“We can’t get out that way,” Decker said. “Even if we can all climb up it, as soon as Ronti figures out what we are doing, they’ll just come outside and pick us up off the building. They’ve got a lot more firepower than we do.”
“Quinn,” Ronti said from the other side of the door. “I hope you all are coming to an agreement to come out. You have five minutes. Then I’m leaving. As soon as my people are clear of the dome, the bombing starts.”
“I still think he’s bluffing,” I said.
“Even if he is, what’s the end result? We can’t stay here forever,” Lainie said.
Another feather floated down and hit Decker on the head. He jumped around as he brushed it off. Flapping noises came from above us. I looked up.
Chapter Twenty-One
Decker shuddered, brushing himself off like he was covered in feathers. “What did you do, Quinn? Invite a whole flock of birds in when you broke the panel?”
“They were already here,” I said. “I guess they live here.”
“They weren’t here when I came in earlier,” Mira said. “How did they get in?”
A spark of an idea flickered in my head. “Samson, can you do a scan of this room and measure the temperature throughout? And then show us where it’s coldest.”
“Of course. Would you like me to report it verbally, project it, or put it up on the slip?”
“Put it on the slip, and also report it verbally.”
“Quinn, your time is running out.” Ronti said. His voice was as mild as always. I looked outside. I could see the bomber hovering overhead.
A map of the room appeared on the slip and began to fill with different colors. Shades of green and light blue popped up. A dark blue blotch appeared by the panel we had broken, and then another higher up next to the pigeons.
“As you can see,” Samson said, “the coldest areas in the room are here and here.” He pointed.
“There’s another opening up there,” I said. “That’s how the pigeons got in.”
“We don’t know how big it is,” Decker said. “We’re a lot bigger than a pigeon.”
“It’s worth a try,” Lainie said. “Quinn, you’ve got to keep him talking while we figure out if we can get up there.”
“Samson, turn our sound back on and the visual, but keep the visual focused so he can just see my face,” I said.
Lainie and the others moved to the side.
“I need answers to a few questions first,” I told Ronti.
“If they can be answered quickly.”
“Did you arrange for General Hise to escape?”
Ronti’s smile broadened. “I knew you were clever. Yes, of course. We need his voice too. An esteemed general who is not from Earth is a powerful voice to have on the decay that has overcome the Konsilon. You’ll like him once you get a chance to know him. He is a man of principle.”
I heard murmurings and saw motion out of the corner of my eye, but I forced myself not to look over. From what little I could see in my peripheral vision, it appeared Lainie was standing on Decker’s shoulders.
“I’m still not clear on the plan,” I said. “When are you going to publicly take a stand against the Konsilon?”
“I’m not, at least for the moment. I can be much more effective on the inside.” He waved his arms around. “I have access to troops, material, and information. That’s why we need other faces for the rebellion.”
“And that gives you a way to save yourself if it all goes wrong.”
“Your cynical side is showing again. Perhaps I’ve misjudged how useful you could be. We need people to embrace our cause wholeheartedly.” One of his guards came over, leaned close to Ronti, and spoke. It was too quiet for me to hear what he said. “Quinn, I’m afraid I need to leave,” Ronti said. “This would be a good time for you to open the door and join me.”
Some pigeons swooped down and landed near me. They wandered around, their heads bobbing, pecking at the ground as if looking for food.
“Mira, what do you think?” I said.
“I need a little more time to think,” she called, her voice coming from somewhere near the pigeons still overhead. I heard more flapping.
“One more question,” I said to Ronti. “I know you control the bomber. You can delay the order as long as you want.”
“Only so long. There are troops not under my control who will be here soon. This place must be destroyed before those troops can get in. I don’t know what kind of evidence Ansun has here of my involvement. So let’s speed this up.”
I had to come up with something. “Why was Graster killed?” I blurted out.
“Graster? Who’s that?” He paused. “Oh, Graster. You have been quite the adventurer. Did you find anything interesting on the station?”
“If there had been anything interesting, I assume your people took it. But what about Graster? Did someone really have to cut his throat?” I swallowed, remembering that cloud of blood.
“I didn’t ask for details. He was trying to hide a data pin he’d found. We can’t have people working for their own ends. It meant he couldn’t be trusted, but we couldn’t just reassign him. He’d have tried to profit off the information. You can see it was necessary.”
The guard spoke to him again. “Time’s up, Quinn,” Ronti announced. “Open the door.”
“Now, Quinn,” Lainie’s voice called. “Samson, cut the visual.”
Lainie, Mira, and Decker were perched up very high near the wall. The cord dangled from a beam nearby. Decker had his hand wrapped around it.
“Grab hold!” Lainie said. “We’ll pull you up.”
“I’m leaving now, Quinn,” Ronti said. “If you’re climbing out the broken panel, you’d better hurry. My people will be outside to help you.”
I ran over to the cord and wrapped it around my hands. Decker began to pull. The cord tightened. I rose a little ways up.
“I’m going to need some more help,” Decker said. Lainie and Mira grabbed hold behind Decker. I rose a little farther. The cord was so tight on my hand, I bit my lip to keep from crying out in pain.
