Heart of Granite

by James Barclay

  ‘It’s easy to sum up: they were bigger, stronger and faster than us. Their weapons suite was more powerful – flame hotter and ECMs that could discharge massive amounts of electricity. They could also fire their ECMs like seeker missiles. The fact we’re better pilots means we got home at all but even so, ten of them took out eight of us and whacked four others into hospital, sir.’

  ‘Great start, thank you. So was this upgraded fleshware, or are we facing a sentience unlock?’

  ‘I’d say there’s been a sentience tweak,’ said Salewski. ‘Some of their turns defy belief unless the drakes have more autonomy.’

  ‘I disagree,’ said Xavier. ‘If a fleshware upgrade sped up transmission of human impulse to drake, I think you can explain their reaction speeds.’

  ‘But we can only think so fast,’ replied Salewski. ‘If you factor in their raw speed, which diminishes reaction time still further, I can’t see any other way to do it. They must have allowed the drake some freedom in evasion moves at the very least.’

  ‘There must have been musculature enhancements, though,’ said Gurney. ‘How else do you explain some of their wing positioning and switching moves?’

  ‘Does it really matter?’ asked Max, bitterness surfacing momentarily. ‘They were better than us, end of story.’

  ‘Yes it does matter,’ said Rosenbach. She had an earnest expression on her soft round face, endless eyes and delicate long fingers that danced over her ppalm. ‘If we’re to match them quickly, we need to know if we’re looking at physical systems, impulse transmission, drake thought processes or human improvement. Otherwise, how do we direct our work?’

  ‘Then I’ll throw this in,’ said Valera. ‘Their co-ordination impressed me. At times, it was as if they were responding to a single set of commands rather than individual impulse and physical movement instructions. Do they also have a more advanced com, something that can disperse umbrella commands to a whole squad of drakes?’

  Rosenbach stared at her for a moment before nodding and making more notes. ‘Very interesting, thank you.’

  Kirby held up his hands. ‘This is an excellent start but you can already see we’re not going to find all the answers from this one encounter. We need more data, and we must press on with our pursuit of the Maputonow you’ve confirmed she’s struggling. I feel sure the launch of the new drakes and her current situation are not coincidental.’

  Every pilot in the room wanted to ask the same question but none of them wanted to hear the answer. Kirby gave it to them anyway. Just before he opened his mouth, Max saw Moeller take half a pace away. And with every word towards his inevitable senseless conclusion, Max’s gorge rose a little further.

  ‘We have to test them. Explore and expose their weaknesses. We can’t implement upgrades to fleshware at the drop of a hat. We have to combat them with what we have. It doesn’t matter if they’re more advanced, there are still humans in control, and humans make mistakes – which we can observe and use against them. So you want revenge for the bloody nose they gave you? You can have it. Get out there with Lavaflow-A and show them what Inferno-X can do. You fly tomorrow at eleven hundred hours. Any questions?’

  The silence was ephemeral.

  ‘Bloody nose?’ shouted Stepanek. ‘Perhaps you weren’t watching when the Mafs handed us our fried balls on a bed of toasted scales?’

  ‘We’re still mopping the blood from the flight deck and you want us to go out again?’ said Xavier.

  ‘Did you visit medical?’ asked Salewski. ‘Perhaps you can teach Roberts to fly with one fucking arm.’

  ‘Why?’ demanded Max. ‘Didn’t enough of us die yesterday to satisfy Solomon?’

  ‘Silence!’ roared Kirby, all softness gone and replaced by something altogether more familiar. ‘Squadron Leader Orin you will control your squad.’

  Valera stood up and held her hands up for quiet. ‘Make your points without shouting, eh?’

  She was turned far enough from Kirby that he couldn’t see her wink and when she turned back to face him, she held his gaze for longer than she should before sitting down. Max glanced at Moeller, who was impassive.

  ‘Such outbursts will not be tolerated,’ said Kirby as Max raised his hand. ‘Go ahead Halloran. Carefully.’

  ‘I apologise for raising my voice, sir,’ said Max. Kirby inclined his head. ‘With the greatest respect, sir: why? Didn’t enough of us die yesterday to satisfy you and the Marshal General?’

