GAME SPACE - Full Novel

by Peter Jay Black

  This would be tight.

  Skylar nosed the ship skyward, but as she did, red dots filled my game map. The air darkened above us, filling with mechanical butterfly soldiers and hovering army vehicles.

  I froze in my seat.

  “Hold on,” Skylar screamed.

  Blasts of energy rained down, but she darted left and right, up and down, avoiding them and the flying Ancampi soldiers.

  We shot past a truck, narrowly missed a staff car with an angry general glaring at us, and soared upward.

  “Great flying.” I turned to watch the Ancampi soldiers give chase.

  Skylar's grip tightened on the controls.

  Two flying soldiers swooped past, trailing magical smoke. They veered, turned, and let loose a barrage of fire.

  Skylar swerved, avoiding them by millimetres.

  We'll make it. She’s far too good for them.

  The general’s staff car shot in front of us, and my stomach clenched.

  Uh-oh.

  Skylar darted left and right, but the staff car mimicked her movements with ease.

  Crap.

  “Gonna play it like that, huh?” she snarled. “Fine. Follow this.” She yanked the controls hard, sending us into a tight, ascending spiral.

  The staff car did the same. As it reached the cloud layer, it hesitated and tried to take a sharp left, but it was too slow. The car slammed into the underside of the magical cloud as if it were concrete and spun out of control. Two other Ancampi vehicles dived to save their leader.

  Despite that, Skylar kept us pointing straight up.

  “What the hell are you doing?” Mason shouted. He reached forward to grab his sister’s arm, but it was too late.

  We punched through the cloud layer.

  “What the—?” I looked around. “Did you see that?”

  “Must be this craft,” Kelvin said. “The Ancampi can’t fly through the cloud, but we can.”

  I sat back, breathing hard, my heart threatening to break through my ribcage.

  Skylar smiled at us as though it were nothing. “You guys need to chill.”

  Mason’s eyes narrowed. “You knew we’d fly through it?”

  She shrugged. “I guessed we might.”

  I clutched my chest. “Thanks for telling us beforehand.”

  Instead of reattaching the silver craft to its moorings, Skylar landed us on the walkway itself.

  The five of us couldn’t climb out fast enough. We raced across the catwalk and up the stairs, and once we reached the surface of the ice planet, we made a beeline for Star Chaser.

  An explosion almost knocked us off our feet, throwing shards of ice all around us. A black spacecraft swooped down, firing.

  “Kraython,” Mason screamed. “Run.”

  Forty-Three

  “What the hell are they doing here?” I shouted as I sprinted with the others toward Star Chaser, one arm supporting Eve. Blasts missed us by inches, chunks of ice rained down, and above us, the black spacecraft repositioned itself for a better aim.

  “They must have picked up our signals when we dropped the blocker,” Kelvin said, hurrying to keep up.

  Blasts punched craters as they hit home, showering us with ice.

  We dived into Star Chaser and lowered our helmets. Skylar got the craft airborne within seconds, zigzagging left and right and up and down to avoid the Kraythons’ shots.

  I wanted to throw up. “Haven’t we just been through this?”

  “This is much worse,” Skylar said over her shoulder. A blast slammed into the hull, almost knocking us from our seats.

  Kelvin pulled a display in front of him and used his phase-band to interact with the screen. “They’re trying to contact their other ships.”

  “Who?” Eve said, her voice rising an octave. “The Kraythons?”

  Another blast grazed the hull, the searing heat filling the cabin.

  Kelvin clenched his jaw as we spun to the side. “The planet’s shielding their signal, but not for much longer.”

  “If they get a transmission to Valorion while the fleet’s like this,” Mason said, “we’re done for.”

  I gripped my seat as we spiralled. “Who the hell is Valorion?”

  Eve stopped chewing her nails. “Leader of the Kraython Empire.”

  “Oh, cool. Big bad guy. Got it.” I rolled my eyes. “Reactivate the signal blocker, Kelvin.”

  The others gawped at me.

  “Have you lost your mind?” Mason said. “After everything we’ve just been through?”

