The Stars Came Back (45 page)

He’s on screen with Kat, talking
hurriedly.

Lag: A
t
least
a light battalion-

Kat: A
battalion
!? Jesus!

Lag:
From what we could see all the vehicles got hit. We flew right over no hint of radar or tracking. Fighting was still active, and hundreds of guys moving around with a forest fire burning so no way to sort them out at speed. There
may
still be some operative stuff there. See what you can find out about other routes being cleared. No doubt they got hurt bad, but… (shakes head)

Kat: On it. Out here.

DISSOLVE TO

EXT - DAY - Hastily dug fighting position

The Plataeans
and five recruits lie in a shallow depression, hastily dug into a slightly better foxhole, facing outward and occasionally shooting as needed. Blue wood smoke, black plastics smoke, white powder smoke, all swirl by intermingled. They are bloodied and bandaged, with damaged body armor and bayonets that show signs of recent use. The sounds of gunfire and a forest fire crackle in the background. They have few supplies. Around the rim Kaushik and the recruits are aiming and firing slowly and carefully, as best they can. Recruit Buck lies in a bloody mess next to Kaushik, magazine in his one good hand, ready to pass it to Kaushik when he needs it, only two full magazines next to him. Harbin looks at a wound on Kaminski’s side, and puts another bloody bandage over it to add to his collection.

Harbin: You’ll last a while. Just a
nother flesh wound. Can you shoot?

Kaminski: (
Though clenched teeth) Got no choice.

Harbin: You know what I think?

Kaminski looks at him grimly.

Harbin:
She’s going to give you
hell
for getting shot like that.

In spite of the pain Kaminski grins weakly and gives a halfhearted chuckle. He hefts his rifle gingerly and rolls onto his good side, moving slowly to get back up into the fight.

CUT TO

EXT - DAY - Rooftop landing pad

A four story building on the outskirts of town at the edge between the industrial district and more upscale urban building. The pad has three small fliers parked on the side of it.
Tajemnica
glides down, pads retracted, ramp down, and hovers above it near the roof door, where a husky guy in a dark suit and sunglasses stands with a snarl on his face.

Guard1: (
Yelling) Get that huge-ass thing
out
of here!

Allonia and Helton hop off the ramp in
no mood to be argued with. Allonia wears full high-tech synthetic combat armor, holstered pistol at her side on a belt laden with magazines, Helton only wears body armor, carrying a suppressed 6.5mm rifle slung across his chest, a few spare magazines here and there. On the ramp, Lag stands with a rifle casually under his arm, looking at the guard with a slight grim smile.

Helton: Open the door. We have an appointment with Seymore.

Allonia: And you are
not
going to announce it.

Guard1
assesses the situation and his face goes from angry and demanding to professionally blank. He opens the door and stands aside.

CUT TO

INT - DAY - Outer office reception area

A cute young lady sits behind a desk, as much decorative as functional. Three muscular, tough-looking men, fashionably dressed, lounge around the room. KnifeGuy cleans his fingernails with a vicious-looking knife. The door flies open violently, Allonia and Helton storm in. Seymore’s hired muscle are good. They react instantly, reaching to draw weapons, and KnifeGuy throws his blade expertly and fast. Allonia and Helton are prepared. Allonia dodges, the knife barely grazes her temple and sticks in the wall. She draws her pistol lightning fast while dodging, getting it in another’s face while he’s still mid-draw. Helton’s rifle is leveled at the third thug. KnifeGuy is empty-handed, and he freezes while starting to reach for another blade, realizing he’s not going to be fast enough.

Helton: Nobody moves, no one dies.

Allonia: (Without looking at the receptionist, glaring at the guys she’s covering with her pistol, tone cold and deadly) Hit the switch and open the door for us.
Now
.

The receptionist understands the situation and controls herself well enough to reach for
a button.

Helton: NO. The button that opens the door.
Anything but that happens (he shifts his aim to her)
you
die first. Then these three. Then Seymore.

The receptionist changes the direction of her hand, her eyes big and locked onto the muzzle pointed at her. She hits the right button and the door clicks open. Helton’s rifle goes back to covering the guards. Allonia heads for Seymore’s office door, eyes and gun still on the guards. She grabs the knob, shoves it open and strides in.

Seymore sits at his desk, leaned back, feet up, but startles and starts to get up, shouting, then freezes. In the corner sits Seeless, who stands up and to reach for a pistol in a shoulder holster when he sees her enter.

Seymore: I SAID NO VIS-

Allonia has a hard-eyed glare on Seymore. Her pistol points at Seeless out of the corner of her eye.

Allonia:
SIT!

They both freeze a moment, then sit.

Allonia: I don’t have all the details, but I know you are involved in the treason of trying to shoot
Tajemnica
down using Kiv SAMs. If the Plataeans we dropped to stop them don’t come back alive,
neither do you
. If I find out they died and you had direct involvement, you better kill yourself, because when I get to you, your demise will be downright Old Testament. I know you and Darch have been talking to the Kiv, and it’s only a matter of time before we know exactly who said what. Call anyone you know who even
might
be able to call them off. Your life, and Darch’s,
depend
on the survival of those three men. And if you try to stop us from leaving, there’s twenty thousand tons of metal hovering over your building awaiting our safe return.

