by Chris Reher
A Caspian was standing over the broken sled. She watched him bend to feel the charger compartment, checking for heat. He straightened and looked around himself, then slowly backed away, perhaps realizing that he was exposed in a dead-end alcove among these rocks. He had no scanner that she could see and the communicator at his wrist would be useless here. His furred chest expanded, ready to expel the earsplitting cry Caspians used in battle to draw attention. She aimed quickly and the tracer of her gun lit up the space between them, diffused only slightly by the mist, to find its target. His cry died in his throat when he did.
“You’ve still got that dead-on aim, Red,” Seth said behind her.
“I practice. Looks like we got us a working vehicle.”
They stepped out of the circle of rocks. The rebel’s sled was still running, hovering nearly silently above the ground.
Seth looked back into the direction where he had left the rebel posse at the three-way split in the rocks. “I was told you were being taken to one of those mountain things. Of course, being down here is really not a good way of figuring out where that might be. Do you know in which direction that is?”
“Well,” she said as she climbed aboard the sled and swung her leg over its seat. “I really have no idea.”
“And you thought that getting lost down here is a good way to find them?”
“I wasn’t lost. I was coming back to wait for Tychon.”
“Let’s stay away from this channel. Seems to be the way they navigate down here. We’ll pick our way through those stalagmite things further back. It’ll be slow but safer. Back to the landing field to regroup with Tychon and get me patched up. Then we’ll figure something out.”
“Is Ty okay? After that jump? Must have been painful.”
“He’s just beat, I think.” He walked back to the dead Caspian to relieve him of his gun. There was nothing else useful to be found there.
She hesitated a moment. “So what do you think of him? Tychon, I mean.”
Seth returned to her. “Seems all right. Kind of emotional for a Delphian.”
“They all are, believe it or not. You should meet his mother.” She lowered the sled a little to help him get on board. He was holding his injured arm with his other hand and she assumed it pained him more than he was willing to admit. “I guess he wasn’t too pleased to find out about us, was he?”
“He’s all right with it.” The sled tilted a little as Seth settled behind her.
“All right? He’s not jealous?”
“No, I don’t think so.”
She frowned and then turned halfway around to look at him, again tipping the sled precariously. “Really?” she said, taken aback. “Not even a tiny bit?”
Seth laughed. “Maybe he hides it well. Does that make you feel better?”
She turned around again. “Not really,” she grumbled and nudged the sled forward. “Cold-blooded, stone-faced Delphian is taking me for granted!”
“Look out!”
She also saw them now. Four of the Arawaj, each on a sled, had rounded the bend ahead of them. She whipped the skimmer about and sped away, keeping the vehicle over the water channel. Its liquid surface was less effective than solid ground for the sled but still far more accommodating than trying to skim over the composition of rocks and swamp along the edges. The hunters did the same and she had to keep the sled low on the water to keep up any sort of speed with the extra weight her skimmer carried. She heard their shrill screams echo through the canyons, calling to others to join the chase.
Laser fire zipped past them as the hunters tried to force them to give up. Nova was well aware that Seth presented a far less valuable target and it was just a matter of time before he was hit. He returned their fire as best as he could without losing his balance. She slowed the skimmer, turned a corner and then switched direction again, risking dangerous speeds in their desperate attempt to put more distance between them and the rebels.
“Two down, but two more just joined,” Seth called to her. He readied a percussion charge and lobbed it at a relatively dry spot at the foot of a crystal column. It exploded with an insignificant popping sound but the base of the spire fragmented into a deadly hail of shards, forcing their pursuers to slow down until the last of the rock had crashed to the ground. “They just keep coming with all that screeching they’re doing.”
The turns became tighter and the spaces between the rock turrets darker and more narrow, often choked with long strings of mosses and whatever else was able to grow down here. An unsteady tracer crawled along Nova’s leg, leading a laser to burn a long streak along her trousers.