  Eve frowned. “If the Leviathan arrives without defences...”

  “Hold on,” Skylar shouted. Star Chaser lurched to the side, narrowly missing a large hunk of space debris, then darted through the field while blasts scorched the hull.

  I squinted through the rear window and tried not to throw up as Skylar pulled crazy manoeuvres. The Kraython spacecraft was in hot pursuit, matching her moves and blasting away at us. I turned my attention back to Kelvin. “The drone came here to investigate an anomaly, right? The blocked signals. The way the fleet vanished.”

  He nodded. “Right.”

  “Leviathan would have seen the same thing,” I said. “Hours ago. Wouldn’t they have been looking this way ever since? Trying to find us? Trying to work out what happened?”

  “I get where he’s going with this.” Eve shifted her weight and cringed.

  “Thirteen minutes before Leviathan arrives,” Mason muttered.

  A blast glanced off Star Chaser’s hull, knocking us sideways, and Skylar swore. “Don’t know how much longer I can keep them off us.” She dived through a hole in a piece of spaceship and emerged spiralling in a move that made me want to hurl.

  I gripped the edges of my seat and focused on Kelvin, forcing myself to think things through and ignore my intense nausea. “The signal blocker’s been down for six minutes now. Admiral Floyd and the crew will know what’s happened here. They’ll be ready.” I fixed Kelvin with a stern expression. “We need to activate the signal blocker so the Kraythons don’t get the word out.”

  Kelvin pursed his lips.

  “Do it,” Mason said.

  “You’d better do something.” Skylar pulled up Star Chaser’s nose and we glanced off another piece of space crap. “I can’t keep them in the planet’s shadow for much longer.”

  A blast hit the underside of our ship, throwing us from our seats. My head slammed into the ceiling, and I fell back to the floor in a crumpled, painful heap. Moaning, I hauled myself back to my chair, wishing I’d built in harnesses when I’d designed this damn ship and vowing to add them if we made it out alive.

  Kelvin stared at me. “If we reactivate the signal blocker, I won’t be able to send Leviathan my scan data about the missiles. Without that, they’ll be defenceless.”

  “No.” I leaned forward. “If they’ve seen the destruction, they’ll know something’s happened. They might have spotted the missiles by now. They’re not far away. They’ll hold back.”

  “Agreed,” Eve said. “They’ll keep their distance until they understand what’s happened. We’ll fly on board the Leviathan when it gets here.”

  Kelvin bit his lip. “I don’t know about this.”

  “No choice.” Skylar piloted Star Chaser hard over and pressed us into our seats. “We’ll be out of the planet’s shadow in ten seconds.”

  Kelvin sighed. “Signal blocker reactivated.” He sat back, deflated.

  Another bone-shaking blast hit Star Chaser.

  “We can’t keep taking this punishment,” Skylar said.

  “Go back to the Last Horizon,” I said.

  “Roger.” She swerved, almost sideswiping the remnants of a cannon, and swooped upward.

  Eve watched the Kraython ship recede behind us. “We’ve got no weapons powerful enough to defeat them.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” Mason said. “We’ve got upgraded shields.”

  “No, we haven’t.” Skylar pointed through the window, and my heart sank.
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  Ahead, among the debris, drifted the Last Horizon. Large sections of the hull had been torn free, and the rest was peppered with blast holes exposing its inner workings.

  “What the hell happened?” I murmured.

  “We had to leave the shields down when we left,” Skylar said.

  “I know,” I replied, shocked. “But you said Last Horizon was in sentry mode and it would fly away if it detected trouble.”

  “Looks like it tried,” Skylar said.

  “It will repair itself,” Kelvin said, even though he didn’t look convinced.

  “Never mind that.” Mason faced me. “Can you build defences as soon as we’re back on board? Stop the Kraython ship?”

  “CodeX,” I said. “Can we add weapons to the Last Horizon?” A flash of schematic images in response showed I could, making it more than capable of taking out the small unmanned Kraython craft, but there wasn’t enough time.

