KAT CAME AWAKE at first light to find Nikki curled up to her back. They’d walked far into the night before calling it quits. Sharing the one sleeping bag and several blankets, they’d gotten little rest between shivers. Kat kicked herself for her poor planning. She’d assumed they’d arrive after a comfortable blimp ride and fire off the box; she hadn’t really planned on roughing it. Even if she had, she reminded herself during the storms, they had dumped about everything over the blimp’s side. This whole thing was one desperate gamble, thrown together at a gallop. To think, she’d argued with Lek for the honor. But the old guy would never have survived a night on the cold ground; best this one was left to the young.
Leaving the box out in the sun to warm, they inventoried what food the mechs had crammed into their pockets before they jumped. Their flight suits had a lot of pockets. Still, they were going to be hungry if they didn’t get resupplied soon.
While the crew breakfasted on about one-sixth of their chow, Kat called in. “Colonel, it’s a bit colder up here than we planned and we’re kind of shy on food. Any consideration you might give to running another blimp up here would be gratefully appreciated.”
“I’d love to, Kat”—she could hear regret in the Colonel’s voice and knew what would come next—“but the weather’s not going to let us.”
“Looked that way from here, sir,” Kat said. “We’re ready to start. I figured we might hit the guy ruining our weather. Any changes in priorities?”
“Based on a visit I had last night with the Pres and Prov, target twelve was the right one. The Pres has lost his capacity to mess with our DNA. No matter what happens now, the species lives.” That drew a feeble cheer from Kat’s crew.
“Lek says Dancer would rework your priorities. Hit target nine—repeat, nine—to put the Weather Proctor out of business. The Prov is priority one through five. Take them out next. The Pres is the rest of the targets. Cut him up as you can.”
“I had a bad feeling about our priorities,” Kat growled, “when the DNA thing was last on the list. We’ll whale on the Provost today. The Pres tomorrow.”
“Good. One more thing.” The concern in the Colonel’s voice sent a cold shiver down Kat’s spine. “Our team blowing up rock outcroppings has developed rashes from nanos. We’re still looking into that. You’re not drilling holes, but you might want to stick to recently eroded areas. Streams and the like.”
“Thanks for the warning, Colonel. Now if you’ll excuse us, the box is warm. Let’s not keep the Weather Proctor waiting.”
Kat turned to her crew. “Shall we, folks?”
Jeff was exhausted, struggling to keep his head up as the sky lightened. They’d ridden or walked through the night. If Lil’s reader was right, the mule was over the next ridge.
Jeff paused there, to let his horse rest and Annie and Lil catch up. When he looked for the mule, it wasn’t there. There was lumps where it should have been. “What’s wrong?” Annie asked as Jeff’s stomach went into free fall. He pointed.
“Sweet Mother of God,” Annie breathed.
“Oh, shit, not Zed, not the boy!” Lil shouted, racing down the hill Jeff ran after her, threw her to the ground.
“We don’t know what’s down there. We’ve got to go slow.”
They did, once Annie brought the horses down. Halfway there, Jeff stopped. “One of us has to talk to the Colonel.” He handed his commlink to Annie. “You punch that button to talk.”
“What do you mean?”
“You’re staying a good quarter mile behind us,” he told her. “We’ll get close enough to see. We tell you, you tell him. No arguments now, Annie. You know I’m right.”
“Why me?”
“Because I say so. Right, Lil?”
“Sometimes you listen to a guy, honey.”
Lil and Jeff stepped off, leaving the horses with Annie. “What do you think happened?” Jeff whispered when they were far enough away from Annie.
“The nanos got ’em. That Provost bastard is a fast learner.”
“You feeling any itching, any rash from last night?”
“No. I wish to hell I’d thought about that idea sooner. I should have started thinking when Zed first said he itched,” she said bitterly. As they got closer, they saw that the ceramic and cloth portions of the mule were untouched. Anything that had metal in it was gone.
“I don’t see any bodies,” Jeff called. “There’s not enough metal in us that the nanos would have taken everything.”
Lil pointed to a stream. A hank of hair covered a shrunken skull. “That’s Zed. I guess he tried to wash them off.”
