Catalyst

by Fletcher DeLancey

  “Found them.” She yanked out a handful and hurried to the balcony.

  Roris was already down, and Blunt was just stepping over the railing.

  “Trooper Blunt.” Ekatya held up two cloths. “Let’s speed things up, shall we?”

  Blunt smiled at her. “Perfect. Thank you.” She lowered herself to the bottom bar, dropped over the edge, and locked her ankles around the cable. As she lifted one hand from the bottom railing, Ekatya pushed a cloth into it. Blunt wrapped the hand around the cable, adjusted her grip, and held up the other hand. Ekatya gave her another cloth, and a moment later Blunt was sliding. It took perhaps two seconds for her feet to hit the top of the railing below. She went into a crouch, then accepted the assistance of Roris and Korelonn as they pulled her forward and she hopped to the balcony floor.

  “That went well,” Torado remarked. “You’re next, Captain.”

  “Not yet. Lieutenants Kitt and Gizobasan should go first.”

  “I was hoping you wouldn’t say that.” Kitt sighed but climbed over the railing with alacrity. For all her worry, she had little trouble with the descent, which gave Gizobasan more confidence.

  A few seconds later, Ekatya was on the cable, sliding so quickly that she had no time to think about the six-story drop below her. Her feet hit the railing with a thump, and she let the momentum bend her knees, allowing her to push forward and make the assisted hop to the balcony.

  “Thank you,” she said. Roris grinned at her, while Korelonn was already looking up for the next one.

  Someone had forced open the window, and the others were gathering inside. Ekatya dropped her cloths onto an armchair and looked around the room. It was an opulent office, with heavy wooden furniture and art covering almost every square centimeter of the walls. Though she could not see much, what she did see made her doubt the owner’s taste.

  At least it was large enough to house them all without being crowded. Before long, Korelonn shut the window and pushed the armchair in front of it to keep it closed despite the broken lock. He checked the corridor outside with his thermal scanner, and soon they were creeping back toward the approximate location of the stairs.

  It was more difficult now. They had not been on this floor and had no idea of the layout. It had smaller rooms than the floor above, as evidenced by the greater number of doors, and many more intersecting corridors. Several times they had to stop and backtrack as corridors curved around and began leading them the wrong direction.

  At least the entire floor was dim, quiet, and free of soldiers. Thermal scans continued to show no sign of them.

  Korelonn halted at an intersection, facing the dual corridors that both angled toward where they thought the stairs were.

  “This is taking too long,” Ekatya whispered.

  “I know.” For the first time that evening, his voice sounded tense. “I think we should split up. One of these has to lead to the stairs. Whoever finds them sends a runner back. No one goes beyond the next intersection.”

  “Agreed. I’ll take Roris, Torado, and Bellows. You take the rest.”

  “You’re not going without security, Captain.”

  “Fine, I’ll take him, too. Let’s just do it.” Their luck was eroding; she could feel it. They needed to get out now.

  Ekatya took her team down the left corridor. With the other three keeping watch ahead and behind, she and Bellows focused on finding the stairs. Each of them walked down one side of the corridor while holding up their pads, using the translation program to decipher the signs on the doors. It was slow going, because of course the palace stairs couldn’t have a glass door that made them easy to spot from a distance. Every door was solid wood.

  Office…office…office…toilet…parsing room, what the Hades was that? She shook her head and kept walking. Office…office…

  “Captain!” It was Bellows, slightly ahead of her. “I found them!”

  When she turned, he was opening the door.

  “Bellows, no!” She raced over, reaching out to stop him. “Not until you—”

  His head vanished in a spray of red mist, the blood and brains spattering the side of her face as she instinctively turned away. She was so close that when his body toppled backward, she could not stop herself quickly enough. He crashed into her, taking her down to the floor beneath him.

  A cacophony of noise was exploding overhead, but her world had narrowed down to the soft carpet under her back and the dead weight crushing her chest, trapping her in place. She had to tilt her head away from the arterial blood, which continued to spurt with astonishing force. It hissed against her neck and jaw in pulses, sickeningly warm, running down her skin and into her collar as she struggled to push Bellows off.

  Someone shouted. Through her closed eyelids, screwed shut against the spraying blood, she saw a brilliant flash. An explosion roared through her head, leaving behind a stuffy silence broken only by an endless ringing tone.

  A stun bead, she knew. Probably a whole handful of them. She hadn’t understood the warning call, and even if she had, only one of her hands was free enough to cover her ear. Bellows’s body must have protected her from the worst of it, since she was still conscious.

  She had just pulled her other hand free when the weight on her chest lifted and friendly hands helped her into a sitting position. The change in angle sent fresh rivulets of blood under her collar and down her chest, where it soaked into her shirt. She shook her head, ridding herself of the excess, and wiped her face and neck. There was so much blood that her hands skated over her skin, sluicing through the fluid.

  Finally daring to open her eyes, she saw Roris crouched in front of her, her lips moving. By the expression on her face, she was asking an urgent question.

  “I can’t hear you,” Ekatya said. Or thought she did; it was hard to tell. “But if you’re asking if I’m all right, I am.”

