The Caverns of Mare Cetus (62 page)

   "I have no idea why you're doing this!" shouted Trent. "But you're never going to shake The Horn!"

   Trent was right. Renata had endangered all of their lives by her reckless actions, but the fear of losing Devon was too much for her to bear. She cleared the mountains and took the Jumper into a steep dive, then headed for the coastline along a vast open plain, traveling just a hundred meters above the ground, the MAC still above them and gaining.

   Suddenly something struck the ground a distance in front of the Canopus, blowing a shower of rocks and debris skyward. Then it happened again.

   "Those are warning shots!" shouted Trent. "The next ones won't be."

   Hunter leaned forward and placed a hand on Renata's shoulder. "You tried your best. We can't win this one. Set us down."

   "My patience has run out," said Gray, her face punching through the Jumper's forward com screens. "Stone! Set your ship down! Now!"

   "Listen to them," said Devon. "You tried, and I understand why, but please, for everyone's sake, please take us down."

   Renata sighed in frustration, then powered down the engines and hit the reverse thrusters, slowing the ship's speed dramatically. She began to descend. After several moments, she had the Jumper down on the surface of an open plain that had a number of massive black limestone outcrops popping up from its grayish-brown covering of soil.

   At once the MAC set down on its struts with a terrific force just a few hundred meters in front of them, vibrations rippling through the Jumper.

   Gray immediately ordered Devon to exit the Jumper and to stand beside it, and warned the others to stay inside.

   Tears in her eyes, Renata stood up; Devon stood up too.

   Richelle scrambled up to the front of the shuttle and began looking out the cockpit windshield. "They're already coming out of the ship. Soldiers. Lots of them. Armed. There are five in front, heading right toward us."

   Ramon limped up to Devon. "Ari just came to. You won't believe this, but the first words out of her mouth were—protect that girl. I'm a man of my word. I will stand by you—bad leg or not. Yo prometo."

   "I know you'd do that, but I don't think any of you can help me now. And I wouldn't ask you to." Devon gave him a hug, then began hugging the others as they came up to her and gave her words of encouragement. When she hugged Renata, she tried to calm her down—Renata was terribly upset. "Hey, you know the military. Always overreacting. Maybe they just want to chat over some tea. When you hear someone knocking on the door in an hour, it'll be me, so let me in, okay?"

   "You know I will," choked Renata, tears streaming down her cheeks.

   Suddenly there was shouting outside the Jumper. A soldier was calling for Devon to immediately exit.

   "It's time," said Devon as she broke free from Renata's hug. She stood in front of the door.

   Renata reluctantly pressed the button, and the door slid open.

   Devon went through the doorway and down the steps, the others standing in somber silence, not one of them looking out the open door. They heard some brief shouting from the soldiers, then everything became eerily quiet.

   "Screw this," said Renata, glancing at Hunter. "I'm not leaving her like this. If they arrest her, they're going to have to arrest me too."

   "I'm with you," said Edison, the others joining in.

   She and Edison scrambled to the doorway.

   "What the hell?" exclaimed Edison.

   Devon was at the bottom of the steps. Four soldiers were nearby— on the ground—appearing lifeless, their weapons beside them. There was another soldier standing directly in front of Devon. Renata could see it was a woman, her face appearing frightened and confused as she anxiously glanced at the bodies of her downed comrades while holding her aim on Devon with a short-barreled projectile-pulse rifle.

   Devon stepped up to her and took the rifle from her hands without resistance. The soldier took off her headgear, uncovering her short blond hair. Devon turned toward Edison who was now at the bottom of the steps. She tossed him the dark gray rifle using both her hands, Edison nearly dropping it in his astonishment of what was going on. After Devon whispered something to the soldier, the soldier came toward Edison. She started up the steps and stopped in front of Renata who had started down.

   "I can help you with your friend," said the freckle-faced soldier. "I'm a field medic." She continued up past Richelle who was now slowly stepping down behind Renata. She spoke briefly to Ramon who was crowding the doorway with Trent and Hunter. Ramon moved aside, letting her enter the Jumper, then followed her in.

