PACIFIC RIM UPRISING ASCENSION

by Greg Keyes

  But Aleksis was growing frustrated. He wanted a straight-up fight, a cage match, and instead they were now playing cat-and-mouse. Worse, the telemetry suggested that once again, a Kaiju was going to make landfall, this time before they even had a chance to stop it. It wasn’t Cherno’s miscalculation, but there was no point in blaming LOCCENT control, either. Raythe had deviated from pattern. No one was to blame but the Kaiju.

  But it was maddening, nonetheless. Cherno Alpha’s dream of succeeding where before she had failed – of killing the Kaiju before it could do any harm – was already impossible. They could never reach Japan in time.

  “Negative,” Sasha told Scriabin. “We must be ready as soon as we arrive. We will maintain Drift. It’s not a problem.”

  7

  2035

  MOYULAN SHATTERDOME

  CHINA

  “THIS ISN’T GOOD,” SURESH SAID. “WE HAVEN’T been here a week. It sucks.”

  Suresh usually looked worried, or at least he had in the handful of days Jinhai had known him. But now his thick eyebrows were threatening to become permanently fused together.

  But Jinhai agreed with him. It was difficult enough being in a new place with strange people, but for disaster to strike before they had even gotten to know each other – that really didn’t make things any easier.

  Added to that, he couldn’t find the pen drive he’d been issued. It was a small thing compared to the rest of it, but he would have to ask for another, which would make him seem like a flake who couldn’t keep up with his things.

  “I liked Braga,” Meilin said. The other Chinese cadet, she was tall, long-limbed, striking, although he thought her bangs made her look too severe. “He was very funny. And enthusiastic.”

  “He was an idiot,” Viktoriya grunted. She may have meant to say it under her breath, but everyone heard her except maybe Tahima, who was either asleep or pretending to be asleep on his bunk.

  “Why would you say such a terrible thing, Viktoriya?” Meilin asked.

  Viktoriya frowned. “Don’t call me that, please,” she said. “I prefer ‘Vik’.”

  Meilin seemed to shrink a bit from the conflict, but Renata, now paying full attention, stepped in to take her place. Renata – a Chilean – was outspoken and a bit of a smartass. He liked her. Of course, he’d liked Viktoriya too, at first glance.

  “Okay, ‘Vik’,” Renata said. “Why would you call Braga an idiot? I think we’d all like to know.”

  Vik rolled off her bunk and squared off against Renata. The Russian stood a few inches taller than the Chilean.

  “Braga thought the world was soft,” she said. “Like a big pillow for him to play on. He did not respect it for what it was. And so it killed him.”

  For once, Renata did not have an immediate comeback.

  “That’s my favorite bedtime story ever,” Suresh said. “Can you tell another, please?”

  “That’s pretty harsh,” Jinhai said. “You barely knew the guy.”

  “There are some things you know right away, Ou-Yang.”

  Oh, crap, Jinhai thought.

  “What’s your deal?” Renata said. “Now you’re after Jinhai?”

  “Ou-Yang,” Vik said, repeating his family name. “Why not tell them how you got here?”

  “Same as you guys,” he said. “I worked to get in here. My parents had nothing—”

  He stopped when he realized that everyone was staring at him.

  “Hang on,” Suresh said. “I just assumed the name was a coincidence – I mean how many Ou-Yangs must there be in China?”

  “Your parents were those Ou-Yangs?” Renata said.

  “Yeah,” he sighed. “Those Ou-Yangs.”

  The thing was, he wasn’t sure the Russian girl wasn’t right. Even if his parents hadn’t pulled any strings, he might have still gotten preferential treatment.

  He could tell they were all now thinking the same thing.

  At least now he knew why Vik didn’t like him.

  “Soooo,” Suresh said, after a moment. “Anyway. What do you think happened? Anyone?”

  Jinhai shrugged, glad to have the conversation take a different turn.

  “I mean, we all heard the racket, right? It sounded like a war going on.”

