by M. D. Cooper
Suddenly, a shape flitted across a gap in the crystals ahead of her. Isa ducked down and froze. Adrenaline surged again. Who had she seen?
Her heart beating a tattoo, she crawled a little way forward. If the figure had been one of the Tyrians, that could mean she was near the exit; Either Pigtail or Ada might be guarding it to prevent Isa and Martin from escaping.
Isa swallowed. To get out, she might have to kill one of them. She decided that if it came to it, she would do the deed. None of the Tyrians had thought twice about leaving her to die there.
She crawled around a crystal that lay across her path, and peered ahead. The area ahead was devoid of movement again. Isa strained her ears, but all she could hear was her own breathing.
And something else. A soft sound, coming from behind her. Someone was sneaking up on her!
Isa swung around and a hand grabbed her mouth. She struggled violently, almost throwing off the person who was holding her, but their grip was too strong. Then a cold, metal muzzle was pushed against her skull. She stopped struggling.
“You’re coming with me,” a woman said, her voice low and harsh. She dragged Isa to her feet and pulled her forward.
Pigtail had Isa in her grip, but she hadn’t shot her when she had the chance.
“Your boyfriend’s trying to hunt me down,” Pigtail murmured. “Trying to stop me from leaving. But you’re my exit ticket.”
With one arm wrapped around Isa’s neck and the other holding the weapon against her temple, Pigtail pushed Isa along. She was obviously familiar with the route. She navigated the crystals quickly and efficiently, though unconcerned with whether or not Isa was scraped against them as they went.
“I heard all about the Noctus bitch posing a threat to all our plans,” she muttered. “Ironic that you’re going to be the one who ensures it all goes forward in the end, isn’t it?”
“You’re deranged,” said Isa. “Carrying a grudge for hundreds of years? Don’t you think that’s a bit extreme? Maybe you should try therapy.”
“What would you know about it? You’re the offspring of filthy colonizers. You shouldn’t even exist. And pretty soon, you won’t.”
When they’d traveled some distance through the cave, the surroundings began to look familiar to Isa. She thought she might be able to guess the way out from there. Now all she needed to do was to get rid of the nutcase with the gun.
Pigtail pushed Isa forward, hard. Isa pretended to stumble, then crouched down quickly so that Pigtail’s momentum carried her over, unbalancing her.
The woman’s hold on Isa’s neck loosened, and the muzzle of her weapon slipped from Isa’s head.
Isa took her chance.
Isa grabbed the woman’s weapon arm, forcing it away from her. Pigtail’s finger was already on the trigger, and she squeezed, firing shots that hit the ceiling and rained crystal shards down around them.
“Isa!”
It was Martin. His voice came from somewhere behind her, but Isa couldn’t turn. She couldn’t move; locked in a struggle with Pigtail, who was forcing her weapon toward Isa’s face. Centimeter by centimeter, the muzzle crept closer. On top of that, the woman had gotten a hand back around Isa’s neck and was slowly choking her.
“Stop!” Martin demanded. “I’ll shoot, I mean it!”
The two women grappled, fear of death lending Isa exceptional strength. She shifted side to side as she did all she could to escape the deathly grip and the inexorable movement of the gun toward her head. But try as she might, it wasn’t enough, and Isa began to weaken. She knew she was no match for Pigtail. Terror of her impending death had kept her alive for a few moments, but her muscles were trembling and about to be overpowered. She had only seconds to live.
Then a round hit the crystal by her side. Martin was living up to his word, trying to hit Pigtail while at the same time trying to avoid harming Isa.
Then the pressure on her was released; Pigtail had let go of her.
Isa dropped like a stone. She heard another round fire, and cringed, waiting for it to hit.
But it didn’t.
She looked up. Before her gaze made contact with Pigtail, she saw Martin falling, blood running from his chest.
Pigtail had let go of Isa in order to fire at Martin—and she’d hit him center mass.
A primal scream began to issue from Isa’s lungs. Pigtail was turning the weapon toward her, but before the muzzle lined up with her face, Isa flew at the murderer, knocking her from her feet.
The impact knocked the weapon from Pigtail’s hands. It skittered across the floor, tumbling across the crystalline ridges. Both women went for it, but Isa was smaller and faster. As her hands alighted on the stock, she was already turning. She swept the weapon around at Pigtail, who was a second behind her.
Realizing she was too late, Isa’s attacker shifted direction. Isa fired, but her shot went wide. She squeezed the trigger again, and this time, the round passed through the space Pigtail had occupied a moment before, as her enemy dove out of the way, landing behind a crystal. Isa fired for a third time, chipping the white surface.
Then she was on her feet, running, chasing the woman who had shot Martin. She caught glimpses of her, but each time she shot, Pigtail was already behind another crystal. Isa ran on, cursing the obstacles that dogged every step she took.
