The Return of the Grey

by Robert Lee Henry

  Bley hissed when he saw his quarry was still alive and swung a long pointed knife over his eye. ‘Not dead yet, heh?’

  The knife slid out of his vision and his body shook twice more.

  ‘Now you are, ha. It will take a little time though. Time enough for something to crawl out and eat you.’

  Bley’s eyes traveled down his body and Kayrooz’s head lolled side to side as he was jostled. My water and food, realised the dying man. And my ring and pendant. Signs of clan and rank, but unfortunately of gold and silver.

  ‘You are stupid!’ Bley spat. ‘You brought this on yourself … and on your men. See if your blood makes the worms noble.’ And then he was gone.

  Not long after, the grey light returned, reducing the blue to the faintest of glows. He heard concussions from weapons and saw flashes from laser fire. The marine wounded, he concluded. Through the rest of the long day all he saw was the sky. He watched it come down. He thought that the Gods were finished with him when the ground fell away, that his soul might be swooping free. But it was only the tremor from the collision in the west and his body was returned to its ordained site, position unchanged. How long since then he had lain here, he did not know.

  He tried to think of his home planet, to regain the beautiful images he had as he first sat down. To take them further, to his heart’s memories of his family, his daughter. But the Rim intruded. He waited for the final indignity. How much of a horror would it be if he could not feel it? Blood drew the creatures of the Rim. They would be active now that the collision was past. Maybe the sensors were keeping them away. As it darkened he could make out the constant blue glow. Then he remembered that he was outside the ring of lights, and something loomed over him, coming between him and the sky.

  CHAPTER 59: DUTY OF CARE

  Teeth crushed through the hard outside to rip off a large bite of the savoury contents. Beautiful. Tollen liked his rolls crunchy. This one was perfect. He would have to compliment the cooks. Later, another time. Already he was behind schedule. It had been a busy morning, a lot of people to talk to. Seems most of what he did now was talking, making sure that all the crews were safe, that everyone knew what they were supposed to be doing. He was eating on the run, having a soldier’s aversion to forgoing a meal. Never know when you might miss the next one. He slowed as he got closer. He was late for this duty but it wouldn’t do to go in eating. Not respectful.

  The lander came across from his left, slow, only a metre or so off the ground, almost pacing him. The ramp was down. The pilot hadn’t bothered to close it for the move. That takes some skill, thought Tollen. The lander settled close to the end of the building without raising dust. Nice touch.

  Tollen swallowed from his water bottle, put it back on his belt and swung around the corner to enter through the bay doors. The interior was long and cool. It took a few seconds for his eyes to adjust to the dim light. People were already there waiting for him, a good sign. This was volunteer work, except for the duty sergeant. His job was official, to check everything and make sure it was done right.

  He was surprised to see Gati and Sanseen. These were marine dead they were moving today. Usually the volunteers were from the corps, same squad most of the time, if they were in camp.

  ‘Greetings, people. Sorry I’m late. The lander is outside so we can get right to it.’ He removed the list from his breast pocket. ‘Ten.’ He counted the boxes stacked to the side then pushed open the cold room doors to count the bodies.

  ‘Okay. Two to carry each marine in here to the table. Another to unzip. One to assist. Then two groups of four. Their job is to place a box close to the table, then when I am done, they lift our colleague here off the table and into the box. The lid goes on and the same four carry the deceased out onto the lander. Take your directions for stowing from the lander crew. The other four carry the next one. Carefully now. These are our people and this is about the last thing we can do for them.’ A long speech. He hoped that he hadn’t put them to sleep. On inspection they were still attentive. Twelve of them. Exactly right. The number did not signal a lack of volunteers. It showed an awareness of his way of doing this. This duty had become too common, too familiar. Every sergeant did it differently, but all the ways were known.

  He signalled them to start. Marines like to work together so the odd jobs next to him at the table fell to Gati and Sanseen.

  ‘Gati. Do you know someone here today?’ asked Tollen. His way was to talk throughout the duty, of anything that came to mind. Formality only stepped in when he confirmed the identities and called them out.

  ‘Aye, Sergeant. There are men and women here today that I have drunk with,’ answered the Grey as he received the first body.

