by Gun Brooke
Weiss and Struyen joined Madisyn as she hurried along a man-made path among the rocks. Moon dust whirled around their feet and Weiss focused on not stumbling. She pressed the rifle close to her body as she doubled over to stay out of sight of any guards.
“Any life signs?” Weiss asked as they stopped only a few meters from the entrance to the plant.
“None on the outside.” Madisyn scanned the area. “I’m reading faint humanoid signatures inside the structures.”
“How many?”
“Too soon to tell. When we get inside, I’ll be able to perform more accurate readings.”
“I don’t like this.” Podmer was a skilled strategist, but this plan had too many variables. “An army of guards could be in there, waiting to take us out.”
“Our intel says there’s not.” Madisyn shrugged. “Team one in position.”
The other two teams echoed her words.
“We need to break through the doors and take care of the people there before we can signal the shuttles. Come on. Team one going in.”
They couldn’t turn back now. Weiss hoisted her weapon as Madisyn and Struyen ran before her to the large hatch leading into an airlock. Struyen attached yet another device to the lock and punched in a series of commands.
“Stand back, just to be safe.” Madisyn pushed Weiss and Struyen to the side and raised her rifle. The lock snapped open and a gush of oxygen escaped as the hatch swung open, making Madisyn sway, but she remained on her feet. “Clear. Let’s go. Teams two and three, what’s your position?”
“Team two right behind you.”
“Team three ready to guard the perimeter.”
They rushed into the airlock, and only seconds later, team two joined them. Weiss saw the members of team three take up position outside. Struyen closed the hatch behind them.
Madisyn motioned toward Weiss. “Hit the decompression sensor.”
Quickly, Weiss strode over to the opposite hatch and examined the panel. Her heart hammered, but a familiar sense of serenity descended upon her as she engaged the decompression unit. The indicator went from yellow to blue. “We’re good to go.”
“All right. Remember, we need twenty crates. Weiss, Struyen you’re with me. Team two, you get the crates ready. Everybody set?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Weiss nodded at Madisyn, who pushed a sensor to open the inside hatch. It slid to the side and she stared into a vast room lit only by a dim green light. With her weapon ready to fire, Weiss moved in. She made sure the door opening was clear, as well as the walls and ceiling around it. Except for a discreet hissing sound, it was eerily quiet in what seemed to be a warehouse. Team two moved cautiously behind them as she and Madisyn quickly made sure that no guards would surprise them.
Team two began pushing crates onto hover carts, stacking them by the hatch. Weiss in turn couldn’t rid herself of the strange sense that things were going too easy. She pulled out her own scanner and walked along the outer wall of the warehouse, making sure nothing would take them by surprise. She turned at the far wall and began moving along the shelf that ran along the middle of the structure. Halfway back to the hatch, Madisyn caught up with her.
“What are you doing? They’re nearly done. It’s time to—”
“Wait.” Weiss stared at her readings, trying to make sense of the information. “Something’s wrong.”
“What are you talking about?” Madisyn glanced at Weiss’s scanner. “T’shiad! What the hell is that?” She yanked the reader out of Weiss’s hands. “Something is causing this, something that’s making smaller and smaller cycles.”
“Counting down. It’s an explosive device, possibly a plasma charge.”
“Damn, how long do we have?” Madisyn began to run toward where team two was loading the crates.
“According to this, less than two minutes.” Weiss ran along with her. “Weiss to team three. Get the shuttles over here. We need to move out now. Now!”
“Affirmative.”
Weiss pushed the first cart fully loaded with crates of davic crystals through the hatch with the help of one of the others. Madisyn struggled to mount the last of the crates on the second cart. She tore them out of the hands of the two men, shouting at them, “I’ve got this. Get out of here. Get out now!”
While the two men scrambled through the hatch and into the airlock, Weiss jumped back inside, set on helping Madisyn shove the second cart through the hatch. Halfway through, it stopped and wouldn’t budge, and even though Weiss put all her weight behind it.
