Hierax: Star Guardians, Book 4 Read online

  It would be dumb luck if his aim was good enough for it to find the hole he’d fallen through. And he wasn’t sure the slender chain had enough length to reach.

  The hook shot away like an arrow, but he hit the ground before it reached the hole.

  Even though he bent his legs, and his armor helped absorb the impact, pain shot up from his feet, and he yelled as momentum sent him tumbling into darkness. He might have walked away from the fall, but debris rained down on top of him, far more than he would have expected. Had he caused an entire roof to collapse?

  He tried to roll out of the way, but something with the heft of a sledgehammer slammed into his helmet. More and more debris landed atop him. He curled into a ball. His armor protected him, but a few things hit hard enough to bruise him through it. Pain lanced from his side, and he thought a bone snapped. One of his ribs?

  As the debris continued to fall on top of him, a new fear stampeded into his mind. He was going to be buried alive. All his supposed cleverness, and he’d let some stupid battery-powered drones herd him into this situation. Son of a bitch.

  8

  White laser beams—or whatever the hell they were—slammed into the back of Indi’s armor, but she barely noticed. Ignoring them, and the alarms scrolling down her helmet display, she raced toward the gaping hole that Hierax had fallen into. There hadn’t been a hole there at all earlier, but now it stretched at least thirty feet across.

  “Beta team approaching,” a male voice said over her helmet. “We’re closing on your position, Chief.”

  Hierax didn’t answer.

  The ground shivered under Indi, and she dropped to her knees and then her belly to creep closer to the edge.

  She knew she should keep running toward that hangar to get away from the drones, but Hierax had said the armor could withstand some fire, right? And she couldn’t just leave him. What if he was unconscious down there and needed help?

  Tons of rubble had fallen through the hole right after he had. She had no trouble envisioning it piling into a mountain on top of him.

  Hoping the ground wouldn’t give away further, she inched closer to the hole. One final beam struck her shoulder before the drones surprised her by flying away.

  She gaped at them as they zipped off in the direction she and Hierax had come from. At first, she couldn’t believe her luck, but then she saw a red bolt of energy shoot out from behind a building. It struck one of the drones.

  The other Star Guardian team. She couldn’t see them through the buildings, but that had to be them with their bolt bows.

  She expected the drone to blow up spectacularly—that hit had struck it head-on—but it only paused for a second before continuing on. It appeared undamaged. Soon all six drones disappeared from her view, heading for the Star Guardian team.

  “We’re under fire, sir,” someone reported on the comm with admirable calm.

  Calm that Indi did not feel. What happened if none of the Star Guardian weapons could harm the drones?

  A flash of white came from behind the building, brightening the night in all directions. An explosion? She imagined a boom would have accompanied it in a normal atmosphere.

  She turned back to the hole. The Star Guardians could handle the drones. She needed to check on Hierax.

  Indi approached from a side that appeared somewhat stable and poked her head over the edge. She couldn’t see anything down there except darkness.

  “I need a flashlight,” she told her helmet. She had no idea what commands it could understand—or how it was understanding English at all when it was presumably programmed in the Star Guardians’ language—but she’d seen a beam coming out of Hierax’s helmet before. “Light,” she said, simplifying the command.

  A beam came on and shone into the hole.

  She groaned at what it revealed. The beam traveled down and down and down, finally illuminating a pile of rubble larger than she’d envisioned. Multiple piles. And they were farther down than she’d envisioned too. Sixty feet? Seventy? More? It was hard to judge, especially when her instincts were screaming at her to get away from the edge. What if more of the roof crumbled out from underneath her?

  “Hierax?” she asked over her comm channel. “Can you hear me?”

  He didn’t answer. She tried to tell herself that it had to do with the way the buildings blocked signals, but with a big hole in the ceiling of this one, not to mention line of sight access, she thought it unlikely that was the problem.

  “Hierax?” Indi looked toward the fighting, but the men hadn’t come into view yet.

