Altered Destiny
Page 27
If she could get to a shuttle, she might be able to escape the ship. She probably couldn’t outrun the nova, but she could at least try. Several twists and turns later, she entered the expansive hangar bay.
She located the nearest ship, a transport shuttle, and dashed over to it. Staccato burst of explosion shook her as she sprinted, nearly taking her off her feet. Reaching the ship she dashed up the ramp and disengaged her shield, which had gone mostly red.
Leaping into the pilot’s seat, she immediately scanned the controls. Dammit, all in Crevak. She would have to use her wrench as an interpreter. Several moments later, she was connected to the ship, scrolling through looking for the symbols to power up.
It was taking too long, she knew. And then she spotted it, the combination she needed. Keying in the symbols, the shuttle powered up and engines came on line. She hit the throttle and launched toward the exit. She didn’t bother to retract the landing gear, instead she focused on locating the shields.
The shuttle rocketed out of the hangar bay, streaking away from the battleship, Alis pushing as much speed out of the bulky craft as she could manage. Then the Crevak flagship detonated, disappearing in an expanding shell of debris and energy.
She knew she couldn’t outrun the blast. The most she could hope for was that the shuttle’s shields would keep her from becoming vaporized. Crossing her fingers, she diverted all the shuttle’s energy into its shields.
The blast wave hit, sending a shudder through the shuttle, as it was accelerated by the shock wave. The shuttle continued to rattle and shake, as it was driven to ever higher velocities by the expanding shell of destruction.
Just when she thought she was going to make it, the shields started to fail, alarms wailing and warning lights flashing. Resigning herself to her fate, she thought of her mom, of Kyren, of Elarra and Benjam. She even thought fondly of Tharox, as surprising as that was to her.
Then the shields failed and the blast wave hit the shuttle. It shook and shuddered, controls panels blowing out in a shower of sparks. The ship went dark, but somehow remained intact. The blast wave streamed past the shuttle, but it had somehow survived.
However, it was completely dead, burned out and lifeless. She had survived instant destruction, only to be resigned to a slow death as life support systems failed. She looked out the porthole, and realized she had an even more pressing problem.
The surface of the craft was beginning to glow orange-yellow, as friction with the planet Banuh’s atmosphere caused the ship’s hull to heat up. She was heading for a meteoric end. She had survived the Crevak flagship’s destruction, only to be done in by uncontrolled atmospheric re-entry.
She checked again for any systems that were still operational. It seemed the comm was undamaged, although there wasn’t enough power to initiate a transmission. Unless… maybe her wrench could supply enough power for at least a short transmission. Maybe she could make a mayday call. Maybe someone would respond.
Maybes were better than nothing, she thought grimly. Transforming her wrench, she began to interface it with the comm system. Miraculously, it powered up when she activated the wrench’s power supply. It was draining power rapidly, though. She would only have a few seconds to send a message.
Dialing in to the Consortium’s quantum network, she initiated a mayday call. The power drained from her wrench and the system went dark. She could only hope someone heard her transmission.
Epilogue
Elarra looked around, eyes resting on each of her companions before moving to the next. They had lost Alis and Tharox both. Yet there was still hope, hope that the end of the galaxy might not be the end. Kyren still had an integral part to play. Perhaps there was a path to victory, perhaps she just hadn’t seen it yet.
It was difficult to hope, though, after having suffered such tremendous losses. The atmosphere was somber, nobody spoke. The pain was clear, the loss undeniable.
“What now?” Kyren asked half-heartedly.
“Nothing…” Geri answered despondently.
“The Kirugi is still out there, that is what now,” Elarra replied stoically.
She met Kyren’s eye. Suddenly, she felt as if an electric current had passed through her body. And then the vision began.
Once again she stood in the street, but this time there were no people screaming, no monster on the horizon. She looked to the sky and saw a great fireball streaking toward the ground. It impacted with the surface of the planet, creating a huge mushroom cloud.
Mere minutes later, the great beast climbed from the massive crater. It stood to it’s full height, taller than the tallest buildings, as she watched small egg-like pods falling away from the creature’s sides. It plowed into the city, crashing through buildings as more pods dropped free.
The creature was a dull brown color with six spindly legs coming from its insect-like torso. Each leg had more joints than seemed appropriate, and ended in a three fingered clawed hand. Its head was the worst, though. Broad and flat, it had a ridge of bone running around the back of its head. Its repulsive face was like a cross between a bear and a pit bull.
Soon enough, people screamed and ran around her, fleeing the creatures that emerged from the pods. They were miniature versions of the massive monster. They were chasing down the fleeing civilians and tearing them into shreds.
Suddenly a truly massive warp portal appeared before her. A giant robot stepped through, assuming a fighting stance and squaring off against the giant beast.
As before, the wave of smaller creatures tore into the unprotected crowd. But this time, unlike her previous visions, a squad of Consortium marines appeared on the scene. They began to fire on the creatures, their projectile weapons dealing kinetic death to the hideous creatures.
The Consortium troops formed a defensive corridor, allowing the fleeing civilians an opportunity to escape. She heard a sonic boom and looked to the sky. Astounded, she saw the Ashari speeding through the air. Her weapons were in full bloom, barking particle beams, all directed against the organic rockets that were launching from all over the city.
It seemed that the Ashari would be overwhelmed by the sheer number of rockets attempting to leave the atmosphere. Suddenly, dozens of warp portals opened and Consortium ships streamed through, adding their fire to the Ashari’s.
The vision faded, her sight returning to normal.
“What was it? What did you see, Elarra?” Kyren questioned eagerly.
“Hope,” she said. “I saw hope.”
Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed Altered Destiny. If so I’d be honored if you took a moment to leave a review, they are very important to us authors. You can find the next book in the series, Destiny Reckoning, on Amazon and Audible.
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Pursued by a relentless bounty hunter, forced to flee to a long-forgotten star system…
Long before Theophax was recruited by the Oracle to find a lost starship, he roamed the lawless Xia sector in search of technological relics and the score to end all scores. But as usual he’s run into a bit of trouble, thanks to a botched job. The most powerful warlord in the sector has placed a bounty on his head, dead or alive. Now he is on the run, seeking an alien relic known only as The Object. Will he be able to evade Baron Kormugon’s bounty hunters long enough to find his prize?
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