Star Road Page 23

  She held her breath and leaned closer.

  “Don’t strain yourself,” she whispered.

  But Ivan’s face was infused with blood, veins bulging in his neck and forehead as he struggled to say more.

  “... Take ... this ...”

  A raw, ragged intake of breath.

  “... off…”

  Ruth looked around at the other passengers. Frantic.

  No help there.

  “Someone please. Help. This thing is strangling him!” she shouted to the others.

  Then the exec, Nahara, shook his head again.

  “None of my business,” he finally said, softly. “And I’m not much of a fighter.”

  After a tense moment or two, Rodriguez stood up. Glaring at Nahara, he said, “Not much of a man, either. I’ll do what I can.”

  With that, he walked up the few stairs to the cockpit door and rapped on it.

  Within a second or two, the door opened, and he went inside.

  ~ * ~

  Rodriguez’s hands were sweating as he shut the cockpit door and stood there for a moment, staring in amazement at the complex array of navigation and communication screens, displays, and devices.

  Where to begin?

  “Okay, Doc, I doubt you’ve ever been inside a SRV cockpit or operated a pulse cannon before.” Annie barely glanced up from her screens, her hands flying back and forth over the controls.

  He shook his head.

  “Have a seat. I’ll talk you through it. When I have a—”

  Without warning, she jerked the steering hard to the left, taking a narrower ramp.

  “Sit down. Buckle up.”

  Rodriguez did as he was told and then watched, fighting back his fear as Annie steered the vehicle down a long, spiraling ramp. A feeling of vertigo swept through him. It looked like she was heading straight down toward the raging ocean.

  Is she trying to get us all killed?

  On one of the screens, Jordan—the gunner—was sitting in the aft turret, calmly swinging his cannon around and shooting. His face was expressionless.

  The speeders chasing behind them were fast, and they easily dodged back and forth to avoid shots.

  The shots that did hit exploded on the speeders’ shields with bright flashes of orange plasma. Enough hits, and even the toughest shields would fail.

  “The gun’s control is there... on your left. Grip the handles, aim, and—shit!”

  Another wrenching turn almost threw Rodriguez out of his seat.

  “Aim and fire,” Annie finished. “The trigger’s the red button on the left handle. Above your thumb.”

  Without even thinking to take careful aim, Rodriguez pressed the trigger.

  A streak of light shot from the forward cannon and hit the road about forty meters in front of them. Huge chunks of road compound exploded into dust.

  An instant later, the SRV shuddered when it ran over the smoking crater his shot had made in the road.

  “Easy there, cowboy,” Annie said. “I said aim first.”

  Biting his lower lip, Rodriguez nodded.

  Annie’s expression was fixed, staring straight ahead as she piloted the twists and turns of the spiraling road. This particular loop led down and then straight up again. But here was their chance.

  A last mad dash to the portal.

  “Make sure you get someone in your sights before you pull the damn trigger.”

  Technically, press, not pull, Rodriguez thought, but he wasn’t about to argue the point right now.

  Rodriguez licked his lips and stared, amazed at the savage fury—and frightening beauty—of the ocean below them. Towering gray waves washed up and over the ramps and crashed in huge sprays against the pylons.

  But this was no time to appreciate the view.

  Up ahead, a one-man speeder suddenly appeared.

  Moving so fast.

  Rodriguez swung the gun up until the automatic targeting system blinked green. Then he fired ...

  And missed.

  His shot went wide and tore through one of the pylon’s support struts. Sparks exploded and flared as twisted hunks of molten metal and alloy exploded into the air. The gaping hole had to be at least four meters across.

  “This thing’s got punch.”

  The oncoming speeder was weaving from side to side, avoiding the fire and heading straight at them.

  Rodriguez was sure they were going to collide head on.

  But Annie darted onto another ramp, leaving that speeder behind until its pilot could turn around and get back into the chase.

  “Take your time ... this isn’t rocket—or any other kind of science,” Annie said in a quiet voice that almost made him believe he could do this. “It’s just aim and shoot.”

  Almost.

  Because then, his only thought was: If it’s left up to me, we’re all dead meat.

  ~ * ~

  Jordan exhaled, frustrated.

  The SRV zigged and zagged so much he still couldn’t get off many clear shots, and the speeders were onto his tactics now and kept their noses darting left and right as much as possible.

