Chapter 29
The heavy airlock doors of Soleil’s cargo ship slammed shut with a gratifying, final thud. Renner exhaled a breath he felt like he’d been holding since Wutala’s crew had melted into the darkness of the spaceport.
Ex-Jumper Murtazo met them in the corridor, handing out earwires as a workaround for the lack of a working announcement system for the ship’s comms. He put it in his other ear rather than remove the team earwire.
More ex-Jumpers he recognized from Soleil’s studio secured crates in the load-out area while Murtazo told them where to find jump seats in the dock and scattered haphazardly across the various levels. “The ride to orbit might be b-b-bumpy.”
Rustom guided Tōn Ko, who still carried an injured Nilsson, toward a lift that would take them to the ship’s autodoc. N’Dwama and Minan followed.
Arco frowned at Murtazo. “Where are the kids?”
Murtazo looked surprised. “What kids? We don’t have any k-k-kids.”
Arco shot Renner a baffled look. He leaned in close to her ear. “Underage. No family permission. Kids will swear on the CGC seal that they snuck on board.”
Arco paused a second, then laughed when she understood. The sound warmed him.
He steered Arco toward a pair of jump seats tucked into the corner of the load-out dock behind several strapped-down crates. His red angel was still his responsibility.
As he and Arco hooked the safety webs across their seats, Haseem’s tenor voice chimed over the new ship-comms earwire. “Hi, Arco. Hi, Brenner. Nilsson is secure in the autodoc. The short-term prognosis is good.”
The subsequent launch felt like surviving a flitter crash every thirty seconds.
Renner clenched his jaw as the ship shuddered violently against the century cyclone.
The jump seats protected their spines and heads, but nothing shielded them from the chaos in the hold.
A supply cabinet burst open, sending an explosion of loose tools and tech flying across the deck.
The gravity compensators fluctuated, turning Renner’s stomach into a nauseating knot.
He glared at the massive crates strapped nearby, waiting for the restraints to snap and crush them all to a pulp.
The engines roared like they were bolted directly to the walls behind their heads.
He’d despised the gilded padding of the luxury deck of the stellar cruise liner they’d taken to Concordance Prime, but getting battered in a freighter hold tanked on an entirely new level.
“In the good news department, we’re clear of the spaceport.
” Renner recognized the voice as Josh DeGuilian’s, Soleil’s tall partner, who sometimes showed up for class.
“We’ll probably get charged with disregarding a shutdown order, but they’ll have to find us first. In the disagreeable news, because of the storm, we’re about fifteen minutes to orbital distance.
And in the bad news department, we might have extra obstacles to dodge.
The crashes at the spaceport weren’t because of the killer century snowstorm.
They were deliberate acts of terrorism by a minder rights group calling themselves the Libertas Core Network or Shattered Chain. ”
A chorus of shock flooded the comms. “What the fuck?” “Who?” “Why?” Vicious curses filled the channel. Renner tightened his grip on his web and scowled at the universe. Fuck the “bumpy ride.” How was he supposed to protect the woman he loved from that?
“Here’s part of the manifesto. It’s on every public channel,” Josh added.
A new voice filled the comms, vibrating with fanatical zeal.
“...control the skies, but no more. We are the kinetic energy of the tide. The Citizen Protection Service speaks only the language of death and destruction. Today, we are speaking in sparks. Today, they reap the stellar winds. We now control all airborne vehicles across the planet. The ground embraces the fallen sky. CPS Marshal Temhathor is the first. The remainder is metal rain that will burn the sorrow. This is the day—”
The voice cut off, and Josh spoke again.
“There’s twenty minutes more like that. Essentially, Shattered Chain claims to have taken control of the planetary TCS and is using anything flying as projectiles aimed at anything the CPS has its name on.
The Ridderth Military Base, the testing centers, even the private homes of officers. You get the idea.”
Arco tapped her earwire. “The bit you played has quotes from the Ayorinn Legacy quatrains — metal rain, speaking in sparks.”
“Yeah, the manifesto is littered with them,” Josh replied. “Maybe it’s misdirection, or maybe they’re true believers.”
It took Renner a minute to realize he recognized the voice’s accent and the deep rage in the precise delivery.
