Only Human (21 page)

She left the cockpit. "There's not
even time for tea. We're practically in orbit."

He shook his head and sat on one of the map
table chairs. "I have to thank you for an enjoyable few days, Captain.
Major Tychon is correct in his assessment of you and I'm glad to have you on my
Vanguard."

"Thank you, sir. I've learned a lot
from both of you."

He took his wrist array and sidearm from
where he had left them on the map table and fussed with their adjustment. "I've
studied you, too, over these past few days," he said finally. "Well,
I've studied you since you joined my Vanguard."

"Yes..." she began, mystified and
a little disturbed by his solemn demeanor.

"Your loyalty to the Union is absolute;
you follow orders without question, even if they don't reflect your own views.
You have no trouble expressing those, as I've experienced myself, but you don't
deviate from a directive."

"No, of course not, sir."

"You have shown that you can carry out
an order under duress and even those that never appear on any official record. The
Naiya incident was a tough test of your loyalties. I'm familiar with some of
the... the actions you've taken part of on Bellac and Ud-Mrak."

She said nothing. There was nothing to say.
What was he getting at? Whatever it was, he spoke to her as a superior officer,
not the man looking for a cup of tea before landing. She realized that, as he
had talked, she had squared her shoulders, feet firmly planted, her hands
clasped behind her back.

"I am going to give you an order,
Captain."

"Yessir."

"It could take weeks or months before
we can get even a hunch about where the boy is being held. But I believe that
we will find him. We have as many spies and scouts in Tharron's camp as he does
in ours."

She waited.

"Your orders are to retrieve the child
and return him to Delphi by whatever means necessary."

"I'm aware, sir."

He paused. "If there comes a moment
and opportunity, Captain, where you feel that this mission is in danger of
failing. If the boy proves to be irretrievable. If you find that any... damage
has been done to him already. If there is any chance that they will escape with
him again..."

Nova's breath caught in her throat.

"You will terminate him."

"Sir, I.." she began. "Kiran?
You want me to kill Tychon's son?"

"I do." He stood up and paced as
much as the small space allowed. "I cannot order Major Tychon to do this.
There are limits to what even he is willing and able to do. And certainly to
what I am willing to ask of him."

"Sir, I don't know if I can do this.
Don't ask this of me, either!"

He ground his teeth. "I am not asking,
Captain. There is no one else as close to Tychon as you are. If I replace you
now with another agent he will know. He cannot know."

"He will kill me," she said, but
that fact was not foremost on her mind. He would not just kill her. This would
kill him as well. Losing Kiran, too, in this war would hurt him in ways that the
Colonel could not even suspect. But losing him at Nova's hands would destroy
him utterly. She had seen the unspeakable fury he unleashed upon his Rhuwac
victims; how much more hatred would he feel for her and her kind if she took
his son?

"Yes, he may. I will arrange an
immediate transfer to a safe location for you."

She closed her eyes. Did he really not
know? Had he not seen the way Tychon looked at her when he thought no one else
was watching? Had he really not noticed their stolen kisses and furtive touches
over these past few days? Could he not tell that just seeing Tychon walk into
the room lit a delicious spark of pleasure deep inside her body? They had kept Vanguard
Three waiting on the airfield after Carras left for his meeting, barely
shutting the gate before tearing out of their clothes, making up for four days
of pretense and unrelenting craving. Was it really not obvious?

She opened her eyes to look into his face
and the answer was clearly written there. He did not want to know. He had
allowed himself to become too close to his subordinates and now the order
handed to him by the Elected Factors was sure to devastate them all. There was
no truth about Tychon and her that he needed to hear at this moment. 

"Nova, it may not come to that. I have
faith in your abilities. But your lives cannot come before the safety of
thousands of others. We cannot take chances. Do your job."

Nova looked out over the pink-tinted dunes
that drifted past the dome of her air car as she sped along the deserted coast
with no more clarity than she had when she had left Carras on Targon. It seemed
too large a concept to grapple, slipping out of her reach as soon as she tried
to get a firm grip on it. Could she do what Carras had ordered? Was the threat
of this Tughan really so great?

"Woah!" She pulled up on the
skimmer's controls when she nearly collided with the remains of a shuttle that
had crashed into some shoreline rocks.

Tychon had warned her during her approach
to Magra that they had suffered a rebel attack on the previous evening but the
destruction she saw here was far more extensive than he reported.

She slowed her skimmer, hovering close to
the ground, when she approached the remains of a town. She retracted the car's
canopy and attached an interface link to tap into the skimmer's sensors to enhance
her own.

The settlement was ruined. Besides the
scorch marks of laser fire she saw evidence of explosives used here as well as
percussion charges. Roofs were caved in; many houses had been reduced to mere
outlines in stone. A few dead animals lay scattered here and there but the
casualties had been removed. Why would anyone destroy a fishing village?

Her scanner indicated a cluster of people
nearby, thankfully standing upright. She settled the skimmer noiselessly onto
the ground and moved along the silent street until she heard voices coming from
one of the larger buildings still more or less erect. Her weapon drawn, she
entered, stepping around the door that had been blown from its hinges. "Major?"
she called when she recognized one of the voices.

 "In here," came the reply.

 Tychon was standing amid the rubble caved
in from above. A few Vanguard were with him; one of them held a map, another
was poking at a computer screen. She felt a quick stab of excitement when she
saw Tychon and then once again the weight of that ugly
something
descended
over her head, reminding her that things just weren't as all right as they had
been just a few days ago. Tychon glanced up when she entered, then returned his
gaze to the map. When she joined them he touched her arm in greeting.

