We broke from the mechs, sprinting across the ground to the bridge. Quasar plastered the Niflin with plasma fire, keeping them from taking more than a few poorly aimed shots at us. Ducking low behind the railing, we inched our way to the others.

  “Where’s Alter?” I asked.

  “She went to get the barge,” Matt replied.

  “I thought the barge was automated?”

  “Stand up and look to the left. There’s a small control station.”

  I was about to stand up when a thunderclap sounded on the right bank, followed by a wave of heat carried by a gust of air. The entire cavern lit up twice as bright as it was before, and a hard thud shook the entire space. Raising my head just enough to see off to that side, I found the Avenger limping toward the second enemy mech. What remained of the first one was in a heap and on fire, debris from its explosion scattered for meters around it.

  “He’s a good mechie,” Quasar said. “I’ll give him that.”

  The Niflin’s other mech finally got into position, turning to face the Avenger. Both of its arms came up to fire heavy ions at Druck’s mech, only to be taken by surprise when the Avenger suddenly burst forward, the limp apparently a ruse. Turning the machine’s torso slightly to bring its armless shoulder forward, the Avenger slammed into the enemy mech with a deafening crash, rending its armor and shoving it backward toward the now empty barge.

  “He’s going to sink the boat,” I hissed, watching the enemy mech’s feet slide along the stone toward the edge. It grabbed at the Avenger, trying to get away without much success.

  The Avenger’s torso guns opened up on the other mech, even as the other mech’s chest guns fired back. The sound echoed loudly in the cavern, the two mechs using brute force against one another.

  It felt like the exchange lasted forever, when in reality it took only a few seconds for the Avenger’s guns to tear up the other mech, taking it offline. The enemy mech smoked and burned as the upper half of it went limp and fell, its legs the only thing holding the unit upright.

  The Avenger grabbed its torso and turned sideways to practically throw the other mech aside. Triumphant, Druck guided the scarred and rusted mech onto the barge, stepping lightly and kneeling on one knee when he reached the center.

  I looked to the opposite bank and found Alter inside the control booth, half a dozen dead mercenaries surrounding it. She did something inside and the barge began to move forward.

  “When it passes under us, we jump,” Quasar said.

  Fresh plasma swept toward us from the side of the bridge. One of the rounds hit my shoulder, burning through my coat and into my flesh. I groaned in pain, saved from worse when Miklos tossed a small silver ball from his pocket at the source of the incoming fire. The Niflin had taken cover behind the same machinery I had used, sneaking in for the attack. When the ball hit the machine it stuck to it, a red light on it flashing at an increasing pace.

  “Get down!” Miklos shouted in warning to the others.

  The ball exploded, taking the surviving mech and the Niflin with it, the fireball rocking the bridge we stood on. Fresh heat blasted my face and then faded, leaving the bridge mostly intact. Looking over the side, I saw Alter running for the barge as it approached our position.

  “Get ready,” Quasar said, straddling the opposite railing of the bridge. Matt, Miklos, and I joined her there, ready to jump as soon as the bow appeared on our side.

  The entire cavern shook again, the bombardment from outside resuming. It seemed Sedaya’s mercs had gotten word that their units inside hadn’t fared well. I don’t think they were expecting us to counter with a mech of our own.

  My arm burned, and my heart ached. Head pounding, ears ringing, I couldn’t believe how I had gone from Earth to here, this moment, inside of a month. A weird thought to have, maybe, but it still felt surreal.

  When the cavern shook again, a huge chunk of rock broke off from the ceiling behind us, dropping into one of the bridges and crushing it beneath its weight. More debris tumbled toward us, larger pieces threatening to give way any moment.

  “Hang down!” Quasar shouted, shouldering her rifle and sliding over the bridge railing so she could hang down off the bridge deck itself, diminishing the distance she’d fall to the barge. I climbed over the railing, sliding down over the side to hang from the decking. I watched nervously, worried I wouldn’t be able to hold on long enough to wait for the barge.

  Fortunately, I didn’t have to wait long.

