The rest of his comrades collectively rolled their eyes. Rose smiled faintly.
“Who’s your uncle?” Dash asked, though if surnames were anything to go by, he might know.
“Admiral Fletcher Walters. Do you know him? We’re real close. My whole family is. We practically started the Alliance on our own. We’ve always fought oppression all the way back to Old Earth. There was a General Walters in the American Revolutionary War. Did you watch vids about it in school? We fought the Starseers during the uprising too. Killed hundreds of those mutant bastards. My great, great, great-grandfather fought beside Saint Alcyone when she turned on her own evil kin and became a hero.” He beamed down at Dash as his comrades waved him to silence.
Dash barely noticed. His mind had gotten hung up on the sentence about killing mutant Starseer bastards. Even though the kid was talking about something that had happened centuries ago, Dash couldn’t help but be chilled by the reminder that he wouldn’t be welcome in the Alliance or in this group of people if they found out about his abilities and heritage.
McCall looked at the side of Dash’s face, and he sensed a question in her mind. Was he all right?
He smoothed his face, worried he wore a panic-stricken expression.
“Who are you in the Alliance?” James waved toward Dash. “You seem familiar, but with our forces so scattered about…”
“As it happens,” Dash said carefully, “I’m a captain with the sky-darter battalion under Admiral Walters. Technically, Lebedev is my direct superior, but the admiral flies with us a lot on missions so—”
“That’s because he’s a brilliant pilot,” Walters blurted. “I’d just started my training to become a pilot, too, but then I joined the raid.” He waved to James and Jae-yoon. “And here we are.”
“Yes,” Dash said, agreeing with the admiral’s brilliance, since he knew nothing about the raid. “I go by Dash with the Alliance too. The admiral and Lebedev know me well from our practice skirmishes, but mostly I’ve been undercover and trying not to be well-known, at least to the empire. Colonel Hemsworth from Intel is who gives me assignments and who I interact with.”
“You’re a pilot and a spy?” Walters asked. “That’s blazing.”
Rose nodded to the group. “I know Admiral Walters and Hemsworth too. The colonel is at all the meetings.”
Dash sensed that he’d passed a test of sorts, that they now believed he was in the Alliance. So long as he kept any of these people from figuring out that Walters’ ancestors had once battled his, he had nothing to worry about.
“Yup,” Dash said to Rose, “that’s what colonels do. Meet.” He shifted toward McCall, wanting to move on to more important matters than introductions. “You have an idea for getting us out of here?”
He sure hoped she did, because he hadn’t been here long enough to know anything or have any ideas of his own.
She nodded slowly. “Out of the facility, yes. But I don’t know where gear or provisions are kept that could keep us alive crossing the tundra and the mountains.”
“I have a key to the supply closets,” a wiry mouse-faced man said.
Marco, Dash recalled from earlier introductions.
“I made the mistake of telling them I was a plumber once,” Marco said, “and they put me in charge of cleaning and fixing lavs. It’s the same keys for the cleaning supplies as for the guards’ supply closet with their outdoor gear, but there are forcefields that keep us from getting to it most of the time, unless it’s one of those days when they’ve shorted out. That happens sometimes, but it’s random. You can’t count on it. I’d need the forcefields to be down and to have twenty minutes of not being monitored to get enough gear for everyone. Even then, I’m not positive there are heaters or tents or sleeping bags. Or even if the clothing is rated for extended stays on the surface. Nobody here goes out for more than sweeping snow off the ventilation ducts or collecting supplies and new prisoners.”
“We’ll have to risk it,” Rose said. “We can walk through the nights until we reach the domes. But that’s another problem. Getting into the domes and getting a ship. Dome Seven is the closest, and they’ve got underground trains to Dome Four where the space port is, but the entrances are monitored from what I’ve heard.”
“We can worry about getting into the domes once we get to one,” James said. “How’re we going to get out of here? We can’t get past the forcefields as long as they’re up.”
