Supergiant (Gigaparsec Book 2) (24 page)

Roz blinked at the handwritten
equations. This guy with funny glasses was the Rosetta Stone for the Enigma.
“An infinite summation.” Another Enigma piece had a term like that, but she
hadn’t copied it onto her device in case of capture. Pressure squeezed her
temples.

“Possibly, but I can show you how
to pair the terms to collapse the series.” He added footnotes to several
references to textbooks in his collection as he scribbled in the air. His
techniques simplified the problem in ways she never suspected. Each building
block would take her weeks to master. An hour with this mathematician felt like
a quarter-long seminar at university.

Suddenly, Echo’s voice disrupted
the flow. “Police arrived. Shots fired. Hurry.” The pressure vanished soon
after.

Roz had lost track of time. “Could
you bring your notes to our shuttle to access better computers?”

The professor shrugged. “I don’t
see why not.” He piled his collection of keys to the universe into a leather
valise and trotted after her.

Max, Feeveerkahn, Crakik and a dozen bystanders trailed
behind Roz as she ran. When she emerged into open air, the first thing she saw
was smoke on the horizon. The shuttle was still there. The buggy was not. Their
sniper, Ivy, had moved to the high ground in order to pin the police behind a
rock.

Over the comm, Roz said, “Stand
down. We have friends with us.” She waved so Yenang could see her through his
telescopic lens.

The crowd fanned out behind her.

Feeveerkahn cupped his hands like a
megaphone to shout to his forces in Bat, “Hold your fire. These are our allies.
They want to improve life for all of us.”

“Is that the prince?” Yenang asked
over the comm.

“Yes,” Roz said, ambling down the
path with the professor in tow. “We need a few minutes inside the shuttle.”

The lethal gun’s targeting laser
appeared on her chest as they approached. She thumbed the grenade active. As
soon as she unclenched her fist, it would spray. If he shot her, the smoke
grenade would provide the others with cover. She knew her armor would take the
first shot, maybe the second if she spun … and if the pain didn’t knock her out
immediately.

Max took the low road, using the
snail sheep as cover.

Yenang shouted, “You’re trying to
overthrow our rightful government! That’s why the others called you
Generala
.”

Roz released the professor’s hand
and inched forward. “That’s not true. It’s a joke about me being bossy. My
mother read this novel about the Spanish Civil War—”

She was close enough to see the
hatred in Yenang’s eyes. “I wish you Magi would stop meddling in our lives in
the name of peace!”

“You and me both, honey,” Roz
murmured.

Ivy had shifted subtly, aiming her
rifle at Yenang, but the light on Roz’s wrist blinked red. She didn’t have a
shot through the clear Plexar shielding around the turret.

Roz placed her hand on the gate in
the wire fence.

“That’s far enough. No tricks, or
you all die,” Yenang threatened.

Near Roz’s ear, Echo said, “That
threat makes him a virus. Use the failsafe.”

Yenang didn’t know about the
self-destruct feature under the gun turret’s seat. This was not how she
envisioned using it. Lethal retaliation took the vote of three judges. Ivy held
a thumb up.

Roz tried one last time. “What do
you expect to get out of all this, Yenang? You can’t kill us all before we stop
you, and your oath won’t let you harm the royal family.”

“You three are enemy combatants,
though. If you kill the prince, I’ll let the three of you live.”

“Do it,” Roz ordered, and Echo
vanished in order to send the destruct signal.

Max made a sudden dash, and the
target laser swept over the grazing land. Snails exploded like balloons filled
with gray paint as the turret whined on autofire. Everyone dove for the moss
except Roz. She rolled the grenade toward the shuttle.

Crouching behind the billowing
smoke, she tapped the last application invoked on her wrist computer, the
power-door control, causing it to slowly shut. The turret wouldn’t be able to
fire through the hull, and the added buffer would contain the gem shrapnel. If
nothing else, the noise of the servo motors would distract him from the whine
of phoenix overload.

“Internal controls override
remotes, witch!” Yenang gloated. The sound of the motors ceased. He must have
stepped out from behind the shield to stop the ramp from rising further,
because Ivy’s rifle
twanged
twice, as did smaller police weapons from
below.

Roz couldn’t see a thing as she
climbed over the gate. However, superheated snails continued to burst like
popcorn in a microwave. People screamed, one right behind her. The valise
thumped to the turf, and data cubes rattled.
Professor?
From this side
of the fence, she had no way to check who was injured or how badly. She would
be safe behind the cloud of smoke, but more people would die while she hid.

