Authors: Vaughn Heppner
Huts
crackled with flames, and people crawled or dragged themselves in the outer area of the tree-blasted ground. Some looked up at them. A few of those shook their fists. One woman raised a flintlock. A puff of smoke a second later indicated she shot at them.
What the
—
Maddox froze, unwilling to believe what he saw. One of the dead on the ground was unlike
the others. In life, he would have been taller than the average human. That wasn’t what made Maddox’s gut twist. It was the color of the skin—golden. A New Man lay dead on the ground down there.
Questions flooded Maddox’s brain. How had the invader gotten here? The likeliest explanation was aboard a
Saint Petersburg
shuttle. If there was one invader, couldn’t that mean there were more? Did the New Men command the Star Watch destroyer? If so, how had they maneuvered that? Maddox wondered if they should land beside the New Man. He could take a sample, a slice of skin or clot up some blood on a rag. Later, he could test the DNA. Then, finally, he could learn if he was part New Man.
“Blimey!” Keith shouted. He banked
away hard, turning from the burning village.
That threw Maddox against the flitter’s canopy. He heard heavy gunfire
from below. The flitter shuttered. Something starred the bubble on the pilot’s side.
“What’s happening?” Maddox shouted
, who couldn’t see because of his lousy angle.
“A woman’s firing at us,” Keith said. “I think she hit our underbelly.”
“Firing a musket?”
“A heavy repeater,
mate! Now for the love of Saint Francis, shut your yapper, Captain, sir. I’m taking us down for a controlled crash, and I’m going to need all my concentration to do it.”
The flitter bucked like a wild horse. Maddox clung to his harness and managed to look back at Riker. The sergeant flew in disorder, banging his head, smashing his shins.
“This is it!” Keith shouted.
Maddox looked ahead again. A huge tree filled his view. They were going to crash head on. At the last second, Keith turned them sideways, dodging death as metal screeched. They must have shaved the underbelly of the flitter against tree bark. Clunking sounds emitted from the engine. Smoke poured from the panel.
“Come on, you filthy
pimp,” Keith said. “Keep it going just a little longer. You won’t regret it, I promise.”
The pilot dodged another tree and slowed the flyer. Then branches blurred around them, striking the
bubble canopy. The tough dome held, and finally, the Tau Ceti strikefighter-ace brought them down against a giant crackly bush.
Keith brayed with triumphant laughter, and he stabbed a button. The canopy slid open
, letting in the planet’s jungle smells.
“I did it, sir. We’re down in one piece.”
Feelings of disaster pulsed through Maddox’s heart. Oh, they were down all right, on Loki Prime, the prison planet no one had ever escaped.
You’re still alive
, Maddox told himself.
The scout is up there. Let’s not quit until you’re coughing up your final bit of blood
.
“Excellent work, Ensign,” Maddox said.
“I’m doubling your salary.”
“You mean doubling my share of the prize money
, sir.”
“That’s right. Now give me a hand. We have to move the sergeant.”
The smile drained from Keith’s round face. Realization of their predicament spread across his features.
“We just crash
-landed on Loki Prime,” the ensign said. “There’s a woman with an automatic rifle down there. Do you think the people from the shuttle came to this place to arrest you?”
“No such luck, I’m afraid
,” Maddox said. “Now help me with him.”
“Why?” Keith asked. “He’s probably better off
where he is. We can’t dart around if he’s weighing us down.”
A harsh rebuke died on Maddox’s lips. The ace had a point. He could hear people coming.
“It’s time for a strategic retreat,” Maddox said. “Grab a pack and follow me.”
The two rummaged in back. Maddox avoided looking at the unconscious
sergeant. It wasn’t fair leaving him like this, but Maker was right, the sergeant would be safer in the flitter.
“I’ll return,” Maddox whispered. Then he jumped out of the flitter and faded into the undergrowth. Keith followed hard on his heels.
Maddox halted and studied the terrain around him. The trees lacked the immense height of those in the lowlands. The ground felt firmer, drier. There were fewer insects and less strange funguses sprouting from the soil and tree trunks. He needed the flitter. Its radio could reach the
Geronimo
. That was his only way off Loki Prime now. He wanted to double-back, hide and see who came to his flyer. Instead, he started racing downhill again. He needed to sneak up on his hunters when they weren’t tracking him. He needed an edge.
