Setosha - the Beating Heart
Copyright© 2010 by Prince von Vlox
Chapter 13
Sonia was waiting for her when Corey got off the bus. “Heather’s running late,” she said. “One of the kids is having a minor crisis.”
“Is any crisis with a kid really minor?” Corey asked, grinning. In the last two tendays, she had learned that kids needed a great deal of attention, and most of it was right now, no waiting. Even with Aunts Alexa and Carol and other experienced mothers there to help, it was still nerve-wracking holding that tiny, wailing person in your arms. You just knew there was something you were supposed to be doing, but you weren’t sure what. Eventually, of course, you figured it out, and the babies forgave you and turned into such angels you couldn’t bear to put them down.
Corey knew she would never be able to space again without feeling that an even bigger piece of her was being left behind. Sonia, Heather, and now the babies; how could she leave them? How could she not, knowing what the Idenux and the Empire would do to them if she didn’t?
She and Sonia stepped into the foyer on the ground floor of the building where Sonia worked. To even the most observant eye, this building seemed no different than any other building in this part of town. There was nothing to lead one to suspect it was the main analysis center for Families Intelligence. No matter if it was the active sensors on a Scout, or rat brains picked up at a foreign station, or even the cargo pallets with recording RNA that some genius had created decades before, it all ended up in this building. Sonia was one of those who sifted through all that information, organizing and searching for those gleaming nuggets of knowledge that would send Fleet off to find the Families’ missing daughters.
“When we were kids, I didn’t think they were minor problems,” Sonia said. She patted a large box sitting on the floor. “I have our supper. I took some time off this morning to get everything together.”
“I hope it didn’t take you away from something important.”
“I’m as dedicated as you are, Corey, but the doctor wants me to exercise more, and hiking all over this end of town certainly gave me that.” She made a face. “Besides, we’re processing a fresh load of pallet reports right now. That’s nothing but cross-checking against spectral and atmospheric types. It’s mind-numbing, but absolutely necessary; you never know what you’ll find.”
“Somebody found K-303 that way, if I recall.”
“That was Patch.” Sonia sighed. “I miss her. She was as cranky as the rest of us, but a brilliant analyst. She was a lot of fun to be around, too.”
“How are you getting along with Captain Pagadan?”
“It’s been interesting,” Sonia admitted with a grin. “The first few days were difficult; he’s a man, after all, but somebody had the bright idea of sticking him in a basement office, down where he’s under the most cover. That probably made the difference. Everyone seemed more at ease around him after that. It helps that he’s so cooperative. I certainly wouldn’t want to hide in a basement if I visited his home planet. Not that there’s much chance of that.”
Corey laughed. “You should have seen me on New Republic. Every time I saw a man outside, I wanted to grab him and shove him into the nearest building. And with so many men there, my nerves were jumping all the time. I think they just gave up somewhere in the second month.”
Sonia nodded. “I think things changed when we started focusing on what he’d brought. Most of his stuff is concentrated where the fighting is, but he had information on ship movements that we’d never seen. He expanded our base of knowledge about Imperial commerce by at least half, and this morning Squeakie—she’s a girl we added from the Commercial side of Fleet—anyway, Squeakie produced a map of the flow of He3 in the Empire.”
“Which means you know where their hydrogen-helium processing facilities are,” Corey said thoughtfully. “Ships and bases need He3 for power.”
“Actually, most gas giants can produce He3,” Sonia said. “The trick is in finding where it is easiest to collect. No, what Squeakie came up with was the destinations of those shipments. She’s found an unusually large concentration of He3 shipping resources supplying a particularly heavy demand for the stuff, and they’re all going to the same system.”
Corey added up what that meant, then stared, grinning, at her sibling. “You mean she may have found their Main Fleet?”
Sonia nodded. “It was in the information that Captain Pagadan brought. Strange, it doesn’t appear in anything but the raw information. All the analysis he brought with him skips right over that.”
“Find who touched those reports, and you’ll find his spy.”
