The Golden Way (The Kestrel Chronicles Book 3)

by mikel evins

  “Man,” said Erdos. “Now I really want to see Yaug without his clothes.”

  We all looked at her. She flushed.

  “Not like that,” she said.

  Jaemon grinned.

  “Well, I guess you’ll get your chance,” said the Captain. “We’ll stay here in case Isaac sends somebody to get Harken. Jaemon, Erdos, pick a few gun hands and go rescue Yaug from Isaac.”

  “Or Isaac from Yaug,” said Jaemon.

  “Whichever.”

  “I’ll go,” said Captain Harris, drifting closer. He swiveled his guns.

  “Hey,” said Spader, “What about me?”

  Harris rotated toward him.

  “Didn’t want to speak for you, Ahmon.”

  “Come on,” said Spader.

  “Those guns are impressive,” said the Captain, tipping his head toward Harris. “But we want Isaac alive. Remember, he knows where your artifact is.”

  “I remember,” said Harris. “We won’t kill him. We’ve got these, too.”

  He wiggled his tentacles.

  “They’re pretty handy for grabbing things.”

  The Captain cocked his head at Harris, then looked at Spader.

  “Okay with me,” he said, “But Jaemon’s in charge. We clear on that? Sandy?”

  “Sure,” said Harris.

  “I mean it, Sandy. I’m not kidding around.”

  “Sure, sure. Jaemon’s in charge. Your ship, your chain of command. I get it. Give me a little credit.”

  “Good.” The Captain looked at Jaemon, who nodded.

  “We think he might kill himself if he gets boxed in,” said Erdos.

  The Captain thought it over.

  “Makes sense,” he said. “He must have an archive somewhere. Try to make sure he doesn’t get the chance.”

  “We’ll grab him alive,” said Harris. He flexed his tentacles again.

  41.

  The five of us jetted back into the lift shaft and up past Yaug’s research deck. We came to a stop outside the maintenance hatch. Jaemon gestured Erdos and me forward. I drifted to the lift gate. Jaemon hit the bulkhead on my right softly just as Erdos hit the one on my left. I looked around and saw the two Lambertans floating above us, tilted to watch what we were doing.

  Jaemon nodded at me. I slid the lift gate open slowly, trying to keep my body behind it as I did. I tried to make it as silent as I could. I wound up pressed against Erdos, who pulled herself higher so she could see past me into the maintenance bay.

  It was dark. The bay was a large, open space, circular, interrupted by load-bearing members and workstations and tool enclosures. It should have been well lit, but with the power out it was a jumble of dark masses and struts and mysterious ducts and cables. Vague dark shapes moved a little now and then. I dialed my microwave emitter down deep into the radar range and turned it up bright.

  “Over by the feed consoles,” I said. “You see them?”

  I used a line-of-sight channel, speaking silently.

  “I see them,” said Erdos. “Three of them.”

  “You see Yaug?” said Jaemon.

  “No,” I said.

  “Open the channel to him if you find him,” he said.

  “Will do,” I said.

  Erdos shouted and jerked back. There were several bright flashes from inside the maintenance deck and slugs bounced off the bulkheads around us.

  “Sorry,” said Erdos, pressed against the bulkhead and breathing hard. “I thought I felt something crawling on me.”

  Jaemon shot me a look. I nodded and felt around the bulkhead near Erdos.

  “Anybody hit?” Jaemon said.

  “I’m fine,” said Harris.

  “Same here,” said Spader.

  “Erdos and Lev, check yourselves. I seem to be okay.”

  “I’m good,” said Erdos.

  “Unhurt,” I said. “I found the drone.”

  “What drone?” said Erdos.

  “The thing that crawled on you was one of Yaug’s drones,” said Jaemon.

  “A drone that crawls?”

  “What have you got?” Jaemon said.

  I shared it with them. We saw a schematic overlay on our dim view of the maintenance deck. It labeled the three invaders who huddled near the feeds consoles. One of them was Isaac. It also showed the positions of two fallen invaders and of Yaug himself, crouched behind an instrument bay, just an arm’s reach from Isaac and his cronies.

