Josh Roseman - The Clockwork Russian and Other Stories

Shanna takes aim. Fires.

Fires again.

And again.

William has to back off the accelerator before the engine overheats. The car starts falling back. Its lights hit the wheel that Shanna shot: it’s pitted where the chemical has eaten into it, but the ship itself hasn’t slowed down at all.

Shanna tosses her sights on the dashboard in front of her. He can see tears in her eyes. “They’re going to kill everyone,” she says. “They’re going to destroy our ships and no one will be able to do anything.”

“They’re heading straight into the colony’s teeth. They’ll at least be able to slow them down, or get out of the way—”

“You don’t really believe that, do you?”

William doesn’t. The very thought of the biggest, most powerful ship known to be roaming the western hemisphere, moving at this speed? They’ll never see it coming.

William manages to coax enough out of the engine to almost catch back up to the Jairasu before the massive liner slams into the heart of the Demetrius Colony. The smaller ships are maneuverable enough to get out of the way, but the tactical display shows that the core vessels have no chance.

Shanna and William watch as the lights blink out from the display. Supreme Illusion falls first. Then Strongman Jack and Coburn . Two of the water-carriers are next, and then William’s heart stops.

The Mighty Mississippi is gone.

The Jairasu leave long before the storm ends. By morning it’s rained itself out and William and Shanna, who abandoned their car to join the rescue effort, are able to see the destruction.

“My God,” she whispers, clutching William’s hand. “My God, look at it!”

He can barely stand to. The water glistening on every broken surface will be evaporated away soon. His brain fills in the broad swath of missing ships: at least 20 are lost, probably destroyed, and there must be thousands dead.

Last night, the two of them tried to find the Mighty Mississippi , but the big ship was completely gone. As the sun starts to rise, he sees marks on the ground heading eastward: something huge was pulled against its will.

William practically drags Shanna to an abandoned car and slams it into gear, following the direction of the scorch marks. Four kilometers away, he finds the forward half of the Mighty Mississippi , her turbines sheared away. There’s ruins a few hundred meters back, probably where the engine compartment blew up. William slams on the brakes, the car screeching to a halt, and jumps out. He and Shanna sprint across the already-steaming ground to the broadsided, broken ship.

“Andie!” he shouts. “Andie!”

He sees the bridge, its canopy peeling away from the upper deck. “Andie!”

“Who’s there?” It’s a male voice. “William, is that you?”

It’s Captain Marshall. “Where’s Andie?”

A long pause. “She’s trapped,” the captain yells down. “Call for help! Quickly, before—”

Metal shrieks. The entire bridge pulls away from the ship and crashes to the ground. An instant later, a small explosion blows a wave of heat in William’s direction.

Shanna grabs him before he can run into the burning wreckage. “They’re dead,” she says, her grip vise-tight as he tries to pull away. “Damn it, William, she’s dead!”

Though he fights Shanna as she pulls him back to the car, he knows he’ll never see Andie again.

It takes a month for the Demetrius Colony to recover. The Commodore still leads, and there are still 22 viable ships. The smaller vehicles have nowhere to dock anymore, but some of the hulks are cannibalized into rolling platforms, and that helps. Five water-carriers are still intact, though there’s little protection for them now that there’s only one remaining gunship.

“Find us water,” the Commodore orders William, who again stands in the book-lined cabin — which has taken surprisingly little damage. Either that, or he told them to clean it up at the expense of others. “Find us another storm, Lieutenant.”

“Why? So the Jairasu can just take it away again?”

“What would you have us do? Go after them?”

William tosses a tablet on the Commodore’s desk. “They warned us! Damn you, they told us exactly what they were doing! And you ignored it!”

“We needed that water,” the Commodore says, his voice quiet and deadly. “And you’re out of order.”

“I’m out of order, am I?” William grabs the desk and shoves it; the Commodore is knocked onto his back, stuck in his chair. William comes around and kneels beside him. “How does it feel?”

“Let me up!”

“No. Not until you learn how it felt for the people who died because you couldn’t heed a warning.” He feels his throat go tight. “It was like this for Andie, you know. Trapped on the bridge of the Mighty Mississippi , knowing she was about to die a horrible death.” He rips the rank from the Commodore’s shoulder. “I’m taking a cruiser and as many others as want to follow, and we’re going after the Jairasu.”

“That’s suicide!”

“Maybe.” William gets to his feet. “But they aren’t invincible. We destroyed some of their ships, and now I’m going to wipe them off the face of the planet.” He permits himself a small smile. “And Andie deserves better. Her, and all the others you allowed to die.”

The Commodore calls William’s name, but he doesn’t turn; he leaves the cabin, leaves the ship, and walks to the Shepherd — formerly the San Diego . Sixteen of the fastest, best-armed cars and trucks are parked near the sleek, powerful vessel. There’s also a converted yacht filled with water, courtesy of some of Shanna’s connections.

On the Shepherd ’s bridge, William takes a moment to check his comm. He already knows what’s in there: Rina’s message, sent in the middle of the storm — he hasn’t changed his comm frequency, so it’s not surprising that she was able to get him. “You never came after me,” Rina says, smiling sadly into the video pickup. He’s listened to the message more than a dozen times. “I survived, I made myself useful, I worked my way up. I fought to give Demetrius a warning, but you didn’t listen. My people had no choice.”

The first time, William had flung the comm across the parched ground, but Rina’s voice had continued speaking.

“I’m not sorry. We did what we had to do to survive. Just like you.” She pauses. “Don’t cross our path again.” It looks for a moment like she’s going to say something else, but the message ends there.

William puts the comm away. Shanna and three young men step onto the bridge a couple of minutes later; the men take stations, and Shanna stands beside William, looking out at the Demetrius Colony. “We’re ready,” she tells him. He nods, and she orders the Shepherd Colony to get underway.

William is pretty sure Andie wouldn’t be happy that he’s on a mission to avenge her death, but he doesn’t care. The Jairasu are going to pay for this.

Rina’s going to pay for this.

While “27 Jennifers” was the first story I had published, “Bring on the Rain” is the first one published by a market considered “professional” by SFWA. It appeared in Asimov’s , one of the true giants of science fiction. The editor, Sheila Williams, rejected it the first time I sent it, but was kind enough to request a rewrite. That’s the version of the story that you just read. I’ve flirted with the idea of writing a prequel or sequel to this, perhaps expanding it to novel-length, but that hasn’t happened yet.