She saw someone fighting to get to her from further down, and she didn't dare look too closely in case it was the Vanad.
Just keep going, just keep going, she chanted in her head. Load, reactivate, turn, aim to the left this time. Shoot.
The wind tossed it again, this time past one of the metal arches that formed the skeleton of the dome, and it was just close enough for the magnet to alter course and attach.
She suddenly wished she'd thought to bring gloves, but whoever was coming up behind her was screaming at her, and she grabbed the cable above the bow part of the grapple, rested a foot on the shallow groove that looked like it had been made for the purpose, and pushed away.
She swung, but not as fast as she would have if the wind hadn't been fighting against her. The cable spun and she saw Tean Lee standing where she'd been moments before, shouting into the wind.
She tried to spin back, managed it just in time to grab the smooth metal frame of the dome. Purple gel wobbled just above her head.
“Okay. Where's the connection?” She struggled to pull out the handheld with one arm anchored around a beam, and panicked for a moment when Eazi didn't answer her straight away. “Eazi——”
“Fiona, you're going to have to go higher or lower.”
She sagged against the cold metal in relief at the sound of his voice, and then realized what he'd said. She looked up, but even as she did, she knew she didn't have the arm strength, or the time, to go that way.
She peered down, saw the place where two beams crossed one another, as the dome curved beneath the platform that made the way station.
“Down it is.” There was a wobble in her voice.
She put the handheld back in her shirt and then got a tight grip on the beam, leaned down to reach the crossbow part of the grapple to deactivate the magnet. She would need to take it with her to get back up.
She'd just touched the button when another runner came through the wall and strong winds buffeted her, pulling her off balance.
She slipped and cried out, clutching at the beam with both arms as she slid. The heavy magnetic end of the grapple fell toward her, glancing off her shoulder as the whole thing fell down, down, down and away.
Pain blossomed, and she choked back nausea and slid another few meters in shock.
“Are you nearly there?” Eazi asked her.
She was about to snarl at him, when she remembered he couldn't see what was happening.
“I'm not sure.” She realized her eyes were shut, and she forced herself to look down again. The cross beam was only a few meters away, and she slid in wild, uncontrolled bursts until her feet found something solid to balance on.
She crouched, hugging the beam like a long-lost lover, feeling as if the wind would tear her off at any moment, and then made the mistake of looking outward.
She was under the station, now. Not right at the bottom, but low enough that all she could see was Balco below her, and nothing else.
If she let go, she'd fall through the gel wall and be sucked into space.
“Fiona? Fiona?” Eazi was saying her name over and over.
“Okay. I'm okay.” She realized she was breathing too quickly. She knew Hal and Cy had lasted a long time on their oxygen masks, but who knew how long it would take for someone to rescue her. She needed to calm down.
“Right. I'm here.” She leaned her full weight against the beam, carefully let go one arm and pulled the handheld out.
“You see a tiny black panel?” Eazi asked her.
She could not.
She moved the handheld around because it had a little lens built in, so Eazi could look, too.
“It's on the other side,” Eazi told her. “It must be.”
Fee shoved the handheld back into her shirt and carefully stood up, slowly lifted her body a little away from the beam so she could look around it.
Without the wind, she was sure she could do it. With the wind, pulling and howling and tugging at her, she didn't think she could.
But she was down here now. And if she didn't do it, she would die. And so would a lot of others.
She hugged the beam one last time, stretching her leg out and curving it around, trying to find the crossbeam on the other side.
She thought she had it, slipped, and then got it again.
She stretched her arm around next, and there was one, icy, fear-filled moment when she was neither one side or the other, and then she was over, muscles in her arms and legs wrenched, her breath coming in pants.
And there, hallelujah, was the tiny black panel.
She pulled the handheld out again. “Do your thing,” she told Eazi.
The wind was hurricane level now, battering at her, moving the handheld around in her hands, until she pressed it down onto the beam with her hands and her knees, hunching over it like a mother protecting her baby.
“Look at the gel wall,” Eazi told her, and she forced herself to turn her head.
It had lit up in a narrow strip along the beam she'd slid down, and as she looked up, the strip grew taller and taller, until it disappeared into the dome above.
“I'm guessing it's working?”
“It's working. I've been able to create a new frequency, one that isn't affected by the dead zone, sync all comms to it, and let the residents know that we're fixing it.”
“So you've taken over the station, have you?” She said it jokingly, just trying to keep her mind off where she was and how close she was to the edge.
“I think I have.” He was absolutely serious. “I need something big and complex to manage. And I don't have my Class 5 any more. I think I'll like running Larga Ways.”
“Got an apartment for me?” she asked, even as she wondered what Battle Center would think of this. But what could they do about it, anyway?
Sazo wouldn't force Eazi out, or hurt him in any way. Hadn't Eazi told her Sazo wouldn't even shoot at Eazi when Eazi was shooting right at him?
They could do nothing.
She laughed.
“I have a very nice apartment for you,” Eazi said. “Two bedrooms with a shared bathroom; lounge, dining and kitchen area are open plan, and there is a balcony. It's reserved for the president of Balco, but he's only used it four times in the last three years, and given he needs Larga Ways way more than we need him . . . I've generated a comm for when we get back online, letting him know he'll have to stay in a hotel next time he visits, just like everyone else.”
