The Exodus Towers (71 page)

On the journey over he told Tania everything that had happened in Ireland.

She asked him countless questions about the dome, and the object they’d found within it. He tried four times to describe the sensations he’d felt when crossing in or out of that purple field. The words didn’t seem to do it justice, but Tania accepted them all the same.

She gave him a summary of what they’d learned of the new Builder ship. The unspoken agreement between them that made Ana a taboo subject seemed to extend to Russell Blackfield as well, and Skyler didn’t mind. According to Karl the man was still confined to quarters on Melville and had been a model prisoner so far. No decisions had been made on what to do with him in the long term. Plenty of time to have that argument with Tania after the mission, Skyler figured.

A long hour passed in near-total silence, with Skyler doing everything he could think of not to look into Tania’s eyes lest he be lost there. He felt very much as he had on a train to Italy as a naïve young man, sharing a compartment with a beautiful stranger. In the span of a few minutes on that journey he’d managed to be caught staring at her legs, and then accidentally insulting her with an observation on the current political climate. The next eight hours had been absolute torture. At least his knowledge of both Italian profanity and politics had improved.

Tania passed some time showing him how to work the arm-mounted thruster and the basics of the helmet’s onboard computer. She checked their suits again and spoke with Jenny over the intercom about their approach trajectory. Then, almost casually, Tania brought up the day Russell had ordered Jenny to move Platz Station from Darwin to Belém.

Skyler knew Tania had interviewed the woman already. He’d heard the basics of it himself. Here and now, in a tin can heading to make contact with an alien race that had all but obliterated humanity, Tania struck a friendly tone. Jenny was part of the team now, part of the crew. One of us. Her
appointment to pilot this mission suddenly made brilliant, perfect sense to Skyler. She spoke freely.

“Russell had been planning something,” Jenny said. “He had his own troops aboard, and all the talk on the station was of what he planned to do with them. They gave up the pretense that you guys were all dead when half the farm platforms came back, so we knew you were out there somewhere. The activity, the soldiers … I knew he must have found you.”

“So Russell was focused on us,” Skyler said. “How’d he miss the climbers full of Jacobite thugs coming up? I mean, he’s not stupid. Not intelligent, either, but he’s wise.”

“Oh, they were expected,” Jenny said through the speaker. “We’d been waiting for them for days.”

This had been said before, but Skyler thought perhaps it was because no one wanted to admit getting caught with their pants down, least of all Russell.

Jenny went on. “Everyone knew Russell had put Grillo in charge of Darwin. Hell, Russell bragged about it. His vision and leadership laid the groundwork, of course.”

“Of course.”

“Apparently, Grillo’s men were supposed to handle station security while Russell’s were over here. I got the sense they expected to arrive at a station empty of guards, but Russell, well, you know how he is.”

“Tell me anyway,” Skyler said. He glanced at Tania. Blackfield had glossed over these particular details.

“Russell wanted to make a show of authority. I heard the orders he called down to the barracks ring. We hear everything in station ops, you see. ‘All combat squads report to the main cargo bay in fifteen minutes,’ ” she said mimicking him. “ ‘Full gear, dress to impress. Let’s make sure this lot knows who their betters are.’ ”

She went on, fleshing out gaps in a story already told. Skyler and Tania stared at each other in a silent conversation. Russell might have left out details that would make him look bad, but the meat of it he’d told truthfully. Grillo had betrayed him. He’d used the invitation to cover for Russell’s security as an opening to flood orbit with his own army. If not for Russell’s vain desire to show off his own forces, it would
have been a clean coup, Skyler thought. A concentrated force of single-minded purpose, inserted straight into the heart of the station. Which is likely what happened on all the other stations, too.

Skyler reached out and muted the intercom. “None of this translates to ‘forgive and forget,’ in my book.”

Her face, just centimeters from his, showed little insight into her thoughts. Tania’s gaze held his, searched his, and Skyler imagined her tabulating some mental scorecard of Russell’s virtues or lack thereof.

After a time, Tania nodded once. Her expression changed from solemn to serious. “There’s something I need to tell you about, Skyler.”

