Spin the Sky (37 page)

He went on to say that Finomus whipped up a batch of genetically modified bacteria that, when added to beef tallow, will produce the required lubricant, but they needed practically the entire herd to have enough to finish.

When Uri initially approached Penelope about buying the herd, he didn’t want to alert her to what they were really after. When she refused, they tried to order the lubricant from Earth, but the quantities they needed and the genetic component raised too many questions. Now they have to get the weapon up and running before the Earthers find out what they are up to.

“From the beginning, I wanted to explain it all to you,” Asner says, a note of pleading in his voice. “You are a Separatist. I knew if I could just explain, you’d understand. You’d want to be a part of such a magnificent project. But Uri refused. And only now can I tell you everything. I am sorry it has to be like this. I know you’ll be able to forgive me.”

Penelope smiles even though it makes her head pound. If she ever gets the chance, she’ll show Asner exactly what it feels like to get hit on the head so hard you lose consciousness.

Then maybe she’ll work on that whole forgiveness concept. It isn’t high on her list of things to do, though. Asner doesn’t need to know that right now, she decides. Penelope concentrates on looking sympathetic and thoughtful and not so much like she wants to spit in his face, even though it’s her first impulse.

Over the ringing in her ears, Penelope can barely understand Asner as he tells her about his plan to put the focuser in place and align the lasers during the next lunar eclipse. While the Moon is covered in the reddish brownish darkness of the Earth’s shadow, no one on Earth or the other orbitals will be able to see what they are doing until it is all over. The next lunar eclipse is tomorrow night and will last for about two hours.

“That’s barely enough time to move the herd, harvest their fat and process it so they can assemble the final weapon, but I think we can do it,” Asner says, sounding entirely too confident for Penelope’s liking.

Than Asner startles her by crying, “When we have a weapon that powerful, there will be no more war because no one will dare defy us for fear of bringing down the wrath of our Moon Array.”

Before she can stop herself, Penelope asks, “But isn’t that the same logic the makers of the atomic bomb used? That nukes were so awful no one would ever use them? Look how that turned out.”

There are parts of Earth that won’t be habitable for another thousand years for anyone but the six-legged bunnies. Asner doesn’t appreciate the comment.

“This is different,” he snaps. “Only we will have this weapon.”

Penelope snorts, “And you are going to let Uri be the guy with his finger on the trigger? Do you really think that’s such a great idea? Uri, the guy who just beat up and kidnapped one of his oldest friends?” she shoots back before biting her lip. Arguing with this maniac isn’t going to get her out of here. She needs to be smarter than that.

Penelope wonders how long she was out. How far from Ithaca are they?

“If you had just sold him the cows we required, none of this would have been necessary,” huffs Asner. “But you refused and delayed. Personally, I am sorry that we must detain you here, but Uri can get excitable when he doesn’t get his way. Still, it will be safer for you to be here with me while his men raid Ithaca. I do not think his men will try to minimize the casualties this time. It is regrettable, but the time for caution has passed. We will have to secure the goodwill of the other colonies after we are finished. They will understand. Omelets and eggs, you know.”

“We’re on the Moon?” she asks with despair.

“Yes. The ship docked an hour ago.”

“Wait, what?” She is so shocked to find herself on the Moon right now that she almost misses the part about the raid.

Asner suddenly becomes very interested in straightening the collar of his shirt. “Yes, you gave him the access codes while you were delirious. I am sorry for that. He was not kind. His men had already infiltrated Ithaca as part of the Nullball crowd. Most of the Seven Skies team is only there to make sure that, one way or another, they leave with the necessary bovines. They are loading the cattle as we speak.”

Penelope sucks in her breath. She didn’t remember giving any access codes, but now that she thinks about it, there are several places on her body that hurt beside her head, particularly the crook of her arm. She looks at her arm to find a bloody gash like the kind a needle might make if you were injecting something into an unwilling subject. Penelope shudders.

Asner pats her leg while she works hard not to flinch. He is sitting so close that his leg is touching hers and she can feel his breath on her cheek.

“It will all be over soon,” he murmurs.

