Collision Course (Class 5, #6)

Chapter 38

CHAPTER 38

The Havelan had short jumped to the small carrier that held Rose and Dav, had swallowed them into its hold, and then jumped away.

But they wouldn’t have gone far, Sazo was sure of it.

He pulsed out a signal, looking for any strange dead zones or anomalies. He had a bad feeling that the thinking system who’d contacted him before, Pyre, had been in control of the carrier that had Rose inside. And he knew she either meant Rose actual harm, or would not hesitate to cause harm, if it benefitted her.

The thought chilled him.

He kept up his search, but he found nothing until his signal hit the Hasmargan’s ship, and he received a response.

They sent their communication in the Fisone language. Sazo was glad Irini had taught it to him before they had even left Grihan airspace. He guessed the Hasmarga thought it might be the only one common to them both.

“Who are you?” the Hasmargan comms officer asked.

Sazo hesitated, then patched Borji in on the conversation.

“Respond,” he told the comms officer. “I will translate to Grihan for you.”

He heard Borji call to Jia Appal and then heard her agree with his order.

Borji succinctly explained their purpose for being here, the abduction of Rose, and now the abduction of Rose and Dav.

“Tell them we have two of their warriors onboard.” Sazo knew those warriors had just disembarked in the hold of the Barrist . “Say we saved them from the Fisone.”

Borji hesitated a moment and then did so, and there was a moment of silence.

The Hasmargan comms officer’s voice was replaced by someone else, a woman. “We want to speak to them.”

“Certainly,” Jia Appal responded. “Give us a moment to get them to the bridge from the bay.”

Sazo didn’t know how well Rose had gotten along with the Hasmarga below, but if she’d asked the Grihan team to rescue them, then most likely she had made allies of them.

The warriors were brought onto the bridge, and the comms screen, which the Harmarga had kept black, lit up at the sight of the two men.

An image of a bridge flickered to life on screen, and both he and the bridge crew of the Barrist saw the strange, tiered space that was clearly the ship’s command center.

The woman who stood in front of the lens spoke sharply to the two warriors, and was silent after they had finished giving a response.

“We will send a ship to fetch our people,” she said.

“Of course.” Jia Appal nodded. “Would you like to join forces to find the ship that was just taken under our noses? I gather it contains one of your people, as well as two of ours.”

“It contains more than just one of our people, but yes.” The woman took a step closer. “I am Commander Tiern, and I am intrigued by your offer of help. What do you propose?”

“I propose we start destroying things below, one by one, until they tell us where to find our people,” Sazo said.

Sazo saw Jia’s expression, had learned that what he was seeing indicated surprise, but also interest.

“What things?” Tiern asked.

“The launch pads, for a start. The mine.” There were surely other things they wouldn’t want to lose.

“Gerna’s warriors say there is a chance some of our people are being held in a bunker somewhere below. We would not want to do anything to harm them,” Tiern said.

“Agreed. We need that bunker to communicate with them, anyway.” Sazo knew that the command structure was in that bunker. They couldn’t negotiate if there was no one left to negotiate with.

“We also need our people back. It has to be part of the negotiation.”

“Of course.” Jia gave a decisive nod. “Your people and mine have worked together below, and we promised to rescue them before you arrived.”

Tiern spoke to the two warriors in Hasmargan, and their response obviously surprised her. She rocked back. Gave a slow nod. “What do we destroy first?”

They followed a trail of destruction.

Dav remembered a similar trail, one caused by Sazo when he killed as much of the Tecran crew on his ship as possible. This iteration of it was more bloody, as Sazo had killed by depriving everyone of air. Here, limbs were severed, skin was cut.

A few lay dead with no obvious injuries, and he guessed those were victims of Gerna and her weapon.

He could feel Rose’s distress as they moved through the ship, and came to a stop.

“Close your eyes and I’ll lead you.” He brushed a hand down her cheek, feeling anxiety tighten his chest at the evidence of her fatigue.

She shook her head. “That might be worse. My imagination has a lot to work with.” She rubbed her bump. “Let’s just get to the comms station as fast as possible.”

