“Because they’re dying.” She looked pale. “I’ve seen whole families out there, Sawyer. Children too. What have we done? Osta knew?” She frowned, looked at the man who’d said it. “He keeps too many secrets.”
Sawyer was inclined to agree, but he went to her and took her hand. “We’ll get this done, leave. As long as we succeed.” This was war, and war often had collateral casualties. A black mood was clouding him, crowding him.
Why hadn’t Osta said how these missiles killed? Information, correct information, was the core of any successful mission.
“Done, sir,” JI said.
“Fast!”
“Data transferal is, yes. Once I hack the system. I heard what Ari said. I wish to see more of this before we go.”
“You want to see the dead?”
JI nodded. Sawyer’s uneasiness grew. JI had been lied to also, and the mech did not take lightly to lying. But, he had a right to know. “Sure.”
They walked out into the large open area. It was grassed, domed over, with stalls around the sides.
By then, most of the Mekkers were dead. Minutes before, those had writhed in some sort of suffering, now they were blue and still.
JI walked among them, kneeled beside a few, rolled them over. To Sawyer, he seemed sad and overcome. Three children who lay together affected him the most. Then he realized, JI was sending out a keening sound.
“What have we done?” JI unfolded, standing tall. “Did you know, Ari? Sawyer? I have deduced what has affected them.”
“No, JI.” Tears shone in Ari’s eyes. “I’m sorry. I hate this too. I knew there would be dead but this...” She opened her hand and looked down at the dead children. Her hand shook.
JI continued and even for a mech, his voice seemed terribly stilted and flat, “This is extreme Factor H deficiency. The DRAC radiation must somehow obliterate that element in the Mekkers. I do not know the mechanism but the symptoms are clear. As Mako was not affected, the range is not great, but it may have affected most who lived in this ship. It’s why the Rams and Snikers were crashing also.”
Of course. It made sense. “Nothing we can do though –”
“No?” JI gave one of his mech shrugs. “I disagree with that.”
He turned and walked toward the squad, his sensors aiming above their heads.
JI was leaving? He was right. Nothing left here for them. “Let’s g –”
A spray of projectiles spat upon the Scavs, blatting them to the floor. Nearly all the men to one side had crumpled, and he dragged Ari down. At least fifty Mekkers ran out of a wide entrance on the opposite side of the park, firing, over-running the Scavs who guarded that position, taking cover. They fanned out to the left, blocking off the entry he and the squad had used.
Two thirds or more of the Scavs were down, already.
JI calmly walked through the fire and into the corridor that led to the bay. His hands covered his few weak points at his shoulders. The three soldiers who ran after him he casually swatted into the wall.
Sawyer and Ari wriggled backward. He shot when he saw good targets, though the return fire was heavy. More of his squad fell. Three were left.
“Follow me, fire as you go! Alternate, firing and moving!”
If they knew what he meant, they ignored him. Assholes meant to die where they fought.
“Another way out, Sawyer?” Ari asked. She’d grabbed a long gun from one of the fallen and he watched her pick off two of the Mekkers. By going backward, methodically, covering each other, they reached an exit, a single door.
“I have schematics, a map for this direction, but need to check. The ship’s a maze. This way will have a looping route back to the landing bay, that much I know.”
The last two Scavs were holding off about thirty of the enemy. Predicted survival time? Thirty seconds.
They sprinted down the corridor, stopping and checking for danger at cross corridors. The solid tramp of feet ahead warned of more soldiers and they ducked into a smaller corridor.
“Down there!” someone yelled and the boots ran closer.
“This one looks solid.” Ari pointed at a solid metal door, multiple locks, great big hinges. Something expensive was in there. And probably there was no back door.
The only hint as to contents, apart from a number, was a nameplate: Drette Achio
“Open?” he asked, as he aimed at where they’d entered this corridor. A Mekker showed his head, and he shot it off.
“No, but... I can do this. It’s a mechanism with power. I can open it.”
