Chapter 40 #3
Fee gave a nod. “So you were all for building a Class 5 that would be the Garmman’s to control. To show what a utopia that would be, if they pulled it off. And you thought I was an obstacle to that, because I was trying to help a Class 5 that was very much not within their control.”
“Well, you were,” Crin said. “Although I was later given some yurve shit story about a possible assassination plot as the reason they assigned Natta to watch you. So we decided to use that. We tried to kill you a few times.”
“And yet, here I am.” Fee smiled. She needed to find a way to get in front of the others, because right now, they stood between her and Crin. She took a step forward but Crin lifted her shockgun a little higher.
“Your luck has just run out.”
A shadow flew out of the darkness, swiping out a limb as it came—fast, so fast—and slashed at Crin’s arm.
She screamed as she dropped the shockgun.
The speed, the silence—it reminded Fee how scary the grahudi was.
Then it disappeared back into the shadows.
For a moment there was nothing but utter silence. Even Crin made no sound, curled over her arm, head turned to look behind her.
Natta grabbed her shockgun from where it lay in the dirt and stumbled back a bit.
“What. The. Fuck. Was—” Vunia’s voice was an octave higher.
“Shush!” Trayla turned to her, eyes snapping. “It might come back.”
“It won’t.” Fee walked over to Crin and stood over her, her silver rod at the ready. “It thought we needed a little help.”
“You . . . you know what it is?” Crin asked, voice a whisper, the pain making her face colorless.
“Yes.”
“And what is it?” Natta asked softly.
“I think . . .” Fee turned to look at him. “I think it’s classified. Just know I’m pretty sure it won’t hurt us.” She tilted her head as she heard the same rumbling sound again. “Got to move, people.”
Her words snapped them out of their stupor and Natta hauled Crin to her feet, ignoring her cry of pain, and Fee and the others carried the stretcher out to the runner.
She hadn’t seen it before, she’d stayed in the tunnel. It was long and sleek, and it looked like it would barely fit five, let alone seven.
She was holding the back of the stretcher and Vunia and Hardy took over, sliding it in and disappearing inside.
Another rumble sounded and she moved even further back out from under the outcrop that shielded the air tunnel, walking backwards and shading her eyes.
The sun was just starting to set, and the sky was a brilliant mix of oranges and blues. She couldn’t see the cables at all, but there was something happening. She could just see the curved rib tops of the frame and they moved, twisting a little as they rose up and then dipped down again.
The vibrations came up through her boots as the frame lifted a little again and then suddenly, just as the bottom of the frame cleared the amphitheater, she heard a massive snap.
The whole frame seemed to flex and while Fee couldn’t see the cables in the dusk light, she heard them whip through the air.
High above, the Unhil faltered.
She saw it dip, and held her breath.
If it dipped too far down and left nearspace for the top of Balco’s atmosphere, it could—
“Go! Now, now, now!” Hardy shouted behind her. “That ship is coming down.”
The frame shook again as the ship seemed to move in slow motion.
Not every cable had been severed, Fee realized. Whatever had happened, it was going to drag the frame either up and out of the amphitheater by one or two ribs, or it was going to crumple the whole thing against the side, and she didn’t think the amphitheater could withstand the pressure.
A sound came from inside the tunnel and Fee spun, saw a dark figure just inside the gate.
The grahudi.
“Come. Come here.” She ran toward it and then crouched, hand outstretched.
“Fee!”
She half-turned to look over her shoulder, in time to see Natta, face stark with terror, slam the door closed. The runner shot off to the side just as a massive cable slammed into the sand where the runner had been sitting.
Sand flew up in a tidal wave and then the cable whipped away.
She almost collapsed with relief that they had managed to move in time, and then felt a touch to her shoulder.
She turned back slowly, careful not to make any quick movements.
The grahudi was staring up at her.
“I don’t know where it’s safe to go,” she told it. As she said it, the cable swung back and she heard a terrible grinding sound.
She ran up the slope beside the gate, trying to work out what had been hit, and saw the runner lying half on its side about a ten minute run from where she was standing.
A whistling sound filled the air, and something slammed her to the ground.
She fell face first and rolled, looking up as the hooked end of a cable whipped away just above her.
She turned to look at the grahudi, crouched beside her.
“Nice save.” Her hands were shaking. She would have been cut down if that had hit her.
She lifted her gaze right up to nearspace, and saw the Unhil was listing, as if it were perched on a cliff, and suddenly one side of it broke off and fell in an explosion of orange.
She sat up and watched as the piece fell in a fiery trail down on the far side of the amphitheater, saw the frame get dragged up the side and pulled along the sand, and then the Unhil gave up the battle and started to plummet.