"The speed of their advance gives us a major advantage," Ba.s.s said, ignoring the remarks. "When a fast-moving object runs into a bigger object moving even faster, it rebounds. Basic physics. We're going here," he sent a signal that made his symbols and routes pulse on the squad leaders' HUDs, "and smack them back so hard they're liable to find themselves back on the surface before they stop rebounding."

The section of schematic the squad leaders examined showed two major corridors. A five-meter-wide corridor made many turns on its inbound journey from the outer tunnel ring; strongpoints had been erected at each turning. The Coalition battalion was advancing along that tunnel. The other major corridor, seven meters wide, that formed an irregular ring inside the outer perimeter, crossed it. Two smaller corridors paralleled the inbound corridor and terminated at the ring-tunnel, only fifty meters to the sides of the intersection. Rooms filled the s.p.a.ces between the inbound and parallel corridors. There weren't any strongpoints noted on the ring or the smaller tunnels.

The routes and symbols Ba.s.s had overlaid on the schematic directed one gun team to set up at a turning of the inbound tunnel where it could fire straight down it past the ring-tunnel. The other gun team went down the left-hand parallel corridor to set up a crossfire along the ring-tunnel. First squad was to set up inside the rooms to the right of the inbound tunnel, and second squad in the rooms to its left. According to still 2-D images Ba.s.s had of the tunnel, the rooms had doors into the inbound tunnel that would allow his Marines to fire down the tunnel while retaining a fair amount of cover.

But, as was often the case, the Marines' best protection from enemy fire was the virtual invisibility provided by their chameleon uniforms. The symbols Ba.s.s drew showing where fire teams and the gun teams went didn't indicate which teams went where. He left those decisions up to the squad leaders.

"Any questions?" he asked when he thought the squad leaders had enough time to examine the schematic. "How many did you say were coming this way?" Kelly asked.

"An understrength battalion." No one said anything for a moment, then Ratliff softly said, "They're in a tunnel. They won't be able to advance more than two fire teams at a time. Hound, one one of your guns could hold them up until they ran out of men-or your gun ran out of power." of your guns could hold them up until they ran out of men-or your gun ran out of power."

"Barring lucky hits," Staff Sergeant Hyakowa said, speaking for the first time.

"These tunnel walls are pretty rough cut," Ba.s.s added, "there aren't any polished surfaces for lasers to reflect off of." Kelly glanced at him, then looked at the other two squad leaders. "I'm putting Barber's gun there. You just worry about keeping your people's heads out of his line of fire." Ba.s.s c.o.c.ked his head, the sounds of fighting were much closer. "Let's do this thing," he said, and snapped his chameleon screen into place. His face vanished.

The sound of pounding footsteps and yells made Lance Corporal Tischler, behind the gun pointed down the inbound tunnel, tense. Next to him, PFC Yi got ready to feed the gun. The whine of laser shots punctuated the noises.

"Easy, easy," Corporal Barber said. "Don't fire until I say to." Listening to the laser fire, he was glad of the lack of reflective surfaces in the tunnel.

The yells, out of sight beyond the bend past the cross tunnel, grew louder, and individual voices became discernible; many of them were screaming.

"Wait for my order." The calmness of Barber's voice didn't show the tenseness he felt.

Suddenly, a running man burst into sight at the bend, seventy-five meters distant.

"Hold it, hold it," Barber murmured.

Tischler's grip tightened on the gun's firing lever.

"Don't shoot! Hold your fire!" Barber said sharply as more running, screaming men turned the bend. "They're ours."

Ensign Ba.s.s's voice giving the same command almost drowned Barber out in the helmet radios of first gun team.

Soldiers of the 27th Division, more than half of them weaponless, pelted wide-eyed along the tunnel, fleeing the advancing Coalition rebels. Some of the running soldiers turned right or left onto the ring-tunnel, but most kept going straight.

"Buddha's b.a.l.l.s!" Barber swore-the soldiers were coming straight at his team, and they couldn't see the Marines in their chameleons. "Get out of their way!" He shoved Tischler to his left, to the inside of the bend. The gun fell over with a clatter because Tischler was caught off guard by Barber's shove. Yi

barely made it to the wall behind the gunner before the other hit the wall.

