Metal Boxes - Trapped Outside (19 page)

Numos turned back to Stone. “Maybe a late lunch or early supper. If you’re really hungry, we could scrounge you up a piece of survival nutrition bar. We’ve been saving a few of them for the seriously wounded. Since you’re still on the list, I’m sure we can get you a small chunk.”

“Gaaak! No thanks. Not even for—um,…maybe just a small bite so I could say I had lunch.”

Allie poked him in the chest, moving him a step backward. He may have grown to be her height, but she still massed a good deal more than he did with her heavier muscles. She said, “No. You can wait like the rest of us, Ensign Stone. Those survival bars are nutrionally balanced and our wounded need that more than you do.”

“Yes, sir. Sorry.” Stone managed to look contrite.

“Yeah, I know you’re sorry, but you can still wait. My marines don’t eat until the wounded have eaten. My NCOs don’t eat until their fireteams and squads have eaten. I don’t eat until my NCOs have eaten. Major Numos doesn’t eat until I have eaten.”

Stone nodded, “And as governor, I don’t eat until Major Numos has eaten, is that it?”

Numos smiled, “That would be me, the civilians, the navy, the medical corps, and then you.”

Stone shook his head in surrender. “I thought rank had its privileges?”

Allie said, “You don’t have rank, Ensign. You have position. They’re two different things. The privilege of rank is the honor of commanding loyal troops. Far too many officers forget that.”

Numos said, “We need to talk to Agent Ryte. I’d like to know if her drones have picked up any information on the Hyrocanian encampment. Are we safe here or do we need to move farther away? Or maybe she’s spotted some of our missing people.”

Stone pointed up the path away from the wall to where the woman sat. The trio followed his pointing finger. “Don’t you think she would tell us if we were in danger? Wouldn’t she say something if her drones caught sight of Hammer’s Charlie Platoon?”

Allie added, “I would like to think so, but EMIS agents are trained to keep secrets. It’s what they do.”

Stone wanted to argue how all EMIS agents weren’t like that, but she was right. His father had been EMIS before marrying his mother. He hadn’t shared that bit of information with his son, keeping it a secret for years. The only other EMIS agent he knew on a personal level was Maggot, from the Ol’ Toothless investigation. He couldn’t say why, but he had never really liked the man, in spite of his being a close friend of his parents. The man was too good at sneaking around things and lying to get things done. Stone preferred a more honest face-to face approach.

He wanted to say Ryte would give them straight up answers or he would throttle them out of her. He wanted to say it, but didn’t. She stood waiting for them, a look of complete innocence on her face.

TWENTY-FOUR

Stone sat quietly listening to Ryte, Numos, and Allie babble on about distance, vectors, and stealth capabilities. He thought about saying something about defective camouflage but kept his mouth shut. He certainly didn’t need these people thinking he was insane and they all seemed to agree their systems were working perfectly whether he could see them in gilley mode or not.

Flashing a video of torn up dirt and twisted metal on her dataport viewer, Ryte said, “We aren’t far enough away from the compound to keep the Hyrocanians from finding us if they make a concerted effort.”

Numos agreed. “We only managed to get about fifty miles away. With our wounded and injured, we couldn’t go any farther and this canyon gives us a small measure of protection from local dangers.”

Ryte said, “I haven’t been able to keep watch over everything all at once, but I haven’t seen any indication the Hyrocanians have been back to the compound since their initial investigation after it self-destructed.” Unasked, she added, “Nor have I seen any indication of Hammermill’s Charlie Platoon. I have done a scan of their ambush area. The ground is chewed up and there aren’t any bodies. Not ours or Hyrocanian. I’m sure the whole area would be a party for a team of crime scene investigators with more DNA scattered about than they could hope for, but my drones don’t have sensors that delicate.”

Stone interrupted. “Drones. You said that in plural. I’ve seen one. How many do you have?”

Ryte said, “Just two, Ensign Stone. Believe me, I wish I had a flock with an attendant crew of operators, but I don’t.”

Stone could smell the spearmint on her. He didn’t know why, but he knew she was being honest. He leaned against Jay, as she and Peebee lay snoozing in the sun. They were hungry and wanted to go into the forest to forage, but he assured them they would go together after he spoke with these people. Neither drasco evidenced any deception on Ryte’s part or if they did, they didn’t say so.

Numos said, “We can’t get you more drones, however we can supply people to help you operate them and we have people to help analyze their data.”

Ryte said, “I’m sorry, it’s classified equipment. I can’t let anyone else near them or the data they produce. Most of the tech isn’t much different than what your military equipment has, but by our mandate, the Empire Military Investigative Service must have equipment you don’t have access to. Otherwise, how could we investigate? The tech was designed by EMIS research teams and hasn’t been approved for military use.”

