Wings of Retribution (82 page)

“Eww,” Dallas said, waving off the idea.  “Ew ew.”  She shook her head, trying to get rid of the idea of Stuart asking Tommy about rhythm. 
Well, you see, worm, there’s a certain percentage of times that the depth must be offset by cant, which in turn must be balanced with speed and resistance…
  She shook her head again, trying to force that image into the netherworld.  “Just say yes or no.”

“Yes.”

“Good.  We’ll do it again sometime.”

“Uhhhh, okay,” the
suzait
stammered.

“Damn straight.  Now let’s go.”  She turned and led him to the hatch.  Back at the storeroom, Tommy was still comatose, his eyes staring straight ahead exactly as they had left him.  Dallas squatted in front of him, peering into his face.  “Tommy?  You in there?”  She waved a hand in front of his eyes, which didn’t even blink.

“We should probably leave him,” Ragnar said.  “There’s been no change at all.”

“Why isn’t he blinking?” Dallas asked, poking at his eyeball.  “Seems like they’re gonna dry out.”  She frowned at the little indentation her finger was making in the lens and got closer, peering into the wide-open pupil.  They were so dilated, in fact, that there was almost no color showing, just black…  She poked it again.  “Hey Tommy.  Wake up, man.”

Giving her a nervous look, Stuart said, “Uh, Dallas, maybe you shouldn’t be doing that…”

Dallas poked the colonel’s other eye, amazed at the way the whole thing moved in towards the nose.  She hadn’t realized that eyes could do that.  She wondered if hers did that, too…

“Fairy, damn it, we’ve got more important things to do,” Athenais snapped, grabbing her arm and jerking her away from the colonel.  “Look at him.  He’s just a vegetable.”

Dallas stood up, straightening for a fight.  “We’re not leaving him,” she pronounced.

“Yes, we already discussed this,” Athenais growled.  “I was just trying to get you to stop poking him in the eye like a retarded orangutan.”

Dallas flushed.  “So what are we going to do now?”

“Ragnar and I are going to go speak with Burkes.  You and Stuart are taking Tommy to
Retribution
.”

Dallas stared.  “What?  Won’t they have it under guard?”

“Yes.”

“So what do we do with the guards?”

“Kill them.”

Both Dallas and Stuart balked.  “Kill them?  Is that really a good idea?  They’re just soldiers…”

“Do you want to get off of this planet alive, Fairy?”

“Well…yes…”

“Then I suggest you stop acting like a chickenshit. 
Both
of you.”  The pirate’s last was aimed at Stuart.  Athenais shoved the compression pistol at her.  “Use this.  Next time you shoot it, hold it with both hands and put your weight into it.  Recoil isn’t so bad as long as you brace yourself first.”

Dallas stared at the gun, which felt like it weighed a hundred pounds in her hands.  “What about you and Ragnar?  Usually
you
guys do this kind of stuff.”

“We’re going to be practicing our diplomacy,” Athenais said.

Somehow, Dallas didn’t like the sound of that.  She and Stuart shared a worried look.  “Uh, Athenais,” Stuart began, “maybe Dallas and I should go inst—”

“No,” Athenais interrupted, cutting him off, “you will get the ship ready for when we come back.”

Dallas gave Athenais and Ragnar a surprised look.  “You think you can talk her into opening a path for us?”

“Something like that,” the pirate agreed.  “Now go.”

“But…if we kill the guards, won’t that ruin our chances of getting free passage?”

“Fairy, don’t worry about it.”  Athenais’s words had a ring of finality to it.

“And what if you don’t show up?” Stuart asked.  “How long should we wait?”

“You wait until we get back,” Athenais said.

“But what if you don’t—”

“We’re
coming
back,” Athenais snarled.  “Damn it, Fairy, are you trying to
jinx
us?!”

“Sorry.”  Dallas glanced at Stuart.  “You ready?”

“Don’t forget the Colonel,” Athenais said.  “If, that is, you’re still insisting on taking him.”

“What about Rabbit?” Dallas asked.  “Is he coming?”

“I think he’s hiding out on the west side of the island,” Ragnar said.  “I’ve tried to make contact, but he hasn’t come out of his hole.  I think he’s hedging his bets.”

“So we’re just gonna
leave
him?” Dallas cried.

“Look,” Athenais said, “Unless you want to get on the intercom and tell him we’re about to leave, there’s no way to get word out to him.  Now grab the Colonel and go.  We’re on a schedule, here.”

Stuart went over to Tommy and hefted him over his shoulder.  Then, together, he and Dallas made their way to the door.

“Keep to the upper floors until you reach the docks,” Ragnar said behind them.  “The Utopis are inspecting the island a few floors at a time.  Today they’re doing the first three.”

“Good to know,” Dallas said.  Then she pulled open the door and led Stuart out into the hall. 

“Are we really going to shoot anyone?” she whispered once they were out of earshot.

“I’m not sure,” Stuart whispered back.  “If we do, I don’t wanna do it.”

“That’s not fair,” Dallas said.  “You’re bigger than me.  You should do it.”

“What does that matter?” Stuart demanded.  “Anybody can shoot a gun.”

“It won’t hurt you as much for you to shoot somebody,” Dallas reasoned.

