by John Coon
Atch, Sarianna, and Bo'un, the ship's weapons officer, joined Xttra inside the cargo bay. All three wore matching zero-gravity suits. Tressek donned one as well before he lowered the ramp. Each crew member floated a medical capsule down the ramp and outside the ship. They all moved at a deliberate pace after clearing the outer hull. Crossing rocky terrain amid the asteroid's low gravity would accentuate any sudden movements. They could not afford to cause any capsules to float away out of their reach before making it to the crash site.
Every minute dragged on like an hour as rocks crunched under Xttra's magnetic boots. He did not pray as often as he should but had no trouble offering up a silent prayer now. Each word focused on pleading for Lance's life.
Lance will be alive, Xttra reassured himself. Ahm is watching over him even now. He's safe in the Creator's merciful hands.
Bo'un used a cutter to carve open a crumpled lower hatch, once the group reached the belly of the crashed scout ship. His cutting tool incorporated useful and reliable high-tech functionality into traditional Ra'ahm craftsmanship. The cutter had an arm-length blade fashioned from dark volcanic glass and a polished stone handle. A small blue laser shot out from micro ports on both sides of the stone handle and bordered the blade’s edge to give it added cutting force.
Once the hatch door popped free of the outer hull, moving with significant force away from the cutting blade, it bounced off the ground. The twisted hunk of metal slammed against a massive boulder and careened toward Xttra and Atch. It narrowly missed striking Atch in the shoulder and continued floating past him across the asteroid's surface.
“Watch what you're doing,” Xttra said. “The last thing anyone out here needs are punctured suits.”
Bo'un jerked his head around.
“Apologies.”
He clicked off the cutter and climbed inside the open hatch. The others followed one at a time until all climbed inside the wreckage.
A small water vapor cloud drifted inside the darkened cargo bay. It resembled a dreary mist with no place to go. Xttra's eyes trailed the vapor to its source – a ruptured storage tank. The violent impact with the asteroid's surface ripped it away from the wall. Water vapor began drifting through the open hatch en route to fleeing into the reaches of space above the asteroid.
Xttra retrieved a thermal tracker from his suit and switched on the device. One red blob popped up on the screen. Then a second one. These heat patterns meant only one thing.
Proof of life.
“I found survivors.” Excitement flooded Xttra's voice as he raised the tracker above his head. “They're somewhere inside the medical station.”
Reaching the medical station required passing through the bridge to access a corridor that connected to the opposite side of the ship. Atch darted in front of Xttra and tried to open a door leading to the bridge from the cargo bay. It refused to budge. The crash shorted out the automatic controls. Bo'un used his cutter to slice a hole through the door. Sparks floated through an airless vacuum that had overtaken the cargo bay. When he finished, a slab of metal sank to the floor with the speed of a boulder plunging into a tar pit. Smoke wafted out from the fresh hole.
Xttra stepped through the hole and inside the bridge. He clicked on a small light embedded in the forearm of his zero-gravity suit. Everything the beam revealed painted a frightening picture.
Chaos reigned.
Glass and metal fragments lay strewn about the bridge, along with shattered equipment. Gaping holes in the windshield sucked out any oxygen long ago. The force of the impact had uprooted an overturned chair from its former bolted position on the floor. Xttra swallowed hard when his eyes fell upon an open door leading from the bridge to the medical station.
Dead bodies.
Xttra counted two crew members. Sarianna knelt in front of one. She turned him over on his back, revealing a battered and bloodied face. The other dead crew member had collapsed on her side only a short distance away. Her frozen hands still grasped at her throat for air. Lacerations and bruises covered both faces. Pieces of glass and metal shards had ripped open their uniforms in many places.
Sarianna glanced up at Xttra and the others and shook her head. Tears glistened in her eyes.
“They never had a chance. They suffocated before they could crawl out of the bridge.”
