Without Rhythm (The Lament)

by P. S. Power

  Crud.

  That meant that she needed to get to the split and stop them there. Clark had said that she had enough weapons to take out thirty fighters, hadn't he? She tried to forget the part about how he'd also mentioned that the best she might do was lie about it later. He wasn't wrong. It was stupid for her to be doing anything except running away at that moment.

  Still, maybe she could figure something less violent out? The thing with the lute had worked. Not that she had another one just lying around. Pran ran then, forgetting to try and be quiet or even move like a Guardian. She slopped and splashed for what seemed like an hour before catching up with the lights.

  People were yelling at each other, trying to be heard over the growl of the horseless carts.

  "We need to press on now! The woods can't be filled with them, we've only seen the one Guardian and she was just a girl."

  Another voice, this one deeper called out then.

  "We're missing three people already. We started with eighteen. At this rate we'll be down to half strength in a few hours. You think one girl did that?" He sounded scared, nearly ready to soil himself.

  Pran wondered what to do. Then she wondered what happened to the other two people. They must have gotten lost or hurt. The idea that there were a whole bunch of Guardians around would be a good thing, but she couldn't survive a battle with these people. Not alone.

  The man that had doubted her earlier was the key there. He was the one in charge, the one making the others stay, even though they sounded scared.

  If she could kill him, they might just run. Even if they killed her first, if she could make them think she wasn't alone... It wasn't all that likely, since she didn't really have any weapons skills to speak of. Even the people that she'd managed to shoot so far had been really close to her... Which just meant that she had to close with the man first, somehow.

  Sighing she walked along the side of the road, making her movements as scattered as she could manage and still travel in the right direction. It took a long time, but there was a rewarding scream from a woman when she stopped, not too far from the man she needed.

  "What the..." He started to bring his own rifle around, but stopped when she threw hers down in front of him. Pausing for a crucial second while she reached into her side bag and pulled the Kinetic pistol out. She didn't hesitate, knowing that would get her killed. She just fired, the thing not making a sound, but the man moving backward suddenly, a red plume visible in the light from the device's giant glowing eyes.

  Everyone froze, so she turned on them and fired wildly, hitting the vehicles more than anything else, until her ten shots were done, then, as people started to fire back, thunder and lightning filling the air, she ran again. She hid then, not too far away, scrambling to dig the spare rounds out. It took a while to do, being almost totally black out and then she had to figure out which direction they got loaded in. Helpfully there was a little clasp that just wouldn't go down at all if the thing was the wrong way. She hoped that was the case at least. She had ten shots left, if she'd gotten it right.

  How many the attackers had she didn't know, but they sounded like they were planning on using them all. They didn't follow her this time, seeming happy enough to make the night sing with loud sounds and roaring. It went on for nearly ten minutes, before it stopped and someone called out, screaming the words, like a person gone deaf.

  "Did we get them?"

  No one answered for a long time, but they didn't shoot either. She just hid behind her tree, waiting, not knowing what to do next. The people seemed to be frightened, which was a little funny, since it was only her out there, not some demon come hunting. Then again, they didn't know that, did they?

  "We need to retreat..." Someone called that out loudly enough to be heard, but the answer was low and deep sounding, not nearly enough for her to get from as far away as she was.

  The next bit of time, almost surreally, turned into a discussion about what to do next, with some of the people wanting to run and the rest arguing that they had a part to play and taking The Conscript out was the next step.

  They were going to be disappointed then, since that ship had already sailed. The thought made her smile and then creep closer to the people arguing. They didn't seem to see or hear her, even if she wasn't using any great skill level. The lights on one of the vehicles went dim, to much cursing, the roaring from it stopping as well. The other two seemed fine.

  "No, we need to get to the field and take that ship down. The others are counting on us. The High Councilors are on board. Two of them, if we can take it down we'll make a real statement about oppression. " This came, very obviously, from Dovish.

  Apparently, though better spoken in real life, he actually was a moron. Did they really think that new High Council members wouldn't just be voted into place if a few died? It happened every couple of years after all. They tended to be older when they got the job and there were something like forty of them. Still, the longer they talked about it, the better off she was. The winds were slowing, she thought and if the storm had passed, and this wasn't just the eye of it, The Lament would be gone soon. A few hours. Maybe before daylight.

  That would be enough.

  If nothing else she had ten shots left and could try to take out a second vehicle. Hitting people was hard, but the weapon in her hand really made a mess where it hit. She waited tensely, expecting someone to be standing over her at any moment. No one even walked to the side of the road to look into the underbrush. Finally they all climbed in to the machines that worked, abandoning the first one in line as well as their dead. The road was narrow and blocked, by the machine they were leaving behind. That left one path for them to take retreat. After calling this information out far to obviously to be real, they started to move back, not turning at all.

  Pran got it before they changed directions and took a deep breath, they were going to ram the thing and move it that way. She didn't know if it would work, but was pretty certain that she couldn't catch them if they made it past her.

