Steel World (27 page)

“People are dying down there.”

“Yeah? And we’re probably going to die up here, too.”

“We have to go for it,” I told him.

I got up and set myself like a runner prepping for a sprint. My side hurt, my head hurt and even my eyes seemed to ache in my skull.

Groaning, Carlos heaved himself into a crouch at my side.

“This is crazy, we don’t even know if there is a way in at the bottom of the stairs. I mean, don’t you think they probably locked all the doors by now?”

“I don’t know,” I said, “but I’m not sunbathing up here while these lizards kill two cohorts of light troops.”

“Why not?”

That was the last thing either of us said. Our conversation was interrupted by a singing sound. We didn’t even have time to throw ourselves flat.

An energy-charged mortar shell came down on the top of the building. Some of the weaponeers supporting our light troops must have gotten into position.

The building shook under us.

“They’re crazy!” shouted Carlos. “If they kill one of the Nairbs, we’ll all be in trouble.”

Another singing sound came, and the building shook again.

“Look!” Carlos said, pointing across the expanse of the roof.

We saw the shell had punched a burning hole through the roof. Without another word, we got up and ran to it, jumping blindly into the black, smoking hole. Anything was better than waiting around on the roof or charging down the exposed stairway.

We came down on a dusty floor lined with offices. It appeared to be deserted. There were pod-like desks and seats that looked like blobs of paint. I landed on one of these and my boots punctured it. I learned that the formless blob was indeed full of colored liquid. I guess that was a comfortable seat for a Nairb.

The important thing was, we didn’t see any enemies. We looked, but there weren’t any stairways on this level either.

“Are we going outside to run down, or are we going to dig through the floor?” Carlos asked me.

“There has to be something,” I said.

I found it pretty fast. A trap door that led down to the next level. We dropped through, and found another trap door. Carlos followed me, complaining every step of the way.

When we reached the bottom floor, we found the bureaucrats who’d abandoned their desks in panic. Startled-looking Nairbs huddled down here, and as one they turned to look at us in surprise. I’d seen pictures, but had never met up with them personally. They had bulbous faces the color and consistency of thick green pea soup inside of a water balloon. To me, the aliens resembled their chairs: they looked like beached seals.

They all began squawking at once in their own language when they realized who we were. I’m sure if I could have understood them, I’d feel insulted. As it was, I ignored them and pushed through the mass of their bodies to the doors.

The doors weren’t your typical affair from Earth. There was no automatic swishing sound, or obvious pad to put your hand on. Instead, I was confronted with a bank of large rods in various positions. I figured they were switches of some kind, as they could be moved up and down in various directions. But which way to move them?

Carlos followed me, bumping through the crowd of angry Nairbs.

“Do these guys bite?” he asked.

“Only your bank account. Come here and help me get this open.”

“You’re nuts, you know that? Why do you want to open the doors? The saurian guards will murder us.”

“I’m not trying to open the door. I’m trying to open the big gates outside. I want to let our troops inside the walls.”

All the while we talked, I worked various levers experimentally. I tried them one at a time. Most seemed to do nothing, while a few caused the sounds of grinding machinery to start up, then stop.

Carlos ignored me. He walked over to a box on one of the Nairbs desk. He adjusted it, and suddenly sound poured forth. The sound turned into an incomprehensible babble of angry voices.

“It’s a translator unit,” he said. “I’m trying to dial it for earthers.”

Seeing what he was doing, a small Nairb with a band around its neck waddled forward and nosed the device. Large yellow teeth snapped at Carlos’ hands, and he pulled them away quickly. The Nairb worked at the device, making careful choices.

“Do you understand this, barbarian?” the box asked.

“Ah, yes!” Carlos said. “It works!”

“Excellent. You have accrued seven criminal charges since you entered my awareness. I order you to perform self-execution.”

That made us look up. The Nairb had our full attention.
Nairbs didn’t make idle threats or demands. They were as unpleasant in personality as they were in appearance, but they followed rules to the letter. This concerned me, because as far as I could tell, we hadn’t done anything yet to warrant execution.

“Self-execution? On what grounds?” I asked the blob.

“Your attack upon this facility was monitored—as was everything you’ve done since arriving here on Cancri-9. Damaging this property is not in your contract. You have violated Galactic Law through willful breach of contract.”

I looked at Carlos, and he looked back at me. Our visors were clear now that we were inside and the blinding light of Cancri’s suns wasn’t burning overhead. I could see that Carlos was as worried as I was. Trade contracts were more important than any other element of Galactic Law. They took it very seriously, as the entire fabric of their empire was based upon it.

“We’re not aware of any violation,” I said angrily.

Carlos lifted his hand and waved urgently for me to stop talking. I fell quiet, wondering if he knew how to handle these beings.

I noticed the Nairbs had shut up, too. They were no longer a pack of barking seals. Instead, they were a quiet, vengeful group that stared in eager anticipation.

“You have not performed as ordered,” said the Nairb. “Refusal to comply is an additional crime. Penalties may be elevated if you continue to resist.”

I wasn’t too worried about elevated penalties, as I was already up for self-execution. How were things going to get any worse?

But then I reminded myself that things
could
get worse. Our unit, our legion, our ship—even our race could be penalized if the crime was big enough.

“What violation has been performed?” Carlos asked. His usual joking tone was absent.

“Do you refuse to comply?”

“No,” he said firmly. “I do not refuse to comply. I’m requesting clarification.”

