Waiting (15 page)

'Wait a
moment.' Bridget opened a pocket on her utility belt and pulled out
a sachet, passing it to Salamandra. 'This should help with the
pain.'

Salamandra
swallowed the sticky brown liquid. 'Thanks.'

They marched
on, the midday sun beating down on their backs.

'You are a
cultured and educated man, I'm thinking,' said Bridget.

'And that
surprises you?'

'I suppose I
shouldn't believe our own propaganda. How come you are second in
command in the Union?'

Salamandra
said, 'Fate and circumstance. Would you believe I'm a qualified
surgeon?'

'You are? What
a waste. I suppose that's the real victim of this war. Talent. We
could all be doing much more worthwhile things than trying to kill
each other.'

'You sound
disillusioned. Does that mean you no longer wish to kill me?'

Bridget
laughed. 'Not for the last few hours. I just want this nonsense to
end before it's too late. We were working well together before it
all kicked off again.'

'You mean the
mission. All races have a vested interest in the mission.'

'Yes. Actually,
I want to ask you...'

Salamandra
said, 'It'll have to wait. Quick. Over here.'

Bridget
followed Salamandra's gaze and could see the black ship on the
horizon. From the cover of the dune, Bridget said, 'Their heat
sensors will pick us up. We need the missiles on the stingers.'

They ran as
fast as their legs could carry them, the arid air burning their
throats. Three miles later, they were ready to drop, but they
pushed themselves with legs of lead. Two hundred yards from the
stingers, they had been seen and a hail of laser cannon fire zapped
the ground around them. On they ran, both doing a diving roll to
the stingers, throwing the scrub aside. Bridget pulled the stinger
around. Only the power-pack lights still flashing although the fuel
was spent.

'A good job
they're lousy shots,' said Salamandra.

'You think?
They missed us because I'm named Loretti. My mother wants me to
live.'

Salamandra
said, 'Compassion?'

'No. She wants
to torture me as an example. We have to take her down.'

A laser blast
tore up the sand just feet away from them. Bridget was the first to
fire her missiles, the heat-seeker tracing a trail of white smoke
as it streaked through the air. It was right on target but Sparrow
blew it away with her cannon. Salamandra let two missiles go
simultaneously, and before they got halfway, the laser caught it.
The second missile got through and smashed into the side of the
Spider, but the battle cruiser stayed in the air. With smoke
pouring from the now unstable ship, Bridget let a missile go and
although the Spider's lasers missed it narrowly, it found its mark.
The ship spun around and was heading back to headquarters, then it
dropped like a stone and crashed into the desert.

Chapter 44

'Well!'

'Well?'

'Well.' Cormack
smiled as she dressed in a flowing brightly patterned gown that
flattered her feminine charms. 'Such enthusiastic love making for
a...'

'An old fart
like me?'

'I was going to
say for a man who is a little rusty. You've been asleep for the
last couple of hours. I went to my room for a change of clothes.
Like it?'

'I love it. You
are a very lovely woman.'

Cormack smiled
and said, 'I'm glad you finally noticed. You realise some people
were betting on us getting together?'

Jacobs got out
of bed, shyly picking up his underwear to cover up with and then he
recalled what they had been doing. 'None of their damn
business.'

'Agreed. But
it's just harmless ship's banter. At least we can now relax and see
where this takes us. I hope that's what you want, too?'

Jacobs held
Cormack in his arms and kissed her. 'I've been alone far too long.
Time to start living and loving again.'

'That goes for
me as well.'

'I'll just take
a shower. Please stay?'

Cormack said,
'I'll be right here.'

Jacobs entered
the dry shower and the florescent light from the sanitizer cleaned
every pore of his body. 'Call me old fashioned but I do miss good
old soap and water. But it's the only way to preserve every
precious drop of water.'

'Something else
we have in common. I suppose it's business as usual now. Figuring
out what we do next.'

With his robe
on, Jacobs sat on the bed. 'When Anne Lee has crunched the numbers
about her samples off the surface, I'll see what she has to say. My
biggest concern is the volcano. Hopefully that's it for a couple of
hundred years. Unfortunately there is no way to predict such
events. The terraformers have to have a fighting chance.'