She turns to Seeless.

Allonia: And believe me, after what you did to her parents, Quiri would be
happy
to set
Taj
down right here, right now, if we don’t walk out.

Seeless blanches and a stain appears and grows on the front of his pants. Allonia holsters her pistol, turns, and strides out, leaving Seymore gasping in rage and fear. The office is silent except for the sounds of Allonia and Helton
departure. The moment the outside door closes, the three guards in the outer room rush in to check on him, then rush back out as he rages at them, yelling almost incoherently, chasing them out of his office.

Seymore: WHAT THE HEL
L DO I PAY YOU ASSHOLES FOR YOU MORONIC ROID-RIVEN PATHETIC EXCUSES FOR DOORMEN! GOODFUCKNGODYOURUSELESS! YOU-

He freezes, mid sentence, seeing the thrown knife in the wall. He gets closer. The view zooms in on the bit of blood on the knife edge.

FADE TO BLACK

FADE IN

EXT - DAY
- Cargo bay ramp

Tajemnica
still hovers above Seymore’s office. Lag and the guard wait motionlessly, facing each other, Lag with his rifle still held casually. The door to the building slides open. Helton and Allonia (a modest trickle of blood on her temple) jog out and hop aboard Tajemnica’s already moving ramp as it lift away. Lag looks at her, questions written on his face.

Allonia: It’s nothing. Guy with a knife. Seymore
now has clarity. He’ll be calling everyone he ever talked t-

Sh
e freezes mid step, momentarily perplexed, then a look of suspicion flashes onto her face.

Allonia: (
More statement than question) Kat. Why did
Kat
talk to Darch or Seymore?

Helton and Lag
glance at each other, then back to her.

Allonia:
Taj
said she was picking up a useful chain of communication between them. She’s a spy!

Lag
’s face goes blank.

Lag: Sort of. Double
agent, really.

Helton and Allonia both look at him in surprise.

Lag: I’ll fill you in after we get that cut taken care of.

DISSOLVE TO

INT - DAY
– Sick bay

Allonia
is being bandaged and cleaned up by Helton while they talk. Helton stands as he works, she sits on the edge of an exam table, while Lag leans against another.

Lag: She’s been feeding a few of the local powerbrokers information that is correct
but of more use to us to know
they
know it than it is to them. They are willing to pay a premium price to gain supposedly inside data, and Kat has a rare talent for pumping them for more than she hands out. When I realized we might be getting set up, our best intel was that at
most
an air defense company was going to be used, more likely a platoon level detachment. Everything else was apparently accounted for. Darch must have pulled in some huge favors and really hate you to commit treason on that level, unless there is something else big going on we don’t know about. Four ManPAD teams at the RC, a whole battalion in the zone. That’s a serious commitment.

Helton: So she told them she’d tell
us
it was clear, and we’d set up the ambush ahead of time?

Lag: Exactly. A few launchers and a score of men would have been a piece of cake. An entire battalion… Not sure
what we’d have done if we’d known that. That’s a steep order on short notice with so few men, even for the First Sergeant. If they did totally reduce it, that’s going to be a huge bonus for the Company.

Allonia:
(Shocked) How can you talk about profits when Dorek and the others might be dead or dying?

Lag looks apologetically at Allonia.

Lag: Sometimes, when the cause is just and the buyer poor, we fight for free. We can afford to do that because of money and experience gained working for richer clients. Fighting is never risk-free, but we don’t normally go into battle
expecting
to die.

Allonia: All those men, suffering and dying. War is messed up.

Helton: Yes. It is.

Allonia: Why? Why do they…?

Lag: Because wars are started by people, and there are messed up people in the universe… Sadly, they often seem to float to the top of the political cesspool. Ambitious people chase money and power, and the more they have, the more corruptible they become.

Allonia: So why do
you fight? You and Dorek seem nice enough.

Lag: Thank you. Because to
not fight back concedes victory to the worst bastards
starting
the wars. I raise the cost of fighting so they’d rather negotiate in good faith.

Helton: Fight fire with fire, as it were.

Lag: Exactly. Like shooting a rapist; it keeps him from ever doing it again, makes the next bad guy think twice…

Helton: A
nd like flattening someone with a missile launcher.

Allonia: Those are different! That was just self
defense!

Helton: Is it so different?

Allonia looks upset, troubled and tired. She breathes deep, holds it, and slowly lets it out through pursed lips.

Allonia: So
. What next?

CUT TO

INT - DAY
- Seymore’s office

Seymore
talks to Darch on the screen. Both are obviously angry, uncertain, and frustrated.

Seymore:
(Yelling) You need to call them back!

Councilor Darch:
(Yelling) I can’t contact of them!

Seymore: She’s crazy! They are
all crazy! And they threatened
me
, here-

Darch: I don’t give a
damn about their threats! If any word of this-

Seymore:
And I don’t give a damn about your fucking election, either, but if they land-

Darch:
Your
ManPADS failed, got themselves killed!

Seymore: I just made the connection,
you hired the morons! They were on foot, goddamit, and they just landed on them! She threatened to land on
me
! That crew is-

Darch: I can’t contact the
battalion until they radio me, so I don’t know WHAT they’re doing now!

Seymore: Well you damn sure
better find a way to get a line to them, or we are both-