Ragamuffin

by Tobias S. Buckell

“We take control of this,” John said, looking at all the faces.

  “A vote, now,” said one of the captains. “We go lose people trying to board the Gulong, but if we can hold it . . .” Nods spread around the gathering of captains.

  The grounation was done.

  A vote was called, and Pepper shook John in midair as the captains weighed in. John grabbed his forearm and held on tight to it. “I’m okay, Pepper.”

  “We’ll get . . . the body in a pod.” Pepper looked to his side at it, then back to John. “Then we take control of this situation. And when it’s done, then we’ll grieve properly.”

  Nashara joined the impromptu huddle. “I’m sorry for your loss,” she said to John.

  “Thank you,” John muttered.

  Nashara looked out at the gathering. “It may not come to a physical boarding. I may be able to infiltrate the Gulong. If it has lamina, I would like to take that ship.”

  “Less casualties, and we have it as a weapon, I like that,” John said.

  The vote finished, captains were sending messages back to their ships to prepare them to hold Azteca warriors and Teotl, and for others to start preparing plans for the attack.

  Already simulations would be tested out, heads put together.

  “John, Pepper.” Nashara grabbed both their arms. “You may want to stay on one of the larger ships, but you are welcome aboard the Toucan Too. We’re not armed, but we’re quick.”

  John nodded. “Away from the Teotl and off here, yes, I’ll come. Pepper?”

  “I think I’ll split us up and get on the Duppy Conqueror. Old friends there, I know the layout. That ship’s going to take on a bunch of the Teotl, and I want to keep an eye on them.”

  “That makes sense.” John let go of Pepper’s forearm. “Be safe.”

  “We’ll see each other again soon enough.” Pepper smiled.

  “Soon.”

  “Let’s move,” Nashara said. “Air levels are falling and I want to be out and ready to move, we’ve turned into sitting ducks all docked here.”

  John floated away with Nashara.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE

  Someone rapped on the hull of the Toucan Too. Kara looked around, wondering what to do. Nashara had left without saying anything; Ijjy lay sedated, eyes drooping.

  The banging intensified.

  Cascabel appeared in front of Kara. “Nashara didn’t tell you what was going on, did she?”

  “No.” Kara was getting her head around the Cascabel/Nashara divide.

  “There are friends at the air lock, they want to pick up you, your brother, and Ijjy and take them to get medical help.”

  “But what about the attacks?”

  “The Xamayca Pride is going to act as a flagship, it won’t directly join the fighting. From there they will also be able to transfer you out by tender to the other Ragamuffin hiding places in the system. It will be the safest place for you. There’s no room for you in the ship that’s going back right now, but there will be on a second trip, and you can join Ijjy and Jared there.”

  Ijjy looked up. “I ain’t going. Let the girl go.”

  “Ijjy, you are no shape to stay on. She’ll be fine here until the Cornell West returns for the second run, or we can drop her off ourselves when Nashara comes back from the grounation.”

  Kara nodded. “Ijjy, please, get yourself looked at.” She could wait easily enough.

  “You sure?” Ijjy looked at her.

  “Very sure.” She really, really wanted to go with Jared. But Ijjy had risked his life for her and been hurt as a result. She could not let him stay here.

  “Okay then.” Cascabel walked over to Ijjy. Since everything was weightless, it was odd to watch her stepping along the cockpit as if it had gravity. It just made the fact the Cascabel was a simulation hit home. “I’m going let the Raga in, okay?”

  Kara nodded again, pleased to be included. Distant machinery whined, and the sound of boots clanked through the ship.

  “Hello?” A heavily muscled man with silver eyes leaned into the cockpit. “I’m Dr. Aiken.”

  “Hi.” Kara released her grip on the chair and floated over to Ijjy. “This is Ijjy, and my brother, Jared, is in another room. They both need to go with you.”

  “Okay.” Two more men hung behind him, and a pair of women.

  Ijjy coasted out toward them, and one of the men split off, towing Ijjy out toward the air lock.

  The women both carried large machine guns, and they stared at Kara with silvered eyes that reflected and flashed light back at her.

