The Iron Maiden

The Iron Maiden Read Free Page A

Book: The Iron Maiden Read Free
Author: Piers Anthony
Tags: Science-Fiction, Fantasy
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the scion.
    This might have been a mistake, because it led to a fight between Hope and the scion. It seemed unequal, because the scion was older, larger, and better trained, but Hope used his ability to read people, and gave a good account of himself. Until the scion drew a laser pistol. Then Spirit acted, stinging his hand with the finger whip so that he dropped the weapon. That enabled Hope to win the fight, so that they got safely home. They hoped that would be the end of it.
    But the scion had his revenge by getting their family evicted. They had to flee Maraud and seek a refugee bubble on the airless surface of Callisto. The scion's closed outside saucer came after them and tried to bomb their vehicle. If any of their suits got holed out here, they would be dead of decompression. Spirit had been nervous; now she was terrified. No finger whip would get them out of this.
    The situation was desperate. Hope was trying to use his captured laser against the saucer, and the saucer was trying to drop a bomb where it counted. So far neither had scored, but that could not last long.
    Then Spirit saw something, and had a notion. She jammed her helmet against Hope's. “The ice caves!”
    she cried, so that the sound would carry into his helmet.
    They raced for the ice mine, where ice was quarried to be melted for water. The saucer paced them, still trying to catch them with a bomb. Hope managed to snag the saucer's undercarriage with a rope, tying it to the pedal tractor. But it dropped another bomb, a bright orange cylinder. It was going to blow up their vehicle!
    Spirit leaped up and caught the bomb in her hands. It wasn't big, just deadly. She hurled it to the side, where it exploded harmlessly. But her heart was thudding; this was way more danger than she liked.
    They hauled the saucer into the mine, but couldn't bring it to ground. So Spirit grabbed an ice stone and threw it at the saucer. But this wasn't enough. So she leaped onto the saucer itself, to smear its window with dirty ice. But when she got on the saucer, its onion-shaped null-gravity section made her light, and she almost floated right back off it. For a moment she floundered; then she caught hold of the ladder dents, and those finger-holds enabled her to anchor herself with one hand while she struggled to use her ice rock with the other. She squirmed across the surface of the saucer, then reached down across the front vision port and rubbed the rock across it. The port itself was invulnerable, but a bit of heat leaked out of the saucer, and than helped melt the ice just enough to make it smear its embedded dust across the port. That would soon foul the saucer's vision, so that the man inside couldn't see to do any more mischief.
    The scion inside caught on, and tried to fire his laser through the glass to get her. But Hope fired his own laser from the ground, and must have blinded the scion, because he didn't fire at Spirit. She owed big brother another!
    She kept on smearing until Hope jumped on the saucer and pulled her off. She knew why. “We have to get away before he radios for help!” she yelled against his helmet. Because naturally the authorities would choose to believe the scion, not the victims.
    They hid in the convolutions of the mine until the saucer and its allies went away, then started bounding on toward Kilroy Crater, where the refugee bubble was supposed to be. They made big long low-gee bounds, but it was too far; they would never get there in time.
    But then Spirit spied a utility floater traveling their way, and the family bought passage aboard it to the refugee bubble. So they got there after all, and got three rooms: one for the parents, one for Spirit and Faith, and Hope had to share a room with a strange boy.
    They thought they were safe at last, but it turned out to be disaster delayed. The bubble lifted, using its gee shield, then spun to generate trace gravity internally. They were on their slow way to Jupiter--until the crew decamped

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