Star Cruise: Marooned (19 page)

“Can we get sound?” Meg asked.

Red flipped a tab. “Old Ar-Taan-Crxtahl’s lost a forelimb.” He pointed at the screen. “See? He’s regenerating. I’d guess he faced a few challenges over losing us. Just gonna make him more determined.”

“They don’t know we’re here, though,” Meg said, trying to reassure herself as much as the others.

Finchon’s voice came through the audio. “Yes, this is the installation the crew was talking about evacuating to, the night before you arrived. The missing people will be here if they’re anywhere on the planet.”

“Son of a bitch, he’s betraying us,” Red swore.

There was a burst of speech in Shemdylann from the nearest soldiers.

“Telling the leader about their fruitless attempt to force the door,” Red translated. “Saying we can’t possibly be in here, because how would we gain entry when Shemdylann weapons couldn’t breach the barrier. Not the best logic, so we’ll see what their leader says.”

“Maybe we’ll be okay.” Meg took a deep breath as Callina reached for her hand, squeezing tight.

The alien commander was not appeased by the protest from his soldier. He and his second in command approached the door, examining the portal closely, while their troops waited. The lower ranking officer crowded Crxtahl, uttering phrases in Shemdylann that Red merely said were veiled insults. “Preparatory to a challenge, if he doesn’t gain access here, and fails again to recapture us.”

The two Shemdylann faced off in front of the door, huge pincher claws opening and closing as the aliens sidled back and forth. Meg was reminded of poisonous insects as they postured. All that was missing were the stinger-barbed tails.

Yanking on the chain binding him, Finchon cleared his throat as both Shemdylann turned on him. “I can open it for you.”

Meg couldn’t believe her ears, but Finchon obligingly repeated himself, speaking louder.

Red swiveled to stare at Bettis. “Can he make good on his offer?”

Swallowing hard, Bettis said, “Yes. It’s one of his idiosyncrasies. He has access to anything he owns, no matter how minor. He negotiates the stipulation into every contract and agreement. There’s an entire programming section writing the necessary code. He likes to pay surprise visits to his minions sometimes.”

“Why would he help them? He’s going home as soon as the ransom’s paid.” Horror at the betrayal by Finchon made Meg nauseous.

“Maybe he doesn’t want witnesses to what he did, especially his refusal to ransom my wife, his stepdaughter.” Bettis pointed at Callina. “Maybe he’s cut some new deal with the Shemdylann. That’d be like him.” Bettis sounded admiring of his boss’s penchant for negotiation.

“We move now,” Red said. He grabbed Meg by the arm. “Don’t stop for anything—run. Get to the tunnel and head for the landing field. Stay inside the tunnel for now. I’ll catch up.”

He was already pulling Bettis from the chair and half dragging the man into the corridor. “I’ll get you to the gravlift and then you’re on your own. Make the best time you can.”

Callina ran ahead. Meg supported Mr. Bettis on the other side. When the four of them got to the gravlift, Red pushed their passenger into the beam and grabbed Meg for a fast kiss before urging her into the lift as well. He was right on her heels, drawing the blaster as he descended.

No stranger to antigrav, she twisted with one easy movement to face him. “What are you going to do? Why aren’t you coming with us?”

“I’m going to take care of this problem once and for all. If I don’t join you at the landing field by the pickup time, head north.” Reaching Level Three, he hugged her close. “Promise me.”

She clung to him, eyes wide and distressed. “You’re scaring me.”

“I’m going to breach Level Four and self-destruct this place, catch them in the blast, I hope. Otherwise, the enemy will follow us into the tunnel. Or there’ll be some other nasty surprise from Finchon.” He disentangled her hand from his. Giving her a gentle push into the antigrav stream, he said, “Now, go. We only have a few moments. Shemdylann can’t handle antigrav, so that’ll delay them a bit. Lucky for us, there’s no other way to get into Level One.”

Meg stepped onto the access pad for Level Three, but kept her hold on his shirt, tugging him nearer. “I love you, Simon Thomsill, so don’t get yourself killed. That’s an order.”

