The Terran Mandate (21 page)

He picked her up and cradled her in his
arms. As she slept, a soothing warmth flowed through his body with the rhythm
of her breathing as he walked towards his command carrier. The Marine guarding
the vehicle swung the rear hatch open and Dekker placed her inside next to
Jommy, who was still sitting in one of the seats welded into the side of the
carrier.

"Keep an eye on her until I can
send over the corpsman."

Jommy slid out of his seat and kneeled
next to her. "I'll take care of her," he said.

Trap

General Godfrey scanned the horizon with
her field glasses. They were less than a day's march away from the Pyramid and
still there was no sign of the Paladin. The battalions left behind to defend
against her First Brigade had been ably dispatched. She felt a twinge of
disappointment at how easily the MEF compound had been overrun, wondering if
they shouldn't have tried it earlier. She had been right about one thing:
without the Paladin, the MEF was no match for the Terran Guard. But he was
still out there, waiting for them, she reminded herself. And so was the
Enforcer Battalion. She had no intention of letting Colonel Dekker ambush her
column and so she had moved slowly, changing course every hour and keeping a
wide screen of carriers acting as skirmishers on her flanks.

After sweeping the horizon from one end
to the other and seeing nothing but the endless sea of hills and dirt littered
with dry scrub, she let her field glasses hang by the strap around her neck.
She checked her surroundings, making sure she was alone before tapping her
headset. She spoke in a low voice. "Arnhem Watch, Guard Six." She
slid her finger along the edge of her headset to reduce the volume of the
static hissing back at her.

"Guard Six, Arnhem, go ahead."

"What's your status?"

"We're still searching for
stragglers, but haven't found anybody in the last 29 hours. Prisoners are weak,
General. I don't know how many we'll be able to keep."

"Feed them."

"Say again Guard Six."

"I said feed the prisoners dammit.
Guard Six out."

An image of Shoahn'Fal's face glaring at
her flashed through her mind as her head began to throb. She squeezed her eyes,
trying to push back the pain poking from behind them as she scanned the long
line of vehicles of the Second Brigade stretching out behind her. General Kim
stood next to her, contemplating the sunrise as he waited for her order to
commence the day's march.

"Do you have any water?" she
asked.

General Kim pulled his water flask from
its thermoplastic pouch and handed it to her. Godfrey pressed the spout latch
against her teeth and let a thin stream run down her tongue, just enough to
abate a mild thirst, but not enough to distract her from her headache.

  "Let me go round up our esteemed
guest," she said, handing the flask back to him. As she listened to the
cadence of her boots crunching dirt and slivers of shale, she saw his antennae
waving above his head. Her heart quickened as she sidled up behind him. He
turned his head just enough to tell her that he knew she was there. Godfrey
clasped her hands behind her back and swayed back on her heels. His antennae
stopped, frozen as still as stone. Without looking at her, he said, "She
sees me." His antennae started to quiver. "She is growing
stronger."

"Who are you talking about,"
Godfrey asked.

"A young priestess who is
discovering the winds of Shoahn'mohkra."

Godfrey arched her brows. "Another
Shoahn'?"

Shoahn'Fal let out a wheezing sigh.
"Yes."

"You said you were the only one
left."

"Yes. I did say that, didn't
I?" He still did not look at her.

Godfrey frowned as she tried to decide
if it was worth pressing the matter as questions entered the arena of her mind
and collided. Did it matter?  How many more were there?  Was she the only one? 
She winced when she thought of the one question that mattered. Why hadn't he
told her?  Why had he lied? 

"Do not concern yourself with this,
General," Shoahn'fal said. She felt the stab of pain behind her eye surge
and the questions vanished. "All that matters now is our mutual desire to
free the Pyramid." Godfrey squeezed her eyes shut, trying to push back the
pain. He stood up and turned around to face her. His antennae settled back to
his head and the pain disappeared. His eyes were hollow, as if he needed sleep.
"There are others with her."

"Who?" Godfrey asked.
"How many?" She blinked, letting her eyelids flutter for a moment to
confirm the pain had subsided.

Shoahn'Fal eased himself against his
walking stick and took a step closer, placing his hand on her shoulder. "I
do not know, but it would be good for you to investigate before we
proceed."

"Of course, you're right,"
Godfrey heard herself say. Her mind raced to catch up with her words.
Tactically, the smart move was to follow up on his report. If he had found
Dekker's battalion, she would need to deal with him before he had the
opportunity to link up with the Paladin. As she watched Shoahn'Fal walk back to
General Kim, she tried to remember the last time she had made a command
decision.

