BLUE GENDER
"Children of the Blue"
7. Enemies
Marlene jerked out of her sleep and sat straight.
Outside of the window was nothing but the blackness of night. Not even the moon was showing itself over the Gulf of Mexico.
What had woke her? Of course: The wall-rattling snoring of Gunther Gerhardt who was sitting across the aisle from her.
Pistol Jones was over there, too, as well as Dr. Gamble—both also sleeping but not soundly. Darren Moss and Denise Karr were further back in the shadows talking: flirting, actually.
Junker was at the controls but Yuji was no where to be seen.
Marlene knew exactly where Yuji was. She stood, stretched, and walked along the cabin. As she did she allowed her mind to retrace how they had fallen so far behind schedule.
First they had stopped at the supply depot the mercs had used to evacuate Takashi. There they loaded fuel first into the transport's tanks then into the refueling truck at the depot. They then parked that truck in the port side cargo bay. The extra fuel was worth the extra weight and it ensured they'd have enough to get to Houston.
Everything seemed great, especially when they found the exact coordinates for their destination on the ship's nav computer. The mercenaries hadn't been very good at covering their tracks—the data pointed straight to a refueling base north of Houston.
Amateurs.
Then—when they were in the midst of the Caribbean Sea—a problem had developed with the rear rotor. They spent a tense two hours looking for land hoping that the vehicle would stay air borne.
Marlene managed to get them to the Cuban coast, where Junker and Gunther had spent hours repairing the rotor's throttle system and power couplings.
Now they were over the Gulf but behind schedule.
Then there was Yuji. He was developing an addiction to the Double Edge just as he had before, but it appeared to be developing more quickly.
With her thoughts gathered, Marlene strolled into the starboard cargo bay. The vibration from the flying transport's engines rattled the shrikes and containers therein.
He wasn't in the Double Edge; he was just staring at it.
"Yuji?"
"I know, I know," he said to her. "But it's different this time, Marlene. Something…I don't know…I feel as if it's changing me, but not controlling me."
"But it is controlling you," she pointed out with an edge in her voice. "You promised me you'd stay away from it during the trip, but here you are."
He started to explain but she interrupted him.
"Listen to me, Yuji, I need you to pilot the Double Edge when we find Takashi and whoever took him. I need you to be stronger than them because I need my son back. I'm willing to risk that."
Her hands clenched into fists and her eyes became both angry and sad at the same time.
She continued: "But damn it, I can't have you going over the edge like last time. I can't handle that again, Yuji. I need you to be strong when you're not in the Double Edge, too. I need you to be strong for me and our son."
She was shaking. He could see there was something more.
It took some effort but Yuji walked away from the Double Edge and stood in front of Marlene, his hands on her shoulders, and looked into her deep blue eyes.
"Marlene?"
"I'm just asking for a little damn help in all this," the pressure was boiling inside. "I've been holding it all together…I've been a good soldier again…but…"
"What? What is it Marlene? Talk to me."
She closed her eyes and answered: "The Double Edge changes you, it's not your fault. But me, Yuji, what's my Double Edge? Why can a feel myself changing back into what I used to be so easily. So easy it scares me. The fighting, the killing…it's my instinct. It's my purpose."
He assured her: "No, no, Marlene—"
"The only time I ever feel like…like a woman; like a normal person, is when I hold my son. My baby. So small, so delicate. Without him, I'm afraid of what I'd become again. I'm afraid, Yuji, of what I really am."
He hugged her.
The door to the cargo hatch opened and in walked Darren Moss being led by the hand by Denise Karr. They were laughing and grabbing at one another.
"Oops," Denise said as she saw them. "Sorry, wrong cargo bay."
They both giggled and returned the way they had come.
Yuji waited a moment then told her: "Marlene, you didn't save me that first time because you were a soldier. You saved me because you cared about me. You saved me because of how you made me feel; because of how much you made me care about you."
She pulled away gently. There was just a hint of tears in her eyes. Seeing them water made his heart sink. For an instant—just a second or two—he didn't feel himself being drawn to the Double Edge.
Marlene put a hand on his cheek.
"Yuji, I want to forget about all this for just a little while," she said. "Just for a little while…we have time…"
She pulled him to her lips.
"…make me forget…"
They kissed and didn't stop. Soon their discarded battle suits were on the cargo floor; soon Marlene was wrapped around Yuji as he hoisted her against the wall of the cargo bay. For a while, Marlene and Yuji forgot everything except for how much they loved one another.
