Ragnarok (26 page)

It fought her viciously, but its limbs didn't reach behind it. It kicked back with its hind legs, and its talons scraped over Violet's armor. She severed the tendons on one, and it crouched briefly, just enough for her to climb up onto its back. She sunk the blade between its vertebrae, but it didn't die. It started bucking, clawing at her as best it could. She stabbed again. This time the knife went deeper and the beast went down.

Violet rolled off and looked to the other creature. Varg had cut it in half with a single swing.

 

 

T
HEY
SLEPT
that night in the warm guardthings' fat. They were fairly lean, but the three of them easily housed six sleepers. Veikko and Weasel slept in the exploded remains, Varg and Spit embraced under the halves of Varg's beast, while Violet and Vibeke shared the tight interior of Violet's animal.

The air was frozen as night took over. Painfully so, despite the suits and chemicals. Nelson was stowed away in a corner of the abandoned Wolf camp, hiding from potential witnesses. He had nothing to report. There was no distraction from the frozen air. Violet lay next to Vibeke, afraid to roll over toward her. But she could sense Vibeke was shivering too. She needed permission, so she suggested something she knew wouldn't work.

“We could put up vacuum defenses on our armor,” suggested Violet.

“They use pressure for power, won't work in air, even this thin,” Vibeke replied.

Just as planned. “What can we do?”

“Just spoon me.”

Bingo. Violet did so, delighted to hear the words. She squeezed Vibeke hard enough that the shivering in her arms refocused into her grasp. It was the closest Violet could get to anything physical with Vibeke so suddenly she didn't mind the cold. She considered pressing against Vibeke's chest, but she'd no doubt know why and might make her stop, brush her off into the cold again. Violet wouldn't feel much under the Thaco fur anyway.

She focused on the gory surroundings to eradicate any desire. She listened to the drip of blood and fluids from the inside of the beast, felt how it matted down on her armor's fur. Despite using oxygen prongs, she could smell the guardthing's blood and fat, iron and a sickly sweet stink. She tried to smell Vibeke's neck to no avail.

“Do you….” Violet linked.

“Do I?”

“Do you have any regrets about the trip?”

“No, I thought it was lovely. Do you?”

“No, no, of course not.”

Vibeke said nothing. She thought of the awkward moment in the sparring ring.

Violet thought of her resolution to tell Vibeke everything. Cut off only by Veikko and Varg. Not by anything else, she told herself. They were alone now. She had no excuse. She was courageous in the extreme, or she wouldn't be a Valkyrie. She had to tell herself that five times before she was able.

“It is me, isn't it? That you're afraid of?”

Vibeke said nothing.

“Then tell me it's not, because it would be a real load off. Tell me nothing could ever happen between us, that you don't want what I want. And you know what I want, you have to. Tell me you don't want it too, that you don't wish we'd locked ourselves in that berth and locked lips for thirty days.”

Vibeke found herself angry at Violet's forwardness. “Which lips are you wishing we'd locked?”

“Wow, I meant kissing, but since you mention it—”

“Stop.”

Violet cringed, letting guardthing blood into the corner of her mouth. She knew Vibeke was angry. Well, if she'd pissed her off anyway, there was no sense in stopping there.

“Look, I have something I have to get off my chest.”

“Unless it's your Tikari, now's not the time.”

“There will never be a good time.”

“I'm tired, Violet.”

“Me too, Vibs. I'm tired of the charade that we're not in love. And if it's because you're scared, then I'm tired of you, a Valkyrie, not conquering your fears. I'm tired of wasting time, because every second I'm not holding you is a waste. I'm tired of wanting you from afar. Staring at you, listening to you, getting myself off to you—”

“Stop, now.”

“Stop what? It's a compliment.”

“Right, that's all, a compliment.”

“Exactly. Like your perfect arse and succulent tits.”

“And your complete lack of decency.”

“And the way you sleep sometimes with your hand on your—”

“And the way you're too fucking stupid to know when to stop.”

“And the way you're too fucking smart to do what would make you happy.”

