MY SPECIES WAS BUILT FOR SPACE. THE COMPOSITION OF OUR BODIES, THE LACK OF BONES AND DISCERNIBLE ORGANS BESIDES OUR EYES, ALLOWS US TO— the Gelerris had begun saying earlier, before Alfis cut him off.
“Yeah, we get it. You’re goo,” Alfis had said. “Goo-d for you.” He laughed. No one else did, though Ryze had appreciated the pun and slightly wished he'd thought of it himself.
Now, Ryze gripped a handle at the airlock’s edge. “Another moment of truth,” he said as he looked at Alfis and Blue. They couldn’t see his face, and that was probably a good thing. He must’ve been paler than a moon.
“Yep, moment of truth, Star Boy,” Alfis repeated. “You ready?”
Spex began his countdown: “Fifteen…fourteen…thirteen…”
“I’m ready. How about you, Blue?”
READY.
“When Spex gets to three, I open this door, and as soon as we see the pulse leave the Starblazer, we launch. All we need is a short burst from our jets,” Ryze said. “Anything more, you’ll overshoot, and we might not be able to get you back.”
“I know what I’m doing, Star Boy. This ain’t my first heist. I’ve been pulling off stunts like this since before you popped out of your mother,” Alfis replied.
Lovely, Ryze thought.
Spex continued counting down. “Five…four—”
“Let’s go!” Ryze shouted as he hit the release button. The door came up, the shields vanishing, and the vast blackness of space lay before them.
Two things happened simultaneously after: The transport vessel broke through its QJ tunnel and into open space, and the cannons on the Starblazer rumbled as they sent a lightning bolt-like pulse.
The pulse hit, causing the transport to go instantly dark. It blended in with the emptiness surrounding it.
Blue was the first to jump toward the blacked-out ship before them. His tentacles stretched nearly fifty feet, wrapping around the left wing and swinging under the ship as if from vines. No jets for him, which wasn’t the case for the other two.
Ryze turned on his heel thrusters, bent his legs, and readied to spring forward.
Only—
“They ain’t working!” Alfis yelled over the commlink. “My boosters. They—”
“What? I told you to check—” Ryze began. They needed Alfis for the job. It was his small stature and claws that would get them through the transport’s hull. Any other way—blaster, Blue ripping the front door off—might get them all killed.
“I did check!”
WAITING! Blue said. WE HAVE ABOUT EIGHTY-THREE SECONDS BEFORE THE POWER COMES BACK ON!
“Grab my arm!” Ryze told Alfis.
Through his foggy face mask, Alfis squinted his eye. “No way.”
“I’ll throw you, then. C’mon!”
“You’re outta your damn mind, Star—”
“We don’t have time to argue,” Ryze grunted as he gripped the Atorga around the waist and blasted forward. He wouldn’t have minded throwing the little guy—in fact, it was quite an enticing thought—but there was a chance he’d throw him too far, and having to chase after Alfis as the furball drifted through space would only slow them down.
Once they were fifteen or so feet from the transport ship, Ryze pushed Alfis forward, guiding him toward the underbelly. Blue caught him. Judging by the grunt that came over the commlink, it wasn’t a soft catch, either.
“You’re gonna pay for that, Star Boy!” Alfis shouted.
Ryze landed on the ship’s hull. “Yeah, yeah, just get us inside!”
FIFTY-TWO SECONDS, Blue said, UNTIL THEIR POWER IS FUNCTIONAL AGAIN. GO, ALFIS, GO!
Alfis squirmed his way into the exhaust port, deftly maneuvering around the floating shell casings. “Claws out!” he said. The commlink picked up the skrrrrikkkk of him slicing through the ship’s body. “I’m in. Sealing the breach now.”
“We’re lucky you’re small,” Ryze said.
“Not what your mom said last night,” Alfis replied.
ALFIS!
“What, Blue? It’s true. I’m not small, I’m fun-sized! Just let me do my job!”
Without power, the breach wouldn’t show up on the transport’s vessel.
Alfis’s voice crackled over the commlink. “All right, it’s closed up. Heading toward escape pods…manually dropping one in three…two…one—” He grunted, and rusty hinges screeched as the escape pod bay opened.
One small ship jutted from its launch tunnel. Ryze boosted toward it and landed on its wide windshield like a bug without the splat. Using his handblas, he shot through the glass. Since the pod wasn’t pressurized yet, the shards floated away instead of exploding toward him and possibly puncturing his suit.
Then Ryze waved Blue on, and quickly, they dove inside.
A fraction of a second later, the pod’s built-in safety mechanism sealed the new hole off with titanium alloy.
Close. Too close, Ryze thought as he looked over his shoulder at the metal.
BUT WE MADE IT. NOW LET’S NOT WASTE ANY MORE TIME, Blue said.
Ryze led the way through the pod, his flayzer now in hand and his handblas holstered, teeth gritted in determination. In the very back was the exit. He jerked the handle up and opened it with Blue right behind.
