by Bev Prescott
The acceleration pressed Sharon against the seat. Her shoulder still ached from her scuffles with the Banditti and NONA. Hauling seventy crates of water hadn’t helped. She fidgeted in an effort to get comfortable. “Now what?”
“The tricky part.” Sunlight streamed in through the window onto Federico’s face. His accent, dark skin, long slender nose, and brown eyes hinted at an ancient South American heritage. His hair flecked with gray at the temples made him look resilient in a chaotic world. He laughed easily, and she liked that about him.
“What part of this hasn’t been tricky?” Sharon asked.
JJ smiled. “We have,” he glanced over his shoulder, “about fifteen minutes to find our ship, the Belostomatid, before NONA realizes we’re going the wrong way. We’re tracking toward the Belostomatid’s signal now. She’s close.”
“I’ve never heard of such a ship.” Sharon looked out the window with Federico. “What does it look like?”
“A big water bug,” Federico answered. “She can fly, swim, and walk on land. Woody built her. She’s a thing of beauty. Like the woman who conceived of her.” Admiration and warmth seemed to twinkle in his dark eyes.
“How long have you known Woody?” Sharon asked.
He resumed his looking. “Since I was seventeen. Woody vouched for me.” The affection in his eyes was discernible in his voice too. “That subject is for another day, though. Let’s not be distracted from the task at hand.”
Sharon wanted to know what he meant by Woody having vouched for him. He said it with such gravity that she wondered whether it held special significance to the Qaunik. She’d ask him again later. “So your Belostomatid looks like Bugzilla?”
Federico laughed. “Sí, and there she is.” He tilted his head to the window. “At the horizon, two o’clock.”
JJ maneuvered left, and Sharon saw the ship’s globular black body bobbing on six pontoon legs. The two in front curved up like crushing weapons.
“That might be the ugliest ship I’ve ever seen,” Sharon said.
“Ha!” JJ exclaimed. “Ugly and effective. Now’s the moment. I’m turning off the transporter’s tracking. As soon as I do, NONA will know that its transporter has gone rogue.”
Federico reached for a microphone on the dash. “As soon as you turn off the tracking, I’ll communicate with the Belostomatid. Then land us inside of her.”
“Won’t they still find us?” Sharon asked. “A giant water bug’s bound to draw attention.”
“Not a chance. The Belostomatid is covered in a material similar to that of a chameleon. Once we’re inside, we’ll activate her invisible shield. The material she’s covered in will blend in so well with the surroundings that she can’t be seen or tracked.” Federico curled his bottom lip under his top teeth giving him a look of sharp focus.
“It’ll even hide the ship’s mass?” Sharon asked.
“Don’t ask me how it works; that’s above my pay grade.” JJ held his finger over a button. “Now?”
Federico readied the microphone at his lips. “Yes.”
JJ pressed the button. “Here’s where it gets tricky.”
Federico spoke into the microphone, “Phillip, open the hatch. We’re coming in.”
“Is there anything you need me to do?” Sharon asked.
“Be ready.” Federico held the mic in his lap.
Sharon touched her hammer at her side, and watched out the window as the hatch on the back of the Belostomatid lifted open. Something raced past her peripheral vision. “There’s another ship out there.”
“Fucking NONA mosquitoes.” Federico hit the mic button. “We’ve got company. The instant we land, get the hatch closed and make us disappear.”
“I’m on it,” a man’s voice confirmed through the speaker.
JJ flew the transporter into the ship through the opening. It bobbled, bounced hard, and stopped. He flipped a switch and the engine quieted.
A loud boom preceded a splash against the ship.
In synchronized movement, JJ and Federico clicked out of their torso-restraints.
“They’re shooting at us.” Federico dashed from the seat toward the cockpit.
“How the fuck did they find us so quickly?” JJ followed him.
Sharon unlocked her restraint and kept pace with the men as they raced out of the transporter.
Another boom, followed by a splash, rocked the Belostomatid left, then right. Sharon reached for a wall to keep upright.
“Dammit, Phillip, shut the hatch!” Federico kept moving toward a blond man who was stabbing ineffectually at a set of controls on a podium.
