Secret of the Legion (44 page)

"Tell us what to do, Cinta!" Whit demanded. She was just to my left in the second VIP chair. "We don't want to die!"

Tara answered her by addressing the crew. "Attention the ship! This is the Commander. We have been attacked and disabled by ConFree forces. I have activated the scuttle charges! Abandon ship immediately and watch yourselves. We're under attack by ConFree boarding parties. Kill any uniden troopers you see! Strike Force, make the bastards pay but don't sacrifice yourselves. The LC is on the way but now I want everyone off this ship! ConFree is not going to inherit our ship. It's going up in an antimat stratstar in exactly forty-four marks and anyone left on board is going to be vaporized. Get out now! Get in vac suits, E-suits or armor! Launch all lifeboats and shuttles! Detach all escape pods! I want…"

I was out of my chair and shot myself over to the E-suit locker, which had popped open automatically. I ripped out the suits and sent them floating through the bridge. Gildron was out of his seat and so were the pilot and copilot, Ice Two and Slambang Sue. Tara hit the links and floated free of her chair. We struggled into the E-suits. They were light and flexible and were not made for extended wear, but they'd get us through the vac in an emergency.

"It's the Star, Wester!" Tara gasped. "They want the Star! That's why they only disabled us. They know they can't take the ship this close to Dindabai! Gildron, they want the Star!" I was all zipped in, slipping the helmet over my head, locking it in place.

"Never!" Gildron snarled. "They will never take the Star from me!" A flash of movement out the viewport. A ConFree trooper in full armor had just stepped over the viewport outside, disappearing from view.

"They're coming in! The skin charge is shot!" I shouted, snapping the pressure on in my E-suit. It activated. "They're right out there! They're going to blast their way in!" Gildron tossed us weapons from the arms locker. We were all floating in zero G. I seized an E and slipped the sling over my helmet.

"I've got ConFree troopers in the corridor! They're right outside the bridge door!"

"Do something, Cinta!"

"The master control tunnel!" Slambang Sue exclaimed. "There's a crawlspace for access—it's still fully pressurized! It leads to the heart of the ship!" She snapped open an access panel on the deck and popped in head first. Tara urged Gildron and Whit in next. Gildron finished snapping his helmet on and crawled into the control tunnel, just barely fitting in, and the Star was suddenly free, whirling around us like a bee, glittering, dazzling my eyes. Then it shot into the tunnel at blinding speed, going after Gildron.

"Damn!" Tara exclaimed. "Don't lose the Star!" I urged her into the tunnel. Ice Two followed. I was last, slamming the panel back in place and sealing it.

The tunnel was dark and cramped, lined with master cellplate mods and neuropath cables. The cellplates faintly glowed as I floated along in zero grav, shooting from handhold to handhold. My claustrophobia was no worse than usual. Stark terror didn't bother me any more. Ice Two's boots were right in my face and the abandon ship claxons were still shrieking, crawling over my skin.

A deafening explosion rippled down the tunnel.

"Entry! Bridge has depressurized! ConFree forces have breached the bridge! Recommend…"

"We've got to get out of this tunnel!" Tara declared. "They'll be after us!"

"Take the upper access tunnel to midships," Slambang gasped. "Right here! It leads to an emergency repair locker. Ice, come with me—I'm going after Alpha and Four Three!"

"They were on Deck Twenty. It's gone!"

"Are you coming or not?"

"Midships!" Whit cried. "That was where they hit us!"

"Up there!" Ice floated down the tunnel after Slambang, but he showed me our escape route. I looked up and Tara was overhead, holding a hatch open for me. I floated up into a vertical tube after her and let the hatch slam shut under me, sealing us off from the control tunnel and leaving Ice and Slambang to their chosen fate.

I floated up past a useless access ladder into a crowded little spherical chamber with dropboxes full of repair gear secured to the deck and a few unsecured cellplates drifting aimlessly. The four of us just barely fit in there. A sealed hatch was set in a wall and Tara had her faceplate up against the readout.

