The Rift Rider (6 page)

The hole opened
into a second corridor. Once through, Awani picked up the pace. She ran holding
a flat slab, palm-sized and dull green. Every now and then, without slowing,
she would tap its surface, and a 3D map would flash up, showing the ship and
their current location on it.

 
As outside centre, Charlie was one of the
fastest players in his team. He enjoyed nothing more than carving his way
through the opposition defence with a change of pace and taking on the last man
in a straight on sprint to the line.

Yet, this pink
woman had him beat. Even running at full pace, his lungs burning, he could not
keep up with her. Several times, he had to swallow his pride and ask her to
slow down. She always did, but not without a belittling shake of her head, or
muttered insult.

Her quick pace
was not the only problem Charlie had. He also had to contend with the arousing
sight of her buttocks pounding away in front of him as she ran. Her uniform
left nothing to the imagination. When he should have been concentrating all his
efforts on maintaining a steady stride, Charlie found himself ogling the wave
machine in the pants in front of him.

Whenever he
realised what he was doing, he would tell himself to concentrate. And for a few
seconds, with his eyes firmly fixed on the back of her head, he would gain on
her. But then with the certainty of gravity, his eyes would lower, and his gaze
would fall once more upon the curves rising and falling in perfect harmony
before him.

Christ, he
thought as he lost his stepping for the umpteenth time, being a man is a hell
of business.

It did not take
long for the alarms to kick in. Somewhere hidden in the walls, a legion of
speakers blared. Their shrill beeping pursued the runners along the winding
corridors.

Sometimes the
blaring quietened, allowing giant holographic head, floating ghostlike down the
corridors, to dispatch its message. Charlie recognised the head immediately.
Even in the light of the hologram, the face had lost none of its blank, corpse
like quality. Executive Ko's terrible face floated back and forth along the
corridors informing the fleeing prisoners about the grisly death awaiting them
if they did not surrender.

When the head
came floating towards him, Charlie would allow himself a good look at the
buttocks bouncing away in front to him. If he concentrated hard enough,
Executive Ko's projection would fade from view, leaving only Charlie and the
beautiful behind before him. The tightly wrapped bottom represented all that
was good in life. To Charlie hope was a bottom-shaped torch in the darkness.

Finally, Awani
stopped running. Charlie, failing to react in time, slammed right into her,
knocking them both over. They landed in a heap, with Charlie's sweat-covered chest
on top of her face.

"Idiot,"
she said, pushing him away. Her beautiful features twisted into a grimace as
she wiped the sweat of her cheeks.

"I'm sorry,"
Charlie said.

Awani got to her
feet, brushed herself down and said, sharply, "Next time, Passenger, be
more careful."

Charlie stretched
out on the floor, the surface cool against his skin. He breathed deeply,
pulling the air down into his aching lungs. "Will do," he said
between breaths. "You know, you're one hell of a runner."

She said
nothing, and activated the 3D map in her palm.

Bei arrived a
moment later. He looked more out of breath than Charlie.

"Age is
killer," he said, glancing down at Charlie. He had his hands against his
hips and his chest was heaving. "What's your excuse?"

"This is
the spot," Awani said, showing the image to Bei.

"Excellent."
Bei prodded Charlie with a boot. "Come on. Live or die, you'll have time
to rest later."

"Quiet,"
Awani said. "There's someone coming."

Bei lifted
Charlie to his feet.

"Shit,"
Awani said, snatching Bei's rifle. "Put your hands behind your back and
keep your eyes down."

A short distance
away, six uniformed figures emerged from around a corner. A female soldier,
black uniformed and ponytailed, led five fringed male soldiers. She had the
self-important step of an office manager. Behind her, the male troops, stooped
and grim-faced, looked as if they had just suffered a harsh tongue-lashing.

When Ponytail
caught sight of Awani and her two captives, she narrowed her eyes, and said,
"What the hell are you bringing captives down here for?"

Awani shrugged
and said, "Following orders, Executive."

