I don’t mind telling you I was becoming more irate with every step I took. It seemed wrong to me that Galina would have taken up with some new man just because she knew I’d been nailing a few other girls lately.

  How had this new romance of hers evolved? It couldn’t have been by accident. Maybe the entire thing had been dreamed up by the pursuing male, whoever he was. Probably, no matter whose idea it was, Galina had been more receptive due to my recent activities.

  I wouldn’t go so far as to say my feelings were hurt, but I did feel a pang. An honest pang.

  Marching like an angry servant of the Almighty, I walked through a shower of water and spotted two figures. The bigger was on top of the smaller—but it wasn’t that simple.

  He had one hand on her neck, and she was struggling to fight him off.

  Many people have called me a violent man. In most cases, they’d be wrong. But when I saw someone murdering Galina, well sir, I found myself becoming steamed-up.

  Six quick steps, and I loomed over them. The killer wasn’t slow on the uptake. He must have heard me coming, or maybe he’d seen Galina’s eyes dart over in my direction.

  He spun around and thrust something at my guts—a knife?

  No, it was a pistol. It went off with a hot flash and a boom. I knocked the gun aside, and it went off again. A moment later, I noticed a spot on the wall of the grotto glowing red and sending up wisps of vapor. I’d been laser-shot, and it was good thing I’d stopped by my module to put on my armor.

  Roaring, I grabbed him and threw him off Galina. He bounced off the rock wall and crashed onto his face. He moved to try and get up, but I put a knee into his back and shoved his chin into the water.

  In his hand, I found a syringe just like the one Foam had given me. The red cap was off, and the needle inside gleamed in the faint light.

  This made me even angrier. This clown hadn’t been strangling Galina, and he hadn’t been romancing her either. He was trying to perm her.

  Grabbing the syringe, I punched it into his arm. It went through the tapper, and it began to pulsate. The man moaned and struggled.

  “McGill?” the man said, “what are you doing? Don’t you work for Foam too?”

  The voice surprised me. The murderer was none other than Primus Fike.

  -36-

  I was so surprised I almost let him up—but no one is that dumb, not even me.

  “Primus Fike,” I said, “you’re under arrest. Galina, call security—he’s bucking around under my leg so much it’s hard to use my tapper.”

  “James?” Galina said, and her voice was raspy. He’d done a number on her windpipe. “How did you…? Ah, of course. You followed us and attacked out of jealousy. I understand completely.”

  It sounded like she was happy with her version of events, so I let her run with it. To my surprise, however, she didn’t call for help on her tapper. Instead, she got up and retrieved Fike’s gun. Her sides heaved as she breathed hard. She coughed a few times and put the gun against Fike’s head.

  “Uh…” I said.

  “Primus Fike, I find you guilty of attempted assassination. What is in that syringe you were trying to inject me with?”

  “I don’t know!” Fike said. “I don’t know anything, except that McGill is going to get my job, and I’m going to get Foam’s.”

  “Interesting. Where is our lovely squid going in that case?”

  “I suppose he plans to take your position—but look, this is all crazy. I see that now. I’ll submit to arrest. You can court martial me if you want to, I’ll plead guilty.”

  “Guilty?” Galina purred. “How absurd. I can tell you’re completely innocent. That’s why you lured me in here and tried to murder me.”

  “No! I—”

  That was as far as old Fike got with his explanations and whining. Galina burned a big smoky hole right through his face and out the back of his head.

  “James…” she said, turning to me next. “You can stop crushing his spine with that big knee of yours. He’s already dead.”

  “Oh yeah.” I got up and looked befuddled. Two fingers scratched at my scalp while I stared down at Fike’s body.

  Galina came close to me, and I absently slid an arm around her shoulders. She tugged at my shoulder, and I leaned over. She kissed my cheek hotly.

  “You okay?” I asked.

  “No, but I’ll live. What was in that needle?”

  “I don’t rightly know.”

  “I hope it perms Fike somehow.”

