Chapter 9
“There’s nowhere to land,” Alisa grumbled as she flew around the university, watching the view screen and also watching the holomap. A yellow highlighted building flashed, the one with Dr. Tiang’s office inside it. She could see it ahead of them, but the parking lots and shuttle pads were so full of wrecked vehicles and debris from toppled buildings that she couldn’t land the Nomad without crunching ground cars.
Fires burned in some of the buildings of the campus; others were flattened, roofs crumpled in on themselves and walls knocked down. Great fissures had torn open some of the parking lots, and half of a parking garage had tumbled into one such chasm. People were still streaming out of the buildings, some running, some limping, and some carrying others. They looked around, not seeming to know where to go once they escaped the burning structures. Many heard the Nomad and waved up, their faces pleading, asking for a rescue. Blood smeared some of those faces, and Alisa gritted her teeth, quickly calculating how many people could fit in the cargo hold. She might have come for the Tiangs, but the smoky sky did not hold any other rescue ships, not here on campus. Other places must have been deemed more important to help first.
“We can rappel out if necessary,” Leonidas said, walking into NavCom in his full armor. His full crimson imperial cyborg armor. Those people hoping for rescues might flee the other way when they saw him. “And if you tell us who we’re looking for and where he or she is,” he added a touch dryly.
Beck clomped into NavCom behind Leonidas, their broad forms making the space claustrophobic, especially since Yumi and Abelardus still huddled together by the sensor station, doing their calculations.
“A he and a she,” Alisa said, “though I don’t know if we can expect Admiral Tiang here. It’s his daughter who lives in the city and has an office in this building.” She pointed to the one they were circling. “It’s the middle of the workday in the middle of the workweek, so I’m guessing she’s there.” Of course, she might have taken the day off to prepare for her upcoming wedding…
Leonidas’s lips pressed together. That did not look like an expression of approval.
“I see,” he said.
“I’ll take anyone else who’s injured and needs a ride to the hospital, too,” Alisa said. “Assuming you don’t scare them away with your imperial ferociousness.”
“I feel about as ferocious as a puffball fish right now.” Leonidas did look weary behind his faceplate, more than his voice ragged. The Nomad and its crew had been through a lot since the last sleep cycle.
She offered him an encouraging smile. “A puffball fish bristling with rifles and knives and bottle openers and whatever else can pop out of that armor.”
“No bottle openers,” he said.
“No? What happens when you need a beer after a big day of battle?” Alisa frowned as a sinkhole in another parking lot promised that it, too, would be a bad place to land.
“I can twist open a bottle with my fingers.” He tapped his gauntleted thumb and forefinger together like pincers.
“He twists necks off that way, too, I hear,” Abelardus grumbled, though he did not look at Leonidas. He pointed at the sensor readings in front of Yumi. They had tied in her netdisc and seemed to be getting satellite telemetry updates.
Leonidas looked at the back of Abelardus’s head, perhaps contemplating twisting something of his, but ultimately gave Alisa an abbreviated salute, rounded up Beck, and headed for the hatchway.
“Take some rope,” Alisa said, “but I’m still hoping to find a landing spot.” She had no doubt that Leonidas could rappel down—or simply jump out of the cargo hatch—but how would he get rescued people up into the ship? Throw them thirty feet into the air? That wouldn’t work well, especially if they had to take a whole crowd aboard.
“The roof is open,” Abelardus remarked.
“The roof is smoking and half collapsed.”
“Your last landing spot was a junkyard. I didn’t realize you were picky.”
“I was fairly certain the junkyard wouldn’t collapse when a freighter came down upon it.”
“You didn’t take a very good tour of it then,” Abelardus said.
“Perhaps landing in the middle of a fire will be good practice,” Yumi said.
“Practice for what?” Alisa turned the Nomad toward the building for a better look at the roof. Unfortunately, Abelardus might be right. Unlike the parking areas around it, it was flat and open, aside from the hole on one side. And the smoke coming out of it. And that fire eating at the corner.
