Loyal Soldier

by Jack Stornoway

better."

  They didn't seem to have any interest in the old general at the bar. He was still young enough to be formidable in a fight, but old enough that his age was showing. His long dark-brown hair was greying. He had lost some weight since his prime, but he was still muscular, and more importantly he had years of combat experience locked into those muscles. That Guinean woman had recognized him, so she had to know he'd die hard, and not alone. He was a lot shorter than either of the mercenaries, a common trait of Martians of his age, caused by chronic childhood malnourishment.

  "So what's an Arean general doing in a Canadian colony?" the waitress asked returning with the strawberry wine.

  "Thinking of reporting me?" the Arean general asked with a grin.

  "I doubt that would be advantageous," the waitress said pouring a glass of the contraband wine. "Besides you have an American accent, so you're probably from Xanthe. And that would be of no interest to the government in Solis City. And you didn't answer my question. What is an Arean general doing in a Canadian colony?"

  "It's complicated," the Arean general answered lifting the strawberry wine to his lips. It was Sirenian, he hadn't had Sirenian strawberry wine since the war. It tasted like it was from Icaria, the old British colony. This little settlement must be selling potato products to the Areans. They were close enough to the Sirenum border that they could cross it without the government in Solis City knowing. A useful fact. The wine was good. The meal came. The burger was passable, and the potato was excellent. He hadn't eaten a non-frozen potato in years. Canadian laws limited which corporations could grow which plants in their Martian colonies. The result was a high price for food throughout the colonies, and high profits for the corporate headquarters back on Earth. It also resulted in each colony having a different diet, depending on which foods were locally available. The other Earth colonies all had similar laws, it had been one of the main reasons for the war.

  In the background the mercenaries were talking, but not saying anything important. Nuka Strange, the Arean general knew the name well. Last he'd heard, she'd moved to Solis from Canada, supposedly to plan the Canadian government's invasion of the Arean Confederacy. The Confederacy had been beleaguered by criminal syndicates since establishing independence, and the Canadians were apparently trying to organize an insurgency as prelude to invasion. Nuka Strange was the perfect person to organize the insurgency, she was the former Director General of the National Security Agency. Strange had fled to Canada as a refugee along with most other members of the American government and corporate elite as the Eco-Revolutionaries seized control of America. The corporate regime in Canada was more stable, and the Canadian government was aggressively funding a counter-revolution in the former United States.

  If Strange was sneaking across the border into Sirenum, she was defecting to the Ares Confederacy. If she was defecting, she had gone Eco. If so, Ares was about to gain a major asset. Strange was reputed to be both a brilliant strategist and a shrewd diplomat. She must have lost most of her corporate assets if she was going Eco. Obviously someone knew she was defecting if they'd sent mercenaries after her. The mercenaries were from Earth, so it was probably someone in Canada, likely one of the American families. It couldn't be anyone in the Canadian government, because they would have just sent the Solisian Police to arrest her. Whoever it was, these mercenaries appeared to be working with someone travelling with Strange; someone called Gita. They were correct about the storm, no small aircraft could fly through this storm. If they were up there they would be looking for a place to land.

  "Who is that general?" Bala asked, suddenly drawing the Arean general's attention back to the mercenaries' conversation.

  "You do not recognize him?" Nkiru asked. "It took a month to get here from Earth, what did you do during all that time?"

  "A couple of the stewardesses," Bala answered. "You spent the time looking at pictures of generals?"

  "I spent the time studying the region," Nkiru stated. "That is General Milburn Rome."

  There it was. The name that had haunted him since the war. He had aged a bit since the war, and not everyone recognized him anymore, especially the younger generation. But that name, everyone knew that name. He tried to ignore them and focus on the meal he was eating, but he could feel his face turning red. Even after more than a decade since the war's end, he still got angry whenever he heard people talk about him. None of them knew what he'd done, yet all judged him.

  "That is General Rome?" Bala stated in disbelief. "Did they not shoot him after the war?"

  "No, he was given immunity," Nkiru answered. "All the soldiers under his command were given immunity."