“What are we up to in that book we're putting together? Chapter Five?” Fee tried to ignore how tired her arms were getting. “When your enemies change the rules, take it as an invitation to cut yourself free of the rules completely.”
43
He must have misheard.
Hal blinked at Rial, and then held out his arm for Jasa to ease off the intravenous tube.
“Fiona is down there?” His heart sank in a sickening rush to the pit of his stomach as he looked at the strange wobble in the gel at the top of the way station dome on the wall screen. “But she was right with me. She was sitting next to me when you came to get us.”
“Rial didn't say it made sense, just that is how it is.” Jasa's face was tight, the way it got when she was really angry.
“I was in a hurry to get you up to the Illium. She wasn't going to keep up, and Tean Lee was demanding that she give a statement, anyway.” Rial looked as sick as Hal felt. “I didn't know the place was going to blow up.”
“Of course, they'd already moved her out of her room and over to Sazo, kicked her off the ship, more or less, so perhaps they thought Sazo would deal with her.”
“When,” there was a rushing in his ears and he could barely hear himself, “did they move her off the Illium?”
“When you were kidnapped. It was Commander Chel's view that she would be safer on Sazo's Class 5 and it would free up her guards to do other things.”
“Very practical,” he conceded. He slid off the bed and stood for a moment until he was sure his legs could hold hi
m. “And total yurve shit.” He stepped into his boots.
“What are you doing?” Rial stared at him, face slack.
He liked that Jasa didn't do the same. She knew exactly what he was doing.
“So where is she on Larga Ways?” He started walking toward the door. “If comms are down, we'll have to start somewhere.”
“Lee's headquarters.” Rial followed him out the room. “Lee took her there himself.”
Hal's first steps were a little wobbly, but they got stronger as he went.
“Captain.” Rial put a hand on his arm, and it was all Hal could do not to lash out at him. Rial must have seen the flare of violence because he took a step back. “We made a mistake. A few mistakes. But Rose and Captain Jallan are helping Sazo send all his runners down to get people out, and we're doing the same. Finding one person in there is going to be impossible.”
Hal kept going without responding. By the time he got to the launch bay, sweat was beaded on his upper lip and forehead, and he could feel it running down his back.
“Not looking too good there, sir.” Tobru paused at the wide doors, and then, with a quick glance at Rial, ran toward one of only two runners left in the launch bay and disappeared up the ramp. It closed almost immediately and took off.
“Captain.” Chel coughed as the space dust swirled around them. “What are you doing——?”
Hal leaned forward, hands on knees, and managed to stop seeing spots in front of his eyes. “What am I doing?” He bared his teeth, and Chel gaped.
“I'm going down to Larga Ways to find Fiona Russell. Who for some reason is not on this ship, where she is supposed to be. I don't suppose you would like to give me an answer as to why that is, would you, Commander?”
“Hal——” Chel wouldn't look him in the eye.
“Get that runner ready,” he said, his voice low and mean. “Now.”
He turned toward it, saw Rial was already talking to the pilot. He ran back to Hal, put out an arm to help him.
“You should be in bed.” His lieutenant glanced at him as they hobbled toward the runner. “I'll go back down, find her. I won't stop until I do.”
Hal shook his head. “I may need your help, but I'm going down with you.”
The ramp closed behind them, and when he turned, he saw Chel had come in right behind them.
“I'll direct the runners from below,” he said. “They're never going to get everyone in one go, so we'll operate a drop-and-go.”
Hal slid down into a seat and felt the surge of lift-off. “You sent her away.” He felt a deep-seated terror at the thought. “This was all she had. The one place where she was safe and knew people, and you used your power the moment I was gone and threw her off.”
“She was safer on the Class 5,” Chel began, and Hal stared at him. “All right. Yes. I threw her off.” He rubbed both hands over his face. “In all the years I've served with you, you've never put a foot wrong, Hal. You're an excellent captain, and you know your way around the politics of Battle Center. I don't want to see you kicked out because you've lost your head over some strange orange.”
“If you thought I'd have let her go without a fight, you were wrong,” Hal told him. “I would have chased after her, if I had to. But you didn't get what I tried to show you this morning. She isn't some strange orange. She is loyal, brave, clever. She risked her life to find me this afternoon, or did I get that wrong?”
“No.” Rial ducked his head. “She came up with the plan, and I think because she thought no one would listen to her or take her seriously, executed it to the point where we had no choice but to come onboard.”
“How did she get down there, though?” He was still trying to work that out, because he'd had strict instructions that she was not to set foot off the ship without a full guard.
“When I told her to pack her things and move to Sazo,” Chel was looking down at his feet, “she persuaded Sazo to help her with her plan and he took her down to Larga Ways with the correct permissions to get through the gates.”
Hal was silent for a moment, eyes closed, head tilted back as he tried to get himself back under control. He wondered if a little togrut was still in his system, that his emotions were coming through so raw and unfiltered. If he didn't get some control he might end up saying something he'd regret.
