Chapter 27
Ivan collapsed into a seat on the assault shuttle and gave a long sigh. Free! He felt almost as good as when he'd gotten out of that flood-control tunnel back on Earth. Maybe a little better, because instead of Miles, he had Tej waiting for him. Damn, he missed her!
"Stay low!" shouted Anny Payne to the pilot. "And fast!"
"Why?" demanded the pilot. "I've got no threats on my board."
"That could change! And it probably will! Now move this crate, ensign! That's an order!" Payne, instead of looking relieved was more keyed up than ever. Oh yeah, that thing under the volcano. They still had to deal with that, didn't they? Tej might have to wait.
Acceleration pushed him back in his seat as the pilot obeyed Payne's order. The shuttle banked away and Ivan caught a glimpse of the mountainside and saw the hole that had been blasted in it. He whistled. Damn good shooting, whoever had done that.
Paulo was in the seat next to him. The boy was shuddering and he had tears on his face. Probably scared out of his mind, the poor kid. Ivan reached over and patted his head. "We're taking you home, kid. And you did good, you did real good." He smiled and tousled his hair and the lad give him a faint smile in return. Then Ivan looked at Russo Gupta. "You did a pretty good job, too, Guppy."
The mercenary didn't look the least bit pleased at the compliment. "Admiral Quinn will send you the bill." Now there was a thought: who had hired the Dendarii? And who was paying for it? And hell, now Quinn could lord this over him, too! Probably rescued me just out of spite.
"Yes! Right there! Right in the square!" Payne was screaming at the pilot again.
"I can't…! We've got standing orders not to…"
"I don't give a damn what orders you've got! Put us down next to the HQ! I've got to get to the Colonel! Right now!"
"I can try to get him for you on the com…"
"I need to see him in person! Now land this crate!"
Ivan looked out and saw that they were over Milagres already. The pilot had certainly obeyed Payne's order to get them here fast. But he clearly wasn't happy about this order. Even so, he circled for a moment to kill his speed and then down they went—right into the town square.
"The only clear spot I can put it down will crush the front gate!" he shouted.
"Then crush it! I'll be responsible!"
"Okay! Here we go!"
The shuttle dropped and there was a crunch that was audible even above the turbines and inside the cabin. The machine settled, tilting slightly to one side. The door opened letting in the louder noise of the fading turbines and the growing noise of excited people all around. Payne was out the door like a shot, leaving Ivan with Paulo and Guppy. They looked at him in confusion and Ivan just shrugged and led them out at a more sedate pace. He looked back and confirmed that the ornate wrought iron gates had, indeed, been rather thoroughly crushed. A crowd of civilians was gathering, but the shuttle blocked the way inside the compound quite as completely as the gates once had.
People were rushing out the doors of the big headquarters building. Payne was already being ushered inside and another party swarmed around Ivan to pull him after her. He made sure Guppy and the boy weren't left behind. "Lord Vorpatril," said a lieutenant he didn't recognize, "you are to come to the situation room right away, sir."
"What about…?" he gestured to Paulo and Guppy. The man frowned and cringed back slightly at the sight of Guppy—Barrayaran aversion to mutants, of course.
"I don't know, sir, I wasn't told…"
"Guppy, do you want to go see Colonel Fetherbay?"
The man shook his head. "Hell no. I'm done here. The Admiral gets first shot at debriefing me—and I'm gonna have a few things to say to her! But I could use some water and food."
"Ivan Xav!" The cry of a familiar and longed-for voice spun him around and there was Tej. She flung herself into his arms and they clutched at each other and kissed a long kiss. "Oh, you're safe, you're safe, you're safe!" she gasped when they came up for air. He looked at her and smiled.
"'Course I am, 'course I am. I told you there was nothing to worry about."
"Oh, you! I'm never letting you out of my sight again!" She kissed him once more.
"Uh, Lord Vorpatril? The Colonel is waiting."
"Oh! Uh, Tej, love, could you look after Paulo, here, and Gu-Mr. Gupta? I need to go see Colonel Fetherbay."
"Ivan Xav…" Tej looked peeved.
"They could probably use some food. Please, love, the boy's had a hard time of it and you speak Portuguese and all and was the one who got me out of the cell I was in. You probably have a lot of things to talk about…"
"What? You mean like how I was the one that got him in there to get you out of that cell?" said Tej stepping back and putting her fists on her hips.
"Huh?"