“You can’t knock out the guards,” Walters said in a mournful tone. “I tried.” He flicked his hand toward his midsection. “Tried to overcome the brainwashing they do to attack them. But the empire’s as bad as Starseers, screwing with your head. I can’t wait to learn to fly so I can shoot the lot of them.”
“Have you considered the forcefields?” Dash asked McCall, wanting to steer the conversation away from Starseers.
The kid seemed to have an obsession, one that made Dash nervous. As goofy as Walters was, he probably was close to his uncle if he’d followed him into the Alliance. All it would take was a word in the admiral’s ear to end Dash’s career with the only organization he had ever longed to be a part of.
“We can knock out the power,” McCall said quietly.
“How?” Jae-yoon asked. “We don’t have any access to explosives, and I have no idea where we’d even plant them. One of the boilers almost ruptured by accident once, and that caused a huge ruckus, but that would be as likely to get us killed as to drop the forcefields for people to get out.”
“Nothing that violent.” McCall absently spun her bracelet. “And I don’t just want the power out here; I want it out everywhere this station supplies it. Half the domes, it sounded like. That way, when they’re able to get the power back on, they’ll be busy dealing with thousands of reports from the cities. Hopefully, it’ll take them a while to think to check on the prisoners.”
“How do we knock the power out to half the planet?” Dash asked.
“Flood the grid with too much electricity,” McCall said. “Like I said, this is an on-demand system. Even without interference, it’s a very careful balancing act to provide exactly the amount of electricity the population needs and not too much. Throw too much in at once, and circuits will break all over the place to self-protectively keep damage from occurring. When that happens, the power goes out everywhere, including in here, until the flow lessens and people can physically make repairs.”
“How do we flood the grid?” Rose asked.
“We convince people to shovel as much coal as they can into those furnaces, and get me into the control room while it’s happening. Or find another way to convince the operator up there not to pay attention to the alarms going off.” McCall looked at Dash.
He realized why she had been asking about his telepathic skills earlier. She’d wondered if he could distract the operator. It was possible, but getting her into the control room—and the operator out—would be far more reliable. Especially if this would take some time.
“If the electricity in here went out, the forcefields should go down,” Jae-yoon mused.
“But they must have backup generators,” Rose said.
“That would likely be turned on from the control room,” McCall said. “It’s possible there’s an automatic changeover that happens if the main power goes out, but I bet someone in there could interrupt it. I also think it’s very possible that it has to be done manually.” She looked toward the hallway, toward the bare lightbulb mounted on the ceiling.
“There are guards stationed outside the control room,” Jae-yoon said. “I’m sure our prison overlords know that area is a potential vulnerability.”
“We’ll handle them.” Dash pointed at his chest and at McCall. He didn’t even know which hallway led up to the control room, but he didn’t want any of these people seeing him use his mental talents.
“I can help,” Walters blurted.
“You’re injured.” Jae-yoon waved dismissively.
“I could stand watch.”
Dash nodded. “McCall and I just need someone to tell us how to get to the control room. James, can you direct the people shoveling coal to load more than usual?”
“Uh, if we do this on the day shift, I can try. If we’re thinking night, then it would be odd if I showed up out there, ordering people to shovel more.”
Dash looked at McCall.
“Night would be a more dramatic time to knock the power out to all the nearby domes,” she said. “As to the rest, if we can get to the control room, we can activate that buzzer, I should think. Everyone’s programmed to shovel more coal in faster when it goes off, right?”
“Yes, the blasted thing is as much a tyrant as that ass up there with the e-whip,” someone grumbled.
“If the buzzer goes off,” James said, “nobody will think it odd if a few of us dayshift people run out on the floor to help.” He pointed at two other members of the Alliance group.
“Will the guards find it odd if the buzzer keeps going off?” Rose asked.
“Probably not,” James said. “It seems to go off all the time, anyway, day and night.”
