"This— this is the new ship," panted Mina. "They've attached this hab to the nose of the new cycler as a place for the crew during takeoff. The theory is that once the cycler's at speed it'll calve off a bunch of its own habs, the way Jentry's Envy did. At that point they'll have it make up a human-friendly one, like you did. Then they can move out of the habs."
They hung in a small pie-slice of a larger doughnut-shaped structure. This chamber was crammed with crates of supplies. "Who's they?" asked Rue, eyeing the lack of space. "Crisler can't be moving the whole Banshee crew in here."
"Some of the science team, and marines loyal to Crisler," Mina said. "He'd be returning on the Banshee with the real prize."
"Real prize?" Rue gestured around to indicate the whole vessel they had come to. "This isn't it?"
"No. There's something else— but I don't know what it is. Only that it's small enough to be carried by one person."
"We'll worry about that later," Rue said. "If Corinna and Evan are here, we have to find them." She pointed to a pressure door that separated this tiny room from the rest of the hab. "We go through that. Now."
THERE WERE A good ten of Crisler's marines hunkered down next to their balloon airlock on the far side of the shack. Even with the nose of the cycler between them, there was little cover here. Michael was wreathed in a gas of bubbling black ferrofluid; laser shots had half destroyed his shield and he had several burns on his suit. Both sides were laying down a covering fire to prevent the other from getting out of sight behind the cycler.
"The ancient pact is turned on its head," said the autotroph. It had been silent until now; it must have completed translating the Chicxulub script that covered the outside of the ship.
"What have you learned?" Herat asked it.
"Professor, this is hardly the time," said Michael incredulously. Their little squad was outmanned and outgunned, and Crisler's men might get reinforcements through the airlock at any moment.
"No better time," said the professor. "Now, tell us what those inscriptions say."
"The ancient pact is turned on its head
The hermit who carries the lamp now hands it on
The god who devours his children comes now for those who sought to defy him."
"Ancient pact? Hrm, don't know about that," said Herat. "But the hermit who carries the lamp? Lamp Bearers? It's talking about the Lasa!"
"Fascinating, professor, but—"
"Whoa, what's that?" shouted one of the soldiers. Michael peeked out from behind his shield, in time to see several space-suited figures explode through the shack's wall, to the accompaniment of gouts of fire.
"It's our boys, back from the Banshee!" One of the newcomers took a direct hit from a laser, flailed, and went still. "Give 'em cover, men!" shouted Harp. They all began shooting.
Michael didn't fire. He was too busy puzzling out what had just happened. Somehow, they'd targeted one of the magnets holding up the ferrofluid. As he watched, the lattice of magnets rearranged itself, and the whip of fire that had been exiting into space choked as the wall reappeared.
"That's it!" He leaned out, and aimed carefully— not at the mirrored shields of the marines that the others were targeting, but at a square black block several meters above them. Though his heart was pounding and he was sure he would be hit at any second, he waited until he was sure he had the shot, then pulled the trigger.
The magnet unit flared and exploded. Instantly, the ferrofluid wall behind Crisler's marines bubbled out and exploded. With a visible whoosh of firebeads and flame, they all went spiralling out into space.
"Good work, Bequith," shouted Harp. "But they'll just come right back through the airlock."
"Not if we mine it," he said. Without a word, one of the soldiers took a smart grenade from his belt, programmed it, and threw it in a perfect free-fall straight-throw. Moments later it reached the purple airlock disk, and stuck.
"They can still come through the wall like Captain Cassels did," said Harp. "So move it! We need to secure the habs on that cycler!"
They dove through constellations of firebeads, and now Michael allowed himself an instant to appreciate what he was seeing. It was as if he had become a giant, flying through the stars, batting suns out of the way with the back of his glove. The blue sparks seemed to have become more intense in the past few moments, indeed they were floating alone in a new velvet darkness…
"Hey," he said. "Anybody else notice that the lights have gone out?"
He flew on through a vision of stars, as in his ear, the words of the Chicxulub whispered:
"The sword we forged has turned upon us
Only now, at the end of all things do we see
The lamp-bearer dies, only the lamp burns on."
Rather than go through the door, Barendts had gone around it, tearing a long rip in the flexible wall material. He'd tossed a bot through that, and a moment later signalled all clear. Rue stepped through after him.
This room was larger than the last, but equally crowded. Floor, walls, and ceiling had coffin-shaped hibernation chambers clamped to them, the only open space a kind of tunnel through them. Even here, pieces of equipment floated, tethered by cables to the walls.
A face popped up from behind one of the coffins. It was the senior member of the science team, Katz. He looked wan and nervous. It would only take a few laser shots through the hull to evacuate the place, and kill him.
"Who the hell are you?" he demanded. He'd have a hard time seeing Rue's own face through her helmet, and probably wouldn't have recognized Barendts. She decided to take a chance: Clumsily with her one usable hand, Rue undogged her faceplate and levered herself past Barendts.
"It's me, Professor. Rue Cassels."
The flight of emotions across Katz's face was amazing and gratifying. "Captain," he managed to stutter after a moment, "how did you get here?"
"Rue?" Two more faces emerged from behind the hibernation tanks, and this time Rue's own face must have betrayed her; Evan Laurel and Corinna Chandra bounded over, laughing with amazement.
"Is this a rescue?" Corinna asked incredulously. Rue could only nod. Corinna hugged her tightly, tears starting in her eyes.
"But how?" muttered Katz, as he drifted to the side. Now other people were emerging from hiding: It looked as though the whole Banshee science team was here, and they all looked as stunned as Katz at Rue's arrival.
"So much for the halo-worlders being backward," said Evan proudly. "But really, Captain, how did—"
"Later," she said. "We need to get out of here. Where are your suits?"
"The marines in the next section have them," said Katz, nodding through the tunnel of coffins. "They stuffed us in here a few minutes ago, no explanations. We didn't have a window to look out, but we saw a couple of flashes—"
"Okay," said Rue. "We need those suits, so we need to get into that chamber. That means all of you get back into the storage room behind us, now! We don't want you caught here if the pressure goes."
They crowded past her, and Rue led her men forward. There was another stout pressure door at the end of the hibernation chamber.
"So," said Barendts, "how do we handle this one? Straight through, or stealthy?"
"I think we…" She forgot what she was going to say, as the pressure door slid open. Rue found herself diving behind one of the hibernation chambers, like everybody else.