She grimaced. This was not a good idea.
“Using a combination of the available satellite information and Abelardus’s Starseer senses, we believe we’ve pinpointed where the staff attack came from,” Yumi said. “Right before the earthquake, a beam of energy arced toward the city, somehow burrowing deep into the ground to affect the fault line rather than destroying anything directly.”
“Where did it come from?” Alisa prompted, slowing down and pointing the nose toward the end of the roof that appeared most stable. She tried not to imagine dropping through it—and through the four floors below it.
“Deep within the Belt of Fire,” Yumi said.
“The what?”
It sounded vaguely familiar, but Alisa had never lived on Arkadius and did not know the geography that well.
“An equatorial region where several fault lines come together. There are numerous active volcanoes, both on the continents and in the sea. It’s quite a fascinating area.”
“Oh? Are there mushrooms and drug ingredients there?” Alisa slowed the ship to a hover and carefully lowered them to the roof. She was starting to believe Yumi could find something fascinating about any area.
“As a matter of fact, there are numerous medicinal herbs that grow in the rainforests there. There’s even a rare frog with skin that becomes hallucinogenic when cooked. It goes for an incredibly high price. Some of the back-to-the-wilders have trained the native wolfkins to sniff out the frogs. They catch a few, sell them for enough to buy real estate in the city, and give up their nomadic ways.”
“You’re a font of information, Yumi.”
“I would very much like to try deep-fried frog skins someday.”
“Maybe you can put them on Beck’s shopping list.”
The roof creaked and shifted under the Nomad’s weight. Alisa grimaced, again thinking of plunging through all the way to the bottom floor. Taking off from the basement would be a challenge.
Alisa hit the comm to the cargo hold. “Leonidas? Beck? You two can go, along with anyone else who wants to be heroic alongside you.” She glanced at Abelardus, who only made a sour face. She didn’t truly expect him to charge into a burning building when he didn’t have armor or a fire suit, but then again, he might be able to protect himself from smoke inhalation with those invisible shields he could make. “Office 307B, third floor. If you run across other injured people along the way, bring them back. We’ll get them out and drop them off at a hospital. A hospital we haven’t previously visited.”
“Acknowledged,” Leonidas said, his voice as professional as always, despite the raspiness.
“Beck couldn’t afford these frog skins,” Yumi said. Maybe she had been contemplating the shopping list while Alisa spoke.
“He’s going to be wealthy one day. He has connections now, you know. It’s only a matter of time before he’s won the love of the galaxy through his barbecue sauces.”
“Aw, thanks, Captain,” came Beck’s voice over the comm. “I didn’t know you had so much confidence in me.”
“You’re an inventive and talented man, Beck. Now, go kidnap Dr. Tiang for me, will you?”
“Kidnap? I thought we were rescuing people.”
“The difference between kidnapping and rescuing is very subtle.”
“Not to the victim,” Yumi said.
“Leonidas, her first name is Suyin, and she might be slightly alarmed at seeing an imperial cyborg, so send Beck in first when
you reach the office. He can sweet-talk her.”
“I don’t even know her or why we’re getting her,” Beck said.
“Just smile in that affable way of yours and offer her muffins.”
The roof shifted again as something groaned, then made a crunching sound. The Nomad slumped down a few more inches.
“By the way,” Alisa added, “alacrity would be appreciated for this mission.”
“Always,” Leonidas said.
“She wants alacrity and muffins,” Beck said. “She’s a demanding captain.”
“Always,” Leonidas repeated.
The cargo hatch status indicator flashed as the door opened, and the two men left the Nomad. As Alisa checked the sensor station to see if any other ships were close, she caught Yumi giving her a disapproving look.
“Look, we’re not kidnapping anyone,” Alisa said, assuming that was the reason for it. “It was a joke. We’re saving them. They’ll be grateful to see us.”
