Shards [Book Two] Read online

  “Hi,” I said sleepily. “We haven't met formally, yet. My name's Abigail."

  He chuckled. “Well, that's very proper of you. I'm Ken Ramsey. You can call me Kenny."

  “All right, Kenny,” I smiled up at him.

  “You look a little different than on ‘verse,” he commented, then added quickly. “But a vast improvement, mind you."

  “Sorry,” I apologized. “I just figured you'd drag your feet if you saw the real me, and we just didn't have the time.” I turned my head. “So where are we? What's going on?"

  “Well, after you did whatever it was you did, we took out of there pretty quick. The hov's Mac was out, so we had to make it out through the mountains. Corporal Lendler brought us out into the foothills along the southern edge, into a remote neighborhood. From there we drifted slowly into Glendale itself. We've been here for two hours now."

  “Have we been able to contact any of our people?"

  “No, not yet. After the explosion, NATech slapped a full-strength jamming field with sniffer over the entire area. They're scouring the neighborhoods with at least four cohorts, looking for us. But Lendler's got us pretty well hid in an alley."

  He looked down at me. “How about you, Abigail? How do you feel? You looked and sounded awful back up there in the rocks."

  “I know. I'm sorry,” I said, half-ashamed. “I wasn't much help in the fight. I don't know what happened."

  “I do. Wayne and I are hoppers. We take it to the bad guys from the air. What happened to you was what we call ‘juiced’ On a flyer, the ERF slaps a pretty firm field around you, so in case =of abrupt stopping or turns, your blood stays in your head and you don't pass out. Hovs have the same kind of field, only to shield against injury.

  “Every now and then, the ERF picks up a serious jolt of energy from weapons fire, and the field constricts or is knocked out of alignment. Not a lot, but enough to penetrate the skin. When it does, it plays hell with your nerve endings and you feel like someone just skinned you alive and salted you down.

  “After we found out we couldn't phase, we checked the outside damage. Sure enough, one shot had blasted through the plating over the ERF generator, and a second had followed it in, overcharging the generator. Didn't knock it out, but you got juiced.” He smiled sympathetically. “If it'll make you feel any better, I know just how you feel. I've been juiced two or three times, and it's not a good way to end a day. You'll be weak and your skin will be a little sensitive for a day or so, but you'll be okay."

  “Thanks for the support,” I said gratefully. I settled a little deeper in his lap. “In more ways than one. So now we wait?"

  “Uh-huh. Maybe for a long time. You took out at least three cohorts, so they'll be looking for blood.” He turned a speculative eye to me. “Say, how did you manage to do that? It was like a missile came in out of nowhere.” Susie and Wayne had heard our quiet voices—not hard in such a confined place—and were listening in.

  “I brought down a NATech microsat that was in orbit. We had the shields altered to prevent burnup until the last moment. The heat we felt just prior to impact was the extreme temperatures of the shields. I figured even though it was so small..."

  “Wait a minute,” Wayne spoke up for the first time. He didn't sound too pleased. “You're saying you dropped an orbiting satellite down with that kind of precision? How could you do that? You're too young to—"

  “Kindly shut your yap, Wayne,” Kenny cut in, saving his partner an embarrassing answer. Kenny knew I was a Cue. Even in the dim red light, I could see that knowledge in him as he looked at me. His gaze saw much deeper than his eyes could observe. But in the Resistance, you never asked if someone was a Cue, nor referred to anyone as being one. Even if a Cue volunteered the information, you politely ignored it. It was an unwritten rule, and as such immutable.

  “He does ask a good question, though, Abigail. Nobody has that kind of precision. I don't even want to think what could have happened..."

  “But it didn't, did it?” I interrupted. “And I didn't do it, not really. I had someone else bring it down. Someone in the puterverse. She's—"

  “That's enough for now, Abby.” It was Susie's turn to interrupt. “Just relax now. Try to get some sleep. Kenny? Could you and Wayne do a foot patrol? See if this is a good place to stay hidden come daylight? I'm not sure we'll be able to move again until tonight."

