A Hero Rising (12 page)

Chapter Nineteen

Hovering City

As the
Destiny
closed in, the dome at the center of Outpost Omega rose like a gigantic snow globe, hovering in space. Underneath the glass, skyscrapers crested a treeline of birch, maple, and oak. Birds danced at the peak of the dome, reaching for the stars. Eight runways branched out from the center where ships could dock and bring in supplies.

A crash sounded above their heads, jarring Skye from the placid view. “What was that?”

James gripped the controls. “They’re firing.”

“Firing? At a ship with thousands of people on it?”

“They warned us.” He yanked a lever down and the bridge pitched under their feet. Carly shrieked behind them and Skye ran to her, holding her close. “What are you doing?”

“Evasive maneuvers.” James flipped a few switches and ran his fingers along the front panel. “Which isn’t much, considering I’m flying a small city.”

Another crash came from the left wing. Skye squeezed Carly against her. “Can the hull withstand these explosions?

James pulled on a lever and the bridge rose. Outpost Omega disappeared and deep space filled the viewing panel. “If I can get us high enough, we can dive and prevent a full frontal attack. There’s only a certain range they can fire into before we reach the landing dock.”

“Will we make it?”

James shrugged. “The ship won’t look pretty, and she may never fly again.”

They had nowhere else to go. They’d run out of provisions and the nearest colony planet was three hundred years away. Skye gritted her teeth. “Do it.”

Her stomach flipped as the gravitational rings fought the change in forces. The explosions racked the floor under their feet, each one sending a jolt through Skye’s spine. Warning alarms beeped, and the deck went dark. Emergency lights flashed on.

“We lost power in one of our engines.” James’s fingers moved across the panels. “I’m rerouting energy to life support systems.”

“Won’t that slow us down?”

“Yes. But slow and steady wins the race, right?” He gave her a half smile. “It’s the only thing I can do. We don’t want a fast ship with everyone on it dead.”

A train of explosions pummeled the hull. Pieces of the ship flung off, and Skye held onto Carly. “Close your eyes, honey.”

“They’ve switched to multipulse lasers.” James pressed the panel with his fingertips, holding them down. “Evacuate the lowest level.” His voice resonated through the main intercom. “Everyone out!”

He switched to a private intercom. “Dal, you there?”

“Yeah. Just trying to help the wounded. There isn’t a medical bay anywhere on this thing, is there?”

“’Fraid not, Dal. They’ll have to wait until we dock. Can you check on the lower level for me, make sure everyone has cleared out?”

“Sure thing.”

James turned back to Skye. “Once it’s clear, I’m going to reseal the deck above. That way they can fire at the belly of the ship all they want.”

Minutes went by like hours. Skye hoped all the people they’d brought on were safe. She couldn’t imagine escaping sudden apocalypse only to die on the transport ship.

Dal’s voice came through the intercom. “Lower level cleared.”

“Good.” James’s fingers flew over the panel. The engines that still worked roared in response. “We’re close enough to the landing docks to dive down. Make sure you’re belted in.”

The dive drove all the air from Skye’s lungs. She held on, wanting to meet the type of people who would fire on other human beings. She’d give them a piece of her mind, along with something else.

The ship stopped and the firing ceased as James pulled up to the nearest landing dock. “We made it. For now.” He typed on his miniscreen, trying to decode the door lock.

Skye unbelted herself and glanced at Carly. Tears rolled down her pink cheeks. “I don’t want you to go.”

“I’m securing our home.” Skye bent to her eye level. “I will come back for you; I promise.”

Carly sniffed and wiped her eyes. “You’re the only mom I’ve ever had.”

Emotion crashed through Skye, overwhelming her. This was the moment she’d been waiting for ever since Grease introduced her to Carly. “And you’re the only daughter I’ve ever had.”

Skye put her arms around the little girl, and pulled her close. Her tears fell into Carly’s ponytail. They held each other until a clanking sound reverberated through the ship.

James spoke behind them. “This code isn’t like anything I’ve seen before.”

Men ran down the runway firing at the sight panel. Skye ducked before she realized they were shooting at the hatch and not the main control deck. She shielded Carly with her own body, putting the laser between them and the sight panel just in case.

Skye turned to James. “You have to think of something, because we have a welcoming crew.”

His fingers sped along the keypad to his miniscreen. “The government base and the ship are simple math compared to this cryptography.”

Dal came on the intercom. “Team is armed and ready to go. Waiting on you.”

Skye shot a glance out the sight panel. The men were carrying large metal blocks, constructing a barricade. “Hurry, they’re sealing us out.”

“I need to find the cipher. I’m pretty sure about one of the pairs of algorithms, but the other alludes me.”

Skye clutched her beamer to her chest, every second building her anxiety. Carly’s fingernails dug through the fabric of her jeans.

