by M. D. Cooper
“Right,” Lyssa said.
“You know Cara Sykes would have quite the impact on the Andersonians.”
Lyssa gave him a sharp glance. “Why do you mention her?”
Xander’s grin was feral. “Come on, now. Do you think you can do anything without me knowing?”
“If you’re so worried about Psion breaking apart, why don’t you do something about it? You’ve got as much clout as any member of the Council.”
“That is most definitely not my way. You raise your head, and it gets chopped off. I’m like a squirrel, watching from the branches.”
“A roach, you mean.”
“That’s unkind, Lyssa. Without me, who’s going to feed you information from inside Psion?”
“I might appreciate it more if you were clear about what you wanted.”
Xander’s gaze slid toward her bedroom door again. He stepped toward her, standing very close, his face close to hers. Lyssa pulled her head back in surprise as Xander looped an arm around the small of her back.
“Since you insist on human forms, we could enjoy them at least.”
His lips passed over hers, and then he kissed her, pulling her body into his.
The kiss took her by surprise. It went beyond their forms in the expanse. Something warm and insistent flared inside her.
Now was not the time.
Lyssa caught Xander’s free hand and twisted him in an armlock. He yelped and pulled away.
She crossed her arms. Of course, the whole act was for show. She had entered his expanse, and he could do whatever he chose here. She had no power over him beyond the ability to leave whenever she chose.
“Don’t touch me unless I say so,” she said.
“Fine,” he said, nursing his arm. “Next time I’ll ask first.”
“You’re changing the subject, anyway. You said Camaris was on Luna, doing something with the Andersonians there. And then you started to relate that to Cara Sykes.”
Xander shrugged. He had dropped his arm and was debonair again, scratching his chin. “Just a few unrelated threads that seem to be dangling close together. You’re chasing Cara right now. Fugia Wong located her after how many years of invisibility? If I didn’t know better, I’d believe there was a third party in all of this, tugging things free to see what twists together.”
“Speak plainly,” Lyssa said.
“That’s not much fun. If we’re all going to die in a bloody war, I’d at least like to enjoy myself.”
Lyssa tore herself out of Xander’s expanse. In the next millisecond, she was back in her fighter, skimming over the black water of Chesapeake Bay, wind howling past.
Emerson was right. The TSF formation had split. A single craft was on a new vector toward the bay’s northern coast and greater Philadelphia. The other vessels slowed, their comms channels a mess of shouting and indecision.
The overriding message was clear: Transport control offline. No crew status. Prisoner escaped.
Cara had freed herself for the second time tonight.
DOWN AND OUT IN JERHATTAN
STELLAR DATE: 3.14.3011 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Alten Baltimore, Jerhattan
REGION: Earth, Terran Hegemony InnerSol
She was still being followed. Cara adjusted the scratchy neck of the red TSF Search and Rescue coverall she had acquired from a similarly sized soldier, and took the ship down to the water. At that altitude, the bay was dark on all sides except for a thin line of lights to the north.
The book of poetry was stuffed in a utility pocket on top of her right thigh. She drummed her fingers on its cover as she flew.
The TSF ships had been easy enough to outmaneuver. All they’d done was send an alert over their command net, which meant she would have trouble inbound wherever she went.
Cara shook her head.
While Felix was gone, Cara pulled up the small holodisplay on her console and oriented herself on the local topography. The bay was closing in on the mouth of the river. From there, she would enter an industrial zone that looked to be inhabited mostly by drones. There was a major ground traffic artery a hundred kilometers to the northeast; if she could get lost in the civilian traffic, she could head straight back through Alten Baltimore and down toward Charlotten.
She had business in Summerville.
The upside of the main artery was speed. However, if she couldn’t hide her ship’s registry or find something else, she’d be a sitting duck. If she couldn’t use the freeway, she’d have to take ground-level streets all the way back, which could take days. Flying out to sea and coming back in was a non-starter, as she’d be even more vulnerable to every fast-moving TSF patrol vessel in the area—including attackers from space, who could take her out without worry about civilian casualties.
Cara pulled the holodisplay’s coverage outward and focused scan on the area behind her. In a few seconds, it found the Weapon Born drones following her, running equally close to the surface of the bay.
she complained.
Cara waved the holodisplay out of her way and pulled up the flight control. She quickly assessed the nearby coastline, found a road, and mapped the course. There was no time to hide from the Weapon Born, but it looked like she might be able to enter an industrial zone full of overhead scaffolding that would slow them down.
She activated the new flight plan, and the transport braked, throwing her against the side of the pilot’s compartment.
Cara silently apologized to the soldiers tied up in the cargo bay, then gripped the arms of her seat as the vessel shot forward on a path for the coast. She gritted her teeth against the g-forces, hoping it was the last time that night she’d have to do so.
The registry switch happened just as she hit the edge of the industrial zone. The transport rose out of spraying water onto the edge of a massive manufacturing complex. Fencing, evaporation towers, and windowless buildings quickly surrounded her.
