by Jason Kent
"Now you've got it," Dagger said. "Look at me. Kate's got me leaving my Blade back there on the ground. For what? To follow her?"
"No?"
"Of course not," Dagger hissed. She leaned close to Ross and admitted, "I can feel it."
Ross looked away and took a long drink.
Dagger glared at Ross. A dark smile grew on her face.
"Just like you," she said.
"I don't..."
"You've got it bad, just like me; a feeling like this might be the most important thing you'll ever do," Dagger pressed. "Whatever this is, it's bigger than any of us." She looked back at Merrick. He held a component in his hands but focused on her. "And we each know it. Deep down inside."
Ross gulped down the rest of the beer.
"Everything's going to be different because we have changed," Dagger said, her voice low. She looked both Ross and Merrick in the eye and added, "Even if we don't want to." She shook her head. "Freakin' tree better be worth it."
Kate's eyes flew open with the first scream. She sat up in bed and pushed aside the comforter. She checked the wall-mounted clock ticking away beside the bedroom's large round portal. It was hard to see in the dim light of the single gas lamp burning beside the tall bed. She could see it well enough to find she had only been asleep a few hours.
The room rocked and Kate rolled out of the bed onto the garish carpet. She wondered for a moment who would decorate like this? The golden bird woven into the rug brought Kate back to the present. The airship. Knowl. Sparrow.
Kate shook off her sleepiness and got to her feet; glad she thought to keep her hard-earned boots on. After all, she could not be sure how long the peaceful journey aboard the Tallinn dirigible would actually last. Sparrow lay wrapped in the sheets on the other side of the bed where Kate tucked her in last night. Tired, Kate did not want to leave the woman by herself in her weakened state so she just fell asleep at her side. She would be close in case Sparrow called for someone in the night.
Sparrow screamed again. Her fingers tightened on the sheets gathered around her as she kicked the thick cover away. Kate hustled around the bed to the sprite's side.
"Sparrow!" Kate hissed. Sparrow's eyes squeezed together even tighter and she thrashed again. Kate stilled her head with her hand. The sprite burned with fever and her features were coated in sheen of dampness. Kate tried a louder voice. "Sparrow!"
The link sprite's eyes fluttered open.
Kate gasped and Sparrow focused on her face.
The link sprite's irises had changed from their emerald color to the color and reflectiveness of brushed aluminum. As Sparrow's pupils strained to focus on Kate, the embedded circuits visible on left side of her forehead and back over her ear flickered and began to glow with a bright green light.
"Sparrow," Kate repeated. "Can you hear me?" The airship rocked again. This time, the movement was accompanied by a deep boom Kate could not quite identify. Had they been hit or was there a problem with the ship's engines? Something was wrong and Kate felt their restful time aboard Katrin was already at an end.
"Kate," Sparrow whispered. Her voice cracked.
"Liana." Kate ignored the disturbance to the airship's flight. Her eyes strayed over the glowing circuits then back to the dull metal eyes.
"I'm..." Sparrow's words were interrupted by a spasm which caused every muscle in her body to constrict. To Kate's relief, this episode ended much quicker than the last. Sparrow licked her lips. "I'm...okay."
"Tral, Liana," Kate whispered. "What's happening?"
"Sparrow."
Kate looked down at the sprite.
"Okay, Sparrow." Kate smiled. As in the past, Sparrow seemed to prefer to be called by the name which represented the most active parts of her brain. For now, her specialized circuitry seemed to be asserting itself. Kate did not really care what the sprite wanted to be called right now. "Right. Sparrow."
"Reboot," Sparrow announced. She struggled to get up.
"You screamed..." Kate ventured. She wondered what Sparrow's 'reboot' actually involved. As far as she could tell, it included a lot of pain.
"Hurts," Sparrow managed to say.
"No tral," Kate said. The two women's eyes met and they both smiled.
The door burst open.
Sparrow produced both of her handguns from seemingly out of nowhere and pointed them at Garrett's head.
Garrett charged in with his crossbow ready for action. He pulled up short and raised the bow so it pointed to the ceiling.
