by Barry Solway
***
Their lesson cut short when Anna announced they were nearing the hypergate. As with their first jump, she put the conversation with the hypergate control room over the speakers. “Latanu hyperport seven-dash-nine-seven, this is recreation class six vehicle Ascension. Transmitting jump authentication codes. Request for hyperjump to Ghor.”
“Roger that, Ascension,” the dock replied. “ID approved, cleared for hyperjump in nine minutes.”
“That’s a long time,” Mel said.
“Hmm, a bit. Not completely unusual. We waited seven minutes on the final jump from Chatur to here,” Anna replied.
Something about the transaction nagged at the back of Mel’s brain. They lined up in the hyperdrive runway for their launch time to arrive. Mel’s nervousness increased with each passing minute. As the nine-minute mark approached, Mel could feel the engines vibrate. Anna prepared for the jump, but the gate wasn’t turning black.
“Is something wrong?” Mel asked.
“I don’t know,” Anna said. “Hyper-dock seven-nine-seven, this is the Ascension. We are prepared for hyperjump. What’s the delay?”
The radio stayed quiet for thirty seconds. Just as Mel was about to interrupt, the dock control responded. “Apologies, Ascension. We had a malfunction in the control room. It’s fixed now, and we’re starting the sequence. Prepare to jump in three minutes.”
“Roger that, seven-nine-seven. Ready to jump in three.”
“That was weird,” Jon said.
Mel’s forehead creased as she considered the delay. Then it hit her.
“It’s a trap. They’re doing the same thing to us that we did on the first jump. They’re deliberately delaying to keep us here. They’re wasting time until the Harmony gets to us.”
“They can’t know it’s us,” Anna said.
“Bet they can. And you still haven’t told us what happened back on the station,” Mel said. “We need to do something. This is a trap.”
“If we leave, we’ll miss the window,” Anna said. “It’s only a minute away. There’s nowhere else to go.”
Mel didn’t know what to think. They had been twenty minutes ahead of the Harmony. They lost nine of those minutes waiting for the first jump, then some time waiting for the hyperport to respond to them and now another three minutes waiting for the next window. Drawing it out just enough to make it seem reasonable and not raise suspicion while eating up chunks of time.
“How far out is the Harmony?” Mel asked.
“Seven minutes,” Anna replied tersely. “Thirty seconds to jump. Leaving now would be silly. We’ll be—”
Anna cut off in mid-sentence. Her hologram disappeared, and everyone waited. Mel realized she was holding her breath. Suddenly, the ship shuddered to life. Mel held onto her seat as they accelerated hard and banked steeply to the left.
“Anna! What’s going on?”
“You were right. I detected an alternate sub-channel in use between the hyperport and the Harmony,” Anna said. Mel heard a note of frustration and fear in Anna’s voice. That was twice now in the last few hours that Anna had been put on the defensive.
“What are we going to do?” Gorgeous said softly.
“The Harmony is five minutes out, and they’re faster than us. If we had more time, I could hack the hyperport.” Anna hesitated. “Probably. It doesn’t matter. I have a backup plan, but it’s not good. We can’t outrun them. The only choice is to head down to the planet and hide in one of the cities.”
Mel’s heart hammered in her chest. This was turning out so horribly wrong. But then, what had she really expected? The idea of escaping from Kathor was always risky. She had chosen to risk death over imprisonment. But just hours ago, there had so much hope, even with all the challenges they faced. Now, it just looked impossible.
“Everyone strap in, this is going to get bumpy,” Anna said.
Mel and Jon strapped into their cockpit seats, while Riley and Gorgeous scrambled back to the main cabin. Mel could feel the ship accelerating as they continued banking and the planet Latanu came into view.
Anna’s holographic image disappeared as the ship shook slightly, but her voice came over the speakers. “The shaking is due to the damaged engine. I’m overloading the remaining one and we’re still only running at sixty percent. This is going to get ugly.”
