Starcrash by Ron Collins

Author:Ron Collins [Collins, Ron]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction
Publisher: Skyfox Publishing
Published: 2017-04-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 25

After a long, painful drive through darkness and across rugged terrain that caused bone-jarring drops and annoying double-backs, Crissandr brought the motor cart to a halt outside Louratna’s security clearing. She shut the engine off, then placed her head dejectedly against the steering column.

Baraq sat still and silent beside her, his back aching, his throat clogged with dust.

The sharp smell of ozone oozed from the motor cart’s overheated battery.

Both Eldoro and Katon burned high in the clear sky now, making them visible even from the tight confines of the clearing, which was built in an open crease of rock on the opposite ridge from Esgarat City. The clearing was in the foothills and lined by steep cliffs of harsh rock that housed armed sentries at several locations, accessible only on foot or via a rugged drive of the type that had battered and bruised the two of them and taken nearly all the power of the vehicle.

Knowing they were being watched made Baraq self-conscious, but he knew they couldn’t have gotten even this far if Louratna’s security hadn’t already recognized them. Regardless, after the events of the past heat, both he and Crissandr would still need to be inspected in order to enter.

They sat together, though, dealing with the sudden silence.

For either of the two to speak would be to admit what they had seen was real.

Their son was dead. His revolution was over.

Not that the revolution mattered anymore. Everything was over for them, now. Everything was done. Esgarat City smoldered on the other side of the mountain, and if he used his imagination Baraq could still smell the harsh scent of its smoke and hear the firing of guns and the piercing screams of dying quadars mixing with the smell of rock and the vast emptiness of the desert wind. He didn’t want to know the tally of dead.

He understood exactly what was going to happen next, however.

The Families would use this uprising to tighten security. They would move quickly to step over the council, now making no pretense of following it.

He looked into the arid sky, heat rising within him. His shoulder plates grew damp with moisture.

How long before they came for Louratna? Could they find her here in the mountains?

Voices came from a distance: Louratna’s people waving them in for review.

“We have to go,” Crissandr said, her head still bent against the steering apparatus.

Baraq breathed deeply and clicked absently. Yes. They had to go.

Crissandr raised up, then touched his arm.

When he pulled away her primaries darkened. Her central was open and wide. You are all I have left, her expression said. We are all that remains for each other.

And that was true.

They had lost Brada now, just as they had lost his sister before he was even born, little Hara who would be old enough now to be making her own way through the Esgarat if she had lived. For a moment, he was glad she wasn’t here to see this, then immediately felt a fresh stab of remorse.

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