Collision Course (Class 5, #6)

Chapter 27

CHAPTER 27

Rose braced against the shower wall, head bowed, as she let the warm water ease the tension in her lower back.

She wanted to climb out of her skin. She also wanted this all to end. She had to remind herself that any future interaction with the Kimol needed to be at least polite, if not friendly, even though she wanted to bite heads off, rip throats out, and generally burn this place to the ground.

A noise from the room beyond had her head lifting, brows lowering in alarm.

Someone hammered on her door, and she switched off the water to hear better and snatched up a towel. “Who is it?”

“Sartie. You need to get dressed. Now.”

Rose opened the door part way, saw Sartie, and behind her, two armed Kimol soldiers.

“What’s going on?”

“We’re moving you. Get dressed.” Sartie passed her clothes and her suit through the door and Rose took them, eyes narrowed.

What was going on?

Something was happening that had the Kimol spooked. Something big that made them worry about keeping control of her.

Had the Bandri attacked?

That was very likely. Either that, or Pyre had simply been biding her time, and was finally making her move.

Rose hoped she had been wrong about Pyre, and that she was currently riding to the rescue.

She began dressing, and Sartie stuck her helmeted head around the door.

“Hurry.”

Rose glared at her, but finished getting into the suit as fast as she could. She had remembered before she went to sleep last night that it had a tracker in it. She’d forgotten about that with everything that had happened, but wearing it and being safe from weapons fire was worth the chance of being tracked. If she could find the tracker and remove it later, so much the better. “What’s the rush?”

“We’re under attack. We need to move you and the bugs.”

“Move us where?”

Sartie shook her head, and Rose didn’t know if it was because she didn’t want to answer, or because she didn’t know.

The guards flanked them as Sartie hurried her back to the hall where the Hasmarga had been housed, and as they got near it, she could see the Hasmarga milling around in the passageway. There were about six soldiers with weapons at the ready surrounding them.

One of the soldiers signaled to Sartie, and they began to move the Hasmarga past the hall. Rose had thought the passage was a dead end—it was so dark she’d assumed the building above had collapsed into the passage a little way down, but now, as she was urged along, she saw there was just no light down here.

The way was lit now by lights on the soldiers’ helmets and it showed there was some rubble lying on the ground and massive cracks in some of the walls, but otherwise it looked sound.

Finally, they came to a staircase, and everything ground to a halt as two soldiers ran up it, disappearing from sight, and everyone else was made to wait below.

One of the soldiers came back down, giving the all clear, and Sartie pushed in front of the group, pulling Rose behind her. The two guards she’d brought with her helped clear the way.

Rose passed by Gerna and Ecdre, and sent them a quick look, but they both shook their heads. They didn’t know what was going on, either.

Sartie’s grip hurt, and Rose jerked her wrist out of her grasp.

She was rubbing it when Sartie glared at her over her shoulder. “Move.”

“Seriously, fuck you, Sartie.” Rose spoke in English, and grabbed the bannister as she climbed up.

Light filtered down from above, as the soldier at the top held the door open.

Sartie reached the door first and spoke quietly to the soldier keeping watch.

She nodded to Rose. “Follow me.”

Rose stepped out into a cold wind and looked around.

There was no ship here to take them anywhere, no skimmers.

A noise made her look up, and she saw a ship coming down through the overcast sky toward them.

As it lowered, a blue light shot out from the right, low on the horizon, and hit the descending ship.

It listed to the side, and began to fall.

Sartie shouted something, turned and pushed Rose back toward the doorway.

She stumbled into the soldier at the top of the stairs, and activated the translator as soon as she saw the way was blocked by the Hasmarga. Ecdre and Grina were standing a few steps down from the top.

“Go back,” Rose shouted. “A ship is going to crash down on us.”

A few of the Hasmarga leapt over the bannisters, opening their wings to land lightly below.

The soldiers at the back clearly didn’t understand what was happening, and they raised their weapons, but the soldier at the top was shouting down to them and trying to push his way down the steps himself.

It was too crowded, though. The way was blocked.

Sartie was still outside, and Rose held the doorway to steady herself and crouched down as she peered out.

Sartie was shouting into a comm device and looking upward.

“The ship is recovering,” Gerna said from behind her, bending down to look out over Rose’s shoulder. “See?”

Rose saw. The ship’s engines had reignited, but the ship was still listing, and then it began what looked like a death spiral.

It had managed to move a little bit away from the exit they were watching from, though. It hit the ground, spraying up a massive wave of soil, and shaking the foundations.

Ecdre was shouting something down the stairs, and Rose glanced back.

“We run?” Gerna asked her.

Rose nodded. “We run.”