Echoterminus: Echogenesis Book 3, page 25
The rebel must have heard something at the last moment, for he started to turn in the second before Gramm brought the chunk of debris down on top of his skull.
DeWitt staggered back, then fell bonelessly to the ground without uttering a single word or cry. Quickly, Gramm looked toward the lander, afraid that Piper and Wardell might have come back out, but for the moment, they were alone. Leaning down, he grabbed DeWitt by one shoulder, only for the rebel to flail weakly at him with his fists.
Gramm brought the rock down on DeWitt’s head a second time, and this time DeWitt stopped moving. Then he took hold of the rebel again, fuelled by panic as much as anything else, and started dragging him toward the barn door.
When he got there, he slammed the flat of his hand against the door’s planks three times before he realised a thick chain had been strung through the handles and tied with an anchor hitch, holding them shut. Swearing under his breath, he hurriedly tugged at the chain until, at last, it came loose.
SAM
Someone inside must have heard, for as soon as the chain fell away the door slid open, and Gramm found himself face to face with Ethan. The doctor gaped at Gramm, then dropped his eyes to take in DeWitt’s still form. Without hesitation, Ethan reached down and grasped the rebel by his legs and dragged him inside. Then Gramm was inside, too, and the door slammed shut once more.
At first, they crowded around him: Sam pulled his son into a hug while the rest of them gathered close around the two of them. Someone whooped, followed by a chorus of hushes, and then there was silence again.
“DeWitt,” Sam said to Ethan, who had dragged the rebel further inside the barn before laying him down on the floor. “Is he unconscious?”
Ethan looked up from where he was kneeling next to DeWitt. “I’m afraid he’s dead.” He nodded to Gramm. “Guess you hit him pretty hard.”
“I’m…I didn’t mean to,” said Gramm. He stared down at the rebel’s still form in apparent disbelief.
“It’s okay,” said Sam, putting his hand on his son’s shoulder. “You did what you had to do.”
“Traynor murdered his own son in front of us,” Ethan added. “They’re leaving us all here to die. Believe me, Gramm, when I say you did the right thing.”
Gramm blinked at the doctor, and Sam saw his gaze shift to take in Sean’s corpse, laid out in the barn’s rear.
“I don’t understand,” Gramm said to his father. “Abandon you? Why?”
“Vic’s gone out of his mind,” said Sam. “Even more so than before. Angelina and Anna already told us how you got back up here.”
“More to the point,” said Ethan, “can you tell us what’s going on out there? How much have you seen?”
Gramm filled them in as best they could. “So the drones still haven’t taken off?” Sam asked.
“Not yet. I saw Karl and Kevin working on them. Piper and Wardell are moving fuel tanks into that new lander. I…”
He faltered and swayed. Ethan stepped quickly toward Gramm, grabbing hold of his arm to keep him upright.
“How long has it been since you drank any water?” Ethan demanded. “Or eaten anything?”
“Let him sit down,” said Irish.
“I’m fine,” Gramm tried to reassure them. “Really. I used one of the cots while I was hiding in here.”
“You look like you’ve been through hell,’ said Irish, who, together with Ethan, guided Gramm back over to the cots.
Gramm gave up arguing and sat down. A moment later someone handed him a flask and he gulped down water. He handed the emptied flask back to Irish, and then his eyes grew wide.
“My backpack,” he said hoarsely.
“What backpack?” asked Sam.
“It’s still outside,” Gramm croaked. “Along with two rifles and a bunch of guns.” He pushed a hand through his hair, his face twisted up in torment. “Shit, shit, shit,” he moaned. “I left them by the grain silo.”
“Hang on,” said Irish.
Sam turned to watch as Irish ran over to the barn door, sliding it open a crack and peering outside. Then she pushed it wider and slipped out of sight. Morgan was next to step up to the door, keeping vigilant until Irish reappeared a minute later with a backpack over her shoulders and a rifle in either hand.
“Hey,” Sam called over, just as Morgan was about to slam the door shut again. “Leave it a fraction open and keep an eye out for anyone coming this way.”