Roz was the only one in a position
to stop the gunman. She didn’t have to fight Yenang, just distract him until
her triad mate sealed his fate. She darted toward the shuttle’s cockpit. By the
time she dove for the landing gear, the large-bore laser trailed so close to
her heels that she could smell the scorched vegetation and ozone. She drew her
stun pistol. It wouldn’t penetrate the frontal shield on the turret, but if she
could lure him a few centimeters closer to the cockpit, maybe she could numb
his trigger hand. “I’m outside your firing angle. This is your last chance to
surrender peacefully. In thirty seconds I can be inside the cockpit and eject
your pod from the shuttle frame.”

“Not if I injure your mate and
throw you into shock.”

Max was nowhere in sight. Roz
turned her head to see Ivy running for cover. The laser swerved toward her.
“No.” She lurched up in an effort to plug the muzzle with her own weapon.

The thump and cry of pain from the
hillside told Roz she had been a second too late. Hopefully, the foil blind had
provided Ivy some protection from the laser.

Because Roz heard the sound of
crystals ringing on her radio, she dove under the ramp. The phoenix charge was
almost ready.

Yenang’s last words were, “What
the—?”

The power gems erupted in their
reproductive frenzy. Next, the built-up energy in the laser discharged, and the
medical oxygen tanks joined the thunderous explosion. Thankfully, she passed
out.

The pain woke her briefly when Max
dragged her from under the collapsed ramp. “Trying to earn another medal?”

“Eject cargo pod. Fire spreads.”

“Already taken care of. Rest.” Then
he injected her with something that ensured she would.

****

Medical personnel set up a tent in the pasture to triage the
wounded. Once Roz’s sedative wore off, the nurse moved her out of the recovery
area. Roz’s right arm was in a sling from something broken in her shoulder. She
didn’t even notice the pain from that area because the backs of her calves were
burned. Simply walking hurt more than anything she could remember. The nurse
supported her, but there weren’t volunteers strong enough to lift her. She had
to communicate in sign language because the AI earbud was gone.

Roz caught a glimpse of Max covered
in blood to his elbows as he operated on an injured Bat. He wore his medical
analysis goggles, and an assistant mopped his brow. Max cursed when the
recommended surgical tools were nowhere to be found, and then he improvised. He
often complained that he was not a real doctor, just a battlefield hack.
However, the team of Bats around him jumped at his every command. As horrible
as the scene was, he needed the experience of saving lives instead of taking
them. She muffled her own cries as much as she could so she wouldn’t distract
him.

“Where is my friend with blonde
hair?” Roz asked in Banker once they were outside the tent. She touched her
hair and showed the length. When this didn’t trigger a response, she lifted her
breasts up. Ivy had a bigger chest than any Bat alive.

The nurse nodded and led her ten
meters to a makeshift bathtub full of ice, which was high-tech for these
people. Ivy was submerged and shivering.

She looks so pale
. The blood
loss must have been horrific. Roz limped over to hold her friend’s hand. Clamps
were sticking out from under the chest bandages. She didn’t know whose pain was
making her cry more. “I’m here, honey. I’m right here with you.”

“It burns!” Ivy said, punctuating
her claim with numerous curses.

“Can you take my blood?”

“No. Has to be a relative.”

“I’ll fly you back to
Sphere
while Max is operating. We’ll put you in stasis until we can get you to
Laurelin.”

The white Bat, now covered in soot,
approached. “I’m sorry, but you can’t leave.”

“This wasn’t our fault. No one
could predict he would react like this. We’re your allies. He hurt us as much
as he hurt you.”

“This is not my decision or a
threat. All Bat drives and reactors are disabled when they enter our airspace,”
said Feeveerkahn.

The power dip had come from the
reactor shutdown. “How long have I been unconscious? I can restart the
reaction.”

“The cycle is too far gone. We’ve
seen it many times before. You would need a power supply on par with what the
reactor produces in order to reverse the solidification. We don’t have those
anymore on this planet.”

But the Turtles had that tech, and
the sonics would help break up the dampening salts. She would just need to
patch the thermal controls directly into an alien battery that regenerated
daily from no discernable source. “Take me to my husband, and carry her to the
shuttle.”

“Be reasonable,” said Feeveerkahn,
putting a hand on her shoulder to hold her in her seat.

“I don’t have time to teach you
what we’re capable of, Prince. Assist me or get out of the way.” At the top of
her lungs, she bellowed for Max. He came running.

