“Gaining on us, and shooting at us!” Evie called out as she banked the ship wildly to the left just in time to avoid a plasma blast that had just been shot in their direction.
“What the sludge!” Toryx gawked at the view screen that showed him Skoria’s ship behind them. “She’s going to kill us both just because I wouldn’t sludging kiss her?”
“It appears so, darling,” Evie said without ever taking her eyes off of the ship’s gauges. “Can you man this ship’s weapons and return fire? Just keep her back for a few minutes until I can get out of Mognerth’s atmosphere. Once I’m in open space it will be easier to speed away from her.”
“Alright.” Toryx brought the Savior’s weapons systems online and then carefully took aim at the space right in front of Skoria’s ship. He didn’t want to actually blow up her ship. He didn’t have the heart for that. After all, he’d saved her life once. It didn’t make sense to kill her now. But if he could scare her enough that she backed off, then Evie could get them out of here.
Unfortunately, the shots right in front of Skoria didn’t do much to deter her. She only flew faster and shot at them more rapidly than before. Evie banked the ship wildly left and right, avoiding the constant stream of plasma blasts that Skoria was sending toward them. But it wasn’t enough. Flying like this was going to mean it would take twice as long to get out of Mognerth, which meant twice as much time where Skoria might bring them down for good.
“Stop being so nice!” Evie yelled. “I know you don’t want to kill her but she’s trying to sludging kill us!”
Toryx sighed. Evie was right. He had to end this now.
“Goodbye, Skoria,” he whispered. “You leave me no choice.”
And with that, he let out a shot that he knew would be a direct hit. Toryx had always been a good shot, and after going through training for the Zocronian military, he almost never missed.
Tonight was no exception. His shot landed true, hitting the exact perfect spot on Skoria’s ship to take out an entire engine. Skoria’s ship banked sharply to the left from the impact and then began to spiral downward in a plume of fiery smoke. Toryx stared at the viewscreen until the smoke disappeared completely from view. Less than a minute later, Evie broke out of Mognerth’s atmosphere and into open space. The Savior leveled off, and Evie turned its nose in Zocrone’s direction.
She reached over and patted him on the knee, seeming to understand that trying to come up with words of comfort would do little to help right now. No, he hadn’t wanted anything to do with Skoria anymore after tonight. But he still hadn’t wanted to kill her. The crazy Mognerthian had left him no choice, however.
Toryx let out a resigned, frustrated sigh. It had been a long night, even though it was technically still only dinner time.
But then, Evie finally spoke, and said the only words of comfort that could truly have been comforting to him in that moment.
“Hang in there, Tor. We’re going home.”
Chapter Eleven
Five days passed relatively uneventfully as Evie guided their ship back to Zocrone. She and Toryx spent their free time making love like there was no tomorrow, because they weren’t sure if there would, in fact, be a tomorrow. As they drew closer to Zocrone, the knots in Evie’s stomach turned into double and triple knots.
Was this going to work? Would they really be able to get safely back into Zocrone’s City Dome?
She would try her best, of course, but she had her doubts. For one thing, the storms had severely crippled Zocrone’s communication systems. It was impossible to get in touch with anyone inside Zocrone until you were well within Zocrone’s atmosphere. This meant that Evie wouldn’t even be able to alert anyone that she and Toryx were coming and needed the airlock gates opened for them until they were already in the middle of the storms. Hopefully they would be able to get in touch to open the airlocks. Otherwise they were screwed. There was no way they’d have enough fuel to get this giant ship back up and out of Zocrone’s storms.
As the Savior approached Zocrone’s atmosphere, Evie knew her attempt at keeping up a calm demeanor was failing. Toryx reached over and gave her arm a squeeze.
“Don’t worry so much, babe. We’ve made it this far. What’s one more flight through the storms? We can do this.”
Evie bit her lower lip and nodded. “I hope you’re right. In any case, it’s now or never.” She reached for the flight controls to start their descent, but before she could touch anything, she felt Toryx’s hand on her arm once again.
