Sky Hunter (5 page)

“
Anything interesting?”

Her eyes returned to her scanner display when
Tomos Reko came around the front of the airship. “Nothing. Caravan
coming in from the north. No com noise from that. Rudjo sent a
couple of skimmers out to meet them.” Entire tribes of nomads
roaming the plains to trade their salt and animals meant a constant
influx of new people for Shon Gat. Among them, protected by Air
Command’s mandate of non-interference with indigenous populations,
traveled bandits and rebels. The best Union personnel could do was
to inspect each caravan from a distance to make note of Bellacs
with smoother skin, softer dialects, better equipment – all far
more common in Ballac Tau’s urban areas than out here.

The Centauri soldier leaned his rifle against
the hover’s skids and slouched beside her. There was a fresh breeze
up here in the rocky hills and both were glad to have left the
dusty town for a while. Their endless patrols of Shon Gat’s alleys
in this heat covered their skin in a disagreeable paste of sweat
and dust, all the more unpleasant for being trapped under their
lightly armored combat suits. Both of them had removed their
helmets although Nova still kept her bright red hair under a
camouflage scarf.

“
I say we stay up here a while longer,
to make sure,” he said, clearly enjoying his turn to partner with
the only pilot in their platoon and spend the day in the sky. It
was their job to display Air Command’s physical presence in these
hills, look for weapons caches, and investigate suspicious activity
not easily detected through electronic surveillance.

“
I think that’s wise, Sarge.” She
scanned the flat horizon for signs of vehicles or power sources.
All was quiet. She took her time with her visual inspection; some
of the peculiar salt pillars that rose from the ground like giant
mushrooms could turn out to be a nomad on his desert beast. Or a
rebel on a skimmer. “Nothing from the tether, either.”

From here, the ground base of the elevator
leading to the nearly completed skyranch, now settled into its
synchronous orbit above the planet, was just a smudge in the
distance. Her sensors showed vehicles and outbuildings and the
massive perimeter fence, patrolled to ward off schemes by Shri-Lan
rebels to hamper the construction. Nova’s eyes followed the
graceful line of the caged tether upward until it disappeared into
the ever-present haze blanketing the planet.

Another condition for allowing the Union to
control the nearby jumpsite was the construction of Skyranch Twelve
and, soon, Thirteen. Solar power and light ensured a boundless crop
of produce grown in microgravity to feed Bellac’s growing and
diverse population. The elevator guarded by their Air Command
garrison delivered water, air, and supplies over a three day trip
into space. Eventually, it would carry the orbiter’s harvest and
electricity surplus back down to the surface.

She looked up at the scanner on top of their
hover while she adjusted it. Of course, providing a skyranch over
Bellac also meant a very effective orbital communications and
surveillance array for military use, making it a worthwhile
expense.

“
Too quiet, you think?” Reko reached
back into the hover to fetch a bottle of water.

“
Could be the heat.” She accepted the
bottle from him and pointed it at her screen. “Look. Caravan’s
stopping.” They watched idly while the long line of people,
animals, carts and a few well-used skimmers gathered into a tight
knot. The smaller beasts where herded together in the center and
most of the people got busy with digging a circle of shallow
ditches. “Storm coming?”

Reko scanned the sky of the northern horizon.
The nomads bred a peculiar sort of desert animal, short-legged
crawlers called
churries
whose bodies were so flat and wide
that they were actually used as shelters during a sandstorm. The
herders merely dug a shallow depression into the sand and directed
the ruminants to cover them. Efficient, warm, safe and probably not
very sweet-smelling. Once the tan-colored animals settled on the
ground, they became nearly impossible to spot from a distance.

“
Want to bet that our skimmers aren’t
going to make it out there and back again before the storm
hits?”

Nova smiled and tapped the com system on her
data sleeve. “Base, Unit Four reporting herders digging in to the
north-west.”

“
Heard, Four.”