"What the hell is this place?" I hissed. Gildron took up most of the space in his extra-large E-suit, his helmet up against the ceiling. The Star was up there too, hissing and crackling, lighting it all up for us with a harsh electric glare. It really set me on edge. Whit's face was blue behind her faceplate. I think her teeth were chattering.

"Quiet!" Tara ordered, raising one hand. "Someone's out there!" I set my E to x-min burst. Trapped! It was like a coffin—a cenite coffin. We froze, weightless, with the claxons still wailing away in the background. A sharp explosion shook the ship, setting off my adrenalin.

"ConFree troopers," Tara whispered. "They're trying to find us. It's a mess out there, everything is destroyed, there's no pressure. They don't know we're here. ConFree has secured the bridge—they're desperate to find us!"

"Let's attack them!" I urged.

"There's…at least eight of them. They're in armor. We're not. They're after the Star. We can't take the chance! We can't lose the Star."

"Deto!" I glared at the Star. "We should let the bastards have it! They deserve it!" I knew Tara was right. We were all clad in bright orange survival E-suits. One speck of shrapnel in vac and we'd die. We certainly had no business getting in a firefight. They'd win, we'd die, and they'd get the Star.

"Which way are they headed?" I asked.

He came right through the cenite wall, materializing beside us, peering at us curiously. Only the upper half of his body was visible in the shimmering field of light that accompanied him. He was in an A-suit, but his helmet was off. It was Lowdrop. A spasm of adrenalin shot through my heart. I almost fired my E, but I knew the ricochets would probably kill half of us inside that cenite chamber.

"I've found them!" he snapped. "Mark my zero!" His eyes were glowing as he took in the scene. "They've got the Star!" he shouted. And then he laughed, a high shrill laugh that was a heady mixture of relief and delight.

"Don't fire!" I told the others. "It's just a holo." Just a holo! ConFree couldn't hurt us with a holo, unlike the O's, but they sure as hell could locate us with it and call in the dogs.

"Beta Three!" he said. The bastard was smiling. "Fancy that! And you would be Cintana Tamaling. Alias Antara Tarantos-Hanna, alias Whiteline Six Two, alias Ladywhite, alias Black Lotus, alias Blackstar, etc., etc., etc. I've heard a lot about you. You're one notorious bitch! My name's Four One. Sorry we can't chat under more comfortable circumstances. Ah, and that would be Gildron. You are one big ugly ape, just like they said. And the little blonde would be Maralee Whitney, intergalactic criminal and hopeless nympho. And the Star! Oh, it's lovely. Beautiful! Miss Tamaling, you have only one chance. Listen carefully!"

"Burn in Hell!" Tara snarled.

"To the contrary, it is you who will burn in Hell, you and all your friends, unless you do exactly as I say. All I want is the Star—the Star and the D-neg. There's no need for any more needless deaths. We've got the Star already—you're surrounded and trapped. If you resist, we'll kill you all and take the Star, no matter what happens to the D-neg. But I'd like the D-neg, too. Give me the code to cancel the scuttle charges, Tamaling. Give me the code and everyone lives. We'll take what we need and leave immediately. My men are standing by at the controls to the detonators. Give me the code and we open your hatch, peacefully, and you give us the Star, and nobody gets hurt. The alternative is you all die and we take the Star anyway. Think about it—quickly! I need your answer right now!" The continual bleating of the abandon ship claxon added urgency to his words.

"You're a traitor to ConFree, to the Legion, and to humanity," Tara said calmly. "We'd all rather die than assist you."

"I've ordered my troops to recover your body," he said. "I'm going to skin you, and make a doc case out of your breasts." He cried out sharply in pain and snapped his head back, disappearing from view.

"What the…" I began.

"I gave him a little mental jolt," Tara said. "He's on a nearby ship. They're all around here now. They've located us—they're approaching!"

"What the hell do we do?"

"Pray!"

"All right," I said. "We pop the hatch and come out firing. The pressure will blast us out like a cannon. They'll be surprised!"

"We'll have no control. We'll be firing wildly. They'll slaughter us. They'll get the Star! They're here! They've…they're going to put a charge on the hatch!"