  The drones weren’t in view, either. Nothing was bothering her, so this was her chance to do something.

  “Yeah, what?” she muttered.

  She couldn’t possibly jump down there, and climbing was out of the question too. She couldn’t even see where the walls of the building were—it looked more like some giant underground water reservoir than a traditional building with beams and support posts. She would have had to be a spider to crawl upside down along the ceiling, over to walls, and down.

  “Miss Indigo?” Sagitta asked over the comm, his voice almost laughably polite given the moment.

  “I’m here.”

  “Are you with Chief Hierax?”

  “He fell, and I can’t see him. I think your men are fighting a little ways away, but I can’t see them, either.” She swallowed, realizing her voice sounded hoarse. And afraid. “I’m alone.”

  “Team Beta has met resistance,” Sagitta said. “They may have to fall back and regroup.”

  As he spoke, more drones flew into view from the other side of the crater. At least a dozen of them.

  A stone of dread plummeted into Indi’s stomach, even though they weren’t heading for her. If the Star Guardians were already having trouble with the ones facing them, what would they do against more?

  “I would appreciate it if you would check on my chief,” Sagitta said. “He’s not answering his comm again.”

  Because he’s buried, she thought.

  “I can’t get to him,” she said, even though she wanted to check on Hierax. She wanted to make sure he wasn’t… God, what if he was dead? She’d just decided he was a decent person, someone she wouldn’t mind knowing better. He couldn’t be dead. “He fell down into a reservoir or something, and it’s gotta be seventy feet down. And a whole bunch of rubble fell on him.”

  For a moment, Sagitta didn’t answer. Somehow, Indi found that silence to be condemning, or at least disappointed.

  “You are clearly a smart and resourceful woman,” Sagitta finally said. “I would appreciate it if you would find a way down to him.”

  Clearly? Hell, he barely knew her. What made him think that?

  “Does this suit—armor—have a hook and chain like Hierax’s?” she asked.

  “No, it’s a standard set of armor. The chief modified his.”

  Not surprising.

  “Excuse me,” Sagitta said. “I need to speak with my team. I’ll check in on you shortly.”

  As she looked around again, groping for inspiration, Indi spotted a tiny brass hook buried in rubble at the far side of the hole.

  She gaped as she recognized it. How had she missed the slender chain dropping from it, down into the darkness? Granted, it wasn’t any thicker than embroidery thread, so it was easy to miss, but still.

  The chain had some slack in it. Was it attached to anything down there, or had it come out of Hierax’s armor?

  She crawled around the hole to it, wincing every time debris shifted and tumbled into the darkness. When she reached the hook, she rested her hand next to it, amazed at how small it was. About the size of one of Arizona’s infamous tarantulas. It kind of looked like one, too, without the hairy legs. Its tips had tiny prongs on them, which had wrapped around a block, sinking in and gripping it tightly.

  Indi tugged on the chain. It had a few feet of slack, but was still attached to something down there. Or someone.

  “Hierax?” she asked again, thou
gh she’d given up hope that he would answer.

  Since there was no sound, she couldn’t hear if any rubble was being shifted around down there, but every time she peered to the bottom, she didn’t see anything moving.

  She spotted a solid metal pole sticking up nearby. It had been broken off at the top, but the bottom appeared sunken into the ground. She crawled over and tugged on it with all her strength. It didn’t budge.

  She returned to the hook and pried at it until it came free. She pulled it over to the pole, having just enough slack to tie the slender chain around it, then returned to the edge of the hole. The taut chain stretched all the way down to a rubble pile to one side. A huge rubble pile. The chain disappeared into it. Where it eventually attached to Hierax’s armor?

  Was he alive down there? Her eyes filmed at the thought of going all the way down there only to dig out a corpse. Hierax was far too cheerful to be dead. She tried to blink away the nascent tears, reminding herself that she had no way to wipe them. Besides, if he was down there and wasn’t dead, he could be extremely injured, and every moment she delayed could make things worse.

