Black Hole Heartbeat

Rusalka - 65

As rock rained down, Rusalka raced for the cannon. Without cover, Brack was horribly exposed. She could hear the bubble and hiss as the cannon coolant readied another shot. She flicked one of her knives towards the turret. It whizzed past the guard, piercing the energy tube behind. In a swirl of orange and metal, the cannon splintered into the air. Thick smoke billowed around the downpour of shrapnel. "You owe me a new knife," Rusalka told Brack.

Isoline had killed one of the guards already. The other was on the floor, her foot pressed down on his chest. "Mercy. Mercy!" he begged. "Don't believe in it." Before she pulled the trigger, a bullet came from the darkness shot through Isoline's hand. Her rifle dropped with a clatter. She did not scream as the blood sprayed from her fist. Rusalka shot the guard clean between the eyes and turned to the palace.

A group of Human women swaggered out. They pulled the forestocks back to load up their shotguns. Most wore ragged jeans, some with legs torn off at the knees. Others wore skirts, short and ripped with black tights more ladder than not. Unlaced biker boots covered their feet. Dark vests wrapped in jackets or bandoliers on their toned bodies. Hair was shorn, braided and long, often all at once. The flesh on show was marked with either muck or ink. None of them said a word. Brack approached. A fast knee crushed up between his legs and his gun was slapped away from him while he doubled over in pain. "Hardly found shit, ladies. Move out!" a voice called. The women shuffled back into the darkness, shotguns still aimed. There was a rattling hum behind the palace. A shuttle appeared and the women grabbed ropes that trailed from it. The ground shook as a ship blasted into the sky and soared away.

"Damn it!" Rusalka strode over to the entrance, stepping over Brack. Her knife was lying among the wreckage of the cannon. Hilt scalding hot to the touch. She juggled it hand to hand to cool it. Loud, rapid bursts exploded behind her. Isoline firing into the sky after the ship. Rusalka disarmed her with a strong kick. "Don't be pointless," Rusalka said, trapping the gun beneath her feet. "I wouldn't need my gun if you hadn't destroyed the cannon." "It was your boyfriend who was pinned back. One of us needed to do something." Rusalka looked over at Brack as he clawed at the palace tiles.

"I'd go easy on him for a week. Make sure you use a lot of ice."

~*~

Elizabeth reached the doors of the palace, Forr and Lavell close behind. Rusalka loosened her stamp on Isoline's weapon and kicked it back to her. With a quick and offended sweep, she scooped the rifle into her hands. "What the hell was that ship?" Elizabeth asked. "A group of Human women beat us here. Gave Brack some rather painful swelling for his trouble," Rusalka said. Elizabeth glanced over at Brack tenderly cupping his sensitive parts. Rusalka saw her flash a smile before her face tensed. She pointed to the smouldering cannon. "What happened? Could've shot them down if we still had it." Brack struggled to speak, "They had me trapped. Rusalka saved me."

"Why weren't you with us!" a voice shouted. It was weak and hoarse. Ana caught up, her face cherry. "We're friends, aren't we sweetie?" Rusalka asked her. Ana just stood there, blonde knotted shock flailing in the wind. "You have to trust me."

"The cannon was not the issue, foolish as it was to destroy it," Isoline said, "If you had been here, we could have secured the base much faster. We could have kept the turret active. We could have the fragment. I don't see any children with you. I trust they were all okay?" Isoline said. Her eyebrows were raised with mocking confidence. "It doesn't matter now," Elizabeth said. A look of understanding grew across Isoline's thin lips. "There weren't any children, were there?" she said. "I'd rather make that mistake a thousand times if it meant I got to save one child." "Spare me your speech on the iniquity of my soul, Elizabeth. Everyone else around here might fall to the floor to kiss your feet, but I'm not so blind. You made the wrong call. Be a big girl and take it. If you listened to me, we would have the fragment. You're not fit to lead this crew." Elizabeth's hand shot out, stinging Isoline between the eyes with a closed fist. Rusalka heard the skin tear open. "Have you ever had a thought you have not acted upon? Ever reconsidered the rashness with which you live, even for a moment? Sometimes urges, however satisfactory their payoff may be, must be suppressed for a greater good. I control mine. If I did not, each day would end with a pile of corpses." "Is all that pretty talk supposed to make up some kind of threat? I'm earning my way onto the pile, that it?"

