Paradise 21 (30 page)

Barliss jerked his head a bit, and spoke through gritted teeth. “You are a Lifer. Your place is here.”

“I choose to leave.” She shouted, proud to say it. “And I choose Striker, the man I left behind on Sahara 354.”

“You choose a pirate over me? The inferior product of two inferior genetic codes over me? One of the chosen, the up-and-coming leader?”

Apparently, Barliss’ rage was too much for the computer mainframe to quell. He took a quick intake of breath and his face turned pink, then red. He charged at her and she turned to run, but he gripped her arm, pulling her against his chest. Aries kicked at his legs and clawed at his face, but he wouldn’t let her go.

“You’re mine.” His spittle hit her face.

She felt his hands around her neck. She tried to wrench herself free, but his fingers clamped against her skin, squeezing tight. Black splotches erupted in front of her eyes. She couldn’t get any air in. Her lungs burned. It was the same feeling as her nightmare in the coffin. In a panic, Aries reached up and pulled on the wire behind his neck, yanking it right out of his head.

Barliss screamed, a rippling wail cutting through the air. He released her and she fell to the floor. Gasping for breath, Aries grabbed at the laser holster near his hip and yanked out the gun.

Outside the greenhouse, the white lab-coated figures ran toward them. Before they could reach her, lasers erupted from the forest, keeping them at bay. Someone on the
New Dawn
was on her side. Her parents? They’d helped her, but she couldn’t imagine them overtly defying the Guide. Her mother had never touched a weapon in her life.

But Aries had. She kept it aimed at Barliss, but she didn’t need to fire. He staggered back and fell to his the knees. His face slackened as if she’d just unplugged his consciousness. Aries grabbed him and held the laser gun to his head. He could be her ticket out, her human shield.

He slumped against her and she struggled with his weight. She couldn’t hold him up. Using him as a way out would never work. Instead, she decided to put her faith in the mystery snipers in the forest. Leaving Barliss on the floor, she opened the glass door and stepped into chaos.

…

When the Lifer had entered the greenhouse, Striker had caught a glimpse of Aries. Someone had gone down in the greenhouse, and judging by the way the workers had started rushing toward the glass structure, it hadn’t been Aries. He and Tiff and Loot had opened fire, keeping everyone out of the greenhouse.

A second later, Aries bolted from the greenhouse holding a laser.

“There she is!” Striker pointed from the trees as blasts erupted over his head, raining bark and leaves.

“Keep firing!” He nodded to Loot and Tiff. “Divert their attention from the greenhouse.” Aries was running in the opposite direction of the trees. If she disappeared to another deck, he’d never find her. He had to get her attention.

“Aries! Over here.”

She looked like she’d heard him, because her head perked up and she darted to the cornfields.

A surge of colonists ran after her, blocking her from reaching the tree line. Striker yelled across the fire to Loot and Tiff, “I’m going down there. Cover me.”

Loot nodded. He aimed at a man scurrying up the incline and brought him down with one shot. Striker was glad he’d set the lasers to stun. Otherwise, twenty men would be dead now by Loot’s hand alone.

Tiff shot him a glaring look. “It’s too dangerous. Stay up here.”

Striker looked across the bio-dome. The colonists were closing in on Aries, even as she tried to zigzag across the fields. Lasers fired all around her. One sent an explosion of corn by her head. She went down and didn’t come back up again.

Striker’s heart stopped. “I’m going down there, and I need you to go with me. Distract them to the right while I go to the left, where she fell.”

Tiff nodded curtly. “Loot, cover us.”

Striker dropped out of the tree and headed to the cornfield. She followed close behind. They hid behind a storage shed just beyond the fields.

“She went down over—”

“Striker, look out!”

A man emerged from the fields, cocked his gun. Striker froze. The blast sparked from the laser point.

“No!” Tiff screamed and Striker felt her clutch onto him. She looked into his eyes as the laser hit her in the back.

“Tiff!”