  Roris nodded, then pulled out her pad, spoke into it, and held it up.

  The text on the screen read: We can’t use the stairs. There were four soldiers, and we got them all, but the whole building must have heard the fight. They’ll have every stair exit blocked now.

  Ekatya looked at the stair door, which was now shut with three bodies piled against it. One of them had no head and wore a Fleet dress uniform. In a perfect example of field practicality, Roris and the others had used Bellows’s body to buy them time.

  Because they certainly could not take it with them.

  “Did you get his insignia?” she asked.

  Torado bent down beside Roris and held out his hand. An ensign’s insignia gleamed in his palm. Inside the nearly indestructible symbol was a data chip with Bellows’s identification and medical record. It was the one thing they always brought back, even if they could not bring the body.

  Ekatya rose to her feet. She was slightly wobbly; her balance would be compromised until her hearing returned. “Call Commander Lokomorra. Tell him it’s now a worst-case situation. We’ll have to evacuate from a balcony on the front of the building, fifth floor. Tell him weapons hot, and that goes for our team as well. We are not losing anyone else.”

  With one last look at the headless body of Ensign Bellows, she turned and led her team back the way they had come.

  CHAPTER 30:

  Evacuation

  By the time the landing team had barricaded themselves inside a likely-looking room for evacuation—one far from the stairs, down a small side corridor they hoped would not attract any searchers just yet—Ekatya’s hearing was beginning to return. This was a profound relief, given that evacuation would involve jumping from the balcony railing into the open cargo bay door of the shuttle. She had not been looking forward to attempting that with compromised balance.

  Her mind was ticking over the details of what was about to happen and how she could keep the rest of her team safe. She could not think about the fact that she had already failed
. The death of Ensign Bellows was in the past; her team’s safe return was still in the future. She would not allow her mind to return to that terrible moment when she had been reaching for his shoulder and watched his head disappear.

  If only she had been one second faster. Just one Shipper-damned second.

  Roris stepped into her line of view, a concerned look on her face. “Captain? Can you hear me yet?”

  Ekatya nodded. “You sound like you’re at the other end of a tunnel, but yes. How long?”

  “Three minutes. The shuttle and fighters are already coming under ground fire, but they’ve got nothing that can penetrate our shields. Their aerial support isn’t here yet. I’m hoping we can get out before it arrives.”

  “Well, we’re due a bit of luck, aren’t we?” Ekatya didn’t wait for an answer before going to the window.

  The side corridor, it turned out, led to a spacious office occupying one of the palace’s towers. That in itself was lucky; it meant the room and its balcony jutted out from the main facade of the building. The shuttle pilot would have more room to get into position, and the fighters would have an easier time blocking them in.

  This balcony was three times the size of the one they had entered from, but the railing was the same. She eyed the narrow top bar and then turned to examine the room. It was full of ornate, heavy furniture that could not be easily moved, but in their case, heavy was a benefit. They had already upended the immense desk and used it as the main prop in their barricade, which now resembled something left behind by an earthquake.

  But they had not used that table along the back wall, with its crystalline decanters and glasses. It was too slight for the barricade, but perfect for her purposes. She walked over and began moving decanters to the floor. “Help me clear this off,” she said. “We’ll carry it out to the railing and use it for a launch pad.”

  Lieutenant Gizobasan was at her side in a moment, and between the two of them, they cleared the table in seconds. Torado and Korelonn each took one end and carefully maneuvered it out to the balcony, while Ekatya held open the door.

  She had judged accurately; the top of the table was only a few centimeters below the top of the railing. With a satisfied nod, she went back in the room and picked up a cloth-covered footstool that sat forlornly in a corner. The high-backed, overstuffed chair it belonged to was in the barricade.

  Once she had positioned the footstool in front of the table, she backed up two steps and took a trial run. The stool was a little too soft to make the perfect springboard, but it was easier than scrambling up from the ground.

  When she reentered the room, she said, “I want this to go off as quickly as possible. We’re going to form a line right now. Wait only until the person before you has jumped, and then you run. That means when you land in the cargo bay, you get the Hades out of the way so the next person has landing room. Understood?”

  They all nodded.

  “Captain, I think you should—”

  “I’ll go first,” she interrupted Korelonn. “That was what you were going to say, wasn’t it?”

  “I think we’ll all feel better when you’re in that shuttle.”

  “And it didn’t occur to you that the first person has the greatest chance of a problem?” She smiled at his fallen expression. “Too late, I’m going first. I want you to bring up the rear, so you can respond to any threats that might come from that door.” She indicated the barricaded door of the office. “Everyone else, choose your spots. Do it now.”

  She stood in front of the window, arms crossed as the other eight arranged themselves in a line. It didn’t surprise her that Roris joined the two security officers at the rear, pushing the rest of her team in front of her. Right behind Ekatya were Kitt and Gizobasan.

  Kitt looked at her with a nervous smile. “Can’t be as hard as sliding down a cable, right?”

  “No, it’s much easier,” Ekatya said. “And faster.”

