Empire Ebook Full

by B. V. Larson

  “I don’t know,” I said, putting my back against the nearest wall, “but if he wants the glory, he can have it. Everyone hold back. Marvin, can you report your status?”

  “Colonel Riggs, my designs are extremely successful. I’ve killed thirty-six of the enemy.”

  “Finish off the rest and call us if you need help,” I said. I stretched out and checked my weapons. I took a sip of water from my suit’s recycler.

  “Aren’t you even going to tell him he broke ranks and disobeyed orders?” Sandra asked.

  I shrugged. It was difficult to do in a metal suit, but if you are strong enough, you can pull it off. I could tell she wanted me to scold the bad robot, but I didn’t have it in me this time.

  “Marvin rarely does exactly what he’s told,” I said, “and right now, I’m pretty happy with him.”

  -10-

  By the time the relief ships arrived from the inner planets, it was over. The surviving Crustacean ships had retreated. We learned during a full briefing that the enemy dreadnaught had been caught shortly after its arrival by one of our weapons systems: the flying knots of mines. We hadn’t witnessed the strike, but the gunships had.

  I’d all but forgotten about the mines, many of which were still on an automatic looping track around Hel. The massed firepower, catching the enemy by surprise with a hard smashing blow to the face, had apparently unnerved the Macros. They didn’t like getting hit hard by something they hadn’t expected. After losing so many of their cruisers and the dreadnaught, they’d called a retreat. That was why the battlefield had been empty when I’d come up to have a look around.

  The Lobsters had made their move at that point. Figuring us to be more or less dead and easy pickings, they’d raced straight from the ring to my dormant station. They might have captured it too, if it hadn’t been for some well-placed railgun rounds and their inexperienced marines. Marvin had finished them off, operating like an armored vehicle inside the station.

  This stage of the battle appeared to be over, but I wasn’t overjoyed about the future. While my fellow marines hooted and jeered at the pathetic efforts of the hapless Crustaceans, I wasn’t so quick to scoff at them. Despite the fact they faced entrenched veterans, they’d nearly pulled off the assault. The next time they came at us, they’d be better at it. If there was one thing these academics were capable of, it was learning the hard way. I suspected they’d been observing us closely and imitating our equipment and tactics. It was only a matter of time until they became competent foes.

  Perhaps more importantly, it was now clear the Macros had replaced humanity with a new source of willing cannon fodder. We’d left the Crustaceans out in the cold, and they’d turned on their fellow biotics. I supposed that part was forgivable. Earth had done the same, in fact I’d negotiated the deal personally. When faced with extinction, a species tended to do whatever was required to survive.

  What followed was a long lull in the fighting. We’d repelled the assault, and exhausted the enemy. But I knew they were out there, rebuilding. They’d come with twice as many ships next time, and I needed reinforcements.

  “Sandra?” I called, opening the hatchway into our quarters and waking her up.

  These days, she slept in the bed with me when I was around—but not when I was gone. She preferred to sleep on top of things. Today, she was curled up in a ball on top of the modular shower stall we kept in the back of the chamber. It was cylindrical in shape, with feeding pipes for water and a drain at the bottom. She somehow was comfortable wrapped around the PVC pipes up there. I shook my head at the sight. What had those Microbes done to her to change her habits so drastically? I figured I’d never really know.

  “Kyle? Are we under attack again?”

  “No, relax,” I said.

  She stretched elaborately. I enjoyed the view. She liked tight flight suits these days, made of form-fitting nanocloth. Her sculpted body was a wonder to behold, and never seemed to change no matter what she did or ate. I supposed I had to take the good with the bad. My girlfriend was a freak, but she was an attractive one.

  “Why are you waking me up, then?”

  “First off, I wanted to thank you for saving all our butts.”

  She blinked at me in comic surprise. “How did I do that? Did I miss something during my nap?”

  “Remember our little pool room session, and the caroming mines that came out of it? They worked. The Macro dreadnaught was caught full in the face by those mines you dreamt up and I believe that drove them out of the system.”

