Paul Collins - Earthborn The

"They've activated the mains!" Lee said. "Damn! I should have known that fresh air was coming from the ventilators!" His eyes were screwed shut. "Bay View Dock! Everyone."

Those who could see took hold of those who couldn't. Both Lucida and Welkin each took hold of two near-blinded kids and followed Harry, who knew the way.

"Here they come!" someone screamed.

A heavy appeared from a side corridor and lunged at Harry. He ducked to one side, and the heavy tripped on a buckled plate. Someone rushed forward and stabbed him in the shoulder.

There were muffled sounds ahead. The sharp, static hiss of laserlite fire was loud. Welkin removed the laserlite from the fallen heavy. Elab had reached for it too; he looked at Welkin through blood red eyes but let go.

Welkin fanned a firing pattern at a group of heavies. Two fell, another slipped and disappeared

through the deck. Others scattered as the finger-fine photon bolts spat through the air.

The heavies returned the fire. Blue bolts bounced along the corridor seeking flesh. Wez dropped dead as ricocheting needle-fine beams seared though him.

Harry pushed Welkin and Lucida around the corner. "Up!" he snapped. He offered Lucida his cupped hands and helped catapult her up through a vent. Welkin needed no urging to follow her. He pulled himself up the rest of the way and helped Harry up.

Harry managed to drag his feet clear of the corridor as the heavies halted beneath them.

"Back!" he screamed as laserlite fire ripped into the shaft vent. Seared metal let off pungent fumes that burned their nostrils.

They crawled along an air duct, clawing at the smooth surface, slipping and cursing.

"They'll follow us!" Lucida screamed.

"Not up here they won't," Harry said confidently. "Too claustrophobic for them. Left here," he said and disappeared from sight.

Welkin and Lucida caught up with Harry as he kicked open a grille. It flew outward and clanged onto the deck.

They dropped through it into Bay View Dock.

"Why's it dark?" Lucida asked.

Welkin pointed to the ceiling. Someone had had the good sense to blast out the lights.

"Vre kalostone! It's the heavies, isn't it?" a girl said.

"En!" Welkin's mouth dropped. "And Zedda!"

"Aye! We thought you were dead!" Efi said, giving him a quick hug.

Welkin swung to Zedda and hugged her. "I told you they didn't die out there, Lucida!"

His sister was speechless. The elders had lied. . .

"Reunions later," Harry said urgently. "The others can hold them. For now," he said. He was still smarting from the lights; tears left dusty trails down his grimy face. He snorted, almost gagging on the acrid fumes from the vents. "How's it going here?"

"Den ksero —don't know—we think there is fighting outside," Efi said doubtfully. "There have been explosions. It might have been the main auxiliary going teliose —kaput! We had a cave-in near the hull."

Welkin turned to Lucida. "That could be Sarah. I was supposed to cause a diversion so that she could get to Hold Seven."

"She obviously thought you'd created your diversion when the fighting broke out," Harry guessed.

"Or the heavies think we've finally broken out and are attacking from the outside," Lucida suggested.

"Here comes Gemma," Lee said.

The girl belly-crawled from the gaping hole in the laminate. Despite her tattered appearance she looked overjoyed. "We're through!" she said excitedly. "The air—it's cold. But I didn't choke or anything." Coughing doubtfully, she added, "It's different."

Several kids jumped from air ducts onto the outer deck. It was getting crowded.

A dull thud shook the deck. "They're blasting everything," Elabsaid. "It won't be long before they get here. They've got scanners."

"The Earthborn," Lee said urgently. "Are you sure they're with us?"

"They need us as much as we need them," Welkin said emphatically. He prayed to the stars it was Sarah's team outside, and not the ferals or Bruick's jabbers. "They need food and equipment, so grab everything you can."

"Okay. It's now or never," decided Lee. "En, Marjel, Kaaron— sound the alarms. You're going through." He turned to Welkin, eyeing the laserlite with envy. "You'll need that outside. You've got to make contact with the Earthborn. It's going to be tight!"

Lucida looked apprehensively at the soil that had forced itself into the cavity.

"A bit of dirt's not going to harm you, you know," Welkin quoted, remembering Sarah's mocking voice when he had first dirtied his hands. Pulling her with him, he plunged into the hole.

Explosions rocked the ground. Sodden lumps of soil rained on the pair as they followed the short tunnel to the docking ramp. It felt as though they were negotiating a meteorite shower.

Shouting was interspersed with the constant reports of laserlites and ballistic gunfire.

"It's deafening!" Lucida yelled. She spotted a red firefly on her chest and screamed. Leaping out of the craft, she threw herself to the ground as a shot thudded into the hull beside her.

A dark-haired girl stood up and fired several shots into the dark.

"Gillian!" Welkin cried. So it had been Sarah's family outside.

Gillian grinned, but her smile faltered when she laid eyes on the blond beside him. "Got Ilija, by the way, but Pedros and Green are still out there somewhere. You'd better get a move on. It's getting crowded out here."

"This is my sister, Lucida."

She nodded, and her grin returned, bigger than before. "Sarah's over there. Move it!"

Sarah and Con were carrying a food crate between them. "That's some diversion," she said. "We owe you, Welkin." Her forehead crinkled. "What happened to you?"

Welkin wiped his hand across his shaved and pockmarked head. "Dark edge technology. You don't want to know."

She dumped the crate in a dugout several feet from the ramp and returned for another. Welkin and Lucida went to lend a hand.

"You're Welkin's sister?— y'welking's 'ista?"

"Sarah?" Lucida was staring at the woman with curiosity. "Welkin was right. You're . . . tall. And you do talk kind of funny."

Sarah grinned. "Thasa complent, righ?"

Lucida turned a bewildered frown to Welkin. "A compliment," he translated.

Con laughed. "Don't worry, girl. We'll teach you Earthspeak if it's the last thing we do."

"Ohmistars!" gushed Lucida. "You're wearing . . . eye focals— glasses!"

Con curbed his amusement. "So they tell me."

Sarah squeezed Con's shoulder. "Your leg, Welkin. You don't seem to be limping as much." She spoke as she ran, the others trailing close behind at a crouch.

"Colony fixed it," Welkin said, puffing. "Probably thought it was contaminated. Couldn't have Earth germs spreading throughout the ship!"

"I just don't see how they could—what the heck! You're fixed up. That's all that matters." The words were lost up ahead.

They kept moving, stooping below the level of the deck and carting crates of food that Gillian's kids had located. Lucida found the uneven ground easier to negotiate than Welkin had.

No matter what the Earthborn might think of the Colony softies, they were a lot stronger due to their high-gravity upbringing. He noticed with pride that he and Lucida had just carried a crate heavier than Gillian and Con's load.

"Isn't the cold funny, Welkin?" Lucida was saying. "It numbs your skin. Just like pressing your face against the viewport in space."

Welkin nodded acknowledgment. He knew how close to death they were right now. How just one stray piece of metal could cut them in two.

"And why's everything ruined? It's nothing like—"

Gillian sized up the spaceworn Colony. "Your home doesn't look so hot right now, either."