Tech World Read online

  She crouched at the entrance and watched me intently. “Walk softly.”

  “Ha, funny,” I said, thumping along in about a ton of steel. I prodded the items on shelves around me and spoke aloud as I did so. “Okay, so I’m trying to reason this through. These gunrunners had a big stash of cool tech items up here and an elevator down into the sewers. Clearly, this wasn’t their first smuggling job, and they didn’t stick to guns. So, do you think all this junk is stolen?”

  “I can’t even identify most of it, but I’m dying to get my hands on something special. James, see that bulbous-looking thing that resembles a snail shell? Near your left hand.”

  I found it and picked it up. “Looks like a seashell to me.”

  Natasha’s buzzer was my friendly companion hovering near my helmet. I felt a strong urge to smash it—but resisted.

  “I’m sensing odd readings from it. Even though it seems inert, I’m getting emanations.”

  “Like, explosive readings?”

  “No,” she said. “It should be safe to handle. What else do you see?”

  I wandered another dozen paces, and found two items of interest. One was a lightning-rod gun like the ones we’d face in the streets many times now. The other was a black box attached to a harness which was dotted with reflective buttons. I picked it up gently and showed it to the buzzer.

  “What do you make of this?”

  “It’s one of their holographic clothing generators. Nothing that special about it. Every Tau on the station has one.”

  “Hmm,” I said, stretching it out in front of me. “I’m noticing something odd.”

  “What?”

  “See here? Isn’t that a locking mechanism of some kind on this holo-harness? The buckle too—there’s no release.”

  The buzzer slowly did a scan, moving up and down to give her a close-up view.

  “You’re right. Bring it to me.”

  Not wanting to jinx it now that I might have found something useful, I retraced my steps with care. I met Natasha at the entrance and smiled.

  “You wanted to come here to find some cool new tech,” I told her. “I’m sorry I couldn’t score you an unexploded floor-bomb.”

  “That’s okay. I’d just get into trouble blowing up someone who pissed me off.”

  Laughing, I followed her back down the stairs.

  “You wouldn’t do that,” I said. “Kivi maybe, but not you. You don’t hate anyone badly enough to blow them up.”

  She glanced back at me, and I caught a flash in her eyes. “You’re probably right. Not even Anne deserves it.”

  My mouth opened then closed again. I suddenly got it. She was jealous. She’d been playing the smooth pro so well, I’d forgotten about how she’d warned Anne off and torpedoed my date with her. Weighing my odds carefully, I decided to drop it and pretend I had no idea what she was talking about. That was easy, as it was almost the truth.

  We got back to the chamber with the fountain gently pissing out water in the middle of it. The scene would have been tranquil if Kivi wasn’t playing the part of a bloody corpse on the floor.

  “What did you find, McGill?” Leeson demanded. “And no holding back on me. I didn’t send you up there to loot the locals.”

  I rankled at this. “Loot the locals? These guys are clearly criminals of some kind, and they armed the rebels who are tearing up the city in case you didn’t notice, sir.”

  Leeson shut up and looked over my finds. Natasha drooled over them, particularly the shell-looking thing.

  “What is this junk?” Leeson asked.

  “This harness is a clothing-generator,” Natasha said. “A holographic projection device. This is what passes for clothing for a Tau citizen. The unusual thing about it is that it can be placed upon a person, and they can’t remove it. The other item is more mysterious. I don’t know what it is.”

  Leeson shook his head and gave the items back to her. “Junk,” he said. “I can’t believe we got Kivi killed for that.”

  “How about this, sir?” I asked, showing him the lighting-rod gun.

  “That’s more like it,” he said. “We never seem to get our hands on one of these while it’s still intact. We’ll study it and see if we can turn it off remotely. Thanks, McGill.”

  I cleared my throat as he turned away with the weapon cradled in his arms.

  “Sir?” I asked. “I lost my belcher. Could I carry that thing until we get back to headquarters? I’ve used one before.”