"Oh, honestly!" she huffed. "Very well! Come along you two! My big, brave husband has to go and play with the soldiers!" She gathered up Paulo and Guppy and led them off.
"Shit," said Ivan. "What the hell did I miss?"
"Dunno, m'lord. I was starting to envy you there for a second… but please, follow me."
Ivan cast a backward glance at his wife and then followed. The situation room was in an uproar, but the lieutenant expertly threaded his way through the mob and delivered him to Fetherbay who was surrounded by his senior staff and talking with Payne.
"Is that thing operational, Lieutenant? If it isn't then we need to strike right now! Take it out before they are ready!"
"I don't know sir," replied Payne shaking her head. "It looked nearly complete when I saw it. They were still working on parts of it but the EnBee commander indicated it would be ready very soon and that was… sorry, sir, it was a few days ago at least, but I didn't have any way to keep track of the time."
"Sir," said Fetherbay's operations officer, "at the very least, we could ask the warships overhead to begin a bombardment. If the EnBees aren't ready we could raise havoc with them!"
"Yes. See to it at once, Major." Fetherbay nodded and then turned back to Payne. "Now what about the other forces you saw there? Brigade strength? Are you sure?" The expression on his face was skeptical.
"There were hundreds and hundreds of vehicles, Colonel," said Ivan coming up next to Payne. "We didn't have time to count them all, but there were a hell of a lot of them and a lot of troops moving around them."
"Mostly light mechanized, sir," added Payne. "I didn't see any heavy armor from where we were, although there could have been more forces that we didn't see. The base is enormous, sir."
"And right under our noses," muttered Fetherbay. "Vorsworth, in spite of my chewing you out, you sure as hell earned your salary this week." Ivan noticed Alby Vorsworth in the crowd of officers. The young man blushed and nodded and mumbled something.
"Sir, if we could hit the EnBees before they can deploy from their base we might be able to hurt them badly," said Payne. "I'm not sure where the exits are, but if we could bottle them up…"
"Sir! Colonel Fetherbay!" The shout made everyone jump. It was that major who Fetherbay had sent to contact the warships.
"What?" asked Fetherbay, turning to face him.
"The skipper of Impetuous is reporting that something is happening around the volcano! A class five force field has come on and they are getting massive energy readings!"
"Colonel!" exclaimed another officer. "Priority report from the 2nd Battalion recon troop! I'm putting it on the screen."
One of the big monitors came to life and it showed the cone of the volcano that Ivan had so recently escaped from. But wait… what was happening? One side of the cone was collapsing, bowing outward and sliding away! An enormous cloud of dust rolled down onto the surrounding plain.
"Damn. Get me a direct channel with Impetuous. Who's her skipper?"
"Commander Vorstein, sir. Just a moment."
Another display came on and an officer in a naval uniform appeared. Behind him could be seen part of a small warship's bridge. Impetuous was just a frigate if Ivan remembered correctly. Vorstein looked harried. "Colonel, just what the hell have you got down there?"
"I was hoping you could tell me that, Commander," replied Fetherbay. "There's an EnBee base and possibly a major asset. A, uh, mobile planetary defense center."
Vorstein went pale. "You're joking, aren't you Colonel?"
"I wish I was. Now, we're not certain if it is operational…"
"Incoming fire!" shouted someone off screen. Vorstein whirled about, but an instant later the image lurched, someone screamed: grav lance, and then the display went blank.
"Oh my God," whispered Fetherbay. "Get me the other frigate!"
They tried, but it was several minutes before they got a reply. Another officer appeared, a lieutenant commander by his tabs. He looked mad as hell. "What's happening?" asked Fetherbay.
"What's happening! What's happening! Impetuous just got blown out of the sky by a gravitic imploder lance! That's what happening! What hell were you thinking, bringing us into a death trap like that?" Ivan winced. The imploder lance was one of the nastiest weapons around. It created a massive gravitational shear which could shred a ship literally atom from atom and a small ship like a frigate had almost no defense against it except to stay out of sight or out of range.
"I'm sorry, commander, we didn't know. Is your ship still in danger?"
"We're around the horizon from it now—no thanks to you! But we're sure as hell not getting in sight of that thing again! Not in a frigate!"
"Colonel Fetherbay! 2nd Recon reports enemy forces are debouching from the volcano!"
"Sir! Priority call from BEF HQ! They want to talk to you immediately!"
