Читать книгу Shattered Skies - Alice Henderson - Страница 9

Chapter 2

Kicking away from the door, H124 barely dodged the small projectile. It smashed against the door with incredible force, setting off a blinding explosion that rocked the entire room. The concussive wave threw her backward into a jumbled pile of old rusted metal. She felt a searing pain in her thigh, and sucked in a sharp breath as the freezing cold sea made direct contact with her skin. Crimson blood billowed outward. The bubbles around her dissipated.

Wincing against the pain, she stared out as the water started to clear. One section of the room remained a turbulent mess of water. She realized it was Dirk, physically engaging with the AUV, his suit giving off a torrent of bubbles. He had both hands wrapped around the craft, but it was too big to get a good hold on it. Raven joined him, and together they pushed the thing back into the elevator shaft.

H124 swam to the elevator quickly, her thigh screaming in protest. As they wrestled the AUV into the elevator shaft, Dirk started to swim upward with it.

“Get the door shut!” he cried.

H124 and Raven went to work sliding the doors closed, leaving just enough room for Dirk to slip back through.

Then he shoved the AUV toward the top of the shaft and turned around, kicking against the wall to propel himself downward. H124 grabbed his hand as he neared and pulled him through. Then all three desperately shoved at the door, finally managing to slide it shut.

“It won’t take long for that thing to turn around and start blasting at this elevator door,” Dirk said. He noticed the blood pouring out of her leg. She clamped her gloved hand over it. “Is it bad?”

“I don’t think so,” she answered, though she really wasn’t sure. They turned back toward the door that led to the warehouse. The blast from the explosive had crumpled it inward, closing off the little cut that Raven had managed to make. But small spaces had torn open at the top and bottom of the door now, and H124 could see through to the other side. It was too gloomy to make out any details, and they still couldn’t fit through.

Raven went to work again with the pocket pyro, cutting two feet before they heard another explosion on the other side of the elevator door.

“Hurry!” Dirk urged him, not that he needed to. Raven cut quickly, opting for a small hole just big enough for them to get their shoulders through, though not enough to accommodate the AUV.

The metal glowed red, and soon the cut was almost complete. H124 heard another explosion on the far side of the elevator door; it groaned and shot outward, the metal bent and forced. One more blast and the thing would be through.

Raven completed the circle and leaned back, kicking the metal with his foot. Dirk did the same, and it fell away. H124 looked down at her leg, pressing on the wound until it clotted. At least that was looking up. Quickly they filed through the small hole, Raven first, followed by H124 and Dirk.

Raven lifted up the cut away section of door and placed it back inside the hole, hoping the thing wouldn’t be able to see them on the other side of it. Dirk borrowed the pocket pyro and welded it in a couple places to keep it in place.

They turned, their helmet lights flooding the warehouse. H124’s spirits fell.

The space was empty.

At the far end of the room stood another door. They swam toward it, finding it rusted open, and moved into the next room, touring it slowly. H124 gently kicked her flippered feet behind her. Her thigh stung, but the bleeding had definitely stopped.

This room had been more protected from the sea than the others. It was still flooded, but not as covered with sediment. A few objects lay about the room, so largely disintegrated she couldn’t tell what they had been. Now they were just corroded lumps on the floor. She could guess that some of them might have been old computers. A tall, rusted rectangle might have been an ancient filing cabinet or maybe even an old server. But it was damaged now beyond repair. Her heart started to sink further.

Dirk checked the schematics. “This was an old records room.” Bubbles rose from his suit, fanning out above his head.

Raven turned slowly, taking in the space. “It’s so empty. Maybe most things were moved before the building was inundated.”

“Moved to where?” H124 asked.

Raven met her eyes, his brow creased in worry. “I don’t know.” He swam in a slow circle around the room. “Maybe we could find some other records among the things we gathered at the aeronautic facilities.” He was trying to sound hopeful, but she could hear the note of despair in his voice. They’d been through those records countless times, scouring for any additional information they could find that would tell them how to stop the asteroid. If there was something in there on the location of the A14, they’d have found it by now.

“Didn’t you go through all of that?” Dirk asked, uttering the words that she didn’t have the heart to say aloud.

Raven turned to him. “Maybe it’s on some of the corroded parts of the data. We’re still repairing some of the disks.”

