Free War Games by Karl Hansen

the system. Even Titan. Her other two cards were a six of hearts and a jack of clubs. No help there. She had to be holding a ten.
    “I don’t think you’ve got the jack,” she said. “I think you’re trying to bluff your way out of a tight spot.” She smiled. Her skin gleamed like obsidian. She wasn’t going to bluff. Dogs.
    Vichsn counted out her chips carefully, stacking them into a neat pile. She looked at my face. Her eyes shone blue with retinal reflections. She pushed her stack of chips into the center of the table, then delicately tipped them over so they spilled and mingled with the others. They skittered over the green felt of the table.
    “Call,” she said.
    “Dogs,” I said, and iIluminated the side of my crystal facing her. The queen’s image formed. “Two ladies. What’s your hole card?”
    “Two pair,” she said. A jack of diamonds showed on her crystal. No wonder she didn’t bluff out. She was holding the fourth jack. My jack. She knew all along I didn’t have my straight. Sneaky little tart.
    As Vichsn gathered in the chips, I got up to leave. I was broke and I didn’t want to have to play with her marker. I knew how she’d want it redeemed. Be more fun to listen to the elves’ taunts. Well, almost.
    As I turned, I saw the Gunny standing in the doorway. He was smiling like a sandcat. “Had enough poker lessons for tonight, Detrs? Looks like you’re into Vichsn pretty deep already. Ready to call it quits for the day?” He leered at Vichsn. “While you’re still capable of redeeming your marker.”
    “I suppose. Frogging run of bad luck.” I stood up from the table.
    Vichsn winked at me. “Later,” she said.
    “What’s up?” I asked the first shirt as I walked outside with him. He was stocky for a combrid, with the forearms of a miner. I’d seen him decapitate an elf with one chop of a combat glove. The Gunny didn’t smile very much. I’d never asked him why. You didn’t ask that kind of question. But he was smiling now.
    “We’re finally getting another medic,” he said when we got outside. “And about damn time. It’s been almost two months since Doc bought his.”
    “Wasn’t there some hang-up Luna-side?” The Corps had their hybridization tanks on Earth’s moon.
    “Yeah, they’re bringing out a new series of Corpsmen and ran into a few production delays. Sornething about needing a certain personality profile. But the tanks are on line now. They’re putting out ten a week. The new medics are supposed to be the hottest hybrids since the new-model cybernetic marines came out. Completely self-contained. Entirely autosynthesizing. And we’ve got one waiting for our company. So I want you to grab a skimmer and move ass over to the port to pick her up.”
    “But it’s almost dark.” I put just a touch of whine in my voice. “And it’s a hundred klicks to the spaceport.” Then I realized what he’d said. “Her?” I asked, suddenly interested. A new player? I mused to myself,
    “That’s what I said. Don’t you listen to the scuttlebutt? All the new-generation medics are female genotype. Something about needing an X chromosome for the hybridization to be successful. Why do you think their mark designation is X-M-R?”
    “I hadn’t thought much about it.” Chi-M-Rho. Chimera. “Chimera,” I said out loud. “So that’s where the name comes from.”
    “Sure,” he said. “Now move. It’s almost dark.”
    We both knew what dangers night would bring.
    * * *
    Harsh sodium light glared from each of four guard towers, brightly illuminating the supply pad. I saw the chimera standing on the pad next to a gravtug. Cargo and passenger pods were lined up behind the tug. The pods’ hatches were open and stevedores were busily unloading them. Other combrids also loitered about, but I had no trouble recognizing the medic. She wore a cape with spec-five stripes on the shoulders above a medic’s coiled serpent insignia. For the first time I realized how apt that