They edged around the mule. The trailer looked unharmed. Harry and Ned must have pushed it away from the mule, away from themselves before the nanos could attack it. Where were they? Run off when the agony drove them crazy with the pain? Jeff searched the early twilight but saw nothing.
“Jeff, you wait here.” Lil stepped gingerly to the back of the trailer, pulled the tarp up. “Yeah, gear’s here.” She tapped her commlink, told Annie to come in but keep her distance. “The nanos have tried us humans’ metal. Let’s see that they don’t develop a taste for us. Me, I like being at the top of the food chain.”
Jeff retrieved his commlink from Annie, keeping her from getting too close. Since Lil didn’t seem to think it was a private’s job to bring the Colonel bad news first thing in the morning, Jeff made the call.
“You sure it’s nanos?” the Colonel asked.
“No, sir. None of us is qualified to made a professional assessment on something no one’s ever seen. And I ain’t got any special test gear, sir,” Jeff snapped. Tired, he knew he was losing his temper. Damn, what did the man expect?
There was silence on the net. “I’m sorry,” the Colonel gently said as he began again. “I know Ned and Harry were good friends of yours. Last night I thought I had the two computers fighting each other,” the Colonel sighed. “Guess they were able to pull off a few other things as well. The box is working up North, but that’s about all that went right with that task force. The blimp crashed, and they lost most of their supplies. Kat’s doing what she can.”
“Sorry, sir.” Jeff felt chagrined fussing at a man who was carrying them all. He found himself trying to cheer the colonel up. “Harry and Ned shoved the trailer away from the mule before they died. We’ve got explosives and batteries to keep the drills going. If you’ve got more targets, we’ll do ’em,” Jeff offered without thinking and with immediate regret.
“None at the moment. Stay clear of the nanos.”
Jeff heartily agreed with that sentiment. Then he remembered. “Sir, Lil came up with an idea last night that let us take out our last hill without getting bit.” Jeff quickly explained. “Those computers aren’t the only ones that can adjust.”
“Outstanding. Lil’s one tough trooper, tell her that for me. I’ll get back when I’ve got a target for you.”
Jeff passed the word to Lil; she smiled weakly at the praise. They packed the horses with the remaining explosives and batteries. Jeff slung a laser drill over one shoulder, his rifle over the other. “Shall we head for the base?”
“Retreat, hell,” Lil spat. “I’m just getting started. If they need us, it ain’t back there.” She turned to face the east. “The enemy’s that way. I got a score to settle for Zed. But you two, you can go on back.”
Jeff shivered. Scared, really scared for the first time. The thought of Ned and Harry reduced to husks somewhere out there haunted him. All yesterday’s excitement and courage was down the toilet. He eyed Annie without looking her in the face, wanting to take her home, ashamed to let Lil tackle the computer alone. Annie looked in both directions, then took one horse from Lil and headed east. With a shiver of fear, Jeff followed them.
Five minutes later, the morning break in the weather ended, slamming wind and rain in their faces.
Ray didn’t bother with a staff meeting. Mary was living on the wall; he went there. They found a quiet place out of the way of the troops for their talk.
“How bad is it?” was Mary’s opener.
“The good news is our DNA is safe, but the damn computer has developed a taste for us,” Ray answered, then filled her in.
Mary listened to the list of casualties: Rhynia, whom she’d brought in, Zed, Harry, Ned. The woman who’d gleefully run the mines and the base flicked painfully in her eyes before the cold face of the line animal who held the pass against Ray settled into the seams of her mouth, the squint of her eyes. “The Pres and Provo are still fighting between themselves. That’s good,” the marine officer muttered. “Do I get this right? The Dean told us the highest-priority target was number twelve, not number one. Dancer set us right.”
“You got it.”
“Damn! The Dean lied to us.”
“My feelings exactly. Dancer and Lek are turning into quite a team. At least we can trust one computer.”
“You sure they ain’t human, Colonel? Or does stabbing folks in the back just automatically come with intelligence, artificial or otherwise?”
