The world moved slowly past them, always looking much the same. Sometimes Random thought he saw something moving, right out on the edge of his vision. Something dark and slow and impossibly large. But by the time he’d stopped and turned to look directly at it, it was always gone, lost in the storm. He couldn’t be sure he’d really seen anything. It was just his eyes playing tricks, providing the illusion of movement in a landscape where there was none. So he strode on, looking determinedly straight ahead. After all, what kind of life could possibly exist in conditions like this? Even Humanity wouldn’t be here if not for the cobalt mines.
He was pretty sure Ruby hadn’t seen anything. If she had, she would undoubtedly have taken a shot at it.
The dark stone structures passed slowly by, no one shape like any other, reminding Random of ancient statues of forgotten gods. They varied from simple monoliths the size of a man to great mountains with wind-cut crevices deep enough to drop a starship in. Random would have liked to think about something else, but there was nothing else. Maybe the stones were the evidence of past volcanic activity, driven up through cracks in the ground as molten rock, only to solidify once they hit the cold air. It was as good an explanation as any.
Oh, God,
thought Random tiredly.
I am really really bored.
And then they reached the top of a long rise and looked down, and there was Vidar, the main city of Loki, spread out on the plain before them. It was a great sprawl of squat black buildings, with dark towers thrusting up here and there—a shadowy fortress with red and yellow furnace eyes, like a mining operation in Hell. A tall metal wall surrounded the city, polished by the abrasive dust to a dark purple sheen, with two massive metal gates at the front. The faint shimmer of a massive energy Screen covered the whole city from the walls up. It had to be said that Vidar didn’t look the least bit welcoming, but Random and Ruby were used to turning up at places where they weren’t wanted. As long as it promised shelter from the storms, a clean bed, and a hot bath to soak in, Random was quite prepared to get down on his knees and kiss the ground inside its gates. Without looking at each other, Random and Ruby made their way down the long gray slope to the dark city below.
A local guard patrol intercepted them as they approached the main gates. There were six of them in full body armor, with improvised masks and hoods. They plodded determinedly toward Random and Ruby, stopping a respectful distance away. Each man had an energy gun in a thickly gloved hand, carefully targeted. Random and Ruby came to a stop too, just to be polite. One of the guards stepped forward.
“Who the hell are you?” he yelled, his voice only just carrying over the winds. “Our sensors confirm you aren’t Furies or Ghost Warriors, but nothing human is stupid enough to travel the surface without armor!”
“We are Jack Random and Ruby Journey,” said Random as courteously as he could while still shouting. “I believe you’re expecting us. Sorry we’re a bit late.”
“But . . . we saw your ship go down yesterday, over two miles away!”
“We survived the crash, but our crew didn’t. So we waited out the night in a cave and then walked here.”
“You
walked
? Jesus Christ, maybe you are as good as the stories say. Follow me, I’ll lead you in. But I’m afraid the weapons stay trained on you till we can positively verify your identity. Shub’s been trying all kinds of tricks to get into the city. We don’t take chances anymore.”
“Understood. Now, do you think we could get moving? I’ve had enough of this storm and dust to last a lifetime.”
“Welcome to Loki,” said the guard leader, and turned and headed for the main gates. Random and Ruby moved after him, the other guards turning slowly to keep them covered. The main gates turned out to be two huge slabs of steel. Twenty feet high, to match the walls, and eight feet wide, they looked like they could keep out anything up to and including a Grendel in heat. They opened slowly in response to a signal from the guard leader, who led Random and Ruby in. The rest of the guards moved quickly in to surround them, and the gates slammed together, holding out the storm.
It was suddenly very quiet. The roar of the winds was gone, cut off as though someone up above had thrown a switch. Random slowly straightened his aching back and rubbed grit from his eyes. Beside him, Ruby was hacking and coughing, trying to clear the dust from her mouth and throat. They were in a huge airlock, big enough to handle fifty men at a time, if they didn’t mind crowding. The air was comfortably warm and blessedly clear. Random took several deep breaths before turning to the guard leader, who was now wearily stacking pieces of his armor in the wall compartments. He was young, barely into his twenties, with a long, serious face under a thick shock of long yellow hair. There were already deep lines of responsibility and hard life around his mouth and eyes. He grinned suddenly at Random, an engaging, almost shy smile.