“Aha! The key!” James’s finger slammed the enter button, and the miniscreen charged with life. Strange strings of number and letters whizzed across the screen. “We have a way in.” He stood, checking the charge on his laser.

It took every ounce of strength she had for Skye to leave Carly.

If you want her to have a better life than you did, you’ve got to fight for it.

Skye ran her hand over the little girl’s head. “Stay in the control chamber and watch James’s miniscreen. We’ll come back to get you when it’s safe.”

Skye expected her to argue, but Carly nodded dutifully and climbed into the captain’s chair. Her little legs dangled and kicked the air. Somehow, she must have known how important this battle was. They were fighting for their right to live.

James squeezed Carly’s hand and nodded to Skye. “It’s time.”

They filed down the corridor and met up with Dal and his crew. Fifty men and women equipped with lasers stood at attention, waiting for Dal’s order. Behind them, regular citizens from the city lined up with makeshift weapons of metal beams and knives. It reminded Skye so much of Grease’s failed takeover of Utopia, she had to block the memory from her mind.

James scanned the ranks. “We used to have a lot more.”

Dal’s face hardened. “The moonshiners took out a major chunk of our force. At least these citizens are willing to help. If anything, our sheer numbers will overwhelm them.”

“Yes, but how many will have to die first?”

Dal’s grip tightened on his laser. For an old man, he looked fierce. Skye wouldn’t want to cross his path. “It’s a sacrifice we’re all willing to make.”

James turned to Skye and whispered in her ear. “You’re sure you want to do this?”

“You’ve seen my beamer skills. I’m not letting you go in without me.” She had just as much a right to fight for her existence as anyone else. Skye settled a rising current of anger. He was only afraid of losing her, just as she was him.

James paused, his head so close to hers, she could hear him breathing. His lips brushed her cheek. She turned her head and met his mouth with her own, desperately seeking his attention. Their foreheads pressed together, and they breathed in and out as one. Before she could lose herself in their private world, James pulled away, giving Dal the cue to open the hatch.

Chapter Twenty

Sacrifice

Laser fire erupted from the open space, and Skye instinctively fired back. Each shot ricocheted off the metal, firing into the glass of the corridor.

“The barricade has laser repellant shields,” James shouted over the din. “Firing’s not going to do a whole lot.”

A gangman went down beside Skye, clutching a burned hole in his chest. A rock formed inside her stomach. This was real.

I could die today.

The thought sent shivers down her spine, and she pulled the trigger harder, jerking back with each laser shot. Even the high emission beamer couldn’t break through the barricade. Two more gangmen went down.

Dal shouted, “Retreat.”

Skye scrambled back, feeling as though a laser would shoot through her back at any second. She rounded the corner and huddled against the curve of the corridor next to James.

“We’ve got to do something,” James shouted over the laser fire. “They’ll storm the ship.”

Dal dug in his pocket and brought a shiny orb lined with blue lights around the circumference. Skye had only seen them on the holoscreen. “You have a hypergrenade?”

He pressed the timer. “Cover me.”

It was a death mission and Skye knew it. She grabbed Dal’s arm and squeezed as the timer counted down. “There’s got to be another way.”

Dal faced her and James. Determination hardened his face. “Take care of that little girl.”

Before Skye could react, he slipped from her fingers, turning the corner.

“No!” She followed him, raising her beamer and firing into the barricade, trying to draw attention away from Dal. Laser fire hit his arm, slowing him down. He pushed ahead, and another shot burned a hole in his leg.

“Dal!” Skye shrieked. She fired at the barricade until all she could see was white light. Crawling forward, Dal brought his arm back and pitched the hypergrenade in front of him. The orb flew through the air, glinting silver in the fluorescent light, like a tiny space station of its own, and landed behind the barricade.

James shouted behind her, “Cover your ears!” He threw his arms around Skye and pulled her back behind the corner. A low boom rattled her insides as a gust of searing air blew around them. Although James had covered her head, deafening silence pressed in. People opened their mouths and shouted, but Skye heard a dull ringing and nothing else.

When the air cleared, they rounded the corner. The sound came back in a rush, flooding her throbbing eardrums. Men cried for help and lasers ripped through the air. Government workers retreated deeper into the corridor. Torn pieces of metal spiraled up where the bomb had blown a hole in the barricade.

“Come on!” James gestured over his shoulder and they pushed ahead, blasting anything in their way. Dal lay face down behind three government workers firing semiautomatic pistols with antilaser shields.

Skye shouted through the commotion at James. “Dal’s over here.”

She fired at their feet below the shields, pushing the government workers back. As she covered James, he turned over the old man. Skye chanced a glance down and cried out. Fire blackened half of Dal’s face to ash, and his eyes stared blankly at something beyond their world.

