Star Road (28 page)

The portal was close. But now, coming up on their rear ...

The huge troop ship was moving up behind them.

Could Annie outrace it? Had to be too large to navigate the twists and turns of the road like SRV-66.

Smaller means faster ... more agile.

But even as he watched, the troop ship opened, and more speeders dropped onto the road and started moving toward them.

Small... agile.

Damn it!

Eight... ten ... fifteen and more were coming. More than he could count.

“All right, then …” he said as he squeezed the grips of the gun’s controls, the palms of his hands dry.

This is what he lived for.

The speeders quickly closed the distance, but not all of them made it. Within the first thirty seconds, three were blasted out of existence, the wreckage falling to the ocean below.

But the road here was wide enough so they could zigzag back and forth, and Jordan couldn’t predict all their moves.

And for most of them, their shields held.

He decided to hold fire. Wait to catch them on a turn, when their shields were exposed, and then: they started to shoot.

Streaks of white light shot from their forward cones, but these weren’t kill shots, Jordan quickly realized.

Going to wound us just enough.

And as the speeders closed the gap between them, they stopped firing

They weren’t even going to risk going for the crippling shot... not if it meant disabling the SRV and having it lose control and drop off the ramp and into the sea.

They may be crazy,
Jordan thought,
but they’re certainly not stupid.

~ * ~

Annie jumped with surprise when the commlink suddenly chirped.

Not Jordan’s bandwidth.

She hit the button, and a face, blurred beyond recognition, popped up on her comm screen. She hit a button to run an ID scan but knew it wouldn’t work. The scrambled signal would mix the data stream.

“Captain,” the man said. His voice sounded unnervingly close in the confines of the cockpit. “Don’t make this any harder on yourself than it has to be.”

Fuck you!
Annie thought, but instead said, “What do you mean by that?”

“Power down and pull over, or we’ll burn you.”

Annie stared at the face of the screen, knowing the commander could see her. She bit her lower lip as she slowly shook her head.

“Can I ask why you’ve opened fire on a civilian vehicle?” she said.

The commander of the troop ship leaned back and laughed.

“Isn’t it obvious?”

“You’re violating World Council law.”

“We’re a long way from the World Council, from Earth ... Captain ... Captain Scott, if I’m reading your transponder signal correctly.”

A lengthening silence. And then: “We have nothing on board of interest,” Annie said.

“How do you know what interests me?”

“We have a handful of passengers and a small amount of cargo. Medical supplies, mostly. Not worth the price you’ve already paid.”

A laugh, this time deep and more sinister than humorous.

“How many men have you already lost?” Annie asked.

Thinking at the same time:
This has to be about Delgato.

The commander laughed again and said, “I’ll give your gunner credit. He’s good. He should join us.”

Fat chance!

With nothing more to say, Annie cut the communication and sped up, trying to put more distance between herself and the speeders. That lumbering tub of bolts would never catch her on its own, and hopefully Jordan could handle the speeders.

Or I gotta outrun them.

The SRV tore along the winding roads, but no matter what Annie did, she couldn’t shake her pursuers. They popped up and swooped in, riding her ... herding her ...

Finally, frustrated, she flipped on the intercom and spoke to the passengers as calmly and carefully as she could.

“I need a volunteer. Anyone ever shoot a nose cannon?”

Nahara or Rodriguez, maybe... Not the Chippie, and absolutely not the Seeker.

Of course ... there was
one
guy who could probably operate it, no problem.

Delgato.

~ * ~

Ruth froze when the captain’s voice came over the speakers.

Like the other passengers, she’d been furiously knocked back and forth as the SRV sped over the winding roads. She was exhausted, like the rest of the passengers who hadn’t slept in ... how long?

And as shots flashed by the SRV, the heavy thump of the gun turret shook her bones.

And now this? Asking for a volunteer?

Or what—we get captured... killed?

She undid her safety straps and stood up. Clinging to the seatbacks, she made her way slowly to the front of the cabin.

“You. Nahara. How about you?” she asked, looking at the World Council exec.

He regarded her for a moment and then lowered his gaze as though ashamed.

“I-I’m just an executive.”

He turned away.

“And you?”

She focused on the doctor—Rodriguez.

He shook his head even before she asked her question.

A sound off to her right drew her attention.

She looked at him—Ivan Delgato, the scourge of the Star Road, if she could believe the media.

His eyes were wide; his expression, pained.

Then, though she thought it impossible, he managed to say a single word.

“... I ...”

That was all.

A sound like he was being strangled. Which he was. From what Ruth knew about neuro-collars, it was a miracle he could speak at all.

She held her breath and leaned closer.

“Don’t strain yourself,” she whispered.

But Ivan’s face was infused with blood, veins bulging in his neck and forehead as he struggled to say more.

“... Take ... this ...”

A raw, ragged intake of breath.

“... off…”

Ruth looked around at the other passengers. Frantic.

No help there.

“Someone please. Help. This thing is strangling him!” she shouted to the others.

Then the exec,
Nahara,
shook his head again.

“None of my business,” he finally said, softly. “And I’m not much of a fighter.”

After a tense moment or two, Rodriguez stood up. Glaring at Nahara, he said, “Not much of a man, either. I’ll do what I can.”

