The God Mars Book Two: Lost Worlds Read Online Free

from my belt and setting it down in front of me as I
kneel, a signal of ambivalence (to my left would mean enmity, to my
right, friendship). Sakina settles down on the mat just behind my
shoulder.
    “We have been monitoring your transmissions,” Sakura
begins, a rattle in her voice that lets me know she isn’t fully
recovered from the exposure I’d inadvertently ordered, “but I am
certain you have realized this. We have analyzed the incoming
objects and have had some partial success with translating their
code, enough to know that there is urgency about them, that whoever
sent them demands updated data almost continuously.”
    “I expect they’re nervous,” I return, “thanks to the
actions of your people.”
    She nods serenely, accepting my dig.
    “And you are to be thanked for giving my father a
good death,” she says as if she means it. “Because of that, and
because you have shown us you are a warrior of exceptional honor
and refinement, we have come here, knowing full well you have your
batteries trained on us.”
    I give her the nod back.
    “And for what have you come?” I ask her, maintaining
my politesse.
    “My brother Oda has taken his rightful place as
Daimyo,” she explains flatly. “Nothing else has changed. We do not
come here to surrender.”
    “I do not expect you to,” I respond, “nor will I ask
it.”
    “But you would have us under your leadership?”
    “I would have you desist in your aggression against
the ETE. I would have you stand with us, especially given the
current situation.”
    “And I would warn you to consider who you already
stand with, Colonel. The ETE will be your undoing. I think you know
this.”
    “There’s what I fear and what I hope, great lady,” I
counter vaguely. “I don’t lose sight of either. Nor do I forsake my
allies on the advice of their enemies.”
    “I do not expect you to,” she repeats my sentiment,
“nor will I ask it. But will your old masters embrace the
nano-infected who enforce their will on this world? Or will they
prefer those that would act to break their hold?”
    The Shinkyo always have at least two reasons for
everything they do, and
    “A good strategist will win even in losing,” I say
out loud. “You knew that the ETE would have to militarize just to
defend themselves against you, and how much more frightening that
would make them appear to Earth.”
    “You were one of us in a former life, Colonel. I am
sure of that.”
    “You honor me,” I play. “But that isn’t why you’ve
come.”
    The morning wind is picking up, snapping at the
fabric of the “tent” panels, threatening to blow them down. But the
flimsy break at least keeps the rising dust at bay.
    “I come to let you know that you have options,
Colonel,” she tells me with theatrical dryness, “and that we are
not the only ones who’ve been monitoring your communications.” Then
she gives me a formal bow and rises. “Time is short.”
    Her Shinobi rise with her. We follow suit. They file
through the panels of the “tent” and into the wind. Sakura is the
last to go. She turns to face Sakina.
    “I look forward to crossing blades with you again,
Cousin. Another time.”
    The instant Sakura passes through the panels, the
intensifying dust storm brings them down. We must retreat quickly
from the platform. We can see no sign of where the Shinkyo went,
and they’ve disappeared from our scans in the rusty clouds. Smith
flies in and has to guide us blind using our goggle Link heads-ups
to get us back into the airlock.
    “You think they planned for the dust blow to cover
their exit?” Matthew asks me as I’m vacuuming off.
    “Winds are easy enough to predict with a decent AI
modeling system,” I counter. In fact, the winds shift with the
consistency of tides as the sun travels the length of the Marineris
valley. Even the synergistic variables that turn the usual steady
currents into a significant dust blow can be reasonably anticipated
even by eye, assuming