by King, Sara
Nine minutes. Benny had nine minutes to live.
“Oh, and just the boy,” Colonel Steele said. “If you decide to go with the little brat, you can be sure that our deal is off and every one of these maggots will die writhing for what you’ve done.” The Nephyr was still beaming at her. “One way or another, we’re gonna have some fun tonight.”
No, Magali’s heart screamed. She hugged the boy to her chest, feeling his sobs of relief against her breast as she held him, praying to God for mercy. She told herself that the Nephyrs were just testing her, just trying to find her breaking point. They couldn’t possibly expect her to push a little boy over the cliff.
And yet, she knew they could.
“Shhhh,” she murmured, stroking Benny’s hair. “Shhhh. I’ve got you. It’s okay.” She’d always been good with kids. They loved her, for reasons inexplicable to Magali, and Benny was no different. His breathing calmed and his fingers stopped digging into her back. He let out a relieved breath, half sob, half sigh.
“That’s adorable,” Colonel Steele interrupted. Looking over his shoulder, he said, “Wouldn’t you agree, Captain Xui?”
The female cyborg who had dragged Lars back from the edge grunted. “Picture-fucking-perfect. Just like a good little Mommy. Too bad the bitch is down to forty seconds. She almost got the kid asleep. Easier to throw ‘em over the edge when they’re asleep.”
Magali’s heart lurched. Forty seconds? She thought she’d had several more minutes, at least.
Oh God, she thought, God don’t make me do this.
“Make that thirty seconds,” the female Nephyr said, watching Magali with cruel intent.
“Come on, Benny,” Magali whispered. “We need to go.”
In her arms, Benny tightened his little fingers on her back and whimpered. Did he understand what was happening? Did he know Magali was going to betray him? Would he understand why?
Magali reluctantly stood, still hugging Benny to her body. “This way,” she said. She began carrying him toward the edge. Benny’s eyes were on the Nephyrs over her shoulder, not even looking where they were going.
Magali was only a couple feet away, now, and her whole world seemed to lurch and teeter. Her legs trembled and it was all she could do not to drop to the ground and crawl away on her belly.
I have to do it, Magali thought, her heart slamming in her chest as she stared down into the empty void. Benny was still docile in her arms, watching the Nephyrs. Aanaho, don’t let him realize what I’m doing.
“Hey kid,” the female Nephyr called, “She’s gonna throw you over the cliff.”
Ben stiffened in Magali’s arms. His little face turned from the Nephyrs to fix on Magali, fear widening his blue eyes. Then he twisted in her arms, squirming to look behind him. When he saw the cliff only a few feet away, he began to thrash.
“No, stop!” Magali cried, gripping him more tightly. “Please, Ben, you don’t understand.”
“Ten seconds!” one of the Nephyrs shouted behind her.
“No!” Benny shrieked, as she lowered him toward the edge. “No! Mommy!”
Mommy. Magali gripped his wrists as he bit and kicked her, her heart ripping arcs of agony through her chest. She wanted to be a mommy. And here she was about to throw a child to his death.
Behind her, she heard Colonel Steele laugh and start towards her.
“I’m so sorry,” Magali whispered, through tears. She moved them both closer to the edge. Benny shrieked and tried to claw around her, to get back at the cave. The wind whipped at her hair as she tried to peel his fingers away from her body. Magali barely registered the drop below, so horrified at what she was doing that her fear of falling paled in comparison.
Then, hearing Colonel Steele’s footsteps pause behind her, everything came into horrible focus. “Then I suppose he gets the Nephyrs, after all,” Colonel Steele laughed. The Nephyr reached for Benny’s wrist. She saw the glittering skin, felt the inhuman cold pulsing from his alien muscles.
Magali shoved Ben.
The child tumbled over the edge, his eyes widening as he threw his foot backwards and it found only air. His shriek was swallowed by the wind.
Magali watched him fall. Even though she wanted nothing more than to curl up and die, she watched Benny fall. She owed him that much.
