Spin the Sky (23 page)

Trevor follows him anyway. Cesar hears an angry oath from Penelope but he doesn’t stop for fear that she’ll want to come too.

“How do you think they are doing it?” the boy whispers loudly as they quickly and, with the exception of Trevor, quietly make their way through fields, orchards and pastures.

“Doing what?” grunts Cesar, busy scanning the horizon for movement. The ground beneath them gives a series of little shuddering heaves but no one falls.

“Making the colony shake like this,” Trevor says, almost shouting over a loud metallic groan that emanates from below their feet.

Cesar shrugs without looking at the boy. “I’m guessing they attached some kind of transport ship to the sidewall of the colony and cut their way in. The outer wall beneath us is thick, not even considering the six feet of dirt between our toes and the wall itself. A sidewall, though, is like the top of a tin can. There’s no dirt and it’s a bit thinner. That’s where they will attach themselves, so that’s where we are going.”

“Oh!” cries Trevor. “A ship stuck on the side of the colony.”

Cesar can hear the excitement in the boy’s voice and it irritates him. The boy thinks this is some Ether adventure tale to impress girls with later. Doesn’t he know he can get killed? Cesar has a sudden insight into his own father’s insistence that every gray hair on his head came from yet another one of Cesar’s insane exploits.

“But that won’t cause the earthquakes, will it?” is the next question Trevor comes up with.

Cesar sighs. The cowgirl hisses at Trevor to shut up.

The boy looks crushed.

This time Argos answers, “Not like this. But maybe if they are randomly firing their thrusters it will throw the colony rotators off and cause problems with our gravity.”

“They’d need a pretty big ship with really big engines,” comments Cesar.

“Maybe they are smashing bombs against the wall just to break it,” the cowgirl says grimly.

Cesar remembers that her name is Julia. Cesar thinks that name is better suited to a girl who doesn’t look quite so comfortable wielding the enormous knife she keeps strapped to her back under her shirt. It flashes into her hand every time she thinks she hears danger.

Cesar doesn’t think bombs are the cause. He thinks the intruders wouldn’t do that while their ship is still attached, but afterwards is another story. He is about to say so when he hears another gunshot; this time it is close.

The four of them crouch low and run quickly towards the end of the Ag level closest to the wall. They run through a small vineyard, taking cover amongst the vines. Cesar can see there is, in fact, a large rectangular hole in the side of the wall where it meets the ground wall and there is some kind of ship attached. Since they aren’t all getting sucked out into the void right now, the ship must be sealed pretty well to the colony wall.

In front of the ship, there are about half a dozen men shouting angrily, trying to push cows into the hole and onto their ship. The cows aren’t having any of it. A thousand pounds of beef doesn’t have to go anywhere it doesn’t want to and the cows aren’t about to leave their sunny pastures for a dank hole.

One man shoots a cow in frustration. It limps and bellows and still doesn’t go into the ship. The other men yell at the shooter. Argos snickers. The rest of the crouching Ithacans have enough experience with cattle to know why.

“That’s never going to work,” snorts Trevor, giving voice to their amusement. “These guys don’t have a clue about cattle.”

Cesar can also see that they have thousands of cows gathered here. “Jesus, are they trying to take the whole herd?” Julia says scornfully.

“That’s only about half of the herd,” Argos replies.

“Still,” Julia mutters. “What are they going to do with that much beef?”

Cesar wonders that too, but all he says is, “Well, that transport ship they have can fit a lot more. They could take the whole herd if they wanted.”

Trevor points to a man dressed all in black who is currently rolling on the ground, clutching his foot after a cow stepped on him. “Somehow, I’m not too worried about these guys,” the boy snorts.

Julia snaps, “Then you better start. They all have guns. And don’t forget they are destroying our home right now.”

They are far enough from the intruders that Cesar doesn’t worry too much about being overheard. Even so, he whispers, “They must want these cows pretty badly to bring a ship that big and all these guys. I spent plenty of time on ships and, let me tell you, it’s not easy to land against a turning wall like that. It’s really not easy to drill and seal on an unsuspecting orbital. Either they are death-wish crazy or they are paid well enough not to care.”

