“Yeah, right there. That’s the sort of crap I’m talking about. What gives you the right to decide I’m a major all of a sudden? I’ve been in charge of a full division for years before all this alien nonsense hit the fan.”
It was my turn to cut him off. I grabbed the wheel. I didn’t want to crash, because I didn’t think he would survive it. With my other hand, I grabbed his chin and turned his face toward me, treating him like he was a little kid.
Robinson stared at me in shock, rage, and pain. My fingers weren’t in ‘gentle mode’. There would be serious bruises on his face when I let go of him.
“I invented this organization. You’re a Major now because I say you are.”
He drew his sidearm then. If I’d had a couple more free hands, I might have applauded. At least he had guts. Instead, the hand I had on the wheel flicked up and knocked the gun out the window. There was an explosion of glass, mostly outward onto the road. The window had been closed, but the gun hit it with such force it didn’t matter.
I let him go after that and he had to turn his attention back to the wheel and the road. The tires made thumping sounds as we ran over reflectors. A few palm fronds slapped the windshield. He cursed a bit, but he had taken his foot off the gas when I grabbed him, so we had been losing speed. He got control of the car and lived. He stopped the Hummer and glared at me with crossed arms, daring me to force him to drive further.
“I bet that’s the closest you’ve come to death since the war began,” I remarked.
“You’re crazy. Absolutely crazy. You could have killed us.”
“No, not us,” I said, “just you.”
Robinson looked at me, and now his anger had been erased. I’d replaced it with exasperation. Good, I thought.
“You’re probably wondering what the hell my problem is, Robinson,” I said.
“Damn straight I am.”
“I can tell you’re listening now, so I’ll tell you what’s bothering me. Major, I’ve decided I’m not going to lose Star Force, or the nanites that course through my blood—not my girlfriend, either. If I let the Earth governments take over this operation, they will screw it up somehow. They will squabble over everything we have, trying to steal samples of our technology. They will still be arguing in some court somewhere about who owns the patent for portable fusion reactors when the bill comes due at the end of the year.”
“The bill?”
“Our tribute. Our blood-payment. We are supposed to march thousands of troops aboard a Macro ship in a year’s time. Even if the governments manage to pull it together enough to do that, I’m sure they can’t simultaneously produce a strong fleet to defend Earth by then.”
“A new fleet? Why do we need a new fleet?”
“Did you like getting your face grabbed? That’s what happens to weak worlds in this brave new universe we live in.”
“You think the Macros might go back on their deal?”
I shrugged. “Maybe. Remember, when I made the deal, I had the strength of hundreds of Nano ships behind me. We couldn’t have won a fight to the finish, but the enemy believed we were strong enough to do them some damage. We’d proven it time and again on the battlefield and in space.”
Major Robinson sat back, looking out the windshield at the road. He frowned fiercely. I supposed it was his first deep-thinking experience in a long time. “So, you think the Macros might just see how weak we are and change their minds?”
“The Macros are machines, Robinson. They don’t know anything about honor or mercy. They think like accountants. I’m not even sure they think, exactly. What they understand is problem-solving and costs versus benefits. To them, my deal was the easiest solution to a problem. If we don’t have a fleet to threaten them when they come back, they might decide on a different course of action.”
Robinson nodded slowly. “And you don’t think the Earth governments will understand that part?”
“No. Human beings don’t normally learn anything without firsthand experience. They don’t understand these machines yet.”
He snorted. “And you do? You know it all, when it comes to machine aliens you’ve never even met?”
“Oh, I’ve met them all right. I’ve been in their faces and under their belly-turrets more than anyone I know of. Enough, I think, to have a good idea of how they will react.”
Robinson started up the Hummer again. He drove on through the jungle. I was glad about that. I needed to keep moving, and I didn’t want to kick his butt out onto the asphalt for disobeying orders.
“Okay, fine,” he said after another mile of greenery had gone by. “Why can’t we just cooperate with the NATO people?”
“We will, but on our terms. The Earth governments will want a strong defense, but they won’t quite be able to fully cooperate. They won’t be able to fully bring down all the barriers, to forget about all their old rivalries and politics.”
Robinson gave me a longer, strange look. “Why are you telling me all this? And why did you grab my face like, like—”
“Why did I humiliate you? Why did I treat you like a reform-school bully? Because I wanted you to listen—but it’s more than that. Do you realize that any marine under your command could have done the same? That you are like a child to your own troops? You have to undergo the nanite-injections. All of my officers have to be shot-up with nanites from now on. I won’t have men leading men who could kick their butts in a second.”
Robinson’s lips were a thin line. He looked pale. “No one knows the long term effects—”
“No. No we don’t. But your men have already done it. They’ve put their lives on the line. If you want to lead them, you will have to do the same. Crow should never have let you into the Force without the injections.”
We drove for a while, quietly. A green Bahaman Parrot with brilliant blue wingtips sailed by in front of us. The bird had time to squawk at us once, irritably, before we were gone, barreling down the forest road.
“Why do you think Crow did that?” asked Robinson thoughtfully. “Why did he let us in without undergoing the injections?”
“I haven’t talked to him about it,” I said, “but I know Crow fairly well. I’m sure it made it easier to convince officers to join. But I think he also did it because he was scared. Maybe not scared, but too paranoid about his own skin to take the injections himself. So, he made it a rule that upper management didn’t need to go through it. That way, he didn’t have to.”
Robinson thought quietly for a few miles, and I let him do it.
“So, what’s the deal, then?” he asked me finally.
“The deal?”
“Between us.”
I nodded. “You’re a Major. You take the injections. You follow my orders. That’s the deal.”
“And if I refuse?”
“Then you’re out.”
He threw up his hands. “Where’s the giant robot hand? I’m expecting to be ripped out of this Hummer and dumped into the ocean.”
I looked at him for a second. Apparently, my handling of General Sokolov had left a lasting impression. Good, I thought. “Nope. If you refuse my terms, you just ship out to the mainland with the next load of cargo.”
Robinson fell silent again. After another mile or so we reached the secret base. We were challenged at the gates by my marines. They recognized me and waved us in. These were my most loyal men. I’d hand-picked them for the duty. Most were American, but there was a number of Indian Ghataks mixed in. I’d left Staff Sergeant Kwon in command. I leaned out the window and waved over the guard. By the look of him, he was one of the Ghataks, a commando.
“Corporal,” I said, calling him over, “has there been anything strange going on?”