by Gemma Fowler
But the bite never came.
Aggie opened her eyes. The guards were still standing there, buzzers poised in the same positions. It was as if time had stood still. The guards weren’t moving at all; they weren’t even hailing her on comms. They just stood there, still as waxworks in a museum. Frozen.
Danny slowed the scrambler. As they passed between the guards, Aggie noticed the strain on their faces and she realized what Celeste had done.
The computer had activated the exoskeletons hidden inside the material of the guards’ overalls. Celeste had always controlled the overalls, as she controlled everything else on this side of the surface, and now she’d used the guards’ own exoskeletons against them.
It was only the guards’ eyes that followed them, a hundred faces spitting and grunting as they pushed against their rigid suits.
It was eerie, with the silence and the rocking of the ground and the flashing red of the beacons.
‘This is crazy,’ Danny said, as they passed the final line of guards and saw the familiar rolling plains of the Near Side open up before them.
‘Wait. Stop!’ Aggie cried. ‘Danny! Stop.’
Danny stopped the scrambler and threw Aggie a confused look.
It was a face in the crowd. A face just like the others, frustrated, straining against his suit. Only there was more disbelief than anger in his expression.
‘Seb?’ Aggie shouted, jumping off the scrambler and heading back to where she’d seen him.
As their eyes locked, Seb’s grew wide.
‘Aggie?’
Aggie wanted to hug Seb, to say she was so sorry. But more than that, she wanted him with her. She and Seb did everything together. She needed him now more than ever.
‘Aggie?’ His voice bounced into her ears. ‘Can you hear me?’
‘Yes!’ Aggie cried.
‘Aggs,’ he said, straining to look at her from inside his helmet, ‘you’ve got to get away. Rix has gone crazy, he’ll kill you and I’m not even joking.’
‘Agatha,’ Celeste’s voice permeated her helmet, ‘I can’t hold them like this for long. I’m fighting against my automatic programming.’
Seb looked at Aggie. ‘I missed you.’
‘I missed you.’
‘I’m sorry.’
‘Me too.’
‘Now just unfix me and let me help you.’
Aggie looked around, ‘No. It’s too dangerous.’
‘Aggs, I’m not leaving you ever again.’
Aggie kicked the dust. ‘That actually sounds really annoying.’
Seb smiled. ‘OK, well maybe you get bathroom breaks.’
‘Deal. Celeste? Unfix him.’
‘Unfix me,’ Seb said, not to Aggie but to Celeste. ‘Dude, just unfix me!’
‘Unfix him.’ Aggie said again, grabbing Seb’s hand and holding it tight despite the fact it felt like stone.
‘What?’ Danny and Celeste said in unison.
‘Let him go, Celeste,’ Aggie demanded. ‘He can help us.’
‘He’s a guard,’ Danny said.
‘He’s not part of the plan,’ Celeste added.
‘If you don’t unfix me, Celeste,’ Seb shouted, ‘I’m going to come after you anyway, Aggs needs me.’
Aggie twisted Seb’s buzzer free from his other hand and threw it away. ‘We need him. I need him. I’m not leaving without him.’
‘Agatha, the plan—’ the computer started to say, but was distracted by a movement somewhere on one of the shuttles, ‘I’m losing them.’
‘Well, unfix him!’ Aggie cried, watching as the guards started to move slowly around her. She was heaving at Seb as if she could compete with the strength of the exoskeleton.
Suddenly Seb’s arm went soft beneath her hands again. The instant it did, Aggie pulled him forwards.
‘Ow, ow, ow!’ Seb yelped as she dragged him past the frozen guards to where Danny had the scrambler.
‘Danny, Seb. Seb, Danny,’ she shouted as she hoisted herself up on to the seat. ‘Now go!’
Danny kicked the scrambler into gear and it sped away, but Seb hadn’t had time to sit and suddenly Aggie felt him fly off on to the ground behind them.
She turned around and saw Seb skid out of control along the dusty ground. She gasped. Behind him, the guards were now free and running, their bodies hidden behind a shower of evil-looking violet sparks.
‘No! Seb!’ Aggie cried, as Seb tumbled again, then lurched to his feet. He looked back and then sprinted towards them, chasing the scrambler’s dust.