  Nothing she did would stop them. Unless...

  She stepped out into the middle of the road and waited, not moving until they were too close to dodge even if she wanted too. Then she pointed and fired, ten times exactly.

  Except nothing happened. The now familiar kick just didn't come from the thing in her hand. The vehicle slammed into her hard, the metal cold where it touched as she tried desperately to move. It wasn't that fast, but it didn't yield, her ankle twisting as she staggered back, bruised and in pain.

  She looked at the Kinetic pistol, wondering if it was trying to betray her on purpose or what the situation was. Didn't it like her anymore? Then she noticed the lever by her thumb. Like the safety on the rifle. Had she accidentally turned it on, the trigger hadn't moved, so...

  Then it fired, a sweet sound that made the metal in front of her make loud booming noises. Four of them. That stopped one vehicle, but the lead one was moving onward anyway, probably guessing that stopping would mean death. She took to the woods, limping, hoping that the people on the ship were ready. There was no way for her to get there in time.

  No way at all.

  Chapter fifteen

  It was nearly morning when she limped into the airfield, her energy flagging. She'd taken a second pill already. It didn't do a lot for the pain. She'd run there, doing her best anyway. She always tried for that, even when it was hopeless. Except this time it wasn't. There was a fight still going on, near the edge of the woods. Ten people with smaller rifles were shooting at the tracked vehicle that had been foolishly parked right in front of The Lament.

  It looked like only one person was really alive and he wasn't firing back at all. Dovish.

  Pran held up her hands and yelled loudly, running as best she could from the brush, hoping that no one was a good enough shot to hit her by mistake. Or was that bad enough? It didn't matter, she made decent time for having a limp and made herself clear enough.

  "Rush him! Take him alive
! Take the prisoner alive!" She didn't wait to see if she was getting help though jumping on his back and pounding him feebly with her right fist, knowing she couldn't be doing much at all. The much larger and very strong Dovish shrugged her off easily, but the others didn't leave her alone, not for long.

  Roy jumped him, carrying a club, swinging it without art at all, as the others started to yell at him to stop. Pran didn't. They needed Dovish unconscious.

  "Take him. There are others left alive, but I don't think they're coming. I can't prove that, so we need to get this thing in the air. Move!" The Captain actually sprinted then, headed for the ship.

  "You heard the Guardian, move now!"

  They had to drag Dovish, the man with the spider veins looking at him, troubled. For a second Pran wondered if it was because his friend had been caught, but then realized it was probably just because the man had thought of him as being slow for years. Now he was being beaten and dragged to a cell. That would do it for her too, if she hadn't heard him speaking like she had.

  "Go! I'll explain later."

  Even with the bag inflated it took half an hour to get into the air, some things just took time. It was tense but no one else came and they were in the sky, making large circles soon enough. Pran went to the bridge after locking Dovish in a cell, limping there.

  Captain Mina and Paul were running things by themselves, so didn't look up for the first few minutes. No one asked what had happened, but she got an odd stray look from the First Mate. Finally they sat quietly, acting as if they were about to be killed, the Captain gruff and a bit angry seeming.

  "Freaking cowards. Attacking a ship on the ground like that. You got us warning in time and then they didn't attack for hours, we just didn't have enough time after the wind to get the girl inflated, but they didn't seem as hard as all that. Took three of the four with rabbit guns. That land wagon thing is something , isn't it? Came in fast as a horse could run. Didn't know what they were going to do at first. Figured they'd ram us, but luckily they didn't think of that."

  There wasn't a lot to add to, as far as what she'd done. Not yet. She'd have to report it eventually, but the others needed to come first.

  "They were after The Conscript, because of the High Councilors on board. Councilors plural. I knew Saran was but..." She didn't know what else to say, Paul giving her a really strange look.

  "How do you know that?"

  "I overheard them talking. Dovish and the others. There were a lot of them to start with. They said something about the others counting on them, could there be a larger group?" She wanted to ask more about the High Councilors, but Captain Mina ran to the radio and played with a brown wooden knob for a while, making the thing scream at them while she did, until voices spoke. Then she pressed the button and started talking over them.

  "This is The Lament, this is The Lament. Please give status on any ships within range." She had to repeat it for a while before anyone responded.

  The Sorrow was the first, but after about ten minutes, maybe fifteen, they got The Conscript too. Slowly after that fourteen ships reported in. Not all of them were in the group from the landing field, but Mina had asked for everyone within range, so they answered. It seemed pretty polite really.

  Then, very carefully, without using any exact phrases at all, Mina suggested that The Lament circle back around to pick up the Guardians then meet the others at a location. That was given in some kind of code that Pran didn't know at all. It sounded like everyone else did though. She didn't know what the "alpha seven" location was, but that didn't matter. She just needed to find her people and make sure they were all safe. Her friends.

