Annihilation (Star Force Series) (36 page)

“We did what you said. We sealed her in that cell. Then we jettisoned the entire chamber.”

“Yeah, so?”

“Well, we could have possibly revived her, put her on life support.”

I laughed. It was probably one of the least appropriate moments of my life for a laugh, but I was in an odd state of mind.

“What?” I asked. “Did you want two turnips in medical? She wanted to die, and I’d just pronounced a death sentence for her. In my opinion, an officer deserves to choose to take their own life in such a situation. I can only hope that in the future, someone will give me the same privilege.”

Jasmine shifted in her chair as if uncomfortable.

“I hadn’t thought about it that way,” she said.

“There’s another reason I wanted that cell sealed permanently. She released the toxin in a new way, via gas from her mouth. Probably, she cracked a false tooth and exhaled it. That worried me. I knew that the poison had been delivered as a liquid injection before. We have no idea how long it might linger in the cell, erasing the mind of anyone who came near.”

“Yes,” she said, nodding. “I think you did the right thing then. You couldn’t take the chance.”

I almost yelled at her that this wasn’t about
chances
. That girl had deserved to die right then and there, and the best way for her to go out was the way she’d taken down Sandra. It was a fitting end to an assassin. I was happy, actually, that she’d been erased the way Sandra had been.

But I didn’t say it. I had that much self-control left. I realized I was already sobering up, unfortunately. It was the nanites and the microbes. They were metabolizing the alcohol in my blood nearly as fast as I could drink more. They knew a toxin when they saw one, and they worked pitilessly to eradicate such substances from my body.

In my mind, though, I kept seeing Alexa standing there, begging me to tell the Imperials that she’d been a success. That, more than anything, made me believe her story about being coerced into the attack. In my experience, people were pretty truthful in their dying moments.

“What are you going to do about Kerr?” Jasmine asked me.

I looked at her sharply, then nodded. “That’s why you’re really here. You’re worried I’ll do something crazy, right? Well, don’t be.”

I stood up, and she stood up with me. I took two steps toward the door.

“How long do I have?” I asked.

“About twenty minutes. I can delay them, if you want.”

“No…no. I’ll meet him at the airlock. He must come alone to this office. You already self-destructed the missiles that were headed to destroy his ship, didn’t you?”

“I turned off their engines and blanked their targets. We’ll retrieve them later.”

That made me smile. “Always the efficient, frugal one, aren’t you?”

I didn’t mean it in a negative way, but her face fell. She didn’t say anything.

I frowned, and then shrugged. As usual, I had no idea what was wrong with what I’d said. I didn’t get most women. Hell, I hadn’t even known what Sandra was thinking half the time.

I stood near the door, straightening my kit. Jasmine stepped forward to help. Her small hands felt like the fluttering touch of a bird to me. She arranged my epaulets and smoothed my smart cloth uniform where it had bunched up. Then she reached up and combed my hair with her fingers.

“Have you got a mint?” I asked.

She handed me three without saying a thing. I crunched them and enjoyed the biting flavor.

She did something then that took me totally by surprise. She gave me a tiny kiss on the cheek.

I shied away immediately. I glared at her. I knew my eyes were red and bloodshot. I still felt the burn of alcohol in my blood. A gush of words came out of me, and I regretted them all almost as fast as I said them.

“You’d jump in Sandra’s grave so fast? She’s still alive you know, technically. She’s not even cold yet.”

Jasmine looked as if I’d slapped her. She cast her eyes down, and reached out to touch the door. I could tell she was about to run off.

“I—I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m not feeling well.”

“No, I’m sorry,” she said quietly, looking at the floor. “I shouldn’t have done that. It was wrong.”

Jasmine left then, and I stared after her. There were more than a few crewmen in the hallway. They took in the scene and tried not to gape.

She moved quickly, not quite trotting, but almost.

Good God
, I thought.
I hope she’s not crying.
Then I saw her hand go up to wipe at her face. Yep, she was crying. I let out a long sigh.

I retreated back into my office. The door melted shut. Already, I could hear and feel the ship making adjustments to it attitude with shivering jets. We were decelerating, coming in to dock. General Kerr was probably already boarding a tiny pinnace to fly over to my ship from his.

I moved to the tiny mirror in my tiny lavatory. I splashed some water and tried to sober up faster. I looked at myself, and frowned. Those red eyes were going to give me away.

“You could have handled that one better, Riggs,” I said to my reflection.

So far, it was looking like a stellar day. I’d lost one girl, sentenced another to death, and sent a third running down the hall, crying.

-30-

We met Kerr and his four guards at the docking bay. The door melted away, and there was a hissing sound as the two pressurized chambers evened out.

General Kerr looked extremely unhappy. He wore what I thought might be the glummest expression I’d ever seen on his face. He knew the score. He’d helped deliver an assassin into my inner circle. I wasn’t going to be wining and dining him this time around.

What he didn’t yet know was what had happened to the assassin. We’d told the Imperials nothing about Alexa. It was obvious I’d survived, but how had she fared? I wondered if he would have the balls to ask the question. It must be burning on his mind.

 “Just you, General,” I said. “Leave your guards in the boat.”

Kerr hesitated. The hard-eyed Imperial crewmen at his side looked resolute, but fearful. Looking at them, I figured they were probably nanotized. After all, Crow had Nano factories back on Earth. He was probably busy churning out troops faster than I could hope to do out on the frontier.

The Imperials wore fancy uniforms, dark blue, with gold braid at their wrists, shoulders and caps. They were all noncoms. As space veterans, I respected them. They’d probably seen their share of combat against the machines when they’d fought the Macros we’d let slip by Eden on their way to Earth.

I wasn’t contemptuous of the men, I was confident in Star Force superiority. My men were marines, after all. Out here, that meant more than it ever had.

