Fool's Gold: Carson Lyle's War - Part One (12 page)

"So will you be in charge of working on her?"

"Yeah."

"What do I call you besides Chief?"

"Sorry. Chief Diego."

Lyle held out his hand. "Carson Lyle. Good to meet you, Chief."

Chief Diego didn't return the gesture. Instead, he looked back at the ship, aggravated.

"What?" Lyle said, annoyed.

"Working on this P.O.S. is not what me and my crew are supposed to be doing," Diego said, shaking his head.

"This ain't no pleasure trip for me, either!"

"Get used to it, hauler. Best case scenario: that thing ain't making it through a jump gate for two months."

Lyle's shoulders sank. "Son of a bitch!"

Diego turned to him as if to suddenly remember something. "Oh wait, make as well add three weeks to that since there won't be no damn gate until then."

Furious, Lyle stepped forward, bumping Diego's helmet with his own. The move knocked the two of them off balance in the low gravity.

"You have something to say about that, Chief?"

Chief Diego squared his stance and shoved Lyle in the chest, sending him sliding backward for a couple of meters.

Some of the ground crew started to gather around them, taking long sweeping strides to close in more quickly.

Lyle was back in Diego's face. The each had a grip on the other's pressure suits, grunting to throw the other to the ground.

The crowd jumped, hooted and hollered, in support of their Chief, but their cheers were on a different comm channel and weren't heard.

Lyle felt the leverage, in low G, turning to his favor and was about throw Diego over his shoulder when two large, gloved hands, forced their way between them and pushed them apart. Both went careening in opposite directions.

It took a few seconds to Lyle to regain his balance, then he noticed a large shadow engulf him. A large, pressure suited, figure stepped toward him. He heard the click of the comm channel opening in his ear.

"I can't even fathom how stupid you are." It was Dex. "There are over four thousand people on this base that would line up behind him to take a shot at you because of the broke gate," he said indicating Chief Diego. "You want to pick a fight with each one? Come on, the Colonel wants you."

Lyle got to his feet. He turned to follow Dex but kept his eyes locked on Diego until he was out of the field of view of the pressure suit helmet.

We'll be talking about my ship again, Chief. You bet your ass, we will.

Chapter 21

"Mr. Lyle! Is it possible you can go an hour without starting a fight with someone on this base?"

Colonel Mann stood in front of his desk looking down on Lyle, who was seated uncomfortably, in front of him. Kagan sat on a couch, off to the left, in a darkened corner of the office.

"I'm serious. If you're going to poke sticks in every rygellian hornet's nest around here, there will be a time someone isn't going to be around to bail your ass out. Hell, they might just decide not to, hoping you'll learn something." The Colonel scoffed. "You might just be the dumbest mech driver, I've ever met."

Lyle looked at the corner and raised an eyebrow.

"Some of the dock jockeys pull double duty in the mech bay," Kagan said.

"And if there's one thing a mech driver needs more than luck, it's a crew that's gonna cross all the T's and dot all the I's. You get me?"

Lyle's shoulders slumped. The Colonel was right.

Shit! That was stupid!
Lyle berated himself for such a rookie mistake. While a mech driver will get all press and all the glory for acts of heroism on the battlefield, all of it is dependent upon the functionality of his mech and that's where the crew is vital. If a mech driver doesn't treat his crew right, if he doesn't respect them for the vital role they play, if he has wronged them in a meaningful way, someone could carry a grudge. That driver could hit the drop zone with a defective joint connection that could break during combat maneuvering and disabling the mech's mobility, leaving it and its driver stranded in the middle of the battlefield. And back in the mech bay, when the loss of that driver is announced, tears are more likely to be shed for the mech that was lost instead of its driver. Mech crews have their driver's lives in their hands every time they go out and good mech drivers don't forget that.

"So I think I've got a job, unique to your qualifications, that'll fill a big need I have around here," said Mann.

