Resist the Red Battlenaut (27 page)

 

*****

 

 

The Reds dragged Scott's Battlenaut into one of the black domes, hauling him like a sack of garbage through a big gate. Watching his topside feed, which showed the view behind him, Scott saw the gate slam shut and seal. Then, according to the sensor readings on his visor, air was pumped into the room around him.

As soon as the air pressure stabilized, the Reds dropped his legs, letting them fall to the metal floor plates with a loud clang. Then, he heard Cairn's voice over the comm.

"Open the cockpit," he said. "Get out of your armor now."

Scott took a deep breath and let it out slowly. The second he stepped out of the Mark VI, he'd be defenseless.

Then again, they could have killed him by now if they'd wanted him dead. And if he wanted to accomplish his mission, what other choice did he have?

Unfortunately, as he knew all too well, there
was
another choice. It was a choice of last resort, a sacrifice play...but maybe the time to use it had already come.

"I said
open up
." Cairn's voice was louder this time, followed by a knock on the cockpit cowling. "Unless you
want
us to kill your
grandma
."

Another deep breath; another slow release. With each passing second, it became more obvious to Scott that the time for last resorts was upon him.

Raising his left arm, he gazed at the remote control device on his wrist. The ultimate weapon, the quantum bomb in Cairn's head, was still within reach. According to Dr. Beauchamp, it might be powerful enough to destroy a fleet of ships. If that was the case, perhaps it was powerful enough to destroy Bellerophon Station, too.

In one fell swoop, he could take out the Project Lethe control center and save the Commonwealth. He'd be sacrificing himself and Bern in the bargain (and Donna, too), but the price would be worth it.

Wouldn't it?

"Last warning!" said Cairn. "Get out or Commandant Chalice dies!"

Someone pounded on the cockpit three times, then stopped. Then pounded three more times, more insistently.

And three more times after that.

Scott knew what he had to do. Lowering his arm, he tapped a sequence on the left keypad, then another on the right.

The cockpit seal hissed open, and the canopy raised on its hydraulic struts. The cold, metallic air of the chamber rushed in and washed over him.

Cairn, still in the black shell of the CORE Battlenaut, stared down at him. "All the way out. You heard me."

Scott unbuckled the safety harness on the couch and sat up, then drew his legs in and got to his feet. Bracing himself on the sides of the cockpit, he boosted himself up to sit on the edge and look around.

The three Red Battlenauts surrounded him, keeping their guns fixed on his position. Cairn's civilian unit stood next to the Mark VI's right shoulder, looking menacing in spite of its lack of weapons.

"Get away from there," barked Cairn. "You're finished as a Battlenaut jockey."

Scott felt an icy chill cut through him as he hung on the brink of his sacrifice play, hand hovering near the device on his wrist. This could be his only chance to save the Commonwealth, and he knew it. The Reds would never let him hold on to the remote control.

On the other hand, triggering the bomb would kill Bern and Donna. While they were all still alive, he had hope that he could save them...but the bomb would end all that. What if there was another way out, a wild card waiting to present itself if only he survived a little longer?

"Come on!" said Cairn. "Quit pissing around!"

All three Reds took a step toward him at once, guns gleaming.

What would Bern do? That was always the question Scott asked himself, the standard he lived by. And as he thought of it, he knew without hesitation exactly what the answer was, exactly what Bern would do.

And he knew he couldn't bring himself to do it. He couldn't kill her while there was still a chance he might find another solution.

Swinging his legs out of the cockpit, he climbed down the side of his Battlenaut and planted his feet on the floor. Even then, there was still time to blow it all to kingdom come, and he reconsidered.

Bern would
want
to die; she'd do it in a heartbeat to save the Commonwealth. Donna would gladly do the same, if he asked her. No doubt in his mind about either of them.

Then there was Cairn. Scott knew he'd want to die, too, he'd have no qualms...but for different reasons than the others. He'd tried to kill himself sooner, for lower stakes, and why?

Because he'd rather be dead than alive. Because his life had been a horror show, and he wanted out. Because Scott had failed to save him before, in Iridess Chasm.

And now, Scott was thinking about giving up on him again. Giving up on him and Bern and Donna all at once, to save the Commonwealth.

