Page 42 of Starfallen
Chapter 15
Losing Control
The doors at the endof the hall burst open and a woman, wearing the silver uniform and insignia of an instructor, plows through. “There you are,” she shouts over the alarm in Baltin while pointing at the kid. “Ryland, come here. You’re not supposed to be...” The words die on her lips as her stare lands on me and her jaw drops.
So much for staying undercover.
This kid—Ryland—pokes out his bottom lip and shakes his head.
The alarms continue to shriek but I can’t find anything on the network causing the alarm related to this section of the city.
“What has set off the warning system?” I ask.
She strides forward and clamps a hand on Ryland’s shoulder. “Y-your Majesty?”
“I don’t have time for this.” I wave a hand in dismissal. “Why are the sector alarms going off?”
“A massive dust storm, half a kilometer away, is heading straight toward this area.” A line forms between her eyebrows as she glances at Tilly, who stands at my side and nibbles on her bottom lip.
I put a hand on her back, between her shoulder blades. “This woman is that kid’s teacher,” I explain in English. “There’s a storm heading this way, that’s why the alarms are going crazy.”
Nodding, Tilly’s face relaxes.
I refocus on the instructor. “Are the meteorology drones and relays not working?” I’d set the system up myself weeks ago to give plenty of warning for incoming lightning or windstorms so no one would be caught unaware.
It doesn’t make sense the sensors would give such short notice.
“Everything had been working fine, but lately the engineers have encountered issues with the network. Things aren’t working like they’re supposed to, or they’re lagging with critical information.”
I rub my forehead. “Okay, then we can just redirect the storm away from this area with theStaleth.”
She shakes her head. “No. There’s a problem with that program, too.”
“Goddamn it.” I bypass the entire Mars network and access the weather array onboard the Baltin flagship—myship.
The woman gathers Ryland’s collar in her fist and murmurs into his ear, shaking him gently.
I block them out and concentrate.There it is. On the ship’s sensors as it orbits the planet, I see a six-kilometer-wide cloud of destruction heading this way. “We only have minutes before it’s here.” To fix the system errors, I need to be hardwired into my ship to find the programming issues.
All I can do right now is protect my family.
Bending, I scoop our backpacks onto each shoulder. “Red, grab KJ. We’re going to make a run for it.” I turn to the instructor. “Grab that little terror and follow us.”
“What’s happening?” Tilly asks as she sprints beside me.
“Sorry, Red. We need to get low and away from these structures. The winds of Martian storms throw rocks. These are made to withstand a lot of force, but I’m not about to take a chance. There’s a hatch around the corner leading to underground maintenance shafts.”
“You built a city on Mars that can’t survive storms?”
“Normally yes, but this one is a monster and can’t be redirected by our weather system because things aren’t working correctly. I don’t want to risk it—not with you and KJ in here.”
Or that little brat.He might be annoying, but he’s still only a child.
We reach the hatch, which is nestled on the floor in a small alcove. I kneel, entering an authorization code into the control panel next to the steel circle.
Outside, red sand swirls violently through the air.
“Can’t you just port us?” Tilly’s voice holds a note of panic.
