9. Hot Air

From his position high in the blue afternoon sky onboard the Toasty Tart blimp, Dice could see for miles. Unfortunately, there wasn't much to see. The desert-like wastelands lapped against fields of swamp to the south, a patch of forest here, the remains of a vacant village there, and a row of mountains to the east.

Other than that, not much to speak of.

Dice kicked back and let the prevailing wind carrying him along. That, he realized, had been the story of his life.

On Second Earth the prevailing wind had been women and life-threatening missions. In the early days it had seemed almost like heaven to a young Dice. He had a little bit of a cowboy in him, sure. So leading drop operations into Blue-infested areas had been a blast; literally. Driving Shrikes, shooting missiles, killing the big ugly bugs…it used to make his blood boil with excitement.

Back on Second Earth during the weeks between missions and the hours between training sessions, Dice had found he had a talent with the ladies. What young man wouldn't have wanted to be the object of desire for so many?

Yet as Dice looked back on those years, he figured that Jake Donner was right: life on Second Earth was slowly killing the human race. Dice realized that when fooling around was as common as lunch, it lost its taste. With no true feelings behind the encounters it all became routine and cheap.

As for the missions…what had started as exciting battles grew into gory escapades that seemed to have no meaning. What was the point? A dozen men killed to secure an oil cache; another dozen chopped to pieces while observing Blue nests; a dozen more thrown away to grab medical data on b-cell infected 'Sleepers'. But who cared because there were tens of thousands of sleeping warriors tucked away on the medical ship. Loose a dozen, wake up a dozen more.

After a while, Dice had found the missions no longer made his blood boil. Just like the women, they had grown routine but in a horrifying way. At some point it had become usual to watch a man get chopped in half or see a woman rolled into a 'human dumpling.'

It was like a drug. A mind-numbing drug. Dice had lost all feeling in his heart and his mind. As he looked back at it all, he came to realize he had become a robot.

A chilled breeze whipped through the gondola. The ship rocked. Dice jumped to his feet and walked to edge of the basket as if hoping the view of yet another stretch of barren steppes might chase away the memories that had seeped into his mind. Not memories of the routines of Second Earth, but the memory of the person who had changed it all for him.

"Ah baby," he whispered to the wind. "I miss you."

She had cut through all the mind-numbing missions and passionless sex. She had found that place inside the robot where a heart still beat. And Dice still could not figure out how she had done it.

She was beautiful, to be sure. But not the most beautiful.

A quick wit and a good shot; a wry sense of humor and a mind for all things mechanical and stubborn nature that sometimes drove him to the point of insanity. But none of that had been what had drawn Dice to her smile.

Yes, he remembered now. She had had dignity. Self-confidence, but not like a bully. A sense of her own being.

Her voice haunted from the hanger observation deck after another gruesome mission. He could still see her holding a wrench in one hand with a blotch of grease on her cheek.

I don't want to do this anymore, Dice. It's all for nothing.

What she had said had been treason. But she had said those words with such plain truth that he had immediately known that she was right. That it was all for nothing. That it was time they didn't do 'this' anymore. It was time to cut the puppet-strings from Victor, the High Council, and all the others up there who were fooling themselves.

He remembered standing there for a long second, just gaping at her; shocked and surprised that she could float the idea of deserting so bluntly.

I'm not coming back from the next mission. I don't think you should, either.

Nina, do you know what you're saying?

But, of course, he knew she knew what she was saying. She had never minced words. She did not play games. The only thing in all her life she had ever pretended had been to pretend that she fit in on Second Earth. But she didn't. Oh, she was an expert mechanic and a damn good pilot but she was above it all. Yes, above it all. She was too real for the phoniness there. Too real to become a robot.

Dice hung his head. He watched the oblong shadow of the air ship float over a rural road that cut alongside a farm where the farmhouse had long since burned to the ground.

He put a hand over his eyes. They stung. He felt a salty water there as the flood broke over the emotional dam he had long ago built around the deep wound in his soul.