Decker made a noise between a huff and a groan. “What have you been eating, Quinn?”
“Shall I come up too?” Samson called.
“Yes,” Lainie said.
Samson rose up and passed me. “I’m sorry I’m not able to assist you,” he said.
The sound of more ships filled the space. “One more big effort,” Decker said, and I was jerked up. My head banged against a beam. The familiar jolt of pain hit my eye, and for a moment I couldn’t see out of either one. Hands grabbed my arms and somehow managed to haul me onto the ledge. Decker pulled me all the way up and onto a ledge. “Here, the opening is right here. There’s some sort of tunnel.”
I stumbled after them as we squeezed through a partly open door. Inside was complete darkness until Samson shone a light, revealing a tunnel.
“Come on, we need to get as far in as we can,” Lainie said.
We only made it a few paces in when we came upon a pile of rubble completely blocking the passage. Behind us came a whistling sound.
“Missile,” Decker said. “Get down and cover your heads.”
I did, though I doubted my hands would do much to save my head from a mountain collapsing on it.
A huge explosion shook the tunnel. Rubble peppered us from above.
I reached for Mira. We held each other. I closed my eyes, thinking of the two of us somewhere else, anywhere else.
Everything fell silent. I opened my eyes and looked up. No more rubble fell.
“Did we live?” Lainie asked.
“Yes, you are all alive,” Samson reported. “I do not like explosions. The vibrations are quite annoying.”
Decker stood up. “Yes they are. Next time someone wants to hire us for a rescue mission, please turn down the job, Lainie.”
We walked back toward the dome, or what had been the dome. It was coll
apsed below us, steam rising from the pieces of debris that had landed in the snow. Combined Forces ships disappeared in the distance.
“You realize what this means, don’t you?” Lainie asked.
“What?” Decker said.
“Ronti thinks we’re dead. Let’s keep it that way for the time being. Now let’s go find Wren.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
There was no response to our attempts to contact anyone with the gabbers. We went back through the vactram tunnel, but when we reached the place where we’d climbed through the pile of snow, there was no one there, and no sliders there either.
Mira was beside herself with worry. “Where is everyone? How far could they get in this snow?”
“It seems like Javen managed to get some more vehicles here,” I pointed out. “Look at how the snow has been disturbed, but there aren’t footprints leading away.”
“We’ll have to go back to the remains of the dome and take the road,” Decker said.
We trudged back, and Decker led us to the road. We met no one along the way. The guards were all gone, presumably taken into custody by CF forces.
By the time we reached the Star Palace, we were all drooping from exhaustion. I was afraid Wren wouldn’t be there, but there she was, and with Ryger, Manny, and Nic too. Wren was holding Mags’s cage and seated between Manny and Ryger, and they had their chairs pulled up close to her. She actually smiled when she saw us. The others looked shocked.
She motioned around the table. “They all thought you were dead,” she said. “I told them you weren’t.”
“How? What?” Nic sputtered.
“It’s a long story,” I said. “More important things first. Where are Javen and all the Fosaanians?” I took hold of Mira’s hand and squeezed it.
“They’re gone,” Nic said. “Javen is far more devious than I gave him credit for. Illarion got in contact with someone in town and said Javen was offering a fortune to anyone with a vehicle that would go get the people he brought out of the tunnel. He had dozens of takers. Once they got to the port, Javen herded them all on the waiting ships, and they took off.”
The bartender brought us drinks even though we hadn’t ordered any. “I figured you’d want these. I’ll add them to the tab.”
He went back to the bar, whistling as he picked up a cloth to polish it. “He’s realized we have money to pay,” I said. I picked up a mug and took a sip of the same warm drink Illarion had ordered for us. I’d forgotten what it was called, but it was good. It fortified me enough to say, “We’re going to have to find passage out of here. Obviously we’re not getting back on Divana’s ship. In fact, don’t tell her you’ve seen us. We’d prefer it if she thinks we’re dead.”
“That’s right. You don’t know,” Wren said. “Divana has been arrested. She went to collect her reward, and they immediately took her into custody. She’s got a long list of warrants out for her.”
This was another instance where ‘knocked over with a feather’ was an accurate description of how I felt. “What about the Paradox? Did they confiscate it?” I asked.
“It’s registered in my name,” Wren said. “I don’t have any record, so Divana has always put ships in my name. Pixie told the authorities we didn’t know Divana was a raider. She said she was a paying passenger. We’ve elected Nic captain.”
“Wow,” Lainie said.
Yes, “wow” was the best word that fit the situation.
Manny raised his mug to Nic. “To our new leader.” He took a drink and choked. “This is terrible! What is that bartender serving us?” Pushing back his chair, he got up and marched over to the bar.
Nic shifted in her seat, staring down at her drink.
“Are you going to try to get Divana out?” Lainie asked her.
“How?” She sounded defensive. “I don’t have any connections. Vire might be able to get her out, but only if Vire wants her out. It’s a chance raiders take. She went too far.”