Xttra surveyed the helm. A third body, belonging to Lance's assistant pilot, lay sprawled headfirst over the helm console. Queasiness overtook Xttra while surveying the awful scene. Stomach acid bubbled up and stung his throat as he suppressed an urge to vomit. He dared not imagine how much pure agony these poor souls endured while life ebbed from their bodies. The cold dead of eternal night claimed eventual ownership over each one.
Xttra took comfort in not finding Lance among the lifeless bodies strewn throughout the bridge. His breathing quickened when he considered what that absence entailed. Surely his friend was one of the crew members they suspected remained alive inside the medical station.
Xttra carefully stepped over dead bodies in his path and trudged down the corridor leading to the medical station. Part of him wanted to turn off his magnetic boots and sprint the rest of the way. He could not do it. The crash disabled the artificial gravity. These cumbersome boots were the only things keeping him on the ground. Still, Xttra pushed the limits of his foot speed.
Once he reached the medical station door, Xttra tugged on a manual release lever. The door opened a crack. He gritted his teeth and pushed at the opening. Bo'un and Atch soon joined him in the corridor and aided in the push. Inch by inch, they forced the door inside a slot within the doorway until they created enough space to enter the room.
Complete darkness had not yet enveloped the medical station as it did with the rest of the ship. Emergency lights still ran, disrupted by intermittent flickering. His eyes darted back and forth as Xttra surveyed the length of the room. Scattered medical supplies and equipment covered the floor. Both medical pods remained operational and secured in place against the opposite wall. He worked his way toward the nearest pod. Bo'un headed for the other.
His eyes widened again when Xttra reached the pod. He gasped. A black-haired man near his age lay inside. A nasty bruise tattooed his forehead near his scalp. Gashes cut into olive skin above his left eyebrow and across his left cheek. A small oxygen mask covered his mouth.
Lance.
Once he found his friend, Xttra glanced down at his tracker. It did not lie. Lance still clung to life. His injured body registered a heat pattern.
Xttra tapped on a small glass window embedded in the door. Each new tap grew more vigorous than the one preceding it.
“Can you hear me? Lance! Wake up!”
His eyes stirred beneath closed eyelids and popped open a few seconds later. Those deep brown eyes grew as wide as plates when Lance saw Xttra standing outside the pod clad in a zero-gravity suit.
“Relax, my friend,” Xttra told him. “I’m here to bring you home.”
***
Lance buried his face inside his hands. One forearm remained bandaged while a deep gash healed. Xttra leaned closer until his butt hugged the edge of the tan couch across from his friend. His lips drew into a tight frown. Worry splashed across his eyes. He was not accustomed to seeing this version of Lance.
It scared him to death.
“Don't talk like that," Xttra’s words pierced a growing uncomfortable silence inside his friend's small apartment. “You aren't alone. We'll fight this together. I'll stand with you no matter what.”
Lance jerked his head up and met Xttra with an unbroken stare. Tears coursed down his cheeks now. He leaned back on the opposite couch and let his hands fall into his lap.
“What's the point? I'm finished as a pilot. You're fooling yourself if you think the Stellar Guard will ever let me fly again.”
“You're not at fault.”
“They don't believe me. They ruled the crash as 'pilot error' and ignored anything challenging their conclusion.”
Xttra folded his
hands together and rested them on a small oval table between the two couches. He answered Lance with a determined expression.
“I won't desert you. You have my word.”
Lance sprang to his feet. He wrapped his hands behind his head, interlocking his fingers, and began pacing behind the table.
“What can you do about this now?” The tone in his voice grew more distraught. “You're one person arguing against many.”
“One person can make a difference.”
“I wish I could believe you.”
“You'll see.”
Lance stopped in his tracks and turned to face him once again.
“What is it you're planning to do?”
Xttra craned his neck upward and locked eyes with his friend a second time.
“I have a lifeline for you.”
Lance brushed away lingering tears and raised a brow upon hearing those words.
