Eclipse blackout book 5, p.2
Eclipse (Blackout Book 5), page 2
The foremost Grocit smashed their heads into the walls and shattered the already-weakened masonry. Blocks and mortar scattered. Debris rained on Jackson’s head, and the Urvals scattered. The Grocit blasted through the building and kept on running in their headlong charge to nowhere.
Monstrous feet threatened to flatten Jackson if he didn’t act fast. He dodged one huge brute, only to nearly get trampled by another ten Grocit advancing from behind. They were all so big he couldn’t make out one from the next.
He hesitated only long enough to search the chaos for Roy and Benedict, but he didn’t see them anywhere. He saw only Grocit—massive, furious, and utterly brainless.
He turned tail and ran for the only safety left to him. He skidded between another seven Grocit and dove into an alley. It led back toward the Krakzid vessels that he and his friends had found. He had no logical reason to go that way, but anywhere was better than here.
2
Liri stopped next to an outdoor stall and picked up a cracked ceramic pot. She turned it over in her hand and put it back. “Do people really pay for this shit?”
“Everybody has to make a living.” Lana strolled past her, heading deeper into the market. “Let’s skip all this chintz and focus on the ship parts, shall we?”
“What parts are we looking for besides everything?” Aitera Detaras asked.
“We might as well shop for a new ship,” Lana agreed. “It’ll be cheaper than fixing the Blackout.”
“We can’t afford a new ship.” Liri followed Aitera and her sister past the food stalls. The trio had to navigate several street acts and cross a crowded avenue to the other side of the market.
A sun-proof shade sail covered the market so everyone underneath it could move around without wearing their usual protective hoods. Even Aitera went unhooded. She’d transformed her appearance again to resemble a normal Keteran.
Smokestacks rose high above the Doing-Doing fuel mines beyond the sail. The acrid black smoke drifted away into a sky scorched white-blue by desert heat.
The mine’s towering machinery churned, chugged, and boomed over the outpost. The smoke coated everything with a thin layer of grease and dinge. Even the residents came to wear a permanent stain of soot embedded in their translucent skin.
Lana stepped over a dancing sklinkit on a leash. The creature skittered from one person to another, tugged at their clothes until they handed it a coin, and then it carried the loot back to its owner. The fat Keteran overflowed a stool too small for his enormous backside and let his pet do all the work.
“As long as we’re here, we might as well contact Arlyane’s people. I’m sure he’d be very interested to know what’s going on with the offensive on Apra.”
Liri glanced over her shoulder. “Keep your voice down if you’re going to mention Arlyane around here. This is Keter Legion country.”
“I don’t give a shit who hears,” Lana returned. “They can’t do anything worse to us than the New Cooperative has already done. If I could, I would shout from the rooftops that I serve Arlyane as the only true Grand Votek.”
A scuffle broke out at these words. The three women looked toward the sound. As if conjured by Lana’s outburst, a squad of hooded Keter Legion guards strode out of the crowd. They stood out a mile in their battle gear and oversized weapons.
The market-goers drew back from them. The guards looked monstrous and insectoid in their hoods, next to their unhooded countrymen.
“See what I mean?” Liri murmured. “If we’re going to spread the word about the offensive, we’d better do it on the down-low.”
Lana narrowed her eyes at the guards. “Those bastards just better try to stop me from talking about Arlyane. They’re the kind of vermin the Votek will drive off this planet. The Keter Legion better pack their bags for a long journey to the other side of beyond.”
The twins were nowhere near enough for the Legion soldiers to hear what Lana said. Maybe the outright hatred radiating from her translated through the airwaves.
The squad halted, and their sergeant turned toward the twins. He looked straight at Lana through his hood, and a charge of hostility passed between them.
Liri grabbed her sister’s arm. “Come on. Don’t pick a fight you can’t win.”
“Son of a bitch!” Lana hissed. “I’d cut his balls off before I let him look at me like that.”
