by K. Gorman
“They'll get here in forty-five at their current speed.”
She and Soo-jin exchanged a look. Forty-five minutes. Right about the time Marc was scheduled to arrive.
“Things just keep getting better, don't they?” Soo-jin leaned her head back and closed her eyes. “Sol. Anything else we need to know about?”
“Hopper's got override codes for the Ozark's doors, and some of his people are on board.”
“Excellent. My day wouldn't be complete without shooting more assholes.” Soo-jin glanced to Nick. “Self defense. Long story.”
He raised his hands. “Oh, don't worry. I am not judging.”
“Good, because I plan to put a few more of them in Med before this cycle is over.” She looked down. “Karin? How you doing?”
She swallowed another mouthful of water. The burning had lessened, at least. Same with the dizziness—for now, at least. “I think I can move again. Just overworked myself. Maybe...”
She frowned, glancing at her fingers. She didn't feel as empty and strained as she had before, when she'd thrown up while healing the Lost, but the light puppet earlier had definitely sent her over the edge. “I think I should lay off the magical powers for a bit.”
Soo-jin gave her an assessing look, her brow furrowing. They had no idea how she could do what she did. No idea what series of lab experiments and serums had yielded her result. Even when she'd been going through the program, the treatments had gone largely unexplained—glossed over as a normal part of their life.
Normal kids went to the dentist every year. She and her sister got gene-specific lab treatments.
If her powers went away, they would have no defense against the Shadows. No cure.
“Well, let's try and take it easy. I'll shoot any Shadows that come our way. Now—” she turned to Nick. “Where's the closest comms station? I have some scheming to do.”
Chapter 25
Karin perched on the bare metal edge of a stripped bunk. They'd snuck into one of the Ozark's higher levels, closing doors and switching off lights as they went, and found a local comms terminal in one of the empty suites. A place of relative luxury, meant for the colony transport's first cryogenic passengers, the wide, double-bedded room must have cost a pretty penny compared to the lower decks' cramped, four to six-bed shared dorms. They would have woken up in here, drugged out of stasis by shipboard systems once they'd reached the proper location point in their journey.
Intrepid colonists, ready for a new life.
She patted the metal. That hadn't been quite so long ago. The first colony ship had left Earth over a thousand years ago. The last, only thirty.
The Sirius system might have abandoned its gate, but the Sol system hadn't given up. When she and Nomiki had left, the Gilese gate still had its pieces coming together. The Centauri gate, locked in geosync-ed orbit with Earth, saw plenty of traffic through its Einstein-Rosin-Lin field.
Soo-jin sat at the comms terminal embedded into the desk across the room. The blue glow lit across the smooth skin of her forearms and limned the rough edges of her dreads. By the way she hunched, she had found something worth scheming.
Hacking the Ozark had been easy—especially for the ship's engineer. As he had explained it, security protocols were so outdated and minimal on the Ozark that it had been easier to hack into its mainframe and reorganize the system to fit his own computer terminal rather than navigate through the vintage code each time. He also had access to the security system. Over Soo-jin's shoulder, she caught glimpses of video feed as Soo-jin scrolled through the active cameras. Nick leaned over from the side, occasionally typing in commands.
“Shut the G-section-51 door on them,” Soo-jin told him.
“We are nowhere near G-sec-51.”
“Precisely.”
Nick squinted. He leaned forward, the light turning his face and clothes into a wash of blue glow, making the shadows on his back compact and stretch.
As he entered in the command, Karin found her attention wandering. A long, narrow window lined the suite, probably the most expensive addition. A foot wide, it put a bar of open space at her eye level, complemented by the tilting steel planes of the Ozark's outer hull.
Sitting at an angle to Caishen, she only caught a small glimpse of the ship docked into the next port. A mining ship. She hadn't seen any miners in Caishen yet, so she assumed they had either stayed on ship, abandoned it for a ride to Enlil, or—and this seemed more likely—were holed up among Caishen's Lost, on a lesser priority to the ones she'd already healed for Hopper.
