Conquest

-34-

When I brought a hundred and fifty marines cruising out of the trees into Fort Pierre, I saw a lot of scorch marks, but the walls were still largely intact. We were challenged as we came down in the landing pits and I identified myself and my unit. I handed the wounded off to medical teams and the able-bodied were sent to the walls. Sandra and I headed for the headquarters bunker, where I knew Lieutenant Colonel Barrera and Major Sarin were managing the battle. Kwon stumped along behind us.

When we reached the entrance, I turned to Kwon. “Why don’t you see if you can help out on the walls?” I suggested.

Kwon stepped from one size-eighteen foot the other twice before answering. “I’d rather follow you, sir,” he said.

I narrowed my eyes. It had to be the assassination thing. He and Sandra had both been like glue on my shoe since then. I sighed and told him to take a break and get some food inside the bunker. This seemed to mollify him.

I turned to Sandra next.

“Don’t even try to get rid of me,” she said.

I nodded. Knowing when you’re beaten is a critical attribute for any commander. I turned away and headed down to the command center. Sandra followed close behind. I didn’t make my play until we passed the mess hall.

“Getting something to eat sounds pretty good to me. Aren’t you hungry?”

“Yeah,” she said warily.

“Well, get in line and bring us both down a tray. We’re going to be watching this fight all night long. Bring coffee, too.”

Making an unhappy sound, she finally relented. We were only one level from the bottom floor, where the command center was located. What could happen?

I walked down the final ramp, feeling somewhat relieved. It was nice to be on my own for a minute or two, without any concerned citizens hovering over me. I walked into the command center and stepped up to the big central screen. Things had improved down here. Unlike the command center I’d co-opted from Crow, things were no longer built for style and magnificence. It was all about functionality under fire. Every wall was reinforced smart-metal. There were large screens on three of the surrounding walls, depicting different areas of the battle, which was in a lull right now.

The big machines had all chosen spots and parked themselves here and there. Lowering their hulls down to touch the ground in thickly forested regions, our guns couldn’t reach them. Crow’s ships might well spark a new phase when they arrived, but they hadn’t returned yet. They were taking the long way around Earth, to avoid the Macro fleet. They were going to come into orbit from the west and park themselves over Andros without ever offering a clear target to the enemy—or at least, that was the plan.

The subterranean assaults had ended for now. They’d managed to knock out all three of my central forts, but then the ant-like worker machines had gone back down into their deep tunnels. This did nothing to make me feel better. If anything, this lull was disturbing. The Macros were obviously planning something nasty—but what was it?

I was surprised to see the only member of my command staff present was Major Sarin. There was also a guard in the room—standard procedure during an attack. When I walked in, Jasmine flicked her gaze to me, held it there a second, then looked back down at her command table. She was busy counting enemy positions and coming up with force ratings as to their effectiveness. I saw the lowest measurement was over the Macro group close to Fort Pierre. They were down to a thirty-eight percent effectiveness rating, according to her calculations. The other enemy invasion groups were in the nineties.

“They are waiting for something, aren’t they sir?” she asked me.

I looked at the screens. “Clearly, the next phase of their assault plan has not yet begun.”

She kept tapping at the screen. I realized this was a rare moment. Jasmine and I were never alone together. Sandra or someone else was always present. I knew Sandra liked it that way. But it had never given me the opportunity to air a few thoughts that never seemed to stop bouncing around in my head. I’d never had any kind of closure with Jasmine. I’d kissed her that once, and had felt a rush of interest growing in both of us. But Sandra had slammed a lid down on all that nonsense, and had kept a close watch ever since. I didn’t mind that, having chosen to remain faithful to her. Some things, however, had been left unsaid.

I turned suddenly to the single guard in the room. “Staff Sergeant,” I said. “How long have you been on duty down here?”

“Uh, around fifteen hours, sir.”

“I want you to report to your commander and request a replacement. You belong in a bunk or on the walls. Your pick.”

“Thank you, sir,” he said. Surprised and elated, he clanked away down the hall before I could change my mind.

There was a brief moment of silence between Jasmine and I after he’d left. She had followed the Staff Sergeant with her dark, pretty eyes, then glanced at me in surprise when he was gone. I didn’t say anything. I was doing this for her benefit, to see if she wanted to speak up.

“Why did you do that?” she asked finally.

“The man looked like he needed a break.”

Jasmine shook her head. “You shouldn’t…what do you want from me?”

I stared at her. She met my eyes for a few seconds, then dropped them.

“I wanted to know if you had anything you wanted to say. We’ve never gotten the chance to talk.”

She sucked in a breath, let it out slowly, then did it again. I could tell she was hunting for the right words.

“Speak up,” I said. “Someone is bound to walk in here soon.”

Jasmine glared at me. I knew immediately I’d said the wrong thing. When it came to women, I rarely did anything right.

“Colonel Riggs,” she began.

“You used to call me Kyle.”

She shook her head. “Colonel Riggs,” she said emphatically. “All of that is in the past. I don’t want to discuss any of it. Mistakes were made. Let’s leave it at that.”

“Okay.”

“But why did you kiss me?”

“Because I wanted to, Jasmine.”

She made an exasperated sound. “But that’s over now, right?”

“Yes,” I said with a firmness I didn’t entirely feel. Right then, I wondered why I was having this conversation. I could tell it wasn’t healing any wounds. It was probably opening them up again. I thought about it, and I realized I’d created this moment on purpose. Maybe it wasn’t Jasmine who needed a chance to talk.

