Space Junque (12 page)

Char hadn't known Rani long, but she appreciated how huge that was. Jake kept his eyes on his empty plate. Soon
the
Junque
wouldn't be able to fly. It wasn't just a matter of no fuel. There wouldn't be anywhere to go.

Would it break his heart to never fly again? Char wanted to know. She could spend a lifetime learning everything about him.

"Corcovado won't be bad at all," Mike told the girls. "The land all around is so clean you can eat fish caught in the bay."
He had been unusually cheerful throughout the meal, and with Rani's decision he was almost giddy. "
I've heard of a waterfall in the hills that runs warm, pure water all year round. Before he died, the Emperor invested a fortune getting the place ready for..."

Char suppressed a smile. How could Mike possibly end that sentence? Getting the place ready to house breeders for the world's elite families? Exgusting!

Durga had no problem with the subject. "Asherah says we're going to make babies in our tummies like dogs and cats. People used to do it that way."

Char felt a twinge of jealousy. Asherah sure talked to Durga a lot.

"There won't be very many of us," Durga continued, "so Asherah says any girl who bleeds will live a hundred and fifty years."

Bleeds.
Char had forgotten about that. Like most females, she'd had menstrual bleeding during puberty. That's when her eggs had been harvested for future use. Like most girls, the bleeding had stopped before a year had gone by. She didn't miss it.

But living a hundred and fifty years would be good. She looked at Jake. Maybe not. "Did Asherah say men would live longer too?"

Durga shook her head. "Only bleeders." She opened another protein pack, oblivious to the effect of that little piece of information. "All their children will live longer than baggers. Not a hundred and fifty though."

"I don't know if I'd want to live so long after everyone I loved…" Char didn't finish her sentence either. The room went quiet. Chita buried her face in her hands.

"Don't cry," Durga said, as if commanding sorrow away could make it so. It had just sunk in that everyone at the table was an orphan now. Except Jake, if his mother was still alive.

Rani's face was in her hands too.
She looked up. "I don't feel so well." Her normal gorgeous brown complexion had gone sickly pale as a -- as a ghost.

"You should take some antibiotics," Char said, "just as a precaution."

"They're stored in the cargo hold," Jake said. With another sickening moan from Rani, he was up and at the door. "I'll be right back."

Rani refused a drink of water. "Tell Jake I'm going to my room," she said. After two steps she fell to the floor.

"Rani!" Durga cried. She ran out of the dining room and came back carrying cushions from the passenger cabin. Char and Mike put one under Rani's head and the other under her knees.

"I'm going to check your wound," Char said. She loosened Rani's flight pants and eased the top down a little. Rani groaned and went paler.

Mike knelt close to Char and examined Rani's skin. "This bruise is not good. That shibdung used the disruptor." He outlined a faint discoloration on Rani's hip and said in Char's ear, "Let's hope it didn't clip her intestine."

"Don't die," Durga said.

Rani managed a weak smile. "That is not my plan, little warrior. Char is right. I only need to let the antibiotics do their job."

"I'll start the subnet search," Mike said. "Rani probably does just need antibiotics, but we should get her to an infirmary on the surface." At the door, he gave them all a thumbs-up.

During dinner, Mike had been genuinely upbeat about something -- probably Rani's capitulation over Corcovado -- but Char was positive he wasn't happy about her and Jake being together.

She couldn't expect him to be thrilled about it, but she wanted to be sure he had no hard feelings. She decided to keep him company while he worked on the subnet.

Entering the galley, she heard him talking to someone. That was quick work.

"I suppose it's sentimental," he said. "They want to reward me for saving the children."

A pause, then he said, "Of course
I
think it's ridiculous. But if it means restoring order after all this chaos, I suppose it's my duty."

Another pause. He was using an earpiece. But who was he talking to? And taking credit for saving the girls was pretty audacious.

"Well, yes. I suppose I
was
an exceptional governor. I'll be an exceptional emperor too. I don't mind saying it."

Did she hear that right?

"All the CEOs are on board. Even Garrick."

Emperor.
That's why he was so bubbly at dinner. She thought back over the last few days. She'd never heard him talking to anyone, but now she realized he'd intended it that way.

When Geraldo made contact, Mike had immediately cut him off. Maybe it hadn't been about security at all. Maybe Mike had wanted to make sure Geraldo didn't say anything about their plans.

"I'll drop the
Michael
, though. Emperor Augustine sounds more impressive." He laughed at his own joke.

She had suspected he was lying to her just before the
Space Junque
arrived at the annex. He'd closed the orbit runner's canopy. How did she miss that? Why would he do that unless he was hiding something?

She had to get back to the others. She had to tell Jake and Rani.

"They want you as much as they want me, Sky. Your
Tesla
units will save civilization."

What the hell? Char wheeled around. Her throat went dry and she could hardly breathe as it dawned on her just who was on the other side of that conversation.

"You'll be my empress," Mike said. "The world will adore you."

"You bastard!" Char stormed into the cockpit. Mike was sitting in Tyler's chair. When he saw her, he pulled the drive out of the com and stuck it in his pocket. "Sky's alive?"

He stood up and eased into the galley. Char flew at him and pounded on his chest. "How could you? You said
Tesla
was cut off. You let me think she was dead!"

