by I. O. Adler
“Remember to breathe,” her mom said.
Carmen nodded. Focused on taking a breath, and then another. She swallowed hard and settled in as the g’s pressing on her grew.
Saving Jenna was up to her. Not only did she need to get her out of the hands of the One, but Carmen knew for a certainty that her mother would try to take them both away unless she stopped her.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
If they couldn’t catch up to the sphere, it wouldn’t be for a lack of trying.
While riding in the One’s ship was smooth, the crush became unrelenting. Her mother kept talking to her, but Carmen couldn’t see her lips to make out the words. But the tone was unmistakable. Sylvia was trying to console her. And as much as Carmen would never trust her mother again, she felt a measure of comfort as she summoned up the last time her mother had spoken with her like this.
The vague memory drained away when the worm groaned. Carmen lifted her head for a second. The worm had collapsed where it had stood, splayed out and flattening. Had something happened to it? And if so, who was flying the ship?
“Mom…”
Sylvia was struggling to rise. She went step by step over to the worm and paused for a moment before reaching over to pick up the handheld gadget it had plugged into the ship.
“Is the worm okay?” Carmen asked.
“Fainted but still alive. We’re almost there. The ship is slowing. We’re past the worst of it.”
Carmen hadn’t noticed a maneuver. Had she passed out or slept without realizing it? “Where are we? Can you show me?”
Sylvia worked at the gadget. “I can’t figure this out. The Primary has an implant which allows it virtual access. We’re on autopilot unless I can wake it up. Our ship’s on a docking trajectory with the second sphere. The first one is right ahead of us and the two are linking up. I can’t tell where the rest of the harvester is.”
“So we’re too late.”
“The One still has to force Jenna to yield control.”
“It won’t need to do that. The shadow manipulating the One touched me. It can invade the mind. It may have everything it needs if it can force Jenna to do what it wants.” Which meant it didn’t require Jenna to cooperate if she could be its puppet. So how long would her sister remain useful? How long before the thing controlling the One killed her?
The pressure eased with every passing moment. Carmen rose and went to the worm. This creature which had shot Jenna and almost killed them all now looked pitiful and deflated. Carmen kneeled to inspect it. The helmet had multiple latches. Vapor trickled up from one of the exhaust vents on the worm’s suit. But Carmen understood the worm had its own atmosphere. Opening the suit might hurt it.
“How do we help?” she asked.
Her mother remained distracted. “The Primary will be fine. We’re going to dock in minutes. I want you to stay hidden while I board.”
“No. I should have protected Jenna better when I brought her home. I’m getting her out of there.”
“You saw what the One can do. We don’t have any weapons.”
“And your Melded were all armed and got slaughtered. We need a plan.”
The ship rumbled as it slowed further. Gravity felt nonexistent. She realized she didn’t have a space suit and only the emergency garment her mother had provided. Surely the shadow would provide enough air for Jenna, and by extension for them as well.
“We have a problem,” Sylvia said. “I found the other harvester sections and they’re coming here.”
Before Carmen could ask, her mother tapped one of her enhancements. A display showed their ship approaching the sphere. But then more spheres appeared and they were closing in. Carmen had once used the spheres as a weapon against the Melded ship. They could destroy anything they touched. She could only imagine what would happen if their ship didn’t break off when the rest of the harvester arrived.
“We have to move,” Carmen said.
Sylvia expanded the display. “It may be too late.”
The spheres had them surrounded. The black orbs were drawing closer. Even as the One’s ship was about to dock, the harvester sections approached on all sides, with the larger reactor sphere closing off their path of retreat.
Sylvia kneeled next to the worm. At first Carmen thought she was trying to get it out of its suit, but she accessed a pack and removed a cannister. She attached it to Carmen’s emergency suit and the garment began to swell.
“In case we lose pressure. You’ll have air and a measure of protection beyond the suit’s supply. Pull up the hood and it will seal.”
