Sunspire (The Reach, Book 4)

by Mark R. Healy

  “Don’t try to kiss my ass now, Duran,” de Villiers said. “You’re not getting on this rig, no matter what you say. Don’t bother trying to sweet talk your way in.”

  “Don’t be a shithead,” Zoe said impatiently. “You haven’t even heard what we’ve had to say yet.”

  De Villiers leaned on the door jamb and folded his arms across his chest, affording them his best shit-eating grin.

  “So let’s hear it.”

  “We don’t need you to take us to the coast, or wherever it is you’re going,” Duran said. “We just need to head as close as you can get us to Sunspire Mountain. Then we’ll get off, and you won’t ever have to see us again.”

  “Why?” de Villiers said. “What’s there?”

  Duran glanced at Zoe. “We found out there’s a couple of Redmen on the loose. They’re working for the guy who blew up the habitat, and the Wire along with it. Right now they’re headed for Sunspire, where another space elevator is waiting for them.”

  “So what does this have to do with you?” de Villiers said.

  “We don’t know exactly what they’re up to, but considering Hanker’s track record of blowing shit up, we figure it’s not going to be good. Maybe he’s looking to get off-world so he can continue his attacks. In any case, there are innocent people in harm’s way. If we don’t stop the Redmen, more people are going to die.”

  “That’s a beautiful story,” de Villiers said unsympathetically. “I’m choking up here.”

  “Yeah, that’s about what I expected,” Zoe said, disgusted. “You used to care about justice, De. You used to believe in trying to make a difference. I guess all that went out the window when things got tough.”

  “Screw you, Zoe,” de Villiers said, stepping onto the platform and advancing on them. “What difference are you going to make now?”

  “We’re going to save some innocent people, and put some bad motherfuckers in the ground,” Duran said. “I can’t spell it out much clearer than that.”

  “But we can’t get there in time unless we’re on that shuttle,” Zoe said. “So the question is, have you forgotten everything you once believed in, or not?”

  De Villiers stood there, his eyes darting between Zoe and Duran under a deep scowl as he formulated a retort. A deathly silence descended on the group, and then de Villiers tossed the rag away in disgust.

  Suddenly, he laughed.

  “Shit, Zoe. Lighten up. Of course you and your boyfriend can come along for the ride.” He shrugged. “We could use some extra hands to help get her ready.” He checked his wristwatch. “If all goes well, we should be out of here in a few hours.”

  Zoe glared at him. “Are you fucking with us?”

  De Villiers shrugged. “I wanted to see you two sweat for a bit. I don’t get much amusement around here. Gotta say up front that I’m not going to help with your crusade, though. Sounds like another lost cause to me.”

  “We just need a ride, that’s all,” Duran said.

  “Then you can tag along, as long as you lend a hand with the prep.”

  Zoe smiled hesitantly, then held out her hand. “Thank you, De.”

  De Villiers shook her hand, then she and Jovanovic moved off to inspect the shuttle. As Duran stepped forward, de Villiers held out a hand to bar his way.

  “And you,” he said in a low voice. “You get that girl killed out there, and I’ll make it my personal mission to find you and gut you. Got that?”

  Duran pursed his lips. “Yeah. I got that.”

  “Good.” De Villiers smiled and swept his hand toward the shuttle. “Welcome aboard.”

  31

  The Skywalk was dead straight, unchanging, and almost featureless. That, combined with the constant drone of the handcar as it sped along the track, was enough to lull Knile into sleep.

  He hadn’t wanted to lose consciousness. Not in the least. However, his fatigue after the events of the past few days had become overwhelming, and he’d nodded off despite his best intentions.

  The dreams he encountered were incoherent. He saw Talia and Roman huddling alone in the lowlands while a great tempest whipped around them, flinging sand with such velocity that the two of them seemed to melt away at the touch of it.

  The vision morphed, and now he was standing atop the Reach, looking over the edge at the smoking ruin of the landscape below. Assaulted by a sudden wave of vertigo, he tried to step back, but found that he could not. He was tipping, ever so slowly, further and further until his feet became unstuck and he was tumbling out into the nothingness, back toward Earth–

  He awoke suddenly, aware that the handcar’s momentum had begun to change.

  It was slowing down.

  Guiltily, he glanced around at the others, but saw that they too were asleep. All but Lazarus, who was staring back at Knile with an inscrutable expression on his face.

  Knile nodded, but the Redman only jutted his chin outward in response.

  “Wake up,” Knile said, and Ursie and Tobias both started and sat up. “Something’s happening.”

  “Where are we?” Ursie said blearily, rubbing at her eye socket with her fist.

  “On the Skywalk, same as before,” Knile said.

  “Yeah, but where?”

  Knile glanced down at the handcar’s terminal screen, which had gone black. “I don’t know exactly.” He looked back in the direction they had come. “It looks like we lost power.”

  “Well, that there can only mean one thing,” Tobias said.

  “Our link to the way station is gone,” Knile said. He looked around helplessly as the handcar continued to slow. “It must have broken away from the Skywalk.”

  Silence settled over them as they considered the implications of that. Walt was gone. Right now he and the way station were probably plummeting back toward Earth, a fate that did not bear thinking about.

