Aurora Rising (9 page)

Fortunately, people pulled back as Tankin brought the sled down in front of the section of crumbled wall. The team exited into a scene of pandemonium. People rushed them crying and wailing. Rori felt the tide of it hit her and almost folded under it.

Keyen’s strong voice rose up. “Please everyone be calm and move back. We’re here to help, but we need you to move back so we can. If there are any in need of med-techs, they are on the way. Please help the injured until they get here.” Many people took strength in his words and calmed but many more reached to cling to them.

“Please, move back to a safe distance.” Cassie took up the effort but her voice didn’t have the power.

“Bass, Cassie see about getting through that rubble.” The twins started to move forward but were hampered by the crowd.

People crushed in bringing fear and confusion with them. What Rori always had felt as minor need of compassion almost tore her apart. “Please,” she said gently. “It will be all right. I promise. We will help.”

Needing to comfort, she walked out among the crowd, brushing a hand over a tear streaked faced, taking a hand and raising it to check a cut on an arm. “It will be all right. Just keep pressure on it until the med-techs arrive. Please move back so we can secure the area for the other rescue workers.” People calmed in her wake, wailing subsided to tears.

An explosion rocked the area and people pulled back. She instinctive ducked and turned back.

“Did you do that?” Ultin asked.

“What?” Rori turned.

“Sansa, the house fires,” Keyen pointed, “Tank help her.”

“Okay. She might be useful.” Sansa moved past, a slight look of acceptance in her eyes.

Keyen looked to her. “Keep it up.” He then raised his voice. “Are there any workers here from the port?”

A man staggered forward, dust and soot covered him. He held an arm tight to his body but was not seriously injured. “I am.”

“Can you tell me what happened?”

“There was an explosion. I don’t know what caused it. All systems were normal. I’d just run a check. Jusim was on the other side. I haven’t been able to reach him. Communications are down.”

“Is there anyone else in there?” Keyen asked, his attention focused on Cassie and Bass as together they levitated a chunk of wall out of the way so they could enter.

“No, just the two of us. The other man had a family union to attend today,” he answered.

Keyen nodded. “Rori, check him out.” Keyen glanced quickly to see that Sansa and Tank had the house fires about out, before striding to the opening in the wall. “Ultin, let’s go,” he called to the man, who had been checking over an older woman sitting on the ground. Ultin left the woman with an assurance she’d be all right and hurried to join Cassie, Bass, and Keyen as they climbed over the remaining debris.

The urge to go with them was so strong that Rori had to remind herself she was just to be an observer but it was hard. She was used to being in the main action. Still, in a situation like this, she was an unknown entity and that could be dangerous for the team.

She turned her attention to a man who’d been struck by a piece of flying debris and had a minor scalp wound. She concentrated on the wound and the pained expression on the man’s face lessened.

Med-tech units began to arrive. In her mind, the comm-link came alive. Remembering the IPI, she brought up the screen, raising the volume.

“Whoa!” Ultin’s exclamation reached her clearly. She spun in time to see electricity arc up from the ground.

“Ultin dampen that. Let’s get it locked down.” Keyen’s voice sounded over the commotion.

“I can see the control box. Cass.” Bass called to his sister.

Realizing she could bring up the images with the IPI, Rori activated it like the tech had shown her. Just on the left side of her vision, seven small screens appeared. She focused on Bass’s and it enlarged. Destruction surrounded him, piping lay scattered like dropped toys, small shots of flames burned. Energy sparked up, causing her to blink, but Bass focused in on the small box on the side of the unit. When it opened Rori knew Bass had done it though he had to be at least fifty feet away. She could barely make out the row of switches that one by one clicked over. At the last switch the sparks died.

Bass turned from the control box, and she caught a brief visual of Keyen and Ultin. Both men stared at a ruptured pipe. Amazed, Rori could see the jagged split pulling back together. The strength and control it would take was unbelievable. She turned to see the flames on the three nearby houses had been extinguished. Ice crystals glistening in the sun on one of the roofs melted away as she watched.

“I have a man down.” Cassie’s voice reached her.

Rori brought up Cassie’s screen to see the head, shoulders and arm of a man caught under a pile of debris. Rori felt fear for his life until she saw the faint movement of his hand. “He’s still alive,” she echoed Cassie.

“Bass, you and Cassie try reaching him from that side. Ultin and I will try from this angle,” Keyen said, his next phrase was directed to Rori. “How are you doing out there?”

“Sansa and Tankin have the fires under control. Sansa is on her way to you. Med-techs have arrived. Everything has settled down.” Her eyes locked on a man standing off to the side. He seemed to be studying her, totally unaffected by all that was happening around him.

“Good.” Keyen’s answer pulled her attention away.

The word hardly died away when a boy came running up. Panic covered him like his filthy clothes. “Help, help,” he cried plowing into her arms. Rori sent out waves of comfort but they rolled off. “Tomma, Tomma’s, Tomma’s.” Tears streamed down his face but he settled.

“Tell me.” Rori felt fear grip her stomach as if she knew what he was going to say.

“We snuck in. He wanted to climb the tower.” The boy took quaking breaths. “He wanted to prove he was brave enough to do it.”

“Where?” Rori tried to remain calm, but as the boy pointed to the tallest tower, she felt a sense of dread. It took her a second to figure out how to use her IPI to magnify the area at the top of the tower, but when she did, she spied a small figure huddled against a section of metal. Part of the walkway had been ripped away along with a large section of the ladder. There was no way to climb up. An explosion rocked the ground near the base of the tower, and a burst of flames shot up toward the boy.

For a split second, Rori focused in on the rest of the team’s efforts to reach the man. They were all tied up handling flaring hot spots released by the explosion. She could see Sansa had joined them, working to cool the area for Cassie and Bass to work.

