by Henry Vogel
I got there just in time to see her swing onto the second ladder and climb down.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
David
Swearing silently, I scrambled onto the ladder and climbed after Jade as quickly as possible. The rough-hewn wood of the ladder ruled out the old navy trick of gripping the sides of the ladder and sliding down. Somehow, I doubted a dozen splinters in each hand would prove helpful if more fighting was called for. I settled for taking two rungs at a time, hoping to catch up with the girl before anyone spotted her.
Changing ladders at the ledge, I saw that Jade remained well ahead of me. Growing up on airships, the height didn’t bother her and the climbing barely slowed her down. Frustrated, I picked up my own pace, taking three rungs with each step.
“Jade!” I hissed as loudly as I dared. “Stop and tell me what’s going on!”
She looked my way and I waved her back to me. She shook her head and pointed down. Another narrow ledge was below her, this one no more than fifty feet from the bottom of the cliff. Having set her terms, Jade turned away and resumed her descent. Cursing silently, I followed after her. Knowing Jade was stopping at the next ledge, I took two-rung steps the rest of the way down to her.
When I reached the ledge, Jade was stretched out on her stomach and gazing intently at the scene below. In other words, I wasted a perfectly good glare on the back of her head. I dropped onto my own stomach so we’d both be harder to spot, putting my face a foot from hers. Even then, the girl kept staring below. I gave the area a quick scan, saw nothing out of the ordinary, and brought my glare back to Jade.
Taking her chin in my hand, I turned her head so she faced me and hissed, “What do you think you’re doing? Is this your idea of doing exactly as I say?”
The girl’s eyes dropped from mine. “I know you told me to stay with you, but—”
“There are no ‘buts’ in this, Jade. This is a terribly dangerous situation made far more dangerous by you haring off like this!” Rather than continue berating her, I went right to my strongest argument. “Would you do something this reckless on the Wind Dancer?”
Jade’s eyes blazed for a moment. “Of course not—someone could get hurt or killed! It would be… irresponsible.” Jade hung her head. “I’m sorry.”
“What made you do something so…” I was going to say ‘stupid’ but thought better of it. Jade was most definitely not stupid. “So impulsive?”
Jade turned her eyes back to the scene below. “I thought I saw someone I recognized.”
I caught myself before telling her I saw dozens of people I knew and once again tempered my words. “Who did you see?”
“Forbose. He worked on another merchant airship and it went missing about a month ago. We took the course past this place so we could look for him and his ship.” Jade laid her head down on her arms. “He’s sort of my boyfriend.”
“Ah, so I have competition for your affections.”
Jade snorted a short laugh. “You’re just a handsome fantasy for me and my friends. Sort of like Callan and all the boys I know—except the boys have it a lot worse for Callan.”
“That makes sense. After all, she is the most beautiful woman on eight planets.”
“Yeah, don’t remind me. How can we girls hope to compete with Callan, even if she is nothing more than a fantasy for the boys?”
“Just be your smart, snarky, funny self. Any boy who doesn’t appreciate that isn’t worthy of you anyway.” I turned my gaze down to the anti-grav airship and all the activity around it. “And mentioning boys appreciating you, do you see Forbose down there now?”
Jade stared hard at the cave mouth and desert floor, her eyes sweeping methodically back and forth over the scene. After a minute, her head rose up and her stare intensified. She pointed toward the right side of the mouth of the cave. I sighted along her arm and spotted a young man about Jade’s age.
The boy lifted a small ladle out of a metal tub sitting at his feet, bringing the ladle to his mouth. After drinking his fill, he poured water over his head and let it run down his neck.
“That is Forbose!” Excitement drove Jade’s voice from a whisper to a low speaking tone. “Oh, David, we’ve got to find a way to rescue him!”
Dropping the ladle back into the tub, Forbose bent over and picked up something leaning against the tub. As he rose, the light from the cave illuminated the object in the boy’s hands. Forbose cradled one of Thor’s blaster rifles.
