Permanence

The god who devours his children comes now for those who sought to defy him."

"Ancient pact? Hrm, don't know about that," said Herat. "But the hermit who carries the lamp? Lamp Bearers? It's talking about the Lasa!"

"Fascinating, professor, but—"

"Whoa, what's that?" shouted one of the soldiers. Michael peeked out from behind his shield, in time to see several space-suited figures explode through the shack's wall, to the accompaniment of gouts of fire.

"It's our boys, back from the Banshee!" One of the newcomers took a direct hit from a laser, flailed, and went still. "Give 'em cover, men!" shouted Harp. They all began shooting.

Michael didn't fire. He was too busy puzzling out what had just happened. Somehow, they'd targeted one of the magnets holding up the ferrofluid. As he watched, the lattice of magnets rearranged itself, and the whip of fire that had been exiting into space choked as the wall reappeared.

"That's it!" He leaned out, and aimed carefully— not at the mirrored shields of the marines that the others were targeting, but at a square black block several meters above them. Though his heart was pounding and he was sure he would be hit at any second, he waited until he was sure he had the shot, then pulled the trigger.

The magnet unit flared and exploded. Instantly, the ferrofluid wall behind Crisler's marines bubbled out and exploded. With a visible whoosh of firebeads and flame, they all went spiralling out into space.

"Good work, Bequith," shouted Harp. "But they'll just come right back through the airlock."

"Not if we mine it," he said. Without a word, one of the soldiers took a smart grenade from his belt, programmed it, and threw it in a perfect free-fall straight-throw. Moments later it reached the purple airlock disk, and stuck.

"They can still come through the wall like Captain Cassels did," said Harp. "So move it! We need to secure the habs on that cycler!"

They dove through constellations of firebeads, and now Michael allowed himself an instant to appreciate what he was seeing. It was as if he had become a giant, flying through the stars, batting suns out of the way with the back of his glove. The blue sparks seemed to have become more intense in the past few moments, indeed they were floating alone in a new velvet darkness…

"Hey," he said. "Anybody else notice that the lights have gone out?"

He flew on through a vision of stars, as in his ear, the words of the Chicxulub whispered:

"The sword we forged has turned upon us

Only now, at the end of all things do we see

The lamp-bearer dies, only the lamp burns on."

Rather than go through the door, Barendts had gone around it, tearing a long rip in the flexible wall material. He'd tossed a bot through that, and a moment later signalled all clear. Rue stepped through after him.

This room was larger than the last, but equally crowded. Floor, walls, and ceiling had coffin-shaped hibernation chambers clamped to them, the only open space a kind of tu

A face popped up from behind one of the coffins. It was the senior member of the science team, Katz. He looked wan and nervous. It would only take a few laser shots through the hull to evacuate the place, and kill him.

"Who the hell are you?" he demanded. He'd have a hard time seeing Rue's own face through her helmet, and probably wouldn't have recognized Barendts. She decided to take a chance: Clumsily with her one usable hand, Rue undogged her faceplate and levered herself past Barendts.

"It's me, Professor. Rue Cassels."

The flight of emotions across Katz's face was amazing and gratifying. "Captain," he managed to stutter after a moment, "how did you get here?"

"Rue?" Two more faces emerged from behind the hibernation tanks, and this time Rue's own face must have betrayed her; Evan Laurel and Cori

"Is this a rescue?" Cori

"But how?" muttered Katz, as he drifted to the side. Now other people were emerging from hiding: It looked as though the whole Banshee science team was here, and they all looked as stu

"So much for the halo-worlders being backward," said Evan proudly. "But really, Captain, how did—"

"Later," she said. "We need to get out of here. Where are your suits?"

"The marines in the next section have them," said Katz, nodding through the tu

"Okay," said Rue. "We need those suits, so we need to get into that chamber. That means all of you get back into the storage room behind us, now! We don't want you caught here if the pressure goes."

They crowded past her, and Rue led her men forward. There was another stout pressure door at the end of the hibernation chamber.

"So," said Barendts, "how do we handle this one? Straight through, or stealthy?"

"I think we…" She forgot what she was going to say, as the pressure door slid open. Rue found herself diving behind one of the hibernation chambers, like everybody else.

Three of Crisler's marines emerged, one by one, into the chamber. They all had their hands up, gloves pressed against the sides of their helmets. There were no weapons in their belt loops.

Rue relaxed and straightened up from her hiding place. "Good work, Lieutenant… Harp, is it?"

The men from Michael Bequith's team filed in after their prisoners. Mike himself was there, and safe, though his shield and the autotroph canister he towed were a bit laser-scarred. Rue couldn't help but grin at the sight.

"All safe and accounted for, I see," she said. "We were… not so lucky. We lost two."

"There's still a squad of Crisler's boys out there," said Harp. "They'll be closing in on us right now."

"But we have hostages," she pointed out.

"With respect, ma'am, we had no trouble breaking in here and capturing these men. Why should it be harder for them?"

"Because these fellows weren't expecting us," she said. "They had no idea who was attacking, or what we were after."

She turned to wave at Katz, who was peering through the slit in the far wall. "Everybody come and get your suits! Then we're getting out of here."

"May I be so bold as to ask who is getting out of here?" asked Katz as he pulled himself through the maze of coffin-shapes. "Have you come to rescue all of us, Captain, or just your crew members?"

Rue frowned at him. "I wasn't aware that you needed rescuing, Professor. You joined this expedition of your own free will."

Katz shook his head angrily. "None of us are here by choice, Captain— not any longer. Once we learned what happened on Oculus, there was a general revolt. Crisler had us all put into cold storage, and we were only awakened a few days ago, then put to work building this." He waved around at the balloon-hab.

Now that she had her people, Rue's plan had been to call the interceptors. They would be able to pierce the shack's ferrofluid hull easily, and come alongside the hab. Each could hold two or three extra people during normal flight— but Katz's staff numbered fourteen. There was no way they could pack them all into the two interceptors that were here.

"Pardon, Captain, but we've fulfilled our mission," said Harp. "These people are under no threat from the admiral. We can negotiate for their release later."

Rue looked around at the faces of the science team. She saw a lot of apprehension there. "I disagree," she said. "I think these people are pawns now that Crisler has what he wants. I think," she said to Harp, "that now might be the best time to negotiate— while we have everything he wants."