by Jake Elwood
When the last patch was in place she said, "I want you to run into the jungle, Lark." She looked around, getting her bearings. "That way." She pointed in the same direction the ship was pointing. "Go a couple of hundred meters or so. I'm going to see how Jerry is doing. We'll catch up to you in a few minutes."
Lark gave the wall of trees a dubious glance.
"Go on, it'll be all right."
"Too late," said Roger in her ear, and a dark shape blotted out the band of sky above them. It was a flitter, a big one, with human shapes spilling from hatches on either side.
"Run!" Cassie screamed, and drew her pistol. She shot a descending shape, saw the arms and legs jerk and go limp. Stun shots sliced toward her, and she ran along the base of the crashed ship. She heard Jerry curse, heard the hum of a rail gun, heard the slap of impact above her as his rounds struck home.
There had to be twenty commandoes above her, a mix of humans and robots, with a hovercar circling to provide extra firepower. Fighting back was hopeless. Running was hopeless. There was just one chance. Cassie flung herself down on her stomach, wriggled under the curving hull of the ship, and squirmed her way in through the hatch.
She holstered her pistol, opened the locker where she'd stashed the artifacts, and pulled out the egg and the cube. Her hands shook as she rotated the egg, finding the indentation that matched the protrusion on the cube. Somewhere outside, Jerry and Lark would have already been taken. The commandoes would be coming for her in moments. She had brought them everything they wanted, and now she was trapped, helpless to prevent them taking it.
There was just one way to keep the egg and the cube away from them. One way to keep herself at large and give herself a ghost of a chance of saving Jerry and Lark.
Metal clattered on metal, and she turned her head in time to see a stun grenade come bouncing through the open hatch.
She pressed the egg against the protrusion on the cube, and the ship filled with white light.
CHAPTER 24
At first she thought it was the stun grenade going off. She was weightless for an instant. Then her feet crashed into a yielding surface, her legs buckled, and she landed on her knees. She straightened up, and realized she wasn't stunned after all.
There was sand under her knees. The cube lay beside her, the egg still in place.
Cassie looked up, and froze there, her jaw hanging open. A translucent, ghostly image of the Argo was around her. She had fallen through the hull, landing on red-brown sand half a meter lower down. She could see her knees on the sand, and she could see a faint image of the jungle soil around her thighs. Above that was a layer of crushed grass, and then the hull of the ship.
Her head was inside the hull, and she saw a battle robot come wriggling in through the hatch. The robot clambered to its feet, scanning the cabin, and a human commando followed. It was a woman, looking pale and washed-out. She put a booted foot through Cassie's head and peered around, a stun gun in her hand.
Cassie stood up. Her head was level with the woman's stomach. She stared in wonder as the woman walked through her, then spoke, the words silent in Cassie's out-of-phase world.
Picking up the cube and cradling it against her stomach, Cassie lumbered her way toward the edge of the Argo. Something bumped her foot, and she looked down. A PAD lay by her foot, and other odds and ends littered the sand around her. It looked as if every loose object in the cabin had come with her. She paused to think about it. The grenade hadn't made the transition, or she'd be paralyzed. She could make out the outline of Jerry's hat, still lying on the arm of a seat. The effect had a limited range, then.
She turned around, shuffled back through the sand, and found the shoulder bag she'd stored the artifacts in. She felt much better with the weight of the cube and egg slung across her back. She drew her pistol and walked out through the side of the ship.
The jungle was gone. Only ghostly trees remained, blending together to form a haze in every direction. There was sky above her, a pretty blue with puffy bits of white cloud, barely obscured by the mostly transparent canopy of phantom trees. The ground was featureless dark sand. The jungle floor formed a faint layer half-way between her ankles and knees.
Lark had made it most of the way to the nearest tree. A broad-shouldered man in dark armor slung her across his shoulder as Cassie watched. She shot him, not really expecting it to work. The laser beam passed through him with no effect. A moment later, he touched the controls on his antigrav harness and rose toward the flitter still hovering above the crash site.