There was a knock at the door. "Enter," said Mann.

Lyle heard the door open, and the booted footsteps of someone walking in. He didn't turn around to look, not caring to meet anyone else from the 501st welcoming squad today.

"You wanted to see me, sir?"

Lyle straightened in his chair at the sound of the voice.

"Yes. This is who I was telling you about," Mann said, nodding to Lyle.

From Lyle's left, the person stepped to stand next to the Colonel. It was a woman, in full mech driving gear. It looked as though she'd come straight from the cockpit. Like the Colonel, her face also bore the scars of war and showed an expression that was unforgiving. Still, there was an attractive quality to it. The way the mech suit sat on her body reflected a physically fit frame, like all mech drivers and her sneer suggested experience and an unwillingness to tolerate anything that strayed into being nonsense.

"Captain," Colonel Mann said. "This is Carson Lyle. If he proves himself capable, he will be assisting you. Lyle, this is Captain Leeann Vostro, my lead mech training officer."

"Sir!" Vostro said. "I told you I don't need any help."

"You will when I reassign Rogers and Laskey."

Vostro protested, emphatically. "Take away two and give me one?
This
one? Sir, this is a bad idea. You don't take away experienced instructors and replace them with a washed up hauler, and expect competent drivers to come out of it."

"Washed up?" Lyle said.

Vostro went on as if Lyle wasn't there.

"The recruits won't listen to a civie hauler! The rest of my people won't work with a civie hauler! I've heard rumors that he's from the inner territory, is that true?"

The Colonel nodded. "That's correct. He brought us the cargo that will, among other things, get a dozen mechs back in service. His ship was damaged in that delivery and he needs to earn his keep while it's being repaired. And I'll fix the 'civie hauler' part of the program, right now, by giving him a field commission at the rank of Captain."

A dozen mechs? Wait…he's going to make me a Captain?"

Vostro stood there staring at the Colonel, stunned. Lyle could almost see smoke coming from her ears.

"Something to say, Captain?" Said Mann.

The awkward silence continued for a few more, long seconds. Vostro's eyes were locked with the Colonel's.

Lyle sat, waiting to see what would happen next. He fully understood what was going through Vostro's mind. The Colonel had taken away some of her assets and replaced them with someone off the street and gave him the same rank. She had to be beyond angry. If they were in the formal military structure of the inner territory, she'd have a recourse to protest. Take it up the food chain to get try to get it reversed. But out here, they didn't have that. As far as authority is concerned, Colonel Mann looked like he was it.

What the hell is he up to?

"Captain, you will take him out on the range, this afternoon, evaluate his proficiency and decide where he fits in your training program. Understood?"

Several more seconds passed before she answered.

"What if don't deem him to be qualified?" She said it with venom in her voice, as if she'd already made up her mind.

Colonel Mann smiled. "I think you're going to be surprised."

"Colonel," Lyle said, "she clearly doesn't want me in her unit. I don't want to upset the happy little utopia you have going on here, so I'll just sweep the floors or work in the galley or do whatever else I need to do to get my ship fixed so I can get out of here."

"'Utopia'?" Vostro snapped. "You damned—"

"Captain!"

She turned back to her Colonel. "Sir! Fine, I'll get the crew prepping an evaluation chassis...if that's what you want."

"I've already got that in the works. Put your personal grievance aside and do an honest evaluation. You give me that, and I'll abide by your recommendations."

Vostro looked at the time on the wall chronometer. "Have him in the bay at eighteen-thirty." She turned to Lyle. "You get one shot to impress me. One...shot!"

She turned and saluted the Colonel, then spun on her heel and purposefully left the office.

After the door closed, the Colonel said to Lyle, "She's pissed at you, son."

"So I noticed."

"You better get some rest, for real, this time. She's not gonna pull any punches. You got three hours...Captain." said the Colonel.

"Great."

"And," Colonel Mann said. "If you hope to be taken seriously at the rank of Captain, you best start acting like a Captain in this unit."