She looked behind them, to where several large rectangles had been mounted onto the wall. Sediment coated them. She thought of the similarly large objects she’d found in the university under New Atlantic. They’d been accounts of the past. Framed articles from newspapers. Posters that held information. When she’d been staying at the Rover camp just after the airship crash, she’d gone through the Rover books and discovered things like the “Periodic Chart of the Elements,” and knew that at least one of the rectangles in the university had been just that. Maybe the ones here held information.

She swam to the first one and dusted it off, the sediment momentarily clouding the water as it billowed out from under her glove. When it settled, she saw that it was an image printed on some kind of lightweight metal. Parts of it were corroded now.

The picture showed two massive brown tubes with fire blasting out from beneath them. Mounted on them was a small white object with wings. She recognized it from the data they’d scoured through. It was a space shuttle. The photo depicted the rockets blasting off, billows of smoke pouring out. “Look at this!”

They swam to her, staring at the image.

She moved to the next one and dusted it off. As the water cleared, she could make out an image of a metal pod of sorts floating in the ocean, a white parachute spread out on the blue waves next to it. On the pod’s side she saw an emblem of red and white stripes, and an arrangement of stars set against a blue background in the upper left.

Kicking her feet, she maneuvered to the next rectangle, clearing it off. This one showed a photo of a barren red landscape, rocks covering the ground into the distance.

The last image on the wall depicted scientists in white suits gathered around a probe covered in places by gold foil.

She spun slowly in a circle, taking in the whole room. More frames had been mounted to the opposite wall, so she swam toward them. Dusting off the first one, her heart suddenly soared. It showed a grey metal craft taking off from a runway, its front wheel already lifted off the ground. She instantly recognized it from the schematics they’d recovered from the disks. It was the A14. “Here it is!” she said.

The others swam over, examining the picture. A long silence engulfed them. “If only we had more than a picture,” Dirk said quietly.

Undeterred, she swam to the next rectangle, and the next, until she’d uncovered them all. The next showed a photo of a four-legged craft in a warehouse. Another showed the close-up of a man in a bulky white suit descending a ladder from the same vehicle, against the blackest sky she’d ever seen.

The next one shocked her. It depicted the same four-legged craft on a barren grey surface. Hanging in the sky was an incredible blue and white swirled moon. It was the most stirring, mysterious image she’d ever seen. She glanced back at the image of the four-legged craft inside a warehouse, and then at the one on the barren surface. She gasped. The blue marble wasn’t a moon. It was the earth, taken from the moon.

“What is it?” Raven asked, responding to her gasp of astonishment.

“Take a look at this!” she called out. “This is unbelievable.” They all stared as realization dawned.

“It’s our planet. Taken from space,” Dirk breathed.

“They were really up there,” H124 said, her voice almost a whisper.

Raven pushed off a corroded filing cabinet to take in all the pictures. “But we’re no closer to finding the A14.” He couldn’t disguise the sheer disappointment in his voice now.

She swam back to the photo of the A14 taking off from the runway. She saw white scratchings at the bottom of the photo, partially covered by corrosion. She noticed they all had the marks. She peered more closely at the one of the man descending the ladder and saw there was writing. “Neil Arms…” it said. She could also make out a few other words: “Eagle” and “Apollo XI.”

She moved back to the image of the A14, gently brushing off corrosion with her gloved finger. More words appeared. She couldn’t make out the name of the craft, but she already knew it was the A14. The rest of the words read “Museum,” “air,” and “Aviation Wing.”

Making a slow circuit of the room, she read as much of the writing as she could discern on the other images. At the bottom of the shuttle image, she read “housed in,” and again “Museum” and “air.” On the photo depicting the pod floating in the ocean, she read “Mercury,” “Museum,” and “Innovation Hall.”

She recognized the word “museum” from the Rover books she’d perused. They’d had one book about something called the “Smithsonian,” which had stood in “Washington, D.C.” and had held countless collections of cultural and scientific interest. She’d seen photographs of the bones of ancient creatures who had roamed the earth, paintings of important people, ceremonial and sacred objects belonging to various cultures. The museum had long since been inundated by rising sea levels, but the collections might have been moved to other areas of the country.

“I think all these vehicles were moved to a museum,” she told them.

Raven met her gaze. “Even the A14?”

She glanced at its photo and nodded. “Even the A14.”

“So now we just have to find out where they moved the A14 to,” Raven said, scrutinizing the pictures.