Ivan was impressed that Fetherbay didn't explode. The man did take a deep breath and flex his shoulders, but then just said: "Major Danilov, order all units to fall back to the south of Hill 238. Withdraw all shuttles from the vicinity of the volcano, but keep eyes on it with drones. Stand by for new orders. I'll be in my office." He turned and walked away,
Ivan looked around, uncertain what to do next. His eyes fell on Anny Payne. She looked at him in distress.
"We were too late."
[Scene break]
Alby's eyes darted from one monitor to the next. Things were happening so fast! They had Anny back, but what sort of hornets' nest had they stuck their hand into to get her? Officers and orderlies were rushing around to carry out the Colonel's commands, but Alby didn't have anything he was supposed to be doing at the moment... Oops, that ended abruptly as Captain Hopkins grabbed him.
"Alby! See what information you can find on that… that mobile planetary defense center!"
"Right… right!" He headed for the nearest unoccupied comconsole, but paused in mid-stride and went over to Anny. She had slumped into a chair and someone had kindly given her a mug of coffee. "Hey there, girl, good to see you."
She smiled at him. "Hi Alby, good to see you, too. I gather that you had something to do with getting us out of there?"
"A little."
"Well, thanks. But we've still got a hell of a mess to deal with. Can… can you get word to Jer that I'm okay?" She glanced up at one of the big tactical displays. A huge swarm of red dots was appearing around the volcano. The blue icons representing friendly troops were becoming badly outnumbered. One of those blue icons represented Jer Naddel's platoon.
"He already knows, Anny. It was his guns that blasted through to you."
Her face lit up in a weary smile. "Really? That's my guy: always on target." She looked at the display again and her face grew serious. She stood up. "I've got to get back to my company."
"Anny, you need to rest…"
"Except for the last few hours, I've been doing nothing but rest for the last week. I'm fine."
"At least wait until the Colonel comes back. I'm sure he'll have orders for all of us."
That seemed to get through to her. "Yeah, okay. You're right. Any chance of getting a sandwich? I'm starved."
Alby grinned, grabbed a passing orderly, made damn sure the man actually went to get the sandwich, and then said so long to Anny and went to work on the comconsole. Mobile Planetary Defense Centers… never even heard of the damn things! Where to look for information…?
But he'd barely gotten started when Fetherbay returned and called everyone to attention. His face looked grim, but resolute. "Gentlemen," he said, "we've got our marching orders. The enemy has given us a nasty surprise—although not as nasty as it might have been, thanks to the efforts of some of our people. Nevertheless, this attack finds our forces badly out of position. The bulk of our fleet is four days away and most of the Alliance ground and air forces are also scattered all over the planet. It is our belief that the enemy intends to strike directly toward the capital of Araxa." He paused and looked over the assembled officers.
"Right now, the only thing standing in their way is the Sixty-First." A chill went down Alby's spine. One regiment against a brigade? And against that MPDC-thingy? "General Vordanov has ordered us to fight a delaying action to buy as much time as possible. Our mission is to prevent the enemy from reaching Araxa. Reinforcements will be sent to us as quickly as possible, but for at least the first few hours of the battle, we will be on our own. I will be asking each man to do his utmost. I know that I can count on all of you to uphold the honor of the Regiment and the Empire." He paused and looked them over. "As I said, each man will be needed, including all of us. Regimental Headquarters will take the field with the men we have the honor to command. Gentlemen… armor up!"
A sort of low growl spread through the room. Several men pumped their fists and shouted. Others started to move. My armor, where the hell's my armor…? Alby hadn't had his armor on in months. Where… oh yes, they had converted the grandee's carriage house behind the mansion into an armory. His suit was there. He got up from his chair.
Fetherbay was turning away, but Anny jumped up and got his attention. "Permission to rejoin my company, sir?" she asked. The Colonel seemed to hesitate, but Anny persisted. "Please, sir, you're going to need every hand for this—and my men need me."
Finally, Fetherbay nodded. "Very well. Carry on, Lieutenant. Good luck… and thank you." Anny saluted and hurried away, sparing Alby just a smile and a nod and then she was gone.
A chill went through him as the thought that he might never see her again took shape in his brain. Damn…
"Come on, Alby, armor up!" A hand slapped his shoulder and he saw that it was Hopkins. The man wore a grin on his face and seemed excited. What the hell was he smiling for? Doesn't he realize what's going to happen? No, he probably didn't. An awful lot of the regimental staff had no direct combat experience. The nightmare on Dounby had cured Alby of all desire for further military glory, but many of his fellows had been itching to get out with the line companies. They'll get their chance today!
