Steel World (33 page)

Worse, I could see how she’d probably been watching my conversation with Anne and figured I was hitting on her—or worse, that we were already involved. I hadn’t been helping out, after all, just talking. And from her angle, it had probably looked like I’d been studying Anne’s figure—which was looking good in her jumpsuit.

“No, no,” I said. “You can help.”

“No she can’t,” Anne said over her shoulder. “Neither one of you know a damned thing. Now, could you back up a bit? I have to get under this manifold.”

As she spoke, she went flat on her back and slid underneath the machine. Natasha and I both curled our lips. It didn’t look too sparkly-clean under there. The machine dripped unidentified liquids all the time.

“Sorry to intrude,” said Natasha, turning around and walking away.

I followed her lamely. “Natasha? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing at all.”

“Come on.”

Kivi huffed in disgust and moved away from us.

“I should have known,” Natasha said, when we were standing in a quiet corner.

“What?”

“I always get involved with guys who chase everything they see like dogs.”

“I’m not—”

“It’s all right,” she said. “You’re just immature, that’s all. I shouldn’t have expected anything else in Varus.”

“It’s not like that.”

“Sure it is. I didn’t let you do what you wanted last night in the park, so you lost interest. It’s okay, really.”

I heaved a long sigh.

Natasha patted me on the arm and slid away. “It’s cool. Don’t worry about it.”

I thought fast and came up with a solid half-truth to stand behind. As a habitually late, second-class student, half-truths were on my skill-list.

“Let me explain,” I began.

“There’s nothing to explain. I’m not pregnant. I told you, it’s cool. Go in there and chat her up. You might get lucky.”

Just then, over her shoulder, I caught sight of the big, round, grinning face of Carlos. He was eavesdropping and delighted with what he was hearing.

“Look, I had a bad regrow,” I told her.

“A what?”

“I—well, remember the morning I was sick?”

She frowned and nodded suspiciously. It made me feel a bit guilty, but I sternly reminded myself that I hadn’t done anything wrong—other than a little staring—and I couldn’t tell her the full truth.

“I had what they call a bad grow. It happens sometimes. This machine isn’t perfect. Sometimes it rebuilds you out of raw meat and ends up making mistakes.”

Natasha looked alarmed. “You’re saying you’re messed up inside?”

“A little. That’s what I was talking to Anne—uh, Specialist Grant—about. She was giving me medical advice.”

Natasha glanced into the chamber and knitted her face into a frown. “What’s wrong with you…exactly?”

“I’m not going to last. She talked about blindness, deafness, cancer. Lots of things could go wrong. I’m living on borrowed time.”

“That’s horrible.”

“It’s cool. She said they can fix it eventually. But not right now.”

Natasha looked relieved. “Well…that’s good. Are you feeling sick now?”

“No, no. I’m fine. I’ll eventually have serious health problems, though.”

She brightened suddenly. “Hey, I have an idea. Why don’t you just get yourself killed? New body, no more problems.”

I forced a smile. “Great idea,” I said. Internally, I had to wonder why everyone wanted me to off myself.

I noticed then that every member of our team was standing up and adjusting their kits. Carlos lifted his helmet, clicked it into place over his head, and handed me mine.

“You’re supposed to keep this close. You didn’t even hear the alarm.”

I put my helmet on and saw the digital readouts that floated in a ghostly fashion over my vision. It identified Natasha as Recruit Elkin. I used my tapper to join the squad channel. Down here, the signal was iffy and it had disconnected with some kind of timeout.

“…Elkin, Cooper and Moore! Move inside, now!” shouted a voice I recognized instantly. Veteran Harris was never far from our ears.

Natasha rushed past me with several other recruits. “Ortiz and McGill, you two will stand guard outside the door, the rest will stay in. Lock the door!”

“What’s going on?” I asked Carlos when Harris stopped shouting orders into my earpiece.

“Nobody tells us crap,” he said. “Some kind of assault is going on upstairs, I’d say. It’s about time the lizards made another play.”

“Maybe they saw us pull the heavies out and back up to orbit and they decided it was time to strike.”

“Yeah,” Carlos said, “you might be right, there. The timing is suspicious. Everybody knows light recruits are easy.”

He leered at me when he said that, and I thought he might be making some kind of rude remark regarding my problems with women. I ignored him and unslung my rifle. I shortened the barrel, as any combat in this hallway was going to be fought in close-quarters.

“You two,” shouted Specialist Grant behind me. “If anyone comes down here they have to use the human-lock to get in. Understood?”

We looked at her and nodded.

Grant looked at the rest of them. “I don’t need everyone crowding me. I’ll keep you, you and you inside,” she said, pointing to Natasha, Kivi and one other recruit. “You can serve as orderlies for now until trained people show up. The rest of you go back to your Veteran topside. Matis, go find me some trained people.”

Specialist Matis left with the rest of them. They climbed the stairs, taking the huge steps one at a time

Kivi caught our eye from inside the vault and waved goodbye to Carlos. Then she gave me the finger.

I laughed.

The vault door slammed in our faces a moment later, and Carlos and I were alone in the dank corridor.

“No worries,” Carlos said. “This sure beats manning that wall up top. When they start running the machine and pouring fresh bodies out through this door, then we’ll know the fight is on. Until then, I’m taking a break.”

I didn’t share his relaxed state of mind. Sure, this should be an easy duty. All we had to do was keep the door safe, and in the meantime the battle would play out above us. Still, I didn’t like being stuck down here. Something about this dank hole made me feel trapped.

“There’s nowhere to run from here,” I said.

