by Candace Sams
Lyra snorted. “Sir, couldn’t you have just called out that you were here? Then we could have taken that pack together.”
“I hadn’t time. And I’m not supposed to be seen by anyone, not even one of the allies. I’ve told you, I was part of an insertion team. I’m under top secret orders. That means you’re under those orders now.”
“Excuse me?”
“I’m pulling rank, Sergeant. General Elias Shafter sent us here. I’m in his command. That makes me, as ranking officer, your superior. And no, you may not ask why an Earth general is issuing orders to a Craetorian colonel.”
“Christ! I don’t even want to guess,” she readily confirmed as she straightened her body armor and shook her head in amazement. “Whatever the hell is goin’ on … I don’t mind you being responsible. I’m just here to fight.” She shrugged and stared up at him. “So what’re our orders?”
“I suggest you get some rest. We sit tight for another hour. Then we move due east.”
She watched him lean against a far wall and toss back the thick blond hair that, even in the dim light, draped down his body like a shimmering cloak. She surmised his helmet would be back in place before they left the cave, otherwise that glowing pelt would be plainly visible in the half light of the Reisen Four evening. The presence of such long hair was another unusual characteristic of his race. Locker-room gossip had bestowed some very godlike characteristics on his people.
Was it true they were stronger than almost any other ally and could fight like madmen? Could they go without water for days, and did they have no problem eating rodents and insects they found under logs and rocks?
She tried not to smile as she recalled other, more intimate gossip concerning his race.
Was it true they made love with all the stamina of a photon infusion engine? Were they able to please their partners so thoroughly that their mates stayed by their sides for life?
She looked away before he caught her staring, but lifted one hand to her own short locks. They were matted and dirty. She was sure they didn’t shine the way his thick mane did.
When she’d first left Earth as a cadet, she’d had her entire head completely shorn. Over the years, she’d let it grow and now kept it below ear length. It fit uniform codes, was easy to maintain, and didn’t obstruct her view. Nobody out here cared what she looked like. Even the Condorians didn’t give a damn. That she was a woman was enough for them.
For some odd reason, she wondered about the women of his world. Was it true they were as tall as the men? Did they crave Earth chocolate so much that they’d really smuggled it through blockades?
She shook her head. The inappropriate nature of these queries was obvious. What did any of that matter? None of them would live long since the Condorians couldn’t be stopped. There were so damned many of them. They’d taken over almost half the galaxy and were on their way to finish the job.
As she leaned against a wall and slid to the ground, she looped her hand on her now empty holster. The hole where her weapon should be made her go rigid. She gazed down at it and felt her heart begin to pound.
“Son-of-a-bitch! I lost my sidearm. It’s still out there somewhere.” She stood and quickly began to search the immediate area around her before making her way outside the small cave.
“You didn’t lose it,” he advised as he pulled her weapon from under his armor. “I picked it up after rendering you unconscious. I only had three volleys and hoped you had more. Luckily you did.”
“Sir?”
“I took out seven Condorians so we now have two volleys left. Both of them are in my weapon. The men chasing you had no remaining laser power. It appears they intended to do you in with one of these.”
He showed her a long knife within his right boot top, then carefully handed back her empty sidearm.
She angrily slid her empty pistol back into its holster. The top of the Condorian blade she’d liberated still stuck out of her own boot. “I know you must have been firing fast, sir, but couldn’t you have left me one round … in case I get caught?”
“Master Sergeants who lose their weapons don’t deserve spare rounds.”
She scowled. “Sir, you clearly saw my uniform. You could have stood beside me and helped. Instead of acting like any other ally, you rendered me unconscious, emptied the only weapon I had, and are now insinuating I was careless in losing my sidearm. I hardly think that’s a fair summation — ”
“Cool off, Earther. It was a joke.”
“By the way … what did you do to me?” she asked as she rubbed the back of her neck.
“I used a lateral vascular neck restraint. I think that’s the politically correct term nowadays for a choke hold.” He smiled. “Its effects are only wearing off, or you’d have been questioning me about my actions sooner.”
She put her hands on her hips and glared at him.
“I am sorry about taking you to the ground,” he apologized. “But when I grabbed you, you turned to fight. I had a few seconds before that pack came barreling down the canyon. I didn’t have time to answer questions.”
“I suppose this is the part where I’m supposed to thank you?”
“Your sarcasm isn’t welcome, Sergeant. I should have left you safely in this cave, coming back to consciousness on your own, without seeing me.” He shrugged. “I had a surge of conscience and couldn’t leave a comrade alone in this wasteland. You’ve seen me now and I’ve conscripted you for a mission. My actions make me responsible for your safety.”
“Really? I thought that was my job.”
“Get over it,” he shot back. “We’re a team now, whether either of us likes it or not. But to set the record straight as to your ability to look after yourself, I require an answer to just one question.”
“Sir?”