  “He says he’ll grab another one if he gets the chance,” I said.

  “Are those two dead?” Jaemon said.

  “Just unconscious,” I said. “He’s being careful.”

  “Why don’t we give him his chance?” said Harris.

  “What do you have in mind?” said Jaemon.

  “We could shoot into the bay behind them. It ought to get their attention, maybe give him a chance to grab one of them.”

  Jaemon hesitated.

  “I don’t know,” he said. “I can think of a lot of ways for that to go wrong.”

  “We can see where they are,” said Harris.

  “Why don’t we use flare rounds?” said Spader.

  “Flare rounds?” said Jaemon.

  “Oxy-mag rounds,” Harris said. “Bright as anything. We use them to get each other’s attention out in the dark. I don’t know about using them in here, though. They burn hot as hell, and they have their own oxygen supply…”

  “Yeah, we don’t need a ship fire on top of everything else,” Jaemon said.

  “Good point,” said Spader.

  “Why are they staying huddled together?” said Erdos. “You’d think they’d want to avoid making themselves an easy target.”

  “They’re not that easy,” said Jaemon.

  “Yeah, but why stay put? Wouldn’t you want to keep moving, keep your enemies guessing?”

  “Maybe,” said Jaemon, “That’s the feeds console. Esgar said that were doing something with the feeds.”

  “He said they were trying to hold a position there,” I said.

  “That’s what they’re doing, all right,” said Erdos. “But why?”

  She looked at each of us. Jaemon shook his head.

  “They can’t do anything to it with the power down.”

  “Power will be back soon,” I said.

  “You feel something?” Jaemon said.

  “More current moving. It can’t be more than a minute or two now.”

  “Then we’d better move if we’re going to,” said Harris. “When the power comes up it’s going to light us up and we’ll be stuck in the lift.”

  “Good call,” said Jaemon. “On my mark, move forward with me. Harris and Spader, make for that tool rack to the left. Erdos and Lev, with me. We’ll go to that console on the right. Ready? Three, two…go!”

  We jetted through the lift gate onto the maintenance deck. Someone banged against the gate on the way through and several shots range out, slugs bouncing noisily behind us. Jaemon made for the console he had pointed out and I sped after him. Just before we reached it, the power came up with a hum, flooding the bay with light. My cameras, tuned for the dark, whited out, awash with too much light. There was a whoop from across the bay and someone shouted something unintelligible.

  “Crap!” Jaemon snapped.

  42.

  I heard a thump and Jaemon’s voice swearing. My cameras adjusted their gain and the glare cleared just as I banged face-first into him. He wrapped an arm around me and pulled me close behind the console as three shots rang out. Erdos slammed into us. One of the slugs ricocheted off the front of the console. The others whizzed past us and bounced off the bulkhead behind us.

  “Now the power comes up,” said Erdos. “What about the Fabric?”

  “Still down,” I said. “But not for long.”

  Sure enough, as I spoke I could feel the missing world blossoming into my mind. Architectures of thought knitted themselves back together. All my senses gained depth and weight.

  “Yaug,” said Jae
mon on a new channel.

  “I’m here,” said our science director.

  “We got your messages. How are you?”

  “Injured, but not fatally,” he said. “Did you see my position?”

  “We saw. What about your injuries? Are you in pain?”

  “Pain is optional for me. I have it turned off.”

  “What can we do to help?”

  I eased my cameras out from behind the console to peer at our invaders. Isaac and one other were just visible over the top of the feeds console. I raised myself slowly to get a better look.

  “They’re doing something at the feeds console,” I said.

  “Doc, can you see what they’re up to?” said Jaemon.

  After a pause, Yaug said, “They’re poking at the security screen.”

  Jaemon frowned.

  “I don’t know what they’re doing, but it can’t be good,” he said. “Can we get their attention?”

  “I can do that,” said Harris.

