Cadian Blood by Aaron Dembski_Bowden

Author:Aaron Dembski_Bowden [Dembski_Bowden, Aaron]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-06-08T11:25:12+00:00

“Where are you going?” the commissar asked as they emerged into the dim daylight.

“Maintenance,” said Thade. He clenched and unclenched his bionic hand as he walked, and Tionenji wondered if the Cadian even knew he had that habit.

“Overseeing the honoured enginseer’s work?”

“Osiron? He’d never put up with that. This is pleasure, not business.”

“Pleasure? In maintenance?” Tionenji fixed him with a bewildered look that perfectly matched the incredulity in his flowing Garadeshi accent. “I am relatively well-informed, culturally speaking, on the Cadian people. I understand that you regard rifles as more precious than your wives, you’d rather kill someone than make love, and that you’re only happy when bragging about the most recent time you remained awake for five days straight to win a war with your hands tied behind your backs.”

“You know us well.” Thade grinned, his violet eyes bright below the black widow’s peak of his hair. “But not that well. Seventy-five per cent of the planet’s adults and children are under arms, and most Cadians don’t marry. We have breeding programs to maintain the population.”

“Is that a joke?”

Thade kept grinning. He didn’t answer.

“Even so, captain, never in my most uninspired dreams did I imagine your idea of leisure would be to watch tech-servitors repair your tanks.”

“You don’t have to follow me,” said Thade, knowing that was a lie. Tionenji smiled.

“And miss entertainment of such magnitude? Never.”

“I knew you’d be game. And no, we’re not going to watch them repaint the tanks and tune the engines. We’re going because I’ve been getting word since last night that Rax was ready.”

“Who, or indeed what, is Rax?”

Thade smiled again as he neared the towering form of the Cadian bulk lander. Machine sounds of maintenance and repair echoed out from the open bay doors.

For a moment, he looked on the edge of boyish. No easy feat for a man who’d been fighting the Archenemy since he was fourteen. Thade wasn’t quite thirty. Tionenji felt the captain could all too easily pass as a man nearing forty.

“Rax,” Thade said, still smiling the rare, warm smile, “is my dog.”

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