The Core

by Jack Robuck

  Matthew looked to Doctor Glazier. “We’ve gotta get her outta there.”

  Glazier nodded, one hand holding a new bruise on his face. “Yeah.”

  Gusset grabbed Jimmy by the arm, and picked him up in a fireman’s carry. He spat. “First we just gotta move.” He stumbled off in the direction of the shack.

  The Trooper left the boy, striding over. He put up a hand to block their path, his long baton in the other, down by his side. He slowly raised it, pointing at the other distilling plant, to the right of the skyway. Matthew thought about resisting, but he could see his entire group reflected in the black mask of the Trooper’s helmet. They looked like they’d been let out of an airlock. He turned and shuffled toward the door. The others followed.

  Inside was a ten story tangle of white and stainless steel pipe. Glazier looked at his companions as they entered the door, out of direct eyesight with the Trooper. He made a fist, and spread out his fingers from the center. Gusset nodded, and set Jimmy down as soon as they were inside. He, Glazier and Matthew spread out slightly to surround the Trooper.

  The Trooper walked right into their circle, held up his baton, and switched it off. He dropped it on the concrete floor, and reaching up, pulled his helmet off. Long purple dreads fell sweeping past the Trooper’s shoulders.

  Matthew dropped his fists. “Natalie.”

  Natalie held up a finger to her lips. “Quiet, kid.” She shook out her hair. “It is so freaking dark in those helmets. Made for the sunshine. Go figure.”

  Glazier pointed a finger at her. “You sold us out.”

  Natalie shook her head. “I didn’t. I wanna get out of here just like you.”

  Jimmy grabbed onto the tool cart nearby, and pulled himself up to a standing position. “Where’d you get the outfit?”

  Natalie smiled. “Seduced a Trooper about my size a few months back. He won’t be needing it anymore. More importantly, you need to answer my questions. Like ‘Who the fuck are you?’ and ‘What does Trague want with your friend?’”

  Jimmy narrowed his eyes at the woman. Matthew could tell he was deciding whether to trust her. Finally Jimmy said, “Rachel, Gusset and I are part of a loose-knit, planet-wide rebellion against the Fleet. The doctor and the kid we picked up on The Waverly.”

  Natalie shook her head. “The Waverly? The colony ship Trague was talking about? We’ve been mopping up the splatter from that crash for a week. How could you have survived?”

  Jimmy flashed her a grin. “We didn’t. We took a ride in an escape pod right after we broke atmosphere.”

  Natalie looked surprised. “Okay.”

  Glazier spoke quietly, breaking into the silence. “We can do all this later. We need to go after Rachel. We need to get out of here, right now, plan or not. And we definitely need to kill Trague.”

  Jimmy stepped over to the door, and opened it a crack. “We need time that we don’t have.”

  Natalie walked up to him, and pressed the door closed slowly. “No, he's right. It’s all or nothing, now.”

  Gusset spoke up, “Who knows what that man’s got in store for her. Or us. Don’t think he’s forgot about us.”

  Natalie nodded. “There’s a way. And it’s not out there.” She took her hand off the door. “Follow me.”

  She led them to a large rectangular staircase in the far corner of the room. “I’ve been exploring the whole facility when I can, trying to map it out, looking for weaknesses. As far as I can tell, this building is completely off limits. I could never figure out why, until I got to the top.”

  Matthew was right behind her, trying to step quietly up the slip-textured steel steps. “The skyway.”

  Natalie whispered, “That’s right. So you’ve seen him up there too.”

  “He likes to watch the groups come and go.”

  Natalie stopped on a landing, resting the shock baton on a stair. “That’s not all. The plant on the other side of the skyway, where they took your friend, that’s their command center. I think the skyway is like his office. That’s why this place is off limits.”

  Jimmy was at the end of the group, slowly making his way. He spoke up from below. “Security.”

  Gusset looked from Natalie to Jimmy, and back. “Well, they’re not guarding it too well.”

  Natalie chuckled. “You’ll see."

  They climbed up through the network of pipes. The clanking of pumps and stirring vats covered most of the noise they made. Near the top of the stairs was a narrow catwalk that ran down the length of the building. It split off across the center of the structure, ran under a canopy of gurgling hoses, and across to a doorway that was covered in a force field. Through the shimmering plane, Matthew could see a long control panel and a series of paned windows. The skyway.

