by Tim Waggoner
“She means I stole the money,” Mudo said. He looked away from his holoscreen and grinned at Kyoto. “I got most of it from Janeesh Glasgow. I siphoned it from private accounts he had set up for several of his mistresses. From what I understand, they’ve all broken off with him since then.” He returned his attention to the holoscreen and frowned. “Cardiac arrests are now at seventy-eight percent? That can’t be right!” He went back to manipulating data.
“To completely answer your question, Mei, the holoscreen you’re looking at displays the real reason Gerhard restored me. I’m going to be the Janus’s AI.”
“You mean the ship Mudo wants me to test pilot?”
“Yes, but Gerhard didn’t request you. I did. I thought it would be just like old times.”
Kyoto had mixed feelings about that, considering those “old times” had resulted in the destruction of Earth.
“Well, why don’t you give me a rundown on the ship, and then maybe we can—”
“Wait a moment, Mei. I’m sorry to interrupt, but I’m picking up something from the Orinoco’s comlink feed. Ship’s sensors are showing some disturbing readings.”
Kyoto’s blood turned to engine coolant in her veins. Wolf…
Mudo swept his hand in a wide arc, minimizing all the holoscreens save the one that displayed the image of the Orinoco crew at work. He peered closely at the screen, as if daring it to reveal anything unexpected.
“Memory, are you certain you’re not experiencing a malfunction?” he said. “I don’t detect—”
And then they saw it.
CHAPTER
SIX
Commander First Class Philip Wolfenson sat in the cockpit of his Retribution starfighter playing a game of quad-dimensional chess against the ship’s computer. Maybe this mission was going to turn out to be as historic as everyone said, but right now it was boring as hell. He and Julia were along supposedly to provide a security escort—which was true enough as far as that went—but the larger reason was that they’d look impressive to the people watching the newsnets throughout the system. After all, the last time the Orinoco techs had been here, they’d deployed a virtual fleet of cams to record today’s events. Sometimes Wolf wondered why anyone in the Solar Colonies actually bothered to do anything when it would be so much easier to let Syscom simulate everything for them.
C’mon, Wolf. Stop being so cynical. The thought was his, but he heard it spoken in Mei’s voice.
“Third checkmate, Commander Wolfenson,” the ship’s AI said. “Your move.”
“Screw it,” Wolf muttered. “Cancel game.” The chessboards disappeared, and the hologram shifted back to its default setting—a tactical display of the surrounding space.
Wolf gave the holoscreen a quick once-over. There was no need to examine it more closely. The Retribution’s sensors would alert him in the incredibly remote chance that anything interesting happened. He was about to close his eyes to take a short nap when he heard the chirp of a comlink channel opening.
“Hey, Wolf—you still awake?” It was Julia Everest.
“Barely. You know, this wasn’t exactly the sort of glamorous duty I had in mind when I joined the GSA.”
Julia laughed. “Yeah, but it beats getting your ass burned off by a Manti energy blast.”
“I guess.”
For Wolf, the war against the Buggers had ended at Bromely Canyon on Europa, when his starfighter had been brought down by a Reaper. He’d managed to survive the impact of his none-too-gentle landing and had just climbed out of the wreck that had been his ship when a Lander came at him. He would have been absorbed and transformed into a Manti-human hybrid called a Mutant if a crazy jump jockey by the name of Mei Kyoto hadn’t saved him. He’d sat out the rest of the war in a GSA hospital, recovering. He now had a bionic eye, a partially bionic hand, and an artificial liver and pancreas. He also had simskin over a third of his body. The tone was a shade lighter than his real skin, and because some of it was on his face, he could no longer grow facial hair.
But he was alive. And as for the difference in skin tone, after he and Mei had become lovers, she’d told him it was cute. “Kind of like having permanent tan lines,” she’d said.
Wolf sighed.
“Something wrong?” Julia asked.
“Naw.”
“Don’t lie to me, pal. My comp’s got a built-in, top-of-the line, GSA certified bullshit detector. Let me guess: you’re thinking about Kyoto, right?”
