Merkiaari Wars: 02 - What Price Honour (25 page)

“Question, sir?” Fuentez said and Flowers nodded to her. “I have no objections to learning whatever you want, but… artillery? We’re infantry.”

There were nods and murmurs from among the recruits.

“Don’t you like Arty, Fuentez?”

Fuentez grinned. “Only when it’s on my side, sir.”

The recruits laughed and Flowers smiled. “Quieten down, people. Fuentez is right in what she says. Vipers are infantry, but things have changed just a bit since the war.”

Kate grinned.

Flowers went on. “Back then, we were deployed with other Alliance forces. Mostly in the first wave, sometimes ahead of the first wave, but we always had backup. Now we mostly work undercover on solo ops, but the General believes in being prepared for all contingencies. Even outright war. That means, you will learn whatever we decide to teach you. How many of you know how to pilot a shuttle?”

Kate raised her hand, as did a dozen or so others. Fuentez wasn’t one of them.

Flowers nodded. “By the end of your training, all of you will be able to steal a shuttle and use it. All of you will know how to load, aim, and fire a range of artillery pieces. And your fire will be
dead
accurate. Vipers live a very long time, people. You will spend a lot of that time learning everything there is to know about the art of destruction.” He glanced at his wristcomp. “Dismissed!”

The recruits stood to attention.

Kate relaxed after the Colonel left, and the recruits milled around discussing what they had learned today. All week long, the Colonel had held lectures from zero six hundred to twelve hundred hours. The afternoon was theirs, and the evening was given over to tactical problems, based on their supposed understanding of the day’s lessons. She had done well so far, but then she should. She had the advantage of Stone’s download to draw on.

She frowned. Why hadn’t she blown the whistle on Stone? And that was another thing, why was she still thinking in retro?

Moving away with a scowl on her face, Kate tracked down Hiller. He was lying on his rack with a compad propped on his chest, displaying one of the viper manuals they had all been issued. He didn’t notice her come in until she snatched the compad out of his hands.

“We have to talk,” she said sitting on the rack next to his.

Hiller sighed and swung his legs down to sit opposite her. “I should have spoken up to him, but I was beholden to him.”

Kate blinked. “Huh?”

“The Whitbys own me,” Hiller said in humiliation. “That’s why I stayed silent that day.”

Kate’s original intention was to ask about Stone, but this was more interesting.

“You’re a Hiller, one of the
families
.”

Hiller’s lips twisted into a snarl. “I’m the son of a family—a family with no money left. Hiller survives only as long as I do what the Whitbys say. They own me. They own all that Hiller was, and they own my vote on Bethany’s council.”

Kate blinked stupidly at him. Hiller was destitute? That news would rock Bethany to its foundations were it ever to become known. Hiller was one of the
families
. One of the original settlers of Bethany’s World. How could it happen? Whitby owned the Hiller vote?

My God, how many others?

“Whitby failed the testing?”

Hiller snorted. “Of course he did. He’s nothing but the pompous windbag he appears to be. He bought his commission the same way he buys everyone and everything he wants.”

“But the Hiller name is everywhere back home. I’ve seen it.”

Hiller nodded. “His father ruined mine and gave us the scraps from his table. Our name still appears on our old holdings, but Hiller actually owns nothing. My sister and I are all that Hiller really has. She went into medicine and turned away from me. She hasn’t even kept the name. Whitby props me up so that my voting rights remain in force.”

Kate grinned. “Wait until they hear about your new job.”

Hiller smiled wearily. “When they hear about this, the name will finally be erased. Not that I care anymore, but I would like to think the Whitbys would be hurt by the loss of the vote.”

“But you don’t think they will be?”

“No chance. They’ve blackmailed their way into holding most of the votes on Bethany. One vote less will be an embarrassment, but nothing more than that.”

That was something Kate needed to think about in depth, but later. “I came to ask you whether Stone… whether he
did
anything to you to make you become a viper?”

Hiller frowned. “Stone? No, nothing. I haven’t spoken to him at all. The reason—the
only
reason that I’m here is my wish to get away from Bethany and Whitby.”

Kate believed him, but what did that mean regarding her own reasons for being here? She was confused about the entire thing. She knew the power and excitement the viper systems imparted from her time in the sim, but that wasn’t the reason… was it? She hoped not. She was a Bethany Ranger in her heart still, a killer, a sniper, and she liked what she was. Would becoming a cyborg change what she was inside? Not the biomech and cybernetics, but her soul? Bethany taught that cyborgs were soulless, but she had witnessed Colonel Flowers’ anguish in the sim. He had been a captain then, but the pain in his eyes at hearing about the children was real. She would stake… yes, even that. She would stake her very
soul
on it.

“I have to see Stone,” Kate mumbled and made to leave.

“Richmond?”

She turned back. “Yes?”

“Are you… are you scared? I am. I’m terrified of becoming a machine. Everyone knows—”

Kate shook her head quickly. “Everyone on
Bethany
knows. We’ve had almost two hundred years of lies forced down our throats.”

“Lies? But our history—”

“Happened,” she broke in. “It happened, but not the way they say. I can’t tell you how I know, but Burgton’s vipers fought hard for us when the Merkiaari came.”

“You’re sure? Really sure that it will be all right?”

“It will be all right,” Kate said and left.

She was unable to find Stone at first. Was he hiding from her? She shook her head; he wouldn’t hide, but where the hell was he? He could usually be found sitting in the refectory at this time of the day, but when she checked, he was nowhere to be found.

“You seen Stone?” Kate said to one of the recruits passing by.

“Nope,” the recruit said and walked on.

