Worlds in Chaos (55 page)

Keene was out until the next day and awoke to a feeling of having slept solidly for the first time in a week, probably having been given sedation. His sores had been cleaned and treated. He felt stronger. And once again a shower and a shave worked their wonders. He was in a room that Weyland had assigned in the mine vaults, where Cavan, Alicia, and Charlie Hu had also been brought. Cynthia, now resigned to the loss of Tom, had come too rather than remain with the group from Vandenberg. It seemed she wanted to break from everything connected with her old life. Nobody objected. Mitch and Dan, with the uninjured remnant of the Special Forces contingent, had moved into military quarters in the upper levels.

Charlie Hu was mobile again, although stiff, and hobbled in with the others when word went around that Keene was conscious. The news was that Ullman’s group in the Samson had made it to Cheyenne Mountain. Meteorite storms east of the Mississippi had been severe. Communications were poor, and nothing had been heard from the national administration supposedly being set up in Atlanta. Huge tides were developing in all coastal areas. Aircraft losses had been horrific; since the surviving equipment would have to serve for an indeterminate time, further flying, except where deemed essential by the highest authorities, was discontinued until conditions eased. In the El Paso area, rock and gravel falls were continuing steadily, with occasional showers of flaming naphtha. There had been armed confrontations over demands for supplies, access to care and shelter, and possession of ownerless goods and vehicles.

Alicia appeared just as Keene was settling down to the first food he had been able to enjoy for days. She had conceded to the inevitable and cut her hair short. Her face, while less red and inflamed than when he had last seen it, was smeared with cream and still a far cry from the cover-model complexion that had emerged from the Rustler at Vandenberg. “You’re looking amazingly better already,” she told Keene. “Quick recovery means there’s a lot of reserve left yet. Eating well, too. Even better.”

“I never thought there’d be a day when I’d say Army cooking beats anything I can name,” Keene replied. “But there it is.” He dug hungrily into the plate of eggs, biscuit, gravy, and sausage. “What about you? How have you been? Have some coffee.”

“Apart from the outside, not too bad. My face feels as if it’s been sandpapered.” Alicia poured coffee into a mug for herself, adding milk from a cardboard carton.

“You’ve been working nonstop. How do you do it?”

“It must be my virtuous character. And then having Leo around is always an inspiration.”

“There’s another one who amazes me. How did you get to meet him? You know, in all the years I’ve known him, he’s never told me.”

“Oh, really?”

“No. Tell me. I’m curious.”

“Oh, it was in a bar in Manhattan. I was young and new here—just took a notion to see the other side of the world. This guy was coming on strong and being a pain—you know, a jerk. Leo saw that I didn’t know how to deal with it, so he moved in and gave him a lesson in charm and manners. I think I just wanted to see the look on the guy’s face when I walked out to go someplace else with a man twice his age.” Alicia chuckled. “Leo knew I would, because he’s got the same kind of humor. Anyway, it grew from there. He thinks I’m crazy, you know.”

“Does he really?”

“Don’t tell me he never told you.”

“If he had, I’d probably choose not to remember.”

Alicia started to smile, then winced as it stretched the dried skin around her mouth. “Oh, how gallant! I love it. You see, underneath all this outside, you’re just a romantic too.”

“Maybe.”

“You give up your place on the shuttle to go and find Vicki, and even that gorgeous Kronian woman can’t make you change your mind? Of course you are! What else is there to call it?”

“Maybe I just didn’t like the thought of being privileged,” Keene suggested. “Equal opportunity. An old American tradition.”

“Pah. I don’t believe a word of it. It’s just the gruff outside switching itself on again.” Alicia helped herself to a spare piece of biscuit. “So tell me about her, Lan.”

Keene leaned back in the chair and sighed. “Oh . . . It wasn’t anything romantic. Just a kind of closeness that comes from two people who think the same way and share a lot of values and things. You know—she was the kind of person you never had to explain to about what you were thinking or how you felt, because she already knew. I don’t think I even realized it myself much until these last few weeks. . . .” Keene broke off when he realized that Alicia was frowning at him. He raised his eyebrows quizzically.

“Why do you say she ‘was’?” Alicia asked. “You make her sound like a thing of the past, a piece of history already.”

