by Linda Nagata
LINKED COMBAT SQUAD:
BONUS MATERIAL
It’s been quiet for a couple of hours. I’m sitting next to Jaynie in the passenger cabin of a tiny chartered jet that’s taking us back across the Atlantic. Nolan is in a seat across the aisle, leaning up against the bulkhead, his eyes closed. Harvey, Moon, Tuttle, and Flynn occupy the seats behind us. The thrum of the engines is a constant background, but it’s blissful white noise compared to the C-17.
We stayed in Niamey less than a day—just long enough to testify to the accuracy of the video records collected by our helmet cams and by my overlay. An attorney talked to us about our legal options—we could have applied for asylum—but we all chose to go home. At the least, our court martial will make the reasons for what we did a matter of public record.
I’m playing with the slider bar in my overlay that controls the intensity of feedback from my legs, seeing how high I can crank it before I start to sweat. It’s a mental exercise that takes a lot of focus, crowding the ghosts out of my mind.
Beside me, Jaynie is sitting with her arms crossed over her chest, head tilted back, eyes closed. I assume she’s asleep, but I’m wrong.
“How long are you going to sit there and torture yourself?” she asks—a cogent, clear question so unexpected, I jump. “You should be working on a strategy to keep us out of prison.”
I don’t remember ever telling her about the feedback slider, but I avoid her gaze as I adjust it to something more reasonable. “You think a strategy like that exists?”
It’s like I’m caught in some circle-of-life bullshit: I first got in trouble in defense of a principle. I went into the army to avoid prison. I strove to learn a new life, and after I made it my own, I gave it all up in defense of another principle, sacrificing Lissa in the process. Now I’m heading right back to where I started.
“Innovation,” Jaynie says. “Coordination. Inspiration. That’s the motto of the linked combat squads.”
“I know what it is.”
“So don’t assume there’s no solution.”
It’s been only a day since we were locked up on the C-17. I know for sure that sometimes there is no solution, but I don’t say that, opting to tell her what she wants to hear. “I’m going to testify that we did what needed doing, and that we did it because the people who should have stepped up refused to do so—but don’t count on that truth keeping us out of prison.”
Her fine eyebrows pull together in a scowl. “I’m counting on you, Shelley. You’re the Lion of Black Cross, you’re goddamn King David—”
“I’m not King David! That’s the bullshit that killed Ransom.”
“You’re our CO anyway, and you need to fight for us, from the moment we step out on the tarmac at Dulles. I know you got slammed again, and I’m sorry for what happened to Lissa, but nailing yourself to a cross isn’t going to change it.”
“I’ll do what I can! When’s the last time you saw me sit out a fight, anyway?”
“Don’t make this the first time. Just saying we did the right thing isn’t going to count for much. You need to believe it. You need to make other people believe it, or we lose.”
Another battle? Maybe that’s what I need. My mood levels-up in anticipation. I eye the skullnet icon, wondering if the Red is riding me, but the icon isn’t glowing. So maybe it’s all me, just wanting to hit back. There really is a lot left to do.
“We only slammed one dragon,” I muse. “Lot more out there.”
Her eyes narrow in suspicion. “God whispering plans into your head again?”
“Nothing obvious. Can’t really know for sure, though.”
“And you’re okay with that? You’re okay with the Red squatting in your head?”
“It’s inside you too, Jaynie, and you know it. You hate it, not knowing if a choice is your own, or if it’s been put in your head just to continue the story.”
She turns away, a fiery glare fixed on the forward bulkhead as she runs both hands over the smooth surface of her skullcap. For a moment I think she’s going to take the cap off, but she’s an emo-junkie. We all are.
“Jaynie, if it makes you feel better, I think it’s only now and then that the Red steps in. It’s a marketing program, remember? Out to optimize the world and everyone in it. Lissa thought so, anyway. Doesn’t mean everybody gets a good deal—”
“That’s God’s truth.”
“But maybe the odds go up.” I turn to look out the window. It’s still night out there, but I think I see a blush of dawn behind us.
“You serious about slamming more dragons?”
I lean back in the seat. “We have to get past the trials.”