Liri got behind her sister and physically propelled her across the avenue. Aitera brought up the rear, and the trio buried themselves in a dark labyrinth of interconnected rooms, corridors, and chambers under the mine structure itself.
The tangle of pipes, motors, and generators towered over this part of the market. It blocked out the sunlight and turned the maze into a warren of seedy holes. Colorful characters populated each hollow with their own unique culture of deceit, betrayal, and bloody murder.
Liri scanned each room as the friends passed their entrances. Most contained lighted oil lamps or buzzing electrical floodlights. They illuminated deals being done, prisoners being tortured, and goods changing hands.
“Let’s find Uzud,” Liri suggested. “He always has Legion parts for sale.”
“You know I can’t deal with Uzud,” Lana countered. “Let’s use Varan instead.”
“Varan works for the Legion, and she charges three times as much. We don’t have to worry about Uzud ratting us out.”
“Why can’t you deal with Uzud?” Aitera asked. “Does he know you work for Arlyane?”
“Uzud doesn’t give a shit who works for whom. He’ll back anyone who can pay.”
“Uzud doesn’t have a problem with either of us,” Liri told her. “It’s just Lana who hates him.”
“I don’t hate him. I just refuse to deal with him ever again.”
“Why?” Aitera asked. “Did he cross you or something?”
“As if,” Lana muttered.
Liri laughed. “It was Lana who tried to cross Uzud. She caught him and threatened to kill him. He promised her a lifetime of free parts, ammunition, and guns if she would—”
“Cut it out,” Lana interrupted. “Just drop it, okay?”
Aitera raised her eyebrows. “You passed up all that? Why?”
“He wanted to marry her. He wanted her to become his arm candy so he could show her off to all his sleazy friends. He wanted her to lie around his living room wearing next to nothing so his buddies could leer at her.”
“Shut the hell up, Liri!” Lana snapped. “I didn’t take the deal, did I?”
“Maybe you should have,” Aitera added. “We’d be on our way to repairing the Blackout now if you had.”
“No, you wouldn’t, because I wouldn’t be on the Blackout, and neither would you. Anyway, I didn’t take it, so we’re up the creek. We’ll just have to get the parts from someone else.”
“You could cozy up to Uzud,” Liri teased. “He’d outfit the Blackout for nothing if you did.”
Lana narrowed her eyes at her twin. “You watch your mouth, Liri. I can still kick your ass anytime I want to.”
Liri snickered to herself. “Fine. If that’s the way you feel about it, you can stand outside while I talk to him. I’ll buy the parts and tell him you got injured or killed on Apra. I’ll tell him I don’t know where you are, so he—”
“He won’t believe you,” Aitera interjected. “He would never believe you two got separated.”
Both twins rounded on her. “What makes you say that?”
Aitera waved to them. “It’s obvious. If Lana got injured, you would stay with her. If she got killed, you wouldn’t come around here looking for spare parts until you found out who killed her. Everyone knows you two would never separate.”
The twins exchanged glances. As much as Liri enjoyed pushing her sister’s buttons, she had to admit that Aitera was right. No one would believe that Liri didn’t know where Lana was. That was ridiculous.
“All right. Here’s the plan. I’ll tell him you’re back at the crevice fixing the ship and I’m here getting parts. That should convince him.”
“How are you going to pay for them?” Aitera asked.
“This is stupid!” Lana stormed past Liri and Aitera and plunged into the market. “If anyone is asking Uzud for parts, it will be me. I’m not that much of a coward that I won’t face him.”
She barged down the corridor without looking right or left. Aitera shot Liri a questioning glance, but Liri only grinned. She couldn’t wait to see what Lana came up with this time.
Lana halted outside one of the chambers lit up with electric floodlights. Four men in flowing full-length robes stood around a counter against one wall. They wore turbans perched on their bald heads, talking rapidly in a different language.
Lana took one look at them and turned to her sister. “You two wait here. Don’t enter for any reason. Understand? I’ll be right back.”
Liri grinned again, but Lana pretended not to notice. She strode into the room and walked right up to the strangers, who turned to face her. None of them was Uzud.
