Fifty-One: Ashton Childe

FIFTY-ONE

ASHTON CHILDE

“It’s been over an hour,” I said. “Maybe it’s gone?”

Two more impacts had followed the one that destroyed our shuttle, and both of them had been directly outside the cave’s mouth. Seeking shelter within, we’d descended a flight of large spiral stairs, working our way deep beneath the surface of the Object in order to avoid further blasts.

“You’re welcome to go check,” Clay said. She wiped off the neck of her water bulb, refastened its cap, and dropped it back into the crate with the survival rations. “But I ain’t sticking my head out ’til I know that Carnivore’s fucked off. It could be sat up there right now, just waiting for us, and the minute we break cover…” She slammed her fist into the palm of her other hand. “Blam!”

“Then, what?” I let the frustration creep into my voice. I had no desire to linger in the path of an orbital bombardment, but I was nevertheless aware that each step downwards took me further from the wreck of the liner and the completion of my mission. “We can’t hide down here forever.”

“I hear that.” She turned and lowered herself onto the next step. “We can’t signal the captain from down here. That’s why we keep going. See how deep this rabbit hole goes. And maybe, just maybe, we find a way back up where nobody’s looking for us, and we get a message to her. Tell her to come down here and get us.”

“What about the wreck?”

She turned away, contemplating the next step. “Ain’t nobody alive there.”

“How can you be so sure?”

She crouched, preparing to swing her legs over the lip. “Because that Carnivore zeroed in on us from high orbit. There ain’t no way to escape that.”

I knew she was right. There were precious few places to hide in these canyons. Nevertheless… “The ship was hiding when we arrived, waiting to jump us. Maybe it didn’t stick around after the crash. Maybe somebody could have got out while it was concealing itself?”

Clay shrugged. “You’re probably right,” she said. “But my guess is it sent those mercenaries we saw as a clean-up crew. Anyone it missed, they will have got.” She dropped down onto the next step. The sound of her boots hitting the stone echoed up the stairwell. “And they’ve had a week to search that wreck. If anyone survived the crash, they’re dead now.”

Preston and I watched her descend until she’d passed around the curve of the stair and become hidden by the central pillar. Then we exchanged looks.

“What do you think?” I asked him.