Soldier of the Legion (28 page)

“So let’s give ‘em a choice,” Coolhand suggested. He gazed thoughtfully at an aerial shot of Port Coldmark.

“It’s not that easy,” Snow Leopard responded. “We’re here for some very specific reasons, and starting another war with the System is not one of them. You all heard the briefing. Mission One is to discover why the System has been extracting unitium from Andrion 2. Mission Two is to recover Valkyrie. Mission Three is to discover why the Systies are kidnapping Taka and where they are taking them. And Mission Four is to negotiate with the System on the future of the System’s unitium mine, or what’s left of it.”

“Our unitium mine, you mean,” Coolhand said.

“Well, the negotiation proposal came from the System direct to ConFree. Starcom ordered us to negotiate. I don’t know if we’re going to negotiate seriously or not. Maybe it’s only a tactic to allow us to accomplish the other tasks. Anyway, that’s not Beta’s worry. Beta’s part in all this is to assist Gamma in recovering Valkyrie. That’s all we have to do.”

Unitium. The System was mining unitium. That had been clearly established. We had busted a unitium mine, and according to Command, the exosegs had been imported to Andrion 2 from Andrion 3 by the System, most likely to protect the secret of the mines from the Sunrealmers. It had worked, for a hundred years.

According to Command. The part about the exos bothered me a great deal. The instant we spotted an exo on Andrion 2, we knew something was wrong. Why would the Systies do that? The exos were a minor question, however. The major question was unitium. I didn’t know much about it except it was rare. Merlin said unitium had once been of interest in connection with some vexing containment problems associated with early antimat star drives. That, however, was ancient history. The problems had long ago been solved, by other means, and unitium discarded as being of no practical value.

No practical value. The System had invested billions of credits in scarce resources, launched a major secret military mission, and constructed a hardsited base deep in ConFree vac, in blatant violation of treaty. They knew full well that its discovery might lead to another interstellar war. The Confederation and the System had coexisted uneasily for almost a generation, and now every star fleet in the galaxy was surely on the move, prepped for combat. The Systies must have thought long and hard before coming up with this one.

“Nonsense!” Merlin had declared. “The stuff is worthless, and it’s also very rare and expensive to extract. There’s nothing you can do with it that can’t be done better, or cheaper, using other methods and materials, all of which are available to the System.”

“Come on, Merlin,” Coolhand argued. “They were spending billions to mine and transport it out of the local system. What are they doing with it? Eating it? They’re using it for something!”

“I don’t deny all that. But I find the whole concept very puzzling. Look, it’s possible unitium may have applications we don’t know about yet. But it means going down an entirely new road of scientific development, and it means going in blind, for years of research, with no goal in sight. It means billions invested in pure science. That’s fine. I’d love to see it, but it’s not going to happen. ConFree puts a lot into pure science, but there are financial limits. And the System is a lot more selective than we are about what they do.”

“They put a lot of resources into the military, don’t they?”

“Sure. But all the military-related scientific and technical tasks that can be envisaged for unitium have already been accomplished. Acceleration of promat is done with iomags quite nicely, thank you. Unitium is not needed for that.”

“They’re making a major—and dangerous—effort to extract and transport the stuff,” Coolhand said. “Obviously they’ve discovered some use for it that we don’t know about.”

“Well, I’ll say it’s strange. It’s very strange. You know the System steals all their best technology from us. I can’t imagine why they’d want to wrestle with a brand new research effort on their own. And if I could answer this question, I’d drop in on Firefall and tell him. And I assure you, I’ll do that as soon as I figure it out.”

“Well what do you think it is?”

“Don’t know.” Merlin closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “But I’ll bet somebody does.”

And that was all we could get out of Merlin on the subject. Unitium wasn’t our concern, anyway. Our task was to recover Valkyrie.

I glanced over at Priestess. She blinked her big brown eyes and wet her lips with the tip of her tongue.

I forced my eyes away. A miniscreen showed a cutaway of the
SS Preference

“Of course she might not even be on the
Preference
. She might have been transferred to another ship, or maybe even transported downside,” Snow Leopard said. He paused, and sighed. “She won’t still have her c-cell in. They’ll have taken that out. So finding her is not going to be easy. But we’re going to have a little help.”

