Spin the Sky (42 page)

“Rasta Nation hears the plea of Cesar Vaquero,” the man says stonily, his arms crossed forbiddingly over his chest. His tone is flat, but spoken with a lilting accent. “It is not our policy to become involved with the violence of outsiders. But we owe Cesar Vaquero a blood debt for returning home the bodies of our brethren and sons, Mingo and Fishtrap. We send a ship of marijuana bombs to Ithaca now and pray it brings peace to your colony.”

Cesar whispers to Penelope, “I actually have no idea who that guy is.” But he salutes the man on the screen anyway.

Penelope cleans herself up the best she can with what the ship has, grumbling about Cesar’s hygiene habits. Then she rummages around for more noodles and coffee. Cesar sits at the comm, waiting for more news.

Eight people in uniforms deliver the next message in unison. Apparently, they are the eternal revolutionaries of Alpha Seti Six and they are suspending their everlasting leap forward long enough to send three platoons to Ithaca to “liberate Ithaca from their oppressors and praise the resurrection of the great leader, Cesar Vaquero.”

Penelope arches an eyebrow at Cesar. He blushes and looks at the floor. In between the pings of incoming messages, they talk. Penelope asks him how true some of the stories Trevor collected are and Cesar does his best to explain. She asks how he managed to show up here or there and how he ended up in various situations. Cesar tries to remember.

In the next message, Monsieur Marceaux of Vegan Vineyards elegantly informs them that he is sending their militia over to Ithaca right now and that “the lovely Penelope must not fret so. She will get the worry lines and mar her perfect face.” Monsieur Marceaux also expresses delicate regret that Penelope has actually located her errant husband and implores her to call him if she should ever need another.

“Another husband?” Cesar asks her, bemused. Penelope blushes and shrugs.

“He’s such a flirt.”

While the ship steadily gets them closer and closer to Ithaca, Cesar listens raptly to stories about the ranch and about Trevor growing up. Penelope laughs and says he can’t possibly want to hear about every bruised knee and scraped elbow, but Cesar assures her he’ll never get tired of it.

Old King Manny sent a rare personal message: “I can’t say I’m happy to hear little Penelope got her man back and I won’t apologize for maybe ordering a hit on you a couple years ago, Cesar, but we’re sending our people to help out Ithaca,” the ugly old man barks. “We need a military for this kind of thing, don’t we? Can’t have raiders upsetting Nullball like this. Well, I guess it’s up to me to get a real Spacer police force going.”

Then the old man grins impishly, “And who knows, maybe this time
I’ll
win
your
war. That’d be nice. No hard feelings, Vaquero.” He cackles as the message ends.

The Earth city of Barcelona is also sending a ship of supplies and engineers to help with rebuilding whatever damage was done by Mach’s men in thanks for Penelope’s help “in that most delicate matter a few years ago.”

Penelope tells Cesar she’ll explain it some other time because just then another incoming message pings.

This time, a plump woman with luxurious blue hair and an anxious expression appears on the screen.

“Mystery man, you made it home!” she cries with a grin. “But it sounds like you sure do need some help. The Spider House is always happy to lend a hand. I programmed the bees to follow directions from anyone from your genetic profile. Just make sure your family understands that killer bees have very tiny brains even with the swarm mentality thing. So make your commands very clear and very brief.”

It takes a long time for Cesar to explain Calypso and the Spider House to Penelope. She doesn’t buy it at all.

“Giant space goldfish, indeed,” she hoots. “Do I look that gullible?”

“God knows what she’ll have sent,” mutters Cesar. He scratches his head meditatively and mutters “
killer bees”
a few times before the comm pings again.

In the next message, a scarred old man jubilantly tells Cesar that the Poppy Ship is alive and well and they are back to making a full line of medicines. He says they are sending a ship of medicine and paramedics to Ithaca, but that Cesar has to promise to be godfather to his new son. The scarred face splits into a grin of delight as the man on the screen tenderly holds up a tiny baby, so swaddled in blankets that they only see a tiny fist and a pair of bright blue eyes.

“We named him Cesar,” the old man says proudly before the message ends.

“Look at that!” Cesar cries happily. “Old Perry has a kid! I never thought he’d live this long. Just goes to show you, I guess.” He tells Penelope all about Perry and the Poppy Ship.

