Swarm

-26-

After I’d gotten off the satellite link with General Kerr, leaving him skeptical but interested, I went down to the base to have the medical center people check me out. Really, I did it at the insistence of Sandra. I felt pretty good, physically. Sure, my arm was a sick mess. We’d wrapped it up so we wouldn’t have to watch the Nanos do their work. But the first thing they did, apparently, was turn off the pain sensors in my damaged limb. Very civil of them, I thought.

When the medical staff saw the state of my arm, there was considerable gasping. A doctor waved to a nurse who prepped a hypodermic. I put my good hand up to halt them when they came near.

“What’s that, doc?”

“For the pain,” he said.

“No. Don’t need it. I don’t feel a thing.”

He looked confused, wary. “I appreciate you are a tough man, Commander. But I can assure you, you will feel something if we perform this procedure without medication.”

“What procedure?”

He blinked at me. He exchanged glances with the nurse. They had the air of people who were about to go through something unfortunate and unpleasant. Something they’d gone through before.

“If you will just relax, sir, and let us do our jobs.”

He manufactured a smile and stepped closer.

I reached out, faster than his eyes could follow, and snapped the tip of his needle off. His face fell. He looked at his dribbling, snubbed hypo, dumbfounded.

“What did you do? Really, this isn’t helping, Commander.”

“Just give me some answers.”

The doctor heaved a sigh. He eyed me with new respect. “Frankly, I don’t even see how you’re standing. I can see metal in there, Commander. Bright metal! Your arm is full of shrapnel of some kind. I might be able to save the arm—just maybe, mind you, no promises. But you have to let me operate immediately.”

I smiled then. It was a grim smile, and their faces didn’t respond in kind. “Nobody is cutting my arm off,” I said. I turned to go.

“But, Commander… isn’t it better than dying?” asked the nurse, speaking up for the first time. She was young and had a high voice, almost child-like. I’d always found that endearing in a woman.

I sighed and gave her a real smile. “Sorry. Let me apologize for my bad attitude. I’ve just watched hundreds—maybe thousands of men die trying to prove a theory of mine. They managed to disprove it, unfortunately. In fact, more of the real casualties should be coming in soon.”

“Real casualties?” asked the nurse. The doctor was no longer speaking, he was just staring at me.

“I’m fleet. I can get my ship to repair me.”

“Why didn’t you do that in the first place?”

I thought about that. Why not indeed? Habit, I suppose, was part of it. But it was more than that.

“Because,” I told them truthfully, “I’m scared to go into their medical facility. They can work miracles, but they are machines.”

“They’re scary?”

I snorted. “Terrifying. And they don’t know much about pain. I don’t think they’ve ever even heard of anesthetic. Now that I think about it, I think the only reason this arm isn’t hurting is because the nerves are burned away.”

“Well,” said the doctor, chastened. “If you ever do need me, Commander. Come back.”

I nodded and left. I had the ship lift me back up into its belly. I walked into the chamber of horrors that had worked upon my children until it dumped them into the cold of space. The same chamber full of thin, dangling, black arms that had brought Sandra back to life.

In an hour, I couldn’t scream anymore. My voice no longer worked. It had turned into an endless series of hoarse sobs. Sometime after that, I lost consciousness. In two hours, I awoke with my arm mostly regrown, but I was blind. I had the Alamo carry me to my couch where I fell asleep. Sandra came and quietly touched my brow.

In another hour, I was functional again, but I still felt drained. My arm was pink-white. New skin had grown with unnatural, accelerated speed. Just like the rings of new cells that had glued on Sandra’s fingers. I saw that the rings around her fingers had faded. That was good. I could hope my arm would look normal again someday.

I flexed my repaired hand, and it tingled. But it worked. I nodded blearily, looking around the bridge.

“How bad was it?” Sandra asked.

“Bad. It was bad. But yes, it was worth it.”

“The satellite phone has been beeping for you,” said Sandra. “I answered and told them to give you a break.”

“You did?”

“I told them you were injured and recovering. But they keep calling back. Once every hour or so.”

“Okay,” I said, reaching for the unit. A few minutes later I was back on the phone with General Kerr.

“All right, Riggs. We need to talk,” he said.

“I’m listening.”

“I’ve been checking out your story and reviewing the battle video.”

“Video?”

“Every one of those fancy suits was equipped with a camera or two. Not all of them worked. Not all of them survived, either. But yours did.”

“How did I do, sir?”

“I’m impressed…. I’m not a man who is easily impressed, Riggs.”

I believed him. “What do you think about my offer now, General?”

“I think you’re crazy. Did these drugs or whatever they are do that to you? Make you into some kind of berserk? You shot that thing in the butt and nearly ate a biscuit, boy.”

I chuckled. “No sir, I was born crazy, I guess. I can’t blame the Nanos for that.”

“Overcompensation. That’s what a psych would call it. You saw good men die over your idea and you lost it.”

“I got that machine to retreat sir. I damaged it enough to turn it around. Then I chased it into the jungle. If I’d had a full platoon as capable as I was, with heavier weapons….”

