by B. V. Larson
Kwon shook his head and laughed. “No, no. The Admiral didn’t fly all the way out here to surprise you. It’s someone else, someone who wants very much to meet you.”
He opened the door by touching it. The nanites that formed the surface fled obediently. The effect was rather similar to that of sand melting away under the force of a powerful wave, except there wasn’t a wave of seawater, only a slight contact. I reached out to touch the melting door and felt the grains retreating, almost scurrying away from my hand.
The passage into the gloomy bunker opened, and I saw a stranger standing at the bottom of the steps. She had a shape that was definitely feminine, and as she advanced up the stairs into the light, my eyes widened as I took in the sight. She was tall, blonde, and overtly female. Unlike Sandra, who was built on a lithe frame with dark, straight hair, this woman was curvaceous. Her hair was like a halo around her head and fell on her shoulders in a mass of loose curls.
She smiled at me, and I smiled back reflexively. I liked what I was seeing—I couldn’t help myself. Not only was she a voluptuous woman, she was half-naked. Not even Sandra’s edited outfit could compete. The stranger had left very little to the imagination. What cloth she did have covering her amounted to a shred of fabric around her waist and another two loops of gauze tucked under her breasts.
It was about then that I noticed several things. For one, the woman had said something to me which I’d missed, and for another, Sandra and Kwon were both staring at me. Kwon was smirking, while Sandra looked pissed.
I forced my mind to tune in to the conversation. “Nice to meet you,” I managed to get out.
“Yes, Colonel,” she said, “as I was saying, I’m at your disposal. Just name the time and the place where we can get together.”
“Excuse me?”
“For the interview,” she said.
I realized then that she must have opened up with her name and a request for an interview. Somehow, I’d missed both those details. I’d been too busy staring.
I took pains to avoid looking at Sandra, who was now giving me the evil eye. I could see she had her fists on her hips, but I forced a smile.
“That’s why Marvelena came all this way out from Earth, sir. To interview the famous renegade, the leader of Riggs’ Pigs!”
I glanced at him, then back to the blonde. “An interview? Of course. Let’s do it on the beach, right now. There’s a condition, however.”
“Name it,” the woman said. She took a step toward me, and I realized I recognized her face from somewhere. I could not recall where.
“You have to tell me what the hell is going on back on Earth, first,” I said.
Marvelena blinked and licked her lips. She nodded then, and slowly her smile returned to her face. “Okay, let’s go for a walk.”
She moved away, rolling her hips as she crossed the sand in front of me. It wasn’t an affectation, I could tell. She was simply built in a fashion that required a bit of hip-rolling to take a step.
I turned and took a step after her, but felt a thin, iron-hard hand restraining me. I looked down to see Sandra holding onto my arm. She was shockingly strong for her size and weight. I knew I could break away if I wanted to, after having taken Marvin’s baths. I was powerful as well, and I outweighed her. But I also knew instinctively that jerking my arm out of her grasp would be a bad move right now.
“I’ll be right there,” I called after Marvelena.
The woman treated me with a glance back and another of those smiles.
“What is it?” I asked Sandra, trying not to show any emotion.
“I don’t want you walking the beach with her alone,” Sandra said, scowling. “I brought you down here to spend time with me.”
Unhelpfully, Kwon sighed as he stared after the blonde. “She’s got a butt like a real woman. Doesn’t she, sir?”
“Who the hell is she?” Sandra demanded.
“Marvelena Hellsen,” Kwon said.
“Sounds like a made-up name. Where is she from?”
“Don’t you know her?” Kwon said. “She’s from GNN. She’s on the net news all the time back home.”
I frowned, finally realizing where I’d seen Marvelena before. She was a reporter for the Global News Network. GNN had never liked Star Force. They’d always done stories designed to make us look foolish and irresponsible. After we won a battle or perfected a new weapon, they would broadcast video of the trees that we’d burned down, or masses of dead, floating fish. Instead of cheering us on, they complained whenever we were successful against the Macros. Some Star Force officers whispered that GNN favored the Macros over humanity. It was hard to believe any human could favor the machines, but I’d often wondered whose side they were on.