  I smiled. “You might just get your wish. Foam gave me one, too. I was supposed to kill Winslade with it.”

  Galina nodded. “I get it. With the other legion’s tribune gone, and no imperator at the top—Foam would be the sole leader of this expedition. Why didn’t you follow his orders?”

  “Me? Because he’s a rebellious squid, that’s why.”

  “But you kissed his slimy butt at the briefing.”

  I shrugged again. “I gave him a chance, sure—but he’s failed. His species is too ornery to work well with ours. We don’t really understand each other.”

  Galina smiled. “Foam made several miscalculations. We made him tribune, so he quickly became drunk with power. He thought that since you supported him you would do anything for him—but he doesn’t know you very well.”

  “That’s true. Sometimes I don’t even know myself. What do we do now?”

  “We’re going on a squid-hunt—or rather, you are.”

  I looked at her quizzically.

  “As your top commanding officer, I hereby order you to find Tribune Foam, inject him with his own slime and kill him!”

  “Uh… shouldn’t we maybe call the MPs or something?”

  Galina made a dismissive noise of disgust. “Are you kidding? The last thing the brass on Earth wants to admit is they made grievous error. They’ll try to blame my leadership, or rehabilitate him, or something. They can’t do any of that if he’s dead and gone. We’ll be doing everyone a favor.”

  Blinking a few times, I nodded. The brass might see this as a helpful hand, even if they bitched and carried on at first. Promoting a crazy squid was one thing, taking the blame for the inevitable results was another.

  I could envision Foam’s arrest. There would be a show-trial, a perp-walk, a streaming newsfeed virally spreading all over Earth—but the big brass didn’t want to see any of that. It would only point out how stupid they’d been to trust a crazy squid. No… I was fairly sure everyone involved would be seriously happy to announce Foam had been executed for bad behavior.

  “You sure you’re okay?” I asked.

  “I’m fine. Get going.”

  With clear orders directly from the top, I had no choice. Galina had every right to order me to kill Foam, and I had no reason to disobey.

  Marching out of the grotto, I took another quick walk along the shoreline.

  A few people were out in the simulated night. The fake stars revealed just enough to see them as outlines.

  “Centurion? Is everything okay? We heard gunfire.”

  “Huh? Oh, that… that’s just the imperator and her new boyfriend doing some fireworks. They like to play rough. Listen here: if I were you, I’d stay out of the grotto tonight.”

  The couple twisted up their faces in alarm and disgust. “Thanks for the tip.”

  “No problem!”

  I soon exited Green Deck and hit the lifts. By the time I arrived at Foam’s headquarters, he already knew he was in trouble. He’d summoned up a pack of human guards plus three squid primus-level officers. They were all standing around his office looking tough.

  “McGill?” asked a man named Veteran Daniels. He was a prissy, wannabe hog I hadn’t seen since the Edge World campaign. We’d never been what I would call friends. “What are you doing here? Tribune Foam has announced a total blackout on visitors and external reporting.”

  “Is that right? Well, Veteran, I’ve got some bad news for you: this squid is toast.”

  Daniels reached for his gun, but it was way too late. I shot him down and moved on without even pausing to spit. I killed a few more veterans, then the rest ran off after they realized their return fire was bouncing off my armor.

  The squid guards were inside Foam’s office. They came at me like a vengeful plate of calamari. All kinds of limbs, slime and even a few nasty gray beaks tore at me.

  Fortunately, my armor couldn’t be pierced. On the negative side, my limbs could be grabbed and contorted in unnatural ways. My left arm was pulled out of the socket and hung limply against two broken ribs by the time I’d put all three of these vicious aliens to rest.

  Foam had locked his office door, but a quick call to Turov allowed me to open it. She had the override codes for every lock on Dominus.

  I dragged my left side into the dim-lit chamber beyond. Slapping the wall for light, I saw Foam standing at the observation chamber window.

  “Space truly is a marvel,” Foam said. “Don’t you think so, McGill?”

  “Huh? Why are we talking about space?”