“Yeah, well…don’t worry about it. If they get this far past our lines, we’re all dead anyway.”

I had to agree with him.

-25-

A series of thuds began. They were quiet at first—like the tread of distant feet. But then they became louder, and we saw the ceiling tremble. Droplets of condensation from the roof of the tunnel showered down with each rhythmic beat, and we stared around with open mouths.

“Could that be a herd of charging juggers? I asked.

“If it is, the boys on the walls are in it pretty deep,” Carlos replied. “Those juggers must be the size of lifters. But no, I don’t buy that. The lizards aren’t big enough to shake these steel walls. I bet it’s artillery.”

I figured he was right. The sound was getting louder as if the enemy were isolating the target and homing in on us.

We put our backs to the door, and I tried to reach the team inside. “You guys okay in there?”

Nothing came back
but static.

“The door must be too thick,” I said. “It’s metal and slag like everything else around here.”

“Maybe you should tap in the door code and check on them,” Carlos said.

“Why? Nothing can get through. We’ll stand our posts and do as ordered.”

Carlos shrugged. We both knew why we wanted to stick our noses into the room. The sounds of the attack were unnerving. Just to see more human faces and voices—any contact would be better than standing here listening to doom slamming down on the base outside.

The sound of explosions continued unabated. In fact, they grew louder.

“So
loud!
” I shouted, giving my head a shake.

“What?”

“It’s super loud.  Must be the acoustics in this metal tunnel. It’s carrying the sound.”

Carlos nodded, but I wasn’t sure he even knew what I was saying.

After about five more minutes, during which we hunkered down aiming our weapons in different directions down the hallways, an officer appeared on the stairway. He came down at a run, almost falling as he had to hop from one giant step to the next. Many were slick with a fine sheen of condensed water that reminded me of sweat.

“Where are the revivals?” he shouted at me.

I knew he was an officer from his kit, which included a sidearm, rather than a snap-rifle. When he got closer, I recognized Adjunct Leeson. He trotted up to us, removing his helmet and looking around wildly.

“They should be coming out now,” he said. “How many have they processed?”

Carlos and I looked at the door and shrugged.

“No clue, sir,” I said. “Radio doesn’t go through the security door.”

He frowned and hammered on the door. It was like hammering on a boulder.

“Open it,” he said.

“There’s a code, sir,” Carlos said.

“Then type it in, Recruit!” he snapped.

Carlos went for it first. A series of symbols appeared on the screen, and he began pecking at the lock.

Leeson groaned when he saw what Carlos was doing. “Not one of those damned things. Human-locks only keep out humans.”

I thought it might have been one of the smartest things he’d ever said, but I kept quiet. Carlos failed to open it, and Leeson began cursing.

“I’m sorry, sir,” Carlos said. “I thought I had it, my fingers in these gloves—I might have touched the contact once.”

“Get the hell out of the way!” Leeson roared and pulled Carlos away.

“What’s wrong, sir?” I said. “I know we’ve been hit, but it takes a while to get the revival unit operating.”

He looked at me, his eyes wild. “Centurion Graves was taken out with the first salvo. We need him back on the line as soon as possible.”

I realized that with Graves down Leeson was in charge of the unit. He didn’t seem happy with that situation.

“So, it is artillery?” Carlos asked him.

“Yeah. Overkill, if you ask me. I think the Saurians are mad, they—dammit!”

He broke off. It was his second try, and the door still wouldn’t open.

He stepped back and glared. “Something’s wrong with it,” he said.

“Let McGill have a go,” Carlos suggested. “He’s the only one who got it to work earlier.”

“All right,” Leeson said, waving me forward. “Nothing works down here. We have a direct wire to this room, but no one can talk to the revival room bios. We should never have put it down here.”

I glanced back at him, then finished the sequence. I straightened, absolutely sure I’d done it right.

Nothing happened. The door blinked, but then flipped from green to red again.

“I thought it was open,” Carlos said. “I saw it go green.”

“Try it again!” growled Leeson.

“Okay,” I said, stepping up to the door again. This time I put my ear to the door latch as I worked, looking at the symbols sidelong.

Carlos started talking again, but both Leeson and I shushed him. I could tell the Adjunct knew what I was doing.

I tapped and the door went green and clicked—then the indicators flashed red again.

“I heard it,” I said. “It opened, but now it’s closed.”

Leeson was clawing at his tapper, bringing up his com link. He tapped but it didn’t work, either.

“These tunnel walls,” Carlos said.

“Get that door open,” Leeson ordered, jabbing his finger at it with every word. “I’ll go get reinforcements.”

Carlos took his rifle and hammered on the door. I worked the lock again and tried to ignore the noise he was making. For once, I thought he was justifiably loud.

The third time around, the results were the same. The door was opening, but the lock wasn’t working for some reason.

“Here,” I said, “maybe it’s just jammed. Get your knife out and hammer the tip into the crack. The next time I open the lock, we’ll try to pry it open. If we can get it to open just a crack, before the thing faults and locks again, we might be able to get in.”

Carlos did as I said, and it finally worked. I heard tramping feet on the stairs and in the passage behind me.

But I didn’t really hear the others coming. Leeson had brought reinforcements, but I knew it wasn’t going to matter.

Everyone in the chamber was lying on the floor. Specialist Grant, Kivi, Natasha—all of them. They were all dead or badly injured. Grant was
beyond
dead—she’d been torn apart.

The worst part was the revival unit was missing. There was only a hole in the wall behind the unit or where it used to be. The hole was ragged as if it had been cut with heat. Beyond it, a tunnel opened. I couldn’t see much as it was full of smoke and steam and was pitch-black.