  “Obviously the Jaeger malfunctioned,” Renata said. “But I’ve never heard of anyone getting killed in the bay like that. Something must have gone really wrong.”

  “You figured that out all on your own?” Vik asked. “Something went wrong.”

  Ilya, the other Russian cadet, said something to her in their native language. She shot back at him in the same. He nodded and shut up, looking abashed.

  “Well, Vik,” Renata said. “If you must know, I think it was sabotage. That’s why they aren’t telling us anything. There was a bomb, or something. Is that specific enough for you?”

  To Jinhai’s surprise, Vik nodded agreement. “I think so too,” she said. “It doesn’t feel like an accident to me.”

  Renata seemed to be starting a reply, when she suddenly jumped to her feet.

  “Ranger on deck,” she said.

  Jinhai bounced out of bed and came to attention. Ranger Lambert was paused at the door, giving them a second to compose themselves. He looked them over, a solemn expression on his face.

  “I know all you have heard about Braga and Vu,” he said. “We’ll have a memorial for Braga tomorrow at nine hundred hours. I expect you to all be there and looking sharp. Most of you didn’t know Braga very well, but you can take it from me that he was one of the finest cadets I have ever seen. He was a good man, and he will be missed.”

  Did his gaze linger on Vik when he said that? Were they eavesdropping on the cadet barracks?

  Very probably. Jinhai decided he’d better try to watch what he said, from here on out.

  “As for Vu,” Lambert went on, “the doctors think she’s going to be okay. She’s being taken off site, where she can get better care. I will keep you informed of her condition.”

  “Ranger, sir,” Renata said. “Can you tell us what happened?”

  Lambert shook his head. “The matter is officially under investigation, and until there is a determination, I’m not at liberty to share anything about it with you. Nor should you concern yourselves with it. You’re here to train, and as of now that training will continue. When we’re done, you’ll either still be here and be a Ranger, or you’ll be back wherever you call home.”

  Or, Jinhai thought, we might be leaving in body bags, like Braga.

  Later, he found Ilya and asked him what he and Viktoriya had said to one another. Ilya just shook his head.

  “Take my advice, friend,” he said. “Don’t mess with Russian girls.”

  * * *

  The Ranger hadn’t been kidding. He took them to the Kwoon, ran them through an hour of brisk exercise, and then started matching them up. Naturally, Jinhai’s first match was Vik, because the universe hated him.

  They hadn’t been in the Kwoon before, but he’d heard a lot about it. It was like a gym or dojo where cadets and Rangers honed their fighting skills; after all, a Jaeger was no better at fighting than its pilots were. If the pilot couldn’t throw a proper punch or execute a shoulder-throw, neither could the Jaeger.

  “I’m just going to assess you today,” Lambert said. “I’ve seen your test results, of course, but I want to observe you myself. We’re going to start without weapons, but you can use any style or combination of styles that suits you. I want to see good, practical form, and I want to see control. I do not want any smashed noses, lost teeth, or broken bones. Do you understand?”

  “Yes, Ranger,” they said, together.

  “Good. Renata and Ilya, you two are first. I—” Lambert snapped suddenly to attention. “Secretary General. Good morning.”

  “Good morning, Ranger. Good morning, cadets.”

  No one said anything. Everyone just stared.

  Because it was Mako Mori, one of the pilots who had closed the Breach. The only survivo
r of the fighting team that had been humanity’s last stand against the Kaiju, when two Jaegers had taken on three Kaiju at once, two Category IVs and a Category V. Even Jinhai, whose parents were heroes of the Kaiju Wars, was a bit starstruck in her presence.

  “To what do we owe the honor?” Lambert asked.

  “I’m just here to observe,” Mori said. “Please. Carry on as if I weren’t here.”

  Yeah. Like that was possible.

  Renata and Ilya went at it – at first tentatively, but after Ilya scored the first touch, Renata really opened up. He could guess she had studied some Shotokan and boxing; she liked to use her hands, and her footwork was really good. Ilya tended to kick, which with Renata was a problem; twice she did the same thing to him, stepping into his high kick, catching it with crossed arms, and then delivering a back-fist to his face – almost, but not quite hitting him.

