Fallen Star (45 page)

Fallon grinned. “I lived most of my life on an industrial station. Pipes are not going to be a problem.”

“Good.” Alice sighed. “Okay, all you have to do is follow the Cheshire cat. If you have a question, a smile is yes, and a frown is no.”

Fallon’s brows lifted. “A smile?”

The purple feline’s mouth lifted into a huge, toothy, crescent grin. Abruptly the cat’s mouth dropped into an equally huge frown.

Fallon blinked. There was no possible way that he could have teeth in such an array of directions ... “Oh ... okay.” Definitely a cartoon figure.

The lift doors opened onto darkness.

“Okay, Fallen Star, on your way! I’m going to try to reach Peter!”

Fallon looked directly at the Cheshire cat. “Thank you, Alice.”

The Cheshire cat stood up on his teeny purple back paws, set a paw on his chest, and bowed with a waggle of his oversized round head that made his ears flop and his tongue loll.

“Thank
you
, Fallen Star.”

Fallon smiled. “You can call me Isabeau; my name is Isabeau Fallon.”

“Isabeau, how pretty! Now scoot! You’ve held up this lift long enough. The repair crews are going nuts down there.”

The purple cat got up on his teeny back legs and proceeded to skip with rather high bounces into the dark, glowing like a neon purple sign.

* * * * *

The pipe was big enough to walk upright in, though Sobehk would have had a hard time of it. It was also dark. Fallon’s night-vision augmentations outlined everything in bright green. Everything ... except the purple cat. Her spectral coding was reading the cat, not her eyesight, so eye-popping purple he remained.

The Cheshire cat skipped over to the far right wall, jumped up, and shoved himself into a pipe opening that he should
not
have been able to fit into. He squished, rather like the balloon he strongly resembled, and stuffed himself in. He eased deeper, his striped tail flicking behind him.

Fallon grabbed the lip of the pipe and stuck her head in. The purple glow was dead ahead. She eased her body into the pipe then pulled herself forward, elbow over elbow.

She had followed the impossible purple cat through a number of dark, dusty hallways, fairly often relying on her night vision. There had been a bunch of ladders, more than a few unused and barely working lifts, and then the pipes, some big enough to walk in and some she had to crawl through. Unlike those back on Dyson’s, none of the pipes had held water or other nasty liquids. They were dusty and not anything close to clean, but they appeared to have never been actually used.

Khan was going to explode when he saw the condition her leather suit had gotten into. She smiled. The thought was warming.

The Cheshire cat popped out of the far end of the narrow pipe with a hollow
fump
, very much like a balloon coming out of a tube.

Fallon eased her head out of the pipe. The steel plate floor was less than a foot below her. She looked up and blinked in astonishment. She was looking at the back end of a dull gray small cruiser. The Cheshire cat had brought her to a ship dock. Her eyes narrowed. If they had Khan on a ship, they were seriously stupid.

She stared at the flat black and ratty-looking Moribund Company courier craft and curled her lip. They were stupid.

Wrapped in a skin of sensor invisibility generated by her active spectral coding, she walked right through the blocky cruiser’s alarm grid. Carefully, she crept around to the emergency access under the belly of the low-slung ship. The ship’s sensors couldn’t see her, but ordinary eyes saw her just fine.

She inserted a piece of wire “borrowed” from the lift control into the wound on her wrist from talking to the station master and winced. She jammed the other end into the card-key panel. The wire cold-accessed her augmentation and allowed her programming to infiltrate and access the door’s codes. The door opened in the semi-sentient ship without setting off the alarms.

Sucking on the wound in her wrist, she followed the bouncing purple cat down a passageway. She eased silently past the two guards yapping away in the ship’s dining alcove, then continued further to a door in the holding area.

Another rather painful cold access and the door slid open.

The room was small, gray and empty, except for a bar that stretched from the left wall to the right, and the scarred, unconscious man who gripped it with his arms spread as far apart as they would go, his knees buckled under him.

Khan.

He wore his leather pants and his boots, but nothing else. His robes were nowhere in sight. His creamy hair was still braided but matted with blood. Two nasty clotted bites gouged the shoulder on her right. His silver nipple rings gleamed bright against deep-purple bruises all over his chest and stomach, but he was still in one piece.