But right now, I didn’t care about any of that. I made a shooing gesture toward the men surrounding Kerr.

He opened his mouth, closed it again, then nodded. “Go on back to the
Carrington
, Chief,” he said. “I’ll be fine. Riggs and I go way back.”

“Indeed we do,” I said.

The crewmen retreated reluctantly. My own guards relaxed somewhat behind me.

Kerr stepped forward with the air of a man walking into a viper’s den.

“Do you intend to kill me, Riggs?” he asked. “I think I ought to know. I think you owe me that.”

I shook my head. I wore a grim smile. “You don’t want to know what I owe you, General. Right this way, sir.”

I ushered him down toward the aft of the ship. He looked concerned. “This isn’t the way to the bridge. Not unless you changed your designs all around recently. Wait, you’re heading for the brig, aren’t you? One old man has you worried? Gonna put me in chains, are you boys?”

None of us answered him. I stopped at the door that led to medical. The nanite door melted and Marvin loomed close.

“What in the nine hells—is that your crazy robot? What did you do, give him steroids?”

“I wanted to show you something, General,” I said.

I led the way to the coffin that held Sandra. Kerr eyed the coffin in alarm. I saw understanding dawn at last on his face.

“Your assassin wasn’t entirely unsuccessful,” I said. “As you see here, your dinner hostess has been terminated. Her body still functions due to external impulses. We breathe for her, we pump her blood, we feed her glucose through needles. But she’s quite dead. Her mind, as you know, has been erased.”

“What the hell?” he said. “Erased? Is that what the plan was? I can see how that might work against your kind.” He turned to me. “I knew something was going to happen. But I thought it might just be a spying mission.”

I slammed my fist into his skull then. I didn’t think it over, I just moved. It happened so quickly, I don’t think I even knew what I was doing before I’d lifted my hand.

Kerr recoiled and flew several feet into the waiting arms of a startled marine who’d been marching behind him.

I felt an instant surge of regret. I figured I’d probably killed him. A blow like that—an older, normal earthman could never take it. His skull would be fractured at the very least. Internal bleeding, possibly a stroke.

It was the beer, I thought bitterly. I still had half of it in my blood, and even though the nanites were working their microscopically small tails off, I knew it was affecting my judgment.

I took two steps and stood over Kerr, who was still in the arms of the marine who’d caught him.

“General?” I asked aloud.

His right eye snapped open. It was wide, and there was blood in it. His left eye had already swollen shut.

“Heh,” he said, struggling to his feet. He shoved away the man who’d caught him. “So that’s how you treat prisoners of war in Star Force, is it? I’d thought all those vids by the Ministry of Truth were doctored up until this very moment. If I hadn’t experienced it, I wouldn’t have believed it.”

I stared at him in amazement, then nodded. “You
are
full of nanites, aren’t you sir?” I asked. “You should be down and out, permanently.”

“But you didn’t know that I’d been nanotized,” Kerr said. He looked at me with his one good eye. “So, you meant to kill me?”

I shook my head. “No. That was just an emotional reaction. I’ve grown tired of Imperial lies. They’ve cost me quite a bit lately. I lost my temper, that’s all.”

“You shouldn’t have been able to one-shot me like that,” he said. “You’ve got more than nanites in you.”

“That’s classified.”

Kerr nodded. His one operating eye drifted back to Sandra again, lying inert in her case.

“I didn’t want it to go down this way, Riggs,” he said. “I’m tired of all the bullshit, too. Whatever happens, I want you to know that. Sometimes, we do things because we’ve made a choice between two evils. Not because we wanted either of them. Do you understand me?”

“Yes, General, I believe I do.”

“Your girlfriend wasn’t supposed to be injured. I imagine she got in the way.”

“She did. She wouldn’t let Alexa get close to me.”

“All right,” he said. “I’ve come here, been clobbered, and I’ve apologized. I hereby respectfully request that I be allowed to return to my ship and leave your territory.”

I laid a heavy hand on his shoulder. I closed my hand with crushing force, grabbing up a handful of his smart cloth uniform. It was a testament to the strength of the material that it didn’t rip, not even as I lifted him up and marched with him held at arm’s length.

His fingers clawed at my hand with surprising strength. His musculature was nothing compared to my own, however. The collar of his shirt cut into his neck, making him wheeze. I walked with him suspended above the deck, kicking and coughing.

 I saw his one working eye roll around in fear in its socket. Mercury-like metallic liquids were already shining in his wounds.

“What are you doing, Riggs?”

“I’m granting your request, General,” I said.

I marched him across the central passageway to a circular door, which I tapped open. General Kerr had a weapon out, I noticed. It looked like a pen, but I saw the dark glass projector at the end, which he was trying to point in my direction. With my free hand, I slapped it away. His wrist snapped at my touch. He didn’t scream, but he did hiss, sucking in his breath between clenched, bloody teeth.

“That’s the second time you’ve broken that arm,” he complained.

I stepped into the sally port chamber. I waved for my marines to stay out in the passageway. Reluctantly, they obeyed. The door closed behind us and Kerr and I were all alone in the steel chamber. I hit a big button on the wall, and Kerr’s bulging eye followed me. The indicator light on the wall went from green to yellow, and the air began being pumped out of the chamber.

“Out of this very room,” I told him, “platoons of brave Star Force marines have made death-defying leaps into the void. In a way, it’s an insult to those brave men that I’m allowing you to use the same portal. I should be tossing you out of the garbage chute.”

The light shifted from yellow to orange and a warning buzzer sounded. The air was decidedly thin now.

“You can’t do this, Riggs,” Kerr rasped. “You’ll be at war with Earth. There are only a few thousand of you out here. You’re mad.”