“I doubt anyone on this planet will be grateful to see an imperial cyborg,” Abelardus said. “Even one with muffins.”
“They will if he carries them out of a burning office.”
Alisa frowned at the number of ships and shuttles on the sensors. Had there been that many a few minutes ago? She assumed they were involved with rescuing people, but their proximity to the campus made her uneasy.
The roof creaked again. Alisa considered lifting off and flying around while waiting for Leonidas and Beck to complete their task. A part of her wished she was down there with them, so she could be the first one to speak to Dr. Tiang and perhaps convince her that the armored men were friends and not foes, but a burning building was no place to run around without combat armor. She just hoped they weren’t wasting time. She could feel Abelardus’s gaze upon her and sensed his agitation, his desire to go after the staff wielder.
“Can you tell if there are still people in the building?” Alisa asked him. Maybe she should have asked that before sending her men in.
“There are,” Abelardus said. “Some are trapped in a room right under us. They’re terrified.”
Alisa grimaced. That gave her another reason to prefer that the Nomad not fall through the roof.
“One leaped out the window, risking broken bones. There are a few pockets of people on the lower floors too. I don’t have any idea where that office is or if your victim is in there.”
“Starseers can’t read plaques on walls?”
“Not unless they’re in a telepathic link with a person and seeing the plaques through their eyes.”
Alisa tapped the console next to the comm buttons, tempted to ask Leonidas to share his helmet feed, but a beep from the sensor panel distracted her.
“Two shuttles are heading toward the campus,” Yumi said.
“Medical shuttles or armed military shuttles?”
“Ah, one seems to be medical—it’s veering off to land next to a flattened building on the outer edge of the campus. The other one does appear to be military. At the least, it has weapons. It’s heading in this direction.”
“Wonderful.” Alisa settled lower in her seat, as if that might keep her ship from being noticed.
The roof groaned under them again. Her thought of taking off and flying around until the men were done returned, but now wasn’t the time to go for a cruise. She was sure the military shuttle had come to help with rescues, but if it spotted the Nomad, it might be distracted from its primary mission.
“Captain,” Mica said over the comm, “I’ve got all these alerts going off in engineering about the lack of stability in the ground underneath us.”
“That’s because it’s a roof, not the ground.”
“An unstable roof?”
Alisa eyed the plumes of smoke rising up from all sides and the hole that was growing where the flames had already eaten through the roof on the opposite end. “Slightly unstable, yes. The good news is that all the smoke coming out of the windows below us may keep that military shuttle from noticing us.”
“I don’t think that’s true, Captain,” Yumi said. “Its sensors will tell them of our presence, the same way our sensors are telling us about them.”
“I know, but maybe they’re more focused on their task than on us. I was being optimistic.”
Mica groaned.
“More alerts?” Alisa asked.
“No, that was my response to your optimism.”
“Ah.”
The silver oblong shape of the military shuttle came into view through the smoke, the craft banking in a lazy circle. Banking and heading toward the building where the Nomad perched.
Alisa hit the button to close the cargo hatch, then toggled the comm on again. “Leonidas? We have visitors. We may have to take a quick trip and pick you up later.”
His channel came on, and the sound of fire crackling and wood snapping came over it before he spoke.
“We checked the office, Alisa,” he said, his voice quiet.
“And?” She hoped he wouldn’t tell her that the doctor was there but dead.
“It’s empty. We’re looking around on the floor. We’ve freed several trapped people so far.”
“That’s good,” Alisa said, while she winced inside. Maybe the doctor had made it outside already. Or maybe she hadn’t come to work today.
“If you’re leaving, we’ll usher the survivors outside,” Leonidas said. Survivors. Did that imply that they had passed people who hadn’t survived? “So far, those capable of it have been more inclined to run in that direction than listen to us.”
“Might have something to do with your scary red armor,” Beck put in. “Not sure they’re running outside so much as they’re fleeing the cyborg.”
