by B. V. Larson
Catching her up in my arms when the moment was right, we kissed.
“I can’t believe it,” she said.
“What?”
“You’ve found a quiet place. How many women have you brought down here?”
“You’re the first. I’ve been fighting a war, remember?”
Sarah had been resisting me, stiff and suspicious—but now she finally melted. We kissed some more, then we jumped and flew while we embraced.
“I’ve got an idea,” she told me after our next jump. “Let’s do it while we’re flying.”
My eyes widened. “That sounds kind of dangerous.”
She nodded, and I couldn’t deny her. She’d always been a bit on the wild side.
We ended up trying to make love while in mid-air but failed at it. The tubes didn’t keep us in the air long enough.
But when we landed at last, we finished up—and it was glorious.
-78-
About two months later, I was back home on Earth. My parents were happy I’d returned, but they were still dragging their tails concerning Etta. I came to realize they’d hoped I’d bring her back with me.
The legion had demobilized, and that was a pure relief to me. I could use a break. The last time around, I hadn’t gotten much of a chance to rest at all.
Sarah and I exchanged some vid-calls on our tappers, but we didn’t keep up the romance. We’d already tried that in the past. I don’t think she really wanted me around when she was on shore leave. She liked to forget about her life in the legions and pretend it had all been a fevered dream. We decided it was best to remember our fine shared memories and leave it at that.
Winter had come, and the swamp had a chill on certain nights. The storms were mild compared to Storm World, and I often found myself walking outside while thunder and lightning played overhead, barely noticing Earth’s best attempt to scare me.
The cold didn’t last long, and the land soon transitioned into springtime. I’d fallen into my old routines, and things seemed right with the universe once again.
Almost right. There was still Etta. She sent me notes now and then on my tapper—but she stayed put out on Dust World.
Then came a strange night in April. It was perfect weather. Not too cold, not too hot—just right. I had my windows open and my door ajar with the screens up. Bugs buzzed and peeped all over, but they couldn’t get in easily.
“Dad?”
Stunned, I got up from my couch and dropped my beer. I’d been watching the ballgame on my far wall. I froze the game with a gesture and walked to the screen door.
There she was, outlined by the porch light that shined overhead. She looked older, taller and more like a woman than ever.
“Etta? Is that really you, girl?”
“Can I come in?”
“You don’t have to ask that! You never have to ask that! Get on in here!”
She walked inside, and I hugged her. As I did so, I felt her relief—but I also felt a certain tension in her. She kept looking outside, through the screen door.
Suddenly, I thought I got it.
How had she gotten here? Who had brought her home? Passage from Dust World to Earth—that wasn’t cheap.
Peering outside, I scanned the yard for some slinking boyfriend. I didn’t see anyone.
Turning back to Etta, I saw her face was haunted. A little freaked out.
“Who brought you?” I asked quietly. “Is he out there?”
She nodded, still peering outside.
“Who is he?”
Etta shook her head. “I… I’m not totally sure. He’s changed…”
Defensive instincts kicked in. I reached for a gun and snagged it off the coffee table. I slipped it into my back pocket.
“Daddy…”
“It’s all right,” I said, shushing her. “I’m just going to have a little talk with him.”
“He brought me home,” she said. “Remember that.”
I frowned at her, and she didn’t meet my eye.
Walking outside warily, I searched the yard—and I thought I saw a shadow at the tree line.
“She’s a fine young woman, McGill,” a familiar voice called out. “I brought her home to you, safe and sound.”
Stalking toward a tree with a shadow near its base, I kept my hand on the pistol in my pocket, and I let a false smile play on my face.
“Claver…?” I said. “You brought her home? Why?”
“I… I need a friend. Everyone needs a friend when times are hard. Just remember, I did you a favor.”
My eyes were all squinched-up by now. I didn’t know what was going on, and I hated not knowing what was going on. Especially when my family was involved.
“I better not find out you’ve been messing with my family again,” I told him.
“I haven’t. Ask her—I just brought her home. She wanted to come back, but she didn’t have enough cash. She used most of her money helping out Dust Worlders. A lot of them are poor.”
I was pretty sure that was true, but Claver didn’t sound like Claver to me tonight. Right about then, I caught on.
“Claver-X?” I asked.
He laughed. “You’re not as dumb as they say. I’ve got to go now. Just remember.”
