Darklight Pirates

“Oh, Mama, it’s happened, just as I thought.” Bella sank into a chair, hands in her lap, folding in on her already petite body until she threatened to vanish entirely. Tears ran down her cheeks. She made no effort to wipe them away as she looked up to the vidscreen her fiery-haired mother had been reading only an instant before.

“I know. I should never have doubted you, my dear. He’s dead.” Kori Tomlins stood with her back to her daughter to hide her own emotions, peering out the window onto the grassy slopes of Emerald Isle but not seeing any of the beauty. Her attention focused when a jet flare lashed out at the landing field. “There’s a carrier taking off. Is that Ebony’s?”

“I’m trying to contact her to let her know but--” Bella’s words were smothered by an explosion that blew glass inward and wrecked the room.

Kori felt as if she took wing, her arms flapping and her feet finding nothing but air to walk on. For an eternity she sailed, only to land hard enough to knock the wind from her lungs. Gasping sent fiery knives into her chest. She sobbed, rolled onto her side and fought to keep from vomiting. The effort allowed her body time to fight off the impact. Air crept again into her lungs. She forced herself to hands and knees amid the debris.

“Mama, are you all right?” Bella knelt by her mother, hugging her.

“Stay clear of the windows.” Kori wiped blood from her face, cutting her hand on embedded glass in her cheek and forehead. With the help of her daughter, she turned around and sat up. Blood turned the vision in her left eye black. She blinked hard. Sight would return in a few minutes. This wasn’t the first time she’d gone blind from her own blood. By now she saw that there weren’t windows to avoid. The entire wall was gone, leaving the room open all the way to the floor. She started to laugh, coughed, then realized the truth.

“Ebony’s carrier blew up!”

“No, Mama. It was a missile. See?” Bella pointed a controller at the far wall, which dissolved into a shattered viewscreen.

Kori shielded her eyes as the scene ran in reverse, the bright flash, the trim carrier with its garish yellow racing stripes and insignia, then edging backward to the cradle where it launched. Her daughter ran the video forward in slow motion. She caught her breath as Bella pointed out a fiery streak on the frozen picture.

She got to her feet and edged closer. Every step crunched down on broken glass and twisted furniture. Gusty salt-laden wind off the ocean pressed into her back. The elegant rugs were ruined, and distant fire alarms rang stridently. Both eyes functioned now, her left still blurry, but clear enough to make out the image of the hypervelocity missile.

“Advance it a millisecond at a time.”

Kori watched in horror as Bella traced the tail flame from the missile. It had been fired from the air. Given the type and speed of the missile, the fighter launching it was only a few kilometers distant. The picture lurched, then advanced at the speed she commanded. One millisecond the missile almost touched her older daughter’s carrier. The next produced only eye-searing light as the high explosive warhead detonated.

Kori clutched at straws. “Ebony might have sent Florin to--”

“She posted the flight plan herself, Mama. She was piloting the carrier.”

“We’ve got to get out of here. If an interdiction zone has been set up, that means they are coming for us, whoever ‘they’ are. A heavier missile will level the house!”

“Weir is responsible. He has to be.” Bella dropped the remote and stared at her mother. “I detected unusual activity whenever he got onto the Blarney Stone. He tried to break Papa’s encryption on the guide algorithm so he could reprogram everything.”

“You’re giving that snake too much credit. Weir doesn’t have the balls to do this to us. Eire might have decided to attack. Their suzerain has been badgered by her council over poor crops the past couple years. They want our aqua farms along the border. With your father gone on his ridiculous trade mission, this is the perfect time to steal away our borders.”

“It is Weir.” Bella spoke decisively. “I have confirmation.”

Kori forced herself to calmness to think better. She shook her head. Weir? Killing Donal and then trying to murder them with a missile?

“Sean contacted me on a burst circuit. He said Weir intends to kill us.”

“Do you trust him? Never mind. I know you do. He’s in love with you.” Kori stared at her daughter. That love went both ways. She took out her ire at this injustice by plucking pieces of glass from her face. Every shard brought its own tiny stab of pain. She wanted that suffering to erase all she thought and felt, but every prick and trickle of blood increased her anger.

“He can rescue us, Mama. Sean has the resources.”