“Yes, Ma’am.” Leaning close to her, he lowered his voice and said, “I’ve been in love with you for weeks, you know.” He kissed her cheek and pushed her through the open tunnel entrance, sealing the door with one rapid motion.

Meg watched through the portal for a moment as he dove into a rapid descent toward Level Four. Brushing the tears from her cheeks, she cycled the air lock and stepped into the tunnel to find the others waiting for her.
 

Red usually had no problem focusing on the mission imperative, but right now it was hard to clear his last glimpse of Meg from his mind.
Which could get us both killed. Concentrate, idiot.
Clenching the blaster in his fist, he arrowed to the Fourth Level. Red lights flashed and the large NO ACCESS sign on the exterior of the airlock drove home the fact this area of the complex had been a disaster area. Red hadn’t told Meg, but seven researchers had been vaporized along with the lab animals and the virus in question. PolyStarMed hadn’t been casual when they designed their precautions.

He wished he hadn’t had to turn off the vid screens. He’d like to be able to see what Finchon and the Shemdylann were doing, whether they’d broken through from the reception level above ground to Level One yet. He didn’t want the enemy to be able to see him, though. Hopefully, Finchon wasn’t tech savvy enough to terminate the building’s systems, and the pirates would have a hard time as well, unless someone on their team was a specialist in human tech.
 

At best, he probably had only a few minutes to get this job done. The building’s AI had to be online for his plan to succeed and Shemdylann solutions to tech vexing or impeding them tended to be messy and large scale. Taking a deep breath, Red punched his access code into the Level Four air lock outer door.

He could hear sounds as the heavy portal cycled for opening, even as a robotic voice sounded a warning that he was about to access a restricted area. “As if I didn’t already know where I was,” he muttered, stepping from the entry area into the air lock. He didn’t touch the controls to access the lab complex. Instead, he laid the blaster right next to the sealed inner door and set the weapon to overload. Fortunately, he’d been able to recharge the blaster to maximum on Level One. The blast wouldn’t carry the explosive impact a military grade blaster could deliver, but he hoped it would be enough to convince the AI the Level had been successfully breached.

Backing onto the threshold, he assessed the blaster a final time as the weapon glowed red while the power core melted down. Cycling the air lock door to close, hoping to contain the blast and direct it more forcefully into Level Four, he leaped into the antigrav stream and kicked upward, like a waterdweller swimming against the current. He refused to think about the possibility of the antigrav being turned off while he was inside the tube, but it was with relief he landed on Level Three with both feet and caromed into the air lock.

It couldn’t cycle fast enough for him and he was relieved Meg and the others had apparently heeded his orders and weren’t waiting for him inside the tunnel. Breaking into a full out run, he headed away from the expected blast. The initial explosion, the blaster going critical, was a small vibration under his feet. Taking the warning, he dove over the first small cave-in, a pile of rocks and dirt oozing into the tunnel from the sidewall.

The earth shook. He heard the explosion and a loud metallic clang as the air lock door apparently blew into the tunnel. A long tongue of orange flame reached toward him as the AI responded to the “intrusion” into Level Four by incinerating the entire facility in a firestorm. Red buried his face in his arms and scrabbled as low as he could get behind the mound of dirt. As rapidly as it had expanded, the flame retreated, sucked into the research facility before it reached his position.

Ears ringing, he hoped the problems of Finchon and the Shemdylann commander’s honor were now solved once and for all. Finchon had definitely put himself in the enemy camp by volunteering to open the above-ground entrance. Red had no regrets. Rising, he brushed himself off, turned on the hand lamp he’d brought, since the power was now gone, and trotted at a steady pace in the direction of the landing field.

All too soon, he rounded a gentle curve in the tunnel and came upon Meg and the others, examining a solid wall of debris from a cave-in, filling the entire tunnel. Aiming his hand lamp at the obstruction in front of her, frustration grated on his already tight nerves. So much for easy escapes. “What happened? Is everyone okay?”

Shining her light in his direction, angled so as not to blind him, Meg said, “Was that explosion you destroying the facility?”

