Part 18 (1/2)
”Good. Anything we can use?”
”I don't have a countermeasure in mind. We only have a theory about how the armor was defeated. As in Meridian's summary, involving molecule cutters to weaken the armor in little circles before the main weapon strikes.”
Bren grunted. ”I need a shower. I'll see you incarnate in the Guts in a half hour.”
Bren cut the connection. He accessed his water ration record from the room computer. A graph in his PV showed that he had a lot left. Apparently, Vigilant had resupplied from the last s.p.a.ce station.
A panel in the wall of his quarters opened to the shower. It had water and crash foam nozzles on the top with nothing but a hand stirrup along its smooth sides. The tiny s.p.a.ce served as both shower and crash tube; if the Vigilant had to perform emergency acceleration then Bren would climb into it and the entire thing would fill with foam, encasing him in a protective coc.o.o.n.
He stepped in and activated the controls with his link. A hot blast of high velocity water scoured his clammy skin. He put his hand into the stirrup for a shot of caffeine. He couldn't feel the injection but his heart stirred in response. His body knew the routine.
Bren cut the shower. A blast of air as hot as the water dried him for a ten count. He stepped out of the cubicle and put on a fresh uniform. Finally awake and functional, he double-timed it down to the Guts.
He walked in behind an attractive female handler. Landers, he reminded himself. Her uniform pants outlined her trim shape quite explicitly, and the sway of her hips reminded Bren of his humanity. Her red hair was long and s.h.i.+ny, smelling of lilacs as he trailed her. He sighed. These long cruises were full of such frustrations. Ironically, his recent activity with Nicole had heightened his awareness of the women around him, not satiated it.
Landers was headed toward Hoffman's station. Thoughts of his earlier fragmented dreams returned as he surveyed her gray uniform from behind. She giggled.
”What are you laughing at?” he said aloud. Last time he checked, his thoughts were his own.
She turned and saw Bren. ”Sorry, Major.”
”At ease, Lieutenant. What's so funny?” He kept his voice relaxed, trying to coax the truth from her.
”Well ... you know how Hoffman loves his anchor flats so much?”
”Yeah. I do.” Bren looked over at Hoffman, who hadn't noticed them yet. To the naked eye, it appeared as if he stared at several blank metal s.p.a.ces set out before him. Bren knew that Hoffman used them as PV anchor points to show data displays from his link, interlacing visual reality with his own virtual works.p.a.ce.
”I set them to show him looking at p.o.r.n all day long,” she said. Bren smiled. Her PV showed something quite different.
”Hey! I heard that,” Hoffman said, turning around.
Bren laughed.
”Well, that's what you get for using so many anchor points,” she told him. ”You look like you're sitting at a bridge station in one of those old s.p.a.ce videos.”
”Bah,” he said dismissively. Then, ”Actually I only use one of them for p.o.r.n ... of you.”
”Uh! Well, you have a scan of my face but not my bod!”
”That's what you think. When I dated Waters, she gave me a feed of the gym showers.”
”She wouldn't!”
Hoffman laughed. Landers walked onward.
Bren looked at Hoffman's anchor spots again. He had even more than last time. Many people interlaced their real vision with link data. Bren had even heard of people back on Earth who made their wife or husband look like someone else in their PV. Bren preferred to keep translucent floating displays, so he could easily separate the virtual from the concrete.
Hoffman sent him a link and he opened it. It appeared to be a lab study on the physical validity of a cutter molecule attack on the a.s.sAIL armor.
”Hrm. I wonder how much time we can spend on this idea. Even if it's true that doesn't necessarily help us,” Bren said.
”I'm pretty sure about this, Major. This theory has already racked up a successful prediction. I figured if it really did work that way then maybe we could see some of the results of the pre-cutting. Well, there is. Our machines are riddled with invisible damage.”
”Really? The surviving machines too?”
”Yes. We found microfractures in tiny circles scattered across every machine. We found at least two on each one. Nergal had five or six. So whatever this thing is, the weakening element seems to work faster since there are so many potential breakthrough sites in the armor that were never exploited by the main weapon.”
Bren saw a new machine being set up in its bay. He accessed his link for the details. A summary caught his eye. He frowned. They only had three new a.s.sAILs available for the Avalon incursion.
”s.h.i.+t. Only three more?” he said aloud.
”Tell me about it,” Hoffman said.
”Have we named them yet?”
”Well, of course, we still have Meridian. Neptune, Nergal, and Nemesis that made it out of Tanelorn. So we called the new ones Oblivion, Odin, and Orion.”
Bren smiled a little. ”Nice. We could use an Odin about now.”
”Jameson sent the grenades down, too, but we haven't set them up yet.”
”Look on the bright side, Lieutenant. At least we have fewer machines to prep.”
”So ... what do you think about this whole aliens theory?” Hoffman asked.
”It's not a theory. It's real. Ask yourself about the weapon.”
”I don't know whether to be scared or relieved,” Hoffman said. ”What I mean is, I would expect an alien weapon to be capable of destroying the a.s.sAILs. I was thinking before, someone on Earth has revolutionary new weapons technology and we don't know anything about it. But now I know it comes from somewhere else entirely.”
”I know what you mean,” Bren said. ”It makes more sense now that we know where it comes from ... or rather, that we know we could not possibly know where it comes from.” Bren smiled. ”Before, I thought, how could we be so far behind the curve? The a.s.sAILs were supposed to be advanced weapons.”
Hoffman smiled too. ”There wasn't any room in our world view for such technology. So it fits better now that we know it's from entirely outside our world view!”
”Yep,” Bren said.
”I wonder if anyone tried to talk with these things. Sounds like they just came in and took over, huh?”
”Yes. Took over in a big way. I wonder where they're from, and how many more of them there are. Are they renegades? Soldiers? Explorers? So many unknowns.”
”Does the UNSF know more than we're let in on?”
”I don't know. I'll try to find out what I can from Devin.”
”You like her?”
Bren was surprised. Apparently, it was obvious to everyone.
”Yeah. I do. But the way things have been going crazy up here, I guess I haven't had enough time to do much about it.”