Burning Bright

by Michael-Scott Earle

  Would I ever see her again?

  “Please, Persephone! I don’t know how to fly you. I need to save them!” I shouted, but there was no reply from the ship, no sudden noise of the thrusters activating, and no indication that the spirit on this ship heard me.

  I reached for a third level and saw the display change when I pushed it forward. It was the thruster control, and Persephone began to rumble under me.

  DANGER

  LANDING GEAR ENGAGED AND LOCKED.

  The screen flashed, and I searched the vast array of lit buttons to see if any of them were the landing gear. Persephone had a setting on them to keep her from moving or shifting, and Zea must have set it when she landed.

  A nest of them were glowing on the far left side of the terminal, and I began pushing buttons there as I wiggled the stick in the middle. Fuck, I was such an idiot. Persephone was a ridiculously complicated military starship, and I was fumbling around like a metaphorical bull in a china shop. The controls didn’t release the landing gear, and the ship started to shudder with more urgency. I reached for the thruster controls and pulled them back so the ship didn’t tear itself apart before I figured out how to fly her.

  My screen flashed suddenly, and the alarm blared across the bridge. I looked up at the display and saw a trio of white painted ships entering the atmosphere in the far distance behind me. Persephone posted the usual red text displaying the characteristics of the ships, but I ignored it in favor of trying to get the landing gear ready for taking off.

  “Fuck. How do I unlock the landing gear?” I asked as I reached for another set of buttons, but Persephone didn’t answer. Instead, the alarm seemed to get louder, and I glanced up to see the starships getting closer on the map.

  I thought back to the shuttle, and tried to remember where the landing gear control was on the smaller vessel. It didn’t have a way to lock down the arms, but the switch was on the far right side of the thrusters since they didn’t have to be used in combat. I looked over to the right, and saw a touch pad with a small hand symbol next to it. I pressed my nose on the pad and then slid my face upward and away from my seat.

  My terminal screen flashed, and the landing gear warning disappeared. I slammed my bloody stump against the thruster control, and Persephone sprung from the surface of the planet like a bullet. I hadn’t expected her speed, which was incredibly foolish, and the g-forces of her launch almost forced my ribs to bend around my spine and poke out through my back. I felt darkness swim at the edges of my vision, and I moved to grab the thruster control so I could pull it back.

  But I had no hands, and the stump of my arm couldn’t hook around the thruster control. I could barely push my arm out in the first place because of the g-forces, and Persephone’s nose was pointed level with the surface of the planet. I needed her to angle up a bit so we could get up into the atmosphere and try to find the fuckers who took my friends.

  I couldn’t breathe. The ribs in my chest were constricting around my lungs, and my heart was being strangled. I was struggling to stay awake, but black snakes coiled around my vision and wrapped around my mind. I pushed my left elbow against the back of the chair and tried to push myself forward so I could leverage my right stump on the thruster lever.

  Everything turned black, but I felt my stump press against something firm, and the pressure released from my chest. I gasped with relief, and the color began to return to my vision. I’d hooked onto the lever and reduced Persephone’s throttle to about half. She was still blasting above the surface of the planet with incredible speed, but it wasn’t enough to break my body.

  “Did we lose those three fucks?” I asked as I looked back up at the screen. I didn’t see them in the rear view display, or on the map, so I breathed another sigh of relief.

  “Persephone, can you track the ship that took them?” I asked even though I doubted she would respond.

  The screen split into a new frame, and I saw a highlighted vessel blip on the map.

  “How far away?” I asked as I looked at the front screen and the smaller overhead map display.

  Lights blinked on the screen image, and I let out a growl of frustration.

  6,203 kilometers.

  The map showed a line out from the front of the distant ship, it looked as if it was parallel to the surface of the planet, but the trajectory was a little too flat.

  Persephone was telling me that the ship was trying to escape the planet’s gravity.

  They were going to leave.

