Burning Bright

by Michael-Scott Earle

  A helmet expanded from the rear shoulder part of the suit and encased my head in a tight seal. The heads-up display lit up on the surface of the glass, and I saw the pressure and air supply of the suit. There was also a mini-map that showed me the inside of Persephone.

  “Adam?” Madalena’s dark voice wheezed through the communication system of the space suit.

  “I just got my suit on. I’m heading out the airlock,” I said as I stepped toward Persephone's exit door.

  “We… have… five… minutes… left…” I heard her say as I pushed my elbow to the open button. The airlock door hissed, and I stepped into the next compartment.

  “I’m going out now. What does this switch look like? Where exactly do I need to go?” I used my elbow to trigger the door closed behind me and then pressed the button to exit the ship.

  “I… can’t… see… you… or… ship… can’t… tell… you… where… look… for… connection… joint… red… box… switch…” Each of her words made me wince, and the cold sweat poured down my back.

  “I’m on it,” I replied as I stepped to the edge of Persephone’s exit platform.

  Then the danger of my situation really smacked me in the face.

  Persephone floated in space some two hundred meters from the damaged station. The distance hadn’t seemed great when I was on the bridge, but now that I stood at the edge of endless space, the chasm seemed to stretch to infinity.

  I tried to glance over my back to see if there was some sort of harness attachment. Either I couldn’t get my head around far enough, or there wasn’t one. I glanced down at my suit for some sort of thruster controls, and I saw the buttons on the outside part of each thumb. It would have been easy enough to operate the system if I had hands, but I didn’t.

  Fucking shit.

  “Adam…” Madalena’s voice sounded soft in my helmet, and I glanced over to the space station. I spotted the connection joint I assumed she wanted me to go, and panic filled my stomach.

  This was insane. I’d have a better chance of hitting a hand sized target with my pistol across the two hundred meters than aiming my jump to the correct spot.

  And if I missed, there was no coming back. I’d float through endless space forever. There would be no attempt to find my friends. There would be no protecting Uraniel from the SAVO. Madalena and her friends would also be dead.

  My heart thumped in my chest, and it felt like I was swimming in sweat. Another bout of dizziness assaulted me as I took another step toward the lip of the exit, and I tried to fight it off while I stood at the edge of the abyss.

  “Three… minutes…” she wheezed, and I backed away from the edge.

  “I’m jumping,” I said, but my voice came out like a whisper I almost couldn’t hear.

  I ran toward the edge and leapt across the galaxy.

  Terror filled me, and I regretted my decision to jump almost as soon as my feet lost contact with Persephone's deck. The station suddenly seemed two kilometers away, instead of two hundred meters, and I noticed it was spinning slightly away from me.

  Or maybe it wasn’t spinning, maybe it was just the nausea returning.

  One moment it looked like I was off target, and the station was moving away from me. The next moment it seemed as if the connection arm was moving toward me, and I’d hit the target. My emotions flip flopped a dozen times, and I fought back the vomit threatening to explode out of my stomach.

  “Nooooo,” I growled as it became obvious I was going to miss the area where the connection arm was. Then I let out a gasp of relief a few seconds before I landed against an asteroid section right next to a vertical tower, and ten meters from the connecting joints.

  “I’m almost there,” I said as I pressed my arm against the side of the metal tower to stop my flight. I let out another sigh of relief when I felt my boots touch the rock of the asteroid. My next jump launched me toward the connector arm perfectly, and I saw a half meter long control box attached to the metal at the base of the structure.

  “Hurry…” Madalena wheezed as I pushed with my stumps and forced my mass down to the bottom of the column.

  The box was closed, and I saw a simple squeeze joint on the right side that kept the lid shut. All a maintenance personnel would have to do is pinch the two extended metal tabs together, and the lid could be pulled open.

  I had no fingers to pinch or open it.

  Both of my forearms were clutching the sides of the box so I didn’t drift out into space, and there wasn’t anywhere to wrap my legs. There were handles on the sides of the box, but they were made to be grasped with fingers, and there wasn’t enough distance between the bars for my arm.