Ray shrugged at that question. “Lek and Dancer are looking into that nano thing Jeff reported. When the Provost goes down, I don’t want that data in the victor’s hands, files, whatever.” Mary nodded, eyes on the wall, its patrols. “You need any help out here?” Ray asked. “I’m counting on you to keep them off my back when I play my last card.”
“We’ll hold them, sir. Just hold my hand when it’s all over if I had to give the order to slaughter civilians.”
Ray had no good response to that. “They haven’t tried to come over the wall so far. Maybe they won’t. I think today, tonight, tomorrow will decide it for us. If we haven’t done it by then, I don’t know what will happen.”
The day passed quickly for Kat. Shoot and scoot, shoot and scoot. That was the way the artillery did it. That was the way she did it. ’Course, it would be a lot easier to scoot if she had some nice rig to drive, like the artillery pukes did.
The copilot hacked down a sapling; they slung the box from it and kept it in the sun, taking turns lugging the thing. The tough part was staying to riverbeds. Most were dry and sandy. Kat had spent some fun time at the beach; running through the sand was fun if you had a cute guy chasing you. Walking through it hour after hour left even good ankles aching and did nothing for a sprain.
Then, of course, there was the change in the weather.
Kat checked the feed from the weather satellites every time they lit off the box. By noon it was clear the high around these mountains was breaking up. What that would do to the line of hurricanes out there was a coin toss. Fifty-fifty chance any one of them would turn right and head for their hills. There were a lot of things about this job they didn’t tell her when she was fighting to get it. Probably things they hadn’t thought about themselves. Well, girl, you wanted excitement.
They plodded up the riverbed, putting one foot down after another. It reminded her of a movie she’d seen, an old war holo dragged out as they went through the countdown to the last war. Some old Earth fighting group. They had a motto: “March or Die.”
Kat marched. And remembered why she joined the navy.
The hurricane was in full blow, only slightly weakened by Jeff and company being a hundred miles inland. The three of them tried to stay to high ground, working their way along ridges, but you had to come down from one to get to another. By common consent they were heading south, toward the railroad bed that aimed straight at the starbase. When the Pres moved against the Colonel, a lot of the computer would take the direct path.
They planned on making a mess of that path.
Mary climbed to the roof of the factory. Half of Du’s squad was camped here, the other half on the hangar. Du had pitched a tent up here; kids brought them their meals. Du saved his team a lot of running around. He also had five sharpshooters up there twenty-four hours a day. Sneaky son of a bitch.
On the roof, a single marine stood guard, walking the roof, huddled in her poncho. Mary found the other four flaked out in the tent. She nudged Du. He came awake, grabbing for his rifle. Like the others, he was sleeping with his weapon.
“Oh, just you,” Du said, fully awake.
“You get any sleep?”
“A little. What’s up?” Mary filled him in on the reports from Kat and Jeff. “You pick a fight with computers, you can’t expect them to stay dumb,” was all Du had to say when she was done. “Sorry about Zed, Harry, Ned. I kind of liked ’em.”
In reflective silence, the two walked to a corner. From there, they had a good view of the wall and the crowd outside. “We’re picking up a rumor from outside that they expect us to open up, take them all in. Have a feast waiting for them.”
“Are we.” Du almost made it a question.
“You saw the size of the meals we’re getting. There’s no way we can. Don’t you think I would if I could?”
Du rested a hand on Mary’s shoulder. “Not easy, is it?”
“Damn it, Du, you and I, we’ve been on the outside looking in. Wishing for a chance and getting shit. I look out there and I see me. How can I shoot them?”
“Because, when they come at us, Mary, they won’t look at all like us. They’ll be enraged and crazy, and it’ll be all we can do to keep from hating them.”
“If only I could figure out a way to keep ’em quiet.”
Du rubbed his chin. He was past due for a shave. But the Colonel wasn’t likely to come up here. “Has anyone told them we wiped out the weather what’s-it? You got a reader handy? What’s the forecast look like?”
