Ragamuffin (17 page)

Ijjy looked nervous. “We should get back to the
Queen
.”

“Then we still have no fuel,” Nashara snapped. “We go to the kid. You two want to try and turn back, be my guest. I’m going on.”

“She got a good point,” Sean said.

Nashara looked behind her. “Can you force the manual locks on that door, Ijjy?”

“Yeah.”

“Then do it.”

She kept the minigun trained on the black-uniformed crowd. But just barely. Even for her, amped up and designed for combat, the fifty pounds refused to be held steadily unless she let it rest against her hip.

K
ara jumped up as the face of the man who’d talked to her earlier appeared. His eyes glowed as he looked at her, but behind that, he looked like a tired, old man.

“I am sorry about that, our earlier connection got cut.” He spoke in Anglic, just as some of Kara’s oldest family had. Even Kara’s parents had once insisted she learn it; it was, they’d said, a fairly common tongue among the rest of humanity.

She’d practiced it enough that her grammar was proper, but she was sure she had a horrible accent just listening to the way the man pronounced his words.

“Will you still help us though? And what is your name?” She looked over at Jared, sleeping by the door, his arm curled around the cloth doll. She felt slightly dizzy.

“I’m Jamar Sinjin Smith, captain of the
Queen Mohmbasa
.” He sighed. “I’m sorry about the signal quality, there is a lot of jamming going on.”

“The Satrap does not want anyone hearing anything,” Kara said. “It said Emancipation was revoked.”

Jamar frowned. “Humans are still mostly Emancipated out there.”

He didn’t understand. “The Satrap says all humans are no longer free, all Satraps will be doing this.”

“That can’t be true,” Jamar said calmly.

The universe suddenly seemed better. An outside human, talking calmly to her. Things weren’t like that elsewhere. Kara dried her watering eyes. “I think we only have hours of air left.”

Jamar grimaced. “Three people went in looking for fuel, and to get to you, but I’ve lost contact with them. I think they’re still trying to get to you, though.”

Kara hugged herself and crumpled down to the floor. “The three men, do you think they can fight well?” She looked up at the face.

“At least one of them can.” The distant man faded for a second, then solidified. “I wouldn’t give up yet, Kara. Let’s give them some time and see what they come up with.”

Jared shifted, opened his eyes. “Are we being rescued?” He sat up and rubbed his eyes.

“Okay,” Kara told Jamar, then turned to Jared. “This is Jamar. He’s on a ship outside of the world. He says someone might be able to come to us.”

A big smile broke out, and it was slightly infectious, despite the complete flips in hope and despair she’d just been run through. Kara stood up. “I’ll monitor the outside for them,” she said. “Jared, try going back to sleep. Sleeping conserves air.”

Jared nodded, wide-eyed, and shut his eyes and hugged the doll tight to himself. He took a deep breath and coughed. The stench was unbearable now that they’d been forced to use the bathroom’s floor. Her lungs hurt.

But she remained standing, waving a virtual window into existence that looked down at the outside of their prison.

Please, please make it, Kara silently appealed to the empty window. Jared shouldn’t have to choke to death because she’d made a mistake. It wasn’t his fault. He was just a kid brother.

“Listen,” Jamar said. “Make sure to tell the people who show up that I’m pretty sure a fully fuelled ship called the
Toucan Too
on the other end cap’s docking bay. It’s a small transport, I didn’t see it when I swept the habitat coming in, but I think I have a read on it. I’m getting more jamming, I’ll try to deploy—” Jamar Sinjin Smith winked out of existence in a haze of fuzz.

Kara touched the space where he’d just hung, then turned away to wait.

She’d almost fallen asleep standing and watching video of the outside when she noticed the movement. Two helmeted figures standing by the outer door.

Then a third, a woman walking backward, carrying the largest gun Kara had ever seen.

Jamar Sinjin Smith hadn’t returned to talk to her yet. But who else could these people be? Kara triggered the outer door to open.

The nearest man looked around, then ducked in. He waved the rest of them on. The woman with the gun backed in.

Kara sealed them in. Jared stirred.

Then she opened a window into the area between the two doors. There would still be no air in there, but she saw the woman slump against the wall and leave smears of blood on it.