  He frowned, but gave it up at last. “All right. But if you zap me in the ass with that thing, I’ll return the favor when I catch a revive. Do you read me, McGill?”

  “Five-by-five, sir.”

  We left the building then and returned to our trucks. The rain had stopped outside, and Kivi’s body had to be crammed onto the floor at our feet. It felt odd, stepping over her and holding onto the handrails.

  We couldn’t leave her behind, of course. No one even considered letting these aliens paw at her. Hell, they might even sell her for meat if we did. Her equipment, and even her flesh would be reused back at the base.

  As we rode down the darkening streets, I kept glancing down at Kivi. Intellectually, I knew that she was coming back. I knew there would be the light of life shining from a new version of those dead, staring eyes.

  But right now, she looked as dead as a doornail to me.

  -24-

  “I want to thank you for going in there and grabbing this stuff,” Natasha told me huskily as she took the tech gadgets out of my gauntlets and hustled up a flight of stairs to a makeshift laboratory.

  Following her, I smiled inwardly. There was nothing like risking your life to bring a girl a present she really wanted. Doing so never failed to transform me into a charming man.

  Natasha unloaded her bundles and chased away a few techs who came over to investigate her loot. The lab was really one corner of the tech unit module which she had access to in addition to 3rd Unit’s module. There were specialized pieces of equipment here, like computers, sensors, and even a small particle accelerator the legion had picked up for testing various systems. As a lot of alien weaponry used particulate radiation, it was used to test how a piece of equipment would hold up under fire.

  “This is a sanctioned exploration ordered by Tribune Drusus,” she told the last tech she tried to scoot out of her way. “If I need help, I’ll ask for it—thanks.” They finally moved off, grumbling and miffed.

  While she worked over a device that looked to me like a microwave oven with exposed wires, I loomed close. She didn’t object, so I stayed near looking over her shoulder.

  “See this?” she asked in breathy excitement. “That’s a power lead. I’ve seen these in diagrams, but this is the first full unit I’ve had in my hands. You’d be surprised how little the brass cares to respond to a simple request for devices required for intel.”

  The microwave-oven thing didn’t have a door, not exactly. She lowered the holographic clothes-projector into the top of it and slid a lead sheet over it before turning it on and consulting readouts.

  “One problem with these is that they’re linked to Tau physiology. They don’t change appearance due to direct commands. Instead, they read the body output of the owner and interpret his mood. That’s how they select what kind of colors to display.”

  I frowned. “I’d always figured they had some kind of knob you could twiddle.”

  She shook her head emphatically. “That’s what most people think. And to be fair, that’s how we’d do it. But these projectors read the mood of the user and adapt to it dynamically.”

  I frowned as I considered the implications.

  “But that means the Tau must be pissed off even before they switch to their rebel-look. It’s not something they’re doing purposefully.”

  “We don’t know that yet,” she said, tinkering. Finally, she exclaimed happily and drew the box back out of the unit. “I’ve got it.”

  “You’ve got what?”

  “I’ve
reprogrammed it to register human input. Put it on, will you?”

  I twisted up my mouth in concern. “Uh, will it shock me or something?”

  “Hopefully not. Come on, get out of that armor. It won’t work unless it’s against bare skin.”

  I grinned. “I’ll wear it first if you promise to do the same.”

  It took a minute for her to figure out what I was talking about—then she punched me.

  “Get down to your undies, and I’ll think about it,” she said. “I’m still not happy about Anne.”

  “Coincidentally, she’s not happy about you, either.”

  I’d meant my comment to be funny, but the second it was out of my mouth I knew it had been the wrong thing to say. Since I’d already said it, I tried to ignore her glare. I climbed out of my armor and pulled the harness over my head buckling it on. She cinched it up until I made uncomfortable noises. It had been a tight fit to begin with.

  “Switching on,” she said.

  “No last requests?”

  “I already said ‘no.’”

  She flipped a switch, and I lit up like a Christmas tree. It was an odd feeling standing there almost naked but visually being covered head to toe.

