Randoms

by David Liss

  “We have to get out of here first,” I said.

  “Fair enough.”

  We finished tying up the guards and moved on.

  “Next stop,” Steve said, “the armory.”

  This turned out to be a metal cage with a lock that the plasma wand, when turned up to full power, cut easily. Inside were PPB hand weapons: pistols and rifles. Steve began to pass them out and then throw extras in a bag.

  “Are they deadly?” I asked.

  “They have settings,” Steve said. “I’ve practiced with them in the sparring room, though they generally don’t let initiates use them. But Dr. Roop gave me a few lessons.”

  “Why am I not surprised?” I said.

  “Yeah,” he agreed. “He was definitely preparing me for this. Still, I’m not complaining. So, at the lowest setting it’s like short-circuiting someone’s nervous system—sort of like the low-level jolt from the plasma wand, but more sustained.”

  “Are they hard to fire?” I asked. “Hard to aim?”

  He grinned at me. “You’ll find out.”

  Armed, we made our way to the barracks, which was where I fired my first ray gun. There were no beams shooting through the air that you could dodge, just flashes of light that emerged from the muzzle. Like a high-powered laser rifle on Earth, it came equipped with a laser aiming aid, in the form of a bright yellow dot. There was no kick. You squeezed the trigger, you heard a satisfying and totally science-fictional whizzing noise, and the sleeping enemy was even more unconscious than he’d been before you fired your space gun at him.

  In that way it took us about fifteen seconds to render the building completely pacified. In my college applications I could now include “commando” on my list of accomplishments.

  Steve and Mi Sun volunteered to remain behind to bind the Phands while Tamret and I went back up to the control room. Charles and Nayana were standing, staring at the unconscious guards, and looking generally uneasy. They were happy to see us and even happier when we handed them their PPB pistols.

  Tamret went to work on the computers, digging into the system for anything that would be of use. She was at it for almost half an hour, only grunting when anyone tried to talk to her. During this time Mi Sun and Steve returned, and we stood around, peering out the window, while we waited for information that could help us.

  “Good news,” Tamret said at last. “There are four Phandic shuttles in the hangar. They have long-range capacity, so we can use them to tunnel back to the station.”

  I didn’t show how relieved I was that we had a way out. “How many can they hold?”

  “I can’t get spec information off of this, but according to the database on my bracelet, each one can hold a dozen average-size beings, maybe eighteen if necessary.”

  One shuttle would be enough to carry us, the selection committee, and a few of the Dependable’s crew. If we split up our personnel, we could get a lot of beings off this planet, but we’d have to get past that cruiser first, and that was going to be a challenge. In the meantime, at least we knew there was a way to escape, and that was more than we’d known before.

  “We have other things working in our favor,” Tamret continued. “The cruiser checks in only once during the night, local 0200. That means we’ve got four hours before we have to either make a hostage talk, try to fake our way through a check-in, or prepare ourselves for a firefight.”

  Four hours wasn’t a lot, but it could be worse. “Location of the prisoners?”

  Tamret shook her head. “Not there yet. I’m working on it.”

  “Work faster,” Nayana said. “You said you can do anything. You didn’t say you would do it slowly.”

  “Eyes,” Tamret muttered. “Claws.”

  Twenty minutes later she smacked the console. “Yes! I’ve got it.”

  I hurried over to her side. She put one hand on my back and pointed with the other. A three-dimensional map of the facility appeared on the screen.

  “We’ve caught a break,” she said. “Perimeter control is done by camera. The fourteen remaining guards are all stationed inside the prison. We’ve got four in the main room on the first floor. Then there are two on each of the remaining five floors. Each floor does a half-hourly check-in, so if we time it right, we can take out the first floor right after a check-in and then deal with the floors rapidly. We do that, we’ve basically taken control of the planet.”

  “It can’t be that easy,” Charles said.

  “And it’s not. There’s a shift change in twenty minutes. Fourteen guards from here go over there. Once they’re in place, the fourteen there come back here.”

