The High Ground (35 page)

Hands outthrust as if he could hold back the momentum, he keyed the forward rockets. The
Infierno
hit the far wall, but it was a kiss rather than a blow. He lowered the battered craft to the floor of the bay, popped the dome, yanked the jack from his battle armor and ran for the airlock mechanism.

“You are fucking
crazy
, man!” Davin shouted as the three men entered the ruined docking bay. “I
love
it.”

“Quick. We need to get into the station,” Tracy ordered. “They will have alerted their forces inside. Sent them to intercept us.”

“What’s to stop them just lighting up this bay?” Hugo asked.

“Their men inside,” Ernesto replied. “They may be in armor, but eventually they’ll need oxygen, and in space you don’t willingly poke a hole in the thing that keeps the air inside.”

“Unless you’re Tracy,” Hugo chuckled.

“I took the risk it wouldn’t penetrate the inner hull,” Tracy said defensively. “Now come on.”

They ran to the inner airlock controls. This time Ernesto was able to manually override. They piled into the airlock and waited for it to stabilize.

“We need to stay in the armor, but click back the face plates, preserve our oxygen,” Tracy said.

“And hope nobody shoots us in the face,” Hugo grunted.

“How did they spot us?” Davin asked.

Before Tracy could speak Ernesto slid in smoothly and said, “Probably read our signature. With four bodies plus the engine on the fighter we looked like a flare.”

The dark eyes shifted to Tracy and they held a warning. Tracy bowed his head, accepting the reality.

“Cullen, have you got a location on the Infanta?” Tracy radioed.

“Yes. Syncing it to your suits. Good luck. Get her to The High Ground.”

“That’s the plan.”

* * *

Since they were prone on the top of the cloudbot Mercedes hoped they wouldn’t be noticed. And that the battle-suited figures wouldn’t notice that this particular bot was flying rather lower than its companions. So far it had worked and Mercedes filed away that bit of information in case she ever again found herself in a combat situation—people didn’t think to look up. Or at least not nearly often enough.

Their attempt to increase the speed of the bot had proved futile so it had been an agonizingly slow journey, but they were finally approaching the junction with The High Ground. The park ended there, and didn’t resume until the far side of the station facilities module.

“This is our stop,” Mercedes said.

“If we jump one or both of us will likely get hurt,” Sumiko pointed out.

“Then we need to force the thing down. We might not have been able to reprogram it, but I bet we can break it.” Mercedes wondered if her cocky smile looked as forced as it felt.

Sumiko crawled to the control box and opened the panel. She began randomly pushing buttons and pulling wires. The bot shook, and dropped its entire load of water in a great deluge, but it didn’t sink closer to the ground. Muttering a curse, Sumiko pulled out her pistol and shot the controls. The bot headed down rather faster than was comfortable.

“Oh shit! Jump and roll like Deal taught us!” Mercedes yelled as the ground came up to meet them. Clinging to each other, they climbed to their feet on the platform. Mercedes frantically tried to judge the distance, gave up and just let instinct take over. She jumped, took the shock in her knees and went into a forward roll. It jarred into her knees and now her other shoulder was bruised, but otherwise she was undamaged. Her uniform hadn’t fared so well. Her coat sleeve was torn and grass stains smeared her white shirt.

She looked around. Sumiko was climbing to her feet, brushing flower petals out of her hair. “Fine,” she said in answer to Mercedes’ inquiring look. “Let’s go. Somebody might have heard that gunshot.”

They ran for the transfer station that would carry them down the massive cylinder to the doors of The High Ground and safety. Out of the corner of her eye Mercedes saw four suited figures running toward them. She swung the shotgun to bear then realized that all four figures were frantically waving, and they weren’t carrying guns. At the last instant she recognized Tracy and she yanked up the barrel of the shotgun, sending the pellets into the air over the men’s heads.

They dove to either side and Tracy yelled, “Mercedes… Highness! It’s us. Don’t shoot.”

Sumiko ran to Hugo. He opened his arms and enfolded her. Mercedes so desperately wanted to do the same, but fought the impulse. She did run to Tracy, but stopped a few feet short and gave him her best regal nod. He bowed, which looked ludicrous in the battle armor.

A cacophony of overlapping conversations began. “Why are you?” “How did you?” “No guns?” “What’s going on?” “Who are they?”

