Star Road

by Matthew Costello

  The oncoming vehicles skillfully navigated the winding intersections.

  How the fuck do we get out of here?

  Even as she thought that, a group of speeders started to close the distance, speeding up behind them.

  So far, they were holding their fire.

  Why?

  Annie had to make a decision. Moving to full power, she saw four good options immediately up ahead.

  They must want to take us alive.

  The speeders—still far enough away ...

  Maybe she could shake them off, get to the portal, get back onto the Star Road.

  Get the hell out of here.

  Maybe.

  She decided not to take the obvious route—the most direct route to the portal.

  That’s exactly what the Runners would be expecting; so before she got to the junction, she cut the SRV hard to the left and onto a ramp that dropped down ... toward the ocean.

  Has to be rocking the passengers... and if they see the speeders?

  They’d be getting the Road trip of a lifetime. She wondered briefly if the Chippie was recording all of this. No doubt.

  Checking a screen, she saw that the maneuver had worked.

  For now.

  One of the speeders tried to take the unanticipated turn but, moving so fast, it flew off the edge of the ramp. It dropped in a lazy, dizzying spiral and then flared in a silent explosion when it hit the edge of another ramp thirty meters below. Still spinning like a whirligig, it plunged another hundred meters until it splashed into the raging ocean.

  And disappeared.

  Nothing left but a large, iridescent oil slick on the surging waves and bubbles rising to the surface, marking where it had gone under.

  “Two down,” she said into the commlink.

  “Make that three,” Jordan said.

  Annie watched as a pulse cannon took out one of the two speeders that had successfully negotiated the hairpin turn, coming up fast behind them.

  The other had forward shields up; but each turn exposed its flank ... at least for a moment.

  She watched as her gunner took full advantage and fired short, sharp blasts.

  The speeder exploded in a glorious shower of sparks and twisted metal.

  That leaves two more left that we know of, Annie thought.

  And then she wondered: Why aren’t they shooting at us?

  She had no idea how many more speeders might come after them. There could be dozens more still inside the troop ship ... or circling around out of scanner range or hidden behind the massive pylons to head them off.

  Eventually, with planning, every section of ramp could be a trap for the SRV, and these guys looked like they knew what they were doing.

  Frantic, she scanned the various screens, looking for more signs of enemy pursuit.

  When her gaze flicked back to the rearview, she groaned.

  “Shit…”

  A speeder close on their tail... and all she could think of to say to Jordan, shouting into her headset, was: “Why aren’t you taking that son of a bitch out?”

  “Easy there, Annie. I can’t get a bearing. He’s too close, and this ramp is anything but straight.”

  Even in this situation, Jordan sounded calm ... collected.

  No pressure.

  Wish I could say the same.

  Annie took a quick turn and dropped down to another, lower level, as if she might be doubling back to the station, in exactly the wrong direction if she wanted to access the portal.

  The SRV skimmed along the undamaged ramp surface, shifting from side to side as she adjusted for its winding curves.

  She kept an eye on the speeder on her tail, but she had to focus on the path ahead. Its twists and turns made her stomach roil.

  Who the hell designed this? she wondered.

  Her passengers below had to be losing it.

  “Okay. This ... is going to be crazy,” she said, as much to herself as to Jordan.

  With a sudden jerk of the controls, she took a sharp turn onto an even lower level, one that nearly skimmed the surface of the sea. Foaming waves towered against the sky.

  The SRV sped along the ramp at nearly sea level.

  Massive tongues of water splashed across the ramp’s surface and pulled away, leaving behind thick tangles of a strange kelplike substance that gave off an eerie red luminescence.

  Stuff looks slippery. Hit some of that on a sharp turn and... good-bye.

  In spite of a few reckless turns, the single speeder behind them kept up and now was gradually shortening the distance. Annie had no doubt that the driver was in communication with the troop ship, giving his exact location so they could send out more speeders and intercept her.

  Only a matter of time ...

  “Still can’t get a clear shot,” Jordan said over the headset. “If you got to a straight section. Even for a few seconds ...”

  Annie checked her screen showing the ramp sections ahead.

  “Okay ... we’re coming up on a straightaway.”

  “Copy that. I’ll be ready.”

  Annie also saw that there weren’t any other ships directly ahead of her.

  Not yet, anyway.

  Coming down so near the surface threw them off.

