"What's a Khalid?"
"It's not a thing. It's a person. A Somali. A vulture. The worst of them all. He's coming. He must have heard our transmissions. He will kill us if he finds us here. How far away are you?"
Abbi was still in the boys' room. She had picked up the toy drill again. Other than that she hadn't moved.
"We're ten minutes from the cargo bay," said Rena. There were hatches to open and corridors to traverse.
"You don't have ten minutes," said Arjuna. "I need you in the ship now. Find a faster way out."
"And if we can't?"
"I can't wait for you. I'm sorry. Hurry. I'll give you five minutes." He clicked off.
This wasn't happening. Five minutes. "Abbi. Let's go. We have to move."
Abbi didn't look up. Rena flew to her, grabbed her by the shoulders, shook her. "Move! We need to go now!"
"So go then," Abbi said casually, shrugging off Rena's grip.
She was giving up, Rena realized. She was choosing to die here. Rena grabbed her by the shoulders again. "Listen to me. I am getting off this wreck and you are coming with me."
Abbi brushed Rena's arms away. "Leave me alone." She tried to turn away, but Rena wasn't having any of it. She grabbed Abbi and threw her toward the door. It was easy to do in zero-G; Rena's feet were grounded, and Abbi's weren't.
Abbi spun awkwardly but caught herself in the doorway. "You can't force me. So don't even try."
Abbi was right, of course. Rena couldn't force her. She couldn't drag her back to the ship with Abbi kicking and resisting the whole way. But what could Rena do?
"I'm not leaving you here," said Rena.
"Then we both die."
The resignation in Abbi's voice was as frightening as what was coming. It was as if she were dead already. There was no convincing her, Rena realized. Abbi's mind was set.
Rena moved to her. "I'm sorry, Abbi."
"For leaving me? Don't be."
"Not for leaving you," said Rena. "For doing this." She reached behind Abbi's helmet and yanked out the oxygen line. Abbi's eyes widened with panic as the air in her helmet was sucked out the valve. She opened her mouth, gasping desperately for breath, then she lost consciousness, and her head lolled to the side. Rena thrust the oxygen tube back onto the valve and checked Abbi's vitals as Abbi's helmet refilled with air. Abbi's heart was beating. Pulse was weak, but there. Rena grabbed her and pushed her limp body out into the hall. If Abbi wouldn't come voluntarily, Rena would pull her back to the ship. The question was how. Rena couldn't have Abbi's appendages sticking out and snagging on things or hitting walls and hatches. They'd move faster if Abbi were tight in a fetal position.
Rena grabbed the coiled harness strap on her hip and pulled out several meters of slack. She bent Abbi and bound her legs up tight to her chest. Next came the arms. Rena folded Abbi's arms inward and strapped them down as well, as if Abbi were hugging her knees. It wasn't ideal, but it would have to do. Rena checked her watch. One minute already spent.
I'll give you five minutes.
Rena looked to her left, the way they had come. The spray-painted arrow on the wall at the end of the hall pointed her back toward the cargo bay. Ten minutes that way.
She looked to her right. The corridor extended another twenty meters and then stopped, allowing her to turn either right or left. She had no idea what was in that direction. There could be a hatch to the outside. There could be a dead end.
I'll give you five minutes.
She launched to the right, heading into the unknown. The harness strap attached to her hip pulled taught, and Abbi followed. They weren't going fast enough. Rena hit the propulsion button on her thumb. It was lunacy to do that inside. She shot down the hall. Abbi banged into the side of the wall but kept coming, pulled by the straps. Rena had Abbi's vitals on her HUD. The pulse was there. Don't die on me, she thought.
She reached the end of the corridor. Abbi slammed into her back, knocking her against the wall. Rena recovered herself, unhurt. She looked right and left, hoping to see a hatch to the outside. There wasn't one. It was another corridor, extending twenty meters to the right, maybe forty meters to the left. She looked behind her. Way down at the end of the hall was the spray-painted arrow, calling to her, pointing the way.
I'll give you five minutes.
