Tobias Buckell - Ragamuffin

Pepper nodded. “I saw it coming in. They’re all dead, someone shut the air off to them before we got there.”

They all stood a second, quiet.

“And the cavalry you’ve called in?” John spoke up. “Who are these people?”

“The League of Human Affairs, an assortment of freedom fighters, or terrorists, depends on how you look at them,” Nashara said through the speakers of the ovoid.

“They just want to help us out of the goodness of their hearts?” Pepper asked with a grin.

“They want the Gulong ,” Nashara said. “They’ll join the fray if we still have the Gulong .”

“Well, then we better hold it until they get here,” Pepper said.

John strapped himself into the room and scrubbed his face clean with a wet-cloth, ready to collapse and sleep, but knowing he couldn’t afford to. Thirty hours to go. The Hongguo had remained quiet, a tense détente, presumably listening on a few radio channels. Their ships clustered around the Gulong near the upstream wormhole. A few Raga ships had tried attacks, breaching the security cloud to get to the Gulong , and paid in hull damage and lives for the attempt.

“They’re moving.” Nashara appeared by his side. John jumped and shoved his hand through her, hitting the bulkhead and splitting his knuckles.

“I’m so sorry,” she said. “I didn’t want to take the time to walk my body down there.”

“Who’s moving?” John rubbed his knuckles over the wetcloth, leaving a streak of blood.

“Five Hongguo ships are trying for the downstream wormhole, three of them stopped by flack and mines; the other two are being chased. They’re headed for New Anegada, John.”

A smart move. Take something they valued and they were going to do the same. Two spaceships could do a lot of damage with missiles and nukes to Nanagada.

“We got to help them.” John spun around and grabbed the door. “How fast can we get the ship ready?”

“We can’t run that Hongguo gauntlet, John. You know that, you’re a pilot.”

“We have to do something. They’re going to hammer the planet,” John replied, but with less authority.

“They can only do so much damage, just two ships.”

“Damnit, these aren’t odds, these are people down there!”

“John, there’s nothing, I mean nothing, for them that you or I can do. The best thing is to hold the Gulong .”

John pushed his head against the mirror. “Thirty hours.”

“Thirty hours,” Nashara said. “It’ll take the Hongguo ten to fifteen to reach New Anegada at their speeds. The Ragamuffin ships there might be able to get to them. They won’t have much time above the planet. They’re using this to force us to talk.”

“I know,” John said. “I know.”

It didn’t make it easier, imagining Hongguo ships appearing far over Nanagada.

Thirty hours.

Kara sat in front of the three medical pods, watching the men inside lie asleep. The readouts all glowed green, and when she queried them, although she didn’t understand the medical terms quickly enough, they reassured her that all was well.

So many others had died. She was almost getting used to it, as if it were part of life to see tortured bodies, from Agathonosis to this ship. A long trail of bodies.

Outside, however, someone was punching the wall and shouting in anger. She kicked out and found John, their newest passenger, huddled up against a wall.

“Are you okay?” She put a hand on his shoulder and he flinched.

“Been better.” He smiled at her. “A lot of people are going to die down on New Anegada.”

“A lot of people have died already,” Kara said. “I don’t think it’s going to stop anytime soon.”

He cocked his head and looked at her. “That’s truly dark.”

“It’s what I’ve seen.”

“I’m sorry. No child should see death and war.” He cleared his throat.

“These people, they only have one machine like this, right?” Kara asked.

“Yes.”

“So they’re trying to trade with you. This machine for your planet.”

“I know.” John sighed. “But that doesn’t make it any easier, because they’re going to do something to show they’re serious.”

“We must hope it is a small demonstration,” Kara said.

“Yes, but we must also prepare for the worst.”

“Why is that?”

“Because, we aren’t dealing with humans,” John said. “This thing, the Satrap, commands the Hongguo moving to Nanagada.”

Kara nodded. “You’re right. The Satrap doesn’t think like you or me, it’s something else. And destroying a planet might be something it thinks would cow us. Or maybe divide our forces.”

John jerked back and stared at her. “How do you know that?”

“I’ve faced them before,” Kara said. “It’s pretty hopeless, but I’ve made it this far and I don’t want to give up just yet.” Jared was safe out there, being looked at.

“People live under these things, out there now?”

“Our histories say they used to only live among the Gahe and Nesaru,” Kara said. “And I think now that they came out among the forty-eight worlds and built habitats for themselves and some humans to live in so they could study us. Study how to control or destroy us.”

John shook his head. “I’m getting tired of aliens pushing us around.”

“Well, we’re pushing back. That’s hard work.”

And the man suddenly laughed. “Yes, it is. Thank you.”

Kara watched him coast his way down the corridor.

Pepper almost shot Metztli as the Teotl burst through one of the broken bulkheads, tentacles akimbo as it flew through the air. Pepper reholstered his gun.

Two mongoose-men floated near the sealant goop around the breach in the Gulong ’s hull, trying to see if they needed to add more to stop air loss.

“The chamber is under attack,” Metztli said.

“More Hongguo?” Pepper asked. “Nashara, I don’t like surprises, can you see anything?”

“They found a damn blind spot, I’m moving drones to look. Hold on.” There was an annoyed sigh.

“The Hongguo landed a ship on the hull, they cut their way through. My warriors are holding them,” Metztli said. “I don’t know how long they can last.”

“The Hongguo in the first third of the ship are moving again as well,” Nashara reported. “They’re fighting their way toward us.”

Damnit. Nineteen hours to go. Pepper moved toward the Toucan Too . “Come on, kid,” he yelled at Kara, who’d been out of the ship, inspecting the tip for any damage and patching it.

She started fingertipping her way up the hull toward the air lock.

Three suited bodies, Hongguo feng, burst through the sealant. They fired. The two mongoose-men taken by surprise died. Their guns spun off, clanking down the Toucan Too ’s hull.

Pepper bounced into the air lock, pulling his guns free and leaping back out.

Metztli flew past him and struck the nearest feng, ripping an arm free with a tentacle. Pepper shot the other point-blank, but not before getting hit in the shoulder and thigh.

He swore several times.

The third feng flew down along the hull toward Kara before either Metztli or Pepper had time to hit him.

She’d sprung free of the hull, grabbing one of the Raga machine guns, just as the feng smacked into her and swung around, trying to use her body as a shield, or her as a hostage.

The girl jammed the point of the gun under her armpit and pulled the trigger with her thumb.

She kept firing long after the feng died, leaving a long stream of blood as he flew on and hit the deck, bounced, and spun away.