Barber swore again and reached for the gun to yank it in close. He wasn't fast enough. The first soldier to reach the bend banked hard off the wall on the outside of the bend, but the second soldier skittered to slow down to take the corner and tripped over the gun, knocking it away from Barber's reaching hand. The third soldier tripped over the spinning weapon and sprawled onto the second. In seconds, an entire squad's worth of soldiers had tripped on the gun, soldiers who had fallen before them, or over Barber, who was trying desparately to get the gun out of the way-one of them kicked Barber's head hard enough to partly dislodge his helmet, dazing him.

None of the soldiers seemed aware of the Marines; they scrambled to their feet as fast as they could and took off again. The last of them almost didn't make it-a laser beam bored through the lower part of the soldier's left calf. He didn't seem to notice the injury.

Other soldiers sped through, but there were fewer of them now, and they were more widely s.p.a.ced. Barber finally got hold of the gun and pa.s.sed it to Tischler. Then he scooted forward on his belly to look around the corner.

The bodies of several soldiers littered the tunnel floor; some of the bodies were still moving, and one or two of them were weakly crawling toward the corner where the Marine gun team waited. There was nothing Barber could do for them-maybe the blastermen in the rooms along the corridor could drag them to safety-he had to deal with what he saw beyond the casualties.

Rebel soldiers were advancing along the sides of the tunnel. One man would dash forward, then drop to a p.r.o.ne position with his weapon pointed forward, and another would rise up behind him and dash forward. The enemy soldiers leap-frogged like that on both sides, visible in the middle of the tunnel only at the far end where, one by one, half of them darted across to the opposite wall. The closest of them were almost at the intersection.

"Tischler, get your gun set up next to the corner," he ordered, urgency in his tone. "Fire a burst straight down the wall, then spray the opposite wall beyond the intersection." He could tell by the sounds that Tischler already had the gun back on its tripod and when it was in position.

"What about our people?" Tischler asked.

"Don't worry, they're inside the rooms," Barber said. He shook his head trying to clear it.

"Whatever you say," Tischler replied, and fired a short burst of plasma pulses along the wall.

The invisibility conferred by the chameleons was an optical illusion; Barber couldn't see through through his gunner and the gun, he had to scoot farther out in order to see to direct the gun's fire. his gunner and the gun, he had to scoot farther out in order to see to direct the gun's fire.

It looked like the first, short burst had taken out or knocked down every rebel soldier along the near wall, though more were coming around the far bend and returning fire. Barber watched as Tischler s.h.i.+fted his aim to the other side of the tunnel, spraying up and down to get the soldiers who lay p.r.o.ne as well as those who jumped up to dart forward. He got most of them before they reached the cross tunnel and turned into it. Barber didn't worry about them, Corporal Taylor's second gun team was in position to take them out. As though in answer to Barber's thought, plasma started streaming across his sight from the other gun.

The living rebels still in the tunnel all went p.r.o.ne and spread out to return fire. They may not have been able to see the Marines, but they could see where the plasma bolts were coming from and concentrated their fire on the gun.

"Back!" Barber ordered, scooting backward himself. "Get-" and caught a flash of the most brilliant light he'd ever seen.

If your head's in the line of sight of a laser shot, the beam doesn't need to bounce off a reflective surface to hit you.

Corporal Pasquin had to wonder if he'd made a mistake, leaving the BAS when Staff Sergeant Hyakowa showed up to get any of third platoon's casualties who were ready to return to duty. There'd hardly been enough time for any of the wounds on his back, b.u.t.tocks, and thighs to begin to heal, and he felt every one of them trying to reopen during the ride to the blocking position in the tunnel, and then the run to the positions where third platoon would stop the invading Coalition troops. But he thought of the alternative, leaving the squad three men short, and told himself he could always go back to the battalion aid station after the fight if he needed to. The bigger problem at the moment was that he and both of his men would have to fire through the same doorway when the bad guys came.

"Shoup, can you fire okay p.r.o.ne?"

"Not a problem, honcho," PFC Shoup replied. Pasquin's infra showed his junior man lying with his head in the doorway and only his left arm and shoulder completely out of it.

"Longfellow, kneel to his left so you can fire over him."

"Got it."

