, and I nodded appreciatively. “Those nerds slaving away under Central have paid off, is that it?”

  “Exactly.”

  “Okay, great. I’m down for this fight. But… why am I at this meeting in the first place, sirs?”

  “An excellent question,” Winslade said in a snotty tone.

  “Because of something Graves mentioned in his report,” Galina said. She looked at me intensely. “I know you have a tendency to exaggerate, to stretch the truth at times in imaginative ways…”

  “Aw now, that’s not a fair statement, Tribune!”

  “No,” Winslade agreed. “It would be more accurate to say you’re a consummate liar.”

  I glared at him, and he returned the expression.

  “Gentlemen, this is your second warning,” Galina said. “Stop bickering. I’m not in the mood. Earth has suffered a hard kick in the teeth, and we’re out here to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

  Turning away from Winslade, I faced the tribune again. “My apologies.”

  “Accepted. Now James, can you confirm that the generator you saw in the center of the alien nest was from Rigel?”

  I frowned in thought. “Which vids did you get from the Hammonton expedition?”

  “We got what you sent up when you were outside in the center of town,” Graves said. “We saw that… uh… flesh-factory. But we didn’t see the inside of it.”

  “You bombed them out too soon, didn’t you Graves?” Winslade asked. “Not that I blame you, McGill can bring out the urge to act with deadly force in anyone.”

  Graves ignored Winslade’s barbs. “The system always uploads the older vids first. Consequently, we’ve only seen the outside of the complex.”

  “Well,” I said, “I can tell you that it was the same kind of reactor I ran into on Dark World. Does that mean it was manufactured on Rigel maybe?”

  They nodded their heads.

  “That is most likely,” Graves said.

  “Good enough,” Turov said. “You’re dismissed, Centurion.”

  I stood up and left. The higher ranked officers would meet all day, probably. Not for the first time I found myself thanking my lucky stars that I was only a centurion. I hated long meetings, and the more you went up in rank, the more of those you got.

  As I hit the doors, another primus walked in. He looked me up and down in surprise. Clearly, in his mind I wasn’t supposed to be here.

  Worse, I saw he had wet hair. He had to be a fresh revive. Knowing they’d revived a centurion before him—that wasn’t a sweet taste for any primus.

  I touched my cap in salute, and I gave him a smile and a nod. He frowned back, and he watched me swagger out of the place with disgust.

  -21-

  The flight took weeks, which was a good thing to my mind. First off, it let us get our people revived. It would have been a sad result if we’d caught up to the aliens and gone into combat with only a handful of troops to throw at them.

  “This is a game,” Carlos told me. “I’ve seen it before, and I’ll see it again—if I don’t get permed this time.”

  “What are you on about now, Specialist?” I asked.

  We were having lunch, and I was eating with my unit instead of in the officers’ mess. I usually did that when we were deploying to some hell-hole planet or another.

  “We aren’t catching these aliens,” Carlos said, “but we aren’t being outrun, either. I mean, what are the odds that our ships and their ship have exactly the same maximum speeds?”

  Thinking that over, I blinked twice. “Hmm… doesn’t seem very likely.”

  “It’s basically impossible.”

  “Yeah…” I said, turning it over in my mind. “If the aliens were faster, they’d just pull away and escape. The odds that all our ships fly at the same speed—no way, too big of a coincidence. So, why are we going slow and tailing them?”

  “The only reasonable conclusion is that our brass has decided to pace them. To follow them home hoping they don’t know we’re here. Then we’ll jump them and deliver our counterpunch.”

  I nodded slowly. I couldn’t find a flaw in his logic. “And here I was thinking you were a dumb-ass all these years.”

  Carlos snorted, but he also seemed oddly pleased. Compliments were few and far between in Legion Varus. Even the backhanded kind was always welcome.

  Standing up suddenly, I left my unit’s module. I wanted to go talk to the people in charge.

  These days, I wasn’t a total pariah on Gold Deck. Sure, everyone who had a permanent office up there was a primus or worked for one as a staffer. It was an easy way to climb ranks, so many centurions and even some adjuncts did their damnedest to get out of the modules and as close to the brass as possible. That had been Winslade’s path to promotion, back in the day.

  I’d never had much interest in all that. If I’d wanted to push numbers around and make appointments all day, I’d have been an accountant.

  Deciding not to ruffle feathers, I hammered on Primus Graves’ office door first.

  An adjunct appeared behind me. “Excuse me?” he said. “Can I help you… Centurion?”

  I pivoted and stared at the guy. “Who are you?”

  “I’m Primus Graves’ assistant. You must be McGill?”

  Glowering briefly, I gave my head a shake. It was a strange thing to learn Graves had a staffer of his own. He’d always hated that sort of thing.

