Stars of Charon (Legacy of the Thar'esh Book 1) (24 page)

“Right,”
I said.

The
access panel was on the far side of the tube, I could reach it with my hands,
but barely. I pulled myself up and kicked outward at the panel. It gave on my
third kick, calling inward with a clatter. Light flooded the access tube.

I spun
around, at least nobody was waiting on the other side with a gun.

“Go,”
Loid said. “Hurry.”

I reached
out as far as I could while still holding the ladder, and just caught the edge
of the access hatch. I let go of the ladder and managed to pull myself up and
through into what I hoped was the right level. I quickly turned around to catch
Ju-lin’s hand and help pull her up, a few seconds later, Ju-lin and I pulled
Loid out as well. I could hear the guards climbing down the stairs somewhere
above.

I looked
around, the hallway we were in was similar to the one we had left, and was
luckily vacant.

“Alright,
time to waste these bastards,” Loid drew one of his guns and moved toward the
panel.

“What are
you doing?” Ju-lin caught him and pulled him back. “You can’t just go blasting
them.”

“In case
you didn’t notice,” Loid replied. “They didn’t hesitate to open up at me, so
yes, I can.”

“You said
we had three minutes, how much time do we have left?” Ju-lin snapped back.

He looked
back down at his screen on his sleeve.

“Not
enough,” he answered. “Fine, throw that access panel back up there, yeah like
that.”

He
flipped the setting on his laser pistol and fired an extended beam across the
top, melting the metal and fusing the panel back in place.

“Happy
now?” he said over his shoulder to Ju-lin as he turned.

“Happier,”
she answered. “Where to?”

“We’re
one level off I think, down the hall there should be a way to get to the
docking bays.”

We took
off in the direction he’d pointed, halfway down the lights came back on.

“They are
restoring primary power,” he said. “We’re really running out of time, come on.”

We turned
the corner and ran down a flight of stairs. At the bottom of the stairs, the
passage opened up into a large room, crates and equipment were scattered all
over. Dozens of figures were hustling about, some Celestrial, but I also
spotted several shorter figures that I took to be Olsterian, and a few hooded
Noonan. On the left wall there were large docking collars, most of them were
extended. Workers with small hand-carts and hovers were hurriedly loading goods
onto their ships.

“Act
calm, try to be casual,” Loid said as he slowed to a fast walk, trying to catch
his breath. “The Collegiate doesn’t own this station, they just have a lease on
the upper levels. We’re on a border system, it functions as a major trading
hub. Most traders don’t want trouble, they’ll be trying to get out of here with
their cargo now that the station has signaled that there are no Draugari ships
in the area. Commotion is bad for business.”

I wiped
the sweat off my forehead and took a few deep breaths. I glanced back over my
shoulder, nobody was following us, yet.

Ju-lin
holstered her gun and caught up beside me. She tousled her hair.

A pair of
pilots in faded red flight suits walked passed us, Ju-lin flashed a smile. They
smiled back and kept walking.

 “You
said we were at bay eighteen?” I asked as we passed docking bay seven.

“That’s
right,” Loid answered as we kept walking.

Looking
ahead I saw that docking bays one through ten were for large haulers, the
extendable docking collars were wide enough to drive a hover through. Between
the bays were large windows where I could see the hulking shadows of cargo
vessels that were attached to the magnetic clamps on the exterior of the
station. The clamps then would hold them in place as the docking collar was
extended and a hard-seal created so that they could load and offload their
goods.

Beyond
that there were a dozen much smaller loading docks, small enough, I was
certain, for
Tons-o-Fun
.

“Wait,”
Ju-lin stopped. “Won’t they know to look for
Tons-o-Fun
? It won’t take
long for the Collegiate to check the docking logs and figure out you were here.
Hell, they probably have already cross referenced the docking manifests and are
there waiting for us.”

“Keep
moving,” Loid answered. “What do you take more for, an amateur?”