Wolf felt a flash of irritation, but he couldn’t keep from chuckling. “You got a special mind-reading upgrade over there?”
“Don’t need one. It’s a small system, Wolf. Word gets around fast.”
“Sure as hell does,” he said. “We only broke up three days ago.”
“Yeah, well, there’s broken up and then there’s broken up. You two just need a little time apart, you know, to sort things out.”
“Maybe.” He wasn’t sure about that, though. He’d made his feelings very clear to Mei when he left. “We’re just not a good match, Mei. I don’t know if it’s because we’re too different or too much alike. All I know is we’ve been fighting way too much lately, and that’s not good for either one of us.”
Now, three days later, he was sitting in a starfighter, bored as hell, and he couldn’t remember exactly what had prompted him to say those things. But he was too proud and stubborn to go back to her and admit he’d been a jackass.
“Maybe nothing,” Julia insisted. “You love her, right? And she loves you. If there’s anything we all should have learned from living through the Second Swarm, it’s that life is way too short and far too uncertain to waste time playing stupid games. If your relationship with Kyoto is broken and you think it’s worth saving, then fix it.”
He smiled. “Simple as that, huh?”
“Yep. All you need to do is—” She broke off. “Wolf, I’m getting some weird sensor readings over here. Looks like something’s coming through the stargate.”
“That’s impossible!” Wolf sat up and took a close look at his holoscreen. Sure enough, the Retribution’s sensors were showing a power spike in the gate’s hyperspatial vortex.
“Keep an eye on it, Julia.” He opened a channel to the Orinoco. “This is Commander Wolfenson. You guys expecting some additional equipment you forgot to tell us about?”
“Negative, Commander” came the reply from the Orinoco’s captain. “Why do you ask?”
Before Wolf could say anything else, sensor alarms began blaring, and the ship’s AI shouted, “Commander! A Manti assault force is coming through the stargate!”
At first, Wolf thought the AI was malfunctioning. Not only were all the Manti in the system dead, the Buggers were incapable of using GSA stargates. GSA ships transmitted a specific signal that allowed them to pass through the gates—a signal that changed weekly. In addition, all gate jumps were strictly monitored by GSA Control. There was no way in hell the Manti could—
“Wolf!” Julia shouted over the comlink. “Are you seeing what I’m seeing?”
The holoscreen of Wolf’s Retribution showed Manti pouring out the stargate—Landers mostly, but with a scattering of Yellow Jackets and Baiters in the mix, as well. It was as if a mouth to Hell itself had opened up and was spewing forth a torrent of demons.
Wolf didn’t take the time to wonder where the Manti were coming from or how they’d managed to use the stargate. The fact was that the Manti were here and they needed killing.
He powered up his weapons systems, then grabbed the joystick. He jammed it forward, and the Retribution’s fusion engines flared to life, shooting the starfighter forward as if it had been blasted out of an ion cannon. Wolf intended to engage the Manti before they had a chance to go after the Orinoco. The tech ship had only minimal weaponry and would be virtually helpless against Manti attack.
He activated the Retribution’s comlink. “Julia, I’m heading for the Manti! See if you can help the Orinoco escape!”
“How? They can’t go through
the gate—not as long as anything else is coming out!”
Wolf swore. It was standard GSA battle tactics to help civilians to safety whenever possible. This wasn’t as noble as it sounded, though. Thanks to the Manti, the human species was on the verge of extinction, and that made every human life all the more precious. Normal procedure was to help civilians get through the nearest gate, where the Manti couldn’t follow, but that tactic wasn’t going to work in this situation.
“Computer, how long until we’re in firing range of the leading edge of the Manti force?” Wolf asked.
“Seventy-three seconds, Commander.”
“How many Buggers are we up against?”
“An accurate count is impossible at the moment since Manti are continuing to emerge from the gate. Current estimate is eighteen hostiles and growing. Breakdown is as follows: ten Landers, three Yellow Jackets—”
“That’s enough. Just keep a running total with breakdowns on screen.”
“Acknowledged.”