So they had purposely separated themselves from the drop operation, called in a phony distress call, left one Shrike behind in a smoking pile so as to cover their getaway, and left.

Dice always found it funny that they had had to go to such lengths to hide their escape. The Second Earth military would not think twice about abandoning soldiers for the sake of a mission. Dice lost count of all the faces that had been left behind to their doom because they were late for a transport or had become too injured to walk on their own.

But deserters? Victor and Doug and even Amick….Dice knew those bastards would sacrifice a hundred men to bring one renegade to court martial.

Their ploy had not entirely worked. They had gotten free, but their commander had realized they had not been killed but, rather, had fled. Maybe it had been all the missing emergency packs, or the overabundance of small arms munitions Dice had taken on patrol, or maybe the rest of the robots had come to realize that Dice and Nina were no longer mechanized automatons for the High Council to abuse.

The two lovers had then spent weeks dodging patrols and ignoring radio calls demanding they return.

Eventually, just as the two had hoped, the Second Earthers lost the trail. Not long after, they had taken residence not far from the supply depot. There they had spent a good year together.

One good year.

Dice pulled the hand from his eyes. Streaks of tears glinted in the morning sun as he stared toward the sky above. He could nearly see her auburn hair and brown eyes looking down at him.

Would she approve?

He tried to find the answer to that question in the last words that had come from her lips. Words burned into his mind so permanently that he could still hear their echo.

I'm sorry we didn't have longer, Dice. At least it meant something. It was…it was worth it, even if it didn't last.

It had taken him another year to finally get the Blue that had killed his love. But it would take much, much longer for the pain to fade.

---

Hours of flying across nothingness in a helium-filled dirigible did not play well with Dice's stomach. However, a sight on the horizon made him feel much better.

Looks like we're just about there.

Dice could see the glittering waters of a small lake nestled in the center of a patch of barren, red rock mountains. He realized why Jake and Erma thought of the place as "silver" lake, for the late-afternoon sun reflected in shiny shivers off a calm surface.

It looked peaceful. Relaxed. The type of place maybe Dice would like to hide away at. A place to spend the rest of his…of…his…

Dice hurried to the bow of the gondola and squinted. The sharp, rocky walls surrounding the lake were lined with holes.

Caves?

Surrounding the entryways were patches of green and yellow.

"Oh crap."

Next, Dice's eyes were fooled by an optical illusion. For a moment, he thought the entire ground moved. Then his eyes adjusted and he realized it was not the ground that moved but, rather, the coating of Blue that swarmed over the entire lakeside.

The blimp drifted out over the water of Silver lake. The Blue screamed up at him from below. A chorus of hisses and roars.

Suddenly, the roars and calls of the enraged Blue Choppers, Tankers, and Double Boats stopped as if turned off by a switch. For several seconds the only sound came from a soft wind buffeting against the sides of the ship, gently rocking the craft side to side even as it drifted forward lazily, pushed by a slowly rotating propeller.

Then a new sound came. First low, then louder. A buzzing that became a drone that became a roar.

Flying Blue Man Eaters poured out from the caves like angry hornets from a hive. They streamed in one continuous strand and formed a swarm two hundred yards to stern.

Dice pushed the throttle to 'full'. The propeller on the blimp increased rotations. The bow bent slightly down as the propulsion gave the whole ship a kick in the rear. Dice steered the craft higher, hoping for more altitude.

The Blue broke into flights of three and made attack runs, racing upwards toward the back of Dice's banana-shaped basket. He grabbed the gattling gun and slid it along its guide rail until at the stern.

I'm gunna take a few of you sonofabitches with me.

He activated the gun. The barrel spun then spat heavy caliber rounds.

Quaid did not have to hit the core to get the job done. The sheer punch of the gun was enough to break apart flying Blue and send them falling to the ground.

The first one dropped. Then the second. Then the third, just ten yards from the ship.

Another trio of attackers rushed forth. Dice sprayed them with more fire. Blobs of dead Blue in broken pieces fell down on the eastern edge of 'Silver' lake.