Again, Scott came around to the same decision. It went against everything he believed, every oath he'd taken as a Marine, every battle he'd fought. Again and again, he'd thrown his own life on the line to protect the Commonwealth and its interests...but throwing down the lives of those he loved was another matter. So was throwing down the life of someone he owed a debt to, even if he'd never intentionally let him down. It wasn't as cut and dried as it had always seemed before, in the line of action as a Marine.

But he wasn't a Marine anymore, was he? He'd given up his commission when he'd fled the
Sun Tzu
against Perseid's orders. So the oaths and the life-and-death choices they spawned didn't seem quite so hard and fast at the moment.

What mattered most to him? The people he cared about...even the one who couldn't seem to accept it. Maybe, there would still be a way to save the Commonwealth without sacrificing all of them in the bargain.

"Okay then." Scott lowered his hand from the remote control and stepped away from the Mark VI. "What's next?"

Cairn stared down at him in silence for a long moment, as if he were waiting for something. Almost as if he'd expected him to set off the bomb.

When he spoke, he sounded less forceful than before. "Hand it over," he said, reaching out one Battlenaut gauntlet. "Give me the remote."

Scott loosened the wristband. "You won't be able to use it, you know. And it'll keep blocking you from using thought activation."

"Just give it to me." Cairn pushed the gauntlet closer. "We're not taking any chances that you'll set it off."

"I haven't yet, have I?" Scott pulled off the device and dropped it in Cairn's gauntlet. "Even though I
could
have."

"You probably
should
have. You won't get another chance." Cairn raised the gauntlet and tipped his Battlenaut's head down to stare at the remote control. "So why didn't you?"

"The truth? I couldn't bring myself to blow up a friend." Scott shrugged. "Even after he betrayed me."

Cairn stared at the remote a moment longer, then clenched it in his fist. "Get moving!" He raised his other hand to point at a gate on the far side of the chamber. "That way!"

As Scott started walking, he could feel the Reds' guns following his every step, keeping him locked in the crosshairs. "Sure. Where to?"

"Behind the curtain," said Cairn. "Where you'll finally find all the answers you've been searching for."

 

*****

 

 

Cairn and the Reds marched Scott down a dimly lit gray corridor ending in big double doors. Scott stood there a moment, staring at his reflection in the doors' silver surface...and then they slid open, shooting into the frame on either side.

For a moment, Scott stood there on the brink, taking in what he could see of the room on the other side. Even from the doorway, it looked vast.

"Go ahead." Cairn nudged Scott's back with the touch of a gauntlet's finger. "They're waiting for you."

"Keep your shirt on." Scott stepped through the doorway and found himself on a ledge without any railing, gazing into a cavernous chamber.

Instantly, he realized that he'd entered a nerve center of enormous proportions, a giant cylinder big enough to hold three ships the size of the
Sun Bin
laid end to end to end. Every wall was lined with instrumentation--control panels, monitors, gauges, scopes, and more--all tended by red-uniformed men and women floating in antigrav harnesses.

They weren't the only airborne figures in the chamber, though. A massive antenna array rotated in the middle of the place, running the length of the room from end to end. The array bristled with a filigree of silver branches twined and twisted around a pearlescent central shaft--all of it glowing with pulsing crimson energy.

From where Scott stood, on a ledge that circled the perimeter midway between floor and ceiling, the chamber spread out like a chasm ready to swallow him up. It looked the way the nerve center of a cosmic conspiracy ought to look, and sounded like one, too--constantly roaring with voices, the rattling hum of the giant array, the beeping/pinging/buzzing of equipment, and the cacophony of weapons fire from distant battles playing on video feeds, blaring through speakers.

"Pretty impressive, huh?" said Cairn, stomping up behind him on the ledge. "Welcome to Apocalypse Central."

Scott shrugged. "It's okay, I guess."

Cairn stepped up beside him and swept the arm of his Battlenaut around to encompass the vast chamber. "As you can see, the action's already underway. You never had a chance of stopping it."

"Actually, I think I did," said Scott. "Until you turned against me, that is."

Cairn let his arms fall at his sides. "It was for your own good, Sol. You'll thank me later."

"If you say so," said Scott.

They stood there silently for a moment before Cairn spoke again. "Why didn't you do it?" His voice was quieter than before. "Why didn't you trigger the bomb when you still had the chance?"

"Honestly?" Scott looked up at him. "Because as much as it
galls
me, I still
give
a flux about you." He shook his head and laughed. "Isn't that something? I kept thinking there had to be another way to stop this without blowing you up...especially after everything you've been through in your life."

