Eugene Lambert - Into the No-Zone

I’ve been shrugged off enough. It’s no fun.

Anyway, we’re not alone. Others are off duty and taking it easy too. Colm’s on the upper bunk above us, reading something. I bet his ears are flapping.

Sky coughs. She’s got another cold.

‘This peace deal,’ I say to her back. ‘What do you think?’

Finally, she quits with the whetstone, holsters the knife and squirms around to face me. ‘It’s only a rumour.’

‘What if it turns out to be true?’

‘Even if it is, we both know it won’t be worth squat. Slayers are snakes. The Saviour’s the biggest snake of all. You don’t make deals with snakes, you just stamp on their head.’

A man struggles inside through the tent flap. Sky darts a glance at him as he heads for his bunk, and looks disappointed.

‘Still no word from Ness?’ I ask her.

She shakes her head. ‘Still working on it. He’ll crack it soon.’

‘And if he doesn’t?’

‘He’d better. For his own good.’ She pats her knife.

I’m working on a scowl when she winks. Not funny though. Here we are, with what could be a miraculous peace breaking out. We could have a future, for the first time in our lives. But that doesn’t interest Sky in the slightest. Course not.

Wood creaks above us. Colm’s upside-down face appears.

‘If this peace deal does come off,’ he says, ‘maybe we’d do a prisoner exchange. You could ask for your sister.’

Sky sneers. ‘You think that’s likely?’

Colm, his upside-down face reddening, shrugs at her.

‘More likely than you rescuing her. And you’re forgetting something, Sky. Right now there’s a ceasefire. Screw that up by trying to bust your sister out of wherever she’s being held and Ballard will skin you.’

‘Any deal will just be a trick,’ she snarls. ‘Of all people, you should know that, what with being raised a Slayer .’

She stresses the last bit. Deliberate. Nasty.

Is this why Sky can’t stand him? Rona said it was jealousy, me having Colm, her missing Tarn. I’d thought it was my brother saying that going after Tarn was dumb, that our cause comes first.

‘Colm didn’t choose that,’ I say through my teeth.

She rocks back and holds her hands up. ‘Okay, okay. All I’m saying is no way am I hanging about here, waiting on some peace treaty that might never happen. Soon as Ness comes up with the goods, I say we go looking for Tarn.’ Her eyes find mine and drill into them. ‘That was the deal. Remember?’

We go looking for Tarn . I roll the words around my mouth, not saying them aloud, just tasting them. They taste of ashes.

But I did make that deal. ‘Sure.’

Colm lets out a disgusted sigh and rolls out of sight.

‘You’re always moaning about wanting to fight. Going after Tarn with me is your chance to see some action,’ Sky says.

My face goes hot. ‘I do want to fight, but –’

‘Yeah, yeah,’ she cuts in. ‘Ballard says you’re too valuable.’

‘He is too valuable,’ Colm says.

‘I’m not,’ I say. ‘Sky’s right. I stopped being valuable after I led Gemini to the Facility.’ The truth is, Ballard and the rest of the rebel council are only worried I’ll get myself captured. We’re sure the Saviour was hurt bad in the raid. They don’t want Slayers getting their hands on my nublood and healing him again.

Sky nods. Her eyes go narrow and sly.

‘Ballard’s not here to stop us, is he? What about it, Kyle?’

Before I can say anything Colm jumps down from his bunk. Never have I seen my brother look so fed up, which is saying something because he tends to the grim and serious.

‘Don’t be crazy,’ he says, almost spitting.

Sky laughs her bitter laugh. ‘What’s your problem?’

He curses. ‘You are. You think you can do what you fraggin’ like, and to hell with everybody else.’

Her face, always so pale and bloodless, goes white. She hops off the bed and faces him, hand on the hilt of her knife.

‘That what you think, huh, Slayer-boy?’

I scramble up and get between them. ‘Don’t call him that.’

She shoves me back a step. ‘Tell your gom of a brother to shut it.’

But my brother isn’t done arguing yet. ‘Don’t listen to her, Kyle. She’ll get you killed, for nothing.’

Sky’s lips twitch. ‘Nothing? My sister’s a nothing?’

She snatches up her cleverbox and stalks off.

I curse and close my eyes. When I open them again, Sky’s long gone. Colm looks at me and slowly shakes his head.

‘Don’t,’ I tell him, as his gob opens. ‘Just don’t, all right!’

I love my new-found brother. I do. We share everything: we like the same stuff, make the same jokes and laugh at them. Sometimes I wonder how I ever got along without Colm.

Now though, I need a break from him slagging off Sky.

Not that he’s all wrong, but I’m not in the mood to hear it. I slip away, leaving him chuntering away to himself on his bunk. Soon as I’m outside the tent I stand up straight and suck fresh evening air deep into my lungs. It calms me down. There’s still hope, I tell myself. Maybe this peace deal is for real. And I like Colm’s suggestion about trading prisoners. Getting Tarn back like that would beat sneaking off with Sky and defying Ballard.

A gust slaps the tent’s canvas and blows my hair into my eyes. If it stays like this, Sky will be flying tomorrow. No, she won’t. I remember our windjammers are grounded.

I hesitate, then go looking for her.

Two women she shares her tent with are outside it, smoking. They tell me Sky’s not there. I glance doubtfully at the tent flap. The older one blows smoke in my face and smiles.

‘She ain’t. Honest. Take a look inside if you like.’

‘Any idea where she is?’

They swap looks and shrugs.

‘You guys had another bust-up?’ the younger one asks.

‘Something like that,’ I mutter. And clear off, my face all hot.

I consider tracking Ness down to see if Sky’s stropped off to have a nag at him, then get a better idea. I make my way back out through the gathering darkness to the canyon where the captured Slayer windjammer was hidden away. My hunch pays off. The rear loading ramp is down. A flicker of light shows. I peek inside. The light is from a shiner hung up on the bars of the cage. Sky is sitting inside, her back against the hull where Tarn scratched her tag. Her head is down, her arms wrapped round her knees.

She’s so still. Is she asleep?

I do a cough to let her know I’m here. Good job too. Her head snaps up and a blaster appears in her hand.

‘It’s only me,’ I tell her.

‘Oh joy,’ she mutters. But at least she puts the gun away.

I step inside. ‘What are you doing?’

She glares at me. ‘Thinking. Being with my sister.’

‘Want me to go away?’

She hesitates. ‘How’d you know I’d be here?’

‘I didn’t, not for sure. I just –’

The wail of the landing siren cuts me off, followed by some distant shouting and the chuff and clank of steam tractors.

‘Sounds like we’ve got incoming,’ Sky says.

‘Bit late and dark, isn’t it?’ I say.

I hustle back to the ramp and stick my head out. The landing area is all lit up now by lines of brightly flaring oil-burners.

She limps over to join me on the ramp.

‘They’re back then,’ she says.

I spot the small windjammer on final approach. Sky knows her jammers way better than I do, but even in the dark I can tell which one this is – the fast transport that flew Ballard and the other rebel leaders out of here a week ago. Air brakes already out, its lifters howl as they’re throttled up to landing power. It dives towards the ground, flares late and touches down. The howl dies away. I hear the rumble of wheels pounding the hard-packed dirt.