  “And our fourteen aren’t going to show,” Nayana said.

  “We don’t need the strategist to point that out,” Tamret said. “We need the strategist to tell us what do to about it.”

  “There’s only one option,” Nayana told us, “and I think even you know it. You go now, you hit hard, and you hope for the best. If the prison contacts the cruiser, we’re all dead. You just took out like thirty guards. Another fourteen shouldn’t be too difficult.”

  The problem was that they were spaced far apart, and the chances of them all being taken out without anyone alerting the Phandic cruiser seemed remote.

  On the other hand, we had no choice and a ticking clock, which helped to motivate me. I needed Steve and Mi Sun to go on this mission. They were our best fighters. After the two of them, next up would be Tamret, but I did not want her to go into something so dangerous. Then there was me. I was hated throughout the Phandic empire as a mass murderer, but I’d never been in a fight like this. The extent of my military experience, of which I had been so proud, included shooting a bunch of sleeping guards and sucker-wanding a guy fleeing in terror. At best I would be of no help, and at worst I’d be a hindrance. Yet we were storming this building to get my father. I knew it was more complicated than that, but that was the fundamental truth. I could not ask them to go where I was unwilling to go.

  I held up my pistol and took a couple of steps so my Firefly coat would flair dramatically. “Charles. Nayana. Can you hold this building?”

  “Just us?” Nayana asked. “No!”

  “Yes,” Charles said. “We can do that.”

  “Tamret,” I said, “can you temporarily block all communication from the surface to the ship? I don’t want the ship’s comms blocked—they might notice that—but I want to make sure the guys on the surface can’t call for help.”

  She sat down at the console. “Yeah, that’s simple. Good call.” She looked up at me. “You’re smarter than you used to be.”

  “Why, thank you.”

  “I’ll take the credit for that.”

  Once she was done, we checked our pistols and got ready to dash across the courtyard.

  “Message us if anything bad happens,” I told Charles and Nayana. Then I looked at Steve, Mi Sun, and Tamret. “Weapons on nonlethal, everyone. We’re the good guys. If it is all possible, no one dies. Least of all us.”

  “No one dies,” Steve said, raising his pistol.

  We all said it, and we touched pistols like they were glasses.

  “Randoms,” I said.

  “Randoms,” Steve and Tamret said.

  Mi Sun looked irritated. “I’m not a random.”

  “None of us are,” I said. “All of us are. Let’s go.”

  • • •

  We crossed the courtyard and then paused outside the door. I could not let anyone else be the one to open it. I had to do it myself. I was so scared, I could hardly breathe. I was doing this. I was about to lay siege to an alien prison. I was going into battle, and people die in battles. I might die. I might see my friends die. I might suffer horrible, disfiguring, and painful injuries. My arms or legs could be blown off. And it was all real. It wasn’t a movie or a game. I was here, and there was a fairly good chance I co
uld be dead in the next twenty minutes.

  I threw open the door, fired my gun, and stepped back to let Steve and Mi Sun rush in. Tamret and I fired, not really aiming, while Phandic soldiers scrambled for cover. As our pistols whizzed and sparks flew, the Phands threw themselves on the floor. They yanked at plasma wands that would not come out of holsters. They’d been on this sleepy planet with their nonthreatening prisoners for so long they’d allowed their discipline to grow lax.

  In the end Tamret and I were only there to crank up the chaos machine. Steve and Mi Sun did the work. I thought Mi Sun had been impressive in the combat simulations, but I’d never seen such poised and beautiful violence. There were energy weapons firing all around her, but her face was a mask of calm. Nothing existed but her, her weapon, her body, her targets. She fired and kicked simultaneously, and yet each act was separate and distinct. She dodged blows. She seemed to know when she was in someone’s sights and stepped effortlessly out of the way. It was like she had been born for it.