H124 turned toward the door, catching Dirk floating near the doorframe with a distant look on his face. His chin trembled, then he caught her gaze. Tears brimmed on his lower lids but hadn’t fallen. She wanted to reach out and squeeze his arm, but felt like she didn’t have the right. Astoria had died on her watch. She still felt she could have done something to prevent it.

Dirk blinked and averted his gaze.

Raven crossed to another door on the opposite side of the room. “Can’t go up the way we came down,” he said, wrenching this second door open. “That thing’s probably still in the elevator shaft. We’ll have to go this way.” He checked his schematics and pulled himself through the doorway. H124 followed.

Dirk took up the rear as they propelled themselves down a corridor on the right, looking for holes in the structure that led to the open sea.

The corridor led past numerous doors, some open, some still closed. They searched other warehouse spaces, hoping the A14 might be there. But all of the spaces were empty. It made H124 believe more in her theory about the vehicles being moved to another facility. They had to have gone somewhere.

As they swam, they paused in the open doorways, looking for breaches in the walls beyond, hoping for a different way out. Rusted metal lay twisted and covered with sediment and corrosion. At the end of a corridor, they came to a thick metal docking door. Crusted handles protruded from the base.

H124 checked her schematics. According to them, open ocean lay on the other side of the docking door. She examined their oxygen levels. They only had twenty-four minutes of air left. She stifled the nervous pang that rose inside her. “Twenty-four minutes,” she told them.

At first she and Raven tugged on the handle of the docking door, but it had been corroded shut for too many years to budge. Raven pulled out his pocket pyro again, and started to cut a hole in the metal. The progress was agonizingly slow.

“Seventeen minutes,” she said quietly.

Dirk had swum up next to the door, where he floated listlessly, that faraway look on his face. She could hear his uneven breathing, holding back emotion. She couldn’t imagine what it must be like for him, to lose someone he’d known his whole life, who’d always had his back.

She looked back at Raven’s progress. He was almost there. Eleven more minutes.

He finished cutting the hole and punched the metal circle out of the door. Beyond, the dark blue of the ocean awaited them. “Let’s go!” He signaled for H124 to go through first, and she kicked over to the hole, then pulled herself through. Raven emerged next. Above them the bright surface of the ocean looked too far away.

Six minutes.

Dirk’s gloved hands appeared as he started to pull himself through the hole. She had just begun kicking for the surface when a dark, bullet-shaped body sped toward them through the water. An AUV. It launched a projectile, and an eruption of bubbles sprang forth from its nose cone. The mini torpedo barely missed her, screaming by in the water, pushing her back with its concussive wave. Raven was far off to one side, so it sailed past him. But Dirk was just fully emerging from the hole, right into the line of fire.

It connected with his body, propelling him backward. He slammed into the side of the building, the projectile lodging itself into the building wall beside him. H124 kicked away quickly. Sharp spikes dug into the building’s exterior. Dirk kicked away from it, but he was still too close. The torpedo detonated, sending them all reeling through the water. H124’s ears rang as she somersaulted backward in the water, being driven not up toward the surface, but down toward the seabed. When the bubbles cleared, she saw Dirk struggling in the water near the hole they’d cut. Crimson clouds streamed out around him. She kicked away from the sea floor, angling up toward him. Raven, who’d been blown far to the right, also propelled himself toward Dirk.

When she got close enough, she saw a jagged piece of metal had run clear through his stomach. Another piece had sunk into his shoulder, a two-foot piece of rusted rebar that had pierced above his lung. He gasped, gritting his teeth. They had to get him up, and fast. His eyes went wide as he looked behind them. Two more AUVs joined the first, hovering in the water a few dozen feet away. Another discharge of bubbles streamed out from the closest one, sending a projectile tearing through the water.

She grabbed Dirk’s arm and kicked upward, barely clearing the building as the second explosive thunked into its side. Seconds later it detonated, sending them tumbling through the water. She lost her bearings, and for a second couldn’t figure out which way was up. Then she saw the bright surface of the water and started to kick toward it. But the third AUV maneuvered itself between them and the surface, angling itself down to fire. Raven was suddenly beside them, taking Dirk’s other arm.

She glanced at her O2 meter. Three minutes left. They weren’t going to make it.