"Whoa!" Garrett shouted. "Friendly!"
Sparrow released the triggers and laid her weapons on the tangled sheets.
Georges poked his head in over Garrett's shoulder.
"You okay?" The Colonel directed the question at Sparrow.
Sparrow nodded.
"Good, time to go to work." Georges grabbed Garrett by the scruff of the neck and pulled him back into the suite's lounge area. "Quit fooling around. We're under attack."
The words took a moment to sink in for Kate. The airship rocked again and listed to one side. It took several seconds for the floor to right itself again.
"Attack?" Kate breathed. She shook her head. Thanks for the heads up Javin.
Sparrow was out of bed and pulling on her boots. Her hands shook so fiercely she was unable to tie the laces. Kate knelt down and knotted the sprite's boots.
"Thanks," Sparrow said when Kate was done. They stood and faced each other. Sparrow tucked her white hair back over her ears and exposed more of the glowing circuits.
"How on Earth did you hold those guns steady?" Kate asked.
Sparrow looked at Kate with her cold eyes. Kate could see her own glowing eyes reflected in the dull metal surfaces. When Sparrow replied, the response did little to illuminate the situation.
"Different circuits." Sparrow started for the door. After she bumped into the bed post, she put out her hand. Kate hurried forward and took Sparrow's hand. Together they hurried out of the bedroom.
Georges was at the door, braced there with feet spread apart to counter the irregular roll and pitch of the deck.
"Who is it?" Sparrow asked.
"Skyrakes," Georges responded.
Before Kate could ask what a skyrake was, the world exploded.
Merrick grabbed the railing and hung on. The airship shuddered violently from the latest impact. He turned at the wrenching sound which came from the forward portion of the airship.
"Who did these guys peeve off?" Ross shouted to be heard above the noise. The marine was on the other side of the broad staircase. He had kept watch in the dining room with Merrick for the past few hours. Their shift moved along uneventfully until something started to pound on the hull.
"More likely this has to do with us," Merrick remarked. When the airship stabilized a little, he started up the carpeted steps. The sniper held onto the carved wooden railing, not wishing to be thrown over the bannister and down into the well made by the wide, spiraling staircase. He reached a landing. The space was dominated by a massive grandfather clock whose pendulum continued to swing as if the vessel encountered this sort of turbulence on a regular basis. Merrick was curious about how the clock's builders kept it going even when the ship rolled or encountered turbulence. But, he was even more curious about what was going on outside the ship. Merrick dashed up the last few steps and pushed through a pair of heavy wooden doors and stepped out onto the airship's open deck on top of the passenger cupola.
"Got anything?" Ross asked, his rifle up at his shoulder, ready for action.
Merrick allowed himself a tight smile. Ross was ready to fire, but before they did anything, they needed a target. The sniper looked around at the empty deck. They had scouted this level earlier. The housing behind him led to the grand staircase which provided access to all the zeppelin's lower decks. Large air vents dominated the rear third of the open deck. Merrick guessed they led down to the engine rooms since two wide smoke stacks rose from among the vents. The orange-painted stacks soared thirty
meters until they entered the frame holding the zeppelin's gas bags. He had not made it into the blimp's upper framework to see how the designers insulated the hot exhaust tubes from the lift-producing sacs. Merrick was more concerned about something which seemed bent on knocking them out of the air than possible engineering flaws.
Dagger burst out of the doors. Ross spun and aimed.
"Don't you dare, Grunt," Dagger snarled. "Just don't." She clutched a heavy pistol in one hand and a wicked-looking knife in the other.
Merrick headed for the airship's bridge. From their earlier rounds, he knew it was located at the front of the airship, just above the Commodore's Suite where Kate was supposed to be safe asleep. Merrick felt a pang of regret. He should have stayed closer to Kate. When he had checked on his self-proclaimed charge earlier in the evening, Merrick discovered Kate asleep sitting up in bed, her arm protectively laid on Sparrow's shoulder. He was not sure what was wrong with the link sprite and from the looks everyone was exchanging, no one else in their group knew either. Merrick gently laid an extra blanket over Kate's legs and left her there to care for Sparrow. In this case, he figured Kate was doing as much as she could. Perhaps providing comfort was all anyone could do for the link sprite. Merrick shook his head. Yes, he wanted to be next to Kate, to be the one to protect her. He would have to count on Lieutenant Colonel Georges and Lieutenant Garrett, both of whom had taken up positions in the lounge, to look after both her and Sparrow until he could get back. For now, Merrick felt he was where he really needed to be to protect them all. Something continued to attack the airship and he was determined to find out who or what was after them. He planned to neutralize this latest threat.
