Forging Zero (42 page)

“We’re
not gonna walk off a cliff just because the rest of you do,” Libby said. 
“Joe’s our squad leader.  If he says we go, we go.” 

Sasha’s
smile faded, and her spine straightened proudly.  “He might be a squad leader,
but I’m
battlemaster
.  Get back in the group.”

“Just
go burn off, Sasha,” Joe snapped.

“Yeah,”
Monk said.  “Burn off.”

“I’ll
tell Nebil if you don’t listen to me,” Sasha said, glaring at Monk.  More
children were coming to stand around Joe, almost half a platoon, now.

“We
are
listening to you,” Libby said.  “And when Nebil promotes Joe to battlemaster
because you’re a dumb bimbo who doesn’t know her ass from her head, we’ll be
listening to that, too.”

“Fine. 
Go with
him
.”  She waved a disgusted hand at Joe.  “I’ll just make you
all run laps around the barracks until you all puke,” Sasha sneered.  At that,
she jogged to catch up with the rest of the battalion as it departed.

Within
minutes, Joe and his group were the only ones remaining in the war-pocked city
that was Practice Flats Ninety Five.

“Well,
let’s get this over with,” Joe said, turning toward the other side of the
clearing with a sigh.  He knew Sasha would be as good as her word, regardless
of who got back to Alishai first.

“You
won’t be sorry,” Scott insisted.  “I’m right.  I know it.”

“It
doesn’t matter if you’re right,” Libby said, sounding tired.  “Sasha’s in
charge of us and we didn’t listen to her.  Nebil’s gonna be pissed.”

As it
turned out, she was right.

Not
because they went the wrong way—Scott’s instincts had proven right and they
were the first and only squad to appear at Alishai under their own locomotion. 
The other platoons arrived huddled on haauk
s,
red-eyed and white-faced,
their battlemasters still screaming at them in Congie.  As they shuffled off
the ships and directly into drill, however, Nebil descended upon Joe with even
greater fury.

“You
disobeyed your battlemaster?!” Nebil screamed at him.  “Why?!”

“Because
I believed my groundmate was right,” Joe replied, cringing for a blow.

The
blow did not come.  “What?”

Joe
hastily explained how Scott had pleaded with him to go the opposite direction. 
As he told his story, Nebil’s sudah fluttered more and more rapidly until they
were a blur down the sides of the battlemaster’s neck.

“You
said he
felt
the city?” Nebil demanded finally.

“Kkee,”
Joe replied.

“Tunnel
instinct,” Nebil barked.  “Burning tunnel instinct.  You lucky Jreet-loving sooter.” 
Nebil shook his head.

“What
is—” Joe began.

“Never
mind!” Nebil snapped.  He suddenly lashed out, lifting him off his feet by his jacket. 
“Listen up, you soot-eating asher.  This is the only time I’m gonna tell you. 
You disobeyed a direct order.  That is un-burning-acceptable, you get me?  The
commands of your battlemaster supersede anything you want, no matter
how
burning stupid she is.”  He released Joe harshly.  “A hundred laps around the
barracks.  Once you finish that, go rake down the plaza.  Alone.”  Then Nebil
turned and stormed off to help the other Battlemasters yell at their platoons.

Joe
took a deep breath and let it out slowly.  The massive barracks tower had a
base the size of a football field, and raking the plaza was usually a whole
platoon’s job.  Apparently, Nebil had decided he wasn’t going to sleep that
night.  Setting his shoulders and lowering his head, he began to jog.

As he
passed the Prime Commander’s tower, he caught sight of a dead-eyed human
descending the stairs, one of the slaves Knaaren had captured the week before. 
The boy was so badly scarred that Joe missed a stride, almost falling flat on
his face.  Only the boy’s hands were untouched, beautiful and slender, the
hands of an artist.  As Joe watched, the kid reached the bottom and entered one
of the rooms at the base of Knaaren’s tower. 

That
could have been me,
Joe realized, guiltily.
 
He
bit his lip and pushed himself back into a run. 

Well
into the night, Sasha joined him.  She was as full grown as she was ever going
to get, with wide hips and a thin, wiry frame.  Her face, however, reminded him
of a pouting child.