As they had often done over the years, the Blue changed tactics. Instead of charging forward, they broke ranks and flew to surround the blimp. Dice dragged the gun around the gondola, firing all the time. The clumsy weapon bucked and heaved in his grasp but his shots hit more of the flying attackers. Exoskeletons splintered. Gored Blue disintegrated.

"Come on! Come on you bastards! Dicey's got something for ya'!"

They charged in from three sides.

The gattling gun sounded less like a firearm and more like a buzz saw; a continuous mechanical whirl. Hot flashes shot from the barrel. The pistol grips in Dice's hand grew warm.

Smash. Crack. Splat.

One…two…five Blue dropped from the sky.

Click.

"Shit."

Dice grabbed one of the spare ordnance crates. He worked fast to attach another long band of ammunition to the blaster. He heard the chorus of fluttering Blue wings grow louder and closer.

The gondola swayed harshly just as Dice clicked into place a belt of ammo.

He raised his head and saw two of the massive Blue flyers land on the rim of the carriage, their heads bent low so as to avoid the balloon above.

"GET…"

Dice dragged the gun on its rail into the shadow of the insect-like giants.

"OFF…"

He pulled the trigger. The Blue roared.

"MY…"

Bullets tore into the belly of the first beast and then the second. They screamed in agony and tumbled off.

"BLIMP!"

Dice did not stop firing. The swarm of Blue had closed to point blank range. He fired, slid the gun, and fired again.

Monster parts—legs, jaws, claws and worse—fell from the sky like sick rain.

Dice dared a glance to the west. Silver lake faded in the distance but not fast enough. More Blue flew out from the caves there and raced toward his ship.

Three came within range of his gun, but as he fired they veered high, trying to get above his firing arc and to the top of the dirigible. Dice's shots got them before they could. All three suffered mortal wounds. But one—carried by its own momentum—slammed into the top of the airship before its lifeless hulk pinwheeled toward the ground so far below.

A warning light chimed from the blimp's control panel. Jake had explained all the warning lights and controls to Dice but Quaid did not need the warning light to tell him his balloon had been punctured: he could hear the hiss from above.

"Urrrggg!"

More Blue closed in but Dice could not ignore the leak. He left the gattling gun, grabbed the only other weapon on board—a light assault rifle—and also took the emergency patch kit.

Dice took hold of the forward mooring rope and climbed hand over hand up and over the front nose of the ship. He did his best to ignore the hard ground some five thousand feet far below and, instead, focused on climbing with the rifle slung on one shoulder and a backpack with the patch kit on the other.

He reached the top and immediately spied the damaged spot. Not a big hole, but enough. He tried not to think about the sound of nearing Blue wings but that was hard to do.

Dice stood and wobbled over to the hole near the bow of the blimp. Walking on the balloon was very difficult; it was soft and springy like an air mattress.

He knelt and examined the hole. The rubbery outer surface of the air ship had been torn as well as the inner cocoon. Between the two was another layer that Jake had put in as part of one of his many modifications. This was a layer of thin metal strips and wires, all part of the ship's most powerful defensive mechanism, albeit a defense of last resort.

Dice recalled Jake's words: "I've rigged it so that it probably won't cause all the helium to explode if you use it. Probably."

The blimp trembled. A Blue voice howled.

Dice grabbed the rifle, turned, and faced a flying Blue that walked across the top of the balloon directly toward him.

He took careful aim, spotted the core, and blasted the beast. It dropped then rolled off the ship, disappearing over the side. More Blue, however, dive-bombed toward top of the balloon.

Dice put down the rifle and bent the damaged metal plate into position. He then carefully twisted together the electrical wires that had been severed by the impact.

The blimp rocked again. Then again.

Dice fired his rifle, needing a dozen rounds to find the cores of two Blue.

He returned his attention to the repair job. He grabbed a rubbery patch from the kit, stuck it in place, and poured adhesive over the bandage.

