When Haydn had bent over in that way, his father had taken out his chin by ramming his fist up in a hard arc. Noa had no illusions about the power of her own fist, so she swung her knee instead, driving up from her other foot and putting all her weight behind it.
Her knee connected perfectly with the man’s chin. His head snapped back. He grunted and folded to the ground and laid still.
Noa picked up the plasteel and spun to check Haydn.
The other three were kicking him and bending to rain blows on him wherever they could reach.
Noa had impetus on her side. She was still turning, the plasteel swinging with her. She whipped her arm around, the air whistling across the sharp edges of the plasteel. It connected squarely with the back of the nearest man. He arched backward, crying out. He dropped something that clattered, then staggered away, trying to reach the middle of his back with his hands.
Noa put down the plasteel and picked up the knife the man had dropped. She took a big step and threw herself up in a giant leap, to land on the back of the third man, who was bent over and trying to pull Haydn’s arms away from his head.
The man stood up to dislodge her, so Noa wrapped her legs around him and hooked her arm over his shoulder. She pushed the knife up against the side of his neck, just under his ear. “It’s your friend’s knife,” she told him. “I don’t need to be very strong to drive it into your brain from this point and I’m a lot stronger than I look. I’m a mechanical engineer. I move heavy objects all the time.”
He grew very still.
“Tell your friend to stop,” Noa told him.
“Clinton,” the man called. His voice was hoarse.
Clinton looked up, just on the verge of taking another kick. He lowered his foot.
“Both of you are going to walk away. Take your friends with you and don’t come back.”
“Or what? You know who this is?” Clinton said, pointed at Haydn. “A fucking Caver! One of the ones who killed the guard today.”
“He’s not a Caver,” Noa assured them.
“He just told us he was! He said it!”
“You knew things weren’t right on the platform,” Noa said. “You stopped because it was wrong. Think it through. Acardi forced him to say it. You know that. You were just looking for an easy excuse to get even.”
The man whose neck she was stabbing spoke. “There are no guards out tonight. They’re the ones that want us to get even. They’re staying away so we can.”
That was a chilling thought. Noa renewed her grip on the knife, for her hand was slippery with sweat. “You’ve got the wrong guy,” she said firmly. “Find someone else. Go on. Pick up your friends and go.”
The man under her bent forward and picked up the arm of the one she had first attacked. Noa slid off his back and kept hold of the knife.
Clinton looked around. “Where’s Howard?”
“Here,” came the soft call from the side passage. “I think she broke my back.”
“You’re still standing, ain’t you?” Clinton said, as the other one hauled the unconscious man up and over his shoulders.
Noa kept the knife out in front of her until they moved out of sight, despite how badly the blade was shaking. Then, when they were truly gone and she could no longer hear their footsteps, she dropped the knife. Her stomach was roiling in a way she recognized. She stepped over Haydn and staggered up the corridor, bent over and vomited.
She cleaned up as best she could, then came back to Haydn and checked him. He was breathing, but he was unconscious. In the dark, she couldn’t see what other damage they might have handed out. They had not had long. She had at least minimized what might have happened.
Noa looked around. They were somewhere in the Aventine, which she did not know well. However, there was one address she did know. She bent and got her arms under Haydn’s and picked him up.
“Good gravy!” she muttered as she felt his weight. This was going to be a tough haul. She paused, taking stock. There was no one else to help. It was just her.
So she pulled, wincing as Haydn’s legs and feet dragged. She was a mechanic. She got things done and that was that.
Chapter Twelve
There was no pain, which was a novelty. Haydn drifted, enjoying the tranquility and lightness, while he pulled his thoughts together.
“Haydn.” The voice was soft, yet he knew who it was.
He opened his eyes and got a fleeting impression of a big, light room with more than one window, before his attention was pulled to the slight figure next to the soft bed he was on.
Noa’s chin quivered. Her eyes filled as she looked at him and the tears rolled.
“Hey, don’t,” he said. He was surprised at how weak it sounded. His belly hurt when he spoke. He remembered his father’s fist and the plasteel bat. There may have been kicks, too. Maybe more.
“You’re fine,” she said, her own voice hoarse. “We called in a medic to make sure, this time.”
“We?”
A larger shape moved at the end of the bed, drawing his attention. Lizette, looking lovely and worried and very tall. “Noa brought you here. They stuck a knife in you at least once. You were bleeding again. “
“All over your bed this time. Sorry,” Haydn said.
Lizette shrugged. She was biting her lip. “Noa told us what happened.”
“Us?”
“Everyone’s here,” Noa said. “They all came when they heard. Lizette kept them out in the sitting room. We promised we’d tell them the moment you woke.”
“I should go and tell them,” Lizette said. She turned as the door to the big room opened and what looked like a dozen people tried to squeeze through the door at the same time. Haydn saw Cai and Ségolène, Anselm and Jardin. Even Peter.
Noa moved around the end of the bed, her hands up. “No, no! Give him a chance to draw breath.”
Lizette pushed them all back out and moved out herself. She closed the door, leaving only Noa to look at him.