  I set my right arm against the tip of Persephone’s controls and pulled it back into me so her nose would point up. I knew there was an automated flight sequencer that would do this more efficiently, but it might end up punching me out in orbit too far away from the craft I was chasing.

  Damn it all. I’d taken too long to get back to Persephone. I’d spent too much time trying to figure out how to fly her.

  I didn’t even know what to do when I caught up with them. Open up communications and demand my friends back? I had rhodium to offer for trade, but what if they said no?

  What if they attacked?

  What if they just hit their hyperdrives?

  “Go, Persephone. We have to catch them.” I ignored the terror in my stomach and pushed on the thruster controls a bit. Our speed increased dramatically, and my brain started to feel as if it weighed fifty kilograms.

  Persephone was so damn fast. Those times Zea told me she was going as fast as she could had been a lie. Zea was going as fast as we could handle without dying. Persephone could go much faster.

  4,887 kilometers.

  “We… are… catching… them.” Every word had to be forced out of my throat, and I watched the distance number tick down as I steered behind the exiting ship.

  Alarms blared, and I saw other red dots appear in the sky above my target. Persephone counted twenty-one of them in orbit, and their scan identification tags all read as belonging to Magate Order.

  1,101 kilometers.

  The ship we were chasing was large on my viewscreen. Its thrusters were spewing out black smoke, and I was a bit surprised the vessel could even get out of orbit.

  But then it was out of orbit, and Persephone was right behind.

  20 kilometers.

  I had seen Eve use the communication tools enough times to know where those buttons were located, and I pushed the bloody stump of my arm onto the one which would broadcast an invitation to communicate.

  Persephone’s alarm was still screaming, and I saw the rest of the Magate Order ships maneuver toward us. I had no hands and no crew. Even if my friends were on board the ship, we would have to run from this many attackers.

  “Answer me!” I yelled at my communication equipment as I glanced up at the screen. The ship knew I was chasing it now, but it was a dove to my hawk dive, and I was now close enough to engage my plasma cannons or laser array.

  But that would kill my friends.

  “Answer me!” I shouted again I pulled back on Persephone’s throttle. The engine automatically switched over to the vacuum drives, but it appeared the same controls operated that propulsion system.

  The swarm of white painted Magate Order ships was closing in around me, and I knew the map indicated I had twenty seconds before they could try to hit me with their cannons.

  Then the ship I was chasing elongated like a rubberband. It disappeared a moment after it stretched, and I knew I might not ever see the women I loved again.

  I had failed them.

  “No!” I screamed, and my voice turned into a tiger’s roar.

  “No!” I choked through my tears and the thick lump in my throat.

  Persephone’s sirens drowned out my third scream, and I looked up at the screen. The first group of Magate Order ships was firing balls of blue plasma, but the screens indicated they would all miss if I continued on my current speed of travel.

  Hope wasn’t lost. I was still alive. I still had Persephone. Eve, Zea, Paula, and Kasta were the most capable women I knew. They c
ould escape. They would meet me at Queen’s Hat. I just needed to get back there and wait for them. I could use my rhodium to find info on these Magate Order fucks. Persephone had the data she gathered from scanning the ships. I would search for them. I’d find them.

  But first I needed to get out of here.

  Another wave of plasma balls flew across the front of Persephone, and she rocked from a hit. I guessed her shields absorbed it, but I didn’t know how many more hits she could take.

  “I need to get back to Queen’s Hat,” I yelled to Persephone as I moved my left elbow to the controls Zea always used to engage the warp drive. It was reset now, and it would take me less than fifteen minutes to get back to the station. Juliette would help me find info on the Magate Order, and they would regret the day they ever took my friends. I’d make them all pay. I’d kill every last one of them.

  Persephone rocked again, and I realized that Queen’s Hat wasn’t the destination already programmed into the drive. It was Epsilon Tauri - b, the planet the crew of Dance to the Dirge had said they were from.

  “Fucking shit!” I screamed as Persephone shuddered from another salvo of plasma fire.

