Secret of the Legion (42 page)

"Merlin is dead," I said. "Gildron has secured the target."

"Merlin! Deadman!" Snow Leopard gritted his teeth and eased back down onto the stretcher.

"We're not going to make it!"

"One?"

"We go together!" he gasped. And all I could do was stand there, looking at my One in silent admiration. We go together. Yes—it was perfect. Beta would live or die together. We were one, and we would share whatever fate was written for us together.

"I'm doing a full power burst," I said. "We've nothing to lose. X Tara, X Whit, X Three. Return to evac point! Evac, evac, evac!" The burst would pinpoint our position to anyone within range, but at this point I was no longer worried about it.

"What is this X crap?" Psycho asked through clenched teeth.

"I thought you had secured the ship, Thinker," Snow Leopard said slowly, struggling to rise from the stretcher again.

"Sixteen marks!"

"Who's got the Ship? Who's secured the Ship?" One could not sit up. He was flat on his back, fading fast.

"Gildron's got the Ship," I said. "Don't worry—the Ship is ours!"

"Fifteen marks! The O ship should have launched by now!" Valkyrie said.

"X Three, X Tara—we're on the way! Don't leave us!" I almost jumped out of my skin. Tara!

"Get the stretchers up! Ten, Nine, take Five. Eleven, Twelve, take One. Eight, you're on point, I'm on the rear." We scrambled into position.

"One has passed out. Sit is stable."

"Fine."

We waited, poised to rush out the main gates. Time was running out.

"Twelve marks!"

"We've got to leave by ten!" I stood there, in the doorway to the inner corridor, sweating, gritting my teeth, nervously lighting up the smoky corridor with my E. Come on, Tara—faster! I knew the
Star of Dindabai
was launching into time drive at exactly 0940 hours, and nothing at all could stop that. Recon Control had already spotted the ship, a Legion fighter was diverting to the site, and the
Star of Dindabai
had to be gone by the time it arrived.

"Nine marks! It's hopeless, Thinker!"

"Legion armor! As marked!" Sweety spotted them for us on the tacmap. Three A-suits, coming at us quickly from the corridor.

"Dragon, blast the outside with deceptors!"

"Deceptors away!" A multiple crack echoed through the hall. We had to leave no trace of our passing, no matter what was to happen.

Tara and Whit appeared out of the smoke, supporting a third figure between them. Her A-suit was scorched and blistered and half-melted, but she was walking—Thirteen! Beta Thirteen, Twister, our holy lost innocent, back from the dead.

"The time, Wester!" Tara exclaimed.

"Run!" I shouted. "The ship is launching!" And all of Beta burst out of the doorway to the Mound, past those awful blackened gates into Uldo's weak sunlight. There was no sign of life. The Systie civilians were gone. The air was shimmering with deceptors. We would have made a pitiful, almost comical spectacle, had anyone been watching—two stretchers cases, one walking wounded, and everyone hustling along in armor that looked like it belonged in a junkyard.

"Thinker!" Dragon had stopped, and Redhawk and Priestess almost ran him down from behind with Psycho's stretcher. A shattering boom echoed across the sky like thunder.

"What the hell!" I screamed, enraged at Dragon for stopping, running up to see what was wrong. Dragon stood there calmly, his E casually draped over his folded arms.

"It's gone," he said quietly. "The
Star of Dindabai
is not there. It's launched."

I stood at Dragon's side, looking across the snow-covered plain to where the ship had been. At that distance we should have been able to see it clearly, even with the cloaking. Dragon was right. The
Star of Dindabai
was gone. We were trapped in the past.

Chapter 20
Blink Once and You're Gone

We stood there stunned, soldiers of the future, trapped in the past. Five was struggling to sit up in his stretcher but One was still out. There was a roaring in my ears. I felt like a trapped rat. I glanced at my chron, just to be sure: 0942 hours. The
Star of Dindabai
had left right on schedule. Tara came crashing up against me, staring wildly out of her faceplate.

"No!" she gasped.