“He’ll be crossing Weir, if he tries. He lacks the spine to even think about that.” She wanted to spit out more invective aimed at the CIO. Sean Scarlotti preened before the cameras and delivered canned speeches well, but looking at him made her feel oily, unclean. He lacked any evidence of original thoughts in his well-coiffed head. “I don’t know what you see in him, and he might use this as a way to get into Weir’s good graces. Turning us over to him would be simple enough and without any risk, if Donal is truly gone.” The words caught in her throat. She might have doubted her husband’s death if it hadn’t been for Ebony dying so spectacularly.

“He is quite expert at his job, Mama. He has advanced degrees in both human cognition and mass communication. Without him, Papa would never have been able to quell the unrest along the border the last time Eire made an incursion.”

“Too bad,” she muttered. With a quick swipe, she plucked free the final piece of glass from her cheek. Dabbing at oozing cuts with a piece of fabric ripped from the draperies by the explosion, she went to where the window had been and leaned out.

She caught her breath and ducked back.

“They’ve landed soldiers, haven’t they?” Bella stared at the blank viewscreen as if she saw every detail there instead of cracked glass.

“Destroy all your files. I know you have an auto destruct program installed. I’ve heard you talking with your father about it. Destroy everything. Those are our own commandos moving in--and they are shooting any of our staff they see. We’re not going to escape them unless we leave now.”

Bella went to the desktop display so that both her palms pressed down hard. Her fingers tapped out an erratic pattern, then she stepped away. A quick nod signalled she had destroyed all data that might otherwise fall into Weir’s hands. Donal and Bella had worked extensively on security for the guard algorithm. If those notes hadn’t been destroyed, Weir would have found it easy to enter changes and get complete dominance over Burran through its computer. As it was, he still held significant power serving as Donal’s replacement while the real Programmer General was off world but real power would be denied him.

A loud crash warned that the commandos had kicked in the front door. The sizzle of laserifle fire and groans that ended quickly told of household staff being massacred. She looked around the large study. A wall of old print books, floor to ceiling, gave scant protection if the soldiers fired their energy weapons from the outer hallway. The elegant furnishings had all been selected over the years, added to the existing decor only when she was certain there was a harmony. Donal cared nothing about that; his daughter was like him in that way. But Kori’s eye for furnishings that both harmonized and intrigued anyone willing to carefully study the details was unmatched.

All lay in ruins, blasted when her other daughter’s carrier had been shot from the sky.

“To the safe room.” She herded her daughter to the alcove beside the bookcase. She stopped and ran her hand over the gold decorative pattern, her fingers seeking the latch. “It’s here somewhere.”

“Oh, Mama. Let me.” Bella pushed past, reached up and pulled down a small decorative segment of edging. The hidden door folded inward silently to reveal a spiral staircase twisting downward into the heart of the mansion’s foundations. “Ebony and I used to play here. I know you and Papa didn’t want us to, but it was so much fun.”

The hiss of laserifles firing and igniting the wall hangings in the hallway goaded Kori into shoving her daughter forward into the claustrophobic, dark room. The door silently closed. She pressed her eye to a spy hole in time to see a squad of soldiers burst into the room. The actinic glow around the muzzles of the laserifles showed they were only an instant away from discharging. The commandos hunted for them and would kill them if they found the hidey-hole.

Kori pressed her finger to Bella’s lips to silence her, then pointed down. Bella chuckled, sat on the railing and spiraled down at amazing speed. This was how she and her older sister had played when their parents had no idea where they had gone. Kori wasted no time duplicating the move. She pressed down on the rail, then released her grip to spin downward into darkness at a breathtaking speed. She reached the bottom far sooner than anticipated. If Bella hadn’t caught her, she would have sprawled facedown on the floor.

“Sound will echo upward,” she said, lips pressed to her daughter’s ear.

“Oh, Mama, it’s all soundproof.”

As if to make her out a liar, the hidden door two stories above exploded inward and sent a cascade of plaster and molten decoration raining down. The soldiers had discovered the secret panel. Kori cursed. They were combat outfitted and had an array of detection equipment. Millimeter wave, IR, synthetic aperture radar, who knew what else they had played against the walls to find the escape route.

“Hurry,” she said needlessly. Bella already ran hard down the corridor. Entering the safe room would mean their death. They would be trapped inside. Even with a month’s supplies, the commandos could wait them out. More likely, they had heavy lasers to drill through the most obdurate wall or explosives to knock down the door. The room had not been designed as a fortress against all comers; its intention was to keep the occupants safe until military units could come and rescue them.

