Collision Course (Class 5, #6)

Chapter 14

CHAPTER 14

They couldn’t stay at the mine.

Rose had thought it before, but now she was sure of it.

The mine was valuable to the Fisone, and they would be sending reinforcements. The best would be to find somewhere warm enough for the Hasmarga. Somewhere better than a truck fire in the open. And the fire Pyre had started was waning now, dying down little by little. Rose could see it was smaller as they flew overhead.

They definitely had to find somewhere else.

Gerna and her young lives would be fine inside Pyre, but the rest of her group would still be in trouble.

So she would have to clear the mine of threats, at least temporarily, so Pyre had the time to take the trips necessary to deliver them all to a better place. A place she knew would probably require work to make safe, as well.

But first things first.

“Will that fit you?” Gerna asked her as she pulled on the suit she’d taken from the Fisone guard.

“Just about.” There was no problem with the length, but her pregnant form pulled the front a little tight. Not too bad, though. And it was well worth it to keep from being shot.

“Ecdre and Linoy will go and stand by the fire, and keep those who are there safe,” Gerna said. Rose braced as Pyre landed, and then looked over at the two warriors who had each taken one of the spare weapons.

She thought about the strategy of it.

“Tell them to keep hidden amongst the others, so the guards don’t realize they have weapons, and then use the element of surprise to shoot any guard that wanders close enough to them.”

The two warriors looked a little offended, but Gerna gave a curt nod and spoke to them in fast, choppy language that she guessed was a dialect not covered by the translator, as it didn’t let her know what was being said.

“They will do as you say,” Gerna said. “This is a good idea.”

“Okay.” Rose picked up the weapon she had left on the bench. She patted her bump. “Let’s go.”

Pyre lowered the ramp. “Best of luck.”

“Thank you.”

Smoke still hung heavy in the air, and Rose was once again grateful for her necklace. Coughing would have slowed her down and given her away. The two warriors with her called to their friends gathered around the burning truck, and they called back.

“Two of the guards are that way, they say,” Ecdre said via the translator. “They don’t know where the other three are, but they think there are still two shut up in the office.”

That was helpful. Rose waited for the two warriors to slip amongst their friends, and then turned in the direction Ecdre had pointed.

The smoke hung thick in the cold air and Rose shivered, sad that the suit hadn’t been big enough to allow her to wear the jacket she had taken from the station.

She narrowed her eyes to see through the smog a little better.

A guard suddenly appeared right in front of her, his eyes widening at the sight of her suit. Like the technician in the power station, he was wearing a mask rather than a full helmet, and Rose shot him directly in the chest.

As he fell, someone shouted to her right, and she only just started turning when she was shot herself, the blue light spilling over her right arm and chest.

She shot back but the shooter had already taken cover.

“Damn.” She moved back to the guard she had shot, lifting the weapon he hadn’t even drawn from the pouch at his belt.

His uniform was a little ragged, and Rose wondered just how bad the stand-off between the two groups of Fisone was. Either this group couldn’t get supplies through, or they didn’t want to do it too often, so as not to bring attention to themselves. She would have to ask Pyre which it was.

As she crouched beside the fallen guard, the other guard shot at her again and she felt a sharp prickle on her skin as the edges of the full-on chest hit caught her neck and wrists.

She needed to be proactive.

She stood and walked toward the guard, angling to the left to get a better shot.

“Who are you?” he called as he sidled right, trying to keep out of her line of sight.

The translator told her what he’d said, and she weighed the value in answering him. Unless he surrendered, she had to shoot him, no matter what.

“I’m Rose. Who are you?” She crouched down, trying to see through the smoke, and felt a moment of mourning for her old, pre-pregnancy body, because there was no way she could duck walk forward in her current shape.

“Where are you from?” he asked.

“Another galaxy. I would prefer not to shoot you, but you’re giving me no choice.” She could see nothing ahead, and so she lay down, propping herself up on her left side, and finally saw his boots and knees through the swirling smoke.

She shot him and he fell forward, blue light crawling all over him.

She struggled to her feet, walked over, and took his weapon, as well.

Five more to go, two of them in the office.

She moved back to the fire to ask the Hasmarga if they’d seen the other guards and to hand them the two spare weapons.

Ecdre stepped out as she approached, and gave a nod of approval as she handed him the two weapons to distribute.

“Have you seen the other three who’re still here?” she asked.

“No.” He glanced at the office. “We have four weapons now, against the one they have inside there. I think we might get the two in there while you search for the last three.”

She could see it was chafing him to stay hidden and do nothing, and it would speed things up if he and Linoy and whoever else they chose could deal with the two in the office.

“Good luck,” she told him, and walked back into the smoke.

She knew the rest of the guards had been confined to their barracks and what Pyre had called the equipment room. Pyre had locked the doors and she guessed because the Fisone needed masks to breathe here, both buildings were probably air tight and well sealed.

Maybe the missing guards were trying to free their colleagues.

She headed for the two buildings. The barracks was a long, low two story rectangle that, probably by design, looked almost indistinguishable from the rocks and soil around it. What she guessed was the equipment building was smaller, lower, and set a little way away.

All the lights were still out, so no one had gone back to the power station, which she didn’t understand. Then, as she thought it, some of the lights flickered on.

“Do you still need the power down?” she said into the translator.

“No, I needed you to get the system offline so I could insert myself into the controls, but the power being down isn’t important any more,” Pyre answered.

That was good. Even though it was dawn, because of the smoke it was easier to move with the lights on, and she realized how nervous she’d been about someone leaping out of the shadows at her, now that she could see a little better.

She headed back to the power station, and slowed her steps as she saw a huddle of guards at the door.

It was almost too easy, but she wasn’t going to complain about it. They were facing inward, talking in low voices, and she shot them straight on.

The blue light crawled over the backs of the two closest to her, and jumped onto the third guard standing deeper inside the doorway.

He was the only one standing a moment later, and he shot her as soon as his friends fell down and cleared his line of sight.

She felt the sharp bite on her wrist as blue light seemed to cling to her arm, and she had to grit her teeth as she shot again.

“Success?” Pyre asked.

“Success.” She moved cautiously forward, shaking out her arm, and took the weapons off them. She looked around at the cold, ugly, depressing place and shivered. “Let’s find somewhere else to hole up.”