Pigtail was getting away. She couldn’t catch up.
Eventually, she lost all sight of her.
Pain and exhaustion began to bite. Isa knew that every step she took chasing Pigtail was a step that took her farther away from Martin. He was hurt. She had to give up the pursuit and go back to him.
She stopped, reversed her direction, and began to return the way she’d come, retracing her steps as well as she could in the confusing maze. Now that she was armed and Pigtail had no weapon, she hoped the fanatic would leave them alone—providing she could actually move Martin and get out of the cursed cave at last.
Isa ducked under a crystal. As she came up on the other side, something hard cracked into her head, and the world went black.
She could feel herself falling, but she didn’t register hitting the ground.
* * * * *
When Isa came to, she briefly wondered how many more times she could pass out before her body gave up trying to regain consciousness.
Her head was a torment of pain, and blood had seeped stickily across her face. Her weapon was gone. How much time had passed? She had to assume that Pigtail had circled around her, intent on regaining her pistol once more.
She must have thought she’d killed me…kinda feels like she did.
Isa rose to her hands and knees, grimacing against the excruciating waves of agony that passed through her head. She couldn’t stand, so she crawled. She had to find Martin. If it was the last thing she did, she had to find him.
As she clambered over the jagged crystals, cutting her hands and knees, Isa wondered if she was going in the right direction. It looked right, and she was sure it was the way she had been going at first, but in all honesty, she had no choice but to continue. She couldn’t bring herself to give up on Martin.
Soon, all that existed for her was the cave floor and the ache of her head, legs, hands, and knees.
Before long—at least she thought it hadn’t been long—she saw blood ahead on the ground. She looked up and recognized the area where Martin had been shot. A darkening trail of blood ran across her path. Somehow, Martin had moved, though he’d been bleeding heavily. Isa changed direction to follow the hideous trace and crawled on.
Finally, she found him. Lying on his back, his own blood pooled around him, his chest barely moving. Isa reached for him. She touched his face. His eyes opened.
“Hold on,” she whispered. “I know the way out from here. I’m going to the upper levels to reach the Link, then Onyx will send an ambulance. You’re going to be okay.”
He’ll be okay.
The medics from Ushu had rescued her from there, they could rescue Martin, too. He wou
ld be okay.
Martin looked up at Isa, meeting her gaze. His lips parted, and he gave her a half-smile. And then he died.
FACE TO FACE
STELLAR DATE: 03.22.8937 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Crystal Cave, Mount Ida Caverns
REGION: Tyre, New Canaan System
Usef was nearly done removing his armor, but the wait was still driving Erin mad. She had a feeling that something terrible was happening and they were going to be too late to spot it.
While she waited for Usef, she walked a little way down the tunnel. She wanted to keep going, but Usef had reminded her that Pippa was a ruthless murderer who crammed people into shipping crates.
Even so, she just wanted to see what lay ahead.
Lights flicked on in response to her approach, but they were weak and spread apart, as if only intended for the crew who would go on to make the place suitable for regular tourists. The tunnel wasn’t as steep as the one that led to the huge cavern, and its walls were fairly uniform. Erin wondered if the FGT had opened out and smoothed the surfaces of an existing natural passageway. She checked the map and saw that the cave it led to was full of selenite crystals.
Erin nodded. She’d been thinking something along the same lines. Pippa must have expected—not incorrectly—that the ‘accident’ would be blamed on the universally disliked supervisor.
A sound from behind Erin distracted her, and she turned to see Usef. Clad only in the kinetic baselayer he wore under his armor, he was easing himself through the crack.
He made it through the gap this time, though only just. Immediately, he reached back for his armor to bring that into the tunnel too.
Knowing it would take Usef just as long to gear up as it had taken him to remove it, if not longer, Erin wandered a little farther down the passageway.
As she pondered the problem of what Pippa intended to do with the antimatter, she remembered that she’d meant to ask Onyx about Samuel Jefferson’s land holdings. She tried to reach the AI, but as she took another step deeper into the tunnel, she lost access to the Link.
“Dammit,” she muttered.
She was about to turn and report the issue to Usef, when movement further down the tunnel caught her attention.
Someone had appeared around a distant bend in the passageway and was running up toward her. The figure’s head was down and they didn’t seem to have noticed her yet.
Cycling her vision for the low light, she almost swore aloud as she recognized the figure.
Pippa!
They’d found her at last.
Then Erin saw the woman’s gun, and she backpedalled until she had Link access once more.
Usef had been in the process of stepping into the legs of his armor. In one smooth motion, he stepped out again, picked up his weapon, and reached back into his armor for something.
Seconds later, he was running down the tunnel, and Erin pressed herself against the wall as the human maglev blew past her.
Without a thought toward any danger, Erin ran after him.
At the sight of Major Usef bearing down on her, Pippa wasted no time and turned about, running back the way she’d come.
