Reading the Wind (Silver Ship) (53 page)

“She’ll heal,” Jenna said. “But without the ship’s medical setup, she would have bled out. Whatever they hit her with shocked her system, and she hasn’t woken yet. I gave her something to keep her asleep until we’re done.”

“We’ll need you,” I said.

She nodded and reached for her col. “Tiala filled me in. Sasha will stay and watch over Paloma.”

I glanced at Sasha, noticing for the first time both how young and how pretty she looked. Fragile. Yet every time I’d seen her, she’d been taking care of someone. “I’ll tell
Creator
to take your commands.”

“You have to go, too?” Jenna said.

I nodded. “Kayleen needs me to be with her. I’ve given her some tools, but they may not be enough without me being nearby. We’ll have a physical connection.”

“You can’t do that here?” Jenna asked.

“I need to be close. I won’t be in town. Not physically. But I can’t afford to be where they expect me to be.”

She didn’t like it. I could almost see a command working its way up to her lips, but all she said was, “Just don’t strand me on this damned planet again.”

Bryan, Chelo, and Liam came in. Their faces were set in preparation, hard. No fear showed in their eyes. I couldn’t tell if they had slept or not, but there was no more time for it anyway.

Dianne and Ming joined us and sat in the two remaining places. Sky was probably still with the hebras. “Sasha,” I said, “can you take some food down to Sky?”

She glanced over at me, looking relieved. It must have been hard for her to be in this strange place.

“Do you know how to get there?”

She nodded, a spare plate already in her hand. She swallowed hard, as if hiding fear. “I have an earset.” Her voice shook. “Can …can I keep it? So you can tell me what happens?”

I shook my head. “Pass it to Jenna. Listen for
Creator
. When there’s something to tell, I’ll send you back information through the ship.”

She popped out the tiny earset with no complaint and handed it to
Jenna. Then she set her plate down, leaned down, and gave Chelo a hug. “Good luck.”

Chelo nodded, and pointed to a bright-green and red handmade belt cinched around her waist. “I’ll be all right.”

Sasha hugged Chelo and left.

I looked around the table. All of us strong, all of us enhanced. But so was our enemy. “This will be a different battle for Fremont. But we’ll do well. And we’ll have help. Don’t underestimate the abilities of the people who live here. They’ll be useful.” I glanced at Liam, who smiled back at me for a moment before looking worriedly at Chelo.

I checked again to make sure I had everyone’s attention. “Stay in groups of at least two.” I nodded at Dianne and Ming. “And try to stay with someone from here. Fremont has predators that will make the Islans look easy if you meet them by yourselves.”

They nodded. Dianne looked calm, as if my words just flowed around her. Hopefully she heard them. I continued. “Kayleen says we’re ready.”

I flicked on the wall cameras. Darkness reigned, lightly touched by the moons. Here and there, heat signatures moved. Wildlife. Nothing human spent this night on the Grass Plains.

Good.

“Finish up, and let’s go. Five minutes.”

I thought about Marcus, who could make almost every situation somehow light. “Let’s be our best. We’ll show them what people from Silver’s Home are made of.”

“And to watch out for Fremont’s human predators,” Liam added.

S
asha and Sky waited for us at the top of
Creator
’s ramp, both solemn. I gripped Chelo’s hand as the others streamed past. Liam stopped to collect a brief kiss from her, and I heard him say, “Next time I see you we’ll have the kids.”

I hoped he was right.

The groups split at the bottom. Bryan, Ming, and Jenna went toward the Old Road, and Liam and Dianne toward the base of the cliffs.

Chelo and I took the two hebras. Stripes whinnied softly as Chelo mounted her, pawing at the ground and tossing her head. Sand was
quiet as I climbed up on her, but she turned her head around to gaze into my eyes, her own dark brown eyes looking solemn above her beard. When she turned her head back around, she leaned a little forward, ready, like nothing would make her happier than getting away from the strange silver ship that had eaten her for the last few hours.

The saddle creaked beneath me, feeling good. Either Sky or Sasha had already lengthened the stirrups. I stood, testing them, pleased that only a few inches separated me from the saddle when I stood straight up. Hebras were not always easy to stay on.

