The Sky's the Limit - Marco Palmieri [57]
The air quickly turned into a confusion of circling squids and crisscrossing sails. The colors of the clouds blended together, and La Forge could barely keep track of whether he was looking down into the yawning depths or up into open sky. The squids’ sail lines would tangle, break, and be respun, sometimes they were even shared, momentarily entwined sails pulling flyers off in unexpected directions. He wasn’t sure how this was supposed to capture the raiders but assumed it would involve more of the squid silk. Once, Ontra’s flyer was forced to sever all its lines, doing so as it pulled into a tight spin and launched itself high above the elevator. As it reached the peak of its trajectory, it erupted with silk, spinning a full sail in record time as it began to dive back into the fight.
In the middle of this aerial ballet, La Forge caught another glimpse of Troi and Worf on the elevator. He switched back to the standard Starfleet frequency. “La Forge to Troi.”
“Geordi, I don’t believe it, we thought we lost you! We scrambled a shuttle, but lightning drove it back.” She was yelling, but La Forge didn’t mind. “Where are you?”
“I’m on one of these crazy flying squids. The two that came after you first are the raiders—”
Worf’s deep voice broke in. “Which side does that belong to?”
A shadow suddenly covered the platform as a float descended from the clouds. The two raider flyers quickly retreated behind it. The crew in the float’s rigging held primitive weapons, which La Forge realized were crossbows.
He switched his comm frequency. “Ontra, we’ve got to pull back.”
But the air was already full of projectiles, simple but deadly, especially in this environment. An arrow plunged into one of Ontra’s people. A fog of oxygen rushed out of the breach in her suit as subzero hydrogen rushed in. She was dead in moments, and her terrified flyer turned and sailed away. Ruro retaliated, moving against the airship itself, rocketing forward as his squid severed all its sail lines. Slamming into the skin of the airship at speed, the squid sank its clawed tentacles deep, letting its momentum carry it forward, tearing three deep gashes several meters long.
The entire airship flinched as it vented freezing gas from the wounds. Ruro and his squid were blasted free, and the flyer quickly spun a new sail as it fell. The float rolled forward, listing steeply as it lost buoyancy, pitching four of its crew out of the rigging. As they tumbled downward, Worf and Troi grabbed one to the elevator, and they collapsed in a heap on the floor of the platform. The others continued falling toward the deeps.
Their two riders rushed after them, the squids shooting silken ropes down to catch them. Two were snared by the sticky lines, but the last disappeared into the clouds below.
La Forge watched the depths for a few seconds, but no other rider dared pursue. He looked back up at the wounded airship, which had started to slowly sink. “Ontra,” he said.
She did not respond but turned away from the float. Through his grip around her waist he felt her go limp.
He resisted the urge to physically shake her. “The float is sinking!”
“Yes. A hundred more will slowly fall to their deaths.”
“We can save them. Spray silk between the float and the elevator.”
After a pause she said, “That could work.” She straightened up. “Everyone, follow my lead.” They swooped in close, her flyer letting loose a long silken spray that spread from the tether to the float. Her remaining team, Ruro included, came in close behind, adding their silk to the first line. As they circled around, La Forge saw the raiders join in.
Looking back at the wounded airship, La Forge saw that the strain put on its skin by the silk lines was opening the wounds farther. “Let me off,” he said.
“What do you mean?” said Ontra.
“Drop me on top of the float.”
After adding another strand between tether and float, Ontra guided her flyer in close, pulling up at the end to give La Forge a short drop. He landed on both feet, the surface