Imperial Guard (13 page)

“We did it!” breathed Brogan. “We held! Thank God for that platform!” He didn’t know that now-Lieutenant Unger was serving on that cruiser, and Unger had no idea that he had helped save the life of his old friend.

But Eagle Company had paid dearly for the victory. Out of the nearly 150 men who had left camp, only 62, including the wounded from the ambush, had survived. First Sergeant Dombrowsky would never be a sergeant major. Lieutenant Tanaka would never celebrate his recent promotion. No one would ever know who figured out how to fire the howitzers indirectly. That hero died in the final assault.

The list went on and on. Brogan felt old and worn out and as empty as a thrown-out cornhusk.

Brogan collapsed onto his cot exhausted. It had been a tough operation, and he was glad to be back. Experts had forecast for centuries that the foot soldier would become obsolete. Brogan wished it had already happened. But each technological advance was eventually nullified by a counter measure. Each new shield was stymied by a device developed to penetrate it, and a defense had been found for each new offensive weapon. The military hardware had become more and more sophisticated and more and more deadly, but they still had to be used by people. Men still must grapple with men, and humans must be present to hold captured territory.

Four months had passed since Brogan’s first patrol and the historic ambush. The Imperial forces had steadily expanded their zone of control on Peru II. The first tenuous foothold had grown to encompass nearly half a world. Darkhow was now a general. Brogan was still a captain, but rumor had it that he would soon be promoted to major. To be a field-grade officer at twenty-five was considered extremely rapid advancement. Darkhow had once hinted that Brogan’s star was rising as rapidly as his own.

“Ahhhhh, a real cot at last,” exclaimed Manazes as he dumped his gear into a corner and fell onto his bedding. “I was beginning to think that a real bed existed only in my dreams.”

“You mean you don’t like cuddling up to slimy mud?”

“You’re a real funny guy, Brogan.”

Brogan lifted up on his elbow. “Seriously, Manazes, you ought to clean your gear before you flake out. What kind of example is that to your men?”

Manazes groaned. “Lighten up, sir. I’ll clean it soon as I get a bit of relaxation.” He stretched out the last word, enunciating each syllable with precision, savoring the meaning.

“Sure.”

Brogan and Manazes had become fast friends, and this kind of bantering went on all the time. Manazes was now official company XO and was certain to succeed Brogan as company commander once Brogan was promoted.

“Don’t you ever take a break?” complained Manazes, turning toward Brogan with a sneer on his face.

“Only after I’ve cleaned my gear and made sure the men did too. By the way, how many of the men did you let flake out before they cleaned their gear?”

“Oh, alright! You win,” whined Manazes with tired resignation. He sat up and pulled his gear in front of the cot. “If I have to clean my gear, you have to stay awake long enough to talk to me till I’m done.”

“You teeter on the brink of insubordination, mister. But I acquiesce to your wishes in deference to my own, as any first-rate commander would.”

“I am humbled by the magnanimity of such an august officer,” Manazes retorted with a grin.

Manazes worked on his equipment for a few minutes in silence. Then he resumed the conversation. “Say, when do you think they’ll send me to CIO School? It’d be great to get back to Earth. But, then, anything would be better than this moldy planet! Why would people be so fanatical about this lump of jungle anyway?”

“I guess its home to them,” replied Brogan absently, hands clasped behind his head, gazing at the ceiling. “What else would drive people to such passion? The Emperor is the rightful sovereign of all known worlds, but I can’t help wondering if these people don’t have a right to self-determination. When I enlisted, everything was black and white. My duty was to defend the Emperor and the Empire from all aggressors. But these people seem only to be after what we achieved on Cirrus decades ago.”

Manazes, bent over his gear, continued working in silence for a few moments. Then he stopped and said in a strangely choked voice, “Well, Captain, it’s all pretty clear to me. I’d give my life for the Emperor. My home world—New Brazil—was colonized by one of the sublight hive ships. You’ve probably read about them. They were sent out after the Great War to colonize several planets. Ours was built and manned by Brazilians in 2108, a few years after Rio became the capital of the new Western Empire. The idea was that several generations would pass before the ship reached the designated planet. By then the original crew members would have multiplied to fill the whole ship, and they would be numerous enough to start a strong colony. By the time we reached our system, tens of thousands of colonists were bursting the seams of the ship.”

