Machine World (Undying Mercenaries Book 4) (17 page)

My reverie was cut short, unfortunately. The first sign of trouble was the waterfall. It stopped falling. The water just turned into a dribble, then vanished altogether.

We sat up, looking in surprise at the lake. It was disappearing, being sucked down into a dark circular drain at the bottom.

“Looks like trouble,” I said.

Anne didn’t answer. She threw her clothes over herself and let the smart cloth sort out the details. I followed her, both of us half-naked, as we rushed out of there and up the path to the top of the canyon walls.

She worked her tapper, and I couldn’t help but notice it was blinking red. So was mine. We’d been summoned to battle stations.

-23-

Somewhere in the officers’ command center on Gold Deck, Turov had decided it was time to have a crisis. At first, I was of the opinion that she’d had a hard night without sleep, and she wanted to share the pain. But I was wrong. She wasn’t launching this attack—the squids were.

“Listen up, troops,” Graves’ voice buzzed out of my tapper. I didn’t have my helmet with me, but my tapper could carry voice if it had to. “We’ve got incoming ships,” he said. “Their design indicates two of them are enemy vessels. They emerged out of a warp bubble in-system which suggests hostile intent. I want everyone to get to battle stations, fully geared. We might have to repel boarding attempts—or abandon ship.”

“Crap,” I said aloud. “See you on the other side, Anne!”

She caught my arm before I could run off. She gave me a single lingering kiss then disappeared without a word. She was going to Blue Deck, I knew. As a bio, her place was among her own kind. If there was going to be a battle, she’d have plenty of cleaning up to do.

I was the very last man in my squad to hop into the cockpit of my dragon and run a systems check on it. Something clanged on my spinal cannon, and I rotated the chassis to see who was screwing with me.

Carlos grinned. He’d bashed me with a gripper. I grinned back.

“It’s good to see you breathing again, asshole,” he said.

“You better not have dented my new dragon.”

“It’s all good as long as you can still walk and shoot,” he said. “How are we going to die today, Vet?”

“It’s going to be squids today,” I said with certainty. “All squids, all day.”

“I just hope I get a few shots in before they blow up the ship. I’d love to see the shock on their faces when they get a load of the twins.” Carlos opened his chest panel and exposed two grenade-launchers.

I smiled at that. I hadn’t ordered any equipment changes, but his seemed like a good choice right about now.

As heavy cavalry aboard a ship, we were about as useful as tits on a boar—unless the enemy decided to invade
Cyclops
. In that case, we’d come in handy.

My screens lit up, and I fully expected a grim-faced Graves would appear and order me to head to the lifters.

Instead, it was Imperator Turov. She was making a funny expression, something of a cross between a snarl and a smile.

“Get up to Gold Deck, McGill!” she snapped.

I opened my mouth to ask
why
, but she’d already cut the channel. As a mere veteran, faced with a direct order from a high-level officer, I knew what to do.

“Sargon!” I shouted. “You’re in charge of the squad until I return. Tell Graves I’ve been summoned to Gold Deck.”

“Was that Turov?” asked Carlos. “I don’t frigging believe it. A booty call? Mid-battle, at midnight? That woman has no shame—and precious little sense of timing.”

I could have belted him, but I didn’t want to take the time, and he wouldn’t have felt it anyway in his dragon.

Rushing out into the passageways, I moved to the AI-driven lifts and rode the first one that noticed me up to Gold Deck. That’s where the command people hung out.

Clanking into the command chambers, I think I startled a few people. They were all in regular, soft uniforms. I was pretty much the only guy banging around in a dragon.

“McGill!” Turov shouted. “Get over here.”

I stomped over to her position. She was tiny, shapely and standing next to a cool-looking three dimensional display system.

She looked me up and down, frowning.

“You’re in full kit?”

“I’m cavalry, sir,” I said.

“Right. Never mind. Just look at this.”

