by Chris Reher
“No, it isn’t. What about them out there? The Taancers. They didn’t ask for this. If this pyramid goes, so will the whole settlement. We found thorium upstairs. Stored in nothing more than their cubes. You’ll poison the whole valley, Pacoby.”
“What?” Luanie said. “Is that true?”
“What’s a thousand or so lizards living in a toxic desert?” Pacoby said. “Nothing. Air Command can’t spin up sympathies for creatures few people have even heard of.”
“The Taancers are sentient!”
“Living in misery under Shri-Lan rule. We’re doing them a favor by ending all this. The survivors will rebuild and they’ll be free.” Pacoby scowled at Ciela for daring to disrupt this moment for him. “You’ve been marooned in the Badlands too long. We do not shy from doing what needs to be done.” He looked to Seth. “Do they know nothing about our mission?”
“Like you said,” Seth said with a smile. “Marooned. Sheltered. They probably haven’t even heard about the skyranch you took out over Jupion. I think they’re still looking for floaters over there.”
Pacoby smiled. “I hear there are frozen farmers circling the planet now.”
“That was good work,” Seth said, crossing his arms to hide his clenched fists. “So was taking that immigrant ship out to Tilliera and stranding them there.”
“I suppose there wasn’t much left of them by the time Air Command got there.” Pacoby’s smile faded when Luanie slumped on the bottom of the stairs with a sob. The others stared, wide-eyed, at hearing these words from the Arawaj leader. “Infants!” he snapped. “It’s time for all of you to grow up. Our work takes its toll and will continue to do so until the Commonwealth yields. And now it’s time you did your part, Spanners. Real work.”
Ciela looked from Luanie to Miko and then to Pacoby. “This cannot work,” she said. “How can anyone think this can work?” She stalked toward him. “Arawaj is nothing more than a drain on Air Command’s resources. How can that be worth taking all those lives?”
“Ciela…” Seth warned. Pacoby’s hand was only a tic away from the shutdown he had installed.
She looked over to him. “You were right, Seth. Velen Phar was right, too. I’ve been living in some fantasy if this is the best my people can come up with.” She uttered a small, humorless chuckle. “My people. Mass-murderers, no better than Shri-Lan. Fanatics.” She shook her head and her jaw tightened with resolve. “These are not my people. Not any more.”
Before Seth could react, she drew her knife, its blade still stained with blood, and launched herself at Pacoby. He raised his arms to ward off the attack and managed to grasp her wrist. Both of them careened across the platform and collided with the railing overlooking the generators.
Seth drew and shot one of Pacoby’s men but the other leaped at him and grappled for this gun. There was little training behind his attempt and he wielded only a metal tool, no match for Seth whose only thought was for Ciela’s rash attack on Pacoby.
Behind him, one of the spanners shrieked when the badly-maintained barrier bent outward. Ciela wrestled desperately with the Human, feeling his sharp-nailed thumb dig into her wrist. Although he was smaller than she, his strength spoke of a well-maintained body and considerable training. Both of them lost their balance when the barrier gave way and they tumbled out onto the sloped roof of one of the generators.
Seth leaped after them and reached for Pacoby. The rebel swung Ciela aside, forcing Seth to jump over her. The slippery surface of the sheeting seemed to slide him sideways and he stumbled back, grasping for a handhold and, at last, tumbled off the generator and into the water far below.
Ciela found a sudden, renewed burst of strength and shoved forward to ram her knee into Pacoby, pushing him back. A snap of her arm finally loosened his grip and she swung back to slash her knife across his throat.
He recoiled and grasped his neck with both hands, eyes bulging in terror as he felt blood ooze between his fingers. Ciela grasped one of the power conduits and used her boot to shove him back to tumble after Seth into the basin.
She whipped around and scrambled back to the platform where Deely and one of the girls heaved her up. She went to the control console and linked into the system. “Aagh, what a mess! Deely!” She pointed to the other interface. “You’re good with this stuff. Shut the whole thing down.”