"The hell
you are," Ponytail said, approaching with a face like thunder. "We've
been told to take all recaptured prisoners to the upper deck holding
cell." She shook her head. "Are all you fringes idiots?"

Awani said
nothing. Beside her, Bei and Charlie, silently studied their feet.

"And why
are you alone? It's against protocol to escort prisoners without a
companion."

"My
companion was killed taking these two."

"Regrettable,"
Ponytail said, "but wholly avoidable I'm sure." She eyed the two
prisoners. "They don't look like much to me. Just an aged gigolo and a
hairless rent boy. But as I'm feeling helpful, I'll leave you one of my
soldiers, and you can escort the prisoners to the upper deck together."

"Thank you,
Ma’am," Awani said.

Ponytail nodded,
and to the soldier standing directly behind her, said, "You there. Figep
Treedup, isn't it?"

The male nodded,
"Yes, Ma’am."

"You are to
assist this soldier with her prison escort. Understood?"

"Yes,
Ma’am."

"Well,
don't just stand there, you moron. Get to it."

The soldier
stood to attention and stepped towards the prisoners.

Charlie held his
breath as the fringe approached. The moment he saw the unrestrained wrists,
they would be right in it. Charlie twisted to keep his back out of sight.
Beside him, Bei did the same.

Ponytail looked
at Charlie and Bei, scowling as she ran her eyes over them. Charlie's heart
leapt in the chest, fearing he had somehow given them all away.

But the woman
soon turned her scowl back to Awani. "What's your name soldier?"

"Gither
Mott."

"Well
Soldier Gither Mott, I will overlook this incident. But if I see or hear of you
breaking Corporation protocol again, I'll have you shaven headed and busted
down to the rank of Guard. Is that understood?"

"Yes,
Ma'am," Awani said, backing away, positioning herself between the newly
recruited fringe and her two captives.

"Very
well," Ponytail said, and strode away, her squadron following her like
ducklings.

 
When Ponytail had passed out of earshot,
the donated soldier released a deep sigh. He aimed a conspiratorial smile at
Awani, and said, "What an absolute bitch." Then he slowly ran his
eyes over Awani, looking at her body the way a pirate looks at a treasure map.
Going by his gaze, it seemed the treasure had been buried midway between her
breasts.

Awani crossed
her arms over her chest, and glared at the fringed male.

"I think
I'm going to enjoy this," the soldier said, smiling. Then he seized Bei by
the shoulders, and pushed him roughly down the corridor. The smile vanished when
he looked down at the blue prisoner's wrists and saw they had no restraints
pinning them together. "What the-"

 
"Indeed," Bei said, twisting
and slamming his forehead into the bridge of the soldier's nose. He seized the
stunned soldier by the throat, clutched, and lifted the man off his feet.
"You know I think I'm going to enjoy this."

While the soldier
struggled, unsuccessfully, to tear Bei's fingers away from his windpipe,
Charlie took a look down the corridor. About a hundred metres away, the
departing troop had approached a turn in the corridor. Although too far away to
hear the soldier's choking and spluttering, if any of them looked back, they
would see their former colleague kicking and bucking in the blue prisoner's
hands. Charlie tried to obscure the view as best he could and silently willed
them around the corner.

Ponytail took
her first step around the bend. And then just as Charlie dared to believe the
danger had passed, the struggling soldier, instead of clawing at Bei's hands
like a good strangle victim, dropped his hands and reached for the electric
tube in his belt. With the veins threatening to explode in his face, he
activated the weapon, twisted, and swung its flashing end into Bei's stomach.

The blue man,
one hand still gripped around the soldier's neck, nonchalantly backhanded the
weapon out his hand.

Charlie watched
in horror, as the tube spun through the air, landed on the floor and bounced
across it. The noise echoed down the corridor like a volley of shots from a
machine gun.

The five figures
at the far end of the corridor stopped dead in their tracks. Their heads
snapped towards them as if belonging to one lycra-skinned, multi-headed beast.

"They've
seen us," Charlie said.