***
It was mid morning when the transport ship circled over the Houston refueling station. That station was a collection of concrete buildings, a small landing strip for conventional airplanes, and a series of massive storage tanks all on the flat plains north of Houston.
Junker spoke as they circled: "Welcome to Texas—the killin' ground."
"What's that?" Yuji asked while he looked over Junker's shoulder.
Everyone was huddled at the front of the ship.
"The killin' ground," he repeated, then explained. "Texas is so big and flat that it made a great spot to defend 'gainst the swarms of Blue, back in the last days of the U.S. government that is. The whole eastern part of the state was nothing but launching pads for sending people and things into orbit."
"I never thought about that," Yuji said.
Pistol Jones—a native of Arkansas—chimed in: "Man, I remember when I was a kid we learned about all the tact nukes and nuke-tipped artillery shells they used 'round here. Still, they held off the Blue long enough to get 2nd Earth goin'."
Dr. Gamble commented: "Must've been a nightmare."
Junker, who had been a young soldier at the time, explained: "The nightmare wasn't the mushroom clouds on the horizon, cause you knew they were buying you time.
"The nightmare was the front gates at the spaceports—tens of thousands of ordinary folk who knew they weren't going to second earth. They wanted on those shuttles.
"No, the nightmare was watching soldiers gun down families who were climbing the razor wire. Then again, I reckon the ones who died then were the lucky ones."
He let that sink in.
Marlene, very matter-of-fact, told them: "Whatever happens, we don't want to head west. You get out to the center of Texas and it's all wasteland—radioactive wasteland."
She paused then said: "Everyone knows what to do when we land, right? We've got to find something here that leads us to Takashi, or this whole trip was for nothing."
They nodded their heads collectively in agreement.
"Okay, Yuji," she ordered. "Let's go."
***
The transport's wheels touched the open lot in front of the main building of the station and both cargo hatches dropped open.
Two shrikes raced out from one side—Yuji in the Double Edge and Marlene. The vehicles roared off in separate directions to secure the flanks.
Everyone else came out on foot armed with rifles and handguns.
Gunther and Moss, tasked with finding fuel, headed towards a collection of storage tanks and the vehicles that were rusting in the shadows of those tanks.
Junker led Dr. Gamble, Pistol Jones and Denise Karr into the main building. They were to start looking for any signs of their quarry.
So far the base seemed deserted.
The burned out city of Houston—it's buildings collapsed or at least decaying—was visible in the distance to the south.
***
Junker led the others into the main administrative complex. They were walking through what appeared to be ancient cafeteria when a series of lights snapped on and nearly blinded them. The lights came from the balcony above.
Junker, with a hand trying to shield his eyes, could make out a bunch of people there…people holding heavy duty weapons.
"Don't move! Drop your weapons!" A voice commanded.
Junker sighed. The rest looked to him for guidance.
He threw his gun down and held his hands aloft.
***
The area under the fuel tanks was dark and cramped. Several old tanker trucks were pushed together, a few of which had—long ago—been partially destroyed by fire.
Moss walked behind one of those trucks while Gunther checked the cab.
Gunther heard a loud thud—not unlike the sound a body makes when it falls to the ground.
He got out of the cab.
"Darren? Darren, you okay, ya?"
Gunther walked behind the truck. Moss was on the ground unconscious.
The big man was too slow—he barely saw the butt of the rifle before it hit him square in the chin.
Another thud.
***
Marlene and Yuji regrouped in front of the transport.
"Anything?"
"No, no nothing," Yuji told her.
Marlene spoke into her tactical radio: "Captain Junker, status?"
No answer.
"Captain?"
Yuji tried his radio: "Gunther, Moss, either of you copy?"
Static.
A sound came roaring over the complex.
Yuji and Marlene turned their shrikes and saw a late 20th Century style attack helicopter come swooping in at them. The Apache let loose a volley of rockets.
The shrikes moved fast but the rockets weren't meant for them. The ordinance slammed into the air ship ripping its skin to metal shreds and starting a series of secondary explosions as the fuel truck inside, then the fuel tanks, then the ammunition stores ignited one after another.
The copper buzzed off and didn't appear to be in a hurry to get back.
A black armored shrike appeared on the roof of the main building. It was black and had an insignia on it—the insignia showed a skull but instead of crossed bones there were crossed flintlock pistols.