"Gone!" I confirmed, pointing shakily to where the ship had been, a flat lifeless plain covered with a thin layer of fine snow, under a dead white sky. A light breeze blew a fine spray of glittering snow past us. I reached out one arm to Priestess and touched her. She turned her face to mine.

"What does it mean?" she asked quietly. Of course, they would not understand. How could they?

"What are we going to do, Wester?" Tara did not know what to do! A bolt of fear hit me in the chest. It was all up to me, I knew—our future. I knew something terrible was going to happen to us if we did not complete the time hop. I knew there had been no record of us in the past. Nobody had found a marooned squad of time travellers when the Legion retook the Mound, and they were going to retake the Mound very shortly. You can't change the past! It meant, I was convinced, that we were going to be annihilated from history in the next few marks, one way or another. I did not know what was going to do it, and I did not want to find out.

"Thinker?" Dragon turned to me. I knew he would do whatever I said. They all would.

"Run," I said. There was only once chance.

"What?"

"Run! Run for the ship!" I started trotting forward, pulling Tara with me.

"But the ship isn't there any more!"

"Run! Run! As fast as you can!" I broke into a run, and the others were right behind me, charging forward, Redhawk and Priestess struggling with Psycho's stretcher, Valkyrie and Scrapper on the other stretcher with the unconscious Snow Leopard, Tara breaking off to help Whit with Twister while Dragon sprinted along with his Manlink up and scanning. We were running wildly, recklessly, the blood pounding in my ears—closer, closer, closer. We were there in a few marks. I staggered to a stop and checked my tacmap. This was right where the ship had been all right. The others came stumbling up, exhausted. And we stood there, totally exposed on that awful plain. The Mound was right on the horizon, an evil presence—and there was nothing else at all except us and a faint breeze.

"I don't know what's going to happen," I said, raising my E and slipping off the safeties. "Stand by." The others put down the stretchers gently and raised their E's again, and we formed a pitiful little defensive perimeter around the two stretchers. It was Beta's last stand. We were going to go out fighting, I thought, like soldiers, instead of dying like slaves, with a whimper, on O-Rock. The Gods had given us that, at least.

The snow stirred around us. A great breeze suddenly arose and the snow exploded into powder, swirling madly in the air. A great roar assailed our ears, and a deep shadow blotted out the sky and rushed over us. A gigantic presence was screaming over our heads, coming right at us, a cenite sky, falling on us like an asteroid, blazing with lights. I could only gape above us, stunned.

It settled over us like a huge bird returning to its nest. We were blinded in a whirlwind of snow and peppered with dirt. A brilliant spotlight illuminated us harshly from over an airlock that was suddenly sprouting a crash ramp. A couple of A-suited Legion troopers leaped to the ground, hauling Manlinks, trailing lifelines.

"GET IN! FASTER! FASTER!" A voice like artillery, totally powerful, totally inhuman. We seized the stretchers and ran for the ramp. The
Star of Dindabai
had returned for its missing children.

***

When that airlock door sealed behind us and the ship leaped back into time drive, it was just as if we had all suddenly gone insane. We had fallen into the airlock in our eagerness to get in. The stretchers had skidded along the deck and the two SF troopers at the doors had been yanked in automatically like armored fish at the end of their lifelines, crashing right into us, and then the outer doors snapped shut and the ship lurched wildly and I knew we were off. I scrambled to my feet, snapped off my helmet and dropped it. The others were getting up too, weaving drunkenly, gathering around One and Five on the stretchers.

"We did it!" I seized Tara by her shoulders. She unlinked her helmet and dropped it with an air of finality. She was smiling giddily, covered in sweat but glowing in triumph, and it was as if she could hardly believe it. She just held out her arms and I embraced her, armor to armor, cheek to cheek, sticky wet hair and salt sweat skin, and I guess it was our ultimate victory. Tara and Wester, triumphant over two universes, the past and the future. My blood was flowing ice cold as I realized what it really meant, as I realized it was really real.

"Cinta!" An inner door snapped open and Gildron was there. Tara discarded me immediately, throwing herself at Gildron.