Lana said something to them in their own language. Liri didn’t understand what Lana said, but the men did. One of them ducked behind a curtain in the back wall. He returned a moment later and held the curtain aside for Lana to enter.
Lana slipped out of sight. “What do you want to do while we wait?” Aitera murmured. “I could go back to the market and see if we can find anything we need for the ship. She could be in there for a while.”
“I don’t think we should go anywhere. If she succeeds, she could get everything we need. Then all our effort and expense would be wasted.”
Aitera peered in at the men, who resumed their position at the counter. “Who is this Uzud character, anyway?”
“He’s nobody. He’s a petty arms dealer, that’s all.”
“What’s his connection with Lana?” Aitera asked.
“Don’t ask me. They met while we were both working for the Legion. She got mixed up with some Bedot guardsmen and went a little bit off the rails. She learned their language, and then she started hanging out with Uzud and his friends—don’t ask me why. I never understood the appeal, but she got really serious about the Bedot after that. She’ll tear a person apart who even suggests there was anything going on between her and Uzud.”
“Why would she get so testy about it if she got serious about the Bedot?”
Liri shrugged. “She won’t explain it, not even to me. She gets defensive if you even mention it to her.”
Aitera started to say something else. She opened her mouth and then her eyes popped. Liri followed her gaze to Lana coming out from behind the curtain. “Well?” Liri asked. “What happened?”
“Nothing. Let’s go.” Lana pushed past them and returned through the market the way they’d come.
Liri hurried after her. “Hold up! What did Uzud say?”
“He’s going to help us. That’s all you need to know.”
“What about the Blackout?” Aitera asked. “Do we need to buy parts or not?”
“Forget about the Blackout. We have more important things to deal with right now.”
Lana’s behavior shocked Liri so much she stopped dead in her tracks. So did Aitera, but Lana either didn’t notice or didn’t care. She kept on marching straight into the market.
Liri and Aitera exchanged glances. Had Lana finally flipped her lid for good? When Liri checked, Lana was already so far ahead of them that Liri almost lost sight of her.
Liri and Aitera rushed to catch up with her. “What’s going on, Lana?” Aitera asked. “Tell us what’s going on.”
“Nothing’s going on. Uzud is going to help us repair the Blackout. I told you that.”
“So where are we going now?” Liri asked.
“We’re going back to Lulin.”
Liri froze again, but Aitera kept walking. She raised her eyebrows when she noticed Liri’s reaction. “What’s wrong? What happens in Lulin?”
Liri swallowed hard. “We can’t go back to Lulin.”
“You don’t have to,” Lana replied. “I’ll go on my own.”
“How do you plan to get there?” Liri asked. “We can’t walk across the desert.”
Lana halted in front of another chamber set into the labyrinth. Unlike the others, a solid metal door blocked the friends from seeing what was inside it.
Lana approached a code lock on the sidewall. She placed her palm flat on the screen, and the device scanned her handprint. Then it blinked green.
She bent down and rolled the door out of the way. It scrolled into the ceiling to reveal a second door exactly like the first one. This one wasn’t locked. She pulled it a few inches off the floor and jerked her chin at Liri. “Get inside.”
Liri hesitated. She trusted her sister, but she didn’t trust Uzud as far as she could throw him.
Aitera didn’t blink. She dropped onto her stomach, rolled under the door, and vanished.
“Move it, Liri,” Lana muttered. “We don’t have much time.”
Liri took a firm grip on her insides and scooted into the chamber. Lana followed and slammed the door behind her.
Liri gaped at a single Keter Legion racer parked inside. It took up the entire chamber, with barely enough space for its outstretched wings. All its insignia remained emblazoned on the hull. Uzud or whoever hadn’t taken them off to hide where the ship came from. “What the hell are we supposed to do with that?”
“I told you. We’re going back to Lulin and this is the only way to do it.”
“Is this supposed to get the Blackout repaired for us?” Aitera asked.