Morgan nodded, and slid the door shut save for a tiny sliver.
“Anyone see you?” Sam asked Irish.
“I didn’t see anybody close by,” she replied breathlessly, handing the two rifles to Ethan and Angelina. Then she dropped to her knees by the backpack and ripped it open. Pistols and boxes of ammunition spilled out onto the floor of the barn.
Ethan looked over at Gramm with a grin so wide it nearly split his face in half. “Smart kid,” he said, reaching down to pick up some of the rifle ammunition.
Sam stared back at his son. “Where in the hell did you get all these? They didn’t come from the armoury!”
“I found them inside the new lander,” Gramm said tiredly.
“Wait,” said Irish in amazement. “You went inside it?”
“I saw Traynor and the rest of them forcing you all in here,” Gramm explained. He smoothed his hands down his face and blinked, then gratefully accepted more water from Irish. “The lander was completely unguarded. Once I was inside, I saw the fab bay was full of newly printed guns and ammunition. I took as many as I could carry.”
“Doesn’t take much to guess why the crew printed them,” Ethan said to Sam.
“Do you know where they are?” Gramm asked his father. “The crew of that lander, I mean. I saw Traynor coming out of it, and I didn’t see anyone inside.”
Gramm started back in shock when Keira appeared in front of him. “Did you see a boy and girl?” she demanded.
“It’s okay,” said Sam. “She’s been locked up in here with the rest of us.”
“I have two children,” Keira said urgently to Gramm. “Connor and Lucia. My father took them on board the lander. Did you see them?”
“No.” Gramm shook his head, then hesitated. “I thought I heard someone moving about inside one of the bays, but I didn’t look to see what was going on in case I ran into one of your people. Instead, I headed straight to the fab bay and grabbed what I could before your father came back.” He looked around at everyone. “So no one knows what happened to the crew?”
“Vic told us they were all dead when he got to the new lander,” said Sam. “I could tell he was lying. About what exactly, we don’t know.”
“Hey!” Morgan called out from over by the barn door. “It’s the drones—they’re taking off!”
Almost immediately, and by unspoken consent, they abandoned any notion of remaining in the barn and planning a more stealthy attack. Everyone started grabbing weapons from Gramm’s backpack and loading them up. Ethan handed Sam a pistol and ammunition, and he stared down at it, wondering if he had ever been in control, or only deluded himself into believing he was.
Still, he had to try to maintain some kind of order rather than risk everyone running straight into armed resistance. He hurried over to the barn door where Morgan was still keeping vigil and peered outside. Three small, dark shapes rose up from the drone station as he watched, and they soon ascended out of sight.
The sky was darker now: night was fast approaching. At a guess, they had an hour, possibly less, before the Cents resumed their assault on the mesa.
Or would they, he wondered? Now that there was no way onto the mesa—or indeed off it, except aboard the new lander—would they give up their assault, and melt back into the forest for another half century?
Somehow he didn’t think they would. The Cents had halted their attacks in the past only because everyone on board the landers—or nearly everyone—was dead. Their community on the mesa had been an aberration, and one he suspected the Cents were absolutely determined to destroy this time around. Traynor had said as much himself, and as much as he loathed the idea of agreeing with Vic on anything, in this respect, he was probably right.
“Wait!” Keira shouted over the tumult. “If you go running out there, there’s nothing to stop my father closing the ramp and taking off in the lander!”
“And leave his own people behind?” said Irish. “I don’t think so.”
“No!” Keira shook her head violently. “You don’t know him like I do. This code for the Tsiolkovsky—if he has that, he doesn’t need anyone else. Not even his own people.” She looked around at them all. “Look where I am. Do you think he’d do anything less to Piper? Or Karl? Or Wardell? Why wouldn’t he, when he can call down a whole colony of new Karls and Pipers?”
“Keira’s right,” said Sam. “We can’t go rushing out there, guns blazing. Even if we stop the drones, we’d be stuck here with no way off.” He nodded to Keira. “If you’ve got any ideas, I’m all ears.”
