Jael flicked a look in Dred’s direction, but she was talking in low tones with the soothsayer about how best to salvage the turrets and install them in her territory. Wills answered, “I’ll need all the parts, plus the platform below. There must be ammunition nearby and a conduit for reloading.”
“These can be set up for manual use,” Einar said. The big man moved forward and indicated a switch at the base of the turrets.
“Good to know.” Dred gave an approving nod. “Let’s push on. I hope to hell we find some kind of dolly in the bay, though, or it will take us a month to get back to Queensland.”
“We’d be jacked and killed before then,” Wills predicted gloomily.
Jael laughed. “With all this gear? I don’t think so. We did well enough with shivs.”
“And we haven’t slept or eaten since,” the other man pointed out, as they pushed past the dead turrets and into a new set of hallways.
Yeah, that could be a problem.
“Can Ike and Tam keep things together? How well does Queensland run without you?” He aimed an inquiring look at Dred.
“It’ll be fine,” she predicted. “If I know Tam, he’ll spin some story about how I’m meditating before the great battle to unearth a weakness in our enemies . . . and must not be disturbed.”
“Seriously? And they’d believe it?” She was an exceptional woman, but she wasn’t the messianic figure the Queenslanders painted her.
Einar answered, “Absolutely. Dred’s got just enough Psi to inspire awe.”
“Then if we can find a place to hole up, we should rest before we start back. There’s no way I’m letting all this gear fall into enemy hands.”
He didn’t mind when the other two men glanced at the princess in chains for confirmation. Though it was his recommendation, she was in charge, no question.
She approved the suggestion with a nod. “I’m on my last legs. Anything we face, going forward, I won’t be at my best. That’s not fair to any of you.”
She just admitted weakness again. In his experience, commanders didn’t. They made excuses and blamed their men, knocked a few heads together and sometimes authorized some executions to teach the grunts to fight harder. Failure never came as a result of poor planning or insufficient leadership. Little by little, he was starting to understand why they idolized her.
Fortunately, there was no more combat. The turrets marked the last of the automated defenses, at least in this section. But the good luck didn’t stretch further than that; instead of mounted guns or more Peacemaker units, an amber force field stood between them and the goal. Through the glimmering light, Jael saw all kinds of things they could use to shore up the defensive line, but there was no reaching them from here.
“Shit,” he said. “We’ll have to circle around.”
Dred shook her head. “Then we’d trigger it from the other side. There has to be some way to shut it down.”
“The controls are probably inside the bay,” Wills said.
“That doesn’t help us,” Jael snapped.
Even as the smaller man recoiled, he knew it was unfair to take his rage out on Wills. He offered an apologetic half shrug and the other inmate made a dismissive gesture. They were all tired and surly, frustrated by this last obstacle. Dred stared at the force field as if she could dispel it with her mind, but it didn’t seem like her powers ran in that direction. At last, she turned away with an angry snarl. She paced the way they’d come, then up to the force field, and back again.
“What—” he started to say.
“She’s thinking,” Einar interrupted. “Let her be.”
They sat down while Dred paced, mumbling possibilities and discarding them. Her brainstorming might’ve gone on for minutes or hours, as Jael dozed off.
He woke to her saying, “I might have a solution. But it will require some backtracking, a lot of jury-rigging, a bit of luck, lot of daring, and some of your special genius, Wills.”
“I’m in,” the man said without hesitation. “Just tell me what to do.”
By the time they hauled the Peacemaker’s laser arm and the power source back to the force field, Jael was fragging tired in a way he hadn’t been in turns. The snatched sleep had only made his head ache though he did better than most on reduced rest. He’d gotten soft sitting in the Bug prison, nothing to do all day but sleep, eat, and pace his cell. Furthermore, the other two men seemed to understand without being told what the princess in chains meant to do.
It pissed him off that he didn’t.
Wills went to work wiring the laser directly to the power source. He’d stripped some components from the turrets in order to make the necessary connections, and Einar cheered when the gun powered up. Jael watched, frustrated, but determined not to ask for explanations. Next, Wills tinkered with the laser’s settings, calibrating it somehow. From what Jael could tell he was attuning it to—oh. He got it, now.
“I think this should do it,” Wills said, ten minutes later. “We’re good to go. But if it works, it will only punch a hole for a few seconds.”
“That’ll be long enough.”
Before Jael could protest that he was best suited to high-risk missions, she handed the gun to Einar, and said, “On my mark.” After dropping the chains wrapped around her arms, she positioned herself in front of the force field, then called, “Now!”
The big man fired; two energy fields overlapped, and the amber light flickered, then shaded out. Dred took full advantage, diving through just as the field sealed up behind her. It caught one of her boots, which was smoking at the bottom when she flipped to her feet. With a huge grin, she held two thumbs up to show she was all right.
“Dammit,” he growled. “She should’ve sent me.”
Wills shrugged. “I suspect she thinks you’ve done enough. Dred’s not one to rely on other people too much. Don’t worry, she’ll find the kill switch or control panel. We’ll be inside soon enough. Hope there’s something to eat, some leftover paste, maybe. That stuff keeps forever.”
“But she left her chains,” Jael protested. “She’s in there with no weapons.”
Einar flicked him a warning look. “Don’t let her hear you talking like that about her. That woman hunted and executed forty men before they caught her. She may seem like she’s decent, kind even, but she’s a killer, just like you and me.”