Kumadai Run

by Jaleta Clegg

  Outside the hedge, he heard the pounding steps of the golden men. They called to another group, asking about the ones outside. They ran right past the hedge. Their footsteps faded into the night. The group relaxed. Clark let out the breath he was holding.

  “Who are you? What are you doing here?” the Enforcer asked. “You can get us all punished for this.”

  “We’re breaking out,” Clark said. “They’ve found the generators for the fields. They’ll be down by sunrise day after tomorrow.”

  They stared at him.

  “Then it’s true,” an older man in silver said, pushing forward. “The pulse code messages are true. We really are getting out.”

  “They’ll punish us if we do,” the Enforcer said. “We can’t leave.”

  “We can and we are,” Clark said.

  “What about these?” The older man yanked the collar on his neck.

  “They found a way to disable those,” Clark said, and hoped he was telling the truth.

  “They said that last night, in the pulse code. They got a wand and found a way to block it.”

  “And if there are enough of us, they can’t stop us,” Clark said.

  “What’s your plan?”

  “Spread the word, cause confusion, and meet at the base of the trail up the cliff tomorrow at dawn.”

  The older man turned to the rest of the group. “Who wants a chance at getting out of here? And who wants to stay with Commander Lukann?”

  The group surged forward, towards the thorn barrier. Clark tried to protest, it was supposed to be quiet tonight, wasn’t it? They weren’t listening to him. He heard a growing chorus of shouts in the distance. What did it matter anyway? If they all got out, maybe Dace would have a better chance in the confusion. He turned with the rest and helped pull the thorns free.

  “Where now?” the older man asked Clark.

  “Where’s alpha group?”

  “North, I think,” the man answered.

  “Go to as many groups as you can,” Clark said. “Get them out. If there are enough of us, no one can stop us.”

  The group was already running into the night.

  “Good luck,” the older man said and took off.

  The Enforcer, Commander Lukann, was left standing in a deserted enclosure with a confused, frightened look on his face. Clark didn’t stay to see what he would do. Clark took the path, trying to find a way north.

  He found more of the thorn enclosures. None of them were alpha group. The night was alive with shouting and the high clicking of pulse code sent through the trees. The third enclosure he got to had already been torn open. No one was inside.

  He kept heading north. The groups of golden men jogging along the paths were growing fewer. Clark dodged them less. The paths were also narrower, less used. He came out on top of a hill clear of trees and looked over the valley.

  The purple glow from overhead turned the green of the trees to a sickly shade of dark gray. He didn’t see any lights, but he could hear shouting. A bright flare of flame suddenly bloomed in the night woods, far to the south in the center of the woods. The shouting increased.

  He turned to look north. The canyon wound out of sight, the trees growing shorter and stunted in the distance. He couldn’t tell if there were any more prisoners that way or not. He turned south and retraced his steps back into the thicker wood.

  The purple glow overhead was beginning to fade, morning wasn’t far off. He passed another of the thorn enclosures. It gaped open and empty. The sound of shouting and fighting grew closer. He walked faster. The air filled with the smell of smoke.

  Clark came out of the woods into a wide grass clearing. A knot of golden men stood in the center of the grass surrounded by bodies. Their white tunics almost glowed in the predawn light. More of the prisoners were in the trees around the clearing, looking for an opening to rush the men in the middle.

  The golden men waved their wands uncertainly. One of the bodies on the ground shifted and groaned. The group of golden men backed away, holding their wands towards the group closing in from the woods.

  A man in a blue and gray shipsuit shouted, a wordless cry of anger. He rushed at the knot of white tunics. The others shouted and followed in a surging wave. The golden men broke and ran followed by their former prisoners.

  Some of the prisoners stayed behind, checking on the ones on the ground. Clark caught a glimpse of a green outfit on the far side of the field. His heart caught in his throat. He ran across the trampled grass. It might be Jasyn.

  He knew long before he reached the prone figure that it wasn’t Jasyn. The green was wrong, and it was a man with a scraggly beard. He kept going anyway. He stopped and gave what help he could. Most of the ones on the ground were only stunned.