Whit reached out and linked fingers with Tara. "Goodbye, Cinta," she said. "I've always loved you."

"We're not going to die like this," I said, shouldering my E. "Pop the hatch!"

"They're going to take the Star," Gildron said quietly. "We'll have to destroy it."

"Destroy it?" I gaped at him. "I thought it couldn't be destroyed! Can you destroy it?"

"Destroy the Star?" Tara gasped.

"It can be destroyed," Gildron said. "There is one way to destroy it."

"Do it!" I demanded.

"How can it be destroyed?" Tara was radiating suspicion.

"You have to want it to die. You have to want it very badly."

"I want it to die!" I snarled. "I've always wanted it to die!"

"Your desire may not be strong enough, Beta Three."

"I hate the damn thing! I want it dead!"

"They're placing the charge on the hatch!" Tara hissed. "What do you mean, Gildron? I don't want to lose the Star, but I'd rather see it lost than inherited by ConFree and the System. We all want it to die! What do you mean?"

"Your desire may not be strong enough either, my dear. But mine is. You see…you have to be very, very strong." He opened one great hand and the Star flew into his palm, just like a bright little bird.

"Explain!" Tara demanded tensely. I was watching Gildron with a growing dread.

"You have to be willing to go out with it," Gildron said. "You have to sacrifice yourself. Then it…understands. Goodbye, my darling Cinta. I will love you forever."

Tara shrieked, a spine-chilling screech of horror and despair, and threw herself at Gildron convulsively. I seized her in mid-air and pulled her away, struggling in zero gravity, and Tara screamed hysterically, fighting me with almost superhuman strength, begging and pleading with Gildron not to do it, thrashing out wildly with arms and legs as we bounced off the walls and ceilings. Whit tried to restrain her as well, crying and sobbing, and Gildron was encasing the Star in his two hands and they were glowing blue-hot. A phospho sheen ran over his whole body. For an instant he was like a great glittering God, blazing like a star, blinding us with his glory. Then they both went out with an ear-shattering bang, and there was only a ringing echo and dancing blue-hot ghost images burnt into our eyes and a glittering haze of dusty metallic debris floating all around us. Tara wailed and moaned, devastated, crying like a baby. Gildron and the Star were gone. My arms were locked around Tara and I was choked with emotion. I knew this was the end of Tara's world. She had just lost her only love. Now there was only despair for her. A sudden rage ran over me like a bolt of lightning.

"We're going out!" I announced, releasing Tara and raising my E. I wanted to die free—not cowering in a tomb. The hatch readout was warning us the vac was right on the other side but I did not care. I flipped up the safety cover and hit the emergency escape tab.

It opened in microfracs and I had a frenzied, blurred glimpse of a ConFree trooper in armor, his widening eyes coming right at me as I smashed face first right into his faceplate and hurtled over his head upside down, flashing like a bullet past a row of frozen ConFree troopers with E's at their shoulders, poised weightless by a wall, my heels shooting past darkened light panels on a corridor ceiling and all around me was a shredded spiderweb of cenite wreckage, the ship blasted to junk by the antimat hit. For a single frac, everyone was so startled by our explosive ejection that there was no firing. Then there was a flurry of x bursts and I was frantically trying to figure out which direction I was facing and sort out the two orange E-suits from the tangle of black A-suits when a ConFree trooper suddenly appeared, upside down, looking up at me in surprise. I fired into his helmet just as a blinding, soundless flash erupted from the direction of our emergency repair locker. The charge that ConFree had placed on the hatch had just gone off. Blood spattered over my faceplate and then broke away in weightless globules, and suddenly I was floating freely in the vac and the ship was gone.

Chapter 21
The Word of God

The transition was so sudden that a burst of panic shot through my veins. I was adrift in space, a tiny chip of life in a magnificent, starry Cosmos. I twisted around and the ship was there behind me, a gigantic presence, a massive cenite wedge filling the vac. It was the
Star of Dindabai
, our lovely, invincible ship, crippled by a massive antimat hit, torn almost completely in two just aft of the bridge, split wide open, the skin ripped off, the interior decks exposed, an ugly cloud of wreckage drifting out into space. I had somehow been ejected through a gap in the hull. I was drifting in the vac over the ship, looking down at that awful catastrophe like someone's soul, fled from the body. For an instant I wondered if I was dead, but then I realized that all the lights in my helmet were green. They hadn't touched me. Alive! Cursed by the Gods, again.

