by PP Corcoran
Jodee responded with a weak smile of her own. “Not a chance. Let’s do this.”
Jodee steadied herself for a moment, resting her outspread hands against the earthen sides of the culvert before exploding from her hiding place like a cork from a champagne bottle. The acrid smell of smoke from burning buildings and vehicles assailed her nostrils as she ran for all her worth. Jodee stood nearly as tall as her father, at a hair under six feet, and her long legs ate up the distance to the beckoning mouth of the mine shaft. Through the loud beating of her own blood pumping in her ears, she could make out the rhythmic thumping of Chris’ feet as he struggled to keep up with his sister. Jodee came level with the single-story building and she felt her heart enter her mouth at the sight of three blue-skinned soldiers appearing around the building’s edge. Jodee’s headlong run faltered as the first of the soldiers turned to face her. The muzzle of his rifle seemed huge.
Crack! The soldier’s head was jerked violently to one side, a puff of bright red blood filled the air and he dropped like a stone. Jodee felt a rough hand grab her jacket sleeve and pull her forward. Chris had caught up with her and was dragging her on, but her eyes were fixed on the two remaining K’Tai soldiers who were taking aim at her.
Crack! A second K’Tai went down as he shared the same fate as his prone comrade. The remaining soldier went to one knee, but instead of aiming at the fleeing teenagers, he let off a long burst in the direction of the culvert that had only seconds before held Chris and Jodee. Spurred on, Jodee resumed her dash for the safety of the permacrete arch that formed the entrance to the mine, refusing to look back as the K’Tai and her mystery savior exchanged fire, fully expecting to be cut down any second. Time appeared to stretch, but eventually Chris and Jodee reached the mine entrance. Jodee slid to a halt and looked back in the direction she had just come. There was the K’Tai soldier, back against the corner of the single story building as he fired at whoever had taken down his two comrades. Jodee followed his line of fire and her knees went weak as she instantly recognized the face behind the sight of the rifle that had so swiftly and accurately taken out the K’Tai. Her mother!
As she watched on helplessly, the K’Tai let off another long burst, kicking up a hail of dirt and stones around the culvert end. Rolling back into cover, he began the process of swapping out his rifle magazine. He never finished the action. From the culvert Jodee saw a small, dark ovoid shape fly high in the air, its perfect arc landing it precisely at the edge of the building the K’Tai was using for cover. Jodee had seen enough vid movies to know what it had to be.
“Grenade!” she screamed as she attempted to make herself as small as possible in the narrow entrance.
Kaboom! The permacrete Jodee was sheltering behind was peppered by fragments as a sound like a thousand buzzing bees echoed around the mine entrance. As the sound passed, Jodee tentatively chanced a look around. The once pristine mine entrance was now chipped and broken. Chris gave her a reassuring wave from behind the outer door seal. Designed to contain a Redlazore blast, the outer door seal had shrugged off the puny grenade’s explosive force with little more than a few scratches. Suddenly Jodee remembered who had saved them from the K’Tai, and spun in place, desperately searching for any sign of her mother. The entire section of the building where the soldier had been hiding was no longer there. The fabric of the building had been torn asunder by the powerful grenade. Flames licked at the jagged building’s corners, thick smoke spiraled upwards as the contents of the building burned. Of the soldier, there was no sign. What there was, though, was Sue running as fast as she could toward them. A wave of relief washed over Jodee at the sight of her mother, only for her relief to be replaced by dread as if by some giant, unseen hand Sue was picked up off her feet and flung hard into a stack of packing crates. Jodee took a step forward, a step which undoubtedly saved her life as a pulse rifle round zinged through the empty air where her body had been a fraction of a second before. Jodee dropped to the ground as the single shot was followed almost immediately by tens, hundreds more. The air around her filled with flying metal seeking a target but Jodee ignored them all, oblivious to the hail of lethal rounds that were seeking her out. She only had eyes for Sue. Her mother’s lithe body lay like a discarded rag doll against the packing crates. Three K’Tai soldiers approached the unmoving body warily, pulse rifles at the ready.
