Rift Breaker (22 page)

The Xoeloid's body rose and fell with its downturned head. The creature thrust its blade to the floor and pushed to its feet
with the slight hindrance of internal spasms. It raised its head and then started towards her.

Luylla ejected both ammo batteries. They flew out, secreting ribbons of smoke. With quaking hands, she holstered one pistol, reached to the side of her belt and pulled off her only spare cartridge.

The large body increased speed, limping unevenly across the floor. She flung a small crate. The creature turned to its side and absorbed the force. The box split open, spilling medical supplies. She used the delay to reload. She cocked her pistol and aimed. The Xoeloid blade swiped upward. The tip sparked against the metal of the gun and the weapon tumbled from her hands.

Milton thought his skull was cracking. His palms were wet and warm. He found them covered in blood that leaked from his ears. He rolled to his hands and knees. Glancing up, his eye caught something useful lying on a nearby crate. He fought the pain and closed his grip on its cold metal. Glancing up, he saw the escape pod from the
Reconotyre
, still sitting on the cargo elevator over the airlock. He staggered over and climbed up the side.

His vision changed; he could see flashes of the safe haven. Reelai called for him.
We need you
. He screamed and willed the voice away. Luylla ran out of floor space. Her back hit the wall and the Xoeloid lifted its blade to finish her. Milton made it to the top of the pod and sprawled over the open hatch. He levelled the nose of the grapple launcher and pulled the trigger.

The padded claw slammed into the Xoeloid and secured onto its backside. Milton dropped the launcher into the pod and slammed the hatch closed, jamming the thin cable. The auto locks turned over to seal. With his throbbing headache he rolled off the pod.

‘Luylla,' he yelled. ‘Brace yourself.'

He went for the airlock control panel, his eyes fixed on a large red button with a plastic shield. The Xoeloid turned and broke towards him. The trailing cable sliced through a crate stack. The scientist fought the resistance and charged. Milton grabbed Tazman's lifeless body and dragged him. The Xoeloid drew near and cocked the blade for a sweep. Milton made it to the wall, opened the shield and slammed his palm to the button.

The airlock burst open and the cargo elevator swung back on its hinge. The escape pod dropped and the Xoeloid was violently wrenched. The blade sparked across the floor as the creature bounced with flailing limbs and disappeared down the hole.

Every loose object dragged towards the exposed opening. Milton dropped to the floor and braced himself against a barrel of matraelium fuel, keeping a firm grip on Tazman's bloodied body. A few of the lighter crates bounced away. The ship's computer engaged its override and sealed the opening before anything else could blow out.

Luylla crossed the hold, bounded up to the cockpit and pulled her ship away from the complex for the final time.

Red smeared the floor where Milton had dragged Tazman to safety. The Freegu had been stabbed in the thigh and chest. Blood gushed from both wounds. The hyperdrive beneath the floor whined to life. Luylla appeared shortly after.

‘Help me move him,' Milton ordered.

He tucked his arms under Tazman's and Luylla took the legs. She backed towards the passage that led down to the medical centre. The Freegu's tail dragged lifelessly along the floor, painting a line of blood.

A moan exuded from Tazman's open mouth. Tears leaked from his puffed eyes and streamed down his cheeks. He sniffled, and suddenly screamed from the back of his throat. His whole body quivered, sending a volcano of blood from his chest.

Milton tightened his grip. ‘Don't move,' he yelled.

But Tazman had already slipped out of consciousness again. Milton was careful to match Luylla's footsteps to stop any aggravation of the wound. The blood trail ended at the medical centre where they eased him onto the operating table.

Luylla pulled out a drawer containing an arrangement of medical supplies. They rummaged through. Milton found a pair of gloves and donned them over his already blood-soaked hands. He gathered pads, ripped Tazman's shirt and held the clumps of bandage on the wound. Blood began to seep through.

‘I don't know anything about Freegu anatomy. Do you?' he said, trying to find signs of an artery.

Luylla shook her head.

‘He'll bleed to death if we don't find a specialist,' he added. ‘What's the closest option?'

Luylla crossed to the monitor and accessed the navi computer charts. The program flitted through the data. A map appeared, showing the
Inhibitan
's last position in the blank uncharted area of the map. She scrolled back to the known areas. The red dots that marked civilised worlds were clustered a great distance away, except one. A lone spot hovered over a star on the map's very edge, greatly isolated. Luylla accessed its listed information.

Milton grabbed more bandages and wiped the wound, revealing the deep cut before blood bubbled out and over again.

‘It's a Tranquillian Composite command outpost,' she said, biting her lower lip.

‘Well I don't care about that stupid bounty anymore, do you?' Milton said. Luylla left the room, took the
Inhibitan
out of hyperspace and set a direct course to a water planet named Poria.

Nineteen

Elevating Tazman's leg with a toolbox and wrapping up his chest wound seemed to slow his bleeding. Milton collected the scatter of loose bandages and put them in a receptacle. After cleaning up pools of blood he found a cushion and slid it carefully under Tazman's head. The simian's eyelids twitched and he let out a moan.

‘Try not to move,' said Milton. ‘Relax.'

‘Milton. I'm sorry for everything,' he howled. ‘And I'm sorry for that thing about your folks.'

‘Don't worry about it,' said Milton. ‘I should've listened to you in the first place.'

‘Well you can make up for it by listening to me now,' Tazman replied, peeling his eyes open. ‘Listen. Me and Luylla found the surveillance and flight data from the
Reconotyre
. There was no Vellnoa. Reelai made the whole thing up because he killed everyone,' Tazman started getting worked up again. ‘He's insane. He blew up the
Orisurrection
.'