There was nothing Mel could do. Pulling at her safety harness, she scanned the control panel, but this ship didn’t have any weapons. She tried to relax, but it was impossible. She looked at Jon and saw that he had his eyes closed and his lips were moving. Was he actually praying? That wasn’t what she would have expected.
The planet loomed larger and larger in their view. Anna banked slightly right, then straightened. They headed directly down.
“The Harmony is hailing us. They want us to surrender, or they’ll fire. I’m not going to bother playing it. This is it, everyone. We either surrender now, or try to land and lose them. Anyone want to get off?”
“I’m not going back to being a prisoner,” Jon said.
“Go for it, Anna,” Mel said.
Anna didn’t need to reply. An orange glow filled Mel’s vision as the front of the ship met the planet’s atmosphere. With a jolt, they slid sideways violently. Mel fought off a bout of nausea.
“A direct hit. We just lost Riley and Jon’s bedroom,” Anna said. “I’ve pressurized the main cabin to seal it off from the damage. This is playing havoc with flight controls.”
Mel.
Mel had been so focused on looking out the window at the glowing orange front of the ship that she jumped in surprise. The voice was in her head. Anna was talking to her through the translator.
Anna? Mel said, remembering to sub-vocalize. Mel cast a quick look at Jon, but he still had his eyes closed and wasn’t paying attention to Mel at all.
Listen to me carefully. We land in three minutes. We’re going to crash on the outskirts of a city named Svarga. I found a spot in the woods a bit less than two miles from a warehouse district. Once we land, you have to move quickly. The Harmony won’t have any place to land, and that should buy us time. They will need to get ground forces onsite, but you won’t have more than ten or fifteen minutes as a head start. Go to the warehouse district, straight north from the landing site. There’s a tower there. The building directly west of the tower, you need to be there within thirty minutes of our landing. That’s crucial.
Anna, wait. I don’t understand—
There’s no time. Take my qCore with you. It doesn’t have any communication capabilities. I won’t be able to help you once you’re off the ship. I’ve done everything I can to give you a shot. I think I found something down there that will help us. It’s a long shot. You’ve been amazing, keeping your head and leading the others. I’m trusting you with my life, Mel. Once you get to a safe place, try to find a computer cluster to plug me back into. I wish I had time to say more. Good luck.
Mel sat in stunned silence. She leaned forward, not bothering to sub-vocalize as she called out to Anna. “Anna! What the hell does that mean? What am I supposed to do?”
At that moment the ship rocked again. Mel could see the ground rushing up outside the window.
When Anna spoke, she was strangely calm. “We were just hit by another missile. The ship will break apart in forty-five seconds. Fortunately, we’ll crash land in twenty. Brace yourselves.”
Mel wanted to scream. Why had Anna told her that over the translator instead of saying it to everyone? The realization that once they landed they would lose Anna gave Mel the chills. They would have no way to know what the Order was doing. No way to know where to go or what to expect. Anna had been crucial to their survival.
Mel felt herself collapsing inward. She couldn’t do this. Anna had called her a leader, but she wasn’t. She was good at encouraging people and being optimistic, but she couldn’t command respect the way a real leader should. She didn’t know what she was doing. Why would anyone follow her?
Her tho
ughts cut short as tall trees loomed through the front window. She thought it would have been a better idea to be in the main cabin after all, but it was far too late now. Everything tumbled into chaos as the nose of the ship rose slightly into the sky and they crashed into the forest. Screeching filled the cabin, as if the ship were a live animal being torn apart piece by piece. They plowed through the trees and into the earth, a giant cloud of dirt and debris filling the front window. The power cut out, plunging them into darkness, broken by occasional swirls of light through the dust and smoke. The ship sped forward until, with a sickening groan, it stopped dead.
Chapter 10
Groaning, Mel realized she had passed out for a moment. Yells from the main cabin filtered through the groaning of the ship. Mel gingerly felt her chest where the belt had cut into her flesh. Her ribs were sore, and it was hard to breathe. The final message from Anna echoed in her head, and she had an urge to jump up and race away. But everything hurt too much to move.