“I encouraged the PolyStarMed AI to take the appropriate action.” He eyed the pile of dirt and rocks beyond her, running his light over the barrier. “Well, we’re not digging through this.”

“You’re calm about it.” Bettis was slumped on the tunnel floor, leaning sideways against the wall. His wife hovered nearby.

“There’s an access tunnel in the roof, about fifty feet behind us,” Meg said before Red could get a word in edgewise.
 

Why was he even surprised she’d noticed the maintenance tunnel? Meg was always on top of things, which was part of what he loved about her. “Right. Time’s wasting, we’d better get a move on.” Helping Bettis to rise, Red followed Meg as she retreated from the cave-in to the spot where there was an access port in the ceiling. Smoke was drifting lazily through the tunnel in their direction and the air had an increasingly acrid tang. If the smaller vertical tunnel was compromised, their present position was a death trap.

Allowing Bettis to lean on the wall, Red moved underneath the access plate, the women on either side of him.

“Uncomfortably narrow,” Meg said, eyeing the access door.
 

“But doable. The circumference has to be big enough for a guy or a robo, plus a toolkit. Can you climb on my shoulders and open the portal?” Red asked.

Meg nodded, divesting herself of the pack and handing her lamp to Callina. Red squatted so she could climb onto his broad shoulders, and then rose carefully to keep her balanced. She worked her way to a standing position and took her lamp back. Wrestling with the simple mechanism one-handed for a moment, Meg’s efforts were rewarded as the manual control released the round cover with a loud click. She ducked as the cover fell open, dangling on its hinges, nearly hitting her.
 

Red caught her as if they’d practiced the maneuver.

“Thanks,” she said. “Sorry, I should have known that would happen. Put me down and I’ll get on your shoulders again.”

Moments later, Red steadied her legs as Meg straightened to peer into the shaft.
 

“There’s a ladder set into the wall,” she said. “I can’t see anything at the top, but I bet there’s another cover.” She glanced at him. “Shall I go ahead?”

“Yes. We’ll follow.”

Meg pulled herself into the tunnel and began climbing steadily.

Red made a stirrup with his hands. “Mrs. Bettis?”

Hands on her hips, she gave him a sour look. “What is it with you people and climbing?” As she stepped onto his clasped hands, she gave him a wink. “Promise me there won’t be any more climbing in our future.”

Red laughed. “The only thing you’ll have to climb after this is the onramp to the shuttle; I swear.”

Red lifted Callina, planning to boost her to the bottom of the ladder next. She grabbed his shirt, hands like claws, her grip was so tight. “Is my stepfather dead?”
 

“I don’t know for sure, but probably.” Red saw no point in sugarcoating the truth. If she was asking, she needed to know for a reason. “He was inside the building.”

“Good. Then maybe I can stop having nightmares about him. He was cruel to people, animals, AI’s—my Mom used to say she was sorry she married him. And then she died and left me alone with him. Mostly.”

Red gave her a hug. “No more nightmares, okay?”

Callina nodded, lower lip caught between her teeth.
 

“Ready to climb?”

Nodding, she reached up with both hands, grabbing the first rung and beginning her ascent, as Red helped her balance. He watched her progress for a moment before he was satisfied she’d be fine.
Another candidate for the psychmeds to talk to, right along with Meg and me.

Lowering his gaze, he found Bettis staring at him in the harsh glare of the lamp.

“Not sure I can do this with my ankle,” Bettis said, coughing. ”Maybe I should go last?”

“I appreciate the offer, but you sure as hell can’t boost me. I probably outweigh you by a hundred pounds. And I’m a foot taller.”

“How are you going to—?”

Red crouched and made a jump, hooking his fingers on the bottom rung, doing an easy chin up before he dropped to the tunnel floor. “We’re wasting time. Use your arms to pull yourself up the ladder as much as you can. Push off each rung with your good foot. The air in here is getting dicey.”

He got Bettis on his way and then repeated his jump, climbing as fast as he could behind the much slower businessman.