   Devon began walking toward the cruiser. After Renata watched Devon for a moment, she hurried down the steps, hitting the bottom step and stumbling, then ran after Devon, nervously glancing at the fallen soldiers a number of times. Richelle was also on the ground, hurrying after Renata.

   "What happened to them?" asked Renata when she had caught up to Devon. "Are they dead?"

   "I told the medic they'd be okay," said Devon. "I didn't lie."

   Richelle caught up to them. "How'd she do that? Can I do that?"

   Renata began studying the MAC. She could see at least thirty heavily armed soldiers in front of it, dressed in full gray military gear. Most of them were spaced out in small groups, using the cover of the large outcrops and boulders that dotted the landscape.

   "They're going to kill us," said Renata. "With what you've just done, they're not going to show us any mercy."

   "Just what have I done?" asked Devon. "I said they're not dead. She trusts me. Why don't you trust me?"

   "But those other soldiers aren't going to know that." Renata pointed ahead. "They've just seen four of their own go down and a fifth go into our ship. They probably think she's a hostage…" Suddenly her eyes caught the four most forward soldiers running away from the MAC toward the west, weapons drawn. They were shouting something, but she couldn't make it out.

   "Happier?" asked Devon.

   "Why are they running away?" asked Renata, her eyes following the soldiers. "What do they see over there?"

   "I don't know. What do they see?"

   She glanced at Devon. "Are you causing them to run?"

   "No. You are."

   "W-w-what are you talking about? I didn't…I can't do something like that…"

   "Yes, you can. You pity. You're compassionate. I respect your feelings. You must be able to see that by now."

   Renata nodded. She understood. Her worries about the downed soldiers—it had caused Devon to make those men run away instead…

   Suddenly three soldiers, a short distance ahead of the women, stepped out from behind a huge limestone outcrop, raised their weapons, and shouted for the women to halt. Instantly the soldiers fell back against the rocks, their projectile-pulse rifles dropping from their hands. They began holding their chests and grimacing as if they were having heart attacks.

   "Devon," said Renata, her voice immediately filling with anxiety. "What are you doing? Did you just give them heart attacks?"

   "I don't give anything to anyone—except you."

   One by one, the three young men fell to the ground on their faces.

   "They look in pain," said Renata, upset with what she was seeing. "Are they in pain?"

   "Not my pain," said Devon.

   "I can't believe you just dropped those guys like that," said Richelle, appearing amused by the plight of the soldiers. "Are you killing them?"

   "I don't like to kill," said Devon. "I don't need to kill. That's why I'm so fucking lethal."

   "That doesn't make sense," said Renata, her eyes still fixed on the soldiers. "Aren't those one and the same?"

   "Are they?" asked Devon.

   As they walked close to the three soldiers, who were now sprawled on the ground, Renata could see they were still breathing. "Shouldn't we help them? If they had heart attacks, they'll need help right away."

   "They didn't have heart attacks," said Devon. "Leave them be."

   "But they're g-g-going to be okay, right?" stuttered Renata.

   "You read my BIO. You know what I am."

   "Yes. A Dissipation Transfix Imager—Empathic…so, I wasn't going crazy then, was I?"

   "What am I?" asked Richelle, her voice bubbly. "What can I do?"

   "But what does that mean?" asked Renata.

   "Can you process a thousand thoughts at once?" Devon looked to the left. Two soldiers a short distance away immediately fell to the ground. "I can."

   "Yeah, Rene, can you do that?" Richelle's eyes widened as she followed Devon's gaze. "I think I can do that." She waved her hand toward some soldiers ahead of them. "Uh…how do you do that?"

   "What about the women?" asked Renata. "Like the medic. Why did she help us? You said you can't do anything to women."

   "I did say that," said Devon. "But I'm an empathic, so I guess that isn't totally true. I think I can deal with most of them—trust me."

   "What do you mean—you think? Don't you know what you can do?"

   "I know exactly what I'm doing. We haven't died yet. Have we?"

   "I don't get it," said Renata. She nervously glanced around at the large number of troops still in front of the MAC, most of them looking their way, many with weapons drawn. "Can't they see what's going on? Why are they just waiting there?"

