The Broken Cage (Solstice 31 Saga Book 2) (7 page)

CHAPTER SEVEN

Rand the Witch

“At that point I had no idea Barcus had survived and was also on the surface, starting a war of his own. Sure, I was angry. But he was biblical in his fury. So alone. But I was trained, silent running. He kept them occupied by killing a few thousand of those assholes. That distraction saved me I think.”

--
Solstice 31 Incident Investigation Testimony Transcript: Master Chief Nancy Randall, senior surviving security member of the Ventura's crew.

<<<>>>

Rand watched in her HUD as the figure in gray moved silently along the trail near the hidden shelter. When he rounded a large boulder, he saw a body, sprawled beside the path, facedown, arms stretched above its head, as if dragged there. The legs were straight and partially covered in leaves.

The man drew his knife and waited.

A few minutes went by without a sound, except for the breeze through the rocks and the shrubs. Cautiously, he approached. When he almost reached the body in the ditch, he sheathed his knife and took out a water skin as he turned over the body.

All he remembered, later, was pain and darkness.

***

Slowly, the man became conscious.

He tried to pretend he was still out but somehow failed. He became aware that he was blindfolded, naked and bound, tightly, professionally. He felt that he was indoors. There was a fire, not far away, to his right. He was on his back, tied to a wood surface with rough planks. Before he could assess further, a voice whispered to him in perfect High Speech.

“Who are you?” It was a deep, frightening voice.

The calm whisper, and those words, struck fear into him more than the bindings.

“Who are you?” was repeated. Followed by a crackling sound, and then an excruciating pain two inches below his navel. Was he just burned? Stabbed? He could smell urine from his loss of control.

“Do you understand me?” whispered the voice.

The crackling sound came again. He had answered before the pain came.

“Yes, Keeper. I understand.”

Rand raised an eyebrow.
Keeper?

“Who are you?” The crackling started immediately this time.

“They call me Coff. I'm a tracker.”

He was visibly trying to calm himself through force of will. He was also, subtly, testing his bonds.

Very good, Coff.

“Why are you here?” Even more menace dripped from the whisper.

He paused too long. This time the pain was in his left foot. It was worse than the worst cramp he ever had. It was as if his leg was being crushed, or eaten while he still lived. It took him a few moments to realize he was screaming.

“I will ask. You will answer. Promptly.”

“Why are you here?” There was no hesitation this time.

“I was tracking something. Something big.”

“Tell me. All of it.”

Rand didn't know what to ask, specifically. She needed more info without giving anything away. It came out in a flood.

“I was moving south from where I spend the summers above the gorge in the north. I always come south in the winter. I cannot tolerate so much snow. I had gotten as far as Corrina Valley. I always take that route south. Fewer people.” His speech was degrading, shifting to something else. An accent or a dialect of English.

“Slow down. Speak.” There was more crackling.

“Forgive me, Keeper. I don't often speak High Tongue.”

“Why are you here?” There was more crackling.

“I was moving south in heavy rain. I decided to move through the night. I knew a warm, dry place that I could reach around dawn, where I could dry out and rest in comfort. Before I got there, I saw it.”

“What did you see?” The whisper her riot helmet made was specially designed to intimidate, to cause fear in crowd control situations.

“You won't believe me. Please don't hurt me again.”

“Tell me or I will hurt you even worse.”

“It was a giant...thing.”

“Tell me.”

“I was at the edge of the woods when it ran by. It was fast, faster than a horse. And huge.”

“Slow down.” He was slipping again.

“It was like a giant spider. It had six legs and a hairy body, bigger than the biggest bull I have ever seen. Black legs. It had stopped raining by then, so I just sat there until I saw it leave the other end of the valley. Before I moved, I saw four of the High Trackers follow it on horseback. Moving fast. Its trail was easy to follow.”

“Why did you follow them?”

He paused too long and the pain came to his armpit this time. Coff didn't know how long he had been unconscious, this time.

“Coff, why did you follow?”

“The High Keeper's trackers are cruel, hard men, but they often use runners or trackers and pay very well. So, I followed. I found them on the plain. The monster had killed them and eaten their heads. Their horses were gone. Are you following it as well?”

“Why did you come up here?”

“There is a tracker’s shelter. I had been here before.”

“Tell me what you know about the High Keeper.”

Crackling.

“The High Keeper is the Lord of All. The High Keeper protects us and keeps us. He is the Keeper of magic and knowledge and the sky. He can give life or rain death.” He seemed like he was reciting a well-practiced answer. Suddenly, he slipped into speech she could not understand.

