Project Charon 1

by Patty Jansen

  The training officer had looked at her, taken in her lean frame and shortness, and said, “You run, anyway.”

  From his room, Rex called out again, “What’s going on? Mum?”

  “Shhhh. Be quiet.” There was not much point in saying, “We are under attack," when he could do nothing about it and she had no time to put him in his harness.

  She had to make sure that the shop was safe. On a bottom shelf in the very corner of the storage room she kept a box of goodies she had collected over the years for occasions like this. She pulled it out, found the belt with the pockets, strapped it on, and filled the pockets with various items.

  She had two highly illegal Expander-Z fire grenades that she had “confiscated” from a dingy shop in Peris City by showing her—expired—Federacy Force ID combined with the threat that she’d notify the authorities.

  She stuffed the flares in another pocket. They were nothing more than pretty fireworks, but they could distract.

  The tear-gas bombs were not going to be any good without breathing mask and tanks, and she didn’t have those yet, but the road spikes might be useful, because the intruders were sure to have come here with a vehicle, and these ones contained small explosive charges that would destroy caterpillar tracks as well.

  Then she put on the heavy jacket that lay next to the box. It was heavy from the armour that was sewn into the lining, and felt too hot the moment she put her arms in. It wouldn’t be much good against a Q-blaster, but it would protect her from laser fire.

  Last but not least, she found her IR goggles.

  Kitted out, with her weapon fully charged again, she went to the front of the shop, all without turning on the lights. She made sure that the shop’s front door was locked and bolted and that no one was inside—there wasn’t. Then she went back to the kitchen.

  The trick was to get out without the intruders noticing.

  She opened the door a crack.

  The cactuses had moved again and formed a protective ring around the back steps. She half expected that. The first time she had seen this, when a bad storm hit, it had surprised her, but then she figured that they might be motivated by the need to protect their source of water and shelter.

  Tina crept down the steps and peered through the tangled spiky branches, but it was too dark to see much in the yard.

  The night was utterly quiet, as if nothing had happened, except for the burnt smell lingering in the air from where the plasma beam had hit the wall.

  The tangle of cactuses spread out from the back steps to encompass the entire back of the house, forming a protective wall. They brushed their fronds over her. Tina normally kept well away from them while they did this, because they would deposit their prickly seeds in her clothes.

  But now, they gave her the cover she needed.

  She slowly pushed into the mass of spikes, withdrawing her hands as far as possible within the sleeves of the jacket. This move was going to get her covered in spikes.

  But the cactuses followed her.

  She shuffled along the dark side of the garden surrounded by her prickly followers.

  There was not a breath of sound in the garden or around it. The light in the porch was still on, reflecting from the puddle she had made when hosing the tiles.

  The back fence separated the desert from the oasis of the garden. To the left, but still at some distance across a stony field, lay Janusz’s house. No sound came from that direction either.

  To the right stood the shed that housed the hamlet’s small collection of agricultural machinery.

  The person who had fired the Q-blaster must have been hiding somewhere around here. In order to fire over the fence, he would have had to stand on something, like the back of a vehicle.

  She was determined to inflict as much damage as possible to the vehicle and its occupants so that they would never come back.

  At the back of the yard was a gate in the fence. When she had first moved here, this was how the shop was supplied and how the previous owner had been able to store a lot of junk in the back yard.

  Tina stopped at the gate. The cactuses crowded around her.

  She felt in the pockets of the belt, and her hand rasped over the carpet of spiky seeds they had attached to her. They wove them into the fabric with spidersilk-like threads that were very hard to remove.

  She took one fire grenade out of her pocket and hung it on the loop at the front of the belt. She took a string of road spikes out of another pocket and hung it on another loop. She checked the old Fireseed. It was fully charged and could now deliver two shots in quick succession. Then she pulled her IR goggles over her eyes.

  Ready to go.

  The gate hadn't been opened for a long time, and when Tina lifted the latch it creaked terribly.

  Something moved in the darkness outside the yard. Tina almost fired before she realised that another mass of cactuses was crowding to get in. As soon as they realised an opening had appeared in the fence, they all started moving forward, a prickly impenetrable mass. Tina wondered how she would get all the cactuses out of the yard—and how to stop them breeding with her experimental ones.

  Crouching and hidden between two flocks of cactuses, it was hard for her to peer into the desert. The cactuses were dark—the water in their fronds made them cooler than the air. She spotted some lighter patches, but with her view blocked by the cactus fronds, they were nothing more than indistinct shapes. The cactuses might form an oasis of safety for her, but she couldn’t see like this.

  She straightened, allowing her to see into the desert.

  A vehicle stood straight ahead, outside her throwing range. It was a type of delivery truck. A single figure stood on the back of the tray with a weapon mounted on a stand. The Q-blaster.

  A second person half-walked, half-crawled towards the vehicles. What was the bet that was the person she’d hit?

  Then she had a disturbing thought: did the fact that these people were still here and showed no sign of wanting to flee mean that there was a third—

  Click.

