Kumadai Run

by Jaleta Clegg

  Wade grabbed my legs, holding me steady. I swung to the side and managed to get one hand into the hole. It was small, but had a ledge that served well as something to grab. I got one hand jammed in and swung my other hand into the next one up.

  “I got it, Wade,” I said. He let go of my ankles. My legs slithered out of the vent. My hands ached as I hung for a moment until I got my feet into holes. Only my toes fit inside. I clung to the wall, unsure which way to go.

  “Up or down?” I asked Wade when his head popped out of the vent. He called back over his shoulder. The message passed down and back up. My fingers ached. “Hurry up!”

  “Up one deck and to your right,” Wade said.

  I pried one hand free and reached for the next hole up. It was a bit of a stretch. Wade climbed out of the vent. I climbed faster to get out of his way. He swung across, scrambling onto the handholds and making it look easy.

  I kept going up. It was hard to tell where I might be. The vents spiraled up the shaft, exiting at different heights, no two seeming on the same level. I climbed what I guessed was the right number of steps and started looking for another vent. I found one at about the right height, but it was across the shaft. I went up a few more steps to the next one.

  “Too high,” Lovar said from somewhere below my feet.

  “It’s the only one I can reach,” I called back.

  “Just go,” Commander Hovart said. He was wriggling free of the vent. It looked like a tight fit for his broad shoulders. “And hope the next one is bigger and connects to somewhere useful.”

  I pulled myself into the vent. It had dark spots along the sides that looked like openings.

  “This one looks good,” I called over my shoulder. It didn’t really matter, it was the first one I’d been able to reach. I belly crawled my way down it. The breeze from behind carried the sounds of the others climbing into the vent.

  I reached the first dark spot. It was a grate, but one screened by very thick mesh that barely let air through. It was securely fastened into the wall. If I’d had half an hour and a blowtorch, or a few minutes with a blaster, I could have opened it, but it still wouldn’t have done us any good. It was too small. My arm might have fit through. I kept crawling.

  I passed another dozen of the grates. I saw nothing helpful on the other side. I saw either pitch black nothing or blank corridor walls. My handlight flickered. The light dropped to almost nothing. I shook it and got a bit more light, for a few moments.

  I could tell when Commander Hovart entered the vent. He swore like an engineer at the tight squeeze. This top of the vent was higher, but it was narrower than the last.

  Wade pushed my feet again. “Find a way out.”

  “I’m looking,” I answered back.

  I spotted a large square on the floor of the vent just ahead. I squirmed up to it.

  The square was a larger grate that opened on the ceiling of a corridor below. The lights below glowed brighter than the dim green we’d seen previously. The grate was large enough for me to fit through. I hoped it was big enough for Commander Hovart. To judge by his creative cursing, he was not happy about crawling through the vents. But the grate was securely bolted. And I had no tools.

  No, I had my lockpicks. The sonic disruptor would do nicely to either shatter the bolts or unscrew them. But my lockpicks were strapped to my ankle and I couldn’t reach them in the narrow space.

  “Wade!” I whispered over my shoulder.

  “What?”

  “I found a grate, but it’s screwed on. On the inside of my right ankle, there’s a small pocket. Get what’s inside it and pass it up to me.”

  “You have a full toolkit inside your pant leg? You're full of surprises.”

  He fumbled inside my pants at my ankle. It was weird and definitely ticklish. I did my best to stay still. He found the pocket and unfastened it. He pulled out the packet that held my lockpicks.

  “What are these?”

  “Never mind, just pass them up to me.” If it wasn’t necessary to pull them out, I wouldn’t have. Just owning them could get me several years prison time in the Empire. But if they weren’t going to get me off this one, it wouldn’t matter. If they did get us off, I doubted anyone would press charges. If they did, I bet Lowell would get any criminal charges dismissed. He had before.

  Wade wriggled alongside me, his hand reaching over my butt. His hand found mine and pushed the lockpicks into it.