  Next to him, Valera’s breath hissed through her teeth. Any remaining colour drained from Kirby’s face. He walked forward to stand right in front of Max, glaring down at him.

  ‘You will do as you are ordered and you will not question my integrity or that of the Marshal General. Am I clear?’

  ‘I was just—’

  ‘Am I clear, Halloran?’

  Max gritted his teeth and forced himself to stay in his seat.

  ‘Absolutely, sir. I meant no offence. But we lost eight, we’ve got four in medical and we barely laid a claw on them. Even though we outnumbered them more than two to one—’

  ‘Halloran . ..’ warned Kirby.

  ‘—so what is the point of going out there and having it done to us again?’

  ‘Are you questioning my orders, boy?’

  Max bit back on his first thought. ‘Yes, sir, and I am looking for clarification as to how this decision was reached.’

  The ExO leaned in and laid a finger on Max’s chest. ‘You are treading a very fine line, Halloran. Be careful you don’t slip off.’

  ‘It’d be a problem though, wouldn’t it, sir?’ said Stepanek. ‘If we lose one more pilot we will be below the minimum required to form a combat squadron.’

  Kirby straightened to direct his ire at Stepanek, while behind him, Hewitt took a pace forward, his presence drawing the eye.

  Hewitt paused a moment before speaking. ‘Calculated insubordination because you’re too cowardly to face the enemy, is that it?’

  ‘Fuck did you just say?’ Max pushed away from the table and stood, his selfcontrol fracturing. ‘Perhaps I didn’t hear you right.’

  Hewitt shrugged. ‘You don’t have the courage to face them again? I get it. But don’t hide behind regulations.’

  The whole squad was on its feet now and Max led the shouts.

  ‘Calm down!’ ordered Valera, but her tone held no conviction. She wanted this confrontation as much as they did and she wasn’t sitting down either. No one was.

  ‘You’d better listen,’ said Kirby. ‘Final warning.’

  ‘Hewitt has called our courage into question. He has disrespected our dead. He apologises now.’

  ‘Sit. Down.’ Kirby’s voice was stone and the pace he took towards Max carried undisguised threat.

  Buoyed by the support of his commanding officer, Hewitt oozed a smile.

  ‘Halloran isn’t terribly good with orders, sir.’

  Max shot him a glance. ‘No, dickhead, what I’m not good at is offering my squad up for slaughter. The odds were against us yesterday. Today they’re impossible.’

  Hewitt shrugged. ‘Typical. You’re happy to enjoy the fame, unhappy to face the enemy. It’s pure cowardice.’

  The final piece of Max’s self-control broke. He pushed past Kirby, all but picked Hewitt off his feet and slammed him against the big screen.

  ‘Halloran!’ shouted Kirby.

  ‘I am this close,’ hissed Max, hearing the rising volume behind him, the shrieking of chairs and the pushing away of tables. He pinched this thumb and forefinger of his right hand together. ‘No one, certainly not a whining office fuck like you, calls InfernoX cowards.’

  ‘Let him go, right now,’ said Kirby, laying a heavy hand on Max’s shoulder.

  ‘I don’t have to call you a coward,’ sneered Hewitt. ‘You do it to yourself.’

  Max punched him in the mouth. His fist split Hewitt’s lips and he felt teeth give under the force of the blow. Hewitt’s head whacked against the screen and his hands flew up as the bloo
d started to flow.

  It was pandemonium. Kirby heaved Max aside violently enough that he almost collided with Moeller and Rosenbach, who had been backing towards the door as soon as it looked like trouble. Moeller, a veteran of briefing room slanging matches, had a defensive arm across the Tweaker who was gazing at the unfolding chaos in disbelief.

  Hewitt was staring at the blood and teeth in his hands; Moeller was roaring at Valera to get control. Max had lost his footing and as he scrambled to his feet, Andersen, Hewitt’s aide, rushed him, his fists bunched. Max was in no stance to defend himself and raised his arms to try and deflect the coming blows as Stepanek stepped in front of him and decked Andersen with a straight punch to the chin that knocked him square on his arse.

  ‘Enough!’ roared Valera, just too late to stop Stepanek’s glorious punch. ‘Inferno-X, stand down!’