Penelope does not find that at all reassuring.

“What an amazing plan, Asner,” she says, praying she doesn’t sound as sarcastic as she feels. “But if Uri’s men are raiding Ithaca, won’t that tip your hand? The colonies won’t understand your, uh, grand vision. They may attack. Won’t that stop you?”

Asner waves his hand. “No, they’ll never find the Moon base in time. And if they do, the laser buggies will slice them to ribbons before they can possibly get close.”

Penelope’s heart sinks. She sees no way to free herself and no way to save Ithaca, much less stop these madmen with their lunatic laser weapon. She isn’t going to give up, even if her brain is momentarily stunned.

Penelope blurts out, “So, what you are saying is—you turned the Moon into one big giant weapon.”

Asner smiles modestly, “Well, I am an engineer.”

“It’s just so… impressive,” she stutters, suddenly wondering if she should try to sound more impressed so Asner will keep talking while she tries to escape. She twists her wrists again as she says, “Old Manny is going to be so jealous.”

Asner makes no effort to be modest this time. “Do you think so?”

“Oh, wow, sure,” she says, nodding vigorously. “Of course he will be. Who wouldn’t be? You’re a genius. A visionary.”

Asner moves closer, giving her a heated look as he rubs her knee rather awkwardly and vigorously. Penelope eyes him, uncertain what the man will do next. Asner lurches forward so that he is practically on top of her. He smears a kiss across her face as she pulls away from him.

“Oh Christ, are you serious?” she cries with exasperation.

Asner steadies himself on a wall, sweating heavily. “Don’t you think you’d better be nicer to me?” he asks nastily. “Would it not be logical to give in to my desires so that you live? Wouldn’t you be willing to do anything to see your son again?” The man eyes her, smug and leering.

Penelope replies by spitting in his face. Asner snarls and slaps her hard. She spits at him again. The engineer uses one hand to grab her hair, yanking her head back agonizingly while his other hand flies up and back, ready to hit her again.

Penelope kicks him hard, grateful that no one thought to remove her thick anti-grav boots. Her right boot connects with his knee. Asner slams his elbow into her while twisting her arm painfully.

Penelope keeps kicking. In the cramped room, Asner can’t easily get away. Judging from his high-pitched screech, her foot must have connected to something really painful. Asner grabs her hair again and uses it to slam her head into the wall. Now she is bleeding from the lump on the back of her head and a gash over her eye.

Adrenaline and fear give her strength she never knew she had. Twisting, she pulls her foot up and kicks it directly into his face as hard as she can. She feels something crunch, probably his nose.

Asner lets go of her hair and pushes away from her. Penelope still manages to land a few more kicks, including another face shot. After that, Asner collapses onto the floor whimpering.

Breathing hard, Penelope wrenches her hands out of the tape and leaps up off the bed, every muscle in her body tense. Asner twitches a little bit, but otherwise doesn’t make any sudden movements.

Penelope bursts into tears. “Well, I could have handled that a little better,” she groans to herself. Wiping her eyes and taking deep breaths, Penelope feels the blood trickling down her ear and more stinging her eyes. Cautiously, she leans over Asner but doesn’t touch him. She can see he’s still breathing.

Spying the roll of tape he used to bind her, Penelope goes to work. Taping Asner to the chair reminds her of a sheep-shearing contest she watched a few years ago. She wonders what the record is for how fast you can tape a person to a chair.

“At least I’m not kicking you in the head anymore, you big stupid jerk,” she tells Asner’s limp, drooling form when he moans. She sure isn’t getting any points for gentleness, though.

Penelope quickly searches Asner’s pockets and is rewarded with his passkey. Clutching it like a talisman, she leaves him there. Penelope hopes the engineer has access to the docking bay. She also hopes there is something there she can use to get as far from Uri and his Seven Skies goons as possible.

Someone needs to know what Uri’s goons are up to out here. Someone needs to stop the Seven Skies raid on Ithaca. Penelope goes racing down the corridor, catlike and quiet, looking for a way out.

