Spin the Sky (26 page)

“If you have a better way to achieve our objective, I am listening,” Asner says in a neutral voice. “It’s just that we need to stay on schedule and time is running short.”

“I know, I know,” declares Uri. “All hail the hallowed schedule. Well, fine. The kid lives and you get to play hero with the widow lady. Hope it’s fun. Help me get him into a pod before he wakes up. If your plan doesn’t work, we can always try my plan: blow up that stupid ranch and scrape the cows out like freeze-dried blood pudding. Yes, I know. We need them alive. My way still sounds better.”

Cesar edges back down the little passage as silently as he can. His mind is whirling. It appears that Trevor is safe for now, but what should he do? Should he still try to attack these men? They are obviously still a threat to Penelope and Trevor in ways he doesn’t completely understand right now.

Trevor is much safer floating in an escape pod out in the void than he is here. They aren’t planning to hurt Trevor now. If he attacks and the boy is harmed in the crossfire… Cesar gulps. He doesn’t like that plan.

And if Cesar dies here, there will be no one to protect Penelope from these men. If he waits until they send Trevor off, can he find a way off this ship without being detected? Cesar decides to risk a little reconnaissance.

He shimmies slowly backwards down the narrow passage. Reaching the little storage room, he quickly takes stock of his surroundings. The storage closet leads out into an empty hallway. Cesar has been in enough ships to know which way the escape pods and airlocks will be.

If he can find a small cruiser, or even a repair skiff, he can escape in that. There is probably another escape pod at the very least. At the worst, he can just hole up and wait for them to go wherever it is Uri and Asner planned to go next. But Cesar does not think that is a great idea.

On the one hand, as a stowaway he’ll probably get more information about these men and what they are planning. On the other hand, his chances of escaping and getting back to warn Penelope will substantially decrease. He doesn’t want Trevor anywhere near these men, especially not to get “rescued” by Asner. He’s also not enthusiastic about leaving Trevor alone in an escape pod for any longer than necessary.

Cesar wonders what these pirates are up to with their lasers and lubricants. Why are they targeting Penelope, Ithaca and the herd? It seems too strange, but the Spacer orbitals are nothing if not bizarre.

Lasers big enough to fry New York doesn’t sound like a good thing for these guys to get their hands on. Cesar wouldn’t normally bother worrying about something like that. It sounds so ridiculous and impossible that it couldn’t be real, except Uri and Asner discussed it so casually. Like it is a done deal.

That can’t be good.

Cesar puts it aside. He doesn’t need to go looking for trouble. He just needs to find the landing bay. He has to get off this ship. Quickly and methodically searching, he finds it while avoiding Asner and Uri as they head towards the starboard escape pod. There isn’t anyone else on the ship right now.

When Cesar discovers the cruiser, he almost cries tears of joy. It is a little ship barely big enough for two people, intended for short trips. Large lumbering cargo ships use these cruisers for repairs or retrieving things near the ship and also for visiting colonies they are too big to dock with easily. The little cruiser is equipped with a maneuverable claw for repairs that he can use to grab Trevor’s escape pod if he can find it.

Cesar isn’t sure how far the cruiser will go, but he doubts they are very far from Ithaca right now and he’ll just have to take his chances. Another bit of luck is that the little cruiser is stored right next to the cargo hold so they might think the cruiser deployed in all the excitement earlier and thus miss his escape.

Cesar needs to get out before they get back to the control room and notice the cruiser is gone. He doesn’t think Asner will try to chase him or that Asner is even a good enough pilot to catch him in the little cruiser, but why take chances?

Cesar straps in and powers up. He thinks about Trevor and hopes the boy is all right. Cesar tells himself that if they get back to Ithaca alive, he will personally teach Trevor every trick he ever knew about flying. Look how useful that kind of knowledge is. But first he has to go rescue his son.

Shooting out of the massive cargo ship, Cesar begins searching for Trevor’s escape pod as fast as he can. His heart is in his throat the entire time. Where is Trevor? Is he alive?