  From behind the tool case to our left a tentacled blob rose into view. His side-mounted shell guns fired a salvo, precisely balanced by bursts from his maneuvering jets. Isaac and his companions ducked behind the feeds console as a huge cloud of silvery reflective powder exploded all over the maintenance bay.

  “Holy Ned,” said Jaemon, coughing. “What is that?”

  “Marker rounds,” said Harris. “We use them to identify dig sites for each other.”

  In a blink Yaug was out from behind the console and over the top, then back into hiding again with a man in his grip.

  “Makers in a pot,” swore Erdos. “What in flaming hell was that?”

  “It was me,” said Yaug. “I got one.”

  “That was you?”

  “I saw that,” said Jaemon. “It’s not Isaac, by any chance?”

  “Sorry, no.”

  “Damn. How is he?”

  “Alive, but sleeping now.”

  Behind the feeds console two heads lifted warily, accompanied by guns.

  “They’re at it again,” said Jaemon. “What are they doing?”

  Erdos said, “That mess of legs was Yaug?”

  Jaemon turned toward her. He laid a hand on her shoulder.

  “Yaug looks like a Titan,” he said.

  Erdos started to answer him sarcastically, then stopped and looked at the feeds console. She turned back to Jaemon, wide-eyed. Then she swore.

  “You could have told me your goddamn science advisor was a goddamn Titan,” she said.

  “Would you have believed me?” said Jaemon.

  “Hell no, I wouldn’t have believed you, because that’s crazy!”

  “I’m not a Titan,” Yaug said. “I just look like one.”

  “Well, why in the hell would you look like a goddamn Titan?” said Erdos.

  “It’s a long story,” said Yaug.

  “No time for stories right now,” Jaemon said. “We need to stop Isaac from whatever he’s doing.”

  “I can go over the console,” said Yaug. “There are only two of them left.”

  “According to your vitals,” I said, “You are leaking fluids at a prodigious rate. You could lose consciousness at any time.”

  “Better be quick, then,” Yaug said.

  Before I could say anything else he was up and over the feeds console.

  Erdos barked in surprise and ducked behind our console.

  “Yaug!” Jaemon shouted.

  They were better prepared for him this time. Isaac’s remaining companion got his sidearm around and put two shots into Yaug’s faceted abdomen before a shiny black leg knocked the gun away spinning. Isaac popped his jets, gliding backward away from Yaug, lining up a shot.

  Isaac’s companion twisted and popped his own jets, but Yaug had him trapped between a couple of legs. He pulled the man close and took hold of him with several of his shorter manipulator arms. Isaac calmly took aim and shot the man through the head, putting another slug into Yaug in the process. There was a flare of white light on the man’s neck and smoke began to billow off him. Yaug shoved him away and withdrew his legs.

  “Geez, he looks like a spider when he does that,” said Jaemon.

  Erdos groaned.

  We spread out from our console, each of us trying to get an angle on Isaac. The smoke from the burning man piled up in a shroud around him. There was a smell of burning meat.

  “Give it up, Isaac,” said Jaemon, floating slowly toward him. “We’re all around you, and you’ve got nobody left.”

  Isaac smiled and shrugged.

  “You’re probably right,” he said. He winked and started to raise his gun.

  “No!” I said. I hit my jets as hard as I could, pushing off as I did, aiming straight at Isaac. He raised his gun, bent his arm, and turned the weapon toward himself.

  I hit him in the upper torso just before the pistol found its target. The gun went off in my face, and his, blinding and deafening us. I grabbed tight as my momentum started us tumbling together.

  We flipped over and flew backward, slamming into a mesh partition behind Isaac. My face hit the mesh, and Isaac’s head. He grunted and lost his grip on the pistol. He tried to scramble after it and his jets blasted me in the belly and legs, but I held on. I turned him in my grip and got my legs around his waist.

  He realized what I was doing and fought me, but we were floating and he couldn’t get any leverage. He growled with the strain. I reached over his head and stuck my fingers into his eyes, pressing hard against the upper rims of the sockets, pulling his head back, slipping my other arm into the space under his chin. He fought even harder, but it was too late. I pressed his neck into the crook of my elbow and tightened my arm on the sides of his neck. He thrashed for a few more seconds, then was quiet.

