Ragnarok: Colonization, intrigue and betrayal.

by Andrew Claymore

  The first thought in her head was that her mom had come but she knew that couldn’t be. This was Luna.

  “It’s really you, isn’t it?” Luna said, finally loosening her embrace enough to look at her niece. She turned off her gauntlets and reached up to touch Gabriella’s face.

  “We thought we’d lost you…” She stopped talking, on the verge of losing her control.

  They settled for another hug, drawing comfort from each other. There was no need for words.

  But words intruded.

  “My lady,” Mal’s voice said from Gabriella’s and Luna’s suit collars. “We’re coming in with prisoners. Major Goodwin has captured Kolm.”

  Luna felt Gabriella stiffen. “We’ll meet you at the security pad behind Town Hall,” Luna replied.

  “My lady?” Mal blurted. “Yes, my lady,” he added hastily.

  Luna leaned back again, raising an eyebrow at her niece. “He was calling you, not me, wasn’t he?”

  Gabriella nodded. “Unsurprisingly,” she replied, switching to Imperial Standard, “when the Deathstalker crashed on the surface, Ragnarok was in a state of emergency. There was a well-intentioned squabble underway when I arrived at the council chamber that we didn’t have time for.

  “We had Quailu pouring out of a heavy cruiser, traitors scattering into the jungle from the Edged Star and gods only know how many escape pods came down from the fight in orbit...”

  Luna’s eyes looked past Gabriella for a second. She was asking herself what she would have done in Gabriella’s situation. Probably the same question she asked herself at the time, she realized.

  She looked at the young woman with a new respect. “You assumed command?”

  She nodded. “Gods know, it was the last thing I wanted. The words were out of my mouth before I knew I was talking.”

  “Uh-huh...” Luna had a feeling it hadn’t been that simple. “How’d Goodwin end up down here? Last I knew, he was on the Tulwar with Johnson. We sent them here to evac the colony.”

  Gabriella finally stepped back. She sighed, offering the hint of a shrug. “That’s what Johnson said when he got here.”

  “So what happened?”

  “Battle was done. We survived it by the skin of our teeth but we weren’t about to go through all that just to run off and leave Unity to the enemy. There’s still hundreds of them to hunt down.”

  “He give you trouble?” Luna switched back to English.

  “Tried to but orders are orders and he wasn’t going to just leave us on our own. Goodwin was a lot less trouble. He was practically salivating at the chance to get his Marines on the ground and show these genetically engineered Humans what they can do.”

  Luna chuckled. “Can’t wait to hear Mal’s thoughts about professional soldiers.”

  Gabriella smiled. “I don’t know a hell of a lot about Force Recon but I do know they’re supposed to be some serious bad-ass hombres.”

  She tilted her head in respect. “Sounds like they caught public enemy number one for us, so I’d say they’re showing Mal a thing or two.”

  “Oh!” Speaking of showing things… Luna glanced at the young man. “Sorry, did I interrupt something?” What were they doing up here on someone’s roof?

  He looked alarmed. He put up both hands, palms out and was about to speak but Gabriella got there first.

  “Kind of,” she gave Luna a look, defiantly vague, but then she nodded over her aunt’s shoulder. “Vikram was showing me a place he made where I could get away from the colony’s endless stream of minor problems.”

  “Well, that’s an awfully nice thing to do,” Luna said, resisting the urge to hug the stuffing out of him. Does she realize how cute this guy is?

  “His family… You remember John’s brother – the wedding when we got here?”

  “Yeah, Frank and Trisha?”

  “Yeah, this is their house, and Vikram is Trisha’s son. They took me in. I was going to sleep at City Hall but Frank saw me yawning and must have realized I don’t have a home here.

  “And that was after I nearly crashed the Deathstalker on top of Vikram. He had to carry me out of a patch of deadly spores when I jumped clear of the wreck.”

  “Wait just a second here.” Luna deliberately put on a skeptical expression.