  "I would have just shot them all," Bala stated.

  "Then they would not have surrendered," Nkiru replied.

  "Do you think there is a price on his head in the Confederacy?" Bala enquired.

  "Probably," Nkiru answered. "But we do not have time to do anything about it. As soon as Nuka Strange is dead, we are to return to Earth. Our client is very clear on that point."

  "How would they know?" Bala asked.

  "How do you expect to claim a bounty on Milburn Rome without our client finding out?" Nkiru countered.

  "I see your point," Bala conceded. "Well, at least we do not need to worry about him interfering. Not someone like him."

  There it was, the judgement. The same judgement every time, by everyone. A coward who sold out the Eco-Revolution in Solis to the corporate backed Canadian troops. He noticed his hand was trembling slightly from the anger welling up inside him, and lifted the fork he was holding to his mouth.

  "More wine?" the waitress interrupted the Arean General's dark thoughts. How much of the mercenaries' conversation had she overheard? Probably all of it.

  "No thanks," General Rome replied. The least he could do was remain civil. "What do you have that's non-alcoholic?"

  "Raspberry juice and saskatoon-berry juice," the waitress replied. "Or water of course, quite cheap, there's a large aquifer below us."

  "Cheap water?" General Rome chuckled. Free Water was one of the promises of the Eco-Revolution. "I'll try the saskatoon-berry juice. Where do you import that from?"

  "We get it from Lassell," the waitress answered. "It just became available, it's quite good."

  "Any idea where it comes from?" General Rome asked. "Is it imported from Earth?"

  "Oh, no!" the waitress answered. "The University of Saskatchewan is sponsoring a new farming community in Noachis, where they are growing saskatoon-berries."

  "Ah, that's how they managed to get around the bio import laws," General Rome realized.

  "Yes, we've heard they're also experimenting with canola and lentils," the waitress stated. "Unfortunately they're only marketing the saskatoon-berry juice, and saskatoon-berry jelly so far."

  "It's still progress," General Rome observed. "The first new seeds on Mars since the war, or at least the first one's I've heard of. It might-"

  "Did you see that?" Bala suddenly demanded jumping to his feet.

  "What?" Nkiru asked also rising to her feet.

  "A light! Something is landing outside," Bala stated headed to the airlock. "I saw it moving through the sandstorm, just for a second. It looked like it was heading down to the motel landing pad."

  General Rome waited until the mercenaries were in the airlock before jumping to his feet and grabbing his duster and respirator mask. "I'll be back," he said to the waitress as he ran to the door into the motel. He swung the duster over his shoulders as he stepped into the lobby airlock, then pushed the respirator mask to his face as he hit the button for the outer airlock door. As he stepped out into the swirling sand, he pulled the strap of the respirator mask over the back of his head, and the mask pressurized. Across the lot a vehicle had just landed. All Rome could see through the sand were the lights, but based on their spacing it had to be a truck or a bus.

  He saw the shapes of the mercenaries moving around near the pub's airlock, and ran out into the sandstorm at a right
angle to the vehicle so the mercenaries wouldn't see him. When he couldn't see them any more, he curved back towards the vehicle. It was a bus, a long range transport, the type usually used to connect smaller settlements to major hubs. Someone was climbing out, several people. General Rome ducted under one of the short wings that supported the turbofans, and crept up behind the new arrivals, he couldn't see the mercenaries anywhere. Rome pulled out his pistol and dagger, but left the dagger's plasma-blade turned off as the light would immediately alert everyone to his presence.

  The new arrivals were talking with American accents, but not local ones. The accent in Solis was based on the New York Dialect while the Xanthe accent was based on the Western American Dialect. One of these new arrivals could be from Xanthe, but the others were clearly from Earth. A man with a Southern accent, and a woman with a New England accent.

  "This fucking planet!" the woman with the New England accent swore. "I can't believe anyone wants to live in this shit!"

  Definitely Earth-born. They ran towards the pub airlock. Rome still couldn't see the mercenaries anywhere. He waited a