Dark Space - Marianne de Pierres [122]
Mira knew that she should be thinking ahead but the rhythm of the AiV’s engines was like the comforting lull of her sorella’s voice and a profound lethargy crept upon her. Without wishing for it or knowing what, she succumbed to a deeply exhausted sleep.
* * * *
Mira woke again as the autopilot sensors detected smoke and arced sharply. It brought the present back to her with a jolt. Trin. Vito. OLOSS. Insignia. She forced herself awake this time. Insignia. Trin’s confirmation that the biozoon had survived was the one coherent thought she could catch and hold. She would survive to be with her ship. She would survive to come back to Vito. She would survive to see Trin Pellegrini descend into his own hell.
She magnified the AiV’s ground view and peered into the viuzzas of Loisa. The extent of the devastation assaulted her mind. Fires had eaten wide, dark furrows through the city and Saqr crawled in and out of villas, searching for bodies. She hoped that no one had stayed behind. She prayed those that were left were already dead.
As the AiV passed over the edge of the city and crossed the first of the iron ridges, Mira noticed a flurry of movement on the ground. With a sigh that was almost satisfaction, she released the autopilot and took the controls. The AiV felt light and responsive beneath her touch and sent a tiny surge of life through her. She had not flown an AiV since the Studium, and then only in clandestine circumstances. Yet the thrust and tilt felt so familiar.
She swung it around to make another pass of the area and studied the scanner. Some ‘esques fended off Saqr from behind the cover of a wrecked AiV that had broken fins and fire damage. More Saqr approached from the ruins of Loisa, crawling across the hot ground like slugs.
The ‘esques signalled frantically to Mira.
She circled once more, dropping her speed to hover above them. What she saw brought her mind fully to the moment. Her heart thumped so hard that it felt cramped in her chest.
Rast.
Mira engaged the fin rotors, curtailed the safety protocol and dropped the craft down behind the damaged AiV. It sent a whirlwind of grit pelting out but she kept the rotors spinning. Already she could see Saqr cresting the dune. Rast would have to come quickly or—
A shout startled her and a bloodied face pressed against the cabinplex. Fists thumped it. Mira opened the door and Rast and two of her mercenaries scambled in.
‘Allez! Vai! Whatever the Crux it is, go!’ Rast bellowed.
Mira assigned full power to the fin rotors so that the craft wouldn’t drift as it lifted. Pummelled by grit and blasted by sand they rose into the air. She heard a crack and felt a sudden searing pain in her elbow but she didn’t look. Not until they had gained enough altitude to be out of the Saqr’s range. By then she had begun to feel sick.
‘Your arm,’ said Rast as she tumbled into the front passenger seat, still clutching her rifle.
Mira glanced down at her elbow. The hole was gaping and bloody. She reset the autopilot, pushed back from the controls and vomited down the side of her seat. It ran into a puddle around her feet.
‘Pressure the wound,’ Rast barked at her. ‘You’re losing one fuck of a lot of blood.’
Mira fumbled behind the seat for the medic kit. All the painkillers had been removed but the pseudo-skins were still there. She rolled back the sleeve of her fellala. The pain made her moan but as she placed the skin over the wound and watched it grow the agony receded a little. She lay back in her seat and waited for the dizziness to pass.
‘If you’ve finished fussing over that scratch, Baronessa, pass the medikit to Catchut before Latourn bleeds to death.’
Mira felt her skin burn with embarrassment.
Catchut reached to take the kit from her and rifled through it. ‘Nothing in it, Capo. A few skins, that’s all.’
‘Do what you can.’ Rast turned to Mira. ‘Can’t think of anyone I’ve ever been gladder to see, Fedor.’
Mira did not think she could return the sentiment, and yet in some odd way it was good not be alone. ‘What happened