Beyond the Shroud of the Universe (15 page)

“Why did you ask for me, Master Chi—I mean, Lieutenant O’Leary?” Second Lieutenant Cristobal Contreras asked. “I never thought you liked me when I was in your platoon.”

“Whatever gave you that idea?”

“All the times you called me a fuck-up, perhaps?”

“Contreras, you’ve got me all wrong. I use that as a term of endearment.”

“Really, Master Chi—I mean, really, Lieutenant O’Leary?”

“Of course not, you fuck-up. That term means you’re an idiot, not that I love you. I spent a lot of time training you, though, so hopefully you still remember the difference between your ass and a hole in the ground. And anyone you’ve trained ought to be better than some run-of-the-mill jarhead, so that’s why I asked for you. The fact you’re a second lieutenant and I’m a first lieutenant, so I can boss you around again? That just makes it more fun for me.”

“Really, Lieutenant O’Leary? You just asked for me so you can boss me around?”

“No, you fuck-up, I asked for you because I thought you knew what the hell you were doing, but maybe I was wrong.
Now go and get the platoon formed up for inspection!
” Contreras left at a jog.

Lieutenant O’Leary turned to his old friend, Captain Aaron Smith, who had been in charge of creating the Doman Army from scratch. “I’d almost forgotten how much fun new officers are.”

“The same could be said about you,” Captain Smith said. “Whatever happened to, ‘no matter what they do, they’ll never make ME an officer?’”

“Too many good men and women died.”

“Oh.” With that one word, he conveyed the shared sorrow of a lifetime of friends lost in the military service.

They shared a moment of silence for fallen comrades, then Lieutenant O’Leary nodded once. The lost would understand his need to move on so he could try to save the living. “Well, let’s go see what our combined militaries have done to me now.”

The Terrans walked outside to where the new, integrated platoon was drawn up by squads. The sun was high overhead, and the smell of Remurn reminded Lieutenant O’Leary of Lancaster, Pennsylvania…right after the Amish fertilized their fields ‘the natural way.’

“Atten-hut!” Lieutenant Contreras shouted, from where he was waiting in front of the platoon. He saluted as the two officers approached. “The platoon is formed and ready for inspection,
sir!
”

“Very well,” Captain Smith said. “Precede me in inspection.”

The three officers walked through First Squad, which had only lost three people in the Jinn Universe mission and assault on Arges’ house. Two of them had been replaced with members of the Kuji race and one with a member of the Doman humanoid race.

“This is Bill,” Lieutenant Contreras said as the officers came to the first Kuji.

“Corporal Obillossilllolis,
sir!
” Bill said.

Lieutenant O’Leary nodded. “Got it; Bill.”

“And the other new Kuji member of First Squad is ‘Skank,’” Lieutenant Contreras said.

“Corporal Misssollossissos,
sir!
” Skank said.

Lieutenant O’Leary looked at Lieutenant Contreras and raised an eyebrow. “Okay, I’ll bite. How did you get ‘Skank’ out of that?”

“We didn’t,” Lieutenant Contreras replied. “The corporal emits an odor when he gets excited that is…unpleasant to be around. We are looking forward to having him in a suit as often as possible. That way, we don’t have to smell him.”

“I see.”

The officers reached the end of the squad and returned to the beginning of Second Squad. There were more new faces in Second, as it had borne the brunt of the platoon’s combat losses. In addition to two more Kuji and three members of the Doman humanoid race was a new recruit who stood out from the others.

“That has got to be the biggest gun I have ever seen,” Lieutenant O’Leary said as he inspected the unit’s newest cyborg.

“Sergeant Declan Jones, Princess’ Own,
sir!
” the cyborg shouted. “My main weapon is a modified 81mm mortar. My other weapon is a Barrett M82 .50-caliber rifle. Peace through superior firepower,
sir!
”

Lieutenant O’Leary turned to Captain Smith. “An 81mm mortar?”