  Outside the window, stars glimmered. They were moving slowly astern, but the rate of progress was too gradual to see easily with the naked eye.

  “We’re talking about the inevitable, McGill. Earth can’t continue to expand. She can’t continue to abuse other planets with impunity. She will be brought down.”

  Yellow foam was running under his body now. It was all drippy and wet down there, like twenty elephants had all sneezed in one spot.

  “Is that what this is about, Foam? Another half-hearted attempt at rebellion?”

  “I trusted you. I took you at your word. Humans are the worst of beings. Totally contemptible. Dominus would have been mine if you’d kept your promises. But you betrayed me in favor of these weak humans.”

  Seeing as I really didn’t much care about Foam’s concerns, I walked closer to him. He kept looking out the window and sweating his yellow foam.

  “Why did you feign support for me?” the squid demanded, turning toward me.

  I lifted my pistol between us, but he ignored it. He honestly wanted to know.

  “I told you I like to give people a chance, but you blew yours.”

  “I’m not ‘people’ McGill. I’m an oppressed servant of Earth.”

  “And I’m an oppressed servant of the Empire. Everyone is someone else’s lackey—isn’t that what squids like you believe?”

  He studied me for a moment. “Yes… and I think I understand your duplicity now. You don’t serve a master—you serve a concept. That is dull and dishonorable, but I think I understand it.”

  “You’re wrong about it being dishonorable. There’s nothing wrong with fighting for your species at large instead of for yourself. At the core, you’re a squid, and I’m a human.”

  “This is true, but if your people won’t stand against the Empire, we can never be allies. The Cephalopod Kingdom will never submit completely to any entity. You will have to completely destroy us in the end. If anyone tells you we can come to a permanent, peaceful arrangement—it is a lie.”

  “Thanks for the tip. I’ll take that to heart. For the record, Foam, I understand and even admire you squids sometimes. That said, you’ve got to be put down.”

  Without any more chit-chat, I gunned the renegade squid to death. It took a full magazine to finish him, and there were a whole lot of foaming juices on the deck by the time I was done.

  Standing over the nasty-looking corpse, I had to wonder if old Foam was right. Were the squids impossible to tame? More importantly, at what point were we humans going to have to take a dangerous stand? Would Earth someday be forced to go to war with the Empire, come hell or high water?

  I didn’t know the answers to these profound questions, and my thoughts were troubled.

  -37-

  There was an inquiry and a debriefing. I tuned out most of it. I had the mission commander on my side—and the other side was mostly permed.

  Captain Merton complained about me gunning down his men. When Galina pointed out that his men had been part of a mutiny and asked him if he’d been in on it, he shut the hell up.

  Winslade was upset too, but he didn’t say much. After all, I’d been ordered to assassinate him, and I hadn’t done so. That took me off his shit-list for now.

  Probably the people who were the most upset came from Earth. They didn’t actually teleport out to Dominus, as our gateway posts were wrecked, but they did phone in with the deep-link to piss and moan a little. Using some tricky VR system and holograms, they looked like they were in the room.

  Praetor Wurtenberger seemed to be the most distraught. “To think you Varus animals had to take this matter into your own hands—it’s outrageous! Why wasn’t there a tribunal, a court martial, formal charges and a move for demotion?”

  “Because we were in an active power struggle, Praetor,” Galina said. “I felt we had to secure Dominus and this entire expeditionary force first. We could ask questions later.”

  “That’s precisely my point, you murderous woman! You permed Foam without even consulting your superiors. Why not just kill him and revive him for a trial?”

  Galina looked unconcerned. “We weren’t entirely sure what the substance in the syringe was. Imagine my surprise when I learned it wasn’t a vitamin shot, but rather a nano stream designed to destroy tappers and data records?”

  “Savage and so hurtful. What will the other Cephalopod officers say when they hear of this gruesome butchery?”

  Galina had finally had enough. She twisted up her face with annoyance. “Maybe they’ll say that they shouldn’t frig around with Earth so much—sir.”

