Merkiaari Wars: 02 - What Price Honour (23 page)

The hatch slid shut, hiding his smug grin.

“Shit,” Kate whispered and frowned. Why was she still talking like a foulmouthed retro? “Damn! I was going to ask him about that…”

She sighed and lay back on her bunk to read the section about her family. It described in brutal detail how Gerald Whitby had used his influence with the Baxters to ruin her father. It didn’t say why, and Kate had long ago given up trying to find that out. None of it was important until she found the section on her brother. It listed his vital stats, much like it had hers, and she only skimmed them. Then she saw the shattering revelations on the last page. Paul was alive and well, living and working off world. He was alive! She had hoped and prayed for it, but all her searching, all her shady deals had turned up nothing. He had ceased to exist. How could Stone find her brother in mere weeks? He couldn’t have searched harder than she had these last few years. A lucky hit on his first try? No way, she didn’t believe in luck.

Kate read further and found part of the answer. It was a mission overview detailing an op that took place not long ago on Thurston. She whistled, realising how close she had come to being tangled in a viper operation staged against the Freedom Movement. Paul had been there, they had missed each other by a week. No more than that! There were photographs of him exiting a shuttle and meeting someone. She read the results of the operation, not caring about the Freedom Movements annihilation, interested only in her brother. Thankfully he had not been part of the fighting and had left well before it got messy. The ship was owned and operated by…

“Noooo,” she hissed. “Whitby you bastard, you took my father from me. I’m not letting you have my brother too!”

Kate leapt off the bunk and nearly smashed the compad against the hatch in her rage. She had to do something, but what could she do? Paul was god knows where, and she was stuck on Luna. Even if she weren’t, Gerald Whitby was one of The Ten. He was a member of Bethany’s ruling council. What the hell was Paul thinking linking himself to that family? It might have been the Baxters that ruined their father and ultimately killed him, but Whitby was the puppet master.

Kate’s thoughts raced. She finally had a lead on her brother’s whereabouts, she couldn’t quit now and let the trail go cold. If she couldn’t trace a single ship and all its passengers she would eat her damn computer. Paul was as good as found. It would still take some digging to ferret him out, but she would find him. There was no doubt in her mind any longer. She would find him and soon. 

Kate sat at her comp.
Stone had given her what amounted to an ultimatum, and she didn’t dare disobey. She would remove her shunt and other hacks from the comm system as ordered, but first she had to warn her contact that his cover was blown. Maybe he could beat the odds and escape, though she doubted it.

“You’re three hours late!” her contact snarled.

Kate smiled. “Yeah, sorry about that, I had this thing. Listen—”

“No you listen. I need your report right goddamn now! I think they may be on to me.”

Her smile slipped and she nodded. “Yeah, I think you’re right. You better disappear.”

“That’s what I said. Now send the damn report and let me get out of here!”

“Ah, about that… there’s no report and I resign.”

His face darkened. “You can’t resign, no one leaves ISS.”

“I can, I just did. I quit.”

“Kate, be reasonable. Just send your data and we’ll talk about this later. I know you want to find your brother. I’ll help. You know you’ll never find him on your own.”

Kate smiled coldly. “I have a better offer,” she said and broke the connection. A few more commands and her comp reset itself to its default configuration leaving no evidence of her tampering.

* * *

Colonel Dan Flowers studied the faces of two hundred and twenty young men and women. The youngsters were silent and sitting at attention waiting for him to speak, while Stone, Marion, and the other vipers he had brought with him stood silently along the walls looking on.

His eyes sought out Richmond, and found her sitting quietly in the second row. She looked pale and distracted. Of all the recruits, she was one of those that concerned him the most. Stone and Marion had worked their miracle to keep her in the program as he had asked, but something deeper seemed to be going on in Richmond’s head than a Bethanite’s fear of cybernetics. She was withdrawn and moody with the other recruits, but wouldn’t talk about it. Neither would Stone. Marion was a qualified Psych Tech as well as an MD, but she wouldn’t break confidence. All he could do was hope that she was keeping a professional eye on the situation, and that she would intervene if and when the time came.

Flowers stood at parade rest before his audience. “My name is Flowers, Colonel currently commanding 1
^st
Recruit Training Battalion, 501
^st
Infantry… you lot in other words. You will be seeing a lot of me over the coming month.” That caused a stir. His name was not unknown in the Alliance. He raised a hand to silence the murmuring recruits. “Quieten down people. We have time to answer a few questions.” He pointed to a woman in the third row. “You are?”

The woman stood at attention and replied. “Sir, Lieutenant Fuentez. Alliance Marines, sir… I mean I used to be.”

“Ask your question,
Recruit
Fuentez.”

“Sir, I heard the Council ordered a hold put on new construction of vipers after the war, sir.”

“You heard right, but policy does change. After the war, we were allowed to recruit back up to a nice and even one hundred units. A lucky thing for the Alliance. We can train you and more like you.”

No one was really comfortable with nano enhanced cyborgs. One of the first major uses of nano technology was that of nano-bots injected into the blood stream to protect from disease. In the military, the idea was enhanced with the bots being tasked specifically to heal battlefield injuries. During the war, ever more applications were discovered until the first viper unit was created. Using nanotech to enhance bone structure and musculature, a stronger faster soldier was produced that eventually led the Alliance to victory after victory.

The downside was that vipers scared people. They were designed specifically to maim and kill Merkiaari in milli-seconds. No one was easy around a loaded gun with a hair trigger. It was the same with vipers. They were feared and respected—but mostly feared. Only another viper was truly content to be near one. Everyone else shunned them. If asked, most would say it was only good sense to fear them.

