I nodded and put my hand to the door. “All right then. So, no stealing the uniform off the unconscious worker’s bodies. Got it. Are we ready?”
There was a brief pause as we all composed ourselves.
“Let’s kick this gaseous’ cloud’s ass.”
I nodded and right back out into the fray we went.I strode down the hall right back to where we came, and sure enough the pink had disappeared entirely, leaving us with a good view of six or so workers passed out on the ground. Sliding my card, I opened the door and promptly laid down on the ground.
“What are you doing?” Janix asked, stepping over me.
“Selling the bit. You get down, too.”
“Oh, right. I get it. Good idea.” He flopped down next to me, allowing both Viys’k and Angel to skitter over us and right back up into the egg.
There was quite a commotion of ripping wires and cursing, then about five minutes later they were clambering right back down the ladder and rushing to the door on the far side.
I should have been prepared for the explosion, I knew it was coming, after all. But even I wasn’t ready for the sudden assault on my eardrums. There was no warning. One moment I was laying there, contemplating if I should turn on my side for a more believable pose, the next there was a clap of thunderous noise and I was thrown several feet along the ground.
Heat caressed my back when I came to a stop and it took all the discipline in my body not to get up and run away from what had to be a pretty impressive blaze behind me. At least all of my cuts and bruises from our crash would make sense now.
More smaller eruptions sounded, like a lethargic drumline, then we heard both alarms and footsteps running toward us.
The door buzzed behind us and a few seconds later someone was crouching over me.
“I’ve got two over here!’ They called, pressing fingers to my neck. “Pulses on both!”
“Seven over here.” A longer pause. “All pulses!”
Another voice approached, and he sounded both older and over the entire situation.
“Must have been some sort of gas leak. Dammit, we’re supposed to have sensors for this.”
“It’s not like they care about the upkeep of our facility anyways, just focusing on all those expansions of theirs.” The worker behind me stood up and I did my best to keep my breath even and unconscious-like.
“Yeah, because their little experimentations need that much room, apparently.”
“I’m not the scientist. I’m just the asshole who’s paid to clean up after them.”
“Right. Well, call down to medical. Tell them we’re going to have a very packed room.”
“Looks like these two got the worst of it. They must be the pilots.”
“Yeah, I heard them when I was cleaning out the port-room. They had a bit of an electrical problem out on the flats.”
“I’d say they might have understated the situation a bit.”
I groaned and slowly rolled over, looking up at the two. “What happened?” I asked, a bit groggily.
“Your scrapper threw a tantrum. You all right to make it to the medical room?” I stood up slowly, and the worker offered his hand. I took it, looking up at the sierr for the first time. “I-I think so.”
Janix stirred as well, although he was laying on the groans a little thick in my opinion. “I know I did not have any fun last night, so why do I have a raging headache?”
“Our rig exploded.” I offered, helping him up.
“Seriously? This is ridiculous. Management is letting this place go to hell.”
“You’ve got that right,” the other, older sounding worker grumbled. “You guys get out of here, we’ll take care of all this.”
“You sure? You’ve got a lot of people out cold still and,” I pointing behind him, “a raging inferno behind you.”
“It’s nothing compared to when the compactor combusted last month. You remember that?”
We shared a laugh, although mine and Janix’s were probably a lot more awkward than they should have been, and I wrapped the Mooreerie’s arm around my waist before limping off with him. I had no idea how they didn’t recognize that I wasn’t one of their crew when it wasn’t so tiny, but I wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. At least they hadn’t checked my ID. That would have been disastrous.
All these people seemed innocent. Just workers trying to make a living. No matter what Angel wanted, I was going to make sure we got them all off planet-side before we blew Genesis right back to where he came from. I was willing to risk myself time and time again, but I didn’t believe a plan that involved the mass murder of at least a dozen innocents was a plan worth following.
But then we reached the door and I had to tuck my moralistic internal diatribe into the back recesses of my mind. I wouldn’t be getting anyone out of harm’s way if we were caught before even finding Jyra or a way to hack into the reactor core system.
“Not bad,” Janix admired as the door closed behind us and we turned another corner. “We could be nominated for a Simmy.”
“What’s a Simmy?”
“Never mind. Not important.” He let his arm drop from my waist and composed himself. “Let’s go find our tactical other halves.”
“Yeah, we didn’t really think that part through.”
“Don’t worry. It wasn’t for us to deal with. They’ll find us right when they mean to. In the meantime, let’s follow the cart tracks on the floor. If anything will lead us where we go, it’s that.”
I looked down and did indeed see there were dark black lines and the floor was worn smooth in a very specific path. “Huh, I’m surprised you guys even use wheels in this century. Like don’t you have hover mine carts or something?”
“Some do, but really they’re much more prone to malfunction, so sometimes primitive is better.”
“Cathy. I’ll just slap that right on a bumper sticker.”
“What’s a bumper sticker?”
“Never mind. Also, not important.”
He smirked at my callback and we both quickly moved forward. A few more employees ran past us, but other than that the halls were completely empty. Why have such a massive facility if you weren’t going to have the staff to support it?
