Red Planet Blues

FORTY-THREE

Lakshmi, having apparently noticed what Ernie was up to, took off after him, presumably with an eye on the plane’s passenger seat.

The bootleg Pickover hadn’t seen precisely where Lakshmi tossed the excimer pack, and he was now searching around for it. With the buggy’s power off and my fishbowl radio wrecked, I couldn’t give him verbal instructions, although if he would just look back at me, I could at least point in the right direction.

I swiveled my head again to the front. Ernie was standing beside the plane now, turning it around by pulling on the tip of its port wing.

Blondie suddenly picked Reiko up and cradled her in bent arms. Reiko’s body was limp; it reminded me of the poster for Forbidden Planet with Robby the robot holding Altaira. Blondie began running, carrying Reiko. The Amazonian transfer clearly had her sights set on the airplane, too, doubtless realizing it would be the quickest way to get the injured Reiko to the dome.

I turned the other way, and Rory finally looked back at me. I pointed emphatically, and he at last started looking in the right spot. Excimer packs don’t get warm, so I guess his infrared vision was of no help, but—

Finally! He scooped the pack up and jogged back toward the buggy. Lakshmi had left the battery-compartment door open, but it took Rory a while to get the pack seated properly—one of the leads must have gotten bent. When he finally got it in place, I hit the power switch, and the dashboard indicators came to life. I then put my foot on the accelerator. I didn’t want to ram the plane, but I could at least prevent Ernie from immediately taking off. I drove directly into the middle of the bit of open terrain he and I had used as a landing strip. Ernie had finished rotating the airplane to his satisfaction but now saw that I was in his way.

Blondie had covered most of the distance to the plane already, and Lakshmi had arrived at it. Ernie and Lakshmi started arguing, both gesticulating wildly. But the lady did have the rifle, and after a moment, he waved a hand resignedly at the cockpit, and she clambered into the rear passenger seat.

Ernie was getting in, too, although that took some doing in his eggplant suit. When he was aboard, the teardrop-shaped canopy slid shut over him and Lakshmi, and he started revving his engines; I could see the turbines spinning to life. I moved the buggy even closer, blocking him in. But he seemed willing to try taking off anyway—and, who knows, carbon nanofibers are pretty much indestructible; maybe the plane could survive ramming into the buggy.

The blonde goddess still had a few dozen meters to go. I couldn’t imagine all the bouncing up and down was good for Reiko. The transfer bent down and gently laid Reiko on the ground again. She then did precisely what Ernie had done earlier: she grabbed the tip of the port wing and started rotating the airplane, turning it to face some nasty boulders. The two people aboard probably doubled the weight of the craft, but Blondie seemed to have no trouble with the task. Ernie might have thought his plane could take plowing into a buggy, but he had to realize that having a transfer hanging off the wing would screw up the aerodynamics that were already chancy in this meager atmosphere. He cut the engine and, rather than have Blondie rip the canopy open, he cracked the seal himself and let it slide to the rear.

Ernie knew he didn’t have to get out—he was the trained pilot, after all—but Lakshmi looked like she wasn’t going to budge, either. Blondie had her hands on her hips, annoyed. After about five seconds, she started moving toward the cockpit.

Pickover had now run up to the plane, and was on the opposite side of it from Blondie. Lakshmi’s gun couldn’t do much against either of their artificial bodies, and she at last seemed to think better of being stubborn; after all, if Pickover grabbed her on the left and Blondie on the right, the two transfers could probably rip her in half. Lakshmi lifted herself up out of the rear passenger seat and dropped to the ground. Blondie gestured for Pickover to come around to her side of the plane, and the two of them gently got Reiko into the vacated passenger seat.

I drove the buggy off to one side, Blondie realigned the airplane with the makeshift runway, Ernie gave a jaunty thumbs-up from the pilot’s seat and he set the plane rolling along, the preposterously long wings bouncing up and down a bit as it did so, almost as if they thought flapping might help.

At last, the bird lifted off, climbing into the sky and heading east. I had served as navigator on the way out, but I supposed New Klondike couldn’t be that hard to spot from the air, and soon enough Ernie would be able to lock in on the town’s homing beacon.

That left two transfers and two biologicals here by the Alpha: Pickover and Blondie from Team Silicon and me and Lakshmi on the Carbon side. While I’d been getting the buggy out of the way, Lakshmi had given up her gun. This time, I think she had simply handed it to Rory rather than have him wrench it from her grip; a writer with a broken wrist was going to have a hard time typing, after all.

Rory then came over to the buggy. He and I exchanged discreet hand signs to agree on a frequency so we could have a private chat; I used the buggy’s dashboard radio.

“I guess that’s it for me,” he said.

“Aren’t you coming back to the dome?”

He shook his head. “I won’t go back until I need to recharge; there’s nothing for me there.”

I blew out air. There were things we had to discuss, but this wasn’t the time. “Come see me tomorrow, would you?” I said. “Maybe 2:00 p.m. at my office? There are a few, um, interesting developments you should know about.”

“Not tomorrow. I’m in the middle of excavating a delicate specimen.”

“The day after, then?”

“Fine.” And then he walked the dozen or so meters over to Blondie, gave her Lakshmi’s gun, and headed off, his back to me, walking slowly toward the northern horizon. I watched him go for a bit, thinking.

But my thoughts were interrupted by Blondie rapping knuckles on the canopy. She had propelled Lakshmi over to the other side of the buggy. I figured now that she was unarmed, I could easily take the writer, if need be. Except of course that I was confined to the interior of this buggy by my lack of a helmet. And, it seemed, Blondie wanted Lakshmi to be confined here, too. She was gesturing for me to open the canopy. I’d be just as happy to leave Lakshmi out here to eventually asphyxiate, but Blondie was pretty much in charge now; she had both guns and could force the canopy open from the outside—which might prevent it from ever sealing properly again. I complied with her wish and swung the transparent cover back. The interior atmosphere escaped. I didn’t want to put the sack back on my head—I had my dignity!—and this should only take a second.

The blonde transfer shoved Lakshmi toward the car. Lakshmi glared defiantly for a moment but then acquiesced and pulled herself into the passenger seat. I immediately lowered the canopy and hit the “Pressurize Cabin” button.

“Might as well take off your helmet,” I shouted once the interior was filled with air again. “We’ve got a long ride ahead of us.”

Lakshmi made a small nod. She undogged then pulled off her fishbowl and shook out her glorious hair. She held the helmet firmly on her lap rather than putting it in the little storage space behind her; she clearly didn’t trust me not to grab it then crack open the canopy again. Smart girl.

Outside, Blondie slapped a palm against my side of the buggy, urging me to get going. I pressed my foot down, and we began moving forward. The blonde bombshell started running, and I drove behind, letting her set the pace as we headed into the darkness.