Tides of Light (43 page)

“Let’s circle ’round.”

They used standard fire-and-maneuver. One loosed a quick, gaudy infrared pulse while the other sprinted in the cover provided
by the afterimage effect. They covered ground rapidly this way, leaving the last stands of umbrella-topped trees. Tangled
scrub in the foothills beyond offered a thousand pockets for human concealment, but few spots big enough to hide a Cyber.
Toby went dashing freely from cranny to cranny, Killeen noted, far faster than his father could. There was also a certain
unthinking bravado in his son’s manner, despite the Snowglade years Toby had spent on the run.

“Getting somethin’ over left,” Toby called.

Killeen cut through some brambles and reached his son, puffing hard. Through a swampy clearing he saw a large form moving
in the trees beyond. “Don’t shoot yet.”

“You figure one Cyber’s puttin’ out this whole screen?”

“Could be.” But the creature seemed to be staying as well camouflaged as it could. It did not fire, even when a distant Bishop
momentarily appeared in the open, charging downhill.

“What’s it doin’? Listenin’?”

Killeen whispered, “Or looking for somethin’.”

“What?”

“Maybe wants His Supremacy for supper.”

Toby laughed. Killeen settled down and watched the Cyber clamber up a far rock shelf. The gray slice in Killeen’s sensorium
narrowed and thinned.

He watched telltale Bishop spikes work their way through the surrounding hills, headed for the valley. It was a plausible-looking
excursion, designed to draw the Cybers in force. But how long could they go without being cut off and
systematically hunted down? He handed Toby a sugar-rich lump saved from breakfast and got up. “Let’s go left from here. Keep
low—no high jumps.”

“Yeasay. Besen’s with Shibo, y’know.”

A crisp buzz snapped by Killeen. Both of them dropped flat.

“Damn!” Killeen spat out dirt. “Somethin’ close by.”

Toby fired a burst toward the last place they had seen the Cyber. “Looks like we do it the hard way,” Toby said.

They crawled away, banging into rocks with their heavy leggings and shank shields.

Killeen stopped and examined his shoulder padding. With a small thrill he found a neat brown burn-hole through it. The laser
pulse had not severed any important control systems. To his surprise he felt no fear, only exhilaration.

“Squeeze down your sensorium,” Killeen said tightly.

They cut through a draw half-filled with fresh slumped soil and pebbles, evidence of the latest quakes. The Cyber was on the
far side. It was a tubular sheath of glistening, moist skin that seemed to be sweating. Insets of brushed metal and tan ceramic
made a patchwork across the crusty brown hide.

Toby shot it first, burning its hind antenna. Killeen knew they had only an instant before retaliation. Into his mind flashed
a sudden understanding of the Cyber’s underlayers, a picture sharp and sure and unbidden. He snatched at a projectile from
his precious hoard and clicked it into place on its stubby launch rod. He aimed at a middle bulge in the shiny carapace and
snapped off the shot without thinking. The small, birdlike cylinder blew away a small hatch—seemingly insignificant, but Killeen
knew the master controls for its transmitters ran close to the skin there. Abruptly the gray screen vanished from his sensorium.

“Come on,” Killeen said, not waiting to see what the
Cyber would do. As they slipped away it went into what looked like spasms, effervescing a yellow electrostain. Killeen sensed
the thing was immobilized and did not question how he knew.

Shibo’s telltale winked, not far away. They scrambled through two patches of scrub and rushed up a fractured face of dark
strata. Besen was guarding her party’s flank and could have tripped Toby as he came charging forward. Shibo was approaching
from the other direction, calling orders as she ran. Killeen found himself panting so hard he could not speak, and just gazed
inquiringly at her.

“Starting take hits,” she said calmly, but Killeen could see the small signs of worry in her thin, drawn lips.

“We knocked out two already!” Besen said cheerily.

“Great, great,” Toby said, gazing cautiously around. “We got one.”

“Cybers don’t stay down, though,” Shibo said.

“Repair themselves?” Killeen asked, though somehow he already knew the answer.

“Yeasay, and quick,” Shibo said.

Toby said, “Mechs did that sometimes. Mantis—”

“Not this fast,” Shibo said.

“Makin’ ground?” Killeen asked.

“Some.”

“This’s all too easy,” Killeen said.

Shibo studied his face. “You mean howcome we’re hitting them this time.”

