“Scores it,” she said, moving up to sapphire, the material of aliglass.
“Damn,” Master Sergeant Bartlett said. The claw hadn’t just scratched the sapphire, it had deeply gouged it.
“That’s bad,” Dr. Robertson said.
“Absolutely,” Bartlett said. “What is that stuff? I don’t know anything biological that is that strong!”
“Anything producible by machinery is producible by biology,” Dr. Robertson said. “Did you imagine the Dreen?”
“No,” Bartlett said. “But they also didn’t make anything that strong. Their armor was based on fibrous polymers like Kevlar. That’s high hardness refractory material, Doctor.”
“And what is it?” she asked quizzically. “I think we’re going to have to turn it over to engineering or bio to figure out. Tchar, perhaps.”
“If we can get a sample,” Bartlett said, picking up a diamond saw. It skittered over the surface of the material but didn’t penetrate. “It’s stronger than diamond.”
“Yes,” Dr. Robertson said. “We need to communicate that to the Marines immediately. And get this down to engineering to see if they have anything that can take a sample.”
“He’s the high priest of the local religion,” Miriam said. “Despite that fact, he started off by stating that both the secular authorities and religious agree that the Demons were not caused by our arrival. They believe that the Demons were sent to punish this city, and possibly this region, for various blasphemies. The most interesting one I thought was ‘rebellion against the crown.’ ”
“Divine right,” Weaver said, wincing. “We need to keep a close eye on that or we might tread on a nascent democratic revolution.”
“This appears to be a rebellion by some outer area lords,” Miriam said. “Over taxes.”
“Doesn’t sound like William Wallace to me, sir,” the first sergeant said.
“We need to know more about the religious aspect,” Captain MacDonald said. “The high priest represents the establishment. Is there a fundamentalist strain that is a security threat? We don’t need to be fighting demons on one side and Cheerick on the other.”
“I can’t ask that in open Court, Captain,” Miriam said, then began chittering.
“I told them that we’re glad that they have determined we are not the problem and that we wished to open relations with them on a friendly level.”
The high priest chittered for a while, then stopped, at which point the queen stood up and began speaking.
“Oh, no,” Miriam muttered as she finished.
“What?” Weaver asked.
“They’re more or less willing to open up to trade or whatever we want,” Miriam said. “Alliance, troops, supplies, you name it. But they want us to try to rid them of the scourge of the Demons.”
28
“Oh, hell no,” Captain Blankemeier said. “One ship. Twenty Marines. And that’s what’s left. Have you seen Dr. Robertson’s report?”
“No, sir,” Weaver said. “I haven’t downloaded recently.”
The humans had, quite reasonably from the queen’s perspective, asked for time to communicate with their commander. They’d been led to a room that appeared to be immune to eavesdropping for their colloquy. Miller and Top had checked it out and found two “sound holes” hidden behind tapestries. On the other hand, everyone in the group could subvocalize so they did.
“That Demon claw? It’s an advanced composite that’s going to cut through Wyvern armor. Not quite like butter, but it’s gonna cut it. Not to mention—”
“Steel, sir,” Bill said. “Damn. Sir, the point is, if we make a treaty of mutual respect and admiration then just leave, there’s not going to be a government to come back to.”
“And we’re unlikely to be able to stop that,” Captain MacDonald said. “Not with my Marines. I’ve seen the tapestry, Commander Weaver. That looks one hell of a lot like a Dreen wave, even if they’re not Dreen.”
“Sir, I’m arguing for reasons other than just knight errant, I assure you,” Commander Weaver said. “I think, though, that I need to express them in person.”
“Very well, Commander,” the captain said. “Tell the powers that be that their request is under consideration and return to the ship. Bring the first sergeant with you.”
“If I may, sir,” Captain MacDonald interjected. “I’m going to send a replacement team for Two Charlie from Third. They can bring supplies for Miss Moon and Chief Miller.”
“Any advance on the bio side, sir?” Miller asked. “Is any of this food safe to eat?”
“I don’t think Dr. Robertson has had time to check,” the CO said. “I’ll ask if there’s any way to advance that. In the meantime, stick with MREs, Chief Miller.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Commander Weaver,” the CO said. “When you get back here you’d better have a pretty compelling argument why I should risk the only starship the Alliance has on what looks to me like a forlorn hope. If not, we’re going to stay here no more than seventy-two hours, complete our survey and then head for Earth with the information.”
“Understood, sir.”
“Vorpal Blade, out.”
“And do you have a compelling argument, sir?” the first sergeant asked.
“I don’t know,” the commander admitted. “But I sure hope so.”
“Then remember what I said about negotiation,” Top replied, smiling. “It works with commanders, too, Commander.”
“You sound as if you want to stay and fight,” Commander Weaver said.
“Don’t have a dog in that fight, sir,” the first sergeant said.
“If anyone does, it’s the Marines,” Commander Weaver argued.
“If I worried about where I was going to be tomorrow, or whether being there was going to get me into a fight, or killed, I would have gotten out of this job a long time ago, sir,” Top said. “Stay or go, that’s a discussion for you and the CO and the Old Man, sir. Don’t care one way or the other. A Marine goes where ordered and faithfully performs his duties. That’s the whole point of the motto, sir.”
“Okay, now I’ve seen some weird maulk…” Runner said.
“Like armored crab octopuses?” Staff Sergeant Kristopher said. “Or are you talking about shipwrecking gravity waves? Or regions of space that cause up to be down and right to be up? Or maybe partially terraformed worlds? Layers of oil in gas giants?”
“All of that,” Runner said. “And it’s not exactly oil but… Oh, never mind. Damn, I wish Dr. Dean was here—”
“What is it?” Kristopher asked, walking over to the master sergeant’s station.
“Seismic activity,” Runner said, pointing. “Okay, P waves from a distant earthquake. Deep one, too. Surface quakes in mountain ranges, got that. Got some S waves coming from that mountain range east of here. This is probably that big-ass volcano we saw…
“But this is what’s getting me,” he continued, pointing at a series of small indicators and zooming in on them. “They’re pinpointed near that big rock. And they appear to be moving, slowly. They’re real faint, though.”
“What the grapp?” Kristopher said. “I’ve seen something like that before…”
“I’m glad you have, cause it’s got me stumped,” Runner said. “Where?”
“I cannot for the life of me remember,” Kristopher said. “I seem to remember being told to filter it out. But I can’t remember where or why. But it wasn’t any big deal, I remember that.”
“Oh, great,” Runner said. “On Earth it’s no big deal. Well, I’m going to kick it up to Dr. Beach.”