Jade gasped. This time when she spoke, her voice was barely audible. “No. No. That can’t be! Not Forbose!”
As the two of us watched, three men chained together staggered toward the tub. Forbose rose to his full height, brandished his blaster rifle, and stepped between the men and the tub. The three men argued or pleaded with Forbose, pointing several times at the tub of water. Jade’s sort-of-boyfriend—almost certainly now her ex-sort-of-boyfriend—stood fast, waving for the men to go back to work on the airship. When the three didn’t immediately leave, Forbose rammed the butt of his blaster rifle into the stomach of one of the men. The man doubled over and stumbled back into one of the other two men. They both tripped over the chains and fell down, leaving the third man in clear sight for the first time.
It was my turn to gasp as the light fell across the face of Ensign Chris Marlow!
“Chris is alive!” I hadn’t even meant to say that aloud, but I couldn’t help myself.
Jade looked away from the scene of her sort-of-boyfriend’s bullying. “Who’s Chris?”
“The only one of those three men your sort-of-boyfriend didn’t knock down.”
“My ex-sort-of-boyfriend, you mean.” Disgust mingled with pain in Jade’s voice. “Why did you think this Chris guy was dead?”
“He charged two dozen trogs to distract them long enough for Callan and me to get away.” The scene replayed in my mind, including the two blaster shots I’d thought killed the courageous lad. Even with Chris standing not fifty yards from me, the memory still sent chills down my spine.
“Wow,” Jade said, wonder replacing the pain her voice held just seconds ago. “That was really brave.”
Below, Chris helped the two Mordanian airmen to their feet, studiously ignoring the insults Forbose hurled at his back. The two older men staggered to their feet, exhaustion and thirst weighing heavily on them. Chris’s face burned with anger, but he just pointed his two chain-gang companions toward the anti-grav airship.
All work on the airship came to a standstill as Forbose verbally lashed Chris. In the night air, without the sounds of work to mask it, Forbose’s next barb carried clearly to us.
“Yeah, slink away boy. That’s what I’d expect from the bastard get of some dockside doxy!”
All expression drained from Chris’s face, along with most of the blood. His back slowly straightened, his shoulders flexed, and his hands balled into tight fists.
I unslung one of the two blaster rifles from my back and shoved it into Jade’s hands. “Have you ever shot a crossbow?”
Taking the blaster, the startled girl nodded.
“Good. Aim the rifle like a crossbow except you can ignore wind and gravity. Then just pull the trigger.”
Below, Chris spun around, putting all of his strength and momentum behind his punch. Blood burst from Forbose’s nose as Chris’s fist smashed it flat. The bigger boy staggered back, shocked at this sudden attack. Forbose’s blaster rifle flew from his hands, landing well away from the four men.
“You’re rescuing Chris?” Jade asked. At my nod, she added, “Good. Who do I shoot?”
“Anyone who looks like they need shooting, especially if I point at them with my sword,” I said, swinging onto the ladder down to the desert floor.
Chris shuffled forward to hit his tormentor again. With anger clouding his judgement, the Ensign forgot the chains tethering him to the other two airmen. The links stopped his feet and Chris fell to the ground. He caught himself with his hands, but he now lay at Forbose’s feet.
�
��Got it,” Jade said as if my instructions made all the sense in the world. “If I knew your plan, it would be easier to pick helpful targets.”
“And if I had a plan, I’d tell it to you.”
Shouts erupted from below as the fight attracted more attention. I longed to turn and see what was happening to Chris, but I had to concentrate on the ladder if I had any hope of reaching the bottom in time to help. Even hopping down three rungs at a time, it felt as if minutes passed before I reached the ground even though my implant told me it was no more than half a minute.
I feared the eruption of blaster fire from the cave with every passing second. When my feet touched ground without hearing it, I wondered if Thor might still be cleaning and wrapping most of the blaster rifles. It wasn’t the only explanation—perhaps the man simply didn’t care if the guards and prisoners mixed it up a bit—but I fervently hoped my explanation was right.
