In the meantime, Gideon had turned his attention and his rifle to the two young street hoods. With a fatherly smile, he now spoke kindly, almost jovially, “So, I understand you fellers might be looking for a little work?”
***
“You look good in black,” Dee needled Tiger as they walked out of one of the barracks dressed like two Space Guard troopers.
“Shuddup!” Tiger growled. “It’s bad enough I’m wearing this shit. I don’t need no heckling from the peanut gallery.”
“Hey! I’m serious,” Dee insisted as he checked the charge on his Authority-issue pulse rifle. “Girls love a man in uniform, and you know what they say … black is beautiful!”
“Yeah, yeah,” Tiger felt like worms were crawling over his body. The sight of this uniform had always sent a gamut of emotions rushing through him … and none were positive or admirable. Completely black, save for some blood-red trim around the collar and cuffs and unit insignia on the left upper sleeve, it was not a uniform meant to inspire or reassure. It was designed for one thing: to intimidate.
There was a reason the German SS uniform was black.
Dee pointed to Tiger’s Spacehawk, now holstered in the uniform belt. “You better hope they don’t look too closely at that.”
“I’ll take my chances, but I ain’t leaving it behind.” He powered up his rifle. Zrreeeem! “Let’s go! This shit’s givin’ me a rash!”
“Keep the butt against your shoulder, the barrel down and hand on the grip once we get closer,” Dee instructed. “Trigger finger extended, but not on the trigger until you’re ready to shoot. That baby will go off if you breathe hard on it.”
“How do you know this shit?”
“Skeeter used to be Guard. He was at that clusterfuck on Luna.”
Tiger froze. Stopping in his tracks, he grabbed the other man’s arm. “What’d you just say?”
“Skeeter was at Luna Three.”
“You gotta be shittin’ me? He was part of … of …” He felt the rage well up and fought to control it. You mustn’t! “That!” was all he could finally blurt out.
“Hell, it ain’t like he wanted to be there, Tiger. He didn’t have much of a choice in the matter.” He looked curiously at Tiger. “Why do you care? You weren’t there.”
He knew he was in a corner. He couldn’t say too much without incriminating himself. He had to tread very, very lightly.
“A lot of good colonists died … people I knew … friends.”
“Skeeter told me something once along those same lines … said a lot of his friends died there too. They were just wearing this uniform.”
Yeah, I know! I might’ve killed some of those friends of his! He realized he was clenching his jaw so tight the muscles were starting to hurt. “C’mon! Let’s go play fuckin’ soldier!”
They began jogging toward the igloo, Tiger trying to emulate Dee’s form as much as he could. The sun hadn’t come up completely, and he hoped the predawn darkness would hide any apparent shortcomings. If they were made, there was no way they were getting out of this one. They’d be gunned down where they stood or shipped off to suffer years of maddening isolation in deep space hell.
He decided he’d go down in a blaze of glory.
An officer saw them coming and hailed them. “Where the fuck you two been?” he barked out with the arrogance of a man used to ordering people around.
“Sorry, sir!” Dee shouted back. “Trooper Gunderson here …” He grabbed Tiger’s arm and pulled him forward. “He got a bit wasted at the canteen last night. He needed a little help getting in uniform.”
“Well, get his sorry ass to your unit before I have you both brought up before the Man!” He was a thickset man who appeared to have spent many a point on suds himself over the years. As they got closer, they could see he wore the rank of Captain on his collar. Below the tinted visor of his battle helmet, a thick, walrus mustache hid his mouth, so that when he spoke, it wobbled like a fat caterpillar moving across his face.
“Aye, Cap’n, sir!” Dee saluted as best he could. Tiger didn’t even attempt to comply, but hung his head, hoping maybe Dee’s ruse might work. It appeared it might. They started toward the entrance when the Captain bellowed again.
“Hold it right there, you two!”
Shit! Here we go! Tiger darted a glance over to Dee, whose eyes were wide with terror. This wasn’t what he wanted. Dee wasn’t a gun hand.
He flipped the safety off on the rifle and took a deep breath. Ain’t’ what I wanted either, old friend!
And then he turned.
***
When Stella stepped off the hospital elevator, the trooper guarding Jocko’s room looked like he’d seen a ghost.
“Why, I thought you were missing.” His face registered puzzlement. “The whole post is out looking for you.”
“It’s a woman’s prerogative to disappear if she wants,” she replied curtly.
“True, but Special Inspector Burlington thought someone had bagged your ass. You had him trippin’ his shit!”
“Well, he’s fine now. I called and let him know everything’s cool.” Her voice sounded the same, but to the trooper, something just wasn’t right. She didn’t address him directly. She wasn’t looking at him. She was just staring off into space with dead, emotionless eyes. Her movements seemed stiff, almost mechanical. He was instantly concerned.
“And where is Special Inspector Burlington?” His eyebrow raised. “You’ve never come here alone before.”
“He had some urgent business to attend to down at the Post. He just wanted me to stop by and check on the patient.” She started past him to do the opti-dermal scan. “I won’t be but a few minutes.”
“Hold on!” He grabbed her arm. “Where’s the doctor? He’s always with you as well.”
“I don’t need a doctor just to download his chart.”
The trooper wasn’t convinced. “You’ve always needed him before.”
“Ok … look.” She held up her