“Or one of them,” Sonia agreed. “He and I were discussing that yesterday. I analyzed it like I would any report on a system. I told him there were indications his spy was not alone, that more than one person was messing with his reports. One of the girls I work with who used to be part of the Inter-Family Courts said that if she were running an operation like that, she’d have one or two people in the loop that hadn’t done anything yet. They would be watching all the information, evaluating it independently, reporting it through another channel, and not touching the reports at all. That way, she could tell if the information was being compromised by the PSK. I read about it in a book on pre-Space spying back on Old Earth; those ancient spies cross-checked their information repeatedly just to prevent that sort of thing from happening.”
“I bet that made Captain Pagadan happy.”
Sonia gave a short laugh. “He looked sick. By the way, not to change the subject, but what are you getting Heather for Landing Day?”
“That’s not for at least ten days.”
“In other words, you haven’t found her anything yet.”
“Have you?”
Sonia shook her head. “I got a crystal pendant for Aunt Alexa, and a picture for Aunt Carol, but I don’t have the faintest idea what to get Heather.”
“I found something for the kids, but I haven’t had much time for shopping. The Navy doesn’t leave you much time for a personal life.”
“Tell me about it,” Sonia said. A complex series of musical notes wafted over a speaker set in the ceiling. “Just a moment,” she held up a hand. “That’s my call.”
She put the back of her hand against the nearest contact plate. After a few seconds, she began nodding. “That was Heather,” she said, removing her hand from the plate. “She should be landing in a couple of minutes.” Sonia picked up her jacket. “Is it very cold out?”
“Yes and no,” Corey said. “It’s damp, but it might not be warm where we’re going.”
“I’d better take it anyway,” Sonia said. “I’ve been a little more aware of hot and cold since I got pregnant. Heather was, and you probably will be, too.”
“When I get pregnant,” Corey sighed. “That might not happen for a year or two.”
Sonia picked up the box. “You haven’t been home that much,” she said. “And you have been rather busy. I heard a rumor that there’s a war on or something.”
Corey looked down the street where Heather would land. After so many months on New Republic, it seemed strange not having a Marine bodyguard around, but this wasn’t a hostile world. She saw a car with familiar markings drop out of the mist and land. A moment later, Heather stepped out.
“She’s here,” Corey called over her shoulder. Sonia muttered something unintelligible. Corey looked back. Sonia was struggling to balance the box with their supper in it. “Here, let me do that.” Corey lifted the box out of her sib’s hands.
“It’s not awkward,” Sonia said. “I’m only four months along, and my tummy is always getting in the way. I feel so huge right now. What will it be like in another couple of months?”
“Walk carefully and sit down a lot,” Corey said, grinning. “That’s what everyone tells me.” Sonia stuck out her tongue.
The sun had finally come out. Most of the clouds were clearing off to the east. The mist was thinning, and the temperature was rising. Sonia slipped off her jacket. A couple of merchants were already spreading awnings to shade people from the sun. A restaurant owner was cheerfully putting tables and chairs out on the sidewalk to make places for more customers.
“This is a good place to eat,” Sonia said as they passed the restaurant. “What she can do with a flapper duck is just incredible.”
Heather took the supper box and shoved it into the car’s rear storage compartment. Between the blankets and a box of recyclable diapers, there was almost enough room. Heather had to sit on the hatch to get it to shut.
“Sorry for the delay,” she said, gesturing at the back seat. “Kristi’s being an absolute brat, and Laren picked it up from her.”
Sonia climbed into the back seat and began cooing at the squalling kids belted into their safety seats. Marta, who’d been fussing, stopped, looking up at her aunt with wide eyes. After a few seconds, Kristi and Laren stopped, too.
“She has such a way with them,” Heather murmured softly to Corey. “They’ll fuss all the way over here, but when she gets in the car, they smile and giggle with her. I don’t know how she does it.”
“She has talents we never suspected,” Corey slid into the driver’s seat. By common consent, she flew whenever they were together.
“I only hope I have that effect on her kids,” Heather said.
“Well, I’m no good with them,” Corey said. “The first time I picked Laren up, she peed all over me.”
“That’s just because she likes you,” Heather grinned. “If she didn’t, she would have thrown up instead.”
