A sudden flash of light on the horizon, bright against the night, seemed to confirm that wisdom.
Bit by bit, it seemed, Soledad was being erased from the face of creation.
* # •
logging alone through seemingly endless twisting stone passages, with a pistol in one hand and a lightstick In the other, Coeur realized that—for all she knew—Soledad might well be destroyed by the lime she got back in contact with her people. Unable to use her vac suit communicator through all the rock, there was simply no way to know, and the weight wore upon het as she visualized the unchecked power of a meson gun.
Drawing maximum power, the biggest meson guns could fire as often as three times a minute, blasting holes hundreds of meters wide in their targets. Laid down in an efficient pattern, such Tire could annihilate the heart of any city—even one the size of Soledad—in minutes.
But lei's think, Coeur Tlxit gun, and in power generator, must be at least 70 years old and beat to crop. Surely it can't maintain its maximum fire rate alter all these years.
But then again, there's a depot right around the corner with all the spare parts they'd ever need, and a computer tfiat could train new technicians and diognose any lault.
Allright, so keep running. You gotta make sure this passageway's clear.
Whether by luck or grace of Cod, the passageway wos clear, and after 30 minutes of frantic running and stair climbing, she emerged on the south face of Mt. Altus—together with a dozen frightened slaves.
"Defender protect usl" an exhausted woman exclaimed, holding two children close to herself. "A demon from the surface!"
"Hey, easy there," Coeur said. Hipping up her faceplate and putting her hands up, though keeping the pistol in her right hand. "I'm a person, see? Flesh and blood,"
In the darkness of a moonless night, the slaves did not appear keen to befieve their eyes too quickly, but neither did they withdraw any further from Coeur, and after a tense moment she reholstered her gun.
"There. A friend, see?"
"You are not one of us, though," an old man said. "We shall be cursed, for having come in contact with you."
"Yes, well, you maybe cursed, but at least you're alive, it won't be safe to go back inside the mountain."
"How do you know that?"
'Trust me, I do."
Glancing around, Coeur realized something extraordinary— she and the slaves were on an outcrop of rock above the Gutter of Blood, not far from where the ship's boat and G-carrier were parked.
"Boomer, come In," She said, activating her communicator. This Is Red Sun."
"Roger, Red Sun, Go ahead."
"Boomer, listen, I'm on the outside of the mountain. Do you have Idea how much progress the rest of our people have made?"
"Actually, Red, it looks like most of them on are on the outside of the mountain, just like you."
"Outstanding, Who hasn't checked in yet?"
Two of our people, Rhodes and Van Colder."
"All right, then, here's the plan. Tell all our people who are already outside to stay outside, and contact me the minute you hear from Rhodes and Van Gelder."
"Er...actually, they just called In. It looks like everybody's out, Captain,"
"Excellent, Then patch me through to Drop Kick."
Static Issued from Coeur's helmet speakers for a moment, then Drop Kick came on the line, "Drop Kick here, sir."
"Sergeant, I was just talking to Boomer, and it sounds like we've flushed the depot. Can you confirm?"
"WeH, I'll tellyou this much—I don't thinkanybody could be alive 'n the deeper levels without a vac suit—the fire's too intense "
"All right, then, it's time for you to tight the candle andget the hell out of there. How long you think it'll take to get up the shaft?"
"Well, if It was Just us, probably a minute. But we've got men hanging off the side, and Physic's gonna ride on top of the tank, so I'd have to say at least five minutes."
"Fine. Then have Physic set the bomb timer for lOminutes and then get the hell Out of there,"
"Understood, Catch you on the surface,"
"Roger that. Red Sun out."
So that's it, Coeur thought, shutting off the communicator. Ten minutes.
Commotion among the slaves brought Coeur's focus back to them, Ayoung boy was edging back toward the entrance to the shaft, and his mother was warily moving after him, probably unsure of how Coeur would react.
"Hey, you, get away from there," Coeur said to the child. "It's not safe,"
The boy drew back, abruptly, Into his mother's arms. "I don't know what I was thinking," Coeur said, mostly to herself, "leaving this door open. I'd better shut It"
"But,,.but..."' a man stammered, as Coeur reached for the handle of the massive hinged door she was only barely able to budge-
"What?" Coeur asked.
