“So?” Stacia asked. “Is there anything you can do?”
“Possibly. Obviously, no ship is ever designed to take off from the ground while upside down, but we lucked out. The thruster configuration on these Cumbermarch H-85s is such that I think I can do it. That’s the good news.”
“And is there bad news?”
“The bad news is that I don’t how fast I can do this. It could take most of the day.”
“I’m not sure if I’m comfortable with us eating up that much time.”
“And the even worse news is that I can’t guarantee that Daddy’s Adult Toy won’t get further damaged in the process. I can easily see some of the shielding panels getting damaged if I do this too fast, and possible loss of structural integrity if I do it too slow. I won’t even know for sure if all that is possible until I cycle up the engines and do a diagnostic. It’s less than optimal landing could have damaged something we haven’t seen yet.”
“How long to do that diagnostic?”
“Maybe half an hour if I ignore some of the less important systems. Like the bathrooms. I wouldn’t try using them for a while anyway. Trying to take a dump while upside down is guaranteed to end in tears.”
“Work on it. I’m going to see if I can find Skin, and then set up a guard perimeter to watch for anything or anyone unwelcome.”
“I don’t suppose there’s food in here somewhere? I work better when I’ve got something in my mouth.”
Stacia found and gave him part of an emergency ration of jerky, then took about ten minutes to search for Skin. The ship wasn’t huge, yet Skin still managed to elude her. Finally, Stacia simple called into one of the ducts that she wanted Skin to help her outside. Skin’s echoed reply from somewhere deep within the ship’s innards was barely audible, but it did sound like maybe she agreed to be out in a few minutes.
After some thought, Stacia left the 808 and one of the pistols where Skin would be able to find them near the hatch, taking the two remaining plasma pistols and a sonic blade from the ship’s supplies with her. Skin had started to show an ever so slight proficiency with the 808, and the plasma pistol could be a backup. Meanwhile, Stacia suspected plasma would be more effective against a Wet Lisa if she found one, although she hadn’t actually tested that yet. If a threat came from anything else, Stacia was sure she would see it with plenty of time to warn the others.
Her tactical implants realized the flaw in this logic only as she was pulling herself up out of the reversed hatch. Which of course meant that she found herself standing on the belly of the ship with four guns pointed at her.
Chapter 15
Final Showdowns Are Always Inevitable
“Final showdowns are always inevitable,” Lexton said. She had four Shellheads at strategic points on the ground below Stacia and on the hills, while Lexton herself stood on an upside down wing about twenty meters from Stacia. “I’ve actually had quite a few over the years, both before and after I was sentenced to Leviathan. In case you haven’t guessed, I’ve won them all.”
“Did you monologue before each time?” Stacia asked. “Because I would think that would get a bit tedious.”
“You know, it really does,” Lexton said. “Sometimes I wish I could just skip it, but it’s kind of expected.”
“So what are you expecting to happen here?” Stacia asked. “I’m already thinking that you’re not going to just shoot me outright, because the smart thing would have been to do that already.” She surreptitiously cast her eyes back down through the hatch for just a second as she heard something moving beneath her. Skin was there, the 808 in her hand, and she was staring up at Stacia with a look that was equal parts terror and confusion. Neither Lexton nor any of her people could see Skin from their angle, which Stacia could use to her advantage, but Stacia didn’t know any way to communicate commands to the young woman without Lexton noticing.
Lexton shrugged. “Eh. I don’t know. Torture maybe. Or I suppose I could torture Borealis and the Skin while you watch. But to be honest, that’s getting kind of old by now.”
“You could let us go. That would be a new one.” Stacia moved the tip of her toe to the edge of the hatch, slowly enough that no one noticed. She wiggled the toe, hoping Skin would understand what Stacia wanted her to do.
She ran off deeper into the ship. That was not what Stacia had intended.
Yeah, if we survive today, we’re going to need to work out some signals, Stacia thought.
“You know something? That would be a new one. I should try letting someone go sometime, just to see what it’s like. But not today.”
Stacia felt a vibration growing under her feet. Oh, so that’s what Skin went to do instead. I guess that’ll work, too.
She wasn’t the only one who felt the thrumming beneath them. Lexton looked down at the ship. “No. There’s no way. This ship can’t…”
Stacia herself didn’t know how Stanton had got the ship up and running so quickly, but she took advantage of the momentary distraction to make a dash for the side. She didn’t get very far before the bullets started flying, but she didn’t need to. The ship was already moving, rocking beneath them, and very obviously getting ready to flip with the two of them still standing on the underside. The back thrusters fired, the heat burning the side of the hill and flowing up directly into the face of one of the Shellheads. He covered his face and ducked down the other side of the hill, dropping his 808 as he rolled.
Three Shellheads left, plus Lexton, Stacia thought. Before she could do anything with that information, though, Daddy’s Adult Toy flipped.
It was as though someone had grabbed it by one wing and flicked it with a single mighty finger. The force of the maneuver was more than Stacia had expected, and even though she thought she’d been prepared, she still found herself spinning head over heels, going so far that she was unable to get any tactical data before she hit the ground head first. Her vision flashed bright blue, not just from the force of the impact on her head but from her neural implants going into emergency shutdown mode.
Uh-oh. That wasn’t good at all.
She struggled to get to her feet for a second, flicking her head violently to the side in an effort to get her implants booted up again. Stacia was so concerned with this that she almost forgot there was a huge ship spinning in the air over her head, and it was about to come down right where she was sitting. She scrambled out of the way just as one wing came down into the ground, crushing one of the Shellheads beneath it. Two down.
Daddy’s Adult Toy shuddered and settled, now on its belly. Stanton hadn’t had a chance to deploy the landing gear, so the main hatch in was now hidden beneath the bulk of the ship. Stacia had no way of getting in at the moment for a quick escape, and neither Stanton nor Skin could come out to help her. Stacia did a quick inventory of herself and realized that she’d lost her plasma pistols, probably when she’d been flying through the air. She could try looking for them, but it seemed most likely that they were now smashed into the dirt beneath the ship. That left her only with the sonic blade, which she thought would be enough under other circumstances. But she was dazed and without her implants. If one of the two remaining Shellheads came around the ship for her, or even Lexton herself if she hadn’t been crushed right along with her lackey, then Stacia probably wouldn’t survive the attack.