Transcendent (9781311909442) (28 page)

“Lily, would you like a damage report?”

“What? Oh, yes, I’m sorry, Sunshine.”

Lily studied the schematic that showed the
pounding the light tanks guns had given her armor. It was dented
and cracked or torn in a few places, but she hadn’t been breached.
Her supplies had been destroyed by the tanks, unfortunately, so it
was good that she was still fully functional.

“Jessa, damage report,” she requested.

“Some scratches and a few bruises. Nothing a
wash and wax won’t fix up.”

“We’re a long ways from a wash and wax
job.”

“I would have been fine if that tree hadn’t
jumped out at me.”

Lily chuckled and glanced at the broken
almond tree lying on the ground. “I think you won that battle.
Let’s head back and set up a base. I’ve got a long report to
file.”

Sunshine intruded on her thoughts to offer,
“I have battle logs recorded to corroborate your report.”

“Thank you, Sunshine. I’ll let you know if I
need them.”

Lily wanted to shake her head at how helpful
her biomech’s AI was. Helpful to the point of being obnoxious.
Unfortunately, she didn’t have room in the pod to move her head
very far. She sighed into her mask and began to walk back with
Jessa towards Settlement Delta-22. She was hot again. Hotter than
before, even if she hadn’t sweat out quite as much this time. She
wondered if she could find a residence with a clean shower. She was
the platoon commander—rank had to have some privileges.

“Lieutenant Riggs, I’m supposed to commend
you for running the quietest and most productive colony on Venus,”
Commander Breslin said.

“Thank you, sir,” Shelby said without
relaxing her stiff posture.

He leaned forward on his desk and stared at
her, ignoring Krys for the moment. “Tell me, Lieutenant, do you
deserve a commendation?”

“Sir?” she asked, visibly shaken by his
question.

He turned and gestured at Krys. “This young
man is the only living person I know of who can be in two places at
once. You’ve managed to secure citizenship records for him right
here, on Venus, and yet he also is taking classes on TLC-1.”

“Sir, there was some sort of
miscommunication or misdirection a few years back during—”

“I know damn well what happened,” Breslin
snapped, silencing her and making Krys jerk in his seat. “And I
don’t approve.”

“Sir, Mr. Evans has proved himself time and
again to be a valuable member of Settlement Sierra-12. His talent
with repairing machines is well-known among the settlement and he’s
passed all necessary mastery tests to be a mechanic. He has been
able to keep all of our machinery and vehicles operational, even
the tanks and other military hardware he was unfamiliar with.”

Breslin scowled at the mention of the
military equipment. He lifted his head enough to be noticed and
said, “There’s a reason the refugees were sent to the education
centers. It’s not just to prepare them for a trade or profession;
it is to ensure they possess the correct mindset.”

“Mr. Evans is fully supportive of the
cultural shift that has taken place and recognizes the superior
manner in which humanity will be able to face our future.”

“Fancy words,” Breslin challenged. He turned
to stare at Krys. “How about you convince me instead of her?”

Krys fought the urge to glance at Shelby.
His stomach was as tight as the back of his neck but the difference
was he felt like he might throw up the tiny breakfast they’d fed
him this morning. He took a breath and forced himself to stay
strong. Hiding from a problem wouldn’t make it go away. “Convince
you? You sound like your mind is made up.”

“Then change it.”

Krys frowned. Maybe running away wouldn’t
eliminate a problem but it might give him time to stay alive long
enough to solve it. “I’ve never been off Venus, sir. I was fourteen
when Lieutenant Riggs and the other soldiers came. I happened to be
out camping in the woods, so I missed exactly what followed, but I
found out later.”

Breslin’s face twitched for the first time,
giving a brief respite from the hard glare he wore like a shield.
It gave Krys hope that the man might have a human side after
all.

“I wasn’t happy. Devastated is more like it,
but that gave me a new way of looking at things.” Krys paused and
hoped he looked like he had a sad smile on his face.

The lines at the edge of Breslin’s eyes
deepened. “Let me guess, hope for a better future for the human
race?”

