NOVEL NEXT Chapter Seventeen: Radioactive Ruins
For the thousandth time on this trip, Negasi wondered if he would have been better off staying an algae farmer.
The S'ouzz had outlined the safest potential approach to the base—along a narrow canyon with walls so sheer it was unlikely that too many snipers could position themselves along the approach.
"Too many." That's how the alien had put it. Because of course there would be at least a few. For a bunch of radioactive mutants, these guys were pretty organized.
The canyon ended abruptly, requiring his meathead friend to fly up a sheer cliff, then over a ridge that would probably be guarded, and then down into the valley to the base. From then on, they'd be visible to the town, the base, and pretty much everyone in that band of raiders.
And all they had to defend themselves with was that little dart shooter of Jeridan's that wasn't effective past about fifty meters, and that radioactive death spitter of Nova's.
Negasi didn't have any weapons at all.
"And to think I could have a nice, peaceful job tending the algae pools," Negasi muttered.
"What?" the Elder Farrier asked.
"Shut up, I'm thinking. It's your fault I'm in this mess."
And Nova's. And Jeridan's. But mostly you, you old pervert.
"Hey, I have an idea!" Negasi said, punching the elder in the arm so hard he nearly toppled out of the hovercar. Negasi had to grab him.
"What?" Jeridan asked.
"Why don't we trade this guy? He's an elder. They can trade him back to the villagers for sheep and food and stuff."
"More likely they'll trade me for several of our women," the elder said grimly.
Nova turned in her seat and studied the old man, face stern, eye calculating. Negasi could practically hear the thoughts going on inside her head. The Wasteland Raiders would probably see the elder as a more useful captive than some off-world girl, especially since they had already gotten all the loot from the ship intended for the villagers. So it might be a good idea to offer him up as a deal.
But what he had said would probably happen next had caught her up short. She might save her daughter, but only at the cost of putting other people's daughters in danger.
And they wouldn't have anyone to save them.
Negasi watched as her eyes grew calculating, her lips firm up. He watched, waiting to see what kind of human being he had signed up with. So far, the signs hadn't been too good—the insectoid mercenaries on their tail, the bipedal life forms preserved and hidden in the cargo hold, the dangerous and illegal rifle, the half-truths and secrets about the goal of their mission …
Negasi had worked for all kinds of people—some good, some not so good, and some downright nasty. He still did not know what kind of person Nova was.
He was about to find out.
Nova gritted her teeth. A low growl came from deep in her throat.
And then her shoulders slumped, just a little.
"No, I won't trade someone else's daughter for my own." Her whisper could barely be heard over the hum of the hovercar and the wind blowing around the windshield.
But Negasi heard it.
And judging from the look Jeridan gave her, so did he.
Negasi relaxed a little.
So I'm working for a decent person after all.
"Thank you," the Elder Farrier said in a quiet voice.
Nova landed a right cross that jerked the old man's head back and made blood spurt from his nose.
"This is all your fault!" she screamed.
Well, mostly decent, Negasi thought. But to be fair, if I were ever to hit an old man, this guy would definitely be on the shortlist.
Jeridan apparently agreed because he said, "Feel free to hit him again, but make it quick. We're coming up on the canyon."
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Nova gave the Elder Farrier a contemptuous jab in the gut that made him double over and emit puking noises. Negasi edged away, hoping the old coot hadn't eaten recently. Nova faced forward and checked her uranium slug thrower.
They approached a series of low hills bare of anything but a few desiccated shrubs. Jeridan kept a couple of hundred meters above the top of them. Mountains rose beyond, the nearest some five hundred meters tall, then rising to a thousand or more further on. The rock was a friable limestone, deeply eroded and pitted with caves. A narrow canyon with almost sheer sides opened up ahead of them.
Negasi leaned forward, reaching out his hand in front of Jeridan. His buddy grunted, reached into his pocket, and pulled out the microflechette pistol and a spare magazine. Negasi took them.
Just in time. Fire erupted from the top of the last two hills, what sounded like a machine gun and at least two rifles. Tracer fire cut through the air not far to their right. A bullet ricocheted off the hovercar's ventral surface.
"Piece of cake," Jeridan said with a grin.
An RPG round shot into the sky. Jeridan yelped and cut hard to the right, nearly spilling them all out of the hovercar. The round missed them by a couple of meters. Negasi sat in the back, gripping onto a handhold and feeling helpless. That little microflechette pistol was no use at this range.
A flash of light atop the left-hand cliff at the entrance to the canyon caught his attention.