“Hey,” he said, his voice husky. Evie looked over at him and felt her heart flip-flop in her chest. His eyes were darkening from fog gray to velvety black the way all Zocronian eyes did when they were filled with emotion.
“Yes?” Evie asked, feeling heat spread through her body at Toryx’s touch. She wished they could delay their attempt to get into Zocrone for another day. She would love to hover out here in space and snuggle with Toryx under the warm blankets in the ship’s sleeping quarters instead of heading into the turmoil and danger ahead of them.
But delaying things another day was only going to draw out the inevitable. Evie and Toryx both knew that any more delay wouldn’t ease their worries any. Better to get this done and hope for the best.
Toryx smiled sadly at her—the smile of a man who knows that nothing is guaranteed and that he might be about to lose everything. But it was still a brave smile and it warmed Evie’s heart.
“Listen,” he said. “Just in case the worst happens and we don’t make it—”
“Don’t talk like that,” Evie said, feeling like her heart might break at the thought of losing her future with Toryx. They both knew all the horrible possibilities of what might happen once they were in the thick of the storms, but Evie couldn’t bear to think of Toryx dying.
Toryx wasn’t going to let her avoid reality, though. “Evie, of course I hope we both make it. But just in case, I have to tell you this.” He squeezed her arm tighter and looked deep into her eyes. “I love you. With every breath I breathe I love you more, and I will love you until my last breath.”
Evie choked back tears. Even though she and Toryx had been tossing around the word “forever” with each other over the last few days, Toryx hadn’t actually said he loved her yet. Hearing the words now filled her with a strength she hadn’t even known she possessed.
“I love you, too. But don’t worry. We’re going to make it through this. I swear it to you.”
And with that, Evie turned her attention back to the flight controls and banked the ship downwards.
“Man the communications system!” Evie shouted at Toryx as they headed into the outer edges of the storm. The Savior started shaking as the first big gusts of wind rocked her on every side.
“I’m on it!” Toryx shouted. “I’ll keep trying to get a hold of the gate techs until someone answers. You just fly the ship.”
Evie didn’t answer. She was too busy flying already. Or rather, attempting to fly. The ship was like a feather being tossed around in a hurricane, nearly impossible to control. But she had to try. She put all power to the engines, doing her best to keep the ship at least somewhat steady. It was a losing battle but she tried. She was burning through fuel at an alarming rate, but she didn’t care. They weren’t leaving Zocrone’s atmosphere again today. Either they made it into the City Dome or they crashed on the surface. There would be no in between, and no other escape.
The next fifteen minutes passed without Evie saying a word. She concentrated fully on flying, while Toryx kept attempting to hail someone from Zocrone.
“Zocrone Central, do you read me? Zocrone Central this is Toryx Keizer requesting permission to make an emergency landing. Zocrone Central do you read me?”
Over and over Toryx repeated these words with no response. Evie watched as their altitude got lower and lower. They were close enough to the City Dome now that surely the communications systems should be able to pick up their messages and respond. Evie started thinking through every pos
sible worst case scenario. What if the communications system had been knocked out completely? What if the water reserves hadn’t lasted quite as long as everyone had hoped, and everyone in Zocrone was already dead? Or what if Daxar was angry over the fact that Toryx and Evie had escaped against his wishes and had given orders not to communicate with them or let them back into the City Dome. The lower they flew the more Evie started to give up hope.
But then, suddenly, a crackling voice answered Toryx over the speaker. “Toryx? Is that really you? What the sludge! We thought for sure that you and Evie must have crashed on the surface!”
“We didn’t crash. We made it out and back and we have water. So could you let us in before we DO crash? It’d be a shame to get all this water so far just to lose it in the last ten minutes.”
There was a short pause and then the voice came on again, sounding just as shocked but a lot more hopeful. “Of course, of course. Radar’s showing that you’re currently closest to the Dome’s west airlock. Is that correct? Hard to know if we can trust the radar right now.”
Evie nodded at Toryx, and he quickly confirmed the airlock for the gate tech.