A second, older man fumbled with a manual. Thin skin dotted with age spots fit tight over his shaking hands. He wore a tweed jacket frayed at the elbows. It was hard to tell which was older, the jacket or the man.
“The hatch isn’t responding,” the blond man said in a panic.
“We’ve got to unlock the S-bolts on the outside to shut it manually then.” Federico spun on a heel. “Give me a hand, JJ.”
“Right behind you.”
As soon as they disappeared outside, the blond man calmly pulled a short-barreled spectraletto from his coat pocket.
“Phillip!” The old man stared in disbelief. “What are you doing?”
“Saving myself, Dr. Elan.” He slid his finger over the screen in front of him and pressed his finger to a hatch icon. It closed, leaving Federico and JJ exposed on the Belostomatid’s outside deck. “Someone made me an offer to betray Woody that I couldn’t refuse. And I will not be banished.”
“They’ll kill us all,” the old man said. “JJ and Federico will be first. You can’t leave them out there with no cover!” He tossed the manual aside and pointed a bony forefinger. “Open that hatch.”
“No.” Phillip shook his head. “I’ll turn on the invisibility shield. Yes, JJ and Federico will die. But we’ll be fine. We’re still going to California. Just not with them.”
“But why?” Dr. Elan asked.
Federico’s face appeared at the starboard window. He banged on the hard plexi, screaming, his voice muffled.
Sharon started to rise.
“Sit down,” Phillip ordered.
Another boom and splash knocked her off balance. She fell into the seat.
“Woody’s idea is insane. If she manages to get her ship back, we’ll all die with her. I’m not going, because she’s not willing to make the kind of decisions that’ll keep us alive.” Phillip rattled out his words. His cheeks flushed red and beads of sweat dotted his forehead. “Listen, we can trade all of this water on the black market. I’ve already arranged for a buy. We’ll split the money three ways. With mine, I’m going to buy supplies and hunker down someplace safe.”
“You fool!” Dr. Elan bellowed. “How dare you?”
Phillip wiped a bead of sweat from his temple. “You know as well as I do Woody can’t feed us all. Yet she keeps taking people in like some modern-day Noah. I don’t intend to starve on a ship in the middle of nowhere.”
Dr. Elan’s thick gray eyebrows furrowed. “You’ll never make it to California, and NONA will kill us all.”
Phillip seemed to waver.
Sharon reached for her hammer. “And I don’t intend to die today. My wife is waiting for me. Open that fucking hatch and let Federico and JJ in.”
“Sit down.” Phillip raised the weapon to her chest. “I’m going to California to trade this water. If I have to die trying, so be it.”
Sharon weighed the situation. NONA had them in the crosshairs. In the time it’d take to open the hatch, go invisible and take off, they could all be dead. Eve would die alone. Sharon glanced at Federico and JJ trapped outside. Laser shots bounced all around like the conflict in her head. Their fate was sealed in whatever decision she made. In one swift movement, she shoved the butt of her left hand into Phillip’s nose as her right hand grasped her hammer.
He grunted, dropped the weapon, and put his hands to his bloodied nose.
Dr. Ela
n flipped a switch and the hatch opened. “Let’s go invisible.” He pressed a square icon on the dash screen.
Sharon yanked Phillip’s slumped body upward, slamming him into a wall.
He slid down and into the fetal position. “You don’t know what you’ve done,” he whimpered.
Federico and JJ stormed into the Belostomatid.
“Amiga!” Federico gripped Sharon’s shoulders. “You saved us today. Gracias.” He bent and retrieved Phillip’s weapon. “When you neutralize a threat, you neutralize a threat.” To JJ, he said, “Tie and mask Phillip.”
Sharon stood mute. Her limbs felt as if she’d been immersed in concrete. Her instinct to save Federico and JJ had been about more than finding Eve. How did things get so complicated in such a short amount of time? “I don’t know what I’m doing.”
“Following your heart.” Federico said from one of the passenger seats. “The thing we need more than food, water, or shelter is love. Just keep following your heart.”