“According to the sensors and our computer records, you two are exactly who and what you say you are. And man, are we glad to see you!” He gestured to the other guards, who immediately holstered their weapons and set about removing their own masks and armor. They all looked young and sober and more than capable of handling themselves in a fight. Random guessed the weaker elements didn’t last long on Loki. The guard leader stuck out his hand, and Random shook it automatically. The leader turned to Ruby, but she just gave him a hard look, so he put his hand away and turned back to Random.
“I’m Peter Savage, guard leader. I wanted to take out a search party to look for you, but the city Council was positive no one could have survived such a crash. I could have told them. I knew it would take a lot more than a crashing ship to finish off Jack Random!”
There was a loud murmur of agreement from the other guards, and Random looked around to find them regarding him with wide eyes and smiles and respectful nods. Random indicated Ruby, who’d finally stopped hacking and spitting on the airlock floor.
“I take it you know my companion?”
“Oh, yes,” said Savage, his smile disappearing. “We know all about Ruby Journey. Please don’t let her kill anyone important. Or set fire to anything.”
“Your reputation preceds you,” Random said dryly to Ruby.
“Anyway,” said Peter Savage brightly, “we’re delighted to have you here, sir Random. Maybe you can turn this bloody war around.”
“Our briefing was pretty basic,” said Random. “Fill in the blanks for us.”
Savage hesitated. “I’m supposed to take you directly to the city Council so they can instruct you on the current situation.”
“You can start the process as we go. Tell me about Vidar. How well protected is the city?”
“Walls and doors of solid steel, over a foot thick,” said Savage, leading them out of the airlock’s inner door. “The force Screen above the walls keeps out the weather. We need the walls and gates because we can’t lower the Screen, even for a second, or the storms would devastate the city. It’s not just the winds; the dust gets into everything. Tech is constantly breaking down.”
“Don’t the storms ever stop?” said Ruby.
“No, ma’am. But there are lulls sometimes. This way.”
Beyond the airlock lay a simple pattern of narrow streets between low, squat, functional-looking buildings. There was little in the way of color or decoration. Vidar was a mining city, with little time for frills and fancies. People rushed by as Savage led his charges on, but they paid little or no attention to the newcomers. They all wore swords and energy guns, even in the supposed safety of the fortress city. Random found that significant.
“The rebel forces have made an alliance with Shub,” said Savage. He made the last word into an obscenity. “They have an army of Ghost Warriors, a few Furies, and a whole bunch of high-tech weaponry that falls apart more often than it works. That’s Loki for you. Even Shub can’t find an answer to the dust. As a result most of our fighting tends to be hand to hand. Flesh and blood against living corpses and men of metal. Not exactly a level playing field, but that’s Shub for you. Certainly the rebels don’t seem to be objecting. Their leaders don’t care about anything but winning anymore. The disrupter cannon that shot you down was as much a surprise to us as it was to you. They must be really scared of your involvement to risk revealing that powerful a weapon. Think of it as a backhanded compliment.”
“Oh, we do,” Random assured Savage, perfectly straight-faced. “And we plan to return the compliment as soon as possible.”
Savage grinned. “I have to say, I’m really looking forward to working with you, sir Random. You always were my hero. I’ve seen all your holo shows.”
The young guard all but brimmed over with sincerity, of a kind Random hadn’t seen since his glory days, when he was the only hope against Lionstone’s evil Empire. A lot had changed since then. If anything, such hero worship made Random feel old. He wasn’t sure he was the man Savage remembered anymore. He felt slightly embarrassed, and Ruby’s clear amusement didn’t help at all. He moved quickly to change the subject.
“Where is everybody? I expected to see a lot more people in a city this size.”
“With half the outer settlements overrun by the rebel forces, most of the mining equipment on Loki is being run from Vidar these days, which means we’re all working overtime to keep the systems going. And . . . a lot of people here aren’t going to be too sure about you, sir Random. There’s a man out there with your face, leading the Shub forces, leaving blood and death and atrocities in his wake. Your name has become a curse. That’s why you have an armed guard. In case there’s . . . trouble.”
“Let them start something,” said Ruby calmly. “Let anyone start something.”
