Misshapen men, women, or neither, it was hard to tell, came streaming from out of the garbage pits and stinking heaps from all directions, clutching black batons like truncheons, hunks of metal, any weapon they could forage out of those refuse piles. All wrapped in rags, bandaged like lepers, only their fingertips showed, clawed nails glinting through the dirty brown wraps of cloth. Snorkel masks frogged their mouths, black-rimmed goggles on the eyes. Metal caps on the skulls.
The mummy people were coming for us next, but the second ship banked in and sprayed pulse beams at them. They took care not to wipe our ship out. Red fire exploded into the mass of moving figures. Limbs and heads separated from bodies. Starrunner’s rear cannon swiveled, aimed and shot the ship out of the sky.
“Yeehow!” I yelled at TK to get Starrunner moving. I could detect faint motion, for activity still stirred amongst that rubble. The sad, stark reality was if they got the ship, we were sunk.
The old man came huffing and puffing around the side of the smoking metal, hauling Billy by the arm. “Get a move on! More ships can drop on us any second.”
Wren jumped out of the hatch, a fresh AK in her hand, breathless, flushed at her kills. I was warming to this lady.
“Let them come. We’ll let them blow the crap out of these dunghill rats.” She kicked at one of the mummy-wrapped things lying in a smouldering heap after I’d blasted it, their albino heads gleaming ghoulishly in the sun.
I winced.
“The sun eated them up,” crooned the kid, all smiles, the only thing he’d said so far.
“That’s right, Billy. You know it, don’t you?” TK said with a sad laugh.
The mad boys seemed occupied with their spoils, rustling like rats. Two smoking ships and a trio or more of fresh corpses. Needless to say, I kept an eye out for more unexpected crazies as we jogged along Starrunner’s moving flank, putting the hustle on to get the ship away from here.
We left the smoking rubble and the dead vestiges of humanity behind. Despite my gratitude for the quick bloodshed, I almost wished Wren hadn’t blasted both Baer’s ships out of commission. At least then there’d have been an alternative means of escape off this planet, if the old man couldn’t get Starrunner operational.
Rounding a bend out of sight down another sandy corridor, TK aimed the AG jet spurts to guide us between great mounds of crud and garbage.
“How long before they catch up with us?” I asked.
“Half hour, maybe less.”
I pawed at my grimy grimace.
“Don’t worry, I have protection,” TK said.
“It better be good.”
I looked at the old man’s billyclub, the firepipe he clutched in his hand that he’d pulled out from his desert cloak. “That’s all you got? You’re going to get killed with primitive junk like that. Stop the rig.”
He did. I jumped into the hatch, motioning him to stay put. “There’re weapons in the hall aft. Wait here.”
A few limping strides and I was rummaging around through the spare armory rack. Old man didn’t listen and came stumbling down the main aisle with wide eyes, blinking in the semi-dark of emergency light. “Wow, this ship’s something else.”
“I told you to stay out,” I rasped, pushing him back down the hall, leveling my weapon at him.
“Sorry.” He gaped. “Been a long time since I’ve seen an Alpha Explorer, anything remotely like the interior of a working ship.”
Something about the comment made me feel compassion for the man and his plight, marooned here on this trash planet.
“She’s a vintage model,” I said grudgingly. “Couple of gangsters heisted it. They’re no longer with us, so I took the liberty of being its ward. Renamed it Starrunner.”
“A fine name.”
“I thought so.” I tossed him an R3A, a short-range blaster that would kill anything within a twenty yard range.
The kid came in, pointing and gibbering. I backed the two out into the hall by the hatch and gave Wren a helping hand up into the ship. I urged TK and his boy with strong words to get Starrunner moving along with full speed. I didn’t need to repeat myself. This way there’d be no tracks. As long as we gave the mummy boys the slip, the scavengers couldn’t follow us.
Chapter 7
We wound through sandy paths with TK and Billy guiding Starrunner. TK sat legs dangling out the hatch, looking up along the line of the hull. Wren crouched, flashing me weird, curious looks, until the mounds to either side became less massive and we arched up over a wide, well-trodden path along a ridge. The distant teeth of broken buildings spread below us down a long valley, the settlers’ city: toppled towers, blasted squares, a sight all too familiar for me—some war-torn urban wasteland abandoned for generations.
We came abreast a large mound and TK halted the convoy. We climbed out while the ship hovered two feet above the baking sand. A ruined building hulked to the side, only the corner posts and a few girders showing like the ribs of a desiccated whale.
“Why’re we stopping?” I asked as TK flicked off the jets, leaving a heavy silence over the desert.
“You want to circumambulate the entire planet?”
“Why here? Where’s this safety you promised?”
“You’re looking at it.”
“This broken pile of cement blocks and pillars?” I reached for my gun, temper short, guessing that the
