Machine World (Undying Mercenaries Book 4) (2 page)

-2-

Whenever Winslade crawled out from under his rock, I knew Imperator Turov must have ordered him to do it. Sure enough, when we got to Central we landed on top of Hegemony headquarters and were transported via a smart-elevator to her office.

She started off by making a speech, which I quickly tuned out. I found myself staring at her rear while she strutted back and forth over her new, plush carpet.

We were near the top of what had to be one of the biggest buildings I’d ever seen in my life. Hegemony headquarters made the old Pentagon building look like a joke. It was shaped like a ziggurat and contained a thousand stories of stacked puff-crete, reaching as high as a mountaintop. Outside Turov’s slanted, floor-to-ceiling office window, I could see clouds scudding along far below us, obscuring the surrounding city streets.

My eyes roved from the fantastic external view to Turov’s butt and back again. Once in a while she caught me looking, but she didn’t complain. I honestly thought she might be enjoying my distraction. Sometimes she did stuff like that, wearing uniforms with smart-cloth cinched up a few notches beyond tight and marching around to show herself off. Since her last revive, she’d been restored to an unreasonable point of youth and beauty in her life. She looked like she was about twenty years old even though she was twice that in actual age.

“James,” she said, interrupting my reverie. “Wake up. You must pretend you’re an officer when you meet Xlur.”

“You want me to impersonate an officer?” I asked. “Why’s that?”

“Because I don’t want to explain why a noncom was involved in an Interstellar diplomatic disaster.”

“Why does Xlur want to see me at all, sir?”

The Imperator made an irritated gesture. “I don’t know. It was the Nairbs that made the initial request. First, they demanded a roster of the people involved—we thought maybe they were drawing up charges. Now, I’m not so sure. Xlur has taken up the matter personally, but instead of lodging formal accusations, he’s demanded this interview. The four of us talked to the cephalopods in person, so we must all be present when Xlur calls upon us.”

“Well, I’ve got a solution to this business of rank, sir. All you have to do is make me an officer. Primus sounds nice, but I’d settle for adjunct if I had to—”

“Shut up. You haven’t even been confirmed as a veteran yet. I find this kind of blatant rank-climbing personally disgusting, McGill.”

I released an involuntary snort and looked at her in surprise. “I was just making a joke, sir.”

“Well, it’s not funny. Just don’t volunteer any information and we’ll get through this.”

I was annoyed, but I managed to shut up. Hearing how disgusting rank-climbers were was ironic, especially coming from Turov. She’d clawed and scratched her way to Imperator using every dirty trick in the book—in fact, I thought she’d invented a few new ones along the way. But pointing that out wasn’t going to improve her mood, so I dropped matter.

Xlur arrived to speak to us shortly after that, and everyone’s mood changed. At first, Imperator Turov did all the talking—or rather I should say, schmoozing. She was a natural, I had to give her that. For all the harsh treatment she could dish out on the head of a subordinate, she was nothing but love and biscuits when it came to talking to real brass.

Chief Inspector Xlur was the final authority in Frontier 921. Thousands of star systems were under his direct management. He was a Mogwa, and his kind owned our local patch of stars.

Physically, the Mogwa were spidery aliens with a central body mass that looked like a black widow’s thorax. Xlur had six limbs that operated as arms or legs interchangeably. Each of these limbs terminated with hands that could be used like feet or to manipulate objects.

For all his power and position, I didn’t think Xlur liked his job much. He complained about it constantly.

“These worlds of yours are called the Dark Worlds by the Mogwa,” his translator box rasped. “They are dreary and unpleasant. I find this fringe of cold, lonely planets depressing. In the Core, the countless nearby suns never allow one to fall into gloom. What you might term ‘night’ is to us a brilliant display of color from a dozen nearby stars, more beautiful even than our blazing days.”

I noticed that Adjunct Leeson was giving me the stink-eye, as if he expected me to blurt out something. I avoided his stare. It was true that I wanted to suggest to Xlur that he should pack right up and head back to his shiny home planet, but I managed to hold my tongue and stand at attention. After all, I wasn’t born yesterday, and the cheap Chapter House alcohol had pretty much drained from my system by now.

“Worse, there’s nothing in the way of culture out here,” Xlur continued, “nothing like the splendor of the Core Systems.”

“We must apologize abjectly for our lack of amenities, Chief Inspector,” Turov said.

She was good. She even sounded like she meant it.

Besides Turov and Leeson, Graves was present. The four of us had all spoken to the squids the last time we’d made contact with them on Tech World—just hours before the violent “diplomatic incident” in question.

“So,” Xlur said when he’d finished disparaging our backwater planet, “you told this renegade individual named Glide that he should leave Galactic space. When he refused, you took no action. But when he attacked the megahab at Tau Ceti, you destroyed his ship. Am I correct in these essentials?”

“A masterfully condensed description of the event-sequence, your excellency,” Turov said.

“I see. You realize that this places the Empire in a dangerous position? If the cephalopods decide to strike, our defensive forces are out of position.”

We all looked uncomfortable.

“We were hoping, sir,” Turov began, choosing her words with care, “that the fleet might soon be returning home again. It has been more than two years since—”

“No,” Xlur said firmly. “The Battle Fleet will not return anytime soon. Eventually, of course, Mogwa ships will silver the skies of every cephalopod planet to cast down righteous revenge upon these barbaric invaders. But for now, you must find a way to manage on your own. Your task is to stop any incursions these creatures might attempt. As Enforcers, it is your duty to police this frontier province.”

Turov licked her lips. “Hegemony is aware of this requirement?”

“Naturally.”

“And we’ve been provided with an expanded budget in order to meet your—?”