A little help. I knew Gravelight was with us, locked away in her cube like an evil princess of power, avoiding us all, alone with Valkyrie’s possessions, clothes and equipment and personal effects, everything she’d left behind. There would be some things I had given her, and some things Boudicca had given her. When Gravelight was through, she would know Valkyrie better than either of us. And Valkyrie wasn’t even Gravelight’s primary task. Her primary task was unitium.

We all feared psychers. I pitied her. How could anyone have that much power? She must be twisted with hate and bitterness. A normal life was impossible. How was love possible? I never wanted to see Priestess’s mind, for fear of what I would find.

A little help. It was more than a little help. And Lowdrop had said there would be more help, on Coldmark. He did not say more than that, the people who had to know had already been briefed.

“We’ll be working closely with Gamma,” Snow Leopard said. “It’s our joint responsibility to recover Valkyrie. We’ll only be indirectly involved in the unitium question, and the negotiations. Now I want to go over these contingency plans again. There are numerous possibilities, and I want every Beta trooper to be prepared for every contingency.”

We went to work. At nearby tables, people listened to music and drank bitter. Beta never rested, but I didn’t mind. I didn’t mind at all. I cleared my mind of everything except the Mission. The Mission was Valkyrie. I didn’t care about the unitium. I didn’t even care if we started another interstellar war.

###

LEGION 22. OUTVAC STARCOM FLEETCOM ALL UNITS. ACCESS BLUE MAGSEC CRITSIT SECRET.

WARNING: This document contains classified information protected by ConFree espionage laws. Your access to this document has now been recorded. Unauthorized access subjects the user to serious penalties under the espionage and treason statutes.

SUBJECT: Coldmark—Background

SUMMARY: Coldmark is an inhabited Class A planet in the Gassy Sector of the Far Outers Neutral Zone. The star is Sista Alpha, a yellow prime. The planet is mineral poor. Coldmark’s inhabitants are relatively recent human migrants who settled Coldmark during the population shifts forced by the Race Wars. Although nominally independent and claiming to be neutral, the Government is a USICOM ward and has close relations with the United System Alliance. (See Starcord, Environment, History, Government and Interstellar Relations.)

Living conditions are extremely primitive for the bulk of the rapidly increasing population, although the ruling class, which maintains power through economic, military and religious control, has a high standard of living. Both ruling class and ruled are mortals. (See Society.)

Coldmark is a Neutral Zone free port, and seldom denies orbit rights. All Legion registered starships have orbit rights by USICOM treaty. The ruling mercantile class engages freely in all profitable commercial enterprises, including the smuggling of illegal drugs, weapons, protected and classified information, contraband and slaves. None of this activity is illegal on Coldmark...

I set the report aside. Cubes, Commander of the Second, had just entered the room, and I pretended to be invisible. I guess you could say he was a frightening guy. He was pale and wiry with a skull-like face and deep, dark eyes that burned with a hypnotic fanaticism. I hadn’t seen much of him before. Lowdrop was scary enough for me. I prefer to avoid contact with people at that level.

The Second sat casually on the edge of a table, and briefed everyone in the narrow wardroom of the
Spawn
. Everyone who was going downside was right there, in the wardroom, clad in litesuit blacks. They would not stop lasers or x, but just about anything else. We had new kit for our handguns and commo gear as well. We were supposed to be diplomats for this mission, not soldiers.

Anyone could tell just by looking at Cubes that he was dangerous. His hair was combed off to one side. There was a hint of Assidic in the eyes, but the overall facial structure was Outworlder. He appeared to be as young as anyone in Beta, but appearances lie. I heard he had joined the Legion during the Race Wars. It was the usual story: he had lost his family, his nation, his whole world. I did not want to know any more; his credentials sounded good to me. When he began to speak, the chatter stopped. He had a very quiet voice.

“Cubes here,” he began. “Thanks for coming. As you know, we will soon be orbiting Coldmark. You’ve all been briefed on your individual missions. The big picture is much less clear to you. I’d like to make a few comments on that. We’re going into a very hostile environment in order to accomplish several very sensitive objectives. The System is going to have psychers present. So will we. Everyone going downside is a potential psych target, and that’s why you’re not getting the big picture, just what you have to know.” He paused, and looked around the room. Nobody was asleep. Even Psycho was paying attention.