The two moons were already visible. A cool night wind rippled the grass softly, blew across my cheeks, lifted the soft ear-tufts of the hebras. I dove momentarily into the nets, searching.

No alarms. Good.

Sky and Sasha waited, watching me with huge eyes. “Don’t open the door for anyone except one of us,” I cautioned.

Sky shook her head. “We won’t.” She took Sasha’s hand and led the shorter girl up the ramp.
Creator
’s door closed on my command.

I leaned over to Chelo. “Let’s go!”

She smiled wanly, and turned to me. “Don’t fall off, little brother.” She leaned forward and urged Stripes to a run. I followed, happy to be riding. Wind parted my hair and dry grass slapped at my feet and at Sand’s belly as we loped toward the Old Road.

We didn’t see Bryan, Ming, and Jenna, but I trusted they were there. I’d nearly forgotten how tough the Old Road was, and breathed a sigh of relief when we met up with the wider High Road. Moonlight lent us speed, the hebras blowing but willing. We didn’t even slow down until we neared the fork, when we pulled the animals to a slower walk.

“Kayleen?” I quested.

“Here.”

“We are.”

Figures emerged from the darkness beneath the trees, from the rocks. Akashi, helping me and Chelo down. “It’s good to see you, boy.” Taking Chelo into his arms, smiling at me.

A young girl, taking the reins of both beasts. “Here, I’ll take them to drink.”

Kayleen, coming and standing next to me, a small bundle with two
blankets, water, and probably food held closely to her chest. “It’s all quiet so far. But they know we’re planning something. They have to.”

I pulled her to me. “I know.”

The others, maybe twenty that I could see. Quiet. Watching. Men and women, all ages, some carrying weapons, some standing with empty arms. Little sound. Discipline. Many faces looked familiar. I noticed Klia at one end, watching me closely. Not even glaring. Well, maybe a little.

I spoke into the silence. “You may not even have to fight. But everything is possible. I’ll do my best to see that you all live.” There should be more to say after all this time, but all I could think of was, “Thank you.”

They regarded me silently, some nodding, most simply resolute.

I started off down the High Road, Chelo on one side of me and Kayleen on the other, trusting Akashi to get the others following.

We reached the last good overlook, settling carefully onto the pile of boulders. The nearby forest was silent, as if even the night-birds and bush-tailed mice and owls knew to hold their breath. Akashi passed us, waving, followed by nearly a hundred people. I hadn’t expected so many. I smiled.

After they left, the three of us spent a few moments getting comfortable on the rocks, finding a large flat place that would support Kayleen and me and leave Chelo room. She sat a little bit behind Kayleen and me, staring down at the dark town as if she could take it with the force of her gaze.

This was no isolation room. The breeze felt cold and strong, pulling at the edges of the blanket Kayleen had packed down for us. Leaves rustled on nearby trees. Night-birds had taken up their high chattering calls again. The stone under me dug into my hip.

My nerves ran high, and I forced a slow belly breath, then another.

Kayleen and I looked at each other. Her eyes were fierce with determination. “Blood, bone, and brain,” she whispered. Our childhood chant for entering data spaces.

“Blood, bone, and brain,” I said, warmed by the memories her words brought.

Chelo placed one hand on each of our backs. Her touch calmed me.

Kayleen and I fell together into the ragged Artistos nets, riding them as close to town as they went anymore, finding Alicia and Induan by their body heat, stringing back up a ways, watching Akashi and his company near the girls. Induan turned her mod off as they approached, looking at Akashi. He startled, even though he had been expecting her. Recovering, he nodded, and she disappeared again.

They would be on their way.

I raced past them in the nets, leaving Kayleen to check the town’s perimeter.

The nano-sewn field between Little Lace Park and town lay quiet. Off, but the
Dawnforce
could activate it. I slipped into the first quiescent connection between the edge of the field and the rest of the Islans’ nets, picked up another thread, found the next connection. There were a dozen, more than I had found from the ship.

Good to be close.

Akashi and his group would wait for an earset signal from Chelo. I only had to protect the two girls. From these nets, I didn’t see even their body heat. The Islans hadn’t spent generations surrounded by silent and deadly animals.