  Then Suresh and Tahima fought. Suresh fared surprisingly well, but Tahima – despite being the biggest of them – was also really fast.

  Then it was Jinhai’s turn.

  Vik came at him hard. He wasn’t sure he should have expected anything else. He blocked a flurry of blows from her hands, but in so doing, he neglected her feet. She clipped his front foot, putting him off-balance long enough for her to pop him lightly in the throat. Lambert called the point for her and put them back to guard.

  This time he broke her timing by pretending to move into her attack and then quickly stepping back. He threw out a back-fist, she faded to the side then punched low, toward his gut. He caught her arm and threw her, following her as she tumbled to the floor. She almost – but not quite – blocked his punch to her head.

  Point for him. He was starting to enjoy himself.

  This time when they were told to fight, Vik didn’t do anything at first. She just stood there, not even in a good guard position.

  “Come on,” she said. “You want the point. Come and get it.”

  It threw him off a little. He had trained in fencing and several hand-to-hand fighting styles, but all of his coaches had disapproved of trash talk. In fencing, it was expressly forbidden and could result in being expelled from the match.

  Bouncing on the balls of his feet, he closed the distance.

  She was still just standing there.

  He threw a punch. It was meant to be a feint, but she caught it, twisted his arm, and hit him on the side of the head with her open palm so hard he saw spots.

  I should have seen that coming, he realized.

  “Stop,” Mako Mori said. She said it quietly, but everyone heard her.

  Yeah, Jinhai thought, shaking his head. Good idea.

  Mako walked out onto the floor of the Kwoon. She looked at Jinhai for a moment.

  “You may sit down,” she said.

  He nodded, bowed, and sat.

  Now she faced Vik.

  “Malikova, yes?”

  “Yes, Secretary General.”

  Mori held out her palm.

  “Hit me,” she said. “Full speed, but only so much as to touch me. I should feel wind only.”

  Vik stared at her for a moment, took a stance, and struck.

  It was fast, and it landed as instructed, with no real contact.

  “Very good,” Mori said. “Now hit my hand again, so I feel it. Strike through, toward my heart.”

  Vik hesitated. For the first time since he’d met her, she seemed uncertain. “Secretary…”

  “Do it.”

  Vik lowered herself into stance, then punched Mori in the hand. It landed with a painful-sounding thud.

  Mori didn’t blink.

  “You know the difference, then,” Mori said.

  Vik nodded, red-faced.

  “When you are asked for control,” Mori said, “you will show control. Do you understand?”

  “Yes, Secretary General.”

  “I would guess you’ve heard this before,” Mori said, more lightly. A few of the other cadets chuckled, and even Vik cracked a little smile.

  “Yes, ma’am,” she admitted.

  “Have a seat.”

  Mako then addressed all of them.

  “Training in the Kwoon has two goals. The first is to ensure that you have the skills necessary to win a fight. But as important is a way of learning compatibility – who you might be able to Drift with – whether you can Drift at all. You will learn fighting techniques, and you will practice them. But when you spar one another you must think of the other cadet not as an opponent, but as a partner.”

  Jinhai, to his surprise, understood exactly what she meant. Some of the others looked puzzled, and Vik looked like she had swallowed something sour.

  They spent the remainder of the day in the Kwoon, over seven hours. By the time they were done, he could barely walk back to the barracks.

  8

  THE SECRETARY GENERAL STAYED AFTER THE cadets left, so Lambert figured she expected him to stick around, as well. He had been dreading this; the conversation he feared was inevitable, but which he had no interest in having.

  “They seem a solid bunch,” Mako said, once the cadets were out of earshot.

  “Some of them have promise,” he agreed. “I don’t expect all of them to make it.”

  “We didn’t expect you to make it, you know,” she said. “You were such a loner, so convinced you could take on the Kaiju all by yourself. There was just that one little thing…”

  “Yes, Secretary General.”