“And here I thought babies did that because they were nauseated by the smell of clean clothes.”
Heather laughed. “I hadn’t heard that before, but you may be right.”
Corey checked with traffic control, carefully scanned the piece of sky she wanted, and in less than a minute, they were airborne. “All right,” she said, “where is this place? You didn’t exactly say when we talked about it the other day.”
“Head like we’re going home,” Heather said. “But when you get to the Twin Falls Navigation Beacon, go north instead of east. It’s a canyon about 30 kilometers north of there on the Rusty River.”
“Oh, I think I remember it,” Corey said. “I may have taken a pack trip into that area. If I recall, it’s a small canyon, but relatively deep. I think it has a waterfall, too.”
“And it has the most beautiful sunsets,” Heather nodded. “Sonia and I have been out there several times in the last year.”
Corey focused on her flying. They cleared the Traffic Control Zone around First Landing, and she accelerated to the maximum speed of their car. After about 20 minutes, she found the Twin Falls Beacon and turned north. Through her shunt, she slipped into the sensors of the car. In the radio spectrum, Twin Falls appeared as a warm glow behind them. A navigation satellite in the Ring strobed with carefully timed pulses. Corey could sense a couple of other cars ahead of them, and, just at the limit of their vehicle’s sensors, an aerostat slowly letting down towards the industrial city of Granite Falls. Out of habit, she checked behind them as well. There was a car behind them with no ID closing rapidly. The pilot was either an idiot or not paying attention.
For a moment, Corey thought to twist away, but this wasn’t her fighter. This wasn’t out in space where enemies lurked. These were the safe skies of Home.
She was about to ignore the twits altogether and start looking for her landing site when she saw the missile separate from the car behind her. Instinct kicked in. She screamed something at her sibs and spun the car down and hard to the left, breaking into the missile’s flight path and hopefully under its acquisition window.
She dodged the first missile entirely. It exploded off in the distance somewhere. The second was closer, and she reversed, chopping her speed and breaking tightly up and into it. It must have been impact-fused--it zipped over the top of the car a little more than a meter away and carried on into a hillside. She felt another launch pulse and reached through what there was of their sensors to look for it--no good. It was behind them, and closing. All she could do was accelerate as hard as she could and wrench them across the sky. She almost made it. The third missile clipped their engine exhaust.
The car bucked like something alive, and the windows lit up with a yellow flash. A baby squalled, and Heather or Sonia shouted something. Half the repulsors went out, and Corey could sense a fire somewhere. Amazed that they were still in one piece, she tested the controls. Sluggish, but manageable.
Another missile slammed into their rear, detonating with a yellow flash. Heather made a startled noise as all the power to the repulsors went out, and the car tumbled. Corey manually fought the controls. By instinct, she reached through her shunt and found the back-up battery. She tested it; it was fully charged and should be enough to get them grounded safely.
She was about to switch to it when she shook her head. No, if the people in the car behind them saw her maneuvering under power, they’d fire another missile. If she let the burning car’s dive continue, maybe there would be no more missiles. If she could avoid any more of them, she might be able to put them down safely, but to do that, she needed power for the controls. She switched to the battery and waited to engage the drive. The sensors were out, so she twisted her head around, desperately seeking the enemy aircar.
The ground spun giddily below them. She touched the power just enough to make sure she would have control when she needed it. Behind her, she could see thick, black smoke marking their descent. Ahead of her were the trees, and, just to one side, the edge of a canyon. She touched the controls again, nudging them towards the canyon. Behind them, above them, she finally sighted the attacking aircar. It had just begun to circle down after them, turning away as it did so.
Inspiration struck. That car’s occupants were facing away from her. Corey crammed on full power, aiming for the canyon. As the trees rose around her, she hit full reverse on the thrusters. Drive components shrieked in protest, and warnings erupted from the control panel. She ignored the noise. She picked a spot between two trees, hoping they’d slowed enough. The car slammed into the ground with a scream of tearing metal, then bounced into the air again, leaving behind a huge piece of unwanted velocity. The edge of the canyon flashed past, and they were out in the open sky again, briefly.