That was the good news.

The bad news was that he was gripping the bar because the force-cuffs on his wrists were making him do it.

Fallon shook as she assessed what would have to be done to get him loose. She would have to hurt him. She didn’t want to hurt him. Fallon fisted her hands. If he hadn’t jumped into that damned lift in the first place ... Anger washed the shakes from her hands.

She turned to the cat. “Is possible to make some kind of distraction to get those two men out of this ship?”

The cat gave her a head-splitting grin, a nod, and a jaunty wave. He spun in place and disappeared with a hollow pop.

“Was that ... a purple ... feline?”

Fallon turned sharply, her heart in her mouth. “Yes.”

Khan’s head was up and one eye was bruised closed. He groaned and got his feet under him. He pulled his head back behind the bar so he could stand. “Where’s Sobehk?”

“Waiting for my call.” She dug into the right side of her boot for his stiletto. “First, I have to get you out of here.” She walked over to him and set her hands on the ball of his right shoulder, looking for the joint where his augmentations linked.

Khan snorted. “How? I’m wearing force-cuffs.” He frowned. “How did you find me? And how did you get
in
here?”

“I break into ships, remember?” She located what she was looking for with her thumb. She turned to face him. “This is going to hurt. A lot.”

He frowned. “What are you going to do?”

Fallon took a breath. “Did Sobehk ever tell you about the last time I got away from him?”

Khan frowned. “Yes.”

“Did he tell you I was wearing force-cuffs at the time?”

His frown deepened. “Yes.”

“Did he tell you I got one off?”

His brows lowered and his mouth tightened. “I thought he was exaggerating.”

“He wasn’t.” Fallon snorted. “Can I assume that he told you what I did to do it?”

Khan winced. “Shit.”

“I’ll take that for a yes.” Fallon raised the stiletto. “Khan,
‘Syr
, you can’t make any noise.”

Khan flinched back, but he wasn’t going anywhere. “Isabeau, he bit me twice. He did that so the guards’ beating would hurt more. His venom is still active in my system.” He sucked in a breath. “I can’t make any promises.”

Fallon’s hand tightened on the knife. “Khan, I have to shut down your arm augmentations to free you.” A fist tightened around her heart. “There’s no other way.” She looked away and had to blink to clear her eyes. “I’m sorry, but it hurts, a lot.”

“Do it. Do it fast.”

Fallon nodded. “Fast. All right.” She shook both her hands to get her dexterity on line. Her fingers tingled. She set her hand on the ball of his shoulder and marked the spot with her thumb. She set the point of the dagger where she needed and jammed it in.

He gasped and threw his head back.

Fallon located the nerve bundle as fast as she could, feeling for the slight buzz of power. She stabbed deeper.

His arm dropped from the bar. Khan stared at his free arm, his mouth opened as he panted. “Fuck ...”

She pulled the dagger free.

Blood spilled.

She set her mouth on the wound and licked, hoping it would slow the bleeding. With her free hand, she tugged the cuff off and dropped it onto the deck. She turned to the other shoulder, located and stabbed.

Khan jerked, choked and made a small, tight sound.

The sound nearly broke her. She bit down on her bottom lip and tasted blood. She dug for the nerve.

“Oh ... shit.” Khan turned away, his eyes closed tight. “Fuck, fuck, fuck ...”

Fallon found it and stabbed into it.

His other arm dropped free and he fell back, landing against the wall.

Fallon ducked under the bar and went to him. She tugged the dagger free from his shoulder and set her mouth on the bleeding wound. She tugged off the other cuff.

His hand came around to the back of her head, pressing her against him. He chuckled tiredly.

Fallon lifted her head and licked her lips. “What?”

He smiled sourly. “You were right. It hurt.” His smile broadened. “A lot.” He looked past her shoulder and nodded.

Fallon whirled around.

The Cheshire cat was back and he was bouncing, but he was not smiling.

Fallon wiped the dagger on her thigh. “I’m guessing it’s time to go?”

The cat bounced higher and a grin appeared, but briefly.

Fallon jammed the dagger back into her boot and turned to Khan. “They’re coming.” She grabbed his limp arm and shook it hard.