“She can’t be all that bad in person,” I said, looking after her.
“Please look at me when we’re talking,” Sandra snapped.
I did as she asked with some reluctance.
She studied me, squinting into my face. “Your pupils are dilated. You really liked what you were looking at.”
I blinked and attempted a smile. “I always like looking at you.”
She crossed her arms and tilted her head toward the beach. “Go on. Take your little date for a stroll. But hands off.”
“Don’t worry,” I said. “She has a nice walk, but I know she’s a viper.”
I walked away before Sandra could change her mind and followed the path down to the beach. I met Marvelena there. She stood pensively on the edge of the crashing waves.
“The waves are just like those back on Earth,” she said. “I never thought I’d see a place like this. Not unless I died and went to heaven.”
I smiled at her. “How long have you been here?”
“Just a few hours. Kwon tells me you aren’t getting any more reports from the Admiralty back home. Is that true?”
I frowned slightly. “The Admiralty? If you mean Admiral Crow, then you’re right. I haven’t had contact for a few weeks. We are out on the frontier, with no direct way to signal Earth. I imagine you came out on a small scouting ship?”
“Yes,” Marvelena said. She picked up a shell and fiddled with it. “Have you broken off relations with Earth, Colonel? Have you declared your independence?”
“What?” I laughed. “Why would I do that? Don’t tell me people are saying that back home. I’m a loyal Star Force officer.”
She nodded vaguely and looked away toward the sea again. “Interviews only work if the subject opens up, you know.”
I frowned at her. “This isn’t going to be an interview, exactly,” I said. “This is an exchange of information. It’s time for you to give me some. What’s going on back home? Do you know why Crow hasn’t contacted me? He hasn’t even acknowledged my transmissions.”
Marvelena looked troubled. “That’s exactly what he said.”
“Who?”
“The Admiral. He told me he was your commanding officer and you hadn’t reported in as required. He wasn’t sure, he said, if you were unable to comply or simply unwilling to.”
“What else did he say?”
“That you and your team out here—that you were technically rebels.”
“Rebels?” I asked, surprised. I reflected immediately that I shouldn’t have been.
“There are hints and rumors all over Earth, Colonel. They say you have been forming deals with aliens, fighting wars independently of any Earth sanction. You are doing as you please out here, causing Earth no end of future harm. They call you dangerous and unrepentant.”
I stared at her, and I could see in her face she was troubled. The façade of the bouncy news reporter was gone. She knew she was in the middle of something big.
“So,” I said. “Why did you come out here then?”
“To get the truth—or at least, your side of things. That’s my job.”
I nodded and we started walking again. I didn’t trust her, of course. But it was hard not to. She was lovely and charismatic. I’d never been so close to
a media person of her stature before. It was true that such people exuded a powerful presence, and I felt myself caught up in her aura.
“We’re not independent,” I said firmly. “We’re part of Star Force. We have sworn to defend Earth, and all humanity. We’re out here because this is where the dangerous aliens are. I hope those details can find their way into your report when you go back home.”
She slowly led me farther down the beach to an outcropping of dark rocks. The sun was a huge, bluish-white disk behind the clouds. The air was warm and humid and the breezes coming off the ocean ruffled our hair. Already, I could taste the salt on my face, despite the fact I hadn’t set foot in the water yet.
“Let’s go swimming,” she said. She didn’t wait for an answer. She stepped backward into the water, where it lapped up over her ankles and then her knees. She reached up to remove her flimsy garments, clearly planning on swimming without them.
I glanced back toward the bunker on the hillock, and immediately noted that I couldn’t see it. We were out of sight of the rest of the inhabitants of this lovely island. There was no one out here except for a few alien fish that probed the surface nearby with curiosity. The humps on their backs looked like wet stones in the water and their bulbous eyes watched us. Supposedly, they were harmless.
