Building New Canaan - The Complete Series - A Colonization and Exploration Space Adventure
Page 42
The feeds showed her the air and spaceport arrivals lounge from several viewpoints, one of which was as if she were standing only a few meters away from the transportation zone. She checked the time again. The passengers would begin to pass through the arrivals area any moment now.
The first arrivals appeared. Two couples traveling together and a family of three. A businessman marched quickly across the hall.
Outside, the door to a private pinnace opened, and a man climbed out, ready to meet a passenger. A woman climbed out after him. The couple stood outside the pinnace, peering into the arrivals section. The woman waved at someone. Erin switched her view to the arrivals section again.
There she is!
Erin would have recognized Pippa’s Amazonian form and strawberry blonde pigtailed hair anywhere. She walked out the exit, her bag over her shoulder. The Tyrian woman from the pinnace hugged her. A second man left the pinnace and joined the group. After they were done greeting each other, they climbed back into the pinnace. The doors closed, and the vehicle lifted into the air.
Erin was relieved that Pippa had actually arrived. She’d worried that she might have managed to fake her passage to Tyre and send them on a wild goose chase. Max had already disappeared without a trace; if Pippa hadn’t been aboard the flight from Carthage when it arrived, Erin didn’t know where she might begin to look for the woman.
Now they knew where Pippa was, even if they didn’t know why she was there. It was time to follow the Tyrians’ pinnace and find out.
Onyx replied, and Erin realized that the Major had added her into a conversation with the planetary AI.
Erin’s chest contracted. Is Isa mixed up with a group of Pippa’s associates? She tried to keep her breathing steady.
SWELTER
STELLAR DATE: 03.22.8937 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Unknown
REGION: Tyre, New Canaan System
Isa woke to a hard, wet surface pressing into her cheekbone, and hot, sticky sweat coating her skin. She felt contorted, her shoulders oddly stretched behind her and her legs held together at her ankles. Vague recollections and images battled in her mind. Something bad had happened, but the memory was mixed up with something else bad.
She opened her eyes to a sea of white in odd, angular forms She couldn’t focus on anything. Heat and humidity oppressed her breathing.
A flash of panic mixed with fear hit her. Martin! The Tyrians had Martin.
The impetus to act seized her. She had to do something, anything. She tried to move, and the reason for her odd sense of constriction became clear. She was bound. ‘Hog-tied’, she believed it was called. Her wrists were tied behind her back, and connected to her ankles, which were also bound.
Where is Martin? Where am I?
White shapes swam in and out of focus, and she could barely breathe. She was also incredibly hot. Isa twisted her body around and slipped on the hard surface that had been flattening the side of her face. The feeling was familiar. She’d been in this place before.
A sharp edge resolved in her vision and stayed there. Isa recognized the perfectly straight corner of a crystal.
She blinked, forcing her eyes to focus, though sweat stung them and they swam with tears. The varying shades of glistening white she could see began to separate. Individual crystals a few meters thick, and many more meters long, became visible. There was no doubt about it: she was back in the crystal cave. For some reason, the Tyrians had brought her to the place she’d experienced her dissociative episode. She couldn’t afford to allow her surroundings to trigger another attack. She had to find Martin. They had to get out.
It was an attempt without hope. No kidnapper with any brains would leave their victim with Link access. Either the Tyrians had removed the relays that Isa had placed, or they were suppressing the signals like they had at the musical pillars. She was leaning toward the relays being gone, as she couldn’t pick up any signal at all.
The image of the vile Tyrians attacking Martin replayed in her mind. Where was he? Had they even brought him to the same place?
“Martin?”
“Isa? You’re here? I called your name for a while, but you didn’t answer. Where are you?”
“Wait a minute.”
His voice was coming from behind her. With a great effort, Isa turned over. Martin’s booted feet were just visible beyond the edge of a crystal.
“I’m near you,” Isa said. “I only just came to. Did they hurt you? I saw them stick something in your stomach.”
“They were only stunning me. I’m okay, but it’s hot as hell in here. I feel like I’m going to pass out. What’s going on? Why have they brought us here? I mean, you only refused their offer to take you on a day trip. Seems a bit of an overreaction.”
“I have no idea, but I think I know where ‘here’ is,” Isa said, gasping as she moved closer to Martin. Wriggling like a worm on her side, she inched across the crystalline surface.
“You do?” he asked. “Do you know how to get out?”
“I’m not completely certain, but this is a lot like the place where I had my episode and had to be rescued. There can’t be many caverns like this on Tyre. If it is the same cave system, I remember roughly how to get out, but I can’t see the exit from here. We must be deeper than I originally went. Everywhere looks the same; if I could get free, I might be able to figure it out.”
Martin was also moving toward her, his long legs gradually coming more into her view.
