EIGHT LIGHT YEARS FROM HOME
âAll is quiet on the perimeter, Captain,â Aiken said. âSounds like the Frogsâre pretty riled up in the âville, though. Do you think theyâll attack us?â
âIt could happen,â Pearson replied. âThe ambassador still hasnât answered Geremeletâs ultimatum.â
âTheyâre not talking about ⦠surrendering, are they?â
âNot that Iâve heard, Master Sergeant. Donât worry, it wonât come to that.â
âYeah. The Marines never surrender.â
âThatâs what they say. Keep a sharp watch.â
âAye aye, sir.â
Aiken turned and looked into the southern sky, where the first stars were beginning to appear. Eight light-years from home had not much altered the familiar constellations, though the dome of the sky was strangely canted against the cardinal directions. There was a bright star, however, in the otherwise dim and unremarkable constellation Scutum, not far from the white beacon of Fomalhaut.
Sol. Earthâs sun. As always, the sight of that star sent a shiver down Aikenâs spine. So far away, in both space and time.
Eight point three light-years. Help from home could not possibly arrive in time â¦
12 MAY 2138
Firebase Frog
New Summer
Ishtar, Llalande 21185 IID
72:26 hours Local Time
Master Sergeant Gene Aiken leaned against the sandbag barricade and stared out across the Saimi-Id River. Smoke rose from a half-dozen buildings, staining the pale green of the early evening sky. Marduk, vast and swollen, aglow with deep-swirling bands and storms in orange-amber light, hung immense and sullen, as ever just above the western horizon. The gas giantâs slender crescent bowed up and away from the horizon where the red sun had just set; its night side glowed with dull red heat as flickering pinpoints, like twinkling stars, marked the pulse and strobe of continent-size lightning storms deep within that seething atmosphere.
The microimplants in Aikenâs eyes turned brooding red dusk to full light, while his battle helmetâs tactical feed displayed ranges, angles, and compass bearing superimposed on his view, as well as flagging thermal and movement targets in shifting boxes and cursor brackets.
The sergeant studied Mardukâs blood-glow for a moment, then looked away. At his back, with a shrill whine of servomotors, the sentry towerâs turret swiveled and depressed, matching the movements of his head.
He could hear the chanting and the drumming, off to the east, as the crowds gathered at the Pyramid of the Eye. It was, he thought, going to be a very long night indeed.
âHowâs it going, Master Sergeant?â
Aiken didnât turn, not when he was linked in with the sentry. His battle feed had warned him of Captain Pearsonâs approach.
âAll quiet on the perimeter, Captain,â he replied. âSounds like the Frogsâre pretty riled up down in the âville, though.â
âWord just came through from the embassy compound,â Pearson said. âThe rebel abos have seized control in a hundred villages. The âHigh Emperor of the Godsâ is calling for calm and understanding from his people.â The way he said it, the title was a sneer.
Abos, abs, aborigines; Frogs, or Froggers. All were terms for the dominant species of Ishtar ⦠ways of dehumanizing them.
Which was a damned interesting idea when you realized how not human the Ahannu were.
âDo you think theyâll attack us?â
âIt could happen. The ambassador still hasnât answered Geremeletâs ultimatum.â
A gossamer flitted in the ruby light, twisting and shifting, a delicate ribbon of iridescence. Aiken lifted the muzzle of his 2120 and caught the frail creature, watching it quiver against the hard black plastic of the weaponâs barrel in bursts of rainbow color. Other gossamers danced and jittered in the gathering darkness, delicate sparkles of bioluminescence.
âTheyâre not talking about ⦠surrendering, are they?â
âNot that Iâve heard, Master Sergeant. Donât worry. It wonât come to that.â
âYeah. The Marines never surrender.â
âThatâs what they say. Keep a sharp watch. Thereâve been reports of frogger slaves trying to gain entrance at some of the other bases. They might be human, but we canât trust them.â
âAye aye, sir.â The Ahannu slaves, descendants of humans taken from Earth millennia ago, gave Aiken the creeps. No way was he letting them through his part of the perimeter.
âGood man. Give a yell if you need help.â
âYou donât need to worry about that, sir.â He hesitated, looking up at the vast and seething globe of Marduk. âHey, Captain?â
âWhat?â
âSome of the guys were having a friendly argument the other night. Is Ishtar a planet or a freakinâ moon?â