I crossed my arms, put my butt against the tabletop and leaned against it. “I hate this blindness. I’m going to turn on our active scanners.”
“Sir,” Robinson said, “As a marine officer, I have to warn you that is strictly against protocol for any insertion mission. In our own military forces back on Earth, you don’t start pinging when you don’t even know what is outside the ship.”
“That’s the whole point of pinging, Major.”
“But sir, we don’t know the tactical situation. We can’t do something like that unilaterally. The enemy might be listening for just such a signal to locate this convoy and destroy it.”
I cleared my throat, knowing he was right. “Okay, I’ll talk to the Macros about it.”
Robinson gave me a look that indicated he didn’t think much of my chances, but I ordered the command module to open a channel to Macro Command anyway.
“Relay to Macro Command: We would like to turn on active sensors.”
The answer came back immediately, and it was definitive. “Incoming Message: Permission denied.”
“Why not?” I asked. I closed my eyes and sighed the moment I’d spoken the words.
“Incoming Message: Cargo is not permitted interrogatives.”
“Yes, right. Send them this: provide us your passive sensor feed so we can monitor our approach to target.”
“Incoming Message: Request denied.”
“Then at least allow me to place my own passive sensors on the ship’s hull!” I shouted.
There was a long pause. Everyone looked at the walls around us.
“Incoming Message: Permission granted.”
“Ha!” I hooted and clapped my hands together. “We’ll be able to see what’s around us in an hour!”
Everyone tried to look happy for me. It took a moment to notice they looked a little green, too.
“What’s wrong now?”
“Who’s going to install the sensor array, sir?” asked Captain Sarin.
I suddenly understood her concern. “Send two of our best techs.”
Everyone in the command brick relaxed a little. They were all happy they didn’t get the assignment.
-39-
We watched on the cameras as two suited men strapped sagging tool belts around their waists and lifted a barrel-like container between them. They were unarmed and anxious. The weightless environment made things much easier. They simply walked out onto the top of a brick in the maintenance and supply area and jumped toward the ceiling. They did a slow spin and landed on their magnetic boots. They were about thirty yards from the four Macro guards. They stepped toward the guards, who didn’t move except to swivel their weapons systems. They tracked the approaching men flawlessly.
I frowned. “They could at least move out of the way,” I said.
My marines took ten steps closer, then twenty. They walked slower as they approached. They tried waving at the Macros and gesturing for them to move aside. One of the machines twitched its gun-mount, tracking the gesturing hand.
One of the staffers in the command module waved to me. He handed me a com-link unit. “It’s the two engineers, sir. They don’t like it.”
“I don’t blame them,” I said. “Just tell them to standby. I’ll talk to the Macros. Maybe they don’t quite get that we have to enter their ship in order to do the job. Damned machines.”
“Command module, relay to Macro Command the following: Allow my technicians to pass your guards and set up the sensor array.”
A few seconds passed. I watched as the two men stood there, moving uncomfortably.
“Incoming Message: Give us your location.”
“We’re right there, standing in front of you.”
“Incoming Message: Give us the location of Kyle Riggs.”
“Me? I’m right here. I’m in my command module, my brick, just where I’ve been every time I—” I said, then suddenly I halted. Something was wrong. “No, wait I—”
But it was too late. The four Macro guards in their diamond formation were carefully placed. All of them had a free field of fire and could burn down my men without injuring one another. Two of them fired on each of my unarmed engineers. The men were cut in half by the initial blazes of energy. They hadn’t even had the chance to scream. But the Macros weren’t done yet. They kept firing on the floating pieces until nothing bigger than a burnt finger drifted around in the hold. A mass of vapor, much of it atomized particles of my marines, floated in a steamy haze that obscured the Macros. The four machines still twitched, as if looking for fresh targets of sufficient mass to warrant further blasting. I noticed the sensor unit was still there, magnetically attached to the roof of the hold. They had not damaged it in the slightest.
I ripped my com-link off and threw it onto the table. “Dammit!”
The link beeped and I snatched it up again. A familiar voice spoke in my ear. It was Sergeant Kwon. I’d placed him on operational security. Apparently, he’d watched the fiasco on the ceiling.
“Sir, I’m requesting permission to burn down those machines.”
“No. Request denied.”
“Sir, I won’t lose a single trooper doing it.”
“I know you won’t, Sergeant. But I don’t need to compound this misunderstanding.”
Two seconds of silence followed. “Yes, sir. Standing by.”
I took a deep breath and looked around at my stunned command staff.
“Are we prisoners, sir?” asked Captain Sarin.
“What did we misunderstand?” asked Major Robinson.
I looked at them both. “The Macros are very literal. They gave me permission to install the sensor. That’s because, as I recall now, I demanded they allow me to install it.”
Major Robinson got it first. “Ah… so they figured out it wasn’t you standing there at the exit when you contacted them.”
“They confirmed I wasn’t one of the engineers, yes—and then they burned down two perfectly good men because they were too close to the portal,” I said. I was angry with myself and the Macros. I stepped to an emergency locker and broke out a combat suit.
Major Robinson came around to talk to me quietly. “Sir, you don’t have to go out there.”
I looked at him. “No. But I’m sick of sitting here in the dark. Don’t you want to know what this ship looks like? Don’t you think it would help our assault if we could see the world we were landing on?”
Tight-lipped, he nodded and backed away.
“You’re in command while I’m out of contact, Major,” I said, slipping on a hood and tapping to activate the nanites. They sealed the hood into place and I touched another contact to pressurize the suit.
I left them there, at the command table. I walked out into the airlock and jumped to the ceiling. I was glad for every zero-G training exercise I’d participated in. I did a somersault and landed on my feet on the roof of the hold. Clanking along, I soon stood amongst the burn marks that represented two of my men. I eyed the Macro guards with disdain.
“I’m Kyle Riggs. Let me pass.”
After a few tense seconds, they broke formation and revealed a dark hole in the ceiling between them. I released the magnetic clamps on the sensor array and picked it up. The sensor array was about the size and dimensions of a trashcan. It was bulky, but weightless, as the Macro ship was now coasting.