Dark Space - Marianne de Pierres [104]
Rast dropped her hand to her side. ‘The Saqr don’t fall down dead in front of ancient .44 Winchesters and electromagnetic pistols, Baronessa. Their skin is too tough.’
‘What about your fancy rifle that everyone is frightened of?’
‘Even with that we will be butchered if we fight them now.’
‘The miners don’t think so.’
‘What do you think, Mira Fedor?’ Rast asked softly. Her eyes gleamed with an intensity that made Mira want to curl up.
‘I think we may starve to death. But before that we will kill each other. We are living on a diet of kranse and quark eggs. The high protein will send us all loco in the end anyway.’
‘As I’ve said at the town meetings, I have scouts out. One of them, Latourn, has just located some surviving Carabinere. They will be here within days to assist us. If they can launch a counter-attack we shall stand a better chance.’
‘And if not, one night you and yours will just disappear and leave us to our fate.’
Rast suddenly looked tired. She rubbed her eyes. ‘I can’t save all these people, Fedor. Not without help. But if I can save my crew, I will.’
‘We have assailant craft on Mount Pell. If I could somehow get these I could come back here and assist you to break the impasse with an air attack.’
Rast gave a humourless grin. ‘And what would your experience of this sort of thing be, Baronessa? A handful of virtual hours on a simulation programme? How do you think you might survive a journey to Pell? Do you think the Fleet is still intact? And if, by some miracle, you succeeded and got to them, would you come back? Wouldn’t it be easier to just disappear?’
‘I would never do that. Even a woman has honour.’
‘Even a woman?’ Rast narrowed her eyes. ‘You might have made a soldier—but you would be a terrible mercenary.’
Mira straightened her shoulders. ‘And you would disappoint as a Baronessa.’
Rast belly-laughed until her hood began to beep. She picked it up and slipped it on. ‘Yeah.’
‘Capo. An AiV’s just flown in on the north-side perimeter. I think you should see who is in it.’ Mira heard the voice as clearly as if she was wearing the hood herself.
Rast jumped to her feet, pulling her protecsuit on. ‘No, you can’t have a guard. Now get yourself back to the dorms.’
Mira reacted to being dismissed. ‘If it is to do with the Saqr maybe I can help?’
Surprisingly, Rast didn’t argue. ‘Sure. If you keep up,’ she said as she closed up her hood.
By the time Mira had sealed her velum and followed her from the building, Rast was reversing her TerV. Mira scrambled into the passenger seat as the mercenary leader started to weave between pedestrians before heading quickly to the northern perimeter.
Within moments Mira could feel the heat burning her skin even through the TerV’s canopy. Her eye-display told her that her fellala needed re-skinning.
She would not be the only one with such a problem. And she had heard that the melanin boosters were running out as well. How long before people started dying from heatstroke?
‘Are you sick, Baronessa?’ Rast had pulled the TerV alongside the northern guard post and was staring at her.
‘I’m due for a melanin booster.’
Rast took out her ‘scope and trained it on the AiV that had landed some mesurs back on the other side of the laser fence. ‘Well, I got some bad news for you there.’
Mira nodded. ‘They are finished?’
‘Yep.’ Rast tapped the focus toggle. After a moment of intense scrutiny she swore in cold, hard words that brought more heat to Mira’s body.
‘What is it?’
Rast brushed her arm as she handed her the ‘scope. ‘See the ‘esques? There’s only one reason for them to be here.’
Mira placed the ‘scope to her eyes, altering the focus. Her hands shook so much that the mechanism struggled to compensate. She braced herself against the door of the TerV and reset the eyepiece. ‘What reason is that?’
‘Killing.’
Mira swept the scope along the figures standing on the other side of the fence near a recently landed AiV—a dozen Saqr and two humanesques.
Jancz and like.
* * * *
TRIN
‘Where would you have us go,