“Alfis, I know we’ve had our differences, but that was pretty damn awe—” The words died in Ryze’s throat.
Standing before him, overshadowed by boxes the vessel was transporting to Sker, were three cybersoldiers, and one of them held Alfis in the crook of its elbow, pressing an arm cannon against the side of the Atorga’s head.
Nineteen
“A little warning would have been nice, Alfis,” Ryze said.
“The bolthead grabbed me before I could do anything.”
Ryze aimed his blaster at the cybersoldier’s faceplate. Don’t have much of a shot. And the clock’s ticking.
NINETEEN SECONDS BEFORE THE POWER’S BACK ON, Blue said.
“Stand down, intruders,” the soldier said in a robotic, monotone voice. “Surrender.”
“Whoa, now you guys talk?” Ryze said. “What the hell.”
RUN AT IT, Blue directed. CREATE A DIVERSION.
What? Are you crazy? Ryze thought back. He’ll blow Alfis’s head off. Or mine…
NO, HE WON’T, I’LL MAKE SURE OF IT. WE NEED TO GET TO THE COCKPIT NOW. JUST TRUST ME, STARLO.
“Damn it,” Ryze mumbled.
“You are trespassing on a Dominion sanctioned vessel. This offense is punishable by death. Surrender now, and your terminations will be severe but quick,” the robot went on.
“Yeah, I don’t surrender, pal, ” Ryze said. “Sorry.” He lowered his weapon, a million thoughts of how badly this could go running through his head, and he ran at the towering, steel machine.
Alfis’s eye grew wide, large ears perked up. “Oh, lunk, I’m gonna die,” he grunted.
“HALT! HALT!” the cybersoldier shouted. “HALT NOW!”
Too late for halting, Ryze was about five feet away from the soldier. The arm cannon left Alfis’s head and sought him out instead. It hummed loudly as it charged, the muzzle glowing with dark red light.
Ryze thought: DON’T THINK ABOUT HOW MUCH THIS IS GONNA HURT, DON’T THINK ABOUT HOW MUCH THIS IS GONNA HURT—
At the last possible second, he slid between the soldier’s legs, shooting his blasgun at its knees in the process.
“ASSAULT! ASSAULT!” the soldier cried as it fell, dropping Alfis in the process.
Ryze spun around, ready to finish the job, face-to-face with the soldier’s cannon. It shot, but everything slowed down at the same time—the beam of red light inching from the cannon’s muzzle instead of exploding—and Ryze’s life flashed before his eyes. You had a good run—
A green tentacle snapped in his direction. Splat. It wrapped around the cannon, forcing the shot to go awry.
Close. Too close.
GO, STARLO! WE’VE GOT THIS! Blue shouted mentally. EIGHT SECONDS!
Ryze ran through the
main hold, coming into the main corridor as shots from the other soldiers chased after him, missing but too close. Good thing he knew his way around ships. Getting to the cockpit in eight seconds—Four now, buddy—was a tall order, but Ryze moved like his life depended on it.
Because it did.
His destination was in sight now, and he would’ve made it with time to spare had one of the officers—the navigator judging by the pips on his lapel—not emerged from a nearby door. “What?” the gangling man gasped, quickly reaching for the handblas in his holster.
“Nothing personal, buddy,” Ryze rasped. Not slowing down, he flipped his own flayzer around and pummeled the man in the head. There was a crack and a clang as his weapon dropped from his hand and skittered across the corridor floor. The navigator wouldn’t die—he was just knocked unconscious—but whenever he woke up, he’d have a splitting headache, probably the worst one ever.
Poor guy never even knew what hit him, Ryze thought, charging forward, hands still thrumming from the vibrations of the strike. He flipped his visor’s HUD to thermal. The cockpit door was closed and the red outline of the pilot showed he was inside, standing and holding something. Vital signs popped on the left corner of the screen. The pilot’s heart rate was climbing off the charts. Then the scanners picked up another slight tinge of red.
A blaster’s energy pack.
The door suddenly flew open.
“Stop! Drop your weapon!” the pilot shouted.
Ryze had been in situations like these before, and it was best not to listen to whoever was making demands. Plus, there was no stopping now. He was going too fast. At this point, he might as well lean into it.
The pilot’s eyes ballooned as he realized what was going to happen. The two of them weren’t much different in size, but Ryze was wearing battle armor; the pilot wasn’t.
With a quick movement, the man fingered the trigger, put slight pressure on it.
A beamblast to the chest was imminent for Ryze, so he acted quicker, and when it came to the draw, he rarely lost.
He shot twice before the pilot could, sliding across the floor. Both beams hit the pilot’s gun, exactly what he was aiming for. He didn’t have any reservations about killing a Dominion soldier, but they would need him when they break through Sker’s atmosphere.
