The hallway was empty but Aunt Essie was taking no chances. She pushed Rosie between her and Riley and led them at a jog towards the end of the corridor, then stopped. “Wait,” she whispered. “Did you hear that?”
Rosie heard a faint thudding vibration coming from around the corner.
“Sounds like heavy boots,” Riley said.
“Follow me to the corner.” Her aunt’s face was grim.
They crept quietly along the corridor until she put her hand up again. Rosie flattened herself against the wall next to Riley.
Aunt Essie peeped around the corner. “They’re here already,” she said.
“How far is it to your pod?” Riley whispered.
“Around the corner, where the corridor turns right, there’s an access door that goes under the spoke to the docking bay. The pod is on level three, bay five.”
“On the other side of those men,” Rosie said. Her stomach was in knots at the thought.
“Yep.” Aunt Essie dropped to the floor and risked another glance. She pulled back quickly. “There’re three of them. We’re going to need a distraction to get past. It’s the only way to the pod from here.” She chewed on her bottom lip. “Rosie, you remember my lessons in how to fly the pod?”
Rosie’s heart contracted. “Yes.” What was she planning?
“Good, just remember not to give her too much juice or she’ll fly uneven, and watch the cells, they’re getting old.”
“Essie,” Riley said, “what are you doing?”
She gave him a hard smile. “Getting you to Genesis, Riley. I’m the most expendable – if they get you, my brother doesn’t have a hope.”
Rosie suddenly understood what she was going to do. “No!” She gripped her arm but her aunt pulled her hand off.
“Cowards don’t make the Academy, Rosie,” she said sharply. “I’ll be okay. Don’t worry.”
Dread filled Rosie as she stared at her aunt. Wasn’t Riley going to stop her? But he wasn’t moving and Aunt Essie pulled the docking pass key from her pocket and pressed it into her hand. “This will open the accessway doors and the hatch. The password’s 563. Now you run like hell when you hear me shout, okay?” Rosie nodded and saw a blink of fear in her aunt’s eyes as she met her own. “You’ll be okay, Rosie. You can do this.” Then she was straightening up and looking over her head at Riley.
“You keep her safe or I’ll break your neck.” She pulled out her gun, drew a breath and was gone. Rosie’s heart was hammering and she didn’t know she’d moved until Riley pushed her back against the wall. She couldn’t see what was happening but she could hear. There was a man’s grunt of surprise, followed by the concussive whump of a pulse weapon.
“Go!” her aunt shouted.
Rosie and Riley ran down the corridor. Ahead of them a man lay on the floor, another was on his knees, blood dripping from a cut on his head, and Aunt Essie was grappling with a third.
“Run!” Aunt Essie roared and elbowed the man in the face. She turned to kick the kneeling man in the head, but he caught her boot and flung her against the wall.
“Aunt Essie!” Rosie slowed but Riley dragged her towards the door at the end of the corridor.
“The pass key, Rosie!” he shouted.
Her fingers shaking, she swiped the thin slice of metal through the key slot and pushed the door open. Behind them a muffled shot sounded. Rosie turned back to see her aunt lying on the floor with one of the men standing above her, his weapon drawn. Her aunt was clutching her stomach. There was blood on the wall. Time seemed to slow. She couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe.
Beyond her aunt, two more people were running towards them.
“Rosie, wait!” It was Mr Yuang shouting at her and Pip was behind him. His face was pale as he stared at her. Fury filled Rosie and she tried to go back, but Riley grabbed her, pushed her through and slammed the door. He shot the lock with her aunt’s pulse gun.
“Move!” he shouted, and dragged her with him.
The accessway was narrow. It sloped down until it turned a corner then levelled out. It led straight to another door with a number three on it. They were under the spoke. Aunt Essie. Rosie’s hand shook as she slid the pass key through the lock and pushed through to the docking bay. Walkways made of metal grille stretched away on either side and in front. She paused. Which way was bay five? There, a sign above pointed left.
She turned, running to the outer hull. The metal quivered under their feet and people turned to stare at them as they raced across the bridge. Behind them shouts echoed across the cavernous space.
“They’re on the other side,” Riley said.
She didn’t look back. She felt numb, her terror all but driven away by her focus on one thing: escape. She led Riley to the outer walkway that ran alongside the hatches. Through the slit in the hull she could see three ships docked; the last one was her aunt’s pod.
“The hatch,” she said as she raced towards it. She could hear pounding feet now but didn’t turn around.
“They’re coming,” Riley said.
The crash of boots on the walkways was like an orchestra of chains. Riley aimed the gun and pulled the trigger. Concussive snaps of sound sang.
“Rosie!” His voice held a warning.