Sylvia donned her own more robust helmet and her face illuminated.
Carmen wasted no time tugging the hood over her head but it wasn’t as easy as the Dragoman space suit. The stretchy material clung to her skin as she pulled it over her hands and feet. Sylvia had to help her, as it was like trying to put on a head-to-toe latex glove with wet fingers. An adhesive strip cinched up around her wrists, ankles, waist, and neck. She could see, but everything was hazy. A display appeared across her eyes that only further obscured things.
If this was meant to be an emergency suit, it would have taken an eternity to put on by herself.
Their ship jolted and Carmen was flying, weightlessly sailing to the wall, and bouncing off. She smashed her shoulder. Arms flailing, she brushed the next wall with her fingertips but couldn’t arrest her flight. Knocked her head against the ceiling. She was heading towards another wall with no way to stop herself.
Her mother caught her. They bumped off the ceiling before Sylvia brought them both to the floor. Her feet locked in place. When her mother released her, Carmen had to windmill her arms to keep from keeling over. But she quickly found her balance.
“Wait here,” Sylvia said.
“Where are you going?”
Her mom began moving out of the control room. “Outside. In case the One is trapping us on board.”
Carmen hurried to follow. “I’m not getting left behind.”
“I don’t know how long it will take to get back in. Even with the extra I gave you, you don’t have enough air. We could get stuck outside.”
“It’s a choice between that and being trapped in here. Those spheres can shred a ship. I don’t want to stick around for that.”
As they entered the airlock, Carmen knew they didn’t have time to save the worm. Even weightless, the large Melded would require too much effort to get out the airlock, and what then? If the One was going to destroy the ship, they had only bought themselves minutes. What if they had no way of getting inside one of the spheres?
Sylvia attached a tether to Carmen’s waist as the airlock cycled. Carmen felt a fresh wave of nerves. When the airlock door opened, most of the stars appeared blotted out because of the incoming spheres. Her suit clung to her and instantly felt warm. She could breathe. She wasn’t freezing, but it felt like there was only a flimsy plastic bag between her and the vacuum of space.
Their ship was getting closer to docking with the first sphere. But the rest of the harvester was almost upon them.
Sylvia’s voice came through an unseen microphone. “On three, jump.”
They sprang forward, clearing the small gap and landing softly on the dark metal in front of them. But her mother almost yanked her off her feet as she hurried along the sphere’s hull. Carmen found her footing and kept up, mindful of each step needing to be planted before she lifted the next foot. A moment later the One’s ship connected with the sphere without a sound.
They would have been crushed.
Sylvia took a knee and tapped at a virtual display. Meanwhile, the oncoming cluster of spheres engulfed the One’s ship. The faintest vibration rolled through the hull upon which they stood. But with the harvester pitch-black and the One’s ship now hidden, it felt like they were standing in a void. Earth and the sun’s glow were on the opposite side of the harvester. The air in her thin suit grew stale. Her mother kept at the display, but whatever she had in mind wasn’t worki
ng.
Each breath came harder. “Mom?”
“I can’t get in. We have to make our way to the reactor section and try the airlock there.”
The harvester spheres had stopped moving. They were standing on top of what Carmen imagined was the front of the formation, with the other spheres surrounding the One’s ship at the center. It hadn’t been crushed yet, but that would follow if the harvester operator wanted it to happen. Oriented now, Carmen knew the reactor was most likely on the opposite end of the harvester.
They began walking. Each step took effort and concentration. The hull kept going and going. Carmen wheezed. Felt herself wanting to breathe faster. They had been outside the airlock for only minutes, hadn’t they? Yet her lungs burned.
“Something’s wrong,” she gasped.
Her mom took a moment to examine her suit before cinching up on the tether connecting them..
“Detach both feet,” Sylvia said. “I’ll pull you along. Carmen?”
Carmen realized she was having difficulty understanding her mother. Had to focus on the words. Focus not to pass out.