Marvelena reached out her hand toward me, and I took a step forward. She smiled. It was impossible not to smile back at her.
I almost did it. I almost followed her into the water for a swim, but somehow I stopped myself. I don’t know how things might have ended if I had followed her. I don’t know who might have witnessed the transgression, or at least see enough to tell a sordid tale. Star Force had always been small and full of gossips.
I stopped and put my hands on my hips, rather than taking hers. I looked at the water and shook my head. “Not here,” I said. “There are dangerous tides around these rocks. This isn’t Venice Beach, miss. Let’s head back. You can swim near the bunker if you wish, it’s safe there.”
Standing there in the water, nude and wet, she appeared to be heartbroken, but I remained firm. A few minutes later found us walking back toward the bunker together. She tied up what passed for her swimsuit into knots around her breasts with prissy movements.
The interview, if that’s what it really had been, was at an end.
-12-
The day-night cycle on Eden-6 was different than Earth. The days were much longer here—about forty hours long. The cool night breezes were a welcome relief by the time they came. Twenty hours of diffuse sunlight was more than enough. I soon fell into a pattern that humans who came here tended to adopt: We awoke in the predawn glimmer, excited and slightly chilled after a long slow night of some twenty hours. Then if the sun broke through, there was often a few glaring hours before the mists returned. The star was so big and bright, it was painful to look at. Viewed just after a long period of darkness, it seemed cruelly intense. Shades were mandatory, so that our optical nerves weren’t damaged in those early brilliant hours.
By mid-morning, the ocean heated up and produced the traditional shroud of mist. The sun was soon obscured, but still visible as a large pale disk in the sky. I thought these were probably the best hours, trumped only by sunset.
At about midday, we grew sleepy and tired of relentless heat and light. We took naps then, as I suppose people in tropical climates often did. Siestas had become part of the culture here on Eden-6. A big meal and a couple of hours in the cool gloom of the bunker made the rest of the long day tolerable.
When the sun did finally sink into the sea, the sunset was spectacular. The mist often burned off as evening approached, and the sky was streaked with lavenders, oranges and pinks. These sunsets trumped those of my homeworld in every way: the sun was bigger and brighter, the ocean was endless and unspoiled, and the sunsets took nearly an hour from start to end. They were almost like sweeping, nightly ceremonies.
When night finally did cloak the land, we welcomed darkness with relief. Every day felt endless, and was too much of a good thing. I felt a certain lethargy come over me as day after day passed by.
On the fifth long day, in the midmorning when the mists first came up from the seawater, I went to talk to Marvelena. Our interviews had progressed and become more informal—almost personal. She took pictures, followed me on my routine duties and asked me dozens of questions. She wanted to know what I ate, what I slept in and who I slept with. I found myself answering her questions with increasing candor, despite my reservations. It was hard to think of her as anything other than a new, fascinating acquaintance.
After breakfast and an inspection of the new blast pans for the planetary spaceport I had Kwon constructing, I made my way back to the bunker entrance. There, instead of Marvelena, I found Sandra. She was crouched on the roof of the bunker, a pose I found very familiar. I narrowed my eyes at her, and thought I saw a strip of pink cloth in her hands.
“What did you do with the reporter?” I asked.
“I drowned her in the ocean. Does that break your heart?”
I opened my mouth, the snapped it closed again. “Sandra, have you lost it? You haven’t been this jealous since—”
Sandra jumped down and stalked toward me. She tossed the pink strappy garment into my face. The nanocloth writhed there, and tried to encircle my head. I pulled it away.
“Don’t bring up Jasmine,” she said. “And I’m not crazy. Follow me.”
Frowning deeply, I had to hurry to keep up with her. We marched down to the beach to a familiar spot. To my surprise, she continued marching, right into the water. She was clearly looking for something.