“She’s changed,” I said suddenly.

Jasmine looked at me—for the first time, she really looked at me.

“She’s not entirely human anymore,” I said. “It’s hard to adjust.”

“You and I aren’t normal either. The nanites have rebuilt us into something new. We are like a new species. Haven’t you felt it when you are around normal people? They fear us. We seem strange to them.”

I was surprised by her words. For Major Sarin, this was a veritable speech. I wondered if she’d tried to have a relationship outside of Star Force. Maybe she’d tried to have a normal human boyfriend, and he’d been creeped out by the fact she could snap his spine at any moment if she had chosen to do so.

“Sandra has moved further out on the scale of humanity. She died, and was brought back as something new.”

“That upsets you?”

“How could it not?”

Jasmine walked around the table suddenly and gave me a light stroke, running her fingers over my head and through my hair. I stood there, not knowing what else to do. She kissed my cheek, and then retreated with light, quick steps. She was a slight woman, I realized. Thinner and an inch or so shorter than Sandra. I gazed after her fixedly. I felt a pang of longing. My heart accelerated in my chest.

I opened my mouth, about to say something stupid. Something along the lines of: ‘I do have feelings for you.’ But Jasmine spoke up suddenly, intensely.

“Why did you do it?” she demanded.

I looked at her, baffled. She’d been the one to come over and kiss me. This time, it was all her fault. I hadn’t so much as twitched.

“Do what?”

She caught my eye and flicked her gaze toward the entrance. She looked back at me and gave me a tiny nod. Suddenly, I knew what she meant. Someone was out in the corridor, listening.

I felt a new sensation. I wouldn’t call it fear, exactly, although both our lives might well be in danger. Maybe guilt was closer. I felt as if I’d been caught with one gloved fist firmly planted in the forbidden cookie jar. I studied the screen between us, but didn’t see anything. Was it Sandra in the hallway? How much had she heard? How was I going to talk myself out of this one?

“You know what I’m talking about, sir,” Jasmine continued. “Why did you promote Barrera over me? I went out there to the stars for nearly a year with you, Colonel. I think I deserve an explanation.”

I tried to think. I wasn’t quite sure if Jasmine was bringing up this new point as a cover, or if she really wanted to know the answer. I suspected it was a little of both.

“Major Sarin,” I said. “You did well on the Helios Campaign. But my second in command needs some direct experience in combat. Not just operational experience. You didn’t have that, while Barrera did.”

“I shot at a few Worms and Macros, sir.”

“I know you did. But there’s more to it than that. Barrera has shown more initiative. You are an excellent supporting officer. But it has been my opinion, since you’ve asked, that you have not yet shown the same leadership qualities he has.”

Jasmine looked positively pissed now. I reflected that it was a good thing she hadn’t asked about the promotion first. I would never have gotten a caressing touch out of her if she’d heard this earlier.

“I accept your judgment, but I don’t agree with it, Colonel.”

“Good,” I said.

She glanced at me in annoyance and irritation. I smiled at her. At that moment, Sandra decided to walk in.

“Ah, finally,” I said. “Coffee?”

Sandra looked at me frostily. She didn’t hand me the tray. Instead, she slid it over the table toward me. I caught the tray with one hand and the coffee cup with the other before they both slid off onto the floor.

“That looks good,” Jasmine said. “I’ll think I’ll go get dinner, with your permission, sir.”

“By all means,” I said.

As she left the room, I tried hard not to stare after her. She had a nice walk, almost as good as Sandra’s. It was different—less overt, but still sexy.

Sandra was in my face faster than the doughnut and coffee I was trying to eat.

“Thanks for coffee,” I said.

“If I find out you two were making out while I went to get your dinner, I’m going to kill you both.”

I managed to look surprised. “Come on,” I said. “You’re with me every second of the day.”

“I heard your heartbeat, Kyle. I heard hers, too. You were both excited about something. I think it was each other.”

“Well, there was one thing.”

Sandra stiffened. She crushed her coffee cup in her hand, creating an instant fountain of hot, brown liquid. She cursed and threw it on the floor, where the nanites dutifully cleaned it up.

“She didn’t like me promoting Barrera over her,” I said.

Sandra took a deep breath. “I heard that part. But you two were already worked up about something.”

“Take a look at the boards. We’re in the midst of a battle. A lot of good people have died out there today. Don’t the Macros scare you?”

She looked at me suspiciously, then flicked her eyes down to the boards. Macros contacts were everywhere. Motionless red circles glowed in clumps all over the island.

“Yes, they do scare me,” she admitted. “What the hell are they waiting for?”

“Some element of their plan isn’t quite ready yet. When everything is in place, they’ll move decisively.”

“You changed the subject,” she said, giving me a hard stare.

“I answered a question.”

Suddenly, she melted. She kissed me fiercely, and I responded, enjoying myself.

When the kiss was over, I reflected I’d narrowly escaped a very bad scene. I’d only spoken with Jasmine to clear the air, but things had nearly gotten out of control. I told myself I had been a fool to flirt with Jasmine. Sandra was the real deal.

Sandra came at me again. We kissed even harder. A small fear nagged at me as we made out. I grew afraid she would smell Jasmine’s touch on me somehow.

But she didn’t.