Lyle knew what that meant and conceded.

"Yes…Sir."

Chapter 22

"Did you see that?" Colonel Mann said, with a smile. "The fire in her eyes? That's what's been missing around here."

Kagan had been sitting in silent observation through the entire exchange with Captain Vostro. He draped an arm across the back the couch and outstretched his legs. "That's the big plan for him? Let him piss everyone off?"

Colonel Mann's face looked grim. If what Rumlow is getting from his contact about the Earth gate is true, then I need to get people fired up. No one
really
wants another war. I sure don't. But the situation I've created with Mr. Lyle might get people in the right mindset."

"But you're forgetting, agents had him in custody for two days and just let him go," Kagan said.

The Colonel walked back behind his desk, went into a lower drawer and retrieved a small, black flask and two tin cups. He poured a small amount of the green liquid from the flask in each cup and slid one to the edge of the desk for Kagan.

"What's your thought on that?" Colonel Mann said, take a drink and wincing from the burn as it went down.

Kagan also took a drink. No wince. "Agents don't do anything without a plan. They kept their scheme to let us get the cargo going, even after Lyle put the guy they had chosen to be their willing mule in the hospital back on Atlantia. Even if he doesn't know it, Lyle is here because they want him to be here."

The Colonel propped his boots up on his desk. "All of his gear has been checked. We didn't find any transmitters or recording devices."

Kagan grunted. "That would be the old school way to do it. The use of nanotech gives them so many more, undetectable, options. He could have a post-hypnotic suggestion that's waiting for a trigger. I believe he could be a good asset, especially if you're right about him as a mech driver but until we know for sure, he needs to be watched…closely."

"Agreed."

"But," Kagan continued. "It may be a moot point, altogether. You've got The Banshee so pissed at him, she's going to tear him a new one, something fierce."

"Possibly."

Kagan sat up, surprised. "Possibly? Are you serious?"

"The pre-war base files were damaged during the war. There are a few dozen drivers that are unaccounted for, but there is one file, in particular, with proficiency ratings that caught my eye. If I'm right, Leeann is going to have her hands full."

Kagan scoffed at the notion. "You're crazy."

"Well, we're going to find out soon enough. And if she embarrasses him, the moral boost will have a ripple effect across all of the other drivers. Either way, Carson Lyle will be doing us a favor."

Chapter 23

This time, Lyle had no problems sleeping. With everything that had happened since he left Atlantia, sleep was going to catch up to him sometime. And he must have been tired, he thought, because when was finally able to wrestle himself away from the throws of sleep, he found a mech driver's suit hanging on the door. Someone had been able to come into the room without him knowing. But that thought only stayed on the forefront for just a moment.

He looked at the suit more closely. The upper-arm part of the sleeves bore rank insignia patches: two gold bars.

Captain.

That bastard's crazy.

Lyle knew just putting on a suit with rank on it wasn't going to command any kind of officer respect. Certainly not around here. By now, most everyone would have heard about the scuffle with the Chief and the 'evaluation' duel with Captain Vostro. To follow that with strutting into the mech bay with officer stripes would be a slap-in-the-face type of insult. Even though this was an enemy unit, in the war, it still used to be part of the same Mech Corps that he used to love. To do that would be disrespect, of the highest order, to his fellow drivers.

It might help if I looked less like a 'civie hauler', though,
he thought. He searched his quarters and found a grooming kit complete with hair clippers. After ten minutes, he stepped out of the shower and over to the sink. He wiped a hand across the foggy mirror and he saw a face he didn't think he'd ever see again. Gone was the bearded face of a haggard hauler and in its place was a clean-shaven, cold, hard, face that had its own scars…and not all from fighting a war. The change was cosmetic but being where he was and what he was about to do, Carson Lyle felt strangely detached from his life as a hauler. If felt like a totally different existence. The thought was unsettling.