“Shut up!” Mercedes yelled and amazingly everyone did. “None of this matters. We’ve got to get Cipriana and Dani and the kids then get to safety.”

“No.” It was Tracy, of course. Who else would have the nerve to contradict her so bluntly. “We’ve got to get
you
to The High Ground. Once you’re safe we’ll go back for the others.”

Mercedes opened her mouth to object, but Sumiko said in her matter-of-fact way, “He’s right and you know it.”

“Well then let’s split up. Not all of you have to escort me,” Mercedes objected.

“Yes we do,” Tracy said. “We can ring you and keep you shielded. So give us the guns.”

“Yeah, it’s a well-known fact that gentlemen make awesome bullet magnets,” Davin joked.

They were right and she did know it so Mercedes finally gave a reluctant nod. “This just doesn’t seem real,” she sighed.

“Probably feels pretty real to that man you killed,” Sumiko said bluntly.

The men looked at her with varying degrees of awe. They formed themselves into a rough knot and headed down the cylinder toward the academy.

With a gesture Mercedes pulled Tracy to her side. “Walk with me, Mr. Belmanor.” The formation shifted and he was next to her, his shoulder almost brushing against hers.

“I want to thank you.” He cast her a sideways glance. “For the knife,” Mercedes elaborated. “It’s what stopped that man. It cut right through his armor.”

“I… I had no idea it could do that.” He fell silent. The only sound was their boots ringing on the walkway. “How are you doing?” he added softly.

“Holding it together. Barely.” She drew in a ragged breath.

“You’ve been amazing. To get this far.” His voice trembled with suppressed emotion. Mercedes suddenly wanted to feel his arms around her again. She fought back the impulse to cry.

The radio in Tracy’s helmet went live. Because of the open faceplate she could hear Boho’s voice deep and worried. “Mercedes, are you all right?”

“Yes.”

“Where are you?”

“About halfway down the strut.”

“I’ve been trying to raise the Academy staff, but no one is responding.”

“This is a mess! What is going on?” Mercedes raged.

“I have no idea. Just get here as quickly as you can. Where you’ll be safe.”

A voice boomed out over the station’s emergency broadcast system. “Infanta.” They all froze. Mercedes had only seen this level of quivering focus from terrified horses. “I have men waiting at the Hilton. You’ll go there now.”

“Yeah. No,” she said, assuming that the man could hear her.

“I thought that might be your reaction. So I’m going to give you a bit of an incentive.” The
cosmódromo
gave a lurch, and they tumbled onto the tram tracks. Tracy threw his arms around her, and twisted so his body cushioned her fall, and then they were floating. Mercedes clutched him tighter, and he reciprocated.

“Those were the boosters firing. I’m sending this station directly for Ouranos. We’ll drop it on your daddy’s head if you don’t comply.”

Coiling fear filled her belly. “You’re crazy! Who are you? Why are you doing this?” Mercedes cried.

“You stole our world. Think it’s only fair if we wreck yours. Or you can avoid that by turning yourself over to us. Better hurry, Princess. In a few hours we’ll be caught in the planet’s gravity-well and won’t be able to pull out.”

There was a click as the PA clicked off then a burst of agitated voices as everyone began to talk at once.

“They’re mad!” Sumiko cried, showing far more emotion than usual. She was hanging onto Hugo’s ankle.

“Who are they?” Davin sounded plaintive.

“Based on what they’re saying they’re probably dead-enders from some Hidden World,” Ernesto said.

“You’re not going!” Boho’s voice came in her ear while his holo floated in the air in their midst.

Tracy cut through it all. “It’s a false threat.” His voice was low and grim.

“What do you mean?” Sumiko asked.

“The orbital weapons platforms will tear this station to shreds long before we enter the atmosphere.”

“They’re not going to fire on the Infanta,” Hugo argued.

“They will if it means keeping a three-hundred-and-twenty-million-kilo space station from crashing onto the capital city of the Solar League,” Tracy countered.

“Maybe we should rethink this,” Boho said.

“Now you
want
her to surrender?” Sumiko said. Her voice was spiraling with outrage.