Beside her, the Nephyr had stopped, his hand outstretched. He, too, watched Benny fall. When the body came to a rest at the bottom of the Snake, he turned to her and said, “You pushed him.” He sounded confused.
“I had to,” Magali said, trembling with rage and self-loathing. “I couldn’t let you hurt him.”
The Nephyr laughed at her. “I wasn’t going to kill him.”
Cold, unutterable shock doused away her body’s nerves, leaving it utterly still. “But,” Magali whispered, “You said…”
“I just wanted to see if you’d do it.” Colonel Steele gave her an amused look. “What kind of monster kills a child?”
What kind of monster… Magali slumped to the ground, staring over the edge. The Nephyr moved back into the cave and began to bark orders. She heard eggers being escorted from the room with orders to continue the Harvest. She was still there when Colonel Steele came back to her. “Now, about the rest of our bargain.”
Magali looked up. She was alone with the Nephyr.
Colonel Steele was unzipping his pants.
“Make it good,” Colonel Steele said, “And I’ll leave the pistol when I seal the tunnel behind me.”
Chapter 34
The Red or the Black
Tatiana flew as long as she could, skimming the treetops and keeping a low profile, but every warm breath she shared with Milar reminded her of the condition of her body, of how she was trapped in an egg of goo, plugged into a hundred different lines like some sort of medical experiment, locked away in the darkness forever, should just one hydraulic arm stop working around her.
Much too soon, Tatiana began to recognize the signs of panic. She flew for another half an hour, inching them closer to Deaddrunk, but her panic grew until it was an overwhelming desperation.
Finally, she had to stop.
Let me out, she gasped. Let me out right now.
“Captain, we are in colonial territory. It is much advised that you—
Now! Tatiana mentally screamed at it.
“Very well, Captain,” the soldier said. It sat down and began to fold open. One by one, Tatiana felt her senses return to her. She was sucking down too much air, now, and she could feel Milar crammed up against her in the darkness, pressing her knees against her chest, making it even harder to breathe.
Oh shit, she thought, I’m not going to make it. She scrabbled wildly, trying to get out, but the soldier’s cooldown process refused to open the hatch until the superheated outer shell had no chance of roasting her alive when she scrambled out onto it.
Tatiana panted, sucking down air, feeling tears under her gooey eyelids. Let me out, she pled with her AI. Just open the hatch. I don’t care how hot it is.
“We are waiting for the outer shell to cool down first, Captain,” the soldier calmly told her. “I can’t allow you to injure yourself in exit.”
Tatiana began to struggle, and, in struggling, realized she was completely trapped. She hyperventilated, but the bot refused to give her enough air. Combined with the wet, stale stuff Milar was expelling into the tube with her, Tatiana began to see bright specks of light along the edges of her vision. Her chest heaved, but the tube refused to accommodate, and the darkness continued to press on her.
Milar, for his part, hadn’t moved a muscle.
He’s dead, she thought wildly. His air-line slipped from his mouth and I’m trapped in a cockpit with a corpse.
It was taking too long, and she wasn’t getting enough air.
Though everything that had been pounded into her in operator school told her not to, her instincts made her reach up and tear off her mask to see. The air tube left her mouth and immediately she sucked in a mouthful of the gel.
Gagging, struggling, painfully bumping nodes, her eyes flashed open and suddenly all she could see or feel was the greasy burn of the cushioning gel squeezing through her lids, seeping in against the surface of her eyes and into her mouth.
I’m going to die, she thought, choking, struggling, aware of nothing but her terror.
Then she felt Milar’s hand on her shoulder, squeezing it gently.
At approximately the same time, the hatch slid open and blurry sunlight assailed her goop-filled eyes.
Tatiana surged forward, but Milar was in the way.
Get out, get out, get out, her mind screamed. She yanked the nose-clip off, leaving a painful gash in the skin, and dragged the feeding line out of her throat, only aware that the goop hadn’t receded fully yet and she had no other source of air. She had to get outside. She would crawl over Milar’s bloody corpse if she had to.
I can’t breathe, she thought, feeling the gel still surrounding her face. Her lungs began to burn. God, I can’t breathe—
The stabilization gel fell just in time to keep her from choking on it.