It took two commandoes to lift Jerry's unconscious bulk up to the hovering ship. She watched, hands clenched into fists, as he vanished through a hatch in the side.
Combat robots stood guard as more commandoes examined the Argo from every side. Cassie ignored them, staring up at the skimmer until it turned and flew off toward the distant pyramid.
She shifted the shoulder bag on her back, holstered her pistol, and followed.
At first she instinctively walked between the ethereal tree trunks, but it was too much trouble to duck under branches that weren't really there, and before long she was plodding in a straight line, ignoring the trees as she passed through them. There wasn't much undergrowth. It looked as if the walking would have been fairly easy, back in her own reality.
The pyramid was barely visible, a solid bulk that she could just make out through the ghostly trunks of all the trees in between. She plodded on and on, the strap of the shoulder bag digging into her, watching as the pyramid slowly grew.
Beneath her feet the sand grew stony, and she started to stumble over rocks she couldn’t see. The rocks were the same reddish color as the sand, and the translucent soil over top had the effect of eliminating all shadows. There was no contrast between sand and stones, and she stubbed her toes, rolled her ankles, and nearly lost her balance. She started shuffling, afraid of a sprained ankle. When her left big toe connected with a particularly large rock she stopped, fed up, and took the bag from her back.
It was only as she was pulling the egg free from the cube that it occurred to her to wonder what would happen to her feet. A sphere of blue light formed around her, centered on the cube. The sphere was five or six meters across, and it was there for only an instant. When it was gone, the endless plain of sand was gone with it. The trees were back, and Cassie was buried in dirt up to mid-calf.
The soil bulged up around her legs, and it was closely-packed where it touched her jumpsuit, softer farther out. It was as if her arrival had pushed the soil outward during the split-second of transition. She squatted, digging dirt away from her legs, until she was able to work her feet free.
Running was impossible with the weight of the artifact on her back. She plodded through the trees, not stubbing her toes any more but needing to cut endlessly back and forth to avoid trees. The pyramid was no longer visible, but she could hear a low rumble of vehicles and machinery in the distance that kept her on track.
She'd been walking through jungle for about ten minutes when she paused to check her bearings and noticed a distant hum coming from behind. She set the shoulder bag down and drew her pistol.
A flying drone came weaving between the trunks, a couple of meters above her head. It was big, a meter and a half across, with armor plating and gun turrets. It made a nice big target. She switched her pistol to zap mode, then scrambled around the trunk of a vast tree as the drone spat bolts of fire at her. She dove sideways, rolled through low fern-like plants, paused flat on her back, and shot the flying machine out of the air.
She was barely on her feet when a second drone came zipping in. She fired, missed, and it retreated, zig-zagging through the trees. She was hunting for cover when the hovercar arrived. It was barely big enough to fit between the trees, moving somewhat ponderously as it picked its way through the trunks. The man in the turret on top swiveled his guns around, and a voice boomed out. "Put down your—"
Cassie snapped a shot at the turret, watched the shot fizzle in a spray of spa
rks across the hovercar's hull, and dove behind a tree as the turret opened up.
The barrage of fire was dreadful. She flung herself down on hands and knees behind a thick trunk, and chunks of bark and wood rained down around her. She cowered, her hands over her head, then felt her stomach twist as the tree started to crackle. It fell, slowly at first, then faster and faster, in a roaring cacophony of breaking branches and splintering wood.
With no idea which way to move, Cassie just held still. For a moment a beam of sunlight hit her as the falling giant tore a hole in the canopy above. Then the bole of the tree slammed down, the trunk shifted sideways, and she was in shadow again.
There was no clean cut to the trunk. It was splintered and broken, starting somewhere just above head height. The trunk lay on the ground, but thick branches kept it from pressing into the soil. There was a distinct gap between the trunk and the ground, and Cassie scuttled forward, crawling along under the trunk, working her way deeper and deeper beneath the tree. The cube and egg were lost somewhere behind her, but ahead was at least a token bit of cover, so she kept crawling.