Krys heard the scorn in Breslin’s voice. “No
sir, it’s a hope that nobody else would get hurt.”

Commander Breslin stared at him for a long
moment. He sighed and shook his head. “Son, I don’t disagree with
that.”

Krys jerked at the commander addressing him
that way. Only two men had ever called him son: his father and Mr.
Strain. He wasn’t sure the commander deserved to be included in
that group.

“You’re not a soldier, but you’ve seen the
hardship of war. There’s no way to make it pretty and there’s no
way to stop people from being hurt by it. All we can do is trust
that it was the right thing and move forward. That’s what we’re
trying to do now, move forward.”

“And my settlement has done exactly that,”
Shelby reinserted herself into the conversation. “You said it
yourself. I have a peaceful community with consistent yields on our
ag products. The only troubles I’ve had dealt with convoys nearer
the starport rather than my colony.”

Breslin leaned back and let his eyes linger
on her. “And you maintain part of your success was in harnessing
the talent of someone born there with native knowledge?”

She nodded.

He sighed. “Do you think the replacements
will ever reach his level?”

“Sir, if I may?” Krys broke in.

Breslin’s eye twitched again but he turned
to look at Krys. “You already did, you might as well continue.”

“I’m sorry, but I’ve seen it with my own
eyes. Your people, the replacements, you called them? Yes, well,
they do the work and they’re learning day by day, but most of them
do it like a job.”

“It is a job.”

“Right, but the people I grew up with—that
was our lives. It meant something to us. We took pride in it.”

His eyes narrowed. “Pride?”

“Pride in knowing that we were doing a good
job and helping out. We weren’t greedy; we were just happy to bring
in a harvest and make sure people got it. We were paid for it, I
suppose, but there was never once any delays because we asked too
much or wouldn’t agree to sell it. At least none that I ever heard
of.”

He frowned. “The new workers have been
taught to feel the urge to serve one another.”

“They do,” Krys was quick to say. “But
they’re young. Older than me, I know, but young enough that most of
them haven’t had the chance to really need to rely on one another.
Until they understand what it means to be without, it’s hard for
them to understand how important it is to provide and how good they
should feel about themselves for being able to do that.”

The commander’s eyes narrowed and glanced
away a few times, showing that Krys had at least made him think.
Finally they settled on him again and he asked, “How old are
you?”

“Almost eighteen.”

He snorted. “You’re smart. Smarter than you
should be, if you ask me.”

Krys finally broke down and glanced at
Shelby. She kept herself sitting at attention in her seat as she
faced Commander Breslin.

“A smart man can be a dangerous thing. You
can solve problems and see things others can’t, but maybe you can
make them too, by giving people ideas that they shouldn’t
have.”

“Like I said, I don’t want anyone getting
hurt,” Krys volunteered.

Breslin grunted. He held Krys’s gaze and
made him feel like the only two people who mattered were him and
the commander. “I’m an old man by today’s standards. Almost three
times your age. There aren’t many people like me left. Just these
replacements with their training and not a damn bit of experience
at anything outside of that.”

“Sir?” Krys asked when the commander trailed
off.

Breslin nodded. “A man in my position has
seen a lot of things and made a lot of choices. Some good, some
bad. Like I said before, as a soldier I have to follow orders and
do what I’ve been entrusted to do. And some days that means I have
trouble finding a way to let myself sleep at night.”

Krys’s brow furrowed as the man continued
talking. He turned to Shelby and saw that she was focused on him
still, but he could tell from her posture that she seemed anxious.
Was something bad about to happen to him? To her?

“Mr. Evans, we’re done here. Someone will
escort you back to your room.”

Krys’s eyes widened. He turned to glance at
Shelby but she remained fixed on the commander. Her fingers, he
noticed, were pressing into her thighs instead of resting on top of
her legs.

He nodded and stood up, and then turned and
opened the door. The door started to shut behind him and he heard
Commander Breslin start to say, “Lieutenant Riggs, for your
dedication and performance over the past three years leading
Settlement Sierra-12, you are being relocated to—”

“Right this way.”