Keene stared at her uncertainly, then jerked his head in agitation. “Well, I mean, it’s . . .” He faltered, unable to say the painful but obvious.

“
Lan, what are you saying?
”

“What else is there to say? We tried. . . . That’s not an option anymore. All we can do now is stay here and figure out what—”

“
Lan!”
Alicia protested. “You can’t! We’re not staying anywhere. We’re going on to San Saucillo like we said. You can’t change your mind now.”

“But . . .” Keene shook his head. What other way was there to put it? “Alicia, there isn’t any way to get there. All flying is over, finished. They’re saving the planes for when things get better. It’ll be years before anyone can make any again. The roads are all choked or blocked, and whatever can move on them is going the wrong way.”

“We don’t need the roads,” Alicia said. “I’ve been talking to some of General Weyland’s staff. Stocks of gas and supplies from south and east Texas have been concentrated in San Antonio. A train is leaving here tonight to bring a load back up to El Paso. There will be plenty of room on the outward run.”

“And what do we do after San Antonio, walk?” Keene demanded. The words came out sharper and sounding more sarcastic than he had intended. He realized that his nerves were still on edge.

“Snap out of it, Lan. It’s not like you,” Alicia said. “I don’t know what we do from there. Maybe with everyone coming the other way the roads will be easier between there and the coast.” Her eyes flamed at him. “But you just said yourself that things are going to get worse. How long will sitting down here do any good? There is only one way out now, and that’s off the planet. And the means to do it is down there in Mexico, not here.”

Keene felt himself starting to object; then he checked himself, hunched forward to rest his elbows on the table, and stared at her. She was right. Like a soldier who refuses to leave a foxhole under fire, even though the position must ultimately fall, he wanted to put longer-term considerations from his mind and cling to the respite they had found here after the ordeal of the last few days. The security was an illusion that would last only so long. The more they delayed, the worse, at the end of it all, the odds must become. He shook his head, as if to reawaken the sense of realism that normally resided there.

“Have the others said what they think about it yet?” he asked her.

Alicia shook her head. “You are the first one I’ve told. I assumed they’d think the same way as I did—that there wouldn’t be a problem.”

Keene finished the last of his coffee and stood up. “Then let’s go and find out,” he said.

The upshot was that Cavan knew Alicia well enough not to bother arguing. Colby, in his inimitable way, agreed as casually as if they were planning a weekend vacation trip. Charlie Hu, more than any of them, was under no illusions as to what was in store. He expected there to be a lull of several days as Athena and Earth locked gravitationally to gyrate past each other like two passing skaters momentarily linking hands, during which time the bulk of the tail would be directed away. The train of debris following Athena would then wrap around Earth, causing falls more fearsome than anything that had occurred so far. Then, after actually receding for a distance as it swung by, Athena would be drawn back in for a final close pass before being ejected on a trajectory away from Earth. Charlie’s vote was to go for any chance of getting out if a chance was there. And Cynthia, having committed herself, had little choice but to go along with the rest of them.

The only unresolved question was whether Mitch and his men could be induced to. With conditions deteriorating and violence breaking out, to press ahead without the protection of an armed force would be folly bordering on recklessness. There was only one way to find out. First, they went to talk to Mitch.

Mitch’s initial reaction was surprise that they were still even contemplating Mexico. He had assumed that they’d tried their best, the fates had come out against them, and the only thing left to consider was whether to stay in El Paso and place themselves under Weyland’s command or head for Colorado. He changed his opinion somewhat when Charlie explained why the worst was far from over yet, but he still seemed uneasy at the thought of deserting his command and taking useful men away from where they might be needed. Cavan tried to set his doubts at rest.

“This is hardly a normal situation, Mitch. Your sentiments are admirable, but I have to be honest here. The figures Weyland and his staff are estimating are wildly unrealistic. They’re doing their best, but they just don’t have any concept of what’s going on. Don’t you understand? A month from now there isn’t going to
be
any command worth talking about to have deserted.”

Mitch pondered the point, scowling at the wall for a minute or two before turning back to face them. “You’re talking about getting to a place that might no longer exist, for a shuttle that mightn’t fly, and if it does, taking it up through this mess to find a spaceship that mightn’t be there. And I’m supposed to believe that the odds are better than what I’d have if I stay on with this outfit. Is that what you’re telling me?”

