• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

JO-JO RASTEROVICH

Jo-Jo set the coordinates for the first of the most likely islands. Randall had taken control of the AiV, and he sat next to her, watching intently in case he needed to fly it. Catchut lay across the back seats, exhausted from the climb to the villa.

They’d encountered no Saqr on the way, which made Jo-Jo uneasy.

‘Where are they all?’ he’d whispered to Randall as they entered the abandoned villa from a basement door.

Randall didn’t reply till they reached the catoplasma landing pad on the top of the building. Then she tilted her head to the sky. ‘You noticed anything up there?’

Jo-Jo took a moment to catch his breath and take in the glittering vista. Neither of the moons was up yet, and the sky was studded with the lights of alien craft. Less of them, though, than there had been.

‘They’re leaving,’ said Jo-Jo.

‘Yeah,’ said Randall. ‘Seems so. Gotta real bad feeling about this.’

Jo-Jo had to agree. ‘Let’s get out of here.’

The AiV lifted into the air without incident. Randall kept the landing lights off, concentrating on the flight panel, watching the altitude and infrared sensors.

Jo-Jo stared out into the darkness, wondering what stretched below them, besides the desert. What a Crux-forsaken world to have been born into. He felt a pang of sympathy for Mira Fedor. Dust and repression had been her life while his had been so free.

‘You plannin’ your funeral?’ said Randall.

‘Nope,’ he said. ‘Shoulda passed the Extro ship by now. Can’t see nothin’ down there, though. Unless it’s sunk into the sand.’

Randall checked her map. ‘You’re right. No sign. Wonder when that moved?’

Jo-Jo glanced out at the sky. ‘Mebbe it’s got something to do with things shifting around up there.’ He kept staring until his attention was caught by something lower on the horizon.

‘Looks like a fire,’ he said eventually.

As they drew closer, the glow cast a dim light and moving shadows across sand dunes. ‘That a town?’

‘Was Loisa,’ said Randall, consulting the flyer’s map again. ‘Fedor’s hometown. She had a villa there with her sister. Thought it’d be all burned out by now, But this damn atmosphere’s lethal. Keeps stuff smoulderin’ for ever.’

Jo-Jo felt Mira’s presence keenly again, as though she was in the cabin with them. He clenched his fists.

‘Funeral again?’ asked Randall.

‘How far, Capo?’ asked Catchut from the back seat.

‘Day and a night, mebbe. Depending on whether we luck upon them. That’s all the fuel we got, anyway.’

‘Maybe we can pick up some extra fuel cells on the way.’

She nodded. ‘If we see anything. If it’s safe to put down.’

They fell silent again, Catchut dozing while Jo-Jo scoured the murky landscape for wreckage or landmarks. Randall set the AiV on auto and sat almost motionless.

Maybe Jo-Jo slept for a while. He must have, because Randall’s nudge to his shoulder and curt ‘Crux!’ jerked him to awareness.

He rolled his tongue over his teeth. They felt coated with neglect. He blinked a few times and stared out into the dark – by now, the not so dark. Far off to Randall’s side of the AiV was a fiery glare: not the orange glow of fire but the stark white of electricity.

‘Whassat?’ he slurred sleepily.

Randall checked her settings and fingered the location map to take them closer. They executed a wide sweep of the area, keeping their distance from the light.

‘Saqr there. Plenty of them, by looks,’ said Catchut. ‘But what’re they doing?’

Jo-Jo strained already tired eyes across Randall’s shoulder. ‘Looks like they’re all over the Extro ship.’

‘Well, least we know where it went,’ said Randall.

‘And where they went. Where are we?’

‘AiV’s map says it’s a mine called Juanita, between the Pablo tunnels.’

‘Means squat to me,’ said Jo-Jo.

‘Lost two of my original crew in there. Tunnel collapse. Still ain’t convinced it was accident. Always had an inklin’ I knew who did it.’

‘Tough,’ said Jo-Jo. ‘But so what?’

‘Juanita mine had somethin’ goin’ on. Namely, quixite. The Pablo mine next door has the longest tunnels