‘Danny! Slow down!’ Aggie cried, reaching her hand towards Seb as he dodged the licking, spitting buzzers of the guards behind him. The shadow of Rix’s shuttle moved up through the crowd. If the shuttle was back online, what chance did they have? A shuttle could easily outrun a scrambler.
Aggie could hear the whirring of Seb’s exo in her comms as he pumped the mechanisms harder and harder, trying to outrun the advancing shuttle. There was a look of pure terror on his face, he knew it as well as she did; exos were good, but not that good.
‘Celeste!’ Aggie cried. ‘Do something!’
‘They’ve switched to manual,’ the computer replied. ‘It’s harder to hack into—’
Suddenly a huge roar erupted from the pack of guards and Rix’s shuttle rose higher into the sky. One of its fans was out-turning the other, making it tilt up onto its side. At its helm, Rix was shouting orders and gesturing wildly at the men who towered around him. The second engine spluttered and shook as Rix revved it; he wanted to get to them, whatever it took. She’d seen too much; he had to stop her.
Plumes of dust rose high, kicking rocks and bits of metal into the sky. Aggie felt them thud against her suit but kept her arm out towards Seb, leaning over dangerously.
‘Aggs!’ Seb panted, his face a horrible shade of red behind his visor, ‘I don’t think I can . . .’
‘Keep going!’ Aggie screamed, ‘Just keep going!’
There was another shudder on the ground, Aggie felt her stomach drop as she was tossed into the air. Danny’s hand pulled her back down just in time.
When Aggie looked back Seb had disappeared. ‘Seb!’ she cried. ‘Where is he?’
‘There,’ Danny replied, pointing up to the shuttle; it was now so close to the scrambler Aggie could almost reach out and touch its smooth black hull.
Seb had obviously thought the same thing, he had thrown himself up and grabbed on to the front of the shuttle with both arms, his legs scrabbling on the smooth metal to get a hold.
The huge broken shuttle baulked and twisted. A chorus of shouts erupted from the guards on top, as the ones that weren’t tied to the rail fell away into the dust. The second engine was still spluttering. The huge craft veered and lurched as it skimmed the surface towards them. Seb’s exo held him tight to the nose, but now the gap between him and the scrambler was too big to jump.
Aggie caught Seb’s eye, for a second they shared a look. ‘No! Seb! You can’t do it!’ Aggie screamed. Then Roger Rix’s boot smacked into Seb’s visor.
Aggie had no idea how he managed to keep his grip on the slippery hull, but Seb held tight as Rix rained down blow after blow, so quick and so powerful that his black arms were a blur. Over the cries and shouts, Aggie could make out Rix’s own snarling grunts as he strained to stay upright.
‘Celeste?’ Seb cried as he tried to fight back, but every time he tried to move he slipped further down the hull. ‘A bit of help?’
‘Hold on, Sebastian.’
‘OK, but you better be quick.’
‘No, I mean. Hold on.’
The shuttle swerved to the right, knocking away the guards still running beside it like skittles. The engine shorted with a pulse of white light and the massive craft slammed into the ground. Aggie’s heart jumped into her mouth as, from the back of the scrambler, she watched the great wedge skid over the smooth grey ground. Untethered guards flew off in every direction as it started to spin out of control.
‘Seb!’
Aggie cried desperately, feeling useless stuck on the back of the scrambler.
Every time the rotating shuttle hit the ground, it gained more momentum. Soon, it was just a spinning blur of black and violet.
‘Oh no,’ she muttered, following the line of the shuttle’s trajectory to where the grey ground dropped away sharply.
‘The crater!’ she shouted, ‘they’re heading right for it! Seb!’
The cliffs that surrounded the massive Goddard Crater were sharp and steep, covered in boulders the size of the shuttle itself, but the ship was spinning so fast now it was like a shining black bullet, racing across the surface towards the drop.
Danny skidded the scrambler around just as the shuttle went over Goddard’s cliffs, hovering in a blur of shining black and grey until it plummeted down, cartwheeling into the centre of the crater.
The shuttle made contact with boulders with an earsplitting crunch.
Danny pulled Aggie and the scrambler in behind a rock, away from any surviving guards, as debris from the crash started to skim back over the ground towards them.