Captain Smith shrugged. “What can I say? He likes big guns. On the good side, he provides his own fire support, and he is the one individual capable of carrying a good number of reloads for that beast. After my time in the infantry, I’m really happy to have someone
else
carry the heavy ordnance.”

“Makes sense,” Lieutenant O’Leary replied with a nod. At almost 10 pounds each, the rounds got heavy
fast
.

The officers finished the inspection and returned to stand in front of the platoon. “At ease!” Lieutenant O’Leary ordered. “Okay, here’s what’s going on. After we’re finished with this brief, we’re going to get our shit together, and then we’ll be jumping into the other universe. For those of you that haven’t done it before, the feeling sucks, and you’ll probably spend the first five minutes puking your guts out. It gets easier, which is why the veterans will jump first.”

“I’m sure you’re wondering what it’s like there. If the planet is like most of the others we’ve been to, the sky will be somewhat greenish, but you’ll get used to it. Your vision won’t be quite as good there, so make sure you use your other sensors. We will be wearing our suits. We have been told the Efreet can track them, but I think it’s better to have their capabilities. Just remember, if this is your first jump, you might want to jump with your helmet off, unless you want to smell puke for the next several hours.”

“Our mission on this jump is to secure 10 pounds of a metal that doesn’t exist in this universe. When we get it, the
Vella Gulf
will be able to replicate the jump modules needed to jump in with all our gear. Right now, we only have one transport rod, so we will jump in three at a time. Also, we won’t be able to bring the cyborgs because they tend to break the rods, and no one wants to get stuck in the other universe. Not only is the sky green, but it smells and you will eventually sicken and die.”

“I’m sorry we weren’t able to do any exercises to help integrate the new folks into the platoon, but we are under a big time crunch. Our country is at war with several nations, and we don’t know why. The only person who can tell us, an Aesir named Nightsong, is in the other universe. We also believe he has the platoon’s real commanding officer with him as a hostage; our ultimate goal is to recover Lieutenant Commander Hobbs and take Nightsong prisoner. If we can do that on this jump, so much the better.”

Lieutenant O’Leary’s eyes roamed across the men in ranks. “Any questions?”

One of the Doman humanoids raised his hand. “Yes?”

“Sir, Corporal King,” the soldier said. “What are the chances we will find them there?”

“Tremendously small,” Lieutenant O’Leary said. “We don’t know anything about what exists on the planet in the other universe. The odds we will jump close to their position are minimal. If we can get the material we need, we can search for them with the
Gulf
and find out where they are hiding.”

“What can we expect in the way of resistance?” Sergeant Jones asked.

“We won’t know until we get there, but most of the planets we’ve found have had two races, the Sila and the Efreet. The Sila are generally humanoid, although their arms and legs are thinner and their knees are jointed the opposite of ours. They are generally peaceful and have not been unfriendly to us. The other race, the Efreet, looks like walking salamanders and are both warlike and aggressive. On every planet where we’ve found both races, the Efreet have ruled the Sila. The Efreet have also attacked Terra and set off a nuclear bomb in one of our cities. They are our enemy, and they will probably attack on sight.”

“I hope they wait until I get there to do it,” the cyborg replied, waving his three-inch mortar. “I’ve got a present for them.” When the laughing stopped, he asked, “What type of weapons do they have?”

“They tend to use flamethrowers and a flechette gun. Some versions can be large, but generally our weapons are much better than theirs. We have also seen them deploy a robot that is very tough to kill from the front. If you face one of them, try to get behind it where its armor is weaker.”

“Anything else?” Seeing no other questions, Lieutenant O’Leary ordered, “Atten-hut. At the command of ‘fall out,’ fall out and grab your gear. We’ll start transporting in 10 minutes. Fall out!”

“Welcome to your new home,” Nightsong said, motioning Calvin into the room. “For what’s left of your mortal time, anyway.”

Calvin inspected his quarters, which took all of three seconds. The 10-foot square room had a hospital bed with shackles, a table and two chairs. And a door with three locks on the outside. Nightsong motioned to the bed, and Calvin sat down on it.

“So when are you going to tell me your plan?” Calvin asked.

