by Terry Mixon
Julia laughed at his joke as Kelsey stripped down and began putting her armor on. As usual, the woman paid no attention to who was standing around her, not even bothering to shield her privates by discreetly turning her body. It was as if public nudity no longer even registered for her.
That was another thing about the other woman that she’d never be able to comprehend. Her body consciousness wouldn’t allow her to be so cavalier about strutting around naked in front of strangers. Or worse, platonic friends.
Just taking her clothes off in front of Carl earlier had pushed the limits of what she could imagine herself doing. Thankfully, he’d been a gentleman about the entire affair.
She really was going to have to have a conversation with Angela if they got to Persephone. She needed to reassure the woman and get her help understanding Carl as deeply as she could before the time came to seduce him in her universe.
The use of the word “seduce” made her pause. Her original intention had only been to lure the man in so that she could begin forming a partnership with him, but seduction had popped so easily into her mind.
There was definitely an attraction building in her mind, and that was something else she’d have to talk about with Angela. She needed to make sure the other woman knew that this version of Carl was off limits, and she knew it.
While Kelsey was getting ready, Julia went back into the control room. Carl was now sitting at one of the consoles, separated from the others, and working diligently with a virtual keyboard. She sat down next to him, causing him to glance over with a raised eyebrow.
“I want to apologize,” she said quietly.
He frowned and gave her his full attention. “For what?”
“You’re a married man, and I should have been more discreet when we fitted my armor. Maybe lying down on the floor and finding a way to wiggle into it. It was inappropriate to put a married man in the position where he had to look at another woman without her clothes on. It was disrespectful to you and to your wife.”
He shook his head with a slight smile. “You did what needed doing, and I’m not disturbed by it. I can also assure you that Angela won’t be bothered by it either. She’s been a marine for a long time, and now she’s a Marine Raider. That’s just the way it is for them.”
Julia let the air she’d been holding out slowly. “That’s good to hear. I really didn’t want Angela to beat me up. She’s intimidating enough as a marine in my universe. As a Marine Raider, I can’t imagine how scary she’d be.”
Carl chuckled. “I doubt very seriously that she’d beat you up. If she were mad, she’d be much more likely to yell at you. Trust me when I say that it’s going to be okay.”
He went back to work, making sure that it was apparent to her that the matter was settled, so far as he was concerned. Without saying a word, she rose, stepped over to the nearest wall, and leaned against it.
She was lucky. He was a kind man who would make an excellent consort for her. She really hoped that she could get back home and meet him.
By the time she’d finished thinking that through, Mertz had walked over to Carl. “Do you really think you’re going to be able to summon the train without any trouble? If so, it’s time.”
“Let’s find out,” Carl said.
Carl took a deep breath and sent out the reactivation signal. Since he had the serial number for the train controller, that made it a simple matter to ping the entire network for it.
Almost immediately, a response came back that the train was in a powered-down configuration and had begun reactivating. The controller gave him an estimate of five minutes before it would be prepared to leave its current location.
That was actually pretty fast. It meant that all the systems on the train were operational. That five minutes would give the controller time to check all the propulsion and braking systems before the train began moving. If the people that had been using it were able to shut off that sequence in the next few minutes, they’d stop it from leaving their station.
Of course, they might also just choose to put people on board to confront whoever was stealing their train. If so, there were going to be people arriving on the platform that were pretty upset that they’d been taken for a ride.
Just as the counter on the timer struck five minutes, Carl saw a red dot appear on the main board. Unsurprisingly, it was flashing at what he suspected was the spur leading to the Imperial Palace.
Of course it was. Why wouldn’t it be directly where they were going? It seemed perfectly fitting that the people who’d stolen the fusion plant from Frankfort had also holed up in the one place that they absolutely needed to be.
And if history was anything to go by, they wouldn’t be friendly either.
What was mildly confusing to him was the fact that the blinking red dot wasn’t moving. All it did was remain in one place and flash. He wasn’t sure what that meant. If he’d read the files correctly, it should be green and moving.
He checked the readouts and brought up the camera inside the control area of the train itself. There was no one there, which was a relief. It meant that no one with the ability to control the train had gotten there in time to make a difference.
The controls indicated the train was in motion. That probably meant that the flashing red light indicated that it was on the spur and thus not able to be seen on the main map. A couple of minutes later, the dot turned to a solid green and began moving toward Frankfort.
“I’ve got it on the screen and moving,” he said somewhat needlessly. Everyone else in the room had undoubtedly noticed it. “Ralph, can you see about hacking into its systems and linking into the vid system? The admiral wants to know if we’ve got passengers.”
“On it,” Ralph said as he began typing furiously on his virtual keyboard. “It doesn’t look like this system is too complicated, and I’ve already managed to insert a couple of feelers that should give me a good idea what I’m looking at shortly.”