The low-battery light began flashing. Corey ignored it. She had another problem: her controls were fading. She banked hard left as a pile of rocks rose to meet them. She fought the car through a turn. She barely tweaked them over the top of the rocks, and then the canyon wall was sliding past.
Now or never, she thought, and killed the thrusters. With a thunderous finality, the car hit the ground and stayed there. Metal frames and panels ripped away, killing the last of their speed. Overheated engine parts snapped and hissed. Ozone filled the cabin. Dust and smoke obscured everything as they slid to a stop.
Corey pulled her consciousness out of the shunt, looking dazedly around her. The car was tilted at an awkward angle, lying partially on the passenger side. Dust covered the windows. She could smell burning insulation, and smoke was wafting around the windows.
She could taste blood in her mouth where she’d bitten her lip. Behind her, Sonia was murmuring something reassuring to the babies. Beside her, Heather ... Heather was too still, and a red stain was spreading down her shirt.
“Oh, no, no, no, no,” Corey whispered. She twisted around, looking for their attacker. The strange aircar wasn’t anywhere in sight. That wouldn’t last. She killed the power to the car just in case there was anything that might catch fire.
“Get the kids out of here,” she snapped at Sonia as she pulled her hand out of the control glove.
“But...? Wh--what happened?”
“Later!” she yelled, urgency driving her voice. “Get them out of here. Move!”
Corey turned back to Heather. Behind her, she could hear Sonia unfastening the kids and kicking at the door to open it. One thing at a time, she thought. Let your Second do her job; you can’t fly her fighter.
Heather was still breathing. Corey checked her over quickly and found a splinter wound below her ribs on her right side. It wasn’t bleeding much. She couldn’t remember if that was bad or good. It had bled enough, though; the safety web was slick with her blood.
Corey unbuckled her sib and eased her down against the passenger door. Then she reached across the driver’s seat and hit the release for the driver’s door. It opened partway. She rolled over on her back, braced herself, and kicked with both feet. The driver’s door gave slightly. She kicked again. And again. Metal crumpled, but it opened enough that Corey could climb out and drag Heather behind her.
“Where are the kids?” she asked. She glanced uphill and across the sky. No enemy car yet. That couldn’t last much longer.
“Just behind those rocks.” Sonia pointed to the stack of rocks they’d barely cleared. “How is she?”
“Bleeding and breathing. Let’s get her away from the car so she can continue to do both.”
They carried Heather behind the boulders and laid her next to her babies, then Corey ran back to the car. She reached into the control glove, and through her shunt, she started the power flowing.
She knew exactly who this attack was aimed at. Somebody had tried to kill Captain Pagadan back on New Republic. Now they were trying to do the same thing to her. They’d want proof that they killed her. A fire would help confuse things.
She grabbed two wires and jammed them together against the upholstery. The spark set the fabric on fire. She shoved the door shut. She checked the back of the car. The rear compartment was just wreckage. One or both of the missiles had hit there and destroyed everything, including their supper. She shook her head and ran back to her siblings. Behind her, smoke poured out of the car, drifting up the canyon wall in a thin haze.
Heather was still unconscious. “Can you carry three kids?” Corey asked.
Sonia nodded. “Not easily, but I don’t have any choice. Where to?”
“Not downhill, there’s no cover.” She glanced around them. The ground uphill of them was just as open. “We can’t go uphill, no cover there, either.” She nodded towards a jumble of trees and brush about 20 meters away. “We go that way.”
“Who were those people, Corey? Why were they shooting at us?”
“Somebody who wants me dead.” Corey spat a little blood and wiped her lips. She grunted as she picked up Heather, carrying her in both arms and hoping she wasn’t forcing the splinter further into her sibling’s wound. The footing was tricky, and she had to place her feet carefully. It was hard with Heather’s weight dragging at her.
“Welcome to the war, Sonia,” she gasped when she stopped for breath. She was so out of shape she’d had to stop after only 10 meters. “Assassins tried to kill Captain Pagadan, but he was too quick for them, so they died instead. If the Emperor can’t beat us in space, he tries to kill us on the ground, and he can’t even get that right. Two missiles! We should all be dead.”
