What Tomorrow May Bring

by Tony Bertauski

  “We have to get out of here now,” she said, starting down the corridor at a jog. “Everyone—back in your rooms!”

  The bemused passengers looked at her in wonder as she ran by. Even the Security Chief looked confused.

  “Get your men out of here, Chief,” Sigrid said over her shoulder.

  “Wait!” Karen said. “Where are you going?”

  Sigrid stopped at the corridor junction just ahead. When Karen saw her draw both her pistols, she gasped, but instantly quickened her pace, rushing alongside Lady Hitomi. Sigrid stood with her back to the wall, hurriedly motioning them past her.

  “Keep going. Run!”

  Neither Karen nor Hitomi stopped to question her—probably what saved them. The corridor behind them erupted in a hail of gunfire forcing Sigrid to duck back behind the wall out of harm’s way. She’d seen what she needed—three men in the same mechanized armor, just like the ones in the CTF tower the night before. The Chief and his security team weren’t so fortunate. They fired back at the attacking soldiers, but their bullets bounced harmlessly off their armor—Sigrid looked on in horror as the security men were gunned down mercilessly. Passengers screamed and ran quickly back into their rooms, most of them fortunate to get out of the way. Most, but not all.

  “Dammit,” Sigrid said. She dialed the ordnance selector on her pistols, switching to the armor-piercing rounds she’d added to her arsenal. Taking a moment to shroud, she rolled out into the corridor, coming up firing. The thunder of the high-powered slugs was deafening; two of the soldiers stumbled and collapsed as the armor-piercing rounds ripped through the plating on their chests, bursting through the layers of composite material into the soft flesh underneath.

  She missed the last one and was forced to dive aside into an open suite. Explosive rounds pierced the air, tracking dangerously close to her own head. Sigrid touched the side of her ear and her hand came back a bloodied mess.

  The man—the Mech—she wasn’t sure what to call it—was on her in an instant. She couldn’t believe such bulk could move so swiftly and gracefully. His huge frame suddenly silhouetted in the doorway, and she fired, wide, as he leapt forward, crushing her with his massive weight and knocking the wind completely out of her.

  Sigrid tried to raise her guns, but powerful arms, aided by some kind of servo system, pinned her back easily. The weight on her chest was too much. Sigrid couldn’t breathe. Her guns were still in her hands, but even trying with all her strength she couldn’t wrestle her arms or hands free of his grip. She fought for breath, already starting to feel the blackness coming. If she didn’t break free in the next few seconds she knew it would be over.

  The gun in her left hand was pointed at the glassed-in viewport on the suite’s wall.

  Sigrid fired.

  The explosion and howling rush of air was deafening. Alarms sounded all over the Lift, but the vacuum lifted her assailant off her, pulling him quickly toward the opening and out into space. He grabbed the frame of the window and clung precariously to the edge. Sigrid was also carried across the room; her PCM had already logged every possible handhold, and she opted for the leg of the table in the center of the room; she could only hope that the bolts held where it was fastened to the floor.

  The armor her attacker wore must have been pressurized; he was already clawing his way back inside. A drawer from one of the dressers flew across the room and smacked into his helmet, but he still managed to hang on with one gloved-hand. Sigrid lowered her pistol and fired; the armor-piercing round shattered his faceplate, and he cart-wheeled freely, finally, out into space.

  Firing at the window had been an act of desperation, and Sigrid’s predicament hadn’t exactly improved. The freezing cold of space pervaded her bones, just as the torrent of air from the Lift’s environmental systems threatened to blast her out into oblivion. She was only meters from the doorway and safety, but reaching it was like climbing up a waterfall. All the time, she had to dodge the debris that was tumbling by her from the corridor beyond.

  With the last of her strength, Sigrid lunged for the doorframe and heaved herself out, sliding it closed behind her and sealing it shut. The sudden silence filled her ears, and she shivered; she was blue with cold. Her uniform was torn where the mechanized hands had held her, and she was bruised and bloodied. She had a long laceration on her right arm; she couldn’t even remember how she’d gotten it, but she was alive.