  But could she climb down such a slender chain? She already knew it could support her weight, but holding on would be difficult. If not impossible.

  She closed her eyes, her heart hammering from the idea of the climb. And the reality of the great distance she could fall.

  “I am so the wrong person for this,” she said, but she grabbed the chain anyway.

  With her heart hammering even harder, she swung first one leg and then the other over the edge. She gripped the chain, terrified by how slender it was. Panic swelled in her breast.

  “No,” she growled, stomping the feeling down. “You can do this.”

  She wasn’t sure whether she was glad or not that none of the Star Guardians seemed to be listening to her at the moment.

  She swung fully into the hole, her full weight hanging from her hands and her tenuous grip. Rubble trickled over the edge and bounced off her shoulders. She squinted her eyes shut, expecting her hold to give way. But it didn’t.

  There was no way to grip the chain with her boots, and without the added strength the armor gave her, she never could have done this, but she was able to inch down the chain. She was careful not to look down. Very careful. Just to be sure she wouldn’t glimpse the drop, she kept her eyes shut the whole way.

  When her feet bumped against the ground, she was surprised. She opened her eyes and peered at the rubble piles all around her, including the one the chain disappeared into.

  “I did it,” she whispered, almost in awe of herself. Which was stupid. Men were up there fighting for their lives against alien technology, and she was happy to have climbed into a hole. “Small victories.”

  Indi followed the chain to Hierax’s pile. She tugged at warped metal and something similar to broken cement. Once again, the armor helped her. She felt like Hercules tossing hundred-pound blocks to the side.

  “I’m coming for you, Hierax,” she said, almost cheerfully.

  “Suit TX-14 has a breach,” a computerized voice spoke into her ear.

  She jerked up, touching her chest. Had she struck herself with some broken piece of metal?

  “Wait, is that my suit? Or—” a horrified thought lurched into her mind, “—is that Hierax’s suit?”

  “Chief Hierax is wearing TX-14,” the bland voice said.

  “Shit, does that mean he’s going to run out of oxygen?” Indi returned to the rubble, digging furiously now, hurling metal and rocks aside.

  “Affirmative. He is also in danger of freezing if the rupture is not repaired. The outside temperature is—”

  “Yeah, yeah, I see it,” Indi growled as she dug. She’d been watching the temperature display in the corner of her faceplate the whole time.

  Her knuckles clunked against something that wasn’t a rock. A dusty piece of black armor had appeared. She pulled more rubble away, revealing the spot where the chain came out of a compartment in the arm piece. Finally, she had the debris cleared around Hierax’s helmet and torso. He’d gone down curled on his side.

  “Hierax?” she asked again, patting his armored shoulder, then knocking on it, as if it were a door to be opened.

  He didn’t move or speak.

  “Damn it, is he alive?” she asked, not sure if her own suit knew or if it would answer. Until the suit rupture announcement, it hadn’t spoken to her.

  As she asked, she levered her arms under his armpits.

  “Chief Hierax lives, but his armor’s environmental systems are failing,” her suit announced, as blandly as if it were telling her that a cold front was coming in.

  Thanking the strength the leg armor gave her, Indi backed away, hauling Hierax out of the pile. Still, he didn’t move. She sat him so that he was propped against her legs. His arm extended upward, attached to the chain.

  If he were awake, they might have each climbed up it to get out, but she couldn’t imagine herself carrying two hundred pounds of man and armor up that, even with her extra strength. How could she possibly hold him and climb at the same time?

  “Not happening,” she muttered. “Hey, helmet computer, how strong are these jet boots? Could they lift me and Hierax seventy feet to the top of that hole?”

  “Negative. The jet propulsion boots are designed to be used in space, in zero or low gravity. They do not have enough power to lift an adult in the .93 times Dethocoles gravity that exists on this planet.”

  “Captain Sagitta, if you’re listening,” Indi said, “I want to take this moment to tell you that your jet boots are shitty.”

