“You think?” Gaetana spat back in frustration.
Collin moved to the first tank and looked up. “This shouldn’t take long. From what the captain said, to start the chain reaction we just need to disrupt the cooling process. The fusion reaction is cooled by the induction of super-chilled titanium oxide.” He pointed to the top of the big bulbous mushroom tank. “There are five ten-inch diameter hoses feeding into the top of the tank. We need to—”
“Well, good luck with that. Do you see any ladders around here? Let’s just cut our losses and get to the barracks.”
Collin was really starting to get annoyed with this chick. Without saying another word, he leapt. He’d judged the distance fairly well, sailing up just past the widest protruding flange to the incline of the tank’s dome-like section. He held there for several seconds to ensure he wasn’t going to slide back down the slope. He glanced down at an astonished Gaetana and smiled. Bringing his attention to the job at hand, he saw that another eight or nine feet away, over the crest of the tank’s dome, were five hoses—each feeding into the tank.
First Bubba, and then DiMaggio, suddenly joined Collin at his side. DiMaggio said, “Thought you might need some help up here.”
Collin gestured toward the hoses. “We need to figure out which hose carries the titanium oxide.”
Crawling on hands and knees, the three carefully ascended to the top of the tank’s dome. Collin carefully inspected each of the five thick hoses.
“They look identical to me,” Bubba said. “Does it matter which one we disconnect? Maybe we just disconnect all of them?”
“No. For us to have sufficient time to rescue the others, and get the hell away from the station, we need to determine which one of these hoses is feeding the titanium oxide and disconnect it … that’s what the captain told me to do. Doing anything else will get us all dead in a matter of seconds.”
“Okay … so which one is it?”
Collin continued to stare at the hoses. “He said we’d have to figure it out.”
Looking at the identical hoses, he knew there was simply no way: There was a one-in-five chance he’d choose wrong. “Help me out of my battle suit.”
Both Bubba and DiMaggio looked alarmed.
“Who knows what shit’s in the atmosphere here? It’s maybe like … radioactive or something,” DiMaggio said.
“Have to chance it. Help me get out of it.” Collin rose to his feet and removed his helmet. They did as he asked and within a minute he stepped free from the back of the suit. Bubba held on to the suit while Collin crouched down, next to the hoses.
“What are you doing?”
Collin rubbed his palms together rapidly and then, one at a time, placed them onto each of the five hoses. “I’m checking their temperature. I’m sure there’s a was to do this keeping the suit on … like with HUD readings … but how to do it was eluding me. Anyway, since the titanium oxide is chilled to unbelievably low temperatures, I’m hoping I’ll be able to distinguish—” He stopped talking and smiled. “It’s this one.” He placed his palms on the five hoses again, then returned to the one in the furthest-back position. “This is the only one that’s cold. This is it!”
With the help of Bubba, Collin quickly got back into his battle suit. “Do you think you can break that hose, Bubba?” he asked.
Bubba looked at it—tried moving it with both hands. “The thing’s substantial.” He stood and placed a foot on the hose at its elbow, where its direction became horizontal. He put his weight down onto it.
“Just kick the damn thing!” DiMaggio said.
Bubba did just that. First, he gave it a single solid blow, then continuous, full-weight, thunderous kicks.
It became evident fairly quickly that his kicks were working. A misty-white geyser erupted from the side of the hose, where it met the top of the tank. A shrieking alarm klaxon reverberated from all directions.
“Just keep going!” DiMaggio yelled.
“But don’t get near that spray. You’ll freeze your foot,” Collin added.
Four more colossal kicks and the hose broke completely free of the tank. The hose was expelling frigid mist at an astonishing rate—to the point it was getting difficult to see through the fog.
“We need to get out of here now,” Collin said, already feeling the chill through his battle suit.
Chapter 40
“How many men were guarding the Brave Hearts when you escaped?” Collin asked Gaetana.
“Somewhere between twenty and thirty. I don’t know for sure … I was trying to escape, not play a counting game.”
“Look, we’re all going to be blown to bits within two hours, give or take. Knowing what we’re up against matters.”
“There are thousands of Kardon Guard forces on the station … what difference—”
Collin cut her off: “It matters because we’ll be long gone from here before they’re able to get reinforcements.”
