Merkiaari Wars: 02 - What Price Honour

by Mark E. Cooper

  “He was a captain then,” he whispered, seeing the past come to life as his processor resurrected it from his permanent memory. “Bethany’s World has always hated us, but it was much worse after I killed their kids.”

  “You didn’t—”

  “I don’t want to hear it okay?” He glared at his friend. “Just leave it will you? It’s old news, very old news.”

  Hymas nodded and turned back to the consol.

  * * *

  Kate found the viper captain lying in pieces outside the launch centre and took cover. His legs were both severed above the knee, and his left arm was shattered. Unbelievably he was still alive, but he was too far gone in shock to talk to her. She crawled passed him without stopping.

  Slugs chewed up the ground near her ear and she rolled left. Her right hand was tracking toward the target before she knew to aim. The diamond spun in her display, she fired twice and ran forward having no doubt the trooper was dead. She dove through the double door skidding on the shiny floors of the reception area. Broken doors and computer terminals greeted her. The enemy was already inside somewhere.

  With her heart thudding fit to burst out of her chest, Kate dashed up the stairs as fast as her viper body could go. She didn’t dare chance the elevators. Her diagnostic display told her the knee was going to give out any second, but she raced for the twentieth floor regardless. On the nineteenth floor, her display was pulsing red, and the pain was making her cringe at every footfall, but she struggled up the final flight only to duck back as a Merki trooper appeared. Kate fired from the hip not needing her targeting reticule this close. The monster was blasted back and out of sight.

  Kate advanced cautiously, but yelled in shock when another trooper appeared out of nowhere. She wasn’t sure afterward who was the more surprised, but the Merki female did get her shot off first. The nanocoat of Kate’s armour reacted to the attack instantly. Its surface became diamond hard and shiny as a mirror over her ribs, as it tried to nullify the sudden influx of energy. Kate fell trying to twist out of the beam before it penetrated. She hit the floor and fired twice into the snarling face. The headless monster collapsed and wrung a scream of anguish from Kate as it landed across both legs. Her damage display stopped flashing warnings about her leg and went dark—the knee was crushed beyond repair.

  Ignoring the pain, Kate shoved the corpse off with her good leg, and skidded back to lean against the wall. Her head rolled to the side in an effort to survey the control room. It was wrecked; she had failed her mission. But what of the drone itself? Surely there was a manual launch sequence. The more she thought about it, the more certain she was that there would be a backup.

  She dragged herself into the stairwell and up the stairs bumping her shattered leg with every move. She hardly knew where she was now, but up seemed the right way. Sweat rolled off her and her teeth chattered. Despite all her bots could do, she was going into shock. Finally, she fell through the door and onto the roof. The drones were still in their cradles awaiting the launch order.

  Kate dragged herself to the first one and opened the panel in its side. “Oh God, what do I…” she panted in time with the throbbing agony her leg had become. She looked at the controls in confusion. She didn’t know how to operate a foldspace drone, or even key in a message.

  The shot from the doorway nearly ended her life right there. The Merki trooper she had shot in the stairwell was in the doorway clinging to the wall. He fired again, and Kate shrieked as her left hand was smashed to a pulp by a huge slug. Hugging the spurting stump to her chest, she screamed in agony and fired her pistol at fall auto. She held the trigger down until there was nothing left of the trooper, or the door, or the top of the stairwell. Her vision blurred and darkened as the ammo indicator beeped empty.

  Peep, peep, peep, peep…

  The annoying beeping roused Kate a moment or so later. Her hand had been deleted from her diagnostic display. It matched her leg now. An absurd chuckle tried to force its way out of her. Her bots had dealt with the injury by sealing it off to prevent blood loss, and a neural block would shortly be in place for the pain. A read out on her display was insisting she report to medical immediately. She was apparently combat ineffective and needed maintenance.

  Kate laughed tiredly. “No shit.”