“Why did you run into a canyon with no outlet? Were you not properly briefed about how many were present in this area? You’re a supervisor. Did you not check maps before landing to fight?”
She rolled her eyes and let out a long, frustrated sigh. “Okay … I made a wrong turn. I screwed up!”
“I can live with the explanation, though you may not have. Let’s just say we’ve both had better days. You and I have survived to learn lessons.”
“What lessons?”
“You won’t run into dead-ends … and I won’t lose my weapons, inclusive of all the ammunition, or my entire team!”
He stood, angrily thrust his helmet back on his head, and stalked toward the cave entrance. Once there, she saw him gaze outside.
She finally understood.
He was feeling guilt over surviving. When she’d run toward him — being chased by Condorians bent on peeling her skin off — he saw his chance at vengeance. She’d just been in his way.
This cave, wherever it was, was probably the place where he and his team were supposed to have waited until later in the night. Then, they’d probably have gone about finishing whatever mission they’d planned. But, like so many plans the allies composed, nobody could maneuver against twenty-to-one odds. As she saw it, they were both lucky to be alive.
She almost let the incident go. However, her rescuer now had two shots in his weapon. He’d used hers on the enemy and that situation had to be addressed. She pulled on her helmet and approached him once more.
“Sir?”
“What now, Sergeant?”
“If we get caught you’ve got all our firepower. Will you make sure they don’t take me alive?”
He turned his helmeted head toward her. “Count on it, Sergeant Lyra Markham!”
The corners of her mouth lifted.
His powerfully worded promise to see her die painlessly was acceptable. They now had the makings of a team. For however long they lasted.
Chapter 2
They trudged past the bodies of the
Condorians Soldar had killed and into the night.
Lyra automatically reached for the side compartment in her hip armor. But once she opened it, grabbed the marked flask of water, and recalled she’d emptied the container hours ago, she angrily shoved it back. She had enough bio-tabs to clarify any kind of cesspool. There just wasn’t a drop of even foul water in sight. Nothing lay before them but rocky, sepia-toned hills and shadowed dirt.
Soldar stopped, opened his own armor compartment, and offered her a fresh water flask. “Stop here. We’ll rest a while.” He pulled his helmet off as he spoke.
“Thank you for the water, sir.”
“How long had you been running from those warriors?” he casually asked as he knelt, shook his hair back, and sipped from their shared container when she offered it back.
“I don’t know for sure.” She shrugged and checked her wristband readout. “Maybe three hours before I ran into that canyon. Which reminds me,” she said as she took the container again and sipped, “thank you for saving my life. I owe you one.”
“Before we’re out of this, I’m sure you’ll repay the favor.”
“Any time, sir.”
“I was thinking of sooner than later.”
She tilted her head and stared at him, scooting closer to his location while still kneeling. “Sir?”
“As I told you, you’re now on my team. While landing much earlier today, our light-pods were shot down along with all our supplies. I was the only survivor to crawl from the wreckage. There should have been four men with me. If I’d failed in my mission and hadn’t made it back to a point where they were supposed to wait, one of them would have taken my place. That was to have kept up until one of us succeeded or all of us were dead.”
“Should I be hearing this, sir? I mean, I don’t have security clearance for any field op of this nature. I may be on your team but this sounds way over my head.”
“As I see it I don’t have a choice. I need a backup plan. You’re all I’ve got.”
She arched one brow. “Thanks … I think.”
He shook his head and smiled. “I meant that I need help. This plan must succeed. It might be a way to save thousands of lives.”
That caught her interest. The very nature of the words and the way he uttered them meant this was something big. “How, sir? What’s goin’ on?”
He huddled closer and pointed due east, toward a small pile of rocks and an escarpment on the other side of them. “About two clicks away, there’s supposed to be an oasis. At least it passes for one on this damnable rock-of-a-planet. It’s located just on the other side of that outcrop. We’ll find water, food, and some civilian clothing there.”
Lyra moved closer and was almost mesmerized by his silvery gaze. Even in the hazy light, the brightness of his eyes was striking. “So this is an undercover operation?”
“It is. Though my contact was expecting five men, she’ll get one man and one woman. Before going in we’ll have to come up with some different story than planned.”
She sipped more water and nodded for him to go ahead with his explanation. Whatever “going in” meant, it didn’t sound like her idea of fun.
“About three clicks past the oasis, a pleasure cruiser has landed on the surface. She’s called the Venus and she’s now officially listed as a Condorian haven. One of our enemy’s commanding officers took her over as his base of operations. He did this while his ground forces slaughtered ours.”
“Sir, how do you know all this, or should I ask?”
He gazed into her face for one long moment. “If you’re captured out here, you’ll need that spare round in my laser. I’ll need one too. We can’t be forced into talking.”
“I-I understand,” Lyra insisted when he hesitated.