‘Hey that's enough. You have to rest,' said Milton. ‘We're going for help and we're almost there.'

Tazman drifted off again and Milton left the room.

The cockpit flickered with hyperspace energy flashes.

‘How's he doing?' asked Luylla, turning in her seat.

‘The bleeding has slowed but he's very pale,' said Milton, sliding into the co-pilot chair. ‘He said something about the
Reconotyre
data?'

‘Oh yes,' she said. She sat straight and leaned forward, placing her hands on the keypad. The onboard computer shuffled through its storage banks.

‘Oh no,' she said.

‘What?'

‘It's gone,' she cried, frantically searching through the directories. ‘The data is missing.'

Luylla slouched. Her eyes turned down and she rested her head in her hand. The search phase finished with blank results. ‘It was that Xoeloid thing,' she muttered with shaky breath. ‘I saw it in here tampering with the computer. We went through so much to get that data and now it's gone. Now we're headed for a Composite outpost with no evidence.'

‘Hey,' said Milton. ‘We'll tell them exactly what happened. It should be okay.' It didn't feel like he was being reassuring. Milton had another thought. ‘Has anything else been tampered with?'

Luylla wiped her face and reached for the keypad again. The computer displayed a list of recent commands.

‘Some data has been copied,' she said, probing the system for more information. ‘Star charts from the navigation computer.'

The destination indicator bleeped. A bright blue planet appeared in the
Inhibitan
's path and Luylla hit the accelerator.

The ship plunged into the atmosphere and dipped into the clouds. The scanner showed an object in the distance. Poria's dual suns coloured the sky a pinkish orange in the west and bright blue eastward. Automatic scanning information showed the planet's surface was ninety-eight percent water, which could be seen momentarily when the cloud cover thinned.

‘That's it,' said Luylla, accelerating harder. The airborne speck hailed her and she hit the button to receive.

‘Unidentified craft, you are in restricted airspace. Turn back immediately. Failure to comply will result in hostile action.'

She hastily responded. ‘This is Luylla Warride, Captain of the
Inhibitan
. We have a wounded in critical condition, request landing for medical treatment.'

‘Request denied. You are to seek treatment elsewhere.'

Milton offered to take the receiver and she handed it to him. ‘Are you slow? I should also point out we're on the Composite's most wanted list. Do you want to detain us or not?'

‘Stand by,' replied the voice. Tazman's on-screen life readings slowed another notch. When the voice came back it gave instructions for a landing.

‘Unbelievable,' said Milton, rubbing the sore flesh on the back of his head.

The speck grew into a massive hovering structure. Milton caught sight of three objects lifting off from its top. They turned in the air. Sunlight glinted from their skins. The proximity sensor noted their advancement.

One by one, they zipped past the
Inhibitan
in a blur, taking a wide arc. The readout scan splashed on the screen. The small Composite fighter model had a round black shield over its cockpit and the wings hooked back around the craft body like a claw. A skilled pilot could probably fly circles around the
Inhibitan
. They broke away from each other. Two turned left and the third turned right. They then swung around and ended in perfect formation behind the
Inhibitan
. The computer beeped again with warnings of three target locks.

Milton could appreciate the size and complexity of the floating outpost. A Composite command vessel, about half the size of the one he had seen on Lubric, rested on its wide, circular platform. Bordering a third of the platform surface was a line of tall structures, crowned with antennae and defensive cannons. But the bulk of the complex hung beneath in the shape of a cone made up of hanging cylinders with powerful hover thrusters.

He could make out enclosed transparent walkways, encircling and bridging the cylinders. Two of the fighters broke off. Milton leaned over to watch them fly into a set of hangar doors below. The last fighter hovered behind, still targeting with a lethal weapons lock as Luylla lowered her ship onto the designated area. Once
Inhibitan
touched down she wordlessly rose and unfastened
her holster, dumping it on the passenger seat on the way out.

Milton and Luylla stepped onto the unfolding ramp and were immediately badgered by a squadron of yelling voices. Several pulse rifles, locking and charging, levelled at them.

The gloved hands that held them belonged to ten Composite soldiers, wearing black combat suits with utility belts, armour and ear-mounted communicators. From what they were saying Milton figured they wanted the pair facedown on the ground. Before they could comply, a hand tucked into the back of Milton's vest. He was marched down the ramp the rest of the way. The soldiers below moved aside, clearing a space for Milton to be pushed to the ground. He tried to land on his hands but the force of the swing was too great and he scraped along the platform. Luylla landed next to him. Her jaw tightened with an intense grimace as a set of hands patted her body for weapons; they took their time, lingering on certain parts before sliding down to the next.

Milton, however, received the scanner. The soldier with the device stood over him with a foot on either side of his waist. From this angle Milton saw that each soldier had been issued with customised boots, in accordance to their different anatomies.

‘Front,' a soldier ordered. To the amusement of several soldiers, Luylla was handcuffed and lifted from Milton's view.

The one over Milton chuckled especially hard as he handcuffed him. ‘Get up,' the soldier barked. As Milton began to rise, he was hoisted up the rest of the way.

‘Our wounded shipmate is in the medical cen—'

‘Shut your speak hole,' the soldier yelled, shoving Milton for good measure.

A heavy-set commanding officer watched over the arrests. He lifted his hand beneath his long floppy ear and pressed a stubby finger to a comms device. His snout twitched while he listened intently. He gave a signal with his free hand and five of the soldiers ascended the ramp, filing in and moving, alternately to the left and right sides. He grunted something else and Milton was marched in the direction of the buildings. He glanced back to see Luylla taken in a different direction. She wiggled and shook a hand off her shoulder, prompting the soldier to push her forward to a stumble.