He followed the crowd out the rear door and into the armory. The rows of battle armor stood in their racks like sentinels. He found his own suit, peeled off his uniform and underclothes and stuffed them into the small locker next to the armor. He took out the skin-tight undersuit from that same locker and squirmed his way into it. Then he placed his hand flat against the ID pad on the suit and after a moment it identified him and the rear opened up so he could get in. He climbed up and then slid himself, feet first, into the armored enclosure. He struggled for a moment with the plumbing connection, but got it done and then quickly ran through the pre-operation checklist. Satisfied that everything was functioning, he activated the neural interface and became one with his armor. The rear panels closed up and he stepped backwards out of the storage rack.
Most of the others were already gone and he followed them back to the main HQ building. A crowd had formed in the open area behind the structure. Several lift trucks were parked there and enlisted men were carrying armloads of computers and other articles out of the building and packing them into the vehicles. With a shock Alby realized that they were evacuating. Yeah… yeah, if this turned out as bad as it looked, the town might well get overrun. Fetherbay emerged from a rear door, in his own armor, giving orders right and left. The staff gathered around him.
"Gentlemen," he said, "we'll be moving to join the rest of the regiment shortly. While it's technically possible for us to direct things from here, this battle will be led from the front. The quartermaster section will oversee the removal of any vital materials from headquarters; the provost will maintain order in the town and see to the evacuation of any critical civilian personnel." He paused as the Regimental Sergeant Major, a grizzled veteran names Astin, emerged from the HQ carrying a long, thin object wrapped in a cloth cover. He was headed for one of the lift vans.
"Sergeant Major!" said Fetherbay.
"Sir?" Astin halted.
"Don't put that with the rest, Sergeant Major; we'll be needing that today."
"Sir?" With the visor of his armor open, Alby could clearly see the confusion on the man's face.
"Uncase the colors."
The man's armored heels clanged together and the look of confusion became one of incredible pride. "Sir!" he shouted. He tore off the cloth wrapping and shook out the folds of the regimental colors. The blue and gold and red shone in the bright sunlight. He hoisted it high and Alby sucked in his breath. Carrying the colors into battle… that hadn't been done for a century or more.
But yes, if ever there was time for it…
[Scene Break]
Anny leapt from the scout flier she'd commandeered to get back to her camp. The place looked deserted although the security fences were still active. The pilot of the flyer called something after her, but she didn't catch it above the howl of the turbines. The howl took on a higher pitch and she knew the flyer was leaving. She didn't look back. It didn't matter: an armored trooper couldn't fit inside the thing anyway.
And she was desperate to become an armored trooper again!
She sprinted to the armory and sighed in relief when it accepted her palm print and let her in. All during the short trip here she'd worried that some idiot had taken her off the authorized list just because she'd been captured. But she was in, and her armor was standing there all alone. No, there was one more suit all the way down at the end—who did that belong to? She had no time to puzzle over that! She stripped off the stealth suit she'd still been wearing and pulled out the undersuit for the armor. A startled exclamation made her spin around.
"Who the hell is… oh shit! Lieutenant Payne!" Standing in the doorway of the armory was Sergeant Mikail Wood. The man was leaning on a crutch and his face was bright crimson. "Sorry sir!" Anny realized that she was stark naked and she held the undersuit up in front of her, more for Wood's sake than her own modesty. "You… you're back!" he cried, embarrassment turning to joy.
"Yeah, managed to get away a few hours ago. But what are you… did they leave you to watch things here in camp?"
Wood's face fell. The man had lost a leg in action months before, and his newly grown replacement had only been surgically attached a few weeks ago. He was only fit for light duty. "Yeah, the Captain said… but hey, I don't suppose you could order me to come along, could you, Lieutenant?" Anny hesitated. Technically there was absolutely no reason Wood couldn't operate his battle armor at full effectiveness. It wasn't like the old suits, where the wearer had to actually move his arms and legs to make the suit respond. With the neural interface it all happened in the user's brain and it didn't really matter if he even had arms or legs. Wood was obviously eager to go, but someone ought to stay and watch over things…
"Please, Lieutenant, don't leave me behind! From what I hear, the boys are in for a helluva fight! Don't leave me behind!"
Anny had nearly been left behind once. She remembered how much it had hurt. And we're going to need every man today!