He turned away and walked off into the bog. I thought about going after him, but Etta called me back.
“Dad?”
Grumbling, I walked back to my tiny shack and looked my daughter over.
“That old creep didn’t paw at you, did he?” I asked.
She blinked in surprise. “Oh no. Nothing like that. I would have hurt him if he did. He was a gentleman.”
“I know for a fact that old man has a thing for the ladies,” I told her. “He’s not like the other Clavers. He’s a horn-dog.”
We talked about it, and I got the story out of her. Claver had approached her on Dust World, offering her a ride. She was homesick, so she took it.
I gave her a stern speech about not trusting men like that. She promised she never would again.
Neither one of us believed her.
That same night, after I’d handed Etta over to my parents to be fussed over and thoroughly debriefed, I slept in a chair in a wary state. My gun was in my lap when a hammering began on my door.
Throwing it open, I was surprised to see two Clavers. But these guys weren’t Claver-Primes. They were Class-Three dumb asses.
“Uh… can I help you boys?”
“Where is the Prime?” one of them asked. I couldn’t even tell which one had spoken.
“He’s not—” I began, but then I halted. “You guys aren’t looking for Claver-X, are you? The nice Claver? The one who made the lady-Claver?”
In unison, they surged one step closer. It was freaky how they moved in such a synchronized fashion.
“Where is the Prime?”
Right then, a light bulb went on inside my big skull. These guys were looking for Claver-X. Maybe they’d been doing that all along, hunting not for just any Claver, but a certain fugitive Claver. Maybe, when they’d bugged me until I killed them back on Dust World, they’d been searching for the fugitive Claver-X.
“He was here,” I admitted, “but he’s gone now.”
“Where?”
“Into the swamp. I think he had a teleport suit. He’s probably on another planet by now.”
They turned and gazed out into the darkened bog. I thought about clocking them while their backs were turned—but I passed on the idea. They didn’t seem to be after me, and they might not be alone.
“I know the swamp really well,” I told them. “Maybe I can help. Maybe I can track him for you.”
They turned back to look at me. “Help? We must find the Prime.”
“That’s right,” I said. “Let’s go on a midnight hunt!”
Leading the way, I marched them out deep into the swamp. After a time, I led them to the old, dilapidated barn. There, where I’d once killed a Claver who was much smarter than these two—I murdered them in the
dark.
It wasn’t a nice thing to do. But I was getting kind of tired of all these uninvited guests.
Lady-friends? Sure, I could deal with that. Even Claver-X was okay, as he’d brought my Etta home to me.
The motivations of Claver-X all made a lot more sense to me now. He’d come to my place as a hunted man. He truly had needed a friend. These two goons seemed unsympathetic and dogged, and I’d gotten rid of them for him.
As far as I was concerned, Claver-X and I were now even-Steven.
Going back home, I was surprised to see my light was on.
Now, that could have been Etta, or my folks—but I doubted it. My parents went to bed early these days, being well into their first decade of extended-life, and Etta probably wouldn’t be running the lights at all if she was alone in there.
Eyes narrowed, I snuck up and peeked inside a window.
There, sitting on my dirty couch, was Galina Turov.
She was looking down at her tapper, but not for long. She looked up, exactly where I was peeking, and crooked her finger.
“Get in here, McGill!” she shouted. “Stop playing games!”
I walked in, throwing the door wide.
She started talking, but I ignored her and checked the bathroom, the kitchen and the closet.
“What’s the matter with you?” she asked.
“There have been some strangers here tonight,” I told her. “Lots of them. Something weird is going on.”
“So paranoid…” she said. “Listen to me, I know all about your visitors. Pairs of Claver-Threes—the dumb, brutish types—they’re combing Earth tonight.”
She finally had my attention. I stopped looking behind curtains and stood over her.
“What’s going on?” I demanded.
“It’s important that we find a fugitive. One of Claver’s clones has gone AWOL.”
“I know about that. He made some lady-Clavers.”
“What?”
“Never mind. Why are you involved?”
“Because this fugitive has sold the formula. We think Rigel might have it now—possibly others.”
“Uh…” I said, thinking that one over. “I guess that’s possible.”
Internally, I was wondering which Claver I’d been dealing with at various times. Claver-X seemed to be the nice one—but that could have been an act.