He threw her a worried look. Of course. “How fast, though?” Ari had a palm on the foot-wide lock.
Something went whirr then clunk.
“Done.” She wrenched open the door and slipped in, her long gun ready.
Fuck. Anyone might be waiting in ambush. That door would stop a bullet. He slid in after her, found the vestibule clear of threats. He turned and fired along the corridor, one more time, to keep their pursuers away. Couldn’t leave this door open, though closing it felt like putting his neck in a rattrap. He hauled on the door until it clicked against the jamb. The lock whirred.
The room further in was lushly decorated.
He found Ari standing with her gun aimed at a man sitting at a desk and a woman kneeling – she was on a round rug, in an open area to the left. At the edges of the rug, symbols were scribed in red. Her blond hair niggled at his memories. Her skirts spilled across the floor like a wave. She raised her hands and so did the man.
They were locked in with...who?
The woman slowly climbed to her feet with her hands still up. Her garb was the epitome of elegance – ivory and white with gold accents, a skirt with hundreds of tiny pleats. Someone here was rich. High-up Mekkers?
Then, he remembered. Gio. Of course. Strands of her hair shone as if a sun had left pieces of itself behind. She was human.
“Gio?”
“Sawyer?” Her hands wavered. “Can I put them down?”
That then was Drette, the man who’d first created the portals that’d stolen him and many others from Earth. She was Gio the traitor.
“No. Hell, no. Tell us how we get out of here.”
She swallowed, as if something were stuck in her pretty throat. “You...can’t. This is a secure area, where we make the portals.”
“Shhh!” Drette half-rose from his chair.
Sawyer swung his long gun to cover Drette. “Shut the fuck up, you.”
“It’s true, though.” Gio nodded toward the door. “That’s it. The only way out.”
Someone chose that second to shoot at the door. The impacts ceased after someone else yelled. They wouldn’t want their pet magician or his assistant to get shot; besides, the ricochets were probably bouncing around in the corridor. Shit. He glanced at Ari. He’d fought in so many battles but this... What had he gotten her into?
He needed no Einstein. They were stuck here until someone blew the door. After that they’d be prisoners or dead. Either would likely be as bad as the other.
Still covering Drette with his weapon, he moved to her side. “I’m sorry,” he whispered.
She shrugged, though the center of her forehead wore a deep crease. “It was my choice. I wanted to be with you.”
“If they make us slaves, we will survive this.”
If. More likely they’d execute them both. But he needed to offer her hope. Who’d have thought he, the big, brave SAS soldier would ever fear capture? Wasn’t him, though. She was the reason for the knifelike pain running from his gut to his chest.
“We should at least tie up these two,” he said softly.
“I’ll find something.”
Her matter-of-fact actions slew him. Braver than he was really. He was trained for this.
Who was going to look for Fern now? JI. Only him. The mech wasn’t looking too kindly at people at the moment. Trying was better than doing nothing.
He sent a mental message, praying JI would hear him. We’re trapped, JI. Please
can you find out what happened to Fern? She is blameless.
JI? No answer, but he felt sure his plea had been heard.
As Ari approached Gio with some thin rope, the woman uttered a sharp word. “No! Please don’t. If you tie us, I can’t help you escape.”
“What?” He shook his head. What was she up to?
“Can I come over and say something to you, Sawyer?”
He looked to Ari. “Cover him, and don’t move a damn inch, sir, unless you want to be dead.” He walked to the wall furthest from Drette, where a huge painting of what looked like a red dragon dominated a landscape. Then he waited for Gio. “Talk. Be succinct.”
She looked contrite, as well she might.
“I know people think I betrayed them. That, I can’t change. But this I can do. We’ve perfected a portal that will take you safely back to Earth. This is new, as of this week. Other trials were falsely hopeful. Test subjects died. This last portal, we observed all the animals live and run off.”
Fuck. He blinked, stared. Fuck.
They could go back home.
