edge of an inland salt sea and parked our aircar on the beach near the languid green waves.
“Suck it up!” Psycho shouted.
“On deck, trooper! Yummies!” Coolhand kicked sand all over me, stinging my skin. I opened my eyes. A can of bitter tumbled end over end in the air, glittering, heading right for my head. I caught it, snapped it open, and drank. Ice, exploding. What a day!
Swimming, sunbathing and succumbing to the all-too-human joy of warm sand between our toes, we gathered around a dropbox covered with hot comrats and cold drinks. Brown soldier ants, I thought, all skin and muscle and desire and nerves. I could not be happier, here, at the end of the journey, with the sunlight of a lost star warming my flesh.
Priestess wore tight panties and a sleeveless top. It did not leave much to the imagination. She was all legs and arms, toasting in the sun, a vision of incredible beauty completely at ease, surrounded by a gang of death- weary, sex-starved professional killers. It was probably the safest spot on the planet. Every single one of us would have died to protect her, and we knew she would do the same for us. Anyone who even laid an uninvited finger on her would have to answer to the rest of the squad. Chances are, the squad would need a replacement soldier while the offender took on a new career as worm food.
The gentle green waves lapped at the shore with a faint hiss. Tiny creatures darted about in the foam. I got up and ambled over to the eats.
“You should take a look at Ironman, Priestess.” Dragon sounded concerned. “He’s having trouble sleeping when we’re on duty at the squadmod. Guy just can’t sleep anymore. Keeps going out for air at night. He must walk all night, he’s so pale and exhausted when he gets back. I think he’s sick.”
It got a laugh, and Dragon took a long drink of iced juice. Ironman’s relationship with the native girl made him a good target for jibes. He was so quiet and good-natured that it never seemed to bother him. He just sat there faintly smiling, brushing his long hair back with one hand. Come to think of it, he had been spending a lot of time with Morning Light.
“Have a drink, Ironman. Don’t listen to these guys.” Snow Leopard smiled. His skin was turning red. By late afternoon it would be purple.
Coolhand got up and waded into the water with Warhound. Coolhand was a good soul. He seemed happy with the Legion and with himself. I knew he had come from an unhappy world and perhaps that explained him.
Redhawk was taking a rare break away from his beloved aircar. He made a show of splashing out to join the others, clowning around and flapping his arms like some great bird. His long, shaggy hair and scraggly beard made him look like some primitive hominid attacking modern human perfection.
“Universal Biotics,” Psycho was saying. “They’re the ones! If you get a biogen from UB, you’re set for life.” He laughed and took another swig of bitter. We sat in the shade of the aircar. Psycho held forth on his favorite subject.
“They will do absolutely anything you want! And you can set them for whatever you want-pick a personality, pick a fetish, pick a vice-you got it!”
“Are we gonna hear this again?” Dragon was not impressed.
“May Deadman walk if I’m lying! I swear on the cross this is true! It was just before I joined the Legion. I was a…well, kind of a security guard for this extremely wealthy sub who owned most of what was worth owning in those parts. Well, one day he…”
“The last time you were an arms salesman,” Dragon objected.
“That was a different story,” Psycho explained. “Anyway, he went away. He did that a lot. And he left me in charge of the interior of the…well, I suppose you lowlifes would call it a palace.” Psycho paused to take a sip.
“So he had this biogen girl. She was something! They are fanatics at Universal Biotics. I swear, they must give free units to the techs, because those techs really put their hearts into their work.”
“Not only their hearts,” Merlin observed.
“Yeah, well, they have to test the units, right? Anyway, I did a little research in the owner’s manual. If you should ever be fortunate enough to own a biogen, don’t leave the manual lying around under maglocks. Anybody can get into those things.”
Psycho’s eyes got misty as he spoke. “He always turned her off when he left. You’re not supposed to, it’s very bad for the units. But I told you he was a sub. He didn’t care, he just didn’t want her wandering around. Anyway, I did the door and there she was on the bed, out like a stone. I did my adjustments-and believe me, it wasn’t easy- and then I turned her on.”
“So what happened?” Ironman had an innocent streak that surfaced from time to time.
“Well, I tell you,” Psycho reminisced, and the tired, familiar story took on epic, if crude, proportions.
###
“That’s really disgusting,” Priestess observed quietly when he was through.
Psycho ignored her. “Of course, it was one chance in a lifetime. Those babies are expensive. Not for the likes of the Legion! But I dream that one of these days we’ll be busting our way into some place and there she’ll be-my biogen!” He took a long drink and looked up to the sun, completely happy. Psycho was crazy. He probably did dream about biogens.
I wished I could relax, like the others, but I couldn’t. Nasty rumors circulated in the Second about intercepted fragments of Systie conversation. Mysterious voices, whispering to each other. Nobody would confirm it.
An island a short distance from shore beckoned, baking in the sun, pale weathered stone and glittering sands covered with twisted stunted dead trees, burnt white by the elements. Priestess and I went swimming. I strapped my E to my back, just in case, and Priestess had a hot knife at her waist. Some of the guys had gone to sleep in the shade of the aircar.
Warm silky water burnt at my lips and stung my eyes. Sunlight exploded off the surface, glittering like a sea of diamonds. We swam lazily through the warmth to the island. Psycho’s voice floated after us, hanging in the air. “Don’t stay out too late, kiddies, or I’ll tell Valkyrie!”
A white crystal beach, tingling our feet. Priestess was lovely, slim and bronze, tossing her dark, wet hair back. Her sleeveless top clung to her. Her long legs dazzled me. We explored the island slowly, taking our time. The heat was like a great oven. A forest of grotesque dead trees surrounded us, and soon we lost sight of the aircar.
Trees bleached like skulls, bone white, all twisted and torn, rising from the grainy sands.
We had never been alone, really alone, except in the body shop, and I had not even kissed her there. We were pledged to each other now, and we tried to keep it a secret but it wasn’t easy. Thou shalt not mate within thine own squad. This unwritten commandment was frequently broken, and often resulted in transfers. We did not want to be separated, so we were being very careful. The cubes in the squadmod were simply out of the question. The squadmod had no privacy.
I put a hand on Priestess’s shoulder and dropped the E to the sand. She stopped and turned around, her skin wet and glittery from the sand. She came to me gently, with a faint gasp. I was almost in a trance. I don’t think any biogen could have improved on what followed.
The ear-splitting shriek of our aircar’s perimeter defense alarm shattered our bliss. Naked, Priestess and I leapt off the sand and scrambled for our weapons. My E in hand, I found a berm where I could lie prone and cover the aircar. Priestess clung close to my side with her hot knife.
I zoomed in with my sight and saw that the rest of the squad had already sprung into action. Ironman stood on the roof of the aircar with his E, sweeping the southwest horizon with his sight. Dragon lay prone with his E behind a nearby dune. Redhawk had been caught in the water and frantically threshed for shore. The rest quickly took up defensive positions.
“TWO FOUR GAMMA, IDENTIFY YOURSELF AND STATE YOUR INTENTIONS! YOU HAVE TARGETED A FRIENDLY UNIT! YOU ARE ENTERING OUR DZ! AIRCAR TWO FOUR GAMMA ON FULL COMBAT PREP!”
Then it hit me. Gamma! I glanced at Priestess. Her eyes were clenched shut and her lips had become a thin white line.
“IGNITION! WE ARE UNDER ATTACK!” Our aircar boomed out the warning.
The squad starburst away from the aircar, Ironman diving off the roof, the others scattering. Warhound and Coolhand snatched up weapons and ran for cover. Redhawk exploded out of the water and dived onto the sand.