Nic had some questions of her own to answer. “So what are you going to do as captain?” I asked. “Take over Divana’s raiding work?”
“No, of course not. We’ll carry legitimate freight. I’ve never supported Ansun. I was telling you the truth. I did go AWOL. I’m done with the Combined Forces. I support General Hise and the real movement to free planets from Earth’s control. If I can help him, I will, once I figure out how to get in contact with him.”
“But Hise is working with Ronti. Do you support him too?”
“Hise is just in a temporary alliance with Ronti. They each have different goals. I think he’ll break with Ronti when he can.” Nic looked at Mira. “What are you going to do? You can play a role in all this too.”
“I don’t know,” Mira said. “Everything happened so fast. I need a little time.”
“What are we doing?” Decker asked Lainie and me.
“I want to go back to Reyet, where else?” Lainie said. “Saunder is there.”
“Yes,” I said. “My father might still be there, and he won’t stop until he figures out where my mother is being held. And since we couldn’t find any information about the MIs, we need to keep Samson safe until my mother is free to work with him. Ronti’s got the information on how to make other MIs, even if they don’t function properly. And if it’s true Ansun has already sold some and sent them off, that’s too many MIs out there that can cause chaos. Maybe my mother can figure out a way to use Samson to disable the others.”
“Then I’ll go to Reyet too,” Mira said. “I don’t know what Fade and Javen are planning, but at least I know they won’t hurt me or my sister. Will you take us?” she asked Nic.
***
A half hour later we were back on the ship, having managed to drag Manny away from an in-depth discussion of drink-making with the bartender.
“I am ready to get out of here,” Decker said, “though I’m not sure I really want to go back to Reyet.”
“There’s a ship landing,” Pixie reported. “I know that ship. It’s one of Vire’s little minions.” She made a disgusted noise like she wanted to spit.
“What are they doing here?”
“I don’t know, but we shouldn’t wait to find out. Wren, now would be a good time to blast something. Like that ship, for example.”
Wren grinned and reached her hand out.
“Wait. Just disable it, okay?” I said. “Can you do that? Give anyone inside time to get off. Let’s not make Vire too angry. Can you make it look like one of their engines blew on its own?”
Wren pondered that. “Yes.” She gave some instructions to Pixie, who took the ship off the ground in what looked like a normal departure. When we were high above the other raider ship, Wren did something that sent a small beam down to the ship below. One engine exploded. Pixie increased the speed, and the port disappeared from view.
“That wasn’t much of an explosion,” Wren said, frowning.
“It was perfect,” I said, thinking Nic was going to have to convince Wren to get a new interest if they were going to run a legitimate freighter business, though I supposed having Wren on board meant no raider ships would be able to steal their cargo.
It still hadn’t quite sunk in that we were free of Ansun and that Mira was here. I was happy it would take us some time to get back to Reyet, time we could spend together.
Wren suggested we move the Oamniq furniture up from our space into the idle area because she said she wanted company. Pixie didn’t argue, and surprisingly neither did Nic. We even brought Mags up. Once we were all gathered there, Mags squawked, “Party? Party?” In the past it had been her usual response to a big group of people she felt comfortable around. I was pleased she was acting like her old self.
“Yes, it’s a party!” Wren clapped her hands. “I’ll get Manny to bring some of his drinks up. He says his latest is much better.”
Nic disappeared for a minute and then came back with the instrument she had taken from Gregor’s workshop. She
held it out to Decker. “If we’re having a party, can you play this?”
Decker picked it up and turned it around a few times. “I wish I knew how. I don’t even know what it’s called or how to get a sound out of it.”
“Would you like to see an image of Gregor playing it?” Samson asked.
“You can do that?” Decker stared at him.
“Of course. I have many images of him practicing it. I can put it on a slip if you’d like.” He moved over to a slip and immediately we saw an image of Gregor sitting in his workshop playing the instrument. The music was beautiful and haunting. I heard Nic suck in her breath.
I watched for a moment, an idea dawning on me. I beckoned to Samson away from the others. “How many images do you have of Gregor? Do you have an image of him working on equipment?”
“Yes, I have hundreds of images of that.”
I felt a surge of excitement. “He adapted and recalibrated the plasma nanoslicer to cut the iridium in a new way. Do you have an image of him doing that?”
“Yes, it was a most interesting process. Would you like to see it?”
“Not now.” I moved to clap him on the back and then remembered he was a hologram. “Later.” My mother would get the information she needed.
I went to sit down next to Mira, putting my arm around her. She pulled away from me and stood up. I looked at her, wondering what was wrong.
She smiled. “While everyone else is enjoying this party, why don’t you show me the rest of the ship? I sure there are some nice, quiet places.” When she held out her hand, I took it.
“I know the perfect spot,” I said.
DEE GARRETSON
Dee Garretson writes for many different age groups, from chapter books to middle grade to young adult to adult fiction. She lives in Ohio with her family, and in true writer fashion, has cat companions who oversee her daily word count. When she’s not writing, she loves to travel, watch old movies, and attempt various kinds of drawing, painting and other artistic pursuits.
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