"Shit,"
Bei said. He glowered at the blood filled face in front of him, and then
wrenched it one hundred and eighty degrees. Its terrible, veiny features now faced
Charlie.

Awani pushed
past Bei, and leapt onto the floor, pulling Charlie down with her. She shuffled
forward, her rifle held horizontally before her.

"You two,
lie down behind me," she said, and ran her fingers against the control
panel of her rifle. It rattled in her hands and from its sides shot four flat
panels. The panels merged and lengthened to form a one metre wide shield, a
half a metre in height. Awani huddled behind it and signalled for Charlie to do
likewise.

"Son of a
bitch," Bei said raising the dead body over his head.

At the end of
the corridor, the other soldiers had dropped to their knees and were raising
their rifles.

 
Bei threw the dead soldier down the
corridor, and dived next to Awani. The corpse's back to front head stared vacantly
at Charlie as it sailed through the air. Before it hit the floor, a wave of
energy blasts ploughed into the body, sending it flying back through the air.
It landed with a moist thud on the other side of Awani's shield.

Energy bursts
whizzed over Charlie's head and past his side, missing by inches. He slid
closer to Awani, pressing his cheek flat against the floor. His head lay level
with her backside.

"What's the
plan?" Bei called from the other side of Awani's bottom.

"They're
getting closer," she said, and passed Bei the second rifle. "I can't
use my gun. You're going to have to do the shooting for both of us."

Bei gripped the
rifle and started firing rounds over the top of Awani. "Five guns against
one might be pushing it."

 
The enemy shots halted for a brief
moment, before beginning again with vengeance.

For the next few
minutes, the corridor blazed with greens and blues and reds. The air was filled
with the fizz of electricity.

Charlie squeezed
closer to Awani, making himself as small a target as possible. Even with his
nose jammed firmly into Awani's side, the electric storm tickled his nostrils.
The static in the air turned his skin to a field of goose pimples, and his hair
had begun to hover as if manipulated by some poltergeist barber intent on
giving him a flat top.

Enemy fire
flashed barely an inch above his head, singeing it, and adding the smell of
burnt hair to the mix. Charlie cursed his decision to go for the long-haired
surfer look.

"Put down
your weapon," Ponytail called. She sounded close. "Reinforcements are
on their way."

"You're
bluffing," Awani shouted, and Bei shot another round of defensive fire
over her head.

Awani twisted,
pushing Charlie for a brief, terrible second closer out towards the stream of
enemy fire. She ignored his moans and reached down to her feet, flicking a
switch at the bottom of her boot. It slid open, revealing a hidden compartment.
From inside, she pulled a tennis ball sized metallic sphere. She passed it
Charlie. "You've got a better angle back there."

Charlie slipped
his right hand out from under him, took the metal ball and returned his arm to
his side. The movement brought a further volley of shots, pulling Charlie's
heart into his throat.

"What do
you want me to do?" Charlie said.

"What do
you think? It's a grenade. Press the buttons and throw it."

Charlie looked
at the ball and saw two blue buttons flashing on opposite sides, like poles.
"But they'll shoot my arm off."

"Just do
it, Passenger," Awani said.

"Press it,"
Bei shouted.

"Now,
Passenger," Awani screamed. "Now."

Charlie held his
breath, squeezed the two buttons and flung the grenade, as if he were bowling a
cricket ball. The instant the grenade left his hand, something hot and hard
struck him. The impact flung him onto his back.

He was still on
his back when the grenade went off.

The explosion
filled the corridor with blinding white light. The shock wave lifted Charlie a
foot off the floor, before slamming him back down again, smashing his head
against the solid turquoise.

When Charlie
came to, his ears rang and he had triple vision.

In the haze, he
could just about make out Awani from the three blurry pink faces staring down
at him. They looked concerned. Their mouths opened and wiggled. But all Charlie
could hear was the ringing of a hundred alarm clocks.

He shook his
head, and slowly the three faces became one, and the incessant ringing died
away.