Mary pulled one from her pants pocket, opened it. The sixteen hundred update was just coming on line. The high up North that had been aiming the weather at them like a rifle was breaking up. Part was being sucked down behind the storm that was dumping weather on them now. Hurricane two was edging to the south while still offshore. Number three was headed north. Four was stalled. “We got to get this news outside the fence pronto,” Mary said. “The old priest, he’ll know how.”
Mary headed down the stairs like a falling angel. Kat did it! She’d scrambled the weather. Now, as soon as they got a blimp repressurized, they could get help to Kat. Mary paused at a landing. No, they couldn’t. No blimp for Kat while she’s in a hurricane herself. Still, things were changing. Mary picked up steam again on the stairs. Things were changing.
She found the padre leaving Ray’s conference room. “Father, have you seen the new weather forecast?” She didn’t wait for an answer, just jammed her reader under his nose. “They’re breaking up. It looks like Refuge and Richland won’t be underwater.”
“That’s good. I guess I can tell people they can go home.”
The priest was not reacting quite the way Mary expected. “Something wrong?”
“Talk to your Colonel,” he answered and slipped away.
Mary entered the conference room. Ray had his computer allies arrayed around the map. “So, the Provost is history,” Ray observed dryly. “You don’t look like you’re celebrating.”
“The Pres is not, ah…” The Dean sputtered to a halt.
“Not talking to you,” Ray finished for him.
“Not one peep,” Dancer put in irreverently. “And it’s not like they haven’t been trying, is it, boys and girls?”
The computer images stuffed their hands in their pockets and didn’t look Ray in the eye. He tapped his commlink. “Kat, the Provost is down, much thanks to you. Have you got a shot left to take before sunset?”
“About fifteen minutes from now, sir.”
“What’d hurt the Pres most?” Ray asked the Dean.
The Dean fidgeted. “It appears you are aware some of our information was not as accurate as it could have been.”
“Bloody damn lies,” Dancer spat in pure Lek rhythm.
Ray looked hard at the Dean, letting him hang. “No, it wasn’t,” Ray said finally. “Why?”
The Dean glanced at his associates; Dancer gave him the finger. The Dean turned back to Ray. “The memory impressing system shared a location with much of our—we twelve’s—extended data storage. When it vanished, so did much of our unique recollections. I know we should have had them in other locations, but, over time, many were lost and we didn’t bother making other arrangements.”
“You’ve been lazy for a million years,” Ray offered.
“Too true,” the Dean agreed.
“What node on the mainland can we vanish that would most hurt the Pres? I don’t care what’s near it, with it. I need to hurt the President bad in the next fifteen minutes.”
The eleven went into a huddle. One held back for a moment. “Why don’t you just ask him?” Net Dancer bowed sardonically at the recognition.
“Because I think you still want to ally with us. But I need some evidence of that,” Ray said. “I’m still waiting.”
The eleven huddled for a long five minutes. When the Dean came forward, he highlighted a mountain. “It’s your target number nine. It contains a major processing center as well as data storage and energy. He’ll need it to acquire the Provost’s existing assets. You destroy it, you’ll keep him from getting any advantages from his victory and slow down his ability to correlate present happenings with alternate options.”
“Dancer?” Ray said.
“A judgment call. Depends on how much you don’t want him integrating the Prov verses generating new ideas.”
“Thanks for the clarification, Dancer. I’ll go with their choice. Kat, hit target nine.”
“Nine, you say. Wait one.” Kat was back in fifteen seconds. “Got the beggar. Pardon me, boss, but we got to beat feet.”
“Your team’s done good, Kat. You’ve had to be predictable today. Do something surprising tonight.”
“Plan to, Colonel. I’ll call in when the sun’s up tomorrow.”
Ray punched off; he eyed the images. “You know the Pres wants to return to the good old days. One computer intellect.”
“We do now,” the Dean agreed. “We thought we could settle this, find a compromise. Guess not.”
“Definitely not.” Ray let that sink in.
“If we want to keep being who we are, we have no choice.”
“It’s so nice to see such enthusiasm, Dean,” Ray rumbled. “Now, concentrate on your defensive line. Let me know when the Pres starts probing you. I’ll call you back in an hour.” They left. Dancer stayed.
“What are you and Lek up to?” Ray asked.
