Chapter Twenty-Four

D ante leaned his weight into the bar securing his side of the force field, waiting until the heavy thunk told him it had attached. While Kowri might have exceptional technology, Dante sided with Ter, who ranked their intelligence somewhere in the range of an invertebrate dirt-eater for not evacuating until the mines had shut down atmosphere generators. It meant families were trapped in their living spaces, which had very little air circulation capacity, and rescue teams had to get them out one apartment at a time.

Dante stepped back as the blue light flickered, casting long shadows in the dim corridor.

"Confirmed attachment," Nioti said. "Sending signal." The door on the other side of the force field opened. Three Kowri adults and two children, one in his father's arms, stood on the other side.

Heershi manipulated the robot until it stretched out a claw with a space suit, piercing the forcefield without letting the atmosphere inside escape. The father not holding the child stepped forward, his ears all flat against his head. "Where do we go?"

"Not toward the hull," Nioti said. "Mines have pierced the structure, and we don't know what further damage the outsider weapons might do. The godless Ter, family to Dante a'Divashi has secured Fulgent 4B."

The youngest child started to wail, and Heershi moved the spacesuit carrying robot to the far side of the corridor so Dante and Nioti could clomp past the evacuating family. The magnetic boots made walking difficult. However, Ter warned that gravity could fail, and no one wanted to risk being flung into a wall.

"How many more families do we have on this level?" Dante asked.

"Twenty-six," Nioti said, her voice as brittle as Dante's nerves. Dante silently cursed Kowri arrogance.

Dante looked up. "Divashi, I appreciate the disaster, but if you could send some opportunity, a little help, you know, I'll take anything at this point."

"What are you doing?" Heershi screeched.

"Praying," Dante answered. He held down the release mechanism for the forcefield.

"What... But... Do not attract the attention of the Lady of poisons!" Heershi yelled.

"Why not? We already have the disaster."

Heershi spluttered before he snapped, "Focus on the task."

The current task involved holding a button down, which didn't require much attention.

"Do your people engage in prayer on a regular basis?" Nioti asked.

"Some more than others," Dante said. "I tend to skip the prayers and solve my own problems, but lately it seems like Divashi is creating bigger problems than I can solve by myself, so it seemed appropriate to ask for a little help."

Nioti leaned against her robot carrier. "It's considered bad luck to call on the gods. They help where they choose, so to ask for their help is rude and likely to inspire divine punishment."

"But people leave food for the sacred animals, and I've heard them telling their gods about their problems." As far as Dante could see, Kowri prayed more often than a Southern Baptist after a near-death experience.

"They talk about what they need where sacred animals can overhear them. They leave food to attract the animals. They do not ask the gods for anything. It would be rude ," Nioti repeated, emphasizing the last word.

"If it's a choice between being rude or running out of time or air before we evacuate the last family, I'm willing to take that risk."

"You dishonor our gods and customs," Heershi snapped.

"He is an exalted. He has his own relationship with his goddess, and it is the epitome of rudeness to question how an exalted and his god may relate to one another," Nioti chided in a soft voice.

"Steady on for concussive forces," Ter's voice came through the radio so loudly it bounced around the inside of Dante's helmet. The equipment Dante was carrying slammed him to the wall.

Nioti hurried to him. "Are you injured?"

Since he'd had the air knocked out of him, Dante couldn't answer.

"Twin blessings of the gods save us," she whispered. She was looking to Dante's right, and he followed her gaze. The end of his side of the force field generator had hit the wall, and the fingerlike projections had broken and bent.

"Crap," Dante whispered.

Heershi said in a kind tone. "It is no matter. Many defecate when subjected to such forces. The suit will isolate the biologicals." Dante blinked at him. He should expect mangled translations by now, but they still caught him off guard. "Do not move until the suit can isolate the excrement. Nioti and I will see if there are spares."

"Steady yourself for more concussive impacts," the radio announced—this time it was an anonymous Kowri voice instead of Ter. Dante wondered if someone had wrestled the radio out of Ter's hand or if he had demanded the Kowri act as his assistant.

Heershi put his side of the force field generator down with the more delicate fingers facing up before he put both hands on the wall while Nioti and Dante sank to the floor, their backs to the wall. Dante wondered if families in these apartments were grabbing children and bracing themselves in closets or if they were still so confident in Kowri technology that they ignored the real danger.

A huge blow made the ship shudder, and for a moment the gravity failed. Dante was hit by the six-fingered arm of a space suit floating away from the robot. The gravity returned and then a series of new impacts made the ship buck like a rodeo horse.

Dante almost did crap his pants when a new voice came through his radio. "Are you there, Dante?"

"Regi!"

"Where are you?"

Dante had no idea how to describe it using ship terms. "I'm in the section that's lost power. We're sending evacuees to Fulgent 4B, so probably near there."

"We're in Fulgent 6C," Nioti corrected him.

Dante gave Regi the information. It was ridiculous how grateful he was to hear Regi's voice. Some part of him wanted to believe nothing horrible could happen as long as Regi was near.

"The enemy has ships in the area. You need to abandon the area. Abandon the area!" Regi ordered.

"There are families in this section. I'm helping the evacuation," Dante said. "At least I was until some equipment was damaged, but Heershi is trying to get more field generators."

Ter's voice broke in. "If you want to help, park your ship close enough to cover the port side."

There was a long pause. "The engineers said it is too dangerous," Regi said.

"More dangerous than walking into a radiation-soaked engine? More dangerous than one of those enormous predators you and that other idiot insisted on walking right up to? More dangerous than any of the addlepated, common sense-deficient decisions I've seen you make in the last three months? Move that ship to our side before I come over there and introduce your internal organs to the vacuum of space through a hole the size of a pin. It will take agonizing minutes to die, you know. And I will be there to lecture you the entire time. I will detail the breadth and depth of your stupidity in such detail that you will die in shame and be too mortified to return to this cycle of life and death."

The silence that followed was profound. After long seconds, Nioti whispered, "That was vivid." Dante hadn't realized Ter had been on an open or at least semi-open channel up until that point.

"That's Ter," Dante said. "But Ter and Regi will figure something out. I have faith in them.

Heershi came clomping back toward them, a new shield generator rod thingy in hand. All Dante could do was save as many families as possible. So that was what he would keep doing. This time he needed to trust Regi and Divashi to handle the rest. And given how Divashi brought more bad luck than good, Dante had to swallow the worry that made him want to vomit into his helmet.