“Whatever gets them out of the burning building,” Leonidas said, his voice cooling a degree.
“The energy signature of that shuttle is increasing,” Yumi said. “Their weapons are—”
“I see it,” Alisa said, slapping the button to raise the shields. “We’ll be back shortly, Leonidas.”
Alisa grabbed the thruster controls, forcing herself to ask for only a fraction of their lift power instead of having them roar to maximum. She didn’t know if Leonidas had yet freed the people Abelardus said were in the room under the Nomad, and she did not want to drop the ceiling on their heads.
The military shuttle fired two e-cannon blasts. Not yet clear of the roof, Alisa was forced to let the Nomad take the beating. Fortunately, the shuttle did not have the powerful weapons of larger ships. Even so, the dead-on strike took the shield power down a notch.
The smoke billowing from the building intensified, shrouding the Nomad as it flew upward, and the sky disappeared from view. A thunderous snap came from below, and the portion of the roof where they had landed collapsed. Flames poured through the gap, writhing and twisting as they leaped.
“Damn it,” Alisa snarled as she turned their ship away, twisting in an evasive maneuver. They avoided the second round of e-cannon blasts, but that did nothing for the people in that building. “Leonidas—Abelardus said there were people under us on the top floor, and the roof just collapsed. Can you check on them? Please?”
“Yes,” he said.
There wasn’t time for a longer conversation. The shuttle streaked through the smoke, jumping on the Nomad’s tail.
Doubting she could outrun the craft, Alisa stayed low and steered through the buildings and wreckage of the campus, searching for a way to lose their pursuer. The shuttle fired relentlessly, not seeming to care that it was doing damage to the surroundings whenever it missed. Alisa worried that those blasts would slam into buildings with people still in them. But that did not keep her from using those structures as cover as she weaved between them. She hated the idea of innocents being hurt in the chase, but what was the alternative? To surrender? To sit there and let the shuttle hammer on her shields until the attacks got through?
“Captain,” came Alejandro’s disgruntled voice over the comm. “My patient isn’t doing we
ll after being exposed to that gas, and I’m attempting to stabilize him.”
“Sounds like a good idea,” Alisa said, too busy flying to worry about the implications of Durant needing “stabilizing.”
“If you could keep the ship steady, it would be appreciated.”
“I’ll put it down as a goal for the day.” Alisa shook her head. “Don’t you love the joys of evasive maneuvers in full gravity?” she asked no one in particular as she swept around a copse of trees in a small park in the middle of campus. The lush grass and oaks were oddly undisturbed in the aftermath of the earthquake and all the chaos going on around them.
With the shuttle right behind, Alisa flew the Nomad in circles around the copse, hoping she could entice the other pilot to get too close, to smash into a tree. Unfortunately, the shuttle was small and maneuverable, more maneuverable than the Nomad.
“What’s new?” she muttered. “Three suns, he’s so close that he could lick our butts.”
“No doubt a tasty treat,” Abelardus said.
“No chance of you befuddling his mind, eh?” she asked.
“Into believing our butts aren’t tasty treats?”
“Yumi, smack him, please.” Alisa grimaced as the shuttle fired again, e-cannon blasts slamming into the back of the Nomad. “No, wait. Take a closer look at that shuttle instead. Do they have shields up?” She noticed that the craft was flying impossibly close to those trees, closer than it should have been able to with an energy buffer around the hull.
“I’m not reading anything, Captain.”
“They’re probably putting all the power into their weapons, since they can tell that we don’t have weapons.”
An idea percolated through Alisa’s brain as she took one more swoop around the park, this time, rolling sideways and diving between two trees. Something toppled with a clank somewhere in the back of the ship. Chickens squawked uproariously. A curse came from sickbay.
Alisa ignored it all, envisioning her plan and working to implement it. The shuttle was close. Very close. She had eighty percent shield power, despite several hits. She could afford to take a little more of a beating, providing there was time to recharge the shields later.