“I want to see what the big boy is doing about salvaging the Prov’s carcase. I know about the guys you lost to the nanos. I’m looking at chasing that line, making sure the Pres don’t.”
“I’d appreciate that. Machines eating humans, humans eating machines leave a bad impression in a lot of minds.”
The Dancer actually chuckled. “I’ll be inside the Pres’s matrix for a while, so I’d appreciate it if you’d let Lek know before Jeff starts cutting lines.” And he vanished quite away.
“I will,” Ray said, then glanced up. “Mary, sorry to be ignoring you. What’s up?”
“We’ve got a definite change in the weather.”
Ray studied her reader. “Good for us. Bad for Kat.”
“I ran into the padre on the way in. I suggested he pass the word to the outside. He seemed a bit upset.”
“He came to thank me for opening the base to everyone. I told him it was a false rumor. He understood, but didn’t want to think about the level of force I’ll use if we have to make a last stand.” Ray put down the reader, stared out the window, went on, half to himself. “The Pres won’t call it quits while he can move an electron. He’s gonna be screaming in every mind he can connect to, trying to pump people full of images, run them around like puppets. There’s no telling what folks will do.”
“Maybe people who listen to the padre will be far enough away when the trouble starts.”
“We can hope, Mary, but we better get things down tight tonight. Very tight.”
Mary saluted, swallowed hard, and went to obey.
Du stood, one leg on the ledge of the factory, watching the gray day fade into a very dark night. The rain still fell in sheets, though the wind was dropping. The temperature was rising; night might be warmer than the day. Crazy weather.
He had a sharpshooter at each corner, the fifth marine taking a break in the tent. Same on the hangar, five klicks away. The last hint of light disappeared from the western sky. “Okay, crew, listen up,” he said on the squad net. “If we’re gonna have trouble, the Colonel says it’ll be tonight.” That brought a few cheers on the net. “Let’s make one thing clear from the get-go. All squad weapons are locked. I repeat, locked. Arming bolts loose, safeties on.” A chorus of groans met that. “You will fire only after I give weapons release. To keep Heave happy, Captain Rodrigo also can give you weapons release.”
“Let’s hear it for us girls” came back for that.
“I want a personal acknowledgment from every one of you animals on that one.” He went down the squad, got a “Yes, Sergeant,” from all ten. “One last point: If things come apart tonight, the squad’s fallback position is the base hospital. The Colonel’s command post is there, for reasons he didn’t bother sharing with me. If we lose the perimeter and you get orders to fall back, head for the hospital. We do not let anyone who ain’t from Second Chance in that hospital. Understood?”
The “Yes, sirs” were more subdued this time. Nothing like the address of the last stand to take the wind out of a gunner’s cheer. “We didn’t come to this planet to start, nothing. We aren’t at war with these people. But I and the Colonel both expect we will finish anything these locals start. Understood?”
That got a rousing round of “Yes, sirs.” Du left it at that. He zoomed his night goggles to survey the wall. Mary was in front of him, covering the east and north half of the base. Cassie had the south and west corner under her supervision.
Du took a couple of deep breaths, to relax himself, to sample the night’s air. It was wet. But there was an undercurrent of something else. Open latrines. Humanity. Fear.
Du shook his head. It looked to be a long night.
Kat settled her team down well away from the nearest riverbed. She’d spotted this place late in the afternoon. A jumble of downed trees marked where the land had let go during a storm sometime in the recent past. The trees were big. It took them a good half hour, with Nikki bouncing in the lead, to work their way twenty meters back into the twisted and torn trunks. She finally found what she was looking for, a bit of open ground, that the slide had very definitely disturbed, with lots of trees around and over it. Let it rain; the big log overhead would keep them dry. They even found enough dry wood to start a fire with the torch in Kat’s survival kit.
“All the comforts of home,” the copilot crowed as they stretched out.
“Feels that way. We done good today, crew,” Kat said, mimicking how the Colonel or Matt would pat the middies on the head after a particularly good bit of problem-solving. “Let’s get a good night’s rest.”