  “I am,” I said. “When can I see Graves?”

  “There is an appointment schedule. Let me see… Next Thursday he’s open from 9:15 to 9:30.”

  “Really? What’s he doing right now?”

  The adjunct frowned. “He’s on Green Deck, I believe.”

  Green Deck was our exercise chamber in the day and our city park at night. It was full of half-fake trees and entirely fake rocks and waterfalls.

  “What’s he doing up there?” I asked.

  “I believe he’s planning an exercise. Listen Centurion, I’ve been given special instructions regarding your unscheduled appearanc
e. If you would care to—”

  “Yeah, yeah,” I said, walking out. I straight-armed the door and left.

  Green Deck was several floors below. I made the trip, but I didn’t enter through the main doors which opened onto nature-trail-looking paths among the lush, fake trees. Instead, I took a tube that only officers had access to and walked a catwalk to a central pod.

  There, hanging from the ceiling like a spider, was the officers’ observation platform. Being a centurion these days, the computer opened the door at my touch, and I barged right inside.

  “McGill?” Winslade asked, sneering. “What are you doing here? I’d accuse you of schmoozing, but I know you’re unfamiliar with the concept.”

  Winslade was there with Graves and several other primus-ranked people. To my surprise there was a single tribune there as well—Armel.

  I fixated on him and approached with a big smile.

  “Hey, Maurice!” I boomed, offering him a hand to shake. “Good to see you escaped Storm World. How’d you manage that?”

  Reluctantly, Armel stood and shook my hand. We’d worked out a minimally functional relationship back on Storm World. I wouldn’t say we were in love or anything like that, but we’d learned to tolerate one another.

  “I was… transferred,” Armel said in his snotty Parisian accent.

  “And now you’re here planning a human vs. near-human blood bath for training, is that it?”

  “No, McGill,” Graves said, speaking up for the first time. “We’re discussing how we can avoid exactly that sort of disaster.”

  “A good goal, sir,” I said. “You can’t let the boys get out of hand in these trainings. Never know what kind of accident might happen.”

  “Weren’t you involved in a nightmare event last year, McGill?” Armel asked in a falsely innocent tone. “Where so many of our near-human brothers were permed?”

  “It’s the God’s-honest truth that I was. At the time, no one had understood that near-human troops weren’t going to be revived like the human troops. As a result, well, let’s just say the exercise got a little out of hand.”

  “There were nearly five hundred permings that day, as I recall,” Winslade said.

  “Like I said, a little out of hand.”

  They all looked at me like I smelled bad, but I grinned back.

  “Anything going on I should know about?” I asked. “I’d love to see another battle royale like we used to have in the old days.”

  “We’re not doing that again, McGill,” Graves told me.

  “Aw… too bad. Well then, when are we going to catch that ship ahead of us and run her to ground?”

  This question left them blinking quizzically because I’d switched topics. I kept a harmless smile on my face. I’d finally steered the conversation to the subject that I wanted information about. You don’t want to go at such things too suddenly, it will spook people.

  Armel was the first to recover from my change of topic. “What makes you think that we aren’t doing our best to catch up to them now?”

  I quickly laid out Carlos’ idea, but without mentioning him by name. If they’d known it came from a specialist, they would have scoffed. After all, most officers thought they were a different class of human being when compared to the rank and file.

  “Hmm…” Armel said. “You have touched upon a sensitive point. I’ve been wondering the same thing myself.”

  He was probably lying, trying to sound smart. But I let him do it, as it increased the odds I’d get an answer from the others.

  Graves finally spoke up. “It’s true. We’re not trying to catch them. The navy escort with us is no match for that big sphere. We can’t even be sure the door is still open for an attack by teleportation—and while we’re in a warp bubble, we can’t attack anyway. It’s been decided that our best option is to follow them until they come out of warp and jump them when they do.”

  “Another humiliation heaped upon me,” Armel complained. He was getting a little red in the face. “You, a primus, were aware of all this while I of superior rank knew nothing? The situation is absurd.”

  Graves looked at him with a flat expression. “Perhaps you’d like to take that up with the praetor. He’s flying with Solstice, in the other ship.”

  Armel straightened out in hurry. He didn’t like to tangle with Praetor Drusus, who’d exiled him to Storm World in the first place and might well do it again. “That will not be necessary. Please proceed with the discussion.”

  Graves turned back to the tactical map. “The cone of possibilities is narrowing as we go. We’re down to a destination somewhere in the Pegasus region.”

  I sucked in a surprised breath. They glanced at me. Graves looked annoyed. “You’ve got something to say, McGill?”