He started to link up. “The power grid?”
“No, just the cathode in the generator. Disconnect it from the grid, if you can’t find the shut-off.” She turned to the others. “Luanie, stay with him in case anyone comes down from up there. If it moves, shoot it. The rest of you get downstairs.”
They raced down the creaking staircase leading to the catwalk over the water. Ciela nearly went over the insufficient railing when she bent over it to look for Seth.
“Over there!” Miko pointed across the holding basin. They saw Seth flailing in the water, making his way to the sloping edge. “What are you doing?” he added when she started to climb over the railing.
“There are creatures in the water,” she said.
Nothing could stop her from stepping out onto the dam to cross to the opposite side. She did not hear the shouts that followed her when she balanced across the stone wall, hesitating only an instant before leaping across the sluice gate that funneled water from the river into the pool. Then she was across and dropped to the ground to reach down to where Seth clung to the wall. He had drawn his feet out of the water where several of the flat river creatures circled.
“Hey, nice to see you,” he wheezed and reached up to take her hand. His shirt hung in tatters and blood flowed freely from his shoulder. She looked back and kicked a pipe jutting up from the ground. It held firm and so she stretched out to grasp it.
Slowly, painfully, he pulled himself up, slipping a few times on the sloping wall of the basin. At last, he lay on level ground, panting. “That’s one hell of an undertow out there,” he gasped.
“You’re hurt!”
He sat up and let her tear what remained of his shirt to stem the bleeding. “Believe it or not, I landed on one of those fish things. It took offense.” He looked out onto the water. “Guess he wasn’t so lucky. Did you do that?”
She did not look to see Pacoby floating on the surface. Her earlier peek at that showed something tugging on his legs. It wasn’t something she wanted to see again.
They both looked around, startled, when something in the air changed. It took a moment to realize that the steady hum of the electrolizers had ceased, leaving only the sound of the power generator somewhere in the distance. The door at the foot of the stacks opened and then Deely and Luanie joined the others on the catwalk.
“Come on,” she said. “Let’s get out of here before someone comes down to find out why everyone’s suffocating.”
The stone wall separating river from basin suddenly seemed awfully narrow. The others watched in terror as Seth and Ciela balanced across the dam like two drunken tightrope walkers. She nearly lost her nerve when they approached the open sluice. But, lacking other options, she took the leap and scuttled the rest of the way to where Miko waited to help her over the railing.
“Keep going,” Seth said. “Single file along the river.”
A sudden shriek startled them. “I’m hit,” Luanie cried. A long gash had seared along her shin. “My leg.” A projectile ricocheted off the wall beside Miko’s head.
“Up there!” Ciela pointed to the top of the generator. Two women stood there with rifles, aiming at the fugitives.
“Run,” Seth said. “We’ll be out of view. Go!”
They obeyed, racing ahead of him to the ladder leading to the surface. Had the way in been as long as the way out now seemed? Two of the triplets seemed unused to running at all and their headlong dash was soon little more than a jog, further slowed by Luanie’s limp.
“Up!” he ordered. “Quick!”
Miko took the lead, climbing quickly hand over hand toward the hatch far above them.
“I can’t…” Luanie whimpered. “It’s so high.”
“You can stay down here, if you like,” Seth said, forcing an edge into his tone. “Move out of the way.”
The woman swallowed her reply along with, he hoped, her fear and began to climb.
“Faster up there. Ciela, hold up.” He drew his gun from its waterlogged holster. “Time to practice.”
Ciela had already ascended a few steps. She turned back to see the two rebels emerging from the door in the distance. They fired, their aim hampered by the mist in the air, but did not stop until both women fell, one into the river.
“You’re getting better,” he said, wincing when he gripped the rungs and felt his lacerated shoulder protest.
They climbed after the others. Miko was already at the top, wrestling with the heavy latch. With a loud grunt, he heaved it aside.
They found themselves in the hidden room to which their Taancer ally had led them. Seth stumbled and dropped onto a crate, exhausted. “Ciela. The air tanks in that room. Remember?”