“Only thing missing is a good cup of me ma’s soup,” Nikki muttered. This started a long competition between them as to what meal they would prepare over the fire. It was kind of hard to sleep when your stomach was rumbling.
Kat let them rave on, enjoying the imaginary cuisine. What the heck, she wasn’t all that sleepy either.
Jeff was exhausted, hungry, aching from every muscle he didn’t know he had, and desperately wanted to lie down for a quick nap of a month or two. They’d fed the horses the last of the oats Ned had packed for them. Humans and horses were on their last legs.
They crested a ridge; in the rainy gray it was hard to tell, but it looked like the railroad cut across the long valley ahead. Too much of the valley was underwater. They spent what was left of daylight taking the long ways around to the railbed. Beside him, Annie and Lil kept putting one foot down after another. Damn, it would be embarrassing to call it quits in front of them, the woman he loved and, he wasn’t quite sure what Lil was—the mother he’d hardly known? That was no idea to share with the marine. Under a spreading oak, Lil called a ten-minute break. Jeff collapsed, trying not to let the women see how blown he was.
“What do we do when we reach the rails?” Jeff asked.
“Plant demolition charges, rig a detonator, and walk the rails. I want to cut ’em several places at once. Let ’em fix one gap, only to find another. Introduce the computer to the world of human disappointment,” Lil chuckled hoarsely.
“You okay?” Jeff asked Annie.
“As good as you are,” she snapped.
“That bad,” he admitted, trying to make it a joke.
“Let’s get moving,” Lil ordered. “Rest too long and it only hurts worse to get moving.”
Ray eyed the contraption Lek and Dancer had put together in the clinic’s back room. Part radio, part computer, plenty of chunks of rock—both those Harry had sampled and the high rising stone from the cave where he and the kids had their final talk with the Gardener. Ray wondered if anything patched together from so many different levels of technology could work.
He’d find out soon enough.
The doc went from kid to kid, attaching leads to monitor their heart, brain, and anything else he thought important. Jerry would pull any kid out of the circle around the rock if he thought the child was in danger. Jerry finished with David and came over to Ray, more monitors in hand.
“You’re not pulling me off that rock. I come off when I’m done.”
“I know. I know. Still, I want to monitor what’s going on. Compare you and the kids. Okay?” Over the past year, Ray had been in servitude to the docs too many times to refuse one of their orders now. Besides, it took up time, time he could only spend waiting. The next move was up to the President.
Mary was back to prowling the wall. First she went halfway down the east wall, then back. Then halfway down the north wall, then back. The people were out there, milling around like cattle. Was it her imagination that there was something different in their tone tonight?
The padre joined her. Somehow he made it less a prowl and more like a quiet stroll. Then the little priest seemed to give everything the quiet, eternal permanence of his God. Mary found herself slowing, calming. “Many people listen when you told them the weather had changed?”
“Most hadn’t believed five hurricanes were headed here. They’re panicked over the crop failure.”
“Think you can get a crop in now?”
The priest shook his head slowly. “Maybe some. Maybe enough if we all pull together, tighten our belts like we did in the landers’ time. Our people are like that.”
Mary saw the rest of it hanging unsaid. “But folks aren’t acting like that right now. Not with the computer driving them half mad to start with.”
“I’m afraid so.”
Mary watched the crowd. Here and there, people moved quickly from person to person, saying something, moving on. “Something may be starting here in a little while. Best you leave it to us with war-blackened souls,” she said. “You’ll be needed with the families. They’re going to be terrified.”
The priest nodded agreement but didn’t turn to go. “God bless you, woman.”
“And you too, Father,” Mary answered, feeling an unfamiliar warmth at the words.
The padre raised his right hand, and his voice: “And by the grace of God, I absolve you all from all of your sins, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” As he made the sign of the cross, others on the wall did likewise.
Mary, who never claimed any faith, found herself following in the motions around her. The priest smiled as he finished. “I will see you in the morning.” To Mary’s raised eyebrow of doubt he added, “Here or in God’s heaven. It matters not which.”
Down the wall the sign flowed, as word passed that the little priest had given them his God’s absolution. Mary turned back to the crowd, wondering what it all meant.