Allie spat, “That’s stupid—”

Ryte interrupted, “Of course it’s not stupid. The spread of technology must be controlled. Nothing smaller than a marine combat suit has camouflage capabilities because we don’t want criminals—and gods-forbid—the Hyrocanians, getting their hands on something this small. It’d be a disaster.”

Allie said, “Marines don’t allow our suits to be taken by Hyrocanians.” The tone in her voice left little doubt she didn’t like Ryte.

Ryte spat back, “No, that doesn’t mean you’ve protected the tech. I’ve documented proof Triplett managed to get specs on a marine suit and tried to transmit it to the Hyrocanians.”

Allie, Ryte, and Numos all managed to say “bitch” in three part harmony.

Stone tsked, “Such language, people. Petty Officer Ryte, I mean Agent Ryte—”

“Tammie, please,” Ryte interrupted. Her smile earned Stone a glare from Allie.

Stone continued, “Tammie. Okay. You say Triplett tried to transmit it. She didn’t succeed?”

Ryte flipped her hair back from her face and stared at the sky. Her tongue danced out of her mouth, tapping her upper lip in thought. “I don’t know. I intercepted many of her transmissions while I was at Lazzaroni and again on the Vasco de Gama. How do I know if I stopped them all? I think I did, but what if I’m wrong? If we were near a base, I would lock her in a cell and send in a team of interrogators to peel her down to skin and bones to get at the truth. Here?” She shrugged. “I’ve confiscated her dataport and I’m trying to unlock it. So far I haven’t gotten past her firewalls. Without her lawyer present, I can’t even ask her for her passwords as that violates her right not to self-incriminate.”

Numos said, “I don’t really care right now what damage she’s done, just so she doesn’t do any more. We still need more eyes on your drone data, even if you keep the specs and the drones themselves under a tight leash. What are you using the drones for right now? Are you still looking for Charlie Platoon survivors?”

Ryte shook her head. “Sorry, I’ve only done quick flybys of the ambush site and near the compound area, using rapid search patterns without any real results. I have them running data grid patterns farther out. I’m actually setting them on automatic as I don’t want their electronics hacked or someone tracking them back to us. I have them on full camouflage, running silent with cameras running full on.”

Numos asked, “How long can they fly?”

Ryte said, “They have the same components as your suits. And your suits can go how long?”

Numos answered, “How long our suits last is classified. Sorry, I’m not authorized to share—”

Stone snorted in frustration but didn’t say anything.

Allie said, “What we can say is because the skin is photosensitive, the suits can operate longer than the marine inside, but not if they are camouflaged.”

Ryte nodded, “My drones have small turbines in the tail fins that spin as they fly. The wind itself keeps them powered when camouflaged. The limiting factor is the data.”

Numos frowned. “Limited data storage? That doesn’t make sense. My dataport is small, yet it holds more data than I could read in a lifetime. Why would you build a system with such limited capacity?”

Ryte shook her head. “No, Major. It’s not the amount of data, but the timeliness of the data. Each drone could fly for months on end collecting data second by second. What good is six-month-old data? I’m keeping one drone on overflight of my target area at all times. I bring the other back to dump data every twelve hours or so. I keep rotating them back and forth. On the flights back and forth I’ve set them to run quick searches around the compound and search for your missing platoon. It’s on one of those return trips I saw a crab swarm and saw it break and change direction rather than confront a group of night stalkers.”

Numos said, “So what is your target area? What are you watching so closely?”

Ryte shrugged, “The Hyrocanian settlement.”

Stone wasn’t sure he heard correctly, “Settlement?”

Ryte shrugged. “A couple of dozen permanent buildings, roads, and gardens all surrounded by a high wall. That fits my definition of a settlement.”

Numos asked, “How permanent are the buildings?”

Ryte replied, “Pre-fab buildings set on plasticrete slabs. I haven’t determined what any of them are used for as the inhabitants come and go at all hours through all of the buildings. For all I know, the buildings are just coverings for openings into underground compounds.”

Numos asked, “How strong are they? What is the number of forces present? Is there any indication they know where we are?”

Ryte said, “Sorry, Major. That information was gathered by classified hardware and as such is classified information.”

Allie spat, “What the hell! That data is relevant to our survival. As the commander in charge of our protection, Major Numos requires the information.”

Ryte shrugged again, “Sorry, folks. I don’t make the rules.”

Stone raised his hand out of habit, waiting to be called upon. Everyone looked at him as he sheepishly put his hand back down. “I’m the governor and I do make the rules, right?”

Everyone nodded.

Stone smiled, “Tammie, I want you to quit keeping secrets from Major Numos and Lieutenant Vedrian. Oh, and me too.”