The development of the self-contained hydrogen engine was the fundamental advance that made sublight colonization possible. The hydrogen engine had been applied to jet aviation as early as the 1950s. That engine used liquid hydrogen as its fuel. Over the decades other experimental applications ensued, but none proved to be efficient or economical enough to effectively supplant fossil fuel engines.

Nevertheless, limited applications began early in the twenty-first century. But it wasn’t until 2086 that researchers succeeded in developing a revolutionary hydrogen engine that converted the energy of hydrogen molecules directly from water by means of hydrolysis. In space ships, the energy needed to hydrolyze water was obtained from solar panels. In planetary applications, hydrolysis was accomplished by means of solar, battery, or nuclear power.

It was a technological innovation to rival the invention of the wheel. Such a fuel source was not only inexhaustible; it did not produce waste. After the engine used the power of the hydrogen molecules, the oxygen and hydrogen recombined into water again
—effectively unchanged. The water could be hydrolyzed over and over again with no depletion of the water’s molecular energy. The self-contained hydrogen engine, therefore, quickly replaced nonrenewable fossil fuels and even renewable sources of energy, such as hydraulic power, wind power, and solar and nuclear energy.

The application of the new hydrogen engine to space travel was immediately realized. If the engine propelling a space ship could repeatedly reuse its existing fuel, it could continue propelling the ship for extremely long durations, shutting down only for maintenance, repairs, or replacement. Thus, instead of a space ship simply drifting at the speed attained from its initial thrust, its velocity could continue building to the edge of light speed. The same principle, of course, could also be applied for deceleration as well.

The hydrogen engine not only revolutionized society but the military as well. No longer was fuel consumption or availability a limiting factor in a campaign. Bigger and more complex equipment could be developed. For a few years technology went crazy. But gradually things settled down into a less frenzied pattern.

“New Brazil turned out to be a lush planet, and life was easy for the settlers. In fact, it was too easy. Before they realized what was happening, a couple of the more ambitious families had established a monarchy and proceeded to enslave the rest. I guess the first couple of generations didn’t mind it too much ’cause life was easy, and it wasn’t hard to support the new royalty. But as time passed the demands of the royal class grew. By the time I was born, starvation was commonplace among the peasants. How ironic that people should be starving on a rich world like New Brazil!” Manazes spit out bitterly.

He sighed. “Anyway, I watched my parents starve themselves, trying to keep us kids alive until the harvest. They saved our lives, but only because the Emperor’s fleet arrived before the next harvest. The broadcast of our arrival on New Brazil had reached Earth only months earlier, and since the hyperjump had been discovered since our departure, the fleet made the trip in a matter of months.

“The insolent royalty of New Brazil was no match for crack starship Fusiliers,” Manazes continued with a sneer. “After they were dispatched, everyone was bonded to the Trading Company for four generations, but we were all granted status as freedmen. At least there were no more slaves on New Brazil! Best of all, by enlisting in the Fusiliers for ten years you could be assured of at least third-class citizenship.

“Skipper, you know what it’s like to be poor. But to be starving is something you got to experience to know what it’s like. No peasant had ever had a full belly before; now we had that and more—hope for the future.”

Manazes looked at Brogan. “In the latest scan from my sister, she said that she’s going to marry a merchant émigré from Tyre. It’s hard to believe that Sis is going to be a first-class citizen. Once I was sure we’d all starve, or be worked to death. Now it looks like we’ll both be citizens of the Empire. If these scum here on Peru II can’t understand what’s good for them, then that’s tough. I’ve got no sympathy!”

Brogan was silent momentarily. Then he said softly, “I don’t have any doubts about my allegiance to the Emperor, either. It’s just that my feelings are torn between the cause of the rebels, which seems reasonable and just, and their methods, which are often brutal and cold-blooded.”

“Like the rumors that they don’t take prisoners?”

“Yeah. And the reprisals they make on civilians who fail to support or harbor them. Remember that settlement we found last week? From what I hear, the mop-up crew found a mass grave full of bodies—men, women, and children. At first some thought it might have been our doing, but the medics established the time of death as just prior to our sweep.”