“Roger that,” the tech said. “We’ll have the airlock open to the outside in approximately three minutes.”
Evie’s heart leapt. They might actually make it. If her educated guess was correct, it was going to take approximately five minutes to get to the gate. As long as she could keep them relatively on track for the next five minutes, this would work.
Keeping on track wasn’t easy, though. The closer Evie got to the City Dome, the worse the gusting wind seemed to get. Evie banked the ship left and right, up and down, using all of her best tricks to keep the ship flying straight and to avoid the large chunks of debris flying through the air. But the Savior was a much bigger ship than the Starburst had been, and it wasn’t easy to maneuver it. At least the thing was built like a tank. Evie had taken a couple of direct hits from large pieces of debris, and the ship seemed to still be flying reasonably well.
She just hoped that reasonably well was going to be good enough. She had to have at least some control over the ship as she came in for a landing at the airlock. If she came in too fast she could damage the airlock, or worse, she could hit part of the City Dome and damage the Dome itself.
“Let’s try not to completely destroy the city on the way in,” she said quietly to herself through gritted teeth.
Evie scanned the status screens. Everything was blinking red with warning lights. The fuel was low, the engines were overheating, and the ship wasn’t staying level for more than a few seconds at a time thanks to the wind gusts outside. But the screen Evie was especially interested in was the radar screen. Thankfully, it still seemed to be functioning correctly, and she could see the City Dome quickly approaching.
She was coming in much faster than she wanted to, but the wind gusts were too much for her to combat. She was just going to have to do the best she could. After about another minute, the Dome and the airlock gate were close enough that she could see them even through the clouds and debris. Her heart leapt. They were really here, on the cusp of this long journey being over. She just had to manage to not crash the ship in the final moments.
Toryx saw the Dome too, and he let out a whoop of excitement as he first pumped the air. “We’re here! We’re really here!”
Not quite yet. As far as Evie was concerned, they weren’t home until they were actually in the airlock. But she did agree that even just seeing the Dome was heartening.
“Are you strapped in?” She yelled over at Toryx, even though she already knew he was. But she felt like making sure that both of them had their safety harnesses secured gave her at least some level of control over the situation.
“I’m strapped as can be,” Toryx yelled back. “Just take us home.”
“Roger that. Heading home.” Evie’s heart swelled at the thought of home. She had been without a home for so long. After leaving Earth and joining the Starburst’s smuggling crew, Evie had felt homeless for so long. And even though she’d been living in Zocrone for a few years now, she still hadn’t quite reached the point where she felt like it was truly home.
But now, as she risked her life and Toryx’s to get back into Zocrone with the water that would save the planet, she realized that she had never considered anywhere “home” as much as she now considered Zocrone to be home. It was where she lived, where her crew lived, and where the love of her life lived.
And sludge it all, she was going to save this planet or die trying.
Under Evie’s direction, the ship ducked and rolled wildly. She kept her speed steady as her view of the airlock grew clearer. She tried to keep a straight course toward the airlock, and for a while she succeeded. But every now and then a gust of wind would throw the ship horribly off course. All she could do was correct it as quickly as possible and hope that one of those gusts wouldn’t hit them when they were actually heading into the airlock.
She glanced over at Toryx and saw that his blue face was a much lighter shade of blue than normal. He looked pale and worried, and Evie was sure she did too. This was their only shot. If the ship crashed into the City Dome it would kill them for sure, and it might damage the City Dome enough to kill everyone inside.
But all Evie could do was her best, and that was what she vowed to do as the Savior approached the airlock.
“Come on, come on,” she whispered as she found herself within ten seconds of this whole thing being over. “Ten, nine, eight—”
A huge gust of wind hit the ship just then, causing it to drop quickly. The hull of the ship was far below the airlock now, but the ship was moving too fast for Evie to change directions or stop before they reached the Dome.
“We’re gonna hit the Dome!” Toryx yelled.