Jodee felt herself scream her mother’s name, but couldn’t hear herself over the sound of the hail of fire that was ricocheting around the mine entrance as the K’Tai swept it with pulse rifle fire to keep any opposition down as they closed in. Somehow, Jodee began moving backward without moving a muscle. She continued screaming her mother’s name, her lungs filling with the rising dust haze as rounds impacted all around her. A part of her brain now felt the strong hands that were dragging her physically through the mine entrance, faster now as she moved on the smooth permacrete floor of the mine proper. With a whine of hydraulics, the heavy outer doors slid ever so slowly closed. Jodee continued to stare at the crumpled figure of her mother, her chin resting on her chest, arms by her sides, pulse rifle propped up on one leg. Even in death she defied her enemy to come closer.
#
The impact of the K’Tai round on the stock of the large pulse rifle lifted Sue off her feet and flung her through the air until, with a bone jarring thump, she crashed into a stack of packing crates. Sue commanded her eyes to open through the dizziness and focus on the immediate threat; however, her body only partially accepted her commands, her eyelids opened barely enough for Sue to make out the shadowy forms of three K’Tai closing on her at a dead run.
Sue tried to swing the heavy pulse rifle around to face them, but a flash of pain from her left collar bone told her something was wrong. No time to worry about that now, the shadows were nearly on top of her, and as her vision cleared of the myriad of stars, the sun glinted off the sharp steel bayonets atop the oncoming rifles. Come on, body, don’t let me down now. Hoisting the rifle in her right-hand Sue, hooked her foot under the heavy barrel, raising it from the ground. The pulse rifle roared as Sue held the trigger down and waved her leg back and forward like some demented puppet, the fire cutting down her onrushing assailants. Sue continued to pour fire until the magazine was empty. Before her lay the shredded remains of the three K’Tai sprawled in the dirt. Allowing the muzzle of her rifle to fall to the ground, Sue curled her legs up under her and, leaning on the rifle like a crutch, stood up, her now clear vision sweeping the mining compound for new threats. Through the rising palls of dirty smoke and the still flaming out building, Sue could make out the running forms of human workers and the more slow, methodical movements of the K’Tai. The dull pain in Sue’s left shoulder reminded her of its presence and she craned her neck to get a look at it. Pain shot along the nerves and Sue winced. A curse that her children would have found astounding escaped her lips as she reached up with her right hand to inspect the damage. An unnatural lump protruded from where her left collar bone met her upper arm. Yeah, that’s dislocated, thought Sue. Well, we know what we must do now, don’t we? Sue made her way over to the permacrete post which held the packing crates in position and placed her left shoulder against the unyielding structure. Taking a few deep breaths through pursed lips, Sue counted to three out loud.
“One… Two… Three… Ahhh!” On three she pushed with all her might against the post and the dislocated collarbone popped back into place. The pain that it brought dropped Sue to her knees, her sweat-laced brow resting on the cold polycarbonate of the pulse rifle as she fought to slow her breathing and control the pain.
“What I wouldn’t do for a dose of Numall right now,” she whispered to herself. Regaining her feet, Sue shook her left arm gently, gauging the range of motion. The muscles protested, but not enough that the arm wouldn’t function, and the aching pain would recede in a short period of time, giving her back a full range of motion.
“I really need to stop doing that,” Sue berated herself as she examined her pulse r
ifle for damage. At the point where the stock joined the main body of the weapon was an evil looking dent and scar which caused the stock to veer at a strange angle away from the body. Sue paused for a second as she wondered at the lady luck that had shone on her and led to the K’Tai round hitting the weapon and not her.
“Must just be my lucky day,” said Sue with a thin smile. “Oh well, plenty more where that one came from.” Discarding the damaged weapon, Sue trotted over to the K’Tai she had dispatched and retrieved a new pulse rifle, her eyes searching the area around her as she stuffed spare magazines and power packs into her jacket pockets. As she did so, her eyes fell on one of the grounded K’Tai transports sitting by the edge of the mine’s fence line and a mischievous grin split her face as a plan began to form.