Keira looked relieved. “Let me go to my father on my own,” she said. “I can get close to him. None of you can.”
Irish stabbed a finger toward Sean’s body, where it lay under a blanket. “You want to talk to him after that? How do you know he won’t just kill you like he did your brother?”
Keira swallowed visibly, but looked back at Irish with determination. “It’s the only way,” she insisted. “At the very least, it would delay him.”
“And you’re going to do what?” Irish’s voice took on a mocking tone. “Talk him down? Get him to change his mind?”
“I don’t know,” Keira admitted. “I’ll think of something.”
Ethan looked at her with an expression that clearly expressed just how little he trusted Vic’s daughter. “What you mean,” he said, “is you’ll fly off with him and the kids and leave the rest of us to die.”
“She’s not going to do that,” said Sam, putting as much authority into his voice as he could muster. “She already helped us by delaying work on the drones, and now Vic’s left her here to die. She’s on our side.” He looked at Keira. “You are, aren’t you?”
Keira swallowed, then nodded.
Please God, thought Sam, let me be right this one time.
“I’ll go with Keira,” said Irish, who held a pistol by her side. She gave Sam a look that made it clear her true intent was to keep an eye on Keira.
“Me too,” said Angie. “I don’t know a thing about drones anyway.”
“Then let’s think this through,” said Sam, turning to the rest of them. “Keira will keep Vic from taking off before we can get on board. Joon, Ethan—I need backup at the drone station. Can you—?”
“Hell, yes,” said Ethan, and Joon nodded without hesitation.
“Anna, Simon, Florence—you stay here for now,” said Sam. He turned to Belle and Morgan, Joshua and Irish’s two daughters. “Stay here with them. Be ready to run to the new lander as soon as one of us gives you the signal. Anna, help Gramm if he needs it once it’s time to move.” He looked around at them all. ”Everyone got that?”
They all nodded, some more hesitantly than others. Gramm looked like he wanted to get up and follow the rest of them out of the barn, but he was smart enough to stay where he was.
“Then it’s a plan,” said Sam, pushing the barn door wider and looking back outside. “Let’s go.”
KEIRA
Sam, Joon and Ethan headed for the drone station, while Keira led Irish and Angelina across the decimated crop fields toward the new lander. The sky had turned dark, making it easier to move without being seen.
She and the two other women were halfway to their destination when a sonorous wail rose up from the forest below the mesa: an all-too familiar howl of rage and triumph that, she knew, would not abate until sunrise. An attack had not yet come, but she felt sure it was close.
Up ahead, she saw a figure pushing something toward the new lander’s ramp.
“Down,” Keira called over her shoulder, coming to an immediate halt and hunkering low.
They had stopped beneath the tip of one of the old lander’s wings, where the shadows were deeper. When she looked over her shoulder, she was relieved to see the two other women had complied immediately. Turning back around, the figure approaching the new lander resolved into Piper. She was pushing a trolley with a fuel tank strapped to it.
“Hey,” said Joon, her voice barely audible over the massed howling of Cents. “Didn’t Gramm say Wardell was with Piper?”
Before Keira could reply, a single shot echoed across the mesa from the direction of the drone station. Piper came to a sudden stop and turned to stare back toward the station. Then she broke into a run, pushing the trolley toward the lander as fast as she could.
“I can shoot her from here,” said Irish, pushing herself upright.
“No!” Angelina almost shouted. “She’s coming from the fuel silo. Hit that tank she’s pushing, and you’d blow up the rest of the mesa!”
Keira had no idea what they were talking about, but when she looked around again, she took note of the cylindrical tank strapped to Piper’s trolley. She dimly recalled times in the past when her father had salvaged similar tanks from derelict landers while explaining what they could do.
Without further hesitation, Keira pushed herself off the ground and started running toward Piper. If she managed to get on board the lander she would be able to warn her father—and then, most likely, he would seal the lander with Connor and Lucia inside.