“I’m still adjusting to this host.  My coordination is still fuzzy.  I might miss.”

“Bull,” Dallas said.  “You take it.”  She shoved the gun at Stuart.

“Fine,” Stuart said.  He shoved Tommy’s two-hundred-pound body at her.  “You take this.”

Dallas grimaced at Tommy, who was currently leaking drool down Stuart’s chest.  “I guess I can carry the gun.”

“Good.”  Stuart started moving again.

“Can I just shoot to injure instead of to kill?” Dallas asked.  “Like maybe in the leg?  What if I know one of them?  I worked in the Space Corps for fifteen years.  I captained eight different ships.  What if they know
me
?”

“All the more reason to shoot them in the head,” Stuart said.

Dallas grimaced down the barrel of the combustion pistol.  “I’m not cut out for this.  I went to the Space Academy.  I fly ships—I don’t stomp around dragging my arms in the dirt shooting people.”

“Well, I really don’t care if you shoot them or not,” Stuart said, “as long as we get on
Retribution
without dragging the whole Utopia down on us.”  They reached the third floor from the roof and started walking down the hall.  Looking out the window, they could see that the docks had been attacked, with huge laser burns in the concrete and chunks of debris fallen down onto the landing pads.

“Look at
that
,” Dallas whispered, pointing.  The entire inner core of the island was covered with ships.  Anywhere there was free space, a sleek Utopian warship squatted over it.  Beneath the ships, huge ranks of armed men marched from the hulls of several troopships, and snipers with laser rifles stood along the top of the wall, watching the ships below.

“I’m liking the idea of shooting someone less and less,” Stuart muttered.  “Those old guns are
loud
.  I wonder if Athenais knows about this.”

“She probably does.  That’s why they’re going to negotiate.”

“That’s what bothers me,” Stuart said.  “We don’t have anything to negotiate
with
.”

“We have
Retribution,”
Dallas said immediately.  “I could offer to come back to work for them as an independent.”

Stuart gave her a look that said he clearly thought she was crazy, but was going to be polite.  “I…thought you said they were the bad guys.”

“I didn’t say I would
do
it.  I’d just offer.”

“Maybe they lost Juno in the fight,” Stuart said.  “If Ragnar found her somehow, then maybe they’re going to try and trade.”

“You can’t make a trade with the Utopia,” Dallas said, worrying.  “It’s against policy to negotiate.  They’ll just say they’re hiding Juno and brand us all traitors.  They’ll execute us.”

They walked until they were standing over the docks, looking down. 
Retribution
stood there like a sleek black raptor amidst puffed-up swans.

“There she is,” Dallas breathed.  “Beautiful.”

“Only one guard,” Stuart noted.  “It’s like they’re not even worried about it.”

“Take a good look out there,” Dallas said, pointing at the grounds.  “Would
you
be worried?”

“Now that I think about it,
Retribution
looks kind of puny,” Stuart said, his eyes stopping on the masses of humans covering the ground in dark swaths.  “I’m starting to lose my nerve.”

“Don’t,” Dallas said, energized by the proximity of her ship.  “We’ll be fine.”

Stuart stepped close to the window and looked straight down.  “Okay.  Then I’ve got just one question.”

“What’s that?”

“How are we going to get past the three hundred soldiers barring the entrance to the docks?”

Frowning, Dallas leaned out the window.  Below, a platoon of ground troops blocked the entrance, lazing about with bored expressions on their faces.  Each had laser rifles and full Chameleon body armor, making them appear like 3-D lumps in the concrete with guns sticking out.  A couple looked to be playing ping-pong, others reading magazines.  Along the edges of the group, twenty bear-sized shredders stood amidst piles of equipment, waiting for their operators’ commands.  Dallas pulled back and glanced at her gun.  “I don’t think we’re gonna need this.”

“Stuff it under your shirt.  Maybe we can still use it.”

“Against
them
?” Dallas cried.  “They’ve got
laser rifles,
Stuart.  And body armor. 
Chameleon
body armor.  Oh, and did I mention the shredders?  They’ve got shredders.”

“So what are you going to do?”

Dallas’s mouth fell open.  “What am
I
going to do?! 
You’re
the alien. 
You
do something!”

“So what if I’m the alien?” Stuart demanded.  “You’re the hotshot pilot with a bug up her ass to get back to her ship.”

Dallas
did
have a bug up her ass to get back to her ship.  “And I’ll tell you why, too,” she growled.  “I get back to
her—
” she pointed at Retribution, “—and
they
—” she pointed to the ground troops, “—are sitting ducks.”

Stuart shrugged.  “Well, if you want to go by my alien instincts, they’re screaming at me to get as far away from the big men with guns as physically possible.  I think we should just sit back and wait for Athenais to get us some sort of clearance.  Besides, I don’t know anything about the Utopia.”  He jabbed a finger between her breasts.  “You do.”

“Ow,” Dallas growled.  “What is there to know?!  The whole Utopia’s filled with greedy, power-hungry bastards who like to mess in other people’s shit—”  Dallas paused.  “Wait a minute.”  She leaned back out the window, eying the ranks.  When she pulled back, she was grinning.  “You’re
brilliant
!”  She reached out, grabbed him by the head, and brought him down for a kiss.  Then, giggling, she released him and headed for the stairs.