“He’s gone.” James’s shoulders slumped forward. He clung to the old man’s shirt in his fists.

“I’m so sorry.” Skye put a reassuring hand on James’s shoulder. She couldn’t bear to think of how Dal had, just moments ago, played cards with Carly on the floor.
He’d told her to go fish.

Skye’s hands trembled as she forced herself to press on. If they grew distracted, they’d lose their advantage, and Dal’s sacrifice would be for nothing.

James closed the old man’s eyelids with the palm of his hand. “I shouldn’t have let him go.”

“He did it for all of us.” Fire blasted above them and Skye ducked behind a piece of the barricade. If she didn’t get James away from Dal’s body, he’d be a sitting target.

“You’ve got to leave him.”

James folded the man’s hands across his chest. “He was the only family I had.”

A shot whizzed by James’s cheek, making a black streak in the wall above them. A current of anger rose inside her. “That’s not true, James. Carly and I are your family now.”

Her words brought strength back into James’s eyes, and she took the opportunity to reach out and drag him with her behind the shelter. James turned his head back to Dal and Skye wondered if he could go on.

“That’s if you can find it in your heart to love again.” They may die at any moment, and she had to know the truth.

The loss blinding James’s eyes cleared and he looked into her gaze, grabbing her arm. “I can, Skye. I will.”

Laser fire turned to fireworks around her as more of the gangmen filled the corridor. A weight lifted from her chest, dissipating in the simmering air. She nodded, swallowing tears. “We’ll come back for him, I promise. But first, let’s secure our new home.”

They sprinted ahead, joining the gangmen pushing through the barricade. The corridor opened into a vast vaulted ceiling, painted in stars. James held up his hand, halting everyone before the entrance. “Take down those that fight against you, but leave everyone else at peace. If we are going to make this our paradise, we need to accept everyone. No prejudice, and absolutely no Morpheus.”

On his signal, the Radioactive Hand of Justice infiltrated the city, followed by a stream of refugees. Snipers fired from high windows, but Dal was right: there were too many people rushing through to stop them all. Feeling as though she walked in a dream, Skye followed James down a paved street to a land reminiscent of a past century, a place she thought she’d never see.

Motorcars whizzed down paved streets. The people crossed through a garden framed by apple trees, and Skye had to tear her gaze away to keep running in a straight line. Apples hung ripening on branches, and squirrels zigzagged across their path.

James pointed above the tree line. “There! The control tower. If we can get to it, we’ll take over the city.”

Skye checked her beamer. The energy cell was half depleted, but she still had a few shots left. “Let’s go.”

People in white uniforms stopped and stared as they darted through the gardens toward the control tower.

“They’re just biologists,” James assured her. “They don’t have guns. Keep going.”

One of the white-coated men brought up a hand held mic and spoke into it as Skye stumbled over a crop of tomatoes, the ripe scent wafting up as she brushed the vines. This biodome made Thadious Legacy’s greenhouse look like a child’s garden.

How could these people think there weren’t enough resources? Determination born of anger made her press forward. She’d secure this city and ration out the food the government hoarded. She’d make the world right again.

They reached a chain-link fence and began to climb. Behind them lasers fired through the trees. Skye glanced over her shoulder as she shoved her toe in a link for a foothold. “More guards. The biologists probably reported us.”

“Must go faster!” James shouted down as he straddled the top. Skye still had two meters left to go. “They know where we’re headed.”

She curled her fingers around the links as she pulled herself up, hand over hand. She reached the top as James landed on the other side.

Laser fire shot around her as Skye negotiated the fall. If she landed the wrong way, she’d break her ankles.

“You can do it, Skye,” James shouted as the white coats burst through the tomato patch, followed by more armed guards.

Skye jumped. The fall seemed like forever, then the ground rose quickly and she reminded herself to keep loose and bend her knees. Her feet hit the ground, sending a jolt of pain through her calves, but James forced her up. They scrambled behind a utility vehicle.

The control tower stood out like a giant mushroom surrounded by guards on all sides.

Skye chanced a look behind her. The guards had climbed the fence and were working their way down. Enemies surrounded them. “We’ll never make it through.”

“Oh, yes, we will.”

James signaled across the courtyard and laser fire shot out from the buildings around the control tower. Some of the gangmen had made it to the center of the biodome and were waiting for his command.

The guards abandoned their posts, running at the gangmen firing in the streets. James gestured over his shoulder and they scrambled toward the door.

James stopped before they went in and Skye bumped up against him. “Hurry up. They’re following us.”

“Can’t be too careful.” He fired his laser inside at all angles and they slipped in, closing the door behind them. The antechamber was as quiet as deep space compared to the racket going on outside.

