Deathstalker Rebellion (58 page)

“Sure, Alex. Now, shut up and conserve your strength.”

“Always were a bossyboots, Jack.”

“How far are we from the rebel base?” said Ruby, trying hard to be tactful for once.

“We don’t know,” said Storm. “They wouldn’t tell us. Just gave us landing coordinates and told us we’d be contacted. I hate going into situations blind. I just hope the paranoid bastards find us before the Empire forces do. We were promised a distraction to keep them occupied somewhere else, but I’m growing less trusting by the second. I would also like to point out that I am losing all feeling in my extremities.”

“Don’t worry,” said Random. “At your age you don’t use them for much anyway.”

“You can go off people, you know,” said Storm.

They fell silent for a while, the cold air searing their lungs. They huddled closer together, trying to share their warmth, eyes straining against the swirling snow. Dark outcroppings of metal showed dimly through the storm, but there was no sign of life anywhere. Random beat his gloved hands together and looked longingly at Ruby’s thick furs over her leathers. He’d thought she just insisted on wearing them to keep up her barbarian image, but maybe she’d paid more attention at the briefings than he had. He wouldn’t be surprised. There was a sharp mind at work behind her carefully crafted image. He coughed and sneezed harshly. Something in the air was irritating his throat. Even allowing for the bitter cold, the air was thicker than he was used to, and it smelled as though someone else had breathed it first. The locals had assured him it was breathable, once you got used to it. Random suspected it was an acquired taste. They’d said much the same about the changing weather, but Random wasn’t convinced. The locals had also said the blizzard would make good cover for a landing. Random wondered if he’d be allowed to shoot the person who said that for criminal understatement.

He looked across at Storm, and his concern grew. There
was no color left in the man’s face, and he was shuddering violently. Random gestured at Ruby, and she took off her furs and wrapped them around Storm. It seemed to help him a little. Ruby wouldn’t feel the difference. She’d been through the Maze, too. Random frowned. He’d been thinking of Storm as an old man, someone who ought to be happily retired, sitting in a book-lined study beside a blazing fire, with adoring grandchildren at his feet, but he really wasn’t much older than Random. He still mostly remembered Storm as a tousle-headed young warrior, always laughing, ready to throw himself into the thick of things at a moment’s notice. But that was a long time ago, and Random was shocked as he realized just how long. Storm had to be in his mid fifties by now, and the long years of struggle had not been kind to him. Random frowned and wondered if maybe he shouldn’t have brought Storm with him, after all. Storm had volunteered, but then, he’d never been able to say no to Jack Random. Who was no youngster himself anymore, even if he had been through the Maze. His frown deepened. He didn’t think of himself as old, even after all he’d been through, so he supposed Storm didn’t, either. But they sure as hell weren’t young anymore. Ruby suddenly pushed herself away from the shelter of the pod and stared out into the storm.

“Heads up, people. Company’s coming.”

“Can you see them?” said Random, stepping forward to stand beside her.

“No. But I can feel them. They’re coming this way.”

Random concentrated, but couldn’t feel anything. The Maze had changed them all in different ways. The first dark shapes began to appear out of the snow, and Storm forced himself to move forward and stand with his friends. It was a matter of pride. There were ten locals finally, standing before them all wrapped in furs, their faces hidden behind leather and metal masks in the shapes of stylized animal heads, none of which Random recognized. Except to note they were all pretty damn ugly. One of the locals stepped forward, looked at the three of them, and then pulled aside his mask to reveal a grim, heavily bearded face. It was a hard-used face and could have been any age. Several long scars marred his features, deep and pitted, and his eyes were dark and very cold.

“Where are the rest of you?” he said harshly, looking at Ruby.

“We’re all there is,” Random said calmly. “You talk to us about the local situation, and if we’re convinced, we’ll contact the underground and they’ll send armed volunteers, weapons, and supplies. You understand there’s a lot of calls on our limited resources. We have to be sure they go where they’re most needed. I’m Jack Random. This is Ruby Journey and Alexander Storm. Give them plenty of room. They bite. Whom do I have the honor of addressing?”

