“About time you called, Alistair. Where the hell are you?”
“Time to make good on your promise to supply a ship, Paola. A hundred people.”
“Probably more.” Nika indicated the lifeboats that had been moved to the smaller screen so Alistair could make his call.
One of the lifeboats on the screen blew apart.
Laughton covered his eyes briefly. “Or a bigger one. Get it to Zell as soon as you can. Within a day.”
“Have you heard of this thing called the Funnel?”
“You were aware of that before, Paola.”
“Where are you, Alistair?”
“I’ll meet you at Zell.” He clicked off. “Did that ship just—”
Another lifeboat exploded into smaller pieces.
Laughton scrambled for the controls. “Norris is shooting at anyone trying to escape.”
“How long before we get to Zell?” Maybe they’d arrive before their shuttle was destroyed.
“An hour.”
They wouldn’t make it. The Boost would destroy them all long before that. Nika checked the screens again.
She zoomed in, searching for Another Road. Had Norris taken it out before he started on the pods?
“Finally,” Laughton said as he managed to wrest control off auto. He increased the power. “Who’d have thought it so hard to take over a shuttle on auto.”
Debris spun toward them, slammed into the side of their shuttle. The shuttle spun. Their screens went out.
31
JOSUNE ARRIOLA
Josune checked on Snow, back at the smaller cannon. Gramps sat on the floor, relaxed against the wall, watching him with a promise etched into his eyes, a promise that said, “Now I’ve found you, I’m not losing you again.”
Once they stopped running, she was going to rig the smaller cannon to controls in the crew room, where it would be battle ready.
“We should have sent Gramps with Nika,” Snow said. “Along with the Songyan. He’d be safer.”
She wasn’t sure she agreed with him.
“I should have gone too. I’m her apprentice. It’s my job. But she didn’t want me. She left me behind on the ship.”
What a time for the normally confident kid to have a crisis.
“She needed you here, Snow. Roystan isn’t finished.” Josune couldn’t think of anything else to say.
“She never finishes. She always takes people out early.” Snow put his head in his hands. “She should have trusted me.”
Gramps spoke before Josune could think of anything to say. “Sometimes, boy, you do things because you think it’s best for the other person.”
Snow opened his mouth to speak. Gramps put a hand on his arm. “I did stupid things too. I ignored all your messages, thinking it best. Thinking it safer. Even if I didn’t want to. Even if I was wrong.”
Gramps must have carried his own guilt with him.
Josune left them to it. On the way to the crew room, she turned on the big cannon. It would take fifteen minutes to warm up. She wasn’t sure they had that time.
Back in the crew room, Roystan’s fingers danced across the panels. Jacques and Carlos both watched mesmerized.
“How do you feel?” Josune asked.
He took time out of the finger dance to look up at her and smile. Roystan had a crooked smile. She loved it. “I feel the same way I always feel after Nika has worked on me. A thousand times better.”
His smile turned down as he waved a hand at the Boost. “But right now I am no better than Captain Norris.”
That was unexpected.
“Have I lived too long, Josune? To do what I am about to do. Do I have the right to make this sort of judgement?” It was a whisper, nothing more.
She put a hand over his. His fingers were cold. “I don’t understand.”
“You will, soon enough.” He looked away, as if he couldn’t bear to meet her eyes.
“Ahem,” Jacques said, making them both jump. “You’re scaring us.” He placed a plate of flatbread between them. “If we’re all going to die, we may as well do it like old times. Eat. If we’re going to die, we’ll do it on a full stomach.”
He was scaring Josune too. Nika hadn’t thought they would die. She had left Snow and the Songyan with them.
“We should run,” Josune said. “The Boost has more firepower than us. It has longer-range cannons.” And a captain who couldn’t afford to let them get away.
Roystan stared at the screens. “We can’t. Not this time. Or it will never be over. None of us will be safe. Ever. So I do this.” He inhaled deeply. “The waiting. The waiting is the worst.”
Josune’s nerves were getting the better of her. She wished he’d stop talking and start acting. If he didn’t, she’d fire on the Boost herself. “Waiting for what? If you have a plan, tell us about it.”
Roystan leaned back. “Some of your prayers wouldn’t go astray, Carlos.”
Everything seemed too slow. “You know,” Josune said. “You are behaving very oddly.”
“Am I?” He turned his head to look at her. “This won’t be my proudest moment.” The Boost started to move. “At last. Here we go.”
But the Boost didn’t come for them. It went for the lifeboats, taking them out, one by one. Norris started with the lifepods from the Santiagan ship, which were closest.
The comms sounded.
Life snapped back to normal speed.
Roystan opened a link. Captain Norris was on the other end. “Captain Roystan.”
Roystan didn’t answer.
“I hope you’re watching your screens, Roystan.”
“You are shooting at defenseless people.”
“A minor matter, I know, but they’re in the way. See that shuttle there in the middle. That’s the one I’m aiming for.”
Nika’s shuttle.
“I worked that out myself. You didn’t need to call me up to tell me.” Roystan gave an elaborate shrug. “I would have said this proves you’re a man without an ounce of compassion, but we didn’t need to prove that. At least one got away. Again.” He opened another link. “Snow, what’s the most vulnerable part of the Boost?”