  Kara led them down to the room. “Is it safe to take him out of the pod?”

  “No.” Dr. Aiken drifted over, looking at the pod. “Too dangerous.”

  He nodded his head, and they moved to release the pod.

  “Its battery life should keep everything going until we get back aboard the Xamayca. Fluids are low, almost out, but we can compensate.”

  Once they’d pulled it free, they held the pod between them, quickly shepherding it out toward the lock. Kara followed closely and at the lock put her hand on the surface, looking down at Jared.

  She’d be back with him soon.

  It would be okay, she silently promised him.

  She snagged the edge of the air lock and stopped drifting with the group.

  “We’ll take good care of him,” the doctor said, turning to face her as one of the Ragamuffins fired compressed air from a waistpack to speed them onward. They seemed in a hurry.

  The air lock sealed shut, and Cascabel stood upside down on the roof behind Kara, startling Kara as she turned.

  “We need to get back to the cockpit and strapped in.”

  “What’s going on?”

  “Incoming missiles.” Cascabel saw the look on Kara’s face. “Jared will be fine. The missiles will head for us, the West will be clear and headed for the Xamayca long before they are a problem.”

  Relief. Kara followed Cascabel back.

  “How long do we have?”

  “Minutes now. And the Cornell West is clear and accelerating.” Cascabel cocked her head. “Okay, Monifa says we won’t get any direct hits near docking, they’re chaffing the area pretty hard to draw the missiles away.”

  Distant shivers and thuds made their way through the Toucan Too’s hull. “That was still bad, though,” Kara said. “If we can feel it.”

  Cascabel moved to touch Kara’s shoulder, then pulled her hand back as her fingertips slipped through, instead of resting on, Kara. “We’re evacuating it all. And the captains here are calling for us to start attacking back.”

  The thuds continued.

  “That was close,” Kara said.

  “Yeah.”

  “Nashara—wait, I’m sorry, Cascabel—be honest. Are you worried?”

  “Flying through the remains of this thing when it falls apart will be messy. The attack will be messy. But I think it’s our best chance.”

  Another near strike loosened some debris that softly struck the left side of the Toucan Too.

  But Cascabel said she wasn’t worried. And Kara was going to do her best not to as well.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR

  The Wuxing Hao, which Etsudo suspected of being taken over by Nashara, had passed well beneath them on a tighter, lower orbit. It didn’t seem concerned with him at all.

  He then watched it climb into a higher orbit, letting the upstream wormhole and its cloud of chaff and drones and Hongguo ships catch up to it. Now it was ducking and weaving its way toward the wormhole, explosions blossoming around it.

  The Ragamuffin ship behind the Wuxing Hao, however, was concerned with him. The Magadog fired its first missile spread now that it had gotten within range. Once again, it called for Etsudo to slow down for it or be destroyed.

  Etsudo drummed his fingers, checking simulations in the lamina, and realizing the cold truth. “I think I may have put us in a bad spot,” he said.

  His crew didn’t say anything back. Bahul, Fabiyan, Michiko, and Brandon
all looked at him as if not quite hearing what he was saying.

  Etsudo continued, “I’m going to stop accelerating and let you all get out in pods. Fire your emergency beacons. I’ll continue running. I know some of you might wait to light up your beacons until Ragamuffins rescue you, I understand that. I know Hongguo might try, but remember, most likely they’ll wipe your minds. Just keep that thought before you light up.”

  He cut thrust and watched the missiles gain.

  Bahul floated over and shook his hand. “Be safe, Captain. Be safe.” Then he kicked off with Michiko and Fabiyan, who did not even look back.

  Etsudo remained strapped in and shut his eyes. He watched the deadly points of light that represented a certain death get closer.

  The Takara Bune shook as the pods left and streaked away.

  Brandon came back and strapped in.

  “You’re staying?” Etsudo looked over, disappointed. Of all his crew, he did not need Brandon aboard.

  “You think it so easy to betray the Hongguo.” Brandon settled in. “You tried to get rid of those who would keep an eye of what you are about to do.”

  “Three minutes to impact,” Etsudo said.

