Ben Bova - Test of Fire

Now Billy-Joe and the others were all dead.

Somebody had blown them into little pieces. The noise of the explosions still rang in Ferret’s ears.

But he was still alive. That was the important thing. Still alive. Bleeding, but still alive. He could stand the pain. That didn’t matter. The thing he had to do was to get away. Hide as far away from the fighting as he could. If one of the other gangs found him alone, they’d spend the whole night making him die. Slow. Not like Billy-Joe. Not like the others.

Choking, his eyes blurred with tears, the ringing blast of the explosions still echoing inside his head, his bleeding leg going numb, Ferret clawed at the foliage along the steep slope of the ridge, dragging himself away from the fighting, anyplace, anyplace except where the others could find him alone and helpless.

He reached the top of the ridge, gasping and too weak to move further. He rolled over onto his back, panting and blinking into the bright blue sky.

“Well lookey what we got here,” a voice said from somewhere behind him.

“Looks like dead meat t’ me,” another voice said.

“Not yet. But he will be. He will be.”

Ferret closed his eyes and waited for the agony to begin.

Alec stared at the burning shuttle. A huge gash was torn in its side and flames flickered in the dark smoke that was pouring out of it.

“We’ve got to silence that mortar,” Will Russo said urgently, “or the other shuttle will get it, too.”

Alec leaped to his feet and sprinted for the truck. Kobol was already screaming into his helmet microphone, “Get the shuttle the hell out of that area! When the fire gets to the propellant tanks it’ll blow both of them sky-high!”

Scrambling up onto the laser mount, Alec motioned Kobol to silence. He grabbed his helmet and jammed it on his head, speaking into the mike.

“This is Alec Morgan. Get every possible man into the undamaged shuttle and take off at once. Do you understand me? At once! ”

Kobol argued, “One shuttle can only hold…”

Alec brandished a fist under his nose, and Kobol lapsed into silence. “Acknowledge that order!” he snapped. “Who’s in charge down there?”

His earphone hummed meaninglessly for a moment. Then, “This is Jameson. One shuttle can’t take more than thirty-some men, even if they’re lovers.”

“Pack them in. No time for arguing. Leave the trucks and equipment.”

Staring down at the airfield, Alec saw the intact shuttle start to taxi away from the burning one.

Jameson’s voice came on again. “We’ve got three wounded men here. Both the shuttle pilots were killed when the ship was hit.”

“Get the wounded aboard the good shuttle. I want a dozen volunteers to stay here with me. The rest can squeeze into the bird any way they can. Use the cargo space. The trucks stay here.”

Russo and his people, including Angela, came up to the truck. The big redheaded man looked up at Alec, squinting into the brightness of the sky, grinning.

“Say, would you let us use some of these weapons to drive off the raiders?”

“Come on aboard,” Alec said. He ducked under the laser mount’s guard rail and kicked at the driver’s roof. “Get us moving. Fast!”

Hanging onto the rail as the truck lurched into motion, Kobol leaned his worried-hound’s face to within a few centimeters of Alec’s. “I’m going out with them, on the shuttle. I’m not staying.”

“Fine,” Alec snapped. “Just make sure you keep in touch. I’ll tell you when to come back and pick up the rest of us.”

“Right,” Kobol said.

They stared at each other for a long moment. He has no intention of coming back for me, Alec thought. And he knows that I know it.

The truck bounced crazily across the grassy field. Two more shells landed near the runway, but too far from either shuttle to do anything more than churn fresh craters in the ground. The smoke from the damaged shuttle seemed to have almost died away, it was only a thin gray haze now.

“Maybe the fire’s gone out,” Angela yelled over the noise of the rushing wind and the occasional explosions and gunfire coming from the woods.

Russo shook his head. “Doubt it.”

Alec stood behind the driver’s cab and watched his men streaming toward the good shuttle, now stopped at the farthest corner of the field, its nose turned into the wind. The laser trucks made a thin wall between the shuttle and the woods where the fighting was going on. But they were not firing.

The troopers from the Moon milled around them, peering toward the woods, gawking like spectators, trying to decipher the strange goings-on.

Alec’s truck pulled up alongside the shuttle. He started shouting orders and the men began clambering into the rocketplane. Kobol was nowhere in sight. Probably already aboard, Alec thought, and waiting for the takeoff.

The silvery finish of the shuttle’s fuselage looked pitted and stained now, dirty, soiled by the base elements of Earth. Jameson was standing at the bottom of the ladder that ran up to the hatch.

“They’re just about loaded,” he reported. “Fifteen men volunteered to stay with you; I’ve got them with the trucks. The pilot’s checking the ship’s systems to see if there’s any damage that’ll prevent takeoff.”

Russo grasped Alec’s shoulder and half-turned him around. “Lookit, I don’t want to butt into your affairs,” he said, pawing with his free hand at his nose, “but if you don’t start using your lasers to clear out the woods at the far end of the runway you’re not going to be able to get this shuttle out of here.”

“All right,” Alec agreed. He called to Jameson, “I want a driver and two gunners with each truck.”

Jameson said, “I’ll get them moving.”

“You’re staying?”

“Yep.”

Alec grinned at him. “Good. Thanks.”

Kobol appeared at the shuttle’s hatch. “You still insist on staying here?” he shouted.

“Yes. Somebody’s got to.”

“No,” Kobol called. “Listen. There’s enough room in the cargo bay for the rest of the men, if the trucks are left behind. The bay’s pressurized.”

“I’m staying,” Alec shouted up to him.

“To find your father.”

“To keep those raiders off your back, so that you can get away. And to get my hands on the fissionables that we came for.”

“I don’t see any raiders,” Kobol yelled. “Only mortar fire. It could be his mortar.”

Will Russo shot Kobol a disgusted look and turned away. Alec started to say, “Listen, Martin…”

“No, you listen. We both know why you’re staying. I hate to see you killing good men for your own personal reasons.”

Alec wanted to run up the ladder and seize him by the throat. Instead, he hollered, “Then why don’t you volunteer to stay With us, and let one of those good men get away safely?”

Kobol grinned his toothy mirthless grin. “If you want to be a fool, don’t expect me to join you. I’m going back to the satellite station. From there I’ll make a full report on your activities. I’m sure the Council will be interested. So will your mother.”

The hatch started to slide shut. The last sight Alec had of Kobol, he was still grinning. The smile of a man who had just outmaneuvered his enemy.

“Alec,” Ron Jameson called to him from the other side of the truck. “We’re ready to roll.”

It took Alec a moment to refocus his thoughts.

He turned and saw that Will Russo was sitting on the front fender of his truck. With a deep breath of exasperation, he banged on the roof of the driver’s cockpit and yelled, “Let’s get moving!”

“I’ve spotted my other men on two of your trucks,” Russo told him. “They know the territory pretty well.”