Sonia muttered something that sounded like she was glad they weren’t. After a few seconds, Corey caught her breath and picked up Heather again. They scrambled past the first trees. Behind them, they could hear a dull whump! as something exploded in their car. A few seconds later, an aircar buzzed overhead. Corey set Heather down and dragged Sonia down beside her. Maybe the enemy couldn’t see through the trees, but why take the chance?
The enemy aircar settled down right next to the jumble of rocks. Voices called in a strange language as four women got out and approached the burning Red Ridges aircar.
Corey looked at Sonia. “Let’s keep going,” she whispered. “The more distance we can put between us and them, the better.”
Sonia had knotted her jacket into a crude backpack. She placed two of the kids there and held the third one in her arms. “All right,” she whispered back. “Lead on.”
Corey examined the ground in front of them. Downhill was still out; it would be too easy to lose her footing. And uphill carrying Heather was impossible. She gritted her teeth, lifted her sib, and started out across the hillside. The trees thickened up ahead. If they could make it that far unseen, maybe they could find a place to hide among the brush. That would give them some protection if these people had guns.
Assuming she evaded the guns, what next? Corey shoved that thought away and kept moving. They were still alive. Right now, she’d solve one problem at a time. She concentrated on getting away from the killers.
She set Heather down at the edge of a thicket. She had to stop and catch her breath again. It would be stupid to get this far only to drop her sib or trip and fall on her. She never thought being a little out of shape would matter so much on Home.
Panting, Corey peered back through the scrub while Sonia checked Heather. Her blood thundered in her ears, and she had to wipe the sweat from her face. There weren’t any raised voices, which might mean either they were already being followed or that the killers hadn’t discovered their trail yet. Assume the former, hope for the latter. A lot depended on how much wilderness experience these killers had. Corey shoved hope out of her way. She had to think of this as a tactical problem. She was supposed to be good at tactics. She should analyze this the same way.
What was the objective of the people following them? Kill Corey, maybe kill her sibs.
What were their assets? They had an aircar, guns, maybe even search scanners.
What did she have? Corey shook her head, pushing despair aside. She had three babies, a wounded woman, a pregnant woman, and herself. They had no weapons and they were on foot with no food or shelter. The latter two didn’t matter at the moment, but they would before the day was over. What was the objective? Get everyone away from this. Anything else? No, that would do.
“We can’t move in the open,” Corey said quietly. She drew a deep breath, then another, settling down. “They’ll send that aircar up any minute now and try to spot us from above. That’ll leave two or three of them on the ground. If they have an infrared scan on that car, or anything more sophisticated than just eyeballs, our chances are bad. In that case, they’ll put two hunters in the car. One will fly and scan, one will shoot to pin us down, and the two on the ground will finish the job. If they don’t have any scan on the car, they’ll put three hunters on the ground to track us directly.”
Sonia nodded. “I have her bleeding stopped,” she said. “I think she’s in shock.”
“How are the kids?”
Sonia glanced at the girls. They were asleep on her jacket. “Quiet for the moment. That’s a small surprise. At least one of them should be crying by now.”
As quickly as that, the plan formed in Corey’s mind. It made her sick to look at it, but all the pieces fit together perfectly. This won’t work, Corey thought. They’ll know we’d never leave anyone behind. They’ll know it’s an ambush. Even as the objections flashed by, she knew it would probably work. It was just like she had told student Johnson only a few hours before. You could only count on the enemy’s capabilities, what you knew the enemy could do. You could never count on the enemy’s intentions. Too many disasters had happened because people tried to plan on the basis of enemy intentions, not capabilities.
She knew the killers would spread out to search; that was standard procedure, and whichever one came upon the scene first would have to focus some attention on Heather and the baby. Corey knew she could attack in those few seconds. After that, there would be one fewer killer, and she would have a gun in her hand. That would even the odds tremendously.
“I guess it’s why they call me crazy,” she murmured in response to Sonia’s look. “Give me Heather’s belt buckle. She doesn’t need it right now. And get me something I can tie it with.”
