Columbia by Chris Pourteau

Author:Chris Pourteau [Pourteau, Chris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: James C. Pourteau
Published: 2015-05-06T04:00:00+00:00

“How long do we have to hang here?” whispered Bracer. “My arms hurt.”

“Quiet,” said Trick. “You complain worse than Stug ever did.”

The last of the prisoners were pounding down the ramp of the airbus. Bracer and Trick held fast to the vehicle’s undercarriage, waiting.

“I sure hope they follow protocol and stow this ship for the night. You don’t think they have more prisoners to pick up, do you?”

“Quiet.”

Pusher and Hawkeye had gone ahead. In all, three airbuses had landed near the fountain and offloaded more prisoners, who were herded into the Detention Center. After lifting off, each of the three ships had landed on the building’s roof to be refueled and readied for the next day. The sergeant and spotter had hitched a ride on the previous airbus; they should be waiting on the roof for Trick and Bracer to join them.

“It’s gonna be really loud when those anti-gravs—”

Before Bracer could finish, the airbus fired up its booster engines. The doors closed. Air rushed around them. As the craft overcame planetary gravity, the main anti-grav engines kicked in and Bracer watched the ground fall away. He closed his eyes and turned his head to stare at the bottom of the vehicle. His knuckles were harder than the reinforced aluminum frame he held on to for dear life. He hated heights.

Less squeamish as the airbus lifted off, Trick watched the Transport soldiers that had guarded the ramp follow the last of the night’s catch into the facility. Neither looked up to spot the infiltrators wedged beneath the airbus. Why would they? Their attention was focused straight ahead to ensure a prisoner didn’t get desperate before being locked away.

Transport had ramped up its roundup of dissenters in the last week; half a dozen airbuses had been offloading prisoners every night after midnight. Why, Trick had no idea. The Authority was abandoning the City to TRACE. So why go to all the trouble of gathering fugitives, Wild Ones, derelict TRACE operatives, and suspicious citizens? Why wasn’t Transport focusing its resources on securing the cities beyond the Great Shelf? It made no sense that Trick could see, either strategically or tactically.

Bracer hardly had time to be terrified before the bus began its landing approach to the center’s roof. A blast of the booster engines, and the craft descended. Though he was used to the rapid thrrrit-thrrrit-thrrrit of his 18-millimeter heavy machine gun, the screaming servos of the anti-gravs made him close his eyes in an irrational attempt to protect his ears.

Soon enough, both men felt the slight jolt of the hydraulic landing pads as the airbus settled onto its parking spot. A final blast of controlled air, and the engines themselves powered down.

“How long do we—”

“Quiet or you’re a private again.”

“How can you demote me?” Bracer whispered. “We’re no longer officially in TRACE!”

The doors opened above their heads, and the ramp descended again. The heavy boots of the flight crew tromped down the metal gangway, the man and woman murmuring to each other after a long day.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.