The Bright Black Sea (78 page)

I took several deep breaths as I retreated to make my
run and focusing on the certain death behind me I took off. I came
to the edge in mid-stride – indecision on how to manage the leap,
and made a hash if it, hitting the wagon, half on, half off the
side, winding me, but managing to hold on to the rim on the top
edge of the wagon. Cin, thank Neb, grabbed my jacket and held on
while I found a hand hold and tried to grab some air to replace
what the impact had knocked out of me.

'You must want to kill me very badly,' I gasped as I
crawled beside her on the top of the bulk carrier.

She smiled, 'Oh, I do. Now let's go. Over the far
side and keep up with me, or I'll...' she added with a glance at
her darter. She swung around and scuttled over to the end of the
wagon where rungs lead down to a small platform between the
wagons.

I heaved myself up and after her, still drawing in
lungfuls of air. I landed at her side and looked to the sky to find
the suns and our direction, but she was already off running. It
looked to be the right direction, so I followed.

So far, so good, but the shaft of bright, and foolish
optimism that shot through me as I started running for Port Sanjoor
made me uneasy – it was probably unwarranted. Half a dozen long
viaducts link Port Sanjoor to the mainland. They're built over the
shallow bay and channels, low lying islands and reefs. Despar is
one of the major agricultural planets for this section of the
drifts and the viaducts carried the rail wagons with its
agricultural harvest to the various loading bays for lighters
scattered about the port's islands. It took less than a minute to
cross the bay in a flier, but on foot, it had to be perhaps ten
kilometers. I certainly hoped we'd not have to walk the wide rails
the big wagons rolled on... Still, it'd be a two hour journey, at
least. Likely more. It'd be dark, or nearly so by the time we got
to the islands if the viaducts were passable on foot, assuming the
Legion didn't find us and if I didn't collapse from a heart attack.
And I'd have little chance of shaking Cin before reaching the space
port.

But... But the Patrol was about somewhere, and the
Legion under some sort of observation, so that it was possible that
an alarm somewhere had been tripped.

We stuck to the line of grain wagons, running along
the siding littered with debris and rubble. The whining jets of a
flier drove us underneath a wagon twice, but they stayed far off –
searching behind us. We started out as soon as they faded into the
white mists.

I was hot, damp and gasping for breath. I didn't know
how much longer I could keep even the easy trot we had settled
into. And , the line of grain wagons came to an end, and we were in
the open, the mist brightening around us and I could smell the
sea.

Cin was opening her lead over me, easily jogging
along, while I huffed and puffed. She danced a bit to glance back
to check the sky behind us, saw me puffing to keep up and smiled,
waiting for me to catch up. 'Really, Wil, you've been downside here
far longer than I.'

I saved my breath. I needed it for more important
things than banter. I staggered on.

And we were out over the bay running along the edge
of a wide viaduct. Below us, under the viaducts and dim in the fog,
I could see a series of a low islands of sand, rocks, tall grasses,
and shallow pools. Shanties stood scattered about on tall stilts –
brightly painted small boats were drawn up along the water's edge.
Kids played about the beach and boats. The lingering aroma of their
evening meal wafted about us. The further out into the bay we got,
the thinner the fog became, the further we could see. And be
seen.

We began to stir up the sea birds perched on the low
guard rail on either side of the viaduct sending them spiraling up
into the air. They wheeled over head scolding us before settling
again behind us. At times there was just water below us, moving in
a lazy, oily swell. And another small island with shanties, boats
and children.

Gradually, the further out into the bay we got, the
wide viaduct began to split off into separate viaducts leading to
different parts of the space port, still far ahead in the mist.

'Hold up,' I gasped with my last breath when I could
no longer catch one anymore. I staggered over to a large control
box on an extended platform and collapsed beside it, a damp,
heaving sack of aches and pains. I'm not sure she heard my protest,
but must have noted the lack of my foot falls, for she went on for
ten yards before pulling up and turning around. Hands on hips she
glared at me, but she was also breathing hard, a little anyway, and
slowly walked back.

'Come on. Do you want to die?' she demanded looking
down at me.

