Weapons of War (8 page)

"Your level of respect is even with your level of preparedness, Ilk'ash," Tea'va said. "I don't know how you managed to earn command of the Ishur in the first place, but it is clear to me that your usefulness has come to an end. If you have any pride in you at all, you will turn yourself in for retirement immediately."

Ilk'ash looked up again, angrier than before. Gr'el turned slightly, just enough that he could see Tea'va, but he didn't speak.
 

Tea'va knew the Domo'dahm would hear of this. He welcomed it.
 

"Do you have something to say?" he asked.

"Drek. Druk'shur," Ilk'ash cursed. "I will kill you."

He reached out, ready to climb the pedestal to attack. Tea'va didn't move. He didn't give up the exterior of calm. He had to make a statement immediately.
 

"Gr'el," he said.

The pur'dahm stood, drawing a plasma knife from his uniform and shoving it into Ilk'ash's side with one quick, smooth motion. The drumhr gurgled, still reaching up. Gr'el stabbed him again. He stopped the advance, falling first to his knees, and then onto his side, dead.

Tea'va locked eyes with Gr'el. Neither was surprised by the actions of the other. Both knew that Tea'va couldn't just assume control.

He had to take it.

They barely spoke for another hour as they fled downriver, away from the carnage and the destroyed mech. Of course, Donovan had questions. So many questions. How the hell had Ehri gotten to the other side of the river bank? How had she gained control of the mech? How did she even know how to pilot the thing?

She was supposed to be a scientist. Maybe she had trained with a pur'dahm Hunter. Maybe she knew how to fight. This was more than knowing how to fight. It seemed like there was nothing she couldn't do.

Had Juliet St. Martin been the same way? It was her husband who had gotten the colony ship away from Earth during the invasion, somehow managing to avoid the plasma fire of the bek'hai's massive fortresses.
 

Were the other clones like Ehri just as gifted? Was the difference that they didn't know it?

"We should stop here," Donovan said.
 

They were in the midst of some thick vegetation that offered strong cover from all directions. The river was rough beside them, pouring over a patch of rocks and debris that kicked a fine mist over the area, keeping it damp.

"Diaz, can you help me with him?" He was too tired to lower the pilot to the ground without the risk of dropping him.

"I can help you," Ehri said.

"I've got it, Mary Sue," Diaz said, moving in front of her. "You don't have to do everything for us."

Donovan opened his mouth to rebut her and then decided against it. They could handle their differences themselves, and if Diaz was pissed and jealous, that was her own problem.

She helped him lower the pilot to the ground. Donovan reached down and felt his pulse. It was still steady.
 

"I don't know why he's been out for so long," Diaz said quietly. "I thought the bek'hai magic band-aid was supposed to heal him?"

Donovan smiled at that one. "Are you okay, Lieutenant?" he said, reminding her they still had a job to do.
 

"I'm feeling a little uncertain about Ehri. Every time we think we know her, she makes us look stupid again."

"I can hear you, Lieutenant Diaz," Ehri said.

"See," Diaz whispered.

Donovan stood, surveying both of them. "I think we're all exhausted and on edge, and it's getting the best of us. Before we wind up ripping one another's throats out, maybe you can debrief us on exactly what happened back there?"

"Of course, Major," Ehri said. "There isn't much to tell. I heard the mech approaching across the river, so I broke off from you, crossed at a ford a few hundred meters further upstream, and came at the mech from behind."

"If there was a ford so close, why weren't you directing us to it?" Diaz asked.

"Because of the mech. If it had reached us together, we would all be dead right now."

Donovan couldn't argue with that. "You made it ahead of us in a hurry."

"As with my hearing, most of my abilities are augmented. As you know, the bek'hai have a long history of genetic manipulation. Consider that they have been able to combine human DNA with their own in only fifty years. There are thousands of years of study and science behind those capabilities."

"Yet they couldn't prevent themselves from almost going extinct?"
 

"A series of tragic mistakes. Humans are not immune to the same."

"Why aren't the soldier clones powered up like you are?" Diaz asked.

"The Children of the Un'hai are special. You could say favored."

"Un'hai?" Donovan said. "Juliet St. Martin?"

"Yes."
 

"Your Domo'dahm must have been seriously in love with Juliet," Diaz said.
 

"He was. As much as any bek'hai is capable of love."

"What about the mech? You never told me you could pilot one of those things."

"I told you I know how to fight. That includes usage of all of the bek'hai weapons of war. I know the workings of the gi'shah, though they are not equipped to be piloted by clones."

"Gi'shah?"

"The starfighters. Your forces call them Bats. They currently require a symbiotic interface which makes them incompatible with the lor'hai. The mechs; however, were created for this planet, and with both clone and drumhr usage in mind."

"What about real human usage?" Diaz asked.

"It is likely that you could be taught, but the controls have the same lockout as the rifles normally do."

"We've gotten around that problem once," Donovan said. "Maybe we can do it again?"

"Getting ahead of yourself a bit, Major?" Diaz said. "We've got bigger problems right now."

"Affirmative," Donovan said. "How far off course are we from returning to base?"

"Forty kilometers or so," Ehri said. "It will be dangerous to go back there."

"I know, but we have to. If any of the children survived, if my mother survived. They're going to need someone to try to get them out." He held up the bek'hai rifle. "We're the best chance they've got."

