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Chapter VIII - IX · Blood on My Jets

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  Chapter eight nine of Blood on My Jets by August Boodras. This LibriVox recordings
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  in the public domain, read by beIN Tucker. Chapter eight. The cell
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  was small, dark and damp. There were stitches across my back, under
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  tape and attraction splint in bandages on my shoulder. Let's forget pain, pain,
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  Let's forget it, forget it. I lay on my belly. I'd
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  been on my belly for most of a week, and for most of a
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  week I had thought of how it would be to dig my finger nails into
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  my side, rip loose the phony skin over my ribs, and fire that
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  one shot in the Thorston's guts. All I needed was a chance here in
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  the cell, and a corridor somewhere alone with him, surrounded by his men.
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  Chance of life or no, that wasn't what counted. I wasn't saying
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  myself any more. There were two people in the universe, Thorston and me,
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  and room for one a chance, Lord God, a chance. But
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  all I had was dampness and darkness. I was fed twice a day,
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  or something like it. It was almost time for my next meal, but
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  that wasn't the important time. It was the helpless week behind me, the
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  week in which Thorston's kidnapped technicians had had time to assemble the ship's engines.
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  The test flight was due and after the production of engines for the other ships
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  in Thorston's fleet. If I was going to do anything, I had to
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  do it now. I dragged myself up the side of the cell, leaving
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  meat from my fingers on the rough stone. I staggered over to the wall
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  beside the door and waited. Time went by hours or minutes, and a
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  sound of feet came down the tunnel leading to my cell. I couldn't use
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  my back muscles, but I tense them now, feeling stitches give way.
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  Tumblers clicked and the door was opened. I kicked it shut and sprang,
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  wrapping my hands around a dimly seen throat, a thin, soft neck.
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  Ash Pat's voice was half choked under my grip. Pat. I opened my
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  hands and she stumbled free, but not for long, because an instant later
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  she was pressed against me again, her mouth over mine. We stood together
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  in the darkness and hunger. Finally she moved her lips away, ash Ash,
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  you can stand, She was sobbing with relief. Yeah, I'm on
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  my feet. Can you fight nothing bigger than you? I said, what's
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  going on? He's crazy? Ash. That plan of his I'd never heard
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  it before, only told me, was that he was going to take humanity
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  out to the stars. He said he didn't trust Earth government to do it.
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  Yeah, I know, for that dream, I would have done what
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  you did too. I didn't love him, Ash, He I don't know.
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  He was his dream somehow, And in spite of it all, he
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  was a better stronger man than anyone I ever knew, except you. Ash.
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  That was good enough. That was good enough to give her everything I
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  had or could get, And that made my spot even worse. It wasn't
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  just that she was going to get hurt, but she was the most important
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  one of them all. I couldn't even stay with her here in the cell.
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  But she knew that too, and there was more to her coming here
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  than that. Ash. They finally finished assembling the drive in your ship.
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  They finished repairs on her bow too. They're going to run tests in a
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  few hours. Everybody sleeping except for the maintenance crew, and they're scattered through
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  the base. Ash. I think we can get out of here if we
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  don't run into any guards. We can make it to the airlock. There'll
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  be a few suits in a locker there. We can make a run for
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  the ship. Her voice was urgent and full of hope and bitterness for the
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  desertion of a dream, A sick, tainted dream, but her dream for
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  so many years. At Thorston's side, and I knew for the first time
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  in weeks that Earth had a chance. I knew too that Pat and I.
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  I could have kissed her then, but I had to be a damn
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  fool I didn't. The tunnels and corridors were empty, the machine shops and
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  storage rooms were dark, and the doors to the bunk rooms were closed.
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  We reached the air lock. All I had to do now was get into
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  a spacesuit and open the lock. The ship lay beyond it. Then I
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  heard Harry's laugh. He stood behind us, holding a slim handgun, running
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  out people. He asked bribing that orderly, wasn't bright, Pat. He
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  not only gets to keep his money, but he gets a promotion from me.
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  That's the way I operate, That's my justice, Pat and I had
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  turned half way round, watching him carefully. Justice Pat flared worry some more
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  about Earth, worry about the universe. Teach them your justice again the laughter
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  I will, Pat, But the laughter broke. Pat. You're my wife,
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  you know my dream, you shared it. Why did you do it?
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  Yes, she knows your sick dream, Harry, I said, shut
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  up. Ash, He said quietly, don't die with your mouth open.
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  He fired. But I was on the floor of the tunnel. Ash.
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  That was Pat's voice. But I was rolling and tearing at my side.
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  Get back, Pat Thorston shouted. I was up on my knees, the
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  single shot gun in my hand. I charged forward. He brought up his
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  gun. The noise had awakened everybody in hearing distance. Doors were opening,
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  men were running. I pointed the slim tube at his belly and jammed my
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  thumb down on the firing stud. He screamed, cupping his hand over the
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  smoking hole I'd punched in his stomach. His knees bent and he sank backwards,
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  toppling. Finally, as he lost his balance, he opened his mouth,
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  choking and blood welled over his chin. One last shred of laughter bubbled
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  up through his throat, and some one down at the other end of the
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  tunnel fired at us. He missed me. As I crouched over Thorston's body.
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  Ash, I had Thorston's gun in my hand, but I didn't fire
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  back. I spun around and looked at Pat, crushed back against the tunnel
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  wall. Pat. She slid down the wall and huddled on the floor.
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  Pat. I bent down beside her. It was bad. Her voice was
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  thick. How long have I got? Five minutes? Maybe ten? I
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  knew I was lying. It was less, Ash, you heard what he
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  said. I was in a wasp unit space was my dream too? Always?
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  I wanted to tell her I knew now, knew a lot of things.
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  But there was no use in holding a dying woman, kissing her and
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  caressing her tumbled hair for one last time. No use at all when a
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  world depended on not taking time for those things. I put Thorston's gun in
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  her hand. Can you still shoot? Pat? Her fingers tightened on the
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  butt, and her eyes met mine just once more before she turned her head.
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  She was a beauty to watch, sprawled on the tunnel floor, not
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  looking at anything but targets over the notch of her sights, calm and skilled,
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  while she covered my retreat. As her heart beats slowed, she caught
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  her eyes to the tunnel, weaving a fan of death that marched down the
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  corridor, encompassing and moving beyond huddled and broken men. I clamped on my
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  suit helmet and spun the airlock controls. I snapped one quick look back at
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  her. Then the airlock hatch Thud had shut behind me. In a moment,
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  I was on the surface of the asteroid and running for the ship.
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  Chapter nine. Earth lies ahead of me, green and safe. The muted
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  atomics behind me have brought me back from beyond Venus, where the split second
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  jump into hyperspace through me. Let mort Weedman have his farther stars, or
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  any one else who cares to try. I've had all I want from the
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  new drive. I gave Pad a funeral pyre, and now the lonely asteroids
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  have a star of their own. End of Chapter nine. End of Blood
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  O My Jets by August Boudrus