  Kenny looked at her for a moment, then down at me. I'd rather he stayed, both for his lap and company, and for his protection when Susie started yelling at me, which she looked like she was going to do. Finally, his face set, he nodded and helped me to a sitting position. He rose to his feet and picked up a couple of headsets and hov guns, then he and Wayne went out on patrol. The hatch closed quietly behind them and Susie turned to me.

  “Are you crazy, Abigail?” It shouldn't be possible to yell while keeping your voice just above a whisper, but Susie had discovered a way.

  “Yep. Sure am, Susie!” I giggled, trying to lighten her up. “Did you have any area of crazy you wanted to be sore about?"

  My attempt at levity failed miserably. She brought her hand up and smacked me straight across the mouth. It wasn't all that hard, but it felt like she peeled off the top two layers of skin. I cried out and fell to my side, holding my cheek. Tears came up.

  “Don't you EVER be that flippant to me again, Private!” Her voice took on a biting quality. “You foolishly risked all our lives with that microsat stunt! Then you—"

  “But it worked!” I protested meekly.

  “Did it? Did it really? It worked up there in the canyon, but that fight's not over yet. You've really kicked over a bee's nest—"

  “A hornet's nest."

  “SHUT UP! Just SHUT UP!! NATech is bringing every local resource to bear against us, and we're caught in the middle of a civilian population! We're further crippled in that our hov is disabled and sticks out in this town like a sore thumb and we may be forced to abandon it. Then how do we get home?

  “Worse than that stupid, dangerous attack, I'm even angrier that you didn't secure permission from me first."

  “But you said—"

  “Don't give me that crap! You know perfectly well I would have never sanctioned such a devastating attack! And I'm your superior in matters outside non-unit combat. I have no doubt you saved all our lives tonight. I can't think of any other way we could have gotten out of that hole once the phase unit was damaged.

  “But in saving us, you also put thousands of civilian lives at stake—many of them Shards—and that is reckless and stupid. What if you had been off by a fraction of a second, by the smallest fraction of degree of latitude? Glendale would be gone. And our four lives are not worth their thousands. You would agree with me, if you used your head for a change.

  “And to top it all off, you were going to start blabbing to those two men about your helpers, Mike and Kiki, in the puterverse."

  I looked at her blankly, not understanding.

  “Abby. Girl, you are so dense sometimes.” Her voice took on a softer tone. “You've done some incredible things in the puterverse. Things no one else can do. We know some of it from what you've told us. I've seen some of it when I'm with you. No doubt there is a great deal more you haven't told us about, things I haven't seen. And you're very proud of it. But you can't go around talking about it! Don't you see? If word got out, you'd be hunted down, both as a possible Cue and as a definite NATech security risk. We've got to be quiet about this, even to other Resistance units. Your shooting off your mouth with such carelessness put all of that in jeopardy."

  I looked at her, feeling very small. Her softer voice was only worse, for with the anger gone, it was all too easy to hear her disappointment in me. I felt my shoulders start to shake and then I was sobbing, and then I was crying. I hated myself for being so weak, so stupid. She didn't need a kid crying like this, but I couldn't stop. That only made me feel worse, which made me cry harder.

  Susie understood. She always understood. She p
ulled me close against her and let me bawl. Her arms wrapped around me, and the hand that only moments ago had slapped my face now stroked my hair and patted my back. Why was it that I always seemed to end up like this, crying in Susie's arms? The answer was pretty easy, that was the kind of girl I was. Inclined to bursts of emotion, overconfident in my abilities and exercising poor or no judgment.

  It was so clear now. I had only thought about the attack missing and striking us. That was an acceptable risk because we were already going to be in that deep. It never once occurred to me that the microsat may have deviated from its course even a fraction of a degree and thousands would have died. It was so clear. Now.

  Having satisfied myself that we and the actual target were the only ones who could be hit, I assumed Susie's role of authority and made the decision. Yes, I had checked with Susie, but had been very careful in not giving her enough details to make the correct decision, the decision to not attack with the microsat. I had so much wanted to show off that a lot of innocent people almost paid the price.