"Medics…we need…" A medteam burst in the door, swarming around us to get at One and Five, hauling life support stretchers. Priestess rose from Snow Leopard, unlinking her helmet. When she got it off, she stood there as the medics pushed past her and her eyes turned to me. She was still panting in exhaustion. Her flesh was scorched pink and white blisters were forming on her neck. Icy sweat was dripping from soaking black hair and her big brown eyes were focused right on me. An angel. She was a holy angel, dropped right from heaven. I walked to her as if in a dream and everything around us became an indistinct blur of moving figures. She opened her mouth, trying to say something, but nothing came out. I cradled her head in my hands and pulled her to me and we stood there, heart to heart, after all that time. A silent wave of prickly heat crawled over my body and I crushed her armor in mine, and I closed my eyes and thanked the Gods, and vowed I would never leave her again.

"Thinker! We did it!" It was Dragon and he was dancing, crashing from one person to another, delirious with joy. I had never seen him so happy.

"We did it! We did it!" Redhawk and Dragon were bashing at each others' armor and Redhawk was beaming, overjoyed, his eyes glazed, breaking away from Dragon to approach a dazed Whit, snatching her up and pulling her along with him in a strangely graceful dance, swirling all around us, circling the airlock. The medics had Snow Leopard and Psycho plugged into the life support stretchers and they were taking them away and Psycho shouted something at me but I could not hear him.

Twister removed her helmet. Her ruddy dark hair was curled and smoking, her heavily freckled skin was raw and pink and her big brown eyes were blinking back tears of pain.

"Twister!" I exclaimed. She was just a kid. On Uldo, on our way to the Mound, I had promised her it would be all right. And now, at last, it was. I pulled her over and Priestess and I embraced her together. Valkyrie and Scrapper were kissing passionately against one wall, and it didn't look like they were planning on coming up for air for some time. Beta was together again, at last.

"Wester!" Tara pawed at me with Gildron in the background. "How did you know it? How did you know the ship was going to come back? The plan was for the ship to launch into time drive at 0940 exact, to avoid that Legion fighter. There were no plans to come back! The whole op was predicated on our making it back on time!"

"That Recon Control desk jockey," I replied. "I remembered what he had said when we were interrogating him. The ghost ship disappeared, and when the Legion fighter passed over there was nothing there. But then…he said there was another reading shortly afterwards and it looked like it had returned, for just a frac. Then it was gone again. That was all I had—that, and the realization that Gildron was not going to abandon us. After all, he was in a time machine. I figured he had all the time in the world to get it right, and come after us at exactly the right instant after the fighter had left the scene."

"I would never have left you, Three," Gildron rumbled. "I just wanted to avoid that fighter. I knew you would understand."

I breathed out heavily. Gildron's confidence in me was satisfying, but it had been a lot closer than he realized. After all, he was dealing with an inferior species.

***

The time drive functioned perfectly. We powered back into the vac shortly after we had left, out in the Gassies, and we were back in the future. I'm convinced my heartbeat slowed down just a little when they announced that. The mission had been totally successful. We had spirited our missing troopers out of the past directly into the future. We had shaped the future, without changing the past. My heart grieved for Merlin, but there was nothing that could be done for him—Deadman knows I tried. Now he had joined our other missing squadies—Coolhand, Warhound and Ironman. I knew the four of them were awaiting us in another world, and we, temporarily missing in action, would be joining them soon enough.

We all gathered in the body shop. Snow Leopard and Psycho were in the same bay, floating in separate recovery tanks on cushions of warm air. The Legion was growing them new legs and the new ones would be better than the originals, I knew. They were just getting started in their Legion careers. Eventually, their entire bodies might become artificial. The Legion was working on biogenning entire brains and transferring all your memories from one to the other. They were already storehousing individual memories, just like a ship's database. That way, even if your brain was destroyed you could continue. The big problem was the spirit. That was the essence of life, and even the Legion had not yet been able to contain it. Once we did that, we could really start to play God.