  Brandon leaned his head back against the rest, which molded itself around his head. “You’re going to hand her the ship?”

  “Who else will call the Ragamuffins off?”

  “And will you be able to regain control?” Brandon asked.

  “No, she’s too good.” In a way it was a relief. Soon Brandon would know his secret, and Nashara would be able to spread it all over. “Bit-based SOS with our ship’s lights, that was something else.”

  “Do you think they’ll kill us?”

  “I don’t know.” Etsudo looked at Brandon. He didn’t have time to try to get him off the ship. Whatever happened next, happened. Brandon was bucking the changes Etsudo had made and would soon cause trouble.

  He’d have to deal with that when it happened. “Nashara, in two and a half minutes missiles from your Ragamuffins will hit us. They’re chasing us. We are in your hands, Nashara.”

  And Etsudo handed his ship over to her.

  The ship jinked as Nashara took control. The acceleration shoved Etsudo to the brink of blackout, but then it stopped.

  “First of all, call me Cayenne, not Nashara. It’ll just be easier,” she said, her voice echoing through the entire ship.

  “Cayenne? Like the pepper?” Etsudo asked.

  “Exactly. Okay. What other surprises do you have, Etsudo?”

  “I’m out.”

  Nashara, no, Cayenne, appeared in front of him. “I doubt it, but let’s put that aside for a moment.”

  “I apologize,” Etsudo said. And meant it.

  He couldn’t see anything anymore, she had taken over all lamina, but inside he had counted the seconds to impact.

  Time was up.

  Nothing happened. Etsudo let out a long breath, glad to be alive.

  “If you move,” Cayenne said, “I’ll accelerate so fast the blood will drain out of your head, and then I’ll spin this ship until you literally fall apart.”

  “I expected no less,” Etsudo said softly.

  “Just so that we’re on the same page.”

  Etsudo nodded. “I understand.”

  “I’m talking to the Raga. They’re a bit jumpy and we have to keep our distance. But your timing is perfect, Etsudo. We’re gearing up to attack the Hongguo. Apparently we want the Gulong.” Cayenne grinned in front of them. It was clear she approved.

  Brandon and Etsudo looked at each other. Brandon’s lip curled. He did not like this, his strong loyalties were unbreakable, but at least he kept quiet.

  Cayenne flickered for a moment, looking, Etsudo thought, slightly distraught. “Oh, shit, Piper . . . ,” Cayenne said to herself, then flickered away, leaving the two men alone in the cockpit with nothing to look at but each other.

  This was even more dangerous than Etsudo had suspected. Without the Gulong, the Hongguo were almost toothless. If they lost the Gulong, what would the Satrapy think?

  And if they want far enough, and the news spread all throughout the Satrapy, what would become of the Satraps?

  As others sensed weakness, order might be destroyed. Old injustices still rankled many, even among the Gahe and Nesaru living under the Satrapy.

  It would mean worlds-wide chaos.

  And maybe, Etsudo thought, freedom from the Satraps. A delicious and treasonous thought. Could the Ragamuffins actually pull that off?

  CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE

  Pepper had acquired one of the nice recoilless machine guns the Ragamuffins carried. It was snub-nosed and easy to hang off a strap.

  “This some ill stuff,” Don Andery said. Several Azteca and Raga moved large, fibrous husks of cocoons through into the Cornell West. “Teotl on board Raga ships.”

  Metztli hung over the bay doors, directing.

  Pepper nodded at the procession of unformed Teotl waiting to be hatched. “We split them up, different ships. Reduces concentrated strength.”

  “So they have we all infiltrate now. We all vulnerable.”

  “You’re moving them to ships waiting out on the periphery,” Pepper said. “The higgler ships.”

  “Dangerous. They still dangerous. What happen that you so soft on them?”

  Pepper didn’t bother replying to that. Soft. Right.

  If Andery and his crew didn’t see the potential to squeeze useful technology out of the Teotl, Pepper wasn’t interested in baby-stepping Andery through it.

  Just rehashing arguments anyway. As a founder of the Black Starliner Corporation, Pepper still had considerable power within a grounation. Besides, they’d all voted. It was time to get on with it.

