Merkiaari Wars: 01 - Hard Duty (47 page)

James laughed when every Shan but Shima disagreed either by voice or gesture. Shima snarled, and James took her hand for a companionable squeeze. “Ignore them, Shima. I have found it’s the best way to deal with this sort of thing.”

Shima squeezed back, and then took James’ hand in both of hers. She pulled it closer for inspection. James had had similar experiences before, and didn’t react when she raised his hand close to her mouth. The first time had been startling, but now as she drew air into her mouth so that she could taste his scent with the glands at the back of her throat he just waited.

“Huh,” Shima chuffed lowering his hand but not letting go. She manipulated his fingers noting, he was sure, the range of motion. “No claws,” she said looking at his blunt fingernails. She sounded disapproving and James smiled.

“No tail either I’m afraid,” he said apologetically as he had done so many times before.

“Yes, I knew that. I have tried to keep up with things. Are there more of you here? Can I meet Bren-daaaar and Jah-neeeece?”

“Brenda and Janice,” he corrected and she flicked her ears in acknowledgement. “I’m certain you can. They’re both here at Kachina Twelve. My entire team is here. We were left behind when
Canada
jumped outsystem.”

“Your ship, he survived?” Shima said sharply. “He has gone for help?”

“We lost contact, but believe
she
has, yes.”

“Huh, she is it?”

James nodded.

“Very sensible,” Shima opined and everyone laughed. She ignored them. “You were waiting for me?”

James shrugged. “I was walking. I do that a lot to meet people and find out things. I heard you had arrived and wanted to see you, but I don’t want to delay your meeting with Chailen. We can talk later.”

Shima released his hand. “You know my sib?”

“Know
of
her, yes. She is well known here because of you.”

Shima groaned and turned toward Kazim who raised a hand in apology. The other still held his camera as it recorded her first meeting with a Human.

She turned back to James after a moment. “Would you have time to meet Chailen?” James nodded but then wondered if Shima knew what his gesture meant, but then she said, “Good. She would enjoy meeting you.”

“And she won’t chastise you for your tardiness,” Kazim interjected, still filming. “Good plan.”

Shima pointed one finger at Kazim, right between his eyes. She held the gesture in silence with her teeth bared. Kazim laughed but didn’t say anything more. James grinned at the familiar by-play. The broadcasts had prepared him, but in person, Shima and Kazim were even funnier.

* * *

Aboard ASN Canada, Shan System

“Is this everyone? You’re sure?” Colgan said in a sick voice. Forty-three weary looking Shan stood before him. Forty-three from a crew of hundreds.

“This is everyone,” Tei’Varyk said with slumped shoulders.

Colgan waved his people forward to see to the wounded. He took his friend’s arm to ease him out of the way. He watched Tarjei being rushed to surgery. Others were given similar treatment leaving the walking wounded standing silently slumped and dejected in their defeat. Tei’Varyk watched his people leave until he was left with fifteen uninjured including himself.

“Your people will be shown to a place to rest,” Colgan said.

Tei’Varyk gestured to his people. “Go with the Humans. You will be cared for.”

The Shan bowed once and followed Baz Riley to quarters, but it was obvious they were far from happy about it.

“Come to my quarters, Tei. We need to decide what to do.” Colgan set off with his friend by his side. “You know
Canada
is the only ship left?”

“Yes.”

“You know that I can’t stop the Merkiaari?”

“Yes.”

They entered his quarters. “Take a seat. Or on the floor if you prefer.”

Tei’Varyk threw a cushion from the chair onto the deck, and sat staring at nothing. Or perhaps he was seeing again the last transmission from his homeworld, as the Merkiaari landed looking to kill his people. Harmony’s orbital defence net had lasted no longer than the time it took to target the fortresses. The fighting at the landing zones had been ferocious, and was still being waged. The Shan had been unable to predict where they would land, so any kind of defence had to be mobile. Entrenching Shan warriors had simply been impossible. They had met the Merki without the benefit of fixed defences, and their losses had been simply staggering. Hundreds of thousands of Shan warriors and civilians had died within minutes, and the war had only just begun. Neither side would stop until one or the other was utterly destroyed. Missile installations had targeted the landers and knocked down some of them, but such victories were few.