Her mother spoke again and began moving. Carmen tried to follow but her limbs felt heavy.
“Pick up those feet!” Sylvia ordered, her voice crisp and loud.
Lifting her heels first, Carmen pulled her right foot up and then hopped. Flying. But her mother had her and they jumped, the tether taut and yanking her forward as her mother touched down and hopped again, controlling the slack and making a third jump, clearing the first sphere and landing with both feet down on the next. But the harvester looked like a dark mountain closing around them. Carmen gasped. Couldn’t speak. Leaving the One’s ship…leaving Earth…was a mistake.
Her body trembled. Her mother was saying something, but Carmen wasn’t listening. The tether pulled at her. She stumbled forward, slammed into the hull of the harvester, and was floating. Caught a view through the gap in the spheres.
The myriad stars. A brilliant canopy, which her mother had loved more than her daughters. They were beautiful. But she would have traded them all for getting Jenna back to her sons.
With her last ounce of breath, she whispered an apology. She had failed her father, who she was supposed to be caring for, by trying to save her mom, and she had lost her sister in the process.
And then something blocked out what she supposed was the last view of her life. Another sphere? A stone rolled across the mouth of a tomb? The dark body eclipsed the stars as it headed for her.
She didn’t have the breath to cry out a warning. Was helpless as the incoming shape threatened to engulf her.
A red cone of light appeared, a last light in the void.
She Who Waits’ voice sounded distant. “Designate Carmen Vincent? Like me, you have a duty to perform.”
Chapter Thirty-Nine
She Who Waits’ shuttle caught the glow of the sun and Earth as it rotated towards her through the gap in the spheres. It looked not unlike an oblong stick flung into the sky, tumbling end over end, propelled by soft pulses of blue flame that guided it closer.
Carmen believed she was hallucinating as she fought to draw in the last hint of oxygen from her depleted suit. But She Who Waits’ voice had indeed spoken to her. Sylvia Vincent drew closer and passed through the red light. Her mother’s suit illuminated her face as she took Carmen by the hand and pulled her along with her. They landed together, softly connecting to the hull of another sphere. And then Sylvia pulled her along into a vaulting jump.
Once again Carmen was floating. The harvester fell away beneath her as the shuttle glided silently closer. A tall figure stood at the shuttle’s airlock and it leaped for them. Daughter on one arm, Sylvia stretched out a hand. The three collided and then Ovo had them in his grasp. A fragile cord like a lone strand of spiderweb connected him to the shuttle. A hard jerk arrested their movement. Spinning. Carmen lost all sense of up, down, and where the harvester or shuttle were.
Out of air.
No more panic. The calm realization was a fact she accepted even as she helplessly twisted about.
She caught sight of the shuttle again. It was closer now. But her hazy brain tried to make sense of a new shape that pursued the shuttle. Another sphere out of formation with the rest of the harvester. It barreled towards them like a rogue dwarf planet. But she lost sight of it as they crashed into the shuttle’s airlock. The lock sealed. Jets of gas buffeted them.
Good air, Carmen hoped, and not She Who Waits’ own foul atmosphere. Carmen clawed feebly at her suit. As the shuttle began to pour on thrust, the floor rose beneath them and she collapsed to the floor. Her mother pulled the temporary suit open. Was spouting apologies which Carmen couldn’t follow.
Air, sweet air. Carmen sucked in precious oxygen. Coughed. Breathed as she spat and gagged and realized she was alive.
“Something’s…coming,” she gasped. “Another sphere.”
The red light had followed her. “Threat recognized. Designates Carmen Vincent and Sylvia Vincent, please secure yourselves.”
Ovo helped her move into the rear bay towards a crash couch. She Who Waits wasn’t in sight. The control display above the altar was gone.
“You’re alive,” Carmen said to Ovo. “What happened to you?”
“I hid. The One wasn’t trying to kill us all, just break through to steal your sister. Once it took her, I got out and ran to She Who Waits. She agreed to come rescue you.”