“You
told him,” she accused.  “You liar.”

Joe,
whose lungs were already struggling with the dual load of ferlii spores and
running, had to pant.  “What…are you…talking about?”

“You
told him I didn’t listen to you.”

“You…didn’t.”

“You
were the only ones who wanted to go that way!” Sasha shouted.

“But
we…were right.”

Sasha’s
eyes narrowed.  “The battlemaster gave me a hundred laps and then I have to
help you with the plaza.”

“Good…luck,”
Joe said.  “It’s gonna…be time to…wake up…before you even…get done with your
laps.”  Then he fell into silence because it was either that or pass out.

“You
better listen to me next time,” Sasha said, eyes glittering.

Joe
rolled his eyes and ran faster.  Even fresh, Sasha couldn’t keep up with him,
nor did she have the heart to try.  She just settled into a lazy jog and waited
for him to pass her on another lap.  The longer they ran, the slower she went,
until she was running slower than most people could walk.  Then she stopped
running altogether and sneered at him every time he loped past.

Joe was
on his eighty-seventh lap when Battlemaster Nebil popped out of a door in front
of him and nearly bowled him over.

“Zero! 
Why aren’t you on the plaza yet?”

Joe
doubled over, gasping.  “Eighty-seventh…lap.”

“What
about your battlemaster?  I sent her out here four hours ago.”

It was
too much.  Joe started dry-heaving into the diamond dust.

Fortunately,
Joe didn’t need to explain.  Sasha rounded the corner at a walk and by the time
Nebil was finished with her, she was running as fast as Joe had ever seen her
go.  When Nebil returned, his sudah were beating in his neck.  In a deft
maneuver, Nebil snaked an arm under Joe’s sweat-soaked jacket and pressed the
metal ranking unit to Joe’s chest.  In an instant, the silver triangle on Joe’s
breast began to morph into a four-pointed star.  “You’re the new recruit battlemaster
for Fourth Platoon,” Nebil growled.  “You’ll also be the ranking battlemaster
on the field, so you’ll be in charge of all of First Company.  Don’t burn it
up.”

Joe’s
mouth dropped open.  All he could say was, “I will?”

“No,
that star on your chest is just for show.  Now go finish your laps. The plaza
can wait.  We’ve got a hunt coming up tomorrow, and I won’t have my battlemaster
falling asleep in the middle of a raid.”

Joe
stumbled back into a run, but the prospect of being in charge of half the
battalion on the next hunt gave him the extra energy to once again find his
stride.  He finished and, not even glancing at Sasha, climbed the barracks
steps.

Sasha
ran up behind him and grabbed his shirt.  “Where are you going?  We’re not done
with the plaza.”

“Battlemaster
Nebil said I could do it later,” Joe said.

Sasha
released him.  “Well, if you’re not gonna run, I’m not gonna run either.”

The
ridiculousness of the statement would have made Joe laugh if he weren’t so
exhausted.  He just nodded and somehow found the energy to finish climbing the
stairs to the barracks room. 

CHAPTER
20: 
Yuil

“Choe.”

Joe was
just cresting the stairs to Sixth Battalion’s barracks balcony, his exhausted
body feeling as if it were made of lead, when he heard the odd sound seemingly
coming from a Takki tunnel near his feet.  Ahead of him, Nebil had left the barracks
door open for his return.  The barracks room beyond was silent but for the
snores of other recruits.  Thinking he had imagined it, Joe kept trudging
forward, so tired he was having trouble staying upright.

“Choe.” 
A cold, metal-tipped finger brushed his arm, and goosebumps washed down his
spine in a startling wave at the contact.  Joe jerked and turned.

The
young Ooreiki that had come to listen to their Christmas songs was standing in
the shadows outside the barracks, glancing nervously at the open door. 
“Do
you still want to talk?”

Joe
felt his heart skip a beat and he instantly forgot about sleep.  “Do you?”

“Kkee,”
Yuil said.
 
“But you need to come with me.”

