Erik Mahler half-rose from behind the makeshift barricade securing the command post's doorway. He triggered a long blast from his autorifle, then glanced back at Melissa. "Are you hit?"
"No!"
Erik looked back as Melissa screamed and stabbed a finger at the doorway. An ISF ninja had leaped atop the barricade and now raised his katanato strike. Mahler fired at point-blank range even as the sword's blade chopped into his left shoulder. The retired Hauptmann reeled away to the right as his burst opened the ninja from navel to throat, blasting the lifeless body back over the barricade.
Another ninja, dressed in shadow and smelling of death, sprang over the barricade. He slammed the hilt of his sword into Mahler's
temple. The short, sharp blow dropped Mahler to the deck and left his moaning body in a slowly growing pool of blood. The ninja grunted with satisfaction, then turned his attention to Melissa.
He tilted his circlevision visor up and smiled with a mouth full of uneven teeth. "Ah, we find you here instead of on the Silver Eagle.That makes it so much more pleasing." He advanced and straddled her. Reaching for her long, golden hair, he smiled again. "I am so glad to meet you, Melissa Steiner. I bring you the greetings of our Coordinator."
Melissa twisted and rolled to her back. Her right hand surrounded the butt of the pistol she had not wanted to wear. She tipped the holster up and tightened her trigger-finger.
Fire and metal ate through the holster with volcanic fury. The first bullet slammed into the ninja's stomach and lifted him from his crouch. The next two shots lanced through his chest. He whirled away, seeming to brandish his katanaeven as his body met its death. The ninja sat abruptly against the glass wall overlooking the Silver Eagle.His katanaclattered to the ferrocrete beside him.
Trembling and tearful, Melissa stared at the man she had killed. The sharp scent of gunsmoke nearly masked the sticky-sweet odor of blood. Her left hand idly tried to brush blood from her sweat-soaked trousers. My God, I've killed a man.
Clovis's stinging slap across her face brought her back. "He's dead," the dwarf said grimly. "We aren't. Move it."
Shivering, Melissa looked up at him. He pointed a stubby finger at an open panel beneath the computer consoles where he worked. "Computer needs venting, Melissa, and we can escape through the tunnels. Let's go."
Melissa numbly crawled into the darkness. Clovis shoved two autorifles in after her, then—having shed his stilts—dropped to his knees and followed her into the passage. He swung around and pulled the panel shut behind them.
Melissa gave Clovis no conscious sign that she had heard his directions, but she crawled on in accordance with them. All this death and destruction because of me. Andrew and Captain von Breunig, dead because of me. Hilda Mahler is a widow because of me. The people in the fire teams—whose names I never learned—dead because of me. I haven't earned this sort of loyalty. Why?
Clovis grabbed Melissa's ankle and brought her to a stop. She turned back and looked at him. It took a moment, but she finally interpreted his wild gesturing. Together, they slid the panel above them aside.
Clovis jerked the pistol from her holster. Holding it unsteadily in his two tiny hands, the dwarf slowly stood and surveyed the room. Confident of no immediate danger, he tugged Melissa to her feet. "Clear, Archon. Don't forget the rifles."
Melissa whirled. "No. I've seen enough killing. I won't carry them."
Fury twisted the little of Clovis's face revealed in the half-light. "What in hell do you think is going on here? This isn't a holovid. This is a war!"
"Dammit, I know that." Melissa bit her lower lip to stop it from trembling, but the tremors merely transferred themselves to her whole body. Tears streaked through the dust that the short crawl had caked onto her face. "I know it's real, and I know Andrew will never be back." She turned from the dwarf. "I don't want more killing."
With more strength than Melissa could have imagined possible, Clovis gripped the shoulder of her shirt and turned her around. "I don't care what you want, and I'm fairly certain a bunch of mad Kuritans share my feelings. I'd grab the guns, but I can't even hold this damned pistol." He shook his head and looked with disgust at his stubby-fingered hands. "Great! The dream of a lifetime—-a dwarf at court. And I get stuck with a pampered princess who figures us peasants owe her their lives."
Melissa grabbed the front of Clovis's shirt in a deathgrip. "Don't ever say that! I don't deserve any of this!" She released him and covered her tear-streaked face with both hands. "Why must people die for me?"
She felt Clovis's hand on her shoulder again, but it did not pull her around. His voice became softer. "I forget. You're just a kid. Listen, the reason we're fighting, the reason von Breunig and Redburn and the others died for you is not because of what you are. Nobody, outside of fairy tales, puts his life on the line for blond locks and long legs. That's not why we're fighting."
Melissa's hands fell from her face. She turned back and looked into Clovis's brown eyes. "Why, then? Why are you fighting?"
The dwarf shrugged. "We're fighting for the future. Everyone has to hope, somehow, that his life will change things for the better. Granted that the Kuritans view that a lot differently than we do, but those ninjas and the 'Mechs coming in want to change things, too.
"You represent the future. We're not fighting for, over, or about you, really. We're fighting so that our vision of the future, of which you are a part, will win out over their vision of the future. If you die here, lots of dreams will die with you."
Melissa glanced down at the guns lying on the tunnel floor. "But I don't know if I could shoot anyone ever again."
Clovis flipped her pistol around and offered it to her. "If you're not willing to fight for the future, who will be?" Clovis stared ahead while he spoke, as though gazing light years into the distance. "Besides, you and I have a duty to protect the Commonwealth. The Draconians are after us here, but it was someone inside the Commonwealth who arranged your kidnapping. We've got to get out of here to prevent them from gaining any benefit from this little bit of treachery."
Though tears streamed from her eyes and her face wore a stricken expression, Melissa reached down to pick up the autorifles. Standing aside slightly, she let the dwarf take the lead.
Clovis climbed from the hole and crossed to the doorway. Melissa followed. Cautiously, they crept from the room and worked their way down the hall. Traveling away from the command center, they quickly reached an engineering stairwell leading down to Echo level.
Clovis smiled. "As I remember it, Viscount Monahan used to berth his small boat back by the small docking bay. He used it to travel to some of the other asteroids that the company mined in this system. Unless the ISF ninjas have destroyed it, we can use the boat to hide on another of the asteroids."
Melissa nodded and made her way down the stairs. Then she covered Clovis as he worked his way down. Finally, at the bottom of the stairwell, Melissa checked the outside corridor, then signaled all-clear.
As she stepped from the doorway, all she caught was a slight blur of motion as a ninja clinging to the wall above the doorway dropped onto her. He encircled her neck with a thick arm and kicked her rifle away. Though she made to grab the pistol on her right hip, the commando numbed her arm with a chop from his right hand, then flipped her roughly against the wall. Stars exploded before Melissa's eyes as her head smacked into the ferro-crete. Through the flashing lights, she saw the ninja scissor his legs and spill Clovis to the ground. In one smooth motion, the ninja drew his katana.He raised it up beside his right ear, as Clovis raised one hand to ward off the coming blow.
"No!" she said sharply, with all the power and authority she could summon. "I am Melissa Steiner. Do not kill him." The ninja, used to taking orders, stiffened, then turned. He lowered the blade, then bowed deeply. "I am honored, Archon-Designate." He pointed back to the stairwell. "You will follow me to my Commander."