“I’m the Governor, so that puts me in charge of the Gateway Colony and the Institute,” he said.
Tana made a slashing gesture to mute the com and looked around at Edison and Saf. They both seemed as confused as she was. “Is he trying to be obtuse?”
“I don’t know,” Edison said. “I thought we were coming out here to meet Chancellor Roja. Maybe they’ve done something with her.”
“I think it’s strange that the Armstrong didn’t hit us with a com first.”
“Good points,” Tana said, making a gesture so that Joe would reopen the com.
“I have to say, Governor you aren’t making much sense,” she said once the screen unlocked.
“I am sorry for that Chancellor, but there are things going on that aren’t something we can share until we know why you’re here,” he said.
“We are here to talk to Chancellor Roja,” she said. “I know she’s here. It’s kind of hard to miss her yacht.”
The governor laughed. “I’m sure we can arrange it, but we do have to be careful,” he said. “It seems like you’ve come an awfully long way just to talk.”
“We have, but it’s hard to get her to answer a com unless you can get past the gatekeepers at L-2,” she said. “Since you say we’re trapped here, let’s cut through all this dancing and make things happen. We’re carrying several VIP passengers and a boatload of information that Katryna Roja and Admiral Nakamiru need to have.”
He nodded. “Stand by and let me check on how the Chancellor wants to proceed. If she says yes, we’ll get back to you with further instructions.”
“Can we tell anything about what is going on out here?” Edison asked once the com paused again.
“We have three multicruisers, three ice freighters, the Armstrong and a base of indeterminate purpose and design, all pointing weapons at us,” Saf said. “And we’re apparently trapped.”
“Does any of this even vaguely resemble what we expected to see?” Tana asked.
“Not even remotely,” Saf said. She had her eyes glued to the sensor display and her hands on the control yoke as if she was waiting for someone to make a hostile move.
The comscreen blinked and a new face appeared. “Katana this is Gateway Approach Control. We’ve scanned your ship and determined you are landing capable. We’ve cleared you for approach to our main hangar deck. You’re larger than the deck design accommodates, but if you will give us auto control, we can squeeze you in. Cando?”
“Negative on remote access until we know you a lot better,” Saf said, glancing over her shoulder at her wife and shaking her head. “Nothing personal.”
Another voice came over the com, but the screen didn’t shift. “Katana, this is Katryna Roja. Saffia, you need to let them drive. Tana, if you’re still on the com, I will meet you in the colony and I can explain everything. I’m on my way down now.”
“A shuttle just departed from the Armstrong and is vectoring for the structure on the surface,” Joe said.
“Is there a reason we can’t maintain autonomous approach?” Saf asked.
“Having to fly through a solid wall to get to the deck might qualify,” Roja said.
“I guess that settles it,” Saf said. “I still don’t like it, but I think we’ve run out of reasons to say no.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
NHC Landing Center: New Hope City: Luna:
“Tracking radar is down,” a controller said from across the room.
Jesika Sandberg stood up from her console and looked in the direction of the voice. “Is it a glitch?” she asked as a distant thump answered. It was a small earthquake that rattled the floor plating and sent little ripples across the surface of the hardball hanging in the rack on the arm of her seat.
“What the hell was that?” Someone else asked.
“It sounded like an explosion,” she said. “Did somebody crater a ship?” She sat back down and opened the list of scheduled landings. Nothing for another hour.
Another rumble shook the floor, harder this time. “Where is it?”
“Landing radar just went down too,” he said, this time she recognized the source of the voice as Mackenzie, one of her new controllers. He was spinning in his seat to look through the window toward the ridge where the dishes sat. Beyond him a flash lit up the sky above the com tower that linked the radars to the control room, and sparkles of molten metal scattered over the ridge top.
“That’s bad,” he said, pointing at the sky where several dozen large landing pods arced toward the ground. Their exhaust plumes were visible as bright violet plasma trails.