I couldn’t say, nor could I guess as to why Genesis had chosen to hide themselves in this particular ball of space rock. There were hundreds of thousands that had to be floating about, why choose the one that was already being colonized and go through all the trouble of chasing them off?
I didn’t get an answer, but I did get pulled through a door by a familiar, claw-tipped hand.
“I knew you guys would figure out to go this way,” she hissed, closing the door after Janix ducked in after me. “Angel, you owe me fifty credits.”
“Yeah, yeah. I’ll get it to you when we’re done sublimating this place.”
“About that,” I murmured, getting to my feet and looking around. We were in a large, mostly barren room that was occupied solely by empty carts. The walls were lined with about a dozen different chutes leading into darkness, all labeled different things. Of the twelve, I could only make out ‘ferrous’ and ‘non-ferrous’. The rest looking like a jumble of letters and symbols to me.
I really needed to work on that reading thing. It was going to get me in trouble one of these days. Was there a Hooked On Phonics in space?
“We’re not going to blow this rock up—”
“What the hell do you mean we’re not blowing it up? The whole plan—”
“Unless we get all the personnel off it first.”
I had never seen it before, but the half-kin’s face began to turn a gradient of several shades of red. “Do you have any idea how difficult that will be without tipping Genesis off to our plan?”
“Yes. But do it, anyways.”
“How?! How am I supposed to do that? We’re lucky it hasn’t noticed us already! There’s only so long the other Strangers can distract its other bits and bobs by wrecking its plans in their d
imension before it’s going to turn its attention to the fleas on the back. Because, in case you don’t remember, we are literally on its back!”
“Technically, it doesn’t have a back. Or even a spine, really.”
“I swear to the gods, Janix, I will eviscerate you. Now is not the time.”
“Yeah. Clearly.”
I held up my hands in what I hoped was a conciliatory gesture, even though I planned no such relinquishing of my stance. “Let’s not jump at each other. I know what I’m asking is nearly impossible, but I also know that you can figure it out and do it anyways. The point is, I will not allow you to kill them. Either get them out of this place or give up on blowing Genesis up.”
Her eyes bore into me but I held my ground. After what felt like an eternity, she let out a disgusting sound and turned away from me. “Fine. We’ll play it your way, hero. But you’re going to have to learn that sometimes you can’t have it all.”
“I know, but that day isn’t today. Let’s get this show on the road, shall we?” I walked over to the nearest chute and peered down. “Which one of these beauties are we sliding down?”
“Definitely not the metals,” Janix said. “Unless you want to be dropped right into an incinerator.” He shook his head. “Lost a friend that way once. His name was Kilik. Well, friend is a bit of a strong word, but anyways, he screamed for about half a second until he was turned to ash.” I stared openly at him, shocked at the casual, almost fond way he described the memory. “What?”
“He died? Just like that?”
“Yup. A real shame, but that was one less cut of the profit so it wasn’t the worst thing in the world.”
“Why don’t we do in the electronic one?” Viys’k cut in. “Before Janix ruins his lover boy image.”
“Don’t forget, under all these dashing good looks, I’ve always been a criminal.”
I didn’t say anything for a moment. I had forgotten. It was easy to joke about it, but in the end our little ragtag group of heroes was comprised of a people who had little regard for the law. Originally, I would have thought I had nothing in common with them, but so far, I’d broken into multiple secure facilities, broken both myself and another criminal out of jail, freed a batch of kodadt that were essentially the property of the government.
It looked like I was in very good company, indeed.
“I’ll have a go first I guess.” Viys’k said. “If you hear my death knell, choose a different chute.” She hopped in, her tiny, padded feet gripping the edges of the square before she pushed herself off.
We waited several seconds and I felt myself getting more nervous by the beat, until we heard a short cry.
Instantly my stomach dropped down through the floor and I was sure I had just killed my friend. “Viys’k! Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” her voice came drifting up back to us, sounding strained and quite far away. “There’s just a massive drop off here. Do you got any rope?”
“I think I do in my supply pack!” Angel cried, ripping one of the small sacks off her back. She routed through one before throwing it to the side, then went on to another.
Then, thankfully, she pulled out a thin line of black cording. “Quick, find me somewhere to tie this off.”
“Can you guys hurry? My upper body strength is nothing to sneeze at, but I’m hanging by six fingers here.”
Janix was the one who grabbed it first and tied to the edge of two carts, then picked up two more carts and put them inside of the aforementioned ones. “That should do it,” he said with a nod.
“Rope incoming!” I called down, Janix throwing the end of the coil to me. I fed it down quickly, but didn’t let it fly freely. The last thing I wanted was to whip Viys’k in her face and make her lose her purchase.
“Got it!” she cried. “Next one down might wanna crouch and use the rope as an anchor point, unless you want to have a dislocated shoulder from the jerk at the end.”
“Are you trying to tell us that you have a dislocated shoulder now?”
“…maybe.”