Her mother joined her and helped her sit. But Carmen clung to the side of the couch and wouldn’t lie back.
“Hold on. What are we doing?”
“Fleeing,” She Who Waits said from the translation light. “The pursuing harvester segment has closed in and will strike us if we don’t depart. As you assisted me and reminded me of my assignment, we are both able to serve the Framework better if we don’t die.”
“What about Jenna?”
“This ship can’t fight the harvester,” Ovo said. “Please lie back.”
“No. We can’t give up. I won’t leave her.”
“We don’t have a choice. This shuttle has no weapons. And She Who Waits says as it stands we might not have enough fuel to make it back to the Framework.”
Carmen got up and instantly regretted it, falling hard against Ovo. The shuttle continued to accelerate while simultaneously turning end over end. Carmen fought a fresh wave of nausea. But the sensation passed quickly. Somehow her stomach felt instantly settled. The Melded drug? Time for those answers later.
“We can’t just let the shadow take it. We don’t know what it’s going to do.”
Sylvia Vincent had been silent until that moment. “You’re right. But you’re in no shape to do anything. We regroup and make a new plan.”
“And how long will that take? I just need to find a replacement suit. We got onto the reactor section before.”
“That was when that ship wasn’t trying to kill us. With the shadow chasing us down with one of the spheres, we can’t take the time to slow so we can board.”
Carmen peeled away the rest of the temporary suit. “That section in front where we docked—that’s where Jenna is. The shadow brought the rest of the harvester over and is turning it into a single spaceship again.”
“So? What’s your point, honey?”
“It’s a big target. If we can’t get into an airlock, then we need to crash into it.”
No one said anything at first.
“It doesn’t work like that,” Sylvia said. “Even if we manage to fly straight into the harvester, we may not breach it. And then if we can actually get on board, what’s stopping whatever’s piloting it from keeping us sequestered in the damaged section or using the ship itself to kill us?”
“Because Jenna might still be in control. When the creature attacked me, it tried to get in my head. I fought it off. I have to believe Jenna can do the same. It didn’t crush the One’s ship, it just grabbed it. It’s trying to juggle controlling Jenna and the One, all while piloting the harvester. I
f we can get on board, we can keep it distracted and overloaded. You’re the astronaut, Mom. Can we ram it or not?”
Ovo was studying his device. “I believe we can breach the hull successfully. She Who Waits’ shuttle is durable enough, and the Cordice design is based on flexibility. But that doesn’t mean the rest of the harvester will wait for us to board after impact.”
The red light continued to trail along next to her. Carmen found a helmet and new spacesuit next to the printer. It was her size. Had She Who Waits anticipated her need?
She pulled it on, taking a last breath of air before sealing the helmet. “She Who Waits, can you hear me? Is that maneuver possible? Will you pilot us in?”
She Who Waits’ tone was impassive. “If that is the collective wish.”
Sylvia had a screen in the air displaying a series of elliptical lines. “Okay, so maybe it’s possible. That doesn’t mean I think we should do this. It’s too risky. I’d like to run virtual tests. From what I can see, it’s going to be tight. And I have no idea how close behind us the other sphere is.”
“If it’s possible, we have to try, Mom.”
“Okay. The reality is we’ll be going really fast. I can’t say what happens when we collide without more time to model the impact. Ovo is too optimistic. Best guess? This shuttle is going to be wrecked because even if it survives the crash, the pursuing sphere will hit us like a freight train. I don’t like this.”
“We can’t let them go.”
“Then get into your chair and buckle up.”
The crash couch had no restraints. Carmen climbed in and clung to the handles. Ovo and her mom likewise got into their own couches. Were they actually going to do this? Carmen didn’t want to think about how fast they were going or how many g’s her body was enduring. Despite whatever effect the Melded drug had on her body, she once again felt pain replace everything as the shuttle put on even more speed and their mad tumble redoubled.
“Tell us what’s happening,” Carmen said.