  “Damn it!” I growled and tried to think of a solution. If I let go with my arms, I’d probably float away. Even if I could pinch the squeeze joints together, my arms lacked the dexterity to both squeeze and pull.

  “What’s… wrong…”

  “I can’t open the fucking lock!” I growled and thought about slamming my head against the box, but that wouldn’t do anything other than risk smashing in my helmet.

  Then I got another idea.

  I could bite the squeeze joint and pull it open. I’d just have to push the button to unhinge my helmet glass.

  “Fuck me,” I moaned as my brain spun with the consequences of my plan. I knew the rules about zero vacuum situations. As long as you didn’t have any air in your lungs, and you re-pressurized within a few minutes, the vacuum wouldn’t kill you. What I didn’t know was if my suit would re-pressurize when I pushed the button on my chest for the helmet. I also didn’t know if the suit had oxygen tanks that slowly filled my helmet, or if all the air was just loose in my suit. Would opening my helmet mean I would lose all my air?

  “Thirty… sec--” Madalena’s voice cut off and I realized I didn’t have time to think anymore.

  I pushed all the air out of my lungs and used my arms to leverage the squeeze joint bit against the button on my chest piece. My guess was correct, and my helmet flipped away from my head to hide back in the shoulder piece of the space suit.

  Space was cold, but it wasn’t as cold as I thought it would be, and even though I knew that my eyeballs wouldn’t pop out of my skull, I still half-expected them to once the helmet fell away. I pushed my mouth down to the squeeze joint, pushed my lips around the two metal pieces there to make a seal, and then bit down on the metal. I kept my arms tight against the sides of the box and then slowly pulled back with my neck.

  The door opened, and I almost gasped with joy.

  Inside the box were three switches. Two were lowered in the “off” position, but the third was raised, and a green glow came from the “on” tag at the top. I didn’t know exactly which switches Madalena needed me to flip, but I couldn’t ask her anymore. I raised my left arm to pinch the door in my bicep, pushed my right stump into the box, and then kind of pry-barred it against the bottom part of the metal to flip one of the switches up. Then I repeated the motion with the last switch, and the lights of the station turned on around me as if someone had just plugged in a Christmas tree.

  My heart was hammering in my chest, and I moved my arms back around the outside of the box. I positioned the tab against my chest again and pressed the button to activate my helmet.

  Then I prayed it would re-pressurize.

  The glass flipped over my head, and the display text turned on. I saw a text on the bottom say Pressurizing, and numbers scrolled up from 0% to 100%. Then there was a beep, and I inhaled sweet, sweet air. The helmet also said my air supply was at 92%, and I breathed another sigh of relief.

  “Adam, you did it. We have air.” Madalena still wheezed when she spoke.

  “Yeah,” I said.

  “Thank you. I promised I would submit to you and join your blood clan. We are still stuck in this dwelling pod. You will have to repair the ground floor of our unit before I can swear fealty.”

  “How do I repair it?” I asked, but then another bought of nausea overcame me.
r />   And I slipped off the box.

  “Shit!” I gasped as I brought my feet together. My feet pinched the door of the switch box, and I bounced back again so I could clutch the sides with my arms.

  “What happened?”

  “I lost my grip,” I panted. The world was still spinning, and I felt like I had a flu chill. “I don’t think I’m going to be able to do any more right now. I need to rest for a bit.”

  “No. We are still sealed in this pod, we need your help,” Madalena’s words were sounding stronger.

  “I’ll help you, I said I would, but I told you I’m injured. I need to--”

  “We have a medical physician. She is an excellent doctor. If you can make it here, and repair the bottom section of our structure, she will treat you. We have supplies. Please.” Madalena sounded like the kind of woman who never asked for help, and her tone hinted that she was trying hard to be pleasant and not order me.

