“I know that. We’ve already been in one.”
“These interface controls are our last chance for communicating with the ship’s systems.” Tikaya lifted the sphere, held it before the smaller grouping of symbols, and manipulated a handful of them. A conical white beam came out of the wall, enveloping the sphere.
Amaranthe jumped back, though her brain caught up with her reactions a second later. It was similar to the white beams from the repair devices, not to the scorching crimson rays emitted from the cleaning cubes. After a moment, Tikaya let go of the sphere. Instead of dropping, it floated within the beam.
“Bloody balls,” one of their prisoners whispered. “We hadn’t been able to get our gizmos to do anything. We were just picking the, uh, pretty ones.”
Tikaya ignored them. An image formed in the air above the sphere, not dissimilar to the larger ones in the control room. A moment later, Amaranthe found herself staring at a familiar map of the Behemoth’s interior, one with colored dots on different levels.
“Those are the people still onboard?” Her stomach sank. Six different groups. If the ship weren’t so spread out, getting to them all might be feasible, but how long would it take to run from level to level?
“Uh,” Maldynado said. “How many people can we fit into our lifeboat?”
Amaranthe grimaced at the new concern. “They’re not big inside.”
“We’ll make it work,” Tikaya said firmly, her eyes meeting Amaranthe’s, as if to remind her of the promise she’d made. “We needn’t stay in it for long.”
“Agreed.” Amaranthe pointed at the sphere. “Is there any way to take this map with us? I can’t…” If she had to memorize the complex routes… she’d never be able to do it, not that many. And what if the people moved positions in the time she was trying to get to them?
“Yes, that’s what I’d planned to do.” Tikaya removed the sphere from the white beam. The map projected above it remained in place. She handed it to Amaranthe.
“Any chance you can add a clock to it?” Amaranthe asked. “To let us know how much longer we have?”
“Not in a language you’d understand. I’ll see if it’s possible to delay the countdown though.”
“Good.”
Basilard prodded Maldynado and pointed to one of his pockets.
“Oh, right.” Maldynado fished inside of his jacket. “Will this do?” He held up a gaudy gold pocket watch crusted with emeralds and sapphires.
“To pay the team’s wages for a year? Yes.” Amaranthe grabbed it from him. “How much time do we have currently, Tikaya? Assuming you’re not able to change the countdown.”
“About fifty minutes.”
Amaranthe would have preferred precision to “about,” but she noted the time on the watch and only said, “Understood.” If they were dealing with translating the minutes across languages, precision wasn’t going to happen anyway. She pointed at Tikaya and Mahliki. “You two stay here, watch the prisoners, and figure things out, please.”
The two treasure hunters eyed their proposed guards with speculation, and Amaranthe hesitated. Maybe it’d be better to leave Basilard or Maldynado and take Mahliki to hunt for the people. But Starcrest’s family had to get out of here. Amaranthe had been sent to help them, and she wasn’t going to fail. She… she’d get out too. Sicarius needed her. These thoughts were only for… just in case. Besides, she needed her men to handle the people they found, in case they put up resistance. Most of the dots were in pairs, but there were two groupings of multiple people.
She pointed at Mahliki and held the prisoners’ eyes. “You two have heard of Fleet Admiral Starcrest?”
They nodded.
“This is his daughter. He’s trained her from birth to defend herself and smash men who annoy her into applesauce. If you give her any trouble, she’ll tear off your balls and shove them down your gullets.” Not her classiest threat, but it had the desired effect. The men grew pale.
Mahliki simply smirked, and Amaranthe wondered if there might be some truth to her statement.
“Let’s go,” Amaranthe held up the sphere and nodded toward Maldynado and Basilard. They’d already wasted enough time.
“Wait.” Tikaya pointed to Amaranthe’s rifle, then picked up her bow and the jar of acid. “Trade. You may need it.”
“Good point. Thanks.”
Amaranthe took the bow while Basilard grabbed the jar.
“Want me to carry anything?” Maldynado asked.
“Your watch.” She thrust it into his hand. “Those twenty pounds of jewels would slow me down.”
“It’s not that heavy,” Maldynado said, and they ran down the corridor. “Though Sicarius did once make me tread water while holding it above my head during a swimming practice.”
“I’m surprised it didn’t sink you irrevocably.”
It was hard to read Basilard’s signs when they were racing down the corridor at their four-minute-obstacle-course speed, but Amaranthe did catch, Sicarius had to pull him up. After a glance at the hat, he added, By the tentacles.
“It’s a real shame the ladies don’t know what a comedian you are, Bas,” Maldynado growled as they ran around a corner and up a ramp.
After that, they focused on covering ground and didn’t speak. Amaranthe checked the map frequently, holding the sphere like spun glass as they raced about. If she dropped it and the map disappeared, she didn’t like her odds of finding her way back, especially after they zigged and zagged through a series of those seven-way intersections.
They almost crashed into the first pair of relic raiders, a man and woman with stuffed rucksacks, eyes wide as they sprinted down the corridor.
Amaranthe stopped them, raising her hands rather than the bow. Fearing some of the cubes were chasing them, she didn’t start with pleasantries. “What’re you-”
“How do we get out of here?” the woman shouted. “The door we came in is-it looks like we’re a thousand feet in the air!”
Ah. “That’s because we are. Five thousand feet, I believe. Come with us. We’re going to collect the others, then all of us can get off via the lifeboat.”
“A flying lifeboat?”
“Something like that.” Amaranthe waved to her men, implying they should encourage compliance physically if needed, but the couple was too terrified to object. They were lost and didn’t know how to get off the ship. They’d follow anyone who had a plan.
Her team collected two more groups of people and a single meandering man before circling back toward Tikaya and the others. Amaranthe had expected more trouble, but everyone had encountered cubes-or something else that had scared them-and was eager to escape. Most of their packs were empty-they hadn’t had time to find anything useful with which to abscond-but Amaranthe and Tikaya would have to figure out a way to divest the first group of their loot. They could worry about that later.
“We’re doing well,” Amaranthe whispered to Maldynado as they ran down the ramp that would lead them to the lifeboat floor again.
He tilted his watch in her direction, his face bleak. Amaranthe grimaced at the numbers. Though they’d collected people without any brawls to slow them down, the sheer miles of tunnels in the Behemoth were working against them.
“Let’s hope Tikaya found a way to give us more ti-curse it all, stop, everyone stop!”
A black cube had floated into an intersection ahead of them. Amaranthe already had the bow in hand, but it took a second for Basilard to remove the lid jar and for her to dip in an arrow. The cube rotated toward them, its dark orifice flaring to life like a burning red eye.
Sweat dribbled down the back of her neck as she made herself take the time to ensure the arrowhead was fully coated. Shouts and bumps sounded behind her as people scrambled back. Amaranthe nocked the arrow and dropped to one knee. She forced herself to take a steadying breath before firing. This had to be perfect.