Free Escape Velocity: The Anthology by Unknown

with—”
           “ That’s not true. You can still be great, you will be great. I know it. I’ve seen it. But first you have to get off this tower. Otherwise you will be nothing .”
           He wavered. He looked up to the top of the tower, then over the buildings to see the tanks and infantry swarming past the breached defenses. He looked back down at her, into her eyes—those brilliant eyes—and his anger and fear faltered. But he could see no alternative. “I have to do this!” he barked in frustration. “Running away would just—”
           “ The people don’t need an anonymous martyr—they need a leader. They need you , but they need you alive.” She kept her eyes on his, gripping his attention, focusing her mind on his. Piercing the clouds of his confusion, she opened to him a moment of vision, a flash of insight and clarity. In that brief instant he could see, for the first time, a future for himself that was worth living.   
           “ I…I see it now…. But what if it’s not real?”
           “ It is real. I know it is.”
     
    An artillery spotter activated the zoom on his scope. “Hey, there’s somebody on the tower.”
           “ What are they doing?”
           “ Can’t tell. There’s two of ‘em. Wait—they’re armed.”
           “ Snipers. Take ‘em out.”
           The spotter activated the laser rangefinder on his scope and let the computer do the rest. “Target confirmed: energy tower, sector 7G.”
           “ Fire.”
           “ Tally-ho.”
     
    Nessa sensed the laser guidance beam brush across her hand. Alarmed, she turned to search the darkened hills. The night was thick with smoke and dust, and constantly fractured by flashes of light and noise, but nothing escaped her gaze. She shouted at Mosey to get moving but saw the distant muzzle flash. She knew there was only one option left.
           The shell screamed in at terrific speed. Nessa flung one arm out as if to protect herself, and gripped Mosey with the other. A few whispered words and she felt a growing pulse of energy within her like a beast awakening. The cacophony of the raging battle muted itself to her ears as an orb of electric light formed around her and her companion. She tracked the shell with her eyes. At the last moment she tensed her body and a crackling, brilliant surge of white light stabbed from her outstretched arm toward the incoming projectile. They met, and the light embraced the shell like a soft, dreamy pillow—then crushed it. The roaring fireball rolled over them, engulfing the tower, shredding the steel like linen, and smashing through the buildings beyond.
           As the blast tore them from their collapsing perch, Nessa wrapped both arms around her ward and buried her head against him. Plunging down, Nessa cried out a last desperate plea—for Mother.
     
    “ Mosey!”
           Someone hissing his name. He cracked his eyes. Night.
           “ Get up, man. They’re coming.”
           He remembered the battle, the explosion. “Who’s coming?”
           “ The martials, man. They’re right up the road. You got to move.”
           He rolled over. Everything hurt. He crawled across cool grass until Philemon pulled him into a thick bank of shrubs. They were in the wooded park half a mile from the havens. “How did I get here? I don’t remember anything after the shelling.”
           “ Dunno. Guess your body took over and ran off like a mad fool, same as everyone else.”
           “ Where’s Nessa?”
           “ I seen her a while ago, draggin’ all her stupid gear down that trail by the school. Don’t know where she is now, though.”
           A military patrol appeared at the edge of the park, a few hundred feet away. Their lights flashed through the night.
           “ Time to fly,” said Philemon. “Can you handle it?”
           Mosey