The Ninth Circle (58 page)

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Authors: R. M. Meluch

BOOK: The Ninth Circle
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He tore off his V-mask, cursing but happy to have all his teeth, and ran through the ship’s tight corridors and up the ladder one level to the command deck.
Kit advised him as he barreled past the Marine guard flanking the hatch, “Plot coming in, sir. Big one.”
“Define ‘big.’”
“Not big like the clokes’ mobile continent but bigger than us. Sir, it’s the
Gladiator
.
Oh, bullyrings.
The image of the gargantuan Roman battlefort appeared on the monitors.
Romans. Who invited Romans?
“Who’s in command?” Dingo demanded.
The com tech answered, “Same guy as last time we met.”
“Wake up the captain.”
“She’s awake,” said Calli, striding in. She waved down the Marine guard’s announcement of her entrance and anyone’s attempt to stand at attention.
“Sir,” said the XO. “We have Romans. Hisself is here.”
“Caesar,” said Calli.
“Yes, sir.”
“Load a torpedo.”
“Shot across the bow, sir?”
“No. Hit him.”
Commander Ryan spoke. “Targeting. Firing solution on
Gladiator
.”
“Targeting, aye. Firing solution acquired, aye.”
“Fire Control. Stand by forward beams.”
“This is Fire Control. Forward beams powered up and standing by.”
“Fire torpedo. Fire beams.”
 
Asante Addai ran up to the front of the column to bring the squad’s resonator to Colonel Steele. The link was more secure than a normal tight beam. “Sir. We have Romans on the roof. Actually, we have Caesar.”
Steele immediately bellowed to his squad, “Personal Fields active! Everyone!”
Steele took up the resonator to confer with Commander Ryan on
Merrimack
.
The Marines at the rear of the file came forward. Some of the foxes shouldered into the huddle with them. Rhino whispered to Carly. “
Qué pasa
? Are we at war?”
“No,” said Carly. “But that don’t mean they won’t shoot. Caesar’s upstairs.”
“Caesar Numa?” said Rhino. Her eyes lit up. “You don’t mean he’s here? I mean,
him
. Really here?”
“Yeah,” Asante nodded. “That’s what the Dingo told me.” He pushed fox whiskers away from his face.
“No big surprise,” said Kerry Blue. “We always end up at the same party.”
“The captain and the emperor always get into a pissing contest,” said Carly. “And the cap’n can piss pretty far for someone who don’t got a pistol.”
Kerry added, “I think he kinda likes her. She kinda hates him.”
Rhino’s grin made her elfin face look wolfish. “I knew I boarded the right boat.”
Asante turned to see that Steele was still talking to
Merrimack
. Couldn’t tell what the presence of Romans was going to do to their orders. Right now the Marines had orders to search for a pirated Xerxes within “walking distance” of the LEN expedition camp.
Rhino questioned the order. “Why don’t we just storm the camp?”
“We need to secure the Xerxes first,” said Cain. “Otherwise the pirates can call the Xerc to come rescue them.”
“Yeah. Like Superman’s horse,” said Dak.
“Where are we?” said Kerry Blue.
Asante checked his omni. “We’re still over a hundred klicks out.”
“I don’t think that counts as walking distance,” said Kerry. Her trousers were shredded into long flapping strips that left her strong lean legs on display.
Dak said, “Can you walk in front of me, Kerry Blue?”
“Shut up, Dak.”
“Wait, wait, wait,” said Rhino. “A Xerxes has full stealth.”
“Yeah?” said Cain. His tone said,
so what?
“We have orders to search for something
invisible
,” said Rhino.
“Yeah?”
“How are we supposed to do that?”
“If you walk into it, say ow. Throw rocks and see if they bounce,” said Cain. “Nobody cares how we do it. We have orders to find it.”
Steele got off the resonator. He shouted at the file to spread out.
They crossed over the ridge crest. The trek was mostly descending from here, except for that last leg up from the river. The land was more open, the trees more scattered. In the distance lay a wide river.
The Yurg called forward from the Charlie spot. “Colonel? The Vols aren’t coming with us.”
Steele turned around. “
What?”
“Our volunteer unit,” said Cain, pointing rearward. “The foxes.”
Steele looked back and up.
The foxes were gathered at the ridge, a whole row of them, watching the Marines descend.
They didn’t look frightened this time. They just weren’t coming. The ridge top was some kind of boundary for them.
TR Steele marched back up and reviewed the band of alien volunteers.
“Yeah. Um.”
I’m trying to address a bunch of fluffy animals
.
Exactly how did one thank impossibly cute creatures for saving one’s life without getting terminally gooey?
This is ridiculous. I’m not doing it
.
Steele frowned seriously. He spoke, gruff. “You did good work. And um. Thank you.”
The bright-eyed foxes smiled at him. Ears up, listening.
“That will be all.” TR Steele turned, rigid, and marched down the incline where his human squad waited.
He didn’t look back. The damned silly things better not be following.
 