More shots tore up the forest around her. Branches, leaves, and chunks of bark rained down. Sometimes the trunk quivered above her. As she worked her way forward the gap between tree and soil grew narrower, and she squirmed forward with her back against the trunk above her. She could feel tremors when the fallen tree took direct hits.
At last she could go no further. She curled herself up, hands covering her head, and waited for the end to come.
The forest went silent.
Ten seconds crawled past, then ten more. Cassie thought about her position, curled into a ball with her eyes and ears covered, and started to feel foolish. What was she, a rookie in her first gunfight? Embarrassment washed through her, and she made herself uncover her head. She could barely see, barely move. The pistol was still in her hand, but it was pretty much useless unless someone walked right up to her hiding place and stuck his face in front of the gun barrel.
Directly ahead of her, the broken stubs of half a dozen branches made a little covered den beside the trunk. She would be well-hidden but able to move, to see, to take some scrap of control over her destiny. She lay there a moment longer, terror holding her in place. A combination of shame and common sense finally overcame her fear and she squirmed out from under the trunk. There wasn't a lot more room under the branches, but she was able to rise to a crouch.
The forest was silent around her. She checked that the pistol was still on zap setting and rocked herself from side to side, trying to keep her legs from stiffening.
Something moved through the branches, and she froze. It was the drone, drifting back and forth. Then, behind it, she saw the bulk of the hovercar.
"You may as well come out." It was a woman's voice, and it came from ground level. "We see you there, just this side of the trunk. They've got you covered from the hovercar. That's Dan Bismark in the turret. He's a ruthless bastard, and a crack shot. He's waiting impatiently for me to fail to talk you out. As soon as I give up, he's going to kill you."
Cassie glared toward the invisible voice, but kept silent. There was a chance, a tiny, pathetic sliver of a chance, that the woman was bluffing.
The hover car had stopped moving, though. She could make out the protective bubble covering the front of the turret, and the twin barrels of the guns poking out and down. They were pointing directly at her.
"Give it up, Cassie. It is Cassie, isn't it? You've given us a good run, but it's time to face facts. Your run is over."
Cassie could see the woman now, or at least a little strip of fabric on her right leg. The woman was behind a tree. She wasn't stupid, unfortunately.
Beyond and above the woman, the hovercar floated in mid-air. She could blast away at it with her pistol until the power pack ran dry and do no good at all, she realized. Even if she got in a lucky shot and disabled one of the guns, there was the drone, drifting back and forth above the car.
Above the turret.
Oh, this is a bad idea. This is beyond desperate. This is past stupid and into the realm of sheer idiocy. You need to think of something else, Cassie. Anything but this. But there was nothing else, and no more time. The woman sounded distinctly impatient as she said, "Last chance, Cassie. Come on out, or we'll leave your body here to molder in chunks."
The branches that were supposed to hide her were interfering with her view. She could see the drone only as little flashes of silver through the leaves. There was no good way to tell its exact position. She couldn't even be sure it was passing directly over the turret. But she was all out of options. "All right," she called. "I'm coming out." It was, strictly speaking, the truth. She leaned forward, pushing her head and one shoulder through a gap between branches.
"Throw your weapons out f—"
The drone drifted left to right, its shadow moved across the hull of the hovercar, it was a hairsbreadth from being directly above the turret, and Cassie swung her pistol up and fired. There was no time to take careful aim. She snapped the shot, a fat spark lanced out, she felt her heart sink as she saw that she'd missed, and then the spark just brushed the top edge of the drone's round body.