  I needed to get back to Queen’s Hat, not continue with my mission to chase down old leads. I needed to lick my wounds, let my hands regenerate, and then hunt for my friends. Going to Epsilon Tauri - b would waste a warpdrive use, and I’d have to wait another forty hours before I could use it again.

  But I didn’t know how to use the navigation system. Even if I did, it would take me a few minutes to plot the course back to Queen’s Hat, and Persephone couldn’t weather another minute of plasma fire from twenty ships.

  “Damn it all. I’m sorry.” Tears streamed down my cheeks, and my stomach turned to ice. There was no other way out of this mess. I had to run away so I could fight another day.

  I pushed my left elbow down on the button to engage the warp drive, and the display screens turned dark as the starship accelerated to a speed far beyond what light could travel.

  I stared at the black screens for far too long. It was silent on the bridge, and the lack of sound made my heart want to stop its beating. The lump in my throat threatened to choke me, and the one in my chest made it feel like an elephant was standing on top of me.

  I stared down at my bloody arms and the bloody parachute in my lap. I needed to care for my injuries. I needed to put an IV in my arm. I needed to sleep so I could plan my next steps. I needed to read the fucking manual so that I knew how to fly Persephone properly.

  I needed to do a thousand tasks, but all I wanted to do right now was grieve for the friends and lovers I might not ever see again.

  So I grieved until the warpdrive ended and I arrived at Epsilon Tauri - b.

  Chapter 12

  “Shit,” I gasped after I emerged from warpdrive and stared at Persephone's display screen. I’d expected to find the planet Epsilon Tauri - b, but there didn’t seem to be anything here but a distant gathering of asteroids. There were a lot of the space rocks floating around, so I checked the coordinates on the navigation system to double check that I was in the right spot.

  Paula plotted the course through warpdrive from a different orbital position than where I had engaged the drive, but it took me a few minutes of glancing between her math and the map positioning to realize the distant cluster of rocks was actually Epsilon Tauri - b.

  Something had destroyed the planet.

  I closed my eyes and leaned the back of my skull against the headrest. The leather smelled faintly of Zea’s hair, and my emotions stormed while I breathed in her memory.

  “Looks like I’m chasing ghosts,” I whispered as I looked at the screen here.

  My lovers were gone, my friends were gone, and the lead I had for Dance to the Dirge was gone. For a few minutes I just stared blankly at the screen, but then I was able to focus my mind on the activities and results that I could control. The grief was almost overwhelming, but I knew there was a chance I could find my friends still. There was also a chance Juliette knew about these Magate Order slavers, or someone on Queen’s Hat knew of them. I just needed to wait forty hours before I could use the warp drive. In the meantime, I needed to get some water in me, rest so my hands could regenerate, and start reading the manual to Persephone.

  I might be the only crew member for a long time.

  My mind grabbed onto the tasks with zeal, and I pushed on my aching legs to launch me out of my seat. I turned to walk toward the other side of the empty bridge.

  A beeping chime sounded from the terminal, and I paused midstep. It sounded like a communication request so I jumped back to the seat. The terminal screen confirmed that someone was trying to speak to me, and I pushed my armored elbow point down on the accept button.

  “Persephone, do you hear me?” It was a man’s voice, and the tone communicated hints of desperation.

  “Yes, I hear you. Who is this?” I asked.

  “Thank the goddamn stars. I don’t have visuals anymore. My radar said you were here, and I pushed out a message. I’m Mikhael. Who am I speaking with?” There had been a minute delay with his answer, and I guessed he was far away from me.

  “Adam, I am captain of Persephone,” I answered. “I don’t see you on my scanners. I came here to find Epsilon Tauri - b, was it destroyed?”

  “Yes and no,” he answered with a sigh. “We are a station. You are on the other side of the asteroid field from us, but we were attacked about two weeks ago. Most of our systems are down, and we are in rough shape.”

  “Who attacked you?” I asked as Persephone's scanners suddenly highlighted something in the asteroid field. It was tiny green dot, but I read the data fields while I waited for him to respond.