  “Huh,” she said. She smiled and I expected her to start preening. She did fluff her hair a little bit, but that was all. “Is this what it feels like?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “To save the world. You do it all the time.”

  I laughed. “Yeah, do you like it?”

  “I guess I do. But I hope people don’t expect me to do it again. I mean, it was at least half accident.”

  I nodded. “Yeah, that’s exactly how I feel.”

  “What are we going to do now?”

  “I think it’s time for us to launch our ships.”

  At that, she jumped down from her perch and stepped closer. Her eyes were bright with excitement. “Let’s do it,” she said. “I want to fry those Lobsters. I bet they’d taste good with some butter and garlic—and salt, lots of salt. Are we going to hit Harvard, or Princeton? I want to make their oceans boil.”

  “Settle down, there won’t be any genocide today.”

  “But Kyle, they turned on us. They screwed the living, in favor of the machines. I’ll never forgive them for it.”

  “The Worms forgave us.”

  She gave me an odd look. “I don’t think they really understand what we did to them,” she said in a stage whisper.

  “You might be right. But anyway, I don’t want to attack, I want to fly to Earth. We need reinforcements. There’s no way we can keep fighting battles out here and losing personnel without more support. I now believe that’s Crow’s plan: to kill us with attrition. He doesn’t have to come out here and stamp out our rebellion. All he has to do is let us hang on at the border, dwindling in numbers. Without reinforcements, we can’t last forever.”

  Sandra twisted her lips and walked around me thoughtfully. “Let me get this straight: You don’t want to chase down the Macros and the Lobsters when they are weak. Instead, you want to pick a new fight with Earth.”

  “We have a breather, a moment in time where we can grab the initiative and make a move of our own. We’ll build up, sure. We’ll repair this station and get it operating again. But I don’t want to crush the Crustaceans. I think we can deal with them as fellow biotics in the future. I think they can be convinced to join us like the rest.”

  “Okay, fine,” she said. As she spoke, she began removing my armor. I let her do it, even though I was in the mood for flying ships rather than personal contact.

  “What are you up to?” I asked.

  “I don’t like letting an enemy catch their breath,” she said. “I think we should press the advantage until they break. Let the Crustaceans surrender and swear allegiance to us now. Let them become our vassals instead of serving the Macros.”

  For a moment, I considered the idea. It did have merit…but I shook my head. “I never wanted an empire. I’m much more comfortable with a federation of states. An alliance.”

  Sandra shook her head. “I never figured you for a dreamer. How can a group of alien species cooperate that well? How could we really trust them when they aren’t even human? Humans are hard enough to believe in.”

  I had to agree with her, but now she had my helmet off, and my generator pack was lying on the floor. I frowned at her, watching her body move with cat-like grace.

  “Tell me again how I saved the Eden system,” she said.

  “What if I don’t?”

  “Then I won’t let you take a shower with me,” she said.

  “Liar,” I said. Both of us were smiling. We took a sho
wer, and during the process, the cylinder nearly fell over.

  Even after we were done with our victory celebration, however, I felt I needed to get moving. We were enjoying a breather right now, but it wouldn’t last. We were caught out here between several hostile forces, with very little intel and no support. In the long run, the situation was unsupportable.

  * * *

  Less than a week later, Sandra and I were on an orbital platform over Eden-6, which was the warmest of the three worlds the Centaurs had given to us. It was an ocean world, with about ninety percent of the surface being covered by water. There was no icecap at either pole, and the landmasses were small. Island archipelagoes were far more common than the few steamy continents. That said, the islands were lovely and lush. Volcanic beaches with sands of white, mauve and even lavender were common.

  Most of the planet’s life was in the ocean, of course. The warm water maintained a steady year-round temperature of around a hundred degrees Fahrenheit at the equator. At the poles, it was a brisk sixty-five. The deep warm waters teemed with life, and from space they were a cobalt blue.