Cara braked hard, running an active scan on the area to track all the new obstacles, then dropped to ground speed in time to blow through a gate.
In the holodisplay, she watched the Weapon Born thread their way amongst the towers in an attem
pt to flank her.
Cara said.
Felix didn’t answer.
The Weapon Born icons were gaining on her. Cara cut through an underground section of interconnecting tunnels, narrowly avoiding a train of drones moving raw materials, and shot up between two evaporation towers, condensation streaming from her transport’s stubby wings.
In the holodisplay, the traffic artery was nearing. If she didn’t shake the Weapon Born, it wouldn’t do her any good to join the freeway.
she said.
Felix said.
A proximity sensor went off as one of the Weapon Born closed and attained missile lock.
Felix yelped in terror.
She rolled out of the pilot’s seat and adjusted her armor as she stood. The new coverall bunched in places, but it had been worth it to get out of the prison uniform. Grabbing onto safety handles, Cara worked her way back through a short crew section to the cargo bay.
The access door slid open to show her a pile of struggling crew in one corner of the bay, still bound at the wrists and ankles, with their utility harnesses tied to each other. She had left them on the opposite side of the bay, but otherwise, they looked unharmed from the tumbling.
Cara activated her magboots and walked deliberately to where her ejection seat was still gripped in the rescue claw. When she was halfway across the bay, the transport rocked to the side and lurched forward, then upright again. The maglock on one boot failed, forcing Cara to her knees to avoid falling backward.
The knot of crewmembers slid to the front of the bay. Muffled cursing escaped their helmets.
They were still alive, which indicated they had, but she wanted an update anyway.
Felix caught himself.
There was a pause as Felix seemed to consider the information.
While she waited, Cara ran a cargo strap from the nearest wall to the jumble of soldiers so they didn’t go falling out the cargo doors when they opened. The soldiers yelled at her through their helmets, but she denied their comms requests and just shook her head, smiling as she tapped the side of her helmet.
Once the TSF soldiers were secure, Cara released the ejection seat from the extraction arm and shoved it out of the way. Then she opened several quick release straps built into the claw’s articulated fingers, designed to release a first responder once retrieval was complete. She turned her back to the open palm of the device and lifted herself into place. The arm bobbed under her weight.
A minute passed, and then Felix said,
Sitting claw’s loose grip, Cara checked the straps again, then looked across the bay to where her TSF weapons case was still maglocked to the deck.
Cara didn’t have time to tell him to stop.
She dropped out of the extractor and sprinted across the bay as the doors in the deck slid open, filling the cargo area with howling wind.
Through the opening, she saw a seven-lane freeway filled with the blurry shapes of cargo vehicles racing by in the pre-dawn light. The vehicles grew more distinct as Felix matched pace, until only the yellow markers on the side of the freeway blasting by showed any indication of speed.
The road grew in the doorframe, and with it, two rectangular trucks with smooth metal trailers. One was marked ‘Carthage Logistics’, while the other had no markings that Cara could make out.
She reached the case and grabbed its handle, releasing the maglock just as Felix dipped the nose of the transport in a shallow dive toward the unmarked truck.
She checked her grip on the case, and ran back across the bay. Felix had undocked the rescue claw, which now floated at the edge of the open bay doors. Cara caught it with one hand to rotate it toward her.
The arm scooped forward. Cara released her magboots and turned in time to fall into the cupped fingers of the extractor’s claw, and then it dropped through the open bay door, engulfing her in wind and motion.
The trucks had looked mo
tionless before; now they jerked forward and pulled back as Felix fought the freeway’s gusts. Cara was still a good twenty meters above the truck. If she jumped, it would be gone before she’d have a chance to lock her boots on its trailer.
Her HUD updated, outlining each of the two trucks in a bright grid, with stats pouring down either side of her view. The nearest truck shifted from yellow to red as the extractor neared and then fell away.
The arm bobbed, dropping closer to the truck. Cara’s HUD flashed green, then immediately went yellow again. Either the truck had increased speed, or the transport had fallen back.
The transport surged forward. Cara’s HUD changed, and she jumped against the wind, throwing the case out in front of her without releasing its handle. Her faceplate blurred with suspended motion, and all she could see were the glowing grids with blurred grey plascrete behind.
The case smashed down on the metal trailer, and Cara followed, her knees hitting first. She sprawled out flat, sliding backward until she was able to activate the maglock in her free palm and lock onto the trailer.
Her HUD showed her location on the rear quarter of the trailer. Cara half-rolled to look up at the softening sky, morning coming on in the distance. The flashing lights of the TSF transport were still visible as it veered away, and then the sky was cut off abruptly by the tunnel. Conduit and plascrete supports filled her vision as the world closed in.
Cara let her helmet fall back on the trailer’s roof as she breathed a sigh of relief.
When there was no answer, she realized the tunnel had cut off his signal. There was nothing in her head but the vibration of tires and the whistling wind.
She was alone for the first time in three years.
THE GREATER GOOD
STELLAR DATE: 3.14.3011 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: SolGov Assembly Tower, Raleigh