“Get me a link to Govcom Center,” she roared, cutting through their stunned immobility with the brute force of her voice. “We need authorization to engage.”
“Screw that,” Mackenzie said, leaping over to the newly installed weapons controls. He logged in to the console and powered up the laser turrets.
Another explosion erupted between the landing pits and the port terminal, less than a half klick away. She watched the side of the egress tunnel bulge and then split open as its structural integrity gave out. A claxon echoed down the hall and emergency bulkheads slammed closed to protect their air pressure.
“They’re bombing us,” one of the other controllers yelled over the warning alarms.
“Where is it coming from?” she asked.
“We’ve got no eyes without the radar,” he said.
“Get someone on the optics,” she ordered. “We’ve got to know where to shoot.”
“Targeting radar is only good to a hundred klick,” Mackenzie said from the weapons console. “I don’t see anything.”
“It’s gotta be low and over the rim of the crater,” she said. “Watch the horizon above the dishes. That’s the vector the pods are coming from.”
“Govcom on the line for you,” her communications officer yelled as another rattling boom shook the whole building.
Jesika slapped her hand down on the comlink icon. “This is Landing Operations Center at Promontorium Heraclides Point. We’re under attack out here.”
“Say again LOC. Are you saying someone is attacking you?” The voice on the other end of the line sounded detached and disbelieving.
“Yah, they’re bombing the shit out of us,” she said as another blast shook the room.
“Who?”
“We can’t tell, but there are landing pods dropping all over the pads out here. They’ve breached the access tunnel and…” another explosion cut her off. The deck plating rolled like a wave and tossed her out of her seat.
“LOC, are you declaring an emergency?”
“Frag me, you dim diode,” she roared. “Someone’s beating the hell out of us.”
“Power is down to the lasers,” Makenzie yelled. “We’re defenseless.”
“Hang on LOC, we just put out an alert.”
“Hang on to what?” she growled, crawling under her console as another explosion dropped chunks of the overhead lighting grid down all around her.
“Orders are to hold them off,” reinforcements are in the tube. ETA six minutes.
“Are you out of your frakking mind?” Another explosion erupted somewhere behind her, this one so much louder that it shook the rest of the thought from her mind. The ringing in her ears ratcheted down to silence, and the repeated popping sound of her eardrums told her the air was escaping into space.
Hangar Deck: Gateway Colony: L-4 Prime:
As soon as the engines shut off and the Katana had settled onto the deck, Chancellor Roja and Admiral Nakamiru stepped through the wall and into the hangar. Jeph and Anju followed them and stood to the side.
Seva and Cori stood behind Jeph to provide protection if necessary while the chancellor and admiral brought a full squad of armed guards. They hung back and tried to look more formal than intimidating, but Jeph noticed their escorts all carried stunners and riot rifles.
Jeph had asked her why she was worried, and she’d deferred to what she called the admiral’s policy of prud
ent preparation.
The egress tunnel from the Katana extended down and swung open and Tana Drake and her wife appeared in the doorway. He recognized them from the com, and from the images that had been on every newswave since they got married. They’d both been celebrities of substantial magnitude before the new government labeled them outlaws.
“Holy shit what a cool airlock,” Saf said in a voice loud enough to carry across the distance. Jeph struggled with his desire to laugh as she landed in the middle of what might have been a formal moment like a cannon ball. She angled toward him, leaving Tana to do the formal side of things. “The wall is a projection?”
“Actually no, it’s a selectively permeable matter structure,” Jeph said.
“So I guess that means you were right with the Odysseus call,” she said, glancing at Anju and blinking. “Obviously, you are Arika Sokat. You really look like your mother.”
“I do?” Anju asked.
“Well younger, but the resemblance is striking,” she said.
“Arika?” Jeph raised an eyebrow as he glanced at the doctor.
Anju nodded. “The name I was born with, but you know that story.” She looked down at the floor.
“Nisreen told me to give you a big hug, and to tell you she was proud of you,” Saf said, leaping forward and hugging her.