“I’ll go next,” Angel said. “I can pop it back in.”
“Since when were you a medical professional?”
“Never claimed to be. But do you think I managed to free an entire species without poppin’ in a joint or two?”
“Oh. After you then, Captain.”
She hopped right up before turning onto her belly. From there, she wrapped both hands around the rope then lowered herself while keeping her feet flat against the chute. Making it look entirely easier than it was, she ended in a crouching position and started to step her way down.
“You know what’s going to happen, right?” Janix asked, coming up beside me and placing his hand on the small of my back.
“What?”
“They’re going to finish dealing with the fire before all of us get down there and at least one worker is gonna head toward here while one of us is mid-climb.”
“Wow, pessimist much?”
“Just a realist.”
As much as I hated to admit it, he was probably right.
“All right, I’m halfway down. Next person can start.”
“You turn, darlin’,” he said with a charming wink. He was certainly smarming it up to distract me from the tension, but I appreciated it.
“See you at the bottom.”
“I prefer to be on top, actually.”
I sent him the most salacious look I could muster. “Huh, so do I.” I shot back before beginning to shimmy down.
I couldn’t help but giggle to myself as I moved, step by step. I’m sure he hadn’t been expecting that, but he deserved it after giving me the metaphorical blue balls for the past week or so. Of course, that was a bit hypocritical, considering I agreed that his decision to wait was probably the most mature thing to do. I guess I just enjoyed being a bit of a tease.
I slipped and slammed my knees against the hard metal of the shoot and that solidly reminded me that now was not the time to get all giggly about my fledgling romance with the smuggler.
“I’m halfway down!” I called up. Refocusing myself, I continued on until saw a light below my feet and prepped for the drop off.
Even though I was mentally ready, there’s nothing that could have quite prepared me for setting my feet down and sliding the majority of my body into an abyss that I couldn’t see. I gripped that rope like it was my lifeline and continued to slowly slide downwards until I heard something from Janix that made me stop cold.
“That sucks.”
“What?” I asked, heart leaping so far into my throat it might as well be a new set of tonsils.
“There’s someone at the door. If we leave this rope here, we’ll blow everything.”
“Then what do we do?”
“I guess now’s the time to gamble on those powers of yours. I’m going to burn the rope.”
“What?!”
“This is standard smuggler gear. Put a light to it and it goes up almost like ancient flash paper. Great for when you’re trying to cover your tracks.”
I bit my lip. “I guess we haven’t got much of a choice.” I started reaching into myself, trying to call up that energy that had saved my behind so many other times. “Do it.”
He nodded and pulled an ion blade from the strap at his thigh, before flicking it across the rope. It did go up just like Janix said, and the next thing I knew, I was sliding backwards.
The panic was immediate and soul-crushing. But I had to fight it if I wanted to survive. Time slowed and suddenly my brain was taking in each and every minutia it could observe. I swallowed the bile threatening to rise and calmed my breathing. Closing my eyes, I imagined Janix and I somewhere else.
Where would I like to go?
That was easy.
Someplace warm, with an easy breeze. Running water, perhaps? That would be nice. We could stretch out, soaking up the sun and-
There was a snap, then a pop, and then my back slammed into something hard enough to knock all my bre
ath from me. I was paralyzed, and my brain couldn’t process what was happening.
That was until Janix crashed right on top of me.
I let out another wracking gasp and rolled to the side in pain. It wasn’t the worst thing I had ever experienced, but it was well above a stubbed toe.
Colors started swirling back into my vision, and my head began to stabilize after the good thwacking it had endured.
“Are you all right?” Janix asked, leaning over me.
“No,” I groaned, still quite breathless.
“Anything I can do?”
“No.” I groaned, slightly louder.
“I’m sorry, love. I thought maybe you were going to do your forcefield thing again. Not teleport us closer to the floor.”
“Is that what I did?” I asked while trying to sit up. I didn’t get far, though, and settled for laying very, very still.
“Um… kinda. Something like that.”
“What do you mea—” I finally managed to sit up and take a look around. “Oh…”
Angel and Viys’k were nowhere to be seen. And neither was the chute. Or much of anything else really.
“Did I… teleport us?”
“Looks like you did.”
“I have no idea how I did that.”
“I figured. That joke we made earlier must have stuck in your subconscious more than we thought it did.”
“Geez, yeah, I guess. This is all a bit like playing Russian Roulette with my brain.”
“What’s Rus— You know what? Never mind. Is your earpiece working? I figure Angel would be screaming at us by now.”
“I dunno. She just saw us fall out of an impromptu slide then pop right out of the air. A little bit of disbelief would be under—”
“WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?”
“Ah, there you are,” I said, trying to wince away from the sound, which I very well couldn’t do considering that it was implanted in my actual ear canal. “We were just talking about you.”
“I bet you were. You wanna tell me where the hell you are? I swear to my engine if you are on some far-off planet, I’m going to find you and dropkick you after I blast this asteroid to bits!”
The Discovery' (Alternate Dimensions Book 4) Page 5