Miranda took the opportunity to but in.
“You killed them all on accident?”
“On accident, on purpose, who cares? The point is, you were still walking, and I couldn’t get off this stunting planet until you weren’t breathing anymore. I tried the gas chamber. Did a mask switch. That failed miserably.” He shook his head, disappointment in himself showing on every line of his face.
“The live holo mine was a last resort. We were so close to graduation. I was running out of shots. Now look at us.” He waved a hand around the chamber. “Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined this for the end of our journey together.”
“You’ve been trying to kill me this whole time, the other Farmers?” she stated it like a question.
“They just got in the way.”
“Even Grumpy?” she asked.
“Who?”
“The other female Farmer.”
“You mean Louise?”
“I thought you two were friends.”
“We were. I had nothing to do with that. Carcerus, I would have tried to stop it if I’d been there.”
“Then who?”
“What, you didn’t think I got a holo mine all on my own, or a battery, or the drugs?”
Miranda’s eyes widened with realization.
“You had an accomplice? But who?” His smile grew until it reached his eyes. It gave him a possessed look.
“You really think they would dump me with an impossible mission without some help? You might be vid smart Miranda, but you have a long way to go.” He smeared her first name. The sound of it coming from his lips sent chills down her spine.
“You mock me, but who’s still alive, Farmer? Me! That’s who.” Heat coursed up the sides of his face. He looked like he was ready to pop.
“I would have succeeded if it wasn’t for those nanos of yours. Where did a farmer like you get that strong of tech?” She shrugged. She didn’t have any nanos that she knew of before coming to BASIC.
“Why me?” she asked, ignoring his comment about nanos. She would have to talk to Medic when she got out of this alive. But to do that, she needed to stay on top of her game here. He might be ranting about failing to kill her now, but he could resume firing at her at any moment. The longer she kept him talking, the closer to safety, and help, Adam got.
Farmer sneered. “At first, because I was told to. Now, because I want to.” He pulled the trigger.
Miranda waited for the deafening blast, but it never came. There was only the click of an empty chamber.
“Slag it!” Farmer shouted. He looked at the battery pack of his rifle. “These are supposed to last a cold age!” He cursed again. “No matter,” he said at last, dropping the weapon. “I don’t need it to kill you.”
They continued to circle, each measuring the other, waiting for a moment.
“There’s one thing that’s been bothering me,” Miranda said at last.
“Only one?” His sneer was back on his face. She wanted to warn him that if he kept it up his face would freeze that way. That’s what her mother always said. Her mother had been right about so many things. Miranda wished she’d listened more, paid more attention to the little details. Then again, you only care about those things when they are gone. She knew that now. It was a lesson she wasn’t about to forget any time soon.
“During Seventh day circle you said that your mom died in a mining accident.”
“Yeah, so?”
“Miner’s sons aren’t named Farmer,” she said. A light gleamed in his eyes.
“No.”
“You’re not a Farmer, you’re a Miner.” He slowly clapped as they continued their dance, careful not to lose his grip on the box.
“Detective Farmer, how did you ever figure it out?”
“No wonder you’re such an entitled prick. They probably adopted you out to some First Worlder who needed your money.”
He lunged for her. She slid back, reaching for the box. She got one finger on it, but then he pulled back and away. She had to get that box.
“You think you’re so smart,” he jeered.
“Smart enough to know you’re a rebel spy.”
“You got me.” He motioned an arrow sticking his heart.
Light streamed in from above as a large cracking sound filled the air.
“Recruit Farmer was a cover. You were here on a mission.” Miranda’s feet tripped over something on the ground. She’d been so focused on Farmer and the box she’d missed his backpack.
“I literally just said that,” Farmer said. “Were you not listening? Do your ears not work? How many times do I need to spell it out for you?” He stared her down. The red fire in his eyes blazed. “I’m here to kill you!”
He lunged for her. Rather than engage, she rolled to the side, grabbing his rucksack with her. It was heavier than she expected.
“When did I become so special?” she shot back.
There was a loud bang. They both looked up. The shuttle from earlier hovered above them. It had cut a hole through the ceiling with a blaster cannon. A pale green tractor beam light shone around Farmer.
“Sayonara, little mouse,” he said, “I hope they fry you for my crimes.” He blew her a kiss.
Miranda reached into the rucksack and pulled out the holo mine weighing it down. She looked at Farmer, slowly rising to the shuttle. He’d shown himself to be the enemy. The kind of bad guy they trained to kill. So why did this feel like she was stabbing herself in the back?
“Think of him like the dummy,” she whispered to herself. She tried to imagine what Drill Sergeant Dan would order.
“Press the button. That’s an order, recruit!”
‘Yes,’ Miranda thought. ‘It would be something like that, except if Sergeant Dan was really here, she would have included expletives.’ Miranda giggled, high on lack of oxygen, and pushed the button. It was an order, after all.
She rolled the mine towards Farmer’s feet, which were now suspended midair.
The bomb exploded at his feet. Being in the beam left him completely exposed, unable to react even if he were paying attention. His body hurtled out of the beam, crashing into a support column. He hit his head on a rock once he hit the ground.