“Uzud will repair the Blackout in exchange for our cooperation.” Lana crossed to a second code lock on the chamber’s interior. It beeped when it registered her handprint for the second time. A crash vibrated the room when the outer door slammed shut. They were locked in.
Lana stormed up to Liri. “Come on! What are you waiting for? Power up.”
She opened the racer’s rear hatch. Liri followed her and Aitera inside, but she didn’t want to go. She had a very bad feeling about this.
Lana sat down at the pilot’s station. She didn’t wait for Liri to activate the engines; Lana did it herself. “Get changed out of those clothes,” Lana barked over her shoulder. “You’ll find uniforms in the supply cabinet.”
Aitera glanced at Liri. Aitera didn’t know anything about Keter or the Legion. That left Liri to handle this for both of them.
She pulled open the supply cabinet with shaking hands. As Lana said, she found uniforms and weapons inside. She passed a uniform to Aitera, and they both got busy changing.
As soon as Liri donned the uniform, Lana showed up from the pilot’s station. “You take the helm, but remember, we’re copying the Legion’s tactics. Don’t pull any fancy maneuvers.”
Liri didn’t want to know what Lana had in mind. She sat down at the pilot’s station while Lana finished changing. Now Aitera and the twins all looked like legitimate Keter Legion officers on a routine flight to Doing-Doing.
Lana took the secondary station. “Lift off.”
“How?” Liri asked. “We’re stuck in this chamber with no way out.”
“Wait for it.”
Aitera came over. “I want to help. I can fly the ship while you two man the ejection blocks, if need be.”
“No!” Lana exclaimed. “We’ll be flying to the Legion Guard Post. The Southern Junction will scan the racer when we come within range. They would detect us infiltrating their systems and divert us to a quarantine zone. We can’t let that happen.”
“You want to fly a racer into the Keter Legion Guard Post?” Liri blurted out. “You’re off your nut.”
“It’s the best way to get into the heart of Lulin without the Legion twigging to our plans.” Lana pointed upward. “Lift off, Liri. That’s an order.”
At her words, the ceiling slid back. A blast of sunlight pierced the chamber, and Liri squinted. She couldn’t see anything out there but the smokestacks stabbing into the clear blue sky.
She could argue that Lana didn’t have the authority to order her anywhere, but now wasn’t the time. Liri took a deep breath and fired the engines. The racer levitated off the floor. It floated through the hole and out into the open air.
Doing-Doing dwindled beneath Liri’s display. She cleared the smokestacks and turned the helm toward Lulin. Just before she hit the throttle, she scanned the desert around the mine. The Blackout didn’t turn up at all. The bedrock hid it from view.
No one would ever find the ship. It would be safe until she came back. She faced forward with a heavy heart. She didn’t like leaving the ship, especially not to fly straight into enemy territory.
“Hit it,” Lana ordered.
Liri punched the throttle and streaked away across the desert toward the city.
3
Jackson stumbled into the square where he left the dead Krakzid. Their craft still sat where they landed. He almost walked past them when he heard footsteps approaching from the boulevard. Without thinking, he dove into the nearest hatch and hid.
No Grocit could walk this fast or this lightly. Sure enough, a bunch of Urvals that Jackson didn’t know scuttled past his hiding place, but Jackson didn’t show himself. He had to find someone to help him.
He returned to this capital to rally the Urvals to join the offensive. So far, he’d located seven of them and now he’d lost them, too. He hoped he could get the Midus, the Gishki, and maybe the Kanz to fight, too, but he hadn’t seen a single individual from any of those species.
He crawled over to the Krakzid stations while he waited for the area to quiet down outside. He pulled himself to his feet and stood on one of the stations facing a panel. Nothing happened—not that he expected it to. He tapped the lifeless glass. Still nothing.
He stepped off the station, and had almost left the craft when something happened. A ripple of power went through the little vessel, and Jackson’s heart leaped.
Colored patterns, squiggles, and symbols he didn’t understand spread over all the panels, and the craft hummed to life. Its engines powered up from somewhere…and then died. The whole vessel went as dead as before.