  Max stood and straightened his fatigues. He looked at his fist, happy with the red marks on his knuckles, then at Hewitt, whose face was white and whose uniform was streaked with blood from his mouth. Max was breathing hard, but his anger had barely diminished and when he faced Kirby he was ready for more. Standing behind the ExO, Valera saw Max’s expression and gave him a palms-down gesture.

  ‘Halloran, Stepanek, you will place yourselves in my custody immediately. Orin, get your squadron out of my sight. Your orders stand. Consider yourself reprimanded ahead of a formal hearing.’

  Max sighed. ‘This sucks. I acted without orders, sir.’

  Kirby jabbed a finger at him. ‘I advise you to say nothing unless you are addressed directly.’

  ‘Enough, Max,’ said Valera. Then she mouthed, ‘Thank you.’

  Max winked and turned his mouth up in a smile. Inferno-X began to file out and every one of them clapped either him or Stepanek on the shoulder or patted him on the head. Max saluted Kirby as did Stepanek.

  ‘Executive Officer Kirby, Stepanek and Halloran placing ourselves in your custody.’

  ‘You are both charged with causing an affray and with the assault of a crew member. You will remain here until representatives of the military police arrive to accompany you to the brig. You will not speak to anyone nor seek to make contact with anyone. Your charges will be heard at a time of my choosing of which you will be advised in due course.’

  Kirby shook his head. ‘I cannot express how disappointed I am in your actions, pointless and damaging as they are.’

  Both Hewitt and Andersen were on their feet and Kirby waved them out and followed them, pausing to hiss something at Moeller whose reply was pitched just loud enough.

  ‘You made it perfectly clear I was attending as an observer. So I have . . . observed.’

  Kirby cleared his throat and stalked out. Moeller stared at Max and Stepanek and there was a glint in his eye though he was trying to be disapproving.

  ‘That Hewitt is an utter prick, isn’t he?’ he said.

  Chapter 14

  The Tweakers, I mean the lovely scientists in the ERC programme, reckon drakes have no emotional responses on any measurable scale. They couldn’t be more wrong but they won’t listen to us. Scientists . .. if you can’t put a number on it, it doesn’t exist. Twats.

  Maximus Halloran

  The HoG’s brig was a sterile affair of fifty bone-architectured cells, each one sporting a metal bed, basin and toilet. It was located at the base of deck two, where the lack of any aircirculation and artery-rich area made the cell block chilly and stuffy at the same time. Doherty, the single guard on duty beyond their locked metal-mesh doors, had a fan on her desk to blow the stale air around.

  Still, it wasn’t all bad. The block was very sparsely populated and she’d put him and Stepanek in cells opposite each other so they could at least sit on the end of their beds and talk across the couple of metres of brightly lit grey corridor. Well, they could if Stepanek ever sat up.

  Max was silent for a while and fixed his eyes on Stepanek’s shoes, hoping to make them smoulder and burst into flame by the power of his mind alone. They remained stubbornly undamaged.

  ‘Pretty good straight right, by the way.’

  Stepanek sat bolt upright and Max smiled. ‘ Pretty good? That punch was world class and don’t you fucking forget it. Pretty good, my holy arse . ..’

  ‘All right, all right, it was a beauty, no argument there. But why did you of all people wade in for me?’

  Stepanek chuckled and massaged his right fist. ‘I’ve been lying here, rather than in my altogether more comfortable pod, wondering the same thing.’

  ‘So: why?’

  ‘You’re Inferno-X. What else could I do? If you stand up against fuckheads like Kirby and Hewitt, I’m going to be at your shoulder no matter how much of a dick you are.’

  ‘You’re not going to start giving me all that team shit like Valera are you?’

  ‘No,’ said Stepanek. ‘And you know why? Because it’s stronger than that. You’re family. Maybe the moron bastard son of my psychotic fifth cousin, but family just the same.’

  Max laughed, the sound echoing against the bone and metal. ‘That’s supposed to make me feel loved, is it? Sound of that family, I could easily be your son or your uncle. Or both.’

  ‘Fuck me, if I was your father I’d have the snip to kill the threat of any more.’

  ‘And if I was your son, I’d chop mine off to end the line of bloody Stepaneks.’

  They sat in companionable silence for a while.

  ‘Fact is you did okay, Max. I was almost proud of you.’

