Free The Twice and Future Caesar by R. M. Meluch Page B

are you doing?”
    â€œWish I knew, sir.”
    Alpha Three was Geneva Rhine.
    Kerry Blue checked her display. Not sure what she was looking at. Looked like Rhino had a lamprey wrapped completely around her own Swift several times and somehow got the barb stuck in her own arresting gear.
    Other voices overlapped.
    â€œMine!”
    â€œMine!”
    â€œGet off my target!”
    â€œThat’s not a target. That’s
me
you boon!”
    â€œGrettaaaaaaaaa!”
    And you could still hear the new guy leaving the solar system, wailing.
    Heard Control assuring Shasher Wyatt that the
Merrimack
would come get him after the fur stopped flying.
Mack
hadn’t forgotten him.
    Merrimack
couldn’t possibly forget about him, because Shasher Wyattwas warbling over the open com, a no-breath, “YeeahAHahAHahAHahhhh—”
    And because Shasher had a twin in the Battery whose legal name was Dumbell Wyatt. Gunner Wyatt would notice if Flight Sergeant Wyatt failed to return from this sortie.
    â€œâ€”ahhhhyahahahahaaaaaaah—”
    Kerry Blue delivered her catch to
Merrimack
and hied after the next target.
    Who knew there could be this many people stupid enough to back Romulus as ruler of the Roman Empire? “Tracking! Gimme a target!”
    And, just like that, there were no more targets. Everyone who was going to run from the asteroid was gone.
    On the command platform, Captain Carmel gave the go ahead for the next phase of this raid. She pointed to her Exec. “Fast now.”
    She needed to get the Marines down there before the remaining enemy could scuttle their equipment.
    Dingo Ryan gave the orders rapid fire, all but flogging the company and crew. “Go drones. Go boarders. Secure the facility. Execute!”
    Recon drones took point on the landing, Marines hard after them.
    Kerry Blue, with the rest of the Alphas, set her Swift down on the asteroid’s icy surface and climbed down from her cockpit into the wicked cold thin atmo. Her personal heater kicked in. A respirator gave her a couple of breaths for the sprint.
    She followed the drones down one of the facility’s emergency escape shafts.
    The command crew would be able to watch the boarding through the Marines’ gunsights. The gunsights were implanted either side of the Marines’ eyes. Kerry Blue didn’t even notice the black bars on her temples when she looked in a mirror. The gunsights were just part of her face. The sights followed the focus of the wearer’s eyes. The visual output was displayed on
Merrimack
’s tactical monitors.
    Six pairs of eyes advanced to the chamber where the pirate Nox claimed to have seen TR Steele.
    The Marines hadn’t been told about Steele, only that there was a possible hostage situation behind this door, a man suspended in a tank of pink medical gel.
    The Marines of Alpha Team burst through the door.
    Cursing.
    â€œIt’s empty!” Alpha Four, Carly Delgado cried. “Say again: The compartment is empty.”
    The command crew could see that.
    Even so, Acting WinCo Cain Salvador demanded over the com, “Completely empty?”
    The Alphas looked round and round and up and down to show the command crew the completeness of the empty.
    â€œFour walls, floor and ceiling, nothing else,” Carly Delgado reported. “What were we expecting?”
    Cain Salvador didn’t answer the Marine. He muted the com and spoke aside for only the XO to hear, “Nox lied.”
    According to the pirate, Colonel Steele was supposed to be in that chamber, suspended in a tank of medical gel.
    Flight Sergeant Carly Delgado crouched down. She touched her gloved fingers to the wet floor. She lifted her fingertips close to the gunsights bracketing her eyes to show whoever up there was looking through her eyes. “I have pink gunk.”
    On the command deck a chill lifted the hair on the back of Captain Carmel’s neck. Nox hadn’t lied. There really had been