  A zooming sound gave away that someone was using a fast charge plasma gun, probably the Q-blaster again. Tina dropped to the ground, realising that they’d spotted her.

  A flaming beam of sizzling white hot air went overhead and hit the back fence. A section of it burst into flames.

  Great, she still had her reflexes. But she had fallen with one hand in a cactus branch.

  Ouch, ouch ouch.

  Yes, she was right. There were three intruders. And there was the monkey-like creature.

  Tina wormed her legs under her so that she could rise onto her knees. She peered between the cactuses.

  The figure with the Q-blaster made no effort to hide himself. No doubt he wore armour. Tina’s Fireseed wasn’t going to do him any harm. But there were other means of taking him and his band of thieves out.

  The limping figure had reached the truck and was pulling himself into the cabin.

  Tina assessed the situation. She didn’t know where the third person was.

  The Fireseed had two shots. She could aim one at the truck’s battery, causing it to overheat, but then the two intruders would probably flee the vehicle and she had only one shot to deal with them.

  She could throw the fire grenade, but she wasn’t confident that she could throw it accurately enough to deliver the necessary amount of damage. Even if she did, she still needed to deal with the third person.

  This called for a distraction to draw the third person back to the vehicle.

  Tina found one of the flares. She opened the tube, put the flare head onto the shaft, set the shaft in the tube, pulled the launch tab and pointed the tube at the sky over the truck.

  With a soft crackle, it launched.

  The flare did not ignite fully until it was in the sky over the truck.

  Tina lifted her goggles.

  The flame bathed the desert in light. Pink light? She should have known these ones were pink, like she was having a birthday part
y.

  Someone shouted. Something moved, really close by.

  A dark shape was visible, backlit by the flames from the burning fence. That was the third burglar, returning to his ride.

  Tina followed him in the sight of the gun, restraining herself from firing it at him. She needed all of them in the truck.

  Come on, come on, hurry up.

  She moved forward, clutching the fire grenade.

  The third thief reached the vehicle.

  A loud crack echoed through the night. A white ball of flame engulfed the cabin of the truck. Debris flung outwards.

  Tina ducked.

  Holy crap what was that? It was as if someone else had a plasma gun.

  The truck exploded, but two of the intruders jumped free: the man who had been on the tray and the one who had been about to get in.

  What idiot spoiled her trap?

  By the light of the burning truck, someone came towards her.

  “What were those geezers up to?” a gravelly voice said in the darkness. Old Janusz, carrying a huge plasma gun.

  The idiot. Where did he even get that weapon? “Watch it! Two of them are still—”

  Tina heard the discharge before the flash erupted. She rolled back to the cactuses.

  A sizzling beam hit the ground where she had just been.

  “Come here,” she hissed at Janusz. Idiot.

  “Can’t see anything,” he squealed.

  Shut up. With her goggles, everything was as clear as daylight.

  The man with the Q-blaster had taken refuge behind a rock at the bottom of a gentle hill. The other walked in that direction. From the way he walked, he was injured.

  There was nothing for it.

  Tina aimed the Fireseed at the shooter’s head. It would be shielded, but she needed to distract him.

  She fired. As predicted, the man wore armour. The flash hit him, but his head simply ducked down the other side of the rock.

  Then she pulled out the first fire grenade, pressed and held the ignition and threw it over the rock, onto the hillside.

  In her goggles, she could see the grenade grow increasingly bright as it rolled down the hill until it came to the bandit’s position—and exploded.

  “Whoa!” Janusz called out.

  Idiot.

  Tina jumped out from between the cactuses, yanked the plasma gun out of his hands with a “Let me just borrow that,” and ran back to the shelter of the cactuses.

  The last man had turned around and came running in her direction. He might be injured, but he wore armour and he clearly had no intention of going down without a fight.

  The Fireseed301 was not up to the task of stopping him, but the plasma gun was, if she could figure out this unfamiliar weapon quickly enough. It was another highly illegal piece that had somehow made it out of the Federacy’s stores. Whoever had stolen it hadn’t even bothered to remove the Federacy Force’s Weapons ID number.

  Tina was not familiar with the make or type.

  With a crash and shower of glowing embers, the section of the fence that was on fire fell over.

  The remaining man ran from the truck in the direction of the opening towards the house.

  Oh, no, no one was going to bother Rex.

  Tina fired. The gun actually discharged with a characteristic zoom that she had heard before. This was the type of plasma gun that the Federacy’s planet-based forces used. The white beam hit a pack on the man’s back. He shouted, and a ball of flames enveloped him.

  Phew.

  Tina rose from behind her shelter of cactuses.

  The truck was still burning fiercely. A patch of smouldering vegetation had spread out from the place where the fire grenade had exploded.

  There was nothing left of the last victim. Already, the flames were dying down.

  Tina handed the plasma gun back to Janusz. “Better you get caught with it than me.”

  He gave her a shifty look. “I done nothing wrong.”

  “No, of course not.”

  “What? I was trying to help!”