“What do you mean?”
“Join my crew. I have an opening for an experienced assistant pilot.”
Xttra motioned to a window behind him. It looked out on the massive Stellar Guard shipyard along Luma's eastern outskirts.
Lance shook his head.
“You already have an assistant pilot. And he made his thoughts about me quite clear.”
“I had an assistant pilot.” Xttra thrust his index finger at him while placing an extra emphasis on the second word in that sentence. “The position belongs to you now, if you want it.”
Surprise washed over Lance's face. Xttra told no one else about his decision yet, but everyone would know soon enough. Grull lost his trust once he opened his mouth as a hostile witness against Lance. Their shouting match, after the tribunal, echoed throughout the hall outside the tribunal chamber. It still lingered fresh in his mind, less than a week removed from the confrontation. Xttra decided afterward to wash his hands of him. A lying, spineless traitor like Grull had no place on his crew as an assistant pilot.
Lance stared out the window behind Xttra for an uncomfortably long time. His mouth hung slightly open. Xttra tilted his head a bit and offered up a slight smile.
“I can't accept.” His words came in a halting tone. “I … I just … I don't know if I'm ready.”
Xttra sprang to his feet.
“You have to accept it.” Elaborate hand gestures now accompanied his words. “This could be the only path left for you to keep your standing within the Stellar Guard.”
Lance shrugged, glanced at him for a moment, and turned away from Xttra again.
“Maybe it isn't worth keeping. Maybe my father was right from the start.”
“He's wrong, Lance. Don't let your parents make this decision for you.”
Lance wandered over to a shelf mounted on a nearby wall. His fingers traced over a Luma temple symbol embossed on the front cover of a small, thick book laying on the shelf. He stared at the cover of his personal copy of the Book of Ahm for a few seconds before making eye contact with Xttra again.
“I really don't know if I have a place with the Stellar Guard any longer. I need to think through some things.”
Knowing the dark path where those thoughts threatened to lead troubled Xttra. Still, he could not force Lance to stay and fight for his place. Lance needed to make that choice on his own now.
3
Calandra's feet hammered the crushed stone pavement as she drew closer to the palace gates. Locks of her auburn hair danced on her shoulders to match each stride and skimmed across her cream-colored cheeks. No specific reason drove Calandra to sprint down the sidewalk in this fashion. She faced no danger of missing her appointment with the Minister of Space Exploration and Defense. Still, Calandra struggled to subdue an excitement her discovery infused into the fibers of her soul.
She wanted to run, sing, dance, and celebrate.
An unidentified alien race made first contact. Early signs pointed to this newfound probe originating from an unidentified region of deep space. This represented a monumental breakthrough meant to be shared with the world. Sure, Ra'ahm and Lathos contacted other planets and other alien races. The difference, for Calandra, is she did not make those discoveries.
Only the promised revelation of a new planet and a new alien race mattered to her.
A guard stationed at the palace gates ran a scanner over Calandra. It wrapped around his hand like a glove and emitted a narrow line of blue light that mapped her from head to toe.
The light did not blink red.
Praise Ahm.
Getting detained on her way to an important meeting would offer an embarrassing turn of events for the granddaughter of a former first minister.
"Welcome to the chief sovereign's palace. Guards at the main doors will direct you where to go."
The guard's flat voice did not carry a remote hint of enthusiasm. Calandra flashed a grateful smile and mouthed a quick "thank you" before attacking the courtyard with long-legged strides.
She forgot how dazzling the palace appeared beyond the gates. Jeweled spires adorned cylindrical towers climbing skyward from each corner of the rectangular building. A similar larger spire peeked out amid the center of the palace roof. Beige stone pillars stretched from roof to ground on the east side and created a sunlit porch in front of the main doors.