  “I can’t wait to get down there,” I told Sandra. “But today won’t be the time.”

  “Kwon says he loves it down there.”

  “Sadly, we’re going to have to end his little vacation. When will he come up to the fleet?”

  She looked at me shyly. “I haven’t told him about the reassignment yet.”

  “What? I requested the order be relayed hours ago. Why are we waiting?”

  Sandra touched my armor, but I couldn’t feel it. “Let’s go down and tell him in person.”

  I narrowed my eyes. She was scheming. I could always tell. That didn’t mean she wouldn’t be successful, but I prided myself on knowing when I was being manipulated.

  “Shore leave?” I demanded. “We’re in the middle of war.”

  “We’re always in the middle of war. I want to go to the beach, dammit!”

  I furrowed my brow and scowled. I opened my mouth to order her to call Kwon to the platform, but she reached up and slammed my visor down. I heard my voice echo inside my helmet. I adjusted my headset and made the call myself.

  “Kwon here,” he responded quickly.

  It was Sandra’s turn to glare. I ignored her. “Kwon, I need you. We’re going on a flight back toward Earth.”

  “Why you need me for that, sir?”

  My frown deepened. Was everyone infected by a virus that induced laziness? I opened my mouth to repeat my order, this time sucking in a deep breath to create an outraged bellow.

  I took a moment to glance down at Sandra first, however. That was a mistake. She had crossed arms and wore a disappointed look on her face. I softened in that instant, and somehow she knew it immediately. She brightened, eyes widening.

  “Kwon, I’ve changed my mind. I’m coming down to perform a personal inspection.”

  “Very good, sir. You will like it here. I’ll start an underground fire for the barbecue.”

  I took off my helmet, wondering just what Kwon planned to cook underground. Already, I was figuring it would be best not to ask. Whatever it was, it would probably taste good.

  Sandra was delighted when she realized she’d gotten her way. She was already talking about towels and picnics and which suit looked best on her. She saw my stubborn expression and came to warm up against me. Ever since I’d undergone microbial baths similar to the ones she had, we’d become close again. I supposed she now considered me to be as big a freak as she was, and that was some kind of turn-on.

  “We need a break, Kyle,” she said softly. “We aren’t ready to go on the offensive. The factories in the inner planets are building more ships to replace the ones we lost against the Macros months ago, and the rest are rebuilding the battle station. They need time to finish.”

  I sighed, considering her points. She was right, even though the time to go on the offensive was now, we really needed to get organized first.

  “All right,” I said, “let’s go see what they’ve done down there on the islands.”

  -11-

  Kwon greeted us in a brightly colored sarong of orange, form-hugging nanocloth. I was alarmed, while Sandra twittered. She looked embarrassed for the big man, a response I’d rarely seen in her. For his part, Kwon seemed oblivious. I soon found out why: everyone here wore paper-thin clothing, if they wore anything at all. It was just too damned hot to wear anything else.

  “The best plan is to set the nanites so they form a sun-blocking screen,” he explained enthusiastically. “That way, air and moisture can still travel through the cloth. It’s like you are wearing a net made of tiny mesh. If you hold the cloth up close to your eye, you’ll see right through it!”

  I held up my hand, warding him off. “That’s great Kwon, but I’ll pass on looking through your bathing suit.”

  Kwon shrugged. “As you say, sir.”

  Sandra scoffed and immediately began stripping down. She’d never been a shy person, but being on a tropical beach of pink sand had turned her into an exhibitionist. Before she was done reprogramming her remaining wisps of nanocloth, Kwon was embarrassed and gazing down the beach, while I was staring at her.

  When she was done, I stood in the shade of the ship we’d come down on, still wearing my battle armor. I didn’t trust any planet when I first landed there, but I felt somewhat ridiculous clanking and buzzing around on grav-lifters while these two wore gauze. Finally, I climbed out of the armor and left it aboard the destroyer that had brought us down. I didn’t reduce my undergarments to paper-thin wisps, but I did order them to transition into their lightest state, which essentially made them into pajamas.