Shoahn'Fal leaned close to General Kim
and seemed to say something. Kim nodded and then Shoahn'Fal stepped through the
side hatch of her command carrier and disappeared inside. Her headset chimed.
"Second Brigade, this is General Kim. Third Battalion will detach here to
conduct a movement to contact mission south of our current position based on a
possible sighting of MEF Second Battalion. The rest of the brigade will stand
fast until we know more. Out."

Godfrey stared at General Kim. He gave
her a single nod and waited. Unable to think of any reason to countermand his
orders, she nodded her ascent and started walking back to her carrier.

Her headset chimed again. "Guard
Six, Eightball, we have your package inbound momentarily."

She tapped her headset. "Guard Six
copies." She quickened her pace, scanning the sky behind the trailing
elements of her column. A glint caught her eye and she stopped to focus on a
speck floating high in the air. The shape grew until she could make out the
stubs of wings and hear the distant whine of its turbines.

"Looks like our guest has
arrived," she said.

General Kim arched a brow. "What
are you going to do with him?"

Godfrey rubbed her chin. "He's kept
his end of the deal. Maybe he's willing to go a little further."

"He kept his end, but we did
not," Kim said. "Why would he trust you now?"

"Because we haven't killed him
yet."

"Do you want me to wait,
then?" Kim asked.

"No, send in the Third Battalion.
It's easier to convince somebody when you have a stick in your hand. I don't
want Dekker to to run if Lane can't pull it off."

"Pull what off?" Kim asked.

Godfrey smirked. "Being a
general."

Bait

Lt. Simmons lay prone on the lee side of
the ridge, peeking over its crest with her field glasses. "That is one
squared away column," she said.

Lying next to her, Sergeant d'Vane said,
"I heard a rumor once."

"Oh yeah, what about?"

"They say General Kim has his
troops do calisthenics every morning before chow."

Simmons smirked as she studied the foot
patrols strutting along the perimeter like toy soldiers. "That include
pushups?"

"Oh yeah. And pullups. Real
exercise."

Simmons twisted a knob on the side of
her field glasses and tapped d'Vane on the shoulder. Her field glasses showed
an electromagnetic flux ripple out from one of the carriers. She pointed at the
vehicle and said, "There. One of them is starting up."

"And they're folding back their
panels. Looks like Second Brigade's getting ready to head out."

Simmons scanned the carriers from the
rear of the column, then swept her glasses forward up the line. She stopped
when she saw that only the last third of the column was starting their
vehicles. "Not quite," she said. "I see 18 regular tracks, a
command track and a coms track. But that's it."

The carriers eased back from the rest of
the column and then turned in a single movement to form a line abreast. Simmons
twisted the knob again and saw the shimmering red outline of their drivers
through her heat detection filter. Even though she knew they couldn't see her,
she couldn't help feeling that all those eyes were boring right through her.
Two platoons of four tanks each rode up and took position on the flanks,
completing the firing line formation. The tanks slowed but did not stop as the
carriers surged forward.

Simmons lowered her field glasses and
stared at the nearest end of the formation. Realizing the path of the tanks
would edge up on the slope of her ridge, she said, "This is going to be
close."

"Maybe we should displace,"
d'Vane said.

"Too late. Just hunker down."
She pulled back from the crest of the ridge and lay as flat as she could as the
rattle of tank tracks floated over her from the other side. Billows of dust
boiled up and washed over them as the tracks passed just feet from their
position.

After the dust settled, Simmons tapped
her headset. "Enforcer Six, Badger. Immediate. Battalion strength carriers
plus two platoons tangos south from grid 617 528. Out." She rolled over
and grabbed d'Vane's arm, pulling him to his feet as she stood up. "Now we
displace."

Final Orders

Dekker stood behind Sergeant Preston,
watching his coms tech brush his fingertips over the switches and buttons on
the main panel in the communications control center.

"Can you sort this out?"
Dekker asked.

"Yes sir," Preston said. He
touched one of the panels, his finger barely gracing its surface, as if he were
studying a display in a museum. "This here is the UHF panel." He
moved his hand along the panels, pausing to touch each one as he spoke.
"LF, HF, TACAN, IFF -"

"Alright, Sergeant. How does any of
this help us with the STI?"