“In any case, this renegade—”
“I call him Claver-X.”
“All right, Claver-X. He’s a menace. He must be stopped.”
“Hmmm…” I said, walking into my kitchen. “You want a beer or something?”
“No. Not yet, anyway. I want you to tell me what’s happened here tonight.”
I gave her an edited version of the facts. In my tale I didn’t kill anyone, for instance.
“It’s very strange,” she said. “Central is temporarily cooperating with Claver due to this special circumstance. He’s helping us track down the bad clone, the one who is selling the bio-terminator formula to anyone who will buy it.”
“That doesn’t sound healthy for the Mogwa,” I admitted. “You want a beer now?”
She looked at me thoughtfully. “All right,” she said at last.
I gave her a beer and sucked one down myself before she’d taken her second swig.
“So…” I said, “why’d you come here?”
“We’re helping Claver. We’re hitting all the spots he’s known to visit. It’s so difficult to catch a man who has teleport suits. Nearly impossible.”
“You’re not here, then, just because you’d like to see me?”
Again, she gave me that speculative look. “I thought that things had ended between us, James.”
“Yeah? Why?”
Galina blew out a puff of air, making her bangs fly. “Because you were chasing other women on Storm World and… never mind.”
“Never mind what?” I asked, cracking open a second beer for both of us.
“You’ve been back on Earth for two months. You never even called me.”
“Oh…”
She was right, of course. I’d been back for a long while, and we’d parted in a less than friendly mood when she’d bugged out and flown home. I guess I hadn’t felt super-friendly after she’d stranded my legion on Storm World.
“Nothing to say for yourself?” she asked.
I shrugged. “War has a funny way of shoving people together then apart again. I suggest we start over. No recriminations. No regrets.”
She drank her beer for a while, and she thought that over.
“No recriminations and no regrets... I like the sound of those rules… All right, I agree.”
Smiling, I sat on the couch beside her. I didn’t slip my arm around her—not yet. A man has to know how to pace these things.
She didn’t object to my nearness, so we talked, drank, and eventually we laughed. Sometime before dawn, we were making love again. It was nice to have her back.
When we were at war, it was harder to be a couple. We never saw eye-to-eye on command issues. Now that we were on shore leave again, our mutual attraction had reasserted itself.
Just before Galina fell asleep, she mumbled something about the Core Worlds.
“What’s that?” I asked her, trying not to tense up.
“An investigation,” she said. “A problem—something bad happened while you were out there on Mogwa Prime.”
“Uh… did you tell them I was the one that went out there?”
“No. They don’t know who it was—but Sateekas does, doesn’t he?”
My heart skipped a beat, then it started up again.
“He might,” I admitted.
After that, Galina fell asleep.
I had trouble dozing off with her, despite the long, long night I’d just experienced. If the Mogwa were investigating Xlur’s death, and they were coming here to complete that investigation…
Well, things could get sticky.
The main problem would be the Nairbs. The Mogwa themselves weren’t meticulous. They couldn’t be bothered to isolate an individual among our billions.
But the Nairbs… They might just find me.
Lying awake, I wondered about many things. The stars. How I really felt about Galina. What Claver-X was up to…
And the Nairbs. Were they coming to Earth, intent on opening a full-fledged investigation?
After fretting about these things, I decided to have one more beer. I finally managed to fall asleep just before dawn.
The End
From the Author: Thanks Reader! I hope you enjoyed STORM WORLD, the tenth (and longest!) book in the Undying Mercenaries Series. If you liked the book and want to read the story to the finish, please put up some stars and a review to support Earth. Let me know what kind of world Legion Varus should invade next.
-BVL
More SF Books by B. V. Larson:
The Undying Mercenaries Series:
Steel World
Dust World
Tech World
Machine World
Death World
Home World
Rogue World
Blood World
Dark World
Rebel Fleet Series:
Rebel Fleet
Orion Fleet
Alpha Fleet
Earth Fleet
Star Force Series:
Swarm
Extinction
Rebellion
Conquest
Army of One (Novella)
Battle Station
Empire
Annihilation
Storm Assault
The Dead Sun
Outcast
Exile
Demon Star
Lost Colonies Trilogy:
Battle Cruiser
Dreadnought
Star Carrier
Visit BVLarson.com for more information.
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