She launched to her left, moving farther into the blackness, farther into the maze of the ship, farther away from the only escape she knew. They should have stayed on WU-HU, she told herself. Julexi had been right. What business did they have among crows? She was going to die in this scrap of a ship--her and Abbi both--and it was all her own fault. This Khalid and his crew would find them here and they would do their business, and the family would be broken even more.
Or worse, Khalid would catch Arjuna's ship and everyone would die. Edimar, Lola, Julexi, the children, the babies. Everyone.
She should have followed the arrows. That had been the right choice.
Her light flickered and then shut off, leaving her in total blackness save for the small light in her helmet. She swore, shaking the light, jostling the batteries, trying to get it working again. She flew forward, essentially blind. Ten meters, twenty meters. She smacked the light hard against her palm, and the light came on again. She reached where the corridor bent to the left and caught herself on the wall, bracing her back for the impact with Abbi. Half a heartbeat later Abbi collided and bounced off, though the foam of their suits took the brunt of the impact.
Rena turned to the left and found ...
A bathroom.
It was a dead end. There was no hatch here. No way out. No exit. They had come the wrong way. She had taken a risk and lost the bet.
I'll give you five minutes.
She couldn't tell him to wait for her. That was as much as killing everyone else. She would tell him to go. Now. Don't wait for us. Run. Get out. Protect the children, damn you.
She wanted to cry. Segundo had told her to stay alive. He had asked her to keep them together. And she had ruined everything. She had failed. She couldn't even do that much. She was nothing without him.
Abbi was floating there in the corridor in a ball beside her, wrapped up in the straps. Part of Rena wanted to kick her. The other part of her wanted to roll up into a ball and join her.
She clicked on her radio, her voice calm. "Arjuna."
He answered immediately. "Rena! Where are you? The others are loaded up. We need to launch now!"
The others were back on the ship. They would get out at least. That gave Rena some comfort.
"Go," she said.
"What?"
"You heard me. Go. We can't get out in time. Promise me you will take them to a depot. Promise me you'll keep them safe."
He was quiet a moment. "On my life, Lady."
There. It was done. He would keep his word. She knew it. The familia, however broken, would survive. She pushed lightly off the wall and headed back the way she had come. The strap pulled taut and Abbi, still unconscious, followed. She and Abbi would find a room, she decided, somewhere where they could be together and wait for this Khalid. Maybe Rena could talk to him and offer to serve on his ship. Perhaps he would let them both work for their lives.
But no. She was kidding herself. He was a vulture, a killer. There would be no mercy, no joining his ship. He would do what vultures always did.
Nor could she fight them, not armed vultures. Rena had no weapons and no skill for combat. I have to cut Abbi's air, she told herself. And for good this time. That would be the greatest mercy: let Abbi slip peacefully from sleep before this Khalid comes and has his way with her. Yes, thought Rena. I will cut her air and then my own.
She passed a room on her left. She turned her head casually and saw that there were cabinets on the opposite wall filled with supplies. She continued on. She passed a second room. She turned her head again and saw that there was nothing on the opposite wall.
There was no wall.
There were only stars. Millions of s
tars. Where the wall had once been was a gaping hole. She must have passed it when her light went out.
"WAIT!" she shouted into her radio. "WAIT!"
She turned her body and hit the propulsion. She shot out through the hole. The harness strap was tight. Abbi was behind her. They were out of the ship, space all around them. Free.
"Don't leave us! We're out!"
"I see you," said Arjuna. "I'm coming to you."
The Gagak was a big ship but a nimble one. It swooped toward them. Retros fired, slowing it as it neared. The airlock hatch was open, thirty meters away from her. Lola was there at the hatch, waving her to come. "Now, Rena!"
Rena punched the thumb button. She shot forward like a bullet. She came in fast. She fired retros at the last second, but it wasn't fast enough. She hit the hull hard. Abbi was right behind her, careening into her. It knocked the breath out of Rena this time, and she thought she might ricochet off into space. But Lola was faster. She grabbed Rena's hand and pulled them inside. Abbi was in. Lola slammed the hatch shut. "I got them!"