"To hell with the camp. Armor up, Sergeant."
The man gave a whoop and limped past her to get to his suit. She put on her undersuit, hoisted herself into her armor and did the pre-check in record time. The instant she made the neural connection she called up the tactical display and breathed a small sigh of relief. The Regiment wasn't engaged yet. They had successfully pulled back behind a ridgeline as Fetherbay had ordered, and put it between themselves and the EnBee forces disgorging from the volcano. She still had time to get back to her platoon. She stepped out of the rack…
"Lieutenant? Lieutenant, can you help me?" She looked down the room and saw Sergeant Wood leaning against his armor. She trotted over to him and saw that while he'd managed to get his undersuit on, the climb up into his armor was proving impossible with his leg. The man's face was pale with pain and dripping with sweat.
"You sure you want to do this, Mikail?"
"Just… just help me into this damn thing and I'll be fine, sir."
"Okay, here we go." She carefully gripped him between her gauntlets and lifted him up and slid him into the suit. He had no more trouble after that, and was soon up and running. Anny retrieved her war hammer from its holder while Wood grabbed his own close-combat weapon, a mono-molecular-edged battle axe. Both of them might prove very useful against lightly armored vehicles. They trotted back out into the compound.
"So how d'you want to catch up with the company, Lieutenant? They look to be about twenty klicks off to the northwest. I guess we could just run if we have to."
"That would take half-an-hour," replied Anny. "I don't think we're going to have that long. Let's see if we can hitch a ride with someone." While she had been waiting for Wood to finish with his armor, she'd been studying the tactical display. The Regiment had nearly completed its assembly, but there were still a few shuttles bringing men and equipment up from the rear. She spotted one just lifting off from Milagres and linked her com to the pilot. "Shuttle MV61-42, request pick-up from camp 1C. This is an emergency request, over."
"Negative," came the reply, "we are transporting medical personnel to the forward treatment area. Priority flight."
"Identify yourself, pilot," snapped Anny.
"Uh, Flight Officer Malikov." Good, she outranked him as she'd expected.
"Well, Flight Officer Malikov, this is Lieutenant Payne and you will pick us up! Colonel Fetherbay's direct order," she lied boldly.
There was short pause and then: "Uh, okay, Lieutenant. Got your beacon. ETA one minute."
Wood grinned at her. "Nice move, sir."
"You just have to know how to reason with them, Sergeant."
As promised, the shuttle set down just about a minute later and they piled aboard and were airborne in seconds. Piled, was the proper word, too. The shuttle was already packed with medical gear and Anny and Wood found themselves perched awkwardly on top of some of it. Cryo-pods Anny grimly realized. A half-dozen medics looked at them curiously. They were all male, of course; despite Anny's example, women in the medical services were still restricted to the rear areas. There might not be any rear areas today. I hope Chris is okay.
"We'll be landing in 90 seconds," announced the pilot. "They just declared the whole forward area is now an air defense threat zone, so we'll be coming in low and hot! Hang on everyone!" Anny checked her tactical display and saw that the enemy MPDC had now emerged from its hiding place. Swarms of smaller vehicles surrounded it. Any flyer in their line of sight would blasted from the sky in moments. There was still a small safe zone where the regiment was assembling due to the intervening ridge, but that was going to disappear very soon. There would be no air support for this fight.
The shuttle banked sharply and then settled abruptly. It grounded with a thud and the doors swung open. Anny and Wood leapt out.
"C Company is over that way! Let's go!"
[Scene Break]
Tej had mostly gotten over her anger at being relegated to a hostess by the time Ivan Xav rejoined her. She'd managed to get food and drink for Russo Gupta and the boy, Paulo, and she'd found that she was surprisingly hungry and eaten a sandwich, herself. The sight of her husband made the rest of the anger melt away. He was safe! He was back! But they were going to have words later. The independence and drive she'd found in herself during the emergency was not just going to disappear again. From now on, she was going to be a member of the team with Ivan Xav, not just an accessory to him! She thought about how her mother and grandmother handled themselves. She was going to have to have a talk with them, too—to get some pointers.
"So what's happening?" she asked. Shortly after they'd gotten their food, all the Barrayaran personnel in the mess facility had hurried away and vanished, leaving the three of them alone in the dining room. She'd heard shouts and noises in the distance.
"Looks like a major battle is shaping up. Colonel Fetherbay has ordered us out of here. The town might be right in the path of the EnBee attack." He looked around at the deserted room. "Come on, we need to get out of here."