“My plan?” Nightsong asked, pushing Calvin back onto the bed. “Why would I want to tell you my plan?”

“I thought that’s what all psychopaths did, right before they killed the good guy.”

“Oh, so you’re the good guy now? Since when did you start seeing yourself that way?”

“Well, it’s obvious you’re the psychopath, so I figured that made me the good guy.”

“And why would I want to tell you my plans?”

“So I can thwart them once I break out of here.”

“Break out of here?” Nightsong laughed, locking the cuff on Calvin’s right wrist. “You can’t break out of here. Even if you could, where would you go? You’d still die soon anyway, as you aren’t native to this universe. No one here has a transportation rod except me, so you couldn’t make it back to your universe even if you escaped and made it out of the city. The point is moot, in any event; even if you escaped, my nanobots would kill you as soon as you got out of range.” He snapped shut the cuff on Calvin’s left wrist, pinning him to the bed.

“Then what do you have to lose by telling me your plans?”

“Nothing.” Nightsong smiled. “Goodbye.” He walked out of the room and shut the door; the sound of locks being thrown adding a note of finality to his words.

The female Sila screamed as Lieutenant O’Leary, Gunnery Sergeant Jerry ‘Wolf’ Stasik and Staff Sergeant Alka ‘Z-Man’ Zoromski appeared next to her child. After a quick scan for danger, Lieutenant O’Leary commed, “
Z-Man, go back for the next group. Wolf, clear the landing zone.
” Bending down, he picked up the small child and carried him to the woman.

“We come in peace,” Lieutenant O’Leary said, handing over the child. After several encounters with the Sila, the Terrans’ suits were able to translate his words into her language. “It would help us a lot,” he added, stepping back to give her some space, “if you would stop screaming.”

She stopped screaming momentarily, but then yelled “Ah!” and ran away as Staff Sergeant Zoromski reappeared with two more soldiers. The woman ran into a small adobe house and slammed the door. Lieutenant O’Leary took a moment to assess his surroundings. The terrain features were similar to what they had left on Domus, with rolling hills surrounding them. Some forest still remained to the west of their position in the Sila Universe; it had been clear-cut on Domus.

A field of something that looked like grain extended to the south, with a male Sila answering the call of the scream at a run. “
Keep ‘em coming, Z-Man,
” Lieutenant O’Leary commed. “
Wolf, set up a perimeter with the troops as they come in. Keep the LZ clear.
”

Holding his hands well away from his weapons, O’Leary went to meet the man, who was carrying what looked like an old-time sickle. The man’s run was interesting to watch with his backward-jointed knees…or would have been if he weren’t holding the large, very sharp blade. “We aren’t here to hurt you,” he said as the man stopped in front of him, sickle at the ready.

“Whatcha here fer, den?” the man asked with a back-country accent the suit struggled to translate.

“I am Lieutenant Ryan O’Leary,” he said. “I am the acting commander of these people. We have come from a different universe, hoping to find one of our people who is being held by the Efreet. If we can’t find him, we need to obtain 10 pounds of a metal you use to make jewelry so we can transport our ship here to look for him.”

“Efreet,” the man said. He spat onto the ground. “Hate ‘dem bastards. Don’t mind if you kill every last one of ‘em. Of course, if’n you don’t kill ‘em all, you’ll just piss ‘em off and make life a lot harder fer us. It’s probably better if’n you all left real soon. Like now.”

“We’ll be happy to go,” O’Leary said, “if you could point us in the direction of where we might find the metal.”

“What kinda metal you be looking fer?” the man asked, grounding the end of the sickle now that the apparent danger was past.

“It is a black metal often used to make necklaces and bracelets,” O’Leary said.

“You’ll need to go into town fer dat.” He pointed to the north. “It’s about three miles in dat direction.”