  “Just two words: artificial intelligence. Pegasus is where all the smart AI programs come from!”

  “That’s true,” Graves admitted, “but that doesn’t mean there’s a connection.”

  “Which star in the Pegasus region is the home world of the Pegs?” I asked.

  Graves frowned. “51 Pegasi, right here,” he said, showing a spot in the cone of probable targets. “It’s a yellow main sequence star, rather like our sun. It’s about fifty lightyears from Earth.”

  We all studied the map. Most of the officers were frowning.

  “It doesn’t make sense,” Armel said. “Certainly, the world of the Pegs is known for creating excellent AI. But they are part of the Empire, not a subject of Rigel. In fact, they’re not all that close to the frontier. No, I reject this notion of yours, McGill.”

  Graves stared at the map for a time. “We have two points of reference so far: the AI connection and the direction of travel the enemy sphere has taken. I’m not convinced, but I will admit it’s possible. I’ll report the concept to the praetor’s group. Our orders don’t involve figuring out where we’re going, anyway. We’re the secondary command group.”

  “Secondary?” I asked. “What’s our mission then?”

  “To come up with a way to penetrate that ship’s defenses.”

  I stood up and clapped my hands together twice. That made the smaller men present wince. “In that case, I’m your man, sir! I’ve managed to get inside before. I can do it again.”

  “They will not fall for the same cheap trick twice in a row,” Armel assured me.

  “Well then,” I said, sitting back down. “You must have a Grade-A plan of your own. Can you tell me about it, Tribune?”

  Armel looked annoyed. He obviously had nothing. “You don’t even belong at this table. I’ll tell you nothing.”

  Graves turned to look at me. “McGill, I’m sending you over to the praetor’s office on Solstice’s transport. Throw your idea about the Pegs being involved at him. See what he thinks.”

  “Uh…” I said. “How am I going to get there, sir? I’m… kind of hoping it won’t involve a killing and a revive.”

  “No, no, we don’t need to waste resources like that. We’re still reviving legionnaires that died back in New Jersey. We’ve set up jump-posts between our ships. Go to engineering and tell them I sent you.”

  “Huh… okay.”

  I got up and walked out of the place. I wasn’t really all that happy with the orders I’d gotten, but I had heard a lot of good information. I had an idea where we were headed and where we might end up.

  Unfortunately, the situation wasn’t clear. We didn’t even know who our enemy was. If the Pegs had sent a monster ship to Earth to attack us… that wasn’t good at all. On the other hand, if it come from Rigel, at least that was an enemy we already had on our radar.

  -22-

  After a bit of arguing with the engineering people, I was allowed to walk between two gateway posts and teleport over to Legate’s sister ship, Aeternum.

  The Solstice legionnaires on guard duty were pretty bored when I stepped through. There were two of them, and they were playing cards on their tappers.

  When I showed up, they stood and raised snap-
rifles to aim at my face.

  Solstice boys were a pretty rough lot—almost as rough as Varus people. I respected them the way I could never respect an Earthbound hog soldier. They were known for their willingness to die to complete any mission. Fortunately, I wasn’t a target today.

  One of the veterans spotted my legion emblem, and he relaxed immediately. Solstice troops wore the emblem of the rising sun. Varus people wore the wolfshead. The man who’d recognized me pushed the other man’s gun barrel down toward the deck.

  “Varus?” he said. “What do you want, Centurion?”

  “Sorry to spook you ladies,” I said. “I’m here with a message for the praetor.”

  They took my comments good-naturedly. Solstice and Varus had always gotten along pretty well. We were both at the bottom end of the totem pole of legion hierarchy. As a consequence, we cut each other breaks whenever we could, keeping all our bad feelings bottled up for the snooty top-rated legions—and the hogs.

  They directed me toward Gold Deck, and I marched through the ship like I owned it.

  Aeternum wasn’t anything special. It was, in fact, identical to Legate. I found Gold Deck without a problem and after a few more checks made it to the biggest office at the end of the hall.

  Tapping on the door, I found it didn’t open right away. As a result, I formed a fist with my fingers and started hammering. I just wasn’t certain if the staffers inside had heard me.

  To my surprise, when the door popped open it wasn’t some secretary kiss-up frowning at me—it was Drusus himself.

  “McGill…?” he said, then he looked down at his tapper. “Ah, yes. I see a note here from Graves. Why are you interrupting me today?”

  “Uh…” I said. “Sorry sir. I was sent straight here to present a theory from our team’s side of the fence.”

  “A theory about what?”

  “The origin of our attackers, sir.”

  Drusus squinted at me. He didn’t like things to get out of place. That was a source of tension between us, because I never stayed in any kind of box when placed there.

  “All right, come on in.”