“Wait, a second. Nisreen Sokat is your mother?” Seva said, stepping forward and injecting herself into the conversation.
“You’re an alpha aren’t you?” Saf said, looking up at her and grinning. “This just keeps getting better.”
“Yes, Nisreen Sokat is my mother,” Anju said. “But what’s an alpha?”
Jeph looked back and forth between the three of them and tried to track the conversation, but it was spinning faster with every new statement.
“I am,” Seva admitted. “But it’s down low, so hush.”
“It scans good,” Saf said. “You smell like one. I’m a gen-three crèche baby.”
“A real live plusser?” Seva asked.
Anju just shrugged when Jeph looked at her.
He realized that the formal side of the conversation was over and the admiral and chancellors were staring at them.
“I am sorry Chancellor Drake, I don’t know what they’re all talking about, but I am sure they do,” he said, blinking several times before he nodded in what was almost a bow. “Welcome to Gateway.
“It’s alright, Saffia has that effect on conversations,” she said, winking as she stepped up and offered her hand.
“Arika Sokat, you really do look like your mom,” Tana said, also shaking her hand.
“They call me Anju,” the doctor said.
“I assume you have a good MedBay here?” she asked. “We have a patient that still needs some medical care.”
“We have a level-five surgical diagnostic and full synthesis capability,” she said.
“Good, the gravity here is a little over the safe limit for my patient and I don’t want to keep him in a PSE if I can avoid it,” Tana said.
“The gravity is surprising,” Saf said.
Jeph nodded and winked.
“Who’s your patient?” Roja asked.
“Edison have you got him suited up, and can you two come out?” Tana said, tapping into her comlink and turning to face the ship.
“We’re on our way,” he said.
“Edison Wentworth?” Roja asked.
“Yah, but he’s not the big surprise I have for you,” she said.
“He’s not?” Two men appeared at the hatch and Chancellor Roja gasped.
“Is that Chancellor Ariqat?” Jeph whispered.
Saf nodded. “He thinks he’s all that and a slice of yeastcake, because he knows something about the ghost fleet. Turns out, he’s more useless than a wilted penis.”
Jeph wasn’t sure how to process her comment, so lacking a better option he laughed. It wasn’t possible to hang on to a formal demeanor around the chancellor’s wife. “I thought he was missing?” He said as he turned back to watch the man wobble his way across the deck.
“We found him,” she snorted. “Oh lucky us.”
Underhive Cross Connect: New Hope City: Luna:
The squad stood firm, pinned down by enemy fire.
“Riot guns aren’t cutting it,” Sergeant Richards called across the com. His units were scattered behind what shelter they could find in the concourse. He had six people under him and their training was for police action, not to face down bullets.
Who in their right mind brought projectiles to a fight inside a bubble?
He had his back against a plascrete planter and was trying to figure out how they could hold their position. His brain rattled every time another round exploded the edge of the low wall above his head.
“We’re going to die unless we fall back,” Wilson said.
“Orders are to stay put and wait for reinforcements,” he said, leaning toward her and yelling to be heard. She shared his shelter and when he looked at her face, he knew she was ready to run.
“This is insane,” she said. “We can’t do it.”
“I’ve still got three stun grenades,” Mitchell said.
“I’ve got two.” Carrels added.
“They’re wearing armored EPS and EVA shells,” Richards said. “Not enough punch.”
“All we have to do is get them to slow down enough we can pull back to a better position,” Mitchell said. “Get some breathing space and maybe we can—”
A rumbling growl cut him off and the thunder of rifle fire died down.
“What the frag is that?” Wilson hissed into the near silence.
He recognized it. “It’s a fucking boring machine,” he said. The growl got louder as the deck under him shook. Then it jackhammered violently as the grinder teeth bit into the opposite side of the plascrete wall they hid behind. Grabbing Wilson, he flung her bodily away as the planter exploded and sent him bouncing across the floor on a wave of scattering debris.