“It’s stuck on something underneath.” Madisyn’s voice came in short gasps. “Let me see.”
“We should just leave it.”
“No. Help me.” Madisyn knelt on the floor and stuck her head and shoulders underneath the cart. “It’s a lever that’s come off the hatch. There. It’s gone. Come on, let’s do this.”
Weiss glanced at her scanner, which she’d attached to her wrist. “We don’t have enough time.”
“All right. Listen. Let’s get this out of here and then follow me.” Madisyn didn’t hesitate as they pressed hard enough against the cart to make it slide through the inside hatch and into the airlock. Madisyn barked her orders to team two and Struyen. “Decompress and get the stuff out of here and hook it onto the shuttles. Weiss and I can’t fit in the airlock with you.”
“But, Pimm—” Struyen looked shocked, but something sounding like excitement infused his words.
“Follow orders. Go!” Madisyn shouted, and slammed her hand on the sensor that closed the hatch.
“Great.” Weiss was furious. “You’ve just killed us.”
*
“Come on. Faster!” Madisyn ran with long steps along the wall. She turned her head, making sure Weiss was right behind her. “Behind the crates over in the corner.”
“I can’t believe this.” Weiss spoke in short gasps. “We’re dead.”
“Here. Get down.” Madisyn didn’t waste time trying to explain, but pushed Weiss in behind the crates. She checked her internal chronometer. Five seconds. Impulsively, she threw herself on top of Weiss, covering her body with her own. “Hold on.”
“What—”
The explosion roared through the warehouse and sent crates flying around them. Madisyn wrapped her arms and legs around Weiss. She needed to keep her alive. The turbulence after the explosion lasted only a few seconds, but felt longer. Once she realized it was over, Madisyn tried to move, but several crates that were resting against her back pinned her down.
“Weiss?” Madisyn managed to get a hand in between them to feel Weiss’s side through the suit. She pulled up her bio-signature on the visor. A rapid flutter under her fingertips indicated life, and, at the same time, she saw encouraging readings of Weiss’s blood pressure and heart rate.
“Madisyn? Damn the stars. My ears are still ringing.”
“You’re okay.” Relieved that her decision hadn’t killed Weiss, Madisyn patted her.
“You have to get off me, though. I can hardly breathe.”
“Hmm, that might pose a problem. I’m not all that’s on top of you. It’s me and several crates.”
“Struyen to Pimm. What’s your status?” His voice reached them via the communicator.
“Pimm here. Weiss and I are alive, but buried under debris. What about the rest of you?”
“We went flying, but the shuttles are here and we’re securing the carts. You need to get out of here fast. We’ve got company.”
Naturally. All alarms had to be blaring at the mining headquarters. Madisyn pushed at the crates.
“Ow.” Weiss’s moan made Madisyn stop instantly.
“Sorry. Let me try to move a little before I push on them. “Pimm to Struyen. Don’t wait for us. Get the merchandise out of here. Then, if it’s possible, come back for us.”
“Pimm—”
“Just do it, Struyen. It’s an order.”
“We’ll be back.”
“We’ll be here. Pimm out.” Madisy
n shifted her weight to the left and freed her arm completely. “Hold on, Weiss. I’ll try to push the crates off us.” She pressed her palm against the floor, next to Weiss’s head. Nothing happened and she tried again. “You have to help me, if you can.”
“All right.” Groaning, Weiss moved her arms up next to her. “Damn, I damaged my left wrist.” Weiss sounded more disgusted than in pain.
“Do what you can. You heard Struyen.”
“Yeah.”
“Come on. Push.” Madisyn dug in and used all her superior strength to shift the crates as Weiss did the same. Something moved, and suddenly several crates slid down and crashed to the floor next to them. “Good. Again.” After two more attempts, Madisyn was able to move away from Weiss and help her up. She didn’t wait to ascertain any damage; it was enough that Weiss could stand.
“I lost my rifle,” Weiss said.