Glancing in the direction of the mine entrance, Sue saw a few K’Tai gather at the entrance. It would not be long before they worked out a way of opening or breaching the heavy doors, so Sue was going to have to give them something more immediate to do which would distract them long enough to give the kids a chance to reach the air shaft and relative safety. Patting the grenades in her pocket, Sue headed for the transport and its unwary crew, the smile growing even wider.
Time to play!
CHAPTER NINE
The Kids Escape
H HOUR PLUS TEN MINUTES
CALLEY MINE
The sealing of the thick mine doors was accompanied by a hissing that steadily increased in pitch, filling Jodee’s ears, drowning out her screaming as she lay on the smooth permacrete floor with eyes wide, staring at the spotless, brilliant white doors, the image of her mother’s prone body burned fresh in her mind. Unnoticed, her breath was coming now in ragged, painful intakes as the emergency pumps evacuated the air from the confined space. Black spots floated in her vision and she noticed a strange lack of feeling in her extremities as the life-giving oxygen was robbed from her body. As if in a waking dream, the outer door seemed to float away from her, receding into the distance, replaced by a veil of white fog. The high-pitched whistling suddenly stopped, and her chest heaved as her body involuntarily gasped, as it fought to replace the missing oxygen from her body. Dimly, as if from a great distance, a voice came to her. Louder now, accompanied by a face that swam into view as her eyes cleared of the blackness that had threatened to take her.
“Jodee! Jodee!” The urgent voice of her brother Chris penetrated the ringing in her ears as the air pressure equalized. Arms hooked under her, half-dragging, half-carrying her until she sat upright, propped up against the smooth mine walls. The world around her came into sharp focus as she considered the worried face of Chris a scant few inches from her own. Her vision blurred once more, though this time it was due to the tears that filled her eyes and began streaming down her cheeks. Her entire body felt numb. She felt her mouth move, but her voice seemed to have deserted her. Through the tears she could make out the blurred face of Chris, his relief at escaping with his life from the black armored soldiers outside the mine entrance morphing into concern as he watched his sister sit in tears. Concern rapidly became worry when she failed to respond to him.
Memories of overnight hunting trips with his father and sister, while their mother was away working, came flooding back to him. Sitting around an open fire at night, surrounded by thick forest echoing with the call of nocturnal creatures, the clear night sky full of stars glimpsed fleetingly through the mass of branches waving to and fro in the breeze. Tales of how some animals became paralyzed by their own fear, refusing to move when the opportunity to escape remained open to them. That fear had sealed their fate. Looking down now into the pale, tear-streaked face of his sister, that was what he thought he saw.
“Jodee, snap out of it. We’re alive and if we want to stay that way we need to get moving. I’ve sealed the outer doors and that should hold them for a while, but those guys had some big-ass guns, so we need to do as mom said.”
Chris’ mention of their mother only brought a fresh wave of tears as Jodee’s head fell to her chest and her shoulders heaved in time to her crying.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” shouted Chris. Anger now filled his voice, replacing the previous concern. He had never known Jodee to cry. Never! Chris had watched her fall from a tree in the back garden of their home on Eridi Prime, fracturing her arm in two places, and all she had done was wipe the dirt from her clothes, straighten her hair and march off into the house telling dad she needed to go to hospital. This tear-streaked face was not one he recognized and, in their current situation, it was not one he had time to deal with. Roughly grabbing her by the arms he hauled her upright; cupping her chin in his hand, he lifted her face until he could look into her wet eyes.
“Jodee, I’m not sure what’s going on with you, but we’re getting out of here right now, so you need to pull yourself together.” His firm voice faltered as he looked deep into her eyes and saw the horror there. What had she seen that had such an adverse effect on her? “Jodee, I can’t do this on my own,” he half-whispered.