“Imperator Turov,” Xlur interrupted sternly. “You step beyond your station. I’ve already discussed such matters with your superiors, and I have no intention of discussing them with you.”

“I apologize profusely, Inspector. My curiosity got the better of me. I will not ask more on this—”

“See that you don’t. I’m finished with my line of questions. My person shall now be escorted to the air car on the roof.”

“At once, Inspector!”

It was odd, watching Turov bow and scrape before a foreign dignitary. We knew that she’d always been like that, the sort that treated a superior like a god all the while crapping on her subordinates. But it was different to see her do it with an alien.

Still, I had to admit, she’d handled this interview well. Xlur seemed satisfied with her answers, and I’d never been asked a direct question. That suited everyone just fine.

When we reached the roof, Xlur complained bitterly that his air car wasn’t waiting there to whisk him away into space.

That’s when I did what I’d been cautioned not to do: I opened my mouth.

“Well sir, we don’t have an infinite number of air cars to go around on Earth,” I said. “Sometimes, we all have to wait our turn.”

Xlur shuffled his bulk around and arranged his optical organs to study me.

“What is this creature, and why is it addressing me?” he demanded.

“That’s Adjunct McGill, Inspector,” Turov said quickly. “He’s one of our lowest-level officers. He’s present because you requested that all the personnel who were in contact with the cephalopods be available for questioning.”

“Do I infer from your statements that this being had some direct contact with the barbarians?”

“Well, yes…”

Xlur lifted a wavering limb in my direction. “Being—McGill,” he said. “What did you say to the barbarians?”

I squirmed. Everyone did. My mother always told me the best policy was honesty, but I’d never believed her. Still, I didn’t see any harm in answering forthrightly on this occasion.

“All I did was answer their questions, sir.”

Xlur shuffled a pace closer. “Then you confirm that you spoke to them directly? I wasn’t told this. I thought the being called Turov did all the talking, while the rest of you were mere witnesses. Turov, tell me, who is lying here? Must I request video feed and transcripts? I’d hoped to avoid that level of effort.”

“Uh,” she said, looking very uncomfortable. “Sir, you must excuse me. I didn’t think it was significant, but McGill here did answer at least one question from the cephalopods directly.”

“One question? What was it?”

“They asked—” she began.

“No!” boomed Xlur. He made a slashing motion toward her with one of his limbs. “I want
this one
to talk. The McGill-creature. Speak!”

“Uh…well sir, it went like this,” I said. “The squids—that’s what we call them here, sir—the squids asked me about the bombing of their colony world. They wanted to know exactly how it happened.”

“And what did you tell them?”

“The truth, sir. I saw the bombing with my own eyes. The Nairbs did it with nine hell-burners. Every organic structure on that planet was broken down to component molecules within an hour of the bombing. It was a glorious demonstration of Imperial power.”

While I’d been speaking, the air car had come down and landed behind Xlur. He ignored it and stayed focused on me. All around me, the other officers were looking at one another with increasing alarm.

“I want you to be very precise, McGill-creature. You told the enemy that the Nairbs erased their colony?”

I was unsure what the fuss was all about, but I pressed on as best I could. The other officers had white faces and gritted teeth. They didn’t seem to have much faith in me.

“Uh…yes sir,” I said. “That’s how the bombing went, after all.”

“Disaster,” Xlur said. “You’ve done incalculable damage.”

“How so, sir?”

“Silence.” He turned his baleful orbs on each of us in turn. “Are you all dedicated to your Empire?”

“Of course we are,” Turov said. The others murmured in agreement. Only I didn’t join in.

“Draw your sidearms!” Xlur ordered.

My heart rate accelerated. I’d seen this sort of thing before. I purely expected this nasty alien to order my fellow officers to gun me down. They reached for their holsters and did as he ordered, and I did the same. If they were going to fire-squad me, at least I’d go down with a gun in my hand.

“You will all now self-execute!” Xlur commanded the group.

We all blinked in surprise. Faces tight, the officers looked at one another in confusion and disbelief.

“May we ask
why
, Chief Inspector?” Turov asked. All the blood had drained from her face, just as it had from the faces of the others.

“Because you have involved the Empire in a war we do not need! Our diplomatic corps has been working hard to convince the cephalopods that humans were directly responsible for this disaster. Only when this creature spoke did I realize you gave them damning testimony disproving our premise. You informed them that representatives of the Empire chose to destroy their colony. They’ll never be satisfied with the destruction of your pathetic species now. They’ll continue the war, grinding further into our territory at a time when we can least afford the distraction.”

Things suddenly clicked on in my brain as he said this. First off, I’d always wondered what had happened to the last “Enforcers” the Galactics had appointed to the post. By all accounts, they’d disappeared. Could it be that the true role of an “Enforcer” species along the Frontier was equivalent to that of “scapegoat”?

“But Your Excellency,” I said, not fully understanding his reasoning. “Why do you want us to self-execute? Aren’t you better off leaving us to defend our world as best we can and maybe damage the squids further?”

“A few humans will make no difference to the outcome. The enemy kingdom consists of three hundred worlds.”

“If we make no difference, why should we be executed?”

“It’s the principle of the thing,” Xlur said, drawing himself up taller and ruffling his limbs. “You brought this inconvenience down upon my person, and I will feel better if you’re expunged. Now, get on with it!”

“Chief Inspector Xlur,” Turov said formally. “I request that a grievance be filed—”

“There will be no grievances!” he roared at her. “That is for justice dispensed by Nairbs and other underlings. A Galactic Citizen, especially an Inspector such as myself, is not bound by bureaucratic nonsense. I demand that you all self-execute. If you do not, I will order this planet erased right immediately!”

Shaken, we gripped our weapons with tight fingers and eyed one another.