  Looking down my legs, I watched the barge pass under me until the crouching Avenger appeared.

  “Now!” Quasar said.

  Without thinking, without hesitation, I let go.

  CHAPTER 35

  I didn’t fall far. Quasar timed the drop so that the Avenger would be directly beneath us, still kneeling and hunched forward to fit under the bridge. I hit its sloped back a couple of seconds after letting go, sliding down the relatively smooth surface and onto the back of the mech’s bent leg, landing like an albatross next to Miklos, who rolled acrobatically off the leg to land lightly on his feet. I swear I heard the little alien insect say “tada!”

  Matt and Quasar landed on the other leg, Matt on his knees and Zar in her own brand of superhero pose. Alter had made it to the barge as well, standing at the stern and facing away from us.

  The cavern shook again, the bombardment far from done.

  “We should get down,” Miklos said. “Hide under the mech for protection from the stones.” He pointed up, and then jumped aside as a larger hunk of rock crashed down.

  “Good idea,” I agreed, moving to the edge of the leg and sliding off. “Alter!” I shouted, getting her attention. She continued staring back for a second before coming to join us as we circled the Avenger, ducking down beneath its forward-bent torso. I spotted Druck through the small viewport in the machine’s head, strapped into a gyroscopic pilot seat that kept him level despite the mech’s tilt. He waved to me and I gave him a thumbs-up. He’d saved all of our lives.

  The cavern shook again, and again, as the automated barge continued along the river, its pace assisted by the current. With the next hit, a large mass of rock crushed the bridge we had jumped from. The back half of the bazaar vanished beneath the dust and debris.

  “I couldn’t save her,” Alter said.

  “Gramma’na?” I replied.

  “Yes.”

  “None of us could. There was no time.”

  “She saved us,” Quasar said.

  The cavern shuddered one last time and fell still. Enough debris had fallen to destroy the place for good, though it hadn’t fully collapsed.

  “I don’t think Sedaya paid enough to get permission to block Birilli’s water supply,” Matt said cynically.

  “We aren’t out of this yet,” Quasar replied. “ They’ll have the other half of their army waiting at the spaceport.”

  “I’m sure they will,” Alter said.

  “How are we supposed to get past them?” I asked. “They did something to the ship so that I couldn’t remote it to us. Maybe they’ve disabled it completely.”

  “Someone must have told Sedaya you used remote access on Cestus. They didn’t need to destroy Head Case. I’m sure they just jammed the signal.”

  “That’s what I’m hoping,” I said, glancing at Matt. “If that’s the case, we should be okay to leave as long as we can get onboard in one piece.”

  “As long as they didn’t put a disruptor net over the ship,” Quasar said, “then yes.”

  “Okay then. I bet they put a disruptor net over the ship,” Matt said.

  “It would be the smart thing to do,” Miklos replied. He held out his scarred hand to Matt to shake. “Miklos Nikoviac. And this is my assistant, Archie. At your service.”

  “Archie,” the insect said, bowing toward Matt.

  Matt only hesitated for an instant before taking Miklos’ gloved hand, though he seemed nervous about squeezing too hard. “Matt.” He let go and nodded to the little alien. “I’m sorry, I don’t know what species you are.”

  “He’s an Acheon,” Alter said. “Very far from home. And I’ve never heard of one traveling alone.”

  “Archie’s not alone,” Miklos said. “He has me. And we return to Demitrus quite often to pick up materials for our creations. He sees his nestmates multiple times per year.”

  “Plenty of times,” Archie agreed.

  “Now that the introductions are out of the way,” I said. “We need a plan to get from this barge to our ship.”

  “The barge is automated,” Alter said. “There’s nothing we can do to stop it. We have about twenty minutes until we reach the other end of the tunnel. When it arrives, it will lift up to the tarmac and touch down on its assigned spot.”

  “So not only can they wait for us, they know exactly where to aim,” Matt said.

  “Yes.”

  “At least we have this,” Quasar said, patting the Avenger’s leg.