“Jon, are you okay?” she called, trying to make him out through the vague gray light.
A shadow shifted next to her, followed by a low moan. “Yeah. Sore, but I think everything works.”
“We have to get out of here. They’ll land and start looking for us. I’ll explain once we’re on the move. Can you go back and tell the others?”
“Ugh. Yeah, okay. Just give me a minute.”
Mel felt the same way, except she wanted a few hours. But that was time they didn’t have. She forced herself to unbuckle the restraining harness and reached forward to grab the qCore device where Anna was stored. “We don’t have a minute. I’m grabbing Anna; go tell the others we need to move. Now.”
Jon grunted, but didn’t reply. She heard the click of his belt, then he slid forward out of the seat and stumbled back to the main cabin. Mel removed the qCore from the slot and followed him.
Beats, Riley, and Gorgeous were already out of their chairs. Jon told them they needed to get out of the ship, but the others crouched around, barely able to see in the near darkness. Mel waved to them to gather around.
“Anna sent me a message right before the crash, through the translator. She said to go to a city about two miles north of here, to a warehouse. She didn’t say why. And we have to hurry. Anna thought the Order would be only ten or fifteen minutes behind us. Are there any supplies we need?”
“We have our packs from the last gauntlet,” Riley said.
“Grab them, fast. And get any water you can. But there’s no time for anything else. One minute and we leave.”
“Is anyone hurt?” Gorgeous asked.
“There’s no time for anyone to be hurt,” Mel said, clenching her teeth. “Come on, everyone, we can do this. But we need to move.” She climbed over the wreckage to the back cabins. It had been sealed by Anna when they’d first been hit, but now the door was twisted in its frame.
“Beats, can you open this?” Mel asked.
Beats limped forward. Grabbing the door, he pulled it away from the frame and threw it to the side. Mel looked into a room of devastation. One side of the back of the ship was gone, along with most of the floor. Broken trees and mounds of dirt and rock had collected in the hallway, and the door to the remaining small cabin had been ripped off. Mel struggled across the twisted floor to the remaining room and peeked inside. She spotted her and Gorgeous’s packs and quickly grabbed them. She threw one to Riley.
“This is all we have,” Mel said. “My water bottle is still full. Check the one in Gorgeous’s pack.”
Riley rummaged through the pack while Mel spoke to Beats. “How’s the leg? Can you walk?”
Beats nodded. “Bruised in the landing. I won’t be dancing, but I can walk.”
Mel shrugged her pack on. She hoped that was true. She really didn’t want to leave Beats behind.
“Her bottle is full,” Riley said, throwing the backpack over his shoulder. “Just like being in the gauntlets again.”
“I filled it yesterday,” Gorgeous said. “I don’t even remember why.”
“Habit, I guess,” Mel said. “This is exactly like the gauntlets. We’re being chased, we have limited resources, and we need to survive. All of us. We’ve done this before, under worse conditions. Let’s go.”
They slid down the wreckage of the rear cabin area to a tree and then climbed down the tree to the ground below. Pausing for a moment, Mel couldn’t help but examine the alien plant life. The tree was large, like an oak, but the outside ‘bark’ was smooth and almost had a plastic feel to it. It seemed to glisten slightly, but wasn’t wet or sticky when she touched it. The leaves were round and bright green, but had thin veins of different colors running through them—yellows, reds and purples. From a distance, it had a patchwork look, like a crazy quilt.
Tearing herself away, she lowered to the ground. It was harder going than Mel expected. Finding a pathway through the trees where Beats could fit was one. But the ship had rent the ground, churning up hills and ditches they had to climb over and around. Minutes later, they had walked less than a hundred yards and were just coming out of the path of destruction. Dust and dirt settled around them, and they could make out sunlight through the trees.
“That took too long,” Mel said. She was already drenched in sweat, and felt the frustration of working so hard for such little progress. “Anna said we need to be at the warehouse in thirty minutes. She made it sound important. We have a bit over twenty minutes now. We’ll need to jog if we’re going to make it there in time.”
