The Round Table (Space Lore Book 3) (12 page)

“This is never going to work,” she said.

Above them, there were hooks and cables for moving the bins. There was no panel in sight for operating it, however.

“Pistol, find the controls for the pulley system.”

The android nodded and disappeared to the far corner of the room.

Another series of laser blasts began bouncing off all the walls. When Morgan turned around, she saw Vere had picked one of the weapons off the ground and had begun firing it again, the same look of calm on her face. Almost none of her shots went out the open door, though. Most deflected off the walls and began zipping around her and her friends.

“I swear, I used to be a pretty good shot,” Vere said, her brow furrowed.

“Damn it,” Morgan yelled, grabbing Vere’s shoulder. She tore the blaster out of Vere’s hands, tossed it on the ground, then pointed to the metal bin. “I have a task I think suits you a little better.” Pushing Vere toward the container, she said, “Move this.”

Vere looked at the heavy container and frowned. “Come on, I just got done a shift on the lava fields.” When Morgan didn’t smile, she added, “I go away for a while and everyone loses their sense of humor.”

Without another word, she walked up to the container, placed both hands on the metal frame, and pushed. Every muscle in her shoulders, back, and arms bulged as she did so. The metal bin groaned. Slowly, a tiny bit at a time, the container scraped across the ground, leaving a pair of deep scratches in the metal floor. Morgan joined the effort and they began making noticeable progress.

After a minute, the container was halfway toward the hole she had cut into the wall. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the blur of a long tail and an enormous frame darting between the rows of containers on the other side of the room, hunting soldiers who had been trying to sneak up to Morgan and her friends.

After another minute of pushing, the container was flush against the wall and covering the hole. Morgan, hunched over and breathing heavily, looked up and saw that Vere wasn’t even sweating.

If anyone was going to try and attack them from that side, they would have to cut a hole through the explosives container and take the chance of destroying themselves and everything around them.

“What now?” Vere asked.

“We do the same thing for the main entrance.” Then, tugging on Vere’s elbow, added, “Come on, we need your muscles.”

Meanwhile, Traskk was waiting at the entrance, just off to the side of the open doorway. Any trooper who wanted to come in and try to capture them would have to get past the Basilisk’s claws, fangs, and tail. None of the Vonnegans were willing to try.

For a second time, Morgan and Vere pushed a container across the floor. Even as they were pushing, Morgan had to admit that Vere was doing most of the work.

Once the door was blocked, Traskk gave a soft growl.

Pistol was approaching with a handheld device in his palm. The android translated, “He says, ‘We’re safe. But now we’re even more trapped than we were before.’”

Morgan had been thinking the same thing. At the rate they were going, they were never going to get out of the room they were stuck in, let alone get off the planet.

26

Vere was aware of everything that was going on around her. She also knew the importance of getting off Terror-Dhome. And yet there was no urgency in the chaos around her. After having survived the worst aspects of the Cauldrons of Dagda, after learning all of the insights that had been taught to her by Mortimous, she was sure everything would work out for the best.

In one of her most recent conversations with the old sage, the two of them had discussed each part of her life. Why she had fled Edsall Dark and gone to Eastcheap. Why she had accepted the Green Knight’s challenge without considering its possible repercussions. Why she had set her hopes on a mythical armada of ships to save her kingdom.

“I’ve made so many mistakes,” she had said. “My entire life is one dumb decision after another.”

“Without those mistakes, would you be here?”

She didn’t take offense at the question because she knew that when he said
here
he meant the void in which she met with him and not the Cauldrons of Dagda where her physical body was.

She took a deep breath and sighed. “No.”

The sound of amusement came back to his voice. “How can they be mistakes then?”

“I just wish I’d done things differently.”

Looking back on every part of her life, she got the feeling that even as key events had played out, she had merely witnessed them rather than actually been a part of them.

“All that means,” Mortimous said, as if able to read her thoughts, “is that you are a far different person than the one who did those things.”

