Stars in the Sand (26 page)

 “
We’re going to have words, Corporal,” Marshall said.

 “
Right now, in fact,” Jacqui said. “Are you Fleet? Is this a loyalty test?”

 Turning to face her square on, Marshall decided to throw caution to the wind, and said, “I am Lieutenant-Captain Daniel Marshall, commander of the Battlecruiser Alamo. These are Corporal Cooper and Spaceman Cantrell, behind me is my Tactical Officer, Lieutenant Caine. We’re with the Triplanetary Fleet.”

 “
You don’t look like pirates and murderers.”

 
“
Come on,” Cooper said, “You don’t actually believe the junk they’re saying, do you?”

 “
I don’t believe anything that I don’t see with my own eyes.”

 “
Cooper offered you passage from this world, and I will deliver on that. It will have to be to the Triplanetary Confederation, though.”

 “
Where?”

 “
Sol. Mars, most likely,” Caine said.

 Shaking her head, she said, “My great-great-grandfather came from Mars. One of the first colonists, left when it got too quiet.”

 “
He should have stayed,” Cantrell said.

 “
Damn right he should.” She looked around the room, “What are you doing here, then? Cooper said something about property.”

 “
Twelve of my men have been captured. I intend to free them. That’s all.”

 “
You came all this way to rescue twelve of your men? They important crewmen or something?”

 “
All of them are. I’m going to get them home, or die in the attempt.” Cooper smiled at that, though Cantrell seemed to be somewhat less happy about the idea.”

 “
I don’t buy it,” she said. “No-one here would do that.”

 “
You came back for us,” Cooper said. “What’s the difference?”

 “
That wasn’t the same thing at all.”

 “
Yes, it was.”

 Marshall said, “Put the gun down. I can understand why you drew it, but you don’t need it.”

 “
I don’t trust you,” she said.

 “
Then you’d better get on and shoot me, and turn me over to the authorities. I’m sure they’ll reward you well.”

 “
Damn Proctor would take all the credit anyway,” she said, holstering her gun. “I’ll keep this, if you don’t mind.”

 
“
If it makes you feel better.”

 “
Getting off this rock would make me feel a lot better.” She turned to Cooper, “You’re going to try and break into City Hall?”

 “
We’re going to try,” he said.

 “
You’ll never do it. Security is far too tight.”

 “
Danny, she’s right,” Caine said. “Even if we did manage it, we’d never get them through the city. I hate to suggest this, but couldn’t we just buy them? We’ve got enough Cabal currency on board.”

 “
And if the Cabal find out, they’ll be raiding our stations for captives to auction back to us,” Marshall said. “I’d really rather not set that particular precedent.”

 “
Then what are we going to do?”

 Jacqui said, “Why don’t you wait until the convoy is on the move, and hit them then.”

 “
Or better still,” Caine said, “have the driver of their truck as one
of
us.” Turning to Jacqui, she said, “I like it.”

 “
We haven’t got any passes
or
identification for that.
Nor e
ven uniforms,” Cantrell said. “No time to get them, and we haven’t got the forging equipment on Ouroboros.”

 With a sigh, Jacqui said, “This is where I get dragged in, isn’t it.”

 “
You could just go back up to the ship,” Marshall said with a smile. “No-one here is going to force you to do anything.”

 “
My Mom always said my conscience would kill me,” Jacqui replied. “Guess she was right. Ah, to hell with it. You get caught, the Proctor will figure I was working with you anyway. I might as well do something worth getting shot for.”

 “
That’s the spirit,” Marshall said. There was a
chirp from
the airlock, and he peered through the hatch, “Looks like Orlova’s made it back as well. Let’s get this worked out.”

Orlova stepped into the shuttle, looking around with a frown at the new arrivals, “No-one told me we had guests.”

 “
Maggie,” Marshall said, “how do you fancy being a truck driver?”

Chapter 25

 Barbara swung the hammer again, running a series of scratches down the side of the shuttle as she methodically continued to work. She couldn’t make a dent in the hull, but she could certainly make a mess of the paintwork. Behind her, Wilson was busily tearing pieces out of one of the starboard sensor clusters, and pieces of a dismantled thruster were on the deck behind him.

 Cooper walked in and did a double-take, looking at the carefully-crafted devastation before him. He drifted over to Barbara as she smashed the hammer into the hull, chips and fragments rebounding into the air behind her.

 “
This looks a bit much, doesn’t it?”

 She turned, then said, “I’ve got to fly this beast, remember. There were two choices. Either we make it look as if I have had a crash landing, or I actually have a crash landing. Given that I don’t like my chances of being able to bring her up again, this is the best way to do it.”

 “
Yes, but,” he replied, gesturing around, “Don’t you need any of this stuff?”

 “
Most of it is just safety gear, nothing serious.”

 
“
Just safety gear?”

 She shrugged, and said, “These things are pretty over-engineered anyway. Ludicrously so, sometimes. All this stuff takes up processing power and adds extra weight. One of these days I want to build a really stripped-down shuttle, see what we can do if we throw out the rulebook.”

 
“
Go spiraling down to your doom,” Wilson said, tugging the last piece of the cluster free. “I think we’ve done about as much as we can without you actually crashing, so we’d better leave it there.”

 Glancing across at him, she nodded, “You might be right. I should be able to slam her down on the deck hard enough to shake some stuff up, anyway.” Turning to Cooper, she said, “Have we heard from the resistance yet?”

 “
It took some cajoling, but we have indeed.” He tossed her a datapad, then said, “That’s what I came to tell you. They finally sent us up the data we were looking for.”

 “
About damn time,” she replied. “Three days we’ve been waiting for this.”

