Nox rushed ahead and Adan lost sight of him in the haze. From out of the dust clouds came shouting and the sound of padding feet on the sand. Adan had no idea where he was going. He shambled forward, scanning his surroundings for any sign of the Wayman. Suddenly, he spotted the silhouettes of two ballast cruisers looming up ahead in the mist. For a moment Adan froze in panic until he realized that the ships were still docked. Just in front of them stood Nox, stepping over the last of three bodies lying in the sand. In one of his hands was a bloody shiv which he wiped against one of the fallen men’s garricks.
“Nap-trap didn’t work on that one,” he said, nodding towards the man. “Had to do him the other way.”
Adan averted his eyes and pointed towards the cruisers docked behind him. “Those ships are too big. They’ll spot us for sure if we take one.”
“Right,” Nox squinted at them, as if noticing the size of the ships for the first time, “We need something small and fast, but mostly just fast.” He took off without warning again, racing towards several dark shapes in the haze.
They soon stumbled across a row of box-like ships docked on an elevated platform. They had plated sides made of scrap metal fused together. The front end sloped slightly downwards and housed a pulse gun like the kind Adan had seen on the ballasts, only this one was about half the size.
He ran a check with his bioseine to see if he could tell what kind of ship it was. The closest match he could find was a combination assault transport called a ‘sovos’ or ‘sand duster’.
“If this is what I think it is, it should be fast enough,” Adan said. “Let’s just hope I can make it work.”
“I thought you were machine-wise. Was the seer lying about that too?” Anger sparked in Nox’s face and Adan was once again reminded that he needed to stay on his guard around this man.
“These ships are more primitive than the ones I’m familiar with,” Adan explained. “But don’t worry. I’ll figure it out.”
Their conversation was cut short by the sudden appearance of half a dozen Waymen out of the haze.
“What are you two doing in the bay?” one of them asked.
“Just came by for a surprise inspection.” Nox hurled a nap-trap into the group along with his reply. It caught the lead man in the shoulder, exploding in a puff of greenish dust and what sounded like a loud exhalation. The guard staggered forward and fell face down into the sand. Adan fumbled for one of the pods as the others surged towards them, but Nox yanked him back towards the platform before he could throw it. A pinion thudded into the ground near his feet.
Nox managed to fling another pod before heaving Adan up onto the platform and leaping after him. Another Wayman fell to the sand. A barrage of pinions clattered against the structure, narrowly missing Adan as he leapt from the platform into an opening in the side of one of the sand dusters.
There was no door to close, but behind the thick walls of the ship, they lost sight of the Waymen for a moment. Adan could still hear them racing towards the platform, though. He had to figure out how to get this ship started fast.
The sovos didn’t have many parts, but he had no idea what any of them did. He tried yanking on an arrangement of levers jutting out of the floor near the gun but they were all locked in place.
“Hurry up,” Nox yelled as he tossed another pod through the opening in the side of the ship and then ducked as a pinion clanged against the ship’s outer wall.
Adan moved to the back where a closed compartment was embedded into the floor. He flipped it open, but all that was inside was a bundle of pinions and a few boxes.
Nox cried out and Adan spun around in time to spot one of the Waymen leaping onto the duster. Nox flicked his wrist and the man went down in a cloud of powder, falling backwards off the ship.
Another man burst onto the deck. Adan froze, forgetting all about starting the ship. Nox wasn’t quick enough to get off another pod this time. The Wayman rushed at Adan with a drawn shiv.
Nox leapt forward, wrapping him up before he could strike. Both went crashing to the floor. The attacker flailed wildly with his shiv, attempting to plunge it into Nox’s throat, but Nox dug his teeth into the man’s wrist. The assailant cried out and dropped his weapon. But before Nox could go do anything else, another Wayman rushed onto the ship and dove on top of him.
