Starfall

by neetha Napew

  The Foundation man and his teams wasted no time in scaling the rope ladders that had been thrown from the top of the dam. Ryan ordered Jak and Dean to go next.

  Shouldering the tube-shaped weapon, Ryan fired it at the largest cluster of pirate boats he saw. The impact threw fiery remnants into the air. He didn't wait to see any more, sprinting for the nearest rope ladder, with J.B. at his side.

  As he made his way up the dam, half dragged and half climbing, he saw the pirate boats get organized again. Given how many he spotted, he knew the ones they'd seen in the small harbor earlier hadn't been all of them. Barbarossa had evidently split his forces. Forty, maybe fifty watercraft had crowded into the cistern.

  Just over halfway up the dam, Ryan told Donovan to blow the canyon walls on the other side of the cistern. The man hesitated only a moment, looking down and obviously thinking Ryan and J.B. weren't going to make it. His voice was ripped away by the wind, but the instant detonations behind Ryan told him the command had been given.

  Glancing over his shoulder, Ryan watched a mass of rock slide into the canyon that bottlenecked the cistern. In sec­onds, the thunderous mass blocked the canyon, sealing off the pirates who were inside from the ones who hadn't made it Ryan knew there had to have been only a few of them who hadn't come into the killing zone.

  Less than thirty feet remained to be climbed to the top of the dam. Ryan shouted at Donovan to blow the dam.

  There was no hesitation at all this time.

  The dam blew in an earthshaking explosion, releasing a thundering cascade of water that leaped out into the cistern like a live thing. It surged over the pirate vessels, smashing and overturning them as if they were a child's toys.

  Without warning, a part of the wall of water draining into the cistern whipped over, giving testimony to how much pressure the dam had actually held back. The cascade nearly ripped Ryan from the rope ladder. He clung to it, his shoulder screaming, feeling the rope burn his palms as it slid through his hands.

  Then the water was gone, joining the rush that continued to spill from the broken dam.

  Ryan took a deep breath and finished climbing, joining Krysty at the top of the dam.

  The beautiful redhead rushed to him, holding him tight in spite of the wet clothing. "Thought for a minute there I'd lost you, lover."

  Ryan shook his head. "Not yet." He peered down into the cistern, watching the water pour over the pirates.

  At first, the Foundation people had cheered the destruc­tion of their enemies. But watching the avalanche of water pull the pirates under so effortlessly gave them all pause.

  Even Ryan, as inured as he was to the toll exacted by Deathlands, felt a chill that wasn't the cause of the water drenching him.

  As the cistern filled, it flooded into the four canyons at the side, at least one of them running into the hidden water reserves of the Foundation.

  Ryan suspected there'd be few survivors. He didn't wait to see. There was definitely not going to be any pursuit.

  He approached Donovan. "Fulfilled my part of the bar­gain. Time to handle your end."

  Epilogue

  The Chosen witch joined the companions just after dusk at the new campsite the Foundation people set up that eve­ning.

  "My sister," Donovan said as a way of introduction when he brought her over to where Krysty sat on a sleeping bag. "Her name's Dora."

  Ryan knew at once she was one of the Chosen from her style of dress and the distant look in her dark eyes. But she was lean and curved, surely no older than nineteen or twenty, pretty enough to turn the heads of men. "What's she going to do?" Ryan asked, his hand resting on the SIG-Sauer's butt.

  Darkness fell all around them, complete and unforgiving. Rain clouds blotted out the moon and stars.

  "She's going to withdraw the dead Chosen from Krysty's mind," Donovan said.

  Dora knelt in front of Krysty and put her hands on the redhead's temples and began to chant in a low melodious voice. Krysty reached out and took Ryan's hand, squeezing it tightly.

  Without warning, the two women propelled away from each other, both knocked backwards.

  "It's done," Dora said, wiping bloody spittle from her mouth with the back of her hand. She glanced up at Don­ovan. "Remember our bargain, brother."

  Donovan gave her a tight nod as he helped her to her feet.

  Heart pounding with fear, Ryan glanced at Krysty.

  She looked up at him. "It's true, lover," she said hoarsely. "Nobody in here now but me. All alone again. Thank Gaia." Then she slept.

  Ryan held her hand while everyone left them alone to­gether, and he held it for a very long time after that.

  "AFTER SEEING how easily you open these redoubts," Donovan said the next morning, "there's people at the Foundation who aren't going to be too happy to know I let you go."

  "We had a deal," Ryan reminded him.

  "I know," Donovan said sourly. "But you didn't have all your cards on the table."

  Ryan gave him a thin grin. "I never do."

  "I guess this is goodbye, then. Unless I can talk you into coming up to the Foundation."

  Ryan shook his head. Truth to tell, he'd like to see the place. "Mebbe another time."

  "Still curious," Donovan said.

  "What?"

  "How you could know that you could trust me to let you go."

  "Didn't trust you," Ryan said. "Trusted ourselves. Dur­ing the raid on the pirates, Jak put a plas-ex bomb on the space-station section. If we'd needed it, there'd have been a way out." He left Donovan standing there with his mouth open. He stopped at the door of the redoubt and gave the man a brief salute before keying in the code to open the doors and disappearing inside.

  Ryan made his way to the mat-trans and shut the door, automatically activating the sequence that would send them someplace else. After glancing around at the other com­panions who'd already prepared for the jump, he took a seat on the floor beside Krysty. The familiar fog lifted from the glowing metal plates and obscured the view through the colored armaglass. He turned his attention to his lover. "Feeling better?"

  "Yeah, lover, and after things calm down at the other end of this jump, I'm going to show you just how much better I'm feeling." Krysty squeezed his hand.

  Feeling the transfer blotting out his senses, Ryan closed his eye.