Battleground (52 page)

She thought—jerking the acceleration lever, clipping a corner, clipping a Soldier who did not dodge quickly enough—that she ought to have anticipated how fast
he
might move. Kwoort had gotten reports on where she was headed with his “guests” and had rushed out, apparently, just as she arrived at Mating Complex Four with the not-Soldiers. She wondered if she would chase him, and he chase her, around and around in circles.

Except he was chasing the not-Soldiers instead of Kakrekt.

She had been outside when he ordered the two aircraft destroyed; she had seen them explode (along with some nearby Soldiers) and gone to him at once.

“Why did you do that—?”

“They will kill the facilitators!”
He had ranted some more, but Kakrekt had not stayed to listen. He might be closer to the end-change than she had thought, he saw enemies everywhere, and she was afraid for the lives of the guests. Kwoort's wild accusation was already in her thoughts when she saw that Kwek was ready to mate, so she thought at once: where better to hide the not-Soldiers than a breeding ground?

She had to keep them safe. If the not-Soldiers on the spacecraft had not been hostile before, they would certainly be hostile if those two were killed, and even if they did not retaliate they would go away, they would never assist her in mastering Rowtt, never share their knowledge—and now she had to intercept Kwoort and keep matters from getting worse.

•   •   •

They could run. The strength might be artificial, but Hanna exulted in it. Pain did not slow Gabri
el, and they flew though the maze as fast as Talley Hong could direct them. The population of facilitators dwindled; when Hanna said so Metra interrupted with
Bring specimens,
and Hanna and Gabriel glanced at each other without slowing.
Pockets. Teeth.
“Did you hear that?” he panted, and she said, “Hear what?” At the end of it all a final arch led into the corridor
Endeavor
had mapped. It led up almost immediately to the highest level of the underground maze, and from there cut away from the city, part of a complex web. Some routes connected Wektt's major city with other population centers, Talley Hong said. Some were blocked with substantial barriers and assumed abandoned, but this one—with many intersections and complex branches; he cautioned them to follow his directions precisely—appeared to be open all the way to a dead end under the plateau. That was how Kwoort and Kakrekt had gotten to the desert meeting place, Hanna thought, through a tunnel like this one. The floor was the same concrete used throughout Wektt, old and thick with dust, cracked but intact, inviting speed. The air was close and felt unmoving, but it had to come from somewhere. And there were indeed shafts ahead, said Talley Hong; some appeared to be blocked, but others, farther off, were open to the surface.

We're finally getting some breaks,
Hanna thought.

Yes!
said Bella, and Hanna laughed out loud, breathing easily as she ran. The way was unlit but the communicator's light-source function was enough. And she could feel Bella's personality as vividly as if they stood side by side; this time the stimulant had proved safe.

We're out of here!
she thought.

Arch said,
I know how we can celebrate . . .
Teasing.

After this place?—I'll never want to have sex again!

She was giddy with freedom, and free of Kakrekt's plot to kill Kwoort, too. If Hanna hadn't been there Kakrekt would have sent someone to That Place anyway; she had only sent Hanna because the pod was the fastest transport on Battleground. Hanna wasn't responsible for what happened next: no gnawing conscience, no conflict, no guilt.

Finally confident, finally free, she reached for Kakrekt. Checking. And stumbled.

Kakrekt was coming after them and thought Kwoort was too; she touched Kwoort also, and had just time to register fury and despair before everything went black.

She was absurdly flying, arms flailing; something came up and hit her so hard it shook her bones.

For a second or two she did not know where she was. Then she looked up from the ground in bewilderment, slowly understanding what had happened. She had come to a dead stop and Gabriel had crashed into her so that they had both gone sprawling. The tunnel was no darker than before; the black void was in her mind. She could no longer feel Bella's presence or anyone else's. She could see Gabriel with her eyes, see the look of surprise on his face through a veil of dust disturbed and settling, but she could not feel it. The curtain had descended not gradually this time but all at once.