“Well, thanks for the fucking compliments, Vi.”

“You too, cunt.”

Violet felt a prick of something that wasn't entirely negative, as she'd expected rejection to be. Something like sparring, it hurt to get hit, but it felt good to fight.

Vibeke felt only anger at Violet's tactlessness. She'd just said it, openly. She resented Violet above all because she hadn't had the guts to say it openly herself.

“You're a crude one,” said Vibeke.

“I mean it complimentary like.”

“I'm glad we're so complimentary.” Not what Vibs wanted to admit. “I mean—”

“We are perfect for each other, you know.”

Vibeke couldn't deny that. Lying about it would send her stomach through her throat, and Violet would know it. That would encourage her even more. But nothing could happen. They were on the same team. They had to put each other's lives in their hands daily. She was afraid of what might happen, of being betrayed again by the last person she could take it from. But that was a fear, and Violet was right about fear. She could admit the truth. She had to.

“…Yeah, I know.” She said it so begrudgingly it was like Violet asked her to clean a plumbing fixture. She knew why, Vibeke was a slave to protocol and logic. She thought it best to put her at ease.

“But nothing can ever happen because we fight together, because you're afraid of being betrayed like before. But I won't. I'll never, ever betray you like that. I'm not capable of it. Vibs—”

“No! You want to know why I don't want you? Because I can't trust you. Because you
would
be Mishka all over again.”

It was exactly like pain training—a punch in the stomach that ruptured the lining. Violet didn't speak.

“Nothing to say now? No sex jokes? No innuendo? Then you know how I feel. I don't want you because the one time I fucked a girl like you, it was her. Yeah, I love you back.
Almost
as much as I loved her. Her strength, her wit, the way she held me, exactly like you're holding me now. But I loved her like I'll never love you because I wasn't afraid back then, and I paid for it. Got that? I will never, ever love you the way I loved her.”

Violet was shaking and not because of the cold.

“Stop.”

“You never stop. You flirt and fidget every goddamn second, and you've done it for a year now, and I put up with it. I'm not going to anymore. Whatever you think can happen between us wouldn't be what you want. I'm damaged goods. I'll never trust anyone enough to love them. I'd be faking it with you.”

Vibeke stewed. Violet wouldn't care if it were fake. She was too thick, too single-minded. And Vibeke was too tired to fight her anymore. She gave up.

“You want something to happen between us? Fine. Plow away. Spit out the blood and fuck me right here in this fucking corpse. If that's what you want, take it. Just don't expect me to like it because you can tongue and finger any spot you like, and I'll be thinking about killing Mishka. If that gets you off, go for it.”

Violet didn't move a centimeter, or say a word. She was horrified. Vibeke was suddenly far too human to objectify easily. She wished desperately that Vibeke had told her long ago how Mishka had truly hurt her. She was furious at her for not telling. And deeper down was an animal inside her that didn't care. Vibeke said it in anger, but she said it. Fuck me. That overrode any sympathy Violet might have felt. If Vibeke told her before, if she hadn't told her in spite, she might not have done a thing. But Vibeke was fighting her. Tempting her. Part of Violet wanted to stay noble and be a friend for Vibs after her admission. But a bigger part wanted to grab her tit.

Violet reached over Vibeke's side and pressed her hand down. Vibeke didn't move. Didn't object. Didn't say a thing. Violet held on more firmly, squeezing harder and harder. Still Vibeke didn't move, wouldn't even give her the satisfaction of objecting. That's how it was to be. Not a word. Violet grabbed harder. And harder. Nothing. She grabbed as tight as she could, angry and taken aback that Vibs would rather go into full pain training mode than let out a gasp or tell her to stop. Violet had never felt so worthless or ashamed. She let go and sniffled.

“Fuck you, Vibs. Just fuck you.”

Vibeke ignored her and tried to sleep. Violet never learned she had in fact been groping the guardthing's kidney.

