Flux Runners

by William Joseph Roberts

  Doug took one last drag from his cigarette, stripped the ember and pocketed the filter as he continued up the stairs. “Unless something important here in the Lair or onboard the Betty happens to break, then you should focus on fixing up the Ethel and upgrading her with whatever you can salvage from the wrecks. Surely there should be something useful from four Reds and one Cat cruise-liner. But great work so far, Danny. Keep me up to date on any other major finds.”

  “You got it, Cap,” Danny said as the two continued up the darkened stairwell.

  cHAPTER 49

  Gamma Draconis system

  Anderson (Eltanin 2) / Witches Den

  September 10th, 2176 / Morning (Dragon time)

  R achel quietly rolled herself into the Witches Den, the colony’s new medical bay. She brought her makeshift wheelchair to a sudden stop, examining her target. In the center of the circular bay stood a large table that resembled a medieval torture device. Comfortably fastened to the device’s slightly tilted surface, Wes snored lightly. Cables ran from a large wooden hand crank at the head of the device through a series of pulleys, securing its occupant in place. She slowly rolled forward.

  “Wesley,” she quietly sang. “Hey Wesley. I have your favorite cookies.” She waved a ration pack chocolate chip cookie in the air. “Come on boy, dance for mamma. You can do it, buddy.” She glared at the sleeping Geek and let out a frustrated sigh. “Dammit, guess I’ll just have to wake him, then.” She wheeled herself over next to the strange bed, removed a carefully tucked away comic book from the depths of her flight suit and slapped it down onto his husky midsection with a loud smack. “Hey! Wake up! What’s up homeslice?”

  Wes jerked to incoherent awareness with a coughing snort. His eyes darted about, attempting to focus in the dim light of the Witches Den.

  “What the hell, Cheezy? Don't you think that I'm in enough pain? Are you trying to give me a heart attack too?”

  “Awww. Did I wake the wittle baby?”

  “Go away,” he looked upward at the dark, blank ceiling. “I'm not in the mood for you right now.”

  “What the hell man? Fine, I'll just take this back and leave you to suffer in your own self-pity.” She snatched the comic back and carefully tucked it back into her flight suit.

  Wes gasped with astonished horror. “Wait...what... Is that what I think it is? Where did you get that from?”

  “Doesn't matter now, does it? You want to be an ass about it, so I'm taking my comic book and going home.” She begrudgingly wheeled herself around the table and started for the exit.

  “Unnnggghhh,” he heavily sighed. “Fine! I am so very sorry Rachel. I am an ass and did not mean any disrespect,” he said slowly and concisely, making sure to pronounce each word precisely.

  “And?”

  “Really? You want more than that?”

  “Oh yeah, big daddy. You know what I want. Let me hear those secret little words come out of your mouth,” Rachel said in her sexiest voice.

  “Fuck me. Fine,” Wes said with a sigh. “I am so sorry for being such a diaper baby that clung to my mother's tit for too long and for smelling of elderberries.”

  “That's it, big boy,” she chortled. “You know what mamma likes. Now that wasn't so bad, was it?”

  “Yes,” he growled then glared at her in a seriously annoyed tone.

  “Well. You see,” she retrieved the comic from inside of her flight suit. “I happened across this little gem many many years ago. I figured that it might come in handy at some point, so I sweet-talked the kid out of it for the cover price.”

  “Wait, what?”

  “Well, more like I demanded that no matter how old it was, the price on the cover was the price on the cover and the little shit finally gave in.”

  Wes Gasped. “You have a first issue Betty and Veronica comic book for the ten-cent cover price?”

  “Yup,” she smiled. “And I even paid that little shit with an honest to God Mercury dime that I'd carried in my pocket for years.”

  “Wait? You what? Never mind, I don't care. Can I see it?”

  “Oh no, that dime probably matters more than trading the comic for a dime. It took all nine hundred terabytes of my porn collection to get that damned dime. But that's alright. I'd loved to have been a fly on the wall when the guy I got the dime from started watching the elephant porn videos. He'll be scarred for life with that.” She snorted a laugh. “Did you know that an elephant’s penis is prehensile? They can like, scratch their bellies or swat at flies with the thing.”