“Pull back,” he screamed as he tumbled forward. A single bullet caught at the edge of his body armor and he pirouetted sideways. A second one and his left leg shot forward and twisted out from under him. He crumpled to the floor and skidded to a stop against the edge of the main deck.
Rolling onto his back, he grabbed his leg and jammed his fist down into the open hole just above where his kneecap had been. Biting down on the roaring pain he shook his head and blinked his eyes several times. In the distance he saw Wilson and Mitchell spin and throw grenades.
Before the first one flashed, he watched Wilson throw her body toward him in a diving leap. “Don’t…” he groaned, realizing it was already too late as her body spun once in mid air and landed in the open with a heavy rolling thump. Three sharp twitches and the bullets moved on to their next target.
A timeless moment later, the gunfire ended, and no one was moving. All that was left in his universe was the trembling of the deck below him.
He looked down at his leg and the crimson puddle spreading over the fused regolith blocks of the concourse and realized that it didn’t matter anymore. He’d be dead before help could come.
Sub -27: Underhive: New Hope City: Luna:
It was a rough neighborhood, but word had spread and panic gave the sharp edges an added layer of meanness. This far down into the pit of Underhive there was almost nowhere to go, and it translated into a feeling of desperation in those who lived here. This is where people disappeared when they wanted to stay invisible.
Once, a long time ago, Paulson had friends here. People who weren’t the usual disenfranchised. Smart ones who chose to live in the Hive because here they were royalty. Emperors of their own piece of the swamp, and smart enough not to eat each other, even if everyone around them reveled in that kind of social cannibalism.
When he’d arrived in the cesspool of humanity with his hands out, it had taken almost no time for one of these mini-monarchs to realize his value and take him in. He was a unifier, and the one that held Lassiter c
ould control the entirety of the swamp. Sharks and alligators alike would join forces under the leadership of the Steward.
“There’s a stink storm up top. Some big ugly swinging to chew shit,” his guardian angel said as she came through the door and tossed him a meal kit and a worn-out coverall. The name she used was Demonica Ree, but he knew she had once been someone else. A real person.
“A riot?” he asked, wrinkling his nose at the stench of the clothes. They smelled like she’d taken them off of a dead body.
“Is meaner,” she said, grinning as his sensibilities failed and he shrugged his way into the outfit. “Real poppers shooting hard slugs.”
“You think they’re coming for me?” he asked.
“Is nojo? Why they be after you with the inquisition?” She looked him over like she was guessing his weight in papercred. “You got a goody-bag on you?”
“Nah, I just got people in the ivory tower that don’t like me,” he said, realizing it might be risky to tell them who was on his short list of enemies. Everybody had a price and no matter what potential he had for consolidating power he was always less important than liquid assets.
“You sure pa? You look to be sweaty rough to me,” she said, grinning and pinching his arm like she was picking out a slab of cheap protein cake.
He nodded. “It’s just a stink storm. No skin off my ass.” He tore open the meal kit and gasped. It smelled at least as bad as his new outfit.
She snorted and then grinned, accepting his dismissal as a fact. “Might be smartlike moving you deeper into the hole, yah? Don’t wanna be fighting too hard to keep you in my pouch.”
“I thought you could keep me safest of all the sharks,” he said. “Maybe word on the deck’s foobed, and you aren’t all that?” he was playing a risky hand and the flash in her eyes told him he was close to a line he didn’t want to cross.
After several seconds she exploded into laughter. “I like you, Pa. You got steel eggs. Maybe we should have babies, nojo?”
“Holy shit, no!” he gasped.
Her eyes sparked again, but she smiled. “Ya, you be dustpile bigtime. You’d stroke out trying to service me, Pa. Is nogo.”
She stood up and nodded toward the door. “I can square you a rathole deep enough to sleep through the pissoff. Was a service room down next to the deep-rock at the bottom of the hive. Clean airbreathers used it for some big do-up, but no skins been there in months. You be safe.”
Shan Takhu Legacy Box Set - With an Extra Bonus Story Page 72