Ammonite Planets (Omnibus): Ammonite Galaxy #1-3 (58 page)

WHEN SIX TOUCHED down on the spaceport it was to see the remaining three other pods there. Their pilots were waiting for him.

“Bamonte is dead,” one of them told him “I saw his pod blow up right in front of me. There is no way on Sacras that he could have escaped.”

Six nodded. “And the other shuttle?” he asked.

They shrugged. “We know nothing about pod five. Diva was piloting it. She was assigned the northernmost ship, and after the explosions began it was very hard to track anybody. No-one knows what has happened to her pod. We assume it either exploded or was brought down. Her chances of survival are very slim.”

“And what about New Kwaide? How many missiles got through?”

They looked uncomfortable. “None of Diva’s reached Kwaide. One of Grace’s …” The man who was talking looked rather ashamed. “I was unable to stop mine, and the same goes for Samoso here. And one of Bamonte’s got through. His shuttle pod stopped the other.”

“You were only able to stop four in total?” Six felt dispirited. “That means that – what? – six got through?”

The refugee again looked uncomfortable. “We believe so. We were about to go to see what we could do to help.”

“Do so. I will take this shuttle pod and see if I can find the missing pilot. You all present yourselves to Magestra Cimma, and place yourselves under her orders. Tell her that her daughter is safe on the orbital platform, and that I have set out in search of Diva.”

They nodded their understanding. Six just hoped that they would find Cimma still there, and the base camp in one piece. He doubted it – it seemed likely that at least four of those six missiles would have been aimed at the base camp. With a sigh he turned back to the shuttle pod.

Where on Sacras are you, Diva? Trust you to be the one to disappear into thin air. Did you have to be the only one to bring down both missiles? Silly question. Of course you did. You wouldn’t be Diva otherwise.

After refueling, he set off into the north with his pod. If the base camp was in an inhospitable area, the terrain further north of the black peak was practically unsurvivable. Even if she had come down alive in that area the chances of her being able to get herself out were nil. He gave a heavy sigh, and tried to concentrate on his instruments. Thinking about it was no good. It would be better to keep his mind on the task at hand. At least the proximity alert should tell him when he got within a hundred miles of her pod. If there was anything left of it, of course. Damn you, Diva!

He had refueled twice before his instruments got a faint sign from the vanished pod. At last the proximity alert warned that it had detected remains. Six glanced down through the rexilene visor, and closed his eyes briefly. There were only scudding dark clouds visible below the jagged peaks. They were so far above the tree line that even warthogs would be unable to survive.

He strained his eyes as he brought the pod in closer to the position marked on the console. Could it still be in one piece? The peaks pushed their serrated edges up through the racing clouds that were a sign of raging storms. Distance made them look almost benevolent, but Six knew better. Few who had ever come up here on foot had lived to return. Kwaide was not kind to its inhabitants – those that strayed far from the flatlands around Benefice paid for their temerity sooner or later. The peaks themselves were only visible because the fierce winds kept the snow off them. Slightly further down there was a blizzard of windswept snow mixed with icy rain clouds which made it almost impossible to see anything at all.

The pod was getting closer and closer to the position given on the console, and still he could see nothing. They were so high up that the wind would make walking virtually impossible. Six stood up and began to put a full bodywrap on. There was an atmosphere on Kwaide, even at this high altitude, but despite this it was still just as unfriendly as Valhai. The same suits were needed on both. He grinned to himself. If only he had owned one of these suits when he had been that small untouchable in the uninhabitable zone trying to take care of his twin sisters! How luxurious it would have made their lives. Yet now he had learned to take it for granted.

At last he was suited up. He secured ten mask packs around his waist, and stowed a spare bodywrap in a pack bag. If she
had
survived she would need one of these on if she were to stay that way. And the only way she could have survived was if the automatic parachute had deployed as she sank through the atmosphere.

He spared one more second to look again out of the rexelene visor before he sat down to oversee the landing. There was still nothing to be seen below the unrelenting black icy needles spiking up through the white banks of snow piled on their leeward side.

The pod came into to a dangerous vertical landing with a jolt. One of the legs had failed to find a hard surface, and the other three had to compensate automatically until a fifth leg could be deployed. Then the small pod righted itself slowly, and the green light permitting exit came on.

Six made his way down the steps. According to the console, the signal was coming from about twenty metres to the south. Gingerly, he began to make his way across the treacherous surface, feeling his way with every footstep. He had heard of huge crevices hiding beneath apparently innocent-looking ice.

After twenty metres he could still see nothing. And now he had lost sight of his own pod too – visibility could only be about five metres up here, he thought. The wind was buffeting him so hard that he was having to walk into it doubled over, as if he were crippled with space-bone disease. It whipped around his face, and he breathed thankfully in and out of the mask pack. It would have been impossible to have walked more than three steps otherwise.

At last he made out rounded edges of a dark shadow in front of him. The mask pack autoblocked, as he forgot to breathe correctly, and he was forced to stop for a moment. The shadow looked large – that was a good sign, surely?

Then he actually reached the shadow. It was the pod, he saw, but it was horribly damaged. The outside was pock-marked with tiny craters and the metallic hull was criss-crossed with slashes. He saw remnants of the parachute, and breathed slightly more easily. At least her fall had been attenuated.