  “Druck’s done a great job so far, but a beat up, one-armed mech can only do so much,” I said. “They dropped at least ten of those crates into Birilli. That’s ten mechs against one.”

  “It’s not time to give up,” Matt said.

  “I’m not giving up,” I answered. “We need a plan. A real plan.”

  Archie leaned closer to Miklos head, chittering excitedly, too low for me to hear.

  “Ben, you said you have a remote access system on your PHD?” Miklos asked.

  “Yeah, to fly my ship from a distance.”

  He put up a finger, mouth opening to represent a smile. “I think Archie and I have an idea.” He reached into a pocket of his robes and recovered a screwdriver.

  “All of this advanced tech, and you still use screws?” Matt said.

  “What else would we use? Sometimes the simplest solutions are still the best.”

  “I don’t know; you’ve managed to replace wheels.”

  “Not in all cases.” He hurried out from under the Avenger, running to the bow of the barge and dropping to his knees. Once there, he turned to look back at us. “Ben, I will need your device.”

  By the time I walked over to him he already had the cover off the deck, exposing the mainframe that ran the barge. Archie jumped into it, finding purchase on a pair of thick wires and looking up at him.

  “Tools,” he requested.

  Miklos retrieved a small bag from his robes and handed it down to the Acheon, who slung it over his shoulder and unzipped it. The bag unfolded to reveal dozens of tools I didn’t recognize, all of which were too small for human hands.

  Archie picked what he wanted without delay, while Miklos sat cross-legged on the deck next to the open cover. “PHD,” he said, holding his hand out to me. I passed him the phone. He looked at it and held it out. “Unlocked please.”

  “Right,” I said, embarrassed. I took back the device, unlocked it, and returned it to him.

  He immediately navigated to the terminal, typing in commands at blazing speed. “Archie, I have the address when you’re ready.”

  “Don’t rush me,” Archie snapped back in his chitter-whistle.

  “I said when you’re ready,” Miklos shot back. “Behave yourself, or I’ll feed you to an ogritch.”

  “Hmph,” Archie grunted, opening the side of the mainframe.

  “What exactly are you doing?” I asked.

  “I have the device ID for your PHD here. Archie is going to modify the circuit board switch so that we can remote into the mainframe, and then move some wires around so you can use your device like a controller. Essentially, you’ll be able to pilot the barge like it’s a starship.”

  “Only less maneuverable.”

  “A lot less maneuverable. And since there are no restraints I would recommend not making any moves that are too sudden. At the same time, you will be able to ascend to the tarmac anywhere there’s enough of a gap. Which might not give you much more variety, but it will take the enemy by surprise.”

  “Can he do all that in time?”

  “Archie? Of course. Acheon are good with things like this. It’s pretty much the only thing they’re good for.”

  “What?” Archie said, carrying on too quickly for me to understand the rest.

  “I’m kidding, I’m kidding,” Miklos said. He leaned in close to me, lowering his voice. “I’m not kidding.” I stared at him, confused. He responded with a wink. “I’m kidding.” A pause. “But not really.”

  Archie continued muttering as he vanished into the mainframe case. I stood over the open cover for a few minutes, thinking about how to handle the rise to the tarmac.

  “I’ll be right back,” I said, rushing to the others. “Druck!” I shouted. “Can you hear me in there?”

  He looked at me, and then reached to the console in front of him and tapped on one of the controls. “Are you saying something, Captain?” he asked.

  “Can you hear me?” I replied.

  “I opened the external mics. I can hear you now.”

  “Nice job in the bazaar.”

  “Thanks, Boss. I told you picking up a mech would be worth it.”

  “Miklos is working on hacking the barge so we can control it manually. We’re going to come up next to the tarmac. I need you to lay down some serious cover fire when we get there. I mean, give them everything you’ve got for as long as you can.”

  “Sure, I can do that. But you should know, I spent most of the ammo I had back there. I’ve got the plasma cannon and plenty of energy to fire it, but the railguns will only last a few seconds at most.”

  “Not great,” I said. “Do the best you can.”

  “Copy that.”