"Sniper at the canyon entrance," Negasi shouted, his words interrupted by the loud pang of another round hitting the hovercar.
They were just passing the last of the hills and Jeridan reduced elevation.
Gunfire crackled through the air. Negasi gripped his microflechette pistol, nowhere near close enough to return fire, assuming he could even see any targets, which he couldn't.
Luckily, no slugs passed near them. The S'ouzz had been right. The cliffs were too high and too steep for any snipers to get a decent shot.
That wasn't the case with the guys hidden in the cave a couple of hundred meters in.
Negasi and his friends didn't even see it until they were passing and a machine gun erupted, its bullets clattering along the hovercar's side, sending up sparks. Negasi winced as one nicked his arm, tearing his jumpsuit and bringing up blood.
And then they were past. Everyone hunkered low, awaiting more shots. Negasi checked his arm, saw it was only a scratch, and felt seriously tempted to punch the Elder Farrier for getting them into this mess.
No time for that. Jeridan had hit full thrusters and they had already made it to the end of the box canyon. He pulled up hard, and Negasi sucked air through clenched teeth as they shot upwards, nearly slamming into the wall of limestone.
If there was anyone waiting for them at the end of the canyon, Negasi never knew, because they were up and over that ridge so fast.
A warning beep went off from the dashboard. The Geiger counter flashed red. Nova switched it off. Jeridan grunted and switched it back on.
"Do we have antiradiation pills?" Negasi asked.
"Yeah," Nova replied. "In the stuff your pal handed over to these barbarians."
Negasi didn't reply. He was too busy scanning the area for hostiles.
He didn't see any, and in the next moment they shot past the ridge and were flying high over the valley.
The old base lay ahead of them on the valley floor. It looked even worse than from orbit. The steel walls of the domes and covered walkways had corroded, and a great black scorch mark covered a third of the main dome. The result of a burnt-out nuclear generator? Negasi didn't know and didn't want to know.
Around the base, looking pathetic and primitive next to this artifact of the old Imperium, were a few corrals for sheep and goats. Negasi wondered what they ate. Nothing seemed to grow here.
Although he saw several hovervehicles parked by the old base, no one was in sight. That made him worry.
He worried even more when he looked beyond the base at the village atop a nearby hill, the scrap metal roofs of its houses just visible above the flimsy-looking wall made from what looked like interior structural elements scavenged from the old base.
The gate was open, and that fleet of hovercars and hoverbikes they had seen before streamed out of it.
"We'll get there before they do," Jeridan said and laughed. "Look at those primitive things. They don't even have the boost to go over the walls. Once we grab Aurora, we can simply gain altitude and leave them behind."
"Uh, Jeridan?" Negasi said. "Sorry to be a party pooper, but while you're right that we'll get there first, they'll be waiting for us when we come out."
"Oh. Right. Why do you always kill the mood?"
"Because you're too stupid to think of these things yourself."
"If I'm so stupid, why do I always beat you at chess?"
"You don't always beat me at chess!"
"I'm winning 161 to 158."
"Fine, at chessboxing. But I've won more times at chess. I've checkmated you 79 of my wins," Negasi said. "You only checkmated me like 30 times."
"Forty-one times," Jeridan corrected.
Nova cut them off. "Stop babbling about chessboxing and think of what we're going to do about that horde of radioactive barbarians bearing down on us, and that second horde hiding in the base!"
"Considering how little we have to work with, we don't have any options," Negasi said. "Nova, you take point and try not to irradiate me too much as I cover your back. Jeridan, you circle around with the hovercar and distract the thugs coming in vehicles."
"With no weapons?" Jeridan asked, his voice breaking into a panicked falsetto.
"Don't be a wimp. This vehicle is armored. Theirs aren't. Ram them."
"Oh, right. Get in nice and close so they can shoot me. That's a brilliant idea."
"Drive good enough and they won't get the chance. This thing is way more maneuverable than anything they got."
"What about me?" the Elder Farrier asked.
"You stay in the back and keep your mouth shut," Jeridan said.
"No, I want to go into the base. We've never had a chance to look inside."
Negasi gave the old man an appreciative look. He had more guts than he thought. Jeridan dove the hovercar down the back of the ridge at full speed, then skimmed along the valley floor, heading straight for one of the broken walkways, its corroded sides draped with tarpaulins.
"Fine," Negasi told the villager. "You know these barbarians. Maybe you can give us some tips."
"But if you fall behind," Nova growled, "we're leaving you."
That might be doing him a favor, Negasi thought, because the most dangerous place to be at the moment is right next to us.