“
You are spoiling my fun,” Reko said
but both of them knew that, if the caravan had been tipped off
about the approaching patrol, the ditches might well be dug to hide
rebel infiltrators. There had been no warning about an approaching
sandstorm today and winds were calm over the plains. “Though if we
get a storm we won’t have to worry about an air strike today.
They’re not going to fly Shrills in here.”

She nodded and sent a request for a more
detailed weather analysis. Shrills, the small, single-seat fighters
used primarily by the Shri-Lan, were nimble and powerful but far
more delicate than Air Command’s sturdy Kites. For days now, their
scouts and spies had reported a possible air strike mobilizing on a
continent outside Union influence. So far, the skies were empty of
aircraft and would remain so during one of the choking sandstorms
so common here.

But the rebels’ most effective weapons were
not machines of war. The methods that made Air Command’s
traditional operations useless in places like Shon Gat were rebel
infiltrations into both civilian and military populations,
explosives carried under clothing or lobbed with crude trebuchets,
poisoned water, poisoned air, hostages and booby traps. Looking for
threats inside the town and protecting the cadre of engineers
working on the elevator base had become their main occupation.

Most overt rebel attacks featured elaborate
schemes to disrupt the power transformers near the base. The tether
itself was heavily shielded and bore missile defense mechanisms at
intervals along its length, presenting a far more difficult
target.

“
Storm confirmed, Four,” they heard
from the direction of Nova’s wrist. “Not until dusk, though.
Proceed to Unit Five rendezvous point and overnight
there.”

“
That storm’s going to wreck my lungs
for a week,” Reko grumbled.

Nova reached over and tugged on his scarf. It
was made of a flexible filtering material and she let it snap back
against his face where it was most appropriately kept during a
stand storm. “Maybe you should use the proper gear instead of
trying to look suave without it,” she said.

“
I don’t like to hide this pretty
face.”

“
Your face, my boot.” She ducked when
he swung his arm to take her into a headlock. “You’re far too slow,
shekka’an
.”

He shook his head. “You need to put more
emphasis on the last syllable,” he instructed. “Really put feeling
into that part to include my family. Much more insulting that
way.”

She practiced the Centauri expletive a few
times until he was satisfied. “Now you got it. Stick with me,
you’ll go far.”

She grimaced and looked out over the arid
landscape. Scrubland from one horizon to the next, little grew here
along the equator beyond what kept the local herd animals fed.
Rocks, the occasional oasis of matted trees and mud-brick
settlements, caravans. Far to the south in lusher landscapes,
prosperous cities had sprung up with the wealth brought to Bellac
by the Union. Out here little of that was in evidence. Of course,
out here was one of the few places where the space tether could be
built. The other was planned for a floating platform in the ocean,
also along the equator.

He guessed her thoughts. “Can’t wait to get
out of here, huh?”

Nova shrugged. “I want to be in my plane.”
She gestured at the thin line that the distant elevator etched into
the sky. “We were told that we’d be patrolling the jumpsite and the
new orbiter. Not blowing up Rhuwacs on the ground. Not beating up
Bellac rebels that don’t even know what they’re fighting for. I’m
less than sixty hours in the Kite away from qualifying for Hunter
Class trials.” She kicked at a stone to watch it tumble down the
slope into the valley at approximately the same speed at which her
hopes for a quick advancement were disappearing. A Hunter Class
pilot was practically guaranteed a post on some of the most
desirable Air Command bases. Which, right now, was any place but
Bellac Tau. “I’ve been waiting for that since I was about
five.”

“
Just a few more days and you’re back
on the base,” he reminded her. The members of Rudjo’s company out
here in Shon Gat had only a vague idea of why she had joined their
squad. Not having been given a command, she had clearly not been
promoted into this assignment. Some rumors were mongered that she
had gotten into an altercation with a senior officer but no one had
asked for details. She was glad for that, also aware that a
reputation for getting into brawls was probably helpful out
here.