The shouts and cries over their comms built up to a crescendo, then started to lessen.
Soon, all she could hear was Danny’s breathing.
He grabbed her and held her close. Tears ran down Aggie’s face, pooling above the clogged vents in the suit’s collar. Her visor began to mist up. Aggie was glad. As the fall-out from the crash continued to rain down around them, she felt hollow. No one could survive an impact like that.
Her best friend was dead. And it was all her fault.
Night-Cycle 01
Alight flashed in her comms.
‘Hey Agatha.’
It was Celeste.
‘Are you hurt?’
Aggie opened her eyes.
‘Seb is the one that’s hurt!’ She tried to push herself up but Danny’s arm was like iron around her waist.
‘Hey, you’ll get hurt,’ he whispered.
Aggie turned to him, ‘Seb is out there!’ she cried, struggling again.
‘If you leave your current position the chances of injury or capture are eighty-five per cent,’ Celeste countered flatly.
‘Seb’s . . . he’s in the middle of that!’ Aggie pleaded, flinging her free arm in the direction of the twisted shuttle debris. ‘Celeste knows! She must know!’ Aggie’s throat closed up, the lump in her throat was like a boulder now. How could she have been so selfish? How could she have let Seb come with them? He had been fine where he was. He had been with the guards. He had been protected.
‘I don’t have any readings, Agatha. There’s interference from the wreckage.’
‘That’s because he’s dead!’
‘He has an exo,’ Danny said quickly. ‘He has a good chance.’
Aggie pushed again, ‘No.’
Danny shoved her back. ‘More chance than you if you go out there now.’
The pressure from Danny’s arm increased. Aggie was pinned to the rock. She looked up at the prisoner, but he refused to look back. His eyes were fixed on the distance.
‘You heartless denk!’ she sobbed. ‘He’s my friend. You can’t do this! Let me go!’
‘Agatha, please calm down.’
‘I am calm!’
‘Really? Am I malfunctioning?’
A piece of one of the giant shuttle’s fans scraped loudly over the rocks and crashed into the boulder just metres away from their feet.
‘It’s OK, Celeste,’ Danny replied. Then to Aggie, ‘We need to wait. When it’s safe, we’ll find your guard friend.’
Aggie stopped fighting. She was trembling inside the suit. All she could see was Seb’s small skinny body, mangled in with the shuttle. They were going so fast. Even with an exo, how could anyone survive that?
The clogged water vents hummed in protest as fresh tears raced down Aggie’s cheeks. Guilt – that familiar old friend – began to seep through her skin.
Aggie found her thoughts drifting to her father. That feeling was almost the only thing she could associate with him, a feeling of shame, a guilt that had been built up by years of apologizing for what he had done. Maybe it was in her genes, killing people. Ruining good people’s lives.
An awful thought prickled at the back of her head. Did he know? Did her father plan for the Far Side as he’d rushed to finish the power plant? He must have known. David Shepard was the lumite expert in the Founding Five. If he’d lied about the integrity of the reactor, then what else had he covered up? Right now, the thought was too much to comprehend.
A light flashed, pulling her back.
‘The surviving guards are on manual settings, but I’ve located their comm feeds. The crash site is clear.’
The weight of Danny’s arm lifted. Aggie pushed him away and sprinted towards the wreckage.
As she stumbled into the crash site, clouds of thick grey dust swam in the space around her. The broken black shuttle stuck up out of the clouds like the summit of a great mountain.
Aggie looked up at it all with a hole in her heart.
It was hopeless.
Danny caught up with her, his breathing was louder than one of the base’s air conditioners.
‘Aggie, wait . . .’ He coughed, crouching down to get his breath. But Aggie didn’t have time to wait, she just staggered forwards, sobbing into her stinking vents.
Inside the cloud was like a scene from a nightmare. Twisted black shapes loomed out at her as she and Danny walked closer, the ground underfoot felt loose and fragile beneath the weight of her surface boots. More than once she slipped into a new crater made by the impact, hidden by a thick coating of dust and debris. From somewhere deep within the impact area, the intricate systems that had once powered the shuttle’s huge regolith fans fizzed, sending bright sparks dancing into the mist.
