My Own Kind of Freedom by Steven Brust (ebook reader color screen txt) 📖

power on attitude, less control, more—”

“Okay, I get it. How long to set it up?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never tried it before. The engine’s going to cut out while I’m hooking it up.”

“Kaylee … .” She could hear the strain in his voice. She’d never heard that from him before. “If the engine cuts out, we die.”

“I’m only talking about half a second or so, while I switch lines.”

“Half a second? Okay, maybe I can hold her. Set it up, but let me know before you do it.”

“I will.”

“And Kaylee, it would be very helpful you could hurry on this.”

“It’d be easier out of atmo, so we’d stop bucking.”

“Kaylee, I can’t hold this much longer, and the airtight won’t respond from here.”

“I’ll go close it; I’m right there.”

“Chui lei fo, ni jiu shi! Kaylee, get your pressure suit on!”

“I know that, Wash. I will.”

“First!”

“All right. Give me a minute to get suited, then I’ll work on the AT lines.”

“Hurry.”

No question about it. Wash was scared. Kaylee would have been too, only there was no time.

Yuva: Canteen

“Okay, Zoë. We ready to do this thing?”

“Ready.”

On the table in front of him were the notes from Wash about the layout of the security office, and the lockdown behind it. He gave the notes a last look, folded them up and put them in a pocket, then stood up. Zoë was with him.

They exchanged nods with Mark on the way out of the canteen.

They reached North Street; there wasn’t a great deal of activity. As they approached the security office, Zoë said, “That wasn’t there before, was it?”

“Nope.”

“Looks like the sort of thing you’d transport a prisoner in, doesn’t it, sir?”

“Yep.”

“We might be too late.”

“It’s possible.”

They were within fifty feet of the hovercraft when the office door opened, and there was Jayne: shackled, fettered, with a guard in front and one at each side.

“Or we could have come at just the right time,” said Mal.

“We changing plans sir?”

“Don’t we always?”

“Pretty much.”

“What do you think about taking the hovercraft?”

“Should work.”

“You get the driver.”

As it went down, Mal decided, it played out far smoother, and even slicker than it had any right to: the security guards loaded Jayne into the back of the ‘craft, by which time Zoë had secured the driver. The security guards locked the door and found Mal’s weapon pointing at them. A few words were exchanged, and the three security officers were on the ground with their hands clasped behind their necks.

Mal stopped long enough to remove a set of keys from one of them, hoping they were the right ones but not caring too much, then he climbed into the passenger seat, and they were out of there before he had time to close the door.

Then he flipped on his comm and said, “Wash, get her warmed up.”

His only response was static.

He boosted the signal and tried again. Then boosted it still more, and then maxed it.

Wash’s voice, when it came through, was very faint.

“Yeah, Mal. Well, there have been some developments.”

“Wash, where are you?”

“About seven clicks from your position.”

“All right.”

“Straight up.”

Yuva: Outside the jail

He pulled himself to his feet, muttering generalized curses toward the driver of the ‘craft. They’d taken off before he’d even had time to sit, knocking him onto the floor. He made it to one of the opposing sets of built-in steel benches, and sat down.

He needed to relax, to be ready, from the minute the door opened, to note where he was, what the conditions were, and to begin planning his escape.

Why didn’t I just tell them what they wanted to know? he asked himself for perhaps the fiftieth time in as many minutes. It isn’t like I owe the captain anything.

No, there was no point in thinking about that. He needed to be at his best, to get the information, to formulate a plan.

Except that formulating plans was never his best game.

No, now was not the time to think about that, either.

Be ready, Jayne. You need all your gorram wits about you from the instant that door opens.

It was sooner than he thought. The abrupt stop almost knocked him to the floor again, but he kept his seat.

The back opened, and the light struck his eyes.

“Okay, Jayne,” said Mal. “Let’s see if any of these keys fit. It’ll make running easier.”

Outside Yuva

She kept an eye out for their pursuers, who couldn’t be all that far behind, and, as Mal unlocked Jayne, she tried to spare half an eye for him, as well.

“Running?” he said. “Why don’t we take—”

“Okay, Zoë …we’re good.”

“What about the hardware?”

“Good idea.”

Mal gathered up the chains and restraints and set them in the vehicle, then closed the rear door and nodded to her. She leaned into the hovercraft, set it, strapped down the throttle and jumped back. The ‘craft took off down the road, wobbling a bit from the open door.

“They have a trace-lock on it,” said Mal. “Into the woods now, and let’s run.”

Before they had gone fifty meters, two patrol vehicles came humming up the road; fortunately, they continued after the ‘craft without even slowing down.

“I hear horses,” said Mal.

Zoë nodded, and they continued running.

“Anyone got a spare gun?” said Jayne.

“Let’s just run for now.”

“I like running more when I got a gun in my hand.”

A few minutes later they stopped and listened.

“Nothing yet,” said Mal.

Jayne said, “About that gun … .”

She looked at the Captain. As far as she was concerned, Jayne unarmed was much better company than Jayne armed.

“Yeah,” said Mal. “Let’s talk about that.”