  Jimmy started forward, and Natalie grabbed his sleeve. “That’s not all.”

  She led them up the last flight of stairs, to another catwalk with a ladder and an unlocked roof hatch. They climbed up onto the flat gravel roof. They could see the skyway roof a floor down, and sitting right in the center of the other building’s roof was a souped-up planetary assault craft; high gloss white, black inset trim, and bristling with chain guns and missiles.

  Gusset whistled. “There’s a hot rod for you.”

  Jimmy laughed with joy at the sight of it. “Only the best for the Sunjumpers.”

  Matthew shook his head. “What’s that?”

  Jimmy put his hands on his hips. “That’s my prize for turning off that damn force field across the skyway. Dibs. Right. Fucking. Now.”

  Natalie crossed her arms. “Okay, asshole, how are you gonna do that?”

  Jimmy pulled the scavenged handheld out of his back pocket. “With this.” He pushed a button along the top edge, and the screen flickered to life. “I left it on the roof of the shack with the battery exposed while we slept. Soaked up enough sunlight to turn it on. Just had to reprogram it to the local frequency, and bada-bing, it’s been drawing juice off the Fleet grid all morning. Couple centuries old, but that’s cool.”

  He rubbed Matthew’s head and laughed. Matthew ducked away, and Natalie walked back toward the hatch. “If it’s that easy for you to hack the force field, the ship’s all yours. Just get me the hell outta here.”

  Jimmy elbowed Matthew in the ribs. “Now you’re gonna see why Rachel hangs out with me, kid. All you gotta do is give the artist a brush, boy, and bam! This shit is my kinda problem.”

  Matthew had never seen Jimmy so excited. They lowered themselves back down into the warehouse, and made their way to the catwalk. Jimmy and Natalie snuck across until they could see the skyway was empty, then approached the force field.

  Forty minutes later, Jimmy sat on the catwalk cross-legged, staring first at the force field, and then at the handheld. He turned to Matthew for the tenth time, and shook his head. “You guys really needed to invest in some tech upgrades on The Waverly. I mean, you know.”

  Gusset climbed to his feet. “This is bullshit. Hey! Hey!” He began to yell into the force field.

  Jimmy grabbed him by the belt, trying to pull him away. “What the hell are you doing?”

  Gusset pushed him away. “Get outta sight, asshole… Heeey!”

  A Trooper came into view as Matthew peeked around the corner.

  Gusset waved to him. “I think I got lost! I'm just an old man, where the hell am I?”

  The Trooper walked forward, his gun trained on Gusset. Reaching over slowly, he pushed a button on the wall. The force field blinked and disappeared. The Trooper turned back to Gusset. “Sir, how did you even—?”

  Gusset let out a herculean roar, and tackled the Trooper, slamming him to the floor between the two rows of control consoles. He got up and, balancing on one foot, stomped the Trooper's neck, again and again until the body stopped twitching. He turned back to Jimmy, whose eyebrows floated at the top of his forehead. Gusset grinned. “My ship now, mother fucker.”

  Jimmy shook his head and held up both hands. “That's cool man.”
<
br />   Matthew turned his head back and forth, and rubbed his throat. Gusset grabbed the assault rifle, popped open the snap on the Trooper's belt holster, pulled out his sidearm and tossed it to Jimmy. Natalie stepped forward with her shock baton. Glazier fell in behind her, and Matthew followed them, unarmed, feeling useless.

  The skyway wasn’t just a passage between the buildings, it was a little command center from where the whole facility could be managed, but there was no sign of Trague, or anything that looked like a Fleet officer’s workstation.

  Jimmy looked up from a green console readout. “This is just the filtration plant’s control tower. I don’t think Trague works outta here.”

  Natalie threw down a pile of papers in disgust. “Then what the hell’s he doing in here all the time?”

  Matthew smiled. “Creeping everybody out.”

  On the far side of the skyway was an identical door, leading to another catwalk. In this building, however, four massive oil tanks rose the height of the building from the concrete floor. The group ducked under draped hoses and crossed to the middle of the catwalk. Down through the mess of pipe and machinery, they could see a thin figure near the floor, hanging upside down, a chain clamped around her ankles. Rachel hung there limp, lifeless, and there was no one else in sight.