  ‘You have drunk with everybody, Gati,’ said Tollen readying the tester. The duty involved checking identity. The sergeant was there to iron out any problems. Sometimes there was more than one person in a bag. Sometimes a person was in several bags. Sometimes these were the same problems. The sergeant made the call as he or she saw fit. That was it.

  ‘Yes,’ said Gati, ‘but today is the first day I have been able to come. Maybe I won’t get a chance again.’

  There you go. All the marines like him, easy to see why. He has a manner that suits us. What did he say when they teased him at the table yesterday, about doing all his flying outside the Rim? ‘Who would you like over your heads, me or the Amazons? At least with them, there is the chance that you might be killed by the enemy.’ Tollen smiled and shook his head. And as close as he is to Trahern, Mad Mike is probably his best friend. Then there is that fine Amazon, Bethane. He paused in his thoughts. Gati seems to have enough care for everybody. I wish I had some more. I feel stretched thin lately.

  ‘Thomas, Elteron C,’ he called out. Sanseen folded the bag back in place and Gati zipped it up.

  ‘And what about you, Psych?’ he asked Sanseen.

  ‘Ben is here. From the squad I trained with out on the plain. You remember. When Specialist Celene sent me down because I wasn’t wearing my vest.’

  That seems so long ago, thought Tollen. I wonder how she is. She needs someone to look after her, no matter how tough she thinks she is. Maybe just for that reason alone.

  ‘The rest of his squad is up on the line in the east,’ continued Sanseen. ‘I am the only one who could come tend him today.’ He shrugged. ‘I wouldn’t have made it through the training without them.’ The marines around him nodded their approval.

  Four men carried the box away. Everyone else waited. Once the four were on the lander, Tollen signalled for the next body to be brought out. One at a time. That was his way. To see to them off with dignity. No rush. Not a processing line. Well, at least as far from that as he could make it and still stay efficient.

  One by one, he identified each of the dead. It went well. There were no mix-ups. Gati lent the proceedings a special air. He would nod to those delivering the body, then lean forward and unzip in a smooth one-handed motion, carefully fold the material back with the other hand, then lean back, palms out. As if making a presentation. And the zip back up was done with equal grace, almost a benediction. Somehow he became the master of ceremonies. It reminded Tollen of Tracka-dan’s burial. Gati had done similar then, on the Rangers’ behalf.

  ‘This reminds me of Tracka-dan’s funeral,’ said Gati. ‘There was always one thing that I wanted to ask you. It has come and gone from my mind many times since.’

  ‘Better ask now before it or I leave again,’ said Tollen.

  ‘The stone you threw. Why did you toss a stone from the Box into Dan’s grave?’

  ‘What? The stone? That stone was Dan’s. It didn’t come from the Box. Old Dan threw it at me himself. Hit me from a fair distance too.’ Tollen remembered that day. ‘Trahern was in the Box. I was out on the plain with the Good Squad.’ That’s when Peg got hurt. Nasty piece of plastron right up along the bone. So I called him Pegleg. John was his name, I think, but he was called Peg from then on. And Sunstroke became Sunny. And then
they both came here and Sunny died and Peg went crazy.

  ‘No. I mean yes,’ said Gati. ‘From Dan, but I’m sure it came originally from the Box. From the floor. You know when your beam falls and hits the floor, it breaks out pieces of cement like that. I saw enough of them. There were more than a dozen pieces like that on the floor when I was done. I threw some myself, then.’ The Grey shrugged, his movement almost a dance compared to Sanseen’s earlier gesture.

  ‘Perhaps that is all it was,’ offered the young psych. ‘Maybe Dan had kept that piece from his time. Maybe he threw it to you because he knew that he was dying.’

  ‘No. He wasn’t dying. That bastard killed him,’ growled Tollen.

  These words caused a stir in the men around them. Damn. He remembered too late that Dan’s murder hadn’t been common knowledge. ‘The Commander believes so,’ he said by way of an explanation. ‘That old Dan must have crossed that mad caretaker somehow, and paid for it.’

  Maybe that is what he meant with the rock. I know he meant something. It was important and I didn’t get it. The damn Box.