“She gave me hell down there.” Rial suddenly laughed. “I saw her walking along, looking like a tourist, and pulled her into a little side street. She let me have it.” He shook his head. “She's been polite to everyone since we found her. No temper, no fuss, but she turned on me and put me in my place when I tried to tell her we were busy, and she was distracting us from our search for you.”
“She didn't have to be polite any more. As far as she was concerned, you'd rejected her.” Hal felt that sick swirl of fear again. She would know he'd had nothing to do with her being kicked off, but the easy way it had been done, her lack of any right to insist otherwise, spoke to just how powerless she was.
“Why are you so angry about this, Hal? I shouldn't have done it, but it can be undone.” Chel lifted his hands, palms out.
“You think we hurt her, deeply enough that she might reconsider her place with us.” Rial answered for him, speaking slowly.
The runner thumped into the dock, bumping like it was in a raging storm, and Hal nodded to him as he stood, and struggled down the ramp without a word.
Tean Lee was running toward them as he stepped onto the dock and was forced to brace his legs against the air that was being sucked up to the top of the dome.
“That . . . woman.” Lee screamed it over the howl of the wind. “She's mad.” He pointed to the end of the dock, and Hal looked over, but there was nothing to see.
“Fiona?” he asked.
“She jumped.” Lee's eyes were wild. “Jumped and then slid down. And now, look!”
Hal looked again, and this time he saw what Lee was trying to show him. A thin line of purple light in the dome, edging up along a curved beam, slowly spreading as it went, until it seemed there were dancing stars of purple light jumping and leaping across the dome ceiling.
“We couldn't get it to do that. With the dead zone, it wasn't receiving the instructions, and then she jumped to that beam and slid down and now . . .” He stared straight up. “I think she fixed it. By hand.”
* * *
Something bumped the beam near her, and although she did't think there was much strength left in her arms, Fiona found some from somewhere, and clutched a little tighter.
“It's okay. I've got you, this time.” Hands, so warm against the cold of hers, tried to pry open her fists and she forced herself to open her eyes.
“Hal?”
“I've got you, you can just let go.”
Could she?
She closed her eyes again and thought about it.
“I promise.”
She waited another beat and heard him sigh.
“I think I need help.” She couldn't move, she realized. Her body was stiff and cramped, and he lifted her, knocking the oxygen mask she’d set in front of her off the beam.
She couldn't figure out how he was doing it and not falling off until she opened her eyes again and saw he was standing in a hover that put him waist high to her, her handheld under his arm.
He carefully pulled her in, lifted her again and set her down on what felt like the most comfortable cushions she'd ever lain on.
“I'm glad to see you're up to rescuing.” She had her eyes closed again. She didn't know why she had such a hard time keeping them open.
His hand brushed hair off her face. The rest of it was probably a rat's nest whipped up by the wind, which had died the moment the rip repaired itself, and then stirred to life again, more gently, as Eazi started up the air plant and began pumping in the new atmosphere.
“So tell me. How do you know how to save way stations?” He lay down next to her, and she turned into his warmth, snuggled closer when his arm came around her.
“Oh, I was
just the brawn of the operation. Eazi was the brains.” She yawned. So, so tired.
“And my rescue earlier?”
She forced her eyes open, looked into his. “That was all me. Although Sazo gave me a hand, but more in a sidekick capacity.”
“You were moved off the Illium earlier today.”
His voice had become deeper. Rougher.
“Yes. Ouch. Kicked out of the club.” She found a more comfortable spot on his shoulder. “It's okay. I've found a new place.”
“Sazo's asked you to stay?” He didn't sound like himself.
“Nah. Although I'm sure he would. No, I'm in the presidential suite on Larga Ways, these days. Sort of been made operations manager.”
He leaned over her. “You're hallucinating.”
She opened her eyes again. Saw he looked a lot better, although he still wasn't quite right, his skin holding a tiny trace of gray. “No, really.” She put a hand on either side of his face. “Eazi's taken over Larga Ways, Hal. He had to, to save it, and he doesn't want to give it back. The Class 5's gone and he needs something like this or he'll go mad.”
“You're serious.” He looked into her eyes, and she saw fear and desperation there, where she thought she'd see amusement and maybe irritation.
“Shh. What's wrong?” She stretched up and brushed a kiss at the corner of his mouth.
“You're not staying with me.”
“Your crew don't want me, Hal. And even if they did, I have no job onboard, whereas Eazi needs me.”
“I want you to stay.” His voice was rough.
“If I stayed, you wouldn't have been able to keep me. You'd have been ordered to send me to Battle Center, and I'd have had to appear before the UC, and someone would have tried to kill me a couple of times.”
“They'll still order you to go to the UC,” he said.
“Under whose authority? I'm on sovereign Eazi soil here. And I'll happily speak to the UC, if they come to me. Eazi really does need me. I wasn't just saying that before.” She kissed him again. “And apparently I've got a lovely bedroom with a balcony where I can entertain my Grihan lover when he comes by to visit.”
Dark Deeds (Class 5 Series Book 2) Page 31