'Have I...gasp...a choice now?'

She laughed, 'Allow me to rephrase that, do you want
to let the Legion kill you after all this?'

'We can't outrun...fliers...They'll either figure
out...what we've done...or not. Running won't...make much...of a
difference.'

'Once aboard your gig, they can't touch us. The
sooner we get there and slip aboard, the sooner we'll be safe from
them. We're not even half way there yet. Not by a long shot.'

'Five minutes to catch my breath,'

She settled down next to me and glanced at her com
link to check the time.

I glanced at where mine used to be. 'Why not call a
flier?'

She shook her head. 'The Legion likely has the flier
companies in their pocket. They held the power in Despar and still
does, unofficially. That was a legit flier that picked you up. I
suspect the same thing would happen again. We're better off walking
or swimming.'

'How about my ship? I might be able to have a boat in
fifteen minutes.' (If the crew was back from their day on the
beach, that is. Min took the
Ghost
with her, so we were back
down to two boats.)

She smiled and shook her head. 'No, Wil. I'll bring
my poor battered pal, Captain Litang up in a bumboat.'

We sat together comfortably. I glanced at her sitting
beside me and wondered again about that bond between us, which I
couldn't begin to describe. It wasn't some romantic notion. I'd
seen enough of the cold cruelty in her eyes, I'd felt her lashes
and had seen her pleasure in my pain, to know that wasn't going to
happen. I was just her grey shipmouse to toy with for a while. But
I also knew that I could trust her to get us out of this if it was
possible. She was enjoying this – this was what she was best at,
and getting me safely out of the clutches of the Legion and to the
ship where she believed she could reach Min was like her old school
days, a challenge she still savored.

As my breaths came easier I said, 'I wonder where
that goes,' indicating a railed opening in the extended platform
with a nod of my head.

Naylea, inpatient, heaved herself to her feet and
went over to investigate, and climbed down into the opening,
sending up a rush of seabirds, a complaining chorus of sharp calls
up from below.

She stuck her head up, 'Come on, my dear, time to
move. There's a service road below. We'll be much less
exposed.'

I wasn't ready. I doubt she gave me the promised five
minutes. But the prospect of being less exposed, especially as the
mist was rapidly lifting as the evening wore one – I could see the
distant outlines of Port Sanjoor against the low sun – was enough
motivation to haul myself to my feet, and follow her down the
steep, steel staircase.

The service road proved to be a single lane of metal
grid work suspended below the concrete rail bed. At this point, it
was only five meters above the oily, languid waves of the bay and
covered with the acid smelling droppings of the sea birds that
sailed around us, their siesta disturbed by our passage. Cin set
out at a brisk walk that seemed sustainable. There were still small
sandy islands scattered about, but they were just grass covered low
mounds in the wide oily bay. The smell of the sea, and the
sea-things rotting on the little islands of rocks piled around the
supports for the viaduct came in whiffs and puffs, offering little
relief from the constant tropical heat of Sanjoor. Ahead I could
see the viaduct rising over a deep channel passage before falling
again. I hoped that wasn't the midway point, for it was still some
distance ahead.

The seabirds swirled around us, complaining in
squawky cries.

'I'm sorry about all that's happened to you Naylea,'
I said, more a thought out loud than an attempt at conversation.
'By following me.'

She stopped and gave me a questioning look that
quickly turned to anger, and a smarting slap.

'You're a fool if you think you can soften me,
Litang. It angers me that you'd even think to try.' And increased
the pace.

'I wasn't,' I dumbly protested (A mild lie.), as I
tasted blood. 'I was merely thinking out loud. I'm sorry. You're
trying to save my life. I can't help it if I feel a little
grateful... You know how Unity Standard I am.'

'You'll feel a whole lot less grateful soon
enough...' but without a great deal of venom.

'Whatever's written, Naylea. And whatever's written
in the future doesn't hurt me now.'