  She struggled up to the consol next to the launch rail. The buttons seemed simple enough on this part at least. One said launch, another said abort and beside them was the usual palm scanner for clearance. Did she even have clearance? She flattened the launch button, and laid her right palm on the plate.

  WHOOSH!

  The first drone was ejected from the rails and the others slid forward one space.

  Kate watched the drone begin to fall back to earth. She had time to wonder if it was broken before the rocket motors detected the descent and fired. The drone shot into the sky and disappeared. She looked wearily around, but the sim didn’t end.

  “Sonofabitch…” she mumbled. Kate opened the hatch on the second drone to study its controls. “How do I make you go to HQ, damn you?” She began pressing buttons at random. “Aha!”

  A menu appeared in the tiny display. She read the options and pressed six. As she read the help file, her thoughts turned to the Captain. Was he still alive? If he was, she might meet him when she woke up, and they could talk about this day.

  “It’s been a doozy and no mistake.”

  She cursed Stone for his damn retro sayings. What the hell was a doozy?

  She finished reading the file and punched in a code for Alliance HQ. The screen cleared and she typed a message.

  Full scale invasion of Bethany’s World underway this day. Alliance forces routed, population being exterminated. Request Fleet intervention with heavy ground support. Recommend full battalion of vipers be in first wave.

  PFC Richmond, SDN-559-210-229, reporting.

  Kate closed the panel and dragged herself to the consol. She smashed the launch button flat, and placed her palm on the scanner.

  WHOOSH!

  * * *

  “You did it,” Stone said. Behind him, the simulator was busy lobotomising itself to protect its programmer.

  Richmond groaned at the imagined agony in the stump of her hand, but then she looked and saw it was whole again. She was still clutching it protectively to her chest, but of course it was whole. As reality reasserted itself, she relaxed and worked her fingers against phantom pain.

  “Welcome back.”

  Richmond’s eyes narrowed. “You…” she croaked. “You bastard… what have you done?”

  Stone raised an eyebrow in surprise and glanced at Marion. “Do you know what she’s talking about?”

  Marion shook her head.

  Richmond sat up and swung her legs over the edge of the couch. The wires running to the sensors tangled, and she angrily ripped them off not caring if she damaged them.

  * * *

  Kate ripped the wires from her body and reached for her uniform. She stuffed herself into it, ignoring Stone and the smirk she was sure she would find on his face if she looked. She couldn’t get the sim out of her mind. Lies, all lies. Once dressed, she made to leave but stopped when Stone called out to her.

  “When you’ve had time to think, come and see me. We’ll talk.”

  Kate turned to face him wanting to be angry, but confusion was her greatest emotion. Confusion, and a bone deep weariness. All she thought she knew about her world and its history was a lie. All she had been taught was based on lies. Her life, her entire goddamn life was a lie. She couldn’t think passed that, couldn’t get beyond it to what was important now. The Ten must know. They at least must have known the truth… they probably knew it all along. Why? Why teach lies and half-truths to Bethany’s children?

  “Richmond?” Hymas said in concern.

  “Why?” she said. “Why did you do that to us… to me?”

  Stone shook his head. “We did nothing to you.”

  “But you were there. You let them lie to us. Why
did you let them lie to us?”

  Hymas made to answer, but then she shook her head. Kate turned away and slowly made her way out of the simulator room. Outside the hatch she found dozens of concerned recruits awaiting their turn to enter the sims. She must have looked ready to pass out, because one man, Cragg it said on his uniform, stood and offered her his seat.

  Kate shook her head. “I’m fine… I’ll be all right.”

  “You don’t look so hot. Are you sure?”

  Kate nodded and turned along the corridor that eventually led back to her room. She looked back once to find Cragg still watching her. “Be careful of Stone. Be careful in there. They lie to you.” She looked down and hunched her shoulders. “Everybody lies.”

  “I don’t understand,” Cragg called but she didn’t stop.

  “All lies.”

