Machine World (Undying Mercenaries Book 4) (29 page)

I picked up the missile pod and heaved it onto my back. There couldn’t be much time left to try to pull this off. Fortunately, the gravity on the ship was set for Nairb comfort everywhere aboard, or I couldn’t have budged the missile pod. As it was, I was grunting and heaving with it on my back. I must have looked like Atlas holding up the world.

The first obstacle I met up with was a serious one. Heading down the main passage way, I ran into two Nairbs. They were humping along, looking for all the world like a pair a green seals on a beach. They chattered at me in irritation then switched on their translators.

“Beast, you will put that object down and explain yourself.”

“Beast, huh?” I asked him. “That’s what you really call us, isn’t it? Well, it’s time to show you I
am
a beast.”

I put down the missile pod with a grunt then walked toward the Nairbs. They didn’t get it, not until the last moment when I slammed their two heads together.

Now, I’d only planned to crack their skulls together and knock them out. I’d forgotten, unfortunately, that Nairbs come from a low-grav world. They had thin skulls—about the thickness of a sheet of cardboard and not much tougher. Their skulls fractured and gushed on the deck.

Looking down at the mess, I realized I was committed now. Using one of the dead Nairb’s flippers, I was able to pass through the hatch to the bridge.

I thought about the engine room, I really did, but I didn’t think it would work out. There was no telling how many obstacles might be down there. I didn’t know the layout of the ship, and I didn’t have a lot of time before the Nairbs got smart and employed defensive systems to put me down. Claver had probably known this, but hadn’t cared. He’d just wanted to get the hell away from me and see me dead.

I sealed the hatch to the bridge behind me. I managed to disable the override controls from the inside. Fortunately, Empire design mandated that control systems be universally workable for as many beings as possible, so I had no trouble operating them.

Steering the ship would have been difficult, even so, if I hadn’t had such an easy, unmistakable target to aim for. Adjusting the helm and locking in the course, I engaged the engines, full thrust. This caused everything aboard to tip and roll to the back of the chamber it was in. I was pinned to the rear bulkhead for almost a minute before I managed to get crawling again.

I’d almost blown it. If I hadn’t been able to move, my whole plan would have been for nothing. But I’m a strong man, and crawling isn’t as hard as it sounds, even under three Gs of centrifugal force.

When I reached the missile pod, I engaged it, overriding every safety symbol that popped up, and ordered all the missiles to fire at once.

There was a timer—a short one—that ticked down for a few seconds. What were the Nairbs doing all around the ship during their last moments? Probably, they’d been caught and squished flat by crushing G-forces. I don’t know. Hell, they might have all died by now, their hearts unable to pump under this much weight.

I rolled onto my back and looked toward the big display on the forward wall of the bridge. The central star of this system, Gamma Pavonis itself, loomed huge and white-hot. That had been my target, the star itself.

My lips curled back from my teeth, and I tasted metal. That was from radiation poisoning, I knew.

That’s all I can remember now, because I died at some point after that, and my memories of those final minutes are lost forever.

It’s just as well, I guess. Whether I blew up or burned up, it couldn’t have been much fun.

-39-

There was a posse waiting for me when I was reborn. They weren’t there to throw me a party, either.

“That’s it,” the bio specialist said. “He’s a good grow—not that it matters.”

A collar was clamped onto my neck. That was a new one. An honest-to-God collar, like I was some kind of beagle.

“What the hell…?” I croaked, but that was all I managed to get out before I was roughly hauled off the table.

When you first return to life, your senses don’t always work right. For me, the world was a swimming blur, like I was in an underwater universe full of bright lights and barking voices. No one seemed happy with me, I gathered that much.

“I don’t see why we bothered to revive this piece of shit again,” said someone. I didn’t recognize the voice, but it was rough, male, and pissed off.

“He’s screwed the lot of us, that’s for sure. We’re supposed to take him down to detention. The brass wants to know exactly what happened for intel purposes. If he won’t talk, we’re to use any means necessary to get a full confession.”

“Good enough for me.”

Naked and collared, I was hauled through some steel security doors and handed over to a pair of hard-eyed guards. They dragged me into another room and threw me into a chair. My wrists were clamped down to the arms of the chair—which turned out to be shiny, cold, stainless steel.

By this time, I had a reasonable level of control over my body, so I kicked the guy who was trying to clamp my ankles to the chair legs. I caught him right in the jimmy, and he grunted unhappily.

I enjoyed the moment, but it was probably a mistake. They punched me for a while until one of them called it quits, pulling back the red-faced guy I’d nailed earlier.

“Give it up, Bill. That’s what he wants. If you give him an easy out, he’ll avoid talking entirely.”

Huffing and snorting with rage, the man named Bill stepped away.

