Machine World (Undying Mercenaries Book 4) (16 page)

“Centurion Graves, we’re breaking radio-silence to lead the enemy machines away from the lifter. Please don’t respond. This is Veteran James McGill, and I’ll now serenade you with my best rendition of the
Battle Hymn of the Republic
.”

With that, I began to sing. Now, I’ll be the first to admit that I’m no songbird. Anyone with the misfortune to attend the same church I did back on Earth could have told you that. But what I might lack in the area of musical prowess, I more than make up for in sheer volume.

It was an old song, an illegal song in public places on Earth since the Hegemony people felt it stirred up rebels in certain districts, but I’d always liked it, and I could remember most of the words.

And so I sang—to the legions and to the machines—until the machines were on top of us. We killed two right off, but the next three reached us all at once—about the same time I hit that line about making men holy and letting us die to make men free—when we were knocked down and stomped flat.

Under that last machine, a copy of James McGill made his peace and fired his spinal cannon at suicidally close range.

The concussion killed me, but the machine died as well. My squad, my first command—we were all dead.

-22-

It had been a long time since I’d died and been revived. As such things go, this one was probably the best I’d ever experienced. I returned to life with a gasp and a wheeze, but once I could breathe easily, I found myself to be in an oddly cheerful mood.

“He’s a good grow,” Bio Specialist Anne Grant announced. She was the chief operator of our cohort’s revival equipment. As part of Legion Varus and usually assigned to Graves’ command, she’d come along when the rest of us joined Winslade’s cavalry.

I knew Anne’s voice instantly. She was an angel to my addled mind. She’d presided over my birth a dozen times more than my own mother had. I considered the woman to be something of a godmother.

My eyes fluttered open. My vision was beyond blurred. Freshly-grown optical nerves were dazzled by light, which they’d never experienced before. My focusing muscles didn’t know their jobs. I struggled to peer up into her face anyway, and I managed it at last. She had severely short dark hair and small features. Her eyes were careworn, but her face was pretty.

Smiling, I coughed, cleared my throat, and then remembered something. Once, on a different world, a different James McGill had asked this girl for a dinner date. We’d never had that date. Partly, it had been because all hell had broken loose on Tech World after we’d decided to get together. Unfortunately, there’d also been a number of other females around who’d objected, thus spoiling the mood.

Today, as far as I knew, no woman thought she owned me. Those that had once loved me had long since given up. I’d managed not to get entangled with anyone new on this campaign, probably due to the fact that my promotion and new training had kept me too busy for simple pleasures—or even complicated ones.

But now, eyeing Anne with a clarity of vision that improved every second, I knew what I wanted to do.

“You know what, Anne?” I asked.

“What is it, James?”

“You look harried and rushed, but you’re still beautiful to me.”

She’d been fussing with IVs and straps, but she paused and stared at me for a second. “Really James? Now? You’re going to make a play for the first woman you see—
now?
”

“Uh…the battle’s over, right?”

“Yes. You’re back aboard
Cyclops
. Legion Varus and what’s left of Solstice have all been recalled. But we’re redeploying again soon. It’s been several days since you died—sorry we didn’t get around to your file faster.”

“It’s okay, I understand. In fact—you know what? I think I’ve experienced my best death yet. I feel better about things today. I’m alive again, and my last body died well. It was probably the best job of dying I’ve ever done.”

She looked at me oddly and checked my stats again. Maybe she thought I was cracking up, but I didn’t care. I really felt great.

Sitting up and stretching, I took a series of deep breaths.

“So, what about it?” I asked her.

“What about what?”

“You owe me a date. Remember?”

Her face clouded, but I kept grinning at her. Finally, she laughed. “You are incorrigible.”

“Every man has to reach for the brass ring in his own way. At least, that’s what my grandpa used to say.”

“Did you really die singing some old war song?”

“Yes,” I said. “That’s probably what made the machines mob us. My singing is pretty bad. By the way, did the evac go smoothly afterward?”

“Well, I wouldn’t call it smooth, but about eighty percent of the troops trapped in that valley made it out. The lifter could hardly fly by the time they boarded up.”

