Mary Rosenblum - Horizons

“Oh yes.” Tania smiled at Ahni, her eyes windows into an endless dark. “How else can 1 atone for wounding Gaia? She will forgive me and welcome me into Her arms. I had the tug retrofitted so that it can survive reentry. I will make sure that it comes down on the Council island. We have all our people in place.” She smiled a dreamy smile that raised the hair on Ahni’s neck. “Within a month of that impact, we will very quietly control a near majority of world politics. Not openly, you understand. But we will be in control. Then we can begin to make the world in Her image. Once the population is sufficiently reduced, we will turn Her world into the Garden it once was.”

“Feel free.” Xai gave Tania a brief look over his shoulder. “How noble of you.” He turned back to the controls. “Takes that last little margin of uncertainty right out of the equation. Give my thanks to your Goddess when you meet her, Tania.”

“I will.” Tania smiled and turned, her motions as smoothly conntrolled as an orbital native, stretching gracefully and silently across the meter of space between them. Xai started slightly as he felt the cool touch of her fingers on his neck, started to turn, to ask her what she wanted. Then the drug patch stuck to her fingertip finished dumping its contents into his bloodstream and his eyes rolled up in his head, limbs loosening, a single crystal bead of saliva detaching itself from his half-open mouth to drift across the cramped cabin. Tania maneuvered him neatly into his webbing and pulled it tight around him, closing his half -open eyes with one fingertip.

“I loved you, Ahni. But he was useful. And he confused sex with submission. She will appreciate his sacrifice, willing or not.” Tania turned her smile on Ahni. “And yours as well. We will meet Her together.”

“Tania?” Ahni said softly. “It was my mother who came between us.”

“I know.” Tania’s gaze shifted for a mere instant. “But I told you… we found later that we had similar agendas, she and I. She is a latecomer to the Goddess’s arms, but she is a willing one. She will playa very important role in our future.”

“She will betray you, too. Eventually.” Ahni worked her hand through the netting, touched Tania’s arm and felt her response.”You should have been more open with me. In my apartment.” She stroked Tania’s arm. Slowly. Sensuously. “I have always been afraid of the strength of… our feelings for each other. I have been wrong. I know that now. I would like… to ride this rock down with you. Willingly. I — don’t know Her yet, but I — I will trust you, Tania.” Her voice caught on those final words. Tears burned her eyes and they were real. She closed her eyes, drew a shuddering breath as Tania brushed away her tears, scattering crystal droplets.

The net relaxed.

Ahni untangled herself from it, felt Tania’s arms around her. Love, she thought hazily. Perhaps the sharpest weapon of all… Gently, she turned to meet Tania’s lips, shivering as Tania’s hand caressed her back, sliding her palms up Tania’s arms, over her taut shoulders, up the long curve of her neck to cup her face, their mouths together.

… and the most treacherous.

Ahni discharged the entire power core for her bioware into Tania’s nervous system. It was the same energy that Li Zhen had used to punish her for taking his son, but at a much higher intensity. Tania spasmed, back arching, arms and legs straightening violently, a hoarse cry erupting from her throat as all her muscles convulsed. She hit the wall, rebounded, slack and drifting rearward, her eyes half open, whites gleaming.

Throat clenched tight, Ahni caught her and awkwardly webbed her into the other hammock. Flung herself across the space to release Kyros. He pushed across to the control field, making noises to himself as he called up holos, ran a flickering progression of images through the air in front of him. “Damn, they’ve jerked this old boat around. I don’t know if I–okay, yeah, that’s what I need.” Fingers darting and stabbing he swore for a handful of seconds. “We can break this rock out of orbit and jack it into a trajectory that should take it sunward and miss the Platforms with luck. That gives time for the rock jocks to rope it and put some navigation power aboard if it’s needed. Or bust it up.”

“Do it!”

“Go check the escape pods for this boat, will you? We can’t reuse ours.”

She made her way over to the red escape icons glowing above the now-familiar slots. But when she touched the door, nothing happened. Neither opened. When she touched the small inset control screen it remained dark. “Any reason I can’t open them?”

“Main control say’s they’re working.” Tension edged Kyros’s words. “Try again. They’re never locked.”

“The control screens are dark.”

“Damn.” He pushed over to join her, tried the screens, then the doors, then the screens again. “Neat little trick that.” He glared at Tania’s unconscious form. “She was making sure her Goddess was going to get her sacrifice for sure. Too bad we couldn’t watch your brother’s face when he went to bail out and realized there was no way to bail.” Kyros laughed sourly. “Course we’re stuck, too. Oh well.” He pushed back to the control holos. Red glowed among the icons.

Not good.

“We have to push so hard so fast that the engines probably can’t take it. We could slow it down and maybe delay reentry until the marines arrive, but we’ve got no communication, and we don’t know they’re coming.” He looked at Ahni. “Here are our options. We delay, hope Li Zhen gets somebody out here to boost this thing to a higher orbit before it decays into atmosphere. But we only have enough fuel for that to slow it for about…” He glanced at the images again. “Fifteen more minutes, damn. She cut the fuel too close, probably wouldn’t had have had enough for maneuvering either. Bitch didn’t know as much as she thought she did.” He sighed. “We could end up in reentry anyway. It just depends. Or…” He looked at her. “We boost it out of orbit. But we’re here if the ship blows.”

Ahni closed her eyes. “Well, if we’re going to die, I’d rather it be for a win than a loss.”

“Me, I’d rather not die. Don’t know if that’s an option.” He stabbed fingers into the field, scattering icons like drops of blood.

A shiver started deep in Ahni’s bones. It grew stronger, spreading through her flesh until her teeth began to vibrate. It had the feel of nails dragged across a blackboard, but the blackboard was the inside of her skin.

“We’ll make a safe orbit in seven more minutes.” Kyros had to shout to be audible over the wail of the ship’s dying. “I’ll cut the power as soon as I can.”

They weren’t going to make it. She could feel the end coming in the increasing shriek of the tug’s power plant. It wasn’t so much audible noise as something she felt , as if the very atoms of the universe were being pulled apart here, stretched slowly to the breaking point.

The hull melted.

For an instant she stared at it dumbly, wondering why the exploding atmosphere hadn’t dragged her through the hole yet.

“Go, go, let’s go!” Kyros slammed into her. “I’ve got the system locked in, it’ll push until it blows.”

Another ship? Docked to them? She dove through the openning, the death scream of the tug vibrating through her bones. Kyyros shot through on her heels. Ahni found herself staring through the contracting hole in the hull, at her brother and Tania. Still alive.

She pushed off, would just make it through before the hull closed, traced her trajectory coolly, a part of her mind screaming no, ignoring it.

Kyros yanked her backward, wrenching every joint in her body. “No way.” His thumb pressed into the angle of her jaw, compressing the artery as his other arm clamped around her. She struggled as darkness closed in over her head.