With a shriek of its engines, the runner lifted, wobbling side to side, and then shot up into the air as a third explosion ignited up ahead.
And Ben was left standing exposed in the field, with absolutely nowhere to go.
Chapter 35
Tally's heart seemed to be lodged in her throat, which meant she couldn't respond to the Caruson soldier screaming at her.
He followed up his tirade by lifting his massive laz and putting it to her head.
The little helpers were like lightning under her skin, and she shivered with fear and adrenalin as she tried to keep the runner level.
As she banked away from the latest explosion, she thought she caught a glimpse of Ben standing below her and gasped, her hands lifting off the control panel.
The runner dipped, and the laz dug into her temple as the soldier screamed instructions she couldn't understand.
She lunged back to the panel, giving control to the little helpers so they could smooth out the flight.
She had a sense, a flicker of awareness, that it didn't have to be like this. That she and the little helpers could merge somehow into a single entity, and that she didn't need to feel this separation within her.
But if that was possible, it wasn't going to happen right now.
If she wanted it to happen at all.
She let them use her hands and fingers, moving over the controls, so they accelerated away from Rainerville and left any glimpse of Ben behind them.
The Caruson soldier who'd walked on board just moments before they were all fired on from above adjusted the grip on his weapon, and now his words were more of a hiss than a shout.
She forced herself to go still, and turned to look at him, eyes hot with rage.
“I. Can't. Under. Stand. You.” She spat each syllable separately. “Now either stop shouting at me, or communicate in a way I can understand, or I'll land us again.”
Irwin, who ever since he'd come aboard had stood gaping at her, as if she was the last person he expected to be in the runner, stepped forward, speaking in rough Caruson.
The soldier lowered his laz, and answered, his voice suddenly less strident.
“He says go southeast. He keeps saying southeast to 'something', but I don't know the word he's using.” Irwin rubbed at his chest as he spoke, and she felt a tiny lurch of guilt at the sight of him.
She'd really hurt him with the hover. He looked terrible.
She let the little helpers tell her exactly which way southeast was, and she adjusted their trajectory. “Who was shooting at us?”
Irwin laughed weakly, leaning back against the wall. “The Caruso were shooting at their own people. So on every level, this is now officially a fuck up.”
“Nowhere to run to now, huh?” She kept her voice neutral.
“If it were just you who knew about me,” he said, “I'd kill you the moment it was possible for me to do so, but there's Ben, and at least one of his team came circling around me last night, and I'm guessing more saw me walk across to the runner, so it wouldn't be worth my while to silence you. Too many people know.”
“How nice,” she bared her teeth at him. “And after I walked away from shooting you.”
He pressed his lips together and shrugged.
“Why? Why did you do this?” She assumed she was still going the right way, because the soldier beside her was carefully watching the ground below them, his stance at ease.
“My family is from Faldine. Part of the resistance. And while the war may be over, I saw an opportunity to stick it to the VSC without any blow-back on myself. If the Caruson hadn't shot down that runner and taken out the comms satellite, no one would have even known what was happening. But it seems they skimped on the safety measures when they dug their mine and that earthquake wiped out their whole operation.” He looked over at the Caruson soldier standing beside her with ill-concealed dislike.
“Why come all the way to Rainerville, though? Why not lift their people out from the mine?”
“They were told the med ship they needed was too big to land near the mine, they needed a launch pad, and wood from the forest was the fastest way to build one. They were also told the med ship wouldn't come until everyone on the Trail team who saw that runner go down was dead.”
Before she could say anything to that, the soldier tapped Tally's shoulder and pointed to a low range of hills in the distance.
She altered direction.
“How did you know how to fly this, anyway?” Irwin asked.
“I'm part of the Raxian Expeditionary Force.” She lifted one shoulder.
He narrowed his eyes at that, but didn't respond, and she released some of the tension she held in her shoulders.
The hills slowly took on more definition as the runner got closer. They rose out of a dusty plain, the rocky folds of their cliffs gray and brown against the bright blue sky.
The soldier pointed due south when they got close enough to see the deep folds in the rock, and the lush, dark green of the plants and trees that grew in the deep shade.
She followed along the front of the range, and wasn't surprised when at last, up ahead, she could see tents and movement.
She guessed they had moved up into the open since the earthquake, because no way would Ben and his team have missed this.
She looked around for a place to land, but the soldier had that covered, too. He pointed to a small, flat-looking piece of ground, and with no other good options, she let the little helpers show her how to lower them down.
The runner slammed down a little hard, jolting everyone and earning her a shout from the soldier.
“Then you fly it,” she told him, keeping up eye contact.
Irwin shook his head, as if she was foolish to provoke him.
She ignored him. “What now?”
The soldier turned to Irwin, rattled out a long diatribe which had him lifting a hand to stop it and sputter out what she guessed was a request for him to repeat it and speak slower.
