CHAPTER 26
Electromagnetic pulse (part 2)
"Rigel!" I tried to scream, but my face was in the dirt. Coughing and spitting to clear it out of my mouth, I tried again. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah," he said, his voice faint. Then, more strongly, urgently, "How about you? Are you hurt?" He tried to struggle up, obviously still groggy.
"I'm fine. You just lie still for a minute."
I assumed the fact that he wasn't dead meant the others had to use three shots to kill, too, but I didn't dare count on it. I cautiously raised my head to look around and saw that one more of our people had fallen, in addition to Dr. Stuart. But less than ten of theirs still seemed to be attacking. Mr. Stuart was firing like he was berserked or something, and he was a deadly shot. Not a skill I'd have expected from a computer whiz, somehow. Shim was still on his feet, too.
Unfortunately, so was Morven. Standing behind one of his men, using him as a shield, he punched more buttons on his remote-thingy. Shim was the one who finally brought down the bodyguard, but as his man fell, Morven let out a cry of what sounded like triumph--which didn't seem to make sense, since we now had as many people as he did, at least if you counted Rigel and me.
But then I heard a weird whirring hum overhead and looked up to see a silvery orb about twice the size of a basketball skimming the tops of the corn stalks--heading straight for us.
"No!" Mr. Stuart sounded horrified. "That's not possible. That project was mothballed fifty years ago because it was too dangerous."
"How could you bring such an abomination to Earth, Morven?" Shim demanded, as the orb reached the clearing.
Morven's high, derisive laughter made my skin crawl. "Now you know why I fear no opposition. We have half a dozen Ossian Spheres under our control--more than enough to subjugate this entire planet to Faxon's rule. All it will take is a demonstration or two."
I still had no clue what the thing was, but clearly everyone else on our side did. They were staring at the object with naked fear, their weapons now held limply in their hands. Except for Shim, who brought his weapon up in one swift motion and fired at the orb.
The shot had no noticeable effect on the sphere, but it spurred a few others to action. Mr. Stuart fired at Morven, who was now unprotected . . . except that he wasn't. Mr. Stuart's beam stopped about a foot short of its target, as though blocked by an invisible shield of some sort.
Morven laughed again. "As you can see, I've made a few modifications to the original--though believe me, its primary function is still as devastating as ever." He toyed with the remote in his hand. "I recommend that any of you who don't want your nervous systems permanently scrambled move some distance from your Princess." He spat out the word like it was something disgusting. "I have it set to its narrowest, most intense beam but it will still likely affect anyone within a two meter radius. For obvious reasons, I haven't been able to test this setting under, ah, field conditions."
His own few remaining people scrambled backwards, away from me. One or two of those on our side did, too, but Shim and Mr. Stuart stood firm, no more than a yard or two in front of me. Dr. Stuart was still on the ground, but whether dead or stunned I couldn't tell.
I pushed myself to my feet and looked straight at Morven, deciding abruptly that if I was going to die or have my brain fried or whatever that thing was going to do to me, I wanted to face it standing--like the Princess I was. It was the least I could do in return for what these people had done for me.
Then, to my surprise, a hand clasped mine and I turned to see that Rigel had managed to stand as well.
"Get away, to where it's safe," I told him. "Please."
He shook his head, no trace of compromise in his expression. "I'm with you, no matter what. I love you, M."
Despite knowing I probably only had moments to live, happiness blossomed through me, making everything else irrelevant. Even if it ended in the next two minutes, my life had been worth it for this one instant.
"I love you too, Rigel." I made it a vow, the truest thing I'd ever said. And then we were kissing, in full view of family, friends and enemies. Why not?
Morven's obnoxious voice broke the spell. "Puppy love. How very touching. I guess it's both of you, then."
But even as he spoke, I had a memory so vivid it was like a vision--of Rigel stopping my uncle's runaway car. I looked into Rigel's eyes and saw awareness dawn there, then, clear in my mind, I heard his voice saying, Yes!
