The door snapped open. Two men floated out, retching and gagging. Neither of them was armed. Fred punched the first in the head, hard enough that Carmen felt the crack of the impact. The man went limp. The other saw the threat but was so miserable that he tried to raise his arms in a position of surrender.
Fred seemed to pause a moment as if considering that, and then shook his head. “Sorry, bro,” he said, and slammed a huge fist into the second man’s head.
“I’ll make sure neither of them wake up anytime soon,” Carmen said. She injected each of them with a dose of the cure – mixed with her sedative. They’d be out for hours.
“Let’s go,” Fred grunted. “That fire alarm will alert the cockpit and the rest of the ship.”
Once they were both inside, Fred shut the door and keyed in a code to lock it. “It won’t hold them forever,” he said, pushing off from the door and drifting over to a console.
The door had a glass window, so Carmen kept watch, worried that the enemy might come at them any time. “How’s this going to work?” she asked anxiously.
“I got to override all the safety protocols an’ then flood the ship with the wrong mix of gasses. I’m telling the computer to do something it was programmed not to do. Gimme a few minutes.”
Carmen saw a head peek around the corner down the hall, only to duck back. “I don’t know if you have a few minutes,” she said. “They’ve found us.”
Fred mumbled “Shit,” under his breath, but kept typing away.
She kept her eyes peeled down the short hall, watching for movement. The soldiers knew where they were. What would they do? Storm engineering? If they figured out what Fred was trying to do, they could just get into space suits and changing the gasses wouldn’t even help anymore.
But they didn’t do either of those things. Instead, they shoved two tied up men into view. Carmen sucked in her breath, hard. It was Pat – and her father. Both of them looked all right, although Pat had some bad bruises on his head and her father looked more scared than she’d ever seen him before. It wrung her heart to see them like that, floating at the end of the hall, their hands tied behind their backs, gags over their mouths, their eyes wide.
“Fred,” Carmen said, barely able to speak. “We’re out of time.”
A hand holding a pistol slid into view. The gun was aimed casually toward Pat, and Carmen almost shouted in fear and anger. Then the man holding the gun dropped into view. He was middle-aged, with dark hair that was cropped short, dressed in military fatigues. She guessed this had to be the man in charge of the soldiers who’d taken the ship. The man gestured with his gun toward the door – clearly, he saw her through the port-hole in the door.
She shook her head. There was no way she was going to open the door for him!
The man shrugged, his face almost a little sad, and aimed the gun back at Pat’s head. He said something that Carmen couldn’t hear through the door. Pat closed his eyes. The soldier pulled back the hammer of his pistol.
“Wait!” Carmen screamed, banging on the window. “No!”
She reached down and keyed open the door, pulling it ajar just enough to shout out through the gap. If they rushed, she hoped she could close it again in time. “Wait! You don’t need to hurt anyone!” she shouted. She hoped they could hear her – she knew her suit was muffling her words some. “I have the cure!”
“That’s a bold claim,” the soldier called down the hall to her. But he lowered the pistol a little.
She sucked in a deep breath. “Who are you?” Carmen asked.
“I’m Colonel Pierce. I own this ship now. You must be Carmen Rosa – the good doctor has told me about you.”
“That’s me,” she said, aiming for a bright tone and falling somewhere short.
“Girl, if you really had the cure, why not just wait on the base for us to get there?” Pierce asked.
Carmen tried hard to take the man’s measure. He was sick. Even at this distance, she could see the beginnings of bruises under his eyes, so the virus was in his brain. He’d be irrational, and reasoning with him would be hard. But she didn’t have a lot of choice.
Should she tell him that the shuttle wasn’t headed to the moon? That Pat had set a course which would doom the shuttle to drift off into deep space? No, she decided. He might not believe her. And even if he did believe her, he might react irrationally toward Pat, even kill him out of anger at the betrayal.
“The sooner a patient gets the treatment, the more effective it is,” she replied. Which was true. It just wasn’t the whole truth. “Every hour counts.”