Hadyn drew in a breath. “They all came?” he asked.
Noa sat on the edge of the bed. His heart gave one of the little shock starts it did when she came close. He couldn’t help but reach up and wiped away the last of her tears.
“They were worried,” Noa said.
“There’s a novelty,” he breathed. He forced himself to take his hand away. “So now you know.”
She nodded. “Your father isn’t the danger. He doesn’t want you dead the way his enemies do.” She let out a breath that shook.
“None of them are selective about who gets caught up in the fallout, either. They don’t care who is standing next me,” he added slowly.
Noa shook her head. “No.”
“No, what?”
“No, you’re not going to go off and hide away because of some noble idea about protecting people.”
“Protecting you, Noa. I’m not going away to protect you. I’m going away because I can’t. Not when you’re near.”
“Except you’re the one lying in the bed with the bandages and pain killers right now,” she said lightly.
Haydn couldn’t find a response to that.
“I’m stronger than I look,” Noa said.
“I know that,” he muttered.
“Don’t I get any say in this?” she demanded.
Startled, he looked at her. “No,” he said flatly. “You’ll choose wrong. You’ll take the risk.”
She bent and kissed him, stealing every argument he had. As her soft lips touched his, his body tightened, telling him he wasn’t as badly injured as he thought he might be. It became hard to breathe. Hard to just lie there.
He held her small face and indulged himself for one selfish moment, drawing every skerrick of pleasure and joy from the kiss that he could.
She pulled away and he wanted to protest that the moment had been too short. Then she startled him all over again by lying next to him. There wasn’t a lot of room on that side of the bed, but she didn’t need much. She curled over him,
pressing up against his side, her leg over his thighs. Her hand rested on his chest, which ached at the touch, not because of any bruising, but because it was her hand there. The featherweight touch made his skin tingle.
She was soft, small and smelled glorious. Even her fine black hair was a delicate brush against his cheek.
“You don’t get to walk away, Haydn,” she said gently. “Like your father said, only this time, it’s true.”
“Noa—”
“Sleep,” she whispered. “We’ll talk later.”
* * * * *
The screaming woke him. Haydn jerked awake this time, blinking and trying to orient himself. It was dim…was it late? He was still in the big room. Someone had polarized the windows, cutting out the light.
Noa was gone. Yet he could smell her on the sheets.
That calmed him. He listened, trying to sort out what was happening from sound alone. As he lay, he could feel twinges and bruises aching. The pain killer had worn off. He was back to hurting, only this time, it didn’t bother him. Bruises healed. Even knife wounds healed.
The screaming and shouting was from outside the room. It sounded as if it was coming from beyond the windows. If he was in Lizette’s apartment, it meant the screaming was coming from somewhere in the Aventine.
He strained to make sense of the words in the shouting. It was too far away.
The door opened. Noa hurried over to the bed. “It’s fine,” she said quickly. “You’re not in danger.”
The tension that had been building in his chest released. He breathed in deeply. “What happened?”
“Another holing,” she said bleakly. “Cai has gone to find out. I think there was more than one object passing through.”
“You’re not going to go save the day?” he teased.
“I thought I’d let someone else have a turn.” She picked up his hand. Hers was small and hot. “This will make them want the work done as fast as possible.”
“Them?”
“Everyone, but the Captain especially. They’ll want the ship protected.” She gave his hand a little shake. “You have to get back on your feet, Haydn. As soon as you can. We need you.”
“I’ll see what I can arrange,” he said. Right then, he couldn’t express the warmth, the overwhelming pleasure those three little words generated.
We need you.
It wasn’t just Noa. It was everyone, anxious to have him back working on the problem of protecting the ship. They had all hurried here to see him. They wanted him as part of the group.
He was afraid that if he tried to say anything at all, he would break the spell, so he held Noa’s hand instead.
* * * * *
The second holing of the Endurance galvanized people. One incident could be an anomaly. A second occurrence, this time with three objects punching their way through the Aventine, was more than an unfortunate coincidence.
Seven people died from the projectiles. Two passed straight through Aventine market-shoppers. The third nicked a gas pipe, which leaked toxic gas into an apartment, killing the five people inside.
The outrage from the fatalities brought public discussion of the re-plating of the ship to the fore. The Forum was bursting with arguments and debates, filled with rhetoric and blunt commentary alike.
Dennis, who seemed to find the sudden influx of Lizette’s engineer friends into his apartment amusing, kept up with most of the discussion and pointed out their direction. “I think this is probably the first time since the Endurance left Terra that anyone has stopped to consider there is a whole other world out there, that we’re passing through on the way to somewhere else. For generations, the inside of this ship has been their entire world view.”
“That’s a good thing, isn’t it?” Noa asked
“A broader viewpoint is always a good thing,” Cai said quietly. He glanced toward the bedroom door, where Haydn was still sleeping. “I do wonder how the Cavers will justify this one. An object under pressure breaking loose just won’t cut it this time.”
They found out an hour later, when a message was posted by someone who had never formerly been associated with the Cavers suggesting that the cave the ship was located in was collapsing and that efforts to break out of the ship should happen sooner rather than later, because this was most likely to happen again.