  Gati stole his thought again. ‘Maybe he threw the rock to warn you of the caretaker. He may have seen him do something odd on the plain, or at the Box. He could have taken the stone from the Box then.’

  ‘Plenty there,’ said one of the marines.

  A sea of it, remembered Tollen. One of the worst times in the Box was when you realised what it was, when you went to recover your beam and saw the results from thousands of drops all around you. Hard to start back up with the evidence of that much failure staring you in the face.

  ‘Drifts of it, like on a stony shore,’ said someone else.

  ‘No,’ said Gati. ‘It’s clean. Only the chips you make. Heh?’

  ‘Nah,’ the marines chorused.

  ‘Bits from hundreds of years. Hey Sarge? That’s what they say,’ said one man.

  ‘I am confused,’ said Gati. ‘The floor of the Box was clean when I went in. Like a swept patio.’ His hands moved to show them, as if it was all there in front of them. ‘And when Trahern was inside. Mike and I looked in. The floor was clear. Ask him.’

  ‘Wait,’ said Tollen, putting a stop to any further argument. There is something in this. The thought chilled him. He looked for the youngest man there. ‘Sanseen. When did you go through the Box?’

  ‘Two years ago, Sergeant.’

  ‘What was the floor like then?’

  ‘Covered in chips, Sergeant. Plenty, like they said.’

  Tollen raised a hand to stop Gati. ‘Listen, while I think this through,’ he told them all. ‘Two years ago the floor was covered. Now it is clear. So between now and then, the floor was cleaned, the stone taken away. Why? We don’t know. But it bothered old Dan.’ He turned to the young psych. ‘Could Donen have done it? Part of his madness?’

  ‘As part of some compulsive behaviour, possibly,’ answered Sanseen.

  ‘Hell of a lot of work for one man,’ said one of the marines.

  That was it! That’s what he had sensed. All of them, not just one. They moved the stone. Did something with it. Dan saw it and didn’t like it, whatever it was. They found out Dan knew and shut him up. ‘All of them, all the caretakers were in on it.’

  He swung his eyes to Gati’s. ‘That would fit better with, ah … with what happened at the house.’ They hadn’t found the needle laser that killed Dan, not in any of Donen’s stuff. The other caretakers could have it. There may be more than one gun. This goes from bad to worse. And worse yet. They may have been in on the other thing. The young psych’s death. ‘Gati. Trahern was there that day. Briodi’s day. Did he see more than one caretaker?’

  Gati was thinking along with him. He understood the question.

  ‘He won’t talk about that day. Nothing. Not at all.’ He made a motion like a key turning in a lock.

  ‘It is enough for me,’ said Tollen. He could see that they had lost the others. He didn’t care. No time to explain. Hell, I probably couldn’t explain it anyway. But it feels right. ‘Sanseen. You have to go back and tell the Specialist to investigate all the caretakers. The whole lot that was out there with Donen. They are involved. All of them. Got that?’

  ‘Sergeant. I can’t. I have to stay here with the marines. I have only just arrived and I would not get back in time to accomplish anything meaningful.’

  Tollen was ready to fire up about that ‘can’t’ but Gati cut in.

  ‘A message will be quicker. Sanseen can go now, in the lander with our silent friends, up to the transport. From there a message can be sent to Base. Then he can come back down and go on with his work. That would be quickest.’

  Mollified, Tollen nodded.

  ‘But I have arranged to accompany the scouts, on a mission. They will leave without me if I am late,’ explained Sanseen.

  ‘What? A scout? NO. I trained you and I know what you can do.’ This wasn’t anger. This was sense. His job was to keep these people alive. He had to have sense when they didn’t. ‘No. You would get hurt out there. Or they would get hurt looking after you. Either way the job would not get done.’

  ‘But I have been directed to partake in all facets of marine duty. So that we are aware of what they may have experienced here on the Rim. That is my directive. My order. From my Senior.’ The last was said with some trepidation.

  Tollen was having trouble swallowing all these ‘buts’. But, and there was one of his own, now he understood. An order from the Senior in his service, from Celene. No wonder Sanseen was trying to persevere. ‘Well, I don’t take orders from her,’ he stated. That brought a lifted head and raised eyebrow from Gati. ‘Well, not when she is this far away anyway.’