“I have mine.” Madisyn began moving along the wall, over to a section that had crumbled in the blast. “We don’t have to use the door. Let’s go.” Climbing through the hole, she kept her weapon ready, but nobody had reached that part of the structure yet. In the distance, Madisyn could see the shuttles with the crates hanging from wires. The other teams and Struyen had fastened their harnesses to the wires and were now clinging to the crates on their way back to the mother ship. Mission accomplished.
Madisyn saw no obvious path among the rocks and didn’t dare use her helmet light. She moved forward as fast as she could and heard an occasional faint curse over her headset. Soon they had put enough distance between themselves and the wrecked warehouse to slow down. They were well within the dark side of the moon, and Madisyn hoped this would make it more difficult for the mining security guards to locate them.
“I—I need to rest.” Weiss sounded tormented and dangerously out of breath.
“We can take a minute.” Madisyn stopped at a cave-like opening in the black rocks to their left and turned just in time to grab hold of Weiss, who staggered to the side, clutching her arm.
“You’re injured.”
“My arm. I think it’s fractured again.” Weiss slowly sat down on a ledge. “It hurts like hell.”
Madisyn didn’t know Weiss, but she most likely didn’t allow small injuries to stop her. If she said her arm hurt, the pain was no doubt excruciating. “I can’t get an accurate scan through the suit. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll be fine if I can just catch my breath.”
Madisyn scanned in the direction they had come from. “I read multiple bio-signatures and three spacecraft.”
“It won’t take them long to pinpoint our location.” Weiss leaned back against the rock, cradling her arm.
“We can always hope they think everyone left on the shuttles. If we can set up a scramble field—”
“That would make us invisible for anyone coming to our rescue.”
“Only if I failed to embed a marker in the signal.” Madisyn dug through one of her side pockets for a disperser. She hooked it up to her scanner and coded it with a signal that would mask them to the Nemalima miners, but not to anyone aboard the Salaceos. Madisyn pushed the disperser into the ground, and a pink light began to glow at its tip. “I bought us a little time.”
“How little?” Weiss asked shortly.
“Oh, maybe thirty minutes. After that, the energy will start to fade. These small dispersers don’t last very long.”
“Fine.” Weiss sounded like her normal sarcastic self, but as she sat slumped against the rock, protecting her arm like that, Madisyn saw her in a new light.
“I wish I could give you a pain reliever or work you over with the bone knitter.”
“I said I’m fine.” Weiss pushed away from the rocks. Flinching in obvious pain, she moaned and bent over.
“What did you do?” Madisyn threw herself forward, holding Weiss by the shoulders. “Weiss?”
“It’s…nothing. An old injury.”
“Looks like something to me.” Afraid that Weiss would fall over and injure her arm even more, she helped her sit on the ground, supporting her now-trembling body.
“Don’t.”
“They’ll be here soon. Just hang in there.” Madisyn ignored the pained attempt from Weiss to resist her. “Just pretend that I’m a MEDI-droid.”
“MEDI-droids are impersonal. And polite.”
“Is that your way of saying that I’m too personal and rude?”
Weiss made a sound that sounded like something between a huff and a snort.
Madisyn’s inner sensors suddenly gave her a jolt. She looked up and saw a faint light beam farther down the path, behind them. “Shh. I see something.” She squinted, adjusting her visor. “Damn it. We have company.”
Chapter Seven
Madisyn handed the scanner over to Weiss and took up position behind a large rock next to the path where the security guards now approached them. “They’re about a hundred meters from our position,” Madisyn said, hoisting her plasma-pulse weapon. “I have them in my sight, and the plasma-pulse is set to heavy stun. It’ll knock them out, but not harm them.”
“Can you take them all out?”
“You questioning my marksmanship?” Madisyn didn’t turn around, but tried to defuse the tension with humorous sarcasm.
“Wouldn’t dream of it.” Weiss didn’t miss a beat.
