I don’t think you need to go to that extreme to appear weak.
Too late.
Stay safe. We’re coming.
22
“How am I supposed to know how much the gate pieces weigh?” one of the mercenaries at the drill responded to some comm message. “They’re big… But the hole is big now too. Get your asses down here and drop the maglock cable so you can start hauling them up.”
“The boss isn’t here. He’s fighting.”
“You, gate boy.” The voice increased in volume as its owner turned toward Casmir.
He forced himself to lift his head and look over, though all he wanted was to lie down on the gate piece he was working on and go to sleep. He was so very tired. But what if he went to sleep and didn’t wake up again? He had to fix this for everyone before sleeping. Or dying. Definitely before dying.
“I’m talking to you, puke-breath. Is it safe to haul that thing out yet, or what?”
When had they regained comm access? Oh, right. The big hole in the ice ceiling, which was now much larger than the last time Casmir had looked, had to be letting a signal through.
One of the other mercenaries knocked his fist against the speaker’s armor. “Don’t be an ass. He’s half-dead.”
“What do I care? He’s a Kingdom snot.”
“He gave me a fizzop. I like him.”
“I’m sure the boss will be pleased to learn how easy you are to win over.”
“He knows. How do you think he got me?”
Casmir cleared his throat. “It’s not safe yet, no. I’m sorry. I’m working on it. I—”
A rumble emanated from the tunnel the group had originally come in from. Casmir’s first thought was that Moonrazor had woken up the robots he’d taken offline back at the harbor, but then he remembered Kim’s message. They were coming.
The mercenaries—Rache had left more than a dozen in the chamber—swung their rifles toward the mouth of the tunnel.
“Shit.” Casmir lurched to his feet, almost blacking out. He gasped, gripped his knees, and struggled to stay upright.
Kim had told him about the knight, and he should have assumed troops too. Kim was coming with enemies to the mercenaries.
“Wait.” Casmir held up his hands and staggered away from the gate, toward the tunnel entrance, his shambling gait painfully slow. “Help is coming. They’re from the Kingdom, but there are two android experts to help me with the gate.”
“Where are you going, Casmir Dabrowski?” Zee trotted after him.
“The Kingdom!” one mercenary blurted.
“Rache didn’t say anything about that.”
A strange worm-like vehicle sped out of the tunnel with ten men in Kingdom armor, and Casmir spotted Kelsey-Sato and Kim, but he was too terrified that a firefight would break out to do more than wave his hands. The Kingdom troops were already swinging rifles toward the mercenaries.
“Don’t shoot,” Casmir cried, stopping in between the two groups.
Zee leaped to place himself between him and the mercenaries, but he also watched the Kingdom troops, perhaps fearing they were also a threat to Casmir. Maybe they were.
Casmir swallowed, his mouth painfully dry. “We need to work together, or we’ll never get out of here alive.”
That made them pause. Thank God. Casmir wasn’t sure his words were true, since Moonrazor now wanted him to deactivate the gate, but it might be. She might be poised to attack them all as soon as he finished.
Kim sprang down from the vehicle and ran toward him. She also waved her hands. “We brought help that you need. Let our scholars assist him.”
Casmir was horrified when Kim joined him, also putting herself in the middle of all those rifles. He was dying, so it hardly mattered if they shot him. She was not.
“What are you doing?” she blurted, wrapping her arms around him.
“Are you hugging me? Do I look that bad?” Casmir had his helmet off again—breathing the frigid air seemed so much better than suffocating inside that turtle shell—so his splotchy face was on full display.
“I’m keeping them from shooting you.” Her arms were spread protectively more than actually grabbing him.
“Well, don’t do that. I’m more expendable than you.”
“Not right now, you aren’t, kid.” Kelsey-Sato trotted past, heading straight into the magnetic field with a toolkit. “Get your butt back in here and help.”
Neither the mercenaries nor Kingdom marines had lowered their rifles, but they did stare at the monkey droid with puzzlement rather than hostility.