“Ohmigod.” He pressed his palm to his forehead. Calm. Be calm. He flicked a glance at Ari who looked worried so he nodded, smiled. He thought it through. Twice. Then he whispered, “We can go back? Then you can come too.”
Gio shut her eyes. “No. I can’t. If I hold a knife to Drette, he’s a bit of a coward, and I think he’ll do this correctly. One error and you will die stepping through.”
“Shit.”
The door was shaking, booming with blows. Soon they’d find a way to get it open.
“Yes.” She half-smiled. “I owe people. I do.” Tears welled. “I will do this, then I’ll do what Emery told me to do long ago.”
“Is he the only one who can make this new portal?”
She nodded.
Drette was trying to listen. He guessed what she meant to do after they walked into the portal – kill Drette. If she killed him, the Mekkers might not figure out how to make portals like this. They would also likely do some very nasty things to her.
What the fuck was he going to do? Leaving a woman to get herself killed was sickening.
“Can I make him do this?”
“How? Ohh. You mean you stay here, and I should go instead? No. The trick with a portal is to get everything correct to the finest degree. You won’t know if he deliberately makes a mistake. Either I do this or no one does.”
He let out a sigh, rubbed his forehead with his free hand.
“Very well. You’re certain?”
She nodded. “My choice, yes. You only need to stand on the edge, only the edge, of that rug. When it pops up, it’ll be in the middle, then you step through.”
Of course maybe all their test rats dropped dead a minute later. They wouldn’t know.
If he went back home, whether he lived or died, he’d never get back here to Aerthe. And there was Fern...
Fern was probably dead. He’d known this, just wanted to find her, to put her to rest with dignity. If it were possible.
Maybe JI would do as he’d asked? The mech had morals, honor, even if he was pissed off at people at this moment.
Crying in public was not happening. He concentrated and made the strain between his eyes ebb.
“Okay. Okay. We will do it this way. I’m going to trust you, Gio. Please, make good on that.”
If she betrayed them, they were corpses. Maybe she would. Sometimes you had to trust. He gave her his knife in its sheath, told her not to draw it until she reached Drette.
“I’ll give you a thumbs-up signal for when it’s okay to create this portal.”
As he drew Ari over to the portal area, to the rug’s edge, he rehashed his decision. Gio had been weak, but he was a good judge of character. He’d seen truth in her eyes.
Though he trained his weapon on Drette, Gio had already placed a knife to his throat, and she was talking to him, her mouth beside his ear. Would she really kill him? That too, he would never know. Could never know, for he’d either be dead or in another world.
Ari, though. He’d made her do a lot of things, but this? No. “I have something to ask of you, Ari. Something to tell you.”
She watched him, said nothing.
“Where we stand, Drette can create a portal that can take us both to my world.”
After some quieter shuffling sounds, the banging on the door ceased, which most likely was bad.
“If we stay, I think the Mekkers will treat us badly. Truth is, I think they’d shoot us both.” Especially if Drette was dead. He couldn’t say that out loud. “They don’t like troublemakers, and we just helped kill a lot of them. I’m going to go through and return to my world, but I want you with me. However the portal might also kill us.”
“Another world? Yours?” Her eyes were unblinking for ages. Then she shook herself, looked down. “And if I stay?”
If. He stared, caught. This was a mess. His decision was fucking easy. He wouldn’t let her do this. She’d be killing herself. She’d be executed. But, if he dragged her through and they arrived on Earth, and she hated him for it, she could just...simply...walk. He couldn’t make her be his there, not like here.
Even if he wanted to.
Leave her then? As if a light had flashed in his mind, he knew he couldn’t leave her. Of all the times to see this, to understand what she meant to him, how leaving her was impossible, of all the places, when he had no time...it crumbled a barrier in him and left him wide open.
“I’d stay with you. I would never leave you to face this by yourself.”
Or maybe I’ll just haul you through the portal anyway. Alive was better than dead.
