I looked down, and I frowned at her carpet. “I didn’t do it, because I didn’t want to,” I admitted.

  She looked more alarmed than ever. “What? Are you kidding me? Since when did you begin taking bribes from aliens? Are you in their employ right now? Are you wearing some kind of recording device?”

  Galina looked scared, but I laughed and lifted two big hands, palm-out, to calm her. “Nah. I’m loyal to Earth. But I know Sateekas. I even know Nox, a little. They seem happy together as a couple, and—”

  Her demeanor transformed again. She’d gone from curious, to scared and suspicious, to downright hissing-angry. All that had happened in the span of two minutes. Galina was a woman who often blew hot and cold, like a spring day in the mountains.

  “Are you shitting me?” she demanded, getting into my face. “This isn’t time for you to go soft, McGill. All of Earth’s military could be destroyed. Do you trust the Mogwa not to squander our ships and troops?”

  “Uh… trust? Not really. Sateekas is brave and honorable, but he’s not the sharpest commander I’ve ever met.”

  “No. No, he isn’t. He’s a loser. That’s why Mogwa High Command ditched him. Now, you just let him go. They’ve already flown up to their battlecruiser, where we can’t reach them. We’re going to have to either destroy their ship, or follow them six thousand lightyears out into the unknown. The brass is freaking out, James. Can’t you understand that?”

  I nodded and hung my head low. “I get it. I was there, the man on the spot. But I couldn’t do it.”

  Looking up, I saw she was stewing and fretting still. She looked tired and worried.

  “Hey,” I said, snapping my fingers under her nose. “I’ve got an idea.”

  “What idea?”

  “A way to get up there—onto their ship with them.”

  Galina looked hopeful. She cocked her head. “Really? Seriously? How?”

  “You just leave everything to me.”

  She narrowed her eyes in instant suspicion. “What are you hiding?”

  I shrugged. “If I reveal my plans, someone might hear them. You might even accidentally let the cat out of the bag. Wouldn’t you rather be ignorant anyways? What if there’s an inquiry later on? What if the Nairbs come and interview everyone?”

  She blinked and nodded slowly. “You’re right. I don’t want to know. I just want you to do it.”

  I grinned a big fake one. I had no ideas in my head—at least not concerning the Mogwa. But I knew she’d feel better if she thought everything was going to be all right. It was only natural.

  Experimentally, I put a big hand on her small shoulder. “Don’t worry about a thing. They’re as good as dead and gone. But… hmm…”

  “What?”

  “Do you have anything to drink around here? It’s been a long day.”

  Galina sighed. “It certainly has. You know where it is.”

  I found a bottle that wasn’t too fruity, and I poured us both a dose. She took hers reluctantly. Soon, we were both in better spirits.

  The night wore on, and I ended up spending it in her quarters. We’d been a couple off and on over the years, and although we didn’t always see eye-to-eye, we’d never lost our mutual attraction. When we were stressed, and needing a break, Galina and I often took comfort in one another’s arms.

  Half-drunk and entirely exhausted, I slept the sleep of the dead.

  -8-

  In the morning, we got up and started scrambling. Meetings and appointments filled Galina’s day. I tried to get the hell out of her office as fast as I could, worried I’d be caught up in the bullshit if I dawdled.

  At promptly 0600 hours, I stumbled out of her private apartments. The suite she commanded as an imperator was arranged so that her quarters were directly attached to her main office. That was a design flaw in my mind. How could the brass get in any goofing-off time with such an arrangement? It was one more reason I didn’t want to join their vaunted ranks.

  Today wasn’t my lucky day in any case. In my hurry to leave her bed, I didn’t even put my shoes on. Worse, Gary beat me to the door.

  There he was, walking into the office at the same moment I was walking out of Galina’s quarters. He slid his sleeve down over his tapper, having just convinced the door lock AI he was legit. Then he glanced up. He spotted me and my sheepish grin and responded with mild shock.