  “I’ll get the crank going again,” Knile said, getting to his feet and clenching his fists gingerly, where the blisters were still raw.

  “There is no need,” Lazarus said, also standing, although he had to duck to avoid hitting his head on the roof of the Skywalk. “Our destination approaches.”

  Knile turned to see that the Redman was right. Not far away, perhaps a couple of hundred metres, he could see another doorway.

  “Is that Sunspire?” Ursie said excitedly.

  “That, or another way station,” Tobias said.

  “Let’s check it out,” Knile said. The handcar ground to a halt, and he dropped nimbly to the floor, then turned to help the others. “We can walk from here. It isn’t too far.”

  Buoyed by the new discovery, Knile felt for the first time that the wind was at their back, that perhaps they had put the worst of the journey behind them. The others responded in kind, displaying more energy than at any previous point in the trip. As they reached the door, however, Knile’s spirits began to wane once again.

  “It looks like another way station,” Ursie said, mirroring his thoughts.

  “We don’t know that yet,” he said. Moving over to the door release, he pulled on the lever, and on this occasion there was no resistance. The door opened smoothly, and as it slid upward a gust of foul air spewed out into the Skywalk and swirled around them.

  “Ain’t that a whiff,” Tobias remarked.

  “Smells like something crawled in here and died,” Ursie said, burying her nose in the crook of her elbow.

  Seemingly untroubled by the odour, Lazarus stepped forward and peered into the gloom.

  “The design is the same as before,” he said. “I believe this to be another way station.”

  “If the layout is a copy of the first one,” Knile said, “then at least we’ll know how to get through.”

  “I wish Walt had come along,” Ursie said. “He could have really helped us figure out what to do.”

  Lazarus turned back to her. “I expected you might have simply invaded his soul with your demonic touch and forced him to do as you wished.”

  “Screw you,
asshole. I wouldn’t have done that to him.”

  “We both know that isn’t true.”

  “You don’t know a thing about me.”

  “I know enough.”

  “Why don’t you just go back to sleep?” she said, eyes flashing. “You were a lot more use to us when you were unconscious.”

  “Listen, you two. Just hold it together a little longer, huh?” Knile said, gripping Lazarus by the arm and turning him away. “We have enough working against us without turning on each other as well.”

  They began to proceed further into the darkened way station, and the stench only got worse. Knile couldn’t put his finger on exactly what it was. Maybe he just didn’t want to. He imagined entering the next room to find bodies piled to the ceiling, having sat there rotting for decades, but there was no such grisly apparition. The place seemed empty. More likely, what they were smelling was probably just plastics and rubber breaking down over time, and the resulting odour being trapped within the airtight way station for many years.

  At least, that’s what he told himself.

  There was no greenhouse in this way station, no sign of human habitation. It was cold and bare and unwelcoming, like an empty morgue, and Knile wasted no time in making his way through to the other side.

  The reached the dock at the far end in only a few minutes, and another handcar sat waiting on the track, just as it had in the previous way station. Knile moved over to the terminal on the wall, like Walt had done, and after a few moments he found that, miraculously, the place still had power.

  “It’s still running? How is that possible?” Ursie said as the glowing light of the terminal splashed across the dock.

  “The solar cells would still be soaking up sunlight every day, and the batteries must be intact,” Knile said. “At least some of them.” He frowned as the unfamiliar operating system completed its boot sequence. “The way stations were probably designed to lie dormant for years on end, coming back online when needed.”

  “Yeah, but not this long,” Ursie said.

  “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth,” Tobias said.

  Ursie scowled at him. “Don’t what a what?”

  “Do not be ungrateful for small blessings,” Lazarus said.

  “I’m just worried that there might be more crazy people wandering around in here, stinking up the place,” Ursie said, glancing around uncertainly.

  “Don’t sweat it,” Knile said. “Get the gear on the handcar. I should have it started soon.”

  They did as he suggested, and Knile continued to manipulate the terminal. He’d seen a lot of different systems in his time, and he’d never met one he couldn’t get his head around eventually. This one was no exception. He found the commands to route the power to the handcar, and within a minute or two they were ready to continue. He opened the way station door and the next leg of the tunnel came into view, looking very much like the last.

  “Impressive,” Lazarus said as he climbed on board and took his place at the controls. “Your mastery of machines seems limitless.”

  “Not limitless,” Knile said, “but enough to get me out of a jam now and again.”

  Knile adjusted the controls, and this time there was a parameter that had been missing on the last handcar.

  It read: Distance to Sunspire: 59 kms.

  “This might be our last leg,” he said excitedly. “No more way stations. Sunspire will hopefully be our next stop.”

  “Then let’s get moving,” Ursie said. “Put your foot down, man.”

  Knile eased the handcar forward, and they rolled out of the dock and into the tunnel, and for the first time, Knile dared to hope that they might reach their destination before the Skywalk crumbled around them.

  32

  Talia trudged on with a heavy heart, and Sunspire Mountain loomed closer with every step.

