Transformation Space - Marianne de Pierres [100]
He only vaguely took in the headlights of the TerV that left the edge of the ship, heading towards the dark mouth of the mine. The activity of the Saqr, though, was more worrying. They seemed disorientated, some crawling in circles while others stopped to rear up on their hind legs. Their bodies made a weird shadow play against the still-glowing ship.
Jo-Jo set his jaw.
Can, he told himself.
Mira stirred in his arms. ‘Let me walk,’ she whispered. He shook his head. ‘You can’t.’
The TerV lights had changed direction. It was labouring over the dunes towards them.
‘Who’s – in – that?’ he asked her.
Mira pushed back the hood of her robe to see. ‘His name is Jancz. He works for them. He led the invasion here. Brought the Saqr in.’
‘What sort of ’esque would work for the Extros?’
‘He told me it was logical that he did.’
‘What’s that mean?’
‘I don’t know. Maybe he formed a … relationship with them, as I did with Wanton.’
Wanton? The name she’d called out before they fell from the ship. ‘Who’s Wanton?’ he said fiercely.
‘Wanton is a corporeal. I brought it here, to save it. That’s what I was doing in the ship. Wanton was dying. I brought it back so that it could integrate with the others.’
Jo-Jo took a couple of savage breaths that sent pains shooting from his belly to the base of his neck. He gasped and staggered.
She hung onto his shoulders. ‘Does your chest hurt?’ she asked anxiously.
‘No more than the rest of me,’ he said, righting himself. ‘Jancz stole my ship.’
‘Sal? Sal is yours?’
He stared at her. ‘You know Salacious?’
Mira nodded weakly. ‘Sal is a hybrid. We can communicate. Jancz hasn’t treated it well.’
Jo-Jo set his jaw. ‘You can save that story for another time. Right now, I’m going to get my ’zoon back.’
His staggering footsteps gained some strength and purpose. Jancz framed me. The fucker stole my ship. All the panic and fear and pain of being on board Medium again burned away on a surge of hot fury. Once before when Jo-Jo had thought he would die, as he floated free in space around Dowl station, anger had saved him, pulled him back from the brink of despair and defeat. It did the same thing now, channelling energy into his limbs, giving him a goal. His ship, Salacious, was the closer of the two biozoons.
Sal.
He reached the hybrid as the TerV climbed the dune closest to them. Though the ’zoon was half buried in the sand, its egress scale was too high to reach. He put Mira down on the sand, leaning her back against the ’zoon’s skin, and turned to face the TerV.
He recognised both of the figures inside it: Jancz, who’d introduced himself in the station bar as Jud, and Ilke the Balol, who’d kept Jo-Jo busy in the bedroom while Jancz had stolen his ship.
He wasn’t sure which one of them he’d kill first.
Jancz, he’d learned through a glimpse at Lasper Farr’s Dynamic System Device, had been Randall’s Capo during the Stain Wars. The ’esque was the worst type of mercenary, one who changed sides mid-conflict. Or maybe he’d been working for the Extros back then too.
The TerV grunted air from its brake jets, and settled to rest an arm’s length away.
Mira moaned softly behind him, but he kept his focus on the mercs.
Ilke got out first. Then Jancz. Neither had changed as far as Jo-Jo could see through the film of their masks. Ilke’s spikes were bunched together, her powerful body squashed into a cooling suit, but Jancz’s suit had plenty of room. He looked as lightweight and unimpressive as he had in the bar. More so, in fact.
Both Jancz’s and Ilke’s eyes were on Mira.
‘Hey,’ said Jo-Jo, waving his hands. ‘Remember me?’ He loosened his hood, pushing it back far enough for them to see his face.
Ilke shrugged and moved to walk past him, but he blocked her way.