Finally, Adan came to his senses and pulled out one of his sopor pods. He hurled it at the two men attacking Nox. They were all so close together that instead of hitting the attackers, the pod hit Nox in the back of the head.
When the Wayman’s hefty frame slammed onto the deck, the air around him erupted into a cloud of green smoke accompanied by a whoosh of air. Adan felt himself start to lose strength in his knees as the cloud washed over him, but the sensation quickly passed and, to his surprise, the sopor had no further effect upon him.
As the dust cleared, Adan spotted dozens of pod husks scattered around the bodies of Nox and the two Waymen. Nox’s garrick had ripped wide open.
Adan rushed over and shoved the bodies of the two Waymen off the ship. Two more lay motionless just outside the opening. Adan gave Nox a quick glance to make sure he was still breathing and that’s when he noticed two translucent panels on the floor near the pulse gun. Examining them more closely, it looked like they could be moved. He tried shoving them in all directions with his foot, but they wouldn’t budge. Finally, he stamped on them out of frustration. One of them sank slightly into the floor and began to glow with a soft yellow light. At the same time, yellow channels lit up along the levers and the ship floated gracefully upwards.
Keeping his foot on the panel, he felt the levers and noticed they were now loose. He pushed the first one gently and felt the ship drift forward. Encouraged by this discovery, he pulled the one to the left of it and the ship pivoted. Thus experimenting, he pushed and pulled the various levers until he had a rudimentary understanding of how to maneuver the ship. Pushing down on the one that made the ship rise, he fought his vertigo as the duster floated past the other ships docked next to it.
Pushing the velocity lever, the duster picked up speed. With Adan and the unconscious Nox on board, the ship left the platform and flew towards the docking bay exit.
Floating above the dust clouds, at or near maximum altitude for its lev thrusters, Adan had a clear view of a set of massive doors at the far end of the docking bay. A series of beams and ramps cobbled together formed two makeshift towers on either side. Lights glittered feebly along the walls and Adan spotted several Waymen scattered on top. Some stood near large pulser cannons while others patrolled along the walkways.
For a moment he contemplated heading back into the sprawling city to find Senya. Nox was unconscious and the ship was his to command. But even if he didn’t get shot down, he had no idea where she might be. Flying blindly through the city would most likely get him captured again and do nothing to save her.
He would have to come back for her after he found Gavin. He knew Gavin would be able to come up with a plan to save her and the boys. Finding him had to come first.
He turned his attention towards the massive gates and once again his resolve faltered. There was no way he was going to get through those with Waymen manning the walls and towers. Nor could the ship fly over the walls; Adan may not have known much about this ship, but hover class ships couldn’t fly very high.
He glanced down at the pulser. He’d have to cut his way out. But he’d have to find the right spot to do it. If they saw him, he’d be shot down. Dust clouds covered most of the docking bay, but thinned as they rose and disappeared before they reached the higher platforms which ran along the walls.
Out across the bay, a ballast cruiser rose up out of the mist and began heading his way. Adan let out a frustrated grunt. He must have been spotted. He rammed the altitude lever forward, sending his craft diving back down into the sand clouds.
The sovos swiveled back towards the nearest wall. At least his time above the dust clouds had given him a way to locate his posi
tion inside the bay. Though he couldn’t see more than fifty paces inside the dust, his bioseine told him exactly where he was. All he had to do was get to the closest wall and cut his way out before they could get to him.
Racing through the dust-filled air, he heard several monotone hums fire up off in the distance. More hovers were powering up. But he was too busy dodging ramps and platform struts to worry about them.
His hand bounced back and forth across the levers, coating them in a layer of nervous sweat as he tried to maneuver through the nearly invisible maze. Platform posts flashed up at him out of the dust clouds like immobile sentries. Swerving to avoid one he invariably steered himself towards another. He reacted too late once and the side of the sovos listed into it. But the ship was sturdier than the platforms. All he did was bend the post badly and tilt the edge of the dock. He rotated the duster away and plunged back down the path.