'My father had
a saying. Don't sweat the small stuff. He meant...'

'Don't worry
over things we have no control over.'

Cormack nodded
and said, 'Something like that. Assuming the volcano remains
dormant now, the atmosphere should be clean and oxygen rich in
what? One year?'

'About that.
Rivers and oceans will be stabilising, and from outside orbit we
can fire the fish-cans.'

Cormack
laughed. 'That makes me laugh when I hear them called that.
Sophisticated missiles we can target rivers and oceans with, then
they release thousands of fish larvae to fill them with.'

'And plant life
to provide nutrients for them. With no predators, most of the fish
should survive and be on their way to providing a sustainable food
supply for us by the time we arrive. Other plants, birds and
animals will be released and farmed once we get there.'

Cormack said,
'The way the war was decimating what was left of nature, I expect
we have saved all sorts of creatures from extinction. Including
ourselves.'

'I intend to
ensure we remember why we had to come to Spero in the first place.
We must never make the same mistakes again.'

'I wish I could
believe we could finally mature enough to take care of our new
home. History has a way of repeating itself.'

Jacobs scowled.
'That was Earth history. On Spero we write our own.'

'Hey, calm
down. We'll get it right this time. I promise.'

Cormack
couldn't be certain, but there was an expression on Jacobs face she
hadn't seen before. A strange intensity in his eyes. But it was
fleeting then it was gone as he smiled again.

Chapter 45

'What the hell
are you doing?' Bridget demanded.

Salamandra was
about to send more missiles at the smouldering crashed ship.
'Finishing the job.'

Bridget hit him
hard in the chest which had him falling on his backside. 'My
mother's probably on that ship.'

'Even more
reason then.'

'She's your
enemy, not mine.'

Salamandra got
up and dusted himself down. 'Are you sure about that? She's hardly
been a loving mother to you.'

'You know
nothing about me or my mother.'

'Hey. Where are
you going? The Base is that way.'

Bridget yelled,
'And my mother is this way.'

Salamandra
cursed and hurried after Bridget. 'Leave them. They tried to kill
us.'

'Our shooters
are better than that. If they wanted to kill us, we would be dead.
I already told you that.'

It took almost
an hour to reach the fallen ship and the desert sun made the
journey even more exhausting. The ship was no longer smouldering,
the danger of exploding had passed. The airlock ramp was partially
opened, just enough for them to wriggle through.

'Mother?
Mother. Can you hear me, mother? Salamandra. Will you put that damn
laser away.'

Salamandra's
eyes were everywhere. 'If they shoot at me, I want to shoot them
back.'

'If you don't
put that laser away this minute, I swear I'll shove it where the
sun don't shine. Better.'

Spider One was
significantly larger than the ones Bridget had ever been on. The
laser and the crash had severely damaged the structure and the
electrical circuits had blown in many places. Bridget and
Salamandra jumped back as they heard a shuffling sound heading
their way. Salamandra reached for his laser again but the scowl
Bridget gave him had him changing his mind. The door into the ship
was battered by something heavy, then the actuators crackled and
the door opened halfway before an explosion wrecked it completely.
A man stood there, swaying slightly. He had a laser in his hand,
but it was pointing at the floor. He stared at Bridget, dropped the
weapon and fell face first into the hold at Bridget's feet.

'Clarkson,'
said Bridget. 'A shooter I flew with a couple of times. Oh, my
God.' Clarkson's back had a hole the size of a fist in it; his
internal organs fried. 'His turret seat must have exploded. Most of
the the controls for the cannon turrets are routed through the
seats. Mother?'

Bridget called
but got no reply. As they went through the door, they found Captain
Sparrow, dead, collapsed over her controls. On the floor next to
her, lay General Loretti.

'Trish?'

For a moment it
looked as if Loretti was dead, but her eyes flickered open and she
stared at Bridget. 'I've...I've had it.' There was a deeply
haunting look about her face and she began to slip away.