Jodee looked back at her brother, her mouth opened to speak, to tell him that their mother was dead, her body lying in a crumpled heap outside the doors sealing them in here. Her mind conjured up the memory of her mother’s strong face as she had ordered them to run. The sight of her sacrificing herself so they could reach the safety of the mine. She needed to tell Chris. Her mouth opened to speak when a loud thump reverberated on the outer doors, the sound of explosives. Whoever was outside those doors was trying to get in. Chris was right, it was only a matter of time before they, whoever they were, managed to get through the outer doors and when they did… Jodee wiped her eyes and set her jaw, digging deep into the core of inner strength that her parents had instilled into her. Now was not the time to tell Chris, they needed to focus on escaping. Once they were out of the mine and safely away, she would share the tragic news with him. For now, she would carry the burden alone. Dragging one dirty sleeve across her eyes, she wiped away the tears. Straightening her body, Jodee gave Chris a brief nod, still not trusting her voice not to crack as it came out.
Seeing his sister beginning to return to some form of normality, Chris bent to the task at hand. His activation of the emergency lockdown might have ensured that there was now a meter thick plasteel door between the soldiers and himself; however, it also meant that the inner door, another meter of plasteel, was between himself and the mine proper. Kneeling by a small control panel alongside the inner door, he activated his wrist comm, which obediently sprung into life. A projected display of icons and folders hovered in midair above the small device. Chris’ fingers flew frenetically across the display, opening and closing files as he searched for the correct file. Wrist comm was a misnomer; the small device, which was as much a part of everyday life now as repulsors and nanotech, did a lot more than allow voice and data transmission. The quantum processors contained within its slim construction had more computing power than all the computers aboard the first star ships that had ventured out from Earth centuries before. All you needed to access that processing power was a decent working knowledge of state of the art computer code and a cunning mind. For as long as he could remember, Chris had been fascinated by the intricacies of micro-electronics and the need to know how things worked. As for a cunning mind, well, all you needed to do was ask Jodee about the time he had reprogrammed the house AI to think that she was an intruder. The system had put the entire house into lockdown, flooding the shower room that she was in at the time with Paralax gas--not enough to render her unconscious, but just enough to put her in such a state that when the local police arrived in response to the AI’s call that there was an intruder in the house, they found a thirteen-year-old girl in a bath robe and her favorite pink bunny rabbit slippers, hair looking like she had been through a wind tunnel and unable to string two coherent words together. The images that Chris had recorded for posterity of Jodee having to be assisted into the rear of a police flitter, bunny rabbit slippers and all, while attempting to prot
est her innocence through numbed lips and only succeeding in sounding like she had spent all day perched at a bar drinking stiff alcohol, was priceless. His parents hadn’t been too impressed by his antics, although Dad’s shocked expression and Mom’s accusing finger could not hide their pride in his achievements. Well, he liked to think so, anyway.
With a triumphant “Ha ha,” Chris found the program he was looking for, a few lines of code that he had devised himself. Establishing a link to the control panel, he ordered his wrist comm to share the code. For a second or two nothing appeared to happen, then a flood of computer script began scrolling across his display. “I’m in,” he informed his sister cheerfully.
“Stop enjoying yourself and just get the doors open.” The sound of a second, stronger explosion rang out, filling the small chamber with a light haze of dust shaken free from the roof top. “Anytime you like, wonder boy.” Chris took the obvious sound of sarcasm in Jodee’s voice as a sign that his sister was returning to normal.
The lines of computer script were flashing by at such a rate that Jodee was amazed that her brother could keep track. Occasionally his fingers would slow the flow to a more manageable rate, and he would pull up a line of his own code and substitute it for the original. A third, even stronger explosion shook the room. Jodee flung a concerned look over her shoulder at the thick doors holding their pursuers at bay. But for how much longer?
“Chris, whatever you’re doing, do it faster,” she said urgently. As if in response, the inner door’s mechanism released a small hiss and the doors slowly receded into the walls, opening the way into the mine’s innards.
Chris looked at her with a stupid, wide grin on his face. “Ask and thou shalt receive, my lady,” He dodged Jodee’s open palm swat that she aimed at his head.
“Whatever, smartass,” Jodee quipped as she pulled up the schematic of the mine that her mother had downloaded to her own wrist comm. Her finger traced a highlighted route on the holographic image. The air shaft she was looking for lay roughly a kilometer deeper into the mine. Its vertical shaft, running from the surface to the very depths of the mine blinked steadily, a beacon of escape. “OK, I’ve found the shaft, let’s get going.”