But Evie barely registered the fact that he was yelling. She was pulling all of the controls as hard as she could, doing her best to bank the ship upward. With only a few seconds, she had no time to even say goodbye to Toryx. Either this worked, or they were both dead with no last words to each other.
The thick glass of the City Dome seemed to rise up to meet them, and Evie heard herself screaming. But she never took her hands off the controls. She threw her whole focus into a last ditch effort to get the ship back level with the airlock. As if by some miracle, she saw the airlock coming into view again. Was it possible? Where they going to make it?
She slammed on the controls again to level the ship out, and then slammed on the brakes. Only then did she squeeze her eyes shut, bracing for impact. Even if she had gotten back to the airlock, she’d been going too fast. She was going to crash into the other side of the airlock and kill herself and this entire City Dome. Evie fully expected to wake up dead.
But when the ship skidded to a stop and she opened her eyes, she wasn’t dead. And according to the status screens blinking in front of her, the shop hadn’t crashed either. It was still in good condition, and there were no smoke or fire alarms going off.
Slowly Evie turned around and looked at the airlock gate behind them. It was in the process of closing, slowly shutting out the storms behind them. She looked over at Toryx, who was staring back at the gate as well. His jaw was hanging open in disbelief. Neither of them said anything for a few moments, until the gate had fully closed behind them and the airlock system’s computerized voice announced that pressurization to Zocrone’s atmospheric temperature would now begin. That meant that in a matter of minutes, the gate that led into Zocrone would be open and Evie and Toryx would be home.
Home.
“We did it,” Evie whispered, looking over at Toryx with tears in her eyes as she slowly unbuckled her safety harness.
“We did it!” Toryx whooped. He tore off his safety harness and then pulled Evie into a big hug. Evie let the warmth of Toryx’s arms and the warm happiness of victory envelop her. They’d done it. They’d made it back in one piece.
All that was left now was to see how Chief Daxar was going to treat them
after they’d deliberately disobeyed his orders. Evie and Toryx both turned to face the airlock as it started to open.
The moment of truth was upon them.
Chapter Twelve
Toryx felt his stomach clench nervously as the airlock gate continued to open. Then he grabbed Evie’s hand and led her toward the ship’s exit. They walked off the ship together with their fingers intertwined as the gate finished opening.
A crowd stood there watching, including several Zocronians, many of whom Toryx recognized. There were Zocronians who worked as gate techs and Zocronians who worked in the mines. And then there were the humans—Evie’s crew of Nova, Anya, and Maisie. Maisie was holding her young son Ayaan, and Anya was holding her infant daughter, Plalda. Beside Anya stood her husband, Kromin; and beside Maisie stood her husband Jarmuk. And then, beside Nova stood Daxar.
Toryx met Daxar’s eyes and felt like his heart stopped in his chest for a moment. Daxar was not only his Chief, but also one of his best friends. They’d known each other since they were little boys—way before any of the pressures of surviving the challenges of life in the Seven Galaxies had been thrown their way. Memories flooded Toryx’s mind, and he wondered if their past would mean anything. Would Daxar give him grace because of their long history? Would the Chief forgive him for leaving since they’d brought back water to save the Zocronians? Or would Daxar’s nickname of “Grumpy Blue” prove truer than ever?
Daxar’s eyes were dark black, the classic indication that a Zocronian was experiencing deep emotions. But what was the emotion? Anger? Joy? Relief?
Toryx opened his mouth to tell Daxar that there was plenty of water on the ship. Before Daxar passed any kind of judgment on what Toryx and Evie had done, Toryx wanted to be sure that at least the Chief knew that the unauthorized mission hadn’t been in vain. But before Toryx could get anything out, Daxar was running toward him with outstretched arms. To Toryx’s surprise, there were actually tears in Daxar’s eyes. Toryx had known Daxar for forever, but he wasn’t sure he’d ever seen tears in the man’s eyes before. Out of the corner of Toryx’s eyes, he saw that Evie’s human friends had also run up to embrace Evie. Their eyes were all filled with tears as well.
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