  Sigrid hauled herself up and started back down the corridor; she only hoped that Lady Hitomi and Ensign McTeer were still all right. She caught up to them at the next junction. It was sealed off from the breach, but she was able to override the locking system and let herself through. She collapsed in Karen’s arms, sinking to her knees.

  “Oh, my God!” Karen said, distress visible on her face as she held Sigrid.

  Hitomi looked equally concerned. “Those men, are they…?”

  Sigrid nodded. “Dead. I had a little trouble with the last one,” she said, managing a grin—she didn’t want them to worry about her. “But he’s off touring the universe.”

  “Do you suppose there are any more?” Karen looked terrified.

  Sigrid opened her mouth to answer, no, when they heard the sound of a far-off explosion, followed by the agonizing sound of groaning, twisting metal.

  Karen screamed, clutching at Sigrid; all three of the women looked to each other. Sigrid noticed it first—the slight tilting of the floor.

  “Oh no…” she said.

  Even Hitomi, always so steady and strong, paled. “They cut the tether.”

  * * *

  “Yes, Lieutenant, I see it,” Selene said, leaning forward.

  They’d all seen it—a massive explosion just at the top of the Lift that carried Sigrid and her party. The Lift had already reached the Earth’s thermosphere, at some 135 kilometers, but the explosion had severed the tethering system that connected the elevator to the orbital platform above; the sheer weight of the massive cable, still connected to the base of the Lift, was already dragging the elevator back down toward the planet below.

  “Holy…” Ensign Greenway said, breathlessly.

  “Can you reach them on the com?” Selene asked.

  Christian’s hands flew over his console. He shook his head. “Too much interference, ma’am.”

  Selene nodded. “All right, I’ll bring us in closer.”

  “Closer?” Christian asked.

  “We can’t very well do much good back here, now, can we.” Selene pushed the thrusters harder, accelerating and moving the Morrigan ever closer to the massive elevator.

  “Uh…Commander,” Christian said, nervously.

  “Watch your tactical monitor, Lieutenant. I want a second by second report on the course of that elevator.”

  He gulped. “Um—it’s headed down, ma’am. And we still have those three ships on our tail.”

  “I know!” Selene said. She bit her lip. Well, you’re really in it now, she thought and laughed.

  Christian caught the laugh. “Ma’am?”

  “Just keep trying to hail them—we don’t have much time.”

  * * *

  Sigrid heard the second explosion, followed by a horrible tearing sound of metal being ripped away. Karen screamed again.

  Sigrid’s comlink chirped on the emergency frequency and she heard Selene’s voice. She quickly hushed both women, listening as Selene fed her the series of instructions. Only when Selene was finished did she turn to her companions. “We need to get down to the lowest level, and we have to hurry.”

  “Wait!” Hitomi said. “The data modules—I left them back in the rooms. We must go back.”

  Sigrid looked down the long corridor, and then at the increasing tilt of the floor. She could feel the vibrations intensify as the Lift accelerated in its descent.

  “I don’t think there’s time.”

  Hitomi nodded and Karen looked relieved to keep going, helping the Lady’s chair along.

  Sigrid led them quickly down the corrid
or. The tilt of the floor slewed even more as they ran, making progress difficult as the three forged ahead. Sigrid stopped at each junction, checking to make sure their path was clear.

  “Sigrid, wait!” Karen called out to her.

  She turned back and saw the girl struggling with Lady Hitomi’s wheelchair; the angle of the floor was pitched at thirty degrees and Karen could no longer manage the chair. Lady Hitomi looked thoroughly angry and embarrassed.

  “You girls go ahead. I’ll only slow you down.”

  Sigrid scanned the corridor, checking again to see that their path was clear before rushing back to the two. Holstering her weapons, she lifted Hitomi out of her chair.

  “Sigrid—”

  “Please don’t argue,” Sigrid said, starting back down the corridor. “We’re not leaving you behind.”

  “I’d never dream of it. I was only going to tell you—it’s the other way. We need to go down.”

  Sigrid chuckled, as she turned around and spotted the maintenance hatch at the end of the corridor.