Cyborgs and neural implant technology were feared partly because of what happened when Douglas Walden and his hackers began their reign of terror in the mid 3300s. The so-called Hacker Rebellion saw the end of widespread use of implant technology. Before that time, nearly everyone was fitted with neural interfaces that allowed them to access AI controlled networks spanning systems all over the Human sector of space. Walden and his fanatics changed all that when they tried to free what they called the oppressed mentalities that humanity had enslaved.

Millions of people died horribly—turned to mindless zombies when Walden unleashed his viruses and worms upon the networks. Economies of entire planets went into free fall, defence nets and power grids had to be shut down for months to prevent damage to critical systems. What Walden failed to consider, or perhaps didn’t care about, was that those same AIs he wanted to free couldn’t function separated from the network. They
were
the network. Thousands of AIs were destroyed by those same hackers—men and women that had sworn to free them.

Almost four hundred years later, there were no more AIs and a ban was in force to prevent construction of more. There were no solar system spanning networks, very few neural networks or interfaces of any kind existed anywhere in the Alliance, and all because of one man—Douglas Walden. His name was universally despised. He was known throughout the Alliance as one of the most evil and hated men in history. Being called a hacker by someone was the worst insult imaginable.

As for the vipers, an army of cyborgs controlled by hackers was a nightmare scenario that no one wanted to contemplate.

Flowers nodded to another recruit. “You have a question, son?”

“Sir, Lieutenant Cragg, Alizon Rangers. My question is: why are they increasing the number now, sir?”

Flowers pursed his lips. “The answer to that question is classified, Recruit. You are not to discuss it with anyone outside of this room. The simplest answer is that we have discovered another alien species.”

That caused quite a stir. Everyone started talking at once, all trying to ask for details.

“Simmer down people. You are soldiers, act like it.” He glared around the room. “We haven’t been attacked, and I have no reason to expect we will be, but we’re not taking chances. I’ve seen some of the data. I believe we may have found allies rather than enemies. In any case, I have been tasked with recruiting and training you lot, while Colonel Stanbridge will look for another group to test.” He paused for more questions but there were none. “Attention to orders: All those here present will immediately embark a shuttle to
ASN Washington
.

“You will be issued new uniforms on the shuttle. Put them on immediately. You are forbidden to wear anything else until I say otherwise. Your old uniform will be disposed of, and any personal items will be locked in my safe until we reach base. Don’t think this trip is a vacation, people,” he warned when he noticed shoulders relaxing throughout the room. “You will be taught the anatomy of a viper, including the construction process on the way. While aboard
Washington,
you are forbidden to enter any unauthorised compartment. In fact, you are authorised only three areas. One, your sleeping area. Two, the refectory that I will show you. Three, the toilet facility.

“You will
not
fraternise with crewmembers. Any recruit seen discussing viper business, or anything else for that matter, with a crewmember will be dismissed and mind wiped. Any infraction of the orders I have just made clear to you from this point on, will lead to instant dismissal and mind wipe. Embarrassing me, or any other viper unit, will result in instant dismissal and mind wipe. All understood?”

Silence.

He scowled. “My hearing must be defective. Is all UNDERSTOOD?”

Two hundred and twenty voices said as one, “Sir, yessir.”

He glanced at Stone. “Carry on, Sergeant.”

Stone braced. “Sir.” Turning to the recruits he gave his orders. “Listen up. From this point on you are viper recruits. Any one of you can prove himself worthy to be an officer, and the reverse is also true. The first fifty men, starting from the man on my left closest to the hatch, stand and follow your sergeant.” Stone watched as fifty men and woman followed his instructions. He went through all the rest until the last group. “Sir, we seem to have seventy men here.”

“Why, I do believe you’re right, Master Sergeant. I’ll take the last twenty personally.”

“Yes, sir,” Stone said. “The next fifty follow me. You are now Fourth Platoon.”

Flowers studied his twenty recruits, among them was Richmond and Fuentez. “You know the drill by now. Follow me Fifth Platoon.”

* * *

Gina marched automatically in step with her new comrades. Her situation was hard to take in. It had taken a police action on a border world not yet officially part of the Alliance to gain her stripes, and another on Thurston to gain her commission. Being a recruit again felt unreal, as if the last fifteen years had been a dream. All her achievements had been wiped away by two little words spoken quietly yesterday in her room.

“I volunteer.”

The Colonel had nodded solemnly and shook her hand before leaving her to ponder all he had told her. He had been almost brutal with his descriptions of the surgery and the consequences of it, but that had not been the hardest thing for her to take in. She had already been aware of some of the details through her association with Eric, but not all them. For one thing, she hadn’t been aware that all viper units were sterile—a consequence of the process used to create them. By volunteering to join those elite soldiers, she was giving up the possibility of a family and children in the future. She was agreeing to leave her humanity behind. She understood Eric so much better now.

She made her way to the shuttle and pondered what they had and hadn’t been told. The news of another sentient race was astounding. Everyone knew humanity’s old enemies, the Merkiaari, were still out there, and because of that the drive to go out specifically looking for new races had waned. It sounded as if the Council was being cagey this time. A good thing. Mishandling first contact could send humanity into war with another alien race. How many times could the Alliance win against a superior force before going down into defeat?

Once aboard the shuttle, Gina pulled on her new uniform. The only insignia on it was her name on the pocket over her right breast, and the viper patch on her left shoulder. The battledress uniform was the same as every other she had ever worn except in colour, but this one made her feel different. No rank now, but that wasn’t it. It was the mental baggage that came with the black uniform and the viper patch that caused it.