  I explained the situation to Matt, Alter, and Quasar. Of course, I would try to bring the barge up as close to Head Case as possible, but in all likelihood we would have to run some of the distance. “What about the disruptor net?” I asked. “Can we get it off?”

  “It has a power source,” she replied. “I’ll disable it.”

  “Does it mean the Niflin got inside?”

  “If they did, they’ll die.”

  “What about the Star of Caprum?”

  “The blast doors will take time to penetrate. More time than they’ll have.”

  I nodded and turned away, planning to head back to Miklos.

  “Ben,” Alter said, turning me around again. “I’m sorry. About Shaq. I didn’t see any other way to keep you safe.”

  “Just like you killed a security guard to keep me safe?” I replied, regretting the remark almost instantly. She flinched and lowered her head. “Alter, I…” I exhaled, speaking as gently as I could. “You can’t always keep me safe. And you can’t stop what’s already killing me. We tried.”

  She nodded, but didn’t look at me. I hurried back to Miklos, reaching him as Archie climbed back to the deck.

  “How’s progress?” I asked.

  Miklos handed me the phone. It had a series of buttons on the screen. Up, down, left, right, faster, slower. “Rudimentary, but functional,” he said.

  “That’s an understatement,” I replied. “When does it become active?”

  “It already is.”

  I looked up in a panic, making sure we weren’t about to crash into the side of the cavern. “Geez, you could have warned me.” I ignored Archie’s high-pitched laughter. “By the way, do you have anything in your bag of tricks to deal with a disruptor net?”

  “As a matter of fact, I do,” he replied. “Leave that to me.”

  “And me,” Archie said.

  “I think I see the end of the tunnel,” Miklos added, pointing forward.

  “Here goes nothing,” I replied.

  CHAPTER 36

  I used the hacked-in controls to slow the barge as it approached the end of the tunnel. I could see the cliff walls of the reservoir beyond, not far from where we would emerge beneath the overhanging tarmac. My heart had been pounding for the last hour and didn’t have much more to give or I’m sure the intensity would have blown right through the proverbial roof. At this point, I hoped I could stay upright long enough to get us to Head Case.

  Coming out of the tunnel, I immediately heard echoes from the tarmac above. Heavy mech feet shifting on the platform, along with the soft whine of ships circling overhead. If there had been any doubt Sedaya’s forces waited for us above, they were quickly snuffed out.

  “Miklos, you don’t have any more shields on you, do you?” I asked.

  “No, my friend,” he replied. “I only had one glove.”

  “Any other good toys in those robes?” Matt questioned.

  “Nothing that would be useful in this situation. I didn’t have time to gather much when the attack came.”

  “I’m almost out of ammo, Captain,” Quasar said, checking her rifle.

  “We all are,” Alter agreed. “Our best chance is to get onto the ship and blast off as quickly as possible.”

  “The odds? Not good,” Archie clicked. “The tension? High. The stakes? Immeasurable. Our intrepid—”

  “Archie, not now,” Miklos snapped, looking at the alien sitting on his shoulder.

  “What are you doing?” I asked the Acheon.

  “He does that when he’s nervous,” Miklos answered for him. “I never should have taught him how to speak English.”

  “Druck, are you ready up there?” I asked, reaching up and knocking on the Avenger’s pitted armor.

  “Ready as I’ll ever be,” he responded.

  The bow of the ship hit the light spilling in from the open side of the tarmac. My jaw clenched, nerves tensing as the moment of truth approached. We continued forward, drifting with the current. My fingers rested over the buttons to both ascend and accelerate, though I knew steering the barge would be like trying to direct a snail. After all we had been through, if I ever did see Keep again, I was pretty sure I would kill him on the spot. Or at least scream at him.

  The line of light moved toward us. The moment the Avenger’s head breached it, I heard a shout from overhead, and a barrage of blaster fire started raining down on us.

  It didn’t surprise me they were waiting for us to come out. We had positioned behind the mech for a reason, and we backpedaled now, staying under cover of the tunnel for as long as possible.