  “You get dragged halfway across the Nereid Arm, crash on this planet and you just happen to hop out into a dangerous patch of forest right next to a handsome young man, who then has to carry you… in his arms, I’m guessing… to safety?”

  “There was an outside force involved in our paths,” Gabriella insisted.

  “The whole jungle’s pretty dangerous,” Vikram objected, “and she was hardly helpless, she…” He glanced at Gabriella then shut up.

  And I’m pretty sure neither of you regret the moment, either, Luna thought smugly. “I’m just kidding,” she told them.

  “The Universe has a perverse sense of humor,” she added. “Still, every now and then…” She gave Vikram an appreciative smile. “It cuts you a break.”

  That led to an awkward silence, pretty much as Luna expected. “So, Kolm. He’s your call, chica, unless you want me to step in?”

  “No,” Gabriella said firmly. “I’ve got plans for that asshole.”

  Luna nearly shivered. She’d been trying not to see it but this wasn’t the same Gabriella anymore.

  She’d come through the fire and now she was something new.

  The three of them walked to the town center, followed by two of Mal’s soldiers who’d been standing guard outside the house’s main gate.

  “In case the enemy infiltrate the town,” her niece had explained with a resigned tone.

  The guards stayed outside when they entered the small jail at the back of the main civic building. They’d greeted two Marines with easy familiarity, stopping to chat by a runabout that sat, ticking and popping, as it cooled in the evening air.

  Inside, Mal, Goodwin and another pair of Marines were at the back, behind an intake-counter. They were talking in low voices and gesturing at the row of cages at the back of the inner room.

  When they saw who had arrived, Mal broke off what he was saying and pressed a hand to his heart. Goodwin called ‘attention’ and the three Marines snapped into rigid positions.

  “As you were, gentlemen,” Luna said. She approached the cages, eyes fixed on the middle one.

  Kolm sat there, alone. The guys in the other cages were standing as far from him as they could.

  He was sullen and ragged. His right eye was a charred mess of scar tissue along with that whole side of his face and he had no eyebrows.

  “Damn, Goodwin, you got napalm or something?” Luna asked.

  “No, ma’am,” Goodwin answered. “Jackass fell in a campfire when we opened up on them.”

  “A campfire,” she replied flatly.

  “A gods-damned disgrace is what they are,” Mal growled. “They put out sentries but they didn’t even know they were in trouble till they felt the knives.”

  He spat on the floor. “They were nothing but easy meat!”

  “Or maybe,” Gabriella said, “they were up against professional soldiers with decades of combat experience?”

  Goodwin glanced at her, seeing the pride on her face at what his men could do.

  Atta-girl! Luna thought. She didn’t need to read minds to see that Goodwin had been annoyed by Mal’s response.

  “Yes, yes, of course, my lady,” Mal admitted hastily. “In fact, you should have seen them. One of the traitors was a ‘jumper’.

  “When we were restraining the prisoners, he disappeared on us.” Mal gestured at Goodwin. “A situation the major had clearly given thought to.

  “The… lance corporal, yes?… He was about to restrain the man when he ‘jumped’. Quicker than thought, he dropped the restraints and rolled to the side, pulled out a sidearm and aimed behind where he’d been standing.”

  “And he called out ‘jumper’,” Goodwin added. “You never know who they’re goi
ng to go after, so you want everyone to move.

  “Nelson found himself looking right at the bastard. Gave him a couple of non-regulation holes to slow him down.”

  “I’ll be passing this on to my people,” Mal said.

  “And drill them, Mal,” Goodwin insisted. “This isn’t a pod session; they’ll need some practice to put it into their muscle memory.”

  Luna walked up to the bars. “Consider yourself lucky you find yourself in my niece’s hands,” she told Kolm. “I would have made your agony last for lifetimes.”

  He looked away from her as if she hadn’t spoken.

  “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Gabriella chided her aunt. “He’s my prisoner. I have a responsibility to convene a court, to hear his case.”

  She turned to the soldiers. “You gentlemen will serve as witnesses to the proceeding.”

  They nodded gravely.