The shrike itself was a type neither of them had seen before. It was sleek like a Bullseye model but didn't appear to carry a main gun. All of its weaponry seemed to be built right in to the chassis.
The shrike leapt down and slammed to the surface in front of Marlene and Yuji. It raised one arm and a series of heavy caliber rounds, shot from a barrel on that arm, peppered Marlene's mecha.
"Marlene! Move!" Yuji sped toward the attacker while Marlene circled to her right in an attempt to flank their opponent.
Yuji opened fire as he charged to ram the black one. But it suddenly moved—gracefully glided—to its right, firing its arm-mounted gun.
It was very fast.
Yuji took several shots in the superstructure but they only made him mad. He extended the Double Edge's two blades then hit his boosters resulting in a leap above and at his attacker.
Instead of retreating the enemy mecha extended its arms, grabbed Yuji's airborne machine, and then used the Double Edge's weight against it resulting in it tumbling end over end not unlike a slick judo move.
The Double Edge slammed to the ground on its side. The enemy took aim and fired bullets at the prone fighter.
Marlene came to the rescue. Her main gun sparked rounds off of the black mech unit as she moved in.
Fluidly—as if the big clumsy machine were in fact a gymnast—the black armor shrike back flipped away from Marlene's charge and ended up behind Marlene.
The enemy vehicle fired from two openings on its shoulders. A series of saw-blade-like edged weapons spun toward Marlene's shrike as if they were deadly frisbees. They clanged into the rear of her cabin (one only a foot away from her head) as well as the rest of the mech's body.
One scored a critical hit.
Marlene's onboard computer flashed a chilling message: PRIMARY ORDINANCE MAGAZINE COMPROMISED.
She felt the explosive rounds stored in the shrike's body start to explode in a chain reaction.
Marlene Angel only had seconds. She opened the rear hatch of the mecha and slid out, all while hitting the accelerator button.
Marlene hit the ground and covered her head. The empty shrike motored away for a few moments then exploded into a thousand pieces. Chunks of hot metal rained from the sky.
Yuji saw it all as he got his own shrike back on its feet.
"Marlene!"
He didn't wait to see if she was okay. He fired and raced at the enemy machine, screaming all the way.
The black shrike was unfazed by Yuji's headlong charge.
It kneeled on one of its mechanized legs, extended one arm, and ejected some sort of long metal rope-like cord. That cord wrapped around the legs of Yuji's armored shrike and pulled tight, freezing its motion and upsetting its balance.
Yuji's machine, once again, crashed to the ground. But that wasn't all. A massive jolt of electrical energy exited the black fighter, crossed the cord, and slammed into Yuji's vehicle.
Yuji screamed in pain as the electronic circuits of his shrike were fried and sparks danced through the cockpit.
Just for good measure the enemy shrike did something Marlene had never seen outside of a few prototype models. It ignited a jetpack and took to the air, lifting and pulling Yuji's machine as it moved.
With the Double Edge hanging from the cord like a wrecking ball, the flying black shrike slammed Yuji into and through a series of hanger walls, one after another.
When it felt it had tormented the defeated sleeper enough, the black shrike cut the cord and let its prey smash to the surface.
Marlene ran over to Yuji's vehicle as fast as she could, but her thigh wound from a few days prior was still painful enough to slow her down.
She got to the Double Edge just as Yuji, his helmet smashed and his nose bloodied, was crawling out.
Yuji, disorientated but still conscious, kept repeating: "Who could beat ME? Who could beat me in my double edge? Who?
"Who could beat us both, at the same time?" Marlene was astounded.
The black armor shrike with the skull and pistols hovered above them. After a moment it moved into kneeling position and the armored pilot emerged. The figure walked over to its beaten opponents and removed its helmet.
Marlene saw a face she hadn't seen in a long, long time.
It was Amick Hendar, former Director of the Training Station and the woman who had so tormented Marlene Angel during her re-education. A woman who had defended the high council during the coupe that Marlene had helped lead. The woman Marlene had shot.
"You?!"
Amick Hendar smiled menacingly and spoke to Marlene.
"I'm pleased to finally see you again, code number 2-8-0-5. And I can assure you, this meeting is no coincidence."
NEXT FACTOR:
8. Old Wounds
Amick: "I've waited a long time for this, code number 2-8-0-5. Now I will have my revenge for your treachery against the high council. In their name and in their memory, I pass judgement on you as a traitor. The sentence is death."