By the time my feet hit the ground, the shouting drowned out most other sounds. Sprinting to the airship, I climbed over the railing and onto the deck. I also got my first look at the fight between Forbose and Chris since I left Jade. Blood covered Chris’s face, streaming from a gash above one eye and a cut lip. Pain forced the Ensign into a crouch, probably from bruised or broken ribs. Blood still dripped from Forbose’s nose and he had the makings of an excellent black eye. Despite having his mobility seriously compromised by the chains, Chris was putting up quite a fight.
I grabbed the first airman I came to, yelling so he could hear me over the shouts, “Where’s an officer?”
The airman glanced at me and his eyes fairly popped out of his head. “Captain Rice, you’re safe! Is Her Highness-?”
“Safe and unharmed. But where’s an officer?”
“Of course, sir.” The man turned and led me to the railing. “Captain Wright? Sir, it’s Captain Rice!” Raising his voice even more, the airman called, “And Her Highness is safe and well!”
A ragged cheer rose from the men. Captain Wright spun around so fast I half expected the man to get dizzy. He wasted no time with small talk. “What’s the plan, sir?”
I shoved the blaster rifle into his hands. “Shoot any chains attaching you to the ground. I’m going to fetch Ensign Marlow and his two companions then we’re getting out of here in this airship.”
Wright passed the rifle to his first officer, pointing at three chains running over the ship’s railing. “That’s not possible, sir. The galactic says the power is drained.”
“No doubt the power is low, but no one runs their power out so completely that they use up the last little bit of it landing. I’ll bet we have enough to get off this mountain before it runs out.”
“Excellent. If you’ll wait one moment, sir, I’ll have some men to accompany you.”
“The men stay on the airship, Captain.” Wright opened his mouth to protest, but I talked over him. “That is an order.”
“Aye aye, sir.”
I vaulted the railing, drew my sword and charged toward the crowd around Chris and Forbose.
It only took a quick look at everyone crowding around the fight to verify that Chris and the two men chained to him were the only ones without weapons. That meant everyone except the three Mordanian airmen were excellent targets for Jade. I raised my sword and pointed it at the big knot of men and trogs ahead of me.
A blaster bolt flashed over my head, hitting a trog in the butt. He grabbed at his backside and fell, howling in pain. A few of the men standing next to him gave him curious glances. Just as they turned their attention back to the fight, another bolt struck. The man to the trog’s left gaped as the bolt blew his arm off. More members of the crowd turned at the man’s inarticulate cry. One of them spotted me—ten feet from the mob and just raising my sword—and shouted in alarm.
Boost!
I swung my sword in a wide arc, slashing deep cuts in five men across shoulders, chests, and arms. Blood—human red and trog blue—splattered the ground and others in the crowd. Two blaster rifles and three swords dropped to the ground as the wounded men fell away from me and out of my path. But that wasn’t possible for the man directly between Chris and me.
The man tried backpedaling but the rest of the crowd blocked his way. A third blaster bolt hit the crowd to my left as the man before me raised his hands as if to ward off my next blow. I rammed my blade through his chest and up to the hilt. His eyes bulged as he folded around the sword through his gut. I caught one of his raised arms, holding the man up and using him as a battering ram against the crowd.
More blaster bolts hit the crowd. Between the screams of the men and the rain of rifle shots, the crowd finally figured out something was wrong. Heads swiveled and necks craned as they tried to see what was going on. The bloody blade protruding from the man I held nicked another man as he dove from my path and then it plunged deeply into the chest of a trog.
Finding myself in a widening clear spot, I stopped long enough to put a foot onto the chest of the man impaled on my blade. I pushed with my foot, pulled with my arm, and my sword slid free from the man and the trog. They fell in a heap before me.
