Alien Chronicles 3 - The Crystal Eye (9 page)

Startled, Ampris whipped her head around, trying to see who was out there. Another shot originating from the garden took down a second patroller. They milled around, activating body armor and aiming their weapons. A barrage of return fire blazed red along the garden wall.

Still concealed beneath the shuttle ramp, Ampris could see small chunks of stone flying into the air.

“It’s the family!” a patroller officer shouted from where he had taken cover near some farm machinery. “They have turned traitor. All weapons on the house.”

Another barrage broke out. Windows in the sprawling house burst, and flames caught in the draperies. Orange light from the fires filled the darkness, and Ampris could hear shrill screams from inside the structure.

She looked around frantically, knowing she couldn’t stay pinned here under the ramp forever.

She didn’t want to head for the barns. They were under security net, and the wall stood at its highest behind them. But she couldn’t go toward the house and gardens. And the main group of patrollers was between her and the gate.

Picking her moment, she crawled out from beneath the ramp and hobbled toward the shadowy corner of the slave quarters. Pain stabbed through her crippled leg with every step, and she was gasping and whimpering by the time she reached cover.

She sank down into the shadows, not sure she could keep going.

A hand gripped her arm, and she jumped with a roar of alarm that was cut off as another hand clamped itself around her muzzle. Her heart was thudding inside her chest, but already she smelled a scent she knew as well as her own.

“Goldie?” a familiar voice whispered to her. “It’s me.

The hand came off her muzzle. She sighed in relief, trying to get her breath back.

“Elrabin,” she whispered. “I nearly took your head off.”

“Yeah, I know it,” he said while the firing continued. “We got to get out of this, and fast. They ain’t going to keep shooting up the house forever.”

Ampris grinned in the dark. “You fired the shots from the garden.”

“Hey, I be getting a better shot all the time,” Elrabin said proudly. “So where’s the back gate?”

“Behind the house.”

He swore. “That’s all?”

The firing abruptly stopped, and a ringing silence followed it.

Ampris and Elrabin clutched each other, both of them frozen while the patrollers ventured cautiously from cover and headed for the burning house.

“Out of time,” Elrabin said against her ear.

She nodded and pointed at the shuttle.

“No way,” he whispered. “You going to—”

A movement behind him made Ampris jump. She started toward it, but Elrabin blocked her with a swift grab at her arm.

“Paket,” he whispered.

She sagged against him, wiping the fur around her eyes. “Who else?” she asked, then felt a sudden stab of alarm that Foloth or Nashmarl might be here too.

“Just us, see? Tantha wanted to come. I told her we couldn’t play no midwife in the middle of a rescue.”

She grinned, but they were losing their opportunity. She tapped him on the shoulder, then Paket, and pointed at the shuttle.

“You serious?” Elrabin asked her. “Who be flying that?”

Ampris pointed at him.

He started to yelp in protest, then cut off the sound. She could hear him making a faint, strangled noise. He shook his head. Exasperated, she pointed at herself, then yanked him onto his feet by the front of his coat.

“Let’s go. Paket, stay close.”

“We ain’t going to make this,” Elrabin said, but Ampris was already moving at a half-run, limping badly.

In a moment Elrabin was beside her, gripping her arm and using his strength to partially support her. She threw him a grin of gratitude, and glanced over her shoulder at old Paket, who was gamely shuffling behind them.

They reached the ramp and were climbing it when a shout rang out.

Elrabin raised the side-arm, but one of the patrollers fired first. Paket grunted and fell against Elrabin, nearly knocking him off the ramp.

He juggled the weapon in an effort to catch the old Kelth, and Ampris grabbed the side-arm from his hand and fired over his and Paket’s heads.

A patroller screamed and went down.

She fired again, and gave Elrabin a shove. “Get him inside. Now!” she ordered.

Elrabin dragged Paket bodily into the shuttle, and Ampris followed.

Return fire caught her in the arm, spinning her off balance. She staggered into the shuttle and hit the closure control.

The ramp lifted with a whir of gears, and one more shot made it inside the shuttle, the slug of hot plasma nocking one of the struts while the slaves ducked and yelled in fear.