She punched in the code and the hatch hissed open.
They jumped over the outer hull into the pod and Riley locked the hatch behind them as a pulse slug slammed against the metal.
Rosie sealed the pod’s doors and ran through the small cargo bay and up the stairs to the bridge. She knew her aunt’s ship well. Every time Aunt Essie had brought it home she’d let Rosie sit in the pilot’s chair and drilled her through a hundred different flight plans. “If you want to be a pilot with Orbitcorp, you’ve got to be ready for anything,” she’d said.
But Rosie had never actually flown it. Her heart was pounding as her whole focus narrowed to the pilot’s seat, the nav console and the controls.
“Sit there.” She directed Riley to the copilot’s chair. She strapped herself in, then began the checking sequence. Aunt Essie ran a tight ship; all the controls were green, good to go.
“Jesus Christ,” Riley was muttering as he strapped himself in. “That was Yuang.”
But Rosie barely heard him as she concentrated.
“Okay,” she whispered. “Nav com green. Ignition.” With a shaking finger, she pressed the button and the engines rumbled into life. “Disconnect dock.” She glanced at Riley, then realised he didn’t know how. “Pull the blue handle towards you.” She pointed and he wrenched the docking grip back. She took hold of the steering arms as the pod floated free and the docking arms retracted back into the hotel.
The com suddenly buzzed into life and a voice began hailing them. “This is Space Islands command, pod class thirty-three, you do not have permission to launch,” it crackled. “Kill your engines immediately. You are endangering docking craft. I repeat, kill your engines! This is Sp–”
Rosie switched off the com and slowly pulled back on the steering, damping the starboard engine to perform a textbook reverse turn. The black was before her, dusted with stars.
Coming in ahead was a massive cruiser and on their left a recreation shuttle approached the dock above.
“Hold on.” She pushed the steering forward, firing up the core at the same time. The pod sprang ahead, forcing them back in their seats.
“Watch the cruiser!” Riley shouted as they sped towards its left flank.
Adrenaline ran like cold fire through her veins and Rosie banked hard. The pod swerved on a thirty-five degree angle, almost sideswiping the shuttle. It was so close she could see the shocked face of the pilot as the pod blasted past them and shot out into open space.
Her hands were clenched hard on the steering arms.
“Do you have the coordinates for Mars?” Riley said.
“Yes.” She nodded. Her head felt stiff and strange. “They should be programmed in.” She turned to the nav com and called up her aunt’s log. “Here.” She transferred the information to the flight plan.
“You can let go now,” Riley said quietly. Slowly, she uncurled her hands and called up the rear-view port on the computer screen, staring as Earth became smaller. And it was only then, as she watched it receding, that she remembered they hadn’t had time to refuel.
With a bad feeling in her gut, she checked the tanks. The trip to Mars would take forty-eight hours – there wasn’t enough fuel.
Pip kneeled by Rosie’s aunt. Blood was seeping from where the grunts had shot her and she was shuddering as he pressed down hard over the wound.
She glared up at him through narrowed eyes. “Trying to finish the job, Pipsqueak?” she hissed.
He ignored her. “Any of you got a nanoplast?” He said to the grunts.
“What are you doing?” Yuang watched him.
“I need to stop the bleeding.”
“I realise that, but why?” Yuang crouched down, peering at Essie as though she was a peculiar exhibit in a museum.
Pip thought hard. He had to be careful here. If he said the wrong thing, Yuang would let her die. He could still see Rosie staring at him. “Because she’s a better bargaining chip than Rosie’s dad,” he said. “Rosie and Riley won’t want to let her die. They’ll give up their plan for her.”
Yuang touched a finger to Essie’s cheek and she rolled furious eyes towards him. “The child – well, yes, this woman is the only relative she has left, relatively speaking, but Riley,” he smiled coldly as if he’d made a private joke, “he’s been waiting for this for half his life. It’s his chance.”
“I saw the way Riley looked at her,” Pip said desperately. “He cares about her.”
Yuang stood up. Pip kept his hand pressed against the wound. He wasn’t sure if Yuang believed him. He wasn’t even sure if he was right but he knew Rosie would never forgive him if her aunt died. And he couldn’t stand the thought of that. Essie’s eyes were closed now, her breathing faint.
“All right, I’ll humour you for now.” Yuang motioned to one of his men who pulled a small medikit from a pocket in his pants. “Patch her up and if she lives, we’ll see if you’re right.”
Pip took the patch from the grunt and placed it carefully over the wound, making sure the nanoplast sealed and stopped the blood. He stood back and watched as one of the men picked her up.
“Come,” Yuang put a hand on his shoulder, “we have a ship to catch.”