Faring Soul - Science Fiction Romance Read Free Page A

boot to tap
out the glass. It looked and behaved like straight glass, with no
embedded energy collectors or thermostats, so she climbed out the
window very carefully.
    The street was as deserted as
advertised.
    “Straight ahead, now,” Bedivere told
her. “There’s almost nothing in front of you.”
    “ Almost ,” she repeated,
thrilled. She began to run again. Ahead, she could hear the air
throbbing and the sound of the ship’s engines. There was a bright
glow in the sky, pinpointing Bedivere’s location. He was up very
high, sparing the locals as much disruption as possible. He was
such a good pilot, he could bring the ship down to touch land at
the moment she reached the park.
    It gave her a fresh spurt of energy.
Catherine surged down the long street, heading for the bent and
misshapen native trees she could see outlined by the glow from the
ship. As she drew closer, the ship came lower. Bedivere was
tracking her closely.
    “Two to your left,” he said.
    Adrenaline was giving her extra power
and she dropped the two Shantans easily, then picked up the case
and hurried on. She was so close.
    She broke out in to the park. The curly
brown ground cover that Shanta used for lawn was thick underfoot,
absorbing the sound of her running steps, although the shriek and
throbbing of the ship so close overhead was muffling all sound.
    Trees bent and a few of the taller,
older and more rigid ones cracked close to the ground and fell
over, their trunks shattered by the pressure of the ship lowering
down to ground level. As Catherine ran toward it, the ship spun
slowly, until the cargo ramp was facing her. The ramp was already
down, the inside of the cargo bay with its battered walls and bent
securing struts looking very homelike and comforting.
    Something plucked at her sleeve and she
felt heat. Fire and sparks lit up the side of the ship, close to
the ramp door, then disappeared, whipped away by the wind and air
pressure billowing up from the ground. Someone had fired a laser
pistol and had just barely missed her.
    Catherine ran harder and leapt for the
end of the ramp, which was a meter from the ground. She was moving
too fast and fell forward on her knees, the case skidding up the
no-slip surface of the ramp. “Go!” she screamed.
    The ship immediately lifted upward, the
surge and power pushing her down onto the ramp and pinning her with
motion-induced gravity. The ground dropped away beneath her and she
looked out at the Shantans as they ran into their flattened park,
staring up at the ship.
    Then Bedivere rolled the ship. The end
of the ramp lifted up, until the whole ramp was horizontal, letting
Catherine get to her feet, pick up the case and walk wearily up to
the end of the ramp. Once she was off the ramp, Bedivere closed it
up completely, the upper door coming down to meet the edge of the
ramp and seal the loading dock.
    She clutched at the swinging strapping
as the ship tilted and accelerated. He was heading for space. They
had electronically disabled the orbital sentries on their way in.
They were clear.
    Two minutes later, Catherine dropped
into the navigator chair that Bedivere usually used and let out a
long heavy breath. She put the hard case on the console and patted
it.
    Bedivere, who was sitting in the
pilot’s chair, looked up from the instrumentation and grinned. The
laugh lines around his warm brown eyes crinkled. “So...it went
about exactly the way we expected. We’ll be in clear space in three
minutes, by the way.” His brown-gold hair glowed in the light
emitted from the overhead console. The warm color was nothing like
the muddy color of native Shantans.
    Catherine leaned back so her head was
resting on the headrest and blew out another breath. “Nothing ever
comes easy,” she muttered.
    “You wouldn’t like it if it did.”
    She rolled her head to the side and
looked at him. She was too tired to smile. “Despite the rhetoric
that surrounds my much-maligned past, I happen to like the
quiet