 “
Give them a break”, he said. “We couldn’t have done much until now, anyway.”

 “
I still say this whole thing is a crazy idea. Pretending to crash land a shuttle…”

 Shaking his head, Cooper replied, “You don’t think they’d give us permission to land somewhere other than the starport otherwise, do you? This way we get two shuttles down on the deck exactly where we want them.”

 As she read through the report, her eyes widened. “Gabe, have you read this?”

 “
Good tactically. There’s a road running all the way to the site.”

 “
To get down, I’ve got to fly over a pair of mountains, then duck around some swampy mess. If I don't smash into the peaks I’ll sink the damn shuttle into quicksand. Is this really the best they could come up with?”

 “
Looks like there was a reason they abandoned it.” He reached over and flicked the page, “There’s a bonus, though. Old landing equipment is all there already. That should make it a lot easier to take off again.”

 “
Fine,” she replied. “Stand back while I do the impossible yet again. Be sure to notify my next of kin that this wasn’t my stupid idea.”

 
“
You aren’t going alone,” he said.

 “
Gabe…”

 “
No. The only reason you are here is because of me, and if you’re going to take risks like
this, I’m going with you.” He flashed a smile, then said, “Besides, I can help.”

 “
How?”

 “
My magnetic charm and winning personality aren’t enough for you?”

 Shaking her head, she replied, “Fine, get on board. Just remember to do exactly what I tell you, no matter what that is, right?”

 “
Yes, ma’am.”

 The two of them climbed into their couches, tightly strapping themselves in. This was likely to be a rather abrupt landing, if nothing else, and neither of them was anxious to add head injuries to their list of problems. Barbara handled the pre-flight with rather more than usual care, punctuated with a series of alarms and warning sirens as the computer attempted to operate systems that she had sabotaged.

 “
Apparently, I’m launching at my own risk,” she said. “You handle the communications, I’m not going to have time to be distracted. Better call Traffic Control.”

 “
Right,” he said, flicking a switch and pulling a headset on. “This is Ouroboros Shuttle Three, requesting landing clearance for passenger pickup.”

 A bored-sounding voice replied, “You are clear, Shuttle. Make Runway Two, and I’ll send the surface data up to your computer.”

 “
Thank you, Control,” he said, closing the channel with another switch. “You want the data?” he asked Barbara.

 “
Dump it. It’ll be a different micro-climate, and you might as well give me today’s weather forecast
for
Titan. I’m going to have to do this on manual – and don’t distract me again until we’re down on the deck.”

 
“
Sorry.”

 She replied, “No, I am. I just don’t like the idea of intentionally crashing, that’s all.”

 
“
Can’t think why.”

 
“
Me either. Here we go.” She pulled down a lever, and the shuttle began to slide through the elevator airlock, drifting away from the ship. Punching a trio of buttons, she fired the main engines, and the planet began to slowly rise towards them, the shuttle drifting a little to the right as she struggled to compensate.

 “
Report a thruster malfunction,” she said, her eyes fixed on her controls.

 “
Ground Control, this is Shuttle Three, reporting thruster malfunction.”

The voice was suddenly more alert, “We read you. Are you aborting?”

 “
Negative, just keeping you informed in case it gets worse.”

 “
Shuttle, we recommend you abort. I’m looking at your trajectory…”

 “
Not our call, Control. Captain’s in a hurry. Cross your fingers. Shuttle out.”
Flames began to tear around the nose of the shuttle as it bit into the atmosphere, leaping columns of red and orange flames dancing across the viewscreen. The ship shuddered, drifting to the right, and the fire burned white-hot until Barbara could get them back onto an even course. A trail of smoke followed them through the sky as they struggled to make their descent.

 Cooper glanced up at the status board, watching amber lights flick to red one after another. This was all beginning to look worryingly real – and they needed this shuttle in one piece if they were going to use it to rescue the prisoners on the surface. Barbara’s face was bathed in sweat, her eyes darting from one instrument to the next, her fingers racing across the controls as she struggled to bring the shuttle in.

 The wreath of flames was dispersing as they broke through the stratosphere, their wings hitting the denser air as they pierced the clouds, a thin film of oil momentarily blurring the camera pickup. Thousands of square miles of surface rolled beneath him, tattered clouds over mountain tops, and the endless black sea beyond. A pair of thin dots showed him the landing site, and they were already rather far away from it.

 “
Shuttle, Shuttle, do you read!” the transmitted barked urgently.

 “
This is Shuttle Three, we read you.” He glanced across at Barbara, still fixed on her controls, then said, “I am declaring an emergency. Repeat, I am declaring an emergency.”
 
“
Roger. Can you abort to orbit?”

 “
Negative,” he replied. “I don’t think we’d be able to get back up again.”

 “
Landing strip is cleared for you, Shuttle.”

 
“
Thanks for the effort, Control, but I don’t think we’re going to make the starport. Are you tracking us?”

 There was a brief pause, then the controller replied, “We concur. I’m looking at some long-range shots of you now, reentry really hit you hard. Do you think you can land? We’re looking at alternates.”

 “
We’d like to give it a try, Control.”

 “
Wait one, Shuttle.”

 Cooper looked at the course track, watching the shuttle curve down towards its target on the surface. The starport was hopeless, too far away, speed spilling with every second, but their real objective, the abandoned runway, was lining up nicely. So much so that Cooper was briefly worried that someone might guess that this had been intentional, not accidental, but looking at the status board, he was concerned enough about getting down at all that such worries faded away to nothing.

 “
We’ve got an alternate for you, Shuttle. An abandoned runway just a few degrees to your starboard side, and about twelve miles on. I’m sending you the data now.”