“So, we’re trying this tonight?” Jae-yoon asked.
All sets of eyes turned toward McCall.
Her face was a mask, but Dash, sitting so close to her, had no trouble sensing her discomfort at the attention. And her concern that these people were about to depend on her and she might be wrong. He had the urge to clasp her hand, to reassure her, but he feared it wouldn’t have the desired effect.
“We’ll do it tonight,” he said when she didn’t answer. “As you pointed out, you’re all likely to have problems tomorrow because you helped me with that fight this evening. Better that we just be gone in the morning, eh?”
“You say it like it’ll be so easy,” Jae-yoon said with a sigh.
“Just be ready to get some extra people out into the furnace room,” Dash said. “I’ll give a thumbs-up through the glass once we’re inside the control room. Shortly after, you should hear some obnoxious buzzes.”
“Your flatulence from the gruel?” Jae-yoon asked.
Walters snickered.
“Among other things,” Dash said. “Marco, you’re on supplies. Make sure to get everything this group will need to make it to the closest dome.”
“Jannik and Walters will help Marco,” Rose said.
“Getting supplies?” Walters’ lips twisted.
“It’s the most integral part of the escape,” she assured him. “If we can’t survive out there, you’ll never live to become a pilot.”
Walters hesitated, then nodded firmly. “I understand. I’m ready.”
Marco, almost as young as Walters, looked daunted by the responsibility. Dash listed everything for him that was in the law-enforcer planet-side survival kits and hoped the closet would oblige.
“Definitely get a compass,” he added at the end. “If snow like we saw on the way in is common, nobody’s going to be navigating by the stars.”
Dash looked at Rose, hoping she didn’t mind that he had presumed to give orders. He sensed she had some reservations, that she didn’t want this to end up getting her people killed, but when their eyes met, she nodded.
“It would be nice if we could get our netdiscs back too,” McCall grumbled.
“They don’t have mine,” Dash said. “Axton does.”
“I’ll mail it to you when I recover my ship.”
“You don’t think I’ll help you get your ship back? He’s my wayward sheriff.”
“Funny, I thought you were his wayward deputy.”
Dash smiled, though he couldn’t help but think about how, if he and McCall actually got off this moon, they would still be in trouble. By now, Axton must have sent a report off to Headquarters, explaining how Dash and McCall were criminals and why he’d dumped them in here.
“What time are we doing this?” James asked.
“We better wait a few hours for things to settle down.” Dash didn’t think anybody was sleeping yet. The men he’d injured were probably waiting for him to go to the latrine so they could jump him.
“Midnight,” Rose said firmly, glancing toward a clock embedded in the wall and protected by bars. “We’ll be counting on you to get to that control room, Captain Dash.”
“We’ll do it,” he said. One way or another, he added silently, looking at McCall and trying to feel more confidence in her than she felt in herself. Oddly, it wasn’t that hard. She sounded like she knew what she was talking about, and that was good enough for him.
A clang sounded down the closest hallway, a door opening and shutting.
“A guard’s coming,” Jae-yoon whispered. “Meeting’s over. Split up.”
“Midnight,” Dash said with a nod, then touched McCall’s arm and led the way down the dim aisle toward their bunks.
McCall left her bunk and sat against the wall in a corner of the bay. The snores and even breathing of dozens of felons filled the air.
Her gut gurgled, and she was bloated and uncomfortable. She shouldn’t have eaten that awful gruel. It had looked like corn or wheat or a mixture of the two. Either way, they were things she didn’t usually eat. Things her gut was much happier when she avoided. But she had been too hungry to pass up the gruel. Had she known Axton was going to kick her off her own ship and throw her in prison, she would have found a way to smuggle in a box of Tammy Jammy bars.
McCall tried to tell herself that it was good that her unhappy gut was distracting her from the fact that nine strangers were now depending on her. Nine strangers, plus Dash. If she was wrong about everything, or if she and Dash couldn’t get into that control room, they could all end up shot. Or up on that balcony being whipped. She wasn’t sure which would be worse.