Ours, of course. And Sheridan’s. Names will be named, and with luck—or with the judicious influence of the Red—more trials will spawn, in a chain reaction that could burn through the veils protecting a lot of powerful people.
The dragons will try to stop it. They rule from the shadows, and they’ve got everything to lose and nothing to gain from what’s coming. So they’ll hit back. They have to.
It should be interesting.
About & Acknowledgements
In the fall of 2011 I returned to short story writing after a hiatus of more years than I care to admit. Two of the resulting stories, “Nightside On Callisto” (Lightspeed Magazine, May 2012) and “Through Your Eyes” (Asimov’s April/May 2013), set up an irresistible alchemy in my head. While there is no obvious relationship between these stories, and I didn’t imagine them to be in the same story world when I wrote them, the more I thought about it, the more intrigued I was by the idea that they were related, despite their separation in time and space. The Red: First Light rapidly evolved as a way to begin exploring that relationship.
Given the diversity and swift advance of real-world technology, writing fiction set in the near-future is a dangerous business, requiring simplification and compromise to allow a writer to get on with the story—but reality always deserves a hat-tip. Resource people interrogated during the writing of this book include Ronald J. Nagata, Sr., Ronald J. Nagata, Jr., Edward A. White, Dallas Nagata White, Paul Kaufman, and Mike Brotherton. I also want to acknowledge the Internet, and all those people who use it to generously share their knowledge.
Beta readers Wil McCarthy, Dallas Nagata White, Edward A. White, and Nancy Jane Moore all provided helpful comments and excellent advice. Editor Judith Tarr provided many more suggestions, leading to a greatly improved book.
Copyediting was done by Chaz Brenchley via the writers’ cooperative Book View Café.
The cover painting and cover design are by Dallas Nagata White.
The all-important financial backing, a.k.a., keeping a roof over my head while I pursue my stories, continues to be provided by my husband, Ronald J. Nagata, Sr.
Everyone mentioned here has my thanks and my gratitude. They tried to steer me in the right direction. All remaining errors and deficiencies are my own.
Finally, hearty thanks go out to all of you who have chosen, over the years, to buy and read my novels and short fiction. Readers are what it’s all about, and I’m very grateful for your ongoing support, and your encouragement.
— Linda Nagata
March 2013
Books by Linda Nagata
The Red
The Red: First Light
The Red: Trials (forthcoming)
Stories of the Puzzle Lands
The Dread Hammer - Book 1: a tale of love, war, murder, marriage, and fate
Hepen the Watcher - Book 2: a tale of exile, rebellion, fidelity, and fire
The Nanotech Succession is a collection of four stand-alone novels set in a shared science-fiction story world, beginning in the present day and reaching into the far future. Following the timeline of the story world the books are:
Tech-Heaven
The Bohr Maker (winner of the 1996 Locus Award for Best First Novel)
Deception Well
Vast
Other Story Worlds
Godde
sses & Other Stories (a short-fiction collection including the 2000 Nebula Award winner for Best Novella)
Limit of Vision
Memory
Skye-Object 3270a (young adult)
Additional information on all of Linda Nagata's books, including sample chapters, can be found at Linda's author page at BookViewCafe.com.
About the Author
Linda Nagata grew up in a rented beach house on the north shore of Oahu. She graduated from the University of Hawaii with a degree in zoology and worked for a time at Haleakala National Park on the island of Maui. She has been a writer, a mom, a programmer of database-driven websites, and lately a publisher and book designer. She is the author of multiple novels and short stories including The Bohr Maker, winner of the Locus Award for best first novel, and the novella “Goddesses,” the first online publication to receive a Nebula award. Though best known for science fiction, she writes fantasy too, exemplified by her “scoundrel lit” series Stories of the Puzzle Lands. She lives with her husband in their long-time home on the island of Maui.
If you enjoyed The Red: First Light please consider reviewing it on a blog or at an online bookseller, or mention it on your favorite social media. Don’t forget to look for the sequel, The Red: Trials, forthcoming from Mythic Island Press LLC. To be notified of this and other works by Linda Nagata, visit the author’s website at MythicIsland.com and sign up to receive an occasional newsletter.
Find Linda online at:
MythicIsland.com twitter.com/LindaNagata
facebook.com/Linda.Nagata.author
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