Gaetana gestured for Collin to turn right at the next corridor intersection. The two strode in front of the rest of the Lone Stars. Gaetana told him there was a narrow, seldom used, stairway running alongside the elevator shaft. She’d only found out about it when Fico took her there to make out in private. Collin figured the two were quite close, given her emotional response when she heard about his death.
Gaetana slowed and indicated with a raised hand for everyone to come to a stop. They were approaching the open colonnade, where the Level 4 elevator was located. “I don’t see a thing; nothing that looks like a stairway,” Collin said, scanning the surrounding bulkheads. Hearing footsteps, he and Gaetana quickly ducked back into the corridor. He caught sight of a formation of Kardon Guard soldiers double-timing it off to their left, fifty yards away. Once they were clear, Gaetana looked both ways and darted forward, toward the thick vertical column that held the elevator.
What the hell is she doing?
Collin wondered, running after her.
We don’t want to take the elevator … we’ve already established that!
But Gaetana veered right and scooted into a narrow alcove that Collin hadn’t noticed before; there was one on each side of the elevator. A simple open space, no wider than shoulder-width, that at first seemed merely a design element of the vertical support column. As they continued forward, headed toward a dead-end bulkhead, she turned left and disappeared from view. If Collin hadn’t seen her disappear with his own eyes, he would never have guessed there was actual space hidden behind the elevator support column.
Collin felt Bubba’s presence coming up behind him and looked back to see the rest of the Lone Stars closely following. He made an abrupt left turn and found Gaetana waiting for him.
“In here,” she said, ducking into an opening that led directly to a two-way stairwell. She headed up, taking two stairs at a time.
“What makes you so sure Commandant Nari’s forces don’t know about this?” Collin asked her.
“How do you think I’ve been evading them all this time? Take it from me, he has no clue these stairs even exist. Oh … and tell your group of idiots to tread lightly. This won’t stay a secret very long with all the racket they’re making.”
Collin spread the word, over the open channel, for everyone to tread quietly. They passed the opening leading into Level 5 and continued up the stairs. If only he’d known about this stairway earlier, the whole spacewalk fiasco could have been avoided. He caught up to Gaetana: “Talk to me about the barracks … exactly where everyone’s being held … where the guards are positioned, that sort of thing.”
“I was coming out of the head when all hell broke loose. I hid at the first sight of the Kardon forces. They were already rounding everyone up. I saw several Brave Hearts being beaten senseless. That’s when I headed for this stairwell. I made it down to the rifle range and the armory. I saw dead Kardon Guard forces so I knew Brotherhood combatants were still alive and I needed to find them. There were several battle suits and weapons available … the rest you know.”
Before Collin could say anything, the distant alarm klaxon was disrupted by a repeating announcement. He stopped for a second and listened.
Abandon Station … Abandon Station … Abandon Station …
He checked his HUD, astonished that twenty minutes had already passed since they’d left the control room. He hurried to catch up to Gaetana.
They passed the Level 6 opening and continued upward. Collin, working on several possible rescue plans in his head, answered an incoming hail from Captain Primo.
“Captain?”
“I see you got to the reactor. It’s highly unstable. Readings tell us it’s already overheating.”
“We did what you asked. We—”
“Just shut up and listen!”
“You don’t have two hours … maybe not even one. There’s a mass exodus going on, the Kardon Guard … they’re all abandoning the station. Get up to Level 20 and rescue the admiral!”
“And the principessa?” Collin asked, annoyance clear in his tone.
“Yes, and the principessa.”
“There may be some Brotherhood recruits still alive down here. We’re supposed to just leave them?”
“You want to get home, Frost? I mean ever? If so, you’ll do what I say. There’ll be a Brotherhood ship arriving in fifteen minutes. I hope the reactor hasn’t blown by then. Now get moving.”
The captain cut the connection.
They were approaching Level 7’s opening. Gaetana looked back over her shoulder with a scowl. “What was that about?”
“We’ve run out of time, Gaetana,” Collin answered. “The station’s on the verge of blowing up. My orders are to get us to Level 20 now … no stops along the way.”