“That is permissible to a point,” said the Nairb. “Your contract strictly forbids the use of aircraft during this campaign. That stipulation has been violated.”

“Aircraft?” I asked, interrupting. “Are you talking about the air car we used to come here? That isn’t Earth equipment. It doesn’t count.”

Again, Carlos waved for me to be quiet.

“High Justice,” Carlos said. “I’m sorry if there has been a misunderstanding. But no aircraft have been brought from our world to this world.”

“That is not germane to the violation. Aircraft were used in this conflict.”

“What proof do you have of this?”

“Your presence in this compound proves the violation. I don’t see why you are bothering to evade my edict. It is valid, and delaying the order to self-execute will only worsen the violation.”

I didn’t see what the hurry was, but then, I’m not a Nairb.

“Not if the violation is in error,” Carlos said confidently. “I’m attempting to determine whether or not the order is valid before it is followed.”

This made the Nairb ruffle. “I’m the prefect of this world. There is no higher authority on contracts. You offend me personally with your statements.”

“I apologize, but as the accused, I am within my rights. If we understood the violation and agreed with it, we would of course self-execute immediately.”

“Ah,” said the Nairb, its ocular organs changing shape and retracting somewhat. “I understand the nature of your delays now. You believe your bodies will be copied. Perhaps, you’re awaiting a signal from your fellow criminals that indicates this process is prepared. I will take steps.”

The Nairb turned to its fellows and barked out orders in its own language and they squawked back. The translator burbled as it tried to translate multiple inputs, and nothing intelligible came out of it for a few seconds.

“Carlos,” I said, “what are they doing?”

“Turning off our revival machines.”

“They can do that?”

“Yeah. My dad worked at the spaceport on Earth—the big one. The Nairb have to have power to enforce their decisions. They can turn off any Galactic tech we bought from someone else—even our guns.”

I was stunned. I hadn’t known about that. Perhaps Carlos had learned a few things in life I hadn’t. At least he had a better understanding of the Nairbs than I did.

“Prefect,” Carlos said, trying to politely gain the creature’s attention again. “Prefect, if I could just—”

“It is done,” said the alien, turning back to us triumphantly. “There will be no more of your kind avoiding the reward you all so richly deserve.”

“What you have done is a violation,” I said, unable to keep quiet. I ignored Carlos, who tried to shush me again.

“We do not violate any rules. It is not in our nature.”

“You have made a mistake. We did not use combat aircraft to land on this building. We did not kill any Nairbs. We are in conflict with the saurians only, and we apologize for any inconvenience we might have—”

“Ha! It is far too late for apologies.”

“Fine, let’s focus on facts and realities, then.”

“That is always our way.”

“You have accused us of a contract violation,” I said, trying to control my temper. “We have declared our belief you’ve made an error. There must be some kind of arbitration.”

The Nairbs quieted. “Arbitration? You claim the right of arbitration?”

“I do,” I said quickly.

There was a fresh round of grumbling from the assembled aliens. I could tell they didn’t like what I was saying.

“Very well, a stay must be granted in that case.”

The Nairb turned and spoke to its fellows, who seemed disappointed.

“Have you reversed your disconnection of our systems?” I asked sternly.

“We have.”

“I demand confirmation. Prove you have done what you say.”

The Nairb ruffled anew. “You suggest we are lying? Your insinuation is insulting.”

“I am within my rights.”

“Your sensory organs can’t read our incoming data. How can we prove our case?”

“Easily enough,” said Carlos suddenly. He was smiling, and I could tell that he was finally catching on to my plan. “All you have to do is open the front gates so we can see for ourselves.”

Grumbling and no doubt cursing our names, the Nairb went to the collection of switches. He organized them into a precise pattern, and the front gates rolled slowly open.

-20-

The battle outside had been one-sided up until this point. Our fellow legionnaires had been driven back to their lifters and were scattered around the spaceport, huddling behind any cover they could find.

It had been a while since Carlos and I had been able to observe events firsthand. Apparently, Tribune Drusus had decided the light cohorts weren’t going to be able to do the job alone. He’d ordered a cohort of heavy troops to head down to the planet.

I’d gathered by this time the plan had been for the light forces to race from the blast-pans to the central terminal and take it by surprise. By using our fastest ground forces, the saurian guards were supposed to fall without much of a fight.

Things hadn’t worked out that way. Our lightning strike had reached the enemy, but they had been prepared. The battle had turned into a costly grind, and the legion had been forced to commit more forces to the attack. At the same time, the saurians in the city nearby were mobilizing their own defenders.

We learned all this as the gates opened and we were able to reestablish our network with local troops. The puff-crete walls, the distance and the heat of action had prevented us from surveying current events up until now.

“This is great,” Carlos said, looking outside. “They don’t even know we are right here behind their lines.”

“Maybe they do know, but they don’t want to come in here and get blamed for any Nairb casualties.”

Carlos shrugged. “Could be. Well, in any case, we’ve done our part. We can just observe through these viewports until—”

“I don’t think so,” I said. “When our troops come in hard, I’m going out there.”

Carlos looked at me like I was crazy. I guess he had a point.

“Why?”

I pointed. He followed my finger and sighed.

Two of the saurian troops were dead at the base of the wall on the inside. They’d been hit by heavy weapons fire, by look of it. But what I was pointing at wasn’t the broken, ragdoll-like corpses. I was pointing out their weapons, one of which looked undamaged.