'Trish. Not
now. Not like this.'

'Move out of my
way,' said Salamandra.

Loretti's
intense hatred for Salamandra and his people made her react even in
her weakened state. 'Don't let him near me.'

Salamandra
said, 'If you know anything about me, you'll know I'm a
surgeon.'

'I would rather
die.'

Salamandra
shrugged. 'Ok.'

Loretti cried
out in pain and her eyes rolled up in her head.

'You damn well
help her,' demanded Bridget.

Salamandra
hesitated, and locked horns with Bridget. It could have gone either
way, but Salamandra decided to give in. He had just bent down and
started to examine Loretti, when a laser shot missed his head by a
whisker. Bridget had seen Naylor coming at them and she fired her
laser at him. In one carefully aimed shot she had burnt a neat hole
through his brain. He swayed, dead on his feet, then dropped like a
stone.

'Damn you,
Bridget, I so wish I'd done that,' snarled Salamandra.

'Never mind
Naylor. Can you save my mother?'

There came a
rumbling sound and the wrecked ship began to shake.

'It's going to
blow,' said Salamandra. He gathered up Loretti in his arms and
struggled back through the hold of the ship. Bridget was right
behind him he yelled. 'Grab the fuel for the stingers.'

Bridget
snatched two containers and followed Salamandra outside. They ran
as fast as they could and had made fifty yards when the Spider
class battle cruiser blew up and the blast bowled them over.

Chapter 46

'On reflection,
it could be worse.'

The reflection
was the one Jacobs was staring at in his three dimensional mirror.
It wasn't something he did too often, never thinking much of the
face looking back at him. But now he had a woman in his life at
long last, he decided he should take his appearance more seriously.
Two people on the ship had set up a lucrative sideline to their
ship's duties in hair cutting and nail grooming. He decided he was
long overdue a trim and for Belle to do the job. She was a short,
dumpling of a woman with a naturally jolly disposition.

Belle looked
over Jacobs' head into the mirror. 'What on Earth do you mean?
You're a very...distinguished looking man.'

Jacobs sighed
as the scissors skilfully snipped away at his white hair. 'That's
just you being polite, Belle.'

'Tut tut. You
should learn to take compliments. Especially from a woman.' Belle
clamped her pudgy hands either side of his head, forcing him to
look at his reflection. 'A fine nose. A little on the large side,
maybe. Eyebrows a little bushy, but I can sort that out. And a very
strong jawline. Women appreciate a man with a firm jawline. I bet
Doctor Cormack does.'

Jacobs said, 'I
wouldn't know. We don't waste time talking about my jawline.'

Belle did have
the dirtiest of chuckles. She could read a laundry list and make it
sound erotic.

'Much better
things to do than talking, hey? Can't say I blame you. Damn all
else worth doing for recreation on this ship.'

'I'm here for a
trim, not talk about...'

'Your love
life? Honestly. You would be amazed what I hear in here. I
sometimes think I'm more a cross between a priest doing confessions
or a councillor dishing out advice.'

Jacobs said, 'I
assure you, I will not discuss such things with you.'

Belle said,
'The mark of a true gentleman. This part thinning on the top. Leave
it long or trim it shorter? Personally, I do hate men trying to
comb over bald spots. I always think a man can look quite sexy with
a bald spot. I'll just even it up with the sides, right?'

'I'm entirely
in your hands.'

Another dirty
chuckle. 'Better not let Doctor Cormack hear you say that. But I
always say, what happens in the hairdressers stays in the
hairdressers. Just this at the back to see to and...Ooh!'

'Cut
yourself?'

'No. But I
didn't notice this before. Two little marks just under your
hairline at the back. Did you have an accident or something?'

Jacobs rubbed
the back of his head with his fingertips. He could feel two small
raised puncture marks. 'Strange. I don't remember these
before.'

'I shouldn't
worry about it. I'll leave your hair just long enough to cover them
up. There. Nobody will ever know.'

Jacobs allowed
Belle to brush away the hair off his shoulders. 'Maybe I did it
when I was a kid and forgot about it.'