“We’re here,” Jenny said suddenly. “A thousand klicks and closing.”

Tania started to reach for her helmet, but Skyler grasped her wrist. “Tell me what?”

“Later,” she said.

Tania closed her eyes just before the cramped compartment depressurized. She listened to her breathing inside the helmet, the soft hum of the air recycler vent near her neck.

When the cabin lost pressure she felt the suit react. Pulses of pressure rippled across her body, from painfully tight to relaxed and gentle, as if she’d received an entire massage in one second.

“Comm test,” she said.

“I read you,” Skyler replied.

She looked at him and found herself wishing once again she knew him better. He’d said so little since the fiasco with Gabriel, and she found him infuriatingly good at keeping his expression blank and distant. As a punishment for what she’d done, the lie she’d told, she felt it at once deserved and unbearable.

With a wan smile, she turned to the airlock door and pulled the release handle. A puff of condensation burst along its edge and then the door simply swung open. Just like that, Tania found herself looking out at the hexagonal patch of hull on the huge Builder ship.

Up close, the vessel’s sheer size took her breath away. Jenny had parked them twenty meters from the surface. All around, massive protrusions extended outward well past their tiny vehicle, blotting out the view of Earth and space almost completely.

A moment of vertigo fell on Tania and she gripped the edges of the airlock with sudden panic. She suddenly felt as if she were looking down, the immense towers like buildings jutting upward past her, and the ancient wiring in her brain screamed “falling!”

Tania willed herself to see the hexagonal patch as being in front of her rather than below, and the sensation faded.

“Here goes nothing,” she said, and pulled with both hands on the airlock frame, propelling herself out into open space. By prior agreement, she’d attached a towline to her suit, and once across the gap she’d figure out a way to attach it to the Builder ship.

The hexagonal area of the ship’s hull drifted toward her at a leisurely pace. The five illuminated shapes around it all glowed with the same white-yellow hue, the color of the sun. Close up now, she estimated the shapes as being perhaps fifteen centimeters square, a fair amount smaller than the strange object Skyler had recovered from Ireland. The hexagon in the middle spanned maybe four meters on a side.

Tania brought her feet up at the last second and landed on the alien hull. It felt hard as marble under her, despite her boots, which dulled the impact. Her body naturally wanted to bounce away in the lack of gravity, but Tania had expected this and pointed her hand away from the ship. She squeezed her fingers into a ball, then tapped a button on the index finger with her thumb to send out a pulse of thrust. The burst of momentum glued her to the vessel for the moment. “Touchdown,” she said.

“Nicely done,” Skyler replied. Through the helmet speaker he still sounded right next to her.

Tania removed a line hook from her belt and tried the magnetic attachment first. She placed it just outside the hexagonal patch, on the opposite side of the glowing hourglass shape, for no reason other than it felt like a wise precaution.
The magnetic base clapped onto the ship so quickly it almost pulled itself out of her hand. “Connection is solid,” she said, “no adhesive required. You’re clear to join me.”

She glanced back and saw Skyler slip outside, using handholds just outside the door to keep himself glued to the side of the craft. Their cylindrical can of a ship floated against a breathtaking view of Africa beyond. The tan expanse of the Sahara in the center, a hint of Egypt to her right and Morocco to the left, both obscured by the vaulting towers that extended out from the alien ship all around her like vacant, windowless skyscrapers.

“I’m outside, Jenny,” Skyler said.

“Copy,” the pilot replied. “I’m monitoring your suits from here, and watching on the terminal. Nice view, Tania.”

“I agree,” Tania said.

Skyler climbed up to the ERV’s robotic arms, which cradled the hard black case like a baby. He set to work on the winches that held the case in place, unlatching the one closest to the tiny craft’s hull first. Then almost reluctantly he pushed away from the ERV and floated out to the end of the nearest arm.

When Skyler reached out to grab the next handhold, Tania’s breath caught in her throat.

The ERV’s thrusters bloomed to life.

Exhaust flashed from the array of cones like breath on cold air.

“Shit,” Skyler managed to say, probably thinking he’d simply overshot.