An android in spectacles trotted after Kelsey-Sato. Qin lowered her rifle, spread her arms, and also came over to stand protectively in front of Casmir.
A big armored Kingdom man hopped off the vehicle, holding a hand up toward his men, then taking a few steps toward the group of mercenaries.
“Who’s in charge there?” he asked.
“Me, Lieutenant Killian.” It was the man who’d enjoyed Casmir’s fizzop—and admitted it. Maybe there was hope he’d be more reasonable than some of the others… “Who are you?”
“Asger, the leader of these men.”
Even with Kim’s warning, the name was strange to hear applied to someone else. If he was truly a knight, he didn’t look it. He was wearing the same combat armor as the marines from the Osprey, and he hadn’t introduced himself as Sir Asger. Maybe because he thought the mercenaries would be more likely to fight a knight?
“Move aside, Casmir.” Kim tried to muscle Casmir out of the way. “You’re in the middle of everyone’s line of fire.”
“I know. I was thinking my innocent and charming presence would keep them from shooting.”
“Think again. Also, you have puke on your chest.”
“Sorry. A man can’t hit the mark every time.”
“Tell me about it. I share a bathroom with you.”
A bathroom in a house that he might never see again. Casmir had been doing fine working on the gate, but with his best friend back and the reminder of what he might lose, he struggled to keep from breaking out in tears. He did hug Kim. He needed it.
Kim hugged him back. “Casmir, you’re going to be all right.”
Zee loomed close, protective, as always. “You must step out of the line of fire, Casmir Dabrowski. I might not be able to block you from all assailants.”
“I know, Zee. Thanks.”
“Did you get some of Rache’s blood?” Kim asked, ignoring the crusher.
“Yeah.” Casmir feared the disease was too far advanced for his body to recover even with whatever help could be synthesized from it, but maybe if they could get out of here soon enough…
He looked up at the great hole in the ceiling, the dim light filtering down from the distant sun, and he wished he could simply leave now.
“Is he all right?” Qin whispered. “He doesn’t look like himself.”
“Because he’s not.” Kim gripped Casmir’s arm. “You take care of their stupid gate, and I’ll figure out a way to get you picked up.” She lowered her voice. “Whether the gate is fixable or not.”
“Casmir,” Kelsey-Sato said. “Come show me what you’ve done. I pray you haven’t gotten any fizzop stains on the circuitry.”
One of the mercenaries snickered. His lieutenant.
“I haven’t, ma’am.” Casmir released Kim and shambled back to help.
Qin crouched behind the stopped vehicle along with the Kingdom troops, ready to fire at the mercenaries if necessary. She hoped it wouldn’t be necessary. Nearly twenty minutes had passed without anyone opening fire, but both groups kept fingering their rifles and eyeing each other.
Casmir, Kelsey-Sato, and Beaumont were tinkering at various points along one of the massive gate pieces. Stacks of hundreds more rose up behind them like great metal bluffs, and Qin wondered if this chamber had existed before or if the astroshamans had carved it out to make room for their find. Even though she had traveled through the systems’ gates numerous times, she h
adn’t realized how large they were.
One of the mercenaries kept glancing toward a wide hole in the ceiling with a lake of melted and then refrozen ice underneath it.
She heard him muttering back and forth to his ship, listened intently, and then shared the words with those who had less sensitive ears. “The Kingdom ships are up there chasing Rache’s camouflaged ship around,” she reported. “It’s taken some damage. They say they need to talk to their boss—Rache—because they need to get out of here now. But he and his other men went off to fight the astroshamans, and they can’t get through to him.”
“Good,” Bjarke said. “Let’s hope he doesn’t give any of his people the freedom to make decisions on their own. And that he’s dead.”
Qin used the excuse of having to eavesdrop not to answer. She didn’t want to wish ill on Rache, mostly because Asger was with him. She also wasn’t sure how to handle Bjarke-in-command-mode rather than the flippant snarky Bjarke who’d flirted with Bonita. Which was the real man?