“God.” Tears spilled then and she roughly wiped them away then put her hand on his hip. The tears kept dripping from her eyes as she talked. “I’m going to come then. I’m not going...not going to make you sacrifice yourself.”
He grabbed her hand, hung on tight.
He had a feeling he’d just attained saint status in her eyes. Earned or not, he’d take it.
“Hey.” Ari squeezed his hand, then he saw where she looked – at his long gun, and he caught why. The pattern. Her mouth curved in a small smile. “Hearts.”
Oh man. An ache arrived in his chest... Not the time for sentiment. He wrenched away his concentration, turned to Gio, and gave her a nod. The naked blade glinted and she pressed it closer to Drette’s throat.
This had better work, or he was complaining to management.
His stomach chose to go wild with pre-vomiting celebrations.
Drette stared at them and began to mutter. His hands waved; he hummed; the air whirled, tingled with some odd vibration, and...a greenish translucent portal shimmered into view only a yard away.
Going back home. Ohmigod, ohmigod. Pleeease work.
They stepped through just as the door to the room exploded inwards, sending fragments whirling toward his eyes from the other side of the portal.
Gone.
So dark. It was raining, warm rain, the droplets splatting onto his head and shoulders. It took him back to the room in the jungle swathe where the rain had poured in. For a moment, he was afraid he was back there, on Aerthe.
Then...
He felt Ari’s hand in his and her trembling fingers.
Felt the cracks in the pavement under his bare feet.
Realized he was naked...
And his sight adjusted. Not blind, thank god. That had been a possibility.
Yards away there were streetlights. To the right was a brick wall. To the left also. They were in an alley, and from the sign flickering on ahead – Hungry Noodles – they were on Earth. Nowhere else would have such a daft eatery name.
“Fuck, yeah.” A faint sizzling reminded him of how they’d come here.
Was the portal at their backs?
He stepped forward, drawing Ari with him, and glimpsed that wide, shimmering doorway of green, though it winked out as he turned.
There went the means of returning to Aerthe.<
br />
And thank you to every god that ever existed for that.
Was he dreaming?
“You’re here, right? With me, Ari? You’re not imaginary?”
Her face was pale, but she nodded. Naked too. If this was a city, if it was anywhere with people, they needed to find clothes, or they’d be arrested for indecency. Which totally would not bother him. He almost went to lean on the wall and laugh.
He’d been shot at. Been next to explosions. Made a slave. His freedom removed. Almost been castrated. Fought numerous weird fucking creatures using weapons that could not exist on Earth. Being arrested would be like party time. Still...
He tugged on her hand. “We need to be quiet. Going to see what there is out there.”
“This is your world?”
“Yes.”
“Good.” Her voice shook so much he pulled her around and kissed her softly.
“You’re safe here. Nothing will eat us. No one can make us slaves. People can choose what they want to be here more than they can on your world. Slave don’t exist here anymore.” In most countries.
“Good,” she whispered, and he heard her take a long inhalation. “I trust you, Sawyer.”
“Thank you.” Words that lightened his heart. She’d trusted him in spades today...if you could count Aerthe time the same as today, here.
The rain intensified, making lights into blurs. The wind picked up also; no wonder no one was on the streets. When a few cars drove past, he and Ari hugged the alcoves and stayed out of view.
They should celebrate, but they had no money. They might not even be in Australia. This must be somewhere tropical from the warmth and the few plants he’d seen. From the wall graffiti, it was definitely an English-speaking country.
The street they emerged onto was in some run-down area and poorly lit. No one on the street except an old man who stared and mumbled unintelligible insults. Sawyer found a secondhand clothes store with a flimsy lock at the back that he broke with one kick. No alarms, or if they were installed they were silent ones, and he did not give one fuck.
Light filtered in through the front glass of the store though the rain dribbling down them had rendered them opaque. Whatever awnings they had out there weren’t working well.
Bins lined an aisle; all were filled with clothes. Musty clothes but the smell of a set of clothes was the last thing he was concerned about.
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