These Broken Stars Part 2

THREE.

TARVER.

THE AIR LEAVES MY LUNGS WITH A RUSH, pain shooting up my back as I slam down onto the practice mats. The other guy falls with me, and I realize I've still got a handful of his T-shirt. I suck in a quick breath as I shove my weight to one side, coming up to my knees in one movement so I'm looming over him, instead of the other way around.

I can't believe I made such an idiot of myself tonight. Everyone in the galaxy knows who Lilac LaRoux is, and I couldn't have glanced at one lousy newscast, watched one of those d.a.m.n gossip shows, and learned what she looked like? I must be the only guy alive who doesn't know.

Normally you couldn't get me near a girl that rich and ent.i.tled if you held a gun to my head. What was I thinking? I wasn't thinking at all. I had my mind on dimples and red hair and- The guy underneath me pushes up against my shoulder, and I roll it back so he can't get purchase, planting a knee in his chest and drawing back my arm. My fist makes it halfway to the guy's cheek before he catches it, gripping and twisting so I have to throw myself backward to break free. He scrambles after me, grinning and panting.

"That all you got, kid? Try harder."

That's all I ever hear. That all you got? Try harder. Be richer. Be smarter. Learn which d.a.m.n cutlery to use. Speak like us. Think like us.

Screw that all the way to h.e.l.l.

A ragged chorus of shouts and swearing in a dozen different languages erupts from the blur of fatigues and faces around us. The only officer down here is the sergeant overseeing the sparring, and he's not about to tell us to watch our mouths. Well-the only officer other than me. But they don't know that. It's only upstairs that everyone recognizes my face from their magazines and newspapers and holovids.

Still, I bet they would have recognized Lilac LaRoux.

I can't get my mind off of her. Did she think it was funny to play with me like that in front of her friends?

I lash out so quickly we're both surprised, and there's a crunch, and then the other guy's rolling away, hand up in front of his face, blood seeping through his fingers. I draw a breath, and before I can move, the sergeant is leaning down to stick his hand between us, showing me the flat of his palm-bout over.

I lean back on my elbows, chest heaving as he helps the other guy to his feet and hands him over to one of his buddies to head for the sick bay. Then the sergeant turns back to stand over me, arms folded across his ma.s.sive chest.

"Son, one more like that, and you're off the mats, you understand? One more and I'll be speaking to your commanding officer."

Down here it's all plain fatigues, khaki T-shirts and pants, and I can ditch my stars and bars and pretend I'm a private. Down here I'm just eighteen, not an officer, not a war hero. He doesn't imagine for a moment that I could be a major. I prefer it that way. Some days I wish it was that way. That I could earn my stripes in official training, rather than out in the field like I did, where mistakes cost more than marks on a piece of paper.

"Yes, Sergeant." My breath's still coming quickly, and I climb to my feet carefully. I want to stay a little longer.

The military quarters are utilitarian, the metal skeleton of the ship showing, but I'm more at home down here. The air is humid with so many bodies working and sweating, the filters chugging on overtime without much result. These guys are on their way to one of the colonies to put down the latest rebellion. Take away my medals and my field promotion, and I'd be traveling in military quarters too, waiting to see what terraformed wonders and p.i.s.sed-off rebels were waiting for me. I wish.

The sergeant sizes me up a moment longer, then turns his head to bellow, parade-ground style. "Corporal Adams, front and center. You're up next."

She's a few years older than me, a couple of inches shorter, blond hair spiked. She shoots me a quick grin as she shakes out her arms and readies herself, and I suck in a breath and square up. I'm going to do this until I'm tired enough to sleep.

Turns out she's fast, shifting her weight nimbly as we circle each other. This is the sort of girl who suits me, quick and direct, none of that upper-decks intrigue. The way she moves reminds me of a line from one of my mother's poems. Quicksilver light and motes of dust.

She smiles again, and for an instant I can see Lilac LaRoux's smile, and those blue eyes.

But next thing I see is the metal grating across the roof of the deck. Corporal Adams has her bare foot on my throat, and it's over. I lift my hands carefully, think about grabbing her ankle, and show her my palms instead. She got me. I should have had my mind on the job at hand.

