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hour visiting two parks out in the working levels of the ship, and now they were headed one level inward by train. Ani and Dayn and a few others had caught up with them, and sat talking softly near the back of the train car. Ruby let her head rest on Joel’s shoulder, lulled into dozing dreams by the low conversations around them, the soothing whoosh of the train, and the warmth of Joel’s arm against her back.
    The whine of metal on metal snapped Ruby’s eyes open, and Joel’s arm tightened around her. His other arm shot out and braced them as the train car jerked and jerked again.
    They inched forward and came to a complete stop. Dim light showed the outside walls, just a touch more gray than the black of the deep tunnel.
    Ruby stood and peered through the window.
    Joel stood beside her, close but not touching. “What do you see?”
    â€œNothing yet. Doors and darkness.”
    Behind them, Onor started yelling at people. “Up. Be ready.”
    The train jerked forward, rocked, and jerked forward again. Ruby barely managed to keep her feet under her.
    The station and train doors aligned. Actually, one door, and with only a small window in it. Nothing more than a maintenance stop.
    Perhaps the Fire had another damned problem. But if so, she hadn’t felt it or seen it, and surely Ix would have used the train car’s speakers to tell them about it.
    The station door opened.
    Joel shoved Ruby behind him. His stunner appeared in his hand as if it sprang there by his will alone. Onor stood beside him, fumbling with his own gun. Haric was a step behind Onor and next to Ruby, his face ashen with fright.
    The train doors slid open.
    Ruby didn’t have a weapon. She peered around Joel’s back. The room was full of men and women wearing pure red and blue, a protest in color. They pointed stunners at the train doors, aimed, shot.
    The bodyguard closest to Joel fell, fast but loose, the boneless crumple of the stunned.
    Joel fired once, twice, his shoulders moving against her as he aimed again. He stood completely exposed, as exposed as their attackers’ front line. The groups were maybe twenty steps apart.
    A scream from inside the station drove their enemies toward the train car.
    Ani tugged on Ruby’s arm, pulling her back as the orderly group outside turned into a mob and rushed the train doors.
    Joel twisted oddly and leaned toward her. She leaned back into him for a moment to hold him up, then stumbled.
    He fell on top of her, face to face. He caught some of his weight on his arm, crying out. At least Joel wasn’t the dead-weight of the completely stunned, although he must have taken a partial hit. His eyes were wide, like the idea that he could be hurt had startled him.
    Ruby hissed for Ani.
    People fought hand to hand, clogging the train’s doorway.
    Onor and Haric were in the front.
    Ruby spotted Ani’s dark skin through the legs of a tall guard who leaned over her and Joel.
    From behind her, a barked command. “Down!”
    Onor ducked, pulling Haric down with him. The guards fired over them.
    Ani scuttled up and she and Ruby each took one of Joel’s arms and tugged him back. He struggled and then found his feet, standing up near the back of the train car. His left arm hung loosely at his side and a grimace of pain marred his features. He turned toward the door but Ruby held him back. “Wait until you’re steady.”
    He grimaced but obeyed. He climbed up on one of the train seats and looked over the heads of their defenders.
    Ruby stood beside Ani, trying to make sense of the chaotic movement. Screams and grunts came from inside and outside the car. The stunners were too quiet to hear over the chaos of commands and counter-commands.
    One of their guards fell backward into the train, hitting his head on a seat and gashing his scalp. He had been stunned, and didn’t react at all to the blood pouring down the side of his face from the fresh gash.