Miranda cringed. She didn’t have time to determine if he was dead or alive. She had to grab the box and get out of there.
The blast knocked her back off her feet. Debris flew in all directions. A rock hit her in the eye. Miranda, too late, raised her hand to cover her face. Her fingers came away bloody.
“This is how you die,” she thought. She might have said it out loud, but the ringing in her ears made it hard to know if she was speaking or if she was thinking her words.
“Medic!” she heard someone shout. “Medic!”
The wind from the shuttle was strong. It pulled at the sand cloud, covering the area, pushing the earth back towards the ground. Miranda got her first good look at what had happened. The ruins were in ruins if that was even possible. Their pieces broke and shattered, until you couldn’t tell the difference between them and the red sand they rose from.
Farmer leaned from the shuttle craft; the box clutched to his chest. His head was bloody, but his smile still apparent. As they lifted away, Oscar cried in rage but there was nothing to do. No one could reach them now.
The shuttle shot off a round of blasts as it turned. Miranda’s body ached to run away, but her legs refused to respond. The dust clouded her vision and filled her lungs with pain. Then they were gone. She allowed the dark to take her under.
Chapter 21
She woke in the med unit. Both suns were up. They painted the grey floor tiles a light pink color. Miranda squinted against the light.
“It’s okay, just rest your eyes,” Medic told her. He sat on a wheeled stool parked up against her bedside.
“Where’s Oscar?” she asked. She tried to sit up. Pain shot through her head and she slumped back against the pillow. At least it softened the blow.
“You’re be
coming a kind of fixture here,” Medic tried to lighten the mood. He had a shot he was preparing in his hands. She saw the trickle of liquid squirt out the top. Then he lowered it out of her line of sight.
“What’s that for?” she asked. Her mouth was dry. She wanted water, not a shot.
“For the pain,” he said, then he stuck the needle in her, and she passed out again.
When she woke the suns were down. Night shown across the patch of grass that ringed the med ward. Its fake green shoots looked silver in the light of the rising moon.
“There, there Recruit Farmer. It’s okay.”
“Where am I?” she tried to ask, but it came out a croak. Her throat was dry. She put a hand on it, wondering how she’d gotten this way.
“Here.” Medic lifted her shoulders until she was in a sitting position. Then he placed a glass of water to her lips.
“Drink.”
She took a long drain on the liquid and nearly choked.
“Easy, easy. You’ve been out for thirty hours. Best if you just sip it.
Miranda took a few small sips, careful not to spit them out after. Satisfied she’d had enough to drink, Medic put down the glass.
“How long?” she tried to say, but even with the added moisture, she still had no voice. She felt her eye. It was sore, but not much more puffy than usual. She was lucky that that was it. The building around her stank of cooked meat on top of the normal antiseptic smells she was used to.
“I’ll release you to quarters as soon as you finish that glass of water.” He handed her back the glass with a nod. Miranda took it in both hands. “I don’t know how, but you’re one of the lucky ones. The docs have been pulling pieces of dummy holos out of Platoon 6 for hours.” Miranda nodded. She looked down at the glass. Besides still feeling tired, she otherwise felt fine. Maybe a little hungry, but that wasn’t anything new either.
“What happened?” she asked. Her voice came out soft. It scratched the back of her throat.
“You were there, you would know more than me,” he said. He gave her a pointed look and made to move on. She reached out, grasping his wrist. He stopped, electricity shooting through where they’d touched.
“Nanos,” Miranda said letting go of his arm. She couldn’t look him in the eye when she said the next thing.
“I know,” she started, but her throat clogged on the words. She cleared it and tried again.
“I was there, I saw the,” she stopped again trying to find the right word. Boom? Accident? No. None of those words were right. She settled on, “explosion.”
Medic sat on the edge of her bed, waiting.
“What I want to know,” ‘Need to know,’ she thought, “is how many?” She looked around the room.
“Oh, we’ve had twenty-one cases. Three deaths. A couple people lost limbs. Like I said, you were one of the lucky ones. I think your training was why you were out so long, not the attack.” Her eyes begged for him to say more. The knee that was off the bed bounced up and down. He stilled it with his hand. Then he looked her straight in the eyes.
“The prince will have to tell you the rest.”
She nodded releasing him.
“I’ll come back in a bit to check on you.” He motioned to the glass still in her hand. It was half full. She remembered what he’d said about her finishing it.
He was good to his word. Within the hour after Miranda finished drinking the glass of water on her own, Medic sent her back to the barracks.
They were empty. Except for one Ironside with a dented helmet. He took her by the arm and started to lead her.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
“To processing.”
She nodded. They walked like that for a while until she couldn’t hold in her thoughts anymore.
“He said he had an accomplice,” Miranda told Eric as they made their way towards the processing center.
“We know.”
She looked at him, confused.
“You know?”
“Yes.” He didn’t say anything else.
“So, I don’t need to worry that this person is going to try and kill me, too?”
“No,” Eric said.
“Great.” She threw up her hands, exasperated. All that time in med bay had undone some of her training.