  It must have been quite a sight. Instead of a coffee auto-pot signaling it was hot and ready, the first thing his bleary early morning eyes spotted was me. A hulking James McGill who was sneaking out of his boss’ bedroom with a pair of boots in his hands.

  “Hey there, Gary. Long-time-no-see. I was just checking in on the imperator. She wasn’t feeling well last night, see…”

  “Sure, McGill,” he replied in a flat tone. I could tell right off my lies were going to have zero impact on him.

  “Say,” I said, deciding to shift gears, “does the imperator have her calendar clear for lunch today? I’m just wondering…”

  The look he gave me wasn’t a happy one. Either his lips were twisted up in disgust, or he’d just detected a bad odor. I wasn’t entirely sure which it was. I waited while he checked his calendar, occupying myself with pulling my boots on.

  “She’s all booked up,” he said after a moment. “There’s some big military planning going on, as I understand it. All hush-hush, I’m afraid. I can’t give you any details.”

  “Uh-huh…”

  I realized Gary was under the wrongful impression that I didn’t know what was going on at Central what with the Mogwa visit and all. The sad truth was he was probably more in the dark than I was.

  “You got a duffle packed, Gary?” I asked him.

  “What?”

  “Well… if the imperator is deployed soon, she might need her best aide.”

  He looked alarmed at the idea. “Um… she usually doesn’t take me into the field. I usually prefer to manage her office at home. I’m not combat-arms… not really.”

  My face lit up with a sudden idea. I snapped my fingers at him. I wondered why I’d never thought of this before.

  “Seriously? They’ve kept you cooped up and flying a desk all this time? Damn, boy. I think I see some tufts of gray at your temples. That’s a crying shame. I think I might be able to fix this injustice.”

  “What? I… what are you talking about, Centurion?”

  I grinned at him. I grinned real big. Some would say I had a predatory gaze, but I would say I had the look of inspiration and enthusiasm. I leaned on his desk with both hands and lowered my head and voice. “How’d you like to see the dirt of a new planet on your boots, Gary? For reals?”

  He swallowed. His face had moved quite quickly from an expression of bored disgust to fright. Those eyes were wide, and I saw the whites all the way around.

  “I don’t know, McGill. I don’t—”

  Slam! I brought both my hands up and down again, crashing them onto his desktop.

  “Say no more, Gary! Your fondest wish is about to be granted.” He gaped at me like a fish, but I waved away his objections and headed for the door. “Don’t thank me now, you can do that later, after you’ve had the time of your life. I’ll see you in space!”

  I skedaddled after that, leaving him in a raw panic. If there was one thing a dedicated hog feared more than losing his pension, it was the idea of going out into space and serving in a real ground-based military operation.

  They all talked big about it, mind you. They liked to swagger around non-military types with what-if stories. But the truth was, if they weren’t chickens in the first place they would have signed up for combat arms on day one.

  Feeling I’d done my good deed for the day—and it was only six in the morning—I headed for the officers’ mess. There I devoured a sumptuous breakfast. Real eggs, real ham, country-style red potatoes and more. I was probably the lowest-ranked man in the hall, which earned me a few glances, but I ignored all the haughty tribunes wandering around. The key was not to make eye-contact with anyone who was looking for trouble. They shrugged and let me eat in peace.

  Soon I was well-fed and feeling great, so I made my way down a few hundred floors to where my legion headquarters was posted. There, I found Winslade was already at work. He was scrambling, and his staff was hopping.

  “There you are, McGill. Fancy seeing you after you’ve arranged a hell-tour for all of us.”

  “Huh?” I asked. “What do you mean by ‘arranged’, sir?”

  He glared at me, rattling a wad of computer scrolls with moving text and pictures on every paper-thin screen. “Imagine that a sudden requirement for a mobile legion comes up. Imagine that it requires one of our newest, longer-range transports to reach this distant objective. Who do you think would be selected for this hazardous duty?”

  “Uh… is there a reason I’m imagining all this, sir?”