A few times she has to duck into a supply closet or down a garbage chute to avoid someone. The endless gray halls are quite disorienting and Penelope is horrified at the thought of getting lost. Eventually she finds the cargo bay, breathing a small sigh of relief when the passkey opens the door.

Slipping into the busy cargo bay, she ducks behind a pile of equipment and crouches down. There are lots of people in here, milling around. She’s gotten this far, but where to go from here?

The only thing to do is sit tight, hope no one notices her and look for an opportunity to get out. Penelope crouches there long enough to feel her knees go numb before she hears the telltale drumming of a ship outside entering the airlock and the grinding of the pressurization doors. In a minute the docking bay doors will open to let a new ship in. Another ship will probably mean even more people in the cargo bay. Will that make it easier for her to slip aboard an outbound ship or will more eyes make it impossible for her to escape unnoticed?

Penelope isn’t sure she can fly a ship if she manages to steal one. She played a few flight simulator games over the last couple of years, but that was mostly because Trevor wanted to play. She never was very good at them. She hopes those robotic laser guards out there aren’t as good as Asner seems to think. Maybe she can find a comm or Ether connection and at least get the word out? She figures she has, at most, another hour or so before someone discovers Asner, then Uri’s men will start looking for her. What can she do?

Then there is a muted thud as everything the cargo bay pitches hard to the right from some enormous impact to the base. Penelope falls over and throws her arms over her face, trying to protect her head from flying cargo boxes. The people out on the floor go sliding across the floor and stacks of equipment tumble around. Alarms blare over the screaming and chaos. Another thud follows and then another. She hears the sounds of explosions and disaster. Armed men pile into interceptors while others load the ship guns. Penelope realizes what is going on.

Someone is attacking the Moon Base.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

C
esar races towards Ithaca’s core with the beat of rage pulsing through his brain. He feels as though he is standing still while the world around him races past in a blur, chasing something that has nothing to do with him and his rage. There is nothing but the goal: Find Penelope.

His eyes scan the environment around him, looking for tools to accomplish the goal. His legs move mechanically, marching to the beat of his pounding heart. The only thing he really has to concentrate on is breathing. He seems to be having trouble with that just now.

He pushes through the crowds in town to get to the elevators. Cesar hears people behind him muttering, cursing his rudeness. He can’t be bothered with that now. Where is she? He keeps looking, hoping he is over-reacting, wishing she’d come walking along to tell him to stop being a fool and trust her.

When he gets off the elevator at the core, he has to make a choice—the tournament or the docking bay? Cesar stops, staring at the two diverging paths. It is far more likely that Asner lured her to the Nullball arena on some pretext and she went, thinking there would be safety in the crowd. But if Asner is dragging her then she might not be following him willingly. It would be much easier to hide an unwilling pillar of the community in the docking bay than in a sports tournament.

But what if Argos was mistaken? The man isn’t exactly sharp of mind and keen of intellect. Cesar knows he has to allow for observer error, too. People frequently remember things wrong. They are actually much less likely to correctly remember a high-stress event like a ship crash or a robbery than some mundane chore like washing dishes. You would think it would be the other way around, but that isn’t the case.

The tournament is more likely. Except it will take him far longer to locate her in that crowd than searching the docking bay. Also, if Penelope is at the tournament, she is in much less danger than if she is at the docking bay. But what if he chooses incorrectly? Cesar feels the steady pounding of his heart, thudding the seconds away as he stands there, paralyzed by indecision.

“Hey, Dad!”

Cesar whips his head around, looking for the source of that clear call. His eyes finally pick out Trevor’s buoyant grin and enthusiastic wave. Cesar frowns, momentarily confused by his son’s appearance.

“Dad, I’m back!”

Trevor comes bouncing forward, gleefully dragging an equally chipper young girl along after him. There aren’t many people in the hallway, but the few that are move out of Trevor’s way lest the gangly boy trample them in his haste to get to Cesar.

“Trevor!” cries Cesar.

He knows he has no time for it, but Cesar is so ecstatically relieved to see his son that he has to touch the boy just to make sure he’s really here. Cesar moves forwards to greet his son, but he is brought up short when he suddenly recognized the girl.