He didn’t think it could be far. This wasn’t a huge ship. They turned a corner and Gerna stood in a doorway up ahead, and as he was about to call out to her she took a hit, staggered back, and pressed herself up against the passage wall, then slowly slid to the ground.

She slumped as they ran toward her, and by the time they reached her, she was unconscious.

A Fisone, dressed in a full suit and helmet, stepped cautiously out of the door, weapon raised, and froze at the sight of them crouched beside Gerna.

He called to someone in the room, and Priyan joined him.

“Crythis?” she asked.

Dav shook his head. “You’re the first people we’ve seen alive since we were in the launch bay.”

“And how is that?” Priyan asked. “How are you alive?”

“We were with Gerna in the ship that brought us all here. The Hasmarga are very scent-oriented.” Rose lifted her shoulders. “All I can think of is that they recognized our scent from the ship and considered us friends.”

Dav wondered if that was true, or if she was making it up, but Priyan seemed to accept it. She gave a slow nod. “The small bugs are tearing this ship up. There are only ten crew left, including me. No one else is responding. Some might be alive and unable to connect, but I think most are dead.”

“Where are the babies?” Dav asked. He hadn’t seen a single Hasmargan since they’d past overhead earlier.

“The engine room,” the guard standing beside Priyan said.

Dav had the sense Rose stopped herself nodding, as if that made sense. He would ask her later.

“The engines are dead?” Rose asked.

Priyan gave a nod. “I don’t know what they’ve done to them, but none of us can go in there to see what’s happened and how to get moving again. Not without sacrificing ourselves.” She eyed them both. “But it seems you can.”

“Rose isn’t going anywhere.” Dav rose to his feet. He had hoped the comms station would be abandoned, but a quick look showed him the remaining crew were holed up inside, and most of them were in protective suits, like the one Rose had worn. The weapon he’d taken would do no good, as Gerna had discovered.

“You, then,” Priyan said.

“Let us use the comms to contact our people, and I’ll have a look for you.”

Priyan shook her head. “We’re scuttled right now. If your people find us, we’re done.”

Dav stared at her for a long beat. “I have no incentive to go to the engine room, then.”

Priyan shuffled a little to the side, blocking most of the entrance to the comms station, and shot Gerna again.

Rose made a sound, a gasp of horror that had even Priyan wincing. She had been crouched beside Gerna, but now she stood in front of her.

“You keep showing me who you are,” Rose said. “I already believed you the first time.”

Priyan was silent, as if she needed to process the Tecran they were all using to communicate and work out what Rose had said. “That was an insult.”

Rose shook her head. “No, it was a statement of truth. Why did you just shoot Gerna again?”

“To force Dav to go to the engine room. To give him the incentive he needed.”

“That’s what I thought.”

Dav tried to keep his face neutral, because reacting now would do no good, but he obviously wasn’t doing a good enough job.

“You are angry.” Priyan shuffled so that she was almost inside the comms station. “I’m sorry for it, but until we know what’s wrong with the engines, we can’t do anything.”

“Which way?” Dav asked.

She pointed. “Down four floors.” She nodded at the guard that stood beside her. “Bolin will go with you.”

Bolin looked very unhappy with that order. Dav ignored him, ignored Priyan, and stood in front of Rose.

“These fuckers are dead,” she said in Grihan. “If I have to do it myself.”

“Agreed, but we’re outgunned for now. Don’t do anything to provoke them.” He leaned in and held her gaze, let her see the fear he had for her. She did not back down, and he loved her for it, but right now, they were under the power of someone who had the means to really hurt her for it.

“I won’t do anything that will hurt our baby, but make sure she still has a daddy by the end of this, okay? No heroics.”

He gave a nod, lifted his visor as he pulled her close and kissed her forehead. “Stay safe.”

He turned and walked away, in the direction Priyan had pointed, with Bolin following along behind.

“What did you say to each other?” He heard Priyan ask just before he turned the corner.

“None of your business,” Rose said.

Dav moved a little faster.