"When you close the door," a man said, "there's noway back In. I know—it was my job to look after these hatches."
"Well, good," Coeur said, finishing the effort of hauling the heavy metal dcor shul. "Because in a few minutes, there won't be anything down there to go back to,"
"Then it is true!" a woman cried. "You are a demon!" "Yeah, well, you'll have to ask my friends about that In the meantime, f recommend we all brace ourselves, 'cause this mountain's gonna start shaking pretty quick here."
Chapter 24
Although Gyro had never been in a battle where meson guns were Involved, Coeur, her gunnery instructor at the Technical Academy, had impressed upon her the need to respect such weapons. Therefore, Cyro did not hesitate when Deep Six detected the first meson detonations in Soledad—she immediately shut off the ship's radio and EMS jammers lest any ground spotter should use those to glean the little freighter's position for a targeting solution, "This Is so frustrating," Snapshot said, from her missile turret. "Soledad Is being blown away, and there's nothing we can do about It,"
"No," Cyro replied, from the pilot's station on the bridge, "we're doing what we can. We're staying alive so we'll still be here when the skipper needs us."
"Yeah, I suppose you're right. But all the same, we need to think about what we're going to do if Vln and the skipper can't knock out that gun,"
Gyro supposed she knew what Snapshot meant. Since Coeur knew the aporoximate location of the meson gun—about two kilometers below a valley In the Aguja Prleta Mountains—Snapshot could always bludgeon the valley with nuclear warheads, hoping the transmission of seismic shock would disrupt the machinery of the gun. Such a plan was desperate, though, and quite contrary to Arses policy.
"If you mean nuking the surface," Deep Six said, like Cyro, divining Snapshot's meaning, "I might point out that the Coalition frowns upon such Indiscriminate destruction of planetary environments. It also has a very low probability of success."
"Yeah, right," Snapshot replied. "I'll bet if those 'planning groups' had more people from the field In them, we wouldn't have so many idiotic memos on what' s morally objectionable and what's not."
"Be that as it may," Cyrosaid, "I'm the commander of this ship in Red Sun's absence, and I'll follow my own council on whether to use the nukes."
"Yes, sir," Snapshot said.
"just keep up your scanning of the mountains," Gyro told Deep Six. "I want to know when that bomb of the captain's goes off, so we can see if it has any effect on the meson fire."
"Yes, sir."
The agonizing wait for that signal was 39 minutes, during which time no less than I 3 meson detonations were recorded In the various districts of Soledad, Then Hornet1 s unfolded passive array detected a strong seismic shock under Mt. Altus, and at last the meson blasts came to an end.
"The city appears quiet," Deep Six said 10 minutes later, "and we are receiving a transmission from Mt. Alius."
"Put It through," Gyro said.
"Hornet," a weary-sounding Coeur said, "this is Red Sun. Do you copy?"
"Affirmative, Captain, this is Gyro. Go ahead."
"Gyro, I think we need your help. The depot's t
oast, but now I've got a whole mountain covered with locals, and the/re all going to freeze to death if we don't do something. We don't have enough transport down here to save them all. Figure you can bring Hornet down?"
"Yes, sir. We're in good order and have taken no damage."
Instantly, Gyro realized how silly that sounded. The big meson gun on Mexit would not have damaged Hornet if it had hit her— It would have blown her to oblivion. But Coeur was polite, or tired, enough not to mention that.
"ExcellenL I'veput acall through to Newton, and it sounds like it's safe to take the depot survivors there,"
"We saw a meson hit In that area, sir, but we weren't certain how close It was to our people. You say they're all right?"
"Mostly," Coeur said, "thanks to Red Eye. But we did take some hits. V-Max didn't make It, and we're not sure what became of Liu; she disappeared when the Ministry went up,"
"Oh no."
"Yeah. Well, they wouldn't call it the Wilds if it wasn't dangerous. As far as Tomgoes, though. If shard to say how upset she was about losing V-Max, since she was already pretty upset about hearing that the Armis was blown up...."