Then something punched into the rear of the sled to skew it to the right where it slammed into a rock, bounced back to almost find its direction again and then tipped on its side, dumping both Nova and Seth into the shallow channel before crashing into the rocks.
Nova scrambled after Seth into the lee of some boulders to fire at the rebels coming up fast behind them. There were at least six there now, also off their sleds and advancing.
“You’re over your heads,” one of the rebels, a burly Centauri, called out. “We just want the woman. Give up now and you won’t get hurt. Much.”
Seth’s response was a volley of projectiles in their direction. Two of them ducked into the cover of an almost horizontal slab of crystal and he aimed carefully. His projectile weapon splintered the outcropping and it crashed down onto the rebels. “We might have a problem, Red,” he said.
She looked around. Behind them, narrow channels snaked through the rock spires and thick mist hovered among them. Possibly, a good place to hide for a while. “How far do you think we can get on foot? Four of them are Caspians. They’ll have a hard time walking in this muck.”
“Can’t think of anything better,” he said and then ducked when shots strafed over their heads.
Nova fired a barrage back at the rebels. “Okay, this way.”
Both of them turned to rush into the murk behind them when two Humans stepped out of the gloom, weapons in hand. “Wrong way,” one of them said.
Nova cursed when they were disarmed and hauled back to the open area where the others waited, now seven in total. Seth was pushed to his knees while Nova struggled with her captors. “No!” she cried when a rebel held her gun to Seth’s head.
Then the gun was gone. So was the rebel’s hand. She stared stupidly at the stump of what remained of her arm before bellowing in pain and rage. The others turned. A hooded figure had appeared from the mist among the stone pillars and shot another rebel. Someone ran at him from the side and he simply reached out with long arms and snapped the man’s neck. His hood fell back to show that, instead of another Centauri, their strident calls had drawn the attention of an extremely angry Delphian.
Nova twisted in her captor’s grip and the Human, too surprised to react, felt her knee punch into his groin. He gave up his weapon to his peril. She shot him and then turned to the one recently missing a hand and shot her, too. Seth had slumped to the ground and she tossed him her gun before pulling a long knife from the dead rebel’s belt.
The large Centauri rebel had engaged Tychon in hand-to-hand combat, the two well matched. A Caspian took aim at Tychon but hesitated when he realized that his shot at the Delphian was no more open than Seth’s aim at Tychon’s opponent. Nova settled his quandary by burying her knife in his neck. When an opening appeared, she handed the blade off to Tychon who whirled and thrust it upward into the Centauri’s body. The rebel staggered backward before falling into the shallow water, at the feet of the last of the rebels. The Caspian’s fury over the lost battle focused on Nova and she charged with a shrill battle cry that seemed to vibrate through the crystal spires. Nova bent to catch the taller woman in midriff to let her momentum hurl her over her back. She tumbled into the water and Nova followed to put her knee onto the Caspian’s shoulders, keeping her head under water. The panicked woman nearly dislodged Nova but Seth lobbed his gun back to her to quickly dispatch the rebel.
>
For a moment the silence was broken only by loud gasps for air. Nova turned as she rose to see Tychon move toward her. She flung herself into his arms and felt them wrap around her so tightly that she barely breathed.
“Gods, Nova. You’re all right,” he said. “You’re all right!” He cupped her face in his hands and kissed her cheek, her forehead, her mouth, again and again. “Taking that jump! On a rebel ship! I thought I’d lose you for sure this time.”
She buried her face against his chest, feeling suddenly safe and comforted, even standing in muddy water nearly to her knees on this hostile planet. “You said you weren’t worried.”
“I was scared out of my mind.” He lifted her up and carried her like a child to higher ground where he sat down to cradle her in his embrace. She clung to him, reveling in his warmth, his pleasant scent, the sound of his soothing voice.
“You’re hurt,” he said, examining the scorch mark along her leg. Her skin was singed but not badly injured. He winced when he saw the fading bruise on her cheek.
“I’m all right.” She reached up to brush away the worried line between his brows. “You’re here. You came for me. How did you find us down here?”