  Gati laughed and the tension in the room floated away. The other marines were smiling.

  ‘Okay, Sanseen. This is what we will do. You run this errand for me then wait here until the marines come in from the east. Then you take Ben’s place in his squad. I will clear it with the Captain.’ They are a good lot, that squad. They will be able to take him in. ‘You stay with that squad until the end. That will teach you about marines, what we face and how we come through it.

  ‘What do you think?’ he asked the others. Their nods and brief affirmatives told him that he was right. ‘Anyone here have time to give Sanseen some weapon practice?’ asked Tollen. ‘I have to move off with my Supply boys soon.’

  Plenty of volunteers. He left them to it.

  There, that will keep Sanseen and me straight with Celene. Good of her to send someone. This has been a tough one. Some of ours will need more than we can give them, after. His mind swung to Peg. I worry for him. He shouldn’t be out there alone. He glanced out the doors. Already it was getting dark.

  CHAPTER 59: MERCY

  Peg looked down on the Red Suit. Seventy-one dead and this one …. He was going to say alive but stopped himself. There was a patch of dried blood under the back of the head. A neck wound like those on most of the rest of the Red Suits, nearly fifty of them on the valley floor. And more blood from puncture wounds on the body and from one hand where a finger was missing. … dying, he finished.

  Fifteen of the dead had been marines. He knew them all. Seven had bandaged wounds.

  Peg had spent some time trying to work out what had happened. He had only found this officer at the bottom of the ridge on his last circuit. Too bad this one couldn’t talk, to tell him. The eyes wanted to tell him. They reminded Peg of Sunny.

  ‘The Black Hands killed you all, huh? While your men slept and you tried to look after them.’ The dark eyes of the officer filled. Peg was surprised he had any moisture left, what with the blood loss and the passage of time.

  ‘Took your supplies for themselves. But that wasn’t enough for them. They wanted the marines too. They must have known they were coming.’ All of the Red Suits had been rifled for their rations, chest plates removed like this one. Some had also been slashed, after death because there was not much blood. Just enough to paint some of the Black Hands, to make
them look like the dead they lay among. Until the marines arrived and came within sure hand weapon range. Dead rising up to kill the living. Peg could read the tracks and signs. The marines had fought back, a few of them. There were Black Hand dead with grenade and blaster wounds. Even these had been robbed by their cohorts.

  ‘Worse than the things that crawl under the rocks,’ said Peg to the dying man. ‘They don’t belong on the Rim, those Black Hands.’

  Peg looked for Sunny but he wasn’t there. Maybe off talking to the marines. ‘I have to go now,’ he told the man on the ground. ‘I will leave a sign on the edge of the low so the scouts can find this … your men and ours. I have to go after the Black Hands.’ What came next was hard. It had been like this with Sunny. ‘I can’t leave you. It will be too long until they come.’ Peg closed his eyes. When he opened them, Sunny was there beside him. Sunny looked into the dying man’s eyes then back to Peg. He nodded and smiled. Peg wiped clean a belt dagger that he had found in the dirt next to the body, gently placed his other hand on the man’s chest, found a spot between the ribs then drove the dagger home.

  CHAPTER 60: SURVEY

  Despite Trahern’s skill, they could not penetrate deeply. It was not the fragments. The Grey could sense these and their motion. It was the fields. They waxed and waned, and suddenly shifted, their complexity nearly defeating the Grey’s perception and dexterity. Elsewise had never flown like this before and hoped never to again. They had come close to ruin several times until, with mutual accord, they had adopted a more conservative approach. Now they limited their study to areas with space to manoeuvre and relative stability. They were slowly working their way back to the contested zone. Trying to enter the denser portion of the Rim had been a mistake, an arrogance on both their parts.

  ‘How could they predict this?’ asked Trahern.

  ‘Much as we are doing,’ answered Elsewise. ‘By concentrating on the regions dominated by the largest fragments, where mass controls the fields. I suspect that the distribution of their sensors will confirm this. All enemy activity has been limited to the largest fragment? Is that correct?’