Tally ignored them. She got up and walked to the window, and leaned against it, looking out.
There were bodies lying in a long line to one side, and three Caruso digging a trench.
She could see the ground had been disturbed to one side, and guessed that represented the bodies already buried.
They had lost a lot of people.
A few Caruson stepped out of the tents, looked over at the runner and then ducked back inside, only to emerge carrying a makeshift stretcher with a limp body on it.
Did they have room for more injured on the runner?
And where exactly was she taking them, if the warship was firing on their own people, and they'd originally been waiting for a med ship, not a small near-space runner with no equipment?
Somewhere out there, Ben's other two teammates were watching.
The thought made her straighten.
She gnawed at her lip, thinking about that quick glimpse she'd had of the field as she lifted off. Had it been Ben, or one of the other members of his team?
She wanted it to be Garner or Handel, but she knew the shape of him. Knew how he stood. She was terrified he'd been there because he was coming after her. Trying to save her.
She was suddenly shoved to the side, and she fell with a cry.
She looked up, eyes wide with surprise and fear, and saw the Caruson solider who'd pushed her seemed almost as surprised.
He shouted at her.
She stared at him for a long moment, then gave the little helpers full permission to do their thing as she looked all around her, searching for options.
She was done.
She jumped up, the little helpers giving her a boost as she landed on her feet and then she used the Caruson's knee like a step to propel her up to the narrow sill of the runner's massive front window. She launched herself into the air over his head, and flipped over to land behind him.
She was fast.
So fast that he didn't realize she had snatched his laz when she'd boosted up on his
knee until she landed behind him and stuck it against his ear.
“Say that again, this time in a reasonable tone.” She looked over at Irwin as she spoke.
There were two other Caruson soldiers who'd been in the back with the injured, and they stepped in behind Irwin, weapons raised.
Irwin was staring at her, face slack.
“Irwin.” She made her voice sharp. “What was he shouting at me and why the hell did he shove me down?”
Irwin stuttered out a word, cleared his throat and then said something to the soldier she was holding hostage.
The soldier answered, his head swiveling a little toward her, until her sharp tap of his laz against his ear stopped him dead.
“He says he was telling you to open the door.” Irwin's words tripped over each other. “He didn't mean to push you so hard. He forgot you aren't as sturdy as a Caruson.”
“If he wants me to do something in future, you tell him to do so politely.”
Irwin nodded, stumbled out a few sentences in Caruson, but she had a suspicion he hadn't passed on her ultimatum. She decided that probably meant he didn't know the word for 'polite', or he was too scared to give the Caruson orders.
She stepped back, lifting the laz away from the soldier's head, and the Caruson turned and put his hand out for it.
She hesitated, giving him a long, hard look.
They stared at each other, and eventually she handed it over, but she thought the message had been received and understood.
She moved to the control panel, and the little helpers showed her how to open the door.
As soon as the ramp lowered, Caruson soldiers brought the first stretcher in.
Tally walked to the door, standing beside Irwin.
It was the first close-up look she'd gotten of the injured. And they were in a bad way. She guessed there were others who were not hurt as severely who hadn't made the cut, and now, the decision was whether to take some of those from Rainerville out and replace them with those whose injuries were worse.
“How did you talk your way onboard?” It suddenly occurred to her that Irwin had taken a valuable spot.
“I persuaded them that if you were flying, they'd need a translator.” He sent her a humorless smile.
“You didn't know I was flying it until you came aboard.”
He inclined his head. “True. I saw the runner and I ran for it, and I was prepared to say anything to get a ride. In the end, you being there made it easy for me.”
“And where will you go? Where will this lot go? Did they forget their warship fired on us?” She was surprised the warship hadn't been ordered to fire on the mine, too, but then, maybe the Caruson still hoped to sneak back here when this had blown over. They couldn't know that some of Ben's team had followed the trail back here, and knew all about it.
“There is something called 'fraknvos'.” He pronounced it as a Caruson would. “It means 'all family', I think. It stipulates help for the injured, no matter what the circumstances. I think it's from the wars the Caruso fought amongst themselves for so many millennium.”
“So if they go meet the warship with a demand for this fraknvos, they think the injured will be taken in and helped?”
Irwin nodded.
“And everyone else on the runner?”
Irwin shook his head. “Good question. When I got on the runner, I had no idea we were about to be attacked by the Caruson. I'm trying to decide what gamble to take now. Stay. Or go?”
He still looked gray and there was a tightness around his eyes that told her he was in a lot of pain.
As if aware he wasn't going to get far, even if they'd let him leave the runner, he slid down the wall and sat, eyes closed.
She was sorry she'd done that to him.
She reminded herself he'd tried to kidnap her. Had sold them all out.
An argument had started between the Caruso onboard, and the those from the mine, and eventually they fitted in two more injured miners, and the Caruson soldier in charge asked her through Irwin to close up and head off-planet into near-space.