She just hurried on, and I stepped up my pace to keep
up. We walked in silence after that, Cin likely calculating her
next moves while I should have been, but wasn't. Too many unknowns.
Too Unity Standard to expect the worst. And well, we did have a
long bridge to cross before anything would need be done. I spent my
time listening for the whine of flier engines and trying to figure
out just how I got here.

In the end, we didn't hear them until one was nearly
on us.

We'd been walking and jogging for the better part of
an hour and were crossing over the high ship channel, some thirty
meters over the bay below. The sky was deepening into night as the
major sun slipped into the sea beyond the godowns and rocket ship
spires of Port Sanjoor. It didn't exactly get chilly, but the sea
air cooled down to tepid. We had to be more than half way across
and I tried to keep my optimism in check while beginning to think
of what I needed to do to escape from her. I felt a low, rumbling
vibration in the viaduct and turned to see an engine and line of
wagons slowly approaching, with a cloud of seabirds in its wake. As
the train neared, the rumble turned into a squealing, grinding
roar, sending the white seabirds settled on the viaduct into the
pale blue air – their chorus of squawking complaints drowned by the
thunder of the wagons rolling over our heads.

It was this rumble and clatter of the train overhead
that masked the jets of the approaching flier.

It was almost beside us – indeed, I believe it was
heat from its hover jets that made me turn to discover it, a mere
twenty meters away, flying nearly alongside the viaduct, obviously
searching. We were fortunate to have just passed the first set of
pilings after the ship channel, or they'd have likely shot us
before we even knew they were on us.

Once they did spy us in the deepening gloom under the
tracks, the passenger side door swung open and the passenger opened
fire as the flier came abreast of us through the swirling flight of
startled birds.

'Naylea!' I yelled, as the blue lightning of plasma
darts erupted from the railing beside us and the bridgework just
above and beyond us.

She didn't need my warning. She had the darter out of
her pocket, and was standing stock still, her arms straight out
taking careful aim. Before the Legionnaire could deliver a second
volley, she's sent two darts into him. His body jerked in a haze of
blue, and slumped half out of the flier only his safety harness
keeping him from falling into the bay. This allowed her a clear,
but tight, shot at the pilot and she deliver two darts to the
flier's pilot's shoulder and head, once more filling the cabin with
blue flames as the flier drifted past us.

'To the next pilings,' she snapped and raced ahead,
searching the sky for more fliers.

I was right behind her.

The now un-piloted flier drifted ahead, striking the
viaduct with a glancing blow that tipped it into the sea setting
off an explosion of steam as its hot hover jets hit the water. We
made the next set of pilings and watched as the water poured into
the cabin shortening the controls in a flash of flame. The air was
filled with screaming birds and the hiss of the dying jets.

'More of them,' said she, pointing to the now distant
viaducts across the water to our right with the lights and small
dark shapes of fliers drifting along them. The pilot must have
sounded an alert, because a second flier came roaring over head and
hovered over the downed one just ahead of us. We clung to the
shadows of the rusting, brine coated pillars and waited, Cin with
her darter in hand following the movements of the flier.

Seeing no sign of life from the downed flier, the
second darted up and off. A glance across the water showed the
lights of perhaps half a dozen fliers rising from the more distant
viaducts.

'Let's go,' she said, and took off. 'We may have to
fight our way through, but the closer we're to the islands, the
better our odds. If you're really lucky, Litang, the darter
lightning might even attract the Port's Patrol units.'

We'd have to cover several more kilometers for that
to happened, but I took off anyway, hoping to earn my luck. It was
getting quite dark below the tracks, and in our black spaceer
uniforms, we could run with a fair amount of confidence of not
being seen. Twilight was our ally, at the moment.

'Keep a sharp lookout on your side. They know we're
here now. They'll come in hot and fast, the next time.'

We raced past the slowly setting flier, without a
glance, and past half a dozen more pilings before I reached out and
touched her arm. She looked and I pointed ahead, panting, unable to
speak. The viaduct was still curving my way and less than a
kilometer ahead, I could see the lights of four or five fliers
converging on the now empty viaduct tracks as the long train passed
into the shadows of the space port islands. She glanced back and
pointed. The lights of several more bobbed behind us, likely where
the first one was downed.