Slave of the Legion

'P.S. MAIDEN, STAND BY TO BE BOARDED BY LEGION UNITS! PREP YOUR PORTS FOR DOCKING, AND UNLOCK YOUR HATCHES! IF THERE IS ANY RESISTANCE, WE WILL BOARD YOU FORCIBLY. ACKNOWLEDGE!'

'Legion, this is P.S. Maiden,' Tara said silkily. 'We acknowledge the message and we welcome the boarding party. Please turn down the volume; we are complying with all its instructions.'

'Commander, we have a very bad feeling about this. Remember we're still on the death list.' Pandaros's image appeared on the comscreen, tense and grim. He was a Cyrillian, ebony skin, sharpened white fangs and slit eyes. He was not an admirer of the Legion, and the Legion did not think highly of him, either. After the Mongera raid, the Maiden had been released from Legion custody with promises that the ship would no longer be actively pursued. But the names had to remain on the list to cover the Maiden's assistance, and it made Pandaros very nervous.

'Sub will just have to trust us, Pandaros,' Tara replied coldly. 'We survived the last encounter with the Legion, and we'll get through this one as well. We have made certain arrangements which shall protect us all.'

'We'll lose the Maiden, Commander.'

'We expect that, Pandaros. But we'll get it back. Stop worrying, and make the Legion welcome. We will survive.'

'If it's wrong, we die.'

'We're never wrong, Pandaros. Sub should know that by now.' Tara cut the connection abruptly.

###

'Looks fine, troopers. We'll shuttle you downside to the milport.' The Legion officer handed me back our orders. He was fully armored, gleaming black cenite and dull red faceplate, balancing an E on one hip. The boarding party was securing the ship. Pandaros and the crew were under detention, and Tara had locked the man-ape Gildron into the brig, just to avoid any misunderstanding.

'May we speak with it, sir?' Tara shook her hair away from her face. Her arms were tied behind her back. Whit was beside her, also secured, cold sweat on her brow, hardly daring to breathe. Two Legion soldiers in A-suits had taken their places on the bridge.

'Shut down, Systie,' the Legion officer snapped back, then turned to me. 'How did you do it, guys? That's a hot drop, showing up in a Systie slaver—these people are all in the Black Book. You've done humanity a great service.'

'Do you have a few marks, sir?' I asked quietly. 'We'd like to talk about that.'

'Sure, boys—this is one story I'd like to hear.'

'Somewhere private, sir. I'd suggest the Commander sit in as well.'

'The slaver? You're joking—what for?'

'It's important, sir.'

'Well…curioser and curioser. All right, sure. I guess it won't matter. She'll be dead by morning.'

Chapter 2 The Wheels of History

But Tara was not dead by morning. On the contrary, she was accompanying us as we headed deeper and deeper into the gaping tunnels of the Legion's Uldo Milport, underground tunnels carved by amtacs out of earth and stone. We were on foot, plodding through deep sucking mud, clad in new camfax coveralls, trying to make sense out of a dispo tacmod that was supposed to guide us to the replacement depot. Aircars whooshed past every few moments, rocking us with blasts of icy air. Crude lightmods crackled harshly from the dirt ceiling, dazzling our eyes and casting long black shadows as we trudged forward, Dragon and Priestess and Tara and me. We were followed by Gildron, his massive bulk encased in an extra-large camfax cloak. Gildron wasn't human. He was from some unknown world, but served as Tara's bodyguard and companion. His huge head appeared to be crudely carved from stone, and he peered out at the world under thick brow ridges. His body was covered in long, tangled hair. He didn't seem to be too bright, but you sure didn't want to make him angry.

The grav wasn't so bad on Uldo 4. It was heavier than Veda 6, but it wasn't so bad. I hated heavy grav.

'I can't make any sense out of this thing,' I confessed, glaring at the tacmap screen for anything that resembled our surroundings. We were at a major intersection where two tunnels merged. A huge amtac rocketed past us, sirens shrieking, splattering us with a shock wave of watery mud.

'Scut! That retard almost hit us!'

'Deto!' Dragon exclaimed. 'Let me see that thing! Can't you read a tacmap?' He took the tacmod and peered into the screen, shielding it from the light with one hand.

'The zero is shot,' I replied, 'as you can see.' Two aircars blasted past, and Gildron snarled at them.

'Are you people any better in enemy territory?' Tara asked with a faint smile. It was cold, and her lips were turning blue.

The Legion officer had been astounded after hearing Tara's story, back on the Maiden. He consulted immediately with downside, and orders came through quickly for Tara—she was to accompany us to rejoin Beta. I was mystified by that, and so was Tara. However, she recovered quickly and insisted that her pet ape accompany her. This caused some consternation downside, but was ultimately approved after Tara had a brief but forceful discussion with some nameless bureaucrat. It was incomprehensible, and I didn't even try to understand it. Nevertheless, here we were, trying to find the replacement depot. They were apparently the only people who could direct us to Beta.

'Worthless piece of trash!' Dragon snarled at the tacmod. 'I think we turn right here. There should be a series of squadmods up this tunnel.' We turned, sloshing through ankle-deep water. A group of forlorn young troopers appeared out of the shadows, picking their way around a pile of dropboxes.

'Say, troopies, is the Twenty-Second Replacement Depot around here someplace?' I asked.

'Just keep going,' one of them replied. 'Follow the mob.' Another amtac glided past us at a more reasonable speed. The amtac's roof was crowded with camfaxed replacements huddled down to avoid the ceiling.

'I'm cold!' Priestess said mournfully.

'Attention! Attention!' A tinny voice called out from our defective tacmod. 'There will be a function test of all emergency blast doors in five marks, repeat five marks. This is only a test. Move away from all blast doors!'

'Wonderful,' Dragon muttered.

'I think we should be all right,' I said. 'We just passed some blast doors.'

'Maybe it'll slow down these damned aircars,' Priestess commented. Another car shot past, buffeting us again with an icy breeze. Gildron roared at it, enraged.

###

The 22nd Replacement Depot was a brand new squadmod buried in the tunnel wall. The interior swarmed with troopers fighting for access to some admin types sitting behind a counter piled high with doc printouts, plastic manuals and d-screens.

'Would you troopers please stop tracking mud all over the deck?'

'Gee, I'm sorry!'

'Did he actually say that?'

Gildron started pushing people aside for us and we were soon at the counter. Most of the objections ceased once the troopers got a good look at Gildron. He was big and bad, and not quite human. We stood behind a group of three new replacements. The admin fellow behind the counter spoke, reading from a d-screen.

'All right, here's your orders. Tenth Regiment, the Fourth, CAT Thirty-One. They're at Axis Gold. Transport is available at the Twenty-Second's Aircar Control Center. It's all in the orders. Next!' He pushed three datapaks