As he scans for Trevor, Cesar notices that the pirate ship is equipped with huge thrusters that would propel the cargo ship much faster than normal. A retrofit like that is expensive. Only a rich, well-organized group could have a ship like that and he doesn’t like to think about anyone that powerful deciding to use their cargo ship the way it was used today. He is glad to be pulling away from it.

When he finds the escape pod hurtling through void space, Cesar lets out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. He feels briefly overwhelmed by all that happened today and the six or seven miracles he is still counting on to get his son back home safely. Cesar focuses on what he needs to do right now and that is to snatch up the escape pod and get the hell out of here.

There’s nothing like adrenaline surging through your system in a crisis to make you a genius for survival and Cesar is no exception. He seems to have an instant understanding of the grappling claw. Although his hands shakes and sweat pours into his eyes in the freezing cold little cruiser, he grasps the pod with the claw.

Cesar doesn’t think about anything but using every drop of fuel on the cruiser. He constantly monitors for signs that the cargo ship is chasing them, but there is nothing. He scans the little escape pod to make sure it stays warm enough for Trevor. He’d feel better if he can monitor the boy’s vital signs, but there is only so much the little cruiser can do.

It can tell him what he doesn’t want to hear though, which is that the escape pod has a leak. It is slowly but surely venting oxygen into void space. Cesar scans and rescans the pod a dozen times. He runs the calculations four times before he finally lets the truth sink in.

Trevor isn’t going to make it back to Ithaca.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

P
enelope feels like the walking dead.

She really doesn’t understand how her body is still standing. She suspects that the only thing keeping her from collapsing is curiosity. Just how long she can keep going before her legs finally give out? It is much farther than she would have thought.

It took hours to finally stop the herd and get them secured. Hours in which she was sure they were already dead and she was only stopping the herd just to have something to do before the end. She drives everyone else until they drop. They separate the herd and get them penned as the colony continues to rattle and shake. They dodge falling lights and collapsing buildings. Tremors occasionally throw them to the ground, but they dust themselves off and trudge wearily onward.

Then she helps care for the injured and puts together work crews to repair the worst damage. Eventually it sinks in that she isn’t going to die today, but Penelope still doesn’t stop moving. One foot keeps finding itself in front of the other. Her hands move wearily from one task to the next.

“They’re gone,” Argos tells her, keeping his sad eyes on the floor at her feet. “Trevor and Ulixes and Julia. They aren’t on the colony. Not even bodies. They are gone.”

That’s what finally does it. She feels something hit her cheek and realizes it’s the floor. Then there is darkness.

Penelope wakes later to Lupe sponging her face with cold water. “Where’s Trevor?” she asks groggily. Argos was saying something stupid earlier. She must have heard him wrong.

“You need to sleep,” hisses Lupe.

“Where’s Trevor?” Penelope repeats, more urgently.

“How about some of my soup?” Lupe suggests.

Penelope sits up to glare at Lupe. “Where’s my son?”

Lupe fusses with the wet rag she was using on Penelope’s face. “Everyone is looking. They’ll find him soon.”

Penelope’s vision goes white and fuzzy around the edges. The room spins a little, but she swings her feet around to stand up anyway. Lupe puts her hand out, gently urging Penelope back into bed as she prattles, “The damage was really not so bad, those engineer men say,
mija
. And they’ve got the hole all sealed up now. Isn’t that good?”

Penelope pushes Lupe’s hand away and stands unsteadily. “Who else is missing?” she asks too loudly. Her voice echoes through the room and hurts her head.

Lupe sighs and hovers over Penelope, wringing her hands. Talking rapidly, she admits, “Trevor, Ulixes, and Julia. Everyone else accounted for and no dead! At least, none of ours. Some of your cowgirls will be laid up for a while, though. We were very lucky. A million to one, us pulling through with so few casualties and damage. That’s what the engineer men said.”

Penelope’s sight swims and her knees buckle. Lupe catches her before she can fall and hit the bed stand.

Penelope gets angry. She needs to find her son and her body is betraying her. She kicks the bed stand viciously.

“Trevor and Julia and Ulixes were all together,” she spits out, furious with herself and her powerlessness. “I sent them to go after the rustlers. I told Ulixes to go after them. I sent them.” Then Penelope is crying and she can’t stop that either.