"Walt a minute, sir; did you say Vi Et Armis was blown up?"
That's right. Didn't you know that?"
"Well, we saw something blow up in the starport, but we weren't sure what it was. We weren't sure who might lock onto our transmissions to get a targeting fix, so we didn't use the radio after the meson gun started firing.''
"Good thinking," Coeur said, "You did what you had to do. You're alive; that s what counts."
"Yes, sir. We'll be along momentarily. Hornet out,"
Coeur and her crew moved among the slaves cowering on the wind-scoured slopes of Mount Altus, trying to move them down toward the Cutter of Stood. Although they were disoriented before, they became terrified once the bomb went off deep below their feet, destroying the home they had known as "Heaven," shearing sheets of rock off the mountainside and showering a cascade of rubble on the frightened herds of gabas below Now It took the attention of almost all the spacers to try to keep the refugees moving down to where they could be rescued.
Only Physic, tending to the unconscious Fubar and Cremlin, remained inside the G-carrier.
"So how are they doing?" Coeur asked the doctor over the communicator.
"Pretty good," Physic said, "considering. As far as I can make Out, their brain chemistry has been altered slightly, but no implants have been Inserted. They'll be up and around inside a couple of weeks."
"Mow about you? Your ankle didn't seem to be bothering you."
"Actually, It b. I just keep shooting it with cortisone to get through the day."
"Keep it up. I've got to get back to work. Red Sun out"
Having the protection of her vac suit against thecold wind and sudden driving rain, Coeur nonetheless empathized with the miserable condition of the homeless slaves—men, women, and children In nothing more than jumpsuits—and hoped very much that Hornet would arrive soon, "Is anyone here a leader?" Coeur shouted into the wind.
Several slaves pointed, "Rikart, the Old One," one said, indicating anoid man.
"You're the Old One?" Coeur asked.
"t-I'm 61," he said through chattering teeth, "there's no one older."
"You scared?"
"No. Just cold."
"Ever been outside of Heaven?"
"Not since I was a boy, ma'am."
"Well don't you worry. Help's on it's way."
"We know no fear, rna'arn. The Defender guides us."
"Right, Now can you help me lead these people down Into that gully?"
Poor people, Coeur thought. The adjustment lo Soledad won't be easy.
However, a sudden transmission broke into Coeur's thoughts.
"Captain, this is Physic. Hornet is overhead."
"Roger," Coeur said happily. 'Thank you."
A moment later the freighter appeared, her floodlights cutting through the mist and driving rain. Huge and loud, with her landing thrusters roaring, her appearance frightened the already overwrought slaves and functioned to clear out a safe landing area.
"Here we are, skipper," Cyro's voice came to Coeur over her headset, but Coeur could see her waving from the pilot's seat on the bridge.
"Good work, Cyro, now get that ramp down so we can get these people out of this weather."
Snapshot, in the meantime, appeared beneath the bridge canopy, having come down the crew ladder. There she met Drop Kick with a quick embrace before Drop Kick led her back to help organize the refugees for departure.
But the former slaves would not move. Having already suffered fires, evacuation, earthquakes and landslides, the appearance of the starship was the last straw, and they began recoiling away from the spacers with cries of fear.
Could someone hove told them about slavers? Coeur wondered. What the hell do we do now?
At that moment. Hornet's broad cargo ramp opened up, spilling the warm yellow glow of the cargo hold, and exposing three figures in silhouette, Cyro, Crowbar, and...
Cardinal Vazquez? Coeur thought, disbelieving her eyes.
But indeed it was the cardinal, moving out to urge, cajole and guide the miserable slaves Into the alien confines of the freighter Slowly but Insistently, the cry arose. The Cardinal is here!"
Having held her office for at least a decade, she was known to many of the siaves, and these began to surge forward with relief and confidence, bringing their comrades with them. But even those who did not know her were rapidly won over by her graceful bearing and gentle manner. As Coeur watched, the job of settling 200 strangers into a starship, which should have taken over an hour, was completed in 20 minutes.
"Sowho says there's no such thing as miracles?" Coeursald to Drop Kick, standing beside her.