Merrick's small group reached the door to the bridge deckhouse. The front of the bridge was actually a continuation of the floor-to-ceiling windows in the Commodore's Suite and hung out over the front of the cupola. Merrick peered carefully over the railing which marked the end of the walkway along the upper deck beside the bridge. He could just see the panes of glass as they sloped back under his feet. Half of the glass wall was missing.
"Tral," Merrick cursed. He hurried back to the all-weather hatch leading into the bridge. He paused and looked through the brass-rimmed portal set high into the steel door. The room was dark.
"That's not good," Dagger declared as she peered over Merrick's shoulder.
Merrick agreed. A dark bridge was a dead bridge. He looked back at Ross and nodded. The other marine lowered his rifle to cover the door. Merrick spun the locking wheel until the pins securing the door pulled back. The sniper pulled the door open with a jerk of his arms. Ross rushed inside followed immediately by Dagger. Chaos greeted them.
Merrick could not see the extent of the damage to the front of the entire dirigible from his vantage point outside. From inside the bridge, it was clear something big had hit the forward cupola and done extreme damage to the vessel. Half the windows and most of the floor was gone. The damage to the suite below seemed to be merely the exit wound for whatever caused this destruction. The neat rows of brass gauges and control levers Merrick glimpsed through the window earlier were gone. Left in their place were twisted pipes and splintered wood flooring. Wind whipped Merrick's long coat out behind him as he stepped up to the spoked wooden wheel. It once stood in the center of the bridge but now was right at the edge of the long drop into open air and the dark ground far below.
"Rakes..." a voice rasped from the back of the bridge.
Merrick raised his long rifle to his shoulder and spiraled down into a crouch to face the source of the sound. Captain Paavo lay crumpled in a dark corner. With his dark uniform and their attention drawn to the destruction at the front of the bridge Merrick and the others failed to notice the man when they entered.
Dagger sheathed her blade and stepped over to the Paavo. She knelt down beside him and looked the airship Captain in the eye.
"Explain," Dagger demanded.
Merrick winced at Dagger's bedside manner.
Captain Paavo did not notice. He struggled for a handhold on the polished railing running around the bridge. It was bent and broken now and he could not get a firm grip. Dagger sighed, grabbed the man's arm and hauled him to his feet. She stepped away from Paavo as soon as he had a grip on a section of mostly intact railing.
"Skyrakes," Paavo waved around his shattered bridge. "It took my helmsman. Rakes are not usually so bold. We were taken completely by surprise." The Captain stared blankly at his craft's wheel as it turned on its own.
"We're adrift?" Dagger asked. She cursed and stomped over to the wheel. She did not hesitate to as she firmly grasped the spoke handles and planted her feet. "Heading?"
Captain Paavo realized Dagger was speaking to him and came out of his shock.
"Heading?" Paavo sputtered. He took a shaky step toward Dagger. "What do you think you're doing!?"
"You realize this is a zeppelin," Ross asked Dagger.
"If it flies, I can pilot it," Dagger snarled back. "Just give me a freakin' heading!"
Chapter 16
Fighting
The Night
Kate opened her eyes and sat up. Pieces of glass fell to the floor with a tinkling sound. Kate touched her cheek. When she pulled her hand back, it was smeared with blood.
"Not bad," Sparrow said. She knelt next to Kate and gently pushed her hair back. "It's a small cut and not very deep."
"What about all this?" Kate held up her blood-covered fingers.
Sparrow shrugged. "Just means you're still alive." She stuck out her hand.
