“Yeah,” agreed Lance. “We’ve all used up our luck. But if the HBs are about to land it’s all moot.”
“How do you figure they’re about to land?” asked Marten. “They shot us here as a gamble. Now is the moment to take over and run, but we don’t have the numbers to take over. So we gotta deal. Okay, it might be true the HBs are coming. That’s just another part of the percentages. After today, though, I don’t ever want to count on my luck. I’ve used it all up.”
“Kang?” asked Conway. “You’re officially in charge. What do you think?”
“The HBs put him in charge,” Vip said. “Marten is the one who got us here. If we’re leaving it doesn’t matter who the HBs selected.”
“Do what you want,” Kang told them. “But my vote is against it.”
Marten eyed the others. Most of them looked dubious, but they no longer seemed ready to grab their weapons and stop him. So he found a comlink and opened channels. “This is the leader of the shock troopers speaking,” he said. “I think it’s time the Bangladesh’s Captain and us talked.”
Nothing happened.
“It’s no good,” Kang said. “That’s just what I thought would happen.”
A few of the others shifted nervously.
Marten pressed the comlink again. “I’ll blow the engines unless you talk. We want to make a deal. So I suggest you don’t be stubborn and kill us all.” The seconds ticked by. Marten felt more nervous now than at any time during the battle. His armpits grew slick and his stomach churned.
“Listen up,” Kang said.
Just then, a voice spoke out of the comlink: “What kind of deal?”
19.
The command capsule was filled with arguments and loud noise. Finally, Admiral Sioux stood and shouted, “Quiet! I can’t talk to him if I can’t think.”
That settled down the officers. The First Gunner studied the others—several of them nodded encouragement—then he faced the Admiral and cleared his throat. Admiral Sioux waved him down as she re-opened the comlink.
“What kind of deal?” she asked.
“We want to go to the Jupiter System.”
Several of the officers nodded as if that made perfect sense.
“At least trick him,” whispered the Tracking Officer.
“Why do you want to go there?” asked Admiral Sioux.
“Why else?” said the enemy space marine. “We want to get out of this war.”
“Just a minute,” said Admiral Sioux. “I have to see what my chief officers think.” She switched his link onto standby and opened the comlink with the Security Chief. “You heard him. What do you think?”
“See if speaks for all of them,” said the Security Chief. “This bigger group is slaughtering our people, although the lower deck personnel are holding. Some of them are a lot tougher than I thought. If I can get all my Security teams together in one place, with a few of them circled around behind the bigger group, then we might still win. What I need, though, is time.”
“You’re suggesting we trick them?” asked the Admiral.
“Yes! Yes!” said the Security Chief. “All war is deception. We didn’t call up the Highborn and tell them we were going to beam their Sun Works Factory did we? Any subterfuge is allowed during war. By all means, trick them.”
Admiral Sioux reopened channels with Marten. “Do you speak for all of your troops?”
“Yes,” Marten said. “We’re all agreed to this.”
“I’ll need a few minutes to talk it over with my officers, to see if they can convince their people.”
“By all means,” Marten said. “But don’t take too long.”
Admiral Sioux switched channels to the Security Chief. “He agrees to a temporary truce while I consider it.”
“Perfect,” said the Security Chief. “I’ll pull back the lower deck personnel and regroup to a better defense position. All I need is about five minutes. Then we’ll have them.”
Admiral Sioux sat up, gazing at her officers. “It was all a matter of will,” she said. “Despite their training and effectiveness, the enemy’s spirit was lacking. That is why Social Unity will win in the end.”
Several officers nodded.
Encouraged, Admiral Sioux spoke some more, warming up to her theme. She finally ended with, “Now, we should lock up the weapons.”
“Your line is blinking,” said the First Gunner.
“Let the enemy wait,” said Admiral Sioux. “Let his uncertainty unnerve him.”
“No, the Security Chief is calling.”
Admiral Sioux saw that he was right and opened channels.
“It was a trick!” shouted the Security Chief. “I started pulling back the lower deck personnel and they hit us with everything at that exact minute.”
“But how could they have known what we planned?” shouted Admiral Sioux.
“They must have tapped our communications.”
Admiral Sioux slammed on the comlink to the space marine that she’d spoken with. “You lied to us!” she shouted.
“How have I lied?” He even managed to sound genuinely surprised.
“The others attacked when you said that you would give us several minutes to think it over,” said Admiral Sioux.
“What others?” he asked.
“The others on the A-deck!” she shouted.
“They are more shock troopers here?” she heard a different man say.
Admiral Sioux blinked, and then she bowed her head. It hit her then that this smaller group hadn’t known about the larger one. It seemed that the Bangladesh’s jamming was the one thing that had worked. What was that name the man had said: shock troopers?
“The deal’s off,” said this different man. He sounded brutal, speaking with a slum accent.
20.
“Why did you tell her that for?” shouted Marten.
The shock troopers crowded around the comlink.
Through his helmet’s faceplate peered Kang’s wide, emotionless face with its almost slit-shut eyes. “You heard her,” Kang said. “Others of us made it aboard the beamship. And I bet HBs are on their way here, almost aboard ship by now.”
Marten stubbornly shook his head.
Kang regarded the anxious shock troopers. “Think about that. The HBs are almost here and we’ve captured an important part of the ship. But once the HBs learn what Marten tried to do they’ll kill him for sure. And they’ll kill anybody who helped him.”
“This isn’t the time to lose your nerve,” Marten said.
“That’s right,” Kang said. “It’s time to make sure we keep the Highborn happy. Conway, Higgens, grab him!”
The shock troopers regarded Marten, who stepped back and lifted his arm with the attached laser-tube, although he didn’t directly aim it at anyone. “You can’t possibly know that the HBs are coming.”
The words worked like magic, but not in the way Marten wanted. Conway and Higgens suddenly lunged for him, trying to grab his arms. Marten jumped back and aimed the laser-tube at the nearest, Conway. “You’d better rethink that,” he said, already angry with himself for having stepped back the first time. He should have tried to bluff, but he hadn’t trusted Kang so near to him.
Lance, who had stepped to the side, now came up behind Marten and yanked back the arm. “We gotta put to this to a vote, Marten.”
“Let go!” shouted Marten.
Servomotors whined as their exoskeleton powered battlesuits wrestled.
“This isn’t personal!” shouted Lance. “I just don’t want to fry in some HB horror chamber.”
Marten noticed Conway and Higgens creeping closer. So he relaxed, letting Lance jerk back his arm. “Listen to me,” he said, with all the earnestness he could muster. He even twisted his head to peer at Lance, who frowned and then nodded, relaxing his hold. Marten shifted sharply, throwing Lance off balance. He then grabbed Lance by the shoulders and shoved him into Conway and Higgens. With a metallic CLANG, the three fell into a mechanical heap.