“You’re
Random
?” said the local incredulously. “I thought …”

“Yes,” said Random regretfully. “Most people do. Just try and think of my age as experience on the hoof. Is there somewhere else we could continue this conversation? Somewhere a few degrees above absolute zero?”

“Of course. I’m Tall John. I command here. Follow me.”

He pulled his mask back into place, turned, and set off into the storm without looking back. The locals moved off after him, as silently as they’d arrived. Random grabbed Storm and got him moving. Ruby took Storm’s other arm, and the three of them stumbled off into the blizzard, hurrying as best they could to keep up with Tall John and his people. The pod was quickly lost in the snow behind them, and they soon lost all sense of direction. No matter where they looked there was only snow, and the dark figures trudging on before them. Time passed, and the bitter cold of the wind cut at them like knives as the pressure of the winds increased. And then the dark figures suddenly began to disappear, one by one. The last turned and beckoned them forward. He pushed aside his mask, revealing Tall John’s face again.

“This is it. Welcome to the outer circles of hell.”

He gestured at his feet, stepped forward, and descended into a gap in the snow that Random could only just make out through the blizzard. Random moved forward cautiously and suddenly found himself on the edge of a deep trench, some six feet wide, falling away deeper than his eyes could follow. He could just make out the steps cut into the near wall, and he followed the retreating Tall John down into the trench. Storm came next, slowly and very carefully, followed by Ruby. The trench turned out to be some fifteen feet deep, with snow and slush already ankle-deep at its bot
tom. Tall John was waiting for them and gestured for them to follow him into one of the many narrow tunnels leading off from the far wall.

Random followed the local into a dimly lit tunnel barely wide enough for two men to walk abreast, and so low he had to keep his head bowed to avoid banging it on the roof. Roof and walls were both made of metal, crudely polished in places, and it occurred to Random that he’d seen nothing else on this planet. Except snow. He could hear Storm and Ruby following close behind. He glanced back, but Storm seemed to be holding up okay. It was discernibly warmer in the tunnel. The warmth slowly rose as they made their way on, until finally they emerged into a steel cavern some twenty by thirty feet.

The walls had been jaggedly cut from the many layers of compressed scrap metal covering the planet’s surface, and no efforts had been made to disguise or cover this. There was no furniture, and the only light came from scattered candles in glass jars. A central metal brazier contained brightly glowing coals, and Storm headed straight for it with his hands outstretched. Random and Ruby joined him, though a little less quickly, for pride’s sake. They both kept one hand at a time unobtrusively near hidden weapons. Random hadn’t lasted this long by trusting people who just happened to turn up at a meeting place. He should have insisted on a password, but there hadn’t been time. Random liked passwords. They appealed to his sense of the dramatic.

Tall John stripped off an outer layer of furs to reveal a tall rangy man with long dark hair, a steady gaze and a mouth set in a stern line. Beside him stood another of the figures from the storm, pulling open her furs to reveal a short, chunky woman with a great mane of knotted dark hair above a pale, round face. She flashed the three newcomers a broad smile and nodded to them amiably. Like Tall John, time and the world had used her hard, and she could have been any age at all.

“I’m Throat-slitter Mary. Don’t mind Tall John. When you get to know him, he’s really a pain in the ass. He and I will speak for the others. You’ll meet them later. You’re welcome here, but I have to say you’re not what we were hoping for. We need reinforcements, weapons, supplies, and lots of them.”

“We didn’t expect two old men and a bounty hunter,” said Tall John.

Random shrugged, not upset. “There’s more to us than meets the eye. And if you can convince us of the strategic importance of your needs, you’ll get everything you could hope for. So talk to us. Fill us in on what’s been happening on Technos III. Your initial contact was intriguing, but short on detail.”

“All right,” said Throat-slitter Mary. “Short and to the point. Like me. We’re fighting a trench and tunnel war with the Empire forces. At the center of everything is the factory, getting ready to mass produce the new stardrive. Around the factory lies a series of trench circles. The Empire controls the inner trenches, we control the outer, and we spend most of our time fighting over the ones in the middle. There’s maybe fifteen thousand of us left. There used to be a lot more, but the years have whittled us away.

