Scattered Suns (29 page)

Chapter 57—BRANSON ROBERTS

After rescuing Orli Covitz and old Hud Steinman, the
Blind Faith
raced away from Corribus at top speed. Adrenaline surged through BeBob’s bloodstream like the ekti circulating in his Ildiran stardrive. He still couldn’t get over the holocaust he had seen. The burgeoning human colony had been wiped out, blasted, burned, vaporized.

Klikiss robots? Soldier compies? EDF ships?

In flight, the two refugees used the
Faith
’s onboard facilities to clean up. Although BeBob gave them food from his standard mealpax—anything tasted good after roast furry crickets, they said—and dug up baggy but comfortable new clothes, the pair still looked battered and disheveled, Orli especially. The girl’s eyes had a haunted, hollow look as she sat clutching a cup of thin cocoa.

“Don’t worry, missy.” BeBob patted her on the shoulder. “We’ll find someone to take care of you.”

“I can take care of myself, but I’ve got to have at least half a chance.” The defiance in her voice was very small. “Those robots didn’t give anyone a break. If they’d known I was hiding up in that cliff wall, I’d be dead too.”

“I’ll get you back to Earth. The EDF needs to know what happened. You’ve got to tell them everything, even if it’s hard on you. What if those robots attack other colonies?”

“They probably will.” Orli’s shoulders trembled.

BeBob’s seamed face formed a paternal, puppy-dog frown. “I’ve got a few old connections with the Earth Defense Forces, and I’ll get you to the proper people. They’ll listen.” The images he had taken of the wreckage of Corribus would bring a shudder even to gravel-voiced and thickheaded old General Lanyan.

At maximum velocity, the
Blind Faith
’s engines gobbled up the ekti reserves, but BeBob wasn’t concerned about fuel supplies. Right now, time counted for more than anything. Warning Earth about the Klikiss robots and Soldier compies was the most vital thing he could imagine.

Steinman flopped onto a spare bunk and minutes later was sound asleep, snoring. Orli dozed off in the copilot’s chair for a few hours, until nightmares woke her; after that she tried to distract herself by playing mournful melodies on the scuffed but still functional music synthesizer strips she had salvaged from Corribus. BeBob had recharged the power cells for Orli, and the repetitive process of making music seemed to transport her into a fugue state where she could be at peace with memories of happier times.

Rubbing his eyes, Steinman came out of the cabin, looked wistfully at her, and exchanged a glance with BeBob. The orphaned girl sat with her eyes half closed, just playing and listening to the notes, and both men smiled. BeBob’s heart was heavy for what the kid had been through, but he could see she was strong. Given time and a little bit of care, the girl would likely come out all right. He meant to help her in any way possible.

The
Faith
approached Earth without slowing. BeBob intended to go straight to the top and deliver his urgent message to someone who could get wheels turning on a moment’s notice. After all the crap he’d been through, he figured Lanyan owed him a favor.

Eight years earlier, the General had used blackmail to conscript BeBob into piloting the
Faith
. Though he’d never volunteered to join the EDF, BeBob had been sent on dangerous recon missions to flush hydrogues from gas giants. After several skin-of-the-teeth escapes, he had finally decided he’d had enough of enforced servitude.

He’d never regretted letting the General see the metaphorical door swing shut behind him as he left. In fact, he felt the EDF had a lot of nerve to coerce him into being their cannon fodder, a hapless man who took the first steps through a live minefield for them. No thank you.

But the Corribus massacre was obviously more important than his fit of pique, and it was time to put their differences aside. Lanyan would burst a blood vessel when he heard what had happened.

Though he’d lain low for many years, BeBob remembered how to contact the military brass. Despite changed serial numbers and a slightly altered hull configuration, the
Blind Faith
must still be in the EDF records as a recon vessel. He could pull enough strings to get these two refugees the urgent attention that was required.

Orli stopped playing her music. She looked at BeBob, then glanced out the cockpit ports at the bright yellow sun and the smaller dots of planets scattered around in their orbits. “That blue one is Earth.” He pointed with his finger. The Moon was a bright white dot set at an angle from the planet. “Ever been there?”

“That’s where I was born. But my father took me to Dremen when I was young. I don’t remember Earth much.”

“I left it on purpose,” Steinman said. “Too crowded.”

BeBob adjusted course and began transmitting as soon as they were within range of the Moon base. “I have an urgent message for General Kurt Lanyan. This is the
Blind Faith
transmitting. I have EDF clearance. I, uh, was one of your recon ships a while back. Listen, I’m bringing vital information—the entire settlement on Corribus has been destroyed. I am carrying images and data from the scene, as well as the only two survivors of the attack. I think they’re okay, but they should receive medical attention as soon as I land.”

When Orli glanced skeptically down at her minor scuffs and bruises, BeBob blushed. “I just said that to rattle ’em.”

