The Mirrored Heavens by David J. Williams

Author:David J. Williams
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
Tags: Dystopias, High Tech, Intelligence officers, General, United States, Science Fiction, Terrorism, Fiction, Intelligence officers - United States
ISBN: 9780553385410
Publisher: Spectra Books
Published: 2008-05-20T00:39:40+00:00

Bail out,” Haskell says.

“We can’t,” Marlowe replies. “He’ll blow us to pieces. We need to wait for reentry.”

“But he won’t wait,” she says.

“Close the cockpit doors. Lock them.”

While she does that, he’s pulling himself down onto the floor of the cockpit, crawling beneath the instrument panels, finding the trapdoor that’s situated where floor meets sloping wall. He opens it—and finds himself looking down into the narrow chute that leads to the escape hatch. He descends within. He reaches the airlock at the bottom and hauls it open.

Now he’s in something that’s more of a closet than a chamber. Another airlock sits adjacent to him. He knows better than to try to open that one. He rigs that door with devices from his belt: sensors, mini-charges, more sensors. Then he pulls himself back through into the chute. He closes the interior airlock—rigs still more devices, clambers back up.

Haskell’s sitting there. She’s rigged wires from her head to the control panels. She wears a dazed expression on her face.

“I can’t raise anything on the zone beyond us,” she says.

“Do the cameras show anything in the cockpit-access corridor?”

“They show nothing on this ship. But I don’t trust them for shit.”

They train their guns on the cockpit door. They open it. The corridor beyond is empty.

“You cover the zone,” says Marlowe. “I’m heading to the cargo chamber.”

“I’m coming with you.”

“I thought razors couldn’t move and remain in the zone.”

“The best ones can.”

“Ah.”

But he figures it must be a tough balancing act. He notices that she’s letting wires trail out behind her as the two of them push themselves off walls and move down the corridor.

“Wires are safer,” she mutters. “I’ve shut down as much wireless as possible.”

“Can you access the zone beyond this plane?”

“No,” she replies. “We’re being jammed.”

The two of them pull themselves into the room where they waited out the takeoff. They open the doors that lead to the cargo bay. That cargo bay contains the three remaining ways into the ship. Two are airlocks, one on either side. But they’re not the main focus right now.

“The elevator,” she says.

“I know,” he replies, sailing through air toward the airlock door that dominates the center of the cargo chamber’s floor. Metal beams run up from its corners: the beams along which the elevator that connects the two ships is intended to slot. The elevator is there to expedite the loading of cargo into the upper ship. But it’s about to be repurposed for a different kind of freight. For even as Haskell and Marlowe pull open that airlock door, they feel a vibration that can only be the lower ship starting to extend its shaft into the upper. That shaft’s only supposed to be extended when the ship’s parked.

But whatever’s activating it isn’t in the mood to quibble.

“Hurry up,” she says.

The door they’ve just opened gives way to a two-meter drop. At the bottom is the exterior airlock door. Ladders drop down the walls to it. Marlowe climbs in. He looks back up at her.

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