At last the outer wall loomed up out of the haze. He couldn’t fly directly up to it because the platform running along its length topped out above the dust clouds; he would have to cut through the platform supports in order to get to the wall.
Placing his hands on the pulse gun, he felt around for its controls. After a moment, he spotted a glowing yellow dial on the right side and a small lever on the left. Since these seemed to be the only moving parts, he spun the dial until it would no longer go any further and the dial’s glow intensified.
He thought the lever would fire the weapon if he pushed it, but instead it tilted the barrel so it pointed at the ground. Playing with it some more, he found that he could tilt the gun in practically any position he wanted.
The dial looked like it could be pushed as well as turned and so he tried that next. The barrel of the gun sung in low vibration and lit up along the side with yellow lights. A bright yellow beam shot out from the end, slicing through the legs of the platform. Pellets of light lined the beam, scattering the darkness.
The platform quickly caved in on itself and toppled to the ground. Adan began tracing a hole in the wall large enough for the ship to fly through. He was about three quarters of the way done when another locus beam lit up the air around him, crossing his own beam and just missing his ship.
Adan glanced back and saw the shadow of a long ship drifting towards him. He shifted the sovos to the side to stay out of its line of fire while maintaining the bead he had on the wall, but the sudden movement caused him to slice wide of his target.
Flicking his wrist in the other direction, he overcorrected and sliced into the circular shape he was trying to cut out. The wall panels around where he was cutting were starting to bend and groan, but held together.
The shape behind him loomed larger and larger until it took the form of a massive ballast cruiser. Whoever was piloting it had maneuvered it out of position for the moment. It no longer had a direct shot, but Adan saw one of its guns swiveling back around towards him. He could not afford to wait until it got into position. He shoved on the forward levers as hard as he could and rammed the sovos into the unfinished hole. The duster pummeled the wall and the flimsy metal went flying, but then the ship stopped, caught underneath on a section of the wall.
Adan yanked back and forth on the forward lever so hard he thought it might come off, but nothing happened. He flicked his eyes frantically between the giant ballast bearing down on him and the stubborn lever in front of him.
“Please, please, please,” he said over and over, his heart threatening to leap into his throat.
Then, with a jerk, the duster shot forward and out into the open night.
Adan glanced back at the mangled hole he’d escaped through. The wall panels and platform struts lay in a jumbled heap. The opening was far too small for a cruiser to fit through, but even if the cruiser could, he was confident he could outrun it in the open desert. They’d have to find another ship if they wanted to catch him and by then they would have lost sight of him.
He shoved the velocity lever forward as far as it would go and the duster whipped across the dunes. There was almost no light left in the sky, but he could see enough to know that he was free again. Glancing down at the slumbering Nox, he wondered for how long.
Nine
Three Jaunts Away
Adan did not engage the guide lights for the ship until the city of Hull was out of sight. To make sure they didn’t run into anything, he kept the ship flying as high as it would go, about two full body-lengths off the ground.
He was grateful when daylight broke forth at the edge of the horizon and no sign of pursuit could be seen. His heart warmed with gratitude to Numinae, certain that it was he who had delivered Adan out of the city, though the instrument he had chosen to do his work was certainly an unexpected one.
Nox remained passed out on the deck of the duster, oblivious to their success. As far as Adan was concerned, the longer he stayed down, the better. But he would wake up eventually. Once the light got strong enough, Adan stopped the duster and did a quick search of his unconscious companion. He found a full water pouch, some kern, a few metal spikes, the long cord Nox had used to get down into the pit, and three shivs hidden in the pockets of his garrick. Adan wondered how Nox had managed to scavenge so many supplies, but then the Waymen were quite adept at looting.
As a precaution, he decided to relieve the warrior of his weapons and tossed them into the sand, hoping Nox would not be too angry when he found them missing.