“Wait a minute, will you
?” Keith panted. “I can’t keep up with you.”
Maddox debated leaving the ace behind.
Ruthlessness, remember?
He couldn’t do it. Leaving the sergeant had been hard enough. That had been the logical move. Abandoning his crew—no, he wouldn’t do that. Without honor, winning didn’t matter.
Indicating a place behind a
tree, he showed the pilot where to crouch. Since the man’s heavy breathing made listening difficult, Maddox moved several feet away. The intervening growth muted the noise.
Maddox bent his head, straining to hear what he could. Indistinct voices spoke in the distance. He needed to see who it was. Without intelligence, he couldn’t formulate a sound plan.
First slipping near Keith, he said, “I’m going to spy on the enemy.”
Keith looked up
with wide eyes, and he almost shouted with surprise. Finally, the small pilot nodded. “You’re as silent as a cat, mate. I wish you wouldn’t sneak up on me like that.”
“Stay here
,” Maddox said. “Recover your strength.”
“You’re leaving me alone?”
“I’m going to scout the area. I’ll be back.”
Keith drew his gun. “Okay, sir. I’ll wait.” He coughed as if to add to this statement. A new alarm entered the man’s eyes. “I got the bad spores, don’t I
, sir?”
“We’ll leave this pla
net soon enough.”
“You promise
that, Captain? I didn’t sign up to end my days in misery.”
“There isn’t a place in the galaxy that can hold me, Ensign. You can rely on that.”
“I’m going to keep you to your promise, Captain,”
Still sensing the fear in Ensign Maker, Maddox said, “You did a fantastic job bringing us down in one piece.”
“It’s what I do, sir.”
“Exactly my point,” Maddox said. “This is the sort of thing I do.”
A grin crept across Keith’s face. “Right. I’m okay, sir. I have this.” He indicated the gun.
“Keep quiet, though,” Maddox said. “Let me concentrate.”
The ace drew his knees up as he leaned back against the tree. Then he closed his eyes, and suppressed a second cough.
Maddox glided away toward the voices.
The gloom was less dense here than lower down on the mountain. He heard fire crackle in the distance, and the smell of smoke became noticeable. The voices had stopped speaking, but he could hear footfalls.
He circled them. Sergeant Riker had told him the natives were expert woodsmen. If he came at them from a different direction, he might catch his trackers by surprise. Determination hardened in Maddox’s heart. He strained to move soundlessly and quickly. It was a good thing he wore his camouflage gear.
Then his nape hairs rose. Maddox froze, straining to sense what had alerted him. Danger flowed around him. He felt the threat grow. Holding his breath, the captain rotated his neck, looking in one direction and then another. He couldn’t see anything except for foliage. He had to keep moving.
With infinite care, he stepped softly, avoiding anything that might crackle or snap. He suppressed the
urgency to know, to stare. He had come to believe that people gave off an unknowable sensation that a few individuals could sense. It was how he’d found the sniper so quickly in Glasgow. Maddox let himself blend into his surroundings.
His throat caught. The fierce warning of danger resumed.
Once more, he froze. Something—
Then
Captain Maddox saw something out of the corner of his eye. A golden-skinned individual walked through a small clearing. The man did it with much of the care the captain had just been practicing. There was a sense of intense athleticism to the New Man, as if he were some great cat in human guise. He wore a dark garment, tight at the ankles, wrists and throat. Only the hands and face showed the golden color. A hat covered his head, hiding the hair. The invader held a flat pistol. The man’s face—Maddox wanted to turn his head to get a better look.
He resisted the urge.
The slightest movement would give him away. The combat video he’d seen from Odin made him extra cautious. There, on the invaded planet in a spaceport, a single New Man had seemingly successfully charged suited space marines. Maddox only had his gun.
Th
e fleeting glimpse of the New Man’s face allowed Maddox a snapshot of his enemy. He sensed anger from the invader, a desire to kill and arrogance. The golden-skinned human would stamp out anyone who got in his way.
A
fter the momentary glimpse, Maddox doused his curiosity to mute any telltale emanations.
Maddox didn’t know how he’d given himself away, but the New Man began turning his head toward the captain.