Both turret guns fired, flames belching out and blasting through the fragile screen of branches in front of Cassie. The ground behind her exploded, she felt a searing pain in her leg, and a branch slammed into her shoulder as the explosion catapulted her forward. She landed face down in the ferns. A woman in a dark uniform stood no more than three meters away, pressed against the trunk of a tree, staring at Cassie with wide, surprised eyes. It was the easiest thing imaginable for Cassie to lift her pistol a few centimeters and shoot the woman in the side.
Something slammed into the ground right behind Cassie. She watched the woman in black topple, a stun rifle falling from her hands, then rolled over. The drone was on the ground. It had come within a hand's breadth of landing on her and crushing her skull.
Cassie's whole body felt numb and distant, but she made herself roll up onto her knees. She looked up. The hovercar was spinning above her, the pilot fighting for control. The turret was a crumpled mess. The drone had hit the top edge of the protective bubble as it fell, and the bubble had crumpled. Cassie couldn't see the man who'd been there, but she could see blood.
The blow had jarred the car and sent it spinning out of control. Given just a little more room the car could have recovered, but as Cassie watched, the tip of a wing caught a tree and the hovercar spun faster. It tilted to one side, a wing dug into the ground, and a moment later the nose of the car slammed into a tree.
She shot the pilot when he crawled out of the wreckage. Then she dragged herself to her feet and stumbled through the trees until she found the cube and the egg. By that time the worst of the shock was wearing off. Her calf hurt, so she took a moment to look herself over. A splinter of wood as thick as her thumb was embedded in her calf.
She pulled it free, hissing at the pain, then took out her tiny first aid kit. She sprayed sealant on the wound, sighing in relief as the anesthetic took effect. She tugged the snug leg of her jumpsuit up until the wound was covered, and stood. She picked up the artifacts, turned in a circle until she was pretty sure she was pointing toward the pyramid, and started to walk.
CHAPTER 25
Cassie knelt at the edge of the jungle, watching the pyramid and the bustle of human activity around it. Nothing but the pyramid remained of whatever long-lost race had once been here. The jungle was razed for a couple of kilometers all around the vast structure. Plumes of smoke rose from huge piles of logs and branches, and vast stumps dotted the open ground.
A camp of sorts stood near the center of the pyramid's north face. There were long prefabricated buildings and a handful of tents, and she could see half a dozen people and a dozen or so robots. Most of the robots were heavy industrial machines, spattered with mud and dripping bits of foliage. There were also some combat machines, lumbering things half again the height of a human being wit
h bristling gun turrets where arms ought to be.
The humans were a mixed bunch, mercenaries in black uniforms mixed with soft-bodied scientific types in street clothes. She spent a minute or so watching people and traffic, then made her move. She edged back behind a tree, lifted the egg, and snapped it into place on the cube.
There was another flash of light, and she dropped several centimeters onto the sand. She headed for the camp, walking right through a pile of burning jungle debris. Not even heat reached her. A ghostly mercenary looked right at her without the slightest reaction. A vague sense of propriety kept Cassie from walking through the man. She circled around and continued to the nearest pre-fab building. Instead of walking to the door, she stuck her head through the wall. It was some sort of combination bunkhouse and mess hall, with bunks for several dozen people.
Something caught her eye, a ghostly shape in a corner of the bunk area. It was a backpack, lying discarded on the floor. Cassie looked at it, thought for a moment, then hunted for something to bring her feet up above floor level. She finally had to kneel and heap sand into a mound to give herself something to stand on.
The bunk room was empty. There was activity all around, just on the other side of the flimsy walls, but no one could actually see the spot where she stood. She took a deep breath and pulled the egg free of the cube.
Her feet thumped onto the floor, she snatched up the backpack, and the egg clicked back into place. A moment later she was back out of phase. She set the cube down, sighed with relief as her shoulders unkinked, then stuffed the artifact into the backpack. With the waist strap done up there was practically no weight on her shoulders.
"Oh, that's better," she said, and continued her search.
The next building held machinery, robots and vehicles and strange mechanical equipment. There was no sign of Lark or Jerry.