As she took in the devastation, grief racked her body: Seb couldn’t survive this, exo or not.
Her best friend was dead. She’d killed him.
‘Aggie!’ Danny cried. ‘It’s not safe!’
Aggie ignored him and sank down to her knees in despair.
A coughing noise reverberated around her helmet.
Aggie looked up. There was something familiar in the sound.
‘Seb?’ she said quietly, not believing the old suit’s unreliable comms. But the coughing continued. It was getting closer. ‘Seb?’ she said again, louder this time.
‘Aggs . . .’ Then a great spluttering cough.
Aggie turned around and saw Seb’s skinny silhouette emerging from behind a huge chunk of what was once the shuttle. Aggie sprinted towards him and flung her arms around Seb’s waist and squeezed so tight his exo activated. ‘You’re OK!’ she cried, wrapping herself around his skinny frame. ‘Thank the Earth you’re OK!’ she said, tears running down her cheeks for the millionth time. ‘Oh, Seb, I’m so sorry. For everything, I never meant—’
Seb squeezed her back. He really was OK. The exo had saved him. ‘Not really the time, Aggs, but I appreciate it and everything,’ Seb said, pulling away and smiling down at her through a cracked visor. ‘That’s an exo in my pocket, just to be clear. Nothing to do with me.’
Aggie smiled. ‘I’m so glad you’re OK.’
Seb wound his arms back around her. Aggie wasn’t sure that the shivering was just coming from the ground. ‘I’m always here, Angelface, you know that.’
Aggie blinked. ‘Angelface?’
Seb shrugged. ‘I’m trying it out.’
‘It’s terrible.’
‘Exactly.’
Aggie laughed. The rush of relief made her giddy. She could think of no other person to have by her side, her friend, her shadow.
Seb pulled back and looked down at her. His eyes were all watery. ‘Aggs, I’m so sorry. I was a huge clagger’s ass.’
Aggie shook her head. ‘I should have told you.’
Seb grinned. ‘No, I should have stuck by you, you know, if only for all the free stuff. You’d have got a whole bunch of free stuff, right? Famous people
get free stuff.’
In spite of everything, Aggie laughed. If Seb was joking, he really was OK.
‘But, I guess you’ve really messed that up now, though, whatever it is you’ve done over there, I guessing it’s pretty bad . . .’
‘Yeah, I don’t think I’m high on the United Leader’s gift list.’
‘One or two guards have turned up to capture you.’
‘I had noticed, one or two. Yeah.’
Aggie looked down at her boots, suddenly overwhelmed.
‘Are you going to tell me what’s going on, then?’ Seb said with a shaky intake of breath. ‘I guess I kind of need to know now, ’cause everything’s like, destroyed and falling apart and I nearly just died and there’s a convicted murderer with us and stuff like that.’
Seb nodded in the direction of Danny, who was still making his way unsteadily towards them.
Aggie buried her head in Seb’s arm. ‘It’s so messed up.’
‘Just tell me it was Rock-Aliens. Please. That would make my life!’
‘Weirdly, in a way, yeah, it was.’
‘Well, I guess there are some positives then . . .’
Aggie slapped Seb on the shoulder playfully, then turned at the sound of a soft thud in her comms.
‘Danny?’ Aggie ran over to where the prisoner lay on the ground.
Seb sighed, ‘Oh, yeah, the prisoner that you brought with you. Almost forgot about that dude.’
Seb joined them as Aggie helped Danny back to his feet. The prisoner’s skin had gone grey. He was pointing to the pocket where a medi-kit bulged.
Seb looked Danny up and down, ‘Earth below, what happened to him?’
‘Give it to me,’ Danny managed to say.
Aggie propped Danny up against Seb and pulled out the medi-kit she’d seen him hide in his suit pocket. She opened the small box, which wasn’t easy with the shaking ground and her cumbersome gloves. Two fat needles and two blue vials sat inside a sea of foam protectors. A serial number on the inside of the lid was the only indication of what they contained.
Aggie looked at Seb. He shrugged, as confused as she was.
Aggie passed Danny the box. She looked down at the him worriedly. He looked to be concentrating too much on breathing to answer.
‘Dude’s an addict,’ Seb mumbled.