That left the off hand-standing-position for Pasquin. It was a triply awkward position for him to take. He had to straddle Longfellow in order to get close enough to the doorway to lean the back of his left shoulder into it, which had the corner of the doorframe in nearly direct contact with one of his wounds. He winced, but held position. Worse than the pain was the fact that he'd have to fire left-handed. Like all infantry Marines, he had significant practice firing from all positions, and had used all of them in combat. He knew that left-handed off hand was his weakest shooting position. But there was no remedy for it; that was the way he had to fire, any other position possible in his fire team's position would aggravate his injuries even worse than this did.

"Hold your fire," he said, as the broken defenders began running around the corner he could barely see from his angle. "Wait for my command. Remember to keep your fire high enough you don't risk hitting Dorny or Gray." First fire team was in the next room closer to the intersection. "When I tell you, shoot through the crossing pa.s.sageway, do not not try to ricochet your shots off the opposite wall. Remember, second squad's over there, let's not shoot our own people." try to ricochet your shots off the opposite wall. Remember, second squad's over there, let's not shoot our own people."

Then the gun opened fire behind them, sending a stream of plasma bolts down the wide corridor. Flashes of laser beams shot past in the opposite direction. Pasquin leaned out farther. His shoulder wound opened and began to ooze blood. He ignored the pain; he could see the enemy.

"Fire!" he commanded, and his fire team opened up on the enemy.

"What do you want to do, Hammer?" Corporal Claypoole asked when second squad took position in rooms on the other side of the broad corridor from first squad.

Schultz raised his helmet screens and spat. Lowering them, he growled, "Kill."

"Ask a stupid question . . ." Claypoole muttered. He looked at the doorway and wondered how he could bring his fire team's full power to bear on the enemy without exposing them too much-the doorway was less than a meter and a half wide, and three of them had to fit in it. He couldn't remember another time when he'd had to fire jammed that tightly together with other Marines.

He poked his head out for a quick glance at the shouts and running footsteps he heard coming toward them, took a longer look than he'd intended and withdrew his head more slowly. "It's the soldiers," he said. "They look like they had the s.h.i.+t scared out of them. Let them by." Inside his helmet, he shook his head sadly. Then he shook his shoulders and got back to the matter at hand-how to set up in the tight s.p.a.ce.

"Hammer, can you fire off hand and leave room for both of us?"

A noise rumbled up from somewhere deep in Schultz's chest; Claypoole took it as a yes.

"All right," Claypoole said, "Wolfman, you go p.r.o.ne. I'll kneel and fire over you. Our own people are in front of us on both sides, be careful you don't shoot them."

Schultz slid his infra screen into place as he turned his head to watch the fleeing soldiers and saw Corporal Barber setting his gun team. "Back," he growled, and shoved Claypoole and MacIlargie out of the doorway, back into the room, seconds before a long burst of fire from the gun streamed down the corridor past their position.

Claypoole yelped when he saw the plasma bolts blur past. "They could have hit us!" he exclaimed.

"What's going on?" MacIlargie yelled. "Barber's too good a gun team leader to make that kind of mistake."

"I don't know," Claypoole snapped. He looked toward Schultz, who stood placidly, watching the plasma bolts from the gun and the laser flashes from the rebels race past. The plasma bolts seemed to be winning, especially when first squad opened up from the other side of the corridor.

Then the gun stopped firing and the laser fire picked up. Schultz was in the doorway firing at the enemy before Claypoole even began to order his men into the tight s.p.a.ce to begin fighting.

Even before Lance Corporal Tischler and PFC Yi pulled Corporal Barber's body to safety and resumed firing down the corridor, the rebel advance was stopped by the ma.s.sive fire put out by the blasters of third platoon. Nearly all of the Coalition troops in the corridor down which the Marines fired were dead or wounded and out of action. Only a few of them, no more than three or four, could fire from the far corner, and their fire was ineffective.

When the rebels fired their lasers, the light beams harmlessly disappeared into the rough surfaces of the tunnel walls. The Marines' plasma bolts sometimes spattered when they hit the walls, spitting sparks of star-stuff in all directions; sometimes they melted tiny rock protrusions and flung the molten metal around. The Marines weren't suffering more casualties, but the rebel troops were getting dinged and worse.

Ensign Charlie Ba.s.s did a quick a.s.sessment of the situation and raced to first gun team's position, carrying four Straight Arrows. He spared a quick look at Barber, whose helmet had been pulled off by Tischler. Barber's eyes were open, looked surprised, his jaw was slack. Blood trickled from a small hole in his forehead. Ba.s.s looked away, expressionless. Barber had been with him for a long time, but he'd have to wait until the battle was over to mourn the Marine.

