Providence - Max Barry Page 0,66
wishful thinking.”
“Look at this thing,” Gilly said, gesturing to the novelty handles. “We can’t escape a thousand hostiles in this. We’ll never make it.”
Jackson’s eyebrows rose. She glanced about and her eyes landed on Talia. Talia did her best to nod. Jackson’s face hardened. She hadn’t suspected before, Talia saw. But it was making a lot of sense to Jackson in this moment. She’d dealt with Service long enough to know how they worked.
“Goddamn it,” Jackson said.
“Anders isn’t even here yet,” Gilly said. “Let me try until then.”
“All right. But when I call abort, you abort, understand? You leave that second and hightail it back here.”
“Understood.” He rose. He threw Talia a last glance and slipped into the darkness.
Jackson strapped into the front harness and positioned her board. Without turning, she said, “You and Service have a lot to answer for.”
That was a little unfair, Talia felt. She hadn’t designed the jetpods. She had only been doing her job, like Jackson did hers. But she felt elated because now they weren’t going to shoot into space in a toy coffin. Gilly would run the ship and then they would repel the boarders and they would be okay.
“Anders, status.” Jackson continued the one-sided conversation for a minute more. Eventually Anders appeared in the jetpod doorway. He was carrying a bulky rifle, a lightning gun, as naturally as if it were a third-born child. Anders plus a gun had been a waking nightmare for her for a while, but now she thrilled to see him with it. He looked like he’d never been complete before.
He stopped dead. “Where’s Gilly?”
“En route to Eng-1. For now, we hold here.”
He raised the rifle and took a step backward, into the corridor. That was an issue, too, now that Talia thought about it: Anders likely couldn’t be convinced to enter the jetpod. “I’ll provide escort. I just need to get a new cell. This thing’s almost out of charge.”
“Negative. You’re not roaming around the ship looking for lockers. Stay here.”
Anders stared at Jackson. Talia wished he would check behind him once in a while. He was standing with his back to a corridor that was drowned in darkness, and how fast could salamanders move? She felt like they were fast. On flat ground, under 1G, she felt like one could scramble out of the darkness and be inside the jet before anyone could react. She attempted to raise this but her body had become even less interested in responding to her wishes. The medbag was sinking chemicals into her, she realized. It would steal away her consciousness altogether before long. She managed to cough.
Anders glanced at her. “You still with us, Beanfield?”
“I’m in,” said Gilly, his voice coming out of the jet’s front. “I have a board.”
Jackson raised a proximity view on a screen: the ship a blue dot, an orange planet radiating gravity lines, and a thin red arc of salamanders edging closer. “You have ninety seconds. If what you’re doing isn’t working by then, you leave.”
“Understood.”
Anders tossed a glance over his shoulder, which eased her concern, but only for a moment, until he turned back again. Just step into the jet, Anders. Come inside and face the right way. “Can you track the salamanders from here?”
“We only have thermals, so it’s an approximation. But they’re close.”
“How close?”
“Aft port quarter. Two of them.”
“On this deck?”
“Yes.”
Anders ducked into the jet. He set himself inside the door and pointed the rifle into the darkness.
Thank you, she thought.
“I thought you were out of charge,” Jackson said.
“Almost,” Anders said. “Almost out of charge. I should get Gilly.”
“There are no hostiles near Gilly. There are two near us. Stay. Intel, how are you looking?”
“Good. The AI cold restart is almost complete. It should be fully functional within three or four minutes. I haven’t looked at Weapons yet, but I think I can run Armor.”
On the proximity screen, the red arc continued to tighten. “We enter huk range