Then again, she had been relieved to find
that the other grunts in her company were, for the most part,
amicable and likable men who treated her as one of their own. Nova
was not the only female combat soldier stationed here and her
presence was not exceptional. This is what she had come to expect
from her assignments, in the air or on the ground. There was no
tolerance out here for those not doing their share to keep them all
alive and so far she had given them no reason to doubt her
abilities.

“
Yeah, can’t wait,” she said. But was
that even true? What was waiting for her back at the base? Captain
Beryl whose personality probably hadn’t improved after thirty days
in lock-up, his devoted followers who would surely find ways to
retaliate, her own squad of pilots who’d probably rather not get
into the middle of things. Despite what Major Trakkas had guessed
about her, she was tempted to apply for transfer away from this
dreary planet.

“
You pilots have it made,” Reko said.
“Real beds, real showers, real food!”

“
Sort of,” she amended, her attention
back on the screen in her hands.

“
I’m thinking of quitting the military,
did I tell you that?”

She nodded. He spoke of it daily.

“
I’m heading back home to Magra. I have
the sweetest girl in the world. She’s a teacher. Languages, mostly.
And music. Can you believe it? They teach music on Magra!” He
smiled happily as he stared into the distance, perhaps in his mind
seeing the planet from here. “I can get a job on the base, I think.
Mechanics. What’ll you do when you get out?”

She looked up, puzzled. Get out? Out of what?
She had spent her entire life on one military installation or
another, always assuming that that’s what everyone did. Her father
had moved his family to where he was posted, as was common among
senior officers and his only child had learned to adapt. Instead of
music she had learned physics and ballistics and aviation. The
languages she knew had come to her by listening to the rough talk
of soldiers and cadets from a dozen different planets. Planes were
her passion, weaponry her expertise. And not once had she thought
about doing anything else. “Fly,” she said.

“
Boring, Whiteside! You need a hobby!”
He put an arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer. His
violet, mildly glowing eyes gleamed with mischief. “Hey, how about
a boyfriend?”

Nova launched from her perch as if he had
stuck a knife in her arm. “Don’t!” she exclaimed before she caught
herself.

He blinked, confused by her reaction. “Easy,
Nova,” he said, but there was a hurt look on his face. “I’m just
kidding around. I just told you I had a girl.”

She took a deep breath and shook her head.
“Sorry, just jumpy, I guess,” she said although until this moment
she had been perfectly at ease up here. “I know you didn’t mean
it.”

Reko shrugged in an effort to make light of
the awkward moment. “Of course I meant it. You’re a pretty lady
when you’re cleaned up a bit, Lieutenant.” He sighed dramatically
and settled his helmet on his shaved skull. “Much too pretty for a
Centauri grunt with a face like a boot.”

Nova smiled. “Damn straight.”

She packed up the remote scanner display and
climbed after him into the hover plane. These compact vehicles were
used to move silently among the hills, barely raising a plume of
dust even at low altitudes. Not even remotely as powerful as her
Kite, they were little more than a souped-up, armored skimmers, but
at least she was airborne some of the time. It made her banishment
to this isolated post more bearable than she had expected.

“
Point the way, Sarge,” she said when
they had lifted off. He was studying their maps to look for the
next point along their surveillance route. After a moment he sent
the information to the onboard navigator and she let the plane
coast through a gap in the bluffs, away from Shon Gat and into the
rugged hills to the south. Gradually, the foothills gave way to
more densely-treed slopes. Ahead of them lay a saddle between some
cliffs through which a narrow stream had carved its way through the
ages. Beyond that, they knew, lay a village where they would
rendezvous with another squad.

Nova tapped the ship’s com system to hail
them. “Do you think they’ve got any dinner for us up there?” she
said to Reko. “I hear the people up there know how to roast those
little goat-things without incinerating them.”

“
Probably helps to use a real fire.
Would be nice to get some of that.” Their quartermaster at the base
had taken to purchasing herds of churries to augment the mess hall
menu. Their use as an almost daily protein offering was decidedly
underappreciated by the troops.