They got up and followed him through a long hallway to the back of the building. The noise got louder as they neared the door and several armored troopers thundered down the steps from an upper floor, their arms filled with boxes. The open area behind the building was swarming with soldiers and vehicles. They threaded their way through the crowd, Tej holding on to the boy's hand. "Where are we going?" he demanded. Tej didn't answer. It was easy to find the colonel with all the men around him taking orders, but somewhat harder to get his attention. But the crowd was dispersing as the men were set off to their tasks. Finally, Fetherbay noticed them.
"Ah, Lord Vorpatril, Lady Vorpatril" he said. "We'll be getting you out of here shortly. You can board that flyer, over there," He pointed at a sleek air vehicle parked off to one side.
"Thank you, Colonel," said Ivan Xav. "And good luck." Fetherbay just nodded. They headed toward the flyer, but Paulo suddenly held back.
"Where are we going?"
"Uh, somewhere safe," said Tej.
"Off the island?"
"I expect so. There's going to be a battle and it might be dangerous to stay."
"But what about my mama? My sister?" The boy's eyes had grown very wide.
"Oh dear…" Had anyone even thought to inform the kid's family that he had been rescued?
"What's wrong?" asked Ivan Xav. The boy knew some English, but they'd both been talking in Portuguese.
"He's worried about his family. Can we possibly take them, too?"
"You've got to be kidding!" cried Gupta.
"Hell, I'd forgotten about them. They were nearly all he talked about while we were prisoners." Ivan Xav looked around and then reversed course and took them back to the colonel. The man looked at them in surprise, with a trace of annoyance.
"My lord?"
"Sorry, Colonel, the boy's family, can we evacuate them, too?"
"Lord Vorpatril, there's no time. Can't you just let the boy go home?" Fetherbay was clearly exasperated.
"Turn him loose in the middle of a battle?" cried Tej. "We can't do that!"
"I won't go without Mama and Sis!" exclaimed Paulo.
"Colonel," said Ivan Xav firmly, "without Paulo's help we never would have gotten out of that base. The Empire owes a debt of honor to the boy."
Fetherbay's face was turning red, but he snarled: "All right!" He looked around and then shouted: "Vorsworth! Benin!" Two armored troopers trotted up. One was Alby Vorsworth, but Tej didn't know the other one, a young officer who, to her considerable surprise, wore a Cetagandan sigil on one cheek. What was a Cetagandan doing with a Barrayaran unit?
"Sir?" they both said.
"Gentlemen, headquarters has placed a top priority on the evacuation of these civilians. However, two additional…" he stopped and turned to look at Ivan Xav. "Two? It is just two, correct? No aunts, uncles or third cousins?" Ivan looked at Tej and Tej looked at Paulo.
"Y-yeah, just my mama and sis; everyone else is gone."
"Just the two, sir," said Ivan Xav.
Fetherbay turned back to his officers. "There are two other civilians who need to be located and evacuated with the others. You will personally deliver them to BEF headquarters in Araxa. Understood?"
"What?" cried Vorsworth. "Sir, you can't…!"
"I have no time to argue! You have your orders, now carry them out!"
Both young men looked stricken. Were they so eager to fight? Fetherbay was turning away, but Vorsworth called out: "Can we rejoin once we've gotten them out, sir?"
"Yes. If you can."
[Scene Break]
Alby watched the Colonel walk away. He couldn't believe this. Left behind? I'm being left behind? He had no desire to fight, but to be left behind—sent away! Just to babysit some damn…
"Where are these civilians?" demanded Rad Benin. "We must act quickly." He looked just as pissed off as Alby, but for other reasons, no doubt: Rad had been nagging the Colonel to let him get into combat almost from the day they'd gotten here. Fetherbay, no doubt wary of getting an important Cetagandan killed, had refused.
"Right… right!" If they could get this done fast, maybe they could still get back in time. He looked at Vorpatril. "Where are they?"
The man shrugged in an infuriating fashion. "Beats me. Don't you have an address…? Paulo, where are your mother and sister?"
"At home," said the boy. "I can take you there."
"What's the street address?" demanded Alby. The boy provided it and he called it up on a map of the city. Good, not too far away. "Come on Rad, let's go get them." He started to turn…
"Wait!" cried Lady Vorpatril. "You're not just going go grab those poor people, are you?"
"What else?"
