Ice War, page 10
“They’re serious about this,” said Mosam. “Sounds like they plan to destroy the whole station.”
Yajain peered down the tunnel after Dara and Gellen. She activated the communicator stuck to the collar of her uniform and switched to the team’s channel. “Dara, are you alright?”
“We’re both fine,” said Gellen.
“We’re two floors down,” said Dara. “Couldn’t land with the station shaking like that.”
Pansar’s voice cut in over the channel.
“Don’t try to meet up. Doctor Merrant, Officer Chakal, get to the bottom of the station. We’ll have a thorn waiting for you there. Coe and Aksari, are you at the dock level?”
“We’re there,” said Mosam.
Yajain looked through the doorway into the broad wraparound docking chamber beyond. A few small mist ships hung in the air scattered through the docking room.
Mosam stepped through the doorway.
“I left my APV on the other side. Should be able to get us out of here.”
Yajain glanced at him, strands of hair flew past her face driven by the cold humid breeze blowing in from open docking doors.
“And back to the Crow.”
“Right, back to the Crow.” Mosam poked his head out of the doorway and looked both directions. Yajain followed his gaze. People ran across the floor in every direction, trying to secure any armed vessels in the bay for launch. Mosam ducked and slipped out of the doorway. Yajain followed him. She hoped he meant what he said about trying to get back to the Crow. Can I stop him if he doesn’t?
He pointed to a small craft with a tinted windscreen over its two-seat cockpit.
“That one’s yours?” Yajain asked.
Mosam nodded. They sprinted toward the tiny ship, easily a quarter the length of the Razor Crow except for the core which was six meters long and stretched from the rear of the cockpit and through the rest of the ship. For now, the core was dark, but the moment someone powered it up the arc field it generated would envelop the ship, allowing it to function as a minimal support system like a tiny pillar. Arc projection vessels, APVs, were commonly used for rescue missions and scouting. They reached the entrance to the ship under one swept back wing.
Yajain crouched and looked around the dock while Mosam fiddled with the passcode for the door’s locked ramp.
“This is it,” he said as he punched in a code.
The door didn’t move.
“You sure?”
“It’s been a while,” said Mosam. “Give me one more minute.”
“Will that help?”
Mosam grimaced, brow furrowed.
“Seriously, Yajain.”
She glanced toward the far wall of the dock as a fiery roar erupted from one ship near the open dock on that side. A second tyrant beam punched easily through the station’s wall and hit the vessel. Flames erupted from the hull and smoke billowed forth from a wrecked power system attached to a shattered core.
Mosam struck the pad with a few finger presses. The ramp fell down beside Yajain with a clank.
“I knew I’d remember it. Just needed the fire to remind me.”
“Good timing.” Yajain followed him up the ramp and into the cockpit.
Mosam hit the door controls on the console, then pulled a long lever to power up the core.
The springs in her chair poked Yajain’s back as she sat down.
“Is this a salvaged ship?”
“Funny what people will throw away, right?” said Mosam. He grabbed a control stick as the core began to glow a soft blue through the transparent maintenance hatch and transteel casement in the ceiling just behind them.
Yajain gripped the arms of the copilot chair as the APV lifted off the floor. Another docked vessel exploded to their right, the sound muffled only slightly by the hull of the APV. Mosam piloted the ship through an eruption of smoke spreading in front of them. He glanced at Yajain as they neared the open exit and the misty air beyond.
“Can you fly this thing?” he asked.
“You’re doing alright,” she said.
The APV shot out into the mist in a clearing ringed by floating caphodel trees. Yajain felt the springs poke her back sharply as Mosam pulled the stick and the APV rocketed upward, quickly reaching the misty air above the station.
“Can you fly it or not?”
“I’ve flown faster mist ships.”
“That’ll do.” He released the sticks as they leveled out. “Take the controls.”
Yajain grabbed the control stick, lurching forward from her seat, and awkwardly guided the APV in a slow arc around the top of the station’s high tower. Mosam stood and then swam from the cockpit into the APV’s cabin.
“Fly us closer to the tyrant. We’re going to take it down.”
“How?” Yajain called as she slid into the pilot’s seat.
“I have an energy cutter attached to the rear of the power core. Once it’s prepped we just need to get that ship to follow us.”
Yajain glanced at a holographic three-dimensional radar display. The large oblong shape of the tyrant ship ascended past the station, beams of hot light blazing through the forest to cut scars along trees and metal alike. It flew straight toward the APV.
“Well that part’s done,” she said.
“They must have figured out this was my ship,” Mosam said from a control panel in the little cabin of the APV behind the cockpit. “Almost ready to fire. Go evasive.”
Yajain yanked the control stick with both hands, pulling them into a dive past the station on the same side the tyrant ship climbed past. A pulse of light and fury splashed across the station’s wall. Flames exploded along the dark steel in front of them, covering the entrance Yajain recognized as the one to Hosh’s bar. A roar of collapsing air followed it, along with the acrid smell of burnt metal. She gritted her teeth, head pounding from the combination of speed and sound.
The tyrant ship dove in a whirl, following the APV.
