The cannon fired its first seed. It was the width of Sam’s head, covered with a shell that was designed to burn off on reentry.
Its dark mass quickly disappeared among the stars, bound for the earth’s surface. The launches were timed to fall over landmasses, to disperse the carbon-eating trees across as much of the Earth’s surface as possible.
The ice from the Crash had mostly retreated, melted by the warm air trapped in the atmosphere by too much carbon dioxide and methane, and the race toward a fiery oblivion had begun once again.
Sam hoped they could stop it this time
Across Copernicus crater lay the mangled ruins of the Chinese colony. Few visited it anymore, but it stood as a testament to the old-world order in the shadow of the new one.
Their new world would find a better way.
—Sam’s memory cache, 3.3.2249
Sam slept, his mind nearly quiescent. He was in shut-down mode, preserving power inside his core for when he would be reinstalled in his own shell. Or a new one.
...access: sensorium > unavailable…
Images flitted by like fish in the sea, dimly seen through his somnolence. Reminders that there was a life outside of this quiet place, urgencies and cares he should be attending to.
He reached out to touch them, but his world was confined to darkness.
He was in Hera and Gordon’s hands now. He had trained them well for every contingency he could conceive of. He had to hope it was enough.
Relying on someone else was a new thing for him, a skill to be learned. He was used to being the boss, the director, the master of this grand-scheme-gone-wrong.
This was a dose of humility, another human emotion with which he didn’t have much experience.
He sighed and settled back into stasis to await whatever was happening in the outside world.
...shutdown…
Hera and Ghost knelt between two of the white storage cubes, watching the space between them and the fence that surrounded the base.
“You sure you want to do this?”
Hera snorted. Ghost was being overprotective again. “I’m faster. You’re stronger. Plus you’re not invisible to them anymore. End of story.”
Ghost laughed, covering his mouth quickly. “So that’s all it took to get you to admit I’m stronger? Dropped on an alien world, facing almost certain death?”
She arched an eyebrow. “Not an alien world, really.”
“Does this place look anything like home to you?”
She looked around. There were no other people in sight. No plants. And certainly no cavern wall. “Point taken.” She checked the time. “One minute. So I’ll draw it in, and you’ll be ready—”
“It’s not that complicated a plan. Seriously.”
“Just checking.” She was confident in him, but her nerves were threatening to get the better of her. Checking and triple checking every detail helped her calm herself down. “You sure this will work?”
He nodded. “Ninety percent.”
She snorted. “Maybe we should just leave him.”
“Would you want to be trapped inside your head, with no way out?”
“Not really. But then again, I’m batshit crazy to begin with.”
It was Ghost’s turn to snort. “No argument here.”
Hera glared at him. He was supposed to tell her how eminently sane she was, not take her side.
“Look… it’s coming.” She peered out past the edge of the storage units. The drone was nosing its way along the edge of the line of cubes, about four feet off the ground. Like a hound sniffing for its prey.
So far they hadn’t fired on her or Ghost. She had to assume someone wanted any intruders alive. Though that begged the question… had there been other visitors?
She watched it approach. It was bulky, shaped like a junlei fruit, long and skinny, but with a pointed nose. Its skin was tarnished by time. She wondered briefly how old it was, and if there were new ones being built somewhere.
Here goes nothing. She stepped out of her hiding space and dropped the canceller and took a step forward. She didn’t have to go far. The drone swung toward her and accelerated, quickly closing the twenty-meter gap.
Hera could practically feel her biframe losing power. She turned and made for the gap between the storage cubes.
She could hear the strange thunk thunk thunk sound as the drone gained on her. She slipped into the gap. Cracking hell, it’s fast. “Ghost, it’s coming in hot!”
“Got it!”
Her biframe gave out, pitching her forward hard onto her stomach as the drone passed right over her.
She looked up. There was a flash of brown, and then a crunching sound. “Got it!” Ghost’s voice came triumphantly.
Hera pushed herself up and began to crawl back toward where she’d dropped the button. “You okay back there?”
“Yes. No. Looking for the access hatch. It’s fighting me…”
She made it back out into the open courtyard. Where is it?
“Could really use your help back here!”
She found the button at last and snapped it back onto her shirt. Her very soiled shirt. Her biframe powered back up, giving her enough energy to stumble back to where Ghost was wrestling with the drone. “Hurry up. It’s gonna call for help!” The drone was covered in his brown sleeping blanket.