“Then you brought the cure with you,” Pierce said. “Give it to me.”
This was dangerous. While she had the cure, she had an edge. As soon as she handed it over, he wouldn’t really need her anymore. But she really did want to do the injections. The cure was also laced with a powerful sedative. They’d all be knocked out in short order. But she needed to get all of them at once, or as close to that as she could.
She put on her best ‘doctor voice’, loud and paternal – “Do you know how to administer the right dose, in the right spot, at the right times? It takes more than one dose, and each one needs to be administered correctly for the drug to work.”
Pierce paused for a moment, seeming to consider her words. Then he laughed, and spread his arms wide. “Please, then. Come minister to the sick.”
Both Pat and her father shook their heads. It was pretty clear they wanted her to stay put. Pierce saw their movement as well. He brought the pistol back up again, this time aimed at the side of her father’s temple. Carmen watched her father close his eyes, saw his lips moving through the cloth gag.
“Or I can redecorate the interior of my ship in crimson,” Pierce said in that same affable tone he’d been using all along.
“No!” Carmen said. “I’ll come.” She slipped out into the hallway, carefully closing the hatch behind her. She heard it latch solidly, and hoped Fred would be able to lock it. At least he’d be safe – she might need his help shortly.
18
SHE PUSHED OFF from the door and drifted down the corridor toward Pierce. Once she was about halfway down, two soldiers slipped into view and pulled themselves toward her. She flinched when the first grabbed hold of her arm, but neither of them were rough with her.
“Please just come along, miss,” one said.
“We’re not gonna hurt you,” the other added.
She wasn’t sure if she should believe them or not, but she had a feeling they meant it. They were both young – not much older than the soldier she’d fought earlier. Young, impressionable boys, that was who Pierce had brought for his little coup. That made her even angrier with the man. These kids were scared, more than anything. They were dying, they knew it, and she’d tossed the worst sort of golden apple into the middle of this mess: hope.
They presented her to Pierce, who floated with one hand on a rail, the other still holding his pistol. He tucked the gun back into a holster on his belt. With the free hand, he reached out toward Carmen’s face. This time, she did flinch – but all he did was undo the clasp for her helmet’s faceplate and lift the glass shield. It rose like a visor away from her face with a hiss of escaping air. She glanced at her tank – already two thirds empty? How had so much time gone by?
“Why the helmet, Doctor? Why the space suit? What were you up to down here?” Pierce asked.
“Avoiding undue exposure to the virus. It’s medicine, not a miracle cure,” she said. “Speaking of which, would you like to go first?”
“No, I don’t think so,” Pierce said, drawing back from her a little. “I’m not feeling so trusting right now. Your friend is still back there in engineering, after all – yes, I have video feeds, and I know there are two of you.”
“But you have me here, now,” Carmen said.
He shifted his grip a little, his eyes flickering over her. She’d rarely felt so uncomfortable under a man’s gaze. “Yes, but how do I know that’s the cure, and not
poison? No, I think we start with your people first, and then you can help my men and I.”
Carmen had to fight back a smile. She’d more or less expected that. There was no way those soldiers were going to let her inject them without some sort of proof. So there wasn’t any poison, nothing that would do lasting harm. Just a little sedation that would put them out for an hour or so. Enough time for her and Fred to find a more lasting solution.
But there were a lot of them here. She looked around. Pierce had eight soldiers here. She’d have to move fast, or the first people she injected would pass out before she got a chance to finish with the last ones.
“I’m fine with that,” she said, masking her concern with nonchalance. “The sooner people are injected, the better their odds of survival anyway.” That got the attention of Pierce’s men right away. She could see them forming a line already, jostling for position. Each of them had such desperate hope written across his face that it was almost painful to see. She’d do what she could for those men. Some of them might be too far gone for her to cure – but she’d try her best.