  They rushed down the stairs as quietly as possible. Glazier and Jimmy picked up Rachel's head and torso while Gusset unclipped the chain holding her feet. Nearest the stairs, Matthew stepped toward them to lead the way out when a side door swung open in front of him to reveal Trague, followed closely by Faber and a Fleet officer he didn't recognize.

  Trague's quiet laugh echoed in the steel and concrete building. “I've ambushed you twice today. Pathetic.”

  The trio stepped into the room, and Trague turned to the officer. “Captain Richards, what did Faber say when you asked him why I had left these animals to their own devices, and only captured their leader?”

  Richards looked from the rebels, to Trague, and finally to Faber. “He said, 'because it pleased you,' and he said, 'in order to see which way the rats will swim.'”

  Trague gave the man a toothless grin, and stepping behind him, put his hands on both of Richards' shoulders. “And now you see, Captain Richards. I've not only found out what they're capable of, and captured a traitor or an imposter, but I've also identified a serious gap in your security plan for this facility, haven't I?”

  Natalie stepped forward, brandishing her shock baton. “Okay, shut up. Class is over, mother fucker.”

  Trague laughed, looking quickly at Faber, who offered a wan smile. Trague drew his sidearm. “My apologies, madam, just finishing up some quick business.” He shot Richards through the back of the head. The Captain's body crumpled to the floor.

  The shock and the deafening sound galvanized the rebels into action. Gusset put Rachel over his shoulder in a fireman's carry. He moved to raise his assault rifle, but the sling was stuck under Rachel's weight, and Trague was on him in a second, grabbing the rifle, and yanking it toward him. He swung Gusset's whole weight against the sling and ricocheted him into a steel tool cabinet under the stairs. Trague slipped the quick-clip on the sling, and let Gusset and Rachel slide to the floor as he pulled the assault rifle free.

  Faber had drawn his sidearm and was pointing it at Natalie, who was swinging the shock baton at him over and over. He gracefully ducked and dodged her wild strokes. He had a focused, amused expression on his face.

  Jimmy, Doc Glazier and Matthew rushed Trague. The Commandant leapt toward Matthew, swept his leg, and twisted his body forward, using his own momentum to throw him under the feet of his friends. Glazier went down on top of Matthew, and Jimmy jumped over the pile, throwing him off balance as well. Trague slammed the rifle butt into his forehead, and Jimmy fell backwards onto Glazier.

  Trague glanced over at Faber, who was still pointing his pistol at Natalie, taunting her as he danced out of her reach again and again. Trague called out, “Faber...alive, if you please.”

  He turned back toward the pile of fallen rebels just in time to see Jimmy raise his pistol and line up the sights with his unbloodied left eye. Trague flinched and the bullet tore through his left shoulder.

  Faber danced in close, grabbed Natalie's wrists in both hands, kneed her in the stomach and threw her to the ground. Turning to help Trague, he took two steps and paused, pointing up the stairs to where Gusset was slowly hauling Rachel out of harm's way. Trague looked, heel stomped Jimmy, shoved Matthew off-balance mid-rise and, jumping over the body of Captain Richards, ran for the stairs. Faber ran forward and gave Matthew a full-stride kick to his cracked rib that made him scream. He tried to crawl away, his vision hazy with tears.

  Glazier was on his feet. He tackled the lanky Sunjumper, slamming him into the steel roll-up door. The doctor punched Faber in the face again and again. Faber, his face bleeding, dodged the third punch, and Glazier slammed his fist into the door. He grimaced and relaxed his grip, and Faber grabbed the older man around the throat with both hands, choking the air out of him. Glazier began to turn red, and sank to his knees. Matthew struggled to his feet, reaching out to help but he was too far away.

  Faber flipped back a long strand of black hair and leaned into his choke-hold. As Glazier began to sag, Natalie brought the plasma shock baton down full force onto Faber's back. Glazier hit the floor, as Faber spun around, only to receive another mind-rending blast from the baton. Natalie shoved the hard plastic tip of the baton into his chest, pushing him back against the steel door.