“Is it far to the surface?” he asked as he grunted with effort. “I guessed from the heat that we must be deep underground.”
“It’s a long way up. It must have been quite a task for Samuel and the others to get us down here.”
“Do you know why they might have brought us here in particular?” asked Martin.
“No, I don’t. But they must want us alive for some reason. Otherwise they could have just dropped us from their pinnace out in the ocean. We would never have been found. Hey, speaking of pinnaces, mine must still be out at the musical pillars. Unless they managed to override the security, it should only respond to me. The most they could have done to hide it would be to push it off the rock with their ship. It would be difficult to spot among the columns.”
“Eamon says that’s unlikely,” Martin relayed. “It would right itself and return to where we’d parked it. Though either way, the chances of someone stumbling across it accidentally must be pretty remote.”
“I’m glad Eamon is OK,” Isa replied. “But all that means no one will even be looking for us for some time.”
She could see more of Martin now that they had edged closer together. Moving across the ridged floor was painful and difficult, but it was worth it. Isa was finally rewarded for her effort with the sight of Martin’s face. They both gave a half-hearted smile.
Isa lay still for a moment, resting. Like hers, Martin’s skin was slick with sweat and it had drenched his clothes. She wondered how much longer they could survive in the heat. When she
’d been rescued from the cave, the first thing the medic had done after assessing her was transfuse fluids into her to counteract her dehydration.
But they had no water. Isa recalled the wide, still, cool lake in the golden cavern, but that was hundreds of meters, perhaps kilometers, above where they lay, and just wriggling around to see Martin had exhausted her.
“Trying to think of a way to escape?” Martin asked.
“Of course. Though the way things are, I don’t think we’ll survive more than a few more hours in this heat.”
“Yeah, let’s look on the bright side. If we can’t get out of here, at least our period of captivity will be short and sweet.” Martin followed his words with a rueful laugh.
Isa winced.
“Sorry. Just being realistic.”
“Well, If we can find the way out of this part of the cave, we might make it to the tunnel outside where the conditions are much better. We might even be able to work our way up to a higher level where there’s a lake. But just moving to another location could buy us time. The Tyrians don’t seem to have finished with us yet, which means they’ll be back. If we can hide, they might not be able to find us. We might also be able to access the Link if we’re closer to the surface.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Martin said, “and it’s better than lying here like beached whales, waiting to die. Moving would be a million times easier without these restraints, though. Can you turn over so I can get a good look at yours?”
Isa had to try several times before she finally found the strength and the right sequence of movements that allowed her to face away from Martin. She could hear him shuffling closer, then she felt a tugging.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m trying to get some nano on them to see if it can cut through the straps. Getting my hands on them would be too tricky, so I’m using my mouth.”
“Just don’t waste any moisture,” Isa gave a single laugh at her joke.
Martin groaned, but Isa realized it wasn’t at her joke.
“Eamon tells me that my nano can’t cut through these straps…not in the next ten to twelve hours, at least. Looks like they’re actually military-grade—though normally used on the front with more slack between our ankles and wrists.”
Isa sighed. “Damn. Do you think this was always the Tyrians’ plan? To kidnap us?”
“Who knows? They did seem pretty salty when you told them we weren’t going with them today. Looks like they had something special in mind. Right now, I don’t care why we’re here. What we need to focus on is not being here.”
“Right,” Isa said. “I guess there’s no chance of you chewing through my restraints?”
“No way. The material’s tougher than overcooked calamari.”
“What?”
“Calamari. I’ll make it for you sometime, when we’re free again and back in Carthage—which, by the way, I doubt I’ll ever leave again. This experience is changing my mind about foreign travel.”
“Ugh, mine too,” said Isa. “And I’m going to have mixed feelings about that infomentary from now on, assuming I finish it.” She was facing a substantial segment of crystal. One of its edges was almost touching her nose. “Hey, I’ve thought of something. If your nano’s not enough, maybe we can rub our restraints against a crystal edge to cut through them.”
“Eamon says it’s pretty unlikely, but let’s try it anyway,” Martin said. “But let me take the first crack; you rest for a while.”
Isa heard him shuffling and panting behind her. She began to slowly work her way around in a semi-circle to see what he was doing. By the time she’d managed to move to a position that gave her a view, Martin had his back to a crystal’s low edge. He was straining with the exertion of sliding his restraints up and down the margin.
Isa didn’t hold out much hope that her idea would succeed—she recalled that the crystals weren’t particularly sharp, and the material the restraints were made from seemed to be practically indestructible.
“Martin,” she said, “I’m sorry. I don’t think that’s doing any good.”
“You’re probably right, but it gives me something to do.”
“We should save our strength for getting out of here.”
“Okay, I’m not going to argue. Eamon was telling me to quit, too.”
He stopped what he was doing and rested his head on the floor. He was pale, his hair was plastered to his head, and he looked exhausted.
