Shepherd Moon

Part 3: Talon - Chapter 21

He drew back his head and seemed about to spit on her, but paused when the girl flinched.

'Weak Sape shit!'

'What are you going to do with us?' Maddy asked quickly, trying to draw his attention away.

He pushed himself through the cabin over to the table that Marshall had let down from the wall to serve the food. The scowl remained on his face but Maddy could feel Geranium relax a little beside her. 'I've been thinking,' said Reed, 'over the last five days of your captivity. That information you found on the ghost, that data that something will happen regarding an asteroid...it is genuine?'

'I believe so.'

'It might not be a trick by the Elite to fool us, to lure us into a trap?'

'Why should they? They don't even know you have the ghost, do they?'

He nodded, as if she had cemented a decision in his mind. 'Can you find out where this ship, the Shepherd Moon, is now?'

What was the man's game? After locking her up for five days, threatening her at gunpoint, allowing Geranium's slave to die, along with so many of his own men, he now wanted her help?

And yet, there was something in that ghost data, something big. She had to know what it was just as much as Reed.

She shrugged. 'Perhaps I can. I'd need to search through the ghost's database. It'd depend if there had been specific mention of a course or actual co-ordinates. Or any subsequent communications since it was last accessed.'

Reed glanced at Marshall, who had sat down in one of the control chairs and was making adjustments to the ship's course. The craft had become unsteady, its usual smooth journey through Void now more like riding over a rough road. Reed put out one hand to steady himself as the ship rocked.

'What's wrong?' he asked.

'We went Void while we were still within the Martian atmosphere,' replied Marshall, 'You're not supposed to do that. We're dropping out of Void.'

Maddy's knowledge of Void was limited, but she knew it was a delicate balance of physical forces and the chance of drop-out increased with time spent in Void, or if any of the required conditions, such as being far away from high gravity, were not met.

'Are you sure you know how to fly this thing?' Reed's hand gripped an anchor bar hard.

'Of course I do! I've flown it before, with Campillo. But we won't be in Void much longer. Nothing I can do.'

'Is it dangerous? Dropping out?' Reed pushed away from the table and grabbed the back of one of the flight chairs to strap himself in. Maddy fastened her seat belt and gestured to Geranium to do the same.

'It won't be pleasant if we come out near a solid body or intense source of radiation. But the chances of that are negligible. We should still be somewhere near the solar system.'

There was a brilliant flash of white light and ship became steady again. Marshall opened the shutters on the front window and dimmed the cabin lights. The vista of a billion stars could be seen. The ship's AI chattered away to itself to find out where they were.

'Everyone safe?' asked Reed.

'There's enough power to go Void again soon, as soon as the potential builds up,' said Marshall. 'Only we should decide where we're going this time'

There was something in Marshall's voice that made everyone go quiet. The man rose from his seat and faced Reed.

'You're a fool,' he said. 'I mean it, Reed. What kind of terrorist are you? Your whole cell wiped out in one raid?'

Undoing the straps that held him into his seat, Reed let himself float up until he was higher than the Sape. 'No. Not wiped out. My soldiers will re-group. We have other safe houses. The Talon survives. It is just...separated.'

'Scattered, you mean. And you ran away.' Marshall unbuttoned his uniform jacket; there was sweat on the shirt beneath. The flushed colour in his face started to fade. 'All right. I'm not saying it wasn't the thing to do in the circumstances. The whole of the Albany police force would have been against us. The thing is, what are we to do now?'

Reed nodded. 'All right. I understand. We'll stay here for the time being if we're safe. We can't be tracked through Void. We need time to think, time for the rest of the cell to reach safety, then we regroup.' He looked at Marshall, who nodded after a moment.

Maddy found herself breathing again.

Half an hour later they had settled enough to have a meal. Maddy and Geranium were allowed to use the table, but only after the others had dined. Reed watched them while Marshall checked the ship's location.

'Make a big meal,' Maddy whispered to Geranium. 'You don't know when you'll get to eat again.'

'What are they going to do to us?' the girl replied, stuffing pasta into her mouth. 'My parents know I've been kidnapped. They'll be...' She stifled a sob. Maddy touched her hand gently. 'They'll hear about the raid and know I wasn't found! They'll think I'm dead.'

'Not unless they find your body. It means they'll look elsewhere for you. Your father's powerful enough to make sure the authorities do a good job.' She smiled, but the girl just looked down at her plate. 'Eat!' continued Maddy. She wanted to remind Geranium that her mother the Marchioness had spent a month locked in a small cabin and even gained weight because all she had to do in that time was eat and get high, but she refrained. This wasn't the time to bring up the topic of the Marchioness's own captivity.

'We're in the Oort Cloud,' announced Marshall to Reed. 'But not far. About two thousand five hundred AU.'

The ship was now just one of about two trillion objects orbiting the Sun, not far from home, but well hidden. Few ships bothered to visit the Cloud on their way to and from the solar system, bypassing it in Void.

'All right,' said Reed, and returned to the table where the women were finishing their meal. 'Listen up. The Talon is scattered for the time being. But until we can contact them again I have other plans. Maddy Hawthorn has news about the ship called Shepherd Moon. If they carry their plans out—whatever they are—then maybe people will die. Helots will die. Such an attack would draw down the ultimate reprisal of the Sapes upon all Helots. Even asking a ransom for this girl destroyed our cell.'

Marshall looked bored.

'Maddy will locate the Shepherd Moon, and we will go to it, wherever it is. I shall contact the terrorists on board to find out their intentions, for the sake of all Helots.'

He leaned over Maddy, gripped her shoulders with both hands.

'I am not a monster. I want freedom for my people, not their destruction. Do you understand? This is the time that the Talon shall prove itself.'

Yes, she understood, but said nothing. The Talon right now consisted of just Reed and Marshall, who strictly speaking wasn't even a member, just a hired thug. And wherever the Shepherd Moon might be back there in the solar system, it wasn't going to be easy to find unless she was smarter than she'd ever been in her life.

And right now, her life wasn't worth shit.