  “How much food and water do you have?” I asked as I looked back to Persephone. I’d have to make another leap across the two hundred meters of space to get back to her, but then I would hook myself up to an IV and pass out. I had no idea when I would wake up, but I’d probably have regenerated hands when I did.

  I really wanted to sleep. I wanted to dream of Zea and Eve. I was so damn tired.

  “Why does that matter?” she growled.

  “I need to sleep,” I said.

  “No, you need to repair our structure. You--” I heard a shout behind her, and Madalena’s voice cut off.

  “Ahh, Adam. Hey, it’s Mikhael.” He cleared his throat. “Please forgive the Prime--my captain. She’s stressed. We are thankful for your help, but we really need to you to repair the structure. We are on the other side of the asteroid you should be on. It will just take you a moment to thrust over there. Then I can walk you through the repair systems.”

  “I need to rest, Mikhael. I’m sorry. I don’t plan to abandon you all. I’ll work on your problem as soon as I recover.” I glanced back to Persephone as I spoke and then I realized I would need a slightly better position so I could get more momentum with my leap.

  “Where are you from, Adam? Your accent isn’t one we are used to hearing.”

  “Ganymede.” I knew he was trying to build rapport with me, but I felt as if I was dying. My body was starting to shake as if I had a fever.

  “Ganymede? Where is that?” he asked.

  “It is a moon of Jupiter.”

  “Ahh. Earth system. You are a long way from home,” he said with a short laugh.

  “I get that a lot,” I replied as I pushed off the box and wrapped my arm around the metal connectors above me. This was giving me a better angle, and I coiled my legs beneath me.

  “You don’t understand our ways. Before you return to your ship, can I explain a few things?”

  “Mikhael, I am going to take care of you all. I just need to rest. I’m about ready to pass out.”

  “I’m sorry. I understand. Please, will you give me a moment?” the man pleaded.

  “Fine,” I said, but I agreed mostly because I still wasn’t prepared to throw myself across the void toward Persephone.

  “We are warriors. Our people are divided into blood clans who have claimed solar systems. This outpost is near the edge of our territory. We don’t venture out of this part of our galaxy often, so this place is of some importance to us. I hope I haven’t lost you.” His words were quick and urgent.

  “No, but your story sounds similar to many other places,” I said.

  “We are in the Vaish Overlord Clan. Madalena is the eldest daughter to King Vaish. She is a Prime Valkyrie, and her word is a bond of blood and the honor of our people. We do not intend to betray you.”

  “I don’t understand what a Prime Valkyrie is, and I feel like we are going around in circles. I said I would save you all, and I will honor my word.”

  “Ahh. This is good,” he said, but then he cleared his throat. “However, we were attacked, and a large chunk of our fleet was destroyed. Part of our crew was on our flagship, which was Madalena’s private vessel. She ordered them to flee in order to save themselves. We had thought they would return, but they haven’t. We do believe our enemies might return at any moment to ensure Madalena is dead. She is a great threat to them, you see.”

  “So, you need me to free you, and then you need me to take you somewhere?”

  “Uhh, yes, but--”

  “No,” Madalena interrupted Mikhael’s sentence. “I have submitted to you, Adam. I will go where my lord orders me. My destination isn’t important.” Her voice was dark and had an angry edge to it.

  “I don’t really care about you submitting to me, or whatever you think your honor demands of you. I’ve turned your life support on, I have a suspicion that you have enough water and food, so I need to rest. Then I’ll work on repairing your station.” I wanted to trust these people, but I had already risked my life to give them air. Now I needed to heal and take time to figure out what my next steps were.

  I also didn’t feel like they were telling me the whole story. Not that it mattered, really. I was a hair away from finally falling unconscious. I figured I’d be able to get back to Persephone, and possibly get an IV in before I passed out.

  “Are you a warrior?” Madalena spat the question.

  “I was once a marine,” I answered.

  “Then I call upon your warrior honor. I have submitted to you. You are responsible for my life, and the lives of those who have submitted to me.”