  “Kolm of Babilim…” She turned to face him. “… You stand accused of treason, of kidnapping and of murder.”

  “I don’t acknowledge your right to conduct a trial,” Kolm sneered.

  “The court will consider your defense.” She turned from the cage, arms crossed. She caught Luna’s eye but her aunt simply rolled her eyes and patted her pistol.

  “The court finds your argument invalid,” Gabriella announced, turning back to the cage. “Having already committed the acts to which the court itself was a witness, your attempt to…” She frowned slightly at the phrase in her head. “Cheever your way out of this on a technicality is absurd. The court finds you guilty.

  “Does the spiny vole refuse to recognize the sabre-tooth’s right to eat it? It may gain some small personal satisfaction but, in the end, it still ends its days as a pile of sabre-tooth droppings.”

  Her eyebrows raised a fraction as something occurred to her. “I had earlier promised you that my aunt would strangle you with your own guts…”

  She left that hanging for a moment.

  Luna saw the fearful glance that flickered her way from the cage. She might have made the same threat in Gabriella’s shoes. Hell, I might even do it, if she asks…

  She caught her breath. Is that the difference I’ve noticed? She looked at her niece’s calm face. Is she becoming more like me?

  Gabriella gave a tiny shake of her head, as if disagreeing with some idea in her head. “No, she said. That would be inelegant.

  “Such an execution would likely end with us tossing your carcass in a fire. Far better that you serve this world in death.”

  She turned to Mal. “Strip him, bind his hands and get him into the runabout.”

  Mal nodded, waving two of his men toward Kolm’s cage. Luna watched as they opened the door and pulled Kolm away from the far wall that he seemed to be hoping would swallow him up.

  “What’s the plan?” Luna asked as the two men yanked the under-armor suit off the sullen prisoner and secured his hands with nylon ties.

  “Kolm’s about to become part of the ecosystem,” Gabriella said, looking at Vikram.

  “We’ll take him up to where the Deathstalker crashed.

  “What do you think the reaction will be with the colony?” She asked. “Sushil, the council?”

  He sighed. “I think you already know how Frank and the other westerners will react. As for the rest, most of them are from India. We do have the death-penalty there, you know. A serial killer was hanged the day before we came aboard the Kuphar.”

  “Hanging?” Luna exclaimed.

  “Hey, you Americans still use the electric chair. Even the news in India caught the story of that park ranger who killed all those drifters.” He grimaced.

  “You botch a hanging and they asphyxiate but you botch an electrocution...”

  “Oh, that’s right,” Luna rubbed the back of her neck. “Smoky the Bear…”

  “Anyway…” He looked back to Gabriella. “...You’re not going to run up against some entrenched societal issue with the colonists.”

  She nodded. “But what do you think?”

  “They came here to sterilize the planet,” he said. “I don’t mind if they fertilize it instead.”

  She nodded, looking relieved. “You don’t have to come…”

  “I think maybe I do,” he said quietly.

  The flight up to the highlands was delayed while they tracked down the chairman of the civilian government. They stood in the landing zone. Nobody felt like talking.

  With a doomed man sitting within earshot, small talk seemed wrong. Even if he richly deserved his fate.

  Sushil came jogging up to them with the warrior Mal had sent to collect him. They all climbed into the runabout for a flight into the highlands.

  Oddly, the small talk suddenly became necessary. Everyone was eager to pretend they weren’t sitting with a naked man.

  The Deathstalker emerged from the mists looking like a gigantic, beached marine monster. They descended into a clearing on the vessel’s port side. Stacked logs against the hull showed the area had been cleared at some point.

  Wonder where the bastard ended up? Luna realized she hadn’t asked yet but come on… If they’d found his body, Gabriella would have said something, right?

  Luna had to admit she’d only just arrived. She frowned. Why did they build a structure here?

  A small structure, perhaps ten by ten meters, ringed with windows, stood in front of them. There was a proper landing pad as well with a short carboncrete walkway leading to the structure’s door.

  Gabriella led them inside where two guards, one Marine and one of Mal’s people, came to attention.