Ryte exhaled loudly in relief. “Thanks, Ensign Stone. I can estimate their numbers at about six hundred effectives. I believe that is half of what they started with. Our marines managed, both in Charlie Platoon’s ambush and the compound self-destruct to kill that many. However, they are well armed with about half of their number in combat suits. Mind you, these are guesses, as I don’t have any way to get a clear count. They haven’t lined up and given me time to count them. I did manage to count about a hundred debarking one of those shuttles. I didn’t see them get on, take off, and come back, so I don’t know if they are reinforcements or if I just missed their outbound activity.”

“Spacecraft?” Numos asked.

Ryte nodded. “They receive irregular deliveries from somewhere. Well, I assume they’re irregular as I haven’t spotted any discernible pattern. For all I know, the Hyrocanians think their shuttle visits are as regular as my Aunt Tillie after a colonoscopy flush.”

“Any weapons? Missile launchers and the like?” Numos was concerned about another attack.

Ryte shook her head. “No, Major. They have some heavy arms, or what look like arms to me. How the hell can I tell? For all I know, what looks like anti-aircraft launchers is just a fancy potato peeler.”

Allie snorted, “It sounds like you’re taking a lot of pictures, but not able to interpret what you’re getting.”

Ryte flashed an insincere smile. “I’m a trained EMIS agent. I hunt down human criminals. Until recently, I didn’t even know what a Hyrocanian looked like, much less how their kitchen appliances work.”

Numos sounded excited, “Then with Ensign Stone’s agreement, we can get our people digging into those vids. Do you have sound?” At Ryte’s nod, he pumped a fist skyward in enthusiasm. “We have some of the first real, unstaged, and unscripted video of these things. Vedrian, have some linguists running voice recognition patterns. Ryte is in charge, but I want all spare specialists pouring over every scrap of Hyrocanian video we have. Folks, these may be the best close up videos of the Hyrocanians since Ensign Stone’s personal encounter at Point Alpha-Beta. We have an unprecedented opportunity to gather intelligence data on the enemy.”

Ryte said, “It won’t do us any good if we can’t get it off the planet and into the right hands.”

Stone laughed, “You might not get off Allie’s World, but I plan to.” He looked around him. Spotting Corporal Tuttle sitting out of voice range, he waved her over. ‘Barb, I know you are supposed to be watching me, but would you ask Whizzer to join us?”

Numos asked, “Whizzer?”

Stone nodded, “Wyznewski, the geologist. Right now I don’t care about geology. We need to get as many brains on the Hyrocanians as we can.”

Ryte shook her head in short emphatic bursts as if trying to shake something unpleasant off her face. “Not Triplett.” Numos and Allie nodded in agreement.

Stone said, “I disagree. We need to know everything we can and we need to know now.” He listened to their protests while waiting for the scientist.

Whizzer ran up carrying a heavy crab pincher like a trophy. All of the civilians clustered behind him, following along at various speeds. Most were carrying some crab part. Jay shifted, raising her head, looking at Triplett.

Peebee said, “
Liar, Mama
.”

Stone looked around. No one looked like they heard the drascos. He sure wasn’t going to mention he could hear them talking. The rancid grease odor was so strong he doubted anyone else could smell it without commenting on it. He patted Jay on the head. “It’s okay, Jay.”

Whizzer said, “Does anyone have any video of the crabs we can review?”

Stone said, “Actually, we have other more pressing video to review.”

Whizzer asked, “More pressing than a creature that could demolish this camp and everyone in it? I doubt that.”

Stone said, “We need to get all available sets of eyes on some video we recently gained access to. How we got it isn’t important. Everyone is to give its analysis the highest priority. I mean everyone except Doctors Triplett, Lee, and Arnold.”

Whizzer nodded, “Sure. You’re the boss. I understand leaving Triplett off the list, but what do you have against Lee and Arnold? They are the top scientists in their fields.”

Stone said, “They may not have collaborated with Triplett in treason, but they agree with her position.”

Arnold didn’t say anything, but Lee sputtered and said, “Nonsense. I’m loyal to the Emperor. Why, I’m even his sixth cousin twice removed.” He tried waving an injured hand, holding it up as if offering testimony in a court of law.

Jay snorted. “
Liar
.”

Stone looked at Dr. Lee. The man was old and didn’t bear any family resemblance to the Emperor. Still, sixth cousin twice removed could allow for a lot of diversity. “Doctor Arnold, I note you didn’t protest.”

Arnold said, “I have never committed treason. I do believe humans should have tried more diplomatic solutions before sending in the military to kill a sentient race. We made Hyrocanians enemies without even trying to be friends. Having said that, I would never give information to any of humanity’s enemies.”

Stone didn’t need Jay and Peebee to tell him Arnold was telling the truth. That alone didn’t mean he could be trusted. It just meant he believed what he was saying. Still, maybe none of them would survive Allie’s World to use the information. His desire to gain intelligence on the Hyrocanians overrode his caution about the three scientists.