Eric stopped marching and faced her.
“He killed her.”
“Killed who?”
“His accomplice.” They resumed their march.
“Oh.” Miranda thought back to all the dead bodies that lined the weeks leading up to this moment. One remained unaccounted for. Striker. She let the information sink in.
“What about graduation?”
“You missed it.”
She made a face as if to argue. He held up a hand.
“It was all just a bunch of pomp and circumstance. With the occasional recruit dropping out,” Eric said, patting her on the shoulder with the hand he’d used to shush her.
“We declared you dead, so don’t worry about it.”
“Dead.” She choked on the word.
“Eric, why am I dead?” They ascended the stairs to the out-processing office in silence. The building resembled the Imperial tower on her home world to a T. Same reflective glass. Same stone steps to the main lobby. Same towering presence, only it was made more towering because of the lack of mountains in the distance. The desert scape made the multi-floor glass tower into a beacon of Imperial superiority. Miranda grew restless with each step.
“Eric?” she prodded. Nothing.
“But it was my life. My pomp and circumstance.” She’d known they wouldn’t hold everything up for one student but still.
Eric looked at her, then pulled a small holo projector out of his pack. He fiddled with it and then, before them, was the graduation ceremony in all its glory. They stayed and watched for a few minutes so she could ‘feel’ what it was like to be there.
“It’s too bad the medics vetoed your attending.”
“They were too worried a drill sergeant would say, ‘If she’s well enough to sit in the stands, she’s well enough to stand on the field,'’' she said.
“You know they’re right. Plus, you’re officially dead now,” Eric said.
“Why?” she asked.
Eric took a long sip on a cola.
“Where’d you get that?”
“Cookhouse,” he said. “Where else?” Only an Ironside could get away with leaving with a drink and no one saying a word.
Miranda sighed. “Still, a holo is not the same,” she said.
“Yet the empire still counts it as attendance for graduation sake,” he said. “No need to retake all twelve cycles.” He took another long sip.
“I don’t think I could survive twelve more cycles.”
“The Empire might not survive you being in BASIC for twelve more cycles.”
She nodded.
Eric escorted her all the way through out-processing to make sure her graduation paperwork was filed and that she was put on a transport that afternoon to her military occupational specialty training. She still didn’t know what her specialty was going to be. Most people signed up with one, but because she was a Farmer, they’d done testing over her BASIC training and would be assigning it when she graduated.
“All of this is like a box of barley,” she said, rubbing her hands together for courage. It had taken so much out of her to be here. Now she felt lost as to her next step. The Empire might have plans for her, but she didn’t know if those were the plans, she wanted for herself anymore.
“A box of what?”
“Barley, you know, never know what kind of critter you’re gonna find in the bottom of it.”
Eric laughed, spitting out some of his soda. It splattered on her clean uniform, across his chin; some probably landed on the floor. The building had a mop bot, so it would be cleaned up soon enough. For the moment she let herself feel how good it was to see him laugh. He’d been so serious when he’d chewed her out for putting Adam’s life i
n danger. One might think that he’d been worried about her a little, too. Not that she’d had any control over any of it.
She hadn’t been the one to set the bomb that set off the earthquake that opened the lander cavern where they were trapped with a rebel spy sent to murder her. She’d just been the contract. Nothing more, nothing less. Everything else was luck and circumstance.
“A box of barley. Who knew?” he said, wiping moisture from his eyes. He took another long sip on his drink. Miranda said something else, but the garbled sound of more air being sucked up the straw than soda drowned out her words. She sighed, giving up.
At the front desk she punched in her training number. The receptionist whose name tag read Derik looked her over from his side of the desk.
“That way.” Derik pointed to a bank of elevators on the left, their shining surfaces awaiting her.
“This is where I leave you,” Eric said.
“No following me up and marching me off to my next adventure?” Miranda teased. There was a hint of something more to it. A spark she felt about him. Not that it mattered. She’d be turning eighteen in a few months, and until then, the Empire owned her.
Eric sucked on his more empty than not soda, a smile on his lips.
Miranda sighed and headed for the indicated elevator. The more she thought about it, the more she realized, whether she stayed in the military or not, the Empire had always owned her. At least as a soldier she felt like she had a little more control. If she did a good enough job, other opportunities would be waiting for her on the other side of her career. A career she felt ready for after everything she’d gone through in the last twelve cycles. More than just being a farmer’s wife on some newly terraformed planet, beholden to the Empire’s whims for the rest of her life. Three generations. That’s how long they had to serve. And they were the lucky ones. Miners got paid more.
As she approached the elevators, she noticed that one was already open. She remembered her first time in an Imperial elevator. How she’d mistaken it for a waiting room. How sick she’d felt when she finally got to her appointment.
“I’m not making that mistake twice,'' she told Oscar. Then she remembered that the little droid had opted to power up outside instead of accompanying her. She suddenly felt very home sick. As she entered the room the door clicked closed behind her, leaving no trace that it had ever been.
Imperial Hilt (Imperial War Saga Book 2) Page 13