Before the captain could discover the answer, the undergrowth creaked. The sound came from the other side of the clearing. A leaf shook over there.
The New Man moved like greased death. Four
times, he fired, sending bullets into the undergrowth. Someone grunted painfully back there. An unseen body thudded onto the ground. Another person staggered, crashing through foliage. She burst into sight, clutching a flintlock against her chest. Blood poured from her throat. Her eyes were glazed with approaching death.
The New Man snapped off another shot, obliterating he
r head.
As the golden-skinned superman fired the last time, Maddox brought up his gun. He moved faster than he could ever remember doing. He’d been waiting for the chance to
act while the other was occupied. Even so, the New Man proved uncanny in his abilities.
Maddox pulled the trigger. The gun bucked in his hand. A bullet exited the barrel. The New Man
had already reacted, diving away. Maddox saw this, adjusted, pulled the trigger a second time. The gun bucked once more, sending a second round at what should have been an easy target.
By now, the New Man
had rotated his body, bringing up his flat weapon to fire back.
Maddox
shot a third time. His mind moved at hyper-speed. He shot where he judged the New Man would be as the invader dodged yet again.
Then the golden-skinned
man fired his gun from around his torso at Maddox. It was a trick shot.
Time resumed its normal speed. Maddox’s first bullet missed. The second grazed
enemy skin. The third pitched the New Man off his feet, entering against the ribs. The invader slid across the ground. Bright red blood spurted from his side, staining his garment.
At the same time, a
bullet flashed past Maddox’s head. He could feel the burn of its passage, although it missed hitting flesh by the proverbial hair’s width. The round made his left eye blink rapidly. That caused him to jerk away, duck and finally roll, as he figured the New Man must be sighting him for another shot.
A
n entire second ticked away as Maddox completed his roll. He was on his feet in a low crouch, scanning where the New Man should be. Instead of seeing the invader aim at him, or lying shot on the ground, Maddox caught a last glimpse. The golden-skinned invader fled, disappearing into the undergrowth. His running speed was incredible.
What just happened
here?
Maddox had
never seen anyone move so fast. And the man had made his decisions faster than lightning.
With a feeling of unreality, Maddox stood. He wasn’t used to being dazed like this.
You don’t have any time to waste. You have to act decisively, and you have to do it
now.
“Right,” he whispered. Maddox hurried to the fallen weapon. He reached down
for it—
“If you touch
the gun, you’re dead,” a hidden woman said.
Maddox debated grabbing the gun
anyway and rolling. The voice indicated a person with icy calm. He waited one second, two. Then he said, “The New Man will be back.”
“
You mean golden-boy?” the woman asked.
“They consider themselves superior to ordinary humans.”
“Drop your gun,” the woman said, “and don’t try to touch his.”
Maddox
listened, trying to pinpoint the woman’s exact position. At the same time, he let his weapon thud onto the soil.
“Straighten up
,” she said.
He followed
orders.
“Face me,” the woman said.
Maddox found himself staring at a medium-sized woman with brown clothes, a dark ponytail and darker skin. She aimed a flintlock at him, and her hands were perfectly steady.
“Doctor Dana Rich,” Maddox said.
Suspicion flared across her features. “How do you know me?”
“I’ve come to take you
off Loki Prime.”
It took a half-beat. Then she said,
“You’re the second person to say that today. I want to know why.”
“
I’m here because of the golden-skinned man you just saw. His kind is invading the Oikumene.”
“Good. I think I’ll aid them.
Your people stuck me on this filthy piece of sod. You think after that I want to help the Commonwealth or the Windsor League?”
“The
New Men won’t reward you for long, Dr. Rich.”
“Wrong,” she said. “Before your missiles smashed their shuttle
and killed the leader, they offered me more than you possibly could.”
“Oh, right,” said Maddox. “That’s why he killed those people.” He indicated the headless woman
prone on the ground. There must be more dead hidden in the undergrowth. “You’re spinning fabrications, Doctor.”
“I don’t care for people calling me a liar.”
“Then don’t lie to me,” Maddox told her.
From the undergrowth in the direction he’d come, Maddox
heard a branch snap, leaves rustle and finally a muffled grunt of a pain.