"Are you
okay?" Awani asked.

"I think
so," Charlie said, pulling himself up into a seated position. The smell of
Friday night kebabs filled his nostrils.

"What about
your arm?"

Charlie looked
at her quizzically. "My what?"

"Your
arm?"

Charlie looked
at his right arm. Where the bicep should have been, there now smouldered a hole
large enough to put a hand through. Charlie stared, mesmerised, at the perfect
circle in his arm.

It looked unreal.
He tried raising it. But it refused to move. He held it up with his left hand.
The hole went all the way through. Charlie peered through it, at the wall on
the other side.

 
He laughed. It was a short, high pitch,
girl's laugh. For some reason, Charlie thought the hole in his arm was the
funniest thing he had ever seen. The giggles came so thick and fast he could
barely breath. He let go of his hand and the arm fell on his lap, as limp and
lifeless as a mannequin’s arm.

When Bei
returned from checking on the Corporation soldiers, Charlie sat on the floor
laughing uncontrollably, tears in his eyes.

"What the
hell's so funny?" Bei said. This made Charlie laugh even harder.

"Look at
his arm," Awani said. "He's in shock. He'll be dead in minutes."

"After
saving our lives? I don't think so." He reached inside his mouth, and
twisted. When he pulled out his fingers, they held a pristine molar. The top
section glittered with gold. Bei dug his nail into it and pulled it off.

He crouched down
beside Charlie, and struck him with his open hand.

The slap
startled Charlie, giving pause to the torrent of laughter flowing up from his
belly.

Bei the tooth up
before him and said, "Open wide."

Charlie looked
at the tooth floating before him, the laughter within him threatening to kick
off once more. But before it could, Bei gripped his mouth, and prised it open.
He tipped the tooth upside down and a shot of black syrup poured out.

 
Charlie grimaced as the foul substance
landed on his tongue. He wanted to spit it out, but Bei held his mouth tightly
shut. All Charlie could do was close his eyes and swallow the bitter slime.

It started
working straight away.

Charlie's whole
being whooshed. The feeling of honey and summer days and soft duvets on a
Sunday morning enveloped him. He closed his eyes and smiled. Everything was
going to turn out all right. He knew it.

"Feeling
better?" Bei said.

Charlie opened
his eyes and grinned widely. "I feel more than better. I feel . . . fantastic."

Awani rolled her
eyes, and said, "How much Theran water did you have in there?"

"Enough to
last two more interrogations," Bei said, refitting the empty molar.
"It should last long enough to get out of here."

"Come
on," she said, looking down at the grinning Charlie, "give me a hand
with him."

They picked
Charlie up and leant him against the wall. Dreamily, he glanced around him.
Further down the corridor, bits and pieces of soldiers lay strewn all over the
place. Charlie smiled at the carved up limbs and torsos and said, "Cool.
We got them."

"You got
them," Awani said. "That moves you up one level in my
estimations."

Charlie gave the
girl his most charming smile. She was so hot. "Where am I now?"

 
"Still a long way from getting what
you want."

Beside them, Bei
had taken off his jacket. With a look of bitter disappointment, he tore off a
few strips of fabric. "You better be worth it," he said, as he
arranged the fabric in a sling and placed it around Charlie's shoulder. Then he
turned to Awani, and said, "We'd better get a move on."

She nodded,
placed her rifle on her the ground, and withdrew a second explosive coin from
her belt. Then with the poise of a ballerina, she took a few steps back, raised
her hands and threw herself forward into a perfect somersault, ending with an
upwards leap. Mid-air she stretched and secured the explosive to the ceiling.

She landed with
a soft thud, stretched her arms to the side and bowed low.

"No need to
show off," Bei said.

"I'd move
that wrinkled arse of yours," she said. "Detonation in three, two,
one."

This time the
device exploded with a soft, unsatisfying puff.

For a few
seconds nothing happened. Bei shot Awani a raised eyebrow. But then there was a
crack and a cylinder two feet wide and a foot thick, crashed to floor between
them.

