by Keary Taylor
I watch as the heat sensors go back to normal.
And I grab hold of the emergency directional controller just as we rise up to terra level.
Two dozen Class 6 fighter ships are waiting for us, all pointed in our direction.
“How much does Cyrillius value his investments?” I ask, looking around at them all.
“There isn’t much that he cares about more than money,” Valen says, his eyes sliding around to look at all the ships waiting to blast holes through us.
“Okay then,” I say, and I throw our thrusters forward.
I was counting on this ship being solid and heavy, and I’m not disappointed when I blast right through two Class 6s, obliterating them into balls of fire, not leaving a scratch on this ship.
But as soon as we break through them, I feel the rocking of impact as the others start shooting at us.
Apparently, Cyrillius would rather keep Valen and I here on Isroth and destroy his ship than let us escape with everything.
“Zayne, go now!” I yell, giving the command.
“On it!” comes his reply, and I hear the background noise of The Corsair taking off.
“Coming in from your left!” Valen yells, catching the dozen fighters that have circled and are aiming right for us.
I bank hard to the right, rolling and rolling us.
I’m not a pilot.
I’m really not a very good pilot.
We spin out of control for a good three seconds before I right us with a hard stop that nearly sends the both of us to the ground.
“Nova, this is Cyrillius,” a harsh voice growls. “Stand down and land back on Isroth or we will be forced to use whatever means necessary to ground you.”
“Go to void,” I snap before I turn off the communications system.
I hear the bellowing echoes as more shots hit the ship. An update shows that the defensive cloak is holding.
Valen swears. “Those are class 5s, Nova! Get ready for them to come in harder and faster!”
My hand slips.
I don’t have any other explanation.
I have no idea what I hit.
Because one second I was seeing the battle torn sky of Isroth.
And the next I’m thrown back, crashing next to Valen as the ship bullets forward, ripping through Isroth’s atmosphere.
The world goes black.
Lights flash.
I’m smashed against the wall, pressed so hard I can’t claw myself away from it.
Valen gives a growl, attempting to make his way back to the controls.
I feel the heat rising rapidly. I feel tendrils of power curling through the air as the Neron core destabilizes.
Faster and faster we split through space.
I can hardly breathe. My lungs feel flat. I feel like I suddenly weigh a thousand pounds and I swear I can feel all the blood being forced to my back.
I feel light-headed.
I can’t pass out.
If we pass out, we’ll crash into something and we’ll be dead.
With a cry of agony and desperation, Valen slaps his hands straight to the metal floor and releases a pulse of energy.
I feel him suck in the excess Neron.
I hear the ship calm as he takes control of the core. I feel the temperature begin to drop again.
But the ship only slows slightly.
With every ounce of strength I have, I claw my way across the floor. I fight for every inch as I rise to the control deck. And my hand shakes almost uncontrollably as I hit the command to stop.
There’s a pop sound. And then the world is very quiet.
Everything goes dark.
The gravity simulators go out.
I have to grab hold of the command deck to keep from floating off.
“Nova!” I hear Valen yell.
We roll, end over end. And then suddenly, I feel something grab hold of us.
And as we roll, something comes into view. Something big. Something massive.
A planet.
We’ve just fallen into its atmosphere, and its gravity is sucking us to its surface.
“We’re going down!” I yell, frantically hitting the controls. Finally, the lights come back on at the same time gravity does. I smash to the ground, cracking my knee on the supports.
“I can’t get the thrusters back on!” I scream as I tap control after control. “I can’t stop the ship!”
The ground below us grows closer and closer. I see green. I see towering mountains. I see the blue of water.
“We’re going to have to slow it down, Nova!” Valen bellows. And I understand.
I place my hands on the command deck. I close my eyes. And I lift.
I throw everything I have into slowing the ship down. I imagine all the Neron in it slowing, becoming light. I imagine us floating down to the surface of this planet. Careful. Gentle.
I open my eyes.
We have slowed.
But still, I’m thrown into the ceiling at impact.
And the world goes black.
My body should be screaming in pain when I wake and sit up, but it feels great. I feel amazing.
I’m lying on a bed, a blanket laid over me.
Somehow I made it into the sleeping quarters. Everything is an absolute mess, tossed everywhere. But just this bed was arranged, and somehow I’m in it.
“Valen?” I call out. But I don’t hear a response.
I climb out of the bed and cautiously make my way back toward the command deck. I check for signs of severe damage to the ship as I go, but I don’t see any. The lights are all off. It’s a bit cold. But other than that, I don’t see anything that looks too serious.
I step into the command deck, and the air grows even cooler. The hatch is open, and just then, I see Valen walking up the ramp.
I breathe a sigh of relief. He seems unharmed. Whatever injuries he sustained in our crash have already healed.
“So this planet has breathable air,” I say, the first thing that pops into my head.
Valen nods. “And water, and vegetation. We got incredibly lucky. Our odds were probably less than one in a million.”
I nod, knowing it’s probably way less than that.
“So,” I say, looking around. Out the window, I see a mountain not far from us. I see towering green trees. “Where are we?”
Valen steps inside. And the ship must not be totally destroyed, because he touches a command and a screen pulls up. It flashes, full of static and difficult to read. I realize after a moment that it’s trying to show a map.
There’s a blinking dot in the middle with a huge circle around it.
“It can’t seem to pinpoint our location,” Valen says, glaring darkly at the map. “But we’re somewhere on the outskirts of either the V, W, or X sector.”
My stomach falls to the floor.
“No, that can’t be right,” I say, shaking my head as I try to make the holoscreen work. “That’s impossible. That would mean we traveled at least eight sectors in a matter of, what? Twenty minutes?”
Valen shakes his head, running his hand through his hair. “I don’t know,” he says. “Impossible, absolutely. But…obviously something went wrong with the ship. It felt like…”
“Like what?” I encourage when he hesitates.
“Like we punched a hole right through space,” he says.
And as I think about it, he’s right. That was insanity. That wasn’t right.
Something malfunctioned.
We could be anywhere right now.
I check my connect-link, but it just displays an error message.
So I turn to the hatch, and cautiously, I walk down it.
I hold my hand up to block out the light and my boots walk out into long, bluish-green grass.
For a moment, I let my eyes slide closed, enjoying the sunshine on my skin.
I breathe in the cleanest air I’ve ever tasted.
“This planet isn’t on any maps,” Valen says as he comes to stand beside me.
“Which means, even if the systems know about it, it isn’t worth worrying over. It means no one lives here.”
I let out a slow breath as I look out. In the distance, I see some kind of bird sailing over the trees. It lands in a high branch and looks right at us, curious and suspicious.
“So it’s just us?” I ask, and my heart picks up speed just a little.
Valen reaches out and takes my hand, keeping his gloves on so that we can stay in the moment.
“It’s…it’s just us,” he says.
Alone on a planet by ourselves. With the galaxy’s most advanced ship, broken. Where no one in the entire galaxy knows where we are.
Just us.
Just Nova and Valen.
Together.
Finally.
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Keary Taylor is the USA Today bestselling author of over twenty novels. She grew up along the foothills of the Rocky Mountains where she started creating imaginary worlds and daring characters who always fell in love. She now splits her time between a tiny island in the Pacific Northwest and Utah, dragging along her husband and their two children. She continues to have an overactive imagination that frequently keeps her up at night.
To learn more about Keary and her books, please visit www.KearyTaylor.com.
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