"Don't look at me."
"Your Holiness, "Coeur said, having mode her way to stand by the cardinal, "what are you doing here?"
"Your Ensign Cyro thought I could help," said Vazquez, breathing heavily in her soaked clerical robes.
"She was right. Now let me get you inside where you can dry off and warm up."
"No," Vazquez said, "not until everyone has gotten in. They need someone to show them that their lives come first."
Coeur sighed.
"All right," she agreed, now yelling so Crowbar could hear her as well, "but let Crowbar get you some dry clothes, okay?"
"Cot it covered. Red," Crowbar yelled from the cargo ramp. "I'll take good care of her"
You'd better, Coeur thought, as she headed around the starboard boom to enter the bridge by the crew ladder, A planet only gels so many lucky breaks, and she'soneof the best ones Mexit's got.
"Welcome aboard, Captain," Deep Si* greeted her as she stood by the pilot's seat, removing pieces of wet vac suit.
"Yeah. It's nice to have some place to come home to. I feel sorry for those people back there," she said, tossing her head to indicate the cargo hold. "We blew up the only home most of them have ever known—clean, safe, and healthy—and now we're transplanting them into a bombed-out city that just got blown Into even smaller pieces."
"Actually, sir," Deep Six said, turning sideways in his roller-chair to face Coeur, "I did some checking on that on the way down. The damage to the city is really much less serious than you might expect."
"But i thought the city got pounded pretty hard."
"Indeed. However, apart from the Defense Ministry and the hit ontherebelcamp, everyothershotlandedontopofpre-Collapse military taroeti—targets that were already destroyed in the Final War."
"Well, I'll be damned," Coeur said, buckling her seals restraints. "When the depot computer transferred its intelligence into the fire control computer, it must have found only precollapse data on targets of military significance."
"Right," Cyro said, "and once It lost Its forward observers, it must have switched to those targets as logical alternatives."
"Still," Deep Six said, "it does make one wonder why such a devious comput
er would switch to a pattern of pure destruction,"
The answer to that question, Coeur supposed, was unknown, but she had a theory.
"It's possible," she ventured, "that It didn't have enough memory capacity in the fire control computer to hold all its original mind. I mean, for instance, down In the depot we heard its vocabulary change completely, as if It didn't have enough space to download its language routines and switched to the smaller vocabulary of the specialist machine instead.
"So maybe." Coeur went on, "it didn't have enough of its original mind left to be subtle. It just did what a lot of the simpler Vims strains would do—it took over the primary purpose of the machine it inhabited and started killing."
"Of perhaps," Deep Six said, "it was just angry that you'd defeated It."
"Well, yeah, that too."
Down below the bridge canopy, Coeur caught a wave from Crowbar signaling that all the slaves were aboard, and cut short the discussion.
"Okay, that's it people. Let's get ready to launch,"
"Yes, sir," Cyro said, retreating aft toward her laser turret.
Coeur then paused a moment thoughtfully looking across the Cutter of Blood at the C-carrier, ship's Lxjat and Intrepid, likewise standing by to launch, "Sixer, put me through to Tom. She should be at the conn of the ship's boat."
"Aye, sir."
"Tom here," the pirate captain answered a moment later, though with a voice clearly hoarser than usual, "Hey Vega, you all right over there? You think you can fly?"
"Yes, Coeur," Tom replied, "I can fly. Just because I lost my ship and my best friend doesn't mean I got stupid all of a sudden."
Tbucfce, Coeur thought, although she knew Tom really was worked up over the loss of V-Max and W it Armis. Having lost a ship, and a best friend, herself, she could empathize with Tom.
But now was no time to think about Darien.
And there was still work to do on Mexit "Well, then, if you think you're up to It, there's still one more mission I'd like you and the guys to take on. Do you remember the map in the control room that showed the approximate location of the last meson gun—the gun that was firing."
"Yes, I recorded it on video. In fact,"
"Good. Because I want you and the rest of our crew to lake it out Find the entrance and pull whatever slave crew Is Inside out of there. I doubt they have the Initiative to start firing again without orders from the depot, but all the same If s better to be safe than sorry."
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