Carmen turned to Patrick. He was younger than her father, and probably would pass out from the sedative a bit more slowly. Seconds might count. She’d inject him first, then her father. Her eyes met his as she drifted very close to him. There was so damned much she wanted to say to him, but right now was completely the wrong time. There would be time for that later – if she pulled this off.
“This will sting some,” she warned, reaching down onto her suit leg and pulling up the injector. She made a big show out of dialing up the dosage. It wasn’t a hard process, but better they didn’t know that. She found his deltoid easily enough. Even through the space suit’s gloves, running her hands over Pat’s should raised goose bumps on her arms. Her mind flashed back briefly to the moments they stole together during the solar flare.
Then she brought the injector up and against his arm. A quick tap and a hiss, and the medicine was in. Carmen saw Pat flinch, and knew that arm was going to be sore for a while until the medication spread out a bit. “Sorry, Pat,” she said.
She drifted over to her father, who was saying something through his gag. She could only make out one word: “How?”
“Neuraminidase inhibitors gave us the start, Dad,” she said. “It’s not a vaccine. But it will give the infected a fighting chance. Earth already has the formula.”
He said something else as she prepped the injection. She thought it was “I’m so proud of you.” But it was hard to tell for sure. He jerked when she injected him, reacting even more strongly than Pat had.
“Dad never did like needles,” Carmen explained. “Who’s next?”
Eight hands went up.
Carmen looked over at Pierce, who still wasn’t moving from where he hung. He was watching the whole scene dispassionately. The chill on his face unnerved her. “Pierce? Do you want dibs on the next dose?” she asked. She wanted him sedated ASAP. He scared her more than these kids ever could.
“No, a good leader takes care of his men first,” Pierce said. “Go on.”
She ground her teeth together. She’d have to move fast. No telling how long before Pat or her father went under from the sedative. She needed to get to all nine of them before that happened.
Carmen started in. The soldiers had already formed a line, which helped. Being in zero gravity didn’t. It simply took her longer to move around from one person to the next. Sweat was beading on her brow by the time she reached the last man. How much time did she have left?
He was tall, and heavily muscled. It took her less than a moment to find his bicep – it was hard to miss. But she had to be careful to avoid the patch on the sleeve of his uniform. She brought the injector up, aware as she had been this whole time of Pierce keeping a watchful eye on her.
“Hey, what’s wrong with that guy?” asked the man she was about to inject.
Carmen looked up, knowing what he was talking about even before she saw. Pat was floating in the air, his head lolling off to one side, clearly unconscious. Next to him, her father likewise drifted in sleep. She looked up at the man’s face, seeing the storm clouds of anger building there as he realized if not what she’d done, at least that something was very wrong.
She stabbed home the injector, pumping a dose of the medicine into the man’s arm before he could react.
“Ow!” he said, his hand reaching out to his arm out of reflex.
“It must be the virus,” Carmen lied, hoping she’d be believed. “Quick, help me get them to the infirmary!”
Pierce pushed off with a grunt, floating to where her father hung suspended in the air. Carmen held her breath as he took a pulse and then lifted an eyelid. Pierce knew what to look for. Damn it!
“You’ve drugged them!” he roared.
“Sir, I don’t feel so…good,” one of the soldiers said.
Carmen looked around. Two of the soldiers were already lightly snoring. The one speaking joined them a moment later. The rest stared at her in horror.
“It is a cure. It’s also a sedative. Just so you’ll rest,” she told them. “You’ll be fine.” She hoped that was true. Some of them were pretty advanced in the disease. Better to tell them something hopeful that to have them terrified as the drug slowly dulled their senses.
Pierce was still unimpeded, though. “You bitch!” he said, his face mottled red.
Time to get the hell out of here! She pushed off hard, jetting back toward the main hold even as Pierce struggled to chase after her. He had nothing solid to push against. Carmen caught a glimpse of him struggling his way toward the wall as she shot away.