  “Yes, you imbecile. You’re the one who sat at that banquet last night and grinned in support of every insane thing the Mogwa said. Now, they want Legion Varus on the mission roster. Never mind that Victrix is orbiting as well, snobs who are just as mobile and ready. I’ve just received word that we’re to deploy to space immediately.”

  I nodded, rubbing at my chin. It was a little stubbly, as I hadn’t had a chance to shave yet. I would probably need to get out some nanite paste and smear it on to do a quickie job later.

  “Uh…” I said. “Don’t worry, sir. I don’t think this is going to be a one-legion show. Victrix is likely to come along and keep us company.”

  Winslade eyed me then. His expression grew thoughtful. “Were you in that late-night planning meeting with Drusus?”

  “Yessir, I surely was.”

  He showed me most of his small, white teeth. “Insane. Utterly insane. Here I am, the newly appointed tribune in command of the first legion they commit to the operation, and I wasn’t even given notice of these deployment orders going on until this morning!”

  His hands were fluttering around. I could tell he was upset, and I could even understand his problem, to a point.

  “Sir, if it helps ease your mind, I would have gladly switched places with you last night. I hate long planning meetings.”

  “That doesn’t help at all, McGill. What can you tell me about the plans?”

  I thought that over. I hadn’t been specifically sworn to secrecy—not even concerning the part about Alexander wanting me to kill the Mogwa. Fortunately, I knew enough to keep that part under my hat.

  I made a show of doing some hard thinking. Winslade watched impatiently, making remarks about my poor mental health all the while.

  “Well, sir… I think I can give you a quick briefing—in private, of course.”

  Winslade considered. Finally, he nodded and waved me into his personal office. It was a lot less roomy than Turov’s new one was upstairs, but it was neat and functional.

  “Talk,” he demanded when the door was closed.

  I rattled at his liquor cabinet, but it wouldn’t open. I looked up in surprise.

  “I locked it,” he said. “Good God, man. It’s not even eight in the morning yet.”

  “Yeah… okay. Have you got something fizzy to drink? My mouth is parched.”

  He tossed me a soda, which I consumed without gusto. I’d kind of been hoping for a beer. Making the best of it, I briefed him concerning what we knew of the Mogwa operation.

  Winslade was aghast. “Six thousand lightyears round-trip? All the way out to the Mid-Zone? Are you joking?”

  “I wish I was, sir. What’s more, all of Earth’s ships and legions were officially commandeered last night. The only reason most of them aren’t doomed to fly out to the Mid-Zone is that most of them can’t make it, even with refueling and what-not along the way.”

  Winslade wasn’t really listening to me. He was bent over his battle computer, working the table-like surface. He soon had drawn up range limits similar to those that Drusus and Alexander had worked out the night before.

  His tapper buzzed, and he checked the message. He looked up at me in shock.

  “You’re right. Victrix has just been officially summoned to join us on this children’s crusade across the cosmos.”

  “Is that good or bad, sir?”

  He shook his head. “I’m uncertain. Whatever it is, I’m unsettled about it. Overall, the entire situation is unbelievable.” He stared at his handiwork, checking his numbers and nudging at the map lines. The scenario stayed pretty much the same. “This will be the greatest reach of naval power in Earth’s history.”

  “I would say you’re right about that, sir.”

  -9-

  I tried to hide. I tried to take naps, find a bar to squat in, and I made up reasons why I couldn’t be located—but it was a losing battle.

  As a centurion with orders to scramble to my transport on an emergency basis, there were a thousand things to do. Sure, I managed to delegate as much of the busy-work as I could. People like Adjunct Barton thrived on checking everything twice. Leeson was good at logistics, so he worked on packing our heavy gear. Harris… well, Harris was good at yelling at people. I put him in charge of locating and harassing everyone who hadn’t reported in for duty yet. He excelled at that, and our ranks swelled by the hour.

  Modern transportation was such that even people taking vacations in the Australian Outback, on the Moon, or at those getaway resorts on the bottom of the ocean—they could all get back home within twenty-four hours. We had gateway posts set up between major locations all over Earth these days. Tickets weren’t cheap, but if you could stand up and walk straight, you could be transported to Central in an instant.