“Brace yourselves,” one of the mercenaries yelled, pointing up at the hole. “Someone’s dropping explosives.”
“What?” Beaumont jerked his head up. “They risk disrupting the magnetic field and exposing you all to the gate radiation.”
“Not to mention dropping the ceiling on us,” Kelsey-Sato pointed out.
Casmir was too focused to comment or even react.
“Who’s dropping explosives?” Bjarke demanded loudly, apparently not caring if the mercenaries knew they were eavesdropping. “Rache? The Kingdom warships?”
“It’s one of the other ships,” the mercenary lieutenant said. “A trio of them. It’s—”
The first bomb hit far above. The explosion was distant and muffled, but the floor shuddered, and ice directly overhead snapped ominously.
“The other ships are all coming down from orbit,” the lieutenant reported. “They must have picked up the gate’s energy signature. And they all want it. Or a piece of it.”
Qin caught Kim looking at Casmir, and for the first time, he lifted his head, returning the long look. But neither of them said anything. Casmir bent his head and went back to work.
“He’s giving me an idea,” Kelsey-Sato murmured and waved Beaumont down to an exposed panel.
An idea? All they had was an idea at this point? Qin grimaced as the ice chunks fell from the ceiling.
She had the urge to run in and grab Casmir and Kim’s mom and carry them to safety—or at least out from under the target of the bombers.
“…Just tell them to protect the hole,” Bjarke was saying, and Qin realized he’d gotten a comm message through too. To Captain Ishii? “We’re right under it, and they’re still trying to fix the gate.”
The muffled din of weapons fire echoed down from above. Qin flexed her hands, feeling useless.
She spotted movement at the mouth of a different tunnel and spun toward it. Asger—her Asger—strode out in his silver liquid armor, with his pertundo fully extended.
Qin almost rushed to greet him, but a number of black-armored mercenaries walked out after him. It didn’t look like he was a prisoner. It looked like he was with them, or even leading them.
“What the hell?” Bjarke blurted.
Asger jerked in surprise and looked over, his eyes going wide behind his faceplate.
He mouthed but did not speak, “Father?”
“Kingdom!” one of the mercenaries with Asger roared, pointing at Qin’s group.
“Truce,” Casmir blurted, lunging to his feet and wobbling. Zee steadied him by the shoulder. “We’re having a truce!” Casmir yelled. “If any of us are to get a piece of the gate, we need to finish disarming its security system before those idiots blow the roof in.”
As he thrust a hand upward, another explosion landed. All the mercenaries and all the marines, who’d once again been pointing their rifles at each other, stared at Casmir, as if they hadn’t realized the roof caving in was a possibility.
That bomb must have dropped right above them, for the ceiling quaked visibly. Chunks of ice plummeted down, smashing and breaking on the hard floor. One clunked a mercenary in the shoulder, and he pointed his rifle upward, as if that would help.
“This might not be the best place to loiter,” Kim murmured, though she was looking from Casmir to the ceiling and back, not over her own head.
Casmir wasn’t even wearing his helmet.
“William! Come here.” Bjarke pointed his rifle at the floor in front of him. “Without your… captors.”
Those captors didn’t look like they’d had any intention of keeping Asger from walking away. He strode over, his chin up, and his eyes blazing with determination. Or embarrassment at being called out like a child? It was hard to tell through his helmet.
Asger glanced at Qin, but he looked away before she could lift a hand in greeting. Embarrassment, she decided.
“What are you doing here, sir?” Asger didn’t sound excited to see his father. “This is my mission.”
“They sent me to check on you. Last I heard, you were kidnapped by mercenaries. But it looks more like you’re cavorting with them.”
“Is that different from cavorting with pirates?” Qin asked.
She knew this was none of her business, but she didn’t like seeing Asger being belittled. He didn’t deserve it.
Bjarke ignored her.
Asger glanced at her but focused on his father and answered. “I’ve been working with them to defeat the astroshamans. We have a common goal. For now.”
“What happened to all of the Kingdom troops you were sent down here with?”