Lupe sighs and her shoulders slump. Low and quick, she says, “Someone got on that ship. The ship that attacked us. Someone got on and sealed the hole from inside their ship. Well, almost sealed it. And then the ship flew away. That’s all we know. There are no bodies. Not in here, not floating out there. That’s all we know.”

Her voice cracks as she sits down on the floor to cry with Penelope.

Penelope sobs until her lungs hurt and her eyes run dry. Then she gets up and makes coffee. They clean the house in a daze. When a group of suitors arrive, Penelope is standing outside, throwing the broken shards of Cesar’s mother’s favorite plates into the trash.

“Outworlders,” she thinks dully, more interested in the shattered plates.

Penelope pushes her hair off her face and feels the grittiness in it. She wonders when her last bath was and suddenly realizes that she smells like cow. She also realizes that these men coming towards her are from her parties. Powerful, rich men in expensive clothes.

She really doesn’t care.

Penelope invites them in. They fill up her front room, surrounding her in an awkward silence until Wilhelm Asner comes rushing in. He looks anxious and annoyed at finding so many people already there. Pulling off his elegantly tailored coat, Asner ignores the others and steps close to Penelope, wrapping his warm coat around her.

“Penelope, come sit down,” he insists, soft and earnest. She allows him to guide her to the porch. The other men follow, staring at her, fascinated by her pain apparently.

She still doesn’t care.

Mr. Finomus uncaps a flask and passes it to her without comment. Penelope gives him a grateful look and takes a generous swig. Wiping her lips and shivering from the burn of the alcohol in her throat, she remembers her manners. She can’t remember what manners are for just now, but she does remember them.

“What can I do for you gentleman?” she asks in her politest voice, looking from one face to the next.

“Penelope, you poor woman,” says old King Manny’s trained lapdog, Castor. “We are here to see what we can do for you, what aid we can offer.”

Penelope has a few ideas on that score. Through gritted teeth, she asks, “Can you find the men who did this? Can you bring them here? Because I have a few questions for them.”

The men in front of her shuffle their feet.

“None of the captives survived the interrogation and they didn’t talk. I saw to it personally,” says Asner. He edges into her personal space again and says soothingly, “Several of us have ships out scanning local space, but there’s been no sign of them so far.”

“And my son and… the other people missing? Can you find them?” asks Penelope, her hands curling into fists of their own accord.

Asner asks quickly, “So there’s been no sign of him? Nothing? Your people are scanning for everything? Even escape pods? I mean, in case he escaped that ship?”

Penelope looks at her hands in her lap and shakes her head.

“They still haven’t found him,” she replies. She’s been calling the docking bay every thirty minutes just to make sure.

Penelope clenches her jaw to keep from crying again. Again, there is that uncomfortable silence as they all shake their heads and look everywhere but at her. Penelope sighs and knows she should stop torturing them now. So she uncurls her fists, takes a deep breath and says, “We will need help rebuilding.”

“That we can help with,” Castor pipes up eagerly. “I brought a team of our engineers to help repair your lights and structural damage and such.”

The others also brought various people and supplies. Penelope discusses with them the damage to the colony, the injured and what Ithaca will need. It helps clear her head, dwelling on these details and not on the million and one horrible things that might be happening to Trevor and that poor Ulixes man. She should have known better than to think there could be love in her life.

Castor asks quietly, “What about the herd?”

“What about it?” Penelope replies, twisting the ring on her left index finger. Her mind is still wandering, no matter how much she tries to stay here in this conversation.

“Don’t you think it might be a bit much for you right now? Dealing with such a large herd during this time of crisis?” he asks gently.

Asner leans in to put a hand over hers. “You should be concentrating on yourself now, not bothering over such a large herd. I worry about you. Whoever did this didn’t get what they came for. They will come back. They won’t stop. You have to protect yourself.”

Asner looks into her eyes and smiles at her, but she can see his desire and it makes her wary. Penelope can never figure out exactly what it is he lusts after. Her body? Surely not.