  Help, her arse. He was curious. “I had everything under control.” He just wanted to see if any loot was to be had or money to be made. If he really wanted to help, there were so many other things he could have done.

  He stuck the gun in his belt. “Who were they? Did you know them?”

  “Nope.”

  “Hmm, I thought they had something to do with that fellow who was here earlier this afternoon. These characters have been snooping around all afternoon. They were hanging around in the hills, using a rented truck from Gandama, pretending to be visitors. I suspect they were measuring us up, but you don't underestimate old Janusz. They were hard to miss.“ He patted the gun as if he took sole credit for fighting them off.

  Tina had no patience for him.

  She spotted some planks that were leaning against his back fence. She picked up one and dragged it across the dust.

  “Hey, what are you doing?”

  “I’m just going to borrow these until I can get my fence fixed.”

  “But I’m going to use those.”

  “You’ve been ‘going to use those’ for the past ten years. Don’t worry, I won’t need them for that long.”

  Chapter Six

  Tina finally came to Rex’s room, having fobbed off Janusz while staying polite but not allowing him into the house and not promising him any work. He really was annoying and persistent.

  “Where were you?” wailed Rex in the darkness. “What’s going on?” His voice sounded distressed.

  Tina ran into his bedroom and switched on the light.

  He had rolled around in his cot so that he could see the door, but his vision would have been extremely limited.

  “Oh, Rex!”

  She picked him up out of the cot and held him close. “It’s all right. It’s all right.”

  “Mum, I’m fine.” He nuzzled her shoulder. “You’re covered in cactus seeds.”

  True. She hadn’t taken off her jacket.

  “I just wanted to know what happened. I heard you going outside and I heard people shooting and then there was a fire.”

  “It’s all fine,” Tina said, patting his back, covered in a nightshirt that looked like a bag, with the bottom and sleeves sewn shut so that the fabric wouldn’t ride up his limbless body. Tina had made a couple of buttons at the front.

  She felt guilty about not having put him into the harness earlier. Lying here helpless would have made her scared, too. But she’d really had no time.

  He continued, “Who was shooting? What’s on fire?”

  “There was a burglar in the shop, but it's all right now," Tina said.

  “Did they steal anything?”

  “Morning will tell, but it doesn’t look like they took anything important.”

  “Who were they?”

  “Probably some band of disorganised pirates," Tina said. Although what they were after remained a mystery to her. The suggestion that Simon Fosnet might have sent them disturbed her.

  "Do you know you now sound just as vague as Janusz?” Rex said.

  Tina opened her mouth to protest that this was not like Janusz at all, but could see, from his point of view, that it might sound like that. She let out a heavy breath. “Honestly, that really is all I know right now. I didn't see who they were.”

  “Did you get them?”

  “Yes.” That was another thing she needed to sort out tomorrow.

  “That was good, then?”

  “I guess so.” But the shock of it all was just starting to sink in.

  “Are you all right, mum? Did you get hurt?”

  “No. I’m fine.”

  "You went up there by yourself. Wasn't that dangerous? What would I have done if they had abducted or killed you?"

  Tina cringed. It was the thing she worried about when she thought about getting old or going alone to Gandama in the truck. What if there were pirates or she had an accident and got killed? She couldn’t live with the thought
of Rex trapped in his cot for days, dying of thirst because she hadn’t come home.

  That robot she intended to buy that would help him into his harness would have to be a priority. It was the one weak point about the sanctuary she had provided for Rex, the thing that was most needed to help him to independence.

  "If I could get that new type of harness, I could have gotten out of bed to help you."

  Ah. There was always some kind of motive to his reasoning. Recently, the authorities had increased the hamlet’s communication bandwidth for non-essentials, and now they could get several news and commercial channels out of Kelso Station. Rex had spent a lot of time looking at fully automated harnesses that were advertised to ex-military personnel who had been injured in the Force.

  “Those harnesses are not for sale at Cayelle, and even if they were, we need to solve our financial problems first before I can spend that kind of money. Don’t get me wrong, I want you to have one of those.”

  Rex gave her a baleful look. They both knew it was about more than his mobility. She knew that at some point she would have to get him a modern harness, but they were worth more than the shop’s turnover for a whole year. She didn't even know if any people sold them locally. She had no money to spend on that sort of thing. Not unless they ceased to need money for food. Or to pay back loans.

  Rex continued, “Next time, I don't want you going out there by yourself. I want you to help me first so that I can help you."

  "You're a fifteen-year-old boy. You don't know how to handle weapons. You don't know how to fight. You have no experience. I think if you tried anything like that you would get killed."

  "Without the harness, I can't run away either."

  Yes, he was right, and also she had no energy for another fight about this subject.

  He knew it, too, and went to dig in a bit more, as he had been doing a lot recently. “I think I should learn how to help defend you.”

  “I don’t think you’re anywhere near old enough for that sort of business.”

  “Then tell me who else in this house is old enough?”

  “I am. And I have a lot more experience.”

  “We’re talking about what happens when you can’t be here. You just twist everything so that you can stop me doing interesting things.”