“Is that a good thing or a bad thing?” Vere had asked with a frown.

At the time this conversation had been taking place, her physical body had still been pushing the Circle of Sorrow. A blister the size of a large coin had ripped open on her hand but she didn’t notice. Nor had she noticed the eight-legged alien prisoner who collapsed only feet away from her, exhausted from the intense heat and the grueling work.

Mortimous had smiled and told her that she would have threatened to kill him years earlier. Now, she wanted to understand what he had to say. In that regard, she had changed for the better.

Looking back on the conversation, Vere thought of something she wanted to tell him. Instead of focusing her mind and having Mortimous appear in front of her, however, she knew she had to remain in the present and help her friends get away from this lava planet and from Mowbray’s forces.

27

Quickly looked up at the pair of Athens Destroyers hovering over the planet and at the swarm of Thunderbolts all around him before telling Cade that they were running out of options.

The response was immediate and more than a little panicked: “What does that mean? What am I supposed to do? Should I power the ship up and help you out?”

Quickly tried to think about what he would do if he were in Cade’s position. At least Quickly was able to face his attackers and take some of them with him. At least he could maneuver the Griffin Fire away from one enemy or toward another, depending on which offered the least amount of danger. Cade, on the other hand, was stuck inside a stationary vessel without many options.

There was only one thing he could think of. Under any other circumstances, he wouldn’t have mentioned it. But desperate times called for desperate measures.

“You’re going to have to break into one of the other ships parked on the spaceport.”

“What?” Cade yelled, fear taking the place of rational thought.

Quickly closed his eyes for a second, trying to remain calm. He was losing Cade to the chaos of the situation. He knew he had to be strong and confident in the hope that some of it would rub off on his friend.

“You’ll have to—”

A dozen laser blasts streaked past the Griffin Fire, momentarily distracting him.

Groups of four Thunderbolts were at every position around him. He slowed the ship down and threw the controls forward. The Griffin Fire came about in a sharp U-turn and then accelerated again. He fired into the group of approaching Thunderbolts, destroying two and forcing the other two to swerve in opposite directions. But still he was surrounded by Thunderbolts everywhere he looked.

“Listen, Cade. Breathe and relax. Everything will be okay.”

“I am breathing, but I won’t be much longer if we don’t get out—”

“Listen,” Quickly said, cutting him off. “All we can do is give them more time. To do that, we need to keep our wits about us, okay?” When he didn’t get a reply, he said again, “Okay?”

“Okay.”

“Good. So I’m going to need your help. All of the ships are focused on me. I need you to create a diversion.”

“By breaking into another ship?”

From Cade’s tone, Quickly imagined his friend had buried his face in his hands.

“Yes, by breaking into another ship. I’m going to draw the Thunderbolts away, and you’re going to get one of the other ships powered up. Set the autopilot to take off and head toward the Athens Destroyers.”

Quickly waited for a response, but there was only silence.

“Cade? Are you there?”

When Cade did respond, it wasn’t with words, but with laughter.

“Cade, get a hold of yourself.”

The howling died down after a few more seconds.

“Quickly?” Cade said, still amused.

“Yeah, what?”

“There’s only one problem.”

Quickly flinched at the explosion of light in front of the Griffin Fire. The black void of space was momentarily swapped out for the brilliant white of a proton torpedo exploding a short distance in front of him. When he blinked, everything was hazy shades of gray instead of crisp and distinct colors.

“And what problem is that?” he asked finally.

“I don’t know how to do any of the things you just mentioned.” The laughter erupted again, but this time Cade didn’t seem to be the least bit amused.

“I’ll talk you through it. Just relax.”

“That’s easy for you to say, you’re not—”

“Shut up!” Quickly yelled. “Shut up. Do you hear me? Get your act together. Do you know what Morgan would do to you if she saw you babbling like that in her cockpit? You’re supposed to be a Security Officer. Start acting like it.”

“I—”

“You nothing. Be quiet. If you haven’t noticed, I have about twenty Thunderbolts all around me. My front shields are already down. My rear shields are almost down. If you want to trade places, I’d be more than happy to switch with you.”