  We would need at least half an hour to gather the materials from the wrecked fleet.

  Until then, we were defenceless.

  * * *

  Two minutes later, Skylar plunged into Last Horizon’s shuttle bay. As soon as the pressure equalised, she opened Star Chaser’s door and we scrambled out.

  “Get Eve to the med bay,” I said to Mason.

  “I’m fine.” Eve wobbled.

  He caught her under the arm. “Come on, Doc. Let’s get you checked.”

  She pushed him away. “Not yet. It’s not over.”

  The Kraythons’ weapons pounded the hull as the five of us jogged from the hangar.

  We ran along the hallway and onto the bridge. Sure enough, the Kraython ship manoeuvred outside, fired, moved again, and fired, systematically tearing us apart.

  Skylar hurried to the pilot seat. “As I thought, the gravity field is offline.”

  “Repair time?” I asked.

  She shrugged. “Hard to tell.”

  “Brilliant.”

  The ship trembled under the Kraython blasts, and I grabbed the back of my chair.

  “The Last Horizon won’t hold together forever.” Kelvin fell into his seat and looked forlornly at his display.

  “How long before Leviathan arrives?” I said.

  “Six minutes,” Eve replied.

  “And how long before the Kraythons take out our life support?” I asked Kelvin.

  “Maybe three or four minutes,” he said with a despondent look.

  “Shall I use the thrusters to get us out of here?” Skylar’s face dropped. “Wait, they’ve already killed those too. How did they do that?”

  “Pushing all healing resources to the engines,” Kelvin said, his fingers twisting over his display.

  I turned to the Kraython ship, fists balled, jaw clenched.

  We were so close.

  So damn close.

  Mason glared at me. “Why haven’t we got weapons?”

  I winced. “Sorry. Didn’t think to include any.” Which was totally dumb. I felt terrible for not adding a few guns for Mason to play with.

  I took a deep breath, looked at the remaining forty percent of my health, and knew what I needed to do. It was impulsive—reckless, even—but necessary.

  I’d do my best to be in control for once, even if it was controlled chaos.

  Trying not to think too much, I ran from the bridge.

  “Where are you going?” Eve called.

  “Back in a minute,” I lied as I raced along the hallway to the hangar bay. I climbed on board Star Chaser, and as the door swung closed, I asked the CodeX for everything it had on flying the bloody thing.

  It returned the data in flashes of exuberant optimism, which made a nice bloody change. I gathered Star Chaser would be a lot harder to pilot without a phase-band, but I’d have to manage. I wasn't going to continue risking my crew’s lives.

  “What are you doing?” Eve’s voice said in my head.

  “Buying time.” I used the screen to fire up Star Chaser’s refracting gravity field, then rested my hands on my knees and took a deep breath.

  I can do this.

  All I need is control of myself and Star Chaser.

  Focus.

  The spacecraft slammed into the ceiling, almost knocking my teeth out. It jolted left, then right, crashed into a wall, levelled off, and juddered.

  “Okay, okay,” I grumbled. “Point taken.” I concentrated on making small, gentle movements, treating the craft with finesse. Something else I’d never possessed.

  Sure, the CodeX had given me all the technical details about flying, but absolutely none of the skills needed to pull it off.

  Skylar made it look way too easy.

  Time to make my father proud.

  “Please come back,” Eve pleaded. “We’ll figure a way out of this together. You’ll get yourself killed for nothing.”

  “There’s no other way,” I said, determined. I knew I was right.

  Sure, if I had a chance to do this again, I'd make different choices. Who wouldn’t?

  But hindsight’s a bitch.

  The hangar bay door slid open, and I pushed forward, dipping Star Chaser’s nose down and flying through.

  The moment I was outside, a blast of energy grazed the cockpit window.

  I shouted and swerved, steering straight into the path of a second blast and slamming Star Chaser into a giant chunk of space debris. My health meter dropped to thirty percent.

  Damn it, concentrate.

  Well, at least I had drawn the Kraythons’ attention from the Last Horizon.