   "Dissipation," answered Devon.

   "Hey!" exclaimed Richelle, stopping as three soldiers in front of them on their right, who were setting up a tripod weapon of some kind, abruptly fell forward, one of them landing on the tripod and taking it down with him. "You can't possibly be controlling what's going on inside that thing too." She pointed her finger shakily at the MAC. "What if they nail us with one of their big guns? We're going to be three highly fried bitches."

   Devon chuckled. "You are so me."

   Richelle took several quick steps, catching up to them. "Well, what about it?"

   "Transfix," answered Devon.

   As the women approached the largest grouping of troops, Renata watched in astonishment as seven soldiers aimed their weapons at three others. There was a brief argument, then the three unwillingly set their weapons down. The seven grabbed the three and after a brief, tirade-filled scuffle, subdued them, pinning them to the ground. Immediately two other soldiers, both women, ran over to the group and began arguing with the seven—who Renata could now see were men—the three on the ground being women.

   "Davis! What the hell are you doing?" shouted one of the standing women soldiers.

   "We've got them, Selata!" shouted Davis. He called into his com. "Harpy Eagle. Lieutenant Davis here. Stand down. We've just captured the Mendrax."

   "Jesus Christ!" cried Selata. "Are you out of your mind? You've just captured our own troops. What the hell is wrong with you? She's over there!" As she raised her rifle barrel toward Devon, Davis shot Selata in the thigh. She screamed and went down and began grimacing in agony, her hands held over her gushing wound.

   Her comrade raised her weapon at Davis, but two of the other men rushed her, taking her to the ground as she fired off several bursts skyward from her gun. The three women on the ground grabbed their weapons and sprang to their feet, but the other men raised their weapons and threatened to shoot them if they didn't drop their guns. As one of the women opened fire, hitting one of the men in the shoulder, taking him down, another soldier took two objects off his belt and rolled them across the ground in front of him. In an instant there were two staccato blasts and a flash of light, all the soldiers, men included, going down.

   There were more bursts of gunfire, then a number of soldiers nearby began hustling toward the downed group, calling out for medical assistance. Then an argument broke out between them as well—men and women as Renata could tell by their voices.

   "I wish I was stronger right now," said Devon, stopping, her eyes focused on the chaos as more gunfire erupted and soldiers began scrambling for cover.

   Renata and Richelle stopped too, both pressing themselves up against Devon.

   "Uh, I think those were stun grenades," said Devon. "I hope those were stun grenades. Novian troops do carry stun grenades, don't they?" At once some rounds hit the ground just in front of them, sparks flying, bits of rock spraying past them. Devon grabbed Renata's right hand and Richelle's left. "Come on!" She began running past the troops, pulling the women along.

   "How are you doing this?" asked Renata, glancing back, her eyes as large as saucers. "You aren't even raising a hand. You don't even blink. How are you controlling all of them? And how are you keeping the women from getting to us? That woman soldier looked right at you—why didn't she fire?"

   "I told you. I don't control people. If I could, do you think I would let this madness happen? I'm worried about that soldier. She took a bad hit. God, I hate myself sometimes."

   "If you're not controlling them, why are they shooting at each other?" Renata glanced back.

   Devon slowed her pace and glanced back too. "To answer your questions—it's a million realities, and no, you don't really want to see me blink. It's actually more like closing my eyes, and I will do it, but only for you."

   "Then fucking close your eyes already, will you?" exclaimed Richelle, glancing back. "We could've gotten our heads shot off back there. I hope the hell I'm better than this."

   Renata was trembling. "I have to agree with her. That didn't go too well."

   "My neck is broken," said Devon, as if talking to herself. "I'm barely at 20 percent. They've been throwing everything they can at me from their starship. There are 137 human beings plus one I have to deal with—nearly half of them women. And you question why I'm doing this piece by piece? Damn. I know she would at least be proud of me now."

   They walked directly in front of two men who hadn't seemed to notice the gun battle that had just occurred.

   "How long are we going to wait here?" asked the taller soldier. He had a deep voice, a rugged face, and was bulging with muscles. "Nothing's happening. I'm like ready to take a nap." He yawned.