"It's not like that," he said. "I didn't know what to do." He grabbed her wrists. "Look at me."

"Let me talk to her."
God. Sky, Sky
. "Put it back in."

"Maybe I made a mistake." He ignored her plea. "I thought if I told you and things went wrong, it would be like losing her twice."

"Liar!" She struggled against his grasp, but he was too strong.

"Yes, I'm a liar, Char. I have to be. The truth is Sky and the others can never come out of the vault. She doesn't know it. I let her think plans are being made to bring them up. It's a kindness, Char."

"Oh, my god." He was a monster, and he didn't even know it. "Why did you bring me up here?"

"You're the closest thing to Sky I'll ever have. Beautiful, intelligent. Naïve, but that can work to one's advantage. Chemical-free. You have many good qualities, Char. The rabble will love you. And a man in my position needs an official wife."

A monster, and insane. "I don't love you."

He laughed as if she'd uttered a non sequitur. "I really wish you hadn't heard any of this."

"What, that you're going to be ruler of the world? And you were so broken-hearted over your Emperor. For all I know, you worked with the DOGs to engineer the whole thing."

Mighty Asherah
, she had stumbled onto the truth. She saw it on his face.

"He was useless. And more corrupt than all the CEOs combined. Even your precious Jake couldn't stand him."

In the next instant she watched him consider what to do. He looked at her strangely and reached for her throat. He would kill her. She'd become collateral damage, like Tyler and everyone else at the airport. Like the tens of millions who died in the first nuclear strikes and the billions killed after that.

Like Sky. He had sent her into the vault knowing she was being buried alive.

And he was going to be the leader of the world.

Above his head the
Mind the Gap
sign jumped out at her. He was standing at the edge of the galley lift.

"Shíb dài!" She ducked and shot her foot across his kneecap. He yelped and grabbed his leg. With a surge of adrenaline, she shoved him onto the lift so hard his head hit the wall. She slammed the door shut and enabled the airlock.

Her heart pounded so hard she thought she was going to die. She knew exactly what she was doing.

Mike looked stunned as the seal took hold. His eyes grew wide, and he pounded on the door. She set the platform to descend.

The rage on his face turned to terror as he realized he was a dead man. She couldn't hear him, but she could read his lips.
Don't do this!
His eyes went dull and a look of cold hatred swept over him. Then a smirk. Mike punched the cargo bay button in the split second before he disappeared.

Jake.

Now she understood the smirk. Mike knew Jake was in the cargo bay. In his final act, Mike meant to once again rob her of someone she loved.

Asherah help me!
She frantically retracted the galley lift.
Please, please, let Jake not be in the cargo bay.

It took less than thirty seconds. She opened door and pounded the button. It felt like everything she did was in slow motion. She couldn't see anything out the cockpit window.

She tore through the passenger cabin and raced down to the cargo bay.

"Jake!" She screamed into the emptiness. Even the orbit runner had been lost. The cargo bin where the medical supplies had been stowed was wide open and empty.

What had she done?

The journey back to the dining room was like stumbling through a waking nightmare. Char was battered by conflicting emotions. Jake was dead. Mike was gone -- no loss. Sky was alive.

The drive with the subnet had gone out the airlock with Mike, but that didn't matter. Sky was alive. Even if Char couldn't talk to her right away, the team could come up. There was no reason to hide now. The worst monster was gone.

In the dining room, Durga was still on the floor beside Rani, and the matriarch was trying to comfort the other girls. How was Char going to tell them what she'd done?

Durga's eyes were nearly as red as her hair. She met Char a few steps inside the door and whispered, "I think Rani is dead."

Char wanted to scream. What was the point of all this? Why had Asherah come to them if everyone was just going to die?

There was another problem, a practical one. The
 
Junque
 
had no pilot. While it was nothing to push a button and set off a launch program, there was no such thing as an amateur landing.

And she was dreaming if she thought she would see Sky again.
 
Tesla
 
was buried in the bowels of the earth for exactly this reason: to be clear of Armageddon.

Really, why go on? "I can't do this."

"That's silly," Durga said. "You can. You will. We have no choice."

It was weird hearing such hard wisdom from a child. But Durga was no common little girl. She had been chosen by the goddess, and she'd accepted her fate. Well, more power to her. Char would resist fate a while longer.

"Jake." Rani was delirious, not dead. Char gasped. Jake was there, on his knees beside Rani, holding her hand. Rani looked peaceful, out of pain, and happy.

But of course that wasn't Jake.

"Mama!" On the other side of the room, Maribel held up her arms to a beautiful woman dressed in a flared skirt decorated with sequins and felt flowers in primary colors. The woman lifted the little girl and spun her around.

"Mi hijo!" The matriarch's gravitas fell away, and she was the picture of a sweet, middle-aged woman overflowing with delight. A smiling young man took her hand and said, "Mama, it is so good to see you."

Everybody was being greeted by a loved one.

"Char."

Char knew the voice behind her wasn't real, but she didn't care. All the sorrow built up inside for too long came out in a rush of tears. It was a relief to accept the loving hug, a joy to hear Sky say, "It's so good to see you."

Asherah appeared beside Durga, the only one who had not received a visitor. The goddess nodded, and each Empani fully embraced the human being it had greeted.