Searching inside the Wayman’s garrick, he found around his neck a silver circlet with a little bauble on it. The pendant had a yellow crystal embedded inside a notched wheel. This seemed odd. Adan had never seen Waymen wearing jewelry or other adornments before. He also found a strange black disk hidden inside one of Nox’s inner pockets. It was not much larger than the palm of Adan’s hand and had four small pieces of glass embedded into its surface on the top. It looked like some form of technology, but a check with his bioseine failed to yield any information as to what it was.
He searched the ship as well, finding the pinions he had found earlier in the supply compartment in the back. He threw those out beside Nox’s other weapons. The plastic boxes inside the compartment were all empty, but underneath them were two spare sets of desert clothing. He gratefully donned the kaff to replace the one he’d used as a bandage. To his surprise, tucked inside the folded up piece of cloth was a pair of lentes. He placed these over his eyes and found they were fully charged. Sliding his finger along one of the rims, the faraway dunes zoomed into view.
He remembered the first time he had used lentes, when he and Will had descended into the Viscera, searching for food and water. He had found water that day, but more than that, he had been introduced to the world of the Welkin and to Senya’s family. Again he considered briefly going back for her and again decided against it.
Gavin will know how to save her, he told himself. Besides he may be in even greater danger than Senya and her children.
Re-engaging the duster, he glanced down at one of the black crystal panels on the side of the steering column. It showed the status of the vehicle’s systems in a schematic composed of glowing white images. The only one Adan really cared about was the power level and that looked good; it showed they had seven days of flying time left.
As the journey wore on and Nox continued to remain unconscious, Adan began to wonder whether or not he had been hurt more seriously than it appeared. Adan hadn’t seen him stir for so long that when he finally caught Nox moving out of the corner of his eye he gave a start.
The Wayman sat up and patted his coat several times, a questioning look on his face.
“So, you lifted my shivs, eh?” Nox said at last, his expression shifting to a dark brooding. Adan tensed, gripping the controls and trying to think what he would do if Nox attacked, but the Wayman’s eyes sparked with cruel mirth as he let out a full-bellied laugh. “Well done! Now you’re thinking like a Wayman. Never trust anyone.”
Adan concentrated on steering the sovos and tried not to appear too nervous.
“You won’t need your weapons around me,” he said. “I’m no threat to you.”
“Everyone’s a threat.” Nox reached into his pockets, no doubt to see what else Adan had taken. “But I don’t need my shivs. I can kill just as easily with my bare hands. It just takes a little longer.”
Adan fastened his eyes on Nox. He half expected the man to lunge at him. But the Wayman just stood there, smiling to himself and fingering the silver chain which hung around his neck.
“Nice shards,” Nox remarked, nonchalantly, as if he hadn’t just made a veiled threat on Adan’s life.
“What?” Adan replied, trying to steady his nerves.
“Those things on your face.” Nox pointed at the lentes, flashing his decaying teeth. “How can you see where you’re going with those things on?”
“They actually help me see farther than normal,” Adan said, still eyeing Nox warily. “I could let you try them on if you’d like.”
Nox gave him a startled look. “Oh no. I’m just an empty shaft. Relics aren’t for me. Too many parts, too many things to go wrong.”
“Fair enough.” To be honest, Adan would not have been all that thrilled with using the lentes again after they’d touched Nox’s grimy face. “What’s that necklace you’re wearing?” Adan asked. “I didn’t know Waymen wore that sort of thing.”
Nox promptly shoved it back inside his garrick and gave Adan a suspicious look, as if he expected Adan had designs on stealing it.
“I guess you don’t know much about Waymen,” was all he had to say. He wandered over to the edge of the duster. The wall of the open-topped ship went up to about his shoulder and he peered over the side at the sandy floor whisking by. The land was relatively free of scrap, but rock formations loomed in the distance. “So where are we?” he asked.
The Chronotrace Sequence- The Complete Box Set Page 43