Argos whispers back, “If they are so all-fired keen on cow, you’d think they’d bring someone who knows how to herd the critters.”

This thought occurs to Cesar too.

Cesar leads his group around so that they are hiding along the sidewall closer to the invader ship. They are making plans to attack when another tremor whips past them, throwing Cesar to his knees. A low rumbling sound begins behind them. As it grows louder and louder, the dust at their feet shakes and then the gravel bounces around like water in a hot pan.

Something big is coming.

They turn to look as the intruders hop into two moon buggies and take off into the Ag Level.

“Oh, God,” Argos cries when he realizes what is making the noise.

“It’s the other half of the herd.”

All four of them unconsciously back up against the wall as thousands of cows come thundering towards them. Cesar spies a service ladder just as Trevor leaps for it. Trevor scrambles up the elevator with the girl close behind him. Argos is pinned to the wall with fear, so Cesar grabs him by the shirt and thrusts him up the metal rungs. With his old injuries, Cesar has a hard time climbing, but the herd bearing down on him is a powerful motivator. He is barely high enough to pull his feet out of the way when the first cow races beneath him.

The sound of their hooves roars louder than a hurricane as their bovine eyes roll wildly with fear. The ground shakes so hard that Cesar has a hard time staying on his feet and Trevor stumbles to his knees.

The invaders in the moon buggies whoop and fire their guns to keep the herd running. Cesar can see that the invaders are trying to turn the herd into the ship, but the herd is moving too fast for that. They smash into the cows standing by the ship without slowing down.

Two thousand cows crash and flail. The service elevator shakes ominously and Cesar fervently prays to whatever gods may be that the bolts will hold until the danger passes.

Cesar sees a steer hook one of the moon buggies with a horn and fling it like a child’s toy. The two men inside are lost in the angry herd. Cesar can hear muffled cries of pain. He doesn’t think their chances of survival are too high.

The main crush of cows has passed, but even now Cesar can barely think straight with all the noise and confusion so he decides this is an excellent time to reduce the number of intruders. He hops down from the ladder and pads his way towards the strangers. The men are so bewildered by the stampeding cattle, they don’t realize he isn’t on their side until he walks up and calmly shoots three of them as Argos, Trevor and Julia scramble down the ladder and after him.

There are two more close to the ship. Argos wrestles one to the ground and then methodically punches the man in the face while the other aims his blaster right at Cesar’s chest. Cesar throws himself to the ground while raising his gun. Trevor comes flying out from behind a bush and tackles the man, grabbing the man’s gun, unable to wrench it out of the intruder’s grasp. Cesar flings himself towards them.

Suddenly, everything moves with unbearable slowness.

Cesar sees the man bring the blaster up as he struggles with Trevor. Cesar’s heart breaks as he watches the intruder turn the muzzle towards his son’s head. He sees the man’s eyes squint as his finger tightens on the trigger.

Cesar screams incoherently and waves his hands.

He knows he’ll never get there in time. He only hopes to draw the man’s attention. He’d rather die than see his son take that blast.

Julia appears behind Trevor and the man with the gun, her knife flashing. Blood spurts across Trevor’s face and shoulder as the man gives one gurgling scream and collapses to the ground. Trevor stands and dazedly watches the man die.

Cesar rushes up and pushes the boy away from the corpse, uttering every curse word he knows. Trevor lets him. Julia wipes blood off her knife. It disappears back under her shirt.

Cesar grabs the boy by the shoulders so he can more effectively shout in Trevor’s face. “Never, ever take a chance like that again,” Cesar bellows. “You could have died. Don’t you have any brains, boy? Christ, I thought I was going to have a heart attack.”

Trevor responds by throwing up on Cesar’s shoes. Julia laughs and claps Cesar on the back. Watching Trevor heave, she says companionably, “That kid is just full of puke, isn’t he? Come on.”

Argos hogties the last remaining bad guy to a tree and dusts himself off. However, Cesar can see two other moon buggies with three or four men apiece. They are still trying to herd the cows into the transport ship. They succeed in organizing the cows into one large group that immediately begins running away from the hole in the wall.