  Not surprisingly, she didn’t get an answer.

  “What do I do, Hierax?” she whispered, looking down at him.

  Crumpled against her, his satchel still attached to his torso, he did not respond.

  Where was the breach? She couldn’t tell. If there had been some atmosphere, she would have heard it hissing, and might have more easily found the spot.

  “Atmosphere,” she muttered. “That’s what we need. Helmet computer, are there any of those rooms around here with atmosphere? Breathable air?”

  She shone her helmet beam around, looking for walls, looking for doors.

  “Affirmative.”

  Indi almost jumped. “Where?”

  “Approximately three hundred meters to the southeast.”

  “Where the hell is southeast right now?” she grumbled, then spotted a compass she hadn’t noticed among all the other data on her helmet display. “All right, got it.”

  Her armor probably thought she was an idiot.

  She peered in the indicated direction and her breath caught when she spotted one of the twelve-sided doorways. Shockingly, it was open.

  Indi found a way to unhook his chain and started to drag Hierax toward the door, but realized that would take forever. “Let’s see just how much extra strength I have,” she muttered, and grabbed Hierax’s wrist. She knew what a fireman’s carry was, but she had never tried one.

  To her surprise, she was able to pull him up and over her shoulder. It wasn’t easy, and she struggled to walk under the extra weight, but she did manage to walk.

  “You’re doing all sorts of superhero moves today,” she told herself. “First climbing, and now walking.”

  The computer in her armor ignored her snark. Good.

  Indi picked her way through the rubble to the doorway, peering warily into the darkness of a corridor. What if some of those drones zipped down here and fired at them? Her earlier notion that the alien AI might want to help them seemed ridiculous now.

  “Concentrate,” she whispered. “Get him to the room, find the breach, and figure out a way to get help down here.”

  “The oxygen supply for Suit TX-14 is down to 25%,” the computer voice announced.

  Gritting her teeth, Indi turned her walk into a jog, with Hierax’s torso bouncing on her shoulder. Even with the suit’s help, she could feel her spine compressing under his weight, and her
arm and neck ached from the lopsided load.

  “Am I almost there?” she panted, passing closed doors and panels.

  The helmet display showed her a map of the immediate area and flashed the room that had air in it. Indi hurried around a corner, only to groan when the corridor ended with a closed door and another panel. She didn’t have time to play the musical guessing game now.

  But the door opened when she approached it. Maybe somebody was on her side, after all.

  The door slid shut as soon as she entered. It looked like some kind of boiler room, with pipes and a big cylindrical container in a corner. Or maybe a water pumping station? If the chamber Hierax had fallen into had been a water reservoir, that might make sense.

  “Is the air safe?” she asked, aching to set down Hierax.

  “The gas in the room is comprised of 78 percent nitrogen, 21 percent oxygen, 1 percent—”

  “That’s a yes, then, right?”

  “It is breathable by humans, yes.”

  Indi squatted and lowered the limp Hierax to the floor, laying him out flat so she could search for the leak. In here, it shouldn’t matter, but they would have to go back into the airless environment to return to the ship. And who knew what roundabout way they would have to take to find the surface again?

  She knelt beside him, wanting to take her gauntlets off, but she remembered the temperature. There might be air, but her hands wouldn’t work for long in air two hundred degrees below zero. She glanced at the readout on her display and was surprised to see the temperature changing.

  “Is it getting warmer in here?”

  “Affirmative,” her suit said.

  “Let me know if it gets to be warm enough for me to take my suit off. And Hierax’s too.”

  She could check him for injuries if she could remove his armor. Maybe that wasn’t a good idea with the threat of the drones nearby, but he could be bleeding to death in there, and she had no way of knowing.

  She leaned over him to peer through his visor, then grimaced. Blood stained the side of his face. It looked like it had come from his nostrils. Could a concussion cause a nosebleed? Where was Tala when Indi needed her? She ought to be out here, not playing her violin on the bridge.