 "Local rebels?" she asked. She
nodded to Vanguard One's Major Adachi and smiled when she saw Dylan perched on
a blasted window sill. He waved and smiled back and she thought how much more
tired he looked since she last saw him on Myra. They all looked tired. Their fatigues
were dust-covered and stained and even Tychon looked disheveled.

"Not certain, but it hardly matters. No
doubt this was in retaliation for the ship from Nebdan we took."

 "Why this place?"

 "These people were Centauri, not Magran.
There'll be less of an uproar over this among the locals but it'll send a clear
message to Targon."

"Casualties?"

"Total. It was a complete surprise.
There were almost a hundred and fifty settlers here this time of year." He
cursed, a rare occurrence. "We didn't get here fast enough. Cubber, any
news from Stormer and Haddad?"

The man whose neural interface was plugged
into the computer in front of him nodded. "On their way down. Should be
here soon."

Nova strolled over to Dylan. "Been
fun?" She hopped onto the sill beside him.

"Not the way I'd put it," he
replied. "Last night was bad. Just one air assault after another. We
didn't get out here until most of the damage was done. Then just hours of
endless sniping for no damn reason. Now we’re just waiting for the clean-up crew
to finish so that we can get out of this hole." He shrugged tiredly. "But,
overall, not a bad assignment. Adachi is a solid C.O., if you can deal with his
snoring. How are things with the..." he coughed, catching himself.
"Major."

Nova looked over to Tychon and Adachi, both
engrossed in conversation over their map. "Best spanner I've ever
watched," she said, looking for a new subject. "Were you guys on Aram
when that went down?"

He nodded. "Never been so damn cold in
my life! Took a blast in the leg but we had a good medic. Awful lot of
casualties."

"You kids! Get away from the damn
window!"

Both Dylan and Nova obeyed the command
before they realized that it had been issued from outside the building,
delivered by a bellicose voice that could only have come from Bowie Haddad's barrel
chest. She heard Cubber's mocking laugh when he saw them leap from the sill.

Haddad was a legend among the younger
officers. His experience as the longest-lived Vanguard member and his vast
inventory of tales made him a frequent lecturer at the academies and training
upgrades. Nova thought that, if they weren't on alert and likely to fire back
at once, he would have taken a pot shot at the window to teach them a lesson.

He bustled into the room, his large frame
nearly filling the doorway. His co-pilot, likely half his size, followed in his
wake along with their spanner. The frail Centauri was burdened with several
bags and parcels and Dylan moved to help her with the load.

"Thought you folks might want some
real food," Haddad boomed. He gestured to Dylan. "Step lively, boy.
Let's have a bite before your bosses perish for lack of edibles."

Dylan grinned and started to unpack the
parcels. The very presence of this animated individual was enough to lighten
the dour mood that permeated this room. The others rearranged themselves around
the scatter of broken furniture and masonry and began to pass around boxes and
bowls of food that seemed to actually have originated in a kitchen. Haddad
himself set up a portable unit to brew cups of steaming and fragrant tea.

Nova perched close to Tychon on an upended
storage box before she caught a few amused glances from her squadron mates. Too
late to shift away now, she turned her attention to unwrapping a foil parcel.

Tychon looked up. "Try this rice thing."
He passed his bowl to her. "Wonderful, whatever it is."

Nova blushed for no particular reason and
then cursed herself for it.

Bowie Haddad cleared his throat, which,
like most of the noises that emitted from him, was thunderous. "So, now
that we're all tucked in, how about we find out what we're doing out here,
other than count bodies."

“The last evac is headed back to Deen,”
Cubber reported. “We’re clear.”

Tychon nodded to him and sipped his tea.
"I've already briefed V6 and Nine," he said. "They've left for
some leads on Pelion and Targon." Briefly, and without delving into any of
the details that made this matter so very personal to him, he outlined the issue
of the Tughan Wai. Nova watched the faces of those around her. Dylan stared
open-mouthed, Adachi's lips had formed a thin, hard line. Haddad had stopped
chewing. Cubber's attention was on his sensors but both of Haddad's officers
looked every bit as alarmed as Dylan by the time Tychon had finished.

 "Forgive me for saying so, Ty," Bowie
Haddad said after a pause, "but your Delphi wizards are tragically
disturbed individuals."

Tychon shrugged. "I am in agreement
there," he said, reaching for more tea. Nova recognized the tilt of his
body and realized that his composure was largely false. Not because of Haddad's
opinion of Shantirs but because he had taken great pains to play down the fact
that the Tughan Wai was his only son, likely the only child he would ever have.
She glanced at Haddad's female navigator and saw that realization there, too.

"We've got orders from Carras,"
Tychon continued. "Covert operation, as per the Ten. No real support till
we find something."

Nova heard Haddad curse.

"Adachi is going to head out to
Aram."

This time Dylan swore.

"Whiteside and I are going to see
what's to be found on Delphi. Captain Devaughn has also been briefed and will
work with the council and the Shantirate. That leaves Magra to you, Bowie. I
thought you'd enjoy turning a few rebel dives upside down."

Haddad laughed, startling Cubber from his
work with the scanners. "Got that right! I'm also interested in whoever
decided to remove this place from the map."

“Did they say why we can’t get more
support?” Dylan asked. “With a hundred scouts on the ground we could shake down
a lot more places than we can with a dozen.”

“Because it’s Delphi,” Nova said. Tychon
turned his head to look at her quizzically. “Union bosses don’t want this getting
out,” she continued. “What Delphi did once they can do again. We here are just doing
damage control but you can be sure that the Union and the Clan Council are
huddling right now. Imagine if this sort of mental ability becomes more
commonplace. We think Tharron might get interested in Delphi because of their
crystal or water or because they are really good at math.” She shook her head.
“It’s their other talents that have everyone worried. So the last thing anyone
wants is for outsiders to know what these folks can really do with their
heads.”