  He talked briefly with the one who seemed most coherent. He sent the dazed prisoners east, towards the less steep cliff and the trail up to the ships.

  The force shield overhead fizzled out. Sullen orange sunlight poured into the canyon. Clark stayed with the group, herding them east. He wanted to keep searching for Jasyn, but they needed him. Someone had to start organizing the chaos that had erupted during the night.

  They found the path that ran above the trees, along the slope at the bottom of the cliff. He sent people north and south to scout. They found a trail up the cliff. He led the wounded that way and stayed to help them set up camp just inside the trees where a stream trickled to give them water.

  More groups came limping in. He handed a woman a scrap of paper and sent her to mark down names. He had no idea how many prisoners there were. He hoped someone did.

  He found medics among the prisoners and set them to helping those who were hurt. He gave others tasks, organizing, finding what supplies they could, and sent more out to find people and bring them to the growing camp at the base of the trail.

  He was tired, hot and sweating in the muggy afternoon. He finally gave in to fatigue and sat down in a spot of shade to rest for a moment. The distant sounds of fighting had faded during the day. The groups limping in were more battered, but they were smiling.

  “We’ve got them on the run,” one man announced. “They scuttled back behind their wall of thorns to hide.”

  There were cheers at that comment. Clark couldn’t find the energy to join in. All day long he’d seen others finding their shipmates, friends long lost. He hadn’t seen Jasyn anywhere, and hadn’t found anyone who’d seen her either. No one knew where Dace was. He hoped she would manage to knock out the tractor beams. And that somehow she and Jasyn would both appear, whole and well, by dawn tomorrow.

  He leaned back against the rough wood of the tree trunk. He was tired, bone tired. He closed his eyes, just for a moment, he told himself. He was asleep moments later.

  He thought it was a dream at first. Cool hands stroking his head, smoothing the hair away from his face. And Jasyn’s voice, calling his name. He fought waking up, he didn’t want to lose the dream. He didn’t want to face reality again.

  “Clark,” her voice called again, soft and warm, close to him. “Trevyn, wake up.”

  His eyes snapped open.

  Jasyn knelt beside him, smiling and as dirty and unkempt as he was. He reached for her, gathering her into his arms. She was real, she was warm and solid and everything he’d been dreaming about. She was laughing and crying and hugging him all at the same time. He just held her, not wanting to ever let this moment go.

  Chapter 25

  The corridor stretched into what felt like infinity in the dusky light. Doors lined both sides, closed with faint green spots glowing above them. At least three other corridors crossed the main one. Commander Hovart was right, this was not just any ship. This thing was huge.

  “Where now?” Wade asked.

  “There are some readings of energy that way,” Lovar said, eyes glued to the scanner as he waved vaguely to the right.

  “What about the doors?” Wex walked to the nearest one and pushed it.

  He must have hit the lights jus
t right on the door surface. It slid neatly to one side. We crowded forward to look inside. The room was empty, a bare cube of space.

  “Storage, I’d bet,” Wex said.

  We spread out along the corridor, trying doors. None of them had anything remotely similar to the door controls on most ships. Most showed a combination of green lights. If they were pushed in the right order, the door slid open. About half opened, showing us empty space. The others, no matter what combination we tried, stayed shut. Lovar kept his face to the scanner. He walked slowly ahead of the rest of us.

  “We’re wasting time,” Commander Hovart said as we looked into the tenth empty room. “Which way, Lovar?”

  Lovar stood at the cross corridor moving the scanner back and forth. He pointed it at the ceiling and frowned. “Right, mostly, but also up. We need a way to move up a deck.”

  “Then let’s find it,” Commander Hovart said.

  We turned right. There were fewer doors, but they had more lights. Out of curiosity I pushed the lights on one door. They blinked and changed to a new pattern. I half expected a warning siren or something. Nothing else happened. The door stayed shut. I hurried to catch up with the others.