“Don’t need no ruttin’ talk,” said Jayne. “I need a ruttin’ weapon.”

“We’ll see.”

“If you weren’t planning to give me a weapon, why’d you bust me out of there?”

“For your mind,” said Mal. “We need all kinds of your wisdom.”

“What the gorram hell are you talking about?”

“I’ll explain later. Right now, I want more distance. Let’s run.”

“A gun—”

“I’ll give you a gun uguo ta ka zai ni de gangmen zhong er ni hai neng pao de hua, Jayne.”

The big man scowled, and they ran some more.

Good call, Captain .

Half an hour later they stopped and listened again. Still nothing. Mal found his comm link. “Wash? You there?”

Crackle and hiss and, “Just barely, Mal.”

“Can you get a fix on us?”

“Mal, if I let go of these controls long enough to do that, we’re going down hard.”

“All right. If you get the chance, we’re staying here for a bit.”

“Copy, that.”

“All right, Jayne,” said the Captain. “Let’s talk.”

Zoë folded her arms, her fingers brushing the butt of the backup pistol under her left arm; she kept a close eye on Jayne.

Serenity: Dining room

“I’m not sure what’s going on, mei-mei,” said her brother, “but I don’t think it’s anything we can help with.”

“She’s been shot,” said River.

“Who?”

“Serenity.”

“Oh. Yes, I felt that. But we managed to take off, and now I’m not sure—”

“The others are waiting for us, and we can’t get there.”

“I don’t—”

“The hole is too big, and the repairs are too slow. We can’t land in time.”

“Mei-mei, there’s nothing we can do.”

Every once in a while, in all the conflicting rhymes and rhythms and colors and equations and smells that made the criss-crossing interference patterns that were her thoughts, something came through clear and clean, almost painful in its sharp contrast to everything else. It was never a sight, an image; sometimes it was a chord progression, sometimes it was tactile. This time, it was like becoming a sine wave with the tide of battle coming in, and there were moments trying to float in on her. She was as aware of them as one could be aware of a single match in a room of pure darkness.

It was a moment, and the wave would advance, and then recede, and maybe something would still be there, and maybe it would not.

She could taste it like a single drop of lemon juice.

That one place, that one time.

And all she had to do was something she had never done before.

But it was not as difficult a decision as it could have been, because for her, failure would mean little pieces of herself scattered about Hera, and They would never be able to touch her after that.

Her hesitation was so brief, her brother didn’t even notice it.

“Yes there is,” she said. “I can save them.”

Outside Yuva

Mal clicked off the comm, looked at Jayne, looked at Zoë, and shrugged.

“Did you catch any of that, sir?”

“I picked up that your mister is a busy guy.”

“Yes, sir.”

“And it seems like my boat has got a hole put in it.”

“They found her with the gun.”

“Speaking of guns—” said Jayne.

“So it seems,” said Mal to Zoë. “And someone wasn’t paying attention to the proximity—”

“And they put a camo field up in front of her.”

Mal stopped. “A camo field? Where would they get technology like that?”

Zoë stared at him.

“Oh,” he said at last. “Yeah, we ran into a few of those, didn’t we?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Not five thousand miles from this here spot.”

“Yes, sir.”

Jayne cleared his throat. “I know Zoë carries a backup piece under her arm. If you could maybe—”

“Jayne, I’m getting to you. In the meantime, your job is to create as large a field of silence around you as you can manage. Is the idea coming through?”

Jayne scowled loudly.

“So, what now, sir?”

“I don’t know. My boat has a hole in it, and we’re stuck on the gorram world I hate the most, where we’ve just busted a fugitive out of jail after saving the life of an Alliance agent, and I’m trying to resist the temptation to put a hole in the fugitive we’ve just rescued.”

“What did I—”

“So I’m open to suggestions, Zoë.”

“I suggest you answer Jayne’s question, sir.”

“Answer his question?”

“He was asking what he did.”

“That’s what I’d like to know,” said Mal.

“Exactly,” said Zoë.

“Oh. Right.” He turned to Jayne. “What did you do?”

“Huh? I didn’t do a ruttin’ thing! I got a little drunk and clocked a loudmouth—”

“No, Jayne. I’m not talking about last night.”

“Then what are you … oh.”

“Yeah, oh.”

“You kicked me off your gorram ship! I wasn’t on your gorram crew!”

“So you couldn’t wait to find out what you could get for River’s scalp.”

“So?”

Oddly, Mal realized he was not suddenly taken with the urge to kill Jayne. He was suddenly taken with the urge to shoot Jayne in both kneecaps, let him lie there for a while, then kill him.

“All right,” he said, keeping his voice even—which required more effort than he’d used in several near-run skirmishes. “We’ll get into that later. Right now, I want to know what happened.”

“Huh? You know what happened. I called the feds on that wangu de shagua gen ta shenjingbing de meimei. What else do you need to know?”

“How did you call them?”

“Huh? I got hold of a comm unit—”

“What comm unit? Where?”

“In that same gorram security hut you just busted me out of.”

“They have a direct link?”

“Why wouldn’t they?”

“I thought they were a private security force.”

“They are, and they’re also the Locals.”