  She pressed the baton's central plastic shaft just below Faber's nose, and pressed hard against the cartilage and soft tissue there. Then she pumped the baton's motorcycle-brake handle, slamming shock after shock of plasma-charged electricity through his face. The purple arcs running along the length of the shaft charged higher, and higher, jumping to the ribbed steel door, and shocking Faber and Natalie both over and over, as she held the squeeze-grip in an unrelenting expenditure of power.

  Matthew was standing, holding onto the staircase, not sure who or how to help, when the baton ran out of energy, and both combatants fell to the floor. He heard a noise, and looked up to see that Trague was straddling Gusset on the staircase, punching him in the face and laughing maniacally. He saw Glazier rolling for breath, and he spun, helpless in the confusion. He saw Jimmy crawling toward Natalie, and he nodded, knowing that he had to make his body climb the stairs, and at the same time, he was shaking his head and the whole world was spinning.

  As he reached the fight on the stairs, he could see Rachel's still-unconscious body crumpled on the landing, and Gusset wildly throwing elbows to block and counter Trague's onslaught. The assault rifle was lying near Trague's knee. Matthew rushed forward, grabbed the assault rifle, and slipped it around Trague's neck. He pulled back as hard as he could, choking Trague; forcing him to stop fighting Gusset, and grab onto the rifle.

  Trague twisted, pushing to his feet, one boot stomping down on the staircase, then another, forcing himself into a standing position, and pulling Matthew's arms up to reach the taller man's neck.

  Trague spun with Matthew on his back. He slammed backwards against the wall. Matthew's head hit the concrete. Trague twisted, facing down the stairs.

  He dropped to one knee and flipped Matthew over his shoulder, head, body and heels. Matthew landed spine-first on the punishing steel stair treads. Everything went black for a moment, and he could taste blood in his mouth.

  He looked under the pipe railing to see Jimmy swaying, trying to aim a shot at Trague. Matthew grabbed onto Trague's cargo pants, lunging and wrapping both arms around his leg. He could feel the thick combat boot under the fabric.

  Trague spun, and Jimmy's first shot went wild. Jimmy shot four more times. One shot went through Trague's left forearm and grazed his right cheek, digging a red canal that spurted blood down onto Matthew's hair.

  Trague screamed out again, and raised his free leg to stomp Matthew's face. Matthew focused all of his addled brain
on the floret pattern treads in the hard rubber sole just above his head, and jerked his body away and to the right, letting go of his grip on Trague's leg.

  Trague stomped hard on the stair where Matthew had just been. He clutched his forearm with one hand, his cheek with the other, and turned back to shoulder-tackle Gusset, who was trying to pick up Rachel again.

  Down below, Faber tried to rise. Blood poured from his nose and ran down his chin, into his shirt, and dripped across the floor. Even from the staircase where he lay, Matthew could see Faber's eyes focused on infinity, his head turning blindly. Glazier had Natalie in his arms, and he was limping toward the staircase. His first step clanged on the steel tread, and Faber turned his head toward them. He opened his mouth slightly, like a snake tasting the air, and pointed his sidearm right at Glazier's back.

  Matthew screamed out “Jimmy!”

  Jimmy spun around, and at point blank range, fired a single round into Faber's left eye. He fired twice more.

  Trague turned from above. His face and arm were pouring blood. He watched Faber's body slump to the cool concrete, and he pulled his lips back from his teeth in a growl of mindless rage. Trague started back down the staircase, taking stairs two at a time. Matthew rolled to his knees on the stairs, grabbing Trague around the waist, and pushing him against the concrete block wall.

  Trague shoved Matthew away, and punched him in the face. Glazier tried to set Natalie down on the landing just above the fight to assist Matthew. Trague grabbed the doctor by the shirt and head butted him hard. He pushed his upper torso over the railing, and grabbed his belt, trying to lift him over. Matthew rolled over. Reaching up, he grabbed Trague's wrist with his left hand, and with his right, he dug two fingers hard into Trague's forearm wound, wrenching open the flesh and making the Sunjumper scream.

  Natalie rolled to her knees. She crawled forward and helped Gusset drag Rachel up the next stair section. Jimmy was quickly limping up from below. Glazier grabbed the hand Trague was using to hold onto his shirt, and he punched Trague across the jaw. Trague leaned back, and head butted Glazier again. The doctor kneed Trague in the hip, and kicked off the railing, pushing himself away, and punched and punched.