Cairn didn't say anything for a moment. Then, he snorted. "Why don't you just admit the
real
reason you didn't do it? You didn't want to take the chance the explosion would kill Donna or Grandma...or
yourself
."

"You're only partly right," said Scott. "I'm expendable. I'll throw down my life as needed for the greater good. But I didn't want to kill the people I care about if I could help it." He shrugged. "That includes you."

Cairn laughed. "What a load of hoozehock."

"You're wrong." Scott shook his head and scuffed his toe on the ledge. "I've told you the truth."

Just then, one of the Red Battlenauts stepped up and pointed its guns squarely at Scott. "Move back from the edge!" snapped the pilot.

"Why?" said Scott. "Afraid I'll jump?"

The Red stepped closer, crowding him and Cairn. "I said
move
back
. Do it
now
!"

"Jeez!" Scott backed up two steps. "Would it kill you to say
please
once in a while?"

"Cut it out, Sol," said Cairn, moving back with him. "Don't make this any worse for yourself."

Suddenly, Scott understood why the Red had told him to move. An antigrav platform shot up from below, loaded with armed men in red uniforms--two dozen of them, standing in a tight circle around the edge.

Like an elevator, the platform stopped climbing when its deck met the ledge. All at once, the Red soldiers swung up their weapons and aimed them at Scott.

Just as Scott was wondering what he should do next, the men parted in the middle, opening a gap for someone to walk through. At first, Scott thought the gap was meant for him, that the men had come to take him away.

Then, he glimpsed movement behind the men and realized that someone was walking out through the gap instead.

Involuntarily, Scott held his breath. Whoever was back there, protected by all those armed guards, it couldn't be good news for him.

Or could it?

As Scott watched, a figure emerged from between the guards--and the breath he'd been holding rushed out of him in a sudden cry.

It was
her
. She was
alive
and apparently
unhurt
. And all he could think to do was run over and wrap his arms around her, if not for all the guns aimed point blank at him.

Then he decided that the guns didn't matter. Just as her feet stepped onto the ledge, he charged over and wrapped her in a hug.

"Thank God!" he said. "I was so
worried
about you!"

"Well, there's nothing to worry about anymore," said Grandma Bern, eyes twinkling as she beamed at him. "Everything's going to be all right from now on, I promise."

Scott broke the hug. "I'm so glad you're all right. I didn't know if I'd ever
see
you again."

"Well,
I
never had any doubts." Bern patted his back. "After all, you're
my
grandson, aren't you? You can do
anything
."

"So they haven't
hurt
you?" asked Scott.

"Not a bit, Solly," said Bern. "I'm perfectly fine."

Scott hugged her again and whispered into her ear. "Don't worry. I'm going to get you out of here."

"That's very sweet," she whispered back. "But I don't think we can leave right now." Leaning back, she smiled sadly and patted his cheek. "The head of this operation has other plans in store, apparently."

Scott frowned. "The head? Who's that?"

"Someone you know quite well, actually," said Bern.

Just then, a flicker of movement from the antigrav platform caught Scott's eye. Someone else was walking out from behind the Red troops.

Someone Scott knew quite well indeed.

He froze, gaping in horrified amazement at the new arrival. It wasn't possible, was it? After so many years, how could it be?

Yet there he was. Older and grayer, yet oh so familiar. Thin as a reed, as a weed in a pale blue jumpsuit, with a stretched-out face like a mashed banana, like a painting that had run in the rain. The mouth with a life of its own, his most striking feature, with teeth like tombstones with names etched into them and lips that had been tattooed black. It was a visage that Scott could never ever forget, no matter how hard he tried.

And the voice, when he spoke, was familiar, too--big and deep and friendly. "What have we here? A
family
reunion
?"

Thirteen years fell away in a heartbeat. At the sight of that man, Scott felt like a child again, like a thirteen-year-old boy being dragged into Iridess Chasm.

A thirteen-year-old boy being dragged by that man walking toward him.

"My, how you've
grown
." said the man, lips spreading in a lecherous grin that the years hadn't dimmed.

Scott didn't answer. He just stood there, dumbfounded, as Cairn did the heavy lifting and said the name so Scott wouldn't have to.

"Mr. Vore," said Cairn. "I followed your orders, sir. I'm ready for my next assignment."

 

*****