“And they miss us, too.”

“Something’s here.”

“Yeasay.”

“Your Cyber?”

“Feels like. Can’t say how.”

She shook her head. “Don’t understand.”

“Me either.”

They all peered between two boulders at the valley floor below. Cermo’s party was pouring down through the last rank of foothills
before the dusty plain. Jocelyn was maneuvering the reserves through a maze of arroyos that gave good shelter. The star formation
was ragged but moving. Her tack would take the reserves into the vanguard once they emerged from the thick scrub. Killeen
could just barely recognize the distant figures with his highest telescope setting.

“We got Cybers in among us now,” Toby said, and told the women about the screen-thrower they had hit.

Shibo nodded. An IR burst crackled nearby. “Won’t be long before Jocelyn hits the plain.”

“See any Cybers comin’?” Besen asked. Her round face held a slight grin that occasionally, for no visible reason, broadened
into a sunny smile.

No one answered for a long moment as they surveyed the valley’s dun-colored jumble sprawling to the horizon. Runoff from the
mountain range was cutting a broad new river down the center, fed by several white-water tributaries.

Shattered mech factories covered the once-flat valley floor. Broken walls stood like snaggled teeth, casting pointed shadows
in the late afternoon sun. Evidently Cybers had fought a large battle here before, because mech carapaces littered the ground.
Burnt-out mech carcasses of every class were beginning to rust. Killeen reflected uneasily that the Cybers probably knew this
terrain quite well.

Killeen found himself uneasy also at the eager way Besen longed for combat. The years aboard
Argo
had perhaps given him a sentimental coating that would take a while to wear off. Family Bishop was again a grimly practical
band of foragers. He would have to get used to that.

“Spotted two,” Shibo said. She sent the image into the arrays of the others. Fuzzy forms rippled and danced among
the fractured terrain near the broad, muddy river. “They’re messing with our sensoria some way.”

Toby said, “I get just darts and splashes.”

“Where?” Killeen asked.

“Spread all ’cross the valley. Movin’ slow but I can’t get a fix on ’em.” Toby fiddled irritably with the controls on his
collar tab.

Killeen saw the same fitful hints. If each momentary flicker was a Cyber, and not some ruse, the enemy was closing in and
there were a lot of them.

“Let’s get down there,” Shibo said. She sent a call to her party, which was spread across the nearby hills.

Faint calls over comm told Killeen how matters were going below, even without expanding his sensorium. Halfhearted shouts
and the ragged
pang-pang-pang
of Family microwave volleys implied uncertainty, confusion. As he moved and searched for targets Killeen automatically kept
the running tally that anyone, once a commander, never neglected. How many casualties so far? Were their skirmishing lines
moving uniformly? Was a salient vulnerable to a flanking attack? Was the star formation closed up, distances between parties
short enough for mutual support? Did tactical alignments fit the terrain? Did the constantly shifting fields of fire leave
any opening to the enemy?

The elusive Cybers were harder to judge. How steady was their fire? Were they holding off? Clearly the flitting forms were
advancing down the valley, trying to cut off the salient under Cermo’s command.

For some reason, a firm and unhurried approach was far more intimidating than attackers at a run. But the Cybers’ pace was
furtive, odd, seemingly running at angles to what Killeen expected. Still, the Bishops were drawing the main force away from
the Tribal attack point for the breakout.

Up from the fractured valley crisp bolts came echoing.
Jocelyn’s vanguard was spilling down onto the plain. A fault line ran straight through the floor of the valley and already
streams had converged on the cleft. Waterfalls crashed down from steep jutting ramparts, cutting at the freshly exposed strata.
The newly formed river was a muddy finger pointing at the horizon. Against this image Killeen saw the ghostly, wavering dabs
of momentary fog-thin light that might be Cybers.

“Time for the Tribe to make their run,” he said.

Shibo nodded. “Cybers comin’ fast.”

Their comms suddenly sprang to life: general call. Jocelyn cried,—Shibo! I’ve hailed His Supremacy three times. I get no answer.—

“Sure you’re getting through?” Shibo said.

—Must be. I can pick up his carrier.—

“You give ’em the start-down code?”

—Course. Cybers closing in.—

Killeen said worriedly, “She’s pretty exposed down there.”

“Let’s go,” Shibo said.

“We’re serving as flank guard here,” Killeen said, trying to keep his voice neutral.