"Here's what we're going to do . . ." Ba.s.s said into his all-hands circuit. When he finished, he waited a moment while the squad and fire team leaders checked to make sure everybody got the word, then stood and trotted along the middle of the tunnel, unslinging one of the Straight Arrows as he went.

"You shouldn't be doing this, Charlie," Staff Sergeant Hyakowa said over the platoon command circuit, "you're the boss."

"I can't ask someone else to do something I won't do myself," Ba.s.s replied. The Marines ahead of him were giving him covering fire, firing blasters as fast as they could. They were all using their infras, and as he pa.s.sed each fire team's position it stopped firing to avoid hitting him.

"You've already done enough," Hyakowa insisted.

"Enough to some, maybe," Ba.s.s said when he was halfway to the cross tunnel. He dropped to one knee and sighted the tank killer a few meters short of the end of the wall to the right of the turn. With a bit of luck, the missile would ricochet off the wall and make it around the corner before its warhead exploded. If nothing else, it would send a shockwave and some fragments past the corner.

It was if-nothing-else, and he heard screams from one or two men who were out of sight when the missile exploded when it hit the wall.

Ba.s.s was off and running again, his footfalls a counterpoint to the screams. He had another Straight Arrow unlimbered and ready to fire when he reached the cross tunnel. He stepped into the tunnel on the right to get the sharpest angle he could on the corner. He tried too hard for the angle, the missile struck the wall just before the corner and glanced off to impact against the far wall. Its shaped charge sent most of its explosive energy into the stone. Still, it threw out shards of rock in all directions, and there were more screams.

Ba.s.s got completely out of the line of fire and ordered the platoon to send everything it had down the tunnel. In an instant, plasma bolts from eighteen blasters and one gun turned the length of the tunnel into a dazzling light show that nothing could live through.

Ba.s.s gave it fifteen seconds, then called a cease-fire. He cranked his ears all the way up and listened. He heard a few moans coming from around the corner, and the sound of retreating footfalls.

"First-no, make that second squad, with me," Ba.s.s ordered. "Kelly, get both guns to the intersection and be ready to give us covering fire if we have to come back in a hurry."

Ba.s.s gave second squad a few seconds to join him, then waited a few seconds more for the two gun teams to reach the intersection, then ordered second squad to wait until he called them up, and pelted down the corridor with a Straight Arrow ready to fire. Halfway to the corner, he stopped and fired his third tank killer. This time, the missile barely missed the corner and exploded where he wanted it to.

"Second squad, move up!" he ordered. He laid the last Straight Arrow down and drew his hand-blaster. When he heard second squad almost on him, he jumped to his feet and dashed forward. He hit the deck and slid the last couple of meters into the corner, turning his head to his left and pointing his hand-blaster in the same direction.

In front of him were the dead and the wounded the Coalition troops left behind. The survivors had already vanished beyond the next bend in the tunnel; their footsteps were growing faint with distance.

"Third platoon, on me!" Ba.s.s roared into the command circuit. The enemy was on the run, and he intended to keep them that way.

A short while earlier, the defenders had panicked and run in the face of a powerful a.s.sault. Now the earlier victors were panicked and running from a smaller but potent force. Ba.s.s stopped the pursuit when third platoon reached the defensive positions from which a battalion of the Confederation Army's 27th Division had been routed. He only stopped there because Captain Conorado said the order to hold came directly from Brigadier Sturgeon.

It was only dumb, bad luck, the kind of unfortunate accident that happens in combat, that put Sergeant Linsman's throat directly in the path of a parting shot that reflected off a mess kit left behind by a fleeing soldier. The laser beam sliced through his throat from the right jugular vein to the left carotid, cutting through his windpipe on its way. He had bled too much to save by the time Doc Hough reached

him and put him in a stasis bag.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE.

"Grabs, what do you hear on the streets these days?" Cynthia Chang-St.u.r.devant asked. Covered only by a sheet, she lay faceup on Dr. Karla Grabentao's portable treatment table. Soft music from Grabentao's private collection filled the office. During the last few months, since she had been made aware of the benefits of ma.s.sage therapy, the President made time for the doctor's visits, no matter how busy her schedule. But she could not spare the time to take ma.s.sage therapy at Dr. Grabentao's clinic, the Fuller Sports Medicine Clinic (named for her late husband, Dr. Breton Fuller, inventor of the popular Myofascilator glove). So the doctor came to her.