  “Oh my God, that's not something that I ever needed to know.”

  “How can you say that, Wes? Now, think about the possibilities with an appendage like that.”

  “Dammit, Cheezy. Will, you just shut up and let me see the comic?”

  “Oh, you mean this?” She teasingly held up the ancient comic book in his full view. “See, I knew how much you liked your comic books, and how much you especially loved your Archie comics. So I got it and held onto it. Now seemed like it was the best time to show it to you. I thought you might could go for a distraction to take your mind off of everything else.”

  Wes struggled to glance at the cover, his head immobilized in a clamp, unable to turn. “Dammit, I can't see it and I can't freaking get loose from this contraption.”

  “You had better not get loose if you ever want to walk again,” Krista warned. She emerged from the inner depths of the Witch’s Den clad in a green leather dress and a heavy black velvet cloak covered in runic symbols.

  “Eh, legs are overrated,” Rachel said. “See? Look what I can do!” She spun the chair in circles as fast as possible. “Oh man. That doesn't feel so good.” She stopped the spinning motion and sickly wavered in her seat. “Ungh, maybe that wasn't such a good idea,” she groaned. “I’m gonna puke.”

  “You'll be fine. Now get out of here and let him rest,” Krista said.

  “Wait, no. Don't go Cheezy,” he begged. “What about the comic?”

  “You can do without it for now,” Rachel said.

  “But I'm so freaking bored sitting here like this.”

  “Aww, poor baby,” Krista chided. “You do realize that you were the one that agreed to let me tie you up like this? Right?” An evil, conniving grin stretched crossed her face. Her hand gently glided across his chest. “I could do anything that I wanted to and there isn't a damn thing that you could do about it.” Her finger found the ridge of his erect nipple poking at the fabric of his undershirt. She teased at his nipple as her finger circled it in slow, steady strokes.

  Wes flushed. “I have to say that is an intriguing thought, but I don't know how well that Kara would take to the idea.”

  “Good, then that's settled.” Krista flicked the tip of his nipple then turned the hand crank attached to the side of the table without hesitation.

  Click, click, click, POP! Something within the depths of the Geek's torso exploded with a loud release.

  “Oh, dear God! I don't know if that was good or bad.” He gasped heavily, trying to catch his breath.

  “Ooo, ooo, ooo, Can I crank it next,” Rachel asked.

  “What? You're still here? No, you can not,” Krista said gruffly. “Medical professionals only.”

  “Fine.” Rachel wheeled herself in the direction of the exit. “I'll come by later and read it to ya.”

  “No, please don't leave me here with this crazy woman. I'm starting to think that she likes inflicting pain.”

  Krista cackled. “Maybe I do and maybe I don't. Either way, you still need your rest. Now scoot,” she waved Rachel from the room.

  “See ya, wouldn't wanna be ya,” Rachel cried as she rolled out of the room.

  “Alright big boy. Now when I tell ya, I want you to turn your head and cough,” Krista directed.

  “Wait, what? Oh my God, Cheezy, please help,” Wes begged.

  Krista forced her hand beneath his back and ran her fingers across his spine. “Looks like we're going in the right direction.” She forcef
ully pulled her arm out from under him, then pulled a small pin from the sleeve of her cloak. “Tell me if you feel anything.” With a flourish of the pin in her outstretched hand and a flare of her cloak, she began her invocation. “By steel and sting, for guidance, I sing,” she harmonized as the runes of her cloak glowed a bright silver. She systematically began poking the tip of each of his toes. “Anything at all yet?”

  “What in the everloving hell?” Wes stared at her in confused disbelief.

  Krista grinned wide. “You like it? I had it made years ago, but never had much reason to use it.”

  “It's a bit over the top don't you think,” Maggie said as she entered the treatment area. She sat down a wooden box on a makeshift side table near the Den entrance.

  “I don't think so,” she said with a pouty faced grin. “I think it's just perfect for the witches three. We'll have to get you and Amanda similar one’s made up.”