  The corridor stretched an incredible distance. The whole ship must have been more than a mile long, judging by the length of the hallway. It was at least half that wide. We hurried down the hall, our boots raising echoes.

  We came to another intersection of hallways. Lovar stopped, frowning over the scanner. We waited nervously as he took readings, looking down the other ways. A faint breeze of air blew from deeper in the ship. It smelled of old oil and metal and other things I couldn’t identify.

  “I think straight ahead,” Lovar said. “There’s something big up there.”

  We walked ahead. I twitched at every step. The ship didn’t feel deserted or empty. The people behind us with the globes wouldn’t have been stopped long by the door. I kept looking behind, expecting to see them coming after us.

  The lighting in the corridor stayed dim and green. It was enough to let us see where we were going but not enough to see more than vague shapes in the distance.

  We passed three more sets of cross halls. Lovar paused at each, taking brief readings. He shook his head and kept going straight. We followed him down the hall. Commander Hovart stayed to the rear. He had one of the stunners I’d brought in the bundles. I wondered if it would do us any good or if it would melt in his hand, but I didn’t say anything. Commander Hovart looked dangerous enough in the green light I didn’t want to irritate him. He could always use the stunner as a club.

  I heard a growing murmur that sounded like wind in the distance. Vibrations rumbled underfoot, growing stronger the farther we went. The hall ended in a thick door with a large wheel mounted on it and no glowing light locks. Wade gripped the wheel and turned it. Or he tried to. It didn’t budge.

  “Try the other way,” Wex said, not very helpfully.

  Wade muttered something we all pretended not to hear, except Wex who muttered back that he was only trying to help. Wade tried spinning it the other way. The wheel creaked and gave way. Wade fell to the side, landing on the floor with an oomph. I helped him up while Lovar shoved the door open.

  He stopped just inside the door. Wex ran into him, crowding in behind. Commander Hovart glanced over his shoulder, then shoved me and Wade through the door and slammed it shut behind us.

  “They’re coming,” he said. And then stopped and stared with the rest of us.

  Water ran everywhere, in clear pipes, in long streams from openings high overhead, in channels across the floor and down the walls. Pools scattered across the room glowed green, blue, red, and yellow. It was like being in a giant container of liquid jewels.

  “What is this place?” Wex asked.

  Lovar walked into the middle of it, head down, eyes glued to the scanner, passing under falling streams and missing being drenched by inches. He skirted a small pool that glowed cherry red and stopped, looking up.

  “Any way out of here?” Commander Hovart asked.

  Lovar shrugged.

  “Water treatment,” Wade said. “I’d bet half a year’s pay on it.”

  Pieces clicked into place. Of course the water would have to be artificially recycled. This was like a ship system except much bigger and a lot prettier.

  “This is the water,” I said, mostly to myself. “The atmosphere generators should be somewhere near. And some way to trigger the rains. This explains the ponds.”

  “What?” Commander Hovart asked me. “Ponds?”

  “All the streams feed into ponds,” I said. “They have to bring the water back here. Closed system. If it weren’t, the water would have been lost to space a long time ago. This is a colony ship. And it’s doing its best to establish a colony here. But the planet is too small to support a self-sustaining colony. Not to mention the radiation.”

  “Some scholar is going to make his reputation studying it,” Commander Hovart said. “But only if we can get out of here. Suggestions?”

  “I think I found a way out,” Wex said from somewhere high overhead.

  He stood on a platform of what looked like solid water, waves and ripples included. A stream of bright blue water poured behind him in a solid sheet.

  “There’s a ladder behind the yellow spray,” he said.

  “Over here,” Wade said from a different direction. “There’s another door.”

  Lovar was out of sight, wandering through the maze of running water.

  Commander Hovart muttered a curse. “I hate techs on missions like this.” He put his fingers in his mouth and let loose a piercing whistle. Something in the distance crashed. A pipe full of orange liquid gurgled and emptied, draining away.