  Drusus’ hologram raised a ghostly hand as the conversation heated up. “I apologize for the imperator’s rudeness, Praetor Wurtenburger. I’m sure she’s simply upset by her ordeal. Remember, the insurgents tried to kill her as well.”

  “How could I forget?” Wurtenburger answered. “That brings us to the hapless Fike. He was lured into some den of lust and permed as well—without due process!”

  Galina stood up. Her eyes blazed. “Lured into a den of lust by whom?”

  Wurtenburger and Drusus stood as well. The shimmering image of Wurtenburger’s gut bounced off the table as he reached his full height.

  Drusus spoke first. “Officers. We’re all professionals. Let’s not let our emotions cloud our judgment.”

  Wurtenburger laughed bitterly. “Too late! Emotional decisions have already created a stack of injustices here today.”

  My fist was pressed up into my right cheek, demonstrating my utter boredom as these three kept complaining bitterly about one another.

  In the end, Galina won out. The facts spoke for themselves, and the dead were keeping quiet about the rest of it.

  From the point of view of the reviewing officers, there had been a mutiny, and she’d put it down. That much was clear. The rest of the story and various other shenanigans had all been covered up by the permanent death of several key witnesses.

  At last, I was allowed out of the meeting chamber. I went down to my module, where I was cheered and back-clapped by everyone for getting rid of Foam. Pretty much no one in the legion had wanted to be ordered around by an alien.

  After cleaning my sticky armor and carefully stowing it under my bunk, I flopped down for a nap. It had been a long day, and my broken ribs and repositioned arm were bugging me. At least the Blue Deck people hadn’t dared to suggest a recycle. I’d worn my armor down to see them, so they’d done some real work to patch me up. They’d all heard I could be dangerous while wearing that suit.

  Along about midnight, a tapping came at my door. I groaned and ignored it. My left side was aching.

  The door suddenly opened. That surprised me. Only janitors, a few lady-friends and the top brass could bypass my lock—at least, that’s the way it was supposed to work.

  Alerted, I forced myself to roll out of bed and come up ready to fight. Could it be some of Foam’s boys, hot for revenge? We still had squids aboard. They were everywhere in Winslade’s zoo legion, and I didn’t trust any of them.

  But instead of a massive squid sliding through my doorway, a rather slim, shapely woman entered.

  My big arms lowered themselves. My fighting stance shifted into a normal standing position.

  “Galina?”

  She walked in quietly, not saying a word. She came close, and we looked each other over in the dim night-setting light of my cabin.

  “James. Let’s take a walk, shall we?”

  I thought it over for a few seconds. After all, she’d gone and planned out a hot date with Fike. Now, here she was trying to make amends.

  Sucking in a big breath and wincing, I rolled my left shoulder. My teeth came out and clenched.

  “You’re hurt?”

  “Yeah, sure. I wrestled a pack of squids and fought a murderous traitor today, you know.”

  Concerned, she had a look at my wounds. There were nano-sutures and welts everywhere.

  “Here, let me apply some salve.”

  “Galina, I—”

  “Come on. It’s the least I can do.”

  I sat on my bunk and let her rub some pain relievers into my arm and over my ribs. She knew how to do it right, without putting pressure on the sorest points. After many decades all of us had learned how to apply medications like experts. This skill came with the territory for any legionnaire.

  After a while, all this rubbing and closeness got to my brain. I reached up with my good arm and pulled her onto my lap. She didn’t resist at all.

  “Why’d you take Fike to the grotto?”

  “Why’d you screw that Wendy-person every chance you got until I sent her back to Earth?”

  We looked at one another, and I sighed. There was no point to arguing about these situations. Our lives were too long and too chaotic for recriminations.

  “Okay,” I said. “Let’s forget about all that.”

  “Good idea.”

  She was still sitting on my lap, so one thing quickly led to another. My ribs ground together at times, but it was a pain-and-pleasure kind of thing. Overall, it was worth it.