She lifts her foot and leans down to offer me her hand. I grip it, she hauls, and I come up to my feet.

Now Miss LaRoux's getting my a.s.s kicked on the sparring mats as well. Is there any part of my life that girl can't mess with?

I lace my hands together behind my head, arching my back until the stretch tugs at sore muscles, looking over at the sergeant. He directs the corporal to the next mat over, and closes the distance between us.

"Son, I don't know what you're working off there, but you might want to try the weapons range," he begins.

I don't want my gun. I want someone I can lay into, here in person. "Please, Sergeant, I-"

The ground bucks and heaves beneath me and we both stagger backward-for an instant I think someone's tackled me from behind, and then I realize it's the ship herself shaking beneath us.

I plant my feet wide apart, waiting to see if there's going to be another tremor. The sparring hall is eerily silent as everyone turns their faces up, waiting for information from the loudspeakers. The Icarus hasn't been anything but perfectly stable in the weeks I've been on her.

Nothing breaks the silence, and I exchange glances with the sergeant. Slowly he shakes his head, broad shoulders lifting in a quick shrug. Where's the announcement?

There'll be more information upstairs. For sure, someone will be telling the rich folks what's going on. They'd expect nothing less. I toss off a quick salute, and stomp into my boots.

When I push through the doors of the silent sparring hall and out into the network of gangways beyond, it's like entering another world. It's all soft luxury upstairs, but down here they don't waste an inch.

The gangways crisscross over and under each other like spiderwebs, populated by techheads in suits that pulse lights in time with the music around us, emigrants heading for new colonies, tourists taking the cheapest route to other planets, folks making the long haul for family visits. I hear a s.n.a.t.c.h of worried Spanish on my left, and an Irish curse nearby. A cl.u.s.ter of missionaries bent on bringing comfort and relief to the unenlightened rebels on the new planets stands watching the bustle of humanity like it's their first time off-world. Amid all the sound and movement, there's not a top hat or a corset in sight.

Footsteps clang on the metal gantries, voices echoing in a dozen variations on Standard, lesser languages woven in. Everybody's wondering what's going on, but n.o.body knows.

Brightly lit screens flicker nonstop advertis.e.m.e.nts at me-they line the walls and the ceiling, blaring words and songs and jingles. As I work through the crowd toward the first set of stairs, a 3-D holograph springs to life in front of me, a woman in a hot-pink catsuit throwing her arms wide open to invite me to a club at the aft end of the ship. I walk right through her.

My stomach lurches as though I'm in for a bout of s.p.a.cesickness. I notice I'm not the only one looking uncomfortable-there are other faces in the crowd turning pale as well.

I can't be s.p.a.cesick. I've been shunted around the universe on ships so badly tuned you could barely hear yourself over the chugging, and all that time I kept my insides on the inside. I must have overdone it on the sparring mats.

I can feel the metal gangway beneath me vibrating to the hundreds of sets of footfalls banging down on it, but there's something else under that-a tremor that doesn't feel right. Abruptly the vid screens all around me freeze, the jingles and voice-overs cutting out so a woman's voice can broadcast up and down the hallways, smooth and professional.

"Attention all pa.s.sengers. In a few moments we will be cycling the ship's hypers.p.a.ce engines. This procedure forms a part of our routine maintenance of the Icarus. You may notice some minor vibrations. Thank you for your understanding as we carry out this routine maintenance."

She sounds calm, but I wouldn't use the words routine maintenance twice in one announcement myself unless I was trying to keep people from noticing it's not. In two years of s.p.a.ce travel, I only ever saw a ship cycle her drives once, about six months back near Avon. By the time we got that tub landed, she was more or less held together by spit and good luck.

This is the Icarus. Newest, fanciest ship to come out of orbital dock, built by the one corporation in the galaxy big enough to terraform planets all by itself. I'm quite sure Roderick LaRoux made certain that spit plays no part in the way she holds together.

I jog along the gangway, ignoring legs that feel like they're weighted down after my sparring session, and start on the next staircase with one hand on the rail, just in case. It's a good call-I'm halfway up when another one of those "minor" vibrations. .h.i.ts.