“Let’s
see, so far since we left the colony we’ve been ambushed, followed, framed for
murder, betrayed, captured, and shot at,” Ju-lin replied hotly. “So yes,
amateur does come to mind!”

“Look
Twiggy,” Loid grabbed her arm and kept walking. “It’s not
my
fault that
you two are walking and talking trouble magnets with more secrets that the
Third Division. You’ve lied to me, kept things from me, and got one of my
oldest friends to betray me. If the Collegiate had any idea that I followed you
guys out here they would mark me for death, and I wouldn’t be able to come near
Celestrial space again. So give it a rest for a bit, neh?”

Ju-lin
started to say something, but was cut short by shouting somewhere behind us.
The three of us turned around to see the group of Collegiate guards running
toward us.

Loid
tapped the screen on his sleeve and spoke into it. “Have her ready, we’re going
to have to burn out of here hot. You’ll probably need to blow the mag-clamps.”

“Roger
that,” a voice crackled on the other side.

“Who was that?” Ju-lin asked.
“Dammit
move
,” Loid growled as he drew his pistols and turned to run.

This time
Ju-lin didn’t take more coaxing. All three of us took off at a run towards bay
eighteen.

The sight
of us running and the clatter of the guards behind us caught the attention of
everyone on the docking level. Within seconds all of the technicians and pilots
had cleared out of the middle, opening up the path. It made it easier to run,
but it also gave our pursuers a clear line of fire.

I felt the heat as the first three shots sizzled just over my
head. I looked over, we were at docking collar twelve. We still had six to go.

“We’re not going to make it,” I gasped.

“Keep going,” Loid said as he turned his head
sharply to look at a group of six large
steel vats that were about to be loaded through docking bay collar thirteen. “I
have an idea.”

Ju-lin
and I kept running, side by side, keeping our heads low to avoid the occasional
bursts of laser fire from behind.

“Alright,
then,” I heard Loid stop behind me just as we passed the steel vats.

I turned
and watched as he leveled his laser pistols at one of the containers and began
firing a low-level continuous beam. The metal became superheated and began to
buckle.

A short
woman with long braids and a purple and white uniform ran down the docking
collar, screaming and waving her hands wildly at Loid. It was too late, a great
glug of sticky sludge came spewing out of the vat, covering the floor. With it
came the unmistakable smell, Jantar Nectar. Loid dodged to the side to avoid
another stream of fire from the Celestrials, and began firing at the second
vat. Within seconds, it too gave, sending a wave of nectar covering the floor
of the docking bay. There would be no way for the guards to follow us.

A dozen
other crewmen wearing purple and white uniforms rushed out with scrapers,
trying to contain the spill. Our pursuers were stuck behind them without a
clear shot.

Loid
turned and started running toward us.

“Not
bad,” Ju-lin commented breathlessly to me. “Come on, we’re at sixteen, almost
there.”

I looked
ahead and saw the docking collar eighteen ahead to our right, the door was open
and unguarded. The Celestrials who were chasing us screamed angrily behind as
we passed out of range.

“I think
we’re clear,” Loid said. “Keep moving!”

I heard
another series of shots from behind us, though it wasn’t the soft hum and
sizzle of a laser bolt. It was a rapid ticking that sounded like a piece of
plastic flapping in a windstorm. It fired again, and I heard an unmistakable
scream of pain.

I spun
around to see Loid falling to his knees and spinning sideways, there was a line
of small blots of blood beginning to spread across his chest and back. I looked
around frantically, the guards that had been chasing us were far behind, stuck
on the other side of the expanding pool of Jantar Nectar, well out of range.

Then I
saw them, two figures stepping out from docking bay fifteen. A Celestrial and a
bearded man. My memory flashed back to the Hub and the human and Celestrial who
had been smoking in the dark. They were the same faces I had seen following us
when we were traveling the streets of Shindar II.

The
bearded man saw me and shouted, the Celestrial turned and raised a large rifle
up to his shoulder.

“Run you
idiots!” Loid called as he collapsed onto the floor. His face was red and
contorted in pain.