“I’d find you in the dark,” he said.
“Umm, hello?” Seth made himself heard. He slouched against a rock and tiredly raised his hand. “Not to make too fine a point of it, but I’m the one that got shot.”
Tychon looked up as if only now aware of Seth’s presence. He released Nova and stood up to help Seth regain his feet. “That was close,” he said, meaning the long scrape across Seth’s chest.
“She’s a good shot,” Seth said, tipping his head into Nova’s direction.
Tychon turned back to her. “You shot him? I thought you two were on good terms.”
Seth grinned. “She holds a grudge.”
They looted what guns they needed from the fallen rebels and then mounted sleds to carefully thread their way back to the main channel. Once they had put some distance between themselves and the carnage, Tychon turned them into a passage leading away from the water. The ground rose steadily until they found an open area among the rocks covered in a layer of dry lichen.
Nova looked up to search the fragment of sky visible above the stone walls. “Will we have to spend the night out here?”
“That’ll be a long night,” Seth said. “Sunset’s not even for another week or so, Targon time.”
Tychon untied a parcel from the back of his sled and opened it. He handed Nova a package of rations. “You mentioned that you were hungry?”
She tore into the bag. “I was hungry two days ago. Now I’m just starving.”
“Turns out it’s a good idea to pack up a bit of a kit before heading into unknown territory.” He threw a sardonic glance in Seth’s direction as he crouched to pull her waterlogged boots off and then, with a resigned sigh, helped Seth with his as well. There was a small radiator in his kit that would dry their clothes at least somewhat in short order.
Nova peered into the kit bag and pulled out a package of medical supplies. “Good concept.”
“Acie figured someone is bound to get hurt out here.”
“Acie!” Nova exclaimed. “I was so worried about her after Dannakor! You brought her along to this place? What were you thinking? Is Vincent with her?”
“Yes,” Tychon said. “Everyone’s here except for any sort of backup. We’re on our own. Again.”
“What do you mean?”
“The Shri-Lan blasted the relays at the jumpsites when they left. Nothing useful left within reach. No way to send a packet to warn Air Command about that damnable thing.” Tychon pointed at her interface.
“And no way for the Union ships to know what’s waiting for them if they jump to this sector.” Nova unrolled the bundle of supplies and avoided his eyes. “You might as well say ‘I told you so’, Ty. You warned me that this was a bad idea. So get it over with.”
“Have I ever said that to you?”
“Has she given you reason?” Seth asked.
“You have no idea,” Tychon sighed.
“She never listens to good advice, does she?”
Nova recognized the amusement in Tychon’s eyes although his expression remained neutral. She wagged a finger at Seth. “Don’t you two even think about ganging up on me!”
Tychon picked up a water purifier. “Get the Centauri patched up and let’s sort out a way to get home.” He left them to return to the channel.
Nova turned on a portable decontamination wand to carefully treat Seth’s wounds and then poured a liquid disinfectant on them just to be sure.
“Sorry,” she said when he winced.
“Cold-blooded?” Seth said and nodded in the direction that Tychon had gone. “Stone-faced? Nova, I’ve never seen a Delphian as jacked up over a woman as he is.”
She smiled slowly, her eyes on her task.
“And you! Vanguard warrior going all melty. What a sight!”
“I didn’t go melty! You want some painkiller?”
“No, I’m tough.”
“You’re afraid of needles.”
“It’s not fear. It’s an aversion.”
“Sure it is. I meant topical, anyway.” Nova unfolded a thin mesh containing pain-relievers and adhered it over his wound before applying the decon wand to the burn on her leg.
“I’m happy for you,” Seth said with a somber note in his voice, watching her work. “He seems right for you.”
“It’s a good life, Seth. Sometimes when I’m on Delphi I almost feel like a civilian. I didn’t think I’d like it. But once we had Cyann everything changed. Hey, you should come and see her!”