Rori looked for Tankin. He was just inside the area, trying to secure a section of pipe that leaned against the wall, threatening to crumble it.

“Tankin, I need you,” she called into her communicator. “Keyen, can you hear me?”

“Yes, what do you need?” He sounded breathless and distracted.

“We have a boy trapped on the top of the tallest tower.”

“Raebent hues.” Irritation clouded his voice.

Rori hurried to continue. “The ladder is down. You can’t reach it from the bottom. I’m going to have Tankin take me up in the hoversled and come down from the top. I can do this,” she added before he could object and prayed it was true. The flared cone over the top of the tower was going to make it tricky to get the hoversled close, and intermittent bursts of flames added to the danger.

There was another second pause before the answer came. “All right, but be careful.”

Tankin had already reached her and had been monitoring the conversation. “I could go,” he volunteered.

Rori shook her head. “I have no experience on the sled, and it’s going to take a lot of skill to get close enough to make the jump over.”

The big man looked like he wanted to object but instead nodded, and together they ran to the sled. This time as the sled lifted off, Rori locked the ramp into a partially extended position. Securing her hands in a safety strap by the portal, she studied the area as Tankin brought them over the complex.

Both groups had about reached the man. Ultin looked to be handling energy that sparked while Keyen shifted rubble. Rori guessed each piece must weigh at close to her weight but he moved them easily with his mind.

Her focus moved as Tankin brought the hoversled around so she faced the tower. Her heart lurched. The boy on the walkway couldn’t be more than ten, though it was hard to tell the way he smashed himself to the building. When he saw the sled, he reached out one hand as if to grab her, his other hand locked tight to the metal work.

Rori studied the area. Tankin must have been doing the same. He called back to her, “There’s no way you can make the jump. I can’t get close enough, and no telling if the catwalk could take your landing. The rest could give way.”

“You’ll have to lower me from the top.”

“You’d have to swing over under that lip,” he answered back as an objection that was full of resignation. He knew as well as she did it was the only way. “There’s a line and harness in the first locker on the right.”

It only took Rori a few seconds to find and fit it to herself. Clipping the line into the lock bolted by the opening, she set the clamps on the line so she would free fall only a short way when she first went over the ramp.

“Ready.” The word hardly made it out of her mouth when the sled jerked and tipped wildly to the side slamming her into the equipment compartments. Flames burst in the air so close she pulled back from the heat.

“Hold on,” Tankin yelled unnecessarily. He fought with the controls for what felt like forever before bringing the sled under control. Finally, he got it leveled out, pulling back away from the tower. “We can’t come from this side. I’m going to try from the other.”

He brought them around. The railing hung precariously. Rori would have to cross four meters of the catwalk to reach the boy, but at least there were no bursts of fire they had to contend with.

“Going over the side.” She swallowed hard, waited for Tankin’s acknowledgement and dropped. Her body went to the end of the locked portion on the line and swung up toward the underside of the ramp. Rori was ready for the motion and had her feet spread out to take the impact. She swung back, already searching for a place to drop onto. Releasing the hand grip, she slid down the line a little farther, and then kicked her legs to get swinging so she could make it under the lip of the overhang.

Like a pendulum, she swung under the hoversled gaining the momentum she needed to cover the space. Above her with expert hands, Tankin held the sled steady. Rori counted off three more arcs. Catching her breath as she hurdled back to the tower, she released the brake on the line and dropped. With the landing space so small, there was no way to keep from hitting into the tower’s side, but her calculation had been right on and the impact was nominal. She staggered. Regaining her footing, she turned to the boy.

Below her feet, she felt the metal shift under her added weight. She didn’t have much time. Cautiously, she stepped forward. Metal groaned. She took another step. A ripping sound greeted her. A piece of floor grating came free, spiraling as it dropped away.

Her stomach tightened as she studied the open four foot section. It was nothing to jump but the question was would the walk on the other side take her landing or would the rest of the walkway rip free, taking the boy down with it.

It only took her a brief second to survey her surroundings, calculate the risk and come up with an option. She couldn’t risk the jump. Placing her foot on the railing, she could only hope it and the rungs on the bottom of the coolant cone would hold her. She reached out barely able to wrap her hand around one bar. She hung for a moment then sighed in relief when it took her weight, and she stretched for the next rung. Releasing her first grip, she swung off the next. Her tether hampered her movement though Tankin, who was obviously monitoring her movements, eased the hoversled around with her.

Rori caught sight of the boy as she crossed the gap. Like the earlier vision of him, he sat on the catwalk, curled tightly to the tower. One arm was wrapped over his head and Rori could see his eyes were shut tight. Deciding the rungs of the cone seemed sturdy, she continued across. Grabbing a piece of sharp metal, it bit into her hand and a cry escaped her. Tomma’s eyes popped open. Full of fear, they honed in on her.

“It’s all right,” she said, more for the boy than to answer Tankin’s question that came over the link.

“Hi, you must be Tomma,” Rori said casually, while pushing out waves of comfort. “My name’s Rori. Seems you have yourself in a bad spot. What do you say we get down from here?”

His head bobbed up and down.

“Good. My arms are getting tired from hanging, so I’m going to climb down by you.” She described her actions as she did them, moving slowly again to make sure each spot held before she rested her full weight on it.

“Are you hurt?” she asked.

He shook his head.

“Good.” Rori smiled. “I have a harness here to put on you to hook you to me. Then I’m going to get you off here. You okay with that?”

The head bobbed again.

She was just reaching for him when an explosion ripped the air. Rori spun in time to see the top of the cooling tower next to them split apart. Pieces of metal flew out in all directions. In horror, she saw a huge hunk arrow toward the hoversled.