“There isn’t any,” Snow said. “It’s a warship.”
“Oh, come.”
Roystan left the link open to the Boost, so Norris was hearing this. Josune thought it might have been to prove that Snow was here, on ship, and not on the shuttle. Norris didn’t react. She played along too. “What about engine number four? Number two is already damaged. We could take out both engines on the starboard side.”
Not that she’d get a clear shot. Especially now she’d voiced her intentions.
Another lifepod exploded.
“Direct hit, sir,” from Norris’s bridge.
“One more to go, Roystan. Then the shuttle. Your shuttle. The shuttle that will make a nice, big explosion.”
“You’re right, Josune,” Roystan said. “That starboard engine is a good idea.”
It was a stupid idea, for it would draw all the firepower to them. But it might save Nika.
“I’ll do it with the big cannon, Snow. Leave it to me.”
Roystan cut both links, gave her a thumbs-up. She wasn’t sure why. “Beautiful,” he said, and opened an internal link. “All crew suit up and strap in. We’re in for a bumpy ride. That includes you, Carlos,” because Carlos was still sitting at the table. “And you, Jacques,” who was making coffee in the kitchen.
“Snow?” Josune went for her own suit. Slid into it. She kept the gloves and her helmet open.
“Kitting up,” Snow said. “Both of us.”
She brought a suit back for Roystan.
“Thanks. How long till the big cannon is ready?”
She glanced at the panel. “One minute.” Did some quick calculations. “You’ll n
eed to be closer or I won’t do any damage.” Or maybe that was the point.
“How much closer?” He was setting the nullspace controls. A bead of perspiration dropped to his collar. “I’d really like Nika here right now on the calibrator.”
He was going to nullspace out. “This is a bad idea,” Josune said. “It’s dangerous to jump here, Roystan.”
And it would leave Norris to chase Nika.
“Cannon, Josune.” Roystan’s face took on a sickly sheen.
Would he collapse on them again?
“Be ready. You’ll need to reposition it once I jump.”
He planned to nullspace closer. He was insane.
“We’re right near the Vortex.”
“That’s right.”
“You do know what the Vortex does. You know it grabs you. You know it sucks you in.” He’d told her himself how dangerous it was.
“Yes. Be ready.”
“Roystan.” Josune bit off the rest of her words. “You’re the captain.” He obviously had a plan. Could he carry it off? “Get as close as you can.”
“Thanks, Josune.”
She barely heard him over the yammering of her terror. Calm. It’s just another battle. The Hassim was forever fighting for survival. Was that so different on Another Road? Did it matter that Another Road didn’t have the firepower, or a fighting crew?
“Snow, do you think you could throw insults at Captain Norris?” Roystan’s fingers were dancing over the controls again.
“Are you sure?”
“He is more likely to react to insults from you than from anyone else.”
Carlos was praying aloud in the background. He seemed to have lost whatever calm he’d found earlier.
“Ahh.” Snow took a deep, shuddering breath. “I’ll do my best.”
Roystan opened the link again. “Go.”
“Captain Norris. You appear to be having trouble keeping your mercenaries.” Snow’s voice squeaked to start but got stronger as he continued. “How long . . . how long did you manage to keep me this time? A few days? You’re losing your touch.”
“Snow,” Norris purred. “You are next on my list. You can’t save yourself this time. But Gramps will be the first to go. You can watch him die.”
“Another hit, sir,” someone said from near Norris, and on-screen another lifepod exploded.
Gramps’s deep voice chimed in. “Got to get me first. I’m with my boy now.”
How much courage had that taken?
“Gramps. Me. How many others? You must be hemorrhaging crew.” Snow laughed. Josune thought she detected a slightly hysterical timbre to it. She didn’t blame him. “All those lifeboats leaving your ship.”
They didn’t know why the lifeboats were leaving. Maybe the ship was damaged. Although, Josune couldn’t imagine Norris allowing his crew to exit in the middle of a battle like that.
Maybe they were the ground crew and Norris was sending them down to take over Zell. Although surely he’d use a shuttle for that.
“You of all people should understand that I always get my man.” Another Road’s nullspace warning sounded. Norris laughed. “Running away? That won’t work. I’ll find you. You can run, you can hide, but—”
They nullspaced.
Proximity alarms blared as they came out of nullspace. Out behind the Boost. A force grabbed Another Road, dragged them sideways.
“The Vortex.” Josune clutched at air. She’d had nightmares about this. Being caught by the Vortex, and no way to escape. “Sorry.” She tried to get her voice under control.
She realigned the cannon. Fired. Carlos’s prayers got louder.
The Boost spun from the hit. A shot—fired at the same time from the Boost and aimed for the shuttle Nika and Alistair were in—clipped the edge of the shuttle rather than the center.
Another Road’s power failed.
Roystan used the emergency backup power to reopen the link. Proximity alarms blared on both ships. Someone shouted at them. Not Norris, one of his crew.