Be’un, from the resistance group he and Haseem had walked away from just a standard month ago.
She was definitely a fanatic, but the only thing she believed in was hate.
He had to admit her attack was every bit as devastating as she’d promised, but the collateral damage was too costly.
She and the rest of the group were gliding high on unexpected power.
He couldn’t blame them for reveling in being on top for once.
But in the end, they were no better than the CPS, who destroyed an entire office building in Arazak to silence one professor and sent a fucking spider mech after one journalist. His journalist.
Beside him, Arco pulled out her pink tablet. Despite the teeth-jarring turbulence, her fingers danced across the interface as she subvocalized. Her relentless focus always impressed him, but her dedication and dexterity were awe-inspiring.
Two minutes later, Arco’s voice came over the ship-comms earwire.
“I did a quick dive for trends. Someone leaked an order by Pennington-Smythe for a blockade at the Mabingion system jump point. However, the military fleet isn’t due for another standard day at the earliest. Ridderth is smoldering.
It’d be worse without the storm, because the rest of the major cities are on fire.
The manifesto hit every public network before the government even knew to look for it, much less suppress it.
The news is already trending throughout the galaxy net.
People are panicking, trying to get out of the cities.
The other big news is that the CPS is closing the Ridderth base entirely and relocating all affected CPS staff and families to other planets.
CPS Minder Corps employees are reportedly leaving their posts in droves, but that’s unconfirmed.
I can’t tell if that was before Pennington-Smythe’s raids started or after.
Shattered Chain couldn’t have picked a more effective time to take over the traffic control system and bring their metal rain. ”
She took a deep, shaky breath and let it out.
On instinct, Renner reached through his webbing to rest a hand on her shoulder.
A violent jolt knocked his grip away a second later, but she flashed him a fleeting, grateful smile.
Renner hated being the helpless pawn requiring rescue, but Arco’s fierce loyalty settled deep in his chest. Trusting anyone had always carried lethal risks.
Leaning on her felt profoundly comforting.
“Casualties are sky high and getting worse,” Arco continued, her voice tight. “Over ten thousand estimated dead for Ridderth Base alone. Just so you know, I sent Wutala a link to the raw news repository that Novo G set up. She deserves information she can use to save her people.”
Arco folded her tablet and put it away, then slipped her hand into his. Her fingers gripped his tight, a desperate anchor in the chaos, right up until another massive shudder and a flying wrench forced them to turtle back into the safety of their jump seats.
Finally, the ship reached orbit. The jarring impacts smoothed out into a steady glide, and the gravity compensators stabilized. The engine sounds still rumbled throughout the load-out dock, but they were smoothing out, too.
Soleil spoke via the ship-comms earwire.
“We have about two hours to the jump point, assuming no other fun surprises from the gods of chaos. We’re burning flux now so we can beat the blockade if the fleet arrives early.
Feel free to move around, but make sure you know where the nearest jump seat is.
Not all quarters have them. The ship is a little rough around the edges, but it’s transit-ready, and the engines are solid.
See Rustom for room assignments — he’s handling logistics. ”
Renner unhooked his webbing and stood. Arco did the same.
He pulled her into a tight embrace, burying his face in her hair.
Against all impossible odds, they were together and safe.
He desperately needed her warmth. He loved her, and finally telling her those words earlier had shifted his universe onto a better axis.
Sharing his feelings felt terrifying, but completely right and good.
She hugged him back fiercely, then pulled back just enough to speak near his ear. “Let’s find a room.”
The assigned two-person room was little more than a metal closet with two narrow bunks, side by side, but it offered privacy, two jump seats, and blessed silence.
Renner sealed the door behind them. He turned and stopped short.
Arco’s travel backpack sat on the floor next to the left bunk.
Minan or N’Dwama must have grabbed it during the frantic scramble through the freight terminal.
His entire focus had been on keeping Arco breathing.
As he lifted the backpack, Arco crossed to a small fold-down standing desk mounted to the wall. She powered up her pink tablet and dove straight into her digital empire. “Unpack that,” she murmured, her eyes already tracking streams of data. “I brought stuff for you.”