  “Pull yourself together, Abby.” The harsh words were strengthening with her tone. She propped me up to look in my eyes. “There's one more thing I wanted to say.” She smiled at my sick look. “No, it's not to chew you out. It's to say how proud I am of you."

  “Huh? But ... but you said..."

  “I know what I said. And I meant it. What you did was stupid and dangerous. But it was also brave and selfless. You didn't give a single thought to the people of Glendale. And you didn't give a thought to your own safety or mine. All you were thinking about was the safety of Kenny and Wayne. That shows me, and them, that you're a dog. When your team's life is more important than yours, then you belong with us. And your solution was devastatingly accurate. Anyone else I'd have court-martialed for severe neglect and dereliction of duty. Not you. You're the only person I would trust such a stunt to. If you had asked me, I would have said no. But I would have thought about it first. You've a keen sense of now, Abby. You are able to live right on the edge of recklessness without stepping over. Don't lose that edge, Abigail. One day, such a stunt will be stupid and dangerous and absolutely necessary."

  Talk about being in a whirlwind of emotions. I'd been out of my riping for two years and had become used to this roller coaster of constant mood changes. It had gotten even worse in the past year and a half. There were deep lows, sometimes three or four times a day, usually ... um ... once a month. But there were also times when I seemed to float in a perpetual cloud of euphoria. Susie's vote of confidence lifted me up close to one of those clouds. I even forgot about my still stinging cheek.

  “I'll take the blame, Susie, but Kiki should really get the credit. It was her idea."

  “Uh-huh. And who made Kiki?"

  “I did. But she's become so much more on her own!” I was quickly warming to my favorite subject. “And when I give her the next package of code, like I gave Mike tonight, she'll be even more..."

  A bright, painful light flashed in the forward portals, flooding the cabin. I was still shaken by my mood swings, but that's no excuse. We had gone over the drills until we could do them in our sleep. I missed it. Susie didn't. She threw herself prone on the floor, jerking me down beside her.

  There was a terrific thud on the hull of the hov, and the entire craft shuddered and rocked. The blast was so great that the hov slued on its antigrav field, then settled back. We'd been found, and they'd brought in a big gun! We were in deep trouble. The odds of surviving a point blank assault by an antihov gun just didn't exist.

  The control panels lit up and started screaming. Susie scrambled to her hands and knees and slid into the pilot's seat. She began calming the computer down with voice and panel commands. She was terribly exposed—a favorite tactic of NATech commando squads on wounded craft was to punch a micron-thick laser through the damaged shielding and hull at the pilot's seat. Damage to the craft was nominal, but the damage to the pilot was devastating, especially if the beam was traversing.

  Finally getting with the program, I clambered into the navigator's seat. A useless action: a quick glance at the ruined control panel told me that the nav systems had taken the brunt of the gun's blast. I looked over at what Susie was doing and felt a chill going down my spine. She was preparing for Emergency Final Phase: the last desperate action of a hopeless situation. Such was our condition that it was the only option left us, dangerous as it was.

  When a phase capable vehicle was used enough, it built up a residual phase field. This field was an aftereffect and kept the smallest fraction of the craft's mass in a permanently phased condition. Eventually, this field degraded the ship's structural integrity to the point that the entire craft had to be scrapped.

  Our hov was a long way from being scrapped—from field effect anyway—but it had built up a significant residue. If it was enough, the field could be charged directly from the ion engine and forced to act as a phasing field for the entire craft. It was an incredibly dangerous maneuver. Not only did it degrade the structural integrity of the hull within minutes, it was wildly unstable and could shut off without warning. And since the only reason to be using the field was for Emergency Final Phase, there was a high chance that it would also turn into a fatal final phase.

  I tried to resurrect the nav systems, but I was wasting my time. We needed some computer guidance, though, and the back up systems were also out. I would have to access the puterverse.