Soo-jin had given her a shot from a medkit they'd found. She felt it working away, some combination of painkiller and stimulant, turning the light-headedness around her head like soft water. The aches in her bones had vanished, but the dizziness had yet to subside.
As Soo-jin and Nick schemed, she shifted closer to the window. Beyond those docked, no ships came into view. Wherever the Fallon ship was—and it should be visible by now—she couldn't see it.
And Marc...
Unlike a Fallon warship, the Nemina would be too small to see at this distance, but that didn't stop Karin from looking. Her hard burn put her less than thirty minutes out now.
If this plan of theirs were to work, they had to get moving.
Across the room, Soo-jin seemed to be having similar thoughts. She'd sat back in her chair, brow furrowed and eyes narrowed in concentration as she turned to Nick. “Any good ways to get down to the hangar?”
“Yes, but they'll expect us.”
“We need a distraction, then.” Soo-jin chewed her lip, thinking.
“Any idea where those balls went?” Karin suggested. “Any on ship?”
Nick opened his mouth, but before he could answer, the comms terminal beeped. They all jumped.
“It's the bridge,” he said, scanning the message. He glanced to Soo-jin. “Might want to get out of camera view.”
Soo-jin slid out of the chair and off to the side, hands going to her hips. A second later, Nick sat in her place and accepted the call.
Christops' face, looking as exhausted and overworked as the rest of them felt, replaced the code and schematics that had filled the other parts of the screen. A low buzz of activity from his side of the call created a background static.
“Do I want to know what you're doing?” he asked Nick.
“Probably not.”
“They're safe?” Nick didn't answer, but his expression must have said something because Christops relaxed. “I've relayed your message,” he continued. “She'll be in soon. Twenty-eight minutes.”
Nick nodded. “Anything from Caishen?”
“Yeah. Hopper's been calling.” On the screen, Christops' expression tightened. “We picked up our people from outside. Marsa's looking after them in sick bay.”
At her angle, she saw Nick's back go rigid.
“Will they—”
“Two dead,” Christops continued. “Finn and Charise.”
A stiffness went through Karin’s jaw. She may not have been the woman's biggest fan, but she felt her death all the same.
And it was, in a large part, her fault.
If she hadn't been here... If she hadn't come...
No. She couldn't think like that.
Silence rose from the other side of the room. To the left, out of sight of the camera, Soo-jin's front was outlined in blue, arms crossed over her chest, mouth fixed in a tight, downward line. Nick's shoulders rose up in what seemed to be an unconscious, instinctual reaction, then dipped back down again, relaxing.
“Sol,” he said.
“One of those balls got on board,” Christops said. “Not sure how, but we caught it on one of the cameras. Sara's tracking it. Saw it on C-deck about five minutes ago.”
C-deck. Just below where they sat. She stiffened, and exchanged a look with Soo-jin.
They had to get going.
“We're going to need a distraction. I assume they know about the hangar plan?”
“They do. Charise to
ld him before. Do whatever you have to do. I'll make sure things go smoothly on this end.” He gave the screen a tight smile. “Fuel rods are still where you put them. Sara's got a discreet camera on them.”
“Thanks.”
“I have to go now. I'm sure I'm about to receive another call. Good luck.”
“You, too,” Nick said.
The feed cut.
“How far is the closest deck access?” Soo-jin asked.
“There's a stairwell two hallways down.” Nick lifted his head. “Why? That ball thing? You think it'll come after us?”
“Two of those things tracked me across three kilometers without seeing,” Karin said. “And they kept finding me on the station.”
“That they're even here is a pretty good reason to suspect them.” Soo-jin tapped her fingers on the outside of her elbow, then turned her head toward Nick. “You got any noisemakers or anything? Small bombs?”
“Bombs?” He frowned. “Some mining equipment—but nothing that'll work on a ship without disabling it.” He swiveled his chair around, the furrow in his brow deepening. “Ronnie's got some firecrackers.”