The ship shudders so violently this time that a ripple runs along the gangway beneath me. I can track its progress by the way the civilians ranged along it shout and grab at the handrails, knees buckling.

The crowd's growing frantic, and I turn my body to push through a gap and make for the stairs, then break into a run as I head for the next flight. At the top, I press my palm against the ID plate, and the door slides soundlessly open.

I hurry through to the richly carpeted hallways of my own deck. Lilac LaRoux's deck. It's more crowded than usual as folks emerge from their cabins like they're going to discover some kind of collective wisdom out in the hallways. Another time I'd pause to admire these women showing off their unlimited sleepwear budgets, but just now I'm moving.

I turn for my own cabin as three sharp alarm blasts cut through the soft music that plays in the hallways. The woman's voice comes again, this time high with fear, and tense with the attempt to conceal it.

"Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please. We have experienced difficulty with our hypers.p.a.ce engines, and the Icarus has suffered substantial damage as a result of the dimensional displacement. We will attempt to keep the ship in hypers.p.a.ce, but in the meantime, please follow the illuminated strips in the corridors and make your way to your a.s.signed emergency pods immediately."

The hallway comes to life. It's clear most of these people wouldn't know their a.s.signed emergency pod if it bowled up, introduced itself, and offered to tango. I'm firmly in the camp that reads up on all the safety information the moment they get a chance. You develop that att.i.tude after your first this-is-not-a-drill emergency evacuation, and I've had more than one.

We military types are all trained to travel with a grab bag. The things you need to take with you if you evacuate, survival gear. None of it is much use out here in deep s.p.a.ce, of course, which is the only place you'll find this ship. She was constructed in orbit. Like a whale, she'd collapse under her own weight if exposed to real gravity. Still, I'm doubling back before I have time to think about it.

I jog up the hallway toward my cabin, fighting my way against the crowd, which is surging along in a panic.

I palm my way into my cabin and unhook the bag from where it's hanging over the back of the door. It's a basic hiking pack from my cadet days, designed to fold down small. I hesitate, then grab my jacket as well.

I need to get three hallways along to my right, then take a left and keep going, though with the crowd growing louder and more unstable by the minute, it's going to take a while. I make it to the first hallway, pa.s.sing by the doorway that leads out to the observation deck. I glance out sideways through the door.

I know what the view's meant to be-and it's not like this. The stars beyond the clear screens blur, then lurch, then come back into focus.

They're not the long, graceful lines that should be visible in dimensional hypers.p.a.ce. They're in focus for a moment, white pinpoints of light, then long blurs again. I've never seen a view like this before-it's as though the Icarus is trying, and failing, to claw her way back into hypers.p.a.ce. I'm not sure what will happen if she's torn out prematurely, but I'm pretty sure nothing good.

For a moment something huge and metallic is visible out the corner of the observation window, and then it's gone. I crane my neck, trying to catch sight of the object again. It's so ma.s.sive that it would have its own significant gravitational field, enough to pull the Icarus out of her flight path.

I turn back to work my way through the crowd toward my pod. The press of bodies is too thick, and I duck to the side to slide along the guard railing. On these back pa.s.sages, the railing is all that stands between us and a nasty drop, all the way down at least a dozen levels. As I turn the corner I collide heavily with someone smaller than me, and I'm instinctively putting my arms out to keep the person from toppling over.

"Excuse me!" says a breathless voice. "Sir, watch where you're going!"

No. Oh, h.e.l.l no.

A pair of blue eyes meet mine, flashing shock-then outrage-before she's shoving me away with all her strength, staggering back against the walkway railing.

I unclench my jaw with an effort. "Good evening, Miss LaRoux." Drop dead, my tone says.

In spite of everything-the screaming of the crowd, the jostle of bodies, the blaring of the ship's alarms-I take a moment to savor the shock and dismay on the faces of Miss LaRoux and her companions as they register my sudden reappearance. I'm not expecting the surge of people that comes flooding from a side pa.s.sage.

They knock me off balance, but the crowd is so dense that I don't fall. As if I'm caught in a violent river current, it takes me a moment to get my feet onto the solid floor again. I catch a glimpse of Miss LaRoux's friends as they're swept down the corridor. One of them is trying to battle the crowd, make her way back toward me, shouting Miss LaRoux's name and slamming into people right and left. I realize she's had training-not just another pretty face. A bodyguard? But even she can't make any headway. The others are already almost out of sight.