Rand shocked his nipple.

“Slow High Speech.”

“I left the Canton of Pine Frost when the death began to rain from the sky. So, I ran. There was nothing to keep me there.”

“What do you mean?”

“When stars began to fall, I thought the Keeper was angry with the Northern Reaches. There were already rumors among the trackers of the Keeper's men burning villages. I was there to get away from people, from cities. All I wanted was quiet. Peace. Did you kill that woman by the path?”

“The High Keeper?”

“He lives in the great Citadel. In the clouds.” He was reciting again. “The great mountain fortress of the Keepers.”

“Where is this Citadel?”

He was taken aback.

“It's 2,000 miles to the west. In the gray mountains.”

“What kind of magic does he have?”

A small jolt to the sternum got him talking again.

“He can make his ships fly. He can appear and talk to other Keepers all over the world. He can read the magic symbols and see. He can remember all the things the Keepers before him knew. He can capture your soul and hold it for all time. And, he is immortal, but appears like a young man. That's what they say, anyway.” He started to chatter again in that almost English.

A crackling glove held above his chest hair made him fall silent.

“Why do you think I am a Keeper?”

He paused. Unable to answer. The crackling brought him back.

“You can speak High Tongue.”

“So can you. Why is that?”

“We are all taught it. To be addressed by a Keeper and not be able to reply is not worth the risk.”

“What else?”

“You have magic.”

Rand thought about this a moment and replied to herself more than Coff. “More than you will ever know.”

“Where can I find these Keepers?”

“Every decent size town has a Keeper. Many villages do, too. Please don't kill me.”

“Listen closely, Coff,” Rand whispered, directly in his ear.

“You will never mention me. You will forget the Great Spider. If you say anything to anyone, ever, I will know. If you follow me, I will know. It was only a nightmare. Leave it to me.” She drifted from a whisper. “And, I would stay away from these Keepers...”

She tore off his blindfold. She was backlit by the fire, it hid all her features. She had the hood up on her cloak, her face hidden by the black glass mirror surface of the helmet.

“You're a woman? You're a witch?” Now he sounded genuinely afraid.

He watched, in horror, as the sparks grew to graphic height from her palms to her fingertips. Hands spread wide like a priest in prayer. Then, it was pain and oblivion.

When he awoke, he was alone and unbound.

***

Rand was several kilometers west when she saw Coff wake up. She took a chance and left the Fly in the shelter with him as they moved due west. Her new map indicated a mountain range that held promise for losing their trail.

She shook her head, she thought they tracked her with the RF from the Fly, or the EM. Nothing that fancy.

Damned footprints.

She will have to start thinking old-school.

When Coff awoke, with a start, he was apparently surprised to find himself untied and alive. He lost hours to the riot gloves. Rand had also been shocked unconscious with them, in the past; everyone that officially used them was required to know the feeling. They were standard in Security Services Personnel kits. She had never thought she would ever need them in this detail.

She watched, as he drew his knife from his pile of clothes and gear, and searched what little there was of the shelter, before he put on a single piece of clothing. He was very fit but short. Only about one and a half meters tall. Rand stood two meters and change. As she watched, she realized the door was apparently made for him and not her.

“You should have killed him,” AI~Poole said.

“I was planning to. But when I was laying on the side of the path just before he got to me, he put his knife away. That is what saved him.”

He looked out the windows, and listened for a full minute, before he got dressed. Rand had thrown another log on the fire before she left. The shelter was warm.

“How did you know he wouldn't kill you outright?”

“Did you see my position? My face down. My arms stretched up. My hands empty. Not prepared to attack. I have seen it in training over and over. That makes them feel secure, if they think they are badasses. The first thing they do is either check your pulse or turn you over. Either way. Surprise!”

He sat in a chair, watching the fire.

After a bit, he got up and went to the fireplace. Coff felt around the left end of the mantel until he found some sort of latch and pulled it. The left end grain of the mantelpiece popped open to reveal a compartment. He reached in a pulled out a leather-bound journal and a few pencils.

He sat in front of the fire, for the best light, and opened the journal to the most recent entry:

Summer Solstice 265. Moving north to the gorge and then going east to the coast. The wolves are worse east of the Saddles. The game is still good. Need to make some more bolts soon. Trapping is rich. Keepers have work in Nokes, Elkton, Canton and Monroe. Above the gorge has been marked. Been dry. Not draught. Jag

Coff took a pencil and wrote:

October. Been raining. Dried up, finally. Headed to Exeter for the winter from the north coast. I hate the snow. Nothing of note. Coff

He finished and returned the log to the mantel.