  Sigrid helped Hitomi along as fast as she could. She could feel the vibrations in the floor becoming more pronounced, and she realized they must be entering the planet’s atmosphere. They heard a series of loud bangs—what sounded like entire sections of the Lift being torn away as the elevator shifted further on its axis. Sigrid stumbled and fell, twisting so that Hitomi landed on top of her. They all rolled from the floor onto the wall as the Lift dipped sharply. Sigrid tried not to think of how far or how fast they were falling as the cabling system dragged them further down into the atmosphere.

  The Lift’s stabilizing systems groaned in protest, working desperately to right the elevator. The three women were thrown back in the other direction. They landed hard on the floor; Sigrid caught Hitomi, who shook her head at Sigrid in surprise.

  “Sorry about this,” Sigrid said, gathering Hitomi up into her arms and carrying her the rest of the distance to the maintenance hatch. She kicked it open. “Go!” she yelled at Karen, who scuttled inside, climbing quickly down the ladder. Sigrid looked down the shaft—the ladder led down two decks below.

  “I’m sorry,” Hitomi said, frowning at the ladder. “I don’t think I can manage that.”

  Sigrid examined the length of the access shaft again. “Hang on!”

  Hitomi nodded bravely and Sigrid jumped, pursing her lips as she landed hard on the deck below; the pain was intense, and she felt something tear, but she’d worry about that later. Sigrid looked about her; they were at the bottom of the elevator in a small maintenance room; there was a large access panel in the floor painted with red warning signs, marked, ‘Authorized Personnel Only’. The small room shook with tremendous noise and violence.

  “Now what?” Karen asked.

  “Stand back,” Sigrid said, and slammed the emergency release on the floor panel at her feet. Explosive bolts blew the panel away, sending it twirling downwards to be whipped away by the buffeting winds. The sound of the air rushing past them thundered in their ears; Karen’s light dressing gown swirled about her head until she forced it back down.

  Through the open hatchway they could all see the Earth rushing up toward them, perhaps little more than six thousand meters away and closing fast; Sigrid saw the sorry, twisted shape of the lift cable coiling up beneath them.

  But also there, somehow, impossibly, below, the Morrigan danced in time with the whipping of the cable. Sigrid thought Selene had to be completely mad as she maneuvered the ship deftly, drifting closer and closer to the plummeting elevator. She brought it as close as three meters, and Sigrid saw one of the dorsal hatches open. Christian emerged from the opening, tethered in a harness and wearing a breather. He waved to them frantically.

  “Go!” Sigrid screamed to Karen above the worsening din.

  Karen swallowed hard, but there was no time to debate the issue and she jumped the short distance. She landed on hands and knees, spread-eagled on the hull.

  Sigrid stumbled as the lift tilted hard over, almost colliding with the Morrigan, but the small ship banked hard over, blasting down and away, keeping its distance from the massive Lift just above it. The maneuver lifted Karen back into the air off the hull—Sigrid held her breath—but Karen came crashing back down, clinging desperately to the hull some ten meters down the length of the ship.

  With a tight grip on Hitomi, Sigrid leapt and hit the ship’s deck next to Christian. She handed the Lady over to him and he helped her quickly inside.

  “We have to go—now!” Christian shouted.

  Sigrid looked down the length of the ship to where Karen still clung desperately for her life.

  “Not yet.”

  Taking one brief look up, Sigrid gulped at the sight of the massive elevator above them—she didn’t want to think about how close the Earth was beneath them. She moved quickly and carefully to where Karen clung to the top of the Morrigan; The ensign looked completely petrified and desperate.

  “I got you,” Sigrid said as she grabbed Karen by the wrist and hauled her up.

  She heard Christian’s voice loud in her comlink. “Sigrid!”

  Sigrid grunted and threw Karen into the open hatch, diving in after her.

  Christian sealed the hatch then thumbed the comlink on his uniform collar. “They’re in!”

  The ship shook beneath her as the massive thrusters fired, blasting forward. Somewhere, not too far distant, Sigrid heard the crash and explosion of the Lift smashing into the Earth. All of them collapsed into a sweaty, breathless heap.

  “We’re not out of this yet, people,” Selene said over the com.