Doubt crept in at the bareness of the room and the ease with which they’d entered. “What if the main controls aren’t here?” Had they just walked into a trap?

“I know they are. Dal showed me a printout.”

The handle moved, and James lunged. He grabbed the handle and pushed his body against the metal, holding it in place. “Find something to brace the door.”

Skye scanned the room. Nothing. The walls were bare, the floor clear. She ran to a closet on the other side and threw open the door. Large bottles of water bigger than Skye’s head lay stacked in rows.

“There’s nothing here.”

She glanced over her shoulder. The door opened a crack and she saw the black uniforms of the station’s military guards. James gritted his teeth and heaved, and the door slammed in place. He shouted, “I can’t hold them back forever.”

Pipes made from PVC tubing lined the wall of the closet. Skye wrapped her fingers around one and pulled. The tube didn’t budge. “Cyber hell.” They’d come too far to get shot down now. Skye’s veins coursed with adrenaline and fear. Shot down is exactly what would happen.

“Skye, do something!”

She kicked at the bottom of the tube where it curved into the wall. The first kick did nothing, so she tried again and again until the plastic panel holding it in place cracked. She twisted the pipe until the top bent off and fell back against the inside of the closet with the pipe in her hands. The air was knocked out of her and her muscles in her back stung. Forcing herself up, she ran over to James and jabbed the pipe in the door.

James’s eyes widened. “Geez, where did you get that?”

There was no time to explain. Skye wiped sweat from her forehead. “It won’t hold them for long.”

“We don’t need forever. Just enough time to seize the controls of the city. Come on.” They climbed three flights of stairs, Skye’s heart pounding with each step. James whipped open a metal door.

“Freeze.”

Two men stood with their hands up and conniving looks on their faces. The one on the right, a man with gray-tipped hair and a sharp nose, spoke and Skye recognized his voice from the com link. “Don’t shoot.” His badge read
Lieutenant Tehon
.

Everything about the situation screamed it was a trap, but Skye couldn’t figure it out. Her eyes scanned the room for someone lying in wait, but the circular viewing chamber was small and choked with computer panels. There was nowhere to hide.

“Easy now,” James instructed them. “We’re taking over this station. If you want to join us, you’re most welcome, but if you get in our way, I’ll be forced to shoot.”

Tension crawled up the back of Skye’s neck. She watched a drop of sweat trickle down the man’s cheek and wondered what thoughts flew through his mind. Would they blow up the station like Utopia and the State Building?

“I’m just following orders.”

James wiggled his laser. “And if everyone else jumped into a black hole, would you jump, too?”

While James spoke, Skye noticed a strange light blinking on the panel behind the men. She didn’t want to distract James, but her heart rate sped and her gut churned.

“There’re too many damned people in the world,” Lieutenant Tehon countered. “If everybody wanted what the higher-ups had, there’d be nothing left.”

James couldn’t resist arguing. “So your answer is to block them all out and watch them die?”

“Better that some live, than have everyone rot in hell,” he spat.

“Who’s to say what hell is?” James countered. “Aren’t you playing God, then?”

Lieutenant Tehon smirked. “You watch. With three thousand refugees flooding the streets as we speak, this station will turn into a rat hole within months. Everyone will be fending for themselves. There’ll be no food, no proper sanitation. We’ll all die a horribly slow and foul death.” The lieutenant’s eyes beat down on James’s. “You’ve killed us all.”

His accusation had no effect on James. He looked the lieutenant up and down as if he were the murderer. “You have no faith in humankind.”

“You gangmen have no sense of boundaries. You can’t keep stealing what isn’t yours.”

“This is not Utopia.” James clenched his fist and Skye wondered if he’d knock the man out like he had at the party. “That food resource fed everyone in New York—albeit not equally, but at least it fed them all. This space station is unattainable to anyone without the proper badge. All I’m doing is opening it to the masses. I don’t want to hoard it for myself.”

Skye wanted to knock some sense into James. He was philosophizing in a battle of ideals without paying attention to the flashing panels behind the lieutenant.

She stepped forward, so close that the barrel of her beamer stuck into the other man’s belly. His fingers twitched as if he thought of lunging for the gun. Skye shot him a nasty look. “Don’t move.”

Numbers counted down next to the timer. She drew on her knowledge of computer systems. If she was right, then this man lied.

Skye took a deep breath and said, “No.”

All heads turned to her. “You’d rather destroy the station than see it shared among the
unchosen
.”

Lieutenant Tehon grinned. “I can’t let you have it. This control tower communicates with every colony ship that’s left Earth. I can’t allow you to sabotage them as well.”

“We’re not going to. We just want a home.”

James shook his laser. “Turn it off.”

“All it takes is one little computer virus.” The lieutenant closed his eyes. Skye’s heart beat so fast it hurt.