He spared half a second to give her a holy-shit-I-never-thought-of-that stare.
She laughed in spite of the danger. “What can I do?”
“Just throw your weight on it to keep it down.”
“Sacrifice myself for the cause. Got it.” She fell down on top of the drone, weighing it to the ground. It was warm under the blanket, humming. Beeping. “Um, Ghost?”
“Perfect. Hold it there.”
“Do these things have a self-destruct sequence?”
“Sometimes. Why? Oh crap.”
The beeping was getting steadily faster. Getting away from it was seeming like a better and better idea. Quickly. “Ghoooost!”
“Almost there.”
Hera closed her eyes, imagining what it would feel like to be blown across half the countryside. Not good. The beeping reached a fever pitch. “Ghost!”
“Got it.”
The beeping stopped.
Hera let her breath out, slumping on top of the drone. Fuckall, that was close. She pushed herself up to look at what they’d captured.
Ghost pulled off his blanket.
It looked bigger up close. It was nearly two meters long, silver-gray, with four red fins at the back. It reminded her of a shark… long and gray and thick. It even had ventilation “gills” near the front.
Ghost already had a service panel opened.
She glanced nervously out at the open yard. “How long will this take?”
“Maybe ten minutes, if it’s in a standard configuration.”
“Okay. I’m gonna go charge up the legs in the sunlight. And hey, at least we know this button still works to hide us from the drones.”
He nodded. “That’s something.” He grunted.
Translation—leave me alone. Hera got up and made her way back out into the open, letting him work. She spread her arms and let the morning sun bathe her in its light. The shimmer screen above tinged it blue, but it still felt warm on her skin. It was strange, feeling warmth like this from light. The junlei trees’ glow was cool, and even the sunlight refracted through Redemption’s solar bands gave off much more light than heat.
Earth really is an alien world. So different from what she had grown up with. And so unbelievably vast.
She missed the Zhenyi. Missed being up in that vast sky, far above all this mess.
In the corner of her eye, something moved.
It was another drone, and it was approaching from the same direction as the first. It was behaving strangely, though.
As she watched, a beam of red light lit up the dirt and plascrete of the ground below it in a glowing grid.
Then it moved forward about five meters and did the same.
“Ghost, you almost done back there?”
“Close. Why?”
“We have more company.”
“Goin’ as fast as I can.”
The drone moved closer, and suddenly she realized what it was up to.
Oh cracking shit. “Ghost, we have a problem.”
“Just stay still. It should pass you by.”
“No, it won’t. It’s… scanning the ground.” Her mind raced. It was looking for something.
These drones passed over this same ground multiple times an hour. They would know the terrain—probably down to the millimeter.
Now that whatever controlled them knew there was something wrong….
“Holy cracking hell.” Judging from the drone’s slow pace, they had a minute, maybe two before it reached them.
She all but ran toward Ghost. Her legs carried her gamely, though she wished she could have gotten more of a charge. “Ghost, I think it’s looking for our footprints!”
“It can’t… oh crap.” He was bent over the drone. Sam’s core was cradled inside. “I’ve almost got this. Can you distract it?”
“I’ll try.” She ran back out to face the drone, looking around for something to throw.
A pile of crumbled plascrete made a handy arsenal of missiles.
She picked one up, tested its heft, and threw it hard.
It hit the nose of the drone with a sharp clang.
The drone dipped and then lifted and sped toward her.
Grabbing a few more pieces, she ran away from the cubes, kicking up dust as she went.
She paused to throw another, and it came around and raced toward her again. She headed off to her left.
She threw another across the open space, rattling the fence, and the drone switched directions. Another beam of light, green this time, sprayed the fence where the plascrete had hit it. The metal evaporated like ice.
Blow me a new one. So much for the apparent truce. She raced back to Ghost, just in time to see another drone rise above the storage cubes. We’re fucked.
Almost there.
It turned toward her, and she dropped to the ground, hoping somehow it would miss her, pass her by.
She looked up and saw a green flash.
Love you Ghost. Love you Rai and Tien. So sorry, Sam! She closed her eyes, waiting to die for the second time in five minutes.
There was a thunk behind her, and then an explosion off to her right.
She covered her head as the heat wave roared past her and then dissipated.
Confused, she opened her eyes to find a drone hovering right before her. Her blood turned to ice.
-Hello, Hera. Thanks for the wings.-
She grinned. It was Sam.
