by Mark Rounds
"That goes for all of our handicapped veterans,” said Taol firmly. “The Condor Legion will keep you on, and when we head for the colony worlds, you will come too."
Before Taol knew it, he was hoisted up on the shoulders of his troopers. They were just getting warm when the shuttle pilot came around to end of the bay.
"I don't mean to break up the party,” said the pilot, “but if you want some help getting earth side, you really ought to board. Otherwise you'll have to walk."
#
After some good hearted kidding, they boarded the shuttle and prepared for separation. The shuttle they were riding had only two things in common with the orbital transport that brought the Legion’s wounded to the Regen habitat. The first resemblance was they were both space vehicles. The second was that lasers provided the motivating force. After that, all similarity ended.
The shuttle was shaped like a stiletto with narrow delta wings. There was a reaction chamber at the rear that served as a laser target for the braking maneuver that would send them back to earth. After the lasers had slowed the crafty sufficiently, the vehicle would spin on gyros and enter the atmosphere nose first. The shape of the vessel was designed around that descent and the need to finish braking aerodynamically.
Taol and the others would land like any atmospheric transport. There were lasers lined up with the approach end of the runway in case they had to go around. The shuttles went into orbit using these same lasers.
Taol took a seat next to Jeffy for the ride down. The Legion’s wounded would be landing at the Denver Terminal and Taol figured that they would be swamped with family and friends. This might be the last chance for a private chat for a few days. The braking maneuver lasted only a few minutes and the transitions from free fall to acceleration and back were very smooth. Taol figured that's what you get for the extra money when you ride the shuttle instead of a capsule.
"Colonel," said Jeffy when the acceleration was over, "that was a good thing you did for our casualties."
"I guess I am not the hard case I ought to be for this job," said Taol in a whisper almost too soft to hear.
"I'm glad you aren't,” said Jeffy kindly. “But I am a little concerned about including Tortelli with the rest of the wounded."
"How so?" asked Taol.
"Didn't you notice?” asked Jeffy. “He has considerable nerve damage. He will always be slow to learn and slow to complete any task. Maybe we should just pension him off."
"I can't do it," said Taol after the silence had grown long. "First, he is one of us. The troopers in this company, especially the surplussed cadets, will always be more than just bodies in the ranks. Secondly, he bought into the dream like the rest of us. His only contribution from here on out might just be loading magazines and KP, but we can't forget what he gave us in the past. He stays."
"OK,” said Jeffy, “you're the boss."
"I detect a little top sergeant guidance coming on here."
"I must be slipping,” said Jeffy with a smile. “I used to be able to slip it in without you noticing."
"I learn fast,” said Taol.
"OK, here it is,” said Jeffy, suddenly all business, “the unvarnished truth. How long can you keep this company going with marginal contributors like me and Benning and Tortelli? Hiring me was an act of desperation. I realize that, but I am grateful none the less. But unless the wounded troopers really have something to offer in the way of skills or experience, they will weigh you down and consume your profit margin. It won't hurt Tortelli to let him go. The money a surplussed cadet makes plus a bonus from our winnings will give him all he needs...."
"Except purpose," said Taol interrupting before Jeffy could finish. "There will always be a part of him that remembers what he was. Putting him on the shelf will kill what's left of that spirit. We would be condemning him to death just as surely as if we pulled the trigger.
“Besides, we don't know what he can do. He will likely do a lot of the dirty jobs that troopers normally hate or get fed up and make his own mind up to leave, but that would be his choice. His pride will ensure we get a hundred percent of whatever he has got. It worked that way with you anyway."
"Now I detect a little commanding officer guidance,” said Jeffy. “You really do learn fast."
"Maybe so,” said Taol. “We'll talk about it at the next staff meeting. I am feeling really tired."
"Must be all that thinking," said Jeffy with a grin. "It always caused me more trouble than it was worth."
"You're probably right," said Taol as he faded off to sleep.
#
Taol woke up just in time to watch the landing. The visions that accompanied it were a treat for the Legion’s tired spirits. As the shuttle moved closer to the surface the sensation speed increased. Clouds rushed by like leaves in the wind and gave way to a panorama of the western plains bordered by the foot hills of the Rockies.
The shuttle edged its way down into the mountains, sloughing off unwanted speed as it went. The craft was subsonic by the time it made its final approach to the Denver Terminal. The mountains that had seemed so small only moments ago, towered over the craft, threatening to engulf the shuttle and the bits on humanity inside. Soon, even these feelings had passed as they touched down.
The shuttle’s speed was still relatively high and so the roll out took forever. As they were towed to the Terminal, Taol could make out a banner:
"CONGRATULATIONS CONDOR LEGION!!!"
A mob of people spearheaded by those unwounded troopers who had beat them earth side rushed on board as soon as the gang boarding ramp touched the shuttle. They gathered up the wounded and transported them to the wildest party Taol could ever remember having attended, and at that he could only remember the about first third.
Visions of food, family, friends, and copious amounts of alcoholic beverages floated through Taol’s mind until at last the gray cells that made up his brain could no longer handle the load and shut down.
#
Taol woke up in bed in his own room with no recollection of how he had arrived there. It was sun rise and some merciless individual had left the curtains open. The rich orange glow filled the room and pried Taol’s eyes open. He decided it was no use and got up. With some difficulty, he staggered into the common room where Jeffy, Harm, and Jarl sat talking over the last of the brandy.
"Look, he lives!" shouted Jeffy in a voice that rattled the windows. In Taol’s weakened condition, the noise made everything, including his fillings, hurt.
"Ouch, not so loud," said Taol in a barely audible whisper.