  Steady there, Annie, he thought. Just for a bit.

  He couldn’t see the troop ship through the turret, but his scanner indicated its approximate location.

  What he saw made him smile.

  “Annie, you’ve got him out of position,” he said into the commlink.

  “Say again?” Annie’s voice crackled in his headset.

  “We’re between him and the portal. Check your readings. Jesus! Our shields aren’t holding up.”

  “Not deionizing can’t be helping,” Annie said sharply.

  Had to be slowing the SRV down.

  “Can’t do a damn thing about it now,” Jordan replied.

  A pause. Nothing. Then: “We’re just going to have to make a run for it.”

  “That’d be my move.”

  On the scanner screen, Jordan watched as several dots moved in from three directions to cut them off, trying to drive them away from the portal.

  He had no delusions about their odds.

  Annie was a good pilot... a great pilot, but she couldn’t do the impossible. These Runners were tenacious, dogged; they must really want whatever— or whoever—was onboard.

  “Hey, Jordan. I’m gonna need you up front to clear the way if things get hot,” Annie said over the commlink. “Going to have to forget the speeders. I think their captain knows what I’m gonna try.”

  “Be right there,” Jordan said, already undoing his safety straps.

  Within seconds, he was moving briskly up the aisle toward the cockpit.

  But at the front of the cabin, the Chippie grabbed at him.

  “Want to chip up for me?” she asked, her eyes bright with excitement.

  Jordan shrugged her hold off and raced to the cockpit door.

  ~ * ~

  “Okay, Doc, head back and man the rear turret,” Annie said to Rodriguez. “Works just like this one. Only bigger.”

  “And try not to shoot our own ass off,” Jordan added.

  “I can’t do this anymore. I’m useless.”

  He looked like a lost child.

  “Get your ass back there and do whatever you can! It doesn’t have to be fancy. Just keep shooting to let them know we’re not going down without a fight.”

  “We haven’t already proven that?” Rodriguez said. When no one reacted, he left the cockpit.

  As soon as Rodriguez was gone, the door slamming shut behind him, the atmosphere in the cockpit changed. Annie was focused on her piloting and the signals coming in on various displays and scanners.

  “That asshole ain’t worth spit,” Jordan muttered.

  Annie looked at the screens, moving from one to the other.

  Dozens of speeders showed on her display, all angling toward them from several directions at once.

  It looked like they’d easily intercept SRV-
66 before Annie got anywhere near the portal.

  “Okay, Jordan. It’s showtime.”

  With the portal so close, they entered a gauntlet.

  ~ * ~

  28

  ROAD TEST

  Rodriguez sat down in the aft gun turret.

  He grabbed the only thing that made sense to him—a headset—and snapped it on.

  “You kidding me? What do I do back here? This is—”

  “Rodriguez. Quiet!” Jordan said. “And listen up.”

  It felt as if the gunner was speaking right against his ear.

  “Just grab the stick in front of you, right between your legs.”

  Rodriguez took the stick, and the twin barrels of the main gun and the turret started to move together.

  “Whoa—I’m moving.”

  “No shit. You move in the same direction as the guns. Now, when you see something coming at you, just press the button to fire.”

  Rodriguez pressed the button. He blasted into a section of the ramp, and a smoldering crater appeared.

  “At a target, Rodriguez. A target.”

  He nodded, his heart beating fast in his throat, and said, “Got it. Yeah.”

  “Good.”

  And Jordan vanished from the screen.

  ~ * ~

  “So close,” Annie said. “But they’re all over the place.”

  She looked at Jordan as his head swiveled from the cockpit window to the screens. Back and forth. Up and down. Calculating so much, so fast.

  “Gotta wait. Let ‘em get a bit closer.”

  Annie knew better than to question her gunner’s tactics. She had the SRV running full out. Let him do his job.

  But she’d have to ease up a bit before they hit the portal. No telling what the Road was like on the other side.

  “Okay,” Jordan said calmly, and then he started firing.

  And Annie, even with her eyes locked on the ramp, adjusting her SRV as it rolled toward the portal, watched the nearest speeder burst into flames. Direct hit on its core.

  Even better—the flaming metal mess careened into one of the other speeders and took it out.

  “Nice one,” she said.

  Then more blasts. Some of the speeders swerved to avoid the SRV’s shots.

  But by getting close, they now had fewer options, fewer turns and ramps to take.