The next message is from some very large and angry Hathor miners who roar that they are on their way over to Ithaca right now with all the ’roid rockets they could strap to their ship to “sort out that bastard Mach.”

“I hope all these helpers don’t get overexcited and obliterate Ithaca,” mutters Cesar.

“Me too,” agrees Penelope, mentally picturing the miners rolling through Ithaca like raging buffalo, destroying everything in their path.

They silently stare out the window at the emptiness of the stars for a minute before Cesar gently says, “It’s been about eight hours. Mach’s ships should be at Ithaca now.”

Penelope has no idea how the next agonizing hour passes. They both just wander around in a fugue. She cleans things listlessly, just to keep her hands busy.

Finally, she throws down her cleaning rag and slaps a frustrated palm against the wall next to her. “I just wish I knew what was going on there. I mean, you just know your dad is going to get himself killed, lobbing tequila bottles at Mach’s band of thieves.”

Cesar is about to tell her what Larry was up to when he left, but the comm pings and they both race for it. Cesar sees that it’s from Mike’s junker ship. Before he went chasing after Penelope, Cesar sent a message to Mike. He wanted to let the junker ship family know he and Trevor were fine but that there was trouble brewing on Ithaca.

Mike’s face fills the screen. He looks worried and tired, but cautiously pleased. He immediately starts talking:

“Well, buddy, I’m sorry to report I didn’t do like you asked. We didn’t stay away from Ithaca. I don’t know when you’ll get this, but I just wanted to keep you posted. Me and the other junkers got to talking and we decided a bunch of us should hang around Ithaca just in case. We formed a blockade around the orbital the minute Finomus sent out the message about the raiders attacking. We’re holding off three big ships with Seven Skies markings right now. They’ve got a lot of firepower and they seem pretty determined to get through, but we’ve got plenty of help from Hathor and New Siberia and a bunch of other people. You guys have friends, that’s for sure.”

Mike chuckles and then continues, “They are still trying, but I think we’ve got them contained. No word yet on what’s going on inside Ithaca. Their signals are still jammed, but nobody is trying to get out yet. If or when they do, we’ll have ’em. So don’t you worry about anything but getting on home, man.”

Cesar rubs his eyes. “Well, that’s good news I guess. Trevor is probably safe, Penny.”

She appreciates his attempts to help her calm down, but it isn’t going to work. Penelope chews on her nails, a habit that, until just now, she successfully kicked as a teenager. She knows she won’t be able to relax until she sees Trevor and Ithaca with her own two eyes.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

T
revor and Nausicaa are pinned down by gunfire and the crush of the mob. The shooting started when they were almost to the elevators. They don’t exactly know where the invaders came from, but they came heavily armed.

“Never a dull moment with you around,” laughs Trevor as he crouches behind a piece of blasted shrapnel from what used to be the Ithaca Nullball arena.

Nausicaa peers cautiously around the edge of their cover. She doesn’t look at him, but slaps his shoulder by way of a reply. Then she bolts out into the hail of gunfire. Trevor feels his jaw drop with disbelief. Is she trying to commit suicide?

Trevor crouches low and sprints through a hail of bullets after her. His nose and throat are clogged with stinging smoke and burning bioplastic. He can barely see through the haze of destruction. He really hopes Nausicaa knows what she is doing, charging out into all this. Because he has no idea where they are going, except into an apparently short and brutal death.

It isn’t so much the bullets or explosions as the fact that they all keep ricocheting crazily on and on, bouncing around the core like burning, deadly pinballs. The smoke clears just enough for Trevor to see the stairwell door that Nausicaa is running towards. An explosion behind him singes his hair and tells him they left that cover not a second too soon.

Agony flares through his left calf with a bizarrely quiet splutchy kind of popping sound and a spray of blood. As he tumbles through the air, Trevor can see Nausicaa dive into the stairwell before turning back towards him.

The lack of gravity helps him. Trevor goes skidding across the room to her. Something explodes to his right and shrapnel sprays his neck, clawing into his skin. Trevor curls into a ball as he flies into Nausicaa. The door slams shut behind him as they both crash against the opposite wall.

“Oof,” groans Nausicaa.