She gestured toward the battle-display system. Three enemy ships were approaching. Two looked like the ones I’d seen before on Dust World. They were definitely squid-made ships. They were big with a dish-like silver structure at each end. These structures rippled with quiet, powerful, amber light. I knew from experience the dish-things propelled the enemy ships.

The third ship was a puzzle, however. It was a trading ship. I’d recognize the design anywhere. It was built by the Galactic Empire, I was certain of that much. Thousands of such vessels traveled between the worlds, ferrying goods from one planet to the next.

A face loomed then, super-imposed on the display depicting the three orbiting ships. The face was that of a squid, and he looked at us as if curious.

“I am Conqueror Engulf,” he said. “Where is the one known as the McGill?”

“I’m here,” I said.

Turov frowned at me, but I didn’t back down. Hell, if she hadn’t expected me to speak up, she shouldn’t have invited me to this party.

The strangely intelligent alien eyes swept toward me. The being gave me an appraising glance.

“You are dressed for battle.”

“I sure am, you damned squid—!”

“I beg your pardon,” Turov interrupted. “Can you tell me why the Kingdom has seen fit to come into our star system today?”

The alien eyes moved from me to Turov. “Your system? Does my translator fail me? It must be so. I will have my technicians boiled in caustic ink. They have caused you humans to utter unthinkable insults into my auditory organs.”

My mind burned with come-backs, but I restrained myself.

“You heard correctly,” Turov said. “This is our territory. We’ve claimed Gamma Pavonis and all her orbiting bodies.”

“You dare such a conceit?” Engulf asked. “Yes, I see now—our moon base has been destroyed. Inexplicable. You should have perished in combat upon first entering this system. I’ll have to apologize to the Crown, and I’ll demand that the base commander’s family be boiled in ink upon my return to the Throne World.”

“The internal affairs of your Kingdom don’t concern me,” Turov said. “But now that our claim to this star system has been made clear, you must state your business before I can allow you to leave.”

The squid made a weird, bubbling noise. I wasn’t sure if he was laughing or having a gas-attack.

“You say you’ve claimed this system? For who have you claimed it? The Empire?”

“No. Earth owns these worlds. About your moon base, however, I must apologize. We were attacked by a few insignificant missiles upon arrival and assumed it was a weak effort at local defense by a native species. We didn’t realize the Kingdom was involved as no one identified themselves to us.”

“There is no need to apologize for our failure. The commander must have been of poor genetic quality if he allowed your ships to prevail.”

Turov swallowed. She looked a little sweaty, but I had to give it to her, she wasn’t backing down this time. Maybe she’d grown into her job of high-level command over the last year or two. She still looked like a college girl, but the squid didn’t know that.

“You requested McGill,” Turov said, changing the subject, “and I’ve brought him.”

The squid flicked his strange eyeballs from one of us to the next. “You mean the McGill-creature is not in command?”

“
I
am in command,” Turov said firmly.

“Most unusual. The last transmission from our doomed vessel on Tech World indicated McGill was the one who destroyed them. There must have been some misunderstanding.”

I knew I should stay quiet. Don’t think I didn’t know that. But I’ve always had trouble with the whole quiet-thing, and it’s only gotten worse over the years. Deep down, I wondered sometimes if part of Carlos’ DNA had been accidentally mixed in with mine during one of my many revives.

“I talked to your Conqueror,” I blurted suddenly, “the squid named Glide. He commanded a ship at Tech World. I like to think I had something to do with his destruction, too. Maybe his family made a mistake and should be deep-fried into calamari the next time you meet up with them.”

“Such bold talk,” Engulf said. “You control a pathetic handful of worlds. Your Empire is crumbling, and it cannot protect you.”

“McGill,
please
shut up,” Turov said.

“Yes, Imperator.”

She gave the squid her full attention again. “How can we help you, Conqueror?”

“You will speak to our ally. He requested that McGill’s presence be verified. You will speak to him now.”

Engulf’s face dissolved, and as for myself, I couldn’t have been happier about that. Squids were ugly and downright creepy to look at.

The next face that appeared on the display was even more surprising, however. It was a human face, and I had to admit, I’d never expected to lay eyes on it again.

“Adjunct Claver?” Turov demanded. I could tell from her voice she was as shocked as I was.

Adjunct Claver, better known as “Old Silver,” was a Germanica Legionnaire of the worst reputation. He was in fact, a renegade, a traitor, and an enemy combatant turncoat.

“McGill and Turov?” Claver asked, giving us both a secret little grin. “Who else do I see in the crowd? Tribune Drusus, Graves—even that lick-spittle, Winslade. What a bouquet of losers. I should have known they’d send your sorry asses out here to Machine World. Nobody else could be dumb enough or unpopular enough to get such an assignment.”

“What do you want, Claver?” Turov demanded. “And how did you get out here in space? I assume you’re aboard the Galactic trade ship. Your crimes are innumerable, and I’ll have to ask the captain of that ship to arrest you.”

“Criminals and heroes are figments of the beholder’s imagination, my lady. Now, let’s get down to business. I’ve been working this planet for months. I sold it to the squids and promised them protection from Earth. You’re kind of blowing the deal for me—and for our planet.”

Turov, for the first time, seemed at a loss. I could have told her Claver was involved in some kind of crazy scheme. From the very first moment I’d seen his face, I’d known this entire situation was a fishy one. He was a liar, a thief, an egomaniac and God knew what else.

“Quit talking big and tell me what you want,” Turov said.

“Well ma’am,” he said, “it looks to me like we have a few options. We could blast each other, two warships against two, with one innocent trading ship caught in the middle—”

“Don’t think you’ll be spared,” Turov said. “It is very unlikely you’ll survive any hostilities that ensue. You probably stole that trade ship in the first place.”

“Control your paranoid fantasies, woman,” Claver said, making a dismissive motion with his hand. This caused Turov to redden, but she fell quiet. “I’m here to make a deal, that’s all. You know me, I’m only interested in mutually lucrative exchanges. Let me bring you up to speed: I sold this system to the squids. I can only surmise by your arrival that you’re under orders from the Empire to annex the system and make it part of Frontier 921. This brings us into obvious conflict. Now, here’s the essence of my proposal—”

“Don’t listen to him, Imperator!” I boomed suddenly. “He’s a snake-in-the-grass!”

Everyone looked at me except for Turov. She looked disgusted, rather than angry.

“Keep talking, Claver,” she said. “McGill, you’ll shut up, or I’ll have you yanked out of that vehicle and recycled.”

Claver produced an ugly laugh. I wondered if he was talking crazy just to set me off and get me into trouble. Why else would he have requested to see my face on Gold Deck with the rest of them? Given our history, the only motive that made any sense was one of revenge. After all, I’d killed the man more than once.

“Here’s the score,” Claver said, “Earth must declare independence. It’s time to cast off the Empire. They aren’t helping you anyway. Offer your services to the Cephalopod Kingdom. They need frontline fighters and allies more than they need another war with a worthless dirt-world like Earth. In turn, I’ll make sure that the full output of high-grade metals from Machine World is funneled directly to your planet. You’ll have all the resources you need to build a fleet to defend yourselves. What’s more, I’ll give you wholesale prices. I’m talking the kind of deal I wouldn’t offer my own grandmother!”

This time Turov exploded, not me. “Are you crazy, Claver? You offer Earth destruction at the hands of the Empire. We’re talking about your home planet, man! How can you have such a lack of loyalty?”

“Loyalty has brought me nothing but pain and death, my fair lady. But it is you who are loyal to the wrong party. You aren’t loyal to Earth any more than I am. You’re beholden to uncaring monsters from the core of the galaxy. Spurn them! Toss them out! Declare yourselves free!”

Turov didn’t shout back. Instead, she looked at him with clenched teeth and half-closed eyes.

I realized then, in my heart of hearts, that she was honestly thinking about it.

This alarmed me. Could I, James McGill, have infected this woman with my particular brand of impulsiveness? The very thought was terrifying. My crazy combined with her ambition? It was a deadly stew I didn’t even want to contemplate.