“No. If I could touch a QDM, I’d be back to full strength in an instant.” He paused. “But that is one thing we have.”

  “You have Sergeant Tsi’s respect,” Kiaan offered.

  Washington laughed. “What’s he going to do with that?”

  Kiaan’s face turned red and he shrugged. “I don’t know.”

  “We know the Inahri value bravery,” Dante said. “We also know they treat prisoners well. And I don’t think they want to not trust us. I think they’re open to bringing new people into the fold, or we wouldn’t be here, cleaned and fed, and Washington wouldn’t have his voice back.”

  “Good points,” Caleb said. “Anything else?”

  “We’re on trial,” Dante continued. “Only it isn’t really us. It’s you, Sarge. We’re your underlings. Like extra appendages.”

  “You know,” Washington said. “That makes me think.”

  “What’s cooking, Wash?” Caleb asked.

  “Maybe Kiian’s onto something.”

  “I am?”

  “The Inahri are in hiding here, right? Which means they don’t go out all that much, and if they do they probably try to keep a low profile. But they can’t spare the resources to wait weeks for someone on trial to prove themselves. In which case they’d have to organize something.”

  Caleb smiled. “I think I know what you’re getting at. The center of the compound is empty, and roughly in the shape of a circle. When you’ve got limited space, does it make sense to waste it like that?”

  “Unless they aren’t wasting it,” Dante said.

  “Exactly. I think they use it for trials.”

  “What kind of trials?” Kiaan asked.

  “Hand-to-hand combat, maybe? I guess it would depend on the value a prisoner is trying to bring to the community.”

  “What does that have to do with Sergeant Tsi?”

  “I’m going to challenge her to a fight,” Caleb said. “To prove we’re worthy.”

  “That might work,” Paige said. “There’s only one problem.”

  Caleb looked back to the door. “Pai, come here.”

  The robot walked back to them. “How can I help you, Sergeant?”

  “Can you go out to Private Gol, and tell him I want to challenge Sergeant Tsi to combat? Tell him to tell her I want to prove myself and my team right now because if there’s any question about us going back to our ship, I want to take it out of the equation.”

  “As you ask, I will do,” Pai said. “One moment.”

  The robot walked back to the door and opened it. Caleb could hear it speaking quietly to Gol in Inahrai . Gol turned to look into the barracks, and Caleb could swear he saw a smirk on the guard’s face.

  Pai returned, closing the door behind him. “He is telling her.”

  “Now what?” Kiian asked.

  “Now we wait,” Caleb replied.

  Chapter 20

  The Guardians didn’t wait long.

  Sergeant Tsi entered the barracks in a hurry, her face taut with tension and simmering anger. The Guardians were sitting at the table near the front of the space, and she moved to the empty space opposite Caleb and slammed her fist down on it.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” she hissed, the Intellect struggling to catch up to her and translating on the move.

  “I told you, Sergeant,” Caleb replied. “I need to get back to my ship. I’m not letting the race that destroyed Earth get off this planet. Not if there’s anything I can do to stop it. I’m also not going to let them decimate my people.”

  “I asked you to be patient.”

  “I gave you two hours. The Relyeh Inahri may have destroyed Metro in that time.”

  “They haven’t. We have Dancers in the area. The Inahri have entered the ship, but there is no indication of continued violence.”

  “Are they in the ship, Sergeant?”

  “No. They have sensors that will register discharge from our energy weapons.”

  “What if they aren’t using energy weapons?”

  Sergeant Tsi didn’t respond to that question because she didn’t know.

  “Regardless, Caleb,” she said. “The Relyeh are moving on the Seeker. They know the Intellects are dead, and they’re aiming to take the ship, to be ready when the modulator is recovered.”

  Caleb stared at her without responding right away. He let go of the defensiveness. “What are you going to do about it?”