With that, he walked up the few stairs to the cockpit door and rapped on it.

Within a second or two, the door opened, and he went inside.

~ * ~

Rodriguez’s hands were sweating as he shut the cockpit door and stood there for a moment, staring in amazement at the complex array of navigation and communication screens, displays, and devices.

Where to begin?

“Okay, Doc, I doubt you’ve ever been inside a SRV cockpit or operated a pulse cannon before.” Annie barely glanced up from her screens, her hands flying back and forth over the controls.

He shook his head.

“Have a seat. I’ll talk you through it. When I have a—”

Without warning, she jerked the steering hard to the left, taking a narrower ramp.

“Sit down. Buckle up.”

Rodriguez did as he was told and then watched, fighting back his fear as Annie steered the vehicle down a long, spiraling ramp. A feeling of vertigo swept through him. It looked like she was heading straight down toward the raging ocean.

Is she trying to get us all killed?

On one of the screens, Jordan—the gunner—was sitting in the aft turret, calmly swinging his cannon around and shooting. His face was expressionless.

The speeders chasing behind them were fast, and they easily dodged back and forth to avoid shots.

The shots that did hit exploded on the speeders’ shields with bright flashes of orange plasma. Enough hits, and even the toughest shields would fail.

“The gun’s control is there... on your left. Grip the handles, aim, and—
shit!”

Another wrenching turn almost threw Rodriguez out of his seat.

“Aim and fire,” Annie finished. “The trigger’s the red button on the left handle. Above your thumb.”

Without even thinking to take careful aim, Rodriguez pressed the trigger.

A streak of light shot from the forward cannon and hit the road about forty meters in front of them. Huge chunks of road compound exploded into dust.

An instant later, the SRV shuddered when it ran over the smoking crater his shot had made in the road.

“Easy there, cowboy,” Annie said. “I said
aim
first.”

Biting his lower lip, Rodriguez nodded.

Annie’s expression was fixed, staring straight ahead as she piloted the twists and turns of the spiraling road. This particular loop led down and then straight up again. But here was their chance.

A last mad dash to the portal.

“Make sure you get someone in your sights before you pull the damn trigger.”

Technically, press, not pull,
Rodriguez thought, but he wasn’t about to argue the point right now.

Rodriguez licked his lips and stared, amazed at the savage fury—and frightening beauty—of the ocean below them. Towering gray waves washed up and over the ramps and crashed in huge sprays against the pylons.

But this was no time to appreciate the view.

Up ahead, a one-man speeder suddenly appeared.

Moving so fast.

Rodriguez swung the gun up until the automatic targeting system blinked green. Then he fired ...

And missed.

His shot went wide and tore through one of the pylon’s support struts. Sparks exploded and flared as twisted hunks of molten metal and alloy exploded into the air. The gaping hole had to be at least four meters across.

“This thing’s got punch.”

The oncoming speeder was weaving from side to side, avoiding the fire and heading straight at them.

Rodriguez was sure they were going to collide head on.

But Annie darted onto another ramp, leaving that speeder behind until its pilot could turn around and get back into the chase.

“Take your time ... this isn’t rocket—or any other kind of science,” Annie said in a quiet voice that almost made him believe he could do this. “It’s just aim and shoot.”

Almost.

Because then, his only thought was:
If it’s left up to me, we’re all dead meat.

~ * ~

Jordan exhaled, frustrated.

The SRV zigged and zagged so much he still couldn’t get off many clear shots, and the speeders were onto his tactics now and kept their noses darting left and right as much as possible.

Steady there, Annie,
he thought.
Just for a bit.

He couldn’t see the troop ship through the turret, but his scanner indicated its approximate location.

What he saw made him smile.

“Annie, you’ve got him out of position,” he said into the commlink.

“Say again?” Annie’s voice crackled in his headset.

“We’re between him and the portal. Check your readings. Jesus! Our shields aren’t holding up.”

“Not deionizing can’t be helping,” Annie said sharply.

Had to be slowing the SRV down.

“Can’t do a damn thing about it now,” Jordan replied.

A pause. Nothing. Then: “We’re just going to have to make a run for it.”

“That’d be my move.”

On the scanner screen, Jordan watched as several dots moved in from three directions to cut them off, trying to drive them away from the portal.

He had no delusions about their odds.

Annie was a good pilot... a
great
pilot, but she couldn’t do the impossible. These Runners were tenacious, dogged; they must
really
want whatever—
or whoever
—was onboard.

“Hey, Jordan. I’m gonna need you up front to clear the way if things get hot,” Annie said over the commlink. “Going to have to forget the speeders. I think their captain knows what I’m gonna try.”

“Be right there,” Jordan said, already undoing his safety straps.

Within seconds, he was moving briskly up the aisle toward the cockpit.

But at the front of the cabin, the Chippie grabbed at him.

“Want to chip up for me?” she asked, her eyes bright with excitement.

Jordan shrugged her hold off and raced to the cockpit door.

~ * ~

“Okay, Doc, head back and man the rear turret,” Annie said to Rodriguez. “Works just like this one. Only bigger.”

“And try not to shoot our own ass off,” Jordan added.