  “Ha!” I said. “I look like some kind of leprechaun.”

  “Green and gold,” she said, flipping through pages on her tapper. She frowned then she found the right reference.

  “Adventurous and experimental,” she read. “Is that how you’re feeling?”

  “Pretty much always.”

  “Yeah, well—maybe this thing does work.”

  “Let’s experiment with it. Kiss me.”

  She frowned again. “No, that’s not going to be our first experiment. Let’s try this.”

  A jolt of electricity ran through me. It felt like something was vibrating in my teeth and biting my waist at the same time.

  Snarling, I laid my hands on the box and jerked on the buckles. “It’s shocking the shit out of me!”

  “Settle down—I turned it off.”

  Sure enough, the buzzing ended. I examined my ghostly clothing. The colors had changed to shimmering white with blue details.

  “Anger and pain,” Natasha read aloud. “Injury displays of this type will bring rental ambulances to a victim quickly.”

  “How about you put this thing on now?” I suggested.

  She looked at me and laughed. “Okay, I’ve had all the fun. One more experiment.”

  I have to admit I winced a little. Then she came close, stood on her tiptoes, and kissed me passionately. I blinked in surprise but finally engaged with her putting my arms around her waist and pulling her close.

  The kiss went on for about fifteen seconds. When it was over and she was trying to pull away, I didn’t want to let her go. A few techs wandered back into the lab and twittered at us.

  “Success!” Natasha said, turning away and scrolling through her notes. “Orange and gray—arousal and surprise. Notice how the gray is fading? That’s because you’re not as surprised as you were at first.”

  “You’re a cold one, girl,” I grumbled.

  She rolled her eyes at me and went back to her instruments. “We’ve made great progress here. You’ve been a first-class guinea pig, James.”

  I eyed her speculatively. “How about you and I spend our last waking hours together? We won’t deploy again until morning.”

  “Nope, not going to happen. I’ve got a lot of fresh data, and I want to keep toying with it. Go chase someone else.”

  Taking off the harness, I got back into my armor and shambled away. I felt a little used. I figured that was how she wanted me to feel.

  I headed down to blue deck to see if Kivi had come back out of the oven. I told myself I had no plans to hit on her—and I didn’t. I’d come down here because seeing her die in my arms had bothered me, and I wanted to see life in her face again—that’s all.

  When I talked to the bio people, they shook their heads tiredly. “No, she’s not up yet. Your unit is low-priority.”

  This annoyed me, and I went to talk to Anne. “What’s this about starving my unit for revives?” I asked her.

  She looked over her shoulder and shrugged. “You can’t go around pissing everyone off without paying for it eventually.”

  “What? Graves still isn’t revived. Who did he piss off? Normally, a unit commander is put back out in the field after two hours, tops.”

  Anne avoided my gaze. “You’ll have to talk to the Imperator about that.”

  “Turov? She’s really here then? Great. Micromanaging right from the start. If she was in this revival machine right now, I’d drain the bottom pan.”

  Anne gave me a reproachful look. “You shouldn’t talk like that, James,” she said in a low voice.

  “She’s leaning on us for petty reasons,” I said. “I’m going to talk to her as you suggested.”

  Anne appeared to be alarmed. “Leave my name out of it—but I wish you luck.”

  I left her to the grim wet-work of running a revival machine and marched out to the lifts. Leaving my armor behind and taking nothing but a smart uniform and a sidearm, I entered the lift. I selected the highest floor on the list as my destination with a sweep of my finger. A moment later I was shooting up the stack of modules to the one perched at the very top.

  Riding the lift up and up, I began to question the wisdom of this move. But the machinery worked too efficiently. Before I could come to my senses, I’d arrived at what we called the brass-level, the command module entrance.

  Two bored-looking guards eyed me. I didn’t know either one of them. They were both Veterans, but the surprising part to me was that one of them was from Legion Varus and the other was from Legion Germanica.