“Good. Watch our backs and leave these drontes to me.” Using the Guild Nation word for clowns, Madisyn took aim, making sure her sight was lined up with her internal processor. The data flickered in her left field of vision, and she automatically adjusted her aim. She couldn’t afford to miss. Worst-case scenario, the Nemalima guards would kill them or take them prisoner. The consequences went far beyond blowing their cover. Not only would Madisyn’s six months of undercover work be wasted, but if anyone examined her more closely, everything would be over. This fear had been the perfect incentive to keep her from getting caught, or exposed, throughout her career as a secret agent. Nothing like the fear of being gutted like a fish to keep you sharp.
“They’re closing in,” Madisyn whispered, blinking twice to make the lenses in her eyes zoom in. “Anything on sensors from our friends?”
“Nothing so far.” Weiss moved the scanner in small circles. “I get a lot of static.”
“That’s the force field. I placed a filter for it, but it will still impact readings.”
Madisyn pressed herself close to the rock, making sure she was out of sight. The force field masked their signatures, but it wasn’t foolproof. The Nemalima mining company had obviously upgraded their systems, and they could have gotten their hands on the latest scanning equipment.
“Madisyn. I read two signals. Coordinates five-five-three.” Weiss moaned and pushed off the rock behind her. “They’re not ours.”
“Damn it.” Madisyn glanced at the handheld scanner. “You’re right. The miners aren’t stupid. They’ve deployed a second team.”
“You still have time to take everybody out.”
“I’m not so sure.” Madisyn shuddered. “Even if I stun the first team, they might have time to alert the others. They could be linked like we are, able to read each other’s bio-signatures.”
“We—I mean, I can’t move. Not fast enough to reach a better location.” Weiss cleared her throat. “You should move to higher ground. That will make it easier for Podmer’s crew to find you.”
“We’re getting out of here. We have a mission to complete and I can’t do it alone.”
A stunned silence, then Weiss sighed, sounding exasperated. “What’s your plan, then?”
“Give me a second.” Thinking fast, Madisyn pulled a filament wire from one of her belt packs. She motioned for Weiss to move farther back among the jagged rocks. “Take cover.”
“But—”
“Go on. We don’t have much time.” Madisyn attached the filament to a small rock and quickly pulled it across the path, back and forth several times. It was hard to hold the filament with the gloves on, but she mana
ged to wind it across the path four times before she ran out of wire. Finding a primer, she attached it and set it to a frequency they could monitor with the scanner.
Quickly, Madisyn followed Weiss in behind the rocks, making sure she could still see the approaching guards.
“What are you doing? A bell shock?”
“Yeah, with a twist.” Madisyn took the scanner and set it to the right frequency. “This is going to knock them for a loop, but hopefully not kill anyone.” She made sure she had her weapon ready and kept her eyes on the approaching lights. “Team two has almost caught up with us,” she murmured. “We may get them all at once, if we’re lucky.”
Before them, the light from several search-flashes created distorted shadows from the rocks around them. Madisyn nearly held her breath, something she knew was not considered normal for an android of any model.
“Here they come,” Weiss murmured, placing a hand on her shoulder. “Not yet.”
“I know.” Madisyn waited until the first team was practically on top of them and the second only ten or fifteen meters away. “Close your eyes.” She punched in the command on the scanner, then shut her own eyes. Through her eyelids, she saw the violent flashes of light, and the ground seemed to vibrate under their feet.
After what seemed like forever, Madisyn opened her eyes and saw two guards lying on the path. She raised her weapon and moved forward to check on team two. It took her a few seconds, but then she saw the outline of two other guards on the path in the other direction, approximately seven meters from her position.
“Well, what do you know? Here come the gilded horsemen.” Weiss stood next to Madisyn, glancing at the scanner in her left hand. “Our crew is back for us.”
“Good.” Madisyn wanted to check on the guards, but knew she didn’t have time. She could only pray they hadn’t suffered any serious injuries. “I’m turning the beacon up.” She entered another set of commands. “Let’s move a bit farther up the path.”
“All right.” Weiss was trembling visibly now. She was limping and protecting her arm, and obviously had just about had enough.