“Jenny!” Tania shouted into her headset. “Thruster malfunction!”

Even as she said the word she knew it was wrong. The thrusters had been fired on purpose, at the exact instant Skyler had no hold on the ERV. And in that same moment, the towline had gone slack, released from the other end.

She watched in horror as the vehicle began to accelerate away, the black case that held the Ireland object still firmly clutched in its robotic arms.

Skyler floated free. He cursed into his microphone,
sounding more embarrassed than outraged, still not understanding what was happening.

“She’s taking it, Skyler!” Tania said.

He seemed to be struggling to right himself.

Tania saw no alternative. She jumped.

She pushed hard with both legs and rocketed across the void of space toward the ERV, gaining quickly on it. The craft’s small conical engines fired another pulse, but the craft was not designed to maneuver quickly. Tania held out her arm behind herself and fired one long continuous blast from her own thruster, cruising past Skyler and racing toward the fleeing ship.

She misjudged her speed, slammed into the side of the craft, and bounced off. Gritting her teeth, Tania fired another quick pulse and closed the distance again. This time she managed to get a hand around one of the many rungs protruding from the craft’s hull.

Stuck now to the ship, the massive Builder vessel seemed to be the thing moving, getting farther away with each second. Tania weighed her options. Her suit’s mask showed a broken link between herself and the craft, so there would be no talking Jenny out of her act of betrayal. On top of that, the woman had closed the craft’s door, not that getting back inside would do much.

So Tania did the only thing she could think to do. Pulling herself across the craft’s hull, she went to the robotic arms and began to release the holding straps.

The craft accelerated again, but the increase in speed was not enough to throw Tania off. She tried to ignore how far they’d moved from the Builder ship. Getting back might be impossible.

A cold realization began to nag at her as she worked the winches that secured the straps. Getting back
home
might be impossible. Jenny had their air, and was their ride. If she left …

Out of nowhere Skyler appeared next to her. He collided with the hard black case and almost knocked it free. She heard him grunt from the impact through her helmet speaker.

“You were right,” Tania blurted. “We shouldn’t have trusted her.”

“I don’t think she’s one of Russell’s,” Skyler shot back, working the last strap. “Anyway, she’s not getting this goddamn case, agreed?”

“Agreed,” Tania said with more conviction than she felt.

Working together they freed the box and drifted away from the ERV a few meters. “Get on that side,” Tania instructed, motioning Skyler to move around to the edge of the box that pointed toward the Builder ship. The hexagon on the massive hull looked very small now.

She swallowed, aimed her arm behind herself, and fired. With the added mass of Skyler and the case, she had to maintain her pulse of thrust for what seemed like a minute before they began to move appreciably.

The ERV started to fall away from them, toward Earth.

Perhaps Jenny won’t notice we—

No such luck. Tania felt a shiver when the vehicle’s thrusters pivoted and fired again, pushing the craft in their direction. It still receded, but not as fast.

Tania forced herself to turn away and focus on the destination, the hexagon. It took a full thirty seconds to cross the distance again, and by the time they neared the door and Tania fired her thruster to slow them, her fuel gauge read just 8 percent.

She glanced back. The ERV was closing on them and showed no sign of slowing.
She’s going to ram us
.

Five meters from the hull of the giant ship she heard Skyler suck in a sharp breath.

“Shit,” he gasped.

“What?”

“Something’s happening,” he said.

Tania leaned out to see past him. Of the five shapes that surrounded the hexagonal patch, only one remained illuminated.

The hourglass.

Then a black line began to trace the inner edge of the hexagon. A shadow, she realized. The patch moved inward, then separated into individual sections she hadn’t noticed
before. These sections pulled outward in a coordinated dance, revealing a tunnel that led into darkness.

They were heading right into it.

Tania whipped around in time to see the ERV less than fifty meters away, racing toward them with suicidal speed. In desperation she pointed her thruster at the ERV and fired. The fuel meter inside her helmet ticked down from eight to zero in a matter of seconds.

Squinting, Tania could just see Jenny’s face in the small porthole window at the cockpit. She looked as terrified as Tania felt, and then she closed her eyes.