Hanna picked herself up slowly. She made futile motions at brushing dust away. She was trembling.

“What—?” said Gabriel, getting up too, not finishing the question, as if he expected her to know what he meant to say. But she could only guess from context, like a true-human.

“Lost my footing—”

He didn't know. She hadn't told anyone except the telepaths exactly what the stimulant had done to her before, as if it were a shameful weakness.

“Hanna? We have to get moving. Come on.”

She said, “Kwoort and Kakrekt are after us. They're not together.”

She heard Metra say, “Where are they? Do they know where you are?”

Even Metra, perhaps without knowing it, had come to value telepathy.

Hanna said—no choice now—“I don't know. Listen, listen, this is important.” Her voice was unsteady again. “We had some stimulant from the pod, we used it. It knocks out telepathy. Ask Bella, she knows. That's all I found out. I can't see any more, I can't tell anything else about them. I can't know anything that's not in front of my face.”

The shakes were still there, and violent. She couldn't run yet. She wasn't sure she could walk.

Faintly she heard Metra ask questions, Bella answering. Metra understood quickly.

“You're perceptible on sensors now you're out of a crowd,” Metra said. “Anybody after you will be too. Keep going. We'll keep watch.”

Hanna could not stop shaking. They started to move again, but she could not run. Neither could Gabriel, as if the shock of falling had thrown a switch. The stimulant had too little to work with and energy was already flagging; their muscles, lately so little used, were worn out too, weak and aching.
Endeavor
's medics joined the conversation, worried about hallucinations: Hanna had had them when she used the stimulant before, hadn't she, and was there any evidence of them now? Explaining that she had lied would take more energy than she could summon, and she just said, “Not yet.” She even thought of taking more, but Metra relayed urgent warnings from the medics to both of them:
No more. In your condition it could kill you.

The fear she had thrust away when Gabriel's safety was at stake flooded her now.
If it doesn't come back. If it never comes back.
She kept moving, but her brain felt paralyzed.
Crippled, crippled forever. Blind and deaf on D'neera. Blind and deaf everywhere forever.
There were voices from the communicator but they did not penetrate, as if they came from a long way off, echoing on the edge of hearing in the shadows of the endless tunnel. She didn't answer. After a while Gabriel stopped her and took the com unit from her wrist, clumsily, because he could only use one hand. She didn't object, but it roused her enough to help him.

The voices kept sounding while they moved ahead, which felt like crawling through liquid mud.

She heard Bella say, “All right, I can think to Gabriel and I can read what he thinks. That'll have to do. H'ana's a blur, not even as clear as true-humans. She doesn't hear me when I think to her, I don't know why, even true-humans do.”

Forever.

Hong: “—off to the side, fifty meters ahead. Looks like there was a shaft there but it's filled in. Don't go that way, keep straight.”

“Be easier digging there, wouldn't it?” Gabriel said.

Metra answered. “We don't want to attract attention. The optimum's getting you out without being noticed. Get as far out as you can.”

“We can't go much farther.”

“Do the best you can. If anyone's after you there's no sign of it yet. If you can make it another three Ks, there's a shaft we know is open.”

Hanna had lost the thread of conversation.

I don't want to live like this, I can't. . . .

Her feet went on without her noticing.

•   •   •

Soldiers told Kakrekt Kwoort's route. They had
no reason not to. He had given no order for silence and Kakrekt was High Commander. Word that she was looking for the Holy Man sped ahead of her, Soldier to Soldier, and replies sped back to her ear.
He rides a one-Soldier conveyance
—two wheels, that meant, fast and maneuverable.

What of his robes?
—Kakrekt hoped for robes catching in wheels, the machine spinning out of control, the Holy Man flying headfirst into something ungiving.

He wears the uniform
—so she had to give up the gratifying vision.

As she neared the breeding ground, at the edge of a power complex, she pulled up to question an informant who had news. Kwoort had seized a Warrior to accompany him.