  “What are you doing up there?” Commander Hovart grumbled from down the tunnel.

  “Opening the grate,” Wade answered.

  I slipped the sonic disruptor from the sleeve. It looked too slender, not nearly sturdy enough to unfasten the bolts, but it should work. If the bolts holding the grate were threaded. If the pick didn’t bend or break. If whoever had built the ship we were crawling through had been close enough to human to use similar methods of building. So far that last option seemed to hold true. I mentally crossed my fingers and wished for luck.

  The bolts, one in each corner, had a slot across the top. My pick slid right into the groove. I twisted to the left. It wouldn’t budge. I tried to the right. Still nothing. I tried the other corner. The bolt moved to the right. Then stuck. I wriggled the pick. It bent. I eased up, drew in a deep breath, then tried again. I got the bolt to move a little at a time, gradually working it out of the hole. It rattled on the floor of the vent when I pulled it free. One down and three to go.

  “What's the delay?” Commander Hovart asked impatiently.

  “I’m working on it,” I said.

  “Work faster,” Wex said.

  I wanted to swear at them to shut up and let me work. Wade did it for me, much more nicely than I would have. Commander Hovart and Wex were both claustrophobic. But they weren’t the only ones. I wanted out, too.

  I worked another bolt loose. The other two were on the far side of the grate. I had to crawl onto the grate to unfasten them.

  I didn’t need to bother. Without the two bolts, the grate wasn’t sturdy enough to hold me even though I’m not that big. It gave with a crashing bang. The grate and I both fell to the floor below.

  “That’s one way to do it,” Wade said, his head hanging from the hole above. He swung his legs down then dropped lightly beside me.

  I lay on the floor, cataloging all the new bruises I’d just acquired.

  Lovar came next. He was barely out of the vent before he had his scanner out again. He frowned and shook his head as Wex tumbled out of the hole. Commander Hovart squirmed out last, squeezing his shoulders through the opening. It was barely wide enough for him. He lowered himself from the hole, landing beside me.

  “Where now?” he asked Lovar.

  “We’re one deck too high,” Lovar answered. “But in the right area.”

  “Then let’s find a way down,” Commander Hovart said. “Just as long as it isn’t through the air vents.”

  I put my lockpicks back in their pocket on my ankle. Commander Hovart gave me a very long look when he saw what I had. I looked up at him, daring him to comment. He very deliberately looked away and didn’t say anything.

  Wex and I got off the floor. We started down the corridor, looking for stairs or ladders or anything to let us move from deck to deck.

  Chapter 26

  We spent what felt like hours combing the area around the vent. We heard nothing but our own noises. We saw no evidence of the golden men or anyone else. The halls were bland, blank walls of pale green with strips of greenish light along the ceilings. Locked doors lined the walls. These didn’t have lights embedded, like the storage rooms below. They had a panel next to them that looked like it might have controlled them, no buttons or anything obvious, just a flat panel about four feet up from the floor next to each door.

  I was curious about the doors. The panels had to do something. Commander Hovart glanced briefly at them then moved on, he was looking for something out in the open. Lovar was right beside him, eyes glued to his scanner. Wade walked behind them, hand
s in his pockets. Wex limped next to Wade, looking lost and tired. I trailed far behind as they turned down another of the corridors.

  They stopped not far down the hall. The three in front put their heads together over the scanner. Wex stared at the closest door. He reached one hand out and laid it on the door panel. The lights over the door flashed red. A high beeping alarm carried through the deserted halls. Commander Hovart looked up immediately.

  “I just touched it,” Wex said.

  “And set off alarms.” Hovart glared. “Where, Lovar?”

  “I can’t tell,” Lovar said as frustrated as the commander. “The energy readings are interfering with each other. There’s a major reading from one floor below, somewhere in the middle of that.” He pointed at the wall next to him.

  “How do we get to it?” Hovart bashed his fist into the wall and set off another alarm.

