jeriendhal | Returned to Life, Part Twenty-One (Reply)

“No! Damn it, let go of me!” But the sergeant's grip was unrelenting as he pulled her back into the corridor, away from Lance and Leeza. “What's the matter with you? They're going to get killed!”

“More than likely.” She stumbled along, forced to follow or be dragged, until Gunny led her into a dusty side corridor. “I thought you were supposed to be some kind of genius. Ain't you figured it out yet?”

“Figure out what? All that's going to happen is that Leeza and Lance are sure to be caught! Every lizard in this rock is going to swarm over them the moment they're detected...” Rachael felt her face go flush. “Oh.”

“They rescue the kid, they might cause a fuss, depends on how quiet they can manage it,” Gunny told her. “They get caught, they're certain to make a fuss.”

“And in the meantime we find a shuttle and get away,” Rachael concluded. “Why would they want us to get away so badly that they'd sacrifice themselves?”

“Not us, but the news about this base. This is the frontier and it's nearly on the opposite side of the border between the GSA and the Ardies. There are almost no friendly military assets in this area. Old as it is, a fleet like the one the Varn have in this rock could rampage for weeks before any kind of serious resistance could be mounted. By that time they could have taken enough habitable worlds to make a serious dent in Gal Sapien commerce and supply lines. Maybe enough to make a counter-attack almost impossible.”

“But only if it stays a secret, long enough for the Varn to get ready. Am I right?”

“Right,” Gunny agreed. “So we've got the critical mission. We have to get clear of this system, so we can transmit everything we know to Gal Sapiens Command. Everything else is secondary, even rescuing that Ferin kid.”

Rachael gave him a sober nod. “I understand. I guess we'd better not dilly-dally then.” She followed him back into the main corridor, staying close as Gunny went ahead, scanning around them with his augmented senses, occasionally pulling them off into a side corridor when a Galapados patrol came too near. After the third near miss, she asked, “Gunny, could you pilot any ship we find?”

“Well, I wouldn't want to try handling a Varn ship,” he said, “but it looks like they've got enough Bright Glider fighters, those flying wing models we saw earlier, that there has to be at least one working model down there. They were designed for Vulpine pilots, and I had enough small ship piloting in Basic to be able handle a fighter without smearing myself on the side of an asteroid.”

“Do you want me getting involved, if we get into a fight?”

Gunny shook his head. “Girl, the only thing you could do in a serious fight is keep your head down. Bravery only goes so far. Besides, you're a GSA civilian. Protecting you is part of my job.”

Rachael frowned. “I'm not, you know, a GSA citizen that is. I'm both a citizen of Australia and the Aboriginal Autonomous Territory, but not the Galactic Sapiens Alliance. It didn't even exist when I was alive, alive for the first time, I mean. Anyway, you've got no real obligation to protect me.”

“Whatever. I'm not going to lose what whiskers I've got left worrying about it. Anyway, I'm the soldier and you're the civilian. Like I said, it's my job to protect you.”

“Your job is to protect the whole GSA,” she pointed out. “If you don't get the information we've found to your commanders, nothing else matters.”

Gunny looked her over carefully. “What are you getting at, girlie?”

Rachael took a deep breath. “Wouldn't it be easier for you to steal a ship, if the Varn and their soldiers had two distractions to deal with?”

“What? Oh, fragg no, Rachael!”

“It's only sensible! Look, I'm not a soldier, you said so yourself. Dragging me along and trying to keep me safe is a distraction for you, maybe a fatal one. Besides, I've got flipping homing device inside me! If I leave you, I'll show up on the Galapados's scanners and they'll have to come after me. Maybe I might draw enough of them away that Leeza and Lance will have a better chance at rescuing Terinu as well.”

Gunny's drew himself up to his full height, which was still half a head shorter than herself. “Frell no, Rachael, you're going to stick with me. Now you can do it walking, or you can do it slung on my back in a hogtie, your choice, but I am not going to leave you alone. From the story Leeza was telling in the cell, that General Gisko of theirs already has a mad on about you. You think I'm just going to let you get caught by him, to be interrogated or worse?”

“It's a good plan!”

Gunny lowered his voice to almost a whisper, his eye never leaving hers. “Rachael, I've already managed to kill four children. I don't want to have a fifth on my soul when the Den Mother looks to see if I'm worthy to rest by her fire.”

“How many other children are going to be threatened with death, if that Varn fleet launches with no one ready to oppose it?” she asked him. Gunny opened his mouth to make a further argument, but she cut him off. “I'm no child anymore, Gunny, not since the Varn blew up Unity Station and killed my two best friends. If I go back to Earth, I'm not even going to be that anymore. I'll just be a symbol, to be dragged out whenever a politician wants to make a point about something. They all think I'm a hero, but I'm not. I just died, that's all. I hate the idea of going back and never having a normal life again. But if I can make a difference, here and now, by providing enough of a distraction for you to get away, then I can die happy.”

Gunny tried to stare her down a moment longer, then turned his head away. “How do you want to do this?”

Rachael breathed a sigh of relief. “Flip your sensor spoofer off an on a few times, like its starting to malfunction. That might be enough to get the Galapados attention, make it seem like we're still trying to keep me hidden, but blowing it. Then we go our separate ways. I'll try to put as much distance between you and I as I can before I'm caught.”

Gunny nodded soberly. Then he snapped off a salute to her in crisp military fashion. “Confusion to the enemy, Rachael Namatjira.”

She smiled wanly. “That's the idea.”