Shibo licked her lips. “Won’t need flank enfilade if they’re overrun.”

“We can provide covering fire when they pull back.”

Shibo’s mouth compressed. “Let’s go.”

They all followed her down through the remaining foothills. Killeen agreed with Shibo’s decision when he saw the fire that
raked the Bishop skirmish line. The Cybers used few projectiles, so the battle appeared mostly as lancing signatures in the
IR or UV or microwave. The bursts struck Bishops and knocked out their systems, sometimes flooding inside powerfully enough
to kill. Cermo was taking a lot of hits and Jocelyn had bogged down already. For the first time
Killeen was genuinely glad he did not wear the Cap’n’s emblem.

—Can you hear anything from the Tribe?—Jocelyn sent again.

“No,” Shibo replied.

Killeen swore softly. “Combat without comm’s always a mess.”

Shibo popped the release on her comm. “Supremacy! Hear me?”

To Killeen’ s surprise the man’ s calm voice immediately replied,—Yes. I have been following the situation.—

“Then why in hell aren’t your Families breaking into the valley?” she demanded.

—The Cyber demons are far stronger than I believed. I think it unwise to commit my main body until their full strength is
known.—

“Full—!” Shibo gaped in astonishment. “We’re getting cut up down here!”

—Regrettable, yes. But I must know more.—

“We can’t hold ’em long,” she said.

—Dusk is falling. I think I shall move only under sufficient cover of darkness.—

Shibo shot a glance at Killeen. “Pull back,” he said.

“Jocelyn!” Shibo called. “You hear that?”

—I, I caught some. I can’t believe…—

“Better believe it. He’ll make his move when he wants, never mind what we planned.” Shibo’s face was a glazed mask of anger.

—What… what can we do?—Jocelyn’s voice was ragged with fatigue.

Toby broke in, “Dad? Three Cybers.”

Killeen followed Toby’s indices in his sensorium. Three flickering images were hardening into substantial forms.
The pale ghosts descended the hills just behind their position. “Damn,” Killeen said.

Shibo took this in instantly and said, “They’ve got the high ground here. Closing fast.”

Jocelyn sent,—If we retreat we’ll have to fight uphill in the dark.—

Cybers saw best in the infrared. As the land cooled, human body heat would stand out against the background. They had planned
to be across the valley by nightfall, holding positions on the far mountain range. Then the Cybers would have no convenient
moving targets. Instead, they would have had to attack upslope against a closely ordered line.

—Let’s make a stand in the valley,—Jocelyn sent sharply.

Shibo frowned and looked at Killeen. “Why?”

—His Supremacy must make his break soon. We will be in a good position, can link up.—

Killeen said, “Assuming he means that.”

—Why shouldn’t he?—Jocelyn demanded hotly.

“Could be ’cause he’s sacrificin’ us. We’re foreign. We’ve already given him trouble. Killin’ us off’ll take the Cybers time.”

Shibo nodded slowly. Besen and Toby looked stiff and grim.

—I, I don’t know if I agree with that.—Jocelyn’s clear, commanding tone had slipped into hesitation.

Toby said, “Dad, looks like two more Cybers’ve worked ’round behind us.”

Killeen checked and saw the trap closing. “Jocelyn better be right. We got no choice now.”

“Not much time,” Besen said. Her face was drawn, her eyes large.

Shibo threw Killeen a despairing glance. He replied, “Start thinkin’. Must be some way out.”

Without a word they all began running toward the main body. Ahead, Bishops fired and fled and fell.

Quath knew only one imperative in the clangor of combat: the Nought.
Her
Nought.

The Nought excursion had come down the mountainside at a considerable distance from Quath, surprising her with their speed.
Beq’qdahl and her gang had moved to intersect them. Quath had watched them speeding up the broad, jumbled valley below.

Her own progress across the high, broken strata was slower. She called out to the Tukar’ramin for help.

*Chaos reigns here, Quath’jutt’kkal’thon. Insurrection infests our Hive.* The Tukar’ramin’s heavy, somber musks shot powerfully
through Quath’s electro-aura.

*Know that I understand. But I am besieged here in what was once my grand province.*

Quath sent desperate lacings of need.

*I can spare no more. I sent help twice but both groups were ambushed. The renegade podia who jump to the command of the divisive
faction of the Illuminates—they clog the passages nearby. Such heresy! Such treason!*