"I'd like some explanations," Snow Leopard said. He lay there in the tank, seemingly relaxed, a deathly pale face with hot pink eyes and white-blond hair combed straight back. Nobody outside Beta could possibly understand how we felt about him. To us, he was the Prince of Darkness, our guide to Hell. He always knew the road, and we knew all we had to do was follow him and all would be well. I knew the back of his helmet better than the front, for that's the view we had of him in combat. He led from the front, always.

"Five and I have been talking it over," he continued. "And we've noticed everything is wrong, starting with the date. The date is very wrong. This ship is wrong, too. And you're wrong, Thinker. You and Tara and Gildron and Dragon and Redhawk and Valkyrie. You're not the same as before. You've all changed, a great deal. I want an explanation, right now."

We were all gathered around them, against the walls. I had one arm over Priestess's shoulder, Valkyrie was with Scrapper, Tara and Gildron were by the door, Redhawk was with Whit, and Dragon was standing by Psycho's tank with Twister. We all looked considerably better after the opportunity to wash up and have our wounds tended.

"You're right, One," I said. "You're absolutely right. Things are not exactly as they seem. Years have passed since we entered the Mound with you. Long, lonely years in exile for all of us, for Eight and Ten and Eleven and me, for Tara and Gildron. Years of regret and hopelessness, years of mourning, for you and our missing comrades. It's a long story. I'll try to keep it brief, but I'll warn you in advance—you're in for a big surprise."

"Let's hear it," Snow Leopard said. And I told him what had happened to me, since the mission, and Redhawk and Valkyrie and Dragon told him what had happened to them, and Tara and Gildron and Whit told their stories. When we were finished there was a long, long silence. Nothing more needed to be said. The mission was over, at last. Beta was victorious.

***

A blinding white sun gently toasted my flesh as I lay on my back in the warm sands, my eyes closed, the sun burning a white glow right through my eyelids. I could hear a soothing rush as the surf broke gently against the beach. I was maxing out, floating away on pure sensory overload, pure pleasure. A faint breeze touched my skin and it was like ice. Priestess stirred in my arms.

"This is incredible!" she whispered. I opened my eyes. She was sitting up, looking around. The sky was a blinding blue, except for that one glittering white star. We were facing a great ocean that receded into the distance, possibly forever. Gentle swells were rolling in from the horizon, breaking softly onto a deserted beach of blinding pink coral sand as fine as powder that stretched away as far as we could see. Behind us a thick, cool forest of tropical palms offered shelter from the heat.

I sat up, and my eyes were only for Priestess. She had flesh patches on her neck and arms and legs and she was still slimy with medgel, but I hardly saw that. I saw only Priestess, inky hair like wet silk, faintly alive in the soft breeze, a perfect child's face sculpted by the Gods, soulful liquid eyes of deep, dark chocolate, small tender lips like ripe cherries, a slim, supple body with long, luscious legs. She was looking out at the ocean, far away. My voice was paralyzed. I couldn't reply. I could only look, worshipping her, numb with love. We had been swimming and the water was warm and salty. Her light skin had tanned to a pale brown, now powdered with sand. She had on a sleeveless top, wet and clinging to her breasts, but her panties were long gone, somewhere out in the ocean. We had been making love on the beach in that glorious sunlight for hours, totally shameless. We had been starved for each other, and now we were making up for our time apart. For Priestess, it had been just one terrifying day, but for me it had been years. I thanked Deadman and all the Gods for bringing her back to me.

"I heard you calling me, Priestess, even when they took my memory. Even when I didn't know who I was, I could hear you calling me."

"Good! I'll never leave you, Thinker. They can kill me—whatever. It won't matter. We'll meet in Heaven." I knew she meant every word.

"Give me a kiss." I pulled her to me, and we floated away again, lost in love. I knew it wouldn't do any good to try and get her top off. She had taken x-max in the chest on Mongera, and they had to rebuild her chest and ribs and breasts. There had not been time to properly heal the wounds, and the scars were extensive. She wouldn't let me see it.