  She was nothing compared to Steve, however. He was three times as fast as anything in the room. He ran up the walls and launched himself at the guards. He fired as he scurried across the ceiling, an unstoppable menace like the creature from Alien. I could barely follow him as he confused and terrified and shot at the enemy.

  Maybe twenty seconds after I first opened the door, all the guards were down.

  “That’s one for the barbarian planets,” I said.

  “Good start, mate,” Steve agreed.

  I went over to the main communications console and waited thirty seconds to see if anyone would check in to ask about the noise. I had no idea what soundproofing in the building would be like. Maybe no one had heard anything. Maybe I’d have to shoot the console like Han Solo. I had no idea. But the time passed, and no one checked in.

  I looked at my data bracelet. “We’ve got nine minutes until these guys start wondering where their replacements are. I hate to get all movie cliché, but we should probably split up.”

  “Check,” Steve said.

  “You and Mi Sun are faster than we can hope to be. You two take the bottom three floors. Tamret and I will take the top three.”

  Steve nodded and waved Mi Sun forward.

  Even as I said it, I knew it was the wrong call. Tamret should have gone with Steve. With his fighting skills, she would have only had to provide backup and cover. The same, if less so, was true if I had gone with Mi Sun. I was no fighter, and having Tamret with me was selfish. I had no business assigning her to someone as inexperienced as myself; I was afraid that if she went with one of the others I would never see her again.

  We headed down the stairs, and we paused at the first door, giving Steve and Mi Sun a few extra seconds to get to their floor. It still isn’t too late, I thought. I could call them back. I was in charge. I could do the right thing. But I didn’t. I was making a bad decision and I was fully aware of it, but I did it anyhow.

  • • •

  If I was going to be a bad leader, then I was determined not to be a coward. “Cover me,” I told her, and I went through the first door. The guards were at their stations, and they looked up. I fired. Once. Twice. They were down.

  Tamret grinned at me. She was enjoying this.

  Maybe I was too. It was so easy, and that’s why I became overconfident. I thought we could take care of the next two rooms just like I’d taken care of the first one. Two shots. Bad guys down. Tamret doesn’t even need to fire her weapon. That was how it was going to be.

  We went down to the next floor to take out the next set of Phands. I opened the door and fired at the guard. One guard. He went down. He was out. But he was alone. I scanned the room, looking for another Phand, afraid he might be hiding and would pop out and fire at me, not on nonlethal. I would feel a bolt of energy, and I would be dead.

  Maybe if I hadn’t been so preoccupied with these details, I would have been thinking about Tamret, worrying about her safety. When I was sure there was no one else in the room, I turned around, and I saw him, behind Tamret. I had no idea why he hadn’t been at his post when we came in. Maybe he had been on a bathroom break. Who knows? He had clearly heard us, and had decided to approach quietly.

  When I looked up, the guard we’d missed was already in motion. He had moved silently behind her, careful, taking his time. I suppose he knew our weapons were set to nonlethal, so there was no rush. He had all the time in the world. He also had one of those curved ceremonial blades. His arms were raised, coming down, with the tip of the blade pointed at Tamret.

  I turned just in time to see him plunge it into her back. The needlelike blade poked out of the left side of her chest, directly through her heart. Blood blossomed out of the neckline of her shirt, spreading over her white fur like wine spilled on a tablecloth. Blood trickled out of her mouth, and her lavender eyes went dark. She fell to her knees and then pitched forward. The blade clattered against the hard surface as the pool of blood spread like a shadow. Her body shook violently, just for an instant, and then she was still.

  I had killed a lot of beings aboard that Phandic cruiser, but that was different. It was cold and impersonal and distant, and no matter how scared I’d been, no matter how sure I’d been that I had to kill them or be killed myself, I’d still been playing with images on a computer screen. I knew it was real, but it sure felt a lot like a game.