“We’re all that remains of the original colonists of Technos III. Our ancestors were indentured workers, paying off the cost of their transport by terraforming the planet and establishing industries. Theoretically, once all the debts were paid off, Technos III was theirs. Only somehow there were always more debts for each new generation.

“The original company in charge went broke. Others came in and took over, running the planet as a business while they asset-stripped it. The companies came and went, but we stayed. We had to. Our ancestors had been genetically altered to enable them to survive on this world. Terraforming can only do so much. If you three stay here long enough, this planet will kill you in a dozen subtle ways. We can’t leave this world without some pretty basic changes in our body chemistry, which we’ve always been denied. Officially, because it would be too expensive. Besides, where else were they going to find such a useful, trapped, workforce?

“As companies came and went, each more cheapjack than the one before, leaving their failures behind them to poison the land, the whole surface of the planet gradually disappeared under deserted factories, installations, and other high-tech junk. Right up until today. The Campbells were a bunch of bastards, but the Wolfes are worse. They don’t give a damn for this planet. All they care about is their precious factory. Everything else has been left to rust and rot. We’ve
inherited a world dominated by deserted mile-long factories, abandoned construction sites, and worked-out mines. The Wolfes, and the Campbells before them, chose this planet precisely because it’s such a mess. They could do anything they liked here, and no one would give a damn. Who’s going to care about pollution on a world like this? It’s already been poisoned so thoroughly that only native life like us could survive here. And no one cares about us. At first we were an embarrassment. Now, we’re rebel terrorists. Life on this planet has been driven underground. We survive, together. We live off the remaining flora and fauna, and they live off us, when we’re not fast enough. But our time is running out.

“Once the Wolfes have got their factory up and running, they’ll be able to afford armies of mercenaries to force us back, so they can build more factories. And once that happens, they won’t stop till we’re extinct. We have to stop this factory coming on-line. It’s our only hope.”

“Sounds straightforward enough,” Random said briskly. “It’s a regrettably common scenario in the Empire these days, though this is perhaps a more extreme case than most. Tell me about the weather. I gather it’s rather unusual here.”

“That’s one way of putting it,” said Tall John. “Ever since the cyberats screwed up the weather satellites over two hundred years ago, the seasons here have lasted exactly two days, over and over again. The planet’s various owners have been trying to repair the satellites for decades, with no luck whatsoever. Most life here couldn’t adapt and died out. What little did survive, did so by being extremely tough. And not a little eccentric. During the winter, anything with any sense hibernates. In the spring, everything wakes up, explodes, and proliferates. They live, fight, and breed in the summer. Then they feed exhaustively and build nests in the autumn, deep down, away from the razorstorms and the hurricanes. Then they sleep through the winter so they can wake in the spring and do it all again. Life here is nothing if not adaptable. It’s had centuries of practice.

“And that’s Technos III in a nutshell. Perfect for vacations. Bring the kids. Of course, the war ignores such trivialities as the seasons; it goes on day in, day out, whatever the weather. You’ve arrived as autumn turns to winter—the nearest we’ve got to a quiet time. Our people and the Wolfe mercs take the opportunity for a breather, plan our revenges, and bury our dead. But don’t think you can relax. You’ve
got maybe two hours before the killing starts again. So welcome to hell, gentlemen and bounty hunter. Maybe now we can get to the important questions, like: When are the others coming? How large an army can you supply us with? How many weapons?”

Storm and Ruby both looked at Random. He sighed and met the rebels’ gaze as calmly as he could, “I’m afraid there isn’t any army. Not yet. The underground is raising volunteers for the great rebellion on hundreds of worlds, but it’s a long slow process. Such trained men as we have are scattered across the Empire where they can do the most good. For the moment we’re all you’re getting.”

“I don’t believe I’m hearing this,” said Tall John, his voice shaking with barely suppressed anger. “We were promised battle-hardened fighters, led by the legendary Jack Random, the professional rebel. And what do we get: two old men and a professional back stabber. Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t just throw the three of you out into the winter to freeze?”