“They just changed directions,” said Yajain.
“Amazing maneuverability.”
Yajain guided the APV in a straight line away from the tower. A crack of ballistics rang through the air. Boskem’s robot appeared from under the platform where they’d left it outside the bar. The tyrant ship’s side sparked with the impact. One of the tyrant’s four beams turned toward the robot. White hot light covered the fighting robot’s frame. Yajain didn’t envy Boskem’s eyes if he was seeing through the robot’s sensors without the shades common mist and arc vessels.
The tyrant’s ovoid bulk raced after the APV. It’s pursuit quickly began to overtake the slow, small vessel. Yajain glared at the hologram radar.
“They’re going to pass us!”
“Hit the blue button on the panel. It’ll double core output.”
Yajain didn’t hesitate. She slammed her fist onto the button. The APV accelerated, matching speeds with the tyrant vessel.
“That did it,” she said.
“Good. Keep us level now.”
They rocketed out of the forest through clouds of soaking mist completely filling the air. Only the points of two distant solnas remained visible in front of them. Yajain held the controls with a death grip, fighting to keep her hands from shaking. Her stomach lurched as a beam of hot light slashed across one wing and they veered in that direction. The tyrant vessel appeared only millimeters from the APV on the radar hologram.
Yajain’s eyes widened. Lights began to streak through the mist from behind them, turning clouds to hissing steam. Smoke billowed from both wings, but the core remained intact. She twitched the stick to dodge a beam that would have cut them in half. Strobing fire from the other side climbed across the hull, sending sparks and heat into the cabin and cockpit.
“Can you fire yet?” she asked.
“Not yet. They’re out of our firing arc.”
Yajain glanced back at him. His face was streaked with sweat, his hair black with smoke. He staggered to the cockpit and took the copilot’s seat. He gasped a breath of relatively clean air from the cockpit. More smoke started to fill up the cabin. He turned to Yajain.
“Line us up straight. I’ll fire.”
Yajain swallowed and turned back to the controls. She eased the ship carefully toward the flickering, hypnotic beam on the left where the tyrant was still firing in long pulses.
“They’ll hit us again if we line up with them,” Yajain said.
Mosam nodded with a wince.
“Better us than everyone on the station.”
Yajain glanced at him where he sat half-veiled by encroaching smoke.
“I won’t let them kill us.”
“Then we’d better kill them.”
Yajain’s eyes moved to the flash of heat to the left of the cockpit.
“I’m timing it.”
“Yajay.” Mosam coughed. “We’re almost there.” He turned toward her in his seat. “You know you don’t deserve to burn up out here, right?”
“Neither do you,” Yajain snapped. The beam cut out on the left. She swung the control stick to move them into the place the beam had been just an instant before. “Fire!”
Mosam’s palm came down on a control pad. The whole APV shook and the core above them buzzed with exertion. A deafening rumble like nearby thunder applauded, followed a smattering of diminishing claps. Just like graduation day at the academy. Yajain released the control stick numbly. An instant later, both of them flew from their seats, propelled by an invisible force.
Her chest hit the control panel, and the air rushed from her lungs. But at least her head missed the canopy. Mosam’s whole body crashed into the dome of the APV’s front windscreen. He bounced off the hard transteel and fell beside Yajain. She turned and pushed her back to the control console, and then braced her legs against the column that held up the copilot seat.
She glanced at Mosam. “Are you alright?”
He groaned and looked up from where he lay flat on his belly.
“Better than that.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You said I didn’t deserve to die.”
She looked at the smoking cabin of the APV. A hole ripped open in the ceiling and cold air rushed inside. The APV decelerated. Flames burning on the core’s power relay on the ceiling just behind the maintenance hatch jumped higher, blackening the metal and melting the plastic around it.
Yajain put a hand on Mosam’s shoulder, while her other moved toward her own heart.
“You should have known before.”
“I wanted to hear it from the lady herself.” He pushed himself into a sitting position beside her.
His head leaned on her shoulder.
The APV glided forward on momentum. The trails in the mist cut by the beams of the tyrant ship were silent and dim, slicing the clouds all around them. The hologram of the radar flickered on and off, but the shape of the tyrant’s ship was gone. Crackling fire fused the bottom of the core in places. A crack and a tearing sound announced the collapse of a strut supporting the core. The power relay shot blue sparks.
“That’s no good,” said Mosam numbly.
The APV’s engines stuttered into silence and the core went dark except for flickers of fire reflecting on its smooth underside. All the instruments and radar went dark. The APV entered free fall, plummeting into infinite misty darkness. Yajain wrapped an arm around Mosam’s shoulders as smoke rushed out of the APV from the tear in the hull. She looked down at his sweat and smoke smeared face. His eyes glinted, bright as ever.
Tears ran from her eyes.
“I wish you weren’t falling with me, but I’m glad you’re at my side.”
He smiled. The APV spiraled on an updraft, spinning into the cold void of darkness. Yajain held onto Mosam as they fell together.