  “We were discussing it when I was interrupted to come and deal with you,” Tsi said. “We can’t allow the Relyeh access to the Seeker. We have to send units there.” She shook her head. “I don’t know if they will be enough. The R’leyh badly outnumber us.”

  “We can help.”

  “I know you can. And if you had remained patient, I might have gotten you what you wanted. Now?”

  “I don’t understand. All I did was challenge you to a fight. To prove our worth.”

  Tsi shook her head. “Ah, Caleb. You know nothing of our ways, yet you try to use them to your benefit? You have no idea.”

  “Why don’t you tell us, Sergeant?” Washington said.

  “I’m your sponsor, Caleb. I’m not permitted to fight you. I’m too invested.”

  “Okay. So if I can’t fight, we don’t have a problem.”

  “I didn’t say you can’t fight.”

  “Another soldier, then? I’m not a greenie.”

  “I don’t know what that is, but your cocky attitude is going to get you into even more trouble if you aren’t careful.”

  “I think it’s already too late for that,” Dante said.

  “You might have gotten what you wanted if you had simply waited another hour,” Tsi said. “Now you have to fight. None of us have a choice in the matter.”

  Caleb sat back in his chair. “Okay. If I have to fight, then I’ll fight. When?”

  “Right now.”

  “Now?”

  “Yes. We’re on the verge of a direct confrontation like we haven’t seen since we overthrew the Axon. A confrontation your arrival caused.”

  “You can’t blame us for that,” Paige said. “We didn’t know.”

  “No, you didn’t. And I don’t blame you. It was bound to come to this sooner or later. In a sense, we’re fortunate to have Earthers instead of more Relyeh or Axon. But your weakness leaves us in a difficult spot.”

  “Weakness?” Dante said. “I think we’re holding up pretty well, all things considered.”

  “Dante,” Caleb said in warning. She closed her mouth, sitting back and crossing her arms. “Look, we have the same enemy. We should be on the same side.”

  “I agree,” Tsi said. “As does General Goi. Some of the other Esteemed aren’t as sure, but they don’t have final say.”

  “Thank goodness for that,” Washington said.

  “So we can skip the challenge,” Caleb said. “Forget I mentioned it. We have work to do.”

  “I wish it were that simple,” Tsi replied. “That isn’t possible now.”

  There was a knock on the door.

  “I’ll get it,” Pai said, hurrying to open it.

  Two of Tsi’s soldiers entered the barracks. One was carrying a suit of combat armor. The other was holding a bodysuit made of too-familiar dark fabric and a pair of objects that looked like metal rods.

  “Corporal Kizi and Private Awak will help you prepare,” Tsi said.

  Caleb stood up, still eying the equipment the two Inahri soldiers had brought in. “What is this stuff?”

  “That is the skin of an Intellect,” Tsi said, pointing to the smaller bodysuit. “Modified for our needs. The other is our standard battle armor. Very strong and durable. The two rods are what we call xix. Private Awak, please demonstrate.”

  Awak put the Intellect skin onto one of the hooks on the wall. Then he turned and held out the two rods, pressing on something to activate them.

  The length of the rods started to glow blue. When Awak tapped them together, sparks flew away from them, and as he spread them out, lines of blue energy like lightning arced between them.

  “In open combat, you can throw the energy toward your opponent. You can also use it as a defensive shield, depending on how you weave the energy along the rod surfaces.”

  “Cool,” Paige said.

  “The benefit of the xix for trial is that it can be set to non-lethal levels.”

  Caleb nodded. It was an impressive weapon, but he had a feeling it took a lot of practice to use it effectively. “The Intellect skin. What do you mean, modified?”

  “It was designed for interface with the Intellect’s nodes. We introduced an underlying web of thin wires connected to engineered nodules. It shares many of the properties of the Basic Intellect, only much less durable. Having the wires severed in the wrong place can disable the entire skin.”

  “But they work together? The armor and the skin?”