  The other two smirked at me, but I ignored them and headed for the base buildings. Oddly, I felt immediately at home on Eden-6. It was a lot like being on a hotter version of Andros Island. The water was a bit more green and the beach was the color of seashells, but I liked the place immediately.

  One thing was missing: trees. There weren’t any. No palms, no pines—not even squatty, fungal growths. What there were I would classify as giant, complex grasses. They looked like ferns, but grew in clumps with intertwined roots—reminding me of a huge unmowed lawn. The overall effect wasn’t unpleasant, however. The green blades rippled and rustled in the sea breezes. The foliage was shiny and almost hurt the eyes when the sun came out, because the reflections were so intense.

  That was another odd thing about this world: direct sunshine was rather rare. As the world was mostly covered in water, the skies were affected. The sky was usually overcast, but you could still see the sun. Hanging up there on the far side of the clouds, the star was so huge and intense that it could be seen as a pale disk of light in the sky at all times. I’d seen a similar look on Earth, with a low-lying fog and the sun on the far side of a layer of mist, penetrating the gloom. But on Earth, usually such foggy days were cold and dreary. On Eden-6, the mood wasn’t glum when the sky was overcast. The local star still sent through enough light to make the landscape feel cheery.

  Kwon walked with me to the base, a structure of dull concrete that looked like a pillbox set on a hillock over the beach. “The glum times are different here, sir,” he said seriously. “When the star burns through every persistent layer of mist and scorches the land underneath—that is when we are sorry.”

  “Is it that bright?” Sandra asked.

  Kwon nodded vigorously. “The ocean steams, and the sands become so burning hot they are unbearable to walk upon.”

  “You mean with bare feet, right?” I asked.

  “Of course, Colonel,” Kwon said. His tone and expression indicated the idea of wearing shoes on Eden-6 was absurd. I noticed he was indeed barefoot, and his big toes slapped on the moist sand with every step, leaving deep impressions. Next to his tracks, Sandra and I made relatively small divots on the beach.

  “You’ve gone native very quickly here, Kwon.”

  “What, sir?”

  “I mean you seem to like this place
. You’ve changed your habits.”

  “Ah, yes. I agree. It is very pleasant. Quite a break from killing machines in cold space…but I’m getting bored.”

  I smiled. Here, at last, was the Kwon I knew and understood.

  “Well, I’m here to un-bore you,” I said. I proceeded to explain that I intended to gather my fleet and head toward Earth, to recon the situation back home.

  Kwon looked worried. “But…we aren’t going back permanently—are we sir?”

  I frowned and looked at both of them. To my surprise, neither showed any eagerness to go back home. I wondered about that. I supposed that recent events had changed things. Out here, we were free. We didn’t have to worry about the combined thumbs of Crow and Earth’s governments. We were living on the edge. It was exhilarating, but dangerous. Apparently, my companions loved it.

  “I have to admit this makes Andros Island look a little dull. I just want to see what Crow is up to.”

  “Is that all you want?” Kwon asked. “I have a better way than flying all the way back to Earth.”

  I looked at him with raised eyebrows. Sandra mirrored my expression.

  Kwon smiled and lifted a thick-fingered hand to indicate the bunker, where we had now arrived. The bunker, unlike everything else on the island, was functional and ugly. It was squat and made of gray-lines of concrete-like substance. I knew the walls were essentially nanites organized into interlocking structures with grains of sand making up the bulk of the material. Building with nanites was very similar to using concrete, but a lot faster and more malleable.

  The entrance was a simple rectangle, half-buried in the ground with a set of wide steps leading down into it. Sandra and I followed Kwon’s finger, which pointed into the cave-like mouth of the bunker. We had no idea what to expect.

  “I’ve got a surprise, sir,” he said. “You have a visitor.”

  I frowned immediately. I’d never been a man who liked surprises. “Who?” I demanded.

  Sandra sucked in her breath. “It’s not Crow, is it?” she whispered.