"You'll scare them out of their minds. Take Paulo with you!"
Alby frowned. "I don't know…"
"How will you even identify them?"
"Oh. Well, you've got a point there. Want to take a ride, kid?" Lady Vorpatril explained what they wanted to do and the kid agreed enthusiastically. Alby positioned his left arm to form a sort of saddle and locked it in place. The boy could sit there and wrap his arms partway around Alby's neck. He hoisted him aboard, checked that he was secure, activated his suit's anti-grav and thrusters and leaped out of the courtyard, Rad right behind him.
The boy squealed—first in alarm, and then in delight—as they soared over the square and landed on the rooftop of the library. Another leap and they were a block away. You could cover a lot of ground like this as long as no one was shooting at you. Trying to do this on a battlefield would draw so much fire it would be suicide. But here only speed mattered and in a short time they floated to a halt in the street outside a small apartment building. Startled civilians retreated a distance and then gawked.
"In here?" asked Alby, pointing. He'd activated the auto-translator in his armor and he hoped Paulo could understand. The boy gushed out some words which the translator interpreted as: Indeed yes, this is the abode of my mother and sibling.
"What room? How do we find them?"
In response, Paulo began to shout at the top of his lungs: Mama! Mama! Their sudden arrival had already started to draw a crowd and people were looking out windows, too. Within seconds an answering shout came from above. A woman was leaning halfway out her window and screaming at Paulo. Then she pulled back inside and just moments later she and a younger girl emerged from the front door. Paulo threw himself into her arms and they clutched each other and cried.
"Very well, we have located them," said Rad. "Now let's get them back to the flier."
"Uh, Paulo, we need to go,' said Alby. "Paulo? Paulo!" After several tries, he got the boy's attention and he started jabbering at his mother. The woman was completely distracted and didn't seem to be listening. Alby took a step forward and gently tapped her on the shoulder with an armored finger. The woman glanced at him and began gushing thank yous, but didn't seem to grasp what he was demanding. Engaging the translator, he pointed at Paulo, the woman and the girl and then in the direction of headquarters and said as forcefully as possible, that they all had to go. The woman looked bewildered and when Paulo confirmed the need to go, she looked fearful and then started backing away, holding her son and fumbling for her daughter with her free hand.
"We do not have time for this!" snapped Rad. "Take the children, I will take the woman."
"Rad…"
But the Cetagandan was already moving. He pulled Paulo out of his mother's grasp with irresistible strength and handed him to Alby. The woman started to scream, but Rad just slung her over his shoulder and bounded away. Shaking his head, Alby scooped up the shrieking girl and followed.
Except for all the screaming, the trip back went like the trip out. They hadn't been gone more than ten minutes, but the HQ was now virtually deserted. On his tactical display, he could see the icons for Fetherbay and the staff heading toward where the Regiment was gathered. But the flier was still waiting with the Vorpatrils.
"They don't really need two escorts," ventured Alby as he bounced down beside Rad.
"They don't need any escorts at all, but we have been given direct orders to provide one."
"One will do. Rad, why don't you take them…?" Benin glared at him. "Nobody's going to care if we both go!"
"Probably not. But as for who stays to rejoin the regiment… I will fight you for the honor, if you insist."
Alby sighed, knowing the challenge was only half in jest. "Okay, okay, we both go. Come on."
They deposited the civilians, willing and unwilling, into the flier. Paulo's mother and sister were still shrieking and Lady Vorpatril tried to calm them down. The pilot started yelling at them, too: "About time! The enemy is extending an air interdiction zone over the island and it's almost here! Another minute or two and we'd be walking to Araxa!"
Shit, if we'd just delayed a few more minutes…
But the flier lifted off and staying very low, streaked southward over the harbor and toward the mainland.
"The regiment has engaged," announced Rad.
Alby switched back to his tactical display. A mass of red icons was pouring over the ridge to where a line of blue ones awaited them. He managed to tie into a visual display being sent from a recon drone. The long crest of the ridge was erupting in flame and smoke. He clenched his fists. His friends were in battle, in danger! And here he was, heading in the opposite direction! Where was Anny? Had she gotten back to C Company? What about Jer? Did he know Anny was there, too? Patric? Sven? Would he see any of them again? Suddenly there were tears on his cheeks.
Both sides were putting out jamming now and the image from the drone began to break up as they got farther away.
The last thing Alby saw before he lost the signal was a tiny blue and red and gold rectangle advancing toward the flames.