  “State your business, Specialist,” said the one on the right. He was from Varus.

  “I’m here to see Imperator Turov, Veteran,” I told him.

  “Do you have orders?”

  “I do. My unit has been charged with a special investigation mission by Tribune Drusus. If you could—”

  “Drusus and Turov?” the Vet asked suspiciously. “You’d have to be a primus at least to get the attention of those two. I smell bullshit, Specialist.”

  “Vet, this visit would have been performed personally by Centurion Graves, but he’s yet to come out of the oven. I have findings I’d like to report to my commander.”

  The two vets looked at one another uncomfortably. At last, the Legion Varus guy sighed. “Name?”

  I gave him my name and unit designation. He disappeared into the airlock that protected the command module and didn’t come back for a full minute. During that time, the Germanica Veteran and I eyed one another frostily.

  “You ever heard of Adjunct Claver?” I asked.

  He laughed. “Old Silver? Everyone’s heard of him. He’s as slippery as a walking oil slick. Let me guess, he sold you something and it broke. In that case, count those credits as dead and gone, kid.”

  The veteran’s description of Claver matched what I’d heard from everyone who’d come into contact with Old Silver. Within his own legion, his reputation was nearly as bad as it was among Varus people.

  The airlock opened again, and the Veteran from my legion waved me forward impatiently. I followed him, and after a lot of pumping of air and popping of rubber seals I found myself standing inside a well-appointed chamber. There were flowers—honest to God flowers—in little clusters perched along the walls. I could tell right off they’d been imported from Earth. They looked like orchids. I could only imagine what that extravagance had cost. There were two comfy-looking chairs as well, separated by a small round table of very real-looking hardwood. The deck even had a rug thrown over it which I bet had been woven by hand and transported here from some exotic locale. The rug was like a giant floor tapestry that depicted pallid figures working in a field.

  “Wait here,” the Veteran said, exiting through a pair of doors.

  I overheard the Imperator’s voice before it was cut of
f by the closing doors. Not sure how long I was going to have to wait, I sat in one of the chairs. I was immediately impressed by the way it hugged my butt. This was quality smart-furniture, both self-contouring and weight-balancing.

  Staring at the alien rug, I figured out the people depicted in the fields weren’t human. But what were they? I suspected they were Tau without their shimmering holographic clothing. I’d heard the poorest of them ran around naked, but I’d never seen such a thing. Only rich Tau lived on the megahab. The poor bastards woven into the rug must have been from the planet’s surface.

  “Admiring my rug?” asked a female voice.

  Startled, I looked up. There was Imperator Turov in all her glory. She wore her twin gold suns like a goddess, and I could tell she loved the rank. The emblems shone on her collar as if there were hidden spotlights aimed right at them.

  “Uh…yes sir,” I said. I looked around, but the main door hadn’t opened. Had she stepped out through a hidden doorway? I hadn’t even heard her approach. It occurred to me that this nice waiting room could be something of a trap. If two people were placed here with these comfy chairs and interesting artwork, they may well strike up a conversation. Turov could then pick up information that might otherwise remain hidden.

  “The rug is Tau,” she said, looking down at it. She touched one of the pallid, toiling figures with the toe of her boot. “They don’t live this way down there any longer, of course. The world is covered with structures and open ground is a rare thing. This tapestry is quite old.”

  I gazed at it and her foot. I wondered what the Tau might think of her using their artwork as a carpet. This piece seemed more appropriately placed on a wall somewhere—preferably in a museum. But I hadn’t come here to argue about that.

  “Imperator,” I began. “I’m here because I’ve been charged with a mission by my Tribune, and I—”

  “I know why you’re here,” she said, taking the seat beside me. “I set up an experiment, and the results are in. You took the bait and ran with it just as I thought you would.”

  I had no idea what the hell she was talking about, but I didn’t like the sound of it. Turov was a natural-born schemer, and I state this as a member of the same species. The difference was her schemes tended to be overly complex and even more self-serving than mine were.