Isoline wiped her fingertips across her lip, flicking away the dark drops of blood. "I could reduce you to your knees with a wink and kill you with a whisper." "Very impressive. I'd need a gun, but luckily I'm packing," Elizabeth said. She swept her leather jacket back over her holster. The pistol grip glinted. Isoline, already holding her rifle, moved her finger to the trigger. With one hand bloodied, the barrel shook.

"Let's not do this now, ladies. We can measure them when we're back on the ship," Rusalka said. She wiped the soot and the grime from her dagger. Confused eyes turned to her. "I guess I'm more used to breaking up pathetic arguments between men. You're not going to shoot each other, so why not on the count of four, you shake hands. Okay? One, two, three, four." They both turned to Rusalka with unimpressed stares. "Well. I suppose that was to be expected." "Where's Serpe?" Forr asked. "That took you a while," Rusalka said. She stepped between Elizabeth and Isoline, bumping the rifle out of the way. "Bottom of the hill. Whatever you gave her back on the ship, I don't think it was enough." "Any more and she wouldn't have been able to move. Not often enough was the problem. She should have stayed with us," Ana said. "To save the imaginary children, you mean?" Isoline said. Ana stared at Isoline, sweat still running down her glowing skin. Rusalka handed her a flask of water.

"I'm going back for her," Forr said. He started down the hill and Lavell trudged after him. Ana held the vial out to Forr as he passed by her. He took it with a nod and handed it off immediately to Lavell. "Take this. Inject her just above where the injury is."

Elizabeth and Isoline appeared to come to a truce. Hateful glares aside, weapons had been holstered. The immediate threat of friendly fire had been extinguished. "Who were those other people?" Nyomee asked. "All women, all Human," Brack said. "A tribe of some sort. Tattered clothes. Flew off with the fragment in hand. And, no doubt, grins on their faces which I fully intend to wipe off," Rusalka said. "I plan to rip them off," Isoline snarled through teeth. "Merely wiping them would satisfy me. Nothing was hurt but our pride,"

Rusalka said. Isoline held her bleeding hand up, curling it into a fist to wring out blood. She opened it to reveal a hole through the flesh. "Well, and that I suppose," Rusalka said. "You can fix this," Isoline said, holding her hand out to Ana. This was not a question. She ignored Isoline's hand, even nudging it out of the way. "Tattered clothes? Did they all have strange hairstyles?" Ana said. "All Human hair is strange to me, sweetie. Sorry." "Humans have ghastly, ugly hair. It grows out of them like weeds," Isoline said. Her hand was still out, waving for Ana's attention. It caught hold of the collar of her armour but lacked the strength to grip. Ana wrapped a careless bandage around it as she pressed Rusalka for more details. "Was it strange lengths? All different? Some cut short, some braided? Did they all wear black?" "Do you know them?" Elizabeth asked. "That does sound like them," Brack said. "When I lived on Earth, there were groups who thought the HO colonies were getting too soft on other species. Too tolerant." "Seriously?" Elizabeth said. "I believe her. Those who pursue enlightenment leave the next generation more enlightened. Those who pursue ignorance leave the next generation even more ignorant," Rusalka said. "Something like that, I suppose. Anyway, this group broke off and formed their own territory. They would fly out to alien settlements nearby, kill a local as a warning to leave Earth alone." "That's horrible," Elizabeth said. "And it was only the females?" Isoline asked, rewrapping the loose strips of cloth around her hand. "It started when a group of Torfus males snuck into the HO camp and raped a young girl. There may now be similar groups of men. Even if it began as misguided revenge, their only motivation is violence now. They called themselves the Mundus" "We have to get back to the ship. Hope that the girls returned to Earth, and see if Querius can find some way of narrowing our search for them down," Elizabeth said.

They heard heavy footsteps behind them as Serpe appeared. She had her arm around Forr's shoulder. There was a noticeable shuffle and stumble to her walk, but Rusalka saw the strength was returning. "I should have had a stronger dose," she growled at Ana. Elizabeth stepped in between them and shoved Serpe away. "You should have stayed close." "Haven't we established that your dalliance was foolish? You are fast eroding your usefulness, Ranger," Isoline said.

Isoline turned her back. Elizabeth reached for her pistol but Ana touched her hand. Rusalka heard the soft scrape of skin on skin. Ana cradled Elizabeth's fingertips, staring with big, imploring eyes. Elizabeth relaxed her arm. Once Ana let go, she raised her bracelet to her mouth and called the two pilots for evac.