"We may be the only chance they've got," Diaz said. "We don't leave people behind. We can't just make new ones."

Ehri didn't react to the barb. She shifted her attention to the pilot at their feet. His eyes had opened at some point during the conversation.

"He's awake," she said.

Donovan looked down at the pilot. He was staring at them, watching them. His breathing was calm.
 

"My name is Major Donovan Peters," Donovan said, leaning down to greet him. "I'm glad you're finally awake. Welcome to Earth."

"Captain Soon Kim," the pilot said. His voice was soft. Tired. "New Earth Alliance." He smiled weakly, lifting his arm to salute. "I've never been to Earth before." He breathed in. "I've never breathed fresh air. I've never been outside! It's incredible."

Donovan still felt odd returning the Captain's salute. His own rank wasn't a real thing. Not compared to a man who had spent his whole life training to be a soldier. At the same time, he knew the planet. Captain Soon didn't.

"I wish we were meeting under better circumstances, Captain," Donovan said. "I wish I was welcoming you home. You and all of your people."

"Me, too. Do you know? Did Captain St. Martin make it out?"

"He did," Ehri said.

Soon smiled. "We did it. I can't believe we did it." He tried to push himself up, groaning and laying back down. "Must have hit my head. Hard."

"You have a wound to your abdomen as well," Ehri said. "It will heal quickly, but it will help if you stay still."

"We had to carry you quite a way," Donovan said. "It didn't help. We didn't have a choice."

"I'm sure you didn't."

"Diaz, can you get Captain Kim some water?"

"Yes, sir," Diaz replied, heading off toward the river.

"That's Lieutenant Renata Diaz," Donovan said. "This is Ehri."

"Just Ehri?" Soon said.

"I'm a lor'hai," Ehri replied. "A bek'hai clone."

"Bek'hai? You mean the enemy?"
 

Donovan expected Soon would be afraid. He wasn't.

"She helped us get the weapons," Donovan said. "She's on our side."

Soon stared at her in silence for a moment. "You look familiar." His face changed when he placed her. "General St. Martin has a picture of his wife, Juliet. I've seen it a thousand times. Even with the grime on your face, I would know it anywhere."

"Yes," Ehri said. "I am aware of Juliet St. Martin."

"Did Gabriel see you?"

"He did," Donovan said, remembering the look on Captain St. Martin's face when he saw the spitting image of his mother. "He was shocked, to say the least."

"I can imagine."

Diaz returned with the water, held in a large leaf. She kneeled next to Soon, helping him drink.

"Thank you," Soon said. "I've never tasted anything like it."

"You're welcome, Captain."

"We have a lot of catching up to do," Soon said. "A lot you need to tell me. A lot I need to tell you."

"You should rest, Captain," Ehri said. "You likely have a concussion. We're fortunate you didn't die with as much as we put you through."

"There's no time to rest," Soon said. "Not now. If the enemy wasn't taking us seriously before, we both know they are now, or they wouldn't have launched a ship to chase the Magellan."

"I can't argue with that," Donovan said. "We're headed back to the rebel base. It was attacked by the bek'hai, but there's a chance there may be some survivors."

"How have you managed it all these years, Major?" Soon said. "Being down here with them? Being hunted?"

Donovan remembered what it had taken for him and his mother to get to Mexico. To make it to the missile silo they had called home up until yesterday. "As much as you're enjoying the taste of the water and the smell of the air, I think we'd feel equally grateful to be at peace, to have some measure of safety and security. To be out there, instead of down here."

"Not me," Diaz said. "Somebody has to fight. Somebody has to keep it all going."

"You don't want peace?" Ehri asked.

"Of course, I do. Peace on Earth. No more bek'hai. That's why we're all here, right?"

"General St. Martin swore he would come back," Soon said. "For as long as I've been alive, he promised we would find a way to fight the enemy, and when we did, we would. He's an incredible man, the General. You're right, Lieutenant. Somebody has to keep it all going. We have a key. We just need to figure out how to use it. Our scientist, Reza, he's a genius. If anyone can reverse-engineer the enemy tech, it's him. The Magellan will be back. I can promise you that. If we can keep the enemy on their toes, if we can soften them up until the General returns, that's what we need to do."

"That's what we will do," Donovan said. "We already sent a message to our headquarters in New York, to General Parker. The rest of the resistance will be organizing as we speak, preparing to fight back. Some of our people must have escaped. Once we regroup, we can make plans to begin to counter the bek'hai."

Soon grunted in agreement, his eyes shifting over to Ehri. "Where do you fit into all of this?"
 

"I convinced my Domo'dahm, my leader, to allow me to study humans up close. To join them before he completed his goal of ending the resistance. I learned of your ways. Your freedoms. Your ability to choose. I don't want to destroy my people. The lor'hai, the clones, are all like you. We are fully human, even if we are copies. The others don't choose freedom because they don't know what it is. They don't know it is a choice. I hope that by helping you, I will be able to give them a choice, and in doing so, will force the Domo'dahm and the drumhr to make a choice before all of our blood is shed."

"I appreciate the idealism," Soon said. "I hope you have a chance to practice it. For my part, I'm not keen on letting the aliens off the hook so easily. Not the ones who are in charge, anyway."