  I flew over the top of the ship and imagined Eve, Mason, Skylar, and Kelvin’s dumbfounded expressions.

  “What a lunatic.”

  “What’s the oolak playing at?”

  However, much to my horror, the unmanned Kraython craft didn’t follow. It turned back to the Last Horizon and continued its onslaught, clearly seeing the ship as a bigger prize.

  “No, you don’t.” I dived straight at it.

  The Kraython spacecraft lurched to the side, and I missed, smashing into more space junk. My health dropped to twenty-five percent.

  Swearing, I spun back around.

  Why wouldn’t they take the bait? Did they know what I was trying to do? Was the onboard AI computer smart enough to understand?

  A radical idea hit me.

  Well, I say radical, but in reality, it was closer to idiotic and really dumb. Hey, I was desperate.

  I opened a channel to the Kraythons, remembering Kelvin’s comment about transmissions working if you were close enough.

  “Er, hello?”

  Radio silence.

  I checked the display. Star Chaser was transmitting, which meant the Kraython robot was ignoring me.

  Git.

  More blasts hit the Last Horizon, tearing chunks of the ship’s hull away to join the rest of the space junk.

  I cleared my throat. “Kraythons? I have a CodeX implant.”

  The firing stopped, and the Kraython ship swung around to face me.

  My stomach tensed.

  “Okay,” I muttered.

  Maybe not such a fantastic idea.

  Forty-Four

  I held my breath as the Kraython drone ship stared me down, my pulse pounding at my temples as I glared back, trying to feel determined but really not.

  The ship was scanning me. I knew it.

  The onboard Kraython AI computer was checking whether my claim was true and I did have a priceless CodeX implant wedged between my ears.

  After a full minute, the Kraython ship dived at me, releasing a volley of blasts. I got out of the way just in time, spiralling, crashing, and bumping through the debris field, watching my health drop with every knock and every jarring bump. I hoped I’d done the right thing in drawing their attention from the Last Horizon, but I probably hadn’t.

  My vision greyed, and my health meter showed only twelve percent remaining.

  Where was a tube of chirorja when I needed it most?

  I tried to think happy though
ts, hoping they’d give it a boost, but I couldn’t think of any.

  I’d got one thing right though: Star Chaser was a lot more agile with my upgrades. It would be easier to avoid the Kraython blasts now than in the ship’s previous lunchbox incarnation.

  Well, in any capable pilot’s hands.

  Even so, I was doing okay. Sure, the odd bolt of energy grazed the hull and I could feel the searing heat clawing at the thin bodywork, but I was staying alive longer than I’d expected.

  Maybe I could control things in this world after all.

  I concentrated, flying through the debris at breakneck speed, and though my heart was in my throat the whole time, the Kraython drone wasn’t firing as many shots as before. The reason was obvious; it didn’t want to damage the bounty.

  In this case, though, the bounty was the CodeX implant. The drone didn’t give a crap about what happened to the lump of meat carrying said treasure.

  I peered over my shoulder at the Last Horizon. It was a mess, with parts hanging off and gas venting into space, but at least the Kraython ship had stopped trying to murder my new friends.

  They were safe. For now.

  My next problem was keeping the Kraython away from the Leviathan as it entered the solar system. I couldn’t be sure what defences the Leviathan had or how much damage the Kraython drone was capable of inflicting on them, but with my grandmother on board, I wasn’t about to take chances.

  I needed to get rid of the Kraython once and for all.

  But how?

  Facing forward, hands gripping my knees so hard that my knuckles stretched white, I continued to zoom Star Chaser through the debris like a suicidal stuntman on a racetrack peppered with landmines.

  Even though I was definitely getting the hang of this flying lark, diving up and over, under and around—I imagined Skylar’s impressed expression as she watched—I was still only too aware my time was running out. The Kraython ship was gaining on me.

  “Now is the time for some radical action.”

  I swung the spacecraft around and flew away from the debris field toward the dark side of the ice planet. Much to my annoyance, the Kraython ship held back.

  “Come on,” I shouted. “You want the CodeX? Come get it.”