“Hey, calm down,” Milar said, as soon as it dripped out of her ears. “Calm down, sweetie.”
“Get out of my way!” Tatiana screamed, trying to lunge past him.
“Hey, dammit,” Milar snapped, “Hold still, all right? My neck’s caught on your chest hookup.”
“I don’t care,” she gasped. Fresh air was right there, all she had to do was crawl past him.
“Listen, squid,” Milar growled. He shoved himself closer, pressing her against the back of the pilot chamber, his forehead pressed against hers. “The chest hookup got tangled. You’re not going anywhere fast, so cool it.”
Tatiana panted, and slowly managed to drag her eyes away from the outside chamber and meet Milar’s gaze.
Still dripping with stabilization liquid, his face was laced with concern. “There ya go. You going to be all right?”
Reluctantly, she nodded.
He held her gaze for a moment longer, then released her shoulders. “Well, at least you’re not blubbering anymore,” Milar grunted. “That’s a start. Now. Help me figure out how to get the hell out of here before I start having hysterics of my own. The chest line got wrapped around my neck.”
The magnitude of the problem suddenly dawned on her. “Why did you let it do that?” Tatiana cried. “You yank on it and it could sever my aorta.”
Milar gave her a flat look. “Do you want to see me hysterical?”
“No,” she said.
“Well, you’re about to.” He sounded dead serious.
“Okay,” Tatiana said. “Okay. Umm.” She could see a little better now that her eyelids had cleared some of the goop out of her eyes. “Okay. Can you reach my chest hookup?”
“Are you nuts?”
Tatiana followed the chest line with her eyes. “I might be able to unwrap it, if you duck your head down.”
“I am ducking my head down, sweetie. I’ve been doing it for about two hours, now, and I think my spine has realigned itself accordingly.”
“Don’t argue with me and do it,” she snapped.
Muttering, Milar leaned forward further, giving her access to the chest tube that had, indeed, encircled his neck in transit. She yanked on it, found it secure. She grabbed it where it hooked against his ear and, because she didn’t have the leverage to do anything else, started hitting it with the meat of her palm.
“You know,” Milar said, his cheek hitting her shoulder with every smack, “This should be some sort of criminal punishment.”
“The line’s too tight,” Tatiana gritted. “It only has a few feet of leeway in any direction.”
“Well what kind of idiot designed the damn thing?” Milar asked from her shoulder.
“Apparently an engineer who never anticipated a two-meter meatbrained bastard to get between it and the wall of the pod.” Grunting, she pushed his head down further and pried it over his ear. “How the hell did you do this?” she cried, frustrated.
“Somewhere between getting my nuts crushed with your foot as you hit the Gs and struggling to breathe when you started panicking like a drowned rat, I’m not sure.”
“Gah!” she cried, slapping it aside. “There. It’s off. Now get the hell out of here.”
“Yes, your Majesty,” Milar said, straightening as much as he could. To her relief, he began to ease himself out of the pilot chamber. As soon as his legs were clear, Tatiana clambered after him and out onto the deck, unhooking nodes as she went.
“Well,” Milar said, cranking his neck back and forth, “I think, aside from getting skinned alive, that that was probably one of the most unpleasant experiences of my life.”
“Ungrateful crawler,” Tatiana muttered, as she unlocked nodes and began easing the electrodes out of her body. She felt Milar step behind her, helping her with the harder-to-reach spinal nodes.
“Thanks,” she said.
Milar grunted. They finished unhooking her, then Tatiana jerked open the cargo box. She thrust Milar’s pants at him and began to crawl into the spare uniform she found tucked inside the pilot survival kit. It was not her size, built for someone thirty or forty pounds heavier, but she put it on anyway.
“You call Patrick,” she said, shoving Milar the emergency radio. Then, needing air, she jumped off the soldier and walked a few paces off into the brush, trying to get her shaking under control.
After a few moments, Milar touched her shoulder. “I called Pat. He’ll be an hour, at the soonest. You doing okay?”