I see one of them scream-mouth open, sound drowned out-in the same instant I realize Miss LaRoux's not with them. I shove my way through to the railing, trying to catch a glimpse of that brilliant red hair.

This panicked crowd is enough to trample the unprepared. With a wall on one side and the balcony railing on the other, they're channeled wilder and faster every moment, like beasts in a canyon. I see people lifted off their feet, slammed against the wall. She's not here. I'm about to stop fighting the crowd and follow the current when a cry pierces the chaos.

I shove my way toward the sound. I'm in time to see a flash of green dress and red hair and white face vanish over the railing, as some frantic man twice her size goes barreling down the walkway.

I'm moving before I have time to think. I swing out over the railing, shifting my grip so I can angle my momentum toward the floor below mine, and jump after her.

"So you knew which escape pod was yours?"

"Yes."

"Did she?"

"Know which was mine?"

"Know her own, Major. Please cooperate."

"I suppose she did. I don't know."

"But neither of you ended up where you were supposed to be."

"Some of the pa.s.sengers didn't handle the evacuation well."

FOUR.

LILAC.

PAIN LANCES THROUGH MY SHOULDERS, and I taste blood as I bite the edge of my tongue-but I'm not falling anymore. I've hit another railing, the bar catching me under my arms. I have no breath, no strength. The crowd surges past, paying no attention. Spots dance before my eyes as I try to force my lungs to work before my grip gives out.

I can't have fallen more than a floor or two, or surely I wouldn't have been able to catch myself without jerking my shoulders out of their sockets. Below me stretches a drop that will shatter my body beyond any surgeon's ability to repair it.

A ragged cry tears out of me as my lungs finally expand and contract, but n.o.body hears. The people around me are a blur of color and sound, the smell of sweat and fear, the feel of hips and elbows connecting with my face and arms. They're too terrified to even dodge the girl clinging for her life to the railing-much less help me. "Swann!" I scream, trying to make my eyes focus on anything long enough to recognize faces, but it's all moving too quickly.

And then a voice snarls at them to keep back. Not Swann. A male voice.

Strong hands wrap around my arms, pulling me from the railing back onto the catwalk. Someone hurries me down the walkway, moving with the flow, his body between mine and the screaming people scrambling for safety. My feet don't even touch the ground.

He jerks me into a side corridor free of traffic and sets me on my feet. All I can see are brown eyes staring into mine, stern, urgent. With an effort I recognize him.

"Major," I gasp.

"Are you all right? Are you hurt?"

My shoulders are shattered. My tongue is bleeding. I can't breathe. I gasp for air, fighting the surge of nausea that threatens to overcome me. "I'm okay."

Major Merendsen leans me against the wall like a sack of laundry and goes to the mouth of the corridor, where the crowd whizzes by in a blur. As we watch, a man in an evening coat goes down, pushed by someone behind him; in an instant he's gone, before the major can even reach for him.

This isn't a crowd-it's a riot. And a deadly one. Swann might be able to take care of herself in this chaos, but-"Anna!" I cry out abruptly, lurching away from the wall. I lunge for the crowd. I only know I need to find them.

The major grabs my arm with an iron grip. I beat at his hand, but he pulls me away and swings me around before letting me go, sending me staggering backward, heels skidding. "Are you insane?" he gasps.

"I have to find them." I raise a hand to my lips, wiping away the hint of blood from my tongue. I recognize where we are now-a maintenance corridor, one of the many that thread through the private areas of the ship. "They're out there-I need to make sure they're-"

Major Merendsen blocks the way between me and the torrent of people rushing for the lifeboats. The ship lurches again, the floor buckling and heaving beneath us, throwing us both against the wall. The sirens start up, and we have to raise our voices to make ourselves heard over the urgent wailing.

"There's nothing you can do for them," he says, when he's regained his balance. "They're two decks up and half a klick away by now. Can you walk?"

I inhale sharply through my nose. "Yes."

"Then let's move. Stay between me and the railing. I'll try to keep them from flattening you, but you have to keep your feet under you."