“You can’t. You have to help the Brave Hearts!” she said, looking on the verge of losing it.
Collin turned around to the line of Lone Stars, standing behind him in the stairwell. “Bubba, DiMaggio … lead everyone to the top, Level 20. Get to the admiral and the principessa and anyone else still alive up there. A rescue ship’s en route.”
“What are you going to do?” DiMaggio asked.
“I’ll be right behind you. I’m going to check on the Brave Hearts.”
“Why don’t we all just do that together?”
“There’s no time. We’re wasting time now … just go! Take Gaetana with you.”
“That’s not going to happen,” she said. “I’m going with you.”
“Fine. Whatever.” Collin pointed up the stairs, “DiMaggio … get going … the stairwell goes all the way to the top.”
“What the hell’s going on up there?” came Humphrey’s voice over the open channel.
DiMaggio and Bubba gave Collin a nod and quickly got moving up the stairwell. Collin waited for all the Lone Stars to pass.
“What are you doing, Collin?” It was Lydia. She was coming up the stairs, her eyes locked on his. Darren wasn’t with her, had already passed. Collin saw the worry in her eyes for him and knew they still were …
what?
Something?
“We’ll catch up … I promise.”
Gaetana’s patience had run out. She grabbed Collin by the arm and pulled him through the Level 7 opening.
They exited the narrow alcove into Level 7’s colonnade. Like a ghost town, it was completely deserted. The
abandon station
klaxon alarm was louder and seemed to be repeating at a faster rate than before.
Gaetana sprinted toward the entrance to the barracks.
“Wait!” Collin yelled after her. She disappeared around a bulkhead as he rushed to catch up.
Her screams foretold what he saw for himself, three seconds later. Finger poised on the trigger of his Doubler, Collin came around the corner ready to fight. The barracks were now open into one large compartment. It was clear that Commandant Nari was gone—the Kardon Guards were gone. Gaetana was on her knees—her screams continuing. Blood was everywhere—as were headless bodies of the Brave Heart recruits.
Her screams suddenly stopped. She came at Collin like a wild animal. Her eyes were wide and crazed, her fists clenched into tight balls. “This is your fault!” She plowed into Collin with enough force to knock him off his feet—which wasn’t particularly difficult to do given his comparatively reduced gravitational properties. Unhurt, he steadied himself as fists pounded down on his visor and chest. “You had to go to the control room … you had to waste all those precious seconds … you killed them … you killed Fico!”
She was on top of him, straddling him. Collin let her rampage continue. The punches landed, but didn’t hurt. He watched her face as the tears streamed down her cheeks. As the punching slowed, her eyes gently closed and her body softened as she leaned forward. Her arms came around him—and his arms around her—as she silently sobbed.
Abandon station … Abandon station … Abandon station.
Gaetana pulled herself up and off Collin. “Let’s get out of here,” she said, her eyes taking in the carnage.
“This won’t go unanswered, Gaetana. I promise you,” Collin said, scurrying to his feet.
“Just shut up.” She picked up her Doubler as Collin slung his around his shoulder. Without another word they ran from the barracks.
Chapter 41
Leaving the barracks, Collin saw Gaetana disappear into the narrow alcove and yelled after her, “Let’s try the elevator!”
She came right back and met Collin at the elevator doors. “I didn’t even think of it.” She tapped on the small access panel. “It may not be working.” But the doors suddenly opened and the two rushed inside. She set the destination to Level 20. “It’s not accepting Level 20. Whoever is up there has it blocked.”
“Get us up to Level 19, then.” Collin opened a channel to DiMaggio: “Where are you at?”
“We’re just passing Level 12. What happened at the barracks?”
“Nari and the Kardon Guard are gone. But the Brave Hearts are all dead. Hold on a second.”
Collin asked Gaetana to stop the elevator at Level 13.
“DiMaggio, the elevator’s working. We’re coming up to Level 13 now.”
The doors opened and Collin tentatively looked out onto Level 13’s colonnade. Deserted. He checked his HUD clock—forty-five minutes had passed. They had fifteen minutes—probably less.
The Lone Stars came around the corner and filed into the elevator. Eyes darted to Gaetana and her blood-streaked battle suit. No one said anything while the doors closed.