  “I understand the importance of rank, Nate,” she said. “But we’re alone now, and my title is intolerably clunky. I would be happier if you would use my name. We were on a first-name basis, yes?”

  “That was a long time ago,” he said.

  “To you maybe,” she said. “To me, that time seems very near.”

  “Okay,” he said. “Mako.”

  “Thank you,” she said. “How many Drift partners did you fail to bond with?”

  “Six,” he said. “It was six.”

  “We should have washed you out at five. But my father – my adoptive father – believed in you. So did I. So did Jake.”

  “I remember,” Lambert said. “I felt like I belonged. Like all of you – the PPDC – were my family. And then as soon I was starting to get comfortable with that, Jake…”

  He realized he was getting angry, and tried to dial it back.

  “I don’t know where Jake is,” Mako said. “I have tried to find him. His name surfaces now and then…”

  “Yes,” Lambert said. “In criminal circles. How—” he stopped, bowed his head. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I know you think of him as a brother.”

  “As do you, Nate,” Mako said.

  “No,” he said. “Not anymore. And I’m sorry if you can’t find him, but – honestly – it might be for the best.”

  She pursed her lips, and for a moment didn’t reply.

  “I feel that way myself, sometimes,” she said. “But he is still my brother.”

  * * *

  By the end of evening mess, most of the cadets had garnered at least some little bit of information on what had happened to Braga and Vu. Rumors were racing around the Shatterdome, and they would have had to stuff their ears with something to keep from overhearing them.

  That night they did a round robin, sharing what each had heard. The only total agreement was that something had gone wrong in Chronos Berserker – that Braga and Vu believed they were in a real fight. Suresh had eavesdropped on two low-level J-Techs speculating that Vu was somehow connected to a separatist organization of some sort. Vik said she had heard Kaiju worshippers were involved.

  “Didn’t those Kaiju nuts try to kill your parents, or something?” Ilya asked Jinhai.

  He shook his head. “Not my parents. The couple that piloted Shaolin Rogue before my folks took over were murdered in their apartment,” he said. “Everyone kind of thought Kaiju worshippers were involved, but as far as I know, nobody ever proved anything. My parents got plenty of death threats from them, though. I think a l
ot of the pilots did.”

  “Nasty business, Kaiju worship,” Tahima opined.

  “Nasty doesn’t begin to cover it,” Vik said. She said it like she knew something about it.

  “Yeah,” he said. “Agreed.”

  * * *

  After Braga’s memorial the next day was more Kwoon action, but they didn’t fight each other, instead working with instructors, and today it was knife-fighting, close-quarters stuff, really savage.

  Not too surprisingly, Vik was really good at it, close to being as skilled as the instructor. Jinhai watched her with grudging admiration. It wasn’t fencing, which was the only martial art he had ever found to be beautiful, maybe because it had so much in common with dance. But there was a fierce loveliness about the way she did it, and he began to enjoy seeing what move would come next.

  And if he thought he’d been sore the day before…

  So it was a nice break the next day, when they started covering Kaiju – their nature, anatomy, natural weapons, and so on. The things they would have to know to fight them.

  Of course, it was Vik who pointed out the obvious that afternoon, at mess. Jinhai was trying to figure out exactly what the stuff on his noodles was when she sat across from him.

  She looked at her noodles.

  “What a waste of time,” she said. She moved the noodles around with her chopsticks. “This is the closest thing to a Kaiju you and I will ever see.”

  “I hope so,” he said.

  “Yes?” she said. “Then why the Academy? Did Mommy and Daddy insist?”

  “You know,” Jinhai said, “if you’re trying to be friendly, you’re doing it all wrong.”

  “I’m not trying to be friendly,” she said. “I don’t like you. I think you’re soft, and you’ve had everything given to you. I don’t think you deserve to be here—”

  “Listen,” Jinhai said. “You don’t know me. You don’t have a clue about my life.”

  “—but I think we’re compatible.”

  That stopped him.

  “What? You mean like, ah – you don’t like me, but you think we should get cozy?”