  This was no game. This was someone, someone I cared about, dying right before my eyes. The Phandic guard let go of the sword and reached for his plasma wand, but I wasn’t going to let him have it. He was fifteen feet away from me. Tamret’s still body was on the floor between us, leaking blood. I met the guard’s gaze. My face felt hot, and my teeth were clenched. I could see a look of fear in the Phand’s eyes as he began to grasp his weapon, He was afraid of me. Without realizing what I was doing, I took two steps forward and leaped at him.

  By the time I left the floor, there must have been at least ten feet between us, and then I was on him. I couldn’t leap ten feet. I knew that, but I was not rational. Ideas, sensations, images were all fragmentary. I was flying through the air and coming down on him. He fell hard, his head hitting the concretelike surface. His eyes rolled back, and just like that he was unconscious. I can’t say it made me happy—I was never going to feel happy again—but there was something to savor in my victory.

  But it was not enough. I raised my pistol, ready to bring it down, to crush his stupid Phandic face. I knew I should stop, that he was no longer a threat, but somewhere in the back of my head I decided that it was too late for that. He had killed Tamret, and there had to be justice.

  I sucked in air, stretched out my arm, and prepared to take my revenge. Then I stopped. I was full of rage beyond anything I had ever known, and I did not want to let go of the anger, because I knew if I did, I would have to face the fact that Tamret was dead, and I was not ready for that. I would never be ready for that, but I wasn’t a murderer. The Phand was harmless now, and I could not strike again. I remained there for several long seconds, my pistol still raised, unable or unwilling to move. Then I heard her voice.

  “Zeke,” she said. “Help me.”

  I was off the guard in an instant. I fired a quick shot, to make sure he didn’t get up, and then I was kneeling at Tamret’s side. There was blood everywhere. So much blood. My knees rested in a pool of it. Her shirt was soaked through. Her fur up to her neck was bright red and horribly damp. I hated to see her like this, dying, her life leaking out of her, but I could not look away. “I’m here,” I told her. I dropped the pistol and took her hand. “I’m right here.”

  “Don’t kill him,” she groaned, her voice raspy and weak. “It’s not who you are.”

  I tried to swallow. My throat closed up on me. “Tamret,” I managed, but I couldn’t say anything else.

  “Not as bad as it looks,” she said, gasping. “I need you to pull it out.” She squeezed he
r eyes shut then opened them again. “It hurts so much.”

  I would have done anything to save her. If getting her back to the station in time were a possibility, I would have turned around right then. Rescuing my father could wait. I would have blasted through Phandic blockades and braved weapons, but none of that would have made a difference. Dr. Roop had said the nanites could protect about almost anything except traumatic heart or brain injury. Even if I could steal a Phandic shuttle and somehow elude the orbiting cruiser, she would never survive the two days back to the station.

  I kept trying to think of alternatives, places I could take her, things I could do, but there were no options, no surprises, no plot twists to make all this go away. Her heart had been pierced. She was going to die. The only thing I could do for her was to ease her suffering.

  “I’m so sorry, Tamret.” I placed both hands on the hilt of the blade and propped one knee against her back. Squeezing my eyes shut, feeling the tears stream down my face, I pulled the sword out, knowing that it would be the last thing she would ever feel.

  • • •

  “By [the primary revenge goddess] that hurts,” she said. She was sitting up, pressing a hand to her chest. “This is really extremely painful. Wow.” She vomited, and there was blood in what she spewed up, but not a lot. “Sorry,” she said as she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “I’m kind of dizzy. Can you hold me? I think I might black out.”

  I sat down and I held her, leaning her body against mine, feeling her hot blood soak my shirt. But not that much of it. Somehow, in my confusion, I understood she should be bleeding far more than she was.

  “Why aren’t you dead?” I sputtered.

  “It wasn’t that bad,” she said. “Just kind of, yeah, painful.”

  I tried several times to speak, but each effort came out as a choking sound. Finally, I was able to form actual words. “It was bad,” I managed.

  “Maybe it was a little bad, but it’s getting better. So that’s what a collapsed lung repairing itself feels like. Good information to have. I don’t recommend trying this, but I guess it beats the alternative. The skill points into healing go a long way.”