Krys turned and jumped. A soldier was
standing there in a lighter version of the field armor he’d seen up
close and personal. He tried, and failed to swallow. “Um, okay,” he
managed as the soldier turned away from him. Krys fell in behind
him, wondering if he was marching to the room he’d stayed in
before, or a new one accessorized with jail cell bars.

The last thing Lily saw before darkness
claimed her was Palla all but running towards her. She gave in to
the darkness and did the only thing she could: she waited.

“Desyncing complete. Hurry back, Lily,”
Sunshine said in a pleasant but otherwise flat tone. It was
followed by the scrape of metal against metal and then the
vibration of her cockpit cracking open. Her piloting pod hissed a
moment later.

“I will, Sunshine,” Lily whispered into the
hot mask. She reached up and disconnected the mask so she could
inhale the slightly cooler outside air. She could taste the burnt
lubricants in the air and it made her grimace in spite of how
refreshing the air felt in her chest.

“Lil!” Palla cried from outside her
cockpit.

Lily smirked and pulled her helmet off. She
blinked at the bright light streaming in and had to shield her eyes
as she adjusted to it. A moment later, a shadow passed over her and
she was able to look up and see Palla perched in the opening.

“Whoa! New uniform?” Palla asked as she took
in the skimpy clothes Lily wore.

Lily laughed. “It gets so hot in here!” she
said.

“You’re soaked!” Palla said as her eyes took
her in. “Oh wow, I had no idea it was so hot in here.”

Lily nodded. “The padding doesn’t absorb it
either. I’ve been drinking water like you wouldn’t believe.”

“This can’t be healthy,” Palla mumbled.

“One of my biggest fears is that I’d go to
get out and somebody would be here to help and see me dressed like
this. Or undressed, I guess.”

Palla’s eyes skimmed over Lily’s glistening
body. “I can see why!”

“So, um, you’re doing it.”

Palla’s hand flew to her mouth. “Oh! I am!
I’m sorry!”

Lily laughed. “It’s okay. If anyone’s going
to see me, I’d rather it was you.”

“Um, thanks. I think,” Palla said with a
redness in her cheeks. “You’ve got some clothes on—it’s not like
you’re naked.”

Lily decided to let the matter drop since
Palla hadn’t taken the clue and climbed back down. She leaned up
and opened up the storage locker to remove the optional uniform
female officers were allowed to wear. It was similar to the same
outfit she’d worn as a student, consisting of a blouse and skirt.
The dress uniform had a more adult and formal cut to it, as well as
both darker blues and her service ribbons and medals on the
shirt.

“You were prepared for this,” Palla
announced as Lily pulled the skirt up her long legs and tightened
it over the skimpy briefs she wore.

Lily ignored her and slipped her boots on
over her bare feet and secured them before turning the shirt the
right way. She pulled the sleeveless shirt on and buttoned it over
her sweat-drenched halter top. She finished by squeezing the sweat
out of the wide strip of hair on the top of her hair and then tried
to blot off the sweat running down the smooth sides of her
scalp.

“I was called back to the starport without
having a chance to rest,” Lily said. “I’m not sure why, but they
want a report in person and they want it now.”

Palla nodded. “They don’t trust
communications, the reb—the terrorists are using far more
technology than they thought they’d be able to.”

Lily nodded her agreement. She knew that
they were officially discouraged from referring to their enemy as
rebels. It sent the wrong message, or so the rumor was. Terrorists,
on the other hand…well, nobody liked a terrorist.

“But why the rush? I wanted to expand and
search the surrounding area.”

Palla brought her finger to her lips. “Save
it for later,” she said. “Hush-hush out here.”

Lily nodded. It wasn’t just communications
her superiors were worried about. She glanced past Palla to the
paved ground outside and then looked back at her friend. Palla was
grinning. “What?”

“You did it again,” Palla said.

“Did what?”

“Surpassed expectations!”

Lily shrugged but couldn’t resist a small
smile. “I thought I wasn’t supposed to talk about it?”

Palla sucked her lips between her teeth and
then laughed. “Sorry, you’re not. I’m just excited for you. Next
time, they’re sending me with you. I’m going to be your
liaison.”