  After making sure Hitomi was uninjured, Sigrid, followed by Christian, made her way to the bridge. The door was open and she could see that they were already clearing the upper atmosphere.

  The tall woman rose from her seat at the helm and leaned surprisingly casually against the bulkhead. “Well, to think I worried this job might be dull.”

  Sigrid smiled. “Sorry.”

  “Look, we’ve got three Independent ships on our tail and the entire CTF Earth Defense force moving to blockade the Relay. I just thought you should know.”

  Sigrid ran quick calculations on the scenario—she wasn’t trained in fleet tactics. “Can we run the blockade?” She was worried that Selene might protest, but the woman smiled.

  “I’ll do my best, ma’am.”

  The ship lurched in time with a deafening explosion. Selene turned to Christian. “Report.”

  “Torpedo—that one got a little close.”

  Selene cursed and slapped the com button on the arm of her chair, shouting at the men in the weapons pods. “I told you—nothing gets through. We’re lucky those weren’t nukes. I want a phalanx pattern on those guns.”

  “What is it?” Sigrid asked.

  “Rookies. They couldn’t hit a cow’s ass with a banjo; so I’ve got them strictly firing a defensive pattern.”

  Sigrid smiled. “Maybe I can help.”

  * * *

  Sigrid relieved the frazzled crewman manning the ship’s dorsal weapons pod. Exhausted and drenched in sweat, he was more than happy to give up his post.

  As she slipped into the pod, she noticed the number of physical hookups for the operator as well as the VI helmet that provided a full 360 degree view of the combat area. Sigrid pushed all these aside, preferring to interface directly with her PCM; all the operational information she needed was displayed in her HUD. Three ships, only slightly larger than her own, were bearing down on the nimble Morrigan. As fast as her ship was, even faster than the Agatsuma, the three Independent ships were gaining on them. Quickly.

  The pursuing ships were still launching missiles. Sigrid watched them all streaking closer as the Morrigan continued to belch out a barrage of countermeasures. The pod’s gun was set to a phalanx-mode, firing concentrated blasts of ordnance into the paths of the oncoming missiles, shredding any that got close.

  Selene was putting her ship through a series of desperate evasive maneuvers,
but Sigrid knew that, as their pursuers closed the distance, it would become virtually impossible to dodge the hail of ballistic rounds that they were firing from their own rail-systems. They were already within 15,000 kilometers; when they got within five, they’d be virtually defenseless.

  Aiming her quad-mounted rail-gun wasn’t easy with the ship moving so erratically, and her targets weren’t exactly holding still. Sigrid tried for a computer lock, but of course the attacking ships were using their own countermeasures and the automated aiming-systems were completely useless.

  Sigrid switched her ordnance from the defensive phalanx-rounds to fragmentation rounds and took aim at the lead ship in pursuit. The quad-mounted guns belched out a quick burst, missing her target completely as the Morrigan jigged to avoid yet another incoming barrage; she’d have to compensate for that, she chided herself. Tying directly into the ships navigational computer allowed her to track the ship’s movements and anticipate the violent maneuvers. Her next shot tracked perfectly, ripping apart the bow of the lead ship, severing vital systems. The ship’s drive shut down, and the vessel dropped quickly away as the Morrigan continued to accelerate at maximum thrust.

  Sigrid tracked the next ship; it was veering off, possibly trying for a flanking position, but the ploy left the length of the ship exposed and Sigrid’s next shot tore through it from stem to stern. Several of the fragmentation rounds connected with the ship’s main engines, erupting in a tremendous explosion. The captain of the last ship must have had enough; Sigrid saw it flip over on its axis, showing the Morrigan its massive stern tubes. They flared brilliantly as it decelerated away, eager to put some distance between themselves and the waiting death in Sigrid’s gun.

  This fight was over. Sigrid was about to shut down the Pod, but then something occurred to her and she felt a coldness spreading inside herself. These men had attacked her and her friends, killed all those people on board the Lift. And what of the Panama Complex? The loss of life would be staggering. Sara’s words rang in her head—they would continue to pursue her and all the girls. They were still a threat.