'I was sorry to hear about that,' Jeff said truthfully. 'How did he... I mean, what got him?'
She shook her head. 'I don't know exactly. Our tank got disabled in the first retreat and we had to go out on foot. Another tank picked us up to get us out of there but the WestHems were right on our ass. Sanchez fell off at full speed and we... we couldn't stop to pick him up. We were hoping the WestHems would get him and take him to a hospital but they didn't. They killed him.'
'Shot him?' Jeff asked, trying to envision the horror of being broke and injured and having an enemy just walk up and shoot you.
'I guess,' Xenia said. 'Zen says he patched into Sanchez's combat goggles and saw him get killed. He won't say anything more about it though. I think he saw something that...' She sighed and shrugged. 'I don't know. Let's talk about happier things, huh? You like our new tank?'
Jeff thought it looked like any other tank out here. It was painted in the Martian camouflage scheme and was covered with Martian dust. 'It's nice,' he said.
'It's more than nice, it's one of the first fully Martian tanks.'
'What do you mean?' he asked.
'It rolled off the assembly line in New Pittsburgh less than two weeks ago. One of the first generation that we've produced without Earthling managers in the plant. How about that?'
'I think that's fuckin' static,' he said, at first just saying what he thought she wanted to hear but after thinking it over for a second he really did start to think it was fucking static.
Another biosuited figure came strolling over to them. It was a female, Jeff saw, and, though it wasn't possible to make a really good assessment through the faceplate and the curve-hiding biosuit, it appeared she was reasonably attractive. She carried a long, steel, tubular looking device in her hands. She smiled as she saw Xenia looking at her.
Xenia held up seven fingers again and the woman switched to that channel.
'Belinda,' Xenia said, 'this is Jeff Creek from the infantry. He's the guy I've been telling you about. Jeff, Belinda Maxely.'
'Nice to meet you,' Jeff said, politely enough.
'Nice to meet you,' she returned. 'Xenia's been telling me a lot about you these last few days.'
'Has she?' he asked, pleased and a little surprised.
'Well... not a lot,' Xenia cut in, her face obviously in a state of blush. She shook her head a little, as if to clear it. 'Jeff, did you know that Belinda here is a master chef?'
'A master chef?' he said. 'No shit?'
'No shit,' Xenia confirmed. 'She's from New Pittsburgh, like Zen. She went to culinary school after high school and worked in a Mama Rosa's as one of the culinary techs until the war.'
'Mama Rosa's?' Jeff said. 'Ain't that one of them high-class rich prick places the Earthlings all eat at?'
'Yes,' Belinda said. 'I guess you could say that. Have you ever been to one?'
Jeff laughed. 'I ain't never been in a fuckin' restaurant in my life,' he said. 'I'm fuckin' vermin, you know.'
This statement made Belinda look a little uncomfortable. Silence descended on the net. Xenia gave an annoyed look at Jeff and then turned back to Belinda. 'What do you got there?' she asked. 'You lubing the tank again?'
'I just want to put a little more in the seals,' she confirmed. 'Just to be sure.'
'It's a brand new tank, hon,' Xenia said. 'I don't think it's up for a maintenance regiment yet.'
'Better safe than sorry,' Belinda said. She looked at Jeff again, looked away, and then back at Xenia. 'Well, I'd better get to it. Nice to meet you... uh...'
'Jeff,' he said.
'Right... Jeff,' she responded, something that seemed almost venomous in her tone now.
She walked over to the other side of the tank, disappearing from view.
'Why don't we take a little walk?' Xenia suggested. 'My legs can use a stretch after all the sitting around.'
'Uh... right, fuckin' aye,' Jeff said.
Xenia gave him an uninterpretable look and then led him off to the east, in the direction of the artillery guns. They passed other tanks and a few APCs, most of them with crewmembers sleeping on the ground or on the tread guards. A few infantry troops were wandering around, doing what Jeff was doing and visiting acquaintances. They all nodded at him when they saw him, as the tankers did when they saw Xenia. Soon they came to the base of a small hill, well outside the one hundred meter range of the extremely short-range frequency. They found a rock to sit on at the base of a shallow hill.
'What's up with that Belinda bitch?' Jeff asked. 'She looked like she wanted to tear my asshole out.'
'Belinda's a sweetie,' Xenia said. 'She's just shy with people she doesn't know.'
'She a clit-licker?'
Xenia winced a little and gave him a sour look. 'The correct term for lesbian homosexuality is 'muff muncher',' she said sternly. 'I'll thank you to use that in my presence.'
Jeff looked at her, somewhat taken aback. 'Sorry,' he said, wondering what he'd done to offend her. 'Muff muncher then. Is she one of them? I mean she
'She's a muff muncher,' Xenia confirmed. 'And she has a bit of a crush on me as I'm sure you've picked up on. That's why she was giving you the cold shoulder.' She blushed a little. 'I'm afraid I've been talking about you quite a bit these past few days.'
Jeff felt the flush again, worse even than when she'd hugged him. 'Really?' he asked.
She nodded. 'Really,' she confirmed, flashing him a smile that shined right through the faceplate.
'I've... uh... been talking a lot about you too,' he said. 'And thinking about you too.'
'I know,' she said. 'And so has Belinda.'
'She just met you,' he said. 'She just wants to eat your tuna casserole, doesn't she?'
'No,' Xenia said. 'To both questions.'
'Huh?'
She sighed. 'We didn't just meet. Belinda and I went to basic together and were sent to armor training together. She was assigned an admin position until now because there weren't enough combat positions open. When Sanchez died she requested transfer to my tank. And she doesn't just want a piece of my casserole. She's been in love with me since the beginning I think.'
'In love with you?' he asked.
She nodded. 'We had a... well... a little fling in basic,' she said. 'It seems that might have reinforced the feeling a little.'
Jeff was completely unshocked by this revelation. In Martian culture there was no stigma whatsoever about homosexual relations, bisexual relations, or even both at the same time. Among women especially a little feminine piece on the side was almost the normal state of affairs, although until the revolution the FLEB had tried to crack down on that sort of thing. 'Doesn't she know you like the beefsteak better?' he asked her.
'Who says I do like the beefsteak better?' she shot back.
This one shocked him a little. He had taken her for primarily heterosexual. 'You... you don't?' he asked.
She shrugged. 'I'm only twenty-two,' she said. 'I'm too young to know what I like the most. I'm also too young to be falling in love.'
'So what are you saying?'
'I'm not saying anything,' she said. 'I'm very fond of you, Jeff. I'm very fond of Zen too, although I think that is more of camaraderie thing.' She took a deep breath. 'And I can't stop thinking about Belinda either. She loves me.'
He had never said this to anyone in his life before — not his parents, not his best friend, not his wife — but he said it now. 'I love you too.'
She shook her head violently. 'Don't say that right now, Jeff,' she told him. 'Don't even think it.'
'But, Xenia...'
'This is the same thing I told Belinda the first day she came to my tank. It's the same thing I told Zen and even Sanchez, rest his soul. Don't say you love me and I won't say I love you. We're in the middle of a fucking war