“Poole show me the current tactical map.” It came up with many new annotations. “Where is the next, nearest shelter in the direction we are going? I wonder if there is a tracker log in all of them.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

Darkness Falls

“Regardless of what happens here, I need to be clear that I was in command. I am entirely responsible for the actions of all my people. That includes the activities of the civilians. They all did everything by my orders.”

--Solstice 31 Incident Investigation Testimony Transcript: Captain James Worthington, senior surviving member of the Ventura's command crew.

<<<>>>

“Jimbo, this is Ludmilla Kuss. She is one of the technicians with Bowen's survey team. She has an interesting idea to solve two of our problems,” Ibenez said, as they talked to Jim on the bridge of the
Memphis
.

Jim shook her hand. She was a pale woman with striking features and hair buzzed close, blonde with tinges of red. She was tall.

“Friends call me Kuss, please. Pronounced like goose,” she said to Jimbo. “Especially if I am to call you Jimbo.”

It was the first time Jim had heard her speak. Her accent surprised him. “Where are you from, Kuss?”

“Poland, originally. Is beautiful place, no?”

Kuss was shy, yet tried to make awkward conversation. Jim didn't want to torture her.

“What is your idea, Kuss?”

Kuss looked toward the base as she spoke. “We only have three viable pressure suits and sixteen of us. Of course, they are size small and tiny.” She looked at Hume. “Even I cannot get in. You, never.” She pointed at Jimbo as she continued, “The Hard Shell Maintenance Suit, HSMS, was docked in the bay and now damaged and won't seal.” These were huge, three meter tall, suits that were covered with tool for specialty ship work in the vacuum of space. “So half of us cannot ferry over even if we carry two suits back and forth.”

“If we can depressure hangar bay and manually open doors. Pilot fly
Memphis
in hangar. We close door and repressure.” She raised her eyebrows, excited now.

“It will fit through the hangar doors, barely. Tell him the rest, Kuss.”

“We get ship in. Hide better from assholes that killed
Ventura
. Jimbo can finally wander about base. Plus, when we get reactor number one up, we completely power base. Even in long dark time. We maybe even fix ship and get the hell out,” she said, as her accent began to slip.

“What do you think, Cook? Can you fly it in there?” Jimbo asked him.

From where Jim stood, he saw Cook already comparing the ship’s specs with the scans of the hangar.

“No. I won't be able to fly it in. The grav-foils are far too damaged for that fine of control.”

Looking up at Kuss, he said, “But I think we could rig a winch and tow it in.”

“Yes,” Kuss replied.

Cook added, “Jimbo, if we could get it into the hangar, repairs would be so much easier. We'd have access to the areas in vacuum and even access to the fabricators. If they aren't trashed.”

“Kuss, this was your idea. I want to see a full, detailed plan as soon as you can get it to me,” Jimbo said.

Kuss beamed. “Yes, sir.”

***

Two days later, they were ready.

They had run tests to depressurize and repressurize the hangar bay.

The doors unlocked, but would not slide to the side with the power available. They were also in a race with the coming shadow. Get this done now, or wait two weeks.

Weston came up with the solution.

“We use the Hard Shell Maintenance Suit (HSMS),” he said.

“No can do. The suit won't seal, and with main computing AI down, we can't run it on remote,” Ibenez reminded him.

“Make her do it.” Weston pointed at Hume. “If Jimbo can fit in there, she'd fit in the unit, even if she were wearing a pressure suit in there. The way the gel forms around you, after you get in, might not be perfect, but you could certainly push something.”

“Hume, what do you think?” Jimbo asked.

“What the hell? Why not?” she replied, and followed Weston out.

***

The hardest part was finding a way out of the dock while wearing the suit. She ended up climbing out the largest breach and just dropping to the ground, head first. In the lower gravity, it only hurt a little.

Thirty minutes later, she had the bay door slid to the side. She even stayed in the suit to help guide the pinnace in.

A cable was fixed on the nose landing gear. The fixed grav-plates allowed it to float ten centimeters above the surface as the cable winch slowly pulled it in. With only a meter of clearance, Hume helped it track in straight, only losing a bit of paint on the left wing.

They had a thrill when the door jammed at one point, because one of the skids dropped rubbish into the track. Weston, in another pressure suit, cleared the track and the hangar door finally closed and locked.

The effort took twice as long as estimated by the time the hangar pressurized. They beat the full dark by six hours.