“We’re going outside?”
“Unless you have a better idea. Doesn’t matter who won the battle, we’re the prize here today. Well, you are.”
She waved to Miko and Deely. “Come with me.”
Seth lowered his head, wondering how much blood he had lost while treading water out there. Luanie approached him and raised her hands as if asking permission to look at his wound. She hissed softly.
“Not good?”
“Not really.” She bent to rip her skirt. “I’m sorry. It’s not clean.”
He pushed the hair out of his face. “I don’t think a few Taancerum germs are going to make much difference right now.”
She applied a bandage as best as she could. Her own wound, although painful-looking, was cleanly cauterized by the laser that had strafed her. The triplets watched, silently, from a distance.
Seth smiled at them. “So what are your names?”
They looked at each other.
“They don’t talk much,” Luanie said. “At least not out loud. We really don’t know what they say to each other.”
Seth sighed. Another bizarre side effect of the Delphian experiments. As objectionable as all that was, removing the children from Delphi likely hadn’t helped any of them.
The others returned, carrying a supply of oxygen tanks. “Tested and good to go,” Miko reported. “Sorry, no goggles.”
Seth nodded. “The air out there is going to burn your eyes. Not good for your skin, either. Cover yourselves as best as you can. You’ll be fine if you keep those masks on. Ciela will lead us around the building to the cruisers…” he paused to address her directly. “Keeping as close to it as possible. Who knows what’s going on out there.” He pulled his data sleeve off. “You’re Miko? Stay behind me and keep your eye on the scanner. I’m down to one useful arm and I need that for my gun. Everyone move quickly and try to stay out of sight.”
Ciela and Deely experimented with the door. “There’ll be some wind while the gases mix. Shouldn’t be too much, but stay to the side just in case.”
Seth checked everyone’s equipment as they fastened their masks but they seemed to know what they were doing. He had to remind himself that, sheltered or not, these were not just civilians. He was grimly amused when Ciela had to help him with his respirator when it became clear that his arm would not cooperate.
They pried the door open against a rush of air and slipped outside. Seth signaled them to wait behind a shed of some sort. Sporadic gun fire from inside the hangars told them that whoever had won the battle – Shri-Lan presumably – was looking for surviving enemies. With luck, he thought, they’d start hunting their own people.
“Some dogfight going on over that way,” Miko reported, his voice muffled by his mask. His eyes were already streaming with tears as the chlorine in the air took effect. Seth looked over Miko’s shoulder to see the signatures for several cruisers and a handful of fighters in the distance.
“Good, they’re busy.”
“Seth, what if they destroyed your ship?” Ciela said.
“It’ll take more than…” he paused. “Well, shields do help. Come on.”
They skirted the side of the flight deck and scurried around to the docks. Seth nearly sobbed with relief when he saw the Dutchman still snuggled up to Pacoby’s cruiser, apparently unharmed. “Hatch underneath, by the left landing gear,” he directed.
The Dutchman recognized his touch on a hidden keyplate and allowed them inside where they crawled through its inner workings and into the small engine room. From there, a short ladder brought them up to the main cabin. They started to drop what clothes they could do without, well used to contamination protocols.
Seth flipped open a cabinet and pulled out bags of emergency decon sheets and saline. “Use this. On your eyes. We’ll decon later. Hang on to something when we lift off. Those two chairs have restraints. Ciela, you’re with me.”
She followed him into the cockpit, wiping her face with the wet towel. “I’m not a pilot,” she reminded him.
“I know,” he said, trying to think of some joke to explain his request. He sat down and activated the ship’s launch sequence. “I just want you here,” he said finally.
The ship launched into an emergency take-off sequence which meant thrusters against this dusty surface, no gravity balance, no systems check. If someone had decided to sabotage the Dutchman in some way, this was the moment to find out.
The ship rose smoothly.
“They’re on to us,” Ciela said, pointing up at the sensor display. “Something coming from the valley.”