Ampris knelt beside Elrabin, who was cradling Paket on the floor. The old Kelth’s eyes were closed and sunken. His breathing was labored and raspy. Grief filled her. She gripped Paket’s shoulder. “Not you, my old friend.”

Elrabin shouldered her back and bent over Paket. “He’s okay,” he said roughly. “Just knocked out. see?”

“Is that all?” Ampris tried to peer over Elrabin’s shoulder. “But he’s been hit.”

“He’s fine. Just do whatever you got in mind, and do it fast.”

Blows sounded on the hull, making her start. She rose to her feet, ignoring the frightened cries of the slaves around her, and climbed up the ladder into the cockpit.

Fitting herself into the cramped space, she glanced around swiftly. The array of controls bewildered her. She had no piloting skills. What was she doing here? What did she think she could do, fly this shuttle out of the compound and somehow elude pursuit? She must be insane.

All she’d done was gain them a temporary respite, and that would last only as long as it took the patrollers to force open the hatch.

Fiery pain spread through her arm. Growing aware of it for the first time, she winced and peered at her wound. Just a graze, but it hurt.

More thuds rocked the exterior of the shuttle.

“Goldie?” Elrabin’s voice rose shrilly from below. “They’re coming in!”

Jolted, Ampris threw off her inertia, and her mind cleared again. Even if she didn’t know how to fly, she could at least move this shuttle out of the compound. That was all she wanted to accomplish.

She looked around the cockpit again, trying to summon up old memories plus anything she’d observed in years past while watching vids. When she was a cub, living in the imperial palace as the pet of the young sri-Kaa Israi, Ampris had often flown when her mistress was taken on trips. Usually the pilot would treat the sri-Kaa to a visit to his cockpit, and Ampris was allowed to look at the controls too. Israi loved to fly and always begged to take the controls.

Ampris closed her eyes, ignoring the thuds now steadily rocking the shuttle, and tried to summon up that long-ago lesson. Although she was not wearing her Eye of Clarity, she pretended that it hung around her neck. She curled her fist on her chest where the pendant normally rested and forced herself to concentrate.

Slowly her mind cleared and reached back, back into her cubhood. As though she were watching a vid, she visualized the pilot’s green, pebble-skinned hands. He touched the three main levers directly in front of the pilot’s seat and said that they were the primary flying controls. Forward and to the right was the engine startup array. To the left were fuel and pressurization gauges, plus other safety features.

Ampris opened her eyes and drew a deep breath as though surfacing from a pool of water. Suddenly she grew aware of shouting and screams from below, punctuated by the shriek of tortured metal.

“They’re cutting us open!” Elrabin was shouting.

Without more delay, Ampris hit the engine buttons in rapid succession, not in any particular order.

The engines fired, sputtered, and caught. They roared much too powerfully, making the parked shuttle buck.

From below, Elrabin cheered, and Ampris grinned nervously to herself. She experimented, almost killed the engines, then managed to boost power enough to lift the shuttle.

Something whined ominously, and a red light flashed on. She figured out that the park setting must still be on, but she didn’t know how to turn it off.

She managed to slew the shuttle sideways, and heard muffled commotion and some bumps outside. Again she grinned to herself, hoping she’d just flattened some patrollers.

The screens weren’t on. She was moving blind except for what she could see through the front port.

She turned the shuttle around until she could see the compound gates, then she gunned the engines and sent the shuttle in that direction. The craft was flying no more than a meter above ground, and it remained tilted to one side, but at least they were going in the right direction.

In frustration she tried to figure out how to get out of park. She pushed some controls at random. The interior lights flashed off. Swiftly she turned them back on. The steering lever was sensitive, and she inadvertently tilted the shuttle sideways just as it went through the gate. The shuttle slammed against the wall, nearly rolled, and lurched in the opposite direction.

Sweating, her heart hammering hard against her ribs, Ampris backed her ears and hung on. At least they were now outside the compound. If she could only pick up some speed, they might have a chance.

Through the port, she could see another parked shuttle ahead of her. She steered clumsily to the side of it, and saw its exterior lights flash in patterns as it lifted off the ground. It swung around and came after her.