Kara looked back at the space where Jamar’s head had appeared. He had said three. This couldn’t be a coincidence. Still, she remained cautious and cracked the inner door just slightly. Her ears popped and she could feel the air shift as it filled in the empty area. Jared jerked awake.

“If you are from the ship on the outside,” Kara yelled at the half-inch crack she’d allowed, “then what is your captain’s name?” The man with the long, bunchy hair turned and walked to the crack.

“Jamar Sinjin Smith, you talk to him?”

“Yes.” Kara released the door. It rolled halfway open. “But then we lost each other.”

There were now five of them sucking up the air, the three adults using more than Jared or her. Where they stuck in here too now?

The very black woman stepped forward. “We’ll want to wait here as long as we can to see if we can reconnect with him before making a try to get back out.” She turned to look down at Kara. “You understand it’s bad out there? Dangerous?”

Kara nodded again. She’d known that for a long time. “Your captain, he said I had to tell you there was a fueled ship at the other end cap. What’s your name?”

“Nashara. Ijjy has the long hair. The other is Sean.” She sat down with her back against a wall. “I could really use a nap.”

“We don’t have much air,” Kara protested. “We should leave as quickly as possible.”

The woman, Nashara, waved at Sean. “See if she can help you talk to Jamar. If not, we’ll move out to that ship.”

Jared darted between the two men to Kara’s side and stared back at them, not sure what to make of them. “She’s scary,” he whispered too loudly, and pointed at Nashara.

“Not now, Jared.” Kara turned to the one with the short hair and tight curls. “Let me help you with it, I know a lot about them.”

“Thanks, you never find me turning down extra help.” Sean walked over to her side.

Kara watched out of the corner of her eye as Nashara pulled Ijjy aside and whispered to him. She couldn’t hear it all, just the word
kids
and a nod toward Jared, then her.

“We’ll make do,” Ijjy told her, breaking out of the whispering, catching Kara’s glances at them.

“I just don’t think it’s a good idea to bring them into a firefight.”

“We’ve been caught in enough of them already,” Kara said, turning her back to Nashara. “He won’t cause
you
any problems.”

Sean tapped her shoulder. “It’s okay, don’t worry about her.”

Nashara snorted from behind them both as Kara focused on trying to find a signal from the outside.

Jamar reappeared, though the video kept dropping until Sean froze the image of his captain’s head over the panel, and Jamar’s voice filtered out from unmoving lips.

“I’m glad to hear you all,” Jamar said. Everyone crowded near. Both the men were sweaty from running, and Kara found herself edged out behind them. “I was worried about you all.”

“We okay. How you doing?”

“I’m undocked. I have a small surprise for you,” Jamar said. “I found the
Toucan Too
. It’s fueled. They aren’t responding to me, but the ship responds to me, and diagnostics report to me that she’s got fuel. All we need to do is get there.”

“The girl told us.”

“We go meet you there?” Ijjy asked.

“That’s completely on the other side of the habitat,” Nashara said. “Twenty miles of hostiles?”

“It’s what you’re going to have to do. I’m sorry. I’ll try to meet you there,” Jamar said.

“Try?”

“I think there is a Hongguo ship in the area for sure, I’m going to try and draw it off.”

“Be careful, Jamar.” Ijjy walked closer to the frozen image of the
Queen
’s captain. He looked a bit shaken.

“I’ll be canny like Anansi,” Jamar said. “We’ll take that ship, but if we don’t, Nashara, remember—” The link died.

“Heavier jamming,” Kara said. She looked at them and shrugged. The three adults didn’t say anything, but looked at each other. Nashara stared at the floor.

“How we going get there from this side the habitat,” Ijjy finally asked.

Both men looked at the big gun by Nashara and she frowned. “Not like that. I won’t have that much blood on my hands. I’m not psychotic.”

“You the soldier.”

Nashara looked down at a screen on her wrist. “I will fight if I have to, but I’m not going to slaughter those people just because the Satrap has their minds.” But Kara saw her continue to stare at the gun. The woman was thinking about something.

“So what we doing?” Ijjy asked.

“Get the vacuum bags out.” Nashara looked angry, her eyes blank. “I’m sick of breathing this shit anyway.” She looked very, very angry.

“But what are we doing?” Sean asked.

“How’s that plastic coating?” Nashara walked over and poked Sean’s neck. “You safe to go back out?”

