Chapter 30
Outside: a storm.
A world-cracking, sky-breaking, earth-tearing, oceans-falling belter of a storm. The moment we burst out of the narrow gravel passage below the Institute, it slammed into the speeder, pounding against our little bubble of light as the wind tried to pick us up, drop us down, tip us over. The vehicle whined in its efforts to stabilise, a power-consumption warning immediately flashing on the dashboard as it battled through the thundering dark. I could barely see through the mesh, rainwater slicing in faster than the repulsors could clear it, the onboard sensors barely any better as they tried to ping the road, and the road did not respond.
Warning signs flared from every system, but Rencki snarled: “Keep going straight! I will guide you, keep going!”
“Where’s Gebre?” I yelled, as controls slithered and jolted beneath my grasp. “Where’s the other speeder?”
“Te’s right behind us – keep going!”
In the rear display, the glow of the Institute was already fading, swallowed by the darkness of the storm. Lightning bit across the sky, briefly flashing up the shape of the walls, the curve of the long, sloping cliffs. The darkness that followed seemed almost deeper, thicker for the absence of the blast. A cross-wind gale at the first junction lifted the speeder a stomach-yanking metric offthe ground, the suspension coils shrieking as they struggled to pull us down again, the matted fur on Rencki’s back rippling with magnetic interference. A crack of thunder briefly echoed through my ears, lightning scouring an afterglow across my eyelids, but Rencki barked: “Keep going!” and I did.
I kept on going.
Then the comms crackled.
Gebre’s voice, distant against the storm, said: “Maw? Are you there?”
“Gebre! I’m here, where are you?”
“Nineteen is still alive, I think. Qe’s still alive. I can hear fighting, I can hear—”
“Gebre – get to the other speeder! Get out of there!”
Nothing. I hammered the comms with my fist even as the storm buffeted us side to side, a plume of water flaring behind us as we slithered and slipped along the burned-out road. I thought I caught a glimpse – just a glimpse, just for a moment – of a light up ahead, and then realised it was Lhonoja, peeking between the endless black clouds. Then even that light was snuffed out, and I howled and smashed my fist against the console and nearly lost control, swerving violently before I could bring the vehicle back into a steady line.
Then the comms pinged again.
“Gebre?!”
Not Gebre.
A man’s voice, low and steady. He spoke Normspeak with a thick Mdo-sa accent, and I could hear the faint drone of his translator unit working in the background, struggling to turn a poorly spoken language into an even poorer translation of Adjumiri.
“Bring it back,” he said. “Bring it back, and I’ll let them live.”
Behind me, Rencki issued a warning growl. I wondered how much charge qe had, how much power qe had spent on firing qis tails, how much damage qis batteries had taken. Whether qe would shoot me to get the little white box with its little metaltreasures off this world. I slowed to a crawl, to a stop, the speeder tilting in the twists of raging wind spinning across the road.
“I know you can hear me,” the voice continued. “All we want is the interface, and you can go.”
“Gebre?” I whispered, not having breath to make a larger sound.
“I’m here, Maw,” te replied in Adjumiri, ter voice low across the comms.
“You all right?”
“Nineteen is dead. There’s a man here with a gun. I think this is probably it, you know.”
“I’m coming back.”
“You are not!” te barked, the sudden rise in ter voice popping through the speaker as it hastened to adapt. Then, softer: “You are not. You are not coming back.”
“I’ll kill them!” barked the man on the other end of the line. “I’ll fucking kill them!”
“Maw, listen to me.” Gebre spoke low and fast, trying to outpace the soldier’s translator box. “What you are carrying matters more – so much more – makes a difference, hasmeaning. We are the seeds of the forest, we blaze so bright, no life is special. No life is special. No life is special and all of them are. No love matters more than any other, no story is more important, nothing matters more, nothing matters less, so choose, choose, we choose every day to be more than just ourselves, to live for more than just ourselves, because it is beautiful. If you come back, I will never forgive you, do you understand? I will never forgive you, it will be the single greatest—”
“I’ll kill them! I’ll fucking kill them, do you hear me, I’ll fucking kill them!!”
