The Saffron Malformation (75 page)

             
After a long sigh he looked away, his thoughts as lost as the hope he’d clung to until that morning.  There had to be a way.  There was something Richter Crow, mad and meticulous as he was, had overlooked.

             
Another thought had occurred to him hours ago.  If they made it to Richter Crow’s terminal and managed to send their messages, what then?  It would take years for the rescue ships to arrive and there was no doubt that the man would spend his remaining time in power hunting them down.  To be certain of that all he had to do was look to the Angels of the brood, skulking about ravaging the planet looking for their scent.

             
Quey’s eyes drifted across the mural above until finally they settled on something not far from the folded planet in the corner of the ceiling.  Eyes lingering on the small bit of metallic grey and black and the energy tail streaking out behind it, his thoughts swirled not unlike the gasses of a nebula and when they finally came together rather than a star they formed an idea.  “He has to have a way off,” he said softly to himself.

             
A brief moment passed while he lingered where he was, then set his drink on the table as he shot to his feet and started down the hallway across from him.

             
Rain woke to pounding and was instantly annoyed at being roused from such a deep and wonderful sleep, especially considering the effort it took her to get there.  She pulled on clothes and crossed to the door as the second series of bangs erupted, those woke Arnie who sat up on his elbows and snorted himself awake.

             
“Alright, alright,” she barked as she made it to the door and opened it.  She was greeted by a wide-eyed Quey.  “This can’t wait?” she asked.

             
“No,” he said bluntly then added, “Get Arnie and come in the living room,” before hurrying away.

             
Rain closed the door with a soft grunt and looked at Arnie, eyes half open and hair shooting up from the back of his head.  She started to laugh a bit as he asked, “What’s that about?”

             
She took three swift steps toward the bed and jumped onto him.  “Who knows,” she replied, her face close to his, then she kissed him.

             
“Should we go see?” he asked then kissed her.

             
She settled on him for a spell, feeling his warmth wafting up and over her, listening to his heart and the gentle breaths he took.  Finally she said, “If we don’t he’ll just be back.”  She hopped to her feet and started for the door.  “Might wanna fix your hair,” she told him before opening it and stepping through.

             
Arnie looked over at a mirror and saw what she meant; it was sticking up here and there.  He tried to mash it back into place with his hand.  It was a futile effort.

             
After rousing Rain and Arnie Quey made his way down another hallway and knocked on Ryla’s door.  “Enter,” she called and so he opened the door.  Across the dark room she sat before the dull glow of a holoscreen in one of her thin cotton slips.  Given the dullness of the light he couldn’t tell its shade.

             
“Could you come out here a second?  Had a thought I’d like to run by you.”

             
“Sure,” she replied and got to her feet.  She was halfway to the door when she stopped.  “Should I wear more clothes?”

             
He chuckled, “I don’t think it’ll matter.”  He started away and she followed.  In the living room Rain was sitting on the couch in pajama paints and a tank top, hugging herself for warmth and yawning.  Arnie stumbled in a moment later, his hair still askew.

             
“Alright,” Rain said, slightly annoyed as Arnie sat close beside her and Ryla sat at the end of the couch.  “We’re here.  Wanna tell us what this is about now?”

             
Quey strolled close to where the ship was painted and looked up at it for a long moment.  The others watched him.  Rain and Arnie exchanged a glance.

             
“I’ve been giving some thought to what comes after.”

             
“After what?” Rain asked.

             
“After we get to Richter Crow’s terminal and send a message,” he replied, turning to face them.  “I was thinking, in those records you stole from his hard drive, did you find anything regarding his escape plan?  I mean, we know he means to get off planet but I’m curious as to how.”

             
Rain’s brow furrowed and she shook her head, “Not that I saw.”

             
He looked to Ryla and asked, “What do you think?”

             
“No.”

             
“He has to have a ship though, right?  Probably a few.”

             
“I suppose so.  But what’s that matter?”

             
Ignoring the Question he looked to Arnie and said, “You can fly right?”

             
Arnie began to laugh and Quey stared at him.  When his fit was over, grinning, he replied, “Sure, I can fly.”  Quey nodded thoughtfully.  “I can’t fly in space.”

             
After a shrug Quey wondered, “Why?”

             
Arnie shook his head.

             
“What?  How different could it be?”

             
“Wait,” Rain said, raising a hand toward Quey.  “You mean to tell me you got us out of bed in the middle of the night-”

             
“I wasn’t in bed,” Ryla informed her.

             
Rain glanced at her and went on.  “You got Arnie and I out of bed in the middle of the night to hear some cockamamie scheme in which we steal a space ship and fly away to… where exactly?” she asked in her most animated of ways, complete with flaring eyebrows and flailing hands.

             
Quey shrugged, “Hadn’t given it thought but I don’t think it much matters.  One of the other corporate settlements, preferably one not belonging to Blue Moon.”

             
Silence lingered over the room until Arnie turned to Rain and said, “So, Quey’s gone bye-bye?”

             
“Seems to be the case.”

             
Quey scratched the side of his face briefly and asked.  “Why’s it so cockamamie?  People on other settlements leave world all the time, take entire vacations in space.”