Our hands met and clasped, tightly, then we both swept our free arms up to point at the sphere just as Morven pushed something on his remote. A blinding arc of electricity, at least twenty times as strong as the one that had hit Bryce Farmer, jumped from our fingertips and converged on the now-humming orb.
With an ear-splitting boom the sphere exploded in midair, sending sparks and shards raining down on the whole clearing. Reacting instantly, Rigel pulled me to the ground and shielded me with his body, like he had before, and I had a fleeting glimpse of everyone else, friend and foe, also hitting the dirt. The debris fell for several seconds, then stopped.
Slowly, fearfully, I raised my head and saw others doing the same. Shim appeared unhurt, other than a burn on one hand, which he was shaking. Mr. Stuart, who had covered his wife just as Rigel had covered me, seemed okay, too. Rigel moved, letting me up, and I twisted around quickly to check on him. He greeted me with a grin and I let out my breath in relief. In fact, everyone who had still been standing before the explosion appeared all right, if shaken.
Except Boyne Morven.
Maybe because he'd been closest to it, or maybe because he'd been enveloped in whatever shield the orb had been generating when it blew up, he'd been knocked halfway across the clearing and appeared to be unconscious--or worse. Not that I was going to feel the least bit guilty about it, Martian heritage or no. The guy had just tried to kill me--and Rigel.
"Is everyone all right?" Shim asked as we all clambered to our feet to take stock.
Everyone on our side who could nodded, even though I could see that several had cuts or burns of some sort. The couple of people from Morven's side who were still in the clearing remained sitting, covered by the weapons of two of Shim's people.
People on both sides I'd feared were dead were starting to stir, apparently only stunned. To my intense relief, Dr. Stuart was one of those.
Mr. Stuart instantly noticed her moving. "Ariel!" he exclaimed, kneeling beside her. "Oh, thank God!"
Rigel moved to his mother's side as well, but never released his grip on my hand so I came along, too. "Mom! I was afraid you were . . . you know."
"I'm fine, dear," she said with a weak smile. "Or I will be, once the queasiness passes. What happened?"
"I'd rather like to know the answer to that myself," Shim said, coming over to join us. "Rigel, Sov-- er, Marsha, what exactly was that? Not that we're ungrateful, of course."
Rigel and I looked at each other, then back at Shim. In that brief exchange of glances, I could have sworn I heard Rigel say, Truth.
"We're not exactly sure, sir," he said aloud. "We've experienced something similar a couple of times before, but nothing anywhere near as strong as this."
Shim looked at me and I shrugged, too. "It just seemed like . . . the thing to do, sir. We definitely didn't have time to plan it."
His expression softened. "I suppose not. But once we've all had a chance to, er, recover and clean up a bit, I'd like to have a talk with both of you about this interesting, ah, ability you seem to have."
I was startled to see Shim nearly at a loss for words. But I had a question of my own. "What was that thing, sir? What would it have done to me, if we hadn't, er--"
It was Mr. Stuart who answered. "An Ossian Sphere. They were working on a prototype back on Mars nearly a hundred years ago. It disrupts electromagnetic impulses. It was being developed as a way to stop runaway reactions, but they discovered it also had the potential to affect organic impulses--neurons. Also, to short out all electronics within a fairly large area. Given that an accident with it could have crippled our entire colony, the project was shut down. I had no idea Faxon revived it."
"I'm sure it wasn't publicized," Shim said. "But I'll make certain word reaches him that we now have an effective defense against it." He smiled at Rigel and me and I felt my cheeks grow warm.
"Shim," Dr. Stuart said, moving to stand beside her husband. She seemed to be nearly herself again. "Do you think you can get a ride back with one of your people if we leave you to handle the details and . . . cleanup? I'd like to get Marsha and Rigel out of here."
He blinked. "Of course, Ariel. I was forgetting for a moment that they're only-- But you're quite right. I'll see you all later."
"Come on." Her words included Mr. Stuart as well as the two of us. "I believe something was said about going for ice cream?"
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