“Just the latest of Landen’s crazy schemes,” Cavan said, as if that explained everything. “Only this time he’s got Alicia with him too.”

“Sure, they’re lousy odds, no question,” Charlie Hu said, nodding and keeping a serious note. “But better than the alternative. I’ll take them.”

Mitch looked around at them. He seemed persuaded, and was running over the practicalities in his mind. “It means we have to be up-front with the men too,” he said finally. “This isn’t something I can order them into blindly—or would be prepared to. They have to make their own choices too.”

Everyone looked at everyone else. Nobody dissented.

“So be it,” Cavan said.

“The reason we’ve been talking about getting to Mexico is that there’s another shuttle down a silo at a site just south of the border,” Mitch told the soldiers a half hour later. Apart from himself and Dan there were Furle, Dash, Legermount, and six troopers: four from the group that had hijacked the chopper and two uninjured from those who had stayed with the crashed Rustler. “Now, we’re not talking about huge numbers of people being there like you saw at Vandenberg. There’ll be just us here, plus a handful to be picked up in Texas. That means there’ll be extra room. After listening to Charlie, I’m willing to go for it. And for anyone else who’s prepared to take his chances, that’s the bonus at the end of the ride. But I’m not going to hang this on you as an order. It’s a volunteer mission. You’ve all heard the arguments. Each man is free to make his choice.”

Captain Furle still remembered the couple-of-hours-extra assurance that he’d heard the last time they talked about going to Mexico. “I can’t say I see how it’s going to change anything,” he objected. “Except for making our chances worse, that is. Whatever hits here, the same thing is gonna hit there just as bad. The only difference is that here we’ve at least got protection and some backup that’s halfway organized. There, we’d have nothing. We did what we could once, and it’s over. I’m still for heading north to Cheyenne Mountain. General Ullman promised us at Vandenberg that he’d find us room there.”

They showed mixed reactions. Keene could understand why. It hadn’t been that long ago when he himself had been looking for excuses to stay with the apparent safety that the military bases represented. Dan decided to attempt returning to the Air Force command in Colorado too and throw his lot in with Earth, come what may. The trooper with the hurt knee and the other who had come down sick were not up to such a further mission, and two more stayed with Furle through choice. That left two—their names were Birden and Reynolds—who would go with Mitch, Legermount, Dash, and the six civilians, including Cynthia.

Keene wondered if he was the only one who understood how much smaller the Amspace minishuttle was than a regular Air Force shuttle or the Boxcars that had gone up from Vandenberg. There was no telling how many people Harry Halloran might have brought with him, assuming he made it to San Saucillo. Keene didn’t relish the thought of possibly having to explain the situation to armed and angry men, should it turn out that there were no spare places after all. A likely response in that event might be an insistence at gunpoint that
everyone
submit to a draw. But first, they would have to get there. He would worry about it then, he decided. It was always possible that by that time the problem would have solved itself.

Eleven in all were driven that night to the repaired siding in the railroad yards on the east side of the city, where the train to make the run to San Antonio was being assembled and fitted out. It consisted of six locomotives, three in tandem to the front and rear of a long line of boxcars and tankers with protected tops, with flatcars at intervals mounting sandbagged machine guns and posts for armed guards. Two coach cars in the center carried the command staff and guard reserves. Two flatcars pushed in front of the lead locomotive carried rails and equipment for track repairs. To reconnoiter and clear the route ahead as far as possible, a small scout train comprising a locomotive pushing several cars with engineers and a work crew, more rails and track-laying equipment, lifting gear, a couple of small earthmovers, and an Army escort had left earlier in the afternoon.

The big train rolled out shortly before midnight under the light of floodlamps and the orange glow from a sky of flame dancing among black clouds. Beyond, the diffuse incandescence from Athena showed, moving around to Earth’s night side. Above the growl of the diesels and the rumbling of the wheels, distant thunder boomed continually. In the wilderness to the north and the south, patches of orange and red flickering through veils of unseen smoke glowed where the mountains and the desert were on fire.