All across the park the rioting crowd started running. Fast.
Araminta didn't need any more encouragement. She scrambled to her feet and began sprinting hard back to where she'd left the cab. The strobing lights of the dogfight illustrated everyone in weird stop-motion positions. Her secondary thought routines did their best to maintain a level vision for her. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a long line of red and blue strobes tearing through the air above the Cairns.
Reinforcements.
Her feet pounded over the grass. Panic was bleeding everything else out of her mind. Damn, I was stupid.
'Hey you, the voice was loud but calm.
Araminta kept on running.
'You: woman with the black hair wearing the fleece. Stop. Last chance.
Oh please, Ozzie, no!
She stumbled to a halt and looked fearfully over her shoulder. A man was standing ten metres behind her, dressed in a simple leather one-piece. A force field shimmer layered the air around him. He smiled, ignoring the frantic people running past. 'It's over, he said in a kindly voice, and held out his hand. 'Come on. Nobody's going to hurt you. You're far too important.
Araminta's jaw dropped as she saw the figure flying through the air behind him. Actually, really flying! Arms outstretched and everything. It was a woman, Araminta saw that much before a bright purple nimbus sprang up around her. She landed directly on top of the man. The air detonated in a violent corona. Blast pressure sent Araminta and everyone else nearby tumbling across the ground. A whitesound wail eliminated every other noise.
Somehow Araminta managed to stagger to her feet and totter away. Behind her the fight between the man and the women was getting ferocious. Energy blasts pummelled away. Waves of smouldering earth cascaded upwards as the lurid pair writhed together in a small crater of their own making.
Two more dark figures were flying silently over the park. She could see their silhouettes against the indigo haze of the dogfight above. The line of paramilitary capsules was almost at the marina.
She tripped over a prone figure to go sprawling into a small guralo tree. Tools in her belt jabbed painfully into her stomach and ribs. 'Ouch!
'Up you come.
A hand gripped her, pulling her to her feet. She gasped into the face of her helper, seeing a wry smile. His youthful features were very handsome, yet she knew he was ancient. He had a level of self-confidence that even Laril hadn't achieved. Then he was looking behind her, frowning. 'Oh crap.
She didn't want to look. This is it. The end.
Another capsule exploded just beneath the force field dome. Scintillating wreckage hurtled down.
'Get out of here, the man said urgently. 'My team will hold them off. We're killing ever sensor in a five kilometre radius. Living Dream won't be able to follow you. Go!
'Huh? she grunted, hating herself for being so dumb.
He swung her round and let go. She stared at the two figures approaching through the terrified crowd. Both were clad in a liquid jade glow. Her helper pushed his arms out in some kind of martial arts pose. His hands ignited into sharp turquoise-fireballs.
'Go! he growled at her.
'Who are you?
The ping was short and very directional, no one else could pick it up. 'Oscar Monroe; I work for ANA. We want to help, we want you to be free to make your own choice. When you're clear and safe, call me. Please. >unisphere code< He smiled at his opponents. 'Go for fuck's sake! he yelled out loud.
'Don't even think it, one of the jade figures snarled.
Araminta finally turned and ran. Behind her there was a thunderclap as the three of them clashed. The impact was almost enough to send her toppling over again, yet somehow she kept her balance, kept scrambling forwards. Another of the eerie dark figures was flying fast above the heads of the panicked mob. The long line of paramilitary capsules came streaking down from above the river, curving round to encircle the park.
She reached the Wurung Transport cab and fell inside, sobbing with relief. It slid smoothly along the rail. Outside, people were running over the road and the rail, their terrified expressions making her flinch. The cab slowed then accelerated in juddering motions to avoid them. Garish light battles raged in and above the park. The sounds were muted by the cab's bodywork. Araminta curled up into a ball on the seat, hugging her chest. Far inside her mind the gaiafield was in turmoil at the outpouring of fear. Living Dream followers were still praying to her — forcibly. She blotted it all out.
After a couple of minutes the cab had outpaced everyone else fleeing the park. The dogfight above the city had finished, and the sickening sounds of raw conflict had died away. She was sliding gently along through the Garlay district with its elegant houses and high toroidal pad malls. She could even see some people sitting under the awnings of the cafes and bars that had stayed open, their drinks and food left ignored on the tables as they looked anxiously towards the Bodant district.
I have to get away. No matter what.
She turned to the cab's node, and keyed in the drive program. 'Francola district, she told it.
It had been a long time since Paula had been to Kerensk. Officially, anyway. Kerensk had been one of the Big 15 worlds during the Commonwealth's first era; the super-capitalist engines which powered the Commonwealth's expansion right up until the Starflyer War. Founded by Sergi Nikolayev, a Russian billionaire, to whom the human exodus from Earth finally provided a way to free himself and his money from Moscow's grasp. Like the other Big 15, it developed into an industrial world whose megacity produced an abundance of cheap heavy engineering and consumer products. Entire continents were strip-mined for raw materials, while those that weren't plundered for their minerals were factory farmed.
After the war the economic slowdown caused by financing the new47 worlds followed by the emergence of Higher culture saw the Big 15 slowly lose their stature. Their populations, always transient, drifted away and their manufacturing fell into decline. Inevitably, given their technology base, they became Higher worlds.
Except for Kerensk. The Nikolayev Dynasty carried too much residual distrust and suspicion of the old central control ideology to knuckle under to Higher influences and ANA's benign guidance. Following Far Away's lead, it rejected both Higher and Advancer culture, removing its representative from the Senate and becoming an 'observer' nation. Those that stayed on in Kaluga, the old megacity, followed their own techno-economic imperative. The rest of the planet was effectively abandoned.
Paula scanned the area around Kingsville curiously as the Alexis Denken descended out of a cloudless sky. The old military base was in the middle of a huge desert on the other side of the planet from Kaluga. A relic of the Starflyer War, it had started out as a training camp for the insurgency teams dropped behind enemy lines to make life hell for the Prime invaders. Of course, it was hard to find ruthless soldier types in the nice civilized first era Commonwealth. The new Navy had recruited heavily amid the criminal fraternity.
Kingsville had trained over thirty thousand troops. Back then it had sprawled for miles over the rocky desert, prefabricated buildings arranged in unimaginative rows, their air-conditioning straining against the harsh sun. After the war it had reduced its size considerably. But with the Dynasties chasing after the new Navy contracts it was politically useful to keep the base going. It became a ship repair and refurbishment yard throughout the Firewall campaign. After that, with Kerensk slowly rejecting the Senate's authority it had been downgraded again. Then again.