Ju-lin
grabbed my arm and pulled, “Eli, there’s nothing we can do! Come on!”

I turned
with her and ran. Her hand slipped from my arm down to my hand, and I held it
tight as we ran past docking collar seventeen.

The gun
fired again, I heard them whistle passed wide and track in toward me as we
turned to enter the docking collar. As I followed Ju-lin into the passageway, I
felt a series of sharp stings on my shoulder followed by intense burning.

As we passed
into the next docking collar, Ju-lin spun and worked the controls, the door
slid shut and locked.

“Get in
here!” I heard a booming voice call from the far end of the docking collar.

“Come
on,” Ju-lin nodded as she hurried down the long, accordion-style concourse. I
followed, behind her, though after a few steps I stumbled, my head spinning.

I reached
up to feel my shoulder, it was burning hot, I pulled back my hand and it was
wet with blood.

“You’re
hurt,” she ran back and helped me along.

“It’s not
bad, I said. “Well, it’s not much at least, it burns.”

She
looked back at my shoulder, her eyes narrowed, “micro-rail gun.”

“Not that
acid stuff you told me about in the hub?” I felt my stomach go cold with the
thought of acid slowly burning through my flesh and into my bones.

“That?”
Ju-lin answered. “Oh, probably not, your skin would be melting by now if it was
acidic. No, probably just an irritant, something to either put you asleep or
cause enough pain to debilitate you.”

“That’s
not very comforting,” I said as I fought to keep my focus.

There
were voices and a loud banging on the sealed door behind us.

“Hurry up
Loid!” the voice called again, this time I recognized it.

“Cwaylyn?”
I called.

“Yeah,
it’s me, get your asses onboard and strap in!”

“Who?”
Ju-lin asked.

“Loid’s
friend from the Par’eth, some kind of professional racer or something.”

“Cwaylyn
Jones
?”
She asked, her eyes widened. “
The
Cwaylyn Jones? You said you met a
friend of Loid’s at the bar, you didn’t say it was
Cwaylyn Jones
!”

“Yeah,
maybe,” I answered, I felt a twinge of jealousy at the light excitement in her
eyes.

At last
we reached the end of the concourse and turned to the left where the collar had
a hard-seal on Cwaylyn’s ship. There were open viewports on either side of the
airlock, the ship was definitely not
Tons-o-Fun
. It was long and sleek,
painted dark blue with a luminous line painted along the wings that matched the
stripe that had been on Cwaylyn’s jacket at the Par’eth. The ship’s back wings
were folded up into an “A” shape near the back, on the rear tail a jagged
lightning bolt was stenciled.

“What the
hell is that?” Ju-lin said in a low appraising tone as she scanned the ship
from bow to stern.

“It’s a
prototype some friends of mine are developing, hoping to start their own company
actually.  I’m their test pilot. Where’s Loid?” Cwaylyn’s large head popped out
through the hatch. “Oh and you must be Ju-lin, Loid had said there was a girl,
not a beautiful woman.”

“Loid got
hit,” I answered, choosing to ignore his second comment.

“Micro-rail
gun,” Ju-lin blushed slightly as she followed Cwaylyn through the hatch. “They
got Eli’s shoulder too. They weren’t shooting to kill. Loid’s probably still
alive.”

“Damn,”
Cwaylyn said as he leaned over and gave a quick look at my shoulder as he
sealed the hatch. “Let’s hope they want him that way, because there’s nothing
more we can do for him now.”

I
crouched as I moved forward through the cramped cockpit, Cwaylyn was sliding
into the pilot’s chair, which was protected by a low glass canopy and an array
of knobs, switches, and displays. There were three small passenger seats behind
the pilot’s chair. The Carrack and
Tons-o-Fun
had been larger cargo
ships, intended to support small crews. Cwaylyn’s prototype was much smaller,
from what I could tell, it was even smaller than the Drakes that had been with
Alonso’s Starchaser. Sweat dripped down my forehead and my left arm was
starting to tingle.