Kate reached out to take the sprite's hand. She paused when she noticed Sparrow seemed to be steadier on her feet now. Whatever this 'reboot' had done to the other woman, it seemed to have run its course and restored Sparrow to full functionality.
Sparrow pulled Kate to her feet. Kate screwed her eyes shut as more glass fell out of her hair. She noticed the wind for the first time and turned to face the windows. Kate gasped at the sight of what had been the glass wall of the Chancellor's Suite. Cool night air rushed in through the missing panes and whistled through the mangled frame. Part of the ornate ceiling was missing. Kate looked up through what was left of the bridge above them and out into the night sky beyond.
"Tral," Kate gasped. She remembered what Georges said to them before the impact. She was not sure she wanted to see any more of the skyrake which could cause this sort of damage to the airship. She realized Georges was not next to her. She spun around, worried he might have been wounded. Georges stood up from behind an overturned table.
Kate turned and saw a pair of legs sticking out from behind Sparrow's sofa, now overturned. She hurried over the tilted deck and took hold of the edge of the seat. "Give me a hand, Sparrow!" Together, the two women managed to lift the sofa off of Garrett. Garrett grunted and his eyes fluttered open. Georges knelt over Garrett and offered him a hand. Garrett stared up at the faces hovering over his.
"Am I dead?"
"Not yet," Georges reported and pulled Garrett to his feet.
"Skyrake, huh," Garrett grunted as he dusted himself off and studied the damage to the lounge. "I hope Dagger didn't put down much of a damage deposit."
An inhuman screech drew their attention out past the shattered windows. A dark shape rushed toward the opening. Before anyone could move, massive claws gripped the twisted window frame and pulled what was left of the viewing panes away from the airship. The wreckage groaned and fell away into the night.
Kate grabbed onto Sparrow to keep her balance as the airship shuddered from the fresh attack. She could not make out much of the huge animal in the dim light. But, Kate did notice the glow of the few lamps still burning in their suite glimmered off scales. The black scales on the clawed hands shifted from black to deep blue as the creature worked further into the craft. Claws nearly a meter wide ripped away the lush carpeting and pierced the floor plates. The deck shuddered and began to crumple under their feet. As Kate watched, lamps, benches and plush chairs tilted then fell out into
the open sky.
"Oh, tral," Kate breathed.
Georges grabbed Kate and Sparrow and hurled them toward the door. He snatched up their pile of bags and staggered after the women as the floor shook violently. Garrett snapped up his crossbow and dove out of the disintegrating Chancellor's Suite.
Garrett rolled on his back and fired a single bolt at the dark form of the creature as it clung to the outside of the airship. The bolt bounced off the skyrake's hide and clattered to what was left of the floor. The skyrake jammed its head into the opening and roared. Its long snout was filled with glistening teeth. Kate would have sworn the animal stared at her for a moment as it ripped away parts of the wall and tried to reach them with its claws.
"I don't think that helped!" Sparrow shouted.
"No tral," Garrett grunted.
"Run!" Kate shouted. She helped Georges to his feet. As they rushed down the corridor, Kate looked back just in time to see Sparrow's couch disappear. Oh well, Kate thought, it was nice while it lasted. She thought of the creature screeching outside and the eye peering at her. Kate shook herself and wondered if she would ever be able to go to sleep again.
As Kate and the others ran down the hall toward the grand staircase, Andrea poked her head out of a cabin. Her hair was disheveled otherwise Kate was glad to see her in one piece.
"What's going on?" Andrea yawned.
Sparrow snagged the woman's arm and dragged her after the others.
"Hey!" Andrea protested.
"Trust me!" Sparrow advised, "You'll thank me later!"
A tortured moan of metal came from behind Andrea.
Kate looked back, the floor of the corridor was peeling back from the front of the ship. As she watched, the deck outside their Suite disappeared.
"Crap," Andrea cursed. She picked up her feet and passed Sparrow, her sleepiness suddenly forgotten.
Georges waited on the second step of the wide Grand Staircase. He pulled Kate, Sparrow and Andrea up on the steps. Garrett was already moving up and around the spiral stairs, his crossbow aimed in front of him.
