“Two speeders,” Gebre interjected. “Short-range, but fast. If we—”
Another snap of thunder bellowed through the hall, and it was not of the storm. I wondered who was dying elsewhere. I wondered if Ngurta was fighting back, if there had been time to put up a defence, or if Corpsec had walked up, smiling, hands raised as if they were friends, and shot em as ey turned to help.
“We must hurry,” Rencki snapped, and Gebre clicked ter tongue in agreement, caught me as I staggered, half carrying me along, down and away.
Chapter 29
Water sloshed through the corridors, ankle-deep, and down here the screaming of the storm outside had taken on a deeper, lowerwhomp-whomp-whompas different weights of air were pushed and pulled through the belly of the Institute. Rivulets of rainwater dribbled and slithered across the damp stones above, and crates of abandoned goods – ancient treasures, perhaps, wonders considered valuable enough to pack up and preserve, not quite valuable enough to save – lined the walls. Maybe an archivist had hoped that if they just made it all ready, a miracle would come, something would be saved. Or maybe not – maybe it was just habit, a cleaning-up after themselves, a straightening of tables and a stacking of plates, ready for an orderly turning-out of the lights.
Beneath it all, there was indeed a garage – half workshop, half place to park, staff use only, and as with all places that were staff use only, a memorial to unwashed kol bowls and boxes of junk labelled only “Spares”. A single track, fading into gravel, led from a service door and up into a narrow causeway cut through rough stone. One lone speeder with one seat and a force-mesh bubble that expanded and retracted at touch sat in the middle of the floor.
Nineteen said: “I will guard the door,” and did not enter the workshop. Beneath qis flat base, I could see the shallow water rippling in a soft, urgent frequency, pushed back by qis suspensionfield – no other sign of vibration stirred qis carapace, no inflection tinged qis voice.
“Are you armed?” I asked. “Can you defend yourself?”
“I can slow an attacker down,” Nineteen replied. “Even one with a displacer field. You will find that valuable, so do not question it.”
“You will die,” I blurted, and immediately felt dumb for saying it.
“We will get the interface out,” Gebre barked into the silence where Nineteen had no need to reply. “We have made a difference.”
Nineteen beeped a single beep in answer, qis painted eye spinning away as Gebre pulled me inside the workshop, Rencki hobbling at my feet. Gebre closed the door behind us, sealed us in. As the internal door slid shut, a blast of colder, wet air wheezed and whistled down the passage through the service doors, pushing thin snakes of water across the walls where the storm was trying to break in. Gebre shoved the interface into my arms, dragged me to the vehicle, even as I mumbled: “There’s only one. You said—”
“Another workshop next door,” te replied. “I’ll be right behind you.”
From without, a roll of thunder, and now I listened to it, so blazingly, obviously distinct from the sound of gunfire, how had I ever mistaken it? And then again from within: that other thunder, a blast of weaponry, perhaps nearer, I couldn’t tell. The acoustics of this hollow place, the beating I’d taken, the gravity, the air, the ringing in my ears, blood seeping from a dozen cuts where the shards of great people and famous masters of some ancient craft were now embedded in my flesh – this felt like a prime time to get dysregulated, to feel the walls of reality dissolve. But no, fatigue and dread and pain were distinctly grounding concepts, and I found that I desperately, desperately wanted Gebre to see me as human.
I was vaguely aware of Gebre dragging me into the front seat of the speeder as Rencki scrambled up behind me, a magnetic clunk as qe locked qis back legs to the surface of the vehicle. Usuallythe quan liked to drive, but the paw on qis interfacing hand was a blackened mess; qis ears were turned backwards on qis skull, listening for the door.
“Put your hand here,” Gebre barked, and I did, pressing it into the dashboard of the speeder as te scurried to register the new user, to lock in my DNA. “Nav sats will be down, you won’t get any data in the storm, but there are onboard maps and Rencki knows where to go. Don’t you, Rencki?”
“I do,” the quan replied.
“Don’t stop for anyone or anything. Just get to theEmni. I’ll be right behind you.”
“Will you?” I asked.
“The highways usually drive for you, but in the storms they’ve been failing, so listen, this is important, you throttle up with…”
A crackle like power lines coming down from the corridor outside, a sudden snap-flick in the lights, a shower of sparks from a switch by the door. I glanced at Rencki, who clicked once, no more.
“?… throttle up with this.” Gebre’s voice, lower, urgent, trying to impart information slow enough that there could be no space for me to misunderstand, fast enough to get gone, get going. “Brake with this. This is your charge indicator – the speeder will passive-charge when the sun shines and you may even get a bit of charge from Lhonoja, but if you run low you’ll need a hardwire. There’s an emergency battery under the seat. I’m putting this” – te shoved the white box, that damn white box containing the damn bloody interface, into a compartment by my knee – “here, so don’t forget it. Maw? Are you listening to me? Do you understand?”
“Yes. I understand.”
“Good. This one is comms. The speeder has a short-range transmitter/receiver, so we can talk to each other even if sats are down. You’ll want to—”
Another hiss-crack of electricity, another dim pulse of the lights, and this time, unmistakable, the sound of gunfire outside the door.“Time to go,” Rencki said, as Gebre stepped away from the speeder and the mesh began to close.
“Gebre…”
“I expect you to live, Mawukana na-Vdnaze,” te declared, ter voice already muffled behind the sealing bubble. “I expect you to do the right thing. I expect you to do good, live with compassion, fight for things that matter, find meaning, do you understand? I—”
This time, the burst of electrical screaming was enough to snap the lights out, sparks flying from ceiling and floor as circuits burned and filaments sheared under the load. For a moment the room was in total darkness – familiar, friendly darkness, the kind of darkness I could reach my hand through and keep on reaching across distance and time to that place where neither had any meaning any more; then the emergency lights drifted in, chemical units dialling up to a sickly yellow-green hue around door and floor, picking out Gebre’s face with a diseased glow. Outside the door, another gunshot; then another, quickly following, and something hard and metal slammed against the wall.
Gebre opened ter mouth to say something, but I couldn’t hear through the mesh. Te gestured towards the open passage to the outside world, and Rencki was barking: “Go, go, go!”
I felt the compartment with the interface by my knee, then turned my face from Gebre and thumbed the engine up to full.