Khan gasped, but his arm stiffened as it came online. “Son of a bitch!”

“Now, we have to go now.” Fallon tugged him up onto his feet. “Let’s go, let’s go ...”

Khan stumbled after her.

Fallon turned at the door. “I need you to activate your spectral coding to black pixie mode.”

He blinked “Huh?”

Fallon released a breath and rolled her eyes. “Just say ‘black pixie.’”

His brows rose and he tilted his head. “Okay, black ... pixie”

Fallon nodded. “Good, now you’re invisible to their sensors.” She grabbed his left hand. “Stay close!”

Chapter Forty

The Cheshire cat moved out of the hold’s door and to the right, making a great production of exaggerated sneaking with his front paws pressed back against the wall and his humongous round belly sticking out.

Khan smiled at Fallon, his fingers squeezing her shoulder.

Fallon led Khan through the ship and out the access door, closing it behind them. She darted across the dock, following the skipping purple cat.

The Cheshire cat froze in mid-skip. He floated, pretty much like a balloon, until he faced her, his expression clearly questioning.

Fallon’s brows shot up. He probably wanted to know where she wanted to go next. She looked over at Khan.

Khan leaned back against a post and panted for breath.

Fallon winced with the pounding starting in her temples. He needed to be fed, which meant that he was more wounded than he seemed. There was no way he would be able to take the route she took to get here. She looked back at the cat. “Is there a parked glider anywhere nearby? A fast one?”

The cat gave her a head-splitting grin and started skipping away.

Fallon reached back and grabbed Khan’s hand. “Come on!”

* * * * *

The battered glider was sitting against the wall under the window of an office. Fallon frowned at it. That was the station master’s idea of fast? Forget fast, she hoped it was in good enough condition to fly. She ducked down low and headed for it.

Khan followed, moving very stiffly, his mouth tight.

Up against the wall, Fallon eased over onto the glider’s forward saddle, pulled out her piece of wire, jammed it into her wrist and set the end into the glider’s ignition.

The turbines cranked and spun, the engines coming to life with a wild roar.

She looked at Khan and shouted over the maelstrom of wind and sound. “Get on! Get On!”

Khan threw his leg over the back saddle as the office door was flung open and an irate and large human came howling out.

“Shit!” Fallon kicked the glider into a flat, straight up lunge.

Khan shouted and grabbed onto her waist.

She stopped the glider’s lunging rise only meters from the downward curving ceiling.

“Shit!” Khan gasped in her ear. “Don’t get us killed!”

Fallon bared her teeth at him. “Shut up and let me drive!” She looked around. “Cheshire cat!”

The purple cat popped into being, lounging on her handlebars. It gave her a smile and a wave.

Fallon grinned at the cat then looked over at Khan. “Where do you want Sobehk to meet us?”

A klaxon went off somewhere in the dock.

The cat opened his mouth in clear worry and started pointing, clearly wanting them to pick a direction.

Fallon hissed. “Guess they figured out you’re gone.”

Khan grinned. “The Shinto gardens are close to the enclave; take us there.”

Fallon nodded at the cat. “You heard him. I want the shortest, fastest route out of here to the Shinto gardens.”

The cat sprouted teeny-tiny wings and spun away.

Fallon set her feet on the pedals and gripped the glider’s controls. She turned the glider sharply in mid air and they were off.

The purple cat led them into a nearby shuttle tunnel marked with broad gold bands. A blazing grid of electricity marked the tunnel’s far end.

Khan shouted in her ear. “We’ll never get through the security grid!”

“Yes, we will!” She shouted back. “I have the keys to the kingdom!” They were upon the grid in two breaths. The grid dropped and they sped on.

“Mother Night! How did you do that?”

Fallon grinned and pushed the glider for more speed. “I have a guardian angel.”

The cat swerved at breakneck speed into an upward tunnel painted with broad silver stripes, and then through another energy grid. Another swerve took them into a green-banded tunnel ... and traffic.

Fallon’s heart was in her mouth as she urged the glider up and over the two lanes of hovering traffic, bringing the small craft as close to the arched ceiling as she dared, while following the purple cat.

They burst out of the tunnel and into station daylight over meters and meters of spreading forest.