I laughed. “What about Graves? Did he make it out?”

“No. He fought to the end, the same as you did. Centurion Belter died as well. They’ve both been revived already.”

“What about—” I took a sly look around, seeing no one was listening, I continued, “What about that slippery weasel Winslade?”

“He made it to safety and was air-lifted out,” she confirmed, making a face.

“I figured.”

I looked down, thinking about the battle again. I’d thought of another person to ask about: Della. But I didn’t want to mention that name in front of Anne and freak her out all over again. I’d have to check on Della’s status later.

Anne must have seen the serious look on my face, because she touched my hand.

“Don’t let that smile you had fade, James. It’s so rare to see a man come back happy.”

“You know how to fix me,” I said.

She sighed. “All right. We’ve got a date. We’d better hurry, though. We’ve got a curse hanging over us in that department. Don’t forget this time—or start some new war.”

“I swear I won’t—and hope to die,” I said, smiling again.

The rest of the day on the ship went relatively smoothly. Those of us who had lost our dragons had been issued newly refurbished mount, and best of all we’d been given a full twenty-four hour leave. That was a rare reprieve for a man in the legions in the midst of a campaign. I knew it wasn’t because we’d earned it. The officers just hadn’t gotten our troop strengths up enough to redeploy us yet. But I appreciated the break, nonetheless.

Anne and I headed to Green Deck to have a picnic. We shared our battle-rations as part of our dinner date. To flavor it up, I found a few packets of food from home that I’d left behind in my locker the last time we’d been ordered to evacuate in a rush. It wasn’t much, just a pile of almonds, dried peaches and a few squeeze-bottles of wine. But compared to the insta-hot beige paste the processers were feeding people today, it was pretty good.

“This is so strange,” Anne said, sitting on the grass in twilight, “we were down on that nasty, stinking planet for weeks. Now, we’re up here enjoying Green Deck.”

“Did you die down there?” I asked.

“No. I was never in battle like the rest of you. I stayed back at the base camp with most of the lifters until Turov recalled us all.”

“Do you know why they pulled everyone back into space?”

“Well, not exactly, but I think they found another target to attack. Last time, we were just dumping troops on the planet in case the ships were knocked out. Better to get them on the ground than to lose them all. But now there’s more of a plan, I gather. The command people have figured out a goal and want to do it right this time.”

“That’s exactly what I was thinking,” I said, reaching out a hand to touch her forearm for a moment. “I mean the part about having a plan and wanting to do things right.”

It took a second for Anne to figure out that I was talking about her. She shook her head and smiled.

“Charming,” she said. “That’s what the ladies all say about you. That you’re charming for a date or two then you wander off and forget their names.”

“That’s a dirty lie!” I complained. “I’ve never forgotten the name of the girl I’m going out with.”

“Okay, okay—but you know what I’m talking about.”

“This is just a nice dinner, that’s all,” I said. “Why do people have to make these things so complicated? Let’s talk about something else.”

I managed to get her off the topic of my dating habits and our get-together improved. We had a little wine, kissed, and walked around past other couples who were seeking privacy.

Finally, she stopped and looked up at me. “I know what you want, James,” she said. “But this doesn’t feel right. This place is so artificial. You know that they built it just to let us relieve stress on a campaign?”

“Seems like a damned good idea to me. Just like a nice park in a small town.”

“Yes, but…I don’t know. It doesn’t feel right to me.”

“Okay. You want to go back to our quarters?”

“That’s not any more romantic!”

I was confused. She’d pretty much said it was over, so I’d figured she wanted to go home.

“Hey,” I said, “let me show you something.”

I took her down to the little canyon with the waterfall and the lake. There were a few people down there, but not too many. I showed her where I’d fought for my life against the other candidates and veterans of our unit. She seemed honestly impressed.

“You killed
all
of them?”

“Nah, not exactly. Some of them killed each other. I just finished off the last few that were still alive.”

“That’s so gruesome. To tear each other apart, just to prove who’s top dog. As a bio, that’s the last thing I’d want to see.”