“Even more reason not to waste sympathy on ’em, skipper,” rejoined Manazes with fervor. “My philosophy is ‘Follow orders and keep your mouth shut.’”

“I understand that philosophy to a point,” sighed Brogan. “When I was growing up, our church directed that we should obey the lawful authorities.”

“Hey, I forgot you’re a Mennonite, Captain. How come you’re a military man, anyway? I thought Mennonites were against joining the army.”

“You know, I’ve wondered about that at times myself. But there’s always been a difference of opinion among Mennonites on Cirrus about military service. In the rebellion against the Trading Company, a lot of Mennonites fought side by side with the ‘new people’—that’s what our church called those who got to Cirrus by falsely professing our faith. My Uncle Charles was an example of a Mennonite who fought against the Trading Company. He used to tell such wonderful stories about it. I guess I was just drawn into the adventure of it all.

“My father, on the other hand, was somber and severe. All he seemed to want to do was work and pray. Well, I see things a lot different now. I think I’m beginning to understand why he was like that. Life was really difficult for him, what with having to shoulder the responsibility of bondage at such a young age and Uncle Charles slipping out of his share of the responsibility. It must have been hard for him to forgive Uncle Charles for that.”

Brogan rolled onto his side so that he was facing Manazes. “When I left home, I never looked back. I thought I’d never get homesick. But I am now. I miss the wide-open spaces and the dry climate of Cirrus. I’d like to see my family again.”

With a faraway look in his eyes, he added, “It probably broke my mother’s heart to see me run off like that.”

Silence descended on the two soldiers, and suddenly Brogan returned to the present. Hastily changing the subject, he turned on his back and swore. “This hot, sweaty planet sure doesn’t agree with me! It’s like a perpetual sauna!”

“Yeah, I know what you mean,” mumbled Manazes.

Both men drifted off into their own private thoughts. Presently a movement startled them, and they looked up to see a disheveled lieutenant in Fusilier combat gear pushing his way into the room unannounced. His uniform was distinguished by Imperial Guard pips on his collar. He looked around in a confused manner. The two men jumped up.

“What do you want!” snapped Brogan, irritated at the man’s lack of protocol.

“Uh, Second Lieutenant Josh Mogul reporting for duty,” the man responded in a surly manner. “sir,” he added as an afterthought. Then he plopped down on Manazes’ cot.

Brogan was outraged. “Is that the way you learned to report at CIO School? Get on your feet, Lieutenant!”

Mogul looked up, and slowly and reluctantly pushed himself off the cot. As he did so Brogan’s memory stirred over the familiar features.
Carl Mogul’s brother!
his mind shouted.

“Never got to that school, Captain, sir. And before you go making any mistakes, you better know who I am.”

“I know who you are, Lieutenant! You’re the younger son of Second Minister Kepec Mogul and the brother of the highly ambitious Carl Mogul. You are a member of royalty and an officer in the Imperial Guard. But before
you
go making any mistakes, mister, you better know that none of that matters in
my
outfit. If you’re looking for special treatment, you’re in the wrong place. Now get your carcass out of my quarters and report to the first sergeant. He’ll assign you a bed. Oh, and Mogul!” Brogan added for emphasis. “At least
try
to act like a soldier while you’re on my staff. You’re dismissed.”

Mogul’s face grew dark. “You can’t talk to me like that! I’ll see you nailed to the wall if you don’t treat me like I deserve!”

“You
will
be treated like you deserve, Mogul—just like any other officer in my charge.” Brogan reached into his bag and tossed an issue scan to Mogul. “Read the parts on that scan about insubordination in a combat theater before you get too big for your pants. I think you’ll find life in a combat unit to be quite different from what you’ve been accustomed to.” Brogan paused. “Now get out of here before I really lose my temper!” he yelled at the top of his lungs.

Mogul stumbled backwards, grabbed his gear and made a hasty, if not dignified, exit. Manazes laid back down on the cot and grinned at Brogan. “I think you smoked his tail some.” He pursed his lips. “Seriously though, don’t you think you’re taking a chance coming down so hard on his royalness?”