I floated there, frozen in horror, taking it all in. The stricken starship was surrounded by a cloud of smaller ships hovering like gnats, assault craft and shuttles and escape pods and lifeboats. And the smaller ships were surrounded by another cloud, individual E-suits and vac suits and A-suits, some of them launching themselves into the vac, others headed for the ship. Lasers snapped here and there, and luminous bursts of x arced out into the vac as Legion and ConFree troopers shot it out. Two Legion fighters slashed past me, totally silent, icily beautiful, utterly deadly. A titanic, soundless explosion lit up the vac behind me, and I struggled to turn. Something was blazing like a new star, an antimat star filling the heavens, lighting us all up with an unholy glare.

I didn't know what it was. I didn't even care. My eyes turned back to the
Star of Dindabai
. I fumbled with the steering jets and launched myself gently towards the ship. It was a jumbled mass of wreckage. Which hole had I come out of? I had to find Tara and Whit—alive or dead, I knew I had to find them. But where were they? The closer I came to the torn, tangled wreckage of the ship, the more hopeless it appeared. I was never going to find them!

A ConFree trooper in an A-suit floated out of a gash in the hull. I knew he was ConFree because there was no Legion insignia on his armor. I raised my E and gave him a burst of laser. It burnt right into his armor and he raised his arms stiffly and tumbled away awkwardly, dead. I watched him drift away into the vac, and I felt absolutely nothing—not anger or regret or remorse or guilt or anything at all. There was only an overwhelming sense of fatalism, and fatigue. I knew, in another situation, I might have shared a drink with him, and chatted about girls. But that wasn't the situation we were in. ConFree was attacking the Legion. It was insane. Who the hell did they think they were, to attack the very people who gave their all, every day, to protect ConFree from the System and the O's? Did they think there would be no consequences? Fools! Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Didn't they know it? Fools!

I reached the ship and drifted lazily over an incredible gutted wasteland like an orange vulture cruising for bodies over a landscape of total destruction. How many dead, I wondered, how many good Legionnaires killed by ConFree? I gently touched down on the ship, my momentum pressing me up against the hull. I turned, my back to the hull, and looked out to the vac.

It was so lovely it took my breath away. An endless expanse of stars stretched away before me to infinity, cold and clear, so absolutely glorious, so totally remote, so utterly beautiful that I was struck dumb. It was the face of God. I could hear the music of the stars again, roaring in my mind. My skin was crawling and my blood was ice in my veins. I was a bacterium, I knew, squirming in a drop of water, struggling for life. What did it matter, I thought—what the hell did it matter? Who were we, to object to the word of God? We were fools, trying to cheat time and space, laughing at nature's laws, taking our own back from the bony hands of the Angel of Death. But, by Deadman, we had done it all right! Nobody could deny us that. The Gods were certainly laughing at us now. Everything we had striven for was gone. The Star was gone and the D-neg was about to be annihilated from our universe, along with our lovely ship. And all our comrades, stolen from the past, taken back from the Gods, were now dead or dying. It was all over—we had lost. But we had sure as hell tried! And maybe that was all we needed, on the memorial for Beta Two Four, Second of the Ship, just those two words—"They Tried." And then that final line, earned by all Legion soldiers: "Died in Service."

Two bright soundless eruptions of light caught my attention out in the vac. It was getting very busy around the ship. Fighters darted past at blinding speed and phospho missile trails cut a colorful, complex tracery around them. The Legion fighter force was certainly here, from Dindabai, tracking down ConFree fighters and ships. I could not even see Dindabai. Delta Ochre was a respectable distance from the planet. Dindabai's sun must have been on the other side of the ship. I couldn't find it.