  If one speeder dodged, the other had to sail on—exposed.

  “Three down,” Jordan said.

  And at least four...five more coming.

  And then some started hitting the SRV.

  “Hitting us in the rear,” Jordan said. Then: “Rodriguez ... you have permission to fire ... amigo.”

  Jordan went back to picking off the speeders with only seconds left before SRV-66 entered—or tried to enter—the Star Road.

  ~ * ~

  Rodriguez’s frantic aiming had the gun turret swinging around wildly, his shots nowhere near hitting the two speeders racing after the SRV, firing away.

  Can’t do this, he thought. Can’t do this.

  He felt nauseous, and when he burped, a thick, sour taste filled his mouth.

  I’m a scientist... not some space warrior.

  This is above my pay grade.

  He chuckled at that and, for a moment, stopped overthinking the shots. Now he moved, fired and—amazingly—a speeder burst into flames and crashed into the ramp, skidding and spinning around, sending up a shower of sparks.

  “I got one!”

  “So get more,” Jordan said calmly.

  The adrenaline—a new feeling for Rodriguez—raced through him now. He felt positively high.

  Which is when he turned to target the other speeder and saw that— instead—the other speeder had him in its sights.

  “No,” Rodriguez said.

  He pressed his button.

  And the two opposing guns fired at the same time.

  Rodriguez got off a shot; a hit but not fatal.

  But the enemy speeder aimed dead-center on the turret and fired back.

  The blast rocked the SRV, kicking it ahead, and the hit to the gun turret sent a shower of sparks raining down on Rodriguez. Hissing specks stung his exposed skin while the rocking SRV shook him back and forth like a rag doll.

  His hands went up to cover his burning face.

  Releasing the gun, he wiped away the painful glowing bits of metal and plastic from his hands and face.

  ~ * ~

  Jordan tapped his screen.

  “Rodriguez took a hit. We gotta get him out of there.”

  “No,” Annie said quickly. “Stay at your post.”

  Jordan had cleared the last of the latest wave of speeders. But more were coming. Fast. The portal entry lay directly ahead, its churning rollers growing brilliant in the dim sunlight.

  “You can’t walk back there during a portal entry. Let’s get through— then you can pull him out.”

  Jordan didn’t argue.

  She liked that about him.

  He had his opinions, but he took an order as if he were still in the military.

  “Here we go.”

  The screen showed the shimmering multicolored wringers of the portal while the cockpit window showed only a crazy jump into empty space.

  “Now ...” Annie said.

  And the SRV left the near-space of Hydra Salim. After a stomach-churning moment of weightlessness, they were suddenly back on the Star Road.

  ~ * ~

  The first thing Annie did was look at the screens, checking to see if they were being followed.

  “I think ... we did it.”

  “Okay, let me get Rodriguez out. Maybe one of the passengers can bandage him up.”

  “Right.”

  Jordan unsnapped his harness and left the cockpit.

  And Annie thought, Did we really just outrun them? Will that battle cruiser give up?

  Doubtful.

  If it did, though, this was one hell of a lucky day.

  She looked down to a screen showing the gun turret. Jordan was freeing Rodriguez from the debris covering the gun seat, hauling him out.

  Not much blood.

  That’s good.

  Face is a mess though ...

  Then she picked up movement on the aft screen.

  And not just movement.

  The Runner’s battle cruiser filled the screen.

  Too damn good to be true, Annie thought.

  Reality was now chewing on her ass.

  And she sat there without a fore or an aft gunner.

  What was the expression?

  A sitting duck.

  Even moving at hyper-speed, it was like she wasn’t moving at all.

  ~ * ~

  Jordan eased Rodriguez into an empty seat at the rear of the cabin.

  “How bad am I hit?” He touched his face. “Am I bleeding?”

  “Superficial wounds, Doc. You got singed. You’ll be all right.”

  He gave the man, who was acting like he was breathing his last, a hearty pat on his shoulder.

  “You done good, Doc. Taking out two speeders. Something to tell your grandchildren.”

  “If I ever have any—”

  Then the intercom sounded.

  “Jordan. We got company.”

  His smile faded.

  “Can someone come back here and help Rodriguez? Tend to his wounds? First aid’s right up here.”

  He tapped an unlocked overhead compartment.

  Sinjira stood up, looking scared, but she moved toward Rodriguez.

  “I will.”