  “The Azteca go through first,” Pepper said. “They’re the more unreliable part of the equation.” Warriors with a barely Copernican knowledge of the world fighting in zero g, who knew what went through their minds. Dragged from the ground to orbit and from ship to ship.

  He was surprised how calmly they were taking it. Each Azteca had pinned a sick bag to his hip. The one thing they couldn’t adjust to with a quick snap was space sickness.

  “Attacking the Gulong.” Don Andery stared off at the polished rock walls.

  “At the least”—Pepper smiled—“we’ll be remembered.” He’d been hemmed in again. Destroying or capturing the Gulong might give him a way back out.

  “We go be remember as bobo idiot them, not hero,” Andery said. “The point of battle ain’t to die for no glorious cause, but make you enemy to die for theirs. Some old friend had tell me that once.”

  Pepper folded his arms. “Old friend, you had hours to make a case in the grounation. It isn’t my fault your imagination isn’t up to the task of coming up with anything better.”

  Metztli, for all his wounds, moved from pillar to pillar and helped move Teotl eggs. Pepper noted every twitch and move of the Teotl. Every tentacle flip, filed away in the back of his head.

  “Fuck you. No reason to be hackling me.”

  “Get a pod, or shuttle, and try and run for it somewhere, Don Andery. Just leave Starfunk Ayatollah for us to fight with.”

  “I ain’t no yellow-belly,” Andery protested.

  “You’re the one causing botheration about all this.”

  “Ain’t no botheration,” Andery groused. “Just talking.”

  “I’m done talking,” Pepper said.

  Metztli left to go deeper into the nest for more eggs.

  “You want to come aboard the Ayatollah for the attack?”

  “Getting aboard Duppy Conqueror,” Pepper said. He moved closer to Andery. “Someone said Earth cut off, before it happen to us, we had heard rumors. The last ships the company sent came back empty.”

  Andery shook his head. “Was part of the Emancipation agreement. Freedom, but Earth was cut off, yeah.”

  “I see.” That was like a sucker punch. Pepper blinked and looked around.

  “Look. I got to go bunks,
me rest now.” Andery drifted away.

  A good idea, catching a nap now while things still were spinning up for the assault.

  And Earth was once more beyond his reach. Pepper looked down at his dirty boots and swore.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX

  Nashara helped John add his son to the other bodies headed out with Teotl cocoons to the other ships.

  He stood there until the dock alarms sounded.

  “Come on,” Nashara pulled him back through the chaos of the docks using the mobile unit, to the Toucan Too. Teotl cocoons festooned the floor, with the fifteen warrior Teotl still alive guarding several of the larger units.

  Inside the Toucan Too, John collapsed, hanging limp in the air as Nashara guided him to one of the rooms.

  John then grabbed the lip of the cockpit entrance. “Hello.”

  Kara, her feet hooked around a strap and floating in the air, twisted to face them. “Hello.”

  John moved in and held out his hand. “I’m John.”

  Shit, Nashara thought. She’d forgotten about the kid.

  “I’m Kara.” Kara solemly shook John’s hand.

  John turned around. “She needs to get off the ship before we go after the Gulong.”

  “I know, yeah.” Nashara entered the cockpit, squeezing past him. John smelled of sweat and moss, oddly.

  Not a great combination.

  She was back in the cockpit, her world. The mobile unit used grapples to secure itself inside the air lock, ready to accompany her on any outside trips.

  John drifted away into one of the rooms. “I need to go rest a bit, before all this starts.”

  Cascabel appeared. “I’ll start hunting down a seat for Kara.”

  “I don’t want to go.” Kara tilted her head and stared at the both of them.

  “You’re just a kid.”

  “I’ve seen more than many adults.” Kara folded her arms.

  “Look—”

  “You have talked to me about the horrors of revenge. But if the Satrapy is going to kill us all, or take our minds, what can I think of myself if I did nothing? Could it be worse than Agathonosis?”

  Nashara sighed, and so did Cascabel. They glanced at each other. It could be worse. She could certainly imagine worse herself.