Sunlord (36 page)

Capac did not spare any time for sightseeing. He had
clambered atop the rumble, his eyes narrowed. "Can you see the
others?"

Ashian suddenly felt a leaden sensation in his belly.
If Myshia had been hurt...? And where was Shaun?

He had his infrared telescope out, looking for the
bright red splotch that would be Shaun. He realised Myshia would
not show up on the scope with the grease on her body.

Not if she's bleeding, a part of his mind whispered.
If she's cut, her insides will show up like fire.

He angrily shook off the morbid thought and applied
increased vigour into his searching. Still nothing showed.

They both looked up as one when the sound reached
their ears. It came as a distant rattling, a sound that Capac
recognised as gunfire. They saw small yellow flashes spark
overhead, appearing and disappearing quickly. Intermixed with the
yellow light was the harsh blue hue of laser fire.

Ashian felt an urge to take cover but he resisted,
knowing by the echoes and subdued noise that the shots were being
fired far overhead and were disjoint from their surrounds. Ashian
was sure that they were not included in the fire fight - but who
was?

He watched the flashes of light uneasily. "What do
you think it is? The droids?"

"It has to be Shaun," grinned Capac in sudden relief.
"Only he could stir 'em up like that."

Ashian grinned in spite of himself, feeling relief
that Shaun was still alive and kicking. He momentarily forgot that
the latter was still under fire. His unerring faith in Shaun led
Ashian to the firm conclusion that the human would be about to pull
himself out of any difficulty.

Capac had other concerns. "Do you think Myshia is
with him?"

"I hope so." Ashian looked around worriedly. "She's
not down here..."

"Then we have to assume Shaun's got her," finished
Capac hurriedly. "I don't think it's safe for us to stay here much
longer. I would guess the computer will have robots here soon."

Ashian swirled to face him. "You're right. Any
ideas?"

Capac extended his arm in the direction of a
secondary duct leading into the bowl like hollow they now sat in.
"Head in there, and get ourselves lost deep in the machinery." As
he spoke Capac started to move off towards their destination. "And
keep moving upwards until we reach the others."

Ashian leapt over a twisted rung in the darkness and
had to jog tiredly to keep up with Capac. His eyes were wide and
nervous. "Do you think we'll find them?"

"We need to." Capac shrugged, indicating he was
weaponless. "I lost my rifle on that fall, it could have fallen
anywhere-"

He stopped, his weight balanced upon his toes, knees
bent into a half-crouch and ears cocked, as he assumed the position
of the stalking hunter. His seamless leather shoes made a grinding
noise on the broken portions of flexiglass underfoot as he drew to
a halt.

On the wall on the side of the bowl a door opened,
spilling in faint white light from the narrow passageway beyond. A
tall figure stepped into the darkened cavern like duct, heavy boots
clanking on the stairs as he descended.

"Get down!" hissed Capac, already hunkering down low
to the ground. Ashian followed his orders quickly, his breathing
tight. The open door was only ten metres away to the side and about
two metres higher than the level on which they stood. They sat
still like rabbits caught between the headlights of a car as the
figure walked closer. Ashian felt a prickling of fear down the back
of his neck, knowing that the Sunlord was well within hearing
range.

The two frozen natives jumped as a bellowing,
incompressible shout rang out. Ashian half stumbled to his feet,
poised to leap away - a motion that would have surely attracted the
Sunlord's attention had not Capac held him back. "Stay still," he
hissed.

Ashian overpowered the urge to bolt, his muscles
still tense despite his efforts to calm them. It just seemed to go
against all his instincts to sit and watch the Sunlord's shadow
grow larger, but deep down in a part of his mind submerged by panic
he knew the wisdom of Capac's words. They had to stay hidden.

The Sunlord mechanic swaggered down the steel stairs,
com-link in one hand and the other hand brushing along the browned
railing at his side. Seeing that his initial call had no worked he
tried again.

"Lights!"