A crackling message came back quickly. “
Blind Faith,
this is EDF control. We are forwarding your message to the proper authorities. We will have emergency crews waiting for you when you land in the main crater on the base. Can you identify the aggressors on Corribus? Was it the hydrogues?”

“No, sir. The witnesses claim the attack was carried out by
EDF battleships:
five Mantas and one Juggernaut. They saw no humans or military officers, only Soldier compies that were apparently commanded by Klikiss robots.” The silence was long and uncomfortable. “Did you hear me? Klikiss robots and Soldier compies.”

“Acknowledged,
Blind Faith
. Please continue your approach. These are the vector coordinates.”

“I should arrive within the hour. You’d best let General Lanyan know.”

“The General has expressed an interest in your arrival,
Blind Faith
. He will be waiting for you in person.”

BeBob grinned at his passengers and switched off his transmission as a squadron of battle-ready Remoras flew out to escort the
Faith
. “See, I told you I could get results. Looks like we’re getting the royal treatment.” It made him uneasy, though, that the Remoras kept all their weapons systems powered and ready to fire.

“Royal treatment?” Steinman muttered. “If you say so.”

The
Faith
landed inside a crater dome that had been converted into a military base. BeBob shut down his engines and turned to look at Orli, brushing hair away from her eyes. The old uniform he’d given the girl was four sizes too large, but it was the best he could do. “They’ll take care of you here, missy. Don’t you doubt it.”

“I’ll watch over her, too,” Steinman said.

As soon as the crater dome sealed over them, he opened the
Faith
’s hatch. BeBob took the girl’s hand, and all three of them emerged into the bright lights. Medical crews rushed forward, and Orli seemed embarrassed by all the attention.

BeBob smiled with relief as he saw General Lanyan march in from the main corridor, flanked by four silver berets. An unexpected number of armed EDF soldiers stood at every entrance to the base, watching BeBob with narrowed eyes.

He stepped forward, breathless. “General! You’re not going to believe this! I’ve compiled the images as well as the statements from these two, but you’ll still want to debrief them. Other colonies might be in danger. I’ve never encountered such a—”

Lanyan crossed his arms over his broad chest, scowling at BeBob as if he were no more than a noxious weed. “Captain Branson Roberts, you have a lot of nerve coming back here after abandoning your duty.”

BeBob gave an embarrassed laugh. “That’s not important right now, General. You have to dispatch a team to Corribus, and be on the lookout for—”

Lanyan gestured the silver berets forward as if he hadn’t heard a word of the emergency. “I’ve been hoping to catch one of you deserters, and here you fall right into my lap. Very few things these days turn out to be easier than I anticipate.” The silver berets grabbed BeBob by the arms, and the EDF guards leveled their weapons, as if he might bolt and try to escape again. “I am placing you under arrest.”

BeBob could only stand with his mouth open in astonishment. “You’ve got to be kidding. After all this? Didn’t you understand my report?”

Lanyan looked both smug and relieved. “I intend to make you face a formal court-martial for the crime of desertion during wartime.”

Chapter 58—ORLI COVITZ

While EDF personnel pampered and pestered Orli, she demanded to know what was going to happen to Captain Roberts. Maybe the base soldiers didn’t know anything. They insisted that the young survivor didn’t need to worry. Stonewalled, she eventually gave up, but still simmered with concern.

They made sure Orli was given fresh clothes, food, a soft bunk in a warm chamber, and an hour to herself—though solitude and the chance to wallow in all the bad memories was the last thing she wanted. As she lay back in her guest quarters, waiting to be called to meet with the General, Orli supposed they were reviewing all the images of the devastation.

Now that she was safe, her fears returned. She stared at the ceiling, studying the rough patterns in the sealed lunar rock. What was she supposed to do? Her father, her only anchor in the universe, was dead. Her mother had left them long ago; Orli wondered if the Hansa could find where the woman was, or if her mother would even want her. Orli had always been self-sufficient, hardworking, and smart, but she was only fourteen, and now she was an orphan.

A female soldier signaled at the door. “The General is ready to debrief you now, um, ma’am.” She seemed unsure of how to address the girl. The soldier had short blond hair and a pale face, and her features held a habitual hardness.

Orli got to her feet from her bunk. Though she dreaded it, she was also anxious to tell her story. She had already relived the long and terrible nightmare a thousand times. “Do I need to bring anything? Or prepare?”

“Just tell the truth, ma’am. The General wants to hear all the details.”

Orli followed the trim young woman through a maze of passages. The air smelled of dust and the polymer sealants that paved the floor and varnished the walls. Orli didn’t feel up to asking casual questions, and the soldier did not try to make chitchat.

Orli felt a knot in her stomach. She wasn’t afraid she would be lectured or reprimanded, though she had a sense of guilt at being a survivor. The military would probably make her see counselors.