I wondered, vaguely, if ConFree was going to somehow recover the D-neg before the scuttle charges blew it all to hell, but I was not overly concerned about it. Somehow it did not seem particularly important any more. I suddenly felt overwhelmingly weary.

As I floated there motionless another starship appeared, drifting past the
Star of Dindabai
's shattered bulk. It was a cruiser, and it had been hit, too. It was a shattered wreck, trailing a cloud of debris. I could even read the name, up on the nose—
Pride of Alana
. My heart gave me a sudden jolt.
Pride of Alana
! Where had I last seen those words!

A flicker of movement to one side caught my attention. I whipped my E around. An orange E-suit. Someone was emerging from a gap in the hull of the
Star of Dindabai
, carrying an E.

"Watch yourself," I said on the E-net. "ConFree is shooting anything that moves, and these orange suits don't help much."

"Thinker! Is that you?"

"Valkyrie! Get over here!" I could hardly believe it—Beta Eleven, emerging from the holocaust! She drifted over and I pulled her to me.

"Who's alive?" I demanded.

"I've no idea," she replied. Her pale face was sweaty behind the visor. "I was off duty when it happened. Dragon was on duty. I just barely had time to get into an E-suit before ConFree busted in. I haven't seen anyone else from Beta. It's an awful mess in there."

"Valkyrie, we're going over to that ship—you and me." I gestured to the derelict cruiser. We could see people in E-suits and A-suits abandoning ship. A shuttle broke away from the cruiser. People were hanging onto the outside like fleas on a dog. Laser bursts flickered like lightning, and a few of them drifted away, stricken. Someone was shooting at them from the
Star of Dindabai
. No mercy, from the Legion. An equal and opposite reaction.

"Why are we going over there, Three?"

"That's the
Pride of Alana
."

"So what?"

"The
Pride of Alana
is the ship ConFree took us to when they captured us on Andrion Two."

"It is? How do you know that? I never knew its name."

"I saw the insignia on a dox cup, when we were inside. That's Lowdrop's ship, and Lowdrop's here. I've talked to him!"

"Deadman!" Her green eyes blazed. A massive chunk of twisted metal debris drifted past us, and I knew the Gods were giving us one last chance to strike back at our enemies. I knew Deadman was just toying with us, but I didn't care. One last chance! I reached out and pulled the wreckage to me. It looked like a section of an internal bulkhead. It was our chariot, I thought, our suicide ship—a gift from the Gods.

"We've got transportation, Eleven. Are you coming?" I crawled onto one end of the structure.

"Try and stop me!" Valkyrie attached herself to the other end. It doesn't take much to move around in zero G. A touch of the jets from my E-suit and we were drifting towards the
Pride of Alana
, huddled against the wreckage. With luck, we'd look like just another chunk of orbiting debris, and ConFree would be too busy to notice the two orange bacteria, hitching a ride.

***

"Heads up, Valkyrie! Inner lock door opening…now!" We were in an airlock on the
Pride of Alana
, seemingly ignored. The ship had grav, and the bridge and a considerable portion of the inner core were still pressurized. We were about to join whoever was still in there. The inner airlock door snapped open suddenly and we stepped out gingerly behind our E's. We found ourselves in a large vac suit locker. E-suits and V-suits lined the walls but the place was completely deserted, seemingly untouched by the attack.

We glided through there like two shadows, without a word, and paused by the open corridor door. A wisp of smoke hung outside, a gentle hint of the horror that was raging through the ship. We could hear the transmissions now, assaulting our ears, a terrifying blend of grimly shouted commands, cries for help, pleas for mercy and the shrieks of the dying. I tried to ignore it.

"Let it be…" Valkyrie prayed.

"Doubtful," I replied. "But we can try. Cover me!" I rolled into the corridor and took a position against the opposite wall. The E-suits had commo but no tacmods. We were at a serious disadvantage. Valkyrie joined me and we crept forward. The exterior of the ship had been peeled away like an onion, but here everything seemed normal.