  Lovar returned, looking guilty. “There’s levers and things back there,” he said, waving behind him. “They control it. If we could figure it all out, we could divert the water and crash the whole system.”

  “We don’t have time,” Commander Hovart said.

  Wade came back. “Not a way out. Just a closet with spare parts.”

  “Find the ladder and start climbing,” Commander Hovart said.

  Wex sat on the platform, dangling his feet off the edge. We found the ladder he’d told us about and climbed up. Lovar and Wade were ahead of me. They kept stopping to stare around them. Commander Hovart shoved my feet, trying to get me to move faster.

  “Hurry up,” I said to Wade.

  He reached up and shoved Lovar’s rump. “Order to move it.”

  Lovar sighed as he tucked the scanner into his pocket. He scampered up the ladder faster than most rats could have climbed it. Wade hurried after him. I did my best to match his speed. Commander Hovart was still breathing on my ankles the whole way up.

  We crowded onto the small platform. It didn't have railings or anything to keep us from falling off into the multicolored tangle of water below.

  “Where’s your way out?” Commander Hovart demanded of Wex.

  “There’s a tunnel up there, above where the blue water comes out.” He pointed at a dark slit that couldn’t have been more than a foot high. “I couldn’t quite reach it, but I bet it goes way back.”

  Lovar had his scanner already trained on the dark opening. “Too much interference to be sure, but, I think he’s right.” He snapped the scanner off and made a big deal of tucking it away.

  “He’d better be right,” Commander Hovart said.

  The main door opened, squealing on thick hinges.

  Wade crouched down and held his hands out. “Ready?” he asked Wex.

  Wex stepped on his hands. Wade heaved him up, level with the hole. Wex caught the edge and wiggled through. A moment later his head popped back out.

  “Air vent,” he whispered loud enough that if the room hadn’t been full of running water even a deaf man could have heard him. He popped back out of sight.

  “Dace,” Wade said.

  I used his hands to help launch myself up. I grabbed for the vent. We
x caught my hands and hauled me in. My feet still got wet in the blue waterfall just below. I squeezed past Wex, crawling on my belly in the low vent.

  “Here.” Wex fumbled for my hand in the dark, pushing a handlight into it.

  I gripped the familiar round shaft and pushed the button. Dim yellow light filled the vent ahead of me. I slithered farther along. I heard the others coming behind me. I kept moving, on elbows and belly. I used my feet to help push myself along. I started looking for a way back out. It was too small, too cramped. Air pushed past me, ruffling my hair.

  I caught a glint of faint light ahead. I squirmed faster, determined to reach it. I saw no side vents, no other outlets. The light seemed to grow farther away the faster I crawled, until I realized it was dimming. It faded entirely before starting to grow brighter again. Someone pushed my boots, urging me faster. I wondered if he was as claustrophobic as I was.

  The light grew bright, a square not far ahead.

  Nothing blocked the end of the tunnel. I stuck my head out and wished I hadn’t. I was halfway up a very tall shaft. I saw dark openings all over the shaft, tunnels such as the one I was in. At the bottom of the shaft was a huge fan, blowing air upwards. The breeze rushed past me. The shaft itself was only about eight feet across. But I saw no way to reach any of the other openings. I squeezed backwards, accidentally kicking whoever was behind me in the face.

  I pulled my head back far enough so the breeze didn’t make me squint.

  “Why are you stopping?” Wade said from behind me.

  “We’re at the top of a very tall shaft with nowhere to go.”

  He passed the message back. I heard their whispers as the answer was passed forwards.

  Wade nudged my foot. “The Commander says to keep going.”

  “Go where?”

  Wade pushed my foot again. “Into the shaft. We can’t stay here, Dace.”

  “I think I see a way out,” I said and squirmed forward. Small indentations lined the walls that might work as footholds and handholds.

  The shaft was very deep and the closest handholds were a good four feet away. I hung halfway out of the shaft, reaching for them. I started to slide out. I scrambled against the smooth walls, trying to reach the handholds. The fan below was a long way down. I swore as my fingers slipped over the smooth metal.