They were both from Legion Solstice. That didn’t bode well for my immediate future. Like I’ve said, Solstice people were a hard-bitten lot, like those from Varus. No legion man really likes a guy from another legion. It was always easier to mistreat someone from a group that you saw as a rival.

I mumbled something through broken lips. They splashed my face with water so I could speak intelligibly again.

“What’s that, Varus?” Bill asked.

“I said: you boys are a couple of prime pussies.”

This amused them. “Why’s that?”

“Strapping down a fresh revive and beating on him for fun? I’ve always heard that’s the kind of thing that gets a Solstice man hard in the morning, but I didn’t want to believe it.”

For some reason, my words troubled Bill—but not the other guy. The other guy laughed and sneered. “You know what you did? You screwed Earth out of spite. The Empire will never stand for this. Remember what they did to the squids back on Dust World?”

“I sure do, I watched it.”

They nodded like they already knew that. “Well, they’re going to do the same to Earth once they find out you drove one of their ships right into the local star!”

“But I didn’t.”

They shook their heads in disgust. Bill leaned over so he could look me in the eye.

“Really?” he asked. “More denials? Simply saying you didn’t do something isn’t going to wash, McGill. We’ve heard about you from your own officers. You wrecked the Nairb ship just to screw all of us. Well, now it’s payback time. First, we’re going to find out exactly what you did, second by second, while you were aboard the Nairb ship. Then, we’re going to perm you good.”

“What if I don’t feel like talking?”

Bill got up and walked away, but then the other guy came close and gave me a grim smile. “This isn’t your first time around, McGill. We’ve already killed you six—no, was it seven times now?”

“Something like that Randy,” Bill said. He twisted his lips in thought. “Might be seven. I think it has been seven, in fact.”

For the first time, I felt a chill go through me. I couldn’t remember any other lives or deaths at the hands of these two, but I knew they might have had the storage backup of my mental engrams turned off.

Could these two goons really have revived me and beaten me to death
seven
times? What was going to make them stop?

“Let me talk to Centurion Belter,” I said. “She knows me. I’ll tell her my story.”

They sighed. “That’s not going to wash,” Bill said. “Never has, never will. You tell
us
what happened, and then we’ll finish you nice and clean. But if you don’t give us the truth this time, it’ll go badly—all over again.”

I was in a quandary now. My heart was racing like it hadn’t been since the revival. It was one thing to be dragged around and beaten. I’d experienced plenty of that in my life in the legions. But to hear about my former abused selves—and to know I was about to repeat their fate—I didn’t like it and wanted to change the outcome this time.

But how could a man out-think himself? I had to assume all the immediate dodges had already occurred to past McGills, and they’d failed to impress. The only thing I could come up with was something that I knew and my past selves hadn’t, that this was my seventh time around. Maybe I could use that.

“Seven was always my mom’s lucky number,” I said. “You pricks have mammas, don’t you?” I looked at the one called Randy, the meaner one, thoughtfully. “Well, maybe not you.”

“You’re going to insult us?” Randy asked in return, shaking his head. “You’ve gone down that road. I have to admit, you can come up with some good insults when you want to.”

I didn’t have an answer. I was breathing hard and testing my bonds. They held me firmly. Steel clamps were good for that.

Randy straightened up and sighed. “Well, we already know where your sensitive areas are so we might as well get started.”

He moved around behind me, which freaked me out a little. I couldn’t crank my neck around far enough to see what he was up to. The other guy, Bill, put his butt on a table and crossed his arms.

“We know your back isn’t that much of an issue for you,” Randy said, almost like he was talking about a group project we were all involved in. “Some men don’t like a kidney punch, but you suck them right up.”

He was right, and that made me feel a bit sick inside because it meant he really did know me.

“Yes, let’s speed this up,” I said. “Just to check, you already know about Claver, right? That he had a small smuggler’s ship docked with the Nairb ship?”

“We know about that,” Bill said while Randy fooled around behind my back, rattling metal objects. “At least we’ve heard that lie before.”

“How do you know it’s a lie?”

“Because Claver has already communicated with us. If he’d been left unconscious in a docked ship, he would’ve been dead like everyone else aboard.”

“Okay then. I can only assume he escaped.”

“Fair enough—the trouble is he hasn’t verified one word of your story. He was never on that ship, McGill. He doesn’t have mini-missile pods or anything else. He’s shown us pictures and cargo rosters. Your lies have already been disproven.”

I felt something then, a sharp stabbing pain that went on and on. Someone was driving a needle into my back. I hissed and squirmed, but that didn’t make it any better.

“That works pretty good,” said Randy from behind me. “You see Bill? This man doesn’t mind a punch in the back, but a needle—that’s different.”

“Yeah,” said Bill, as if bored and a little uncomfortable.

“Looks like I kicked the wrong guy,” I said.