“Good God, you should be asleep,
babe. I’m sorry about the professor. He didn’t make it.”

“Loan me your Turtle toys. I’m
taking Ivy back to the ship.”

He didn’t hesitate, another reason
she loved him. After stripping off his surgical gear, Max handed her the vibro
gloves, force-field vest, and his wrist controls. As he entered her biometrics
as the new owner, scavengers walked by laden with blood-covered medical
supplies … blood she had shed.

Roz swallowed. She wasn’t innocent
anymore, by any definition. She spoke English. “I’m a killer now.”

“No,” Max said mechanically. “Three
judges convicted him. You gave him multiple chances, and he chose to become a
mass murderer with our equipment. You saved lives.”

“Echo said you wanted innocence.”

He touched her face. “You’re what I
need, the perfect partner, but I can’t go home with you yet. When the natives
heard I was a doctor, people came from all around. I can’t see the end of the
line, but I can’t bear to tell them no. Send the other doctors and supplies as
soon as you can.”

Then, Max ordered this prince of
the realm to carry the women to the shuttle. This time, Feeveerkahn listened.
With his entourage, he dragged her and Ivy to the shuttle in rickshaws.

On the way, Roz spotted the
professor’s bloody valise. “We’ll need that.”

The former prince delivered the
container with a treasure trove of data cubes into her arms. She cradled the
sum of a brilliant man’s lifetime in her arms, mourning the loss. How many
millennia could he have advanced the academy’s work? Perhaps his notes would
provide more hints to future students. She just hoped his last lecture would
give Echo enough information to plot the ship’s escape.

A few moments later, they arrived
at the shuttle’s charred skeleton. Feeveerkahn asked, “Anything else?”

Roz wiped her eyes, and the pain
made her voice squeak. “A jeweler’s lens and a spare pair of steady hands. My
right arm doesn’t want to follow orders right now or crawl into an access
tube.”

“Is this dangerous?” asked Feeveerkahn.

“Yes.”

“Then I will aid you myself. Enough
of my people have suffered today.”

She snorted as she knelt to open
the reactor controls. “Fine. Take off that fancy jacket. The metal buttons will
get you electrocuted.”

Feeveerkahn removed his coat immediately
and spread it at her feet to sit on. He may have been sexist, but he was a
gentleman.

She examined the delicate thermal
controls. How to pry them up? She didn’t have a tool that shape. All she
needed, though, was to dislodge the security interface to get to the wiring
underneath. “Grab the tool kit by the pilot’s chair. The one with the big
wrench.” While he obeyed, she estimated the time she had left to pull this off.
Ten minutes?

When the prince returned with her
gear, she grabbed the wrench with her left hand and smashed the reactor panel.
She consulted the schematics in the manual, “Clip this cable to the
ten-kilowatt line. Blue goes to blue.” Handing him the wire strippers, she
said, “You may need to cut into the line.”

“You’re right about being bossy.”

Roz raised an eyebrow. “You want to
be funny, or do you want to have the ability to jumpstart your other reactors?”

Hanging his head, the prince shaved
bare spots on the designated wires.

Max’s gloves seemed to work off
broadcast power. The vest didn’t have easy access either. The most obvious
power source was in the boxy wrist unit. After turning the silence generator on
and off, she examined Max’s favorite toy with a voltage detector as it
magically recharged itself. She marked the two most likely drilling spots.
Before the dangerous step, she emailed the professor’s final interview to Echo.
That way, someone else would know how to adjust the subbasement equations.

As Roz worked, she muttered phrases
like “step-down transformer” and “mahdra inductor” that puzzled the prince’s
translator. Seven minutes later, she had an odd assortment of pieces tied
together, including a scavenged coil from the cockpit heating system.

When she finished, Roz said, “Ivy
should just fit in the airlock between the cockpit and the gaping hole where
the cargo pod used to be. Put the leather bag under her head as a pillow.”

“This is going to work?”
Feeveerkahn asked doubtfully.

“Long enough to get me into orbit.”
I hope.
Roz wrapped more duct tape around a troublesome connection
before hopping into the cramped pilot’s couch. “I’d stand back all the same.”

She started the ship’s engine from
the cockpit, but it sounded like a two-stroke ethanol weed whacker. The gauge
increased to the minimum needed to generate the friction-dampening bubble
field. She reached down to touch Ivy’s hand. “Let’s find the future where we
both live.”