At last the voice activated circuits responded and
the lights about the circumference of the bowl flickered on. The
natives fell back as the lights snapped on overhead, flinching from
the unexpected blow. It was like going from midnight to midday in
one millisecond. Seconds later they recovered and, noticing they
were in the open, half-rolled half-scrambled into the cover of a
faint shadow nearby.

The Sunlord flicked on his com-link and raised
it.

"Crewman 15721-8 reporting," he snapped, his eyes
wandering over the twisted remains of the catwalk that lay on the
smooth surface below. He wore a full body helicasuit, an air mask
attached to his face incase the damage had caused an atmospheric
leak. The mask gave his voice a nasal quality and his face a
sleeker, more wolverine look.

The com-link buzzed with a little static before
clearing. "Control...what's your status down there?"

The Sunlord mechanic recognised the voice on the
other end, and his tone became a little more relaxed. "Looks like
vent 311 took most of the blast," he said. "Looking at it, I'd say
very little damage to the vent itself but a few walkways have come
down. I'll need a couple of droids to fix it up."

Ashian sat stone still, amazed that the Sunlord had
not seen them. The towering figure seemed so close, especially in
the light. He heard the Sunlord speaking in harsh guttural tones,
the meaning lost on his ears. He watched in silence as the mechanic
continued to speak, now moving out towards the centre of the bowl.
Unfortunately their hiding place was directly in his path.

Capac touched Ashian lightly on the shoulder, drawing
his attention, then pointed to the nearby duct. It was close by,
and would not take much effort to reach. Ashian understood
immediately by the stealthy chopping motions the hunter made that
he intended to reach its cover as soon as possible. Already the
Sunlord was too close in the clinically bright light, and it would
be only seconds before he stumbled onto them. Ashian followed Capac
as he scrambled from cover to cover, back bent and head held low,
knowing that keeping sight of his companion was his lifeline.
Ashian found himself overwhelmingly glad for the eloprin hunter's
presence for without him he surely would have perished. It had been
Capac's coolness in the panic of the moment had saved both their
hides.

Darting between the wreckage of the catwalk they at
last reached the edge of the cavernous room and neared one of the
small holes of the secondary ducts. Moving silently and with haste
Capac was already in by the time Ashian made it to the shelter. The
currach did not pause as he pulled himself up and into the pipe, a
wind blowing at his back that blew his thick curls of hair in his
eyes as he slid down the polished sides on his belly. He noted the
lights surrounding he pipe dulled with every passing second as he
descended lower and lower into darkness. Half a minute later they
stopped. There was enough room to sit upright in this section of
the pipe and when Ashian arrived Capac was sitting on his haunches
and looking back up the way they had come. Faint light spilled from
above - a light lacking in warmth and intensity like that of the
moon.

"I think we made it."

Ashian heaved a sigh, his voice high and shaking.
"That was close. I swear we could have rapped that Sunlord on the
shin."

Capac shrugged away the tension. The nearness of the
encounter did not seem to bother him. He simply rested his back
against the cold shiny surface of the pipe and pulled his long
hunting knife from his belt. "He wasn't looking for us," he said,
absently flicking his finger along the blade, testing its edge.

"You're right. We were lucky." Ashian felt weak and
laughed tiredly. The countless number of close calls had rocketed
his heart too may times; another straw would break the camel's
back. He still couldn't believe what he was doing - the city seemed
so far away, as if he was dead and disjoint from reality.

"Capac," he groaned. "I've got to rest for a moment.
I'm dead on my feet."

The other wiped the sweat from his eyes and nodded.
"Just for a minute, until we get our breath back," he conceded.

Ashian smiled ruefully. He lay his head back and
closed his insectile eyes for a moment, feeling the tension and
tightness he held in his limbs drain away like viscus sap. He was
sudden aware of a gnawing hunger, his stomach clenched like an
empty fist.

"I don't suppose you've got any food?"

Capac laughed. "I wish. I was just thinking...the
last time something passed my lips was, let's see, about two days
ago."

"You're right," agreed Ashian with mild surprise.
"Shaun may in serious trouble - he has a much larger frame than us
and I noticed he ate a lot more."