  The trek across the lowlands had been a harrowing experience. Since leaving the ruins where Silvestri lay buried, they had experienced any number of close encounters with the raiders. She wasn’t sure if these denizens of the lowlands were always this active, or if the happenings at the Reach had created a ripple effect, stirring them into a frenzy. She suspected it was the latter. There would be a lot of people fleeing Link into the surrounding lowlands right now, a lot of easy targets for the raiders to pick off.

  They were circling like sharks.

  In most cases, Talia and the others had been able to hide until the danger had passed. There was one occasion where they had found themselves out in the open, unable to conceal themselves, and a pack of four raiders had come at them in a beaten-up and rusted truck, opening fire before stopping to ask questions. Norrey and Kolos had moved into action like seasoned pros, forcing Talia and Roman to the ground before taking defensive positions with their rifles. With a few well aimed shots they had killed two of the raiders, and the survivors had subsequently turned the truck around and hightailed it out of there.

  Talia found herself gaining newfound respect for the two bodyguards. She had figured that they were little more than thugs, but the way they handled themselves suggested otherwise. They’d been trained in the art of combat, no doubt about it. The way they’d shut down the raider assault had been no fluke.

  Their efforts had not escaped Roman’s notice, either. “Nice job back there,” he’d said afterward. “Are you two ex-Enforcers or something?”

  Norrey had seemed amused by the comment. “No. Just a couple of relics from a long-forgotten army.”

  Talia had begun to think that maybe they’d caught a break by ending up in the care of Norrey and Kolos. She wasn’t sure how she and Roman would have negotiated the lowlands alone.

  As they continued on and the hours ticked by, more features of their destination had become visible. The mountain itself was like an extension of the lowlands, bare apart from a scattering of dead trees, and on its northern end jutted a craggy granite cliff face streaked in vertical lines of black and grey. Talia thought she could see a strip of dirt winding its way around the base that may have been a road. At the mountain’s peak she could now see something tall and slender rising up into the murky heavens above – the space elevator.

  “Well, at least we know where to go,” Roman murmured at her side, his eyes also transfixed by the mountain peak.

  “And that the elevator hasn’t fallen apart. Yet.”

  The remnants of a broken highway emerged from the sand before them, heading due east like a guiding light for the weary travellers. They followed it, making their way past burnt out structures and more ruins that might have been gas stations or even the last vestiges of towns that had once lined the highway.

  As they neared the base of the mountain, Talia was startled to hear her holophone ring. She took it from her pocket.

  “Hello?” she said uncertainly.

  “Talia.” Knile’s voice.

  “Knile, thank god,” she said, her relief immense. After the events of the past twenty-four hours, hearing that he was still alive was like a gift from the heavens.

  “You can hear me?”

  “Yes, finally.”

  “You must have gotten close enough to a decent relay for the transmission to go through. Probably just caught a lucky break.”

  “Yeah.” Up ahead, Norrey and Kolos stopped and turned to look at her. “What’s been happening up there? Have you been hearing anything I’ve been sending you?”

  “Bits and pieces. I gathered that you got in touch with the cruiser captain, and that he’s on his way.”

  “Ngozi. Yes, he’s on his way. But we don’t have much more than half a day before he docks. We’re running out of time.”

  “How close are you to Sunspire?”

  “We’re almost there. Hopefully we can be at the top in a few hours.”

  “That’s good.”

  “What about you? Are you there yet?”

  “Closing in. We should be there within the hour. How’s Roman and the others?”

  Talia took a shaky breat
h. “Roman’s fine. But we’ve had some bad shit go down since we left the Reach.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Yun had some sort of personal crisis, said he couldn’t go through with it. He left before we got on the dirigible. Later, I had to put the dirigible down in the lowlands. It was the last one Bagley had, and it was in pretty bad shape. There were raiders on our tail, so we hid in some ruins, but…”

  She could feel tears in her eyes once again.

  “What happened, Talia?”

  “The raiders found us. Silvestri was shot before we could escape. He didn’t make it.”

  There was silence for a few moments, then Knile muttered, “Goddammit. I’m sorry, Talia.”

  “Yeah. Like I said, some bad shit.”

  “So you and Roman are out there alone?”

  Norrey and Kolos were out of earshot, examining a gadget of some kind that Norrey had pulled from his coat. She turned her back on them and lowered her voice. “No. We had to make a deal with some mercenaries to get a ride on the last dirigible. They were heading east, like us. They agreed to help us across the lowlands.”

  Another pause. “Can you trust them?”

  “I think so. They’ve helped to keep the raiders at bay.”

  “Well, I’ll leave it to your judgement. You know how to handle yourself.”

  “Yeah, it’s under control.”

  “So, I don’t know how long this relay will hold out. For all we know, we might not be able to contact each other when you reach the top of Sunspire Mountain.”

  “So what do we do?”

  “I don’t know exactly, yet. Not until I’ve had a look at things from this end. At the very least, you should try to bring the systems down there online. We can hopefully work it out from there.”

  “But I’m not an expert in this stuff, Knile. I don’t know how a damn space elevator works.”

  “You don’t have to. Just get power to the place if you can. I’ll work out the rest.”

  She pursed her lips. “Why do I get the impression you’re just making this up as you go along?”