"Not bad, if I don't say so myself."

Dice carefully found his balance and stood.

A Blue landed directly in front of him. Dice raised his assault rifle. The Blue swung one of its massive claws around and clipped the end of the gun, sending it spiraling over Dice's head.

The Blue, almost grinning, extended its massive jaws in preparation of chomping Dice's head off.

Dice remembered what he had seen the guy with the bandages do at Agatha Dwiddle's compound. He did the same.

He punched the Blue in the side of its massive jaw. Unlike that other fellow with the bandages, Dice's slug failed to impress the monster. Worse, Dice grimaced in pain. It felt as if he had punched the side of an Armored Shrike.

However, instead of biting the man's head off, the indignant beast gave Dice a solid smack with the back of its claw. Quaid—much like his rifle a second before—went flying backwards toward the front of the blimp. He landed on the soft surface and skidded, nearing sliding off the bow.

Quaid spat a ball of blood and one tooth out, wiped his wrist over his mouth, and pulled himself to his knees. The enraged Blue stumbled forward, this time ready to finish the job.

Dice, however, had landed within arms reach of his weapon. He grasped it quickly, rolled into a prone position, and fired like a sharpshooter. The first two rounds ricocheted off the hard shell of the Man Eater. The third round hit the core. The creature hissed as it slumped.

"Yes! Score one for Dice! Whoot!"

Before Dice could finish his celebration, five more massive Blue flyers landed on the top of the dirigible.

Dice raised the rifle.

"Eat led you son of a –"

Click.

The monsters roared roars that might have been laughs. They stepped forward, as if savoring the cornered prey.

Dice retreated a pace. He had run out of blimp, however. His next step back would send him over the edge.

He spied one way out. One crazy way. Still, he figured he'd much rather plunge to his death than get gobbled by a Blue.

The mooring rope he had used to climb up the blimp rested at his feet. Dice reached down with both hands, hauled up half the rope, and jumped over the bow, befuddling the Blue in the process.

He swung down on the rope like a hero in a pirate movie, flying under the overhang of the blimp. He let go of the rope and his momentum tossed him into the banana-shaped gondola. Dice landed with a heavy thud.

He barely had time to yelp in pain. Dice scrambled to the control panel and opened the compartment labeled 'high voltage'.

"…it probably won't cause all the helium to explode if you use it. Probably."

Quaid spun the charge-up dial and hit the heavy red button. A massive jolt of deadly electricity streamed out from the onboard battery and up into the zeppelin, carried along by those metal plates and wires. The entire balloon glowed like a light bulb for three long seconds.

Dice heard the agonizing howls of the electrified monsters standing atop the ship. Nonetheless, he cringed in fear that the entire rigging would explode.

The lethal jolt faded. Dead Blue bodies rolled off and dropped from the blimp. And Dice Quaid and his ship remained in one piece.

"Well, whattya know?"

He made his way to the stern of the airship and peered toward Silver lake, now far behind. No more flying Blue pursued. He had run the surprise gauntlet.

Dice slumped to the floor of the gondola and grabbed his canteen. He drank deeply then slumped his head against the side rail. He was exhausted. His eyes did not close completely, but they did shrink to slivers.

He sat there and relaxed and listened to the wind. Until another noise interrupted his rest.

Not quite the buzzing sound of the Blue. More like…more like…

Engines?

Dice stood. His view to the rear was completely blocked by Second Earth airship. An armed Second Earth airship.

Dice's eyes moved from the missiles under the short wings to the cockpit. The smiling face of Captain Koal glared at him.

A loud speaker announced: "Dice Quaid, I presume? Apparently you already know who I am. I have some good news and some bad news, Mr. Quaid. The good news is that I'm not going to turn you in for desertion. Due to your conversation with Amick Hendar, I am now a fugitive from Second Earth myself. The bad news, Mr. Quaid, is that you're going to wish I did turn you over to the High Council."

A missile fired from Koal's airship and slammed into the Toasty Tart blimp.