“Sharon, this is Dr. Elan. Dr. Elan, meet our new friend, Sharon.” JJ lowered himself into the pilot seat. “You okay, Doc?”
“It’s especially nice to meet you under such dire circumstances.” Dr. Elan took a deep breath and blew it out. “Well, that just proved my old ticker’s still got some juice.” He patted his chest. “Get us the hell out of here before I use it all up. I’m not ready to keel over.”
“You got it, Doc.” JJ turned to Sharon. “Meet STELA, the brain of this mighty ship.” He waved his hand over the complicated flight dash cluttered with buttons, levers, switches, handles, a keypad of simple icons, and a flat-screen monitor. “She’s our Systems Technology and Electronics Launch Applicator. All these buttons and switches are for manual control. The screen, however, is an interactive computer that makes it possible for a layperson to fly her. All you have to do is sketch a command, and the computer does the rest. Once it understands the sketch, the sketch fades, making space for a new one.”
Federico aimed his thumb at the wall-sized screen on the portside. “And that’s OVA, the Overhead Video Amplifier. She lets us see and talk to Woody wherever we are in the world. OVA and STELA are on all of the ships and aircraft designed by Woody.”
“Yeah.” Sharon sat in a seat next to Dr. Elan. “Maybe you’ll let me try to do the flying at some point.”
“You got it, sister.” JJ sketched on STELA. “Watch the OVA; we can see everything she sees or does. We’ll be invisible within seconds.”
Sharon turned her eyes to the OVA and watched the ship’s legs swivel back and disappear into the landscape along with the rest of the ship. The NONA aircraft flew in futile circles looking for the Belostomatid hiding beneath their noses.
“We’re safe for now.” JJ leaned back.
“Have at it, NONA bastards.” Federico rested his head against the headrest. “We’re here, but then again we’re not.” He sighed, closed his eyes and started to hum a soft, lilting tune.
Something from an ancient opera, Sharon guessed. Whatever it was, it soothed her.
Chapter 11
In the hour since leaving the NONA pilot and the two water-walkers on the western outskirts of Wisconsin, a blanket of rusty sand had spread out below them. The dry expanse crawled over Earth, bullying life into submission. Only a few stubborn tufts of greenish-brown vegetation dotted the desert. The scene reminded Sharon of a flash flood. Except, instead of rushing water drowning the living, the Nebraska Desert snuffed it out by its relentless creeping.
Building remains covered in sand gave the otherwise flat landscape a hummocky look. The desiccated environment doomed the zombie structures to a purgatory of fading and reemerging in the shifting sands. Their forlorn shadows grew as the sun made its retreat below the horizon.
The quiet drone of the Belostomatid’s engines enveloped Sharon and her companions. Lights on the cockpit dash filled the cozy space with a soft green glow. Through the open cockpit door, Sharon could see into the Belostomatid’s cavernous cargo bay. Lashed down in the center of the bay, the transporter rested on its belly with its pontoon legs tucked at its sides.
Fatigue, hunger, thirst, and not having washed in days weighed heavy on Sharon. “I’d really like to wash my face. I assume there’s a sanitation room aboard?”
“Sí,” Federico answered. “The green door next to the OVA.”
“Thanks.” Sharon released her torso-restraint and got up. Her knees felt stiff from dehydration as she lifted her feet over the threshold of the sanitation room. Motion-activated lights lit up the tiny compartment as she shut the door. A flush handle hung over a small squatting stall. The handle connected to the same fresh-water holding tank as the sink. The tank was half full. She guessed the waste holding tank was just under the floor where the dirty water drained. Leaning over the sink, she waved a hand over the faucet and cupped her hands. Water flowed until she moved her cupped hands to her face.
Overlooking the chemical smell, she savored the feel of cool water splashed onto her skin. Lowering her hands from her face, she studied the woman in the mirror who she no longer recognized. She cinched her belt tighter, and wondered how much weight she’d lost over the past several days. You look like hell. Not knowing whether Eve was okay felt like hell. She filled her cupped hands again and drank the water. The little bit of it helped to revive her. She pressed the antiseptic dispenser, dropping a few dollops of the clear gel onto her palm. She slathered it over her hands and face. The alcohol in the antiseptic dried the water on her skin. She slipped out of the sanitation room and shut the door.