  * * *

  Chapter 11

  Alliance HQ, Luna, Sol System

  Kate lay on her bunk staring at the overhead going over the sim in her mind. No matter how she looked at it, she knew it was real and not fiction. She had been exposed to too many sims in her time not to know the difference, and deluding herself was not something she was prepared to do. Stone’s sim hadn’t truly been one at all, not in the accepted sense of the word anyway. It had been no imitation, but the real thing. She had relived an historical event of epic proportions; the Merkiaari invasion of her homeworld. Stone had actually been there when it happened, he had fought for his life and been terribly wounded trying to send word back to the Alliance. She had lived it herself from his point of view. There could be no ambiguity, no weaselling out of it. For centuries The Ten had lied—and still were—on a massive scale. Every school taught every child on Bethany a false history of that time, and no one knew it but the government.

  Why? How? Did it even matter now?

  Kate rolled onto her side hugging herself to stop her hands shaking. You betcha it mattered. It mattered a goddamn lot! The how though, wasn’t as important as the why. At least to her way of thinking. No, she didn’t need to know the specifics of how it was done, but she would like to know why. Perhaps then she could stop thinking about it and move on.

  There was still Paul and her own mission here to consider. She had planned to send her latest report after the sim, but it didn’t seem so important anymore. The report was hours late, but she doubted it would make a difference. She had sent her contact plenty of stuff to be going on with. Mostly information about the other people being tested; things like names and backgrounds she had been able to weasel out at mealtimes. Nothing vital or even that interesting really. Her contact wanted more hard data, of which there was precious little. He wanted most of all to know the reasons behind the testing of so many veteran soldiers from such diverse backgrounds. Until today she hadn’t a clue, but it seemed obvious to her now. Stone was looking for viper candidates, and the only reason for that she could think of terrified her.

  “Another Merki incursion?” They couldn’t keep something that huge a secret, surely? Kate bit her lip hard, thinking about the massive hoax perpetuated on her own people for more than two centuries.

  What was going on? She didn’t know, but what Stone had done to her was illegal. Why had he done that, and what was she going to do about it? She could have told one of the other cyborgs, but Hymas was right there at the session and hadn’t seem disturbed one bit by it. She certainly hadn’t tried to stop him. Maybe the session had been sanctioned by his superiors. Kate sighed. There really was no one she could tell and be believed anyway. She had no evidence, and besides, she wasn’t sure now that she wanted to turn him in. He had shown her the truth with his download.

  The comm chimed, announcing a visitor. She reached over and pressed the admit key. When she saw who her visitor was she nimbly swung her legs off the bunk and stood to attention. Stone stared at her for a moment and then let his eyes wander around the room. His hand reached out and the hatch closed. When he locked it, Kate tensed, but he did nothing more than stare at her, waiting. She remained at attention, her thoughts frantic as she tried to think of something to say.

  Stone grunted. “I said we would talk, but you didn’t come see me.”

  Kate swallowed. “I’ve been thinking about stuff… things. I have questions, but—”

  “I bet you have, I just bet you have at that. Okay, Richmond, sit down. No need to be formal. I said we’ll talk and we will, about a great many things.”

  Kate relaxed a little and sat on her bunk. Stone pulled the chair toward him and sat facing her. He swung a compad forward and back, letting it pivot between his thumb and finger down by his side. Kate dragged her eyes away from it and up to meet his eyes. She found it hard to maintain her composure with that too-knowing stare upon her. She shifted, realising that this was the first time they had been alone since she got here.

  “Why did you do it?” Kate blurted when she could tolerate his silence no longer. “You went to a lot of trouble.”

  “You have no idea how much, Richmond, but I think you’ll be worth it. The Colonel doesn’t know if you’re wondering.”

  Kate frowned. That was only one of the things she had been wondering about. Stone’s caginess didn’t sit well with her; it didn’t suit him. She had come to know him better than she wanted to admit over her weeks here, and the sim had reinforced her view. What he had done to her in that simulation took a certain kind of dedication and disregard for consequences. Stone was as hard as his name and twice as cold. She had known a few people like him in her time, all psychos, but she doubted any of them could compete against him in ruthlessness. He was the kind of man that did whatever it took to get the job done. A bit like her actually.