Far too few.

Colgan sat cross-legged in front of his friend, and saw the despair there. The flattened ears, the claws working in and out of their sheaths, the restless tail tip. It was the posture of a defeated man—
Shan
.

“I can’t take you home, Tei,” he said quietly.

“Tarjei is dying.”

Colgan drew a sharp breath. “Perhaps not my friend. Our medics have been studying with your healers. Doctor Ambrai is very good…”

“No. I know when one of my people will die. Send me home to die with them, with her.”

“I can’t, I
won’t!
You and your crew might be all that’s left of the Harmony of Shan soon. Think about that.”

“I am thinking of it,” Tei’Varyk said with his eyes blazing. “Don’t you think I know the Murderers will do their evil work right this time? I
do
know it.”

“Well then. It’s your duty to save what you can. This ship is a wreck, but it’s still jump capable. I can’t take you home Tei, the Merki would destroy me before I came close, but I can take you to my home.”

Tei’Varyk’s ears were quivering, and almost flat to his skull. His eyes were white-rimmed. His fur was standing up making him seem larger. He was on the killing edge. Colgan went still, trying to appear harmless. After a few seconds, that to Colgan felt like hours, Tei’Varyk spat dryly and his ears struggled erect. Slowly his eyes returned to normal.

“Take the others, but give me a lander. I’ll get there.”

“I haven’t got one, Tei. James and the others are marooned on Child of Harmony with the only one not destroyed. Even if I did have one, I wouldn’t give it to you. I don’t hold with suicide.”

“No? Then what was that attack if not suicide?”

Colgan shifted uncomfortably. “I calculated the risks and they were favourable. Putting you in a lander is not. You have no choice. This ship is jumping outsystem as soon as I give the word, but I wanted you to agree.”

“Then, as I have no real choice, you have my agreement for what it’s worth.”

“It’s worth something to me, Tei.” Colgan rose to his feet. “Come to the bridge with me.”

Colgan led the way to the bridge, and asked Tei’Varyk to sit in the observer seat. He racked his helmet beside his command station and slumped into it. He was tired, but he couldn’t rest yet.

“Prepare for jump.”

“Jump drive hot, Skipper, all jump stations report manned and ready,” Lieutenant Wesley reported.

“Referent?”

“Referent locked in, destination Sol.”

Colgan glanced at Tei’Varyk where he sat staring at his homeworld on the viewscreen. “Execute!”

ASN
Canada
twisted and was gone. Where she had been, empty space remained.

* * *

Deep Jungle, Planet Thurston, 01:00

Eric crossed the open compound appearing casual and uninterested in anything going on. It was the middle of the night, but you wouldn’t know it by the activity under the harsh white floodlights on the towers. Night was when the work was done; daytime was for sleep and relaxation.

The buildings, shacks at best, were constructed of materials scavenged from the jungle locally. A matter of both convenience and security. There was always the chance that supplies could be traced to the base, though Eric found it unlikely. It was impressive foresight regardless. All the important equipment was kept underground in the old mine itself. The command centre, barracks, motor pool, commissary... all were in the various tunnels and caverns protected from dinos and discovery both. Above ground, the shacks contained various stores mostly awaiting use in raids or shipment elsewhere. The only way in or out of the compound was by road, the only one was little more than a single lane dirt track. From the air it was invisible until it joined a properly paved road leading from active mining facilities to the east. From there it led to a small airfield able to handle transports and shuttles. Eric had travelled that route to reach the base.

Eric kept his steps casual. He was a well known face and people nodded or raised a hand in greeting as he passed. He smiled and nodded in return, or gave a brief wink and grin if it was a pretty girl. He was liked, and he made sure never to destroy that image. He blended. He was one of them. They trusted him, and were even a little in awe of his skills because when they went on raids he planned, no one got dead. He was indispensable now. As planned.