“I’m so sorry I got you into this,” Isa said. “If I hadn’t had my stupid episode in here, you would be at your site on Knossos, growing and releasing your sea creatures.”
“And you would be alone here,” Martin countered. “Do you think I would want that?”
“I guess not.”
“And besides, I’d be stuck with Malcolm for…company. I much prefer you.”
“Even trapped in a hot, humid cave, kilometers below ground?”
“Even trapped in a hot, humid cave. This place is actually pretty spectacular, now I think about it. If I’d chosen to come here, I would love it.”
“But not right now?” Isa asked.
“Not so much.”
“Let’s try to get out of here, then.” The symptoms Isa had experienced the last time she’d been in the cave were doubling up. Her pulse was quickening, and her head pounded. They had to try to leave. “I don’t know which way to go, but I’m going to head up here. I already feel like a lump of cheese that’s been grated, and this way has the least bumps.”
Martin peered in the direction Isa was referring to. “Go for it. I’ll be right behind you.”
As she wriggled along, Isa imagined they must look like oversized caterpillars, fat and ready to turn into butterflies, trying to find a safe place to become cocoons. The thought reminded her of Martin’s comment about the ancient textile used for their bedsheets in their Athens hotel.
“Hey,” she gasped. “I think you were wrong about that fabric on our bed in Athens.”
“What?” Martin was below Isa’s feet. “What makes you say that? Now? Here?”
“How could anyone make a material out of cocoons?” Isa asked. “They’re too hard.” Growing up aboard a space-borne mining platform, Isa hadn’t seen many insects until she’d lived on Victoria. She still had a love/hate relationship with them, especially the flying kind, but she did know a little about them. A caterpillar’s transformation into a butterfly was a fascinating mystery to her.
“You’re thinking of chrysalises,” said Martin. “They hold developing butterflies. Moth larvae spin cocoons from silk.”
“Oh, right. Ow!” Isa’s head had struck a crystal.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah. Let’s take a rest though, huh?”
“Sure.”
Isa relaxed. Her shoulders, wrists, and ankles were balls of pain, and one side of her body felt raw where she’d scraped it along the ground, her sweat increasing the friction. She guessed that she and Martin had only moved a few meters, and they didn’t even know if they were heading in the right direction. She didn’t want to say it aloud, but it looked to her like their situation was desperate. Trying to escape was only a way to pass the time before they met the inevitable outcome.
Had Samuel and the others put them there for no other reason than to ensure slow, agonized deaths? Isa couldn’t guess what she had done to antagonize the Tyrians to such an extent. Though they all clearly had some hidden agenda, she didn’t think any of them were insane.
“Isa?” Martin said.
“Yeah?” She hoped he wasn’t going to suggest moving again just yet.
“You never said what happened to you the last time you were down here.”
“I didn’t?”
“No.”
“Uh….”
“If you don’t want to tell me, it’s okay.”
“I don’t mind, really,” she said, though her reply finished there.
Martin remained quiet, perhaps allowing the silence to stretch out so
that she would fill it, or perhaps giving her an out if she still didn’t want to open up. Sweat dripped from her cheek and ran into her eyes. Their dire situation didn’t seem an appropriate time to tell Martin what she guessed was the source of her problems, but she couldn’t think of a better time, either, considering that they might not have much longer to live.
“To be honest, even I’m not sure exactly what happened to me,” she said.
“But you have an idea.”
“How do you know?”
“Because you avoid talking about it,” Martin said.
“I just don’t see any point. It can’t be fixed.”
“How do you know? Did you ask someone about it?”
Martin was moving again, shuffling up toward her. When Isa looked down, she could see the top of his head near her knees.
“No, I didn’t,” Isa said. “I guess what I mean is I don’t want it to be fixed.”
“Why not?”
Isa tensed up, and it had nothing to do with her current circumstances. She hadn’t ever told anyone what she was about to tell Martin. If she was going to tell him. She hadn’t yet decided.
Okay, she told herself. This is it.
She opened her mouth to speak, but Martin said, “Can you hear something?”
Aside from the noises they made, the cave had been utterly silent. Isa listened intently.
“Yes,” she whispered.
She could hear the voices, far off but steadily growing louder. People were approaching.
OVERWATCH
STELLAR DATE: 03.22.8937 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Tyrian Constabulary Pinnace Darting Fire
REGION: Tyre, New Canaan System
The Tyrian constabulary’s pinnace was hovering in the sky above the central mountain range to the north of Ushu.
Chief Kang had explained that with a respectable stealth system and grav drives, the pinnace was the one piece of new equipment her small force had managed to requisition. The rest of their ships and equipment had already seen considerable use back at Kapteyn’s Star.
Usef had considered calling down the Sark’s pinnace, but the constabulary’s was larger, and its grav drives more efficient.