Then Angelina went flying past her, running faster than Keira had thought the woman capable, given her indolent life on the mesa. Piper, meanwhile was so focused on getting the trolley inside the lander that at first she didn’t notice Angelina running toward her. Then she stumbled to a halt, swinging her rifle off her shoulder and bringing it to bear on Angelina.
Angelina had almost reached Piper when the shot spun her halfway around. Keira’s heart leapt into her mouth when she saw the mesa-dweller collapse to the ground.
Then she was running past Angelina and straight toward Piper, seeing her bringing the rifle up to shoot at her in turn…
The shot went wide, and Keira crashed into Piper, knocking her backward onto the base of the ramp hard enough to send the rifle tumbling from her grasp. Then a blade—Keira’s own hunting knife—appeared in Piper’s hand. The blade rose up, then stabbed down into Keira’s hip.
Keira bit back a scream, and she hit Piper in the face as hard as she could. She thought of the way Piper had stood watching, doing nothing as her father murdered her brother; how her face had betrayed not a hint of emotion when her father dragged her two children from her—and hit her again. Then she rolled away from Piper and saw the heavy fuel tank lying on the not-grass next to the trolley. Adrenaline gave her the strength to snatch it up and raise it high above Piper’s head.
Piper’s mouth opened in a scream just before Keira brought it swinging down.
NINETEEN
KEIRA
The tank rolled to the bottom of the ramp, leaving a dark trail of blood behind it. Keira fell back onto the hard soil next to the ramp, feeling dizziness wash over her.
She looked over to see Irish kneeling by Angelina. “Is she alive?”
Irish looked over at her. “Just. We need to get her into this lander’s medbay.” Her gaze shifted to take in the blood spilling from Keira’s thigh wound. Then she stood, quickly tearing a strip of cloth from her shirt.
“Here,” said Irish, hurrying over to her. “Let me—”
“I’ll do it,” Keira said curtly, putting out a hand. She felt too hot, sweat stinging her shoulders and back. Dizziness again crashed over her like a wave, and then was gone.
Irish hesitated, then nodded sharply and handed Keira the length of cloth. Working quickly, Keira used it to tie a tourniquet around her thigh above the wound.
A faint vibration rolled through the ramp beneath Keira’s feet.
He knows, Keira realised: perhaps her father had been watching through one of the many external cameras dotted around the lander’s hull. Or perhaps he had heard the commotion, even from high up in the command deck.
Whatever the explanation, he wasn’t taking any chances.
“Get her inside,” said Keira, her voice edged with panic.
Irish quickly got one of Angelina’s arms over her shoulder and managed to get her upright. Moving as fast as her injury would allow, Keira got hold of Angelina’s other arm. The three of them ascended the ramp just as it began to shudder upward with a mechanical whine. Piper’s corpse slid bonelessly from the side of the ramp and onto the dusty ground.
Within moments, they were sealed inside.
They used the platform by which the lander’s construction robots moved through the craft’s interior to transport Angelina to the medbay deck. Moving quickly, and under Irish’s direction, they placed Angelina on the bay’s operating table. Irish reached up to activate the auto-surgical unit suspended overhead before tapping at different screens arranged on the walls.
“Go find your kids,” Irish said over her shoulder as she worked. “I’ll take care of this. And good luck.”
As she searched, Keira came across cabins and bays, the doors of which opened automatically at the slightest touch. Many were filled with machinery and devices beyond her comprehension, and for some reason she could not make sense of, this aroused anger deep within her chest.
Breathe, Keira told herself, sucking air deep into her lungs before letting it out slowly. To be angry was to lose the capacity for rational thought: something her father had taught her, long ago.
It took a cool head to win a battle.
Then she heard a groan.
In an instant, Keira’s hunting knife, which she had liberated from Piper’s body, was in her hand. She gripped it hard enough to hurt, her every sense coming alive. The background thrum of the ship’s automated systems seemed to her like the breathing of some vast animal as she explored its inner workings.