What for?

He said he wants Woke to make records—

Records?

The up-ramps slowed her and made her furious.

She had often seen Kwoort writing, writing, when he was not looking at maps; she never knew what he wrote. At least a rider would slow him down, and she thought of Woke Warrior clinging to the Holy Man with one hand, frantically scribbling with the other, and her ears unfurled and flapped. But he had stopped again, a Soldier's voice said in her ear; he had taken another Soldier's weapon, complaining that Woke was unarmed.

At the thought of what he might do with it she tried to get more speed out of her own machine, but it had no more to give.

•   •   •

A long time had passed.

“Down to one K,” Metra said.

“We can make it,” Gabriel said. He glanced at Hanna and was not so sure. She looked in the dimness like a walking skeleton; like a ghost.

•   •   •

The not-Soldiers are not in the breeding ground, I searched it, I went myself. Have you seen not-Soldiers, I shouted, I roared. Who sees anything while they mate? To my amazement some had seen. A Warrior sat up and said she knew the not-Soldiers, they took back from her a communications device they had given her I do not know when, I would have her executed but she will soon be quick with young so I will not. Then I found a couple rising to retire to a crèche who said they had seen two strangely shaped Soldiers pass through who talked to such a device, so the not-Soldiers are talking to their Commander despite all my precautions against it. I write this so that if I cease to survive all will know what they have done. Sent machines to destroy us. Sent machines against the facilitators, my High Commander herself sent the not-Soldiers into the warren against them! They have crushed facilitators under their feet, I have seen the remains! I will not allow it! When I get them back they must be torn apart!

I think I know where they have gone. If they have not been seen in the city then the only way out goes through the deserted places

•   •   •

Gabriel was on Hanna's right, his undamaged hand clamped firmly on her wrist. He took every turn specified by Talley Hong, but other corridors and downward ramps meandered off everywhere, and he began to wonder what they led to.

Hanna did not seem to notice. She appeared to have shrunk.

After what seemed a very long while he said suddenly, “Wait a minute.”

Hanna stopped obediently, but Metra's voice said, “I wouldn't advise it. Someone behind you now and closing. A single vehicle, maybe one individual aboard, maybe two. Interception in ten minutes at current rate of speed.”

Gabriel had felt a puff of cold air against his cheek. He let go o
f Hanna and licked a finger and lifted it into the dark.

“How far away did you say that shaft is?”

“Less than a K. You're not going to make it before the pursuit gets to you. Keep going, though. We'll send servos in ahead of you.”

Gabriel started walking, but he had—maybe, if they were lucky—a closer goal in mind. Hanna lagged behind, and after a minute he stopped and waited for her. When she got to him she stopped too, but she didn't look at him. She was an automaton, her mind shut down or somewhere else.

He touched her face and said her name. She finally looked up. Her eyes were dull. She whispered something, but it was unintelligible.

“I don't know what it's like for you,” he said. “I can't know. But you have to come out of it.”

He sounded different even to himself, as if something drained from Hanna had passed to him. The blurred outlines of the cavern seemed to sharpen. He recognized that though Hanna might be helpless, he was not. He leaned forward and pushed both translator mouthpieces aside and softly kissed her mouth. When he pulled away and looked at her again there was a little more life in her eyes.

“Stop it,” he said. His voice was loving. “When we get out of here you can spend all the time you want feeling sorry for yourself. If you even need to. The blackout didn't last before; why should it this time? But now you have to stop. That's for later. I need you now.”

A spark for sure.

He kissed her again, long and hard. This time there was a response. Just a little at first, but then it was stronger, and then it stopped his breath. Ludicrous they must look, two bags of bones, skulls kissing, but there was life and heat here. And no one to say
ludicrous.

“Get moving,” Metra said from orbit.

They started walking again as fast as they could. Hanna had not said a word, but her footfalls were quicker, and firm.