Carmen was moving fast – way more quickly than she really thought was safe. She shot into the cargo hold and only narrowly missed the first row of crates. She twisted, and dodged the next set, zipping between two rows of the big containers. But then another set loomed directly in front of her. She could see them in her path, but there was nothing she could do to slow down. There wasn’t anything in reach that she could grab. She tried to flip around, so her head wouldn’t crack into the cases, and managed to get about halfway through the turn before she smashed into the storage units with her left shoulder.
All the air went out of her lungs in a whoosh, not even leaving enough for a shout of pain. She bit the inside of her cheek, copper flavor filling her mouth. But worst, her whole side hurt. She didn’t think she’d broken anything – quite – but her shoulder, arm, ribs, and hip on her left side hurt worst than she’d ever hurt before.
For a moment she hung there, barely able to move. She reached out her right hand to grab on to the crate she’d collided with so that she didn’t drift away, but that was all the movement she could manage. Instead, she focused on breathing, Every breath was painful, every inhalation like fire lancing into her side.
“I’ll kill you,” Pierce said, from somewhere below her. She jolted at the sound. He was close, and must be coming closer. He might be moving toward the front of the ship more slowly than she had, but he’d catch her soon enough if she didn’t move.
If he was following her, at least he wasn’t hurting Pat or her father. If she could draw him away… But there were only so many places on the shuttle to run. She needed help.
Her radio chirped, and Fred’s voice came out of it. “You OK out there?” he asked.
“Yes!” Carmen gasped. She’d all but forgotten Fred in her rush to get away. “Any luck on the air system?”
“Nope. But all those soldiers are out like a light. Need me to come help you?”
“Yes, please!” Carmen said. Then she paused. The biggest threat wasn’t Pierce. It was that the ship would follow Patrick’s course and fly off into deep space. “Wait. Can you wake up Pat?”
“How?”
“There must be a first aid kit in engineering. Look for some epi-pens.”
“Will that work?”
She hoped it would. Adrenaline to counteract the sedative should work. “Yes.”
There wa
s only one place on the ship that she thought she might be able to lock herself in. She’d only visited the cockpit a few times, but didn’t airplanes have a lock on the cockpit, to keep people away from the pilot? Maybe the shuttle had the same feature, since it too was designed to carry crew and passengers. It was the only thing she could think of, the only place which might have a lock on it. Besides, maybe she could shut off the jamming from the cockpit and Jacob could guide the shuttle in remotely.
It was slower going than she wanted. Her left arm wasn’t working well – every time she bumped it against something it flared with pain again. So she was stuck pulling herself forward from handrail to handrail with just her right hand. She exited the cargo area and shut the door behind her. The cafeteria space beyond looked pretty much the same as it had the first time she’d seen it. Carmen found herself wishing she had a gun, or something that would let her blow up the control panel on the door so that she couldn’t be followed. Pierce had to be right behind her.
She kicked off hard, aiming herself at the far side doorway. It was open – the corridor beyond seemed small and dimly illuminated from here. Carmen remembered Pat helping her glide across the room on her first visit here, and prayed he was OK. All Pierce’s men should be out by now. It was just him she had to deal with now.
“I see you,” Pierce called out in a sing-song voice. Carmen looked over her shoulder and saw him steadily making his way up toward her, moving hand over hand along the rails. Her gut clenched when she saw the look on his face.
No time to waste. She aimed her body as best she could at the far side, trying to ignore how small the open corridor seemed from here. Then she tucked her legs up underneath her and pushed off hard, launching herself out into open space.
She was flying. It was exhilarating – and terrifying. She had nothing to hold on to, out here. There was nothing to slow her movement. She might as well be falling toward the ground on Earth, and for a terrible moment her brain started to react as if that was what was happening. Adrenaline smashed into her system as her body reacted to what felt like a fall. With a struggle she re-oriented herself, using force of will to convince her mind that she was jumping up instead of falling down. It wasn’t easy, and she panted with the effort of holding panic at bay. The far wall loomed closer and closer.
Over the Moon (Star-Crossed Book 1) Page 18