  “No. You must choose which of these you prefer. The battle armor is more powerful and durable, but less agile and dynamic. The Skin has some other advantages, but we’ve found they often balance one another out, depending on the skill of the wearer with each.”

  “It would help to know who I’m fighting before I decide,” Caleb said. “If it’s someone fast, I’ll go fast. If they’re brute, I’ll go brute.”

  “I’m sorry, Caleb. That is not possible. You do not know who your opponent will be. Your opponent does not know who you will be.”

  “Do you have other prisoners on trial here?” Caleb asked.

  “We have one,” Tsi said.

  “Are they small and fast or big and strong?” Washington asked.

  “I can’t tell you anything else. You will choose your armor. Then you will have a short time to acquaint yourself to the xix. Then you will fight.” She smiled. “I know you will do us both great honor, Caleb.”

  Something was unsettling about Tsi’s expression. There was something she wouldn’t or couldn’t say that she knew he wasn’t going to like.

  Who was this opponent anyway?

  Chapter 21

  There was no privacy in the Inahri barracks, which meant there was no big reveal when Caleb decided on an approach for his trial. He spent a couple of minutes considering the two options before settling on the Intellect Skin.

  The battle armor was tempting because he had seen how it could absorb damage. But ultimately he decided that between what he had seen of the Basic Intellect’s capabilities and his unique possession of an Axon alloy arm, it gave him the best balance of strength and speed to handle pretty much any opponent.

  The Skin was exactly as advertised, especially in the sense that it was a second skin. All of his clothes had to come off to get into it, and when he pulled it on, he could feel it shrink against him. He had never been into Speedos, but the Skin hugged him similarly. It might have been embarrassing if the stakes weren’t so high.

  Otherwise, it was much, much more comfortable than he expected. It kept him warm, it breathed well, and it allowed him a full range of motion without any resistance. He ran through a quick series of punches and kicks in it, satisfied that he could move as well as anyone. His ankle was still a bit tender from the damage it had taken during the landing of the ship, but Doc Brom’s work had healed it well, and the Skin seemed to support it even better.

  “What else can it do?” he asked Sergeant Tsi.

  All of the Inahri present had watched him change into the Skin with a heavy dose of curiosity. They were both human, but their evolutionary branches had diverged thousands of years ago. The Inahri were smaller framed, lithe and nimble. He was lean but muscled, and years of fighting trife had left him in better shape than when he had been a Marine Raider. It left him with more tone than he could identify on any of the Inahri. While he hadn’t seen any of them unclothed, the way the robes and tunics sat on them suggested they were built more like long-distance runners.

  “Pull the mantle over your head,” Tsi replied.

  It was resting on the back of his neck. He lifted it, stretching the material over the top of his head, drawing a laugh from the Inahri.

  “All the way over,” Tsi said. “Down to your chest.”

  “Over my face?” Caleb asked.

  “Yes.”

  He grabbed the edge and pulled it over and down toward his chest. He was surprised that it was able to stretch that far. He was equally surprised when it connected to the opening for his head and stuck, pulling tight across his nose and covering his mouth. He was grateful to discover he could still breath as though it wasn’t there at all, and he gasped when the Skin’s HUD activated in front of him.

  It wasn’t like the Marine combat armor HUD, showing flat marks that followed targets on a transparent screen, keeping a clear separation between the HUD and the world beyond. It was augmented reality, casting data out to where it was needed, positioning it perfectly to keep his vision clear and still provide information about both his surroundings and the Skin itself.

  “Wow,” he said. The Skin marked Tsi with a green outline, showing small, alien symbols over her head that moved with her. “Does it know English?”

  The symbols changed as he said it, as though the Skin was reading his mind. Tsi laughed, already aware of how the technology would adjust.

  “Yes, it is reading your mind,” she said. “Think of a shield, a disc on your arm.”

  He imagined he had a shield against his forearm. He didn’t feel a change, but when he glanced down at his arm, there was a blue disc of energy filling out part of it as a shield.

