Way of No Return (Champions of the Crystal Book 8)

Chapter 16.3

Ford awoke to a fiery pain, letting out a hoarse cry before he could stop himself. When he blinked his eyes open, he realized he'd roused Lyrabeth, who rubbed at her head as she turned toward him. "Sir?" She blinked, then straightened up. "Are you hurt?"

"I think so," he said, leaning back in his seat as the pain began to ease. "Badly, I think."

Lyrabeth tore off her safety harness and grabbed for the medkit under her seat, yanking out a scanner. She frowned at it as she ran it over him. "Hm. Nothing's showing. Maybe there's interference?"

She pointed the scanner at Stecklan, who was just beginning to stir. It beeped at her, and she said, "It's reading his fractured arm. Strange. Where does it hurt, sir?"

"Stomach, maybe lower ribcage. Maybe I fractured one or two," Ford said. "It feels better now that I'm sitting up."

"Sorry, sir," Lyrabeth murmured, then laid her hand on his stomach and began prodding, trying to find the source of the pain.

Ford frowned, perplexed. "I can feel that, but it doesn't hurt. Obviously I'm not dying if the scanner's not picking anything up. Go ahead and treat Stecklan and Sastarn."

Lyrabeth nodded. "Let me know if anything changes," she said, then moved forward and slapped a painkiller patch on Stecklan's neck. She ran the scanner over Sastarn, who seemed all right, and then turned back to fit a splint onto Stecklan's arm.

Sastarn started to come around, instinctively reaching for the controls. He shook his head to clear it, then brought the navigational display up. It was too fuzzy and jumpy to be readable, so he switched it off again and brought up a diagnostic screen, which undulated slightly but was readable.

"Can we move?" Ford asked.

"Not sure yet, sir. I need to get out and make sure the engines aren't buried," Sastarn replied, unfastening his safety harness. "If not, there's a settlement over the ridge; we can look for transportation there."

He made his way carefully past Ford to the rear hatch and wrestled with it for a moment. Dirt rained down as he pushed it open, but it stopped after a moment, and Sastarn climbed through the hatchway. He returned a moment later, looking more cheerful. "We're good. A little crumpled, and I'm not sure it'll fly straight, but it'll fly. Think I'd better just switch the instrumentation off and take it full manual."

"Yes. Don't rely on any of your instruments," Ford said. "This close to a Way, they could all be giving distorted readings. Can you do that?"

"Yes, sir," Sastarn replied, closing the hatch. "It's been awhile, but I did blind flying as part of my training. The problem is navigation. Do you know where we go from here?"

"Northwest," Ford replied. "I think I'll recognize when we get close to Vahreen. If not, we can stop and ask for directions."

"Right." Sastarn strapped himself back in and looked at Lyrabeth, who had just finished splinting Stecklan's arm. "He all right?"

"Yes," she replied, packing the medkit back up and going back to her seat.

Stecklan said, "At least it's not my gun arm. I won't be any use as copilot though. Sir, do you want to come up here?"

"Yes," Ford said. He and Stecklan switched seats as quickly as they could while Sastarn carefully powered up the engines, which had shut down automatically in the crash. Slowly, painfully, the flyer lifted out of the dirt, wobbling a little as Sastarn tried to get a feel for manual handling.

"There's a strong updraft here," Sastarn said, keeping the flyer within a meter of the ground and beginning to ascend the hill they'd crashed into.

"Probably all over," Ford said. "We'll be lucky not to lose our atmosphere completely. I think Mother is the only reason we haven't."

"I hope she'll at least provide some time for evacuations," Lyrabeth murmured.

Stecklan said, "The hillfolk don't have space-going vehicles. They won't be able to evacuate in time."

"Once we get where we're going," Ford said, "Sastarn can go transport people down to the sub-orbital center, if it seems safe. Maybe we can get some of the children out, at least." It occurred to him that he had not offered his staff a chance to evacuate, and added, "Or any of you who wish to go. I can't leave without Sabrina, but we'll understand if you want to take the better shot at surviving this."

Lyrabeth said, "Personally, I think being where the Inheritor is constitutes the better shot at surviving this."

"And I wouldn't miss this for the world," Sastarn said, not taking his eyes off the windscreen as they cleared the top of the hill. "You don't get many chances to fly blind through a war zone. Imagine the free drinks I'll get off this story."

"And I have no choice," Stecklan observed. "Though I confess to some dismay at being the one-armed bodyguard in this tale."

Lyrabeth smiled. "It'll just make you seem braver."

Sastarn said, "Can you point out the road to Vahreen? There's an intersection ahead. I'm going to swing over to the road so we don't get lost. The terrain will be easier going, too, since we can't make much altitude."

Ford contemplated the view for a moment. "The one on the right. Lyrabeth, grab my case, would you? I want to see if my Kyan detector works at all in the interference."

"We know where some of them are. Look." Sastarn nodded to the next hill, where a ship was struggling to land in the wind.

"Good. Let's see if the jamming works, then," Ford said, turning to accept the large hard-sided case Lyrabeth was maneuvering between the seats. He opened the case, then fiddled with the complex contraption inside for a moment.

"How will we know if it works?" Sastarn asked.

"I expect we'll see some confusion," Ford replied. "I don't know how centralized their command is, or what individuals may do without orders. But at a minimum, it will keep them from reporting our position."

Stecklan leaned forward. "That is good, since we are going dangerously near them if we follow the road. What is the range on that thing?"

"It can detect from quite far," Ford said, "several miles, in fact. The jamming probably has a shorter range."

"Probably?" Stecklan asked, frowning.

"We're about to find out," Ford replied. "Hopefully."