Preston ran his hand over the panels
again. "None of this helps us directly," he said. "I'll need to
do some work on it."

"What kind of work?"

Preston's hand stopped at the power
switch. "Well, first thing -" He held his breath for a moment and
flipped the switch. A green light next to it glowed. Needles on gauges
fluttered and red LED displays came to life. The monitor in the center of the
console flickered and then revealed a slew of green dotted text scrolling up
the screen as the system's computer ran its power up tests.

"Well, that looks pretty
good," Dekker said, letting out his own breath. "Now what?"

"This is all designed for ground
and air traffic. Nothing here is designed for a satellite uplink."

"Can you rig it?"

"I think so, sir. I just need to
figure out the best way."

"Let's try the fastest way,
Sergeant."

Preston turned to look at him. He rubbed
his chin and started nodding. "Alright sir. I'll need a minute to think
this through."

Dekker patted him on the shoulder and
said, "I understand. I want a briefing in 30 minutes."

"Aye aye sir."

Dekker stepped away and paced to the
hatch leading to the compound. He stepped outside to see one of the Marines
standing guard scanning the sky with a pair of field glasses.

"What do you have there,
Corporal?" he asked.

Still watching the sky, the sentry said,
"Something inbound from the air. It looks like on of ours."

Dekker's headset chimed. "Enforcer
Six, Skywatch, over."

"Go Skywatch."

"Sir, we have an inbound contact
requesting to talk to you."

"Let me take a look,
Corporal." The sentry lowered his field glasses and handed them to Dekker.
"Say again, Skywatch. Somebody wants to talk to me?"

"That's correct, sir."

"Do you have an ID?"

"Sir, they're squawking the
General's command code."

Dekker's head jerked back as he lowered
the field glasses. He handed them back to the sentry and walked across the
compound to the main gate where the weapons company was starting to prepare its
defense. He clasped his hands behind his back as a shimmer of sunlight swept
across the bottom of the approaching jumjet's wings. The Marines standing
around the gate turned their heads as its turbines threw up a vortex of dust.
Dekker narrowed his eyes, but did not turn his head, allowing the grit to sting
his face is it swept across him.

The turbines whined to a standstill and
the canopy hissed open. Even before the passenger stood up to dismount the
cockpit, Dekker recognized General Lane's face. The General climbed down the
ladder, testing each step as if he wasn't sure he could hold his own weight.
After the last step, he didn't hop down but instead planted one foot at a time
on the ground. He held on to the ladder for a moment longer and then turned to
face Dekker. Lane started to walk towards him, his face creased with the strain
of trying to hide a limp. He was pale and his eyes drooped with pain. As he
drew closer, Dekker saw the sheen of a bruise on his left cheek. Even so,
General Lane managed the same smile Dekker had seen when he had received his
orders to chase down the Paladin - orders that now seemed to come from another
lifetime.

As if Dekker wouldn't notice any of it,
Lane kept the smile, a beaming mask of pleasantry that was as out of place as
the General himself. When he was close enough, Dekker raised his hand in a
salute. Lane cocked his head, broadened his grin and returned the salute.
Behind him, the jumpjet lifted off and scurried back the way it had come.
Dekker tapped his headset and said, "Skywatch, let him go. We'll call it a
parley."

"Wilco."

As Dekker let his hand back down, Lane
siezed it with a firm grip. "Ben, how the hell are you?" Dekker shook
his hand, keeping his gaze glued on Lane's eyes.

"Fine, sir," Dekker said.
"I'm glad to see you survived the First Brigade's attack on the
compound."

"Yes, well, I guess I'm a little
worse for the wear," Lane said, still smiling.

"You managed to escape?"

Lane's eyes shifted away for a moment
and he let out a grunt. "Not exactly." His eyes moved to the Marines
standing sentry at the communications center and then swept the compound.
"We need to talk." He jabbed his thumb behind him. "Let's go for
a walk."

"I'm in the process of setting up a
defense, General. I can't leave my post."

"Captain Brandt can handle it. It
won't take long." Still, the smile.

Dekker felt his brow starting to shift
as he realized the General didn't know what had happened to his XO. He caught
himself and forced a blank look. What else did the man not know?  "Time
grows short, General."

Lane's smile quivered. "I'm a
little surprised at you, Ben. You've gotten - " Lane narrowed his eyes.
"-testy."

Dekker started walking away from the
complex, slowing his pace to compensate for Lane's limp. He thumped the heel of
his left boot against the ground as they walked, forcing himself to keep
looking forward. Neither spoke as they put distance between themselves and the
complex.