Dirk started struggling against them, shoving them away. She watched, confused as he grabbed something off Raven and kicked toward the hole in the docking door. Then she saw a jet of fire stream out from him. He’d grabbed the pocket pyro and cranked it all the way up. The AUVs maneuvered in the water, angling toward the heat signature. He swam furiously, blood streaming out from his stomach and shoulder in waves. He made it to the hole and pulled himself through.

“Dirk, what are you doing?” H124 shouted.

“Get to the surface!” he shouted.

She looked at her oxygen gauge. Two minutes.

“We’re not going without you!” She started kicking toward the hole just as the first AUV reached it.

“They’re programmed to protect the facility!” Dirk shouted. “They’re not going to bother with you if I’m in here with a jet of fire.”

Sure enough, the AUVs sped toward him, all three disappearing through the hole behind him.

“Dirk!” she shouted.

“Come back out!” Raven pleaded over the comm.

“Astoria wouldn’t want this. She died to save you!” H124 yelled.

“I know,” he gasped through the pain. She heard him swallow hard. “So let it count for something. Get that launch vehicle and save the planet. Go!”

They heard two explosions and a stream of bubbles erupted from the hole as fiery light streamed out.

“Damn it!” she cursed. Raven grabbed her arm and started kicking them toward the surface. “We can’t leave him!”

And then she ran out of air. She gasped, her lungs rebelling. She felt her stomach tremble, as her mouth opened and shut in vain. She kept kicking, sensing that her whole body was about to burst. Raven’s body kicked and convulsed; for a moment her eyes met his in the dark water, and in them she saw terror. Up and up they kicked, clawing for the surface. Her vision tunneled, and her brain felt like it was about to explode. The world grew tiny, narrow, and black-and-white. But the white parts got brighter, and suddenly she was breaking through the surface. She tore off her mask. Raven emerged next to her, his body flopping. She tore off his face mask, and he gasped in a ragged breath of air.

About a hundred yards away, they saw the conning tower of the submarine.

“We’re here!” she said over the comm, waving. “But give the facility a wide berth. There are three more of those things down there.”

A watchman spotted them and climbed back into the sub. It motored toward them, skirting on the surface around the outside edge of the facility.

Her heart thudded in her chest. Her mind struggled to understand what had just happened, that they’d lost Dirk. She could hear the dull thrumming of the sub’s engines in the water as it motored toward them, but it felt like it was a million miles away.

When they’d almost reached her and Raven, she heard the weapons officer call out over the comm. “Sir! Coming up beneath us! Another AUV!”

“All ahead full! Right to 160!” shouted the captain.

The sub wheeled to the side, and she and Raven started to swim backward. A dark shape sped up through the water below. But it didn’t pause to take aim at the sub. It careened toward the surface, bursting into the air with explosive force. Immediately she saw that something was attached to it, which slid off into the water, floating on the surface. “Dirk!” she shouted, kicking over to him. The AUV sank back down into the depths as Dirk struggled to stay afloat.

She and Raven reached him, treading water with him between them, ripping off his mask. He drew in a harsh breath. His head bobbed, but a wry smile came to his face. “Astoria always said there wasn’t anything I couldn’t rewire.” He coughed. “The other two are destroyed.”

H124 grinned, then said over the comm, “It’s okay to pick us up. The AUVs have been neutralized.”

And they floated there, their friend between them. Blood seeped out around Dirk, and already he was losing consciousness. They’d have to get him to a medpod fast, but he was alive.

She gazed up at the blue sky. A storm was brewing to the southeast. Looked like it was going to be a doozy. She thought of the hurricane she and Raven had braved.

As the sub drew closer, she looked out at strange skeletal platforms dotting the horizon. She’d learned people had once lived on these massive platforms, stations that had once drilled deep down into the seabed to extract oil. It had been a dangerous place to live back then, with violent explosions that killed workers, and accidents that spewed millions of gallons of oil out into pristine waters, destroying wildlife.

She’d seen similar rigs out in the distance when Raven had taken her up to the northernmost extent of the continent above Sanctuary City. He’d told her that both locations had once been wildly diverse places full of myriad marine wildlife, but that after several disasters on the oil rigs, millions of gallons of oil had washed up on shore, killing countless birds and other flora and fauna besides.

Now she tried to imagine what it had been like, teeming with creatures, vibrant coral communities with colorful fish. Next to her, Dirk bled into the ocean, and they all held on to each other, bobbing with the waves.