"Ok," said Jeffy quietly, though still grinning. "Your partners in crime and I have been discussing the future."
"Fine," said Taol irritably. "You can finish tomorrow."
"Not really," said Harm. "While you were recovering, we have had half a dozen offers to subcontract out to various Warlords for some AA and AAA games. Not only that, you and I are meeting with Marty Flasher for an interview tomorrow. We need to have a plan when we talk to him."
"A colonel's work is never done," said Jeffy. "Now you know why I stayed an enlisted man. I get most of the credit and none of the headaches."
Harm thoughtfully poured a glass of water and added some fusil oil neutralizers which were supposed to help with a hangover. Taol gulped it down and started to feel a little better and his appetite returned with a vengeance.
"OK, if I can't get any sympathy from you guys,” said Taol more genially, “let’s make a business breakfast out of this."
"Already on the way," said Harm.
"What's our first order of business then?" asked Taol.
"Well," said Harm consulting a portable computer terminal. "We need to establish a fund to invest our monies earmarked for the colonization program. I figure we will need to put away a couple hundred kilo credits to start, and then more as we can afford it if we want to move on this issue. We also have to decide on payroll and bonuses if any."
"Keep mine. I'm not going," said Jarl in a dead c
alm.
"Isn't that a bit rash?" asked Taol cautiously.
"Not really, Taol,” said Jeffy. “You and I talked about it on the day of the battle and I've spent most of the time since just thinking about it. The talk I had with Jeffy and Harm over the last of the brandy settled it.
"Our culture is stagnant. The aliens in their ivory tower habitats have engineered it so that they maintain their easy living no matter what. I am going to do my damnedest to change it. I am going to join the revolutionaries!"
"Those guys are a front," said Harm quietly. "They never strike at anything worth a damn, and they routinely kill large numbers of innocent bystanders. Human government officials arrest and brain wipe hundreds of revolutionaries every year, but the same names and the same organizations still keep claiming responsibility.
“Wake up, the aliens use the revolutionary councils to roust out the trouble makers."
"But charging off to the colony worlds is just running away!" said Jarl reeling with shock.
"Jarl," said Jeffy calmly. "None of us are happy with the way the Lords have relegated humankind to a second-rate status. But the whole system is stacked against us so that the aliens can maintain their control. Consider the fact that there is damn little constructive work to be done, yet none of us are living in the lap of luxury. Don't you think something useful could be done with all that brain power?
“Then there are the colony worlds. They have become siphons for another breed of undesirable. It culls the wolves out of the flock and sends them off to work hard and die young while only the profitable sheep are left. Even these wolves are used to seed other planets for the aliens to exploit at some time in the future.
“Finally, there are the Games, the cruelest irony of them all. There is a certain segment of any population that can't be bought or enticed into toeing the line. They believe in duty to their fellow man and more than a little glory for themselves. Those idealistic people are caught young and fed into the games.
“Think, is it any surprise that all of us in this room are surplussed cadets and that most of us are the sons of surplussed cadets? Those of us that aren't crippled or killed outright have their visions of duty and honor dashed on the rocks."
Taol watched Jeffy as he spoke. His smile was gone. In its place was a fire he never remembered seeing, even as a boy.
"Then how can we beat the bastards?" asked Jarl with a ragged edge in his voice. "They use us like slaves or farm animals."
"By using their own system against them!" said Taol who realized with a start that he was the one who had said that last frightening phrase. Taol hurried on, fearful that he might forget the insane idea hatching in his head or worse, bury it.
"Look, our goal up till now has been to survive and get out of the system that makes our lives dull and pointless, right?"
As Taol looked around the table, he saw everyone nodding or otherwise indicating ascent.
"We also seem to be coming to the conclusion that rushing off to the colony worlds is really not an escape, but rather just passing the problem on to our descendants. But what we have overlooked is the opportunity to change the world from inside the Games!"
"But how?" asked Jarl.
"We won't join an established revolutionary council,” said Taol, “we will be our own."
"Taol, how can you say that?" said Harm quietly. “Your own mother was killed by a rebel assassin."
That hurt Taol more than he was willing to let on. His mom didn't have a mean bone in her body. Her only mistake was to marry Taol’s father Bernard.
"But was she killed by revolutionaries?" asked Taol after his emotions calmed down. Taol let the suspense build a bit before he continued. "Oh, the trigger man was probably some misguided soul who really thought he was fighting for freedom. But the Commonality aliens set it up and maybe even planned the hit. I bet the Lords want the mercenaries and the rebels to hate each other. If they ever tied up, it would be the end of their reign.
“But even if a true blue revolutionary did kill my mother, it was because the current batch believed they couldn't obtain real weapons. We can buy them on the open market. What's more, we have the best training environment in the world, real combat."
"That is all well and good," said Jeffy. "But I know mercenaries. They may have started out with visions of duty and honor, but now most have hearts of stone. They would sell their mothers for the right price."
"There will always be risks in any undertaking," said Taol soberly. "Go ask Tortelli or Benning."
"Or me," said Jeffy soberly.
"But we can choose carefully,” said Taol. “We can isolate small cells in each mercenary company by exporting our own troopers to other organizations and then changing the way we do business. We have to be patient. This will not be an overnight occurrence. Only by careful, diligent planning and perfect execution can we build the network we need to strike effectively at the aliens.
“Most importantly, we must forge the Condor Legion into a hammer powerful enough to smash the Commonality of Man!"
As Taol looked into the eyes of his staff, he remembered someone saying that you can see someone's soul though their eyes if you look just right. The vision Taol saw was of a new world, birthed in fire. Slowly they all nodded and they began to plan their real business, liberating all of humanity.
The End