I searched for Alicia and Induan. Visuals were weak, damped by the stupidity of the simple connection to the deadly nano. I watched anyway, looking for the fuzz of movement as feet or shadows crossed moonlight.

Nothing.

Up, up the Islas nets, trying to move like normal data, like reports and handshakes.

There.

A camera, watching the grassy expanse. An emaciated black and white dog, perhaps one of the abandoned town dogs, walked alone near the edge of the field. “Don’t go near it,” I thought. I didn’t want anything to die in the deadly nano tonight.

I kept my view from the camera front and center, watching the field. There. A flicker of movement, a bit of greenish black where there should be gray. They were more than halfway across.

I waited, focused completely. Counting.

And then they had to be across it. The dog lay down under a bush and put its head on its paws. The wind must have blown the right
way. I marked the spot, knowing the dog would have another chance to be a spoiler.

Withdrawing, I reached for Kayleen’s energy. “I think they’re past it.”

“You didn’t have to turn off the Islans’ nets?”

“Not yet. What did you find?”

“All clear so far. Liam and Dianne have met up with the others. No sign of Jenna yet.”

There shouldn’t be. They, and those who met them, bringing weapons, were heading down through the steep forest, the way Akashi had entered town the last time. “That’s okay.”

“I hate this. I hate not knowing. I want it to be over. I want Caro, and Jherrel. You’ll love meeting them.”

“Shhhhh…” I sent quieting energy. This was no time for her to babble. But it was time to wait, and watch. I surfaced enough to feel Chelo’s hand still on my back, to turn my head and nod quietly at her, reassuring her.

Kayleen and I waited. Alicia’s strength was risk. Surely she would be all right. She had to be.

Time deep in the nets was strange, and I had to query data from time to time to measure the twenty minutes we’d promised the girls.

“I’m going now.” Probably into the hardest part of the night. Liam and Dianne and company should be starting up the cliff path now. I’d swept it and disabled the one camera node, setting it so it sent back a loop of the same dark pictures of an empty trail. Good enough. By the time there was enough light to know the camera lied, this would be over.

I refocused on the camera I’d watched the field from. The dog still lay under the same bush, apparently sleeping.

From the camera, I kept my energy signature as low as possible, creeping up threads of data, taking one and then another, spreading thin to avoid alarms. A set of data walls protected the ship itself. I probed, gently, emulating a video stream.

No give.

Again, something smaller. The stuttering report from a moisture meter.

Nothing. The reports were picked up, queried, and dropped outside the wall.

I backed away, finding a skimmer.

It held three people, awake, talking quietly amongst themselves in a language I didn’t understand.

But it also had a reasonably open connection to the
Dawnforce
. I became the report of its robotic repair systems, no bigger than the messages from the moisture meter. Only these reported directly to the parent ship.

I was in.

It took long moments to trickle enough of myself inside the ship to feel whole and capable. I found the alarms that watched the alarms first, switching them off.

Nothing bad happened.

I closed off the alarms themselves.

Nothing.

So far, they were underestimating me. I hoped.

I
found my father first. He sat with Lushia and Ghita, in the captain’s sunroom. He looked relaxed, in full control even though he wore Islan pain bracelets on each wrist. Dianne had described them to me once, looking haunted and far away, as if perhaps she’d felt them herself. My father had the same look, multiplied, as if pain drove him inside himself.

Lushia sat below the sun lamp in the center of their sigil. She knew the effect, leaning in just the right amount to throw an intimidating halo around her head. Yet when she spoke, her voice sounded conversational. “Your son. He flew the New Making with no training. Rumor has it that he is allied with one of our enemies.”

My father shook his head. Not denying. Unwillingness to cooperate.

I reached toward him, wanting to reassure him. Before I could quite connect, his physical body twisted and jumped, neck muscles taut, silent mouth looking like it was going to scream.

Where was the source? Lushia’s hands were in her lap and she was no Wind Reader. The other woman? Ghita, from the description. Yes. She held a simple wireless device strapped to her palm, easy to reach with her long fingers.