“I’m fine,” she growled, though her stomach was still doing hula-hoops.
“Good.” He unfurled the emergency blanket and spread it out on the ground between them. Gesturing to it with the blade of his knife, he said, “On the ground, squid. Hands at your sides.”
Tatiana froze. “What?”
“I’m cutting out your lifeline.”
“Just wait a minute,” Tatiana said. “I’m not feeling too good right now.”
“Tough,” Milar replied, a big hand pressing against her back. “The coalers are gonna realize something very wrong has happened sooner or later. Lie down on the blanket. Don’t want to infect a node.”
“I’m not lying down,” Tatiana said. “I’ll sit still, like you did.”
“Bullshit,” Milar growled. “We both know an energetic little Shrieker like you couldn’t sit still if your life depended on it. Lie down or I’ll lie you down.”
“You can’t do that!” Tatiana shrieked.
Milar gave her a flat look. “Do it. Now.”
Narrowing her eyes, Tatiana got down on her stomach.
Milar sat down on top of her, pinning her arms to her side with his knees. She felt his big hand against the back of her skull, pressing her forehead into the metallic material of the emergency blanket.
“Ow,” Tatiana complained into the ground, “Why are you sitting on my arms, you collie bastard?”
“Making sure you don’t get another cheap shot at the family jewels while I cut out your lifeline. Now stop shouting and try to hold still. These newer ones are more sensitive to jerking.”
She felt the cold touch of metal on the back of her neck and winced as she felt the knife bite into her neck. Blood began to seep over the base of her skull and drip onto the metallic heat-reflective blanket beneath her chin. She heard the wet click, then began counting down in her mind as she felt pressure in her neck as he twisted the battery cap away.
Eventually she felt the tug as the electrodes began to slide beneath her skin. She stiffened.
“Careful,” Milar whispered, “Don’t move.”
“As if I can, with you pressing my face into the—”
“Quiet, goddammit!” Milar growled. “This thing is rigged to pop your pretty little head off if it senses tampering. Just shut up a second. I don’t want to lose some fingers, all right?”
“—ground,” Tatiana muttered. Then, without missing a beat, she added, “Now there’s a
n idea, collie. Maybe I should just start wiggl—”
A minor explosion less than fifteen centimeters from her spinal column cut her off with a blink. The big hand gripping the back of her skull jerked.
“Uh…Milar?”
“You,” Milar said, “Are lucky I am level-headed.”
She winced. “You lost some fingers?”
“Yes.”
“Uh… Sorry?”
Milar jerked the rest of the electrodes out of her neck and, with an unceremonious grunt, threw the lifeline into the weeds. She heard it clang against a tree with a tinny sound.
Milar released her head. “I’ve got to thank you, Captain. You have once again illustrated in gruesome, smoking detail, why I hate coalers.”
“Does it, uh, hurt?” Tatiana asked. Then, straining to see him, she said, “You can let me up now.”
Milar didn’t move. “You are a pain in the ass, you know that?”
“Uh, yes?”
“From day one, you have been nothing but a gigantic pain in the ass.”
“I didn’t mean to,” Tatiana said, squirming, trying to get a look at him. He sounded calm. Which probably meant he was madder than Hell.
“A week ago, if I’d had even the slighted clue as to the magnitude of the ass-pain I was about to receive, I would have turned and run screaming in the opposite direction.”
“Why are you still sitting on me?”
“Because I’m not sure I can stand without falling over.”
“It’s that bad?” Tatiana asked, trying to twist around to see. “Let me up.”
“It’s bad enough I’ll probably only remain conscious another minute or two.”
Tatiana’s eyes widened. “Then what are you going to do?”
“Die, probably.”
“Get a tourniquet on it!” she cried. “Grab that nanostrip on your chest and slap it on the wound. And get off of me.”
“Don’t think I have the strength,” Milar said.
“You bastard, if you pass out on me, I’ll kill you.”
“Sorry, sweetie.” Milar slumped over onto her and suddenly Tatiana was straining for breath.
“Milar,” she panted. “Move. Your. Ass. Can’t. Breathe.”