Soldar continued. “The woman who owns the pleasure ship is an allied spy. Her name is Aigean Florn. She saw most of her family decimated by Condorian raiders while running a brothel on Taurus Stellar. The allies managed to save two granddaughters. They are being protecting on my home world of Craetoria. She figures she owes us.”
Lyra nodded. “If Condorian commanding officers are on the Venus, you must mean to get aboard and take the ship out. If she relocates, you’d still be on the ship and might find a way give her location to our fleet.” She paused. “What about the innocents working aboard?”
“If all we wanted to do was blow that particular pleasure ship into infinity, we have a current fix and could do it. The problem is, once they know about the vessel, about a thousand enemy officers located elsewhere would simply move up and take the place of those few we’d manage to kill.” He shook his head. “No … destroying the Venus and the Condorian officers on her is only part of the mission — the very last part,” he maintained as one hand curled into a fist. “I mean to get aboard, stay alive as long as possible, and collate the information Aigean’s people are obtaining concerning enemy battle plans. It’s come to her attention that Condorians like to talk when they’re full of illegal drugs and liquor and have been sated by whoring.” He swallowed some more water before continuing. “The Condorians kept Aigean and her crew alive only to provide high-ranking officers with a luxurious place to quarter and exploit her prostitutes. They do this in virtual secrecy from their own troops. Their minions would turn on them for withholding pleasures in a war zone.”
“That’s for sure. The average Condorian is nothing but a damned savage! It’s long been my opinion that their superiors just point ’em in the right direction and let ’em go. They’re like a pack of feral beasts. They don’t have any compunction about killing wounded, or consciences when it comes to leaving civilians out of the fray. “
“For the very reason you’ve just mentioned, the ship’s presence isn’t widely known among Condorian underlings.”
“Yeah. I get it. There are a lot more Condorian fighters than superiors. They’re kept in reasonable control by the promise of keeping goods pillaged after battle.”
Soldar slowly nodded. “As long as Aigean provides those Condorian supervisors with the pleasure they seek, they let her and her crew survive. But she knows the Venus’ days are numbered. She and her crew will eventually become expendable. Especially as enemy officers seek to keep her a secret from their own ground troops,” he confirmed. “It’s to our advantage that Aigean recruits men and women from all over the known universe. Most have families that’ve suffered at Condorian hands. According to what was relayed when she last made contact, her employees will readily give us the information gleaned from their nightly liaisons.”
“What else, sir?”
He gazed at their surroundings before answering then he turned and moved closer. “Because of Aigean’s covert information, we’re learning of future battle plans in this sector. She was able to get word of Condorian tactics by leaving microchips that had been secretly recorded on her ship, and then embedded in beacon markers. The beacons were left on planets recently decimated in battle. Our forces found the first one with dead allied bodies. The circumstances surrounding its discovery were odd enough that allied agents opened it and located her message — ”
“Of course! Aigean’s civilian rescue beacons would be of no concern to the Condorians since they’d transmit exactly like those that are set off by thousands of dying allied fighters … all of whom are slaughtered by the enemy as they lay wounded.” She shook her head in amazement. “It’s a brilliant plan! Condorians don’t bother turning off beacons. The transmissions draw allied medical vessels forward,” she confirmed. “That’s the reason why most of us won’t activate our personal transmitters unless we’re damned sure the Condorians have moved on. Nobody wants to get our hospital ships destroyed. We haven’t got that many left.”
“Precisely! Many injured warriors die for want of a doctor’s care. They refuse to turn on their distress units. As Aigean relayed, Condorian officers always order her
to land the Venus near a battle, but away from the front lines. They sate themselves while their warriors take out our forces. As she relays, Condorian elite direct battles from her pleasure rooms.”
“Bastards!”
“I concur. There has never been a more insidious enemy. Condorians are little more than parasites feeding off the rest of us. But their supreme belief in victory has provided a hole in their defenses. Aigean has left word of Condorian battle plans in numerous beacons on a dozen worlds. As you’ve surmised, their transmissions are the same as thousands coming from a destroyed planet. Hiding her information thus was yielding information we couldn’t have gleaned any other way. It was always correct. Her efforts were a huge risk, but they were paying off. Unfortunately, her last message was longer. It seems to have been recorded in segments, over a number of days. In it, she advised us that she wouldn’t be able to contact us again. What she had to say was highly concerning.”
Lyra swallowed hard. “She was about to be caught?”
“No … not her. But some of her people were killed when they wouldn’t respond to questions Condorian generals put to them. Enemy strategists became suspicious of allied fighters showing up to defend mining outposts like this one.” He pointed to the ground to indicate Reisen Four. “Allies were showing up to fight in greater numbers with better armament. The Condorians believed someone — possibly from the Venus — was leaking information.”
“So … that’s that,” Lyra said. “If Condorian officers suspected Aigean’s crew, using beacons to communicate isn’t an option now. And she and her crew are probably done for.”