  Of course, with thousands of people trying to do this all at once, the lines were long. But the troops kept trickling in steadily hour by hour. Soon, we were ready to head up to Dominus.

  Reporting with all our gear and seventy percent of our personnel to the spaceport, my unit was one of the first in 3rd Cohort to lift off. I got a little bit of shut-eye on the ride into space, but it didn’t last long enough. By the time I was dreaming, the ship was docking up and big blasting noises filled the lifter’s main chamber.

  After some jostling around, the cabin pressure equalized, and we were hustled off the ship and onto the deck of our fine transport.

  Dominus was downright luxurious compared to older ships. It had the biggest Green Deck I’d ever seen. On top of that, if you were able to sneak in, Lavender Deck had real high-quality restaurants.

  After getting my unit tamped down into our assigned module, I asked Kivi out on a date. I promised her a Lavender Deck restaurant, and she squinted at me for a few seconds.

  “Am I just the first girl your eyes landed on?” she asked.

  That was the bitter truth, of course, but I shook my head vigorously. I even managed to look hurt. “Are you kidding me? You’re the only girl my eyes can even see!”

  Kivi glanced around, thinking things over. Her usual boyfriend of late was Sargon—an excellent fellow, by the way—but he wasn’t on board yet. He was one of those who’d yet to straggle in. Carlos, another distant love of hers, was likewise absent.

  “All right,” she said. “But you have to get me into a good place. I’m not going down to Lavender Deck to wash dishes.”

  “I hear you. Don’t worry about a thing.”

  A few minutes later, we boarded an elevator that whisked us away to the lower decks. Kivi was a little nervous as the doors opened, expecting a pack of frowning hog-like crewmen to try to shoo us away.

  Regular grunts like us weren’t normally allowed to set foot on Lavender Deck. Only ship’s crewmen, high ranking officers and civilian guests were supposed to linger down here. Seeing as I was only a centurion, I normally wouldn’t have made the cut.

  Kivi’s situation was much worse. As a mere specialist, she would be seen as a walking insult to any member of the brass who’d come down here for a good meal in good company.

  Naturally, I had a bullshit story all ready to go. My mouth split into a grin, and I launched into my attempt to con my way past the wannabe hogs—but the words died away. My jaw dropped all the way down and stayed there.

  “Where did everyone go?” Kivi asked me. She was kind of half hiding behind me, but now that she saw no guards—no one at all—she stepped around me and put her hands on her ample hips.

  “I don’t know…” I said. I put my big hands to my mouth and bellowed, “Hello?”

  Kivi elbowed me. I shut up and made a woofing noise.

  “If the guards aren’t here, you idiot, we’ve already managed to sneak in. Come on!”

  I followed her, frowning and rubbing at my gut. “I don’t think anyone’s home, Kivi.”

  Excited, she ignored me and led me to her favorite shop—some kind of money-trap that sold goopy creams for your face. The place was closed and dark.

  Disappointed, we walked onward. Everything was closed. Every shop, every restaurant—frigging everything.

  “Uh…” I said. “I guess the Lavender Deck people haven’t opened up for business yet.”

  Kivi whirled on me angrily. “I get it now. You brought me down here for a quickie, didn’t you? The trick isn’t on them, it’s on me this time.”

  I looked surprised, because I hadn’t even thought about that move. At least, not yet… “Well… how about it?” I asked. “Seeing as there’s nothing else—”

  She rabbit-punched me in the belly, which was now beginning to ache a bit.

  “Hey, that’s not—”

  “I should never have let you talk me into this, James. You haven’t changed at all.”

  She stomped away and went back to the elevators. Soon, she’d been whisked away to the upper decks, leaving me alone.

  Still rubbing my guts a little, I poked around. The place was nearly deserted. Finally, a power-broom operator happened by. His rig was sweeping and sucking at every millimeter of the passageway.

  “Hey buddy,” I said to him. “Do you know if there’s a place down here a man can get some grub—or better yet, a drink and a date?”