“What are you doing?” Sonia looked like she was about to be stubborn. Nevertheless, she pulled Heather’s belt free and pried the buckle out of it while Corey bent and broke a stout meter of limb off one of the bushes that hid them. She stripped the twigs and leaves off of it and worked open a split at the broken end.
“Making a weapon.”
They both stopped and stared back towards their crashed car as they heard the hum of the killers’ aircar taking off. Sonia hurried to strip the laces from Heather’s shoes. Corey found a fist-sized rock and used it to bend the belt buckle diagonally. Then she used Heather’s shoelace to secure the ugly bit of metal in the split end of her improvised spear. She ground the point for a few seconds and then examined the tip critically. If anything, it was even uglier than before.
“I’ve commanded squadrons of ships that can travel faster than light and are armed with nuclear weapons. Now here I am betting our lives on an improvised spear.”
“Ironic, isn’t it,” Sonia said quietly. “What about this other shoelace?”
“Keep it. We may need it for something else.” There was a scuffling sound on the hillside between them and their ruined aircar. Corey looked at the three kids. “Kristi,” she decided. Sonia looked at her, an unspoken question in her eyes. “Bait.”
Sonia looked at the spear, swallowed, and nodded. “Where do you want me?”
“Not far.” She pointed at a patch of dense underbrush. “Hide there with the other two.”
“What about Heather?” Corey shook her head.
“That’s where it gets grim. Look, if this doesn’t work, head downstream. They’ll look closest to Red Ridges first, expecting you to head for home. Go the other way and stay in the trees. Time is on our side. It’s a bit of a walk, but if you keep moving, you’ll get to civilization. Either that, or somebody will find you.”
“I know what to do, Corey. I was a trail guide, too.” Sonia touched Corey’s shoulder briefly, then picked up Laren and Marta and hid them in the brush. She slipped back to carefully erase what little trail she’d left. “Good luck,” she called softly.
“Sorry to do this to you, Heather,” Corey whispered. She dragged her sib partly behind another bush. Then she put Kristi down next to her. Moving carefully, she hurried back to the spot where a bloody stain marked where Heather had lain. There she froze for a moment. Had she heard a footstep approaching? Maybe. She hastily erased the trail she’d made, but erased it in such a sloppy way that it was obvious it had been erased. Then she hid herself just a few meters away. Corey pulled leaves and branches over her legs, not enough to hinder her movement, but enough to cover the most obvious signs that she was there.
She heard the noise of a rock rolling down the hill. Corey took a long, silent breath, and let it out slowly. Her nerves were on fire. She heard the unmistakable sounds of someone trying and failing to be quiet. There were at least two ... no ... three of them. Good. No scanners in the aircar.
The calm, calculating control that she had first felt on de Ruyter filled her now. She wished for one more taste of the Glory. Too late for that, she had made her best play. The situation was bad, but, no matter what happened in the next few seconds, two of Heather’s kids and Sonia’s babies still had a good chance of getting away. That was the best worst case she could arrange. Now she had to focus on achieving something better.
She heard a low-voiced comment in a strange language. Corey deliberately loosened and tightened her grip on her spear. Her breath flowed silently. She could feel the tension building, but contained it behind the barrier of her will. Use it, she thought. At the right moment, point it at your target and let go.
A nearby step, and a voice called. Corey could hear a second voice at least a dozen meters away. Were they talking to each other on a communicator? The second voice receded. Footsteps. Close, but not close enough. Carefully, Corey reached over and prodded Kristi. The baby made a gurgling noise in her sleep, then woke up and began to fuss.
The nearest hunter said something unintelligible. Corey recognized the tense excitement in her voice. They definitely had a communicator. She would have to make this quick.
The voice called out, challenging. Corey could see her boots and legs. Kristi fussed again. The distant voice called out something excitedly. The nearest hunter plunged into the brush, walking straight toward Heather and Kristi. Corey felt feet shake her leafy cover as the hunter hurried past. The hunter called out something, and stopped when she saw Heather and Kristi.
Corey could see legs in tight green pants and dark boots. She heard a softly metallic click and exploded out of her hiding place, her makeshift spear stabbing forward and up.