  “Gun needs more pivot and arc. Then I could get off a shot. Fucking design flaw, if you ask me,” Jordan added.

  “We’ll see about redesigning the vehicle once we get back home, okay?”

  “Just get us straight, Captain.”

  Annie throttled the SRV up as fast as it would go and still stay on the twisting roadway, now close to a short, straight section.

  But then another one-man vehicle appeared on the road in front of them. She jumped when Jordan fired forward and turned the speeder into a blazing, spinning ball of slag.

  Fucking Jordan—got eyes on the back of his head.

  She checked to onboard nav systems. The bad news: she was moving farther away from the portal. Once again, she wondered why the Builders—or whoever—had made such a complex system of interchanges and ramps. Part of a defense system for Hydra Salim? Or maybe it was simply a very busy hub at one time or another.

  Annie glanced at the rearview display again just in time to see something that didn’t make sense.

  The speeder right there ... behind them ... still not firing, to the side, in the water ... something huge and dark was moving fast along the road, tracking them like a predatory shadow.

  ~ * ~

  In the gun turret, Jordan watched his pursuer intently, waiting for him to stop wobbling back and forth so he could actually hit it.

  He could see a straight section ahead.

  C’mon, Jordan thought. Come to papa. Just need one clean shot.

  He jumped when a surge of sudden turbulence in the ocean off to his left hit the SRV.

  His first thought was that a huge wave had heaved up and was about to break over them.

  This one looked big enough to sweep the SRV and its pursuer into the ocean.

  But that isn’t what happened.

  Instead, out of the churning gray water, a huge head—bigger than the SRV itself-—broke the surface. It thrust up and out of the water, towering above them, balanced on a thick, elongated neck.

  The underside of the animal was translucently pale, but everything happened so fast, Jordan could barely register it.

  Then the thing struck.

  Whipping its head around faster than should have been possible for something that size, it opened its mouth, exposing a red, gaping maw lined with huge, sharply honed teeth. With a quick, vicious snap of its body, the head darted forward like a striking cobra and snatched up the speeder.

  And the speeder ... simply... vanished.

  Like it had never been there.

  The water churned, throwing frothy whitecaps to the wind as the creature returned to the depths. A wave thick with red kelp sloshed over the road.

 
But that was the only sign that it had ever been there.

  That could have been us, Jordan thought.

  ~ * ~

  “What the hell just happened?” Annie was staring at the rearview screens.

  One second, the pursuer was there.

  The next... gone.

  She tapped the screen to make sure it was still functional. The view of the road behind them was perfectly clear.

  So where’s the speeder?

  “Jordan?” she said, more calmly than she felt. “What the hell just happened?”

  Jordan’s laughter came over the commlink, and then he said, “You— ahh, might want to take a higher road. Trust me on this.”

  “I’m getting a reading that there are more of the Runners up ahead. How you holding up?”

  “Any ramp ahead and I’ll be fine. Send as many as you want my way. Just because they’re stupid enough not to shoot us down, doesn’t mean I can’t shoot them.”

  ~ * ~

  27

  SHOOTING GALLERY

  Gotta give ‘em credit. They’re tenacious bastards, whoever they are.

  Now Jordan was enjoying himself as he picked off their pursuers one after another.

  But why the hell aren’t they shooting back? Even to cripple us, if they want to take the cargo or someone on board?

  He had no doubt they were Runners, and they were here to get their leader—Ivan—back alive.

  “Look...”

  He saw what lay ahead at the same instant Annie did.

  They were moving in the direction of the portal now, the diversion down to the surface having worked ... at least for the time being.

  Jordan checked the nav systems and saw several routes to the Star Road entrance. He hoped Annie would take the quickest one and get them the hell out of here.

  Once they were back on the Road, they should be safe, but could she shake these guys when they closed again? Could she evade them and could he shoot them all down before a well-placed shot crippled their vehicle?

  The portal was close. But now, coming up on their rear ...

  The huge troop ship was moving up behind them.

  Could Annie outrace it? Had to be too large to navigate the twists and turns of the road like SRV-66.

  Smaller means faster ... more agile.

  But even as he watched, the troop ship opened, and more speeders dropped onto the road and started moving toward them.

  Small... agile.

  Damn it!

  Eight... ten ... fifteen and more were coming. More than he could count.