“Why are We taking friendly fire, Captain Carmel?”
“I’m sorry, Numa, I mistook you for a pirate,” Captain Carmel said innocently over the com. “Are you here to extract your pirates?”
Caesar said, just as innocent, “We see no pirates in orbit. Of what pirates do you speak?”
“On the ground,” said Calli.
“If you have pirates on the ground, then kill them yourself. We have less than no interest in common outlaws.”
“What brings you here?” Calli demanded.
“Rome has colonies in Perseus space,” said Numa. “
You
do not.”
“This is the Outback,” said Calli. “Zoe is not one of your colonies. Zoe is a LEN protectorate.”
“We are here because this planet is under alien invasion.”
“It is
now
,” said Calli, glaring pointedly at the image of the large invader before her.
“Not us,” said Caesar. “We are no invader. We are here to defend a kindred world against alien invasion.”
“That’s just your pretext to be here.”
“What is yours?”
“The United States is a member nation of the LEN.” Calli was wearing the green. “I’m protecting.”
“The world needs more protection than that,” Numa said.
Calli clicked the com off.
This planet is under alien invasion,
he’d said.
She thought out loud, “How the hell does Numa know about the clokes? He just got here.”
There had been a broadcast about the discovery of Zoe’s DNA, so there was no surprise that Caesar knew Zoe was a “kindred world.” But no one ever announced the presence of the extraplanetary aliens, the clokes.
Dingo spoke the only possible answer, “Caesar’s got someone inside the expedition camp. Either someone on the expedition or else those really
are
his pirates.”
 
After the midday meal, Nox took Glenn on a walk outside the camp. The day was clear and brilliant, the sky so blue and deep Glenn felt if she gazed into it long enough, she might fall up. A high-soaring lizard-bird stooped into peregrine dive and disappeared below the treetops.
Glenn felt a brush at her cheek. Nox. His fingertips touched a ragged edge of her hair. “What’s with the hair?”
“A little incident involving crashing and fire,” said Glenn.
“Then you came here on that ship in the woods?” asked Nox. He had seen the
Spring Beauty
.
“I landed that ship in the woods,” said Glenn.
Nox had a bright American smile. He almost laughed. “That’s brilliant.”
Glenn tilted her head noncommittally.
Nox said, “Nobody in camp cuts hair?”
She had orders to get close to Nox. She didn’t like how close she was getting to Nox.
Anything she said could get her killed. Blunt honesty had gotten Poul Vrba killed. Then again, no one had asked Vrba a question. Glenn said, “Prettying myself up in captivity strikes me as philosophically wrong.”
Several of the women on the expedition had taken to wearing makeup and jewelry since the pirates’ arrival.
Glenn didn’t sense anger from Nox at her answer.
Felt more like approval.
Nox himself was clean. He’d gotten the blood out of his linen-colored tunic. His black cargo pants showed no dull spots. His hair was freshly washed, and the teeth and bones braided into it were polished shiny ivory white. He had added in fresh blue feathers and gold-flecked porcelain beads.
“
Bagheera
is an easy place to live,” Nox told her.
“Bagheera?”
“We named our ship
Bagheera
. We do grisly work, but we don’t live that way. Our home is really beautiful. It looks like anything we want. It could look like this.”
“Why are you telling me this?” said Glenn. “Are you going to show me your ship? Would you trust my motives if I said I wanted to see it?”
Nox stepped in front of her, facing her. “I wouldn’t trust you if you hadn’t said that.”
She couldn’t hold his gaze. She spoke at his chest. “We both know what I am.”
Both his hands rose to her cheeks. His fingers laced back through her shabby hair. He shook his head. “Only one of us does,” said Nox. “We be one blood, thou and I.”

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