Cai shook his head. “Because the collapsing fragments from the cave just happened to instantly leap to sub-light speed and tear through the ship at a seventy degree angle, instead of dropping vertically like a good rock should. Do they even hear themselves?”
The secondary response to the holing didn’t make itself apparent until the next day, when everyone, including Haydn, headed to the Bridge to work.
Haydn used short steps and kept his hand against his side, yet he was moving, to everyone’s surprise but Noa’s.
“Shouldn’t you stay in bed for a few days at least?” Lizette said, when he emerged from the bedroom wearing newly printed overalls and a multi-pocket jacket.
“I can barely sleep as it is.” He nodded toward the screen Lizette, Dennis and Noa had been watching while they ate a quick breakfast. One of the Aventine residents had used a lens to capture images of the destruction caused by the meteoroids and the footage was still running. Dennis in particular was fascinated by the perspective shift the holing caused. “It’s not just that people are thinking about what’s on the other side of the hull, now. It’s how much is out there. What is out there. If I were a Caver, I’d be very frightened right now, because nothing would make sense to me,” he’d said the first time they had watched the footage.
Haydn glanced at it now. “Staying in bed seems like the height of selfishness with all this going on.”
“If Cai and the Navigation AI are right,” Noa said, “all this is going to go on for years yet.” She hesitated. “I can help you back to your apartment, if you’d rather be there.”
He shook his head. “I’m going to work.” He said it breathlessly.
Lizzette shook her head. Dennis put together a fourth plate of the waffles they were eating, placed them on the table and patted Haydn’s shoulder. “At least eat before you go. Some calories will make a difference.”
Once the dishes were recycled, Dennis kissed Lizette goodbye, lingering to stare into her eyes before he let her go and went to work. He spent a lot of time on the Bridge, keeping track of the project, yet he still worked in his Institute office in the Aventine most of the time.
The three of them walked to the Bridge. Slowly. For the first time both Lizette and Noa had to shorten their steps to keep pace with Haydn.
“Are you sure about this?” Lizette said, watching him wince as he walked.
Noa bit her lip. It was hard to see him clearly in pain, even when she knew why he was pushing himself like this. “He has to.”
Haydn glanced at her. “Pathetic, I know. He yanks my strings even now.”
Lizette shrugged. “I don’t know about that,” she said. “I’m still trying to beat every coder ever born, even Dennis.” She grinned. “Especially Dennis.”
Haydn concentrated on taking a few more steps. “Lizette, your height is surpassed only by your intelligence. Dennis is a lucky man.”
Lizette blushed. “Let’s just get to work, huh? I’m twitching to get back to it, too.”
They walked into the Collina and for the first time noticed how many people were there. On most occasions, it was possible to walk the road and not see another person. Now there were a dozen or more, all heading toward the Bridge.
Ahead, there was a soft murmur that said there were many more people already at the Gate.
“What the hell?” Lizette said, as they moved along the curved road and the Gate appeared.
There were at least two hundred people standing in front of the Gate, all of them pressing toward the guardhouse, where three harried security guards were trying to deal with everyone.
Noa edged in front of Haydn as they moved through the crowd. She didn’t want
anyone jostling him.
They made their way to the gate itself. Closer to the Gate, they had to ease through the thick wall of people, asking people to stand aside. Everyone cooperated without protest. The mood of the crowd was not negative. They weren’t angry. They weren’t frustrated.
Noa checked the faces of those they passed. The attitude that seemed to be common to everyone in the Gate area was one of determination.
Rozālija Rina was the sergeant running the gate. Her round face was red and her thick braid bounced around her back as she hailed the three of them. “Thank the stars you’re here!” She pushed through the two junior officers, raised the gate manually and waved them to hurry up and pass through.
They were still ten meters away and Haydn simply couldn’t hurry, so Noa called from where they were. “What’s going on?”
Rozālija threw up a hand. “They want to help.”
“Help with what?”
She rolled her eyes. “What do you think? Your work. The suits, the refit. All of it.”
Noa looked around, startled. Everyone around them had turned to look at them.
“You’re the people fixing the ship?” one woman asked them.
“We’re some of those people,” Noa said carefully. “Why do you want to help?”
The woman spread her hands. “It’s our ship, too,” she said. “It’s our home.”
Noa looked passed her. “You all want to help?”
Many nodded, some murmured their confirmation. There was not a single negative response.
The three of them reached the gate and Noa looked back, absorbing the numbers.
“What do you want me to do with them?” Rozālija asked. “They can’t stand here all day, clogging up the gate.”
“Can you take names and codes?” Noa asked. She raised her voice. “There is a ton of work they can do, only we need to sort out who can do what. Take their names and we’ll call them in when we need them.” She looked at Lizette as the tall woman waved her wrist in front of the scanner. “Could you stay and help Rozālija with that?”
Lizette shrugged. “Sure. Names, codes, anything else?”
“Basic skill sets might be useful,” Haydn murmured. “Then you can match them with the work that needs to be done.”
Junkyard Heroes Page 12