Asger hesitated. Some of the marines behind Bjarke stirred, glancing at the groups of mercenaries again.
“I don’t know, sir. I went with Casmir and Kim when they were kidnapped from our original submarine, and I haven’t seen them since.”
“They’re dead. All of the Kingdom submarines were destroyed while these mercenaries took advantage of the distraction they provided. Maybe they could have used a trained knight to help them.”
Or maybe Asger would be dead, too, if he’d stayed with them…
Qin knew she should be watching the mercenaries instead of this exchange between father and son, so she wrenched her gaze away. Since the new group of mercenaries had returned with Asger, Rache’s men outnumbered the Kingdom troops two to one. Now, they were murmuring quietly to each other over their comms.
She heard the words, “…can take them.”
Another said, “We can’t all have the gate.”
“I think they’re going to attack,” Qin whispered. “Can you two finish your reunion later? Also, it’s nice to see you again, Asger.”
He jerked his gaze from his father’s face and bowed deeply to her.
Before he spoke, the boom of another explosive dropping on the ice above them drowned it out. Several men jumped, and someone’s twitchy finger fired.
The marines cursed and shot at the mercenaries. The mercenaries shot back. Soon, DEW-Tek bolts streaked across the chamber from both sides.
“Watch out for the civilians!” Bjarke yelled, waving for his men to stay behind the vehicle for protection.
“No, no,” Casmir shouted from the gate piece they were studying, even as Zee pulled him back behind a stack for safety. “We’re almost there. So close. Stop shooting!”
But only Qin seemed to hear him. The mercenaries fired from two different positions, pinning down the Kingdom troops.
Qin was debating charging into the closest group, hoping to discombobulate them and force them into hand-to-hand combat before her armor took too many hits. Then Asger roared, a primal roar of frustration and anger. He hefted his pertundo and sprinted toward the mercenaries he’d just left.
Qin gaped after him, startled. Had Bjarke ordered him to rush over and fight with them? Or worse, was he trying to prove something to his father?
She shook her head and ran after him. They’d fought together before, back to back and outnumbered
, and they could do so again. But Qin worried that the ceiling would collapse and none of this would matter in the end.
23
Casmir, with Kelsey-Sato’s help, had found the controls for the gate’s security system, and he was close to figuring out how to turn it off, but Zee had him by the scruff of his neck and wouldn’t let him rush back to his work. They were hunkered behind a stack of gate pieces, staring helplessly as the mercenaries and marines shot at each other.
Casmir had tried so hard to keep the situation from devolving into this. Why did everyone insist on killing each other over the gate? Yes, it was the archeological find of the millennium, but it couldn’t be worth dying for.
Kelsey-Sato and Beaumont had also taken cover—a stray energy bolt had blasted a hole through Beaumont’s shoulder. The android felt no pain, and had expressed more indignation about the wound to his garment than to himself, but if shots kept coming this way, they might damage the gate. Irreparably.
Huge chunks of ice kept tumbling from the ceiling, threatening further damage—and to bury everyone.
For some reason, Qin and Asger were out in the middle of the fray, battling mercenaries in close quarters. A boulder of ice slammed down inches from Asger’s heels. He was too busy cutting a mercenary’s rifle in half with his pertundo to notice. Another mercenary sprang for his back, but Qin launched a punch like a pile driver and knocked the man on his ass.
The rest of the combatants fired at each other from behind cover, the marines behind that strange vehicle and the mercenaries behind pillars.
Another thunderous snap came from above. Casmir envisioned the entire ceiling collapsing and killing everybody—even combat armor wouldn’t protect people from that much weight.
“Zee,” Casmir said, “I need you to grab that mercenary and that one.” He pointed at the pair of Rache’s men who were shouting orders. “If we can take them out of the fight, maybe the others will calm down.”
Casmir glanced toward the tunnel Asger and the second group of mercenaries had exited. He was tempted to send Zee to find Rache. He could calm these idiots down with a word.
Gate Quest (Star Kingdom Book 5) Page 35