The Constant Star (33)

THE STORY SO FAR

“No. I’ll do it. She’s my daughter. She’s my responsibility. This is my failure. Give me the rifle.”

“You know the cost if you fail. She’s dead either way. There’s no point trying to save her: it will only cause the deaths of the Chosen Ones.”

“I understand. Give me the rifle. It should be me. I need it to be me.”

Jupiter smiles a mournful thanks as Mars takes his eye from the scope and hands him the gun. He steadies himself on the balcony and finds his daughter through the sights. The range increasing by the second, it won’t be long before she is too far down to strike. He wipes a tear from his eye before finding her in the scope again, “I’m sorry, my sweetheart. I’m so sorry.” His finger squeezes the trigger and an energy pulse fires from the barrel. The energy shield closes again as the two watch the shot travel through the evening sky of the Tube.

She wishes she could feel the wind. The fresh air from the millions of trees below her. The sound of pure air rushing through her ears. The suit keeps her warm and protected though, so right now she accepts her circumstance. The heads-up-display lets her know she has several minutes of free-fall before the chute is to be pulled, and what was at first a terror of falling has become a somewhat comfortable watching of the beautiful scenery beneath her. Siff knows she will have to land beyond the forest closest to the wall: the many creatures that roam there are specifically designed to kill any wanderers who get too close to the truth. The night sky may be an illusion of the Needle, but those monsters are its birthed reality.

Siff flips on to her back to see the sky above her, noting that Macy has managed to keep the forcefield open longer than she thought. A portion of the Needle, with its lights and windows, is clearly visible in the night sky. Macy had better power that forcefield back up, or the Chosen Ones might see it. Chosen Ones…Siff smiles, I’m going to be a Chosen One. I’m on my way to freedom.

A couple more seconds and Siff sees a tiny flash from the Needle before the forcefield closes up. She flips herself back around to admire the view given her by the headset when a sudden massive pain sears through her side. Siff looks down to where it hurts and sees a hole in the front of her body-armor, just below her ribs on the right side. The night air is now pouring into her suit and she is feeling the cold. Sensing something is wrong, Siff’s headset gives the signal to pull the chute. In so much pain she cannot move her right arm she manages to reach with her left and pull the tag. She screams as the parachute opens above her, jerking her into deceleration. She reaches around with her left hand and finds blood on the front and back of her clothes. Shot? I’ve been shot.

Oh shit.

She passes out from pain and shock. Wondering what will become of her now.

25

“You missed! You missed on purpose! You know what happens next.”

“I pinned her. Now I’m going to go get her.”

“You risked her infecting the environment with her humanity, and risk infecting the environment yourself, just so you can bring her back for trial and execution as a war criminal? You are a coward. And you are weak. The Council will punish you as well as your daughter for this betrayal.”

“I betrayed nobody. But denying her a trial would be betraying our own mission.”

Mars snatches his rifle back and glares at Jupiter, “We shall see.”

The sirens blaring in her ears finally wake Siff up. Groggy from pain and blood-loss, she reads her heads-up-display and has an adrenaline rush. She needs to slow her descent or she’ll crash into…the forest? She didn’t make it past the forest? No time to think about that now. Can’t move my right arm, gotta use my left. Aagh! That hurts so much! Got the handle. Pull down and across.

Having only one of the handles pulled begins to slow her descent, but also puts her into a nauseating spin. The alarm from her headset is still blaring, and the trees come to meet her quickly. She crashes through branches, her momentum wrapping the cords of her chute around a large oak and sitting her firmly in place on the mossy ground surrounding it. Her helmet strikes the trunk and splits open, falling in two pieces next to her. She hasn’t the strength to fight her way free, nor even the energy to cry in pain. She has fallen short of her goal and landed in the most dangerous place on the ship. Tied up and shot, she can only wait as one already dead for the inevitable animals to find her. She really hopes she is not alive when that happens.

Siff closes her eyes again, head bobbing in and out of consciousness. She hears rustling on the edge of the clearing and a blurred figure making its way to her. It is a man. She can barely stay awake to hear him, or respond to his help, “…saw you fall…Goddess…” He is cutting her free from the cords of the parachute, “…have to go…going to move you.” The man begins to lift her and her scream of pain brings his attention to her wound, she is now fully awake, “What kind of wound is that, Goddess? I have to bind it before you bleed out. I didn’t know gods could bleed. Hold still.” He cuts a strip from his shirt and applies pressure to the wound. Siff cries out again, but he holds his hand over her mouth, “You need to be silent, Goddess. The terrors of this forest will find us.” He grabs a piece of oak

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