The comlink to Julia’s ship was still open. “All right. We’ll tackle the Buggers together and hope we can buy the techs enough time to get away.” Wolf then opened a channel to the Orinoco. “You guys better get all your crew onboard and hightail it out of here. This little corner of space is about to get real hot real fast. We’ll do our best to cover your retreat.”
“Retreat where?” The tech ship’s captain sounded on the verge of hysteria. “We can’t go through the stargate, and the asteroids around here are too small to provide effective cover!”
“I wish I had some suggestions for you, Captain, but I’m going to be up to my teeth in Manti in the next few seconds. The best advice I have is to goose your engines, run like hell, and start praying.”
Wolf closed the channel and instructed the Retribution’s AI to transmit a detailed record of everything that had happened back to GSA headquarters. That way, even if he, Julia, and the Orinoco’s crew didn’t make it, at least the GSA would know why.
Then Wolf had no more time for thinking. His seventy-three seconds were up.
True to Manti form, the Landers came at him first. Why waste the big guns when the little ones could take out an opponent? Individually, Landers were slow and didn’t inflict a lot of damage. However, they were among the only Buggers that coordinated their attacks. They tended to work together in squads of three to six to maximize their firepower. Fortunately, he and Julia were flying Retributions, the fastest-model starfighter in the GSA arsenal. Against them, the Landers had little chance, regardless of how well they worked together.
Julia had been closer to the stargate when the Manti had first emerged, and so she drew in firing range of the Landers a few seconds before Wolf did. She activated her ship’s pulse array, and light flared as deadly plasma energy lanced across space and began incinerating Landers.
Julia’s voice come over Wolf’s comlink. “First green to me!” she crowed. “Look at it this way, Wolf—at least you’re wide awake now!”
Wolf hit his own pulse array and took out another four Landers.
“You sure about that? I thought maybe I’d fallen asleep and was having one hell of a nightmare.”
“No such luck, jump jockey.” Julia paused. “Look out, Wolf. Seems that we’ve drawn the attention of the big bugs.”
Wolf’s holoscreen indicated that several Yellow Jackets had fired energy projectiles. This was not good. The projectiles—which pilots called stingers—had a long range as well as a homing function that made them damn tough to avoid.
“Julia, let’s see if we can lose the stingers among the asteroids.”
“Sounds good, Wolf. Race you to the nearest rock!”
Julia’s ship accelerated, and Wolf had to move fast in order to keep up with her. He didn’t want to think about what it meant for the state of his mental health, but for the first time since Browley Canyon, he felt truly alive.
He recalled something Mei had once said. “What’s a warrior without a war?” At first, he’d thought the remark was a setup for a joke, but when he asked her what the punchline was, she’d said, “That’s the problem; there is no punchline.”
Wolf glanced at his holoscreen to check on the Orinoco. The tech ship had retrieved all of its personnel and was now moving away from the battlefield as fast as a ferroceramic brick encased in a block of plasteel, but at least it was moving.
“Computer, any sign that the Manti have targeted the Orinoco?”
“Negative. “ The AI paused. “Correction, six—no, seven Baiters just locked on to the Orinoco and are in pursuit.”
“Damn it!”
“I am unable to comply with that directive, Commander.”
“Very funny.”
“Just trying to relieve the tension a bit.”
“Do me a favor—don’t.”
If Wolf continued toward the asteroid belt to try to shake off the Yellow Jackets’ stingers, he’d leave the Orinoco open to the Baiters’ attack. And the tech ship simply did not have the weaponry or armor to protect itself. If Wolf tried to save his own life, in effect, he’d be sacrificing the crew’s.
But before he could do anything, Julia’s voice came over his comlink. “Looks like I’m going to lose the race, Wolf.”
Wolf watched on his holoscreen as Julia banked and turned to intercept the Baiters at the Retribution’s top speed of 900 meters a second, pulse array blazing bright, making her ship resemble a miniature comet. The small crablike Baiters began exploding one by one, and for an instant Wolf thought she was going to get them all before the stinger could catch up with her. But he was wrong.