He felt his agonizingly slow way along to the entry hatch. Even activating the emergency unlock device was all but impossible in these conditions. He had to concentrate on maintaining his breathing so as not to block the mask pack again.

At last the lock snapped open, and he was able to drag the protesting hatch out on its hinges. He had to scale part of the fuselage to get himself up to the opening.

It was dark, and icy inside. But there was some degree of protection, despite the gaping holes in parts of the bodywork. Six fumbled with his hands, trying to feel his way to the console. They unwittingly touched something definitely too soft to be an instrument panel.

“If that is you, nomus, I told you last time to keep your hands to yourself!” A small quavery voice complained.

“Sacras, Diva!” He snatched his hands back. “You could have said you were there!”

“What, and spoil all your fun? You seem to be making a habit of grabbing at me!”

“Yeah, yeah! Couldn’t you have taken a bit better care of your pod? You have totaled it.”

“Oh so sorry! Pardon me! I was just saving your moth-eaten planet from a couple of bombs.”

“That’s all very well, but I don’t see why you had to crash-land in the most hostile place on all Kwaide!”

“Nobody asked you to come tearing out to find me. I was just considering how to get myself out of here.”

“I’ll go away again if my visit is not convenient, your huffiness. Pardon my temerity!”

“I’m perfectly capable of getting myself out. I do NOT need anybody to come and salvage me.”

“I apologize for interrupting your tea break, your ladyship.”

“And if I did need help it wouldn’t be yours, no-name. I can look after myself perfectly well.”

“I didn’t doubt it for the least second. However, since I have a pod standing by, you might like to consider putting a bodywrap on and shimmying over to my place. I know you would rather hike it over the mountains, but it might be a bit quicker.”

There was a sort of sniff from the person below him. “You will have to wait outside if I am going to change. I can’t fit a bodywrap over this spacesuit, and I can’t walk in the spacesuit.”

“No way, Diva,” protested Six. “It is pitch black in here; It is about fifty degrees below freezing out there, and I refuse to freeze to death just to protect your privacy. Think again!”

“Then you must close your eyes and promise not to look,” she said crossly. “Not that the promise of an untouchable means a thing.”

Six grinned to himself. As a matter of fact it didn’t. “I promise,” he said mendaciously.

“And you could have asked me if I am hurt,” she complained.

“I didn’t want to impose,” he said, pulling the spare bodywrap out of the back pack. “Here you are!”

“Ouch! Ow!” A series of dull thuds and winces told him that she was trying to carry out his suggestion. There was a few moments tugging and then, “I can’t.”

“Can’t what?”

“My leg is stuck under the console. I can’t move it.”

“Well you might have told me that at the beginning! Honestly Diva, I could throttle you!” He bent down and tried to locate her leg.

“That is not my leg!” she informed him in a dangerously quiet tone.

“Well I can’t just guess where it is, so you are going to have to put up with being handled, milady, aren’t you? Unless you would like me to come back another day?”

“I spps nt”

“I’m sorry? What was that?”

“I said, I suppose not.”

“Let me get this clear. You – Divina Senate Magmus of Coriolis – would like me – Six of Kwaide – to save your precious skin?”

Diva growled. “I said. YES!”

Six smiled. “Worth coming up here just to hear that! Now keep still and let me see if I can lift this console off you!”

“Ouch!”

“Err … Diva … I haven’t touched you yet.”

“Liar! I felt something crawl down my leg!”

Six touched her leg, pulled off his mask pack and put his padded finger to his mouth. “That’s blood,” he said. “You have cut yourself.”

He felt worried. That was a lot of blood! But it was so dark inside the pod that he couldn’t see what was causing it. He struggled with the console, tugging it this way and that until he managed to move it slightly.

“Got it!” he muttered through his teeth, breathing heavily with the effort. “Just need to pull it a bit more this way … There!” The console shifted, Diva gave a stifled cry, and Six pulled her leg swiftly out from under the instrument panel.

“Are you all right? Can you move your foot?” he demanded.

There was a pause. “Yes, but there is something wrong with it. Never mind, I can get the bodywrap on now. Don’t watch!”

Six shook his head in amusement. “I’ve seen better legs in a pond full of Kwaidian frogs!” he told her. “Don’t flatter yourself!”

“What’s wrong with my legs?” she flared.

“They just go on and on. That’s why they get trapped under consoles and stuff. They are far too long and thin.”

“I suppose you no-names prefer short stumpy legs like tree-trunks?”

“Stands to reason,” he said. “Much better for survival. Who wants thin willowy things? Bound to bend at the first sign of trouble. No good at all on Kwaide.” He grinned to himself.

There was the sound of the bodywrap being fastened, with some anger. “All right. We can go now.”

“Yes, modom. If your royal numbness will kindly step this way …”

“Oh, get out of my way!”

“I was trying,” complained Six, “but you just stepped on my foot.”

“That squishy thing was your foot? I thought it must have been a cushion.”

“I wondered why you ground your heel into it.”

“I was only trying to keep my balance.”

“Sure. And I believe you.”

“It’s true! It’s your own fault for having a foot like a dumpling!”

“I suppose you think I am a Cesan trogling!”

“Not … exactly, but you are a bit … err … prehistoric. I suppose it is all that petrifying water on Kwaide.”

“No Mesteta baths, perhaps? No pandering to your cutis? No polishing up of your teeth?”