“Shrills.” He pulled a headset over his interface and shouted to the others. “Hold tight!”
The Dutchman swung around the docks, ready to launch into space, when the swarm of single-seat fighter planes descended from above, opening fire at once.
Seth returned their fire, barreling through the more agile attackers, looking for the correct angle to get out of the valley. A shudder went through the ship when the shields took a full hit. Someone in the back cried out when he veered. Something crashed to the ground.
A scatter of projectiles impacted the shield with little damage. “Not happy with this.” Seth unleashed a full barrage and Ciela cheered when two of the Shrills spiraled into the ground. He dove under the others who seemed to have no clear formation that his systems could interpret. “I hate these things.”
“Four left. Over there! Heading for the pyramid.”
“Need a hand, pilot?” a female voice broke into the open com system.
Seth grinned. “Is that you, Red?” He felt a weight lifted from him that he had not even been aware of carrying. “Made a getaway, eh? How’s the head?”
Captain Whiteside entered the field, guns blazing. “Party got boring,” she said tersely and turned her attention to the enemy planes. Seth matched her flight path toward the pyramid.
“Watch this,” he said to Ciela. He switched to solid projectiles and unloaded at the ship on the north flank of the pyramid. Most of his fire went wild and shattered a vast swatch of the solar panels covering that side. Shards sprayed out over the hangars below and pieces of the support structure for them gave way when the Shrill slammed into it.
They heard the captain whoop as she did the same on the other side, also taking down an enemy plane. Both raced after the other two Shrills, blasting until they hit the ground. A scan of the vicinity showed no more enemy planes in the air.
“The Brothers got away,” Whiteside said and added a curse that made Ciela blush. “Sebasta didn’t. Most of the Shri-Lan fleet’s bugged out. Seems some awfully big Air Command battle cruisers are about to drop into this sector to do a little house cleaning. Do you have our newest acquisition?”
“All seven accounted for. And Pacoby has gone swimming. He won’t need that fine ship of his anymore.” Seth finally engaged the stabilizers to improve the gravity inside the ship.
“Excellent,” she replied. “This b
oat here is utter junk. Had to leave my Eagle at home.”
“All yours,” he said. “If you can get into it. I’m taking these folks out of here.”
“No need. The Delphians sent an escort to take them back. You can turn them over to the Scole when you meet up with Colonel Celois at the keyhole. They’ll make sure you’re looked after.”
“Will do,” Seth replied, winking at Ciela. “See you around, Red.”
“Try to keep your guard up next time.”
Epilogue
“You’re sure about this?” Ciela said when, hours later, the Scole came into view near the sector’s only keyhole.
Seth glanced over his shoulder to check for anyone near the entrance to the cockpit to which he and Ciela had withdrawn. The others were resting, sharing Seth’s bed and the bunks in the cluttered crew cabin. “No. Not really.”
Air Command’s orders made it clear that Seth was to deliver the spanners directly to the science vessel filled with Delphians and, he was pleased to hear, navigated by his friend Caelyn. He had considered making a run for the keyhole and heading directly for Delphi to ensure Air Command had no chance to take a closer look at his precious cargo. But perhaps that was pushing his tenuous relationship with Colonel Carras just a bit too far.
He had taken a wide berth around the flight path of the Shri-Lan rebels who had no choice but to meet the arriving Air Command force in combat to reach the keyhole. Others, he assumed, were now hiding in other parts of Taancerum, as inhospitable and unsustaining as the Daos valley they no longer owned.
In the hours since leaving Taancerum, Seth and Ciela had talked with the others, squeezed into the small space of Seth’s central cabin, in an effort to ease their fears. There were no promises to make and Seth had steered clear of talk about rebel politics, a subject too vast for now. But they had all seen the extent to which Pacoby had been willing to take his ambitions. Miko and Luanie seemed ready to accept that things were not what they had been taught to believe. Deely reserved judgment. The triplets didn’t seem to care one way or the other.