Inside a briefing room that felt stuffy and too warm, General Lanyan sat waiting for her at the end of a long silver-topped table. The General was an imposing man, squat and broad-shouldered, his dark hair cropped short, his square jaw dusted with a shadow of stubble. Inside the base he wore clean gray fatigues that showed his name and insignia.

Three lower-ranking functionaries sat along the table, all of them looking intently at Orli as she entered. They had recorders, cameras, and datapads for taking notes and making analytical projections. She hesitated, then walked forward and stood near the end of the table—the empty end. “Should I sit down, sir?”

“Yes, please, Miss Covitz. I hope all of your needs have been taken care of.”

“I...yes, well enough, sir.” All of her needs? Did the General have the slightest idea of how much she had been through? “What’s going to happen to Captain Roberts?”

“That’s none of your concern right now. I’ve reviewed the images from your colony, and we just completed a lengthy discussion with Mr. Steinman, who confirms what Captain Roberts found. No one questions the fact that the colony has met with some sort of disaster. Now we need to understand what happened.” He leaned forward, interweaving his fingers. The functionaries took notes, but Lanyan pretended they weren’t there.

Orli sat straight in the hard chair and recited all she had seen, dredging out of her nightmares the difficult details of how she had been stranded on the cliff face as the battleships swooped in and began their massacre. She talked about the explosions, the panicked colonists, the relentless war vessels opening fire, weapon blast after weapon blast. All the buildings incinerated, the Klikiss transportal targeted, people running and screaming...her father’s communications shack going up in flames...

The General saw her as just a child, probably full of fanciful imaginings. When she noticed the condescending expression on his face, Orli felt a moment of unmistakable hatred for him.

Instead of letting herself get too angry, she turned her voice into pure ice. “They were EDF ships, sir. I saw the insignia on the side. Five big ships and one huge one: I think they’re called Mantas and Juggernauts. I watched as they came around again and again.” She choked, drew a breath. “They fired repeatedly. Nobody had any chance to surrender. They came to wipe us out, and that’s exactly what they did.”

The three assistants dutifully took notes and scowled. “I know you were scared and confused, young lady. However, I assure you that EDF ships would not do such a thing,” Lanyan said. “Your friend Steinman says he didn’t actually see anything himself.”

“Mr. Steinman was kilometers away out on the prairie.” She shook her head as if to clear the buzzing disbelief from behind her eyes. “I
saw
them, General. I watched them land after they had leveled all of our buildings. They intentionally wiped out the Klikiss transportal so that no one could escape.”

One of the assistants raised his hand like a child in school. “It should be simple enough to determine if the transportal is still functioning, General. We can send a test using the Corribus coordinates.”

Lanyan pursed his lips. “Since we don’t have many green priests left, it’ll take forever for a roundabout message to reach one of the transportal centers. We could dispatch a ship directly to Corribus in the same amount of time.”

“Remember that hydrogues just obliterated Relleker, sir,” a second assistant pointed out. “There are obvious similarities.”

“It wasn’t hydrogues,” Orli insisted. “It was Klikiss robots and Soldier compies. They killed everyone.”

Lanyan said, “There have never been Klikiss robots aboard EDF ships. You must be mistaken.” She gave him her best withering look and was gratified to see the General flinch. With a sigh, he said, “Very well, I’ll have all of my grid admirals check in, but I assure you I’d know it if we were missing any EDF ships. Five Mantas and a Juggernaut—we’d notice something like that.”

The trio of assistants tapped on their datapads, calling up information to verify what the General had said. Orli repeated her story again, and they pressed her for details, as if they thought her memory was faulty or that she was lying.

Corribus was destroyed! How could they argue about that?

She heard a brisk step out in the corridor, and another man stepped into the briefing room. He was paunchy, with gray-blue eyes surrounded by soft flesh that would become folds of fat before long. He wore a full dress uniform and a lot of colorful medals and bars, as if he needed to demonstrate his credentials even here on the lunar base.

“Admiral Stromo, we expected you back yesterday,” Lanyan said, a slight chiding tone in his voice.

“Much to do out there, General, many things to verify. We’ve done a fine job, I must say.” He glanced at Orli, reacted with surprise to see a young girl at the base, but seemed more concerned with delivering his own quick report. “I know it’s good for me to be out with the troops, General, but I must say it’s quite exhausting. I’ll be happy to get back to my real work as Grid 0 liaison officer.”

Lanyan shook his head and slowly rose to his feet. “Unfortunately, you won’t be getting your desk job back just yet, Admiral. We have a matter of grave concern, and your Manta is ready to be dispatched.”

Stromo cleared his throat as if trying to excavate words there.

“I’m sending you immediately to Corribus. Go check out this girl’s story.”