The stinger slammed into the side of Julia’s ship, and the Retribution’s shield flared blue-white as it struggled to turn aside the stinger’s energy. But it was only partially successful: there was an explosion, and the starfighter’s port wing was reduced to scrap.
Julia spat out an invective so blistering that Wolf was surprised it didn’t fry his ship’s com system. The wing’s loss wasn’t immediately devastating in and of itself. Julia was still moving at close to top speed, though the force of the explosion had altered her course. But without both wings, she couldn’t maneuver effectively, and if she couldn’t maneuver, she was a goner.
The remaining Baiters broke off from going after the Orinoco and headed straight for Julia’s ship. No Manti, regardless of caste, could resist wounded prey.
Wolf gripped his joystick and was about to go to Julia’s aid when she came through on his comlink.
“Don’t even think about coming to my rescue. You’ve still got a stinger on your rear to deal with. Besides, I’ve already hit the kill switch.”
Wolf felt his gut muscles tighten. When a fighter pilot was going to die, he or she activated the ship’s self-destruct function to take out as many Manti as possible, too.
“Acknowledged,” Wolf said, his voice suddenly hoarse. “Clear skies, Commander Everest.”
“Back at you, Commander Wolfenson. Everest over and out.”
Baiters surged in for the kill, but before they could do anything, Julia’s fusion reactors overloaded and for an instant there was a new star in the heavens. But when the light faded, the Baiters were gone, as was Julia Everest and her ship.
Wolf didn’t have time to mourn his fallen comrade. Grief was a luxury a fighter pilot could ill afford. According to his holoscreen, the stinger that had locked onto his ship was almost upon him. Mouth set in a grim line, he accelerated toward the closest asteroid. As he drew near it, he dipped down toward the craggy surface until there was less than a meter between the Retribution’s hull and several tons of space rock. He skimmed across the asteroid’s face, then veered off to starboard and hauled ass. The stinger, which was far less maneuverable than the Retribution, struck the asteroid, exploded in a burst of yellow-white energy, and reduced the rock to particulate matter.
Score one for the good guys, Wolf thought. He located the Orinoco on his holoscreen and headed for the tech ship. A trio of Landers was already str
eaking toward the Orinoco. Whenever possible, the Manti tried to harvest the genetic material of their victims in order to create Mutants. The Orinoco had few defenses and a half dozen techs on board. As far as the Landers were concerned, that meant it was snack time.
The Orinoco was chugging though the asteroid field at its best speed, which wasn’t much. Wolf sped toward the tech ship, but he knew the Landers would reach it before he could. If the Orinoco had possessed a stronger energy shield, he would have unloaded some missles at the Landers, but as it was, the impact from any nearby missile strikes on the Manti would likely end up damaging the Orinoco, too. The pulse array was a much safer bet, but Wolf had to get into range before he could use it.
And then the unthinkable happened. For reasons Wolf couldn’t fathom—a malfunction in the collision-avoidance system or panic on the pilot’s part—the Orinoco suddenly veered toward an asteroid.
Wolf opened a channel to the Orinoco.
“Watch out! You’re too close to—”
The Orinoco smashed into the asteroid just as the first of the Landers latched onto its hull. Wolf had a clear image of the Manti raising a claw to penetrate the ship, and then the Orinoco’s reactors went critical and the tech ship, the Lander, and the asteroid were no more.
Wolf stared at the image of empty space on his holoscreen. No matter how many times he’d been in combat before, he’d never gotten used to how fast people could die.
“Commander, I’m detecting a power surge to our aft.”
Wolf did his best to put the fate of the Orinoco’s crew out of his mind. If he wanted to survive, he had to maintain focus.
“On screen.”
The image on the holoscreen changed, and for an instant Wolf feared that he had finally cracked under battle pressure. He was looking at an image of Earth. Not the molten hell that Earth was now, but the way it had been before the coming of the Manti: blue, green, and alive. Luna was there, too, circling her planet as she had done for millions upon millions of years. Was there an afterlife for celestial bodies? Wolf wondered. And if so, did that mean he was dead and just hadn’t figured it out yet?