  City Class Station: Epsilon Tauri - b

  Manufactured by: DD345

  Branding: Vaish Military Outpost 24, Epsilon Tauri - b

  Hyperdrive: DD345 Churndrive. 2,135 hours to one light year.

  Warpdrive: No

  Foldingdrive: No

  Length: 5.2 kilometers

  Minimum Crew: 600

  Estimated population: 2,000

  Estimated fighter craft: 300

  Estimated drone payload: 200

  Heavy plasma cannons: 80

  Light plasma guns: 30

  Laser arrays: 20

  I felt the animal in my stomach give a growl when I read ‘military outpost,’ and I wondered if this was some sort of trap. The scanner told me I was a good nine million kilometers from the station, and this could have been a trick to get me closer so they could attack me.

  “People that don’t like us. I’m sure you’ve made plenty of enemies. Hard not to nowadays. Look, we really need your help. You are the first ship we’ve seen in our system since we were attacked. We are on our last bit of food and life support power. If you leave us, we are all going to die. Can you come a bit closer so we can communicate easier? I’m using the last of our batteries to keep our radio on. You’ll see what kind of mess we are in when you hyperdrive next to us.”

  Mikhael sounded sincere, but I was still cautious. If this were a trap, I wouldn’t be able to escape. I had no crew to help me pilot Persephone. I didn’t even have hands to do it myself. I would need to plot a hyperdrive course around the asteroid cluster to reach them, the drive would need a few seconds to reset, and I would be exposed to attack.

  “How many people are with you?” I asked. “My scanners think you have two thousand people on your station.”

  “We are just eight right now. We will not strain your resources. Please help.” His voice pleaded, and my emotions tumbled around in my stomach.

  This felt like a trap, but maybe I was extra cautious because of what happened with my friends. I hadn’t expected to get attacked while we were right outside of Persephone's hatch, and now my friends were on a slaver ship.

  “I’m cautious, Mikhael. Sorry. I need some time to think about it.” I looked back to the screen and my eyes focused on one word near the description of t
he station.

  Vaish.

  I stood from Zea’s chair and ran back to my room as quickly as my aching legs could carry me. The manila folder Juliette gave me was still in the coat pocket, and I pulled it out before I sprinted back to the bridge. I also saw the hard drive I took from Control’s computer in my pocket. I had forgotten to give it to Zea so she could try and figure out how Elka Nota was tracking us.

  I swallowed the lump in my throat again, and then stumbled out of my room. I made it back just in time to hear Mikhael start speaking again.

  “Look, Adam, I can understand why you are cautious. I’d be cautious also, but we really need your help. We aren’t trying to trap you. We were hit hard, and our station is limping along. If you hyperdrive a bit closer, you can see the damage to our station. If you fear we might attack, just come out a few hundred kilometers from us, in any direction, then you can hyperdrive away. You won’t need to though, you’ll see we aren't a threat, and we really need your assistance.”

  I opened the paper folder that Juliette gave me and looked through the names of the crew on the list. I knew I had recognized the name Vaish. Madalena Vaish was the captain of Dance to the Dirge. There was also a Mikhael Elbert listed in the crew.

  “I’m not in much of a position to help you all, but I’m still considering. What is your full name? I came here looking for some people, and one of them was named Mikhael.”

  I looked at the pictures again while I waited for the man to reply. Thirty seconds passed, then another. Once five minutes had passed, I wondered if he had been telling me the truth, and his battery was dead, but then his voice came through again.

  “It is Elbert. I am Lieutenant Mikhael Elbert of the Vaish Navy.”

  I let out a sigh of relief and tried to think about what to say next. I still didn’t know if this was a setup, but he’s told me the correct last name. It probably meant they were in desperate need.

  “I’m looking for the crew of a specific starship. They docked at Queen’s Hat station about fourteen Earth years ago. Was that you? Can you confirm the name of the ship?” My heart thumped in my chest after I asked the question, and I wondered if I was playing my hand too much.