“Yeah. Yeah, you did. We did some calculations. You were running over sand in full gear, doing about thirty miles an hour. That’s about how fast a dog runs. Did you know that?”

“You believe me then.”

“I think you’ve been altered somehow. But I’m not sure I want to put all my boys through that. Whatever alien bullshit you have in mind for them.”

“I don’t want it to be that way, sir. I want them to be volunteers. I want them to be from every elite service in the world.”

“A Foreign Legion of freaks, huh?”

“Not the terms I would use.”

“No, I suppose not. But okay. The higher-ups saw the whole thing. I briefed them, ran the vid files for them raw. They are convinced to give it another go. With you leading the charge, if you will do it.”

Sandra caught my attention, flapping her hands at me. I looked up at her. She mouthed a single word: No.

“Yes sir,” I said. “I’ll do it.”

I eyed Sandra. She had her hands on her hips. Her lips were curled in disgust and worry.

“I know a fellow crazy bastard when I see one, Riggs,” laughed the General, sounding like he’d just won a bet. “Welcome to the special forces club. Start building super-sized reactor packs and brewing up some of those injections, pronto.”

“Will do, sir,” I said.

“Oh, and Riggs? The Congress is planning to give you a medal of some kind. You aren’t officially in any of the armed services, so they had to make it something any citizen can get. You are still a U. S. citizen, right Riggs?”

I had to think about that one. I supposed that I was, as Star Force wasn’t exactly a nation. “Yes I am. Are we talking about a Congressional Medal of Honor?”

“That’s what they call it. I guess they really need a war hero about now.”

After I hung up, Sandra was upset with me. “You don’t have to go.”

“Yeah, I do,” I told her.

She crossed her arms under her breasts. Her eyes were half-closed. I felt a sudden urge to grab her and kiss her. But I knew that if I did, I would be rebuffed. She was clearly annoyed.

I threw up my arms. The newly regrown one gave me a stab of pain as I did so. “How can I build a new set of weapons, then recruit another thousand guys to die fighting with these experimental guns against giant robots, and stay home shivering in this ship?”

She sighed and relented, sitting on the couch next to me. “I don’t know. But I wish you would stay out of it this time. Somehow.”

Sandra stared at me for awhile, and I stared back. Suddenly, she threw one of her long brown legs over mine and sat in my lap, straddling me. We made out fiercely for several minutes. It was good.

As suddenly as she’d climbed aboard, she jumped off again. I had to fight to control myself. I almost lunged for her, but I stopped. I’d just gotten my own arms back, and it wouldn’t do to accidentally yank off one of hers. She gave a little laugh and had no idea how I was feeling. Or maybe she did.

I could tell she wasn’t going to give me any more sugar at the moment. So, I decided not to beg for it. Women never respected that. I headed into the shower. Lord, how I needed a shower. The water was hot and I stayed in it for longer than usual.

Sandra surprised me in our makeshift shower stall about one minute before I was going to get out. She wrapped her arms around me from behind. We kissed and touched. It was even better than it had been out on the couch.

“Incoming private channel request from Admiral Crow,” said the ship, interrupting.

“Not now, Alamo.”

The ship was silent for about thirty seconds. I made the best use I could of each second. Sandra was really beginning to respond, and we’d moved several steps past kissing.

“Incoming urgent channel request from Admiral Crow.”

“Admiral Crow?” asked Sandra. “When the hell did he make himself into an Admiral?”

“Do you accept the incoming channel request?” droned the Alamo. Sometimes, the ship really did sound like a computer.

“Just answer,” sighed Sandra, putting her wet head against my chest, “or they’ll never let us alone.”

“Open channel, Alamo,” I growled.

“You there, Riggs?”

“Yes sir.”

“You on the john or something?”

“Something like that, sir.”

“Well, I’m calling because you’ve gone bananas, and—well, I have to tell you Riggs, right now I’m thinking of demoting you.”

I snorted. Sandra tensed against me. I patted her back, trying to relax her again. This man was a master at ruining a good mood.

“What’s the problem, Crow?”

“You’ve gone and overstepped yourself. Grossly. I’m in charge of this fleet. You know that, right?”

“That was the deal.”

“Well, then why are you negotiating a new force of star marines, or whatever you want to call them, without my approval? Why are you offering to give away one of our most amazing technologies without even telling me?”

I pursed my lips. “I have to admit, you have a point. I was too focused on solving the problem to worry about approvals.”

“Well, tell me why I’m not going to cancel all your arrangements and rip some stripes off of you.”

This was more than Sandra could take. Throughout the conversation, I could feel her body getting more tense against mine. She had a temper. And she seemed particularly defensive when it came to me. I supposed that was a good thing.

“What do you want his stripes for, Crow? You sew new ones on yourself every other damned day. Did you run out?”

There was a moment of silence. I looked down at Sandra. She was lovely, wet and naked. There was a wild look in her eye. I should never have agreed to talk to Crow, I decided.

“Is that Sandra? Ah—now I get it!” he burst into laughter. “That is a shower I hear running, isn’t it? I need to figure out how to get video feed out of this communication setup.”