“Last chance to run,” she said, not sure if she would help him if he decided to chance it, but he curled over his knees and simply shook his head.
They'd all have to take their chances with the warship.
One that'd just tried to kill them all.
Chapter 36
Quiet descended.
After the deafening explosions and the screams of the runner's engines, it felt like sound had been sucked out of the world.
Then Ben heard a bird chatter in the trees, someone moaned from one of the tents, and things snapped back into place.
He stood alone in the open, and while he had a clear run back to the treeline, there were Caruson to his right, standing in front of the tents, and to one side of the landing pad.
The runner was just disappearing on the horizon, dipping and swerving more than it should.
He watched until it disappeared completely, and wanted to shout his fury at the sky.
Tally was gone.
A few Caruso began to move toward him, and he forced himself to concentrate on what was happening right in front of him. He had to judge whether he could make it back to the forest, and whether he should even try, because he'd be leading them straight to his team and the scientists.
He also had no weapon.
He'd given his to Tally, and the Caruson laz he'd had before had been taken away from him when he was captured.
He glanced at the treeline again and a flicker of movement caught his eye. Sari stood in a shooting stance, her laz raised, just a step out from under the cover of the forest.
He closed his eyes for a moment.
She needed to get back. To disappear amongst the late-afternoon shadows.
The Caruso were gathering speed as they ran toward him now, but a shout cut the air, stopping them in their tracks. The big commander strode through them, his laz held across his chest.
At least it wasn't pointed at him. In fact, Ben wondered why he hadn't been shot already. They hardly needed to be near him to do that.
The commander slowed as he got closer, and then stopped.
“Surrender,” he said.
Ben tilted his head to one side, confused. Because he'd have to be fighting first to surrender.
Then the commander held out his laz with both hands. “We surrender,” he corrected.
Ben reached out and took the weapon, and the commander knelt on the ground and put his hands behind his head. His expression was calm and unreadable.
But Ben read it anyway.
They'd just been fired on by their own people. They were done.
Injured, without transport or supplies.
Their only chance was to throw in with the VSC.
“Captain?” Sari called from the edge of the forest, but she was out in the open herself now, moving toward him.
“Go call the others,” he said. “We've taken Rainerville back.”
Sari stopped dead, looked around at the Caruso, most of whom looked as confused as she did, and then finally she gave a nod, turned, and disappeared.
It was never a good idea to predict the outcome of conflict, Ben reflected. Because unless you controlled everything, there was no telling.
No telling at all.
And now he was in control, he was calling that runner right back.
* * *
“They just handed over their weapons and rolled over?” Handel watched the Caruson soldiers as they took the wood they'd gathered and started up the evening fires that were clearly part of their routine.
“What else are they going to do?” Ben leaned against the building closest to the field, and watched as two kuyer, already skinned and dressed, were lifted onto roasting spits.
He still had both his and Tally's meals. But the smell of roasting meat drifted over to him, and he had to admit, there was something about it that made his mouth water.
“You're just going to let them wander around?” Garner a
sked, coming from the forest himself, arms loaded with wood. He dropped it into the fire pit nearby.
“We don't have enough people to hold them captive, and where are they going to go?” Ben shook his head. “You want to find someplace they can all fit, with a working bathroom and medical facilities?”
Handel made a face. Shook his head. “Point taken.”
“What about the runner?” Garner asked. “Did they get in touch with it?”
Ben shook his head. Dread gripped him, because the commander made it clear he was no longer in control of that runner. It had left before he could give the soldiers onboard instructions.
They were on their own.
“Commander Vrk says he was given the warship's call signature, but they didn't exactly have a two-way communications system. They were supposed to be invisible here. They had a set time to transmit once a week. He can contact them, ask them to order the runner back, but as they just fired on him . . .”
“And the bodies in the field?” Handel asked, face sour at the news.
Ben shrugged. “He seems a little reluctant to talk about that.”
“Maybe he didn't like what some of the crew had to say, and shut them up,” Handel said.
“All the more reason for the warship to ignore any requests he makes. The runner didn't exactly hang around when the shooting started.” Garner turned to watch Sari come out of the accommodation building, hair slicked back and wet, with a new uniform on.
Ben gave a tight nod. “Except, the runner flew off in the direction of the mine, which means at least some of the people onboard are Commander Vrk's. They might have control of it.”
“Even if they did go pick up more of the injured,” Sari said as she joined them, “how will it help them to come back here, whether they're loyal to Vrk or not? Those people need the kind of medical treatment they're only going to get on a med ship. I don't know that a warship will be able to cope with that number of injured, but surely it's better than nothing?”
“Even a warship that just shot at them?” Garner asked.
Sari shrugged. “I'm not saying it'll be an easy decision, but they may think it's worth it.”
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