Paul Collins - Earthborn The

"Careless," Kara muttered to herself.

"Just another scar," Lee joked, then yelped when Kara dabbed the wound with water.

"Quiet!" she said.

Lucida looked about her. "We heard this part of the craft was in mutin . . . that is, in your hands," she faltered.

Welkin came to her rescue. "Which is why Colony couldn't send out landing craft."

"You got it," Harry said triumphantly. "They're all stored here. But the docking mechanisms are controlled from the bridge, so we couldn't leave Colony either."

"It's what's called in Old Earthspeak as a catch-32," Wez said.

"Catch-22," Welkin corrected politely.

"Catch-33!" Garth said.

"Enough!" Lee groaned. "Space demons above, argue about something that matters!"

Welkin stared up at the giant laminate window that had once been used to view the vastness of space.

Right now a jagged rip down its middle made it appear like cheap glass.

"When we crashed, the shutters were closed," explained Kara. "But on impact—kaput!—they folded in and cracked the window."

Welkin shook his head with exasperation. "Then why aren't you digging?"

"Because not everyone wants us to dig," Lee said from his chair. "All the others are uniting against us."

He looked down at the bandage Kara was wrapping about his shoulder. "They're too stupid for words."

"No one trusts anyone down here," Harry explained. He smiled ruefully. "If you think you can talk sense into them, go ahead. But I doubt you'll find a bodyguard."

Lucida glanced at Welkin and then turned to Harry. "What happens if you don't break through?" She nodded to the hole in the laminate.

"We stay here and fight. Until someone wins Bay View Dock, where there's a hatch to the outside already smashed in the landing."

"But the survivors may never even break through to the outside." Lucida shrugged helplessly. "Why can't you all work together as a team?"

Harry shook his head. "Because that's not how things are done. It's like ... I don't know!" he broke off, exasperated. "You ask some funny questions!"

"I'll go," Welkin said.

"Not without me you don't," Lucida said firmly.

"Then you'll both be killed," Harry said. "No one talks down here."

Welkin looked at Lucida. He didn't want to risk her life. "I'll be better off without you." He felt a cold wave of emptiness.

Lucida turned to the others. "The outside is the future. You all know this!"

Lee waited to see if there were any offers to go with them. No one offered assistance. "We're too few to go with you."

"I guess that means you'll need my help," said Harry. "You'll probably trip over the first bump in the passage."

Lee fumbled around in his satchel. "Here. These might come in handy."

They were throwing stars, hunks of rusty metal laser-cut to fine, sharp edges. Welkin realized it was one of these that had wounded Lee. He fingered them gingerly. Vaguely, he sought the word shuriken but could only grasp ninja.

"Thanks," he said dubiously. He gave a couple to Harry.

"I don't believe this," Lucida said. She took a deep breath and followed Welkin and Harry through the airlock. It closed behind them, enveloping them in total darkness.

"I hope you can find your way back, Harry." Lucida's voice sounded eerie as it echoed and amplified in the confined passageway. They had walked for half an hour and Welkin and Lucida were completely disoriented.

"If we don't have any luck, it won't matter," Harry said simply.

They continued on in silence, stopping every now and then to listen. At one junction, someone stepped out in front of them.

Welkin recoiled. He fell into a defensive stance. The throwing star felt cold in his hand.

The man smiled. "You're a bit off beam here. Softies, aren't you? Who got you first? Lee? Cummins?"

He was slapping a blunt instrument into the palm of his hand.

"Lee was waiting at his bulkhead when we were dropped down," Welkin said. He quickly scanned the area. Nothing but shifting shadows. A thousand places to hide. To ambush.

"We've got a proposition for you," Harry said.

"They're fair kill," said a voice from the dark. "I spotted them first."

They were surrounded. Voices rose in a rush, the manic whispers of a feral pack.

Suddenly the tunnel was alive with movement. Tentative at first, then confidently shuffling forward, eager for the kill. But the am-bushers parted so that the first speaker had a vague view of Welkin and Lucida. "They're mine," he said.

"Harry's right. We came out to talk," Welkin said. He ignored the others and stared at one youth whom he assumed to be their leader.

In that split second one of them raised his hand to throw a star. He'd half completed the action when

suddenly two blades sliced into him.

"Ambush!" a voice screamed.

"You're surrounded!" It was Lee's voice. "You there, moving to the back. Ease up or you're all dead."

"Steady," their leader said urgently. He looked ready to flee. But there was nowhere to go. He stood his ground. "Lee? Thought someone got you."

"Not today, Elab, and this isn't about payback," Lee called from the darkness.

Welkin noticed that the air was different, not as dank and stale.

"It's about the Bay View Dock," Elab said. "Even if you lot broke through, you'd be blinded. There's no hope for any of us out there. It's the upper decks or nothing."

"Blinded?" Lucida whispered from the shadows.

Elab stepped closer. His eyes were bloodshot slits filled with anger. "We've been down here so long we're as good as blind. Night visiononly, see?" He looked about him, at the two gangs. "You'd all lose your sight out there."

"We mightn't," Harry put in. He still had his arm flung back in case any of them made a false move. "If we get control of the bridge, we'll have medicine and cloning kits to heal everybody," he said, pointing to his puckered, rheumy eyes. "From the outside we can have the ship."

"So what's on the outside that Colony doesn't have?" asked Elab. He turned to the others. "If it's Earth we've landed on, it's probably a radioactive hellhole fit for nothing."

"I've been out there," Welkin said.

"So you say, softie!" Elab scoffed.

"The air is clear," Welkin said, bluntly ignoring the other's taunt. He wished Sarah were here right now. They would listen to her. He straightened up as though the mere thought of Sarah lent him authority.

"Is that all?" asked Elab. "You want us to risk our lives for clean air?"

"They have freedom," Welkin added.

A strange quiet descended on Blab's group, as if they were mentally translating the word into something they could understand.

Elab stared at him, puzzled. "Freedom? Freedom from what?"

"Everything. Freedom from rules, freedom from walls, freedom from being shut in. They do what they want, go where they please, though there are turf wars among rival gangs. But nobody orders them around. And there are no elders."

A soft gasp ran through the group. No elders?

The uneasy silence was broken only by the rhythmic splash of water from fractured pipes.

"We need to unite," Harry said. "We're almost through to the outside. We just need backup. Elab?"

Before he had a chance to say anything, someone came splashing along a corridor. "Lee? That you?"

Lee went over to the kid. They had a hurried conference before Lee returned, ashen faced. "The heavies have broken through one of Cummins's bulkheads. In force!"

Then, as though to verify his statement, dull thuds reverberated throughout the corridors. It sounded as though they were surrounded.

Lights snapped on.

Most of them covered their eyes instantly; others fell to the deck in fetal positions, keening in agony.