Five seconds later, the young man grinned. “I’m in. One of my feelers found a back door that someone had designed into the system that I was able to activate. I’m bringing up the cameras in a rotating format. It’ll be on the screen to our right.”
As the images began flashing up onto the indicated screen, Carl’s heart sank. Not only was the train occupied, but its passengers were also armed. They might not have gotten anyone capable of controlling the train aboard during that five-minute window, but there’d been armed fighters ready to move. That meant that there was going to be a confrontation as soon as the train arrived.
“Can you freeze some of those images and maybe enlarge them?” Kelsey asked. She stood next to the console in her new Raider armor, her helmet nestled into the crook of her arm.
Ralph shook his head. “I can freeze the feed, but enlarging the image will just reduce the resolution to the point where you can’t see what you’re looking for. That kind of nonsense is just a vid show trick. The real world doesn’t work that way.”
“Then do it,” she said. “I might not be able to see all the details, but if what I’m looking for is there, I’ll see it.”
As soon as Ralph froze one of the images on the screen, she stepped closer to the big screen and stared up at the fighter. “Is it just me, or do they look like they have pins similar to the one that Jared found in the stairwell? It’s right there on the lapel. And that sure looks like a uniform, doesn’t it?”
Carl rose from his console and joined her in examining the man standing there. He was young and had the kind of close-cut hair that one might associate with the military. He looked just like the other dozen or so that had been standing in the same car.
“Ralph, you’re the one running the vid feed,” he said. “How many cars are we talking about and how many people? Do you see anyone that looks different than this guy?”
“They’ve got people in four of the cars,” the young hacker said. “Roughly a dozen per car, so somewhere around fifty people. The men all look like him and are wearing t
hat uniform, whatever it is. There are maybe a third that are female. The uniform is the same, but they have longer hair.
“They’ve got flechette rifles strapped over their shoulders, and I see flechette pistols in holsters on their hips. If we get into a fight with these people, we’re going to have to be really careful, or we’ll end up destroying the train.”
Admiral Mertz joined them and peered up at the frozen image. “I think you’re right, Kelsey. That sure does look like the same kind of pin, even though I can’t make out the details at this resolution. The fact that there are so many of them, dressed in the same way, indicates this is probably an organization that the Raiders founded hundreds of years ago. Or maybe they inspired it. We’ll have to find out when they get here.”
He turned to face his sister. “Do you think you can use that mystique to your advantage when they arrive? If we can browbeat them, I’d much rather do that than fight. Ralph’s right. If we start shooting, the train is going to be the first casualty.”
Kelsey shrugged. “I can try. The only thing that I can’t control is how they’re going to respond. Maybe if they see some of us in armor, they’ll realize that we’re Marine Raiders. They won’t know who has augmentation and who doesn’t, so everyone needs to be armored up.
“Everyone that isn’t in the control room needs to set up some of the weapons that we brought down to form a crossfire that we can use against them if they decide they’re going to be hostile.
“I’d prefer stunners on wide beam. If I could be sure we’d get them all, I’d say ambush them. As it is, we’ll probably have to talk first—if they’ll let us—but I’ll be damned if I give them a chance to kill one of us.”
Admiral Mertz nodded and turned toward him. “Carl, how long until they arrive?”
He quickly walked back over to his console and brought up the data. “Judging by their current speed, it looks like they’ll be here in about twenty-five minutes. If we’re going to be in a fight, why don’t we use some of the weapons that we’ve brought down to rig up a booby trap for them?”
Kelsey stepped over to him, her expression interested. “You’ve intrigued me, O designer of deadly weapons. What do you have in mind?”
“We’ve got all those explosives. We know exactly where the train is going to stop. Why don’t we set up mines facing the cars where we know the enemy is going to be? Rather than hide them, we make them obvious.
“That way, when the doors open and they come out, they’ll already be in the field of fire of weapons that they can’t stop or control. We can tell them that we don’t intend to set the mines off unless they start fighting, and maybe that’ll calm things down until we can figure out what we’re going to do.”
Kelsey put on an impressed expression. “That’s brilliant. We can stash people with rifles and stunners behind some of the columns to help cover them as well. If they realize that they’re in a death trap, they might hesitate long enough for us to at least talk them down.”
Without another word, Kelsey headed out, presumably to begin setting up the explosives.
“Good work, Carl,” Admiral Mertz said. “Now, let’s get everything locked down here. We don’t want them shooting this place up and causing any of the systems here to do anything that they shouldn’t.”
“Yes, sir. I’ll have everything ready.”
Now all they had to do was wait until the thieves arrived. Then they’d find out whether or not they could stop them from fighting or if there was going to be a shootout that destroyed the train they so desperately needed to get to the Imperial Palace.
The Imperial Palace that, it seemed, was already occupied.
26
The next twenty minutes gave Kelsey an opportunity to work with Lieutenant Laird while setting up the explosives that they’d brought with them. Basically, these were antipersonnel mines that were designed around shaped charges that shot steel balls into the targets while leaving the area behind them relatively safe.