“You okay, amiga?” Federico asked.
“I feel better. Thanks.” She nestled back into a flight-seat and gazed out the window. “How far are we over the desert?”
“Ah, a good question,” Dr. Elan answered. “Our hefty Belostomatid may have the gift of invisibility, but she tends to dawdle.” He examined the satellite image displayed on the OVA. “Let’s see. We are over western Iowa. Not too far from Omaha.”
“I read that the Nebraska Desert grows every year. How big is it now?” Sharon asked.
“You want to talk hefty? She’s one big sand pit,” JJ answered. “Iowa, South Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Kansas. It’s a beast.”
“Don’t forget Texas,” Federico added. “It’s swallowing Texas too.”
“Anyone still manage to live down there?” Sharon reached into her satchel for her flask. “Just looking at it makes me thirsty.”
Federico waved a hand. “Save your water.” He released his torso-restraint. “We have an entire ship of the sweetest agua left on Earth. You, amiga, deserve a taste of the good stuff.” He got up. “Un minuto, por favor.”
“The doc here,” JJ aimed his thumb at Dr. Elan, “can tell you all about who lives down there. I don’t even like to think about, let alone talk about, them. It’s why we bring him whenever we travel over the desert. He’s a former anthropology professor. An expert in the study of the feral.”
“The feral?” Sharon asked. “You mean the Yěxìng?”
“Yes. Yěxìng is the Chinese word for untamed.” Dr. Elan swiped a finger over STELA. The OVA displayed an image of a group of naked, wild-eyed, and unkempt people.
Dr. Elan steepled his fingertips. “You’ve heard of them?”
“Oh, yeah.” Sharon nodded. “Fortunately, I’ve never had a run-in with them. Aren’t they supposed to be more dangerous than Banditti?”
“You could say that again. I’d rather tangle with fifty Banditti than one Yěxìng.” JJ pressed a button on STELA. “Huh?” Concern spread across his face as he fumbled with the controls.
“Is everything all right?” Dr. Elan asked.
“I’m not sure.” JJ flipped a switch, and then another. “No, no, no! Federico, you better get up here.”
Federico rushed in, handing Sharon and Dr. Elan each a glass bottle of crystal-clear water. “What is it?” He sat next to JJ.
“The cryo-converter storage ta
nk.” JJ scrutinized the numbers scrolling across STELA. “It must’ve been hit when NONA was shooting at us. The tank’s been leaking fuel since. I don’t know why the gauge isn’t working, but we’re losing power. Fast. We’re running on fumes.” He sketched a command. “I’ve got to find a place to land. We have about ten minutes before the Belostomatid takes matters into her own.”
“There.” Federico pointed to a large canyon. “Head toward the Platte River bed. We’ll land inside it.” He snapped his torso-restraint into the locked position. “Brace yourselves, everybody.”
Sharon stuffed the water bottle into her satchel and kicked it beneath her seat. Through the windshield, she studied the fast-approaching deep, dry scar in Earth that used to flow with water. Wind had deposited sand in haphazard hills and gullies along its snaking reach. As the Belostomatid dropped in altitude, its whirring engines kicked up a sandstorm.
JJ swiped his fingers in quick motion over the command-screen that conveyed the ship’s altitude, angle, and speed. He moved the red-handled throttle forward while holding the yellow one steady. The ship bounced once, hard, and then settled onto the sand.
Everyone let out their held breath.
“Okay, boss. Now what?” JJ asked.
Flipping through map images, Federico said, “We go dumpster diving.”
“I suggest you shut the lights down before the Yěxìng find us.” Dr. Elan rubbed his temples. “I sincerely hope they haven’t already.”
“Just what are we dumpster diving for?” JJ flipped several switches. The exterior lights on the ship went black as the window shades slid closed. “Should I power up her invisibility skin?”
“Yeah, just until we’re ready to go.” Federico glanced at JJ. “Then we’ll have to turn it off and hope she goes unnoticed. We’ll need battery power to get the engines started once the cryo-converter refills the fuel tank.”