Deafening winds gave way to a thunderous crunch of metal on hard packed soil. The APV shuddered from below until gradually all motion settled into freezing stillness. Tremors ran through her back and Yajain opened her eyes. Her mouth was dry. She wondered where she could find water now they’d stopped falling. In the chill air, a red emergency light blinked on battery power at the back of the cabin.
Yajain’s heat layer activated, switching on the power veins all over her body to warm her up. Her arm still lay across Mosam’s shoulders. He must have fallen asleep too because he lay slack against her. She gently eased from between the seats as the sound and shock died away. Nevertheless, he stirred.
“What did we hit?”
“I don’t know. We’re not moving anymore.”
“Not moving?” Mosam sat up fast, then winced as his arm struck the console near his shoulder.
Yajain climbed to her feet more carefully and offered him her hand. He took gripped her fingers and she helped him stand. Flakes of white floated through the tear in the ceiling material and the maintenance hatch with its missing panes of transplastic. Dark air above them lacked Solna or core to light it.
“We’re alive,” Yajain said.
“And not falling anymore.” Mosam nodded. “I like it.”
She glanced at him, a small smile forming on her face.
“I’m going to go and have a look around.”
She stepped into the rear part of the cabin and activated her arc lifts with a press of both palms and reached up to form a climb stroke. But the lifts did nothing. She felt no arc field, nothing tangible, and remained on the floor.
Yajain’s brow furrowed.
“Lifts aren’t working.”
“We must not have crashed into a pillar.” Mosam followed her into the little cabin and looked up at the hole in the ceiling.
Yajain turned her attention to the door. That whole side of the APV was crumpled and melted, the door fused shut.
Yajain reached felt for the temperature of the door with the back of her hand and found it as cold as the air around it. She tried to lever it open, but it wouldn’t budge. Mosam stared for a moment into the darkness visible through the gap between the ceiling and the darkened core. Then he grabbed a rung on the ladder under the maintenance hatch and climbed to the top.
“Let’s see where we are.”
Wind whipped his voice into the distance as he raised his head from the hatch. He ducked back inside, shivering and blinking. His hair was dotted with white flakes.
Yajain gave up on the door and glanced at him.
“Did you see anything?”
“Reef,” said Mosam.
“We’re on a reef?” Yajain couldn’t help the twinge of unreality she felt. “You’re sure?”
Mosam pressed both palms to his face.
“Have a look for yourself.”
Yajain passed him and climbed the ladder. She peered out into the storm of whipping wind and driven snow. Her loose hair blew around her head, but the view of a broad plain of white and gray appeared before her, lightless except for the tiny points of two Solnas high above, one red, and one blue. A blast of cold wind practically pushed her back into the APV. She ducked down and then dropped off the ladder.
She turned to Mosam.
“So this is a reef?”
He met her eyes.
“Ambana. There aren’t any other reefs known in Kerida Cluster.”
“It’s settled, right? People live here?”
“Most of the settlements are toward the center, yeah.”
Yajain shivered despite her heat layer. She folded her arms about herself.
“Guess you weren’t wrong about the cold season.”
A crazed grin played on his face.
“Well, now you’ve said it. Guess we should get ready to move when the closer solnas come around.”
She nodded and wondered what kind of supplies had survived the battle.
“Hope you packed some heavy coats on this thing.”
Harsh blue Solna light filtered through swirls of snow and reflected off the peaks of deep windswept drifts. Yajain pulled the ragged old coat tighter around her shoulders and turned her face from the wind. There hadn’t been any better cold weather gear in the APV, but luckily both Yajain and Mosam’s heat layers held. For now, she added mentally as Mosam pushed forward ahead of her, breaking a path through a drift.
He squinted forward into the icy gale.
“There’s a big drift a few hundred meters ahead,” he said.
“Can we cross it?” Yajain asked, raising her voice to reach him through the wind.
Mosam glanced at her.
“I’m not sure. But we have to try.”
“How far is the nearest settlement?”
“Probably thirty or forty kilometers.”
With her lifts inactive in the absence of an arc field, Yajain groaned inwardly. Her legs already felt sore from two hours of hiking through snow. So far, the reef just looked like a huge flat white sheet, wrinkled paper stretched out before her. She glanced forward. A towering ridge of drifted snow hid everything beyond from view.
“We’re going to have to climb that.” She took a deep breath.
“We’re using muscles that don’t get worked enough on pillars,” said Mosam. “But all humanity used to live in places like this. We can do it.”
“Some time has passed since then,” Yajain shouted at him over the wind’s howl. But this is still better than falling until we froze. This way we have a chance. She drove her shoe down into the snow. Snow water leaked into both shoe, though her heat layer’s foot coverings kept her from risking frostbite as long as it circulation continued and power remained.
Yajain and Mosam reached the base of the great snowdrift. They started to climb into brighter light. Yajain moved as fast she could to keep from sinking into the snow beneath her.
She struggled to the top and looked down the other side at a plain of glittering snow identical to what lay behind except for the shadows of different and more distant pillars falling over the frigid wastes and the dark outlines of rooted trees growing from the frozen soil, dirt packed atop the bodies of the organisms that formed the bones of the reef.
