To his credit, Bartie does the all-call. Some people are already crossing the fields, heading toward the hatch, and I see them pick up their pace, running closer.
“But what can we do?” Bartie asks me. “Even if we left in the auto-shuttle right this second, what could we possibly do?”
“Come with me,” I say.
Bartie has to run to keep up with me as I tear back down through the hatch, running to the control panel on the bridge. “Here are the controls,” I tell him. “This is how you can fly the auto-shuttle back. ”
“Me?” Bartie steps away. “You’re going to be flying the auto-shuttle!”
“No,” I tell him. “No, I’m not. You are. Now pay attention. ”
I show him everything as people from Godspeed start to load up the shuttle. I show him how to operate the controls and the communication system. It’s really simple—the auto-shuttle was designed to function without human operations. Once I’m sure he knows what to do, I race out of the bridge, past the crowd that’s already gathering a
t the transport boxes, and down a flight of stairs.
The escape rocket Chris told me about is smaller than it seemed from the ground. I have to shimmy through a hatch opening that drops me straight into the seat. The controls are the same here as on the auto-shuttle but more compressed and with an additional “manual maneuvering” control that looks like a joystick. I’m not comforted by the simplistic controls, but they’ll have to be enough.
I flip on the communication system and hail Bartie, just above me in the bridge.
“Yes?” his voice says immediately. He sounds anxious.
“Just checking,” I say. “I wanted to be sure that the controls worked. ”
“Elder, this is insane,” he says. His voice sounds a little tinny over the intercom, but I can understand him loud and clear.
“Yeah,” I say. “It probably is. But it’s my only chance of saving Amy. ” I can go to the space station, and I can detonate the weapons there myself. I will protect Amy, no matter what the cost.
I turn off the communication link with Bartie and flip it to the compound’s system. A red light blinks several times as the communication link with the compound on the planet is established.
“Don’t break this communication link,” I say quickly once the controls tell me I’ve connected.
“And why not?” a voice I don’t recognize drawls.
“I am currently in the escape rocket. I will head straight to the space station. I will dock. And I will set off the biological bomb myself. ”
“Elder, don’t!” a voice screams. Amy.
“Amy, what’s going on?”
“They’ve injected me too,” she says, then her voice is muffled. It sounds as if she’s being dragged away.
“What do you mean?” No answer. “What the frex is going on?”
“Amy has been injected with the hybrid compound. She will be susceptible to the biological weapon. We tried to negotiate with the other leader, Colonel Martin. We are done negotiating. ”
“Let me talk to Colonel Martin,” I say.
“He’s dead!” Amy’s voice cries out over the intercom. Her voice sounds rougher than I remember, perhaps a bit deeper. “They’ve killed him!”
More muffled sounds. I have no doubt now that they’re trying to silence Amy, drag her away from the intercom. But I also have no doubt that Colonel Martin’s dead. Amy would never say that—not with that much anguish in her voice—unless it was true.
My hands are shaking. I have never been more scared.
There’s only one thing I can do.
“Here’s the deal,” I say. I hope I sound convincing. We don’t have much to hold over the hybrids, but we do have one bargaining chip. “We have the plans for the Inhibitor medicine. Chris can tell you that Godspeed had Phydus too, and you’ll just have to trust me when I tell you we have an antidote that fights the drug’s effects. ”
No one answers me when I pause, so I just plow through. “My friend Bartie is going to land the auto-shuttle. He carries the plans for the Inhibitor drug with him. Shoot the auto-shuttle down—kill my people as they land—and you’ll lose the formula. ”