“Is this where you stashed the body? These fish will eat a corpse within hours. I can’t cover for you this time, Sandra. Do you know that? I’ll have to send you back to Earth in disgrace.”
She stared at me in surprise. Then she burst out laughing. “I didn’t really kill her,” she said. “I just said that. I can’t believe you bought that one.”
I chuckled uncomfortably and breathed a sigh of relief. I had taken her at her word, as I’d seen her kill before. She liked it, and she didn’t need much provocation.
“Of course you’re joking,” I chuckled uncomfortably. “Now, tell me what you’re looking for.”
“It’s out here somewhere. Walk around in this area. You’ll find it with your toes.”
Reluctantly, I waded out into the water and marched around with the fine sand squelching up around my feet. I felt something almost immediately. At first I thought it was a rock, but it had a distinct shape with hard linear edges. I reached down and felt around.
Sandra splashed over to me. “You’ve got it, don’t you?”
I pulled something up. Sandra helped, and in a moment, we had a box out of the water, dripping sand. It looked like a suitcase made of metal and black polymers.
“What’s this?” I asked.
“She put it out here a few days back. I saw her do it, but couldn’t find it the first time. Last night she came to check on it. I marked the spot with that stack of rocks.”
She pointed and I saw a grouping of black rocks forming a marker on the beach. I nodded.
“What do you think it is?” I asked. I found the handle and dragged it up to the beach.
“Careful, it could be a bomb. I ran scanners over it and got a lot of electronic and chemical signatures.”
We didn’t have an actual bomb squad out here on the frontier. We’d never found it necessary. Today, however, could be the exception.
“If it was a bomb,” I asked, “why would she plant it out here in the ocean? Why not in the bunker?”
“Maybe she’s worried about our systems detecting it. Maybe she wants it to be out here, hidden until she’s ready.”
I stared at her, then the metal case. I wasn’t sure what to think. I left the box on the beach near the marker, and headed back toward the bunker.
“Where’s Marvelena?” I asked.
“She’s trying to find her bathing suit
—I stole it to keep her in her room for a few minutes. I told her I would come back with another one.”
I smiled at that. I knew that Sandra could have stirred up any pool of spare nanites and ordered them to form nanocloth. They were a specialized variety, but there were plenty of them around. Marvelena wouldn’t know that, however.
We returned to the bunker wondering what she would have to say for herself. There in the doorway of the bunker stood a familiar shapely figure. She had one arm across her chest. She was glaring at the two of us.
“This sort of mistreatment of the press will not go unnoticed,” she said.
I threw her the top, and she turned around to put it on. Sandra smirked at her as she did so, and she spoke to me in a low voice. “Stop staring. They’re fake, anyway.”
Marvelena turned toward us with a suspicious eye. “What was that?”
“I said the surgeon should lay off the gin next time and give you a break.”
Marvelena’s mouth fell open, and she advanced in a rage. Her top was on, but not quite perfectly. I realized as the reporter advanced that the idiot might try to slap Sandra. That would be a very bad idea, and might even be exactly what Sandra wanted. I took a step forward and lightly caught Marvelena’s upraised, open hand in midair.
“Let go of me!” she said, struggling.
My hand stayed frozen in position, holding her wrist high. I knew that under no circumstances could I allow her to strike Sandra. My girl had a temper, and if she lost it, there might not be anything left of Marvelena to apologize to.
“Settle down,” I said, putting on my deepest commander’s voice. Both of them glared at one another and ignored me.
“We’re here to ask you about the contraband you’ve hidden out in the surf,” I said.
Finally, that got through Marvelena’s celebrity rage. She turned back to me, and I released her hand. She rubbed her wrist and glared at both of us in turn.
“That’s my property. Don’t touch it.”
I shook my head. “I’m sorry. This isn’t some public beach back home. This is a military base in a war zone, no matter how beautiful it might be. Answer my question or you’ll be placed under arrest.”
