Doc, Preacher, and Smudge had been placed not only as reinforcements but also as a backup plan in case Alec's team failed. They were waiting where the bridge ended, and minutes before the train would be able to transmit and receive a radio signal. They waited in the ditches off to the side of the V-shaped monorail. Without the aid of Quip's speed and power or Aamaranth blood, the shock of jumping on a train moving at this speed would rip a body apart.
It was Preacher who had solved that one for them. In the two days building up to this moment, the Teretha had been busy at work using the cor-melters they had to create a glass-smooth half-tunnel run that paralleled the train in the last eight hundred metres. The rest was a stroke of genius or a bout of insanity; only the results would show. Alec spied the group giving the hover lift a push down its impossibly steep beginning. He looked to the three women. Maywil was still insisting there was another way. They didn't have time for that.
Alec jumped in, "If you love the woman, then let her have her own mind." The three stopped, and each face turned to face him. If they had time, Alec was sure in that moment the three would have turned on him in unison and ripped him to shreds. It didn't matter how much truth he spoke. He continued on to remind them they had no time for skinning him alive. "I'd like to give you more than that, Maywil, and Leana, you too." He softened his tone, "but we don't have any time for that. If you care for Leana, then honour her sacrifice, Maywil. T'sala muttered something in Teretha that sounded to Alec like 'so is the wind,' and that seemed to open the door for Maywil to see sense. She reached out and held Leana's face with the palm of her hand.
"I would have made a blood bond with you forever. Equal among equals, yet a heart like no other. You are a wonderful, foolish woman. If you wish, when you go, you may find your final resting place here." Maywil pointed to her chest as if exposing a beating heart, and a tear dripped down Leana's cheek. "You are much too brave for this." The Teretha warrior woman stated as she took the tear on her finger. She pressed it to her lips and let it sit there. "We are bonded, you are in my blood now, Leana of the settlement."
"And you are in mine," Leana responded, biting a trembling lip.
BOOM! A large shockwave from an explosion launched the train forward. Preacher's plan had begun, and the time for hearts to speak was over. Alec singled to T'sala to meet the group of warriors that had set up the next stages in the rear train car. He followed after her, leaving the two alone for the final goodbye. She emerged a moment later, and Alec was sure he saw her wipe a tear from her eye. He quickly averted his eyes.
"Move metal man, that's what you're made for." Her tone was gruff, but her expression implied one of thanks for ignoring the obvious. Alec took off down the train aisle with Maywil falling in behind. He was made for a great many things, but he felt incapable of doing them without his impact suit. He hoped that in the height of battle, the group had missed his clear apprehension at every move, every thought. They had to be perfect, or rather, Alec had to be perfect in every step, or he risked losing his light forever. It had been so long that he had forgotten the plight of mortals, and feeling it again was mental anguish. Did they all second-guess themselves as much as he did now?
They passed down the lines of cars till T'sala came into view. As radiant as she was, Alec found, with his train of thought, there was a moment of disdain. Her carefree smile and laughter drove home the point that she had the armour that had kept him so wonderfully secure for a lifetime. He did not fault her for it, and the thought quickly dissipated. From what he had experienced of this wonderful purple-blue woman in just three days, he would have done what he had to save her, and them, again and again.
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She had the Teretha warriors arranged in two lines down the sides of the aisle. They each held extended ends of winchcoils with the hooks connected to the train platform. Maywil took up a position in the back as T'sala and Alec took the firing end of the winch coils and took aim down the track behind them. Preachers plan had seemed to work thus far.
Preacher had told them it was a matter of physics in their quirky way. An engine in the slipstream of a faster-moving object can achieve much greater speeds than it is normally capable of. The Cor-melters had made a perfectly smooth, guided run for the hover-lift to catch the passing train's slipstream. The only challenge had been how to motivate the hover-lift to be able to find that perfect spot.
The fool had used unstable Aamaranth, by all standards, a bomb to force the hovering sledge forward down the tube. This is where Alec and T'sala took aim; they could both see the carved path, anticipating the sleds' arrival. He pushed Aamaranth into his focus, and time slowed. For T'sala, since her transformation, that level of focus was life now. Alec wondered what that would be like. The sled came into view, hovering a few feet from the glassy half-tube. Doc was in the front, his wild black hair flowing around the goggles that each one on the sled wore.
Alec and T'sala fired their winchcoils, and they landed true, each catching the hover-lift on the front. They grabbed the cables with the warriors, and on Maywil's signal, they heaved. The craft slid up the side of the half-tube runway, but not all the way out. Maywil signalled again, and they all let the slack go. The lift swung to the other sideother side of itsits channel and caught some air before falling back into the tube. Maywil's final signal, and they heaved again. The hover-lift caught air, and the cables pulled it up and out behind the train. At first, it seemed as if it would function as nothing more than an anchor. The magnetics on the train caused it to dip with the weight, but then the slipstream caught it up and, with the winchcoils to steady it, finally fell smoothly in line.
Doc waved from his place atop the hovering platform. Preacher was doing some kind of jig, with one hand gripped to the guide rail with inhuman strength. The rest of the Teretha and Smudge were clinging for dear life, crouched low beneath metal wind shields. Now for the part Alec was dreading. For the sake of those around him, to invoke courage, he told himself, he did not hesitate but slid out onto the winchcoil cable. He knew if he did hesitate and consider what Smudge he would leave behind from falling, then he would stay on the train out of choice rather than by destiny like Leana. The thought of her bravery spurred him on, and he slid the last few feet to the hover platform.
T'sala was letting out a whoop of joy as she slid down the cable on her side. She did not have her feet on the cable; she was hanging on by her hands alone, smiling in a way that made Alec jealous yet again. She landed softly and indicated that the others should join. They came down two by two until Maywil stood at the train's edge. She looked back over her shoulder as if longing to run back, but then slid down the cable herself, where T'sala took her arm to steady her aboard.
They all took their places, crouched behind metal wind screens. Alec looked down at the welding on the metal triangles that covered each of them. They were more than screens from the wind. These, another of Preacher's designs, were to shield them from the flames and debris of an explosion.
The plan was to use the Baron's train as a battering ram and distraction. This hover cart would cut loose early and use its momentum to slide into the explosion in the chaos. From there, Smudge would guide them through the hidden paths of the rift-station to the main platform, where they could disable any gateway travel. The plan at that time had included Leana amongst this group. Alec looked over to the empty blast triangle that was to be hers. Without her sacrifice, this would all be futile. Alec just hoped that it would echo into what came after the explosion. He felt the only way to honour everyone on this plan was to bring them success. He went to check his impact suit's straps subconsciously. They weren't there. He mustered his very mortal courage; even if the cost included him alongside Leana, Tusong, and the others who were lost, it would be well worth it.
The train tore down the track in the glow of a marvellous desert sunrise. If any, today would be a glorious day to die. Alec looked to T'sala and her look of unbridled happiness, perhaps not today.