“
Lieutenant O’Leary, we’ve got what looks like a shuttle coming in,
” Gunnery Sergeant Stasik commed. “
Definitely not a fighter…it isn’t much more than a box with wings.
”

“
Okay everyone, go invisible,
” O’Leary replied. “
We don’t want to start anything if we don’t have to.
” He spoke to the Sila. “My men tell me there is a shuttle coming this way. We are going to hide from them.” With that, he turned on his suit’s invisibility and watched as the man jumped back in surprise.

The man had just enough time to walk to the house and shout something inside before the shuttle landed in front. The boarding ramp came down and nine Efreet marched out. The first four were dressed in solid black suits of combat armor and boots with gold trim, and they carried flamecasters. The next two Efreet wore the same combat armor, but carried flechette guns.

The last two troopers wore golden greaves, with brown robes covering their torsos. Each carried a double-tube apparatus under their robes that O’Leary knew from personal experience was similar to a Terran taser.

The last Efreeti wore a black leather, form-fitting suit, with an abundance of blue and silver piping and braid. A band of blue and a band of purple encircled his left arm. He stepped off the ramp, and the two taser-carrying Efreet walked next to him as he marched over to the Sila.

“We have received electronic emissions from this area,” said the Efreeti. “If you hand over the equipment now, we will only take you away. If you do not turn it over to us, all your family will be slain. Choose.”

“
Skipper, we’re not going to let them kill that family are we?
” Wolf asked. “
They’ve got to be looking for us.
”

One of the taser-bearing Efreet spun around. “Sir, I’m picking it up again,” he said, looking at a device on the back of his wrist. “It’s close.” He started walking toward Wolf.

“
Lead him away if you can,
” O’Leary said.

As he transmitted, the Efreeti with the tracking equipment spun around. “I’m getting something from this direction too. There are at least two sources.”

“
Lead them away from the family and over the hills to the east,
” O’Leary commed, already moving in that direction. “
We’ll deal with them there.
”

“Sir, the source is moving.”

“Are you sure you’re reading it correctly?” the Efreeti leader asked.

“Yes sir,” the trooper said. “There are at least two sources, and they are moving.”

One of the troopers in armor fired a blast with his flamecaster, narrowly missing O’Leary. “Sir, I saw a footprint appear. I think they must be invisible.”

“Everyone hold where you are,” the leader said. “Watch for any other signs of movement. If you see something, shoot it. Until then, flechette casters, search the house and take anyone you find to the shuttle.”

“Wait!” the Sila said. “We ain’t done nothin. You can’t take us!”

The leader waved a claw at the Sila in an offhand manner. “Fine. We won’t take you,” he said. He turned to his men. “Kill them all!” he ordered.

“
Kill the Efreet!
” O’Leary commed.

Everyone fired at once, and almost all the Efreet troopers fell. One of the flamecasters was left standing, and fired his weapon in a semicircle around him, until he was killed by a second round of shots.

O’Leary turned to see a full pattern of flechettes hanging in midair, two feet in front of the Sila. Sergeant Dan Geisenhof appeared, the flechettes stuck into his chest like a backwards porcupine. He fell forward onto his knees, blood spreading from at least five of the metal slivers.

“Tried to…save him…” he said before falling over onto his side.

Becoming visible, the squad’s medic, Corporal Shaun Evertson, ran over. He looked up after a couple of seconds, shaking his head. “Sorry sir, one of them went through his heart. He’s dead.”

“Don’ get me wrong,” the Sila man said, “I’m grateful fer his sacrifice and all; however, he might as well not have done it. By killing dat patrol, you’ve killed us, too. By the way, the name’s Umar, in case you want to put it on my burial marker.”

Second Lieutenant Contreras became visible. “We will take care of your family,” he said. “We brought this upon you; it is our duty to take care of you, right Lieutenant O’Leary?”

When the CO didn’t respond, he asked again. “We will take care of the family, right Lieutenant O’Leary?”

With a start, O’Leary realized he was staring at Sergeant Geisenhof’s body. Coming to his senses, O’Leary became visible and turned to the Sila. “Yes, we will take care of them,” he said. “We will get you out of here, and we need to do it quickly before their response force comes. Before we go, do you have any of the metal we’re looking for?”