“Sorry,” apologizes Trevor, rubbing the hole in his calf. Whatever did it burned its way through. There wasn’t even that much bleeding. Their anti-grav boots click into place on the stairs and Trevor uses that to pull himself upright.

The running and lack of gravity has caused Nausicaa’s shirt to float up and it is very obvious that she is not wearing a bra under her shirt. Trevor looks away, embarrassed catch himself staring at a time like this. He watches her pull her shirt down out of the corner of his eye.

“God, are you hurt?” asks Nausicaa when she sees the blood all over his pants and neck. Trevor shrugs. She runs her hands over her body, quickly checking to make sure she wasn’t hit too before rushing over to repeat the process on him.

Trevor blushes and pushes her hands away. He doesn’t want her to pat him down
everywhere
.

“Oh!” cries Nausicaa when she sees his calf. She bends down to get a better look. Trevor looks down to find Nausicaa’s pink lips a few inches from his pants’ zipper and almost passes out. He pulls away from her with a groan and leans against the wall.

“Be careful,” she cries, jumping up and putting her arms around him. “You’ve lost a lot of blood. You could pass out. You’d better sit down.”

Trevor thinks it’s about to get weird and awkward in this stairwell, but then there are shots and voices on the other side of the door. Nausicaa and Trevor climb away from the core as quickly and quietly as they can. It is going to be a long hike, even with no gravity.

Trevor’s leg has gone numb and his vision is going white and fuzzy around the edges. He takes deep breaths, but doesn’t stop, feeling normal gravity return to weigh him down with every step. It makes his leg bleed faster and that gets kind of nasty after a while. Finally they make it to the habitation level.

Nausicaa insists on looking out first. Trevor can only nod and focus on not passing out. She peers out and then disappears for a very long minute. Trevor listens to faint crashes coming from the direction of the core, but it doesn’t sound like anyone is following.

Nausicaa reappears with a grin. “I think it’s safe.”

She helps him out onto a deserted platform. This is one of the less-used stairways in the city, at the end of Ithaca near the loading docks. Trevor sits down and eats the protein bar Nausicaa pushes into his hand. After Nausicaa insists he drink a thermos full of juice, Trevor feels better. Not great, but better.

Nausicaa sees him grimace, “What? Does it hurt bad?” she asks anxiously.

Trevor shakes his head. “No, it’s just that we’re a long walk to my house. I can’t think of a better plan than trying to get home, though.”

“There isn’t a medibox close by? At home, we have public mediboxes all over the place.”

Trevor winces. “Yeah, that’s a good idea. There are some in town.”

“Oh. Good. Only there will probably be raiders in town too,” Nausicaa says, looking around like she is trying to think of an alternate plan but not coming up with anything.

Then she sees the blood oozing out of hole in his leg and gasps, “When did that happen? How come you didn’t say anything?” She pulls out her little medical kit and reaches towards him, but then snatches her hand back and begins vigorously rubbing her hands down with antiseptic wipes.

“I don’t want any chance of accidentally infecting you,” she says, her voice trembling. “I wish I had some latex gloves.”

Taking the medical kits from her shaking hands, Trevor follows her directions to cover and bind the wound as best he can. It feels much better when he is done. Trevor really wants to kiss Nausicaa as she wipes her tears and hiccups a few times, apologizing the whole time for almost infecting him. Instead, he struggles to his feet and starts limping towards home.

“Well, let’s get going,” he says as nonchalantly as possible. He manages to dredge up a smile just for her. Nausicaa beams at him and curls her fingers around his arm.

“Anywhere you want to go.”

They almost make it.

The town is disturbingly quiet for most of their hobbling walk through it. It practically emptied for the tournament and that was before the elevators shut down. By now everyone will have heard the emergency message and be hiding in their homes, hitting the Ether to see who won the big game.

“Where are all the tourists?” whispers Nausicaa as she pokes her head around a corner nervously.

“Good question,” Trevor whispers back, limping along as fast as he can. “Still down in the core probably. Can’t imagine there are having too much fun down there, but I doubt the elevators are working or else they’d be up here.”

At the edge of town, violence seems to erupt out of the dirt right in front of them. A large pack of men in Nullball uniforms toting huge guns suddenly appears at the end of the road they are walking along. They open fire immediately. Trevor and Nausicaa dive down an alley.