It landed next
to Charlie's bare foot. "It almost hit me," he said, chuckling.

Awani shook her
head, her hair swaying like pendulum. She looked at Bei. "When will the
initial effects wear off?"

"Any
minute."

"Good,"
she said. "Because I can't put up with much more of this. I liked him
better when he was scared shitless."

"Ready?"
Bei asked.

When she nodded,
he crouched down, and bridged his hands.

Charlie watched
on as Awani placed one foot in the cupped hands fingers, and took hold of the
blue man's shoulders. He took a breath and then flung her through the hole in
the ceiling.

Charlie stepped
towards Bei, raising a foot. The blue man, chuckling, unclasped his hands.
"Patience, kid. She needs to scout the area first."

A minute later a
pair of pink hands appeared through hole, followed by a mop of blonde hair.
From somewhere inside, came Awani's voice. "It's clear. Rifles
please."

Bei handed her
the two rifles and she disappeared back through the hole.

"Ready?"
Bei said, turning to Charlie.

Charlie smiled.
The dreaminess caused by the drug had largely worn off. He stood alert, ready
for anything. An electric, fearless positivity flowed through his veins. If a
tiger had suddenly appeared carrying a rugby ball, Charlie would have taken him
down with a textbook tackle without batting an eyelid.

He looked at the
blue man, waiting with his hands bridged together. "Hell yes," he
said, and leapt, grabbing Bei's soldier with his good hand. The instant his
feet landed in Bei's palm, the blue man grunted and flung him upwards, sending
him flying through the hole.

Just as he thought
he would tumble back into the darkness, two pink arms reached out and caught
him around the waist. Awani spun and, holding him hard but gentle, placed him
on his feet beside the hole.

Charlie looked
around. They were standing between the landing gear of what Charlie guessed was
a huge spacecraft of some kind. Outside, beyond the triangle of wheels and
metal legs keeping them hidden from view, lay a docking bay.

Charlie looked
past his feet, peering into the hole, curious as to how Bei planned on getting
up without someone giving him a boost. Down in the corridor, the blue man
seemed to be performing some kind of sultry Latin dance. He was twisting,
rocking his hips and swaying his body from left to right. Charlie watched,
mesmerized by the man's movements.

Bei ended the
dance by bringing his head within a foot of the floor and springing upwards.
Charlie pulled his head back just in time.

The blue man
landed noiselessly on the opposite side of the hole. "What's the
story?" he said, straightening.

"The ship's
empty," Awani said, handing him what looked to Charlie like the electronic
beeper his mum used to open her BMW.

"And the
bay?"

"It's
coming to life. But most of the crew and soldiers still look half asleep.
They're not taking much notice of the alarms."

Bei nodded.
"I doubt they expected anyone to make it this far. Still, the Executive
back there called for reinforcements. So it's only a matter of time before the
bay's swarming with soldiers."

"Then let's
get moving," Awani said. "You two play prisoner. I'll follow from
behind."

The spacecraft's
rear had the appearance of butterfly's backside. Two triangular wings arched
upwards, sliding down into the ship's centre where another pair of front wings
angled forwards. Between the rear wings, a drawbridge protruded like a stumpy
tail.

With the alien
drug pumping inside of him, Charlie walked up the bridge as calmly as if he
were walking to the shops to buy a Cornetto and a packet of Monster Munch.
Whatever this drug was, Charlie hoped its effects would last forever. He had not
felt this fearless since he had drunk ten bottles of Diamond White cider and
gone for a post-pub surf.

Once inside, Bei
pressed the beeper in his hand, and the rear doors slid shut. He ran his eyes
over the interior and smiled. He turned to Charlie, and said, "Welcome to
my ship. The Bane flyer. The finest smuggler this side of the Wrake Pass."

"Your
ship?" Charlie said.

"Our
ship," Awani corrected, climbing into a metallic sphere that took up half
of the section they were in. She took her place in the centre of writhing mess
of wires and tubes that interlaced the sphere.