  The Doctor was simple enough to find, being in his quarters, alone, smiling at her when she came in, at first. He noticed the limp and bruises and had her sit down, take most of her clothing off and then cleaned the scrapes with a stinging, foul smelling liquid. She was like that when Ben walked in, looking half freaked out.

  "Pran!" He ran to her, and then smothered her with kisses, mainly on the cheeks, but a few grazing her lips enough to show that she'd broken them open somehow. Probably when she collided with the vehicle.

  "Are you hurt? What should I do..." He kept saying it, looking from her to the Doctor and back.

  "Um, get me a dry shirt?" She was a bit embarrassed, but couldn't really care at the moment. Ben acted like he hadn't even noticed her state of undress and ran to his own room, coming back with a bright blue tunic not ten seconds later.

  It wasn't overly clean and smelled a little like him, which wasn't unpleasant, but probably meant that his laundry needed to be done again soon. That was, most likely at least, her job too. She could use some more clothing as well.

  That led her to think about the rain slick she'd left on the road, along with her new lute. That part really hurt. Judge Claire needed her eyesight back, but the rain slick wouldn't harm her ability to perform her job in its absence. The lack of the lute was a huge thing for her. Worse, it wasn't really hers to lose or ruin. Bard Gina would be crushed no doubt and everyone would make fun of her until she replaced the thing. That meant getting some wood and borrowing the tools. Glue too. It wasn't that hard to make a good lute, if you had the right materials. If you didn't you might as well run strings down a hollow log...

  No one seemed to notice her expression, which was good, since she didn't feel like explaining just then. The two men looked away after a bit, then at each other.

  Ben explained the looks, so she didn't have to ask.

  "We... stayed in here. Hardly the brave thing to do. I should have gone out and fought too, but..." He took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

  "But you're the ships Bard and if anyone took it, they'd have left you and the Doctor alive. If they were smart at least. The cook too, most likely. It was a reasonable choice. Besides, I think all the rifles were out already anyway. I had the powerful one I think and it's out on a road somewhere. Anyway, we need to get back to the field and you two can parade around with rifles then, which will make everyone think you're tough. Well, you can Ben. The Doctor shouldn't. That would look wrong. He has those oaths against violence and all that, right?"

  She was rambling on purpose, and stood then, walking out and gesturing for them to follow her. She moving to the dining room and got some water, the cook offering to make her something. She just wasn't hungry at all. It was probably from the pills she'd taken, because she wasn't tired yet either.

  It was an hour later when they landed. She'd hoped for everyone to be waiting for them, but no one was. In fact no one had come to the field that she could tell, not even from the town. She had to get the Captain to let her in, but she rearmed at the weapons locker and figured out what a charge pack for the Kinetic pistol looked like. It was a chore figuring out how to put it in place, but she had it all ready before she went out to continue standing guard.

  That part was important, since the attackers, the Elite Corpse or whatever they called themselves, had definitely spoken of others being involved. She took the last of the three pills then hid in the brush, not moving, rain sprinkling down occasionally to show the passage of time. Just before true dark fell she saw forms moving across the field. They were all in black, but that didn't mean much, the attackers had been as well. She counted fourteen forms, but there were flickers on the outer edges, two more she thought, not certain of that at all.

  "Hold!" Her voice was rough and low, like she had a cold or had been screaming for a long time.

  "Announce yourselves please."

  That got a chuckle, which almost got someone shot. Luckily Clark spoke first.

  "It's us. Guardian Clark and Saran. I brought presents." He walked forward slowly, hands filled.

  In the right was her lute still in its case, which seemed nearly fine, but could be warped. In the left was the rain slick, which as far as she could tell actually seemed fine, if a little muddy. Maybe she could wash it and it would be alright?

  It seemed silly to be concerned about things
like that, but she put the Kinetic pistol away and moved toward the giant man herself.

  "Did anyone get the rifle too? The air one that-"

  "Here," it was the older man, Robert, who held it up, but didn't try to pass it to her.

  "We collected up the weapons and devices from the fallen too. A few looked to have marched out. We encountered a large collection of hostiles ourselves, at the target location, but they fled faster than we could catch. There looked to be about a hundred of them. Guardian Pran..." He looked around then and grinned.

  "Sorry, forgot that you're a Bard. That was... pretty impressive." He sounded like he meant it, so Pran smiled.

  "Not too bad for the new girl?" She chuckled and then looked around as everyone else started to head into The Lament.

  Clark moved in next to her, noticing the limp but not saying anything about it, Saran coming in on the other side.

  "So, find out anything interesting?"

  She nodded. A lot really. Most of it could wait, but there were a few things that she needed to get out before they got inside.

  "Yes. Um... this way?" She pulled Clark to the side bodily, or tried to, which didn't work very well, earning her a hug instead. He didn't hold it long, but it was warm enough.

  "We can cuddle later, I meant, please come this way, both of you?" They could claim it was for secret hugs later if they needed too, it wouldn't take long.

  They just got to the back of the ship, which took a few minutes to do, but showed that no one was around to hear them.