  The far half of the structure was a section of forest floor, enclosed on three sides by lattice panels. There’s someone there, Luna realized, it’s a cage.

  The structure was there to shelter the two warriors and they were there to keep an eye on someone.

  “Memnon,” Luna breathed, the hairs rising on the back of her neck.

  He’d loomed large over the empire for so long. He’d taken over most of Sandrak’s holdings. He’d been a plague to her people, attacking them at Babilim, killing her sister and taking her niece...

  He wasn’t looking so big now.

  He seemed to be locked in a semi-reclining position, held in place by his armor. At first, she wasn’t sure if he was even still alive but she reached out to see if his thoughts were still there.

  She gave a small cry of horror at what she found. He was alive but he fervently wished he wasn’t. He could feel the larvae burrowing through his flesh, growing ever more ravenous as they developed.

  She withdrew from his mind, stepping away, mirroring his Quailu mind’s response to terror. She tripped over an equipment case on the floor, scattering the cards that lay on it as she fell on her ass.

  Gleb appeared in front of her, his face filled with concern. He spun, searching for whatever had affected her so badly.

  “It’s alright,” she gasped. “I just felt Memnon’s mind. That’s all.”

  She took his offered hand and he pulled her back to her feet. “There’s not much left in there aside from a wish for death.”

  “You caught him?” Gleb asked in awe. “How did you catch the bastard?”

  “All I did was crash the ship,” Gabriella shook her head. “He caught himself when he jumped out of the wreck. We haven’t moved him at all.”

  “All you did was crash the ship…” Gleb looked at Luna but she was watching Gabriella.

  Gabriella pulled a short staff from her armor.

  Luna recognized it when it became a short spear. It was an escape-and-evasion survival tool she’d come up with for her pilots to use if they were ever shot down.

  Her niece lunged at Kolm, who was standing at the edge of the decking next to the exposed jungle floor.

  He’d been facing them, his back to Memnon, his hands secured in front of his body.

  When he saw the sharp blade coming for his abdomen, he let out a yelp and sprang back onto the leaf mould in front of Memnon.


  He kept his eyes on her, sidling to his right. No attack would come from behind, not with that lattice separating him from the rest of the jungle.

  The attack, Luna realized, would come from below. Gabriella’s weapon was just a ploy.

  Kolm hissed as he put his foot down in the wrong place. He tried to lift his foot so he could see what had pierced it but he stiffened and fell on his back.

  “You can probably feel the larvae being injected into your foot,” Gabriella told him.

  “No doubt you’ve landed on more spores when you fell,” she went on remorselessly. “They’re going to eat you alive.”

  Luna felt sorrow – not for Kolm, not even so much for her sister. As she watched this execution, she realized how much her niece had changed.

  Life does that, she reflected during the ride back to Unity. Every breath leaves us changed. She didn’t know how Gabriella would be able to settle back into life in California, after all that had happened.

  As it turned out, the question was moot.

  “I’m not going ‘home’,” Gabriella said firmly, sitting next to Vikram in the well-appointed gazebo he’d made for her on his roof.

  She didn’t glare across at them with defiance. She simply stated it as fact and Luna couldn’t really say she had a right to oppose her.

  She’d be turning eighteen soon. In fact, by the time they sorted out things here and dragged her back to Cali, she’d have become old enough to demand they return her to Ragnarok.

  She leaned back on the couch. “You’re staying here?”

  Gabriella nodded. “I need to be here.”

  Vikram looked like he was trying to hide how pleased he was to hear this. He folded his hands together and concentrated on the coffee pot on the low table between them.

  Luna was staying out of her niece's head but she couldn’t help but feel there was a lot being said with that sentence.

  She was consumed with curiosity but she refused to take liberties with the young woman’s mind. She nodded.

  “The fields look good,” Luna said. “Barring a disaster, we’ll be bringing a second wave of colonists within a year.”

  “Ragnarok will rate a planetary governor when that happens,” Gleb said, glancing at his wife. “Perhaps we should confirm the person who’s already filling the role.”