  She heard a welcome sound then and blessed her functioning ears for the forewarning. The shuttle swung around the farthest corner of the palace and came toward them, flying in formation with the three fighters bracketing it above and on both sides. A single click in her head heralded an incoming call, one that did not wait for acknowledgment.

  “Lieutenant Delafield to Captain Serrado. Can you hear me?”

  “My hearing is fine,” she said. “Com, open call to landing team, mute unless tapped.” A soft chime confirmed that the others could now listen in, with an option to speak if they needed to. “Do you see our little party setup on the balcony?”

  “I don’t—ah, yes, I do. Good idea.” The shuttle and its accompanying fighters came to a stop right in front of her and hovered as each craft smoothly turned in place to face outward. “Captain, be warned that we’ve been taking fire from palace windows. They’re following us. The fighters will do their best to shield you.”

  “Understood.”

  “Opening doors now.”

  The cargo bay doors slid open, exposing the well-lit, empty bay. Slowly, the shuttle backed toward the balcony, maneuvering so that the cargo bay deck was slightly below the level of the railing. The fighters moved in synchrony with it, keeping themselves and their shields between the balcony and a possible attack.

  “Dropping rear shield.”

  Close enough.

  “I’m going,” she announced. Moving at a fast trot, she crossed the balcony, sprang from the footstool to the tabletop, and jumped before she could focus on the empty space yawning between the railing and the edge of the cargo bay. She hit the deck hard and tucked into a roll, then bounced up and ran for the weapon rack next to the passenger compartment entry. “I’m in,” she said as she yanked a pulse rifle from the rack.

  “Captain, they’re already here.” That was Korelonn. “Some are trying to break our barricade, but I can hear others moving into the next rooms. Sounds like two squads at least.”

  “I’ll provide cover fire. Change of plans, everyone. Nobody goes until I call it. Kitt, are you ready?” At the open bay door, she braced herself against the left edge and brought the rifle to her shoulder.

  “Ready.”

  The shields of the fighters were phasing in and out of the visual spectrum, proof of the weaponry that was bouncing off them. The Halaamans were not giving up. Though the fighters could block anything from above and most things from the sides, the two closest offices were inside their shield coverage. Ekatya was all her team had.

  She sent three shots into each office window, shattering them both.

  “Kitt, go!”

  Just as Kitt hit the table, Ekatya saw movement at the window to the right. She sighted in on what appeared to be a uniformed shoulder, waited half a second for the blur of Kitt to flash across her view, and fired.

  Kitt thumped into the bay with a small scream. “Shit!”

  “You’re all right.” Ekatya sent another burst of shots into each window and detected no movement. “Clear. Go!”

  It was not Gizobasan who came next, but Blunt, her white ponytail streaming out behind her as she ran.

  “Dammit!” A soldier had appeared in the left window, and Blunt was exposed. Ekatya didn’t sight in; there was no time. She swung and fired instinctively, holding the trigger long enough to make sure everyone in that room got down and stayed down.

  Paying no attention to the weapons fire, Blunt soared through the air and hit the deck. She had hardly landed before she joined Ekatya at the other edge of the door, pulse rifle in hand. Her colorless eyes held a fierce expression. “I’ll get this side.”

  “Understood.”

  Relieved from the burden of covering both windows, Ekatya settled into hunting mode. Shooting defensively was not good enough; she needed these soldiers neutralized. She scanned the part of the room that she could see through the open window. “Clear on my side.”

  “Wa
it,” Blunt said. She fired a moment later, then called, “Clear! Go!”

  Now Gizobasan came, running with a fearful look on her face. A small cry indicated a bad landing, but that was better than being shot.

  Without looking, Ekatya said, “Kitt, help her out of the way.” She had barely spoken when three bald heads appeared in her magnified view. Her shot blew the center one backward; the other two dove to the sides. “Clear!”

  Blunt fired twice. “Clear!”

  “Go!” Ekatya called.

  Ennserhofen raced across the balcony and hardly seemed to touch the table before he was arcing into the cargo bay.

  “Need any more help?” he asked from behind them.

  “No room. Help the others if they need it. Wait!” Ekatya called as a head slid into her view. The soldier was crawling on the floor toward the window, hoping to escape notice. She set her crosshairs directly on the tattooed spots of his head, exhaled, and pulled the trigger. The spots and most of the head vanished.

  “That was for Bellows,” she muttered, scanning the rest of the visible room. “Clear.”

  “Clear,” Blunt echoed.

  “Go!”

  Torado came flying in. “Someone is screaming on Blunt’s side,” he said. “He sounds pretty scared.”

  “Good. Scared soldiers have bad aim.” Ekatya saw no movement in her room but fired twice just in case. Beside her, Blunt did the same.

  “Clear,” they said simultaneously.

  “Go!” Ekatya called.

  Roris jumped so far that she was halfway into the cargo bay before she hit the deck. Ekatya heard her thump into the bulkhead as she rolled out.

  “A little too enthusiastic there,” Torado said.

  “Shut it. I’m in, aren’t I?”

  “Wait,” Ekatya said as another head popped into her view. “They’re persistent, I’ll give them that.” She took a second to steady her aim, then pulled the trigger. The body dropped to the floor.