The courtyard itself resembled an elaborate garden. Sprays of lush crimson grass, interspersed with many scarlet fraxa trees, blanketed swaths of the courtyard. A sense of amazement filled her at seeing those fraxa trees again. They sprouted from tender saplings to firm towers of leaves and bark in a few short years. The scenery served as decoration around a giant statue of Bathal — the liberator of Ra'ahm.
Although Calandra never met the founder of their nation, her grandfather’s tales of his exploits became a staple of her childhood until Bathal almost turned into an unseen member of her family. The statue depicted Bathal clad in scarred battle armor raising a clenched fist to the sky. Fountains feeding clear pools flanked each side. His likeness appeared more imposing than she remembered as a child when complete awe of the entire palace washed over her while visiting her grandfather. Staring at the statue's stern expression and deep probing eyes created a sensation that their first chief sovereign returned to life and stood ready to attack unwelcome visitors.
Calandra straightened the collar on her long white silk shirt and climbed a set of beige stone steps leading to the imposing main palace doors. An enormous square iron knocker hung suspended above a smaller round knob on each door. Guards flanked the doorway. She smiled and nodded to a guard standing on her right. His stern expression remained as rigid as the pillars towering like stone giants over everything below.
"I'm here to see Minister Dharcha,” she said. “We have an appointment to discuss a vital matter."
"Is that the case?"
A skeptical tone tinged the guard's question. Calandra did not appreciate his attitude. She glanced at the huge doors looming before her. Calandra wished she could bypass him and walk right into the palace like it was her personal dwelling. Calandra knew better than to try it.
The guard removed a small arca vox from the breast pocket of his uniform. He pressed three crystal panels near the bottom of the circular pad in a five-digit sequence. A man's head filled with short, graying hair materialized on a holoscreen before the guard. Calandra only saw the back of his head, but she recognized the man as Dharcha. He exchanged a few quick words with the guard, who answered with a gruff nod before pressing the lowest crystal panel on the arca vox. Dharcha's image vanished and the guard looked at Calandra a second time.
"The minister is expecting you. Go into the grand hall and turn down the second hall to your right. You will find his office there."
His almost-programmed tone stirred disconcerting feelings within her. If only the guard knew what she discovered. Then the same degree of energetic joy would infuse his voice and mannerisms.
Once Calandra passed through the main doors, laying eyes on the palace interior caused a swarm of happy memories to eng
ulf her mind. Everything carried a greater majestic air than she remembered as a child. An exquisite crystal chandelier hung from the ceiling just inside the doors. Carpet woven from plush Ebutoka hair, dyed scarlet, covered the floor. These things all seemed so beautiful in her youth. Now she understood how expensive and rare some items were. They served as fitting symbols for the power held in this place.
At the opposite end of the hall, a grand staircase climbed to a second level filled with ballrooms, bedrooms, and bathrooms. Vine-covered arches marked separate halls on her left and her right. Multiple halls split off from the grand hall, each with a new arched entry, spaced about 20 steps apart.
Calandra followed the guard's instructions and found Dharcha's office door hanging open when she arrived. The minister sat behind an ornate wooden desk, hunched over a thin square plate while he etched words into the metal with a stylus. Dharcha snapped his head up from the desk when Calandra gave the door a gentle rap with her knuckles.
“This is a truly historic day!” Each word burst from her lips with tangible vigor. “I can't wait to share my findings with you.”
A half-smirk crossed Dharcha's thin lips. His eyes rolled skyward as he rose stiffly from his seat. He directed her to a second chair in front of his desk.
“Aren't you being a bit dramatic?” the minister said. “Studying stars day and night can grow boring. It will skew your perspective on an ordinary probe.”
The smile adorning her face melted into a perturbed half-frown.
“Stargazing is not boring.” Calandra added extra emphasis on the word not. “And what I discovered is a much bigger deal than you realize.”
“What makes it so important?”
“It's built unlike any probe we've encountered before. Not only that, but relay beacons also recorded unusual data when this object journeyed inside the fringes of our solar system.”