He smiled wistfully. “I’m happy for you, Nova, but also a bit envious. Envious of Tychon for having you all to himself, I guess, but also of you. Your life. Let’s not make dinner plans.”
She searched his solemn expression that for once lacked the spark of mischief that accompanied everything else he said and did. She wondered if, for all his bravado and adventures, he was lonely. “You don’t have to do this,” she said. “You can find peace, too. Isn’t there someone you, well, sort of care for?”
For a moment his eyes shifted as if some memory called to him. But then he grinned, becoming Seth again. “Nah, I’d be bored. So let’s just agree that, after I once again save your spectacular backside from the rebel clutches, we’ll head off in different directions.”
She laughed and waved her arm in a sweeping gesture to encompass their current location. “So far I’m not seeing an awful lot of saving on your part, Kada.”
“I choose my time wisely.”
“I’ll try not to shoot you next time.” She poked around the supply parcel. “Look, a dry shirt for you.” She looked up when Tychon returned with a bag of cleaned water. She showed him the comb she had found. “Is that to satisfy your vanity or mine?”
He smiled. “Acie packed all this up. She’s a sweet thing. We’re going to take her back to Delphi with us. She needs to cool down after Dannakor. They’re not going to give her anything interesting to do if we take her onto a base, considering her past. Maybe Anders can use her talents. Somewhere far away.”
“She’d like that.” Nova hesitated before going on. “While on the subject... That Delphian that helped me on the rebel ship. Jovan. He could use a hand up.”
“What do you mean? He’s a Shantir, isn’t he?”
“I’m not convinced that’s what he wants to be. He’s an orphan. The enclave is all he knows. I don’t know if he’s meant for that. He’s not so sure, either.”
“He’s got a good head for it,” Tychon said, somewhat grudgingly.
“He can use that for anything.”
Tychon shook his head. “We don’t even know if he’s dead or alive right now. Or if any of them are. What do you know about the rebels here?”
She sipped some of the water he had fetched. “They’re taking the others to one of those mountains. There are habitats carved into them. I t
hink the main waterway leads to the one the Arawaj are using. There must be markers or something to help them find their way through this maze.”
“How many rebels are there?”
“No idea. Mostly Caspian.”
“Armaments? Defense systems? Surveillance?”
She shook her head. “They weren’t sharing any of that. I’m guessing that there is a good power source for Lok’s little experiments.”
“Lok got thrown out of Caspia,” Seth supplied. “Likely, they’re using the Abiah place as living quarters for now. Would take a long time for them to be found here.”
Tychon nodded. “Nova and I will try to find the place. If we can climb up on some of these rocks we should be able to get a direction. You go back to get stitched up. We’ll assume that there is a transmitter up there, but there may be others. Find them. See if you can take them out without anyone noticing. Acie might be able to hack into their systems. Let’s not start a brawl while the hostages are unaccounted for. Then get out of here and see if you can signal whoever Air Command is sending. With the relay gone you’ll have to open the jumpsite yourself before you can send a packet through.”
“Yessir,” Seth grinned.
Tychon looked startled for a moment. “Sorry.” He pointed a thumb at Nova. “I’m used to ordering my crew around.”
“You don’t want to wait till Air Command gets here?” Seth said.
“No,” Nova said. “Some of those civilians are in very bad shape. If we can scout out their location and Arawaj numbers we can plan a proper extraction without wasting more time.”
“I am also wondering if Air Command will send anyone at all,” Tychon said. “Considering what’s going on elsewhere. Our priority is the hostages and that program. It’ll be up to you to convince them to give us some backup here.”
“And who better,” Seth sighed. “I’m one of Air Command’s favorite rebels.”
Chapter Nine
Nova had never felt as small and insignificant as she did when standing near the Abiah’s towering entrance. There were no doors; or if there had been they would have been made with unimaginable mechanisms to move something as large as this opening would require. As eroded as the landscape around them, the entrance was a long vertical cleft in the side of the mountain and only a longer look revealed so much more.