Her face loosened in what looked like relief. Striker fired, taking the sniper out. Tiff collapsed, so he dragged her to the back of the shed. Not wanting to look, Striker turned her over. The laser had fired a true shot and not a stun. Tiff’s back was blackened and steaming. Her small mouth tightened in pain.

“We’re even now, you hear?” She whispered and her eyelids flickered.

“Tiff, don’t go! Stay conscious. You’re gonna be all right.” Striker shook her, but her body went limp and the color drained from her face. Her blood slickened his fingers.

“You were the one I always loved.” She muttered under her breath, mostly to herself. “Too bad I realized it too late.”

“Tiff!” Loot screamed from trees. Striker looked away to signal him down, and when his eyes came back to Tiff, her breathing had stopped. He lifted her eyelid, and her eye rolled like a marble, staring at nothing.

She wasn’t supposed to die for him. A great sense of loss hit him in his gut. Tiff was just proving herself to be a good person. She’d done this to prove he’d judged her too harshly, to make them even. She’d succeeded. Looking into her blank eyes, he finally forgave her.

Loot ran up beside him and cradled Tiff in his arms. “Go,” he yelled at Striker through his tears. “Go get Aries.”

Without Loot’s laser shots to slow them down, the colonists were closing in quickly.

“She’s dead, Loot.” Striker grabbed the boy’s shoulder. “Come with me.”

“No.” He pulled away from Striker and knelt by her side, running a hand through her hair. “I won’t leave her.”

The men were a stone’s throw away, relentlessly zeroing in on the shed. Their blasts tore into the wood, raining splinters. Striker knew they couldn’t drag Tiff’s body away in time. “You have to leave her and come with me.”

“No. Go without me. Go!” He swiped Striker’s hand away.

Behind them, Aries screamed. Striker’s head whirled in the direction of her voice. She was still alive and conscious!

“Go help Aries,” Loot shouted, “or Tiff’s death will be for nothing! You can still make it out. I’ll hold them back.”

Striker moved to grab Loot, and the boy turned his gun on him. “I’ll shoot.” The wild look in his eyes told him he meant it. Striker yelled in anger and ducked as Loot shot a warning beyond his head.

He sprinted into the cornstalks to find Aries.

Reckon whistled a tune as he maintained the corridor in space, matching the
New Dawn
’s changes in speed by a tenth of a millisecond. His nimble fingertips danced over the panels of blue light, casting shadows on the walls. He felt like he’d stolen the power of the gods.

“I didn’t think I’d ever see technology this advanced. In fact, since I’ve been alive—which has been too many years to say, mind you—mankind’s advances have stopped altogether and dare I say, even reverted back. Ain’t that right, Drifter?”

Silence, and then a strange clang followed his speech.

“Drifter?” Reckon turned around. Drifter had disappeared. His bindings lay unraveled on the floor.

“Shit.” After clicking on the autopilot, Reckon locked the controls with a quick code. His eyes scanned the table. Striker had left him two lasers, and both were gone. “Just my luck.”

He wished he’d come up with some sort of intercom to alert Striker, but he bet the man had other worries on his mind right now. Keeping an eye on Drifter was up to him, and he owed it to Striker. He’d grown fond of the man, another coder like himself, and a decent trader, a pirate that kept his own code of honor. He had to find Drifter before he stole the ship and killed the only man in his way: him.

Reckon slipped into the corridor, peeking down both sides, when a sudden, crushing blow to his skull knocked him to the floor, smashing his cheek into the cold deck. Pain seared behind his eyes. Stunned, it took him a few moments to compute what had happened before he squirmed around.

Drifter towered over him, holding a laser in each hand. “Shut it down.”

Jeezum crow.

How was he going to overtake an armed man? Reckon edged back on his elbows, buying time to think. His head ached and he felt a warm trickle on his forehead. He wiped it with the back of his hand and saw blood. “Shut what down?”

“You know what.” The gun rattled as Drifter shook it at him. “We’re getting outta here.”

“What about Striker, Loot and Tiff?”