“What, like for festivals?”
“Yeah. Picked them up on Belenus, last time through.”
Soo-jin's expression pinched together.
“Those... will have to do. Let's swing by and pick them up.” She glanced over. “Karin, how are you feeling? Good to go?”
“Yeah.” She flexed her fingers. They shook less now and, although the dizziness hadn't left her head, it felt more distant at present. In fact, a lot of things felt more distant. “I think I'm high.”
“That'll wear off. But let's get going while you're still feeling spry. If we're lucky, the boost will last until we get on the Nemina.”
“A bit ambitious, at this point,” she commented.
“Yeah, well, I'm trying for a bright face in this. Part of self-affirmation and all that.” Soo-jin flashed her a grin. “We'll be fine, this plan will work, and you are going to fly us out from under the nose of Caishen, an Alliance cruiser, and a Fallon warship, both of which I assume will be on our tails.”
Karin wrinkled her nose. “You think Fallon's after us?”
“My optimism only runs so deep. After all that's happened, I'm just going to assume yes at this point.” Soo-jin turned her shrug into a stretch and stifled a yawn. “Shall we?”
With the chemical rush from the shot firing through her veins, the lengthy walk through the Ozark's corridors blended together. She didn't feel a thing apart from a flush of heat on her skin and the airy, hollow sensation at the top of her head. They branched off from the main hallways, taking shortcuts down access routes and, twice, ducking into a cabin to hide while people walked by.
After ten minutes, Nick left them on one level to duck down into the Ozark's row of crew cabins. When he came back, three strings of firecrackers hung from his hand. Soo-jin emptied out one of the packs and held it up. He took it, easing the crackers inside.
Karin had seen them before. An archaic invention from Old Earth, they came out during religious festivals around the planets. Gunpowder, rather than the more modern noisemakers found in the Core planets today. She'd seen them twice since she'd left Earth, once in the spaceport she and Nomiki had used to make their escape, and the last on Laksmi space station between Tala and Belenus.
They stopped again when they reached a stairwell past a long hallway. Soo-jin turned to Nick. “You got a netlink?”
He flicked it out of his pocket and showed it to her.
“Good. See if you can ask Christops what the camera station outside the hangar looks like.”
Karin switched her gaze to the door, only now recognizing the code. Her internal map of the Ozark righted itself. The hangar door sat around the corner of the next hallway. Probably right on the other side of the wall from them. She'd seen it in the schematics before, but not in person. Built for loading cargo—or, in its original capacity, cryogenically frozen people—it had space for three Nemina-sized ships to land, though the third might find the parking a bit tricky.
She leaned forward, sneaking a glance at the netlink screen as Nick made a call.
18:25. Less than twenty minutes before Marc showed up.
The call cut off with a disheartened bloop, but a text screen flashed up in its place. Nick poked at the holokeys, writing a message.
About a minute later, they all frowned down at the image Christops sent.
Soo-jin blew a noisy breath, almost a hiss, through her teeth. “It was too much to hope that it'd be empty, wasn't it?”
Five guards stood outside the hangar's double doors, each armed with a kind of blaster rifle she'd only seen planet-side. A spike of fear threaded through her nerves, but her brain pieced the logic together.
The rifles were for the balls, not them.
No way would Hopper have a kill-on-sight order for his only healer.
“It's a smart place to be,” she commented. “They knew we'd be coming here.”
“Maybe I could shoot them.” She glanced up to Nick. “Do you think I should shoot them?”
He shrugged. “I definitely wouldn't judge if you tried. But they also have blasters.”
This time, Soo-jin did hiss. “There is that. I think it's time for your firecrackers.”
“Up a level?” He turned his focus up the stairs. “I can put them in one of the air vents, make the sound travel better.”
“Good.” Soo-jin tapped the steel wall with a knuckle. “In this metal tub, that should make it echo everywhere. Go. We'll find a place out of the stairs to hide.”