             
Rain looked at him with wide, disbelieving eyes.  She couldn’t believe he asked so she repeated his question.  “Why?  Alright, lets get past finding this space ship of yours.  Lets say we knew where it was.  How, exactly, do you mean to get it?  I mean, you don’t expect it’s just sitting parked on a lot somewhere all by its lonesome do you?  Powered up and ready to go.  Maybe a sign on it that says, ‘do not fly away, this means you.’”

             
“It’d be guarded,” Reggie said from the hallway leading toward the elevators.  “Couldn’t sleep,” he told them as he crossed to join them.  He’d been on the first floor, sipping whiskey and shooting pool.  Finally he felt like he might actually get some sleep and just his luck, he walks in on a scheme in progress.  “As I said, this isn’t the group for that sort of work.”

             
“My brother could help,” Rachel offered from the hallway past the kitchen.

             
“Thought you didn’t know where he was,” Reggie said, looking at her.

             
She shook her head, “I don’t.  But I do have a way of getting in touch, if I need it.”

             
“Think he’s still got the means for something like this?” Quey asked.

             
She nodded.

             
“Think he’d have a mind to help?”

             
“We send him what we know, show him what we’ve discovered and yeah, he’ll have a mind.”

             
“You’re overlooking a glaring dilemma with this plan,” Rain said and Quey looked to her.  “Where is this space ship, exactly?”

             
“Well that’s the new sixty four thousand dollar question now isn’t it?”  He looked to Reggie and asked, “You have any thoughts on it?”

             
Reggie looked at him and shook his head.  “You wanna fly around I know plenty of places to find gear that’ll do that, nearly every security facility has its share of air transport but the trouble with it is just that.  It’s on a security facility.  And then there’s still nothing that’ll break atmo.”

             
“You don’t happen to have anything in that basement of yours?” Quey asked.              Ryla shook her head, “I don’t have a space ship.”

He shrugged.

“You know,” Arnie said and eyes moved to him.  “Most air transports aren’t that dissimilar from short range shuttles.  What if we fit one with the proper plating and engine work to break atmo?”  Rain shot him a curious glance and he shrugged, “We got up for this so we might as well talk about it.”

“Any idea how to do that?” Quey asked

              “Plating’s easy enough,” Ryla said.  “The engine would be difficult.”

             
“If she can’t build it-” Reggie began but she interrupted.

             
“I can.  It’s the materials.  They’re impossible to find.”

             
“Then there’s the matter of it being a small transport,” Rain added.  “You’d never make it to another settlement.”

             
“We could always ask the Blue Moon computers,” Rachel suggested.  “Not literally,” she added when she noticed the looks she got.  “There might be something in there though, a list of facilities.”

“We could see what Richter’s computer has on it, assuming that’s somewhere in this plan,” Reggie offered.

              Quey seemed uncertain.  “Might not be possible.  I was thinking if we did make it near enough to Saffron’s moon we could access the universal network directly.”

             
“You know that’s insane right?” Rain chided.

             
“Yeah,” he admitted.  “But the truth is I don’t know what to do and maybe I’m just throwing everything against the wall, trying to see if something’ll stick.  As of yet nothing seems to.  If we can find a ship maybe this will.”

             
“No it won’t because there’s still the matter of flying it,” Arnie pointed out.  “In case you’ve forgotten no one here can do that.”

             
“You can,” Quey told him with certainty.

             
He laughed nervously and said, “No.  I told you.  I can’t.  Space is completely different from in atmo.  Here you have lift and drag, slowing down means easing off the throttle and letting air pressure and friction do their things.  In space,” he shook his head.  “There’s nothing.  It’s completely different.”

             
“I have flight simulators in the second basement,” Ryla offered.  She glanced around, “Very advanced.”

             
Reggie shrugged a, ‘why not,’ when Quey glanced to him.  “Can you have it set up for him in the morning?” Quey asked.

             
Ryla nodded.

             
Rain sat quietly brooding.

             
“Something on your mind?” Quey asked her.

             
“You’re plan.  Is lunacy.  Fly a fucking space ship?” she nearly shouted.  “Have you even been in a plane?  You know how hard it is on the body, how fast we’re going to be going?”

             
“They have stabilizers and the like to make the trip easier.”

             
“And we’re still assuming you’re going to find the fucking thing.  And that Arnie can actually fly it,” she added as an afterthought.  “I mean it’s been, how many years, since he was in the flight prep program, and even then he never flew.  It was all in simulation.”

             
Quey took a deep breath and looked hard at her.  “I admit there is some shakiness to this idea but… look I’m not saying it should be plan A but lets not throw it out of the mix completely.  Arnie sits in Ryla’s simulator for a few days, gives it a feel and lets us know what he thinks.”  Rain was about to interject again but Quey stopped her.  “Besides, say something goes wrong and we really piss Richter Crow off.  Up until now we’ve been a pesky nuisance, but say we pull this off, get the word out on his little plan, well then we become a real problem.  Say he declares us a terrorist organization, claims we’re anti-corps and sends everything after us, what then?  Might be there’s not a safe place left on this rock.”  Rain was brooding again but mostly because she knew he was right.  “Let’s call it a worst case scenario,” Quey offered.  “Doesn’t hurt to be ready for that.”