“We’re not running away,” Snow said over the hubbub. It took Josune a moment to grasp that he was continuing the earlier conversation. Didn’t he realize they were doomed? No. He trusted Roystan. She glanced at Carlos. He was white.
“Josune,” Carlos whispered.
She understood what she should have known immediately, if she hadn’t been so busy getting ready to fire. The emergency lighting and air had kicked in. Her subconscious had known, though, for she’d snapped her helmet on, then released it. It hadn’t been a catastrophic ship failure at all. Roystan had turned everything off. They were on backup battery.
“Fire,” Norris said.
Another Road rocked. A direct hit, although Josune couldn’t tell where. Not without full instrumentation. Breach doors clicked into place—they had their own emergency power systems, because Josune was paranoid about breaches.
“You’re wrong, Roystan,” Norris said. “Even though you can no longer hear me. The most vulnerable part of any ship is the bridge. And you just turned it face on to us. How amateur.”
They didn’t need the bridge. Not on Another Road.
The ships were getting closer.
Déjà vu. Josune watched the two ships come together. It must have looked like this on the Hassim, back when it had nullspaced into The Road’s path. She calculated the time to impact. Fifty seconds. Forty-five. Forty.
And they couldn’t do a thing, not with the forces dragging at them. Thirty-five. Their space suits wouldn’t save them.
“Sir.” Norris’s crew were calm. Battle ready.
Carlos whimpered.
Josune was glad they weren’t on the original Road to the Goberlings, where she could have taken over the controls with a single grab. She sat on her hands so she wouldn’t do anything stupid. Roystan knew what he was doing.
Didn’t he?
“It’s been a pleasure killing you and your crew, Captain. A pity about Snow and Gramps. A demonstration of my ire would have been most effective.” Norris’s voice faded a little, as if he’d looked away. “Fire engines for evasive action.”
The Boost’s port engines burst into sudden power, pushed away from Another Road.
The alarms coming through Norris’s feed increased in signal and urgency. Proximity alarms. Engine alarms. An inhuman, high-pitched squeal that went on, and on, and on.
They sat and listened.
“Get us out of here,” Norris hissed.
“Working on it, sir,” a strained voice said. The same voice that had been so calm in the face of imminent collision. “We’re caught in the Vortex.”
“What happens if they slam into us?” Josune asked.
“Then we’re dead,” Roystan said.
She absorbed that in silence.
“Mayday. Mayday.” The voice, calm again. Josune would like to have met him. “This is the mercenary ship the Boost, requesting assistance. We have been caught by the Vortex. We require assistance.”
“Do everything necessary to get us out of here.” Norris’s voice was as calm as that of his pilot. Josune imagined he’d have been a successful mercenary.
“There is no escaping the Vortex. Sir.”
“Try harder. Try—” Norris’s words were cut off by screams around the ship, and the sound of shredding, tearing metal as the Boost was torn apart by the forces.
Light flared around them. Then heat.
And finally, silence.
Josune whispered a quiet, “May your Afterlife be happier than this life,” for Effie, who’d refused to leave.
Roystan gripped Josune’s hand. His own hand was still icy. “It’s done,” he whispered.
* * *
• • •
They waited.
Josune turned to the boards to see what the damage to their own ship was
.
“Don’t,” Roystan said. “No power. None at all. You’ll kill us.”
“Internal emergency comms?”
“We can use that.” He flicked it on. “Snow, Gramps? Are you okay?”
“That was awful.”
That was Snow, as blunt and honest as ever. Nika would take that to mean he was all right. Josune took it that way too.
“Come back to the crew room. And Snow, power’s out. Don’t try and use it; it being down is all that’s keeping us alive.”
“All?” Josune asked.
Roystan shrugged. “I don’t really know, but it pays not to test it. I have found that if we stick to emergency power, we’re fine.”
“You’ve done this before?” No one survived the Vortex. “You knew what would happen to Norris.”
How were they still alive? And for how long, for the Vortex still had them trapped.
“I guessed.” His voice was barely audible. “I hoped. I’ve seen it happen before.”
He started to pull away. She closed her hands tight around his. Norris wasn’t anyone she’d mourn.
“Four hundred people, Josune. I killed them all. I knew I was going to do it.”
“Not four hundred. Some got away. Besides, we’re all monsters in our own way.” Josune spoke as much to herself as she did to him. “None of us want to die. It’s only human to do what we can to stay alive. Snow is safe. Nika is safe.” Maybe, because Norris had hit the shuttle, even if he hadn’t hit it head-on. “The colonists are safe-ish.”
How cold must he be if she could feel it?
Was his body starting to regress already? She said a prayer of thanks that Nika had left Snow here. And the Songyan. Except they couldn’t use the machine while the power was down.
An eerie howl started to build inside the cabin.
Snow and Gramps arrived with a dash. Snow closed the door carefully behind him, pulling it manually. He locked it.
They all looked at one another.
“We’re in space,” Carlos said.
Space was a vacuum. Sound waves didn’t travel through it. They required molecules, a medium, to vibrate through. Which meant what? That there was atmosphere outside?
Stars Beyond Page 31