  “This is crazy,” he said.

  “I don’t see anything,” Dante said.

  “Me neither,” Paige added.

  “It’s visible through the mantle,” Caleb said. “It’s composed of energy.” He turned to Washington. “Try to hit me.”

  “Are you sure, Sarge?” Washington replied.

  “Yeah. Come on, big guy. Try to hit me.”

  Washington threw a hard punch. Caleb barely got the shield up in time, catching the blow. He barely even felt the impact, but he did notice the energy intensify along it.

  “The Skin’s shields will absorb kinetic energy to help power the system,” Tsi said. “By attacking an Intellect, we help keep it charged. We were never able to defeat them until we created the disruptors.”

  “The anti-Intellect gun?” Paige said.

  “Yes. A disruptor will render the Skin non-functional. It is not a worry for the trial. The opponent will only have xix.”

  “They developed the disabling waveform in response?” Caleb asked.

  “Yes. The disruptors would shut down before we could get near them. We were working on the algorithm, but it is an order of magnitude more complex than the original neural disruption waveform.”

  “Does the Suit have any weapons?”

  “It can normally activate a few focused energy weapons, like blades. A Basic Intellect will expand itself to create a physical edge to go with it, as it is more effective against the battle armor. The weapon systems are disabled for the trial. Only xix are permitted.”

  “And I’m guessing the shields won’t help much against them?”

  “You are a quick learner, Caleb. The shields will help you against secondary attacks. The Skin itself will absorb some of the damage from the xix and convert it to stored energy.”

  “Fair enough. Is there anything else I should know about the suit?”

  “It’s advanced sensors will, in many cases, give you warning of incoming attacks before they occur, though it is not always able to detect them in time. That is where the agility of the Skin becomes valuable. While a strike will hurt, you will be more difficult to strike in the first place.”

  “I like the sound of that.”

  “There is one other property of the Skin, it probably won’t help you in the trial, but it is worth learning. Look at one of your people and think about capturing their likeness. Not Washington, though. He’s too big.”

  Caleb turned to Kiaan, imagining he was taking a picture of him. A light came out of the top of the mantle, quickly scanning over the pilot.

  “Now think about your appearance matching his,” Tsi said.

  Caleb did as Tsi said. A red light flashed on his HUD, but that was the only indication anything was happening.

  “What the heck?” Kiaan said.

  “Whoa,” Paige said.

  “What is it?” Caleb asked. His words drew a new reaction.

  “That’s incredible,” Dante said.

  “And messed up,” Washington added.

  “What is it?” Caleb repeated.

  “You look just like me,” Kiaan said. “You sound just like me too.”

  “It’s a three-dimensional projection,” Tsi said. “Placed millimeters from the Skin. The scan takes into account bone structure, palate, vocal chord length, and thousands of other factors to produce an identical change to your voice through the membrane over your mouth.”

  Caleb reminded himself the Axon were hundreds of thousands of years ahead of humans in terms of technology. They had already been through the artificial intelligence singularity and had come out the other side. What he thought was unbelievable, they had called basic.

  “How do I turn it off?” he asked.

  “You just did,” Washington replied.

  “Corporal Kizi,” Tsi said. “The xix.”

  The corporal came forward with the two rods, handing them out to Caleb. He took them, holding one in each hand and getting a feel for their weight.

  “Put pressure on the handles to activate them,” Tsi said.

  Caleb gripped the rods a little tighter. The energy formed along the length of them.

  “Tap them together and pull them away to create a web.”

  He did as she said, marveling at the arcs of energy that passed from one to the next.

  “To weave, turn the rods around one another. Don’t be concerned if you struggle with it. The xix are unique to our camp, and your opponent’s experience with them will be equally limited.”

  Caleb turned the rods around one another, watching how the lines of energy seemed to take on a spider-web like quality as he did. It didn’t take long for him to get them tangled such that the arcs held the two rods only inches away from one another.