The ship vibrated. The engines roared. Rena braced herself, ready for the force of acceleration. But no force came. "We're not moving," she told Lola.
Lola was unwrapping the harness straps and freeing Abbi. "It's a trick. Help me unwrap her."
Rena was confused but she didn't argue. They pulled the straps free. The airlock was pressurizing, filling with oxygen. Then the lights went out. Rena was panicked a moment. And then they were moving. Rena was nearly thrown backward in the blackness, her hand scrabbling for a handhold. She found one and steadied herself. Then her body adjusted to the acceleration and all was still. The airlock beeped the all-clear, and the interior hatch opened.
Rena was flooded with personal spotlights. The other women were waiting in the cargo bay, shining their lights in the hatch. They helped Rena and Lola and Abbi into the cargo bay and got their helmets off. By then Abbi was coming to, rousing, her eyes slowing blinking open. Alive.
Arjuna arrived a moment later with his own light, rushing in from the helm. "We are safe for now."
"What just happened?" said Rena.
"We fired a heat bomb and went black."
"I don't know what that means."
"When we leave a site, we go black. We give off no heat signature, no light, nothing that could cause the buzzards to locate us. Buzzards always look--not at the original wreckage--but at the ships leaving the wreckage. So we give a strong signature on a particular straight course, but just as we go black, we jink in a different direction, a sharp move to one side that makes it hard to guess what course we're actually on."
"So they think we went somewhere else."
"We give off a false heat signature in another direction. It will show up on Khalid's instruments as if that were the real direction of the rocket blast, so they'll search for us in the wrong part of space."
"Won't they detect our jink rocket?"
"It's as focused as possible, so it can't be picked up unless you're in a very narrow range, while the heat bomb is large. It looks like a rocket firing once and quickly. But actually it makes no change in our trajectory because it's detached from the ship before it blows."
"Clever," said Rena. "I'm assuming this has worked before."
"I'm alive, aren't I?" He regarded Abbi, who was fully conscious now, the other women crowded around her, consoling her.
"Now what?" asked Rena.
"Now the real work begins. Now we sort through everything and get rid of what we don't want."
"We can't simply jettison things of little value," said Rena. "That's dangerous. Other ships will fly into it. Debris like that is the equivalent of a landmine."
"I am not like other crows, Lady of El Cavador. Other crews may do this, but not us. We carefully put unwanted items on the surface of asteroids so as not to leave a trail of ship-wrecking debris."
She nodded, impressed with him yet again.
"I did not mean to frighten you back there," he said. "Khalid came out of nowhere. He must have been following us. He will not follow us now. I am glad you made it back."
"Makes two of us," she said.
"Are you all right? How do you feel, Lady?"
Rena's heart was still pounding in her chest. "Alive," she said. "I feel alive."
CHAPTER 23
Camouflage
As soon as their shuttle was close enough to Luna to send and receive transmissions, Victor sent a laserline and contacted Yanyu. It was sleep-shift on Imbrium, and when Yanyu appeared in the holofield above the dash she looked unkempt and half asleep. Then she realized it was Victor and Imala on the other end, and she was awake in an instant. "They told us you were heading to the Belt."
"We were," said Victor. "The situation changed. We turned back at Last Chance. We haven't had any contact with anyone in seven days. We were hoping you could bring us up to speed. We didn't know who else to call."
"Do you have a place to stay?"
"Actually no," said Imala.
"Then you will stay with me. Where are you docking? I will meet you there."
"We don't want to impose," said Imala.
"You must stay here. Where else will you go? Which dock?"
"Lunar Guidance hasn't grabbed us yet," said Imala. "We can go to whichever is nearest you, though we'd rather not go to a Juke dock. We were supposed to take this shuttle to Midway."
"There is a public dock south of Old City in Covington Square. Do you know the place?"
"I know it," said Imala.
"Meet me there in one hour," said Yanyu.
Imala flew them toward Old City, and Lunar Guidance brought them in the rest of the way. They docked, deboarded, and found Yanyu waiting for them in an all-night cafe, dressed and presentable. They took a booth in the back away from everyone else.