“He’s
not going anywhere with you,” Libby’s voice said suddenly.  She had stayed up
late cutting holes in her gear and now stood near the barracks door, Joe’s
Swiss Army knife still clutched in her hand.  She was scowling at Yuil, looking
ready to use the knife on the Ooreiki.

Staring
at the knife, the pupils in Yuil’s huge, sticky brown eyes dilated until they
looked completely black.

“I’ll
go,” Joe interrupted, scowling at Libby.

Yuil
was obviously reconsidering his plan. 
“It is dangerous if she tells.”

“She
won’t tell,” Joe said, giving Libby a warning glance.  “Not this time.”

Libby
cringed, glancing at the Swiss Army knife in her fist.

Yuil
hesitated, then he shrugged a long swath of brilliant blue fabric off of his
shoulders and held it out to Joe.  It changed colors in his hands. 
“Wrap
yourself in this,”
Yuil said. 
“You’ll resemble an Ueshi if you hunch
down.”

Joe
obeyed, ignoring the dirty looks Libby was giving him.  The cloth felt
unnaturally smooth in his hands and glided over his calluses like cool water,
not even catching on the rough skin of his palm.  It felt like something sultans
and emperors would wear back on Earth.  “I’ll be back soon,” Joe said to
Libby.  “Get some sleep.”

“Nebil
made you run all night,” Libby insisted, scowling at the Ooreiki.  “Aren’t you
tired?”

“I’ll
be fine,” Joe said.

“What
if Nebil comes in and finds you never came back from your laps?” she demanded.

“Tell
him I lost something and had to go find it.”

Libby wrinkled
her nose, giving the Ooreiki a bitter look.  “I don’t like him, Joe.”

Joe’s
chest clenched at his groundmate’s lack of civility.  Desperate not to lose
their first real contact in this alien place to the manners of an
eight-year-old, he gave Libby a pointed glare and said, “You just wanna talk,
right Yuil?”

“Of
course, Choe.  There are many things that fascinate me about Humans.”

“See,”
Joe said, following Yuil around the corner to a lavishly-decorated haauk.  “He
just wants to talk.”  Gems and ribbons adorned the sides, glittering and
flapping in the alien breeze.  Joe’s cloak had shifted to canary yellow by the
time the Ooreiki youngster began powering up the haauk.

“You
don’t know him,” Libby pleaded, having followed him around the balcony.  She
grabbed Joe’s arm.  “What if he sells you to the Dhasha?”

Yuil
grunted laughter. 
“I think your friend is safe.  Nothing could get me
within a ferlii-length of a Dhasha.”

Libby released
Joe and gave Yuil a cold glare.  “If you don’t bring him back I’ll kill you.”

Joe
sucked in a breath.  He knew enough about Congie society to know a death-threat
against a civilian could get her executed.

The
Ooreiki youngster stared at her, then lowered his head solemnly. 
“I will
bring him back, little one.”
  He plucked a smooth silver scale from his
clothing and handed it to her.  As it caught the light, it swirled with every
color of the rainbow.  From the delicate way the Ooreiki handled it, Joe
guessed it was expensive.  As Libby reluctantly took the Dhasha scale, Yuil
said,
“It’s a promise.”

Then
the Ooreiki ushered Joe onto the haauk and maneuvered them into the air.  In
moments, they were out of sight of the barracks.

“We’ve
gotta be careful,”
Yuil said as they flew. 
“All
Congressional property contains tracking devices, even soldiers.  They insert
them in places that you can’t cut off, like your head or your chest.”

Joe
stared down at himself, remembering the gun that the Ooreiki doctor had fired
into chest on the ship.  “So they’ll come looking for me?”

The
Ooreiki gave Joe a mischievous look. 
“You don’t grow up on Kophat without
learning ways to bypass Congressional security measures.”
  He plucked a
metal ring from under the rim of the skimmer’s control panel and showed it to
Joe.
“An akarit.  All Congressional frequencies within three
bodylengths are voided.”

Joe
touched the thing and turned it in his hand.  To all appearances, it was just a
band of gold.  It even felt heavy, like his dad’s wedding ring.  He returned it
to the Ooreiki with reluctance.  “Isn’t it illegal to carry something like
that?”