While the President's private office was comfortable in a utilitarian way, it was nothing like the private treatment rooms available at Grabentao's clinic, where her clients relaxed in an atmosphere conducive to ma.s.sage therapy: soft lighting, soothing music, and the aroma of fragrant herbs. But the doctor did her best to import that atmosphere into Chang-St.u.r.devant's work environment. The President's staff obeyed the inflexible rule that once a week, during the hour she was under Dr. Grabentao's care, she would not be disturbed.

Dr. Karla Grabentao was not a big woman but she had strong shoulders, arms, and hands, developed over the years as a ma.s.sage therapist before she obtained her license as an orthopedic surgeon. Now she ran one of the most respected sports-medicine clinics in Fargo. Dr. Grabentao was one of those health-care professionals thoroughly dedicated to practicing the healing arts. She also made house calls and, when she wasn't in surgery, would personally perform ma.s.sage therapy on certain clients, President Cynthia Chang-St.u.r.devant being one of them. That had its practical side, because being able to claim the President of the Confederation of Human Worlds as a client was not bad for business.

"Skin is the human body's largest organ," Grabentao had explained during their first session, as she worked on the flexors in Chang-St.u.r.devant's right arm. "If you could spread it out you could make a rug out of it," she said wryly, "because it covers in all about two square meters and makes up about eighteen percent of your total body weight. Pardon me for talking so much today, but I just think my clients need to know the basics of this type of therapy. How does that feel? Too much pressure?"

"No, no, pretty good, actually." Chang-St.u.r.devant had complained about soreness in her arm before the session started. She was instructed to let her arm relax completely as Grabentao worked on it and gradually the soreness began to disappear. "I was just thinking about the rug made of human skin when I grimaced."

"Excuse me. I guess that does present a pretty grim image," Grabentao admitted. "But you see how important skin is as an organ? Well, I don't need to tell you how sensitive it is. Did you know there are as many as three million touch receptors in your skin, three thousand alone in one fingertip? So it's very receptive to all kinds of stimulation. A simple touch can reduce your blood pressure, for instance. And during intensive ma.s.sage therapy that stimulation produces endorphins, pain suppressors. People have known this for thousands of years, since at least as long ago as ancient China." She smiled, but Chang-St.u.r.devant's eyes were closed as by degrees she began to fall under the spell of Grabentao's therapy. "There is no subst.i.tute for the human touch. That's why I don't ordinarily use the Myofascilator glove-you know, the device many chiropractors and therapists use to deliver deep electrical stimulation to the muscles and connective tissues. I use my hands and my arms, as you'll see if we continue these sessions." And they had continued regularly, for months now.

"There's a lot of tension in your shoulders today," Grabentao remarked.

"Matches the tension in the world, I guess," Chang-St.u.r.devant murmured. She was already beginning to relax as Grabentao's strong hands, using long, relaxing strokes, worked the tension out of her muscles. During most sessions neither woman said a word throughout the entire hour and often by the time Grabentao was finished with her full-body ma.s.sage treatment, Chang-St.u.r.devant would be asleep. Other times they would talk the full hour. Today Chang-St.u.r.devant wanted to talk.

"Are you doing those exercises I recommended for the tendinitis in this shoulder?" Grabentao asked. Chang-St.u.r.devant winced slightly as Grabentao manipulated her left shoulder.

"Whenever I can, Grabs. Well, dammit, I don't have the time to do them! Think I'll just have you replace the whole shebang."

"Sure, when you have the time," Grabentao laughed. "I just love to cut on people, even when they don't need it, even when the difficulty is caused by their own negligence."

"Touche."

As Grabentao manipulated the President's neck and shoulders, Chang-St.u.r.devant thought, as she often did during their sessions, how easy it would be for a therapist to murder someone by breaking their neck. Just snap her neck and leave quietly while her victim lay there stone dead. She chided herself for allowing this paranoia to spoil the atmosphere. It just was that she realized there were a lot of people who really would like to break her neck. "I hope you're a member of my party," she murmured. This had become a standard joke with them since these sessions began. Actually, her orthopedic problems were very minor; she valued the therapy because it relaxed her. If she had the time she'd devote an hour a day to this treatment.

"So what do you hear?" Chang-St.u.r.devant asked again.