  “If you’re not here to answer my questions, why are you here?”

  “I came to make sure you make the right decision when the time comes, and to tell you that I know.”

  Kate frowned. “Know? Know what?”

  “Richmond,” Stone sighed. “Did you really think you could get away with a hack into the comm system without me finding out? I’m insulted you even tried.”

  Kate licked suddenly dry lips. He couldn’t have detected her intrusions into the system. He couldn’t have! “I don’t know what you mean—”

  Stone cut her off with a raised hand. “Don’t take me for one of your marks, Richmond. You can’t manipulate me with a coy smile and soft words, besides, I’m not trying to burn you. I’m trying to help you. It wasn’t anything you did that gave you away if that makes you feel better. Your contact was blown before you even set foot on this rock.”

  Kate leaned forward, resting her weight on elbows and knees. She didn’t doubt him, not with him right there looking at her with those knowing eyes. Her contact had messed up. It didn’t really surprise her. She stared at the floor trying to think of a way out, but there wasn’t one. If she did somehow get out of the room, where would she go? She was deep inside a moon with no atmosphere and no ship waiting even if she could reach the surface, which she couldn’t. Stone was a viper; she had no chance of overpowering him. The idea was laughable. She had seen what a viper could do in the sims. She had been one in simulation long enough to know she had no chance at all.

  “What are you going to do with me?”

  “It’s not a matter of what I’m going to do, Richmond. It’s more about what you want and what you’re prepared to do to get it.”

  “I don’t understand. Aren’t you going to arrest and question me?”

  Stone sighed. “Haven’t you been listening? I already know all the answers, and I don’t care. Your contact is going to meet with a little accident later today. None of the data you transmitted has left Luna. Believe me, it never will.”

  “I do believe you. Not that any of it was worth anything.”

  “I know that too. We only let you keep transmitting so we could map your cell.”

  “I don’t know any names, and I wouldn’t talk if I did.”

  “Again, I don’t care. I didn’t ask for any.” Sto
ne handed the compad to her. “It makes interesting reading.”

  Kate activated the compad and read the first of many pages. It was a dossier on her, and it was accurate down to her favourite colour and the name of her first boyfriend. She browsed the rest of the report. It had everything about her. Everything. Names of her instructors at school, her test scores, dates of major events in her life. It even had the date she was recruited from the Rangers into ISS. The only thing it didn’t have was details of her missions for them. Where did he get all this, how did he get it? Did he have contacts on Bethany? He must have, and high ranked ones too.

  “Why give me this?”

  “So you’ll have what you need to make the right choice.”

  “Yeah? What choice?”

  Stone looked away, uncertainty etched on his features for the first time. “A hard one, Richmond, the hardest you’ll ever make. You don’t have to make it right this minute, but soon.”

  Kate nodded. So, she had guessed right. There was a Merki incursion on the way and the vipers were being mobilised to meet the threat. “Oh, you really are recruiting us then.”

  Stone snorted. “You guessed.”

  “When are the Merkiaari coming?”

  Stone stared, and then shook his head. “Is that what you think this is about?”

  “Well isn’t it?”

  “No. They have nothing to do with this, but we are recruiting up to strength. I’ll let the Colonel tell you more. He wouldn’t like me jumping the gun this way. “I strongly suggest you accept the offer.”

  “Do I really have a choice?”

  “There are always choices, Richmond. Sometimes they’re all bad.”

  For a moment Kate shared Stone’s pain as they remembered Bethany’s murdered children. “And this time?”

  Stone smiled, banishing the nightmare thoughts. “This time, your choices will change your life, hopefully for the better.” The hatch slid aside and he stepped through. “Oh, I nearly forgot; read the section about your family before you reject our offer out of hand. You’ll regret it if you don’t, and don’t forget to remove your handiwork from your comp when you’re done. I’ll know when it’s gone.”