  “All right, then …” he said as he squeezed the grips of the gun’s controls, the palms of his hands dry.

  This is what he lived for.

  The speeders quickly closed the distance, but not all of them made it. Within the first thirty seconds, three were blasted out of existence, the wreckage falling to the ocean below.

  But the road here was wide enough so they could zigzag back and forth, and Jordan couldn’t predict all their moves.

  And for most of them, their shields held.

  He decided to hold fire. Wait to catch them on a turn, when their shields were exposed, and then: they started to shoot.

  Streaks of white light shot from their forward cones, but these weren’t kill shots, Jordan quickly realized.

  Going to wound us just enough.

  And as the speeders closed the gap between them, they stopped firing

  They weren’t even going to risk going for the crippling shot... not if it meant disabling the SRV and having it lose control and drop off the ramp and into the sea.

  They may be crazy, Jordan thought, but they’re certainly not stupid.

  ~ * ~

  Annie jumped with surprise when the commlink suddenly chirped.

  Not Jordan’s bandwidth.

  She hit the button, and a face, blurred beyond recognition, popped up on her comm screen. She hit a button to run an ID scan but knew it wouldn’t work. The scrambled signal would mix the data stream.

  “Captain,” the man said. His voice sounded unnervingly close in the confines of the cockpit. “Don’t make this any harder on yourself than it has to be.”

  Fuck you! Annie thought, but instead said, “What do you mean by that?”

  “Power down and pull over, or we’ll burn you.”

  Annie stared at the face of the screen, knowing the commander could see her. She bit her lower lip as she slowly shook her head.

  “Can I ask why you’ve opened fire on a civilian vehicle?” she said.

  The commander of the troop ship leaned back and laughed.

  “Isn’t it obvious?”

  “You’re violating World Council law.”

  “We’re a long way from the World Council, from Earth ... Captain ... Captain Scott, if I’m reading your transponder signal correctly.”

  A lengthening silence. And then: “We have nothing on board of interest,” Annie said.

  “How do you know what interests me?”

  “We have a handful of passengers and a small amount of cargo. Medical supplies, mostly. Not worth the price you’ve already paid.”

  A laugh, this time deep and more sinister than humorous.

  “How many men have you already lost?” Annie asked.

  Thinking at the same time: This has to be about Delgato.

  The commander laughed again and said, “I’ll give your gunner credit. He’s good. He should join us.”

  Fat chance!

  With nothing more to say, Annie cut the communication and sped up, trying to put more distance between herself and the speeders. That lumbering tub of bolts would never catch her on its own, and hopefully Jordan could handle the speeders.

  Or I gotta outrun them.

  The SRV tore along the winding roads, but no matter what Annie did, she couldn’t shake her pursuers. They popped up and swooped in, riding her ... herding her ...

  Finally, frustrated, she flipped on the intercom and spoke to the passengers as calmly and carefully as she could.

  “I need a volunteer. Anyone ever shoot a nose cannon?”

  Nahara or Rodriguez, maybe... Not the Chippie, and absolutely not the Seeker.

  Of course ... there was one guy who could probably operate it, no problem.

  Delgato.

  ~ * ~

  Ruth froze when the captain’s voice came over the speakers.

  Like the other passengers, she’d been furiously knocked back and forth as the SRV sped over the winding roads. She was exhausted, like the rest of the passengers who hadn’t slept in ... how long?

  And as shots flashed by the SRV, the heavy thump of the gun turret shook her bones.

  And now this? Asking for a volunteer?

  Or what—we get captured... killed?

  She undid her safety straps and stood up. Clinging to the seatbacks, she made her way slowly to the front of the cabin.

  “You. Nahara. How about you?” she asked, looking at the World Council exec.

  He regarded her for a moment and then lowered his gaze as though ashamed.

  “I-I’m just an executive.”

  He turned away.

  “And you?”

  She focused on the doctor—Rodriguez.

  He shook his head even before she asked her question.

  A sound off to her right drew her attention.

  She looked at him—Ivan Delgato, the scourge of the Star Road, if she could believe the media.

  His eyes were wide; his expression, pained.

  Then, though she thought it impossible, he managed to say a single word.

  “... I ...”

  That was all.

  A sound like he was being strangled. Which he was. From what Ruth knew about neuro-collars, it was a miracle he could speak at all.