“No, Boho’s right.” Mercedes shook her head. “I have a duty to my subjects on the planet, and there are civilians aboard who don’t deserve to die.” She paused, fear making her reluctant to say what had to be said. She coughed and forced the words past a sudden obstruction in her throat. “There’s no choice. I have to surrender.” Her voice sounded smaller than normal.

Seeing that objections were about to start rising from all sides she hurried to add, “Look they won’t kill me. Probably. If they did they’d have no leverage with my father.” There were reluctant nods of agreement from all around, but not from Tracy.

“There is another option,” he said in that intense way he had.

They were at once eye to eye, matching challenges with a look. “So tell me,” Mercedes ordered.

“We’ve never done this.” Sumiko’s voice had lost its usual flat intonation and was jumping with tension.

“I know,” Tracy said.

Space, too large and too empty, hung before them. Suddenly his confident statement that they could “take back the hub” sounded like insane hubris. Tracy clutched a handgrip in the airlock and noticed that his palm felt clammy inside his glove. With the station on a trajectory toward the planet and no longer spinning, the gravity was gone. He wondered how the civilians aboard, especially those kids, were coping. Badly was his guess. He and his little gang needed to get control of the station and fast. Unfortunately he was having trouble taking that first step out of the lock and onto the skin of the ring because he was gazing out at eternity. An insignificant human could get lost in the vastness of space, die, and an uncaring universe wouldn’t give a damn. He tried to figure out how to twist around to allow his boot to grip for that first step. In this moment he understood the utility of Donnel’s multiple arms and legs. He wished the alien was with him now.

He shook off the fear and went on. “We’ve got magnetized boots and jet packs. We’re not going to float off into space.”

“We can’t use the packs until Mercedes neutralizes that ship. Otherwise they’ll burn us like ants under a magnifying glass,” Ernesto pointed out.

“You really are just Mr. Fucking Sunshine, aren’t you?” Davin said.

Ernesto shrugged. In the bulky suit it was an exaggerated movement. “Just pointing out the reality.”

“Not looking forward to walking along those spokes. That’s gonna be scary,” Hugo said.

“They’re huge.” Realizing that might have sounded argumentative rather than reassuring Tracy added, “I know they don’t seem like it when we see them from a shuttle, but we’ll be fine. Trust me.”

“
Trust me.
Why does that always feel like famous last words,” Davin muttered.

It couldn’t be delayed any longer. Tracy stretched out a leg and felt his boot clamp onto the skin of the ring.

“You know you sent the heir to the Solar League off to fight an armed ship filled with terrorists,” Ernesto said conversationally as he stepped out onto the skin of the
cosmódromo.

“She’s the best pilot in the class, and if things get hairy she can boot for the planet.” Tracy knew he sounded defensive because he
was
defensive, but it had been the right call. Well, he hoped it had been the right call.

“She also wasn’t accepting any argument about it, and she
is
the heir to the Solar League,” Sumiko offered. Her voice had returned to its usual placid range now they were actually walking up the curving side of the station.

“
Deber, Honor, Fidelidad
.” Ernesto intoned the motto of the Arangos.

“We need a motto too,” Davin said as they made their way past the anchor for one of the massive cables that linked the ring to the hub. “I’d like to propose
bolas a la pared
.”

“First, I don’t have balls,” Sumiko said. “And second,
ovarios hasta la pared
or
útero para la pared
just doesn’t have the same ring.”

“Not to mention I’m getting visual of a uterus plastered on a wall and it’s really gross.” Davin did sound disgusted.

“Let’s cut the chatter,” Tracy snapped. “We may be on tight beam, but they might be sweeping for radio communications.” He actually heard teeth snapping shut.

After a few minutes he wished he hadn’t issued that order. The only sound was his own harsh breath inside the helmet, and a sensation as each boot pulled free and clicked back onto the skin of the
cosmódromo.
Time dragged. They seemed to be
inching
their way across the ring, heading for the nearest of the five massive spokes. Against the backdrop of stars and nebula Tracy did indeed feel like the ant that Ernesto had evoked. He was also wearing just a standard station spacesuit filched from an emergency decompression locker. He’d given his battle armor to Mercedes so she could jack into the
Infierno
. Sumiko was wearing the same type of unarmored suit.

As if summoned by his thoughts, the girl, moving like Frankenstein’s monster, closed the gap with Tracy. “I wonder if we’ll see when Mercedes engages that ship,” Sumiko said.