The soldiers that should have been their rescuers were now their assailants.

Panting from the unusual exertion, she caught up to Bella at the entry port to the room. She flipped on a pale yellow light and looked around inside.

“That’s not going to be our tomb. We’ve got to find a way out and into the woods.”

“There’s a comlink, Mama. Do we have time for me to use it?”

She craned her neck around and listened for pursuit. Imagination or keen hearing warned her that they had only minutes. Less.

“Do you think Scarlotti will rescue you?”

“Sean warned me. That was a big risk he took.”

Kori motioned for her to try to make contact with the CIO. As Bella fiddled with the comlink, she searched through the small room for anything that might be useful. She pulled a pair of lasepistols from clips on the wall and pressed the power studs to build up a charge. The quiet hum assured her that the batteries weren’t dead. What food she could cram into a makeshift backpack made from a torn sheet hardly seemed adequate. The urge to slam the heavy door behind them and pretend that aid came before they died passed as her anger grew.

Weir was responsible. He had to pay. She clutched the pistol and imagined him in the sights. She wouldn’t simply train the aiming bead between his eyes and squeeze off a shot. She would cut off his ears. His nose. Blind him. Slice flesh from his bones until he cried for mercy, but there wouldn’t be any, not from her. How dare he kill Ebony? And try to kill Bella and her? For all she knew, he had a bloody hand in Donal’s death.

She gasped, as if punched in the stomach. If Donal had died, so had Cletus. Her family was dying all around because of Goram Weir.

“Mama, I got through. Sean will land a carrier a kilometer north, on the rocky side of the island.”

Kori closed her eyes and pictured the geography around her. She and her daughters had come to the summer house for a little vacation while Donal was off planet. The Emerald Isle house had always been her favorite, and now it was being demolished, one room at a time. Along with her life, everything she held most precious was being destroyed. Concentrating harder, she knew they could hide in the rocky portion of the northern stretches. Cliffs towered over the Clover Sea. Heavy forest made getting to those cliffs almost impossible.

“Close the door and let’s go. We might slow them if they think we are inside.”

Bella put her shoulder against the door and shoved it shut. A quick touch on the lock sealed the room. She worried that their footprints on the dusty floor would show they weren’t inside, but the dark corridor might conceal that. If the soldiers felt the urge to use their weapons to open the safe room, that would take a long, long time. Even better if they intended to use explosives and turn everyone in the room to bloody pulp. Such a charge took several precious minutes to lay.

Minutes they needed to reach to the northern edge of the island where Sean Scarlotti would rescue them.

She snorted in contempt at such an idea. Scarlotti wouldn’t be there because he valued his own life more than theirs. If only he didn’t betray them there must be some way off the island and across the sea. Kori tried to keep from gasping as she crowded Bella along. Echoes of pursuit came as they turned a sharp corner and began struggling up a steep ramp.

“They’ll catch us, Mama. We can’t get out!”

Kori pushed her daughter aside and saw how the translucent door leading into the north topiary garden was securely locked. There had never been reason for her to have Donal explain all the safeguards to her. Burran had been a placid country, content to simply exist. Eire’s sniping had increased and even Uller forced military confrontations, but those neighboring countries were only minor disruptions. The military drilled endlessly but had never fought a prolonged war; its veterans were those of border skirmishes. Only Bella had anticipated an internal fight for power, and Kori doubted even she had believed that they would be attacked in this fashion. Donal and Cletus dead in space, Ebony shot down and soldiers only seconds behind her and Bella as they ran for their lives from a traitor.

The lock remained closed when she pressed her palm against it.

“Stand back.” She aimed the lasepistol for the center of the lock and pressed the trigger. Kori averted her face as molten metal spattered outward. Ignoring the tiny burns on her hands and face, she continued to beam the lock until the laser began to falter. At the instant where she considered using the lasepistol she had given Bella, the lock gave way. She put her shoulder to the panel and heaved.

The heavy door opened enough to give her a view outside where a squad of commandos lay prone among the fantastical hedge creatures, weapons directed toward the house.

She had Bella squeeze between the door and frame, then hold it open so she could follow. Silently, they made their way behind the alert commandos--but the soldiers looked only to the house for a target, not behind. Bella refused to yield her lasepistol so her mother could shoot the scum in the backs where they lay.