“Why the hell are we going to this warehouse anyway?” Jon asked.
He was being stubborn again and Mel wasn’t in the mood for it. “She didn’t say,” Mel snapped. “And I’m not putting up with your complaining. Anna had a plan and she told us what to do. I’m going to the warehouse. If you want to go off someone else, just be done with it.”
Mel turned away from Jon, using the compass on her watch to get her bearings. Due north, Anna had said. The compass pointed directly into the woods in front of them and Mel picked the easiest path forward. Fortunately, the woods past the wreckage didn’t have a lot of undergrowth. Mel set a quick pace, and barely registered the exotic yellow ferns and bright blue flowers dotting the forest floor. She wanted to jog, but right now that wouldn’t be possible. Hopefully they would cross a trail or road that would allow them to speed up.
They moved quickly, walking in some places and jogging for short periods in others. The groaning sounds of the ship faded behind them. The weather was mild, which was good, although Mel wished it was cooler. Beats struggled behind her. His normal stride was a fast walk to slow jog, but his limp was clearly slowing him down. Beats didn’t complain, but Mel could tell from his expression that every step was painful.
Riley sped ahead to scout a path, far faster than Mel could run. As he came back through the trees from Mel’s left, they all stopped at a sound from above. The foliage was too dense to make out the ship, but it was heading for the wreckage, and Mel was sure it was the Order.
“Fifteen minutes to get to the city,” Mel said. She was breathing hard but steady, and realized how much better shape she was in now. She could never have kept this pace up back on Earth. At least the training for the gauntlets had an upside.
“I found a service road,” Riley said. “It’s heading mostly north, maybe angling a bit west.”
“The road will be faster, even if it takes us a bit out of the way. How are you doing, Beats?”
“I’ve had better days.” He stood on one leg, being careful to not put weight on the other one. “It should be easier on the road.”
“Let us know if you need to rest,” Mel said.
“No time for rest,” Beats said with a laugh. The translator gave Mel the impression the laugh was a bit morbid.
They continued, intersecting Riley’s road a few moments later. Mel started a light jog, a bit faster than Beats’s normal walking pace. Beats staggered along, barely able to keep up. Mel realized that Jon was at least twenty yards
behind the rest of them, but she was done babysitting him. If he couldn’t be part of the team, she was going to have to let go of getting him home. Could she do that? She felt a need to get all of them home, everyone she possibly could. Even Jon. She couldn’t explain it, but she wasn’t sure she could leave him behind even if he wanted her to.
The service road ended at a metal fence at the edge of large field. Short blue-green grass gave the field a creepy look. Across the field, a gray asphalt road and a parking lot led to rows of buildings. Off to their right, Mel could see a taller one, half a mile away. The road had brought them too far west. The building Anna said to go to was the shorter one just west of the tall one. She looked at her watch. Six minutes to go.
“Head for the tall building,” she said. “Anna said to go to the short one right before it.”
She headed for the main asphalt road, then stopped. “Wait. If more ships fly over, they’ll see us. Let’s stay in the field close to the forest.”
“Good idea. Let’s stay on this side of the fence for now, too,” Riley said.
They started out, jogging along the fence. Mel’s hunch proved right. A few minutes later, two ships rose over the buildings. Gorgeous and Riley both heard them before they appeared, and everyone dove for the cover of the forest. Beats panted heavily, his face contorted in pain. The two ships flew over, heading in the direction of the crash.
Riley sat next to Beats. “How are you doing?”
Beats nodded his head, meaning ‘no’. “I think it’s broken. I’m not sure I can go on.”
“I’m not leaving without you, buddy,” Riley said. “Want me to carry you?”
Mel snorted at the thought of Riley carrying the several-hundred-pound alien. Beats smiled, somewhat gruesomely. Mel chafed at the delay, but there was nothing for it. She had to agree with Riley. They couldn’t just leave Beats behind.
“How about a crutch?” Jon said.
Mel was so used to Jon being a pain in the ass, that she was surprised whenever he said something useful. “Great idea. Find a branch big enough to work.”