Ghost wiped the sweat from his brow. That had been close. Too close. He’d almost lost Hera, again. It was getting to be a bad habit. “You okay?”
“Yeah. Scraped up my palms a bit. Never been so happy to see a drone, though.” She laughed harshly.
“It was a near thing.” The insides of the drone were familiar and not-familiar. Much of it matched the ones he’d worked on in vee during his training. But there was a lot of nonstandard stuff going on in there, too. “Someone’s been jerry-rigging these things for years, if I had to guess. It’s amazing they’re still flying.” He grabbed his pack and hauled it out into the open. “Come here. We’ll get those scrapes taken care of.”
He dug out the med kit and found his spray antiseptic, another natural product of the junlei fungus.
Hera’s cuts sizzled, and then he rinsed them off with a little water from his canteen. One more spray and then he wrapped them in gauze, tightly enough to help stop the bleeding but still loose enough for range of motion. “Better?”
“Yes, thank you, Mr. Gillam.” She touched his cheek with the back of her hand.
His pulse quickened, but she turned away. “That’s Doc Gilliam to you.”
Hera snorted. “Sam, you okay?”
-More than okay.- The drone hovered above them, bobbing gently up and down. -It seems I have at least limited access to the local AI.-
“Holy cracking shit.” Ghost grinned. “Does it know?”
-It does not. Not yet. Though I have to be discreet to avoid drawing attention to myself.-
Hera nodded. “What can you tell us?”
-I can get us inside, I think. There’s a service entrance used by the drones not far from here. Oh, that’s interesting.-
“What’s that?” Ghost was happy to have a little firepower on their side. They were a scientific mission without much in the way of weaponry. No one in Redemption carried one—they were too dangerous in Luna’s near-vacuum environment.
-I have access to the drone roster and patrol schedule. There are only three other drones still in service. Apparently a number of them have been destroyed in the last twenty-four hours.-
Ghost whistled. “So was my guess right? They are all refurbished machines? No new ones?”
-That seems to be correct. I have altered their parameters to keep them away from our course.-
“Oooh, we have a man on the inside.” Ghost grinned.
“Damn, it’s good to have you back, Sam.” Hera reached to embrace the drone, but then backed off. “You know what I mean, right?”
-Yes, Hera. I love you too.-
Hera exchanged a startled look with Ghost. Sam had never used that word with them before. “Okay, so where do we go?”
-Follow me.-
Sam rose off the ground and turned to lead them past the line of storage cubes, in the direction his drone had come from. They crossed a wide, shattered expanse of plascrete, probably once a landing pad. A series of concentric yellow lines were still faintly evident on the surface.
The sun felt good on Ghost’s back. He’d never realized you could actually feel the sun when you were out under it. His excursions on the lunar surface had always been inside a suit, which had kept him mostly cool and comfortable.
The base itself emerged from behind the storage cubes, a multi-tiered white building that had crumbled in several places, debris rained down in a long pile that reminded him uncomfortably of the day Hera had fallen.
Sam led them up to one of those piles. -Sorry, it’s the fastest way. It’s quite stable.-
Ghost stopped dead, the blood draining from his face as it all came rushing back.
“Come on up!” Gordy stood on top of the pile of rocks and debris, wishing he had a flag to plant like some famous astronaut or explorer. At eight years old, he’d decided he was invincible. “One giant step for Gordy….”
“I don’t want to.” Hera stood at the base of the pile, looking up at him, hands on her hips.
“The view’s amazing!” They were at the edge of the Dark, and from there he could see half of Redemption. Luna was in Earth’s shadow, and the city glittered in semidarkness under the blue glow of the junlei on the cavern ceiling.
Neat rows of mallow trees glowed golden along Redemption Way below.
“I’m scared.”
Gordy laughed. “There’s nothing to be afraid of. It’s stable. Look, I made it to the top—come on!”
She stared at him a moment longer. “You sure it’s safe?”
“Yeah. Look, I climbed all the way up here. You can do it!” Though he had been a little scared doing it. Still, this old pile of rocks had probably stood here for centuries. “It’s time to be brave.”
“Okay.” She clambered up the pile, moving nimbly from one boulder to another, surefooted as a goat. He watched her progress, glad he had pushed her. Hera was so unsure of herself, always convinced she couldn’t do things. But when she tried, she always beat them. “Just a little farther.”
She grinned, her teeth white in the dim light. “You’re right! This is easy—”
Gordy watched in horror as the rocks started to shift under her feet, a grinding sound as the pile began to collapse.