“No, no,” said Randy cheerfully. “Bill is just as big of an asshole as I am. Now, next question.”

“What’s the point?” I demanded between gritted teeth. “You already know my story. There’s only one answer for why you’re on revive number seven.”

“What’s that?” Randy asked.

“You’re having fun, that’s all. This is a kick for you. Bill here, he was honestly pissed. I can understand that. But you Randy—you’re the sick fuck, aren’t you?”

The needle was driven in again, and it was going for broke. I twisted and writhed.

Finally, Bill’s big hand came down on the sadist’s wrist. “That’s enough. McGill’s right. No one dies seven times telling the same story. We’re not going to get anything else out of him.”

The freak looked disappointed. He sighed. “Yep, I guess it’s over. Time to end it. Goodbye McGill. It’s been fun, but you’re all used up now.”

I glared at him while he put a black hood over my face.

“Too chicken-shit to kill a helpless man who looks you in the eye, huh? Just as I thought—a pair of wimps.”

They pulled off the hood, and Bill looked at me curiously.

“Why keep lying, McGill?” he asked. “Why keep lying and dying? This is your last go-round. You’re permed after this. It’s all signed, sealed and delivered.”

“I’ve got my orders,” I said. “I can’t talk to anyone less than an officer. And besides, I’m not going to be permed.” I laughed and let blood dribble on my chest. “If you clowns only knew how many times I’ve been killed and told I was permed—I’ll be back alive in a week.”

They looked curious. Maybe I hadn’t talked this way before. Maybe past McGills had taken different approaches. Me—I knew I was screwed so I didn’t care anymore.

“What do you mean you’ll be back?”

I told them real shockers then. I told them about killing a Galactic back on Steel World, being executed for it and coming back. I told them about a few other times, too, where I should never have drawn breath again. They listened, and I could tell they’d never heard these stories before. They seemed a little shocked and upset.

“That’s crazy,” Bill said. “You can’t just go killing Galactics and erasing their tappers.”

“We’ve all got our jobs to do,” I said. “Your work is easier than mine, that’s all. You get off on it, I understand. Everyone has their dark secrets. But you’re not going to perm me. You’re just having a bit of fun.”

Bill’s face darkened at my off-handed assumption he was a sadist. He didn’t like to think of himself as a sadist. Randy, on the other hand, never argued with my accusations. I could tell he’d made peace with what he was.

“We’ve got to report this,” Bill said.

“Aw come on, it’s total bullshit.”

Eventually, Bill called for an officer. It took a while, but they brought in a new face. She was familiar to me, but not really a friend. It was Centurion Belter.

“He keeps telling us that he’ll talk to you, sir,” Bill said. “He’s got some crazy stories—things that might change our status with the Empire. I thought it would be best to bring in an officer as he requested before we perm him.”

Belter frowned at them, then at me. She crossed her arms under her small, tight breasts and stared. “What do you have to say, McGill?”

“We aren’t screwed. The ship blew up before it hit Gamma Pavonis’ corona, didn’t it?”

“Yes, but that could be due to—”

“A lot of things, I know. But I know exactly why it happened.”

I told her about Claver and his squid mini-missiles. When the region of space and the wreckage that was still orbiting the star was analyzed, the radiation signatures would implicate the squids, not us.

“The Nairbs aren’t going to buy it, McGill. Even if you’re right. Claver has evidence all lined up to show he wasn’t involved.”

“Okay,” I said. “Then we’ll have to blame the squids for an outright attack. We should do that anyway—why not lie? The Empire should declare war on the squids, not just call them neutrals. This is the second Imperial ship they’ve destroyed.”

“They marked the cephalopods as exterminated back on Dust World and didn’t pursue it further.”

“Why not?” I demanded. “Because they’re weak, that’s why not. They don’t have a fleet out here, so they don’t want a war. We should make them join us. Force them to follow their own policies against the squids.”

Centurion Belter nodded tiredly. “You’re probably right, but it doesn’t really matter. You’ve been tried and convicted. You’re to be permed. I’m sorry about that as I owe you one.”

I glanced over at the two fiends. “Take me out of here. Let me talk to you about something important you don’t know. Then you can do what you have to.”

She shook her head, and the two guards laughed. “That’s not going to happen, McGill,” she said.

“All right then, get them out of here, and turn off the recorders.”

She thought about it for a minute then ordered the guards to leave. They didn’t like it, but she outranked them. She switched off the recorders and faced me.

“What?”

“You’ve got to know a few things about Imperator Turov.”

Her eyes widened a little. “I’ve heard things—about you and her.”

“I’m not talking about personal stuff. I’m talking about geopolitical realities. She ordered me to kill the Nairb ship. Check the logs. She was the last one I talked to before leaving
Cyclops
.”

Belter was frowning now. I had her attention.

“Why the hell would she do that?”