Bei reached
inside, placed a hand on her shoulder and looked into her eyes. "Happy
hunting."

Awani returned
his stare. "Good luck."

Bei laughed.
"This is Bei Lowaiki you're talking to. I don't need luck."

She rolled her
eyes, and placed her hand against a dull blue slab in the centre of the
controls. The sphere hummed to life. It spun on its axis, leaving Charlie
looking at his own reflection in the curved metal wall.

 
He turned to Bei, and asked, "Where
do I sit?"

Bei slapped him
hard on the back. "Kid, you're with me in the cockpit, on front guns. So I
hope you're just as good with your left hand as your right."

 
The cockpit was about half the size of
Charlie's van and just as disorganised. "Did the Corporation do this?"
Charlie said, taking the seat beside Bei's.

Bei shot him a
look, and said, "What do you mean? It's always like this."

Charlie said,
"Oh," and strapped himself in. It was no mean task with one arm lying
limp in a sling. But in the end he managed it.

Bei cracked his
knuckles above the rows of buttons and levers that covered the control desk. Like
two tropical spiders, his blue hands danced across them, bringing the ship to
life.

The space
between the control desk and cockpit ceiling was filled with a curving blank screen.
Bei placed his hand against it. It flickered for a second and then divided into
dozens of separate screens.

Together they
gave Bei a three hundred and sixty degree view of the ship's surroundings, the
front view filling the most central screen. Along the screen's edges, maps,
tracking systems and figures Charlie could not understand danced across two columns
of data screens.

Charlie scanned
the central screens to see what was happening outside.

The docking bay
stretched for hundreds of metres in every direction. It was filled with
spacecraft. Some were as small and plain as a Nissan Sunny, others as large and
luxurious as a billionaire’s yacht. All around them, aliens in grey fatigues or
soldier's uniform busied themselves loading cargo, typing on black slabs and
scooting around on small carts that hovered a half a metre above the ground.

Bei flicked a switch
and Awani's sphere emerged, blister like, on the left side of the ship between
its rear and front wing. The panelling around it rotated one hundred and eighty
degrees, bringing outside the weaponry that had lay hidden inside. Charlie
counted four long barrels and two short stubby ones. The weaponry gave the
blister the appearance of a metallic crab.
 

Bei interrupted
Charlie's observations, by waving a blue hand over the controls in front of
him, pointing out the small cube screen and phallic gun grip.
"Right," he said. "That square there is your targeting system.
To shoot, press the end of the stick. Long soft squeezes will fire a stream of
energy soaked bullets. Short, hard squeezes will launch energy grenades. But
use these sparingly. Last I checked we just had a couple of dozen left.
Understand?"

Charlie nodded.

"Great,"
Bei said. "Here we go." He pulled back hard on the largest of the
four levers emerging from under the control desk. The engines roared into life,
lifting the Bane flyer shakily off the docking bay floor.

A deep hum
massaged Charlie's bottom. He watched the screens. The air around the ship
shimmered in the heat of the engines. Every head in the bay had turned in their
direction. The igniting engines sent nearby soldiers and engineers scattering
to a safe distance.

A couple of
soldiers, however, stayed behind. They went for their rifles. As they did,
Awani's sphere rotated towards them. With six monstrous guns facing them, the
soldiers lowered their rifles and fled for cover.

Bei tugged on a
second lever and the Bane flyer surged forward. It flew rear up, its nose
hovering barely a foot above the ships it passed over. Charlie judged their
speed at around twenty miles an hour.

They had cleared
half of the docking when energy bursts, great streams of violet and green,
started ploughing into the ships rear.

"They're
shooting at us," Charlie said.

Bei shot him a
bemused look and said, "Stay cool. It's just rifle fire. The rear's been
reinforced and the rest of the ship's designed to take cannon fire."

Even so, Bei picked
up the speed. The ship rushed forward. Ahead of them glowed one of the bay's two
exit tunnels, its lamprey mouth entrance lined with rows of flashing lights.