  ‘And I’ve still got my awesome looks because of you so thanks.’

  ‘You owe me for the rest of your short, shallow life, you bastard.’

  ‘Well at least you don’t hate me any more.’

  ‘I’ve never hated you, you idiot. You were an utter dick for three months after you joined, mind you, and I might have said some things I shouldn’t. But back there you said what we were all thinking and you had a big enough pair to take the rap for the squad. And while you still own the definition of “selfish twat” there seems to be a little more to you than I thought.’

  ‘I’ll take that as a compliment.’

  ‘Yeah well, don’t get all wet-knickered about it, you’ve got a long way to go yet.’

  ‘Right. Best not to extend too much hope,’ said Max. Stepanek grinned. ‘What’s going to happen to us?’

  ‘What should happen is, we get hauled in front of the commander, she gives us a verbal kicking and confines us to the squad dorm between missions for as long as she sees fit. But who knows? Kirby and Moeller seem to have fallen out.’

  ‘Think we’ll get away with it?’

  ‘I’ll be surprised if we get much worse than a booze ban.’

  The door to the block squeaked open. Max pressed his left cheek to the mesh so he could see who had come in.

  ‘It’s Kirby,’ he said, feeling a brief rush of anxiety. ‘Think he’s come to apologise?’

  There was a short buzz and the two cell doors swung open. Kirby marched along the corridor. Both pilots stood to attention.

  ‘Stepanek, get out of here. You’ll find your charge notes in your p-palm and nailed to the door of your pod. Halloran, you and I will talk.’ Kirby’s expression was bleak.

  ‘Will you make Hewitt apologise for accusing us of cowardice?’

  ‘That will never happen.’

  ‘Agree with him do you?’ Max sat on the end of his bed.

  ‘You refused to go into action,’ said Kirby. He remained standing.

  ‘Then you go right ahead and have your chat and I’ll exercise my right to say absolutely dick all, sir.’

  The ExO blew out his cheeks. ‘You really will have to learn to curb that tongue of yours.’

  ‘And disappoint a behemoth full of women?’

  ‘Fucking hell,’ said Kirby through a sigh. ‘You have to respect the chain of command. There is no other way.’

  ‘Poor old ExO, eh?’ said Max. ‘Avery or Solomon twisted your arm into sending us to our deaths
? So what? A shit order is a shit order.’

  ‘I understand your anger. But we have to get more data about those drakes.’

  ‘Then send a cloud of spyflys.’

  ‘We need tactical information not still photography.’

  ‘You aren’t going to get that by sending us out to get our arses fried again, are you? Why don’t you get that?’ Max threw up his hands. ‘Why are you talking to me anyway? Just punish me, sir.’

  ‘Don’t play the martyr, Halloran. I’m talking to you because I have a solution, but I need your help to see it through.’

  ‘Why would I do the first thing to help you?’

  ‘Because it’ll give you the upgrade you need to go out and rip those Maf drake’s heads off their scrawny necks.’

  Max frowned. ‘Are you talking about a sentience upgrade? Skipper’ll fight that all the way.’

  ‘And so here I am talking to you. You can persuade her.’

  Max felt himself flush. ‘I’m insulted you think I’m so easily bought, sir.’

  ‘I don’t think that. Bloody hell, Halloran, you’re a top pilot and no one wants to see you grounded. Help me out and I can reduce your and Stepanek’s charges to minor misdemeanours. Everyone benefits, not least InfernoX.’

  ‘Is that what I’m looking at? Time out of the pouch?’

  ‘Why so surprised?’ asked Kirby. ‘Both of my aides are in medical, both keen to see you hung out to dry.’

  ‘All right.’ Max held up his hands. ‘What do you want me to do?’

  ‘We’ve just got a new sentience upgrade on the slate. It’s good and it’s been dry tested. It’s safe. Valera will object, because she always does – and more Inferno-X will die without it.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Because I can’t change the order.’ Kirby cleared his throat. ‘And because you were right, it is a shit order, so you need something to help you fight. I’m offering it to you.’

  Max needed a moment. It was a stitch-up but it made perfect sense.

  ‘The skipper will hate my guts for it.’

  ‘Only until she sees what we’re offering you. I’m not asking you to sell it, just persuade her to listen rather than quote the testing standards at me.’