  Yaug reached us and took us into his legs. He turned us over and over, moving us with gentle touches.

  “Oh, Makers,” said Erdos. She hid her eyes with one hand.

  “They all right?” said Jaemon.

  “They both seem to be in one piece,” said Yaug.

  “More than I can say for you, Doc,” said Jaemon. “Lev, you need to get him to the infirmary.”

  There was a cloud of dark gray droplets around Yaug’s abdomen, and fluids welling out of bullet holes.

  “Yes,” I said. “And Isaac, too. He’s out right now. We don’t want him waking up until after I check him for surprises.”

  “There’s something we need to do first,” said Yaug.

  “Before first aid?” I said.

  “You know why it’s called ‘first aid,’ right?” said Jaemon. “Because it comes first.”

  “We need to examine the feeds console. We need to find out what they did.”

  “Doctor, you’re leaking body fluids copiously,” I said.

  “I’ll be all right for a minute or two,” he said, moving to the console. “This body is tough.”

  I untangled myself from a limp Isaac.

  “What can be more important than mortal wounds?” I said.

  “This,” said Yaug, tapping the feeds console with one foreleg.

  I looked at what he was tapping, then looked again. I popped my jets to get closer. I touched the console, passing it my security glyph.

  “What is it?” said Jaemon.

  “Well,” I said. “Now we know what he was doing.”

  “What?” said Erdos.

  “It’s a protocol weapon,” Yaug said.

  “A protocol weapon?” said Jaemon.

  “You know what a protocol weapon is,” I said. My hands were moving over the console as fast as I could make them.

  “I know,” he said. “You’re saying he used one on Kestrel? To do what?”

  “Blowing up her torch will do a good job of getting rid of Harken,” said Yaug.

  “And all of us,” I said. “And our archives.”

  43.

  “What the hell is going on up there?”

  It was Chief Burrell, opening a channel to us.

 
; “Kestrel sounds wrong,” she said.

  “My feeds are out of balance,” said Kestrel.

  “Isaac used a protocol weapon,” said Jaemon.

  “To do what?” said the Captain.

  “To screw up the feeds,” Jaemon said.

  “I’ll be right there,” said Burrell.

  “No time,” I said. “Look.”

  I glyphed her access to my senses.

  “Oh, Makers,” she said. “He’s started a runaway.”

  “Can you stop it?” said the Captain.

  She didn’t answer for a moment. I let her direct my hands. She spun quickly through schematics and diagnostics.

  “No,” she said.

  Everyone was quiet. Yaug and I worked feverishly.

  “That’s never going to work,” said Burrell. “It’s too late to cut the feeds. The runaway has already started. The only way to save her now is to—oh. I see. I see.”

  “We’ll need your authorization, Chief Engineer,” said Yaug.

  “You have it,” said Burrell.

  “And yours, Kestrel,” I said.

  She was silent.

  “What are you planning?” said Erdos.

  “Whatever it is, do it,” said the Captain.

  “Kestrel?” I said.

  “I’m sorry,” she said. “You have my authorization.”

  I glanced at Yaug, then at Jaemon.

  “Ready when you are,” Yaug said.

  “Kestrel?” I said. “Are you ready?”

  “Yes, Dear.”

  She sounded mournful.

  Yaug and I gave the commands together. Nothing happened for a second, then there was an enormous bang that we heard through the structural members of the ship. Kestrel shuddered around us.

  “What the hell was that?” said Erdos.

  Jaemon and I looked at each other.

  “The torch,” said Burrell. “That was Kestrel’s torch.”

  “And we’re still here?” said Erdos.

  “It didn’t blow up,” said the Captain. “They cut it loose.”

  He sounded like he was reporting the death of a friend.

  “Cut it loose?” said Erdos.

  “With prejudice,” I said. “It’s accelerating away from us.”

  She looked at me, wide-eyed.