“We both good,” Ijjy said. “Couple minutes exposure.”

Nashara looked around. “They’ll be waiting for us just past the decompressed area.” She was obviously talking about the stratatoi.

“You got a big gun,” Ijjy said. “We armed.”

“To face tens, maybe.” Nashara looked down at the massive gun and rubbed her temple, then glanced over at Sean’s waist. She stopped rubbing her temple, stared at the loops of rope he carried. “Hundreds? No. You really want to walk over twenty miles of hostile terrain to get to the other end cap?”

“The Satrap will be watching,” Kara agreed.

Kara flinched as Nashara spun and walked over to her. “The center. The sunline. Is there a shaft that will take us up to the sunline? We’re deep on the cap on this end, we should be able to get to it, right?”

“Yes. There’s an elevator.” Kara closed her eyes, mapped out a location, and tried to pass it to Nashara, but nothing happened. “Um, you have access to lamina?”

Nashara shook her head and held out her wrist. “On here.”

How quaint. Kara sent it, and Nashara looked it over. “We’re going to seal you up for a few minutes in bags to protect you from the lack of air. We’ll carry you out. Once we’re in a safe area, we’ll open it. Okay?”

Kara nodded.

“Good.” Nashara caught a small, folded-up pack the size of her hand that Sean tossed at her. She unpuckered the top and shook it out into a four-foot-wide bag, then looked over at Jared. “Crawl on in, then.”

Jared looked at Kara. “Go ahead,” Kara said. “It’s our only way out.”

He stepped forward, still carrying the doll, and sat in the bag. Nashara pulled the edges back together, except for a last little bit for him to keep breathing.

Sean tossed another package at Nashara and she opened the vacuum bag. “You’re next.”

Kara looked at the filmy plastic and took a deep breath to steady herself. It
was out of her control now. She had to relax and let these adults help the both of them.

She stepped forward into the bag, sat down, and drew the top over her head.

“Can you give the command to open the outer door from in there?” Nashara asked. Kara nodded. “Good.” Nashara looked around. “Then let’s roll. Open the door. Ijjy, Sean, keep back, don’t shoot unless shot at. Let me pick the fights, all right?”

They nodded.

Nashara sealed both bags, then stepped forward to pick up the massive gun. Ijjy awkwardly picked Kara up and slung her over his shoulder, holding onto the back of her legs with one arm while he held a pistol in his other hand.

The outer door rumbled open at Kara’s command, and she heard a brief rustle against the plastic as all the air escaped. Ijjy’s shoulder slammed against her stomach and the world lurched as they began to move, and quickly.

T
he
Takara Bune
timidly approached Agathonosis, dropping drones and scattering them along its path. Only a few hundred thousand miles lay between the two wormholes here, both at the same orbital altitude above the planet Ys.

“They’re here,” Bahul said. “I can see the
Queen Mohmbasa
.”

“Good.” Etsudo closed his eyes as they approached. “Brandon?”

“Yes.” The other man’s voice sounded as hushed as Etsudo’s. The habitat looked wrecked. Old and wrecked.

“Are those holes in the skylights?” Etsudo asked.

“I think so.”

A ping alerted him to the presence of the
Shengfen Hao
, now just transiting the wormhole. Etsudo continued looking at visual updates of the habitat’s exterior, hardly able to believe what he was seeing. Neglect.

“Have you ever seen anything like this?” Brandon asked.

“No,” Etsudo said. “Not ever.”

The
Shengfen Hao
hailed. Jiang Deng popped up. “Moving for the attack, good job tracking them, Etsudo.”

Deng would certainly not try to capture them alive.

Disappointing. But safe. Nashara was probably aboard that ship; picking her up was too dangerous. He’d instilled some of the same loyalty into her when patching her mind back together that his crew had. Enough so that if he ever ran into her again, he had some sort of fighting chance. But he hoped not to meet her face-to-face again; the last encounter had shaken him.

The
Queen Mohmbasa
accelerated hard out, curving away from the habitat. Etsudo watched the
Shengfen Hao
match it, then fire a dozen missiles.

Even the nimble
Queen
couldn’t outrun the sharp sparks racing toward a point ahead of her. The Ragamuffin ship jinked hard, several missiles miscalculated and passed above her, but debris rained off the ship.