Hoisting the backpack over one shoulder, he gave them a brief salute and made for the stairs, taking them two at a time.
Soo-jin watched him go. Then, as his footsteps faded, she narrowed her eyes at the door. “Guess we're on our own.”
They snuck out the door and kept to the walls. Aware of the guards just around the corner, they slipped through the hallway and snuck into a cabin next to the stairwell, close enough that they'd hear guards run up next to them.
As the door closed behind them, and Karin absorbed the light from the room, Soo-jin's face lit up from her netlink screen, brows furrowed and mouth tight in concentration. She picked up Christops' call ID Nick had shared and sent a quick text.
Then, they waited.
Karin let out a slow breath.
Gods. What have I gotten myself into?
Being what she was, their current situation didn't surprise her. She and Nomiki had been running ever since they'd left Earth. Hiding, fighting, escaping—she'd wanted to leave that all behind. That's why she'd signed up to the Nemina. But the familiarity of the situation did not pass her mind. Even before, when they'd been touring their scrounge sights, she'd held a kind of anxious edge to her. Played the consummate professional, not letting either of them close. She could do her job, mind her business, and Marc and Soo-jin would do the same.
The Shadows had changed all of that.
What are they?
Her jaw stiffened as she remembered the last Shadow she'd encountered, the one that had seemed a dream. Bent over her, watching her sleep, then walking through the door as if it were air.
She found herself thinking of the compound again. Dr. Sasha. The treatments.
Then Nomiki, sitting in their room, the dark, serious expression on her face.
They're taking our memories, Rin.
A muffled series of pops sounded outside, softened by the metal. In the light of the netlink, Soo-jin's gaze found hers.
Karin's chest tightened.
Go time.
They held their breaths as boots pounded outside, sounding right outside their door. Then they turned, switching through the door and rising up the stairs. Karin followed the sounds.
A second later, the netlink lit up. A picture of the hangar corridor.
Soo-jin hissed at the two guards still standing outside the door. “Sol. Why can't they just be stupid and go upstairs?” She leane
d her head back and took a breath. “All right. It's all right. We can do this. Shoot first, ask forgiveness later. Okay.”
The light from the netlink dropped from the room. Karin had just enough time to see the blaster in Soo-jin's other hand before darkness fell. The sudden absence in the air in front of her as Soo-jin moved forward pulled her to follow. “Ready?”
“Sure.”
“Let's do it.” Soo-jin slapped the door panel in the dark.
“Wait!” Karin turned her voice low, a sudden idea sparking in her mind. Light pulled through the room as the door hissed open, and a flush of vulnerability ran through her midsection at the openness. “I have an idea. I'll distract them, then you can shoot.”
Soo-jin's eyebrow arched into her forehead, but Karin called a slip of light into her hand. It glowed between them, cradled in her palm.
“I've got this.”
For a second, it looked like Soo-jin wanted to argue. Her lips pursed, then tightened, and she stared at the light in Karin's hand. “What happened to 'laying off the magic'?”
“It'll be fine. I think.” She shot her a quick, worried grin. “Besides, do we have any other choice?”
Soo-jin narrowed her eyes at the light. “No, I guess we don't.”
“Then let's go.”
She eased herself up the hall, rolling her weight through her foot with each step, keeping as quiet as she could. The air sat close around them, cool but muggy, pulled by only a light tug from the vents. Old tube lights, reminiscent of the old fluorescents she'd seen back on Enlil, made a small, fluctuating drone overhead that drilled into her nerves. She swallowed, evening her breath. With the hall this still and quiet, each rustle and click of the guards around the corner broke the hush like a flicker of lightning in the sky. By the time she reached the end, her insides were a mass of tangled knots.
Holding her breath, she strained to listen. After a few seconds, she peeked around the corner.
Two guards, both armed to the teeth, both right outside the hangar doors.
Gods, I hope there's no more inside.