Blasgun smoke crowded the air. The crackle echoed off the walls, quickly drowned out by the pilot’s screams. He held up his gnarled hands and crossed his eyes as he looked at the burns and the twisted, unnatural orientation of some of his fingers, but he didn’t have long to examine the wounds. Ryze swept his feet under the pilot’s legs, knocking him down and unconscious.
He stood, looked down at the guy. X-ray scans showed he had a few broken bones—nothing a Dominion medical team couldn’t fix. Then again…Ryze didn’t know how good the insurance plans were, and knowing the God-King, they probably weren’t good at all. That was, if they even had insurance.
The lights of the console blinked on, green and blue. Beneath Ryze’s boots, the floor vibrated as the engine started back up.
A little later than I wanted, but I’ll take it, Ryze thought.
He looked down at the pilot; vital signs were weak, but his heart was still pumping. He’d be out for a good while.
“Sorry, friend,” Ryze said. “Like I told the other person, it was nothing personal.” He began binding the pilot and navigator together with rope from his utility belt. As he did this, he switched over to the rebels’ commlink channel. “I’m in. Pilot and navigator are incapacitated. How are you guys doing?”
There wasn’t an immediate answer, and Ryze began thinking the worst. He scanned the console for security monitors, found none. Now he switched back over to the Starblazer’s channel. “Spex, can you link Alfis’s helmet feed to my HUD?”
“I can try, sir—”
A beep cut the AI’s voice short. It was a response from the rebels. “Hold on, Spex. But keep working on it.” He switched over and heard a crackle of static. “Guys? Let me know you’re okay,” Ryze repeated.
Another crackle. “Could—use…a little...help,” Alfis wheezed.
Ryze’s chest felt lighter. They were still alive, and that was all that mattered. In trouble, yeah, but alive. No way he could do this by himself. No, the days of him running solo were gone, at least until Jade’s mission was completed.
“On my way,” Ryze answered. Before he left, he threw the Dominion soldiers in a maintenance closet and apologized again.
Halfway down the corridor to the escape pod bay, Alfis’s voice bounced off the walls. “—die, you rust bucket!” he yelled.
Ryze sped up, jumped a guardrail, and landed hard on metal grating. Lights flashed beneath the door. Ryze reached it and threw his shoulder into the steel. It jarred him and almost didn’t give in, but he got it open.
Inside, Alfis was hanging around one of the cybersoldier’s necks. His claws were out, and he slashed at the alloy with vicious strokes. Behind him, Blue’s many tentacles were entangled with another soldier, fighting for a blaster.
Neither of the guards noticed Ryze, and he used that to his advantage. He switched his flayzer to burst, aimed, and shot the nearest soldier in the chest. Its armor evaporated instantly. Alfis rode it down all the way, one claw plunged into the soldier’s head. For good measure, Ryze shot a few more times, then turned toward his gooey friend.
“Blue! Watch out!” he shouted. His targeting system scanned for an open shot, but he couldn’t find one. “If you don’t move, you’re gonna be fried slime! I know that’s a delicacy on some planets, but—”
AIM FOR HIS HEAD! THE HEAD!
“No way,” Ryze shouted back. “I’ll hit you!”
TRUST ME!
“Damn it,” Ryze mumbled under his breath. Please don’t let me miss, please— He inhaled deeply, set the crosshair on the cybersoldier’s head, and pulled the trigger.
Twenty
Ryze Starlo had seen a lot of oddities in his time trekking through the cosmos, but these days it seemed that each passing hour surpassed the previous hour’s weirdness.
He didn’t expect this. Not at all. If you told him to write down a million outcomes of what him firing at Blue resulted in, he wouldn’t even have gotten close to what actually happened.
As soon as the blaster cracked and the beamblast splintered the air, Blue morphed the top of his great gelatinous body into something resembling a lowercase “o.” This opened up a narrow target of about six inches in diameter.
The bolt struck the cybersoldier’s faceplate. A small explosion ensued, and the soldier dropped to its knees with a clank, its main circuits fried.
Blue removed himself from the hunk of useless metal.
SEE? I TOLD YOU NOT TO DOUBT ME, STARLO.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were gonna do that?” Ryze said, more than a little breathlessly. “It would have eased my mind a bit, you know. I thought I was going to cook you, man.”
“That was awesome!” Alfis shouted. He pounced on the cybersoldier and removed its head with a few hard swipes of his claws. Holding it in one hand, the Atorga jumped about a foot off the floor.
THERE WAS NO TIME, Blue continued. IF I HAD TOLD YOU THAT YOU MUST HIT SUCH A SMALL TARGET, THAT MY LIFE DEPENDED ON IT IF YOU WERE TO MISS, YOU WOULD’VE LET THE PRESSURE GET TO YOU AND FAILED.
Ryze scoffed. “You don’t know that. Ryze Starlo doesn’t fail. And I’ve hit tons of smaller targets before—and from a greater distance, too. Plus, it already was a small target!”
Blue stared at him with what Ryze thought was disbelief. I GUESS YOU’RE RIGHT, BUT YOU HAVEN’