“Hold it!” Usef commanded.
He fired, but Pippa had disappeared back around the bend.
Usef ran on, his great feet slapping against the smooth tunnel floor. Erin raced along in his wake, rejoicing that they’d finally found the foul woman. Now, if Usef didn’t kill her first, the woman would pay for Jacob Cimorelli’s and Max Rasner’s deaths, and Erin might finally get some answers.
Usef fired a second time. He must have caught sight of Pippa again. It was irritating that the tunnel twisted and turned so much. If Usef could get one clear shot, Erin was sure he would take Pippa down.
She noticed he was dropping something from his free hand as he ran.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Link relays,” he called back. “Should be up in a minute. Then I’ll order my team in.”
Erin nodded as she noted her HUD warning her that the temperature and humidity were rising quickly, though her armor kept her cool. Usef lacked that benefit, though, and she suspected that he would soon be suffering.
Her own armor wasn’t powered to a great extent, and the additional weight was taking its toll. She was relieved to see that, according to the map, they only had a short distance to go. They had to catch Pippa before she reached the cave of crystals, or they would have another long search to conduct. Still, there was no other exit to the place. No matter how long it took, they would find her. She was a rat in a trap and so were all her friends. Erin wondered where they’d gotten to.
Usef rounded another bend and Erin soon followed. In the distance, a light shone from an opening. It had to be the entrance to the cave of crystals…. But the tunnel was empty.
They’d lost Pippa for the moment.
Without breaking pace, Usef sped down the remaining stretch and reached it way ahead of Erin. He stopped and scrutinized the interior, then waited for her to catch up, his great chest heaving, but he wasn’t sweating.
He must have some sort of internal mods for heat regulation, Erin surmised.
Erin followed close on Usef’s heels, and they entered the cave of crystals. In all her centuries and time spent on the worlds of Sol, the Kap, and now in New Canaan, Erin had seen few places as amazing as this. If she hadn’t already been exhausted, the sight of it might have taken her breath away. Even so, the gigantic crystals that protruded from all sides briefly transfixed her.
Her HUD told her that the conditions inside the cave were extreme. She hoped, if only for Usef’s sake, that they would find Pippa and her accomplices before too long. She worried that he wouldn’t last forever in there without his armor to help cool him.
Erin was battling to stick close to the man. The nature of the terrain made it hard for two to walk side by side or on the level. The place was like an obstacle course laid across broken down stairs.
Everywhere Erin looked, the cavern was a picture of utter stillness, there wasn’t even a hint of motion in the reflections from the copious hard, angled surfaces. Erin gazed off into the distance. The crystals seemed to go on forever. Even when backup arrived, it would take them an age to root out Pippa and the other suspects.
They had arrived at a pit that blocked their path. Rather than waste time going around it, Usef jumped over it, but Erin’s stature made the same feat impossible. She was forced to take the long way while Usef waited on the other side. She followed the edge of the pit to the right, planning on catching up to Usef a few moments later, but something anomalous attracted her attention. She could see a patch of blue in the sea of white.
Erin stopped and looked more closely at the spot of color, just visible in a gap. She realized she was seeing part of a leg in dark blue pants. The leg was horizontal, as if the person was lying down.
he walked forward. He would see where she was heading.
Erin didn’t recall Pippa wearing blue clothes at the airport. Was this one of the Tyrians? She raised her weapon in front of her and, keeping low, crept closer. By angling her head to the left, she was able to see more of the leg.
A feeling of familiarity grew on her. The leg seemed to belong to a man. Was she looking at Samuel or Rahmin? But Erin didn’t think she’d had a close view of either of the male Tyrians—not enough of a look to be able to recognize one of their body parts by itself, anyway.
Then it hit her. She was looking at Martin’s leg.
Immediately following that realization, she saw the blood. Deep red on white in a wide pool. Martin was injured and bleeding.
She ran forward without hesitation.
She didn’t slow, jumping a crystal that jutted into her path.
She sped around another crystal and halted, standing stock-still. A dreadful scene confronted her.
Martin was sprawled on his back, his eyes closed, his chest still, and his skin colorless. The blood Erin had seen lay all around him. So much blood.
Isa was kneeling next to him, her long, black hair in disarray.
At Erin’s sudden appearance, Isa looked up, horror and grief carved on her features. Blood trickled down her face and stained her knees and hands.
Above Isa stood Pippa. Her legs were spread wide, her arms held out straight, both of her hands gripped a pistol that she was pressing against Isa’s head.
She gave a ghastly grin as her gaze locked on Erin’s helmeted head and said, “She’s coming with me, and you’re going to let me out of here.”
Isa looked down at Martin, her spirit crushed and devoid of hope.
Erin lifted her eyes from Isa and Martin, and in one smooth motion, she raised her weapon and fired.