As the cows race off, Cesar sprints over and throws himself onto the closest buggy. This one has three armed men in it. Cesar pushes one man off and, seeing Julia closing in on him with her knife, thinks no more about him. Cesar punches the driver as hard as he can. The man’s head whips around, pulling the steering wheel hard left. The buggy careens onto its side, throwing all three of them into the dirt.

Cesar sits on the dazed buggy driver, pulling a zip cord out of one of the pockets in his pants to tie the man’s hands and feet. He looks up to see that Trevor holding the other man while Argos ties him up too. Cesar nods approvingly. They don’t know how many invaders there are so better not to waste stunner shots or blaster power on these when a piece of cord works too.

He stands up and sees the last moon buggy turning to follow the herd. It’s too far for him to catch. That’s when he sees Penelope burst out of nowhere. She leaps through the air and onto the buggy, fists and boots flying. The rest of the cowgirls swarm over the buggy and drag the invaders to the ground.

Cesar winces at the brutality of the invaders and cheers the ferocious response by the women. By the end of the melee, the invaders lay still, but so do a few of the cowgirls. Penelope is bruised and bloody, but looks too angry to be seriously hurt. Cesar and Argos leave Julia and Trevor to watch the transport ship and the men on the ground.

Cesar doesn’t want to leave the boy, but there is no time to argue and he can’t see any invaders still conscious or alive. Argos helps Cesar push the buggy nearest them back onto its wheels and they take off towards Penelope.

She sends cowgirls to get the other two buggies and starts driving towards the herd like a bat out of hell. Cesar chases after her as fast as he dares go in the flimsy little buggy. It looks like the herd is picking up speed. They crash through fences and fields, unstoppable now. The noise is deafening.

“What the hell is going on?” Cesar shouts when he catches up to her. That isn’t what he meant to say, but he’s just so happy to see her alive.

Penelope slows down enough to shout back, “Apparently, our thieves aren’t too good at it. They put both herds together and the colony can’t take that. Two hundred tons of beef are running wild and throwing off the orbital rotator’s momentum. We’ll spin out of control if we can’t stop them.”

Cesar knows the herd will be very difficult to stop now, like a pipe bomb rattling around in an electric clothes dryer. He shouts back, “So, just to be clear: Incompetent cattle rustlers have caused a space stampede that’s tearing the colony apart?”

Argos laughs but Penelope simply nods.

“I’m going to stop the herd,” she barks. “You stop the rustlers. If they take off and leave that huge hole in the wall, we are all dead.”

She tilts her head, looking into his eyes with a gaze that pierces his heart. “Try to leave a few alive so we can figure out where they came from,” she ordered with a fierce smile.

Cesar wants to tell her he loves her.

He wants to tell her everything.

He wants to keep her safe while he saves the day so he can spend the rest of his life looking into those eyes. There isn’t time for any of that so he pulls her close and kisses her hard.

Cesar hears Argos gasp from the buggy behind him and, pulling back, he sees Penelope’s eyes are wide and dazed. Her jaw drops slightly, lips red from the pressure of his mouth on hers.

“And
I
thought life on a farm was boring,” she laughs shortly, running a hand through her hair. Then she gets back to business.

“Come on, Argos,” she calls as her buggy goes barreling after the stampeding herd. The man gives Cesar one quizzical glance as he guns the engines and follows Penelope.

Cesar runs back to the transport ship. The other two buggies full of whooping cowgirls race past him heading towards Penelope. He runs faster than he’d thought possible, pausing only to collect guns. Almost back to where he left Trevor and Julia, he leaps over the fallen body of a cow and soars through the air.

It is exhilarating, almost like flying. Cesar knows this is very, very bad. The Ag level is losing gravity. The rotators are grinding to a stop.

They don’t have much time left.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

P
enelope concentrates on driving the buggy after her stampeding herd. She needs to keep her mind on the task at hand. She needs to not kill herself driving this buggy like a speed racer in an Ether game. She needs to stop a stampede before it cracks her home open. She does NOT need to be worrying about her son back there with that Ulixes man.

Careening around a fallen tree, she takes a deep breath and grips the wheel harder as she pulls up in front of the rushing tide of panicked animals. She has to turn them, but how? Penelope zigzags in front of them, trying to slow them down even a little. She knows this is a great way to get trampled to death, but she has to try something while she waits for the other buggies to catch up.