Capac shrugged noncommittally. "All I can say is that
I'll be glad when I'm back in the forest and breathing proper air.
I remember the time when I was with Huso stalking a herd of
drosks..."

Ashian found his neck lolling limping as an
incredible sense of rest settled in. He heard Capac's voice as a
distant droning growing fainter with every passing second. He
pressed his hands up against his temples, as if to squeeze his mind
back into alertness, but it seemed like the entire world was
shrinking away from his eyes like a fabric being sucked into a
whirlpool.

Ashian panicked briefly as he felt his mind muffled
and a dreadful slumber settle over his body. This could only be
death, he thought madly.

Then a figure appeared in his mind, no more than a
bluish haze floating in blackness. He recoiled immediately as a
thought that was not his own entered his mind. It sounded like the
running of a water over exposed rocks gurgling irregularly and
without pattern.

He saw colours swirling and mixing like a chemical
cocktail, gasses boiling up through the concoction in his mind and
nauseating him with their odour. A face pulled itself away from the
smudge of blurring colour as if were rising through a veil, and he
knew in an instant that it was Myshia.

Ashian called her name, his words seemingly futile as
if a rag had been jammed down his throat. He just couldn't seem to
be able to make a noise, and there was that terrible, frightening
ringing noise in the background...

A thin line billowing gently like a spider's thread
streaked towards him, and he grasped at it desperately, feeling the
sticky line cling to his forearms. He felt a movement in that line,
as if someone far down the other end were pulling at it. He felt
his mind wrap around the thread, becoming as one with it, and as he
did so felt the touch of another mind.

Ashian, are you there?

The words were like a whisper caught in a gale, swept
aside and blurred of meaning, but if he concentrated he could pick
the meaning. He inexplicably knew the thread was the contact Myshia
shared with him through the ether, a strange, unexplainable linking
of their minds. He did not know why she had chosen him over Capac
but a deep, unexplored part of his mind informed him the reason was
intangible and unfathomable.

His mind whirling with new emotions, Ashian
concentrated his attention back on the thread.

I can hear you, Myshia.

There was only the shrieking noise in the background
to greet his question, a world of dazzling images and a feeling of
intense and utter aloneness. He had passed beyond life, and was
standing on the brink, looking down into the world of spirits.
Looking at the motionless thread hanging limply like a rope
spanning a great distance he had a wild irrational thought that
Myshia may have been killed. What if she had? What would he do? His
urgency of thought must have evoked her response, for her voice
came clearer now.

I am with Shaun. Where are you?

He tried to convey his recent experiences, feeding
the memories like telephone books down a conveyor belt. He tried to
picture the bottom of the vent they had fallen down, and the small
tunnel they had now climbed into, but was annoyed at the haziness
of the image. He remembered only vague outlines and colours - a
frustratingly little amount.

But the bundles of emotions seemingly served their
purpose, for a moment later Ashian received a picture of Myshia's
environment. He knew they were far above...somehow just feeling the
distance intuitively, like being in a dark room and by standing
still and listening to get a feel for the surrounding space.

Further messages followed along the tightrope that
linked their minds. Ashian caught the pieces of thought as if they
were papers whipping in the wind, stashing them close to his mind.
Very gradually the thoughts stopped and he felt Myshia's mind
withdrawing. He felt immense disappointment and loss, as if part of
his brain had been sliced away. Her withdrawal left a hollow space,
a void swirling with black insubstantial liquid.

He opened his eyes and was confronted with Capac's
visage. Ashian breathed out pent up breath with a ragged heave,
still holding his fingers to his head as if suffering from an
intense headache.

"It's Myshia," he explained feebly. "She
was...talking."

Capac nodded uncertainly, his brows were
furrowed.

"She is with Shaun," Ashian continued. The currach
blinked a few times and shook his head as sudden memory returned.
His voice held an element of uncertainty, a slight tremor in the
tone betraying his true emotions behind the facade of boldness. He
drew a deep breath, and said;