I bounded over them and toward the last few men between me and the airmen. While I was in midair, someone from the anti-grav airship opened up with the blaster rifle. In the light spilling from the cave, my sword glistened red and blue. Splotches of human and trog blood covered my face and chest. With the flash of blaster bolts streaking past me, I like to think I truly appeared as the Hand of Death come reaping. The men and trogs before me must have agreed as they broke and scattered before I touched ground again.
For a second, Forbose stared at me in horrified fascination. Then Chris’s fist struck the larger boy under the chin. Forbose’s head snapped back, his eyes rolled up, and he slowly toppled backward.
From the cave came many voices and what sounded like the clatter of weapons. I shouted, “Men, get to the airship! It’s time to go!”
Chris and the other two airmen caught sight of me for the first time. As their eyes widened, I realized they’d been so intent on the fight with Forbose the outcry behind them hadn’t fully registered. Surprise rooting them in place, the trio stared in wonder at the confusion and carnage between them and the airship.
Men and trogs lay all around, bleeding and moaning, as blaster bolts blazed from the airship and Jade’s position on the cliff. Meanwhile, I had a clear view of men and trogs massing in the cave.
Waving to catch the attention of my two gunners, I pointed into the cave mouth. Jade immediately shifted her aim and peppered the entrance to the cave with shots. The gunner on the airship followed suit and had the advantage of a better angle. His shots flashed into the massing crowd, sewing panic and confusion.
By this time, Chris and his friends were moving, running as fast as their chains allowed. That wasn’t very fast, though, especially when the gathering force in the cave started returning fire. I took a second to look at the chain and was relieved to see it was of Aashlan origin instead of an unbreakable one from the Federation.
With Boost-backed strength and precision, I hacked at the smallest link in the chain. Tempered steel struck iron and the link shattered. That left Chris and an older airman still chained together. I struck again and all three men ran free.
The first airman reached the airship and the men onboard pulled him over the railing. At the same time, fatigue overwhelmed the older airman. He stumbled and would have fallen on his face had Chris not caught him. The Ensign staggered as he took the old man’s weight and I feared both would fall.
I took the older crewman’s other arm. “I’ve got him, Chris! Just concentrate on running.” The young man released the other man, allowing me to lift him over one shoulder. Boosted muscles let me keep pace with the now-sprinting Ensign.
More blaster bolts struck all around us and I heard Captain Wright order his men to take cover behind the railing. All but the men assigned to help us climb onboard ducked out of sight. Blaster bolts scorched the side of the airship as Chr
is jumped to the waiting arms of the crewmen. As the young man’s feet disappeared into the airship, I crouched and jumped. Even with the extra weight, I almost cleared the railing. My knees cracked painfully into the top of the railing and I toppled over into the airship. Safe for the moment, I dropped Boost.
I longed to sheath my sword, but only a fool puts a bloody blade into a sheath. Carefully pointing the blade down at the deck, I called, “Where are the airship’s controls?”
A dozen arms pointed me aft. Heading that way, I called to the only crewman whose name I knew offhand. “Chris, we’ve got to get the gunner from the cliff on our way out. Go forward to lend a hand!”
“Aye aye, sir!”
I reached the airship controls and found myself staring at an odd combination of galactic high tech and Aashlan low tech. Fortunately, I was one of only a handful of men on the planet who understood both technologies. I checked the system’s power level and was gratified to find a ten percent charge. I flicked switches for each of the five repulsor plates and fed power to the engines at the same time.
“Captain Wright, send men below to feed the boiler. We’ve got just enough pressure to maneuver but not much more.”
“Aye, Captain Rice,” Wright said before issuing orders to his men.
More blaster bolts sizzled in the air as those in the cave fired at us. Worse, a few rifles were turned on Jade. She stopped shooting altogether as shots peppered her place on the cliff. The density of fire remained far lower than I’d feared but it only took one well-placed shot to ruin everything.
I twisted the power dial and the airship rose gracefully into the air. I cautiously engaged the engines and swung the ship toward Jade. “Are you ready, Chris?”
“I am, sir! Please hurry—the shots are hitting all around your man on the cliff!”