  “No. I’ve turned on your life support, and I’ll help you when I wake up.”

  “Damn you,” she hissed. “Our enemies could return at any moment, and we are defenseless now. You should have just let--”

  “How long will it take for you to rest?” Mikhael interrupted Madalena.

  “I am unsure. My ship has sensor alarms. It will wake me if an enemy enters the system.

  “You will still need to fix the base of our structure,” I heard Madalena say, but her voice sounded as if it was in the distance.

  “I’ll figure something out,” I said, and then I aimed myself at Persephone’s distant hatch and pushed with my legs.

  I floated through space with my heart in my throat, but my trajectory was good, and I managed to smack into her hull only a few meters from the side dock door. Madalena and Mikhael tried to speak to me again, but I ignored their words.

  After just a few moments, I was through the air lock.

  Then I was wiggling out of the space suit.

  Then I was stumbling to the infirmary.

  I found our large stash of IV bags and tried to figure out how to remove my armor. I eventually pried the pieces off my right arm by leveraging them against the sharp corner of the table. It was rough work, and I had to stop a few times to catch my breath, or wait for the room to stop spinning.

  I couldn’t open a sanitation pad to clean the spot on my forearm where I needed to insert the needle, but I found an automated soap dispenser, and I was able to get some soap on my arm, rub it to a lather on the counter, and then rinse it off.

  Getting the IV setup was a bit harder. I had to use my teeth to set the needle against the tube. Then I yanked the cap off with my mouth, bit the side part of the device with my teeth, and jammed it into my arm at my vein. I couldn’t tape it in place, but I wasn’t planning on going anywhere. I attached the IV to a bar hanging from one of the medical beds in the infirmary. At long last, I slid my almost destroyed body onto the cot.

  I closed my eyes, hoped this day had just been a nightmare, and prayed I’d wake up with Zea and Eve in my bed.

  Sleep took me quickly, but before I drifted into oblivion, I swore I could feel someone running their fingers across my face. I was too tired to open my eyes, though, and I hurt too bad to care.

  Chapter 14

  I awoke to confusion. I knew I wasn’t in my bed, but I couldn’t see through the inky darkness around me. I shifted against the cot where I lay, and the room light
s slowly brightened. I was in the infirmary, and my memories slammed into my chest like an anvil of ice being dropped off a building.

  I blinked away tears and looked at my arm. The IV needle had fallen out, but the bag was just a dry husk. So, I figured I’d received a full amount of the advanced saline mixture. I could use five more, but the thought brought me back to my hands, and I looked down at the stumps. They were itching significantly, and I could see a centimeter of new flesh pushing out from the ends of the bloody stump. At this rate, it would take a few weeks to heal, and I didn’t have that kind of time. Shifting into my tiger-man form would boost the power of my healing a hundredfold, but I had been unable to do it back on GUAAY - 23 - c.

  I focused on my anger and willed the monster in my soul to burn through my blood, to fill my muscles, and the turn me into the killing machine. There was nothing for a few moments, but then I felt my spine began to elongate, and the agonizing process started.

  I watched my arms while I shifted, and my hands quickly grew back into their human shape. Then they sprouted the orange striped fur, grew larger, and the claws extended from the sheaths at the end of each digit. My vision shifted to red, then grew yellower as the details in the infirmary sharped. I spit my human teeth out in the sink and then growled when my sharper fangs pushed through my gums.

  There was a mirror in the room, and I stared at myself for a few moments while I flexed my new hand muscles.

  Then I closed my yellow eyes and thought about the ocean. I thought about the waves. I thought about the breeze across my face.

  I tried not to think about Eve or Zea.

  The pain came again, but the shift back was almost never as rough as the initial change. As soon as I was back in my human form, I realized I had never seen myself shift back. My fur was never left on the ground when I turned back into a human, and my tiger teeth never fell out; they just looked like human teeth afterward. I knew almost nothing about how my transformation worked, and while I was a bit curious, I knew now wasn’t the time to worry about it.