She’d originally envisioned Dash manipulating the control-room operator with his telepathic powers from down below, from somewhere they would be safe if it didn’t work. Maybe they could still try that, but now that they had a whole group of people to sneak out instead of the two of them, everything seemed far more daunting. As did relying on her limited knowledge of how old-fashioned power grids worked. She hoped Dash wouldn’t ask her how she’d gained that knowledge because it had been the same way she’d learned about pus. From books.
A creak sounded, and a dark figure appeared, heading down the aisle toward her. She lurched to her feet, envisioning someone angry over the outcome of that fight and coming to take his displeasure out on her.
“It’s me,” Dash whispered.
“Oh. Hi.”
She almost asked how he’d known where she was but reminded herself that he had extra senses that most people didn’t have.
“Are you all right?” He stopped in front of her. It was too dark to see his face.
“Just regretting the gruel. And that I didn’t pack Tammy Jammy bars.”
He chuckled softly.
For some reason, the sound relaxed her. If he could manage to laugh in this place, maybe she could manage… What? She didn’t know. To go through with what she’d promised and hope for the best? It wasn’t as if she could back out and stay here. She couldn’t leave Scipio and Junkyard to the fate of that maniac cyborg.
Were her friends still on the planet? Probably not. But wherever they had gone, she could find them. It was what she did.
Dash sat down against the wall next to the spot where she’d been sitting. McCall hesitated, not grasping why he would. Was his gut bothering him too? Did he find his bunk as uncomfortable as she had hers?
His face turned upward, as if he was waiting for something. She realized he must have come over to sit with her. Had he sensed her distress?
“Is it all right if I sit with you?” he asked quietly. “I guess I should have asked before sitting down.”
“It’s fine.” McCall returned to her spot on the floor, her back to the wall and her shoulder next to his. “Can you tell what I’m thi
nking?”
She had gotten the sense that he could back on the ship, that he’d somehow known more than he should have when she’d been interacting with him. How she felt about that, she didn’t know. She considered herself a private person and rarely shared details about herself with others unless she found someone with kindred interests. Once she started burbling about her work or other passions, she had a tendency to overshare.
“Sometimes,” Dash said after a long pause. “I don’t try to read people’s thoughts most of the time, unless I’m in a dangerous spot myself and need an advantage. Or unless someone seems to be hiding something, and I think it could be a problem for me.”
“Such as if they’re not being entirely upfront about their android business partner?”
“Yes.” There was a wince in his voice. “I’d been meaning to apologize to you about that before things got crazy.”
“You led Axton to realize I had Scipio locked away in that cabin, didn’t you?”
“Yes. When we first came aboard, I sensed you weren’t being truthful about everything, and I poked around. I’m sorry. I didn’t realize what I would find exactly, that it—he—means something to you and isn’t something you stole for personal gain.”
McCall sat quietly and digested his confession. She wasn’t surprised. She didn’t think Sheriff Axton was as stupid as one might be led to believe by his thuggishness, but she also didn’t think he had cared enough about her to pry. He had been more worried about getting his prisoners secured. Dash was the one who’d come up to talk to her—question her—in NavCom.
“You’re not saying anything,” he said. “And you don’t have to. I’m just—well, I really do want to apologize. I actually believed Axton had some suspicions about me, so I threw your locked cabin into his path in the hope that he would go focus on you instead. I figured you’d stolen something, but it’s not like I would have cared if you’d taken something from the empire. If I’d known, I probably would have cheered.” He pushed a hand through his hair. “Anyway, I’m not explaining myself well, but now that I know you and a little more about the android, I’m sorry I turned Axton in your direction. If not for me, you wouldn’t now be in trouble with the law and you wouldn’t be stuck down here.”
Fractured Stars Page 11