"Where have you been,
General?"

"Negotiating."

Dekker stopped and turned around.
General Lane was breathing as if they had walked a mile even though they had
been walking for only a few minutes. The smile was gone and he pressed a hand
against his ribs.

"Negotiating?"

"Yes," Lane said, trying to
suppress his wheezing. "Because of you."

Dekker's face grew hot. He started to
take a step towards Lane and stopped himself. "Me?"

"The Paladin is still out there
somewhere. And you're here." Lane swept his hand towards the complex,
"defending a dead com center in the middle of nowhere." A wince
fluttered across his face as he adjusted his hand on his ribs. "When you
should be tracking him down."

"The situation has changed since
then, General. And I haven't been able to contact you."

"You have orders, Colonel."

"Orders?" Dekker spat the
word. "Orders that took us out of position so the Terran Guard could
overrun the compound while their Second Brigade roams free."

"Colonel - "

"Orders that have left me with the
only credible force to help the Paladin defend against an attack that you and I
both know is coming." Dekker took a step towards Lane. "But I wonder
if you know why."

Lane tried to scoff but he winced hard
and clutched at his rib cage instead. He shook his head, a smile creeping back
onto his face as the pain subsided. "They are attacking the one thing
they're still afraid of, Colonel. The one thing that has kept this ceasefire
from holding. The one thing you were supposed to take care of. They are
attacking, Colonel, because you failed to follow orders."

"You didn't come here to lecture me
about orders, General."

"No, I suppose not."

"Then why are you here?"

General Lane eased his hand away from
his ribs and squeezed his eyes shut. He tugged at the bottom of his field
utility blouse and sucked in a breath through his nose. He opened his eyes, the
smile draining away as he fought to hide his pain behind a commander's scowl.
"New orders, Ben."

"Really?"

General Lane took a step forward,
blinking hard to hide another wince of pain. "Yes, really. Assuming you're
still a member of the MEF. If not -"

"Then there really isn't much you
can do about it. Sir." Dekker stared at his commanding officer. If the
wind had come up and toppled him over and covered him with sand, Dekker would
have walked away and there was nothing anybody could have done about it. Would
anybody have even cared?  The man standing before him, shrouded in pain, slave
to something that Dekker still couldn't touch, wasn't even a Marine. Not
anymore. He knew that much. But he needed to know more. He needed to know who
this man wearing the uniform of a Marine general was, and why he now stood in
the desert sun acting as if he were still somebody who understood what a real
order even was. Was he the same man he had always been?  Or had he become
something else? 

"What are your orders,
General?" he asked.

"It doesn't really matter who's
right or wrong at this point. The war's over. You need to stand down, Ben. I
know you can't see it right now, but you'll be saving lives. There are still
colonists left and they'll be treated humanely. I might even be able to have
you keep your commission and retain at least a token command. You'll be
comfortable. All you have to do is let the Second Brigade do what needs to be
done so they'll know that it really is over."

"And what would that be?"

"Let them take care of the Paladin.
All you have to do is not get in the way. They'll handle the rest."

"And what happens to him, General? 
He won't surrender. Ever."

"The price for peace,
Colonel." Lane slid his foot forward and placed his hand on Dekker's
shoulder. Dekker resisted the urge to slap it away. "It was his choice,
Ben. All he had to do was come home."

"And if I refuse?"

General Lane shook his head. "A
full battalion of Terran Guard is already on its way, Ben. But you probably
know that already. Out of respect for you and your men, I convinced them to let
me talk to you first."

Lane's eyes were drooping again, but not
from pain. They were pleading with him. Were they pleading with him to save
Dekker's Marines?  Or were they pleading for the General's own life?

"You see, Ben," General Lane
continued, "I'm here on a mission of mercy."

Dekker brushed Lane's away from his
shoulder. "Yeah?  Tell that to the people who were on Dirt Hill."

"Ben, I-"

"No. Like you said, the Terran
Guard will be here soon. You can surrender to them if you want. Again. Until
then, stay out of my way." He poked Lane's chest hard enough to make him
stumble back. "And keep quiet. Cross me and I'll shoot you where you
stand."

He walked past the General, knocking the
man aside with his shoulder as he passed. It didn't even occur to him to look
over his shoulder as he left the man who had once been his commanding officer
standing in the Shoahn' sun clutching at his ribs.