“I have no need for them anymore.” Drifter’s eyes narrowed to two slits, reminding Reckon of a picture of a demon he had in his comic books growing up. There was no loyalty, no compassion.

“You weren’t ever going to take me to Refuge, were you? You would have killed me once we decoded the map.”

“Does it matter now?”

Striker’s father had been right. Reckon was glad he’d chosen his side—for all the good it did him at the moment.

“You can fly the ship, and I bet you can decode that map if given…proper motivation.” Drifter aimed the laser right between the old man’s eyes. “Let’s go.”

Reckon’s knees shook as he got to his feet. What was Drifter’s weakness? He was more physically fit and would win a fight even without the two lasers in his hands. Drifter was an excellent opportunist, sizing up each situation and finding a way to come out on top. This was such a time. Drifter jerked his head back toward the control room, and Reckon stumbled forward, catching himself against the wall.

Drifter didn’t have knowledge of the ship and how it worked, so he needed Reckon. For now, Drifter wasn’t going to kill him. Acid burned in Reckon’s stomach as he realized he had to run. Drifter would do anything to get him to work the ship, even if it meant torture.

He had another idea altogether.

The lasers Striker had left behind were the heavier ones, and they weighed Drifter down. Reckon bolted toward the hatch, his feet slipping on the slick floor.

Drifter called after him, “There’s nowhere to run, old man.”

Reckon had a lead as he rounded the corner and pressed the panel for the hatch. Instead of stepping on the platform, he sent it up empty and hid behind the corner, hoping Drifter would take the bait.

Reckon heard Drifter running, lasers thumping against his legs. The old man squeezed his eyes shut, holding his breath.

Drifter cursed and kicked the wall. “What in the hell’s he gonna do up there?”

Seconds ticked by as the hatch opened and closed again and the platform came back down. The trickle of blood from Reckon’s forehead progressed into a stream, but Reckon held himself motionless.

The familiar sound of boots stepping on the platform echoed down the corridor. Once Reckon heard the coral walls shift as the platform rose, he chanced a peek around the corner. Drifter had taken the ruse. He headed up to the corridor in space.

Reckon could have locked the hatch, but that would leave Drifter standing there with two lasers, waiting for Striker and the others to emerge from the
New Dawn
. There was only one way to protect all of them, and it shocked him almost into inaction—but not quite.

Reckon hobbled back toward the control panel. The platform would take two minutes to rise before the hatch opened. There was only one way to go, and once Drifter realized Reckon wasn’t out there, he’d rush back down.

All the different scenarios rattled around in Reckon’s mind as he reached the control room. What if Drifter had already headed back down? What if he’d never gone up in the first place? He glanced at the main sight panel and blew out a quick breath of relief. Drifter stood on the space corridor, looking into the void for signs of Reckon.

“Well, I ain’t out there now, am I?” Reckon pressed the code to unlock the controls and the panels glowed brighter, enticing him, egging him on. Drifter turned and stared into the main sight panel, locking eyes with the old man. Reckon’s fingers moved to the controls and Drifter’s eyes widened. Reckon finished his code and stared him down. His old fingers hovered over the final command.

Could he do it? Could he send Drifter into space? Reckon hesitated and Drifter bellowed, raising each laser toward the glass.

If Drifter fired, he’d kill them all. The sight panel might not be designed to withstand a sustained laser blast. If he penetrated the glass, not only would Reckon be sucked into space, but the others would be left with no way to escape. Reckon hardened his nerves and pressed the panel in. It felt like a mere click of a key but it was way more than that. The corridor flickered out of existence. In one millisecond, Drifter was gone.

…

Stalks whipped in Aries’ face as she darted through the cornfields, lunging in the direction of the ridge. Once she heard Striker call out her name, her heart raced on overdrive. Escape wasn’t enough. She needed to be with him.

Striker must have been taken captive, just as she’d suspected. And he’d escaped his cell, just as she had. There he stood, waving his arms like a beacon in a storm.
Take that Dr. Pern. Hallucination, my ass
.