Collision Course (Class 5, #6)

Chapter 44

CHAPTER 44

Dav let the drone tug him up and back from the launch bay doors.

“You’re sure Rose is a safe distance away?” he asked Sazo.

“She is.” Sazo didn’t remind him he’d already asked twice. Dav almost smiled as he thought of the improbability of Sazo reassuring him. Even two weeks ago, he wouldn’t have thought it could ever happen.

A runner left the launch bay of the Barrist and another from the Hasmarga ship, ready to come through the launch bay once it was breached.

Dav had given himself two minutes to get away from the blast radius, and now he looked down at the time. “Activation in four, three, two, one?—”

The doors exploded with a low, bone-rattling thump. He sensed the vibration through the ship.

“Let’s go.” The hover ferried him down, getting him close enough to grab a hand hold near the bay opening.

Dav studied his handiwork.

The doors were bent inward, but not blown completely off.

One side was twisted, the metal jagged and sharp, and it had not moved as far open as the other side.

“Is it enough to get the runners through?” he asked.

“No.” Sazo sounded frustrated. “We can get a tube in, though. Hover the runner just outside the bay doors, extend a tube in, and get Rose out that way.” He cut out, then back in. “Jia says the runner will have to turn back for a tube. So the Hasmarga can go first.”

Dav pulled himself through the resistance of the force field, reached the lip of the bay opening, and gauged whether the Hasmarga runner would be able to fit.

It didn’t look like it.

He jogged through the twisted, charred doors and saw Rul standing in the passageway, looking in.

As soon as he saw Dav, he stepped inside the bay and came to check things out.

“Your ship will not fit?” The translation came through his helmet.

Dav shook his head. “They’re going back for a tube that attaches to the runner’s door. We can send it through the force field into the bay.”

“We do not have this tube.” Rul watched as the Hasmarga runner approached, then nosed at the force field, pushing through it.

It was too wide for the gap by quite a bit.

“You might have to join Rose and I on our runner, and then get to your ship from the Barrist’s launch bay,” Dav said.

Rul did not look happy about that, but he gave a nod, then turned away as he spoke into his comms.

“Nortega is piloting the runner. They’ve got the tube, and they’re on their way back,” Sazo said. “Time to get everyone into the launch bay.”

Dav turned, and there was Rose. She stepped through the door, stopped, and leaned back, hands on her lower back.

“You’re all right?” He ran to her, ran his own hand down her back and rubbed. Her suit felt cold to the touch.

“No. I want to have this baby. Now.”

He felt a shot of pure fear zip through him. “Not yet.” He could hear the panic in his voice.

“I’d prefer to be in the med bay,” she agreed. She peered out at the hole. “What’s going on?”

“The doors were stronger than we anticipated. The gap isn’t wide enough for either our or the Hasmarga’s rescue runner, but Nortega is coming with one fitted with a tube.”

“We’re all going together?” she asked. As she spoke, a warrior burst from the passageway into the launch bay, holding a baby in his hands.

Rul turned, ran over to him, then took the baby and spun to face them, holding it out toward them.

“The air has turned bad. The babies and Gerna cannot breathe properly.” Rul tapped his helmet. “We are able to, but she doesn’t have one.” He lifted the baby. “This one is now dead.”

“Bring them in here,” Rose said. “There is more air volume, it’ll take her longer to poison the air in here than in the passage.”

Rul gently placed the baby on the ground, and then leaped toward the door, wings lifting him a little.

“I’ll help them, you stay here and watch for Nortega,” Dav said.

“This is Pyre’s doing,” Rose said. “Her last petty revenge. The doors are breached already so there’s no reason for this except payback.”

Dav gave a nod, then ran after Rul. When he reached Gerna, he saw one of the warriors had given up his helmet for her, and he and another warrior were lifting her up to carry her.

Some of the babies were lying on top of her, but they could no longer grab on and a number of them fell off.

Dav scooped two up, one in each arm, and ran behind the two warriors into the launch bay, set the babies down and ran back for more.

The other Hasmarga were doing the same, picking up babies two or three at a time and carrying them into the bay, then heading back to fetch the others.

By the time the runner had wedged itself into the gap, and extended the tube, all that was left was to bring the dead.

All the Hasmarga but the one who’d given his helmet to Gerna ran out to get them.

Rose picked up a baby and walked to the tube, but the Hasmarga warrior ran in front of her to block her way.

She stopped, gave a nod, and handed the baby to him, stepped aside and kept going.

The warrior cradled the baby, watching her go, and Dav skirted him as he ran to catch up to her. “Get inside. I’ll wait at the bottom of the tube, and talk to Rul. I don’t think that warrior has all the information, as he gave up his helmet.”

Dav also wondered if he might also not be thinking straight because of lack of air.

Either way, he didn’t want a baby taken onto the runner without a warrior present, and Dav couldn’t fault him for that.

Rose stopped and turned back, and he could see she thought she should be helping carry babies in.

“Let them do it,” he said. “We are helping them in other ways.”

She gave a nod and then Mostert was suddenly there.

“Ready?” she asked Rose.

“More than,” Rose answered, and walked into the tube.

As she disappeared, Dav felt the first whisper of relief he’d experienced since the day she was taken.

He saw Rul come through carrying a dead baby in both hands, and gestured to him.

It was time to go.