Kristine Rusch - City of Ruins

He signaled his team to shoot as they hurried toward the carts.

He and Dix came in last, disabling three more vehicles before running to the carts.

Two carts had already gone underground, with four of his people gone. Only he and Dix remained.

One of the carts had a driver he didn’t recognize; the other was the woman they all called Boss.

Coop leapt into her cart, Dix into the other.

She waited for that cart to head into the caves before she followed.

Ground vehicles came up over the mountaintop. Coop and Rossetti shot at them, overturning one and knocking it into another. Three went around.

Coop cursed. He hoped to hell those ground vehicles couldn’t go into the caves. If they could, someone was going to get killed.

And he was going to make sure that if anyone died, it wouldn’t be someone on his team. Or Boss’s team.

He was going to protect them at all costs.

They’re shooting out of the back of my cart, and I can’t even turn around to see how many people they’re killing. Dammit, this is exactly what I didn’t want. Now the Empire will really have reason to search for us.

If we get out of here at all.

The carts in front of me are wobbling and bucking with the extra weight. I’m not sure we’ll make it all the way to the room. Not that I’m even sure my people will survive the stealth-tech field.

But one thing the captain was right about: there is no way we could have waited for a skip.

We’re the last ones underground, where it’s dimmer and blessedly cool. I hadn’t realized how hot I was until I got out of that sun. Sweat is running off me and I’m a little light-headed.

We duck and weave into corridors. Ahead, I hear someone screaming.

No one has to tell me that it’s Ivy.

“What the hell are we doing, Boss?” Bridge asks.

I can’t glance back. Someone else is shouting ahead. The carts have stopped at what once was the entrance to the stealth-tech field.

I almost crash into them.

Ivy is wailing. Mikk’s cart is blocking the way in. Al-Nasir is arguing with them. I stop behind them.

“You’re going in,” I say.

“We’ll die,” Mikk says.

“They’ve fixed the problem.” I say. “You’ll be fine.”

Even though I don’t know that. None of us know that.

“Go!” the captain says in my language, waving his hand beside me. “Go now!”

“Mikk,” I say, “you’ll have to trust me.”

“I’ve seen what happens in those fields, Boss. I’m not going in.”

“Then you’re going to die out here,” I say. “All of you. Trust me. We’ll be fine.”

“I trust you,” Roderick says, and raises his cart over Mikk’s, driving into the field area before anyone can stop him. He pauses just past the next bend in the corridor.

Death inside a stealth-tech field takes only a few minutes. Roderick sits there, his life the only one at risk, since he has only people from the ship in his vehicle. He grins and whoops.

“We’re going to be fine!” he says.

“Unless they only managed to make the field recede,” Bridge says beside me.

“If you stay here, you risk everything we’ve worked for,” I say.

“I don’t care,” Ivy says from Mikk’s cart. “Let me out! Let me out!”

“I’m fine!” Roderick yells from inside the field—or where the field would have been. “Come on!”

Ivy starts to climb out of her cart. One of the soldiers grabs her and she shakes him off, nearly upending the cart.

Mikk guns the cart, moving it toward Roderick’s as if they’re on a collision course. Ivy screams, and only the soldier keeps her from toppling out of the cart.

So far, so good. They’re alive.

Al-Nasir follows, and I bring up the rear. I think I hear something behind us, although it’s hard to tell with Ivy screaming the way she is.

It only takes a few minutes for the carts to go through the rest of the corridors. One of the soldiers gets out of Roderick’s cart and pulls open the door. The carts can’t go through it.

We stop all in a row.

Roderick peers inside the room.

“Oh, my God,” he says. “It’s a goddamn Dignity Vessel.”

“No kidding,” I say. “Get in there.”

Ivy is still sobbing, but she’s pliable now. The soldier drags her in. My group gets out. Once Ivy’s in the room, I hear the sound of voices behind us.

The captain says something.

“He wants to know if they’re going to follow us in here,” Al-Nasir says.

“Tell him I have no idea. They have maps that show them where the stealth-tech fields are. I’m not sure if they’ll cross those fields.”

So the captain and four of his soldiers indicate that we should go into the room. They bring up the rear.

My people slow down, looking stunned at the room’s size, and at the Dignity Vessel itself.

No one is in the room. Apparently the captain contacted his people. Something whistles in my ear. Both Al-Nasir and I have our hands to our ears, but no one else does.

“What’s that sound?” I ask him.

“They tell me it’s the ship powering up.”

The captain and his team come in. They pull the door closed, then the captain waves his hand at the ship.

I catch his arm and point at the equipment. It’s going to fall into the Empire’s hands.

He nods and points his weapon at it, miming a shot. I’m not sure what he means, but I think I know. He’s going to destroy the equipment.

I hope he’s going to destroy it.

The stairs have come down, and the door into the ship is open. My people are scrambling inside, followed by the soldiers. Al-Nasir and the lieutenant go in. The captain and I are last.

He has his back against mine, his weapon pointed at the exterior door. He’s pushing me inside and guarding me at the same time.

I stumble into the airlock.

He follows.

The door closes.

We’re inside the Dignity Vessel, and it’s about to leave.

The moment Coop got inside the ship, he started barking orders. First, destroy the equipment inside the room. Second, begin the anacapa sequence and get them the hell out of this room.

Dix was waiting for him, just inside the corridor. “Sensors show a lot of people inside the caves.”

“I figured,” Coop said. “You get anything from those guides?”

Dix was supposed to have been asking them about the history of Vaycehn. “We didn’t have a lot of time.”

The outsiders were milling around, looking at the inside of the ship as if they had never seen one before. All except the woman who had been screaming. She looked almost catatonic, her face blotchy and tear-streaked.

“I know that,” Coop said. “Did they tell you anything?”

Dix gave him a baleful look. “They told me that Vaycehn was the oldest city in the known universe. They told me it was founded more than five thousand years ago.”

Coop’s knees nearly buckled. He had to will himself to remain upright.

The woman hadn’t been lying, then. She had been telling the truth all along.

He turned toward her. She was standing just inside the door, watching her people, looking relieved. She had thought they were going to die, too.

She had taken a hell of a risk.

Slowly she looked over at him, and she said something.

“She wants to watch the ship leave,” the lieutenant said. “She wants to be on the bridge.”

He didn’t give permission. He just looked at the woman, wondering what it took for her to trust him like she had.

“She also wants to know if you can do something to make sure the Vaycehnese won’t be able to use the room.”