Ampris’s heart sank. She glared at her controls, cursing them. Then her old arena training came back to her. She reminded herself that panic led to mistakes and missed opportunities. She had to calm herself, had to trust herself. She could figure out this puzzle if she gave herself a chance.

Steering around another parked shuttle, she looked at the controls again and tried to utilize logic. This time she noticed a tiny button on the side of her steering lever. She pushed it, and the shuttle suddenly lurched upward as though catapulted.

Startled, Ampris grabbed the levers too hard, and the shuttle dived, nearly crashing into the ground before she pulled it up. She got it leveled, and blinked sweat from her eyes, sitting tense in her seat with her hands frozen on the controls. After a few rigid seconds, she began to slowly relax.

She was flying, actually flying a shuttle. Triumph soared inside her, and she let herself grin.

Then something rocked them from behind, throwing her sideways again. The shuttle squalled in protest, and Ampris could hear the engines straining. She pushed something, and the engine thrust decreased slightly. Instantly the shuttle leveled off on its own, and Ampris realized she’d been accelerating too hard.

Again they were rocked from behind. She could only see in front of her. but she suspected the other shuttle was on their tail, trying to bring them down.

Grimly Ampris steered her craft toward the hills, raking over a treetop before she saw it in time. She needed to be able to see better where she was going, but she didn’t dare take both hands off the controls in order to try and switch on the screens.

Static crackled over a speaker, startling her so that she sent the shuttle skidding to one side again.

“Shuttle four-one,” came a Viis voice, “land your craft immediately. You have one warning. Failure to comply will result in destruction.”

Ampris didn’t answer. She didn’t figure she was expected to. Besides, she was too busy looking at her controls. She had a plan now.

“Elrabin!” she called. “Hey!”

“Hey, what?” he replied.

“I’m going to put us in a canyon. It’ll be a rough landing.”

“No fooling?” he called up caustically. “The way you drive? I’d never guess.”

She grinned, and peered through her port. In the darkness it was hard to be sure where she was, but if she strained her eyes enough she could just make out a darker ribbon of shadow on the approaching hillside which she figured indicated trees and a canyon.

“Get ready,” she said. “You got their restraints off yet?”

“Oh, sure. I been picking locks like a—”

Something exploded around them. The shuttle seemed to stop abruptly in midair, then plummeted.

Ampris tried moving her steering control, but it no longer worked. Nothing she attempted stopped their fall. Fear swelled in her throat, but she refused to give up. She knew they had only seconds now.

From the port she could see bright orange tongues of flames licking the sides of the shuttle. Ampris stared for what seemed like an eternity, then she saw the rush of ground coming at her.

“Elrabin!” she screamed. “Brace for impact! When we hit, open the hatch. Everyone is to get out and scatter.”

“You crazy!” he yelled back. “We’re crashing and you want us to—”

She stopped listening. She had just spotted a lever across the narrow cockpit marked EMERGENCY in Viis symbols. Releasing her useless controls, Ampris threw herself bodily across the space and pulled it hard.

The falling shuttle jerked violently, as though it had been caught by the hand of a giant. They spun crazily, slamming Ampris against the wall, but their plummet to the ground had slowed.

Dazed, she righted herself as best she could while the shuttle spun one way and then another. The nose thudded into the ground with a jolt that snapped her teeth together, then the body of the shuttle settled down on its side.

She took only a moment to comprehend that they were on the ground and intact. Praying they hadn’t landed on the side where the hatch was, she pulled herself over the canted seat toward the ladder.

“Elrabin!” she called. “You okay?”

No answer. From the hold she could hear moaning and weeping. She looked sideways down the ladder and saw a tangled mess of bodies. Most were moving. People were trying to sit up. She looked for Elrabin and Paket, but saw neither of them.

Fear made her cold. “Elrabin!” she called again, more sharply this time.

Nothing.

She scrambled down the ladder as best she could and dropped into the hold. To her relief, the hatch was now overhead. She pushed her way through the others, stepping over those still on the floor, and jumped until she managed to hit the hatch release over her.