  I glanced nervously over my shoulder but no one had come to check on the alarms. Not yet.

  Another alarm sounded even farther along the hall. This set off a round of swearing, mostly by Hovart. Lovar hunched over the scanner, trying to get it to do things it was never designed to do. Wex looked guilty. Wade shifted behind Hovart, where it was marginally safer. I crossed my arms and leaned against the wall.

  And fell through a door that slid open behind me. I sprawled on the floor on my back. The room was small, square, and lined with stairs that rose around each wall.

  “I think I found a way down,” I said.

  Wex glared as he stepped over me. “How did you know the door was there? I didn't see any markings or anything.”

  “How many did we walk past without realizing?” Wade asked as he examined the doorway.

  “Are you going to sleep there?” Commander Hovart asked as he stepped over me.

  Lovar entered last, stepping over me without looking. His face was glued to the scanner.He and Hovart started down the stairs. I lay on the hard floor, and closed my eyes. What was I trying to do? Escape, I reminded myself. Would I really rather be outside waiting? Part of me said yes, most of me admitted that I would rather be where the action was. I just wanted to be there with less annoying people.

  “Come on,” Wade said, nudging me with his foot.

  I opened my eyes to see him offering me a hand back up. I took it and let him pull me to my feet. Wex was already past, following the others down.

  “Have you stopped to think about how we’re going to get back out?” I asked Wade.

  “Is it really going to matter? Do you think we can take out the generators? After seeing this?”

  “We could find a way to blow it all up,” I said as we started down the stairs. “But that would take out everything.”

  “And why wouldn’t we want that?”

  “It would kill everything on the planet.”

  “Why is that bad?”

  “What about the ones who choose not to come? Or what if some get left behind because there isn’t room for them in the ships?” I wasn’t sure why I objected to destroying the colony ship. The golden men had made us slaves, but it had been in an impersonal way. Almost as if they weren’t intelligent enough to realize what they were doing. As if they were programmed to be that way.

  They wouldn’t exist by themselves. Somewhere they had women and children, families. Or else this world and their biology were a lot weirder than I imagined.

  We caught up with Hovart. He glared at a blank wall.

  Lovar stood next to him, waving the scanner. “It’s right through there.”

  “There isn’t a door,” Hovart objected.

  “There wasn’t one for the stairs, either,” Wex said.

  Wade took my shoulder. “Want me to shove her against it? It worked before.”

  I slapped his hand away.

  Commander Hovart pushed on the wall in front of him. Nothing happened. Wex went around a bend in the stairs and shoved at the wall there. Lovar muttered over the scanner. Wade looked down the small open space in the center of the stairwell. The inner edge of the stairs didn’t have a rail. Wade leaned out. It made me nervous to watch him. I shuffled back and leaned on the wall behind me, running my hands out to give me a more secure feeling.

  The wall vibrated softly under my touch. A section slid free. I stepped away in surprise. The door waited a moment then slid shut again. I ran my hands back over the wall. I found a warm spot about four feet up, just to one side of the door. It slid open again.

  “How did you do that?” Hovart asked.

  “Warm spot about here,” I said and put my hand on the wall again. The door slid closed. I touched it again. Nothing happened. The spot wasn’t warm anymore.

  “Well, open it,” Hovart said.

  I touched the wall again, running my hands around looking for the warm spot. It wasn’t there. The door was gone as if it had never existed. The others ran hands over the walls. I kicked the wall, frustrated. Commander Hovart nudged me aside and felt the wall.

  “Ha!” Wex exclaimed. He stood next to an open door, looking smug. The door started to slide shut.

  “Don’t let it close!” Hovart barked.

  Wade pushed Wex into the doorway. It slid back open. I half expected it to squash him. We hurried down the stairs and through the door. Lovar came last, still absorbed in watching the scanner.