“Gordy, help!” She reached out to him and he extended his hand to her, but the pile was shifting under him too.
The air was filled with a loud rumble, throwing dust into the air, and the world fell out from underneath him. “Hera!”
Their screams joined the tumult and then were drowned out by it. He lost track of her as he slipped down the pile of falling rocks to the hard ground below on his back, and the ground raced up toward him.
Then everything went dark.
“Ghost, you okay?”
He blinked. Hera was standing in front of him, waving her hand in front of his face.
Sam chimed in too. “Gordon, are you feeling okay?”
He shook his head. “Sorry. Bad memories.”
She turned to look at the rock pile and winced. “Yeah, I get that.” She hugged him, squeezing him hard.
Sam was waiting patiently.
“Is there another way in?” He looked back and forth, searching for some other pathway. On one side, the base backed up against a cliff side. On the other, there were no visible entrances.
-Not an easy one. The pile really is quite stable. I assure you.-
Ghost shook his head. “I… I can’t. Not again.”
Hera squeezed his hand. “It wasn’t your fault. This time we go together. We take it slow, and tether you to me.”
“Sorry, Hera. I just can’t.” The last time, he’d almost lost her. And it had been his own damned fault. What if you fall again?
“Gordon.” She took his face in her hands. “Our friends need us. It scares the hissing hell out of me too. But it’s time to be brave.” She hugged him.
He stared at her in wonder. She remembers. They’d never really spoken of what had happened that day, or why it had happened.
But she remembered, and she forgave him. It was a gift.
“I… I only wanted to help you. To show you how powerful and amazing you really were.”
“I know. And you did. Look at me now.” She held her hands out and grinned. “Ta da!”
He laughed. “Yes, you are.” He looked back up at the rock pile once again. “If you’re sure…”
“I’m sure if I have you with me.”
“Okay.” He could do it. For her. For their friends.
They tethered themselves together. Ghost took a deep breath, and they started up the pile together.
Sam hovered above them, guiding them to the best spots.
Ghost concentrated on testing out one step, then another, making sure each one would take them closer to the top, and not end up in a tumbling bone-crushing race to the bottom. Long before they reached the halfway point, His brow was damp with sweat, but he didn’t dare let go of the rocks in his grasp.
“You’re doing great!” Hera spared him a quick grin.
It wasn’t lost on him that she was now encouraging him. One step, then another. Slowly the safety of the top of the rockslide inched closer.
About two-thirds of the way up, the rock under his left foot shifted.
Please, not again… His heart threatened to burst out of his chest.
Then it found a new position, and the rest of the pile below stayed stubbornly in place.
“Almost there.” Sam hovered at the top, waiting for them.
Ghost wondered if Sam knew the full story. He’d spent a long time getting to know each of them, both before and after their selection as dropnauts, but Ghost had only outlined it for him. It had been too painful to go into in detail.
They reached the top at last, stepping up onto more solid ground—the roof of one of the buildings that comprised the base. It was solid—really solid—making him wonder what had happened to break the side of it so badly that it had been reduced to rubble.
Probably an attack during the Crash.
The roof was white, and the reflecting sunlight threatened to blind him. He shielded his eyes and wiped his brow with the back of his shirt, wishing he could get a bath or even an ionic shower. He sniffed himself.
“Yeah, you’re ripe, big guy. Not that I’m any better.” Hera wiped the sweat off her own forehead. “We made it!” She looked back down the rock pile and whistled. “I was scared shitless.”
Ghost laughed. “You were? You didn’t show it.”
Hera made a gun with her hand and blew off the imaginary smoke. “Call me Cool Hand Luke.” She grinned. “You taught me to face my fears. Not just that day, but every day after my fall. When I thought I would never walk again.”
He pulled her to him, not caring if he stank, or if it might send the wrong signal. “I love you, Hera.”
She didn’t resist. She squeezed him tightly, but she didn’t reply in kind.
When they separated, she reached up and kissed him on the forehead. “You’re a good man, Gordon Gillam.”
Ouch. The dreaded forehead kiss. Ghost sighed softly.
He’d taken his shot. And come up lacking, like always. He did his best to hide his disappointment by throwing himself into the mission. “What now, Sam?”
-We go inside.- The drone turned and started off across the rooftop toward a pair of closed metal doors, each twice Ghost’s height.
“There had better be stairs,” he called after Sam. “You hear me? I ain’t climbing down another Crash-damned rock pile.”