And even though the idea left her uncomfortable, she also assisted in planting explosive charges down under where the train would settle. Those were to destroy the train if the fighting became too difficult, and they had to end it quickly.
It would also mean that they’d be unable to use the train to get to the Imperial Palace, so she intended to avoid that outcome if at all possible.
If they could get past this first confrontation, she might be able to deescalate the situation and keep the other side from making any irreversible decisions. Once the killing started, she and her people would be forced to fight their way through to the Imperial Palace and capture it.
It would be far better if they could do this with words rather than weapons.
All of the noncombatants—plus Talbot—were in the control room. There was absolutely no need for them to be in danger. The walls were thin, but the control consoles would provide some cover if things went bad.
Jared, Sean, and several of the others with the skills to use flechette rifles were hidden behind some of the columns, ready to provide cover if needed. The only ones left visible on the platform were herself, Lieutenant Laird, Carl, and Julia.
Only she and Julia could use their armor effectively, but Chloe was a trained fighter and had used standard marine armor before. She’d do fine, Kelsey was sure.
Carl, on the other hand, was just there for show. He had orders that if the people on the train started shooting, he was to get his skinny little butt back into the control room and form the final line of defense in case she and the rest couldn’t hold.
She resisted the urge to pace. Even though her nanites were working on her leg wound, it still ached and gave her occasional jolts of pain to remind her that she’d been hurt. Nothing that would stop her from doing what she needed to, but enough to make her aware of the injury.
Right on schedule, the maglev train pulled into the station and slowed to a halt just like Carl had programmed it to do. As soon as it settled to the ground, the doors slid open, and men and women began pouring out, their rifles up.
The train wasn’t that big, all things considered. It consisted of an engine and four cars. The latter looked more like they were made for cargo because Kelsey couldn’t see any seats inside. That made sense, considering that these people were using the train to strip nearby areas of equipment and supplies.
All told, Carl’s count of fifty was pretty accurate. Her implants totaled the hostiles at fifty-one.
Each of the soldiers held an Imperial-made flechette rifle and had a flechette pistol in a holster on their belt. While Kelsey couldn’t see behind their backs, there was a good chance that they carried stunners there. It was interesting that they’d decided to lead with lethal weaponry. Interesting and telling.
The people she’d positioned behind the columns would lead with stunners on wide beam, likely taking out most of the people on the platform if hostilities broke out. It spoke to how they’d rather not kill unless they had no choice.
The flechette rifles were a danger, but only if those people knew how to use them. Other than Kelsey, everyone had their helmets locked down, and their armor would be sufficient to stop a lot of the flechettes from penetrating.
Kelsey had her helmet off because she wanted to make the point that this didn’t have to end like that. As the soldiers came out, their attention focused on her, probably because she was different.
“I’m sure you’re all wondering why I’ve called you here,” she said in a dry tone. “Before anyone gets too excited, let me suggest that you lower your weapons. If you start shooting, we’re going to have to take you all down, and I’d prefer not to do that.”
One of the women stepped forward, not lowering her weapon in the slightest. “Identify yourself. Why have you stolen our train?”
“Don’t you think that’s a little judgmental?” Kelsey asked, tilting her head slightly to the side. “After all, you used that train to steal a fusion plant from this city. Not only that, but I’m also sure that you took
a lot of other things that were quite valuable as well.
“So, rather than call each other names, why don’t we start with deescalating the situation before you make any more accusations?”
Before the other woman could speak, Kelsey gestured toward the antipersonnel mines arrayed in front of them. “Those mines will kill everyone on that side of the platform if you decide to open fire. Inside our armor, it’s not going to hurt us at all. I really do suggest that you take this slowly because if you make a mistake right now, I’m going to be the only one left to regret it.”
The woman eyed the antipersonnel mines and obviously considered ordering her people back into the train. Her thoughts seemed to pass across her face, and then, instead, she made a gesture for them to lower their weapons.
They didn’t disarm themselves, but that was fine with Kelsey. She really didn’t expect them to. All she wanted was for them to avoid making a lethal mistake.
“Who are you, and how do you know any of this?” the woman asked. “And how are you making the holy armor work?”
Kelsey blinked at that last. Holy armor? That seemed kind of… weird.
“My name is Kelsey Bandar, and I’m a Marine Raider.”
The woman’s expression went from cautious and suspicious to downright hostile. Her weapon came back up, and so did all the rest.
“Liar. Tell us the truth, or we’ll kill you right now.”
“Doesn’t the fact that I’m working the armor count for something? What kind of proof would satisfy you?”
Before the other woman could speak, Julia stepped forward. Without waiting for the woman to say anything, her doppelgänger headed toward the front of the train and jumped down from the platform.
Then she bent low and lifted the front end of the train. That had to be a considerable strain on her and her armor, but she managed it.