  “It's too flashy.” Maggie unenthusiastically stared. “We're supposed to be healers, not stage performers. You look like Liberace with oversized tits.”

  “Hell no, it isn’t. At least I don't think it is,” Krista said. “I happen to like it. You’ll see, you will too. I’ll get two more made up the next time we go back to Earth, and you’ll just love it, trust me.”

  “What if I don’t want one,” Maggie argued. “What if Amanda doesn’t want one? Did you ever consider that or think to ask first?”

  “Why wouldn’t you want one? It’s so cool and glows, see.” Krista pressed the hidden button causing the runes to illuminate their bright silver glow.

  “Just stop,” Maggie pleaded. “You keep pushing and pushing and at some point, you’ll push too much.” A tear rolled down her cheek. “You may have already pushed Amanda too far and we won’t know until the expeditionary crew returns.” She sucked in a sobbing breath. “You can be a selfish, cold-hearted bitch sometimes, you know that.”

  Krista stepped up toe to toe with Maggie, locking eyes with her fellow witch. “What if I don’t care if it’s over the top? What if I don’t care what anyone else thinks? Maybe I want to push people's buttons. Did you ever think about that?” She held out her hand and once again pressed the tiny red button sewn into the sleeve of her dress.

  “Really!” Maggie said with an exasperated huff. She rolled her eyes and wiped at a new stream of tears.

  “Oh, just shut the fuck up.” Krista wrapped her hands around the back of Maggie's neck and pulled her close. The pair kissed deep between short gasps for air. Maggie pulled her closer, deeper into their magical embrace. They both let out soft, sensual moans as they kissed.

  Wes whimpered, trying to see what the two were doing. “It’s good to be king, It’s good to be king,” he grunted to himself.

  “Eh hem,” Doug loudly cleared his throat.

  “Oh shit...um...I'm sorry,” Krista said, taking a step back. “I have no idea where that came from.”

  “Cap,” Wes forcefully whispered. “You can go away now.”

  “No need to be sorry,” Maggie said. She gripped Krista about the waist and pulled her close. She leaned down and lightly placed another kiss on Krista’s lips, then turned back to the Captain. “Did you need something, Captain?”

  “Um...Not particularly. I was just stopping in to check on Wes.”

  “Oh, well he's just dandy as you can see,” Krista motioned in Wes’s direction. “He's making progress for sure.”

  “Good,” Doug nodded. “I could use his help on the data cores from the other ships as soon as possible.”

  “Oh, that won't be a problem,” Krista said with a nonchalant wave of her hand. “He'll be back on his feet in no time.”

  “How are your ribs, Captain?” Maggie asked, then nuzzled the edge of Krista’s ear.

  “As good as they can be,” Doug said. “Broken ribs are broken ribs.”

  “If that's all that you needed Captain, would you please excuse us.” Maggie giggled to herself. “We have a few buttons that need a good push.” She grabbed Krista by the hand and led her away into the depths of the Witch's Den. Both playfully giggled as they drew the heavy drapes shut.

  “Dammit Cap,” Wes grumbled. “You scared them off. They were getting ready to put on one hell of a show, too.”

  “Eh, you’ll live. I need you back on duty as soon as possible. That means do whatever they tell you to and get well. Kara should be back from her run to the Ethel soon. I’ll send her to save you as soon as she’s back in the Lair.”

  “Ya know, I had a thought, Cap. What if they don’t make it back?”

  “You mean the Expeditionary crew,” Doug asked.

  “Yeah,” Wes said. “What if they don’t make it back? What if after everything else that we’ve been through that now we’re stranded here for good?”

  “I already have someone working on that,” Doug said. “With the design schematics that we pulled from the Veronica's computer, we’re going to build a flux drive and retrofit the Betty.”

  “Is that possible,” Wes asked. “I mean, the Martian krauts are as good as any of the German engineers back Earth-side. But with the extremely tight tolerances and no room for error, how will we pull off that sort of precision in these conditions?”

