Infinity Squad Read Free

was ten.
    God damn it. I'd have to learn how to shave again.
    The Doctor put her hand on my shoulder. "I'll make sure your body is taken care of properly. You should head back to your barracks."
    I sighed, then let go of the cart and walked towards the door.
    "So, did you want me to take a sper-... um, sample?" she asked.
    "No Doc, I gave at the office."
    "What's that?"
    "Earth. They've got my sample back on Earth." I sighed, then looked up at the red-headed woman. "Hey, Doc. What's your name?"
    "Shannon Murphy. Nice to meet you, Second Lieutenant Forrest."
    "Yeah, likewise. Hey, Doc, do soldiers ever complain of hearing strange... voices in their head the first time they come back?"
    "The tactical implants would be much deeper in your new ear canal than your old one. It may seem like a different voice at first."
    I shook my head. "No, this wasn't like the sirens. This was more... personal. Like a voice talking just to me."
    "It's probably just nerves, trooper. You've had a rough ten minutes, your first death, and it's still the middle of the night. You should go back to your barracks now, and get some rest."
    "Yeah. Rest. That's exactly what I'll get there."
     
    ***

Chapter Two
     
     
    I took a meandering path back to our barracks, thinking. Okay, I was moping. Okay, I was being a little bitch. But the walk helped take me down from "I'm going to cut myself until people care" to "I think I'll write some poetry about rain." Eventually I ran out of places to loiter and came back home.
    I could hear the thumping bass line ten steps from our barrack's main door. "Break on Through" by The Doors, which meant Zazlu was in charge of the sound system tonight. Or had bribed the person who was, which was the same thing. I looked up at the gold sideways "8" infinity symbol painted on the metal door and sighed as the synthesizer solo started up, shaking the floor. Yes, the perfect place to calmly gather one's thoughts and rest. Our barracks. I put the barcode on my wrists under the scanner and the door opened.
    The music got as loud as being inside Jim Morrison's throat, and the scene was equally tame. Our squad gunner was in his bunk, furiously trying to work the blouse off of that cute blonde radio operator from Flight Control. On the bunk below, our medic Steve was furiously trying to work the pants off of wide-shouldered Trent from the Hangar. Good for Steve; Trent was a total cocktease.
    In the center of the room, my eyes and ears, my instrument of discipline in the squad, Second Lieutenant Zazlu Mohammed, was directing a competition on which type of private first class could do the most push-ups: one blasted drunk or one high on cocaine. Cocaine was winning. Our squad's Intelligence Officer, our expert on tactics and recon, Second Lieutenant Ann-Marie Butcher, was making book, announcing odds and writing chits to the gamblers. Which was the entire rest of the squad, five more privates, gathered in a militarily appropriate hooting mob around the competitors.
    I started charging towards the sound system hanging on the wall. With First Lieutenant Ridley detached to follow Immortal Squad on patrol tonight, I was supposed to maintain the honor of the squad. Military honor, which stretched in an unbroken string from Ridley, back through the unflinching West Point class where he had graduated, back through the professional, disciplined Prussian army and the fearsome Roman Le-
    When cocaine private started imagining cockroaches crawling on his skin just moments from victory and handed the win to the drunk private who was just beginning to dry heave on the deck, I couldn't help but laugh. Really laugh, from my gut. Something my moping self of just ten minutes ago was sure I would never do again. I reached the sound machine and turned it up.
    That got Zazlu's attention, and through all the guitars and drums, he boomed at me "HEY! CLONE HEAD! AREN'T YOU IN THE WRONG PLACE?"
    Everyone turned to look, even the blonde radio operator and Trent.