"Help me…" A ConFree crewman in a litesuit, chest-down on the deck, trembling in a pool of blood, raising a pale, frightened face, trying to hold in his guts with scarlet hands. We stepped past him carefully, ignoring his plea. All I could feel right then was an icy rage, and it had nothing to do with the ConFree crewman.

Now the corridor was shot up like shredded cheese, riddled and smoking. We came upon two great A-suited figures, glowing and crackling on the deck, tangled together, almost in each other's arms. One was Legion, from our own Strike Force, the other was ConFree. Both were dead.

We continued, past OQ, past the rec rooms, past Stores, past OM…closer and closer to the bridge. There were a lot of bodies and the tacnet was frightening. The Legion must have entered unopposed through the airlocks during the confusion of the evac. It was stupid to fight at that point, but ConFree had chosen to fight.

"It sounds like the Legion's in control," Valkyrie said.

"I believe you're right," I replied. "Strike Force, we're two survivors from the
Star of Dindabai
, approaching the bridge. We're in E-suits. Don't fire, all right? Have you secured the bridge?"

"Survivors, SF. We've got the bridge. We've got you on tacmap. Feel free."

The pressure door to the bridge was open. Two Legion strikers in black A-suits were bending over a stricken comrade as other armored troopers dragged the dead and wounded away. The bridge was burning. Legion soldiers moved around in the flames while ConFree prisoners crawled out of the bridge into the corridor under close guard. Some of them were in vac suits, some were in E-suits, but all were helmetless. Those who had been in armor had been stripped to their fatigues, totally unprotected. The deck was slick with blood.

"He's dead, sir." The Legion striker continued to embrace his dead comrade. The other trooper rose slowly and looked around. Then he stepped over to the disorderly sprawl of ConFree prisoners stretched out face-down on the deck.

"The ones in fatigues were in armor?" he asked quietly. I recognized the voice—it was Dragon! He was standing over one of the prisoners now, aiming his E at the back of the man's skull.

"Dragon! It's Thinker and Valkyrie! Where are the others?"

"Three. Eleven." He turned to face us, but his eyes were somewhere else. "Glad you survived. I don't know about the others. You'd better get on the shuttle. The
Star of Dindabai
is going up soon. Excuse me." He fired a single round of x into the ConFree prisoner's skull. I jumped back, startled. The other prisoners were begging, pleading, crying for their lives.

"We're with the Legion!" someone shouted. "We're just like you!"

"You're not like us," Dragon said, moving over to another fatigue-clad prisoner. "You're not anything like us." A third prisoner started to scramble to his feet. He was shot down immediately by a Legion trooper. His blood spattered over my faceplate. The echoes of the x were deafening in that enclosed space and the shrieking of the prisoners was like the howl of souls being cast into Hell.

"Dragon, what are you doing?" I finally managed to stammer. "Why are you shooting these prisoners? They're not resisting—it's a war crime! The Legion will execute you!"

"They killed six of us in the assault," Dragon replied calmly. "They offered to surrender, then turned on us. I'll take no more prisoners." He took aim at another cringing ConFree striker.

"Dragon, stop!" Valkyrie shouted. "We want to examine these prisoners! Give us a few fracs."

"Fine," Dragon said, "but make it quick. We've got to get out of here."

We looked at every one. It was pretty awful. They were all looking death in the face. One of them was a female, paralyzed with fear. She was in an E-suit, so maybe she wouldn't die. I tried not to think about it.

Valkyrie found him face-down next to the corridor wall. She pulled his head up by the hair, and his pale sweaty face was twitching with terror.

"Two Four One!" I said, thrusting the barrel of my E into his face. "Fancy that!" He was clad in fatigues. We cuffed him and hauled him to his feet.

"Mind if we borrow this one?" Valkyrie asked.

"Are you going to kill him?"

"Yes."

"Go ahead." We pulled Lowdrop roughly along the corridor. Another shot echoed behind us.

"Do you remember where it was?" I asked.

"I know exactly where it was," Valkyrie replied.

We found it and forced Lowdrop into the room. Bobo was wild, frenzied, almost out of his mind, howling, shrieking, banging at the bars of his cage, driven to distraction by the strange noises and vibrations that were rippling through the ship.