A gleaming white aircar settling down to land, the jets cutting off. White? Cutting the jets? What in the world?
The assault door snapped open. I centered it in my sights.
A single trooper, unarmored—it was a girl with short wispy blonde hair, looking around into the darkness, puzzled.
"Beta Three!" she called out. "It's Whit! Cinta sent us to pick it up! Damn it! Where is it?"
"What's the story, Sweety?" I whispered to my tacmod. My laser sight lazily roamed over Whit's chest.
"The aircar is now empty, Thinker—she was the only occupant."
"Whit!" I stepped out of the dark. "What's the sit?"
"Beta Three! Thank God!" She appeared giddy with relief. "Cinta would have killed us if we hadn't found it! Get on board! We've got to move right now! Cinta ordered it!"
I turned, looking into the darkness. "Moontouch!" I called out.
It took a few marks for the word to be relayed and Whit was dancing from foot to foot in impatience.
"The Legion will be here in a frac!" she insisted. "They've got to be tracking our every move!"
Moontouch's guard suddenly appeared out of the dark, all shields and spears and tridents. Then the wall of warriors parted and Moontouch was there, clutching Stormdawn to her breast. I reached out and embraced them. A prickly wave of emotions rippled over my flesh as I inhaled her scent, for probably the last time. We kissed, feverishly. She cried silently, tears rolling down her cheeks. I kissed the child, my own lovely son. I prayed for them both.
I had given them eternal life, but it was not enough—it was certainly not enough.
"Come on, Three—let's go!" Whit, in the aircar. I tore myself away. Deadeye stood by the car, his fierce eyes gleaming. We embraced.
"Take care of her, Deadeye!"
"My life, Slayer—my life!"
I leaped into the aircar blinking, and the door slammed shut and we were off, max power, low and fast. I found my way to the cockpit and took the number two seat beside Whit. Trees flashed past us.
"This is crazy," Whit said.
"Why are you doing it?" I asked.
"We owe it," she reminded me.
"All right, what's the sit?"
"We have no idea," she said, "except people are starting to shoot at each other and Cinta asked us to get it on the Maiden."
"Shooting at each other! Where's Tara—I mean Cinta?"
"It's downside. We're going after Cinta once it's safely on board."
"The hell you are! We get her first!"
"No, we don't—we've got our orders!"
"Don't be stupid! It'll be a miracle if we get through once! It'll never happen twice!"
"But Cinta told us…"
"Where's your loyalty? Can't you see she's sacrificing herself so I can escape? They want us both! We'll have only one chance to make it to the Maiden."
"Sacrificing itself?"
"With the help of your blind obedience! Damn it, she's more important than I am!"
"No…we can't leave Cinta behind!"
"Then we get her first!"
"All right!"
"Where is she?"
"It's in Alpha Station."
"Wonderful! Right into the mouth of the beast! Well, then that's where we're going. Who controls the Maiden?"
"The Legion. But Cinta seems to think that bunch can be trusted."
"Any contact with her?"
"It ordered a comdown." A forested hill flashed by on our right. The aircar's comcenter was crackling with transmissions. I paused to listen.
"Seven, One. I want a tacstar on that target—now!"
"Scut! Who are these guys?"
"Shut down and do it!"
"Tenners! Scut!"
"Tacair, I've got a hot flight of incoming fighters from the Armageddon! They don't answer!"
"Shoot 'em down!"
"Alpha Station is to be held at all costs! Fire at all resistance!"
"Alpha Command, Armageddon! You will cease resistance immediately or we will antimat the station! Repeat…"
"Alpha, Armageddon! That was an unauthorized transmission! Armageddon will support you! Fire at any hostile targets!"
"Get those bastards!"
"Don't believe anybody!"
"Uniden troopers, identify yourselves immediately or we will fire!"
"God damn it, it's us—Delta of CAT Four One! The hostiles are in C corridor!"
"Well, shoot 'em!"
"Armageddon fighters, if you enter our DZ we will fire on you!"
"Negative Alpha, those are friendlies!"
"They're going to be dead friendlies if they don't turn aside!"
"That was an anti!" The sky lit up, flickering an eerie electric green.
"Tenners, we need a…"
"I want autofire on all unidentified air traffic, repeat…"
"Scut!" Whit exclaimed. "That's us!"
"Land!" I shouted. "Now!"
###
We glided to a stop in a blizzard of dead flowers and leaves in an ancient forest of incredibly tall flowertrees. We popped the door and got out fast.
"Damn it!" I exclaimed. "We don't need this!"
"It was a good aircar," Whit said, "but I guess we lose it. We certainly can't identify ourselves." It was chilly and wet and dark. I slipped the comtop over my head, and Sweety lit it all up for me.
"Follow me," I said. "I've got Alpha Station up ahead. The sky is full of junk." I could see it all on the scope, flocks of aircars circling over the station just like birds and fighters dropping through the at like cenite bricks. A blinding flash lit up the sky, dazzling my eyes. A sharp explosion followed.
"What was that?"
"I don't know," I said. We crashed through the brush noisily. "Tell me about Uldo! What happened to Beta?"
"The Legion was tracking down O's and killing them off one by one when we left," Whit gasped. "They had over-run large chunks of the O's territory. We had the vac and the at when we left. It was just a matter of exterminating them—but it's going to take a long time to do it. They were freeing thousands of Uldo prisoners—and uncovering horrors we don't even want to think about."
"What about Beta?"
"What does it mean, what about Beta? Doesn't it know? They never told us a thing about what Beta was up to. And we had no means of communicating with Cinta. When we got the message from Andrion Two, we found it hard to believe at first. But when we got orders to proceed there, we believed it."
"Aircar approaching!" Sweety warned me.
"Aircar, Whit! Freeze!" We groveled in rotting leaves, crawling like worms into the darkest shadows of the forest. An aircar passed overhead, then started to turn back. A bright light flickered through the tall black trunks of the flowertrees. It was cold and my heart was hammering.
I activated the E.
"Aircar returning," Sweety reported, "probing, mags, thermo, infra, searchlight."
"Don't move, Whit!"
"We're too scared to move!" Blazing white light cut into hundreds of flashing segments by the trees, the air full of flying leaves, the aircar closer and closer.
"Sensor lock! We've been spotted!" Sweety gave us the word.
"Run, Whit! Run or die!" I burst to my feet and ran, dodging from tree to tree, gasping for breath. I knew we'd be hard to hit in the forest, but a stunstar might bring us down. Whit was back there, darting through the shadows.
The aircar did not follow us. It settled into the trees, an eerie, glittering volcano of light. I skidded to a stop by a tree and brought Whit down by an arm as she hurtled past.
"Ow! We think it broke our arm!"
"Shut down and don't move!"
"Aircar discharging troopers," Sweety said, "two, four, six, nine. Squad of Legion troopers in pursuit! Recommend flight or fight."
"Deadman! Damn it damn it damn it!" A Legion squad—we'd never get away from them!