There was a moment of silence before Cade responded, his voice low and somber. “I’m sorry. What do I do?”

“Find a ship a safe distance from the Pendragon. Sneak inside. The Vonnegan troops probably left at least one of the other vessels open when they were searching the spaceport. Make sure no one on the ground sees you. Morgan might have all the guards focused on her, but we don’t know how long that will last. Once on board, the ship’s computer can walk you through the autopilot process. You won’t have to know how to operate the ship, let the computer do it for you. Set it to take off and head toward space, then get out before it actually takes off.”

“Quickly?”

A pair of laser blasts hit the Griffin Fire’s side. Alarms were blaring inside the cockpit. Quickly thought the ship was going to break into pieces around him.

“Just say whatever you want to say,” Quickly snapped.

“There’s a group of Vonnegan guards near the spaceport entrance.”

The Griffin Fire made a sharp turn away from the Athens Destroyers and raced back toward the prison spaceport. Six Thunderbolts came at him. He fired a pair of proton torpedoes—the final two remaining in the ship’s arsenal—and watched them speed ahead of his own vessel. One of the torpedoes was shot out of the sky, flashing an explosion that blocked the view between Quickly and the Thunderbolt pilots. The other one kept on ahead and hit its target.

Quickly threw the controls forward, then back again so the ship swerved around the blast. As he came around it, he saw one of the Thunderbolts go directly into the blast. A fuel hose ignited and the ship exploded. Two others tried to swerve out of its way in the same direction. The ships collided, each one losing a wing and hurtling out into space without being about to change directions.

The Griffin Fire was speeding toward the spaceport again. Scanning the ships there, he saw a Cirellian transport on the other side of the platform that would be perfect for Cade to break into. Twenty yards away, a group of ten Vonnegan troops was huddled by the entranceway, waiting for the Thunderbolts to destroy the Griffin Fire before venturing out across the platform. Quickly locked his blasters on them and fired. A pair of laser streaks shot down toward the entryway.

Quickly changed directions again, heading back toward the Athens Destroyers for another run.

The smoke cleared on the spaceport deck, revealing a smoldering heap of armor and helmets where the Vonnegan troopers had been.

“There,” Quickly said to Cade. “Now, go have fun.”

28

“The raiders have trapped themselves inside the explosives room?” Le Savage asked.

The officer in front of him smiled. “They have no way out, sir.”

Le Savage watched a video feed of the room on the monitor in front of him. The raiders had moved two of the large containers and were indeed stuck in the area of the facility designated for explosives storage. As he watched, the three remaining raiders, along with Vere, were removing the explosives from the container they had positioned to block the entrance. One by one, the group removed red parcels and stacked them a few yards away from the storage bin that had contained them.

“Does anyone know what they’re doing?” he asked.

None of his officers risked a guess.

Le Savage closed his eyes for a moment, willing the anger and frustration to dissipate. Before it could, his eyes opened, he grabbed the nearest officer by both lapels, and threw him over his shoulder and out the broken window. The officer screamed as he fell thirty stories and then splashed into the lava.

Le Savage turned to the other officers in the control room and said, “I don’t want them trapped. If they are trapped inside, it means your guards are trapped outside! I want them dead or captured. Not trapped.”

He thought about the chances of Mowbray sending a communication, asking how his favorite prisoner was doing. Or worse, actually stopping by Terror-Dhome for a visit so he could see for himself. If either of those things happened, it wouldn’t matter if Vere and her friends were trapped in a room where they would eventually die of starvation or by accidently blowing themselves up. All that would matter was that they weren’t on the prison grounds where they were supposed to be.

Heads would roll. Le Savage wouldn’t put it past Mowbray to make prisoners of all the officers who had been at the Cauldrons when the jailbreak took place, the warden included. Le Savage might even have the honor of pushing the Circle of Sorrow until he collapsed. An involuntary shudder ran through him.