“It’s supposed to be a secret contest, so you’ll probably never have to see one of these dog-fights in person.”

“The officers went along with this barbaric ritual?” she asked, still eyeing the battleground. She might have been looking for old bloodstains, but they’d long since washed away in the artificial rains.

“They sure did. They stood up there on the path and watched.”

She squinted in the gloom, eyeing the rocks and the lapping water. The waterfall never let the bubbling surface of the lake smooth over.

“You know,” she said thoughtfully. “They turn all this off when we get into battle or engage the warp drive. They drain the water back down into tanks and turn off the pumps. Even the rocks are anchored in case we lose centrifugal gravity or—”

I was laughing, so she stopped.

“You remind me of Natasha,” I said. “You’re always trying to figure things out. Look up there! Those are
real
stars tonight, not projections like when we’re in a warp bubble. Are those good enough for you?”

Anne was miffed, but she got over it. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m not good on dates. I don’t know what to do. I haven’t gone out with anyone for years.”

Putting a hand on her shoulder, I smiled at her. “You’re doing fine,” I said. “No worries. I’m having a good time. I’ve felt great since I came up off that table and saw your pretty face.”

“That reminds me. Why did you wake up happy? You never told me.”

I shrugged. “I think it was because I
decided
to die this time. I decided to take as many machines down as I could. My aim was to draw them to me and go down fighting. It was all for a good cause, too. The Solstice people had had a pretty rough time of it. I thought I’d let the last thousand or so of them escape. The move saved a lot of equipment, too.”

“Okay, you died bravely on purpose. That made you happy?”

“It wasn’t just that. Allowing most of the troops to escape saved a lot of the alien machines, too. Turov was planning to bombard the place with the broadsides from space. She’d decided to kill a thousand machines all at once—and us with them. But since we got away, there was no need. Maybe, in a decade or two, those machines will become our allies.”

“That seems pretty far-fetched. They’re like animals from what I’ve seen and heard.”

“No, they’re more intelligent than that.” I described my communications with one of their younger members to her and explained my theory that the smaller ones were smarter or at least more reasonable to interact with.

“That’s fascinating,” she said. “You actually talked to them, and one of them traveled to give you a message? To tell you that they were working with the squids?”

“Yeah,” I said, “but keep that part quiet, would you? I think Turov will bomb them for sure if she finds out.”

“Why should you care?”

I shrugged. “Graves says that machine life is just one more possible form. We’re biological, based on carbon and water. They’re different, but this is their planet, and they live here. Who are we to exterminate them without a good reason?”

She nodded thoughtfully. I stroked her hair, but she didn’t even seem to notice.

“I didn’t think you had thoughts like this, James,” she said. “You surprise me, sometimes.”

Her words were slightly offensive, but I didn’t mind. At least her opinion of me was going in the right direction.

“I think I know what the ladies find attractive about you,” she said at last, giving me a frankly appraising look. “There’s more to you than meets the eye.”

“Uh…does that mean?”

“I don’t know. You’ve been with so many other women, it’s disturbing.”

My eyes wanted to roll, but I didn’t let them. Plenty of guys had been with half the girls in the unit. But I think my affairs tended to be more high-profile, and somehow I’d gotten a rep. Shrugging, I walked off around the shore of the tiny lake.

After a few seconds, she followed me. I led her to the waterfall. There was a small alcove back there where everything was wet with mist. This was the spot where the fireplug lady and the guy with Harris’ gun fought to the death—but I was smart enough not to mention that to Anne.

“This is lovely,” she said. “I’ve never been back here.”

“You know,” I said, “this body of mine has never been with another woman. I’m a fresh grow. You said it yourself.”

“That’s right,” she laughed. “Come to think of it, my body is virgin too.”

That did it, I think. She finally relaxed, and we had a good time back there behind the waterfall. Afterward, we enjoyed the temperature-controlled perfection of our simulated environment. It didn’t bug me that some engineers had put this place together, planning out our natural activities. Why should it? Every bed in the world had been put together by someone expecting someone else to make love on it. Where was the harm in that?