“Anyway,” said Savage hurriedly, “the rebels, backed up by Shub forces, have been systematically wiping out all the outer settlements, knocking out the mining equipment and killing everything that lives before moving on to the next target. They have us surrounded on all sides, and they’re moving gradually inward, heading toward Vidar. Because whoever controls this city controls the world’s only starport, as well as all the mining. If we fall, the whole colony falls with us. We don’t have much of an army, just security guards and a whole bunch of volunteers, mostly refugees from settlements that have fallen. We can’t even arm all of them. We’ve never needed an army before. We were always too busy fighting the weather to fight each other.”
“How has your army done in the field?” said Random. “I take it there have been direct clashes, army to army?”
“Some,” said Savage. “We go out when there are lulls in the weather. People die, but nothing gets settled. We have the numbers and the training, but they have Shub. It’s all been . . . very inconclusive.”
“Why hasn’t Golgotha sent you reinforcements?” said Random, frowning.
“We asked,” said Savage. “They sent you two. Apparently we’re not very high on the priorities list. Everyone’s screaming for reinforcements right now, and we’re just another mining planet with a relatively small population.”
“Just the two of us against an army of Ghost Warriors,” said Ruby. “My kind of odds.”
“The trouble is, she’s not joking,” said Random. “Ignore her. I do, whenever possible. How much farther to the Council chambers?”
“We’re almost there, sir Random.”
“Anything else I ought to know?”
Savage hesitated, and lowered his voice. “Watch yourself. The city Council has always done what it considers best . . . for the Council.”
They walked the next few blocks in silence, each considering their own thoughts. Finally Savage stopped before an ugly, squat building apparently no different from any of the others, and led them through a series of surprisingly stringent security measures. Random was impressed. He still refused to give up his sword and gun when asked, though, and so did Ruby. No one was stupid enough to press the point. Savage knocked diffidently on a door with two armed guards, and a voice from within invited them to enter. Savage opened the door and then stood back to allow Random and Ruby to enter first. Random immediately strode in like he owned the place. He’d learned a long time ago never to appear polite or intimidated by local politicians. They just took advantage. Ruby was right there striding at his side, but in her case it was just natural arrogance.
They found themselves in a reasonably large room that had been decorated by someone with an extensive budget and absolutely no taste. Ruby felt right at home. Random had no interest in his surroundings. He took one look at the five men sitting rather pompously behind the long ironwood table at the far end of the room, and came to a sudden stop. Ruby immediately stopped with him, one hand dropping automatically to her gun. Random glared at the man sitting in the middle of the group, and when he spoke, his voice was cold as death itself.
“Andre de Lisle! What the hell are you doing here, you son of a bitch? Last I heard, you were rotting in a prison cell!”
“It’s good to see you too, Random,” said de Lisle calmly. “It’s been a while since Cold Rock, hasn’t it?”
A low growl of anger burst from Random’s lips, and suddenly he was surging forward across the gap that separated them. The guards that had followed him in went for their weapons, but Ruby had already turned to face them, gun in hand. They stood very still. De Lisle barely had time to shrink back in his chair before Random had crossed the room, hauled de Lisle up out of his chair, and held the big, muscular man dangling before him, his legs kicking helplessly in midair. The other Councillors made shocked noises but didn’t interfere. They weren’t stupid. Ruby made the guards drop their weapons and line up against a wall, while Random effortlessly held de Lisle aloft, glaring coldly into the man’s reddening face.
“So,” said Ruby dryly, glancing over her shoulder, “I take it you two know each other.”
“Oh, yes,” said Random, his voice cold and level and very dangerous. “This piece of pond scum used to run the mining interests on a planet called Cold Rock. Treated his people like shit. Paid them the lowest wages in that sector and dealt with any protests through whippings, brandings, and the occasional mass execution. He lived the good life while children starved. When I brought my rebellion to Cold Rock, he funded the army that opposed me. Not surprising. He ruled Cold Rock in all but name. After I was betrayed and captured, and my rebellion collapsed, he saw to it that my cell contained a holovid, so I could watch him execute everyone who’d sided with me, and a further one in ten, chosen at random, to punish his people for having dared oppose him. Men, women, and children died under his orders. Sometimes he went along and watched. And laughed.