"You left without saying good-bye," said Yanyu.
"Ukko was eager to get us on our way," said Victor.
"That is what we assumed," said Yanyu. "He would not want you talking about Lem. Lawyers came to Dr. Prescott and me when you left. They made us sign nondisclosure agreements saying that we would never speak of Lem or of any attack his ship may have made."
"Is that legally binding?" asked Imala.
Yanyu shrugged. "We could argue that we signed it while under duress, but it would not matter anyway. It would never get to court."
"I'm sorry you got involved," said Victor. "I didn't mean to drag you into it."
Yanyu shrugged again. "I do not think about it. There are more pressing matters elsewhere."
"Tell us about the past seven days," said Imala.
Yanyu frowned, grim. "First there was the nuclear strike."
Victor and Imala stiffened. "Against the mothership?" asked Imala.
"Do not get excited," said Yanyu. "It was a failure. The Formics destroyed the missiles long before they reached the ship. Their guns hit them, and the bombs exploded. The blast of electromagnetic radiation destroyed dozens of satellites and damaged much of the existing communications grid. It is a miracle Luna can still contact Earth. It could have wiped out the whole system."
"The Formics weren't hurt at all?" asked Imala.
"Not that we could detect," said Yanyu. "And it gets worse. Yesterday the U.S. and a few other nations launched an assault against the mothership using a fleet of over fifty manned ships. That attempt failed as well. Now debris from the destroyed ships and shuttles is floating around the mothership. Thousands died. It was awful."
"Why is the debris collected around the Formic ship?" asked Victor. "The wreckage should have shot off in every direction when the ships broke apart."
"The Formic ship has some kind of field around it," said Yanyu. "Magnetic somehow. It's not strong enough to catch everything, but it catches the smaller pieces. It's a mess up there. The debris field is several hundred klicks thick."
"Did the Formics sustain any damage?" asked Imala.
"Not exactly," said Yanyu. "There are a few scorch marks from laser
fire, but no structural damage that we could see. For us, however, it was a massacre. People are calling it the end of any large-scale space-based offensive."
"What about China?" asked Imala. "What's the status on the ground?"
Here Yanyu became solemn and quiet. "It is terrible. The casualty estimates are now above the two-million mark, and the military has not landed any major victories. The three landers still stand. The air forces have hit them with everything, and every attempt fails. Now the Formics have built mountains of biomass from stripped vegetation, dead animals, human corpses, all thrown together like giant piles of garbage. No one knows why, but there are plenty of gruesome photos on the nets, which I suggest you avoid."
"Have you heard from your family?" Imala asked.
Yanyu nodded. "My mother and father fled Guangzhou on a shipping boat to Vietnam. From there they flew to London. They only got out because they're wealthy. All of my friends and extended family are still in China. My father is trying to get out as many as he can, but the boats are few and the price for passage grows every day. There are thousands that gather at the shipyards every morning, but only a few ships get out. The crowds have turned violent. Some people literally kill to get passage."
"Survival instincts," said Victor. "Parents will do anything to save their children."
"It's too horrible to think about," said Yanyu. "That is not the China I remember."
"What else have you heard?" asked Imala.
"Nothing good. I have many friends in China on the nets. They send me images and vids they've taken of the destruction. I used to open their attachments. I don't anymore. I don't have the stomach for it. I have some net friends who haven't answered my e-mails or logged on in weeks. I don't know if they're dead or alive." Her eyes misted, but she kept her voice steady. "I feel so helpless here. My country burns, and I can do nothing. I cannot even enlist." She held up her gimp arm. "I tried, but they would not accept me."
"Take me to the recruiting office," said Victor. "That's why we came back. So I can join in the fight."
Yanyu looked surprised. "But what can you do? You are not Chinese. My country is not letting in other soldiers, and the fight out here is over."
"My family's ship was destroyed," said Victor. "My father and half my family were killed. The Formics did that. I'm not going to watch them do that to someone else. I'm going to stop them."