 

 

I
N
THE
morning they shook the innards from their suits and walked on. They encountered no more guardthings, but robots became a problem. The Yakuza had several monitoring the landscape and reporting back. The landscape offered little cover so they kept Tikaris at high altitude, as high as they could fly in the thin air, to watch for the robots.

Violet and Vibeke said nothing to each other. And nothing felt different. For all that had transpired in the night, neither wanted to admit any of it happened. So they walked on side by side, both burning too deep inside to let a thing show. As they plodded through the monotonous landscape, the buried anger and lust absorbed into their aching legs and didn't register at all.

They had to constantly adjust their course to stay out of the treaded wanderers' field of vision. Vibeke estimated it added another half day to the journey. They looked into Nelson's feed. The Yaks had built up something around the Ares tanks, along with a network of building pods and modules. They were serious about taking the Ares, unlike the Wolves.

The security perimeter wasn't too bad. More robots but not enough to form a complete line. Eight more guardthings, but only the three they'd killed would be on their path inward. Dozens of Yakuza. Vibs counted forty-three unique outdoors, likely seventy-five or more total present. They walked closer.

Finally they came to the plateau overlooking the Ares zone. The Yaks were building a rocket right around the tanks. It was short, only tall enough to encase them. It had small fuel tanks, enough to lift off but nowhere near enough to get to Earth.

“We're going to head for the conveyor and get ourselves home before these eggs die off,” said Weasel.

Veikko nodded. Neither the PRA nor Valkyries were prone to long good-byes, so after Varg snogged Spit for a solid five minutes, the rebels left for home, leaving V team alone on the plateau. Nelson returned to Violet shortly after they left. She felt whole again with her Tikari back in her chest after so long. Nelson recharged greedily.

They elected to wait for nightfall to make their incursion into the Yak base. They were close enough to venture a hack into the Yakuza network, so each went for a different Yak. The first few Violet found were hack armored and would need bores to read, but one technician was wide open. His mind gave some idea as to why the rocket was so simple. The team shared their findings at dusk.

Violet spoke first. “They've carved out Enyo, a tiny natural satellite. This rocket will only take the tanks up into orbit where they'll put them inside. Enyo has been fitted with the thrusters necessary to take it into Earth orbit. I'm sure they have something ready to take them over there.”

Vibeke had hacked a communications officer. “There's concern about that. The Unspeakable Darkness are attacking Yak interests on Earth. They expect they're going to attempt to steal the Ares when it comes into orbit. Both are UNEGA, but the political situation down there must be going berserk. If we set off the nuke, there's almost no question there would be an intra-UNEGA war.”

“Also it would vaporize us,” added Varg.

“The sabotage option seems our best approach,” said Vibeke. “We keep them from taking off. No nukes, no risk.”

“Agreed,” added Varg, “but I caught something else from my hack into one of the security team. The UD isn't just attacking on Earth. They think they have a platoon on Mars.”

“The Darkness on Mars?”

“They may try to take the rocket here and bring it back themselves with Yak equipment.”

“That would certainly complicate matters.”

“Yes, it would. But it can work to our advantage. When the UD come, we'll have a chance to destroy the thrusters, security will be occupied, and it'll be the perfect distraction for the rest. All we have to do is survive the attack.”

“I'm still not convinced,” said Veikko. “No battle will end this. Even breaking open the tanks wouldn't stop it. They'd just ship the mud back to Earth. The Ares water seems determined to stay existent. All we can do is delay, and with the UD coming, there'll be two major
forces trying to bring it home. We'd have to stay here indefinitely to keep each new threat from securing the water. I say we get on the conveyer and nuke the thing from Barsoom. It's the only way to be sure.”

“It's not an option anymore,” said Varg. “The Geki would kill us all.”

The four considered it; it seemed likely. They'd have to find a way to permanently sabotage the Yakuza efforts.

Mishka's eye left their conversation and returned to her in the abandoned Wolf stronghold.

 

 

V
TEAM
prepared a simple Mug-For-Disguise incursion. They'd knock out a couple periphery guard teams of two and, once in their uniforms, start by checking out whether the nuke was still intact.