After walking aimlessly in the hope of finding him, she finally found someone who might know. She braced to attention and saluted.

“This recruit needs to find Sergeant Stone, ma’am. Might you know where he is?”

Lieutenant Hymas turned from her conversation with another recruit and frowned at the interruption. “Dismissed, Takeri,” she said to the dark complexioned woman.

“Ma’am,” Takeri said saluting before leaving.

Takeri was from Earth. Kate had spoken with her a few times about their customs and the strange way she had at looking at things.

“Stone is resting in his quarters.”

Kate frowned; she hadn’t thought to check his quarters. The day was only half over. What the hell was there to do on this tub that could require him to rest? 

Hymas’ eyes narrowed. “What’s this about, recruit?”

Kate hesitated. “I would rather not say, ma’am.”

“You would rather not say,” Hymas said sotto voiced. She stared at Kate for a long moment before stepping to the wall and pressing the button there. “Computer: page Sergeant Stone.”

A voice barked from the comm. “Stone!”

“Recruit Richmond wants to see you, Ken… yes I think so,” Hymas said and glanced at Kate before continuing.

Kate strained to hear what Stone was saying, but all she heard was a few words. Out of context they gave her nothing of what he was asking the Lieutenant.

“Fine. Do you want me to… right. See you later.” Hymas turned and regarded Kate thoughtfully. “Sergeant Stone has invited you to visit him. That was nice of him wasn’t it?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Kate said giving the expected answer. “In his quarters, ma’am?”

Hymas nodded. “Now would be a good time, Recruit.”

“Thank you, ma’am,” she said, and ducked passed Hymas before her superior could ask her any questions.

When Kate reached Stone’s quarters, she pressed the call button. A moment later the hatch slid aside and she entered the dim cabin.

“Sergeant?”

“Step in won’t you?”

Something was up; she could feel it. Kate stepped fully inside, and the hatch slid shut darkening the cabin still further. Gradually her eyes adjusted and she began to make out shapes. A terminal to one side was dark and the chair before it was empty. The rack was unoccupied and scrupulously neat. It was as regulation as anyone could want. Turning to her left, she found Stone sitting on a couch watching her. That couch surely wasn’t regulation. Fleet must be going soft. Maybe such comforts were within its regulations, but she doubted it. Kate preferred austerity to comfort. Comfort could betray you into wanting more of the same.

Kate was very aware that Stone had her on his sensors from the moment she stepped inside. Hell, he could pick up everyone aboard the ship if he wanted to. She had used those sensors in the sim. She knew how good they were. He had her targeted, she was certain, but he didn’t have a weapon on him. He didn’t need one.

Kate fidgeted uneasily. “I want to… I mean I need to…”

“Know what I did to you?” Stone finished.

“Yes, Sergeant.”

“Come here.”

It was the last thing Kate wanted to do with him in this strange mood, but she had always fought her fear. She stepped toward him, and stopped a pace from his still reclining figure. Close up, he still looked the same. She laughed silently. What had she expected to see, an unshaven ogre?

Stone watched her unblinking. “I did nothing to you except show you the truth.”

Kate felt her face heat with anger. “Whose truth,
yours?
”

“Mine, the Colonel’s, the Regiment’s…” he shrugged. “Yours too now.”

“I want to know why I agreed to be enhanced. I want to know why I keep saying things that sound retro when I never have before. I want to…
understand
.”

Stone laughed, but the sound was bitter. “Understanding, who doesn’t want that? I could have used some on Bethany… we all could. Do you know how many ghosts walk beside me and the Colonel and the others?” He shook his head. “Of course you don’t. How could you? I am two hundred and twenty nine years old—two hundred and thirty in a week. Two hundred years of killing. You think you’re a killer now? Wait a few centuries and you’ll know different.” He stared bleakly into the distance at nothing. “I see them all. My fine and strong platoon of vipers, my first one, going into the fire, and only two of us coming back broken and bloody. My second, and only I came back, my third and three of us survived, my fourth…” he closed his eyes, but when he opened them again they were hard. “I bet you remember every kill, not so?”

“It is so,” Kate agreed.

“Vipers can’t forget, Richmond. They never told us that when they made us. Nothing I can drink, or smoke, or inject can ever give me peace. Our bots won’t allow it. Senility was a curse for millennia, now it’s rare, but even that won’t save me. We remember
everything
, forever and ever and ever… until the end of time for all we know. Ghosts… but ghosts of comrades are still comrades. My victims now, they’re worse.”

“You don’t have victims, Sergeant. You’re a killer like me, but you fight in the open. I take them down in the dark from behind. I like it, and I’m good at it.”

Stone smiled grimly. “I knew that about you the moment I laid eyes on you. If looks could kill, Hiller and Whitby would have been stabbed to death that day on the concourse. Stabbed in the back,
repeatedly
.” He laughed. “I have victims, believe me I do. A school full of kids is one instance, but there are others. They come to me you know, those children. Not often, but more of late—since the download.”

Kate nodded, thankful for the turn the conversation had taken. “That download is what I came to talk about. It changed me;
you
changed me.”

“Not so. The download let you see the truth. The truth is what changed you. Not that I believe you’ve changed very much. You’re seeing things more clearly now. Maybe this is the first time you’ve ever seen clearly. You know Bethany was built on lies, built by liars. You know—”

“I know what you want me to know,” Kate said. “That sim could be a lie.”

“You know it wasn’t. You were me. You did what I did, saw what I did…” Stone broke off staring over her shoulder at nothing. “And what I didn’t do.”

“I went in hating cyborgs, and came out wanting to be one. How can you say you haven’t done something to me, to my mind?”