***

Being inside the base didn't really do much good because it was so cold. People only left the ship when they had to.

Jimbo discovered that now that they had an atmosphere, the maintenance suit could be used to greater effect. They removed the destroyed Shuttle Transport Unit (STU) from the flight deck. Ibenez and Kuss worked on removing the main cpu from the shuttle for possible use in the
Memphis
.

They also discovered that both Hammerheads were fully functional. These were small, Courier-class shuttles that were specifically designed for atmospheric transport. Their engines were three simple hyper-turbines that only required water for fuel. Two engines in the front and one in the back. They were two-seaters, one chair behind the other. They had the latest grav-foils and excellent comms gear, with massive local storage for the secure transport of data when transmission was impractical or insecure.

Jimbo walked into the dock and noticed, immediately, that Kuss had on her idea face.

“You wanted to see me?” Jimbo noticed the grav-plate in the dock didn't work. It was .18G in there. His nose already itched.

Hume, Kuss, Weston, Tyrrell and, oddly, Sarah Wood stood around the Hammerheads.

“Kuss has another idea, sir,” Hume began.

“Hammerheads no have pressurized cockpit. And, turbines don't do shit in a vacuum. Grav-foils are different.” She reached inside the first Hammerhead and flipped a switch on the console. A series of antennas deployed.

“We load both Hammerheads up with portable sensor gear. Greg has very nice toys. Maybe solar array and batteries. Even have small optical observatory.” Kuss indicated how much room the second seat and storage compartment had.

“Two go. Set up sensors. Configure Hammerhead as relay. Two come back in the other Hammerhead. We spy on bastards,” Kuss finished.

Worthington looked from the Hammerhead to Kuss to Hume and then to Sarah Wood.

Sarah answered his silent question. “I can fit in the pressure suit and I know how to fly a Hammerhead on just foils. I had one back home.”

Decisively, Jimbo said, “Do it.” And, then he walked away.

“You forgot to mention we can get the Hammerheads out the small airlock,” Kuss said.

Tyrrell added, “You're all talking past the sale. Kuss, this was your damn idea. Get to work. Sarah and I will need to be thoroughly briefed on setting up all the gear.”

Three days later, everything was ready. The Hammerheads were loaded and moved to the airlock when reactor number one came online.

Weston had already sorted out how to interface the reactor with the base. The hangar was already equipped with heavy-duty power cables, normally used to power ships while in the hangar for service. These were repurposed in no time.

Hume and Wood suited up and headed out.

***

As the base fell away into the distance, they drove into the quiet, accelerating at a steady rate, floating about 100 meters above the surface.

“How long have you known Jimbo, Hume?” Wood asked her over HUD comms, as they sped along.

“I was reassigned to the
Ventura
just over four months ago. I came in with the new staff rotation. Jimbo had been on the command staff for over five years. The third shift command crew.”

Wood could hear the sadness in her voice. Hume was always such a badass all the time. Her heart went out to Hume.

“I expected to be rotated out on the ship you arrived in. It didn't happen. No idea why. Just my luck.”

“Jimbo should have rotated out as well. You know he's married and has two adopted girls back on Earth?” Hume said.

“I have been on the
Ventura
for seven years. Today was the first day we met. Command crews and med techs on the lower decks don't mix, I guess,” Wood said with regret in her voice.

“Jimbo's not like that. He used to take me to Peck’s Halfway on the
Ventura
. Ever go there?”

She heard the smile in Hume's voice.

“I have been there, but I’m not much of a drinker. Plus, I just can't eat that kind of food. It's so loud sometimes,” Sarah said.

“Jimbo always left his stripes in his cabin when he went there. It was full of heavies and security folks like me. His friends had all served on the
Ventura
for years.”

“Heavies?” Wood asked, as they broke into the sunlight.

“Heavies are the people that lived in the outer rings where it was over 2G all the time. Live there for a few months, and you end up looking like a Greek goddess.”

“Planet is becoming visible, dead ahead,” Wood reported back to the
Memphis
.

“We will stop in a few more clicks when the planet is fully visible,” Hume added.

Fresh craters were now frequent. They found a flat rock outcropping at the top of a hill that allowed the relay strength to increase.

It took them two hours to set up the sensors and the optical observatory.

They waited while the systems from the
Memphis
were all tested.

“Do you think we'll survive? Or ever get out of here?” Wood asked, looking at the planet.

“Yes. Yes, we will,” Hume said, as a matter-of-fact.

“We can't die here. I just received my first longevity treatment.” Wood laughed.