  We stepped into a much different corridor. This one was lined with windows. The rooms behind the windows were mostly dark. The doors were clearly marked, but in a language none of us could read, and had locks that looked a lot more familiar. The door to the stairs slid shut behind us.

  Lovar pivoted, watching the scanner intently. “Over there,” he said, and pointed at a solid section of wall.

  “Start looking for doors,” Commander Hovart ordered.

  We fanned out in the hallway, running our hands over the blank wall. I went farther, almost to the next corner. The window across from me was lit. I saw banks of transparent bins. It looked strange. I crossed to see better. The bins were empty but all of them were attached to some pretty sophisticated looking equipment. It looked like a laboratory.

  “What are you doing?” Wade asked behind me. “We want a door on this side.”

  “Aren’t you even curious about this?”

  “No,” he said sharply, then relented. “Maybe if I hadn’t spent the last five years on this planet as a slave, I might be a little curious.”

  I went back to looking for a door.

  I looked around the corner, and spotted a big double set of sliding doors. “I think I found it.”

  I didn’t wait for them to catch up. I studied the door. It had two halves that slid to each side. The center of the door was fastened by a complicated pad. Strange symbols were printed on the keys. On either side of the pad were slots. I grinned. This was a lock I could understand, if it were similar inside to others I’d seen that looked a lot like it.

  Wade reached around me and started pushing buttons. The door didn’t budge. A red light blinked on and off every time he pushed a button.

  “Locked,” he said and kicked the door.

  “It’s the right place,” Lovar said. “I’d bet everything that this is the control center for the ship.”

  “How do we get in?” Hovart asked. “It looks solid enough to withstand a blast cannon.”

  I knelt and retrieved my lockpicks from the ankle pocket. The others watched me. Hovart lifted one eyebrow when I opened the packet and spread out the picks.

  “What are those?” Wex asked, crouching next to me.

  I ignored him and got the sonic probe out. I wiggled it into one slot and watched the code scroll across the end of it. It blinked a series of yellow and red lights. Wrong order. I pushed it into the other slot. Unless the wiring was really odd, it should work. There are only so many ways to use electricity and every civilization ever found used electricity for power. The sources were different and there were variations on the circuitry, but the basics were always the same. That’s what the makers of the lockpicks knew.
Every lock that relied on electricity could be broken eventually with the tools I had. Mechanical locks were even simpler.

  The probe flashed green. I hadn’t used this one in a long time. I hoped I remembered all the codes. I shifted it back to the first slot and tapped the code on the tiny keys along the side of the pick. The lights cycled green. A series of symbols popped up on the strip across the end of the pick. I punched the keys that matched the symbols. The door clicked and slid open.

  I put my lockpicks away as the others walked past me into the room beyond. I heard the hiss of air and the quiet humming of equipment running.

  “I’ll pretend I didn’t see any of that,” Commander Hovart said as I joined him inside the room.

  “Aren’t you glad I had them?”

  He laughed.

  Lovar and Wade were in heaven. Banks of complicated looking controls and panels lined every wall. Lights flashed and blinked over everything. Large screens hung on the walls between the equipment, showing sections of the ship, including a hall with several doors flashing red lights. Lovar and Wade studied the controls.

  “I think that one controls the water.” Lovar waved the scanner over a panel of blue and green twisting ribbons of light.

  “This one isn’t working,” Wade said. “I’d bet it had something to do with piloting.”

  Wex stood in the middle of the room, just staring.

  “It would be easier if we could read this,” Wade complained as he moved on to a different section. He looked back at Hovart. “If we had days or weeks we might be able to figure it out.”

  “We’ve got about twelve hours,” Hovart said.

  “Hopeless, then,” Wade said. “Unless you want me to start randomly pushing buttons. This is nothing like any system I’ve ever used.”

  “He’s right,” Lovar said, looking up from the scanner. “The readings are very different from anything I’ve ever studied.”

  Commander Hovart turned to me. “You got the door open.”