  “Susie! Nav's out! I gotta talk to Mike!” I had to shout over the din of small arms fire popping against the fore, aft, and port hull. They had at least two or three cohorts out there. Only the starboard side remained unhit because it was nestled against a building wall.

  Susie pursed her lips and curtly nodded, neither taking her eyes off the console nor changing the monotonic litany of manual control voice commands. I shot out of the nav seat and threw myself into the terminal chair behind Susie. Not even buckling in, I called for access.

  There were no colors, exploding lights or quacking ducks with this trip. I didn't have the time, the puter didn't have the visual, and the hov didn't have the power.

  “Mike! Get your butt over here! I'm in a tight spot!"

  “Gotcha, Abby! Hey, how come I can't see—"

  “Can it. NATech has Susie and me pinned down in our hov, we're moments from an EFP, and the nav's out."

  “Say no more. Hold.” His voice became calm and computer like. “Scanning perimeter, scanning ... Computing ... hold ... Completed.” Excitement crept back in his voice. “Okay, Abby, I've got an escape path! Hook me into the back up nav and I'll"

  “It's out, too,” I cut in.

  “Not good. I'll—"

  Again, Mike was cut off. This time it was from the outside. A second blast ripped into us from the big gun. The forward portals glowed bright red from heat, then fractured as the craft shook. It dropped to the ground as we lost antigrav. That tears it, I thought despairingly. The only thing left to do was fight our way out. If we were lucky, Susie and I would both be killed. Many of the NATech cohorts in this Shard town were Suppression Squads, the scum of their military, and rape was nothing unusual. I remembered my gun that Susie had taken from me, but it was in the other hov. Maybe I could—the craft started humming as Susie brought the antigrav back on line and the craft regained its normal one-meter altitude. I'd given up too soon. Susie had called me good under combat conditions. And I was the best when I didn't let my emotions dictate my actions. But between the juicing and my wild emotion swings, I was very much not myself tonight.

  Mike started chattering in my ears. “Abby! Abby! Where are you?” He sounded scared.

  “Right here, Mike. Listen! I'm giving you to Susie. Stand by.” I raised my voice. “Susie! Mike's worked a way out of this. Here he comes!” I switched him over then went back to the navigator's seat. For some reason, I thought of Kenny and Wayne at that moment. I hoped they were all right and had escaped.

  I was just sliding in and hadn't even buckled when the ho
v groaned and lurched forward. I felt a sudden sickness in the pit of my stomach and was pressed back against the chair back and into my seat.

  A high-pitched buzz emanated from every square centimeter of the hull as Susie rerouted the majority of our power directly into the hull's circuitry. I felt an uncomfortable tingling sensation over my skin as we began to pseudophase. Unlike actual phasing, movement was not restricted. Not that it mattered: I had no place to go.

  Susie accelerated the craft straight ahead—directly into the heaviest concentration of fire. Lasers and particle beams laced through the hov, causing no damage.

  Then suddenly a man's head appeared from the panel in front of me! I screamed at the unexpectedness of it, then sharply inhaled as he passed through my body. It was all shock, no damage. His comrades also flickered through as our ship split their ranks and went behind them.

  The itching was getting worse, turning into a crawling sensation. Nowhere near as bad as the restraining field mishap, it was still unpleasant. I fought down the urge to start swatting and scratching my arms, legs and face. Susie didn't need any distractions. She needed full concentration to fly our quickly failing hov.

  And she was doing a masterful job. She yanked the craft hard to port after we cleared the front goon platoon and big gun. The craft continued to come around hard to port, canted sharply over on one side. As we leaned against the tilt, I caught a movement out of the corner of my eye and looked down. The deck was gone. Instead, there was solid ground sweeping by us at high speed as we phased through it. It didn't have the typical, half-seen, half see-through look of normal phased objects. It was there =Then came the dread realization, and terror seeped into my very soul. To maintain structural integrity, Susie had to divert more and more power from the engine. That drained propulsion and antigravity. We were sinking slowly into the ground!