“Mama, you’ll get us killed.” The whisper cut through the red haze of her fury. She stopped trying to pry the weapon from her daughter and pointed to the far side of the island.

The house had been built on the lee side. The elevation to the north was a hundred meters more than on the south and protected house and gardens from the strong storms blowing off the Clover Sea with its curious four-fold symmetry waves. Within a few paces they entered the woods. A dozen hid the house and its attackers. A hundred saw them surrounded by dense vegetation.

“Their sensors won’t pick us up under the trees if we move slowly,” Bella said. “I’ve programmed the weather sats for Papa for a year now and know their capabilities.”

“They might have drone surveillance on us rather than using the orbital sensors.” Kori’s mind raced. “Weir won’t want many to know he tried to kill us. Covering up what he’s doing if he used a direct feed from the weather sats means hundreds of operators would have to keep quiet.”

“The fewer who know, the better,” Bella agreed. She looked at the comlink she had taken from the safe room and sighed. A rock smashed it to dust. “They’ll look for any comlink not on their frequency,” she explained.

Kori knew then that only paranoia kept them alive. They began hiking, moving in a zigzag pattern, slowly for a few minutes, then picking up the pace to not present a uniform image for the recon drones humming about just over tree level. The food she had brought weighed her down, but she refused to leave it behind. Scarlotti would not rescue them, and they’d have to live on their own for days or even weeks to avoid the commandos. A cave might shelter them, but it would also bring attention as a hiding place. All she had seen were soldiers from two squads--not more than twenty to hunt for their fugitives on a large overgrown area prone to violent storms. How long could Weir leave them on the island before questions were asked he didn’t want to answer?

Without knowing how widespread the coup was, she couldn’t answer that. Just thinking of Weir caused her to grind her teeth and clench her fists so tightly that fingernails cut into her fleshy palms. She forced herself to relax. If she left a blood trail, a sniffer could find her in a few minutes. It was bad enough that the blood on her face had dried but still might leave a trace.

“We’re getting close,” Bella said.

“Close to what?”

“Where Sean said he’d pick us up. There’s a flat, rocky stretch where he can bring down a small carrier. We might be crowded, but we’ll be away from the island.”

She scoffed at such naivete. Overloading a two-person carrier was the least of their worries. It wouldn’t have speed to evade the drones or the manned fighters like the one that had launched its missile against Ebony’s jet.

A tear crept out and ran down her dirty cheek, leaving a muddy streak as she thought of Ebony being murdered so callously right in front of her. Why had she tried to leave without letting anyone know? Her older daughter was--had been--headstrong and had never chosen her lovers wisely, but recently there had been a new purpose to her that calmed her wild spirit. Kori thought age had done it. Bella was a mature seventeen, but Ebony at twenty-one was only beginning to blossom into a sensible adult.

“There’s the landing pad.”

“Stay under the trees.” She pulled Bella back, but the girl slipped free and ran into the clearing, waving her arms wildly to attract the attention of a tiny dot growing rapidly in the bright blue sky.

“Your pistol. Use it on the pilot. We can get away ...” Her voice trailed off as the tiny carrier spun about its axis a dozen meters overhead and then slipped lower on a supporting column of air.

It made hardly any sound as it touched down. The hatch flew open and Sean Scarlotti popped out to take Bella in his arms. The sight of the older man with her young daughter ignited Kori’s ire. How had they ever found each other? She thought Bella had devoted all her time in the capital to learning how to be the Programmer General when Donal retired in a few years. She had been learning other things that had nothing to do with coding.

“Mama, come on. Get in. Sean says we can get away now, but there are more fighters dispatched and on the way. They intend to turn the entire island into a molten crater.”

She walked deliberately to the carrier.

“Get in, Bella.” Scarlotti shoved the girl inside. He held out his hand, stopping Kori. “Ma’am,” he said in a low voice. “I have some bad news. The Shillelagh has been destroyed, your husband and Cletus aboard.”

“Bella already told me. Now take us off this damned island,” she said. “Take us somewhere that we can fight back.”

Scarlotti looked startled, then nodded in agreement. In seconds, the overloaded carrier rose sluggishly, spun about its vertical axis and skimmed off just above the four-headed green waves breaking against the rocky cliffs.