“Stacia, no! Don’t!”
“Skin, stay out of this.”
“But he didn’t do anything.”
“I already told you. This isn’t about anything he did. It’s about what his mother did.”
“He’s innocent, though!”
“We’re all about to die anyway. Why does it matter which one of us pulls the trigger on him?”
“Stacia, I’ve only known you for two days, but I know this can’t be the real you. You believed in the Galactic Marines. You felt you had an honor and a duty to help people.”
“Skin, stop. Just stop. I told you before, there’s still more to this than I told you.”
“Then tell me now! Make me understand!”
“God damn it, Skin. You really want to understand?”
“Yes.”
“Really really?”
“Yes!”
“Fine then. Here’s the truth.”
Stacia ducked and swept her leg out in front of her, tripping Stanton and sending him sprawling on the floor. She’d counted on the Shellhead’s complacency to lull them into a false sense of security while she and Skin argued, and thankfully, most of them obliged her. Two of the Shellheads, however, tracked her with their weapons as she dropped and fired. Stacia rolled out of the way, knocking down two more of the Shellheads at the same time. She felt a sharp, exploding pain as one of the bullets shredded her left ear, yet she suppressed her cry. Instead, she rolled to her feet, hit Faust in the face, and then fired five times at the Shellheads still on their feet. She got three in the head. One she hit in the chest, which sent him flying backward even though his armor absorbed most of the blast. With Faust on the floor, most of the Shellheads either dead or knocked out on the floor, and the rest rushing out through the door before Stacia could take them out, Stacia stood in the center of the carnage and nodded in appreciation at her own handiwork.
“Whuh?” Skin asked. She herself had ducked and run out of the way, hiding in a corner until Stacia’s brief flurry of violence was finished. “Huh? I don’t understand.”
Stacia ignored her, instead walking calmly over to Stanton as he stared unbelievingly up at her from the floor. Stacia still had the pistol in one hand, but she kept it pointed well away from her target. Instead, she offered him the other hand to help him up.
“Stanton, your mother sent me. I’m here to get you off this shit-hole of a planet.”
Chapter 12
Cliff Racing
“I don’t know why I’m surprised,” Stanton said as he took her hand and got back to his feet. “This is such a mother way of going about things.”
“You sound like you don’t approve,” Stacia said.
“I wouldn’t say that. It’s just there had to be a more straightforward way.”
“Could someone please explain to me what’s happening?” Skin asked.
“Sorry, Skin. Wish I could, but I get the impression that whoever else came with Faust will be coming for us any minute now. I can explain once there’s no one shooting at us.”
“Is there ever a time when someone isn’t shooting at you?” Stanton asked.
“Not really.” She walked over to where Faust lay on the ground. He groaned but didn’t move much. Stacia wondered if she had damaged something vital when she’d hit him.
“Should we tie him up?” Skin asked. “We could use those ropes to…”
Stacia shot Faust in the face. His head exploded in a wave of charred gore and green plasma.
“Oh,” Skin said. “Um, never mind.”
“Did you really have to do that?” Stanton asked.
“Yes,” Stacia said. “I really did.”
“There wasn’t some less violent way to make sure he doesn’t come after us?”
“It wasn’t just about him coming after us. My neural implants calculated that there was little chance of getting you off world if he reported back to Lexton immediately that I’ve actually been here to save you this entire time. If he doesn’t report exactly what he saw, the chances of pulling this mission off greatly improve. It was simple numbers.”
“He was a man, not a number.”
“Yeah? And she’s a woman,” Stacia said, pointing at Skin. “Yet you’ve seen what people like Faust have been doing to people like her. You go ahead and feel sorry for him all you want. Just remember where this…” She pulled out the piece of leather she’d used to find him and tossed it at his feet. “…actually came from.”
“Is that…?”
“Yes.”
“Jesus. I think I’m going to be sick.”
“Get sick later. Escape now.”
She quizzed him on what weapon he could operate best, but that was a lost cause. Stanton was a pacifist, an activist. She had been told as much when General Borealis had been preparing all this. Stanton had never fired a gun in his life. His preferred weapon was words. Words, unfortunately, would be pretty much useless in this situation. Stacia finally just forced a plasma pistol in his hand and hoped that he wouldn’t burn off his own toes. To Skin, she gave one of the 808s. The other 808 she took over to the prone form of Cobble.
“I’m not going to live, am I?” Cobble asked. Stacia saw her internal organs jiggle as she spoke.
“I’ve actually seen people walk away with worse wounds.”
“Really?” Cobble asked.
“No, not really at all. I was just trying to make you feel better. The plasma cauterization is keeping you from bleeding out, but your stomach honestly looks like the typical Galactic Marine without her armor. Unless you’ve got some spare armor lying around, you’re pretty much gone.”
“Please, you have to make sure that my husbands are safe.”
“I’m not sure that I can make that promise. But if you do something for me, I can promise you this: when I get off this planet, I will make sure people stop ignoring what is happening to the Skins on Leviathan. Maybe something can change.”
“Better than nothing, I guess. What do you need me to do?”
Using one of the ropes to bind up Cobble’s wound and hopefully keep her insides from spilling out a little longer, Stacia propped her up where she had a clear, unobstructed view of the door. Then she gave Cobble the 808 and told her to shoot anyone or anything that came through the door.
“But what if it’s one of my people?” Cobble asked.
“How many more of Lexton’s Shellheads are there in the town?”
Cobble frowned. “Most of them were in here, but there were still some elsewhere keeping certain people from running.”
“So they were guarding the important people? The ones who might come check if they thought something was wrong?”
“I see your point.” Cobble looked at the extra controls on the side of the 808. “I don’t know if I can operate this thing.”
“Just ignore all the bells and whistles and pull the trigger when it’s time.”
“What about us?” Stanton said. “There’s no way out. Lexton’s people would be on the levels below waiting for us.”
“That’s why we’re not going down,” Stacia said. “We’re going up.”
She pointed high up at the wall. Both Skin and Stanton stared at the open window far above them at the top of a completely vertical surface.
“I can’t climb up there,” Stanton said. “I don’t have the muscle strength to…”
Skin went over and grabbed the largest ladder she could find.
“Oh,” Stanton said. “Right.”
“Don’t look too relieved,” Stacia said as she went over to grab several of the ropes and hooks. “Your muscles are still going to get a workout. After the window, we’re going to have to go straight up the cliff.”