  “You let me worry about that. Big Willy found this idiot savant, for lack of a better term, from Lower Alabama on the last Earth run. When it comes to machining and fabrication, the krauts can’t even touch him.”

  “So, we might have a pretty good chance of pulling this off?”

  “Yup.” Doug smiled proudly. “We might just have a chance, Geek.”

  cHAPTER 50

  Location Unknown

  September 17th, 2176 / Evening (Dragon time)

  T he Veronica rocked violently as they emerged from the event horizon of the flux. Someone on the bridge screamed as the ship yawed awkwardly to the left from another hard-explosive impact.

  “Status report!” Big Willy yelled over the cacophony of alarms.

  “Mines,” Fergus shouted. “We came out of the flux in a minefield. Active sensors are picking up hundreds of small objects that are roughly four cubic meters in size and surrounding us.”

  The sound of something heavy and metallic bounced along Veronicas outer hull. All present on the bridge tracked the sound of the object as it bounced along overhead and aft.

  “Oh shit,” Denise gasped.

  “That doesn't sound good,” Amanda said with a whimper.

  “Nope,” Trae said in agreement. “This is probably going to hurt.”

  The Veronica suddenly lurched upward, ass first and slid sickeningly left.

  “God Dammit Andy,” Big Willy shouted. “How about you miss a few of those fucking mines!”

  “It's kinda hard to miss them when you fly blindly into a hornet's nest!”

  “Come about to 56.9 by 225.4 by - 99.45 degrees. There’s an opening in the field that we should be able to fit through if you can hit the hole,” Fergus said.

  “What?” Andy shouted. “Which way is that?”

  Denise laughed out loud. “Ha! He said hole. Haha!”

  “Really?” Trae glared over at Denise. “Could you for just one second, be serious? Our lives are in serious peril and you want to make gutter jokes?”

  “Yup. You betcha.” Denise propped her feet on the auxiliary console and continued to sip at her coffee.

  “Nose up, roll to the right and kick the rudders slightly left,” Trae said to Andy.

  “Well hell, why didn’t you say that in the first place?” Andy chopped the throttle. “Hang on!” He pulled the nose up, hard, gunned the engines, rolled to the right with a slight tailslide to the left. From somewhere toward the aft end of the ship the distinctive metallic thwunk of a mine impacting the hull could be heard. The ship shook again from multiple nearby explosions.

  “What in the hell do you think that you're doing? You're going to kill all of us!” Jenny screamed. She desperately clutched at her console.

  “No, look out! There
's another one to your left,” Amanda screeched, then covered her eyes.

  “Ta nar alakh gej baigaa bükh burkhduudaar bin chini,” Casraownan said with a yowling hiss as he clung to the bridge’s rear auxiliary station.

  “Are you stupid or something,” Denise added. “Go under it. See the hole is right there!” Released her restraints, she leapt from her seat and ran forward, tapping at the viewscreen.

  Another mine detonated somewhere overhead, but at a distance. The concussion of the blast jostled the ship.

  “That one was not my fault,” Andy shouted. “Actually, none of these would be my fault if I had good directions. Crap! Everyone hold on to something!”

  The ship suddenly nosed up and jinked right.

  Denise fell to the deck and tumbled haphazardly to the port side of the bridge.

  “What was I even thinking? I just wanted a little adventure,” Janey shouted toward Andy. “I never wanted to get blown up in the middle of nowhere!”

  “What the hell?” Denise struggled to peel herself from the deck. “You made me spill my coffee! Dick!”

  “Can't you slow this thing down a little,” Jenny cried.

  “I just want to go home!” Amanda sobbed as she desperately wrapped herself around the back of Janey's chair.

  “Goddammit, Andy,” Big Willy roared. “Just get us out of this field!”

  “Preferably in one piece, please,” Trae added.

  “I'm working on it! It would be easier if there weren't a bunch of back seat drivers yelling at me!” He glanced angrily around the bridge.

  “Eyes on the road, Jeeves,” Denise said, snapping her fingers at Andy as she hurried to return to her seat.

  “You almost got this! Clear in ten seconds,” Fergus said.