“It’s no secret that we want to discover to what use the System is putting the unitium, and we’d like to know why the Systies are kidnapping Taka from Andrion 2. They also know our own psychers will be present. And they certainly know we’ll be looking for our missing trooper. We’re taking what measures we can against hostile psych, but we don’t think it’s critical if they discover who’s doing what. Without a long-term psych interrogation, they’re not going to extract more than surface knowledge. Some of you are even performing missions that are designed solely to deceive the System as to our real intentions, although you all think your individual missions are real, and will be doing your best to perform them. Obviously, we don’t even mind if the System knows this. They’re still not going to know what’s real and what’s not. Just rest assured that we know what we’re doing and that all your activity is necessary and being coordinated here on
Spawn
. Those of us who do have the full story can’t go downside for obvious reasons. But I can tell you our hearts are with you.”

He paused, and looked around again. “The first one to get a positive ID on Valkyrie is to call it in immediately. We must coordinate everything we’re doing. I don’t want any Lost Squad heroics. It’s not necessary and it could endanger your comrades. The entire Second Company is at your disposal. And I assure you, we’re going to accomplish all of our classified missions.”

Cubes let his eyes roam over the wardroom and it was like a little flash of ice when his gaze rested on me for an instant. “I want you all to listen very carefully,” he said. “And remember this. Don’t even
try
to hide this from any Systie psycher you may run into down there. We’ve gotten some very nervous messages from Fleetcom, about discretion, and prudence, and the necessity of avoiding another interstellar war. I suspect that kind of vocabulary came directly from ConFree, word for word. But Legion doctrine always gives the Mission Commander the discretion to handle the mission according to his best judgment as the officer on the scene. That has not changed. I am the Mission Commander for this mission. I am the officer on the scene. I have three priorities for this mission. First, recover Valkyrie. Second, accomplish all our other classified missions. And Third, avoid another interstellar war. In that precise order. And if the Third interferes with the First or the Second, the Third will be discarded. And if the Systies have any doubts at all about that, they are going to be very...very...surprised.”

Then he rose and saluted us, the Commander’s traditional salute to the troops, just before combat. “Soldiers of the Legion, do your duty. To the death.”

We all snapped to attention and roared out the response: “Death!”

I swear, they heard us on Coldmark. I had a feeling that this was no ordinary diplomatic mission.

Chapter 14:
Coldmark

The United System Alliance’s covert construction of a hard-sited base on Andrion 2 and the covert exploitation of the mineral resources of that planet, which is in ConFree vac, is clearly a violation of treaty as defined in Para 18 of the USICOM-ConFree Interstellar Agreement on Sectors and Trade, as well as a violation of all accepted norms of common interstellar law. The Confederation of Free Worlds regards this incursion into ConFree space by DefCom forces as unprovoked military and economic aggression by the System, and we warn USICOM and the System itself that the severest consequences will ensue. The people of the Confederation of Free Worlds will not permit aggressors to launch military adventures into ConFree space, to kidnap natives of ConFree worlds, or to introduce dangerous animal species from another world. The System’s reckless actions in this case reveal its cynical contempt for all civilized norms of interstellar conduct and for solemn interstellar treaties signed by its own representatives.” Commander Two Three One, Val, our downside chief exec, was reading a demarche from Starcom. Lowdrop, the downside mission commander, sat beside him. I suppose we were showing contempt by having our exec read the demarche instead of Lowdrop. The negotiations had begun, and we were stating our position. It was not diplomatic, but it was certainly clear.

“The System’s attempted seizure of ConFree territory endangers the current suspension of hostilities between the System and the Confederation. I am authorized to state for Outvac Sector Command that force will be met with force, and that further aggressive acts by DefCom forces will meet with immediate reaction. It is entirely up to the System whether or not its aggressive actions will escalate into another interstellar war. I only wish to assure the United System Alliance that the Confederation of Free Worlds will react immediately to all attacks on its sovereignty.”