Eric paused as his sensors detected a weapon system coming online. He turned slowly, making it seem he was looking for someone. In reality, he was turning to watch as the sentry guns powered up. There wasn’t a test scheduled as far as he knew, and he made it his business to know such things. He squinted in the bright light of the floods, and watched. The guns were tracking something, but the jerking hesitating way they moved told Eric this was a malfunction not a test. He readied himself to run for cover, but then he realised the guns really were tracking but not firing. Not a malfunction then. He ordered his processor to run a sensor sweep. Multiple unknowns dotted his display and they were close! His right hand twitched, but he managed not to pull his gun. The unknowns had to be native wildlife, some kind of nocturnal flying dinosaur or bat. Did Thurston even have bats? He had no idea.

He watched the sentry guns tracking the sources of his unease and knew what the problem was. The gun’s sensitivity had been dialled way down because they had kept fragging the wildlife and getting on everyone’s nerves. Sentry guns were noisy and burned through ammo at a horrendous rate. Now though, an unknown threat had been detected within a hundred meters and the gun’s programming said threats must be eliminated, but the sources were smaller than the new limits that had been imposed to prevent false alarms. The guns were stuck in a logic loop. They tracked, tried to fire, were prevented from firing, tried to power down, and looped back to detecting a threat and tracking again. That was why they were moving spasmodically when normally they would be smooth.

“God damned junk!” someone cried heading toward one of the sentry gun towers.

Eric nodded as if he agreed, but in fact he didn’t agree. Those guns were good tech and dangerous in professional hands. It wasn’t their fault they had been deployed in the wrong environment. Even here in the jungle they would do the job, they just needed a little care and tinkering. He could have had them running as smooth as can be in a few hours, or he could tell the techs here how to do it. He wouldn’t though. He wasn’t here to help them, he was here to bring them crashing down. He was here to end them, and had spent months here putting a plan together to do just that.

Killing everyone here would be a short term solution. He had considered it a few times, but he wanted long term. He was tired of people making the same mistakes over and over, undoing his work and making him come back for a do over. He needed to change the political system, or aid President Thurston in his efforts to do so. A simple massacre here wouldn’t do it, wouldn’t even make the evening news. He needed a big splash, something big enough to tip the government over the edge and force them to take the leap into full Alliance membership instead of just talking the matter to death in Parliament.

Eric turned back to his walk, letting his sensors map the minefield as he walked the perimeter. It was stifling hot under the camo netting and the nano net beneath it. Simple is efficient, Eric mused, taking a moment to look up. Funny how such a low tech solution as netting strung overhead could fool high tech observation from satellites or navy air patrols. The camo netting fooled the eye, and the nano nets fooled any sensors that relied upon heat, magnetic, or electrical emissions.

When he had climbed aboard that transport at Zhang’s factory months ago and headed for the port, he had wondered then how the Freedom Movement had managed to hide a base on a planet with modern satellite communications and its attendant surveillance capabilities. What impressed him about the Freedom Movement’s solution was that the old mining facility had been hidden years ago, long before the Freedom Movement even existed. King had been planning and scheming for decades. He must have hidden the place in case he ever needed it, and somehow destroyed any record it had ever existed. To do all that just in case? Amazing.

Had King always intended to overthrow the government, even as a young man? Why? Back then, democracy on Thurston had been a distant dream; not even that. President Thurston’s father had been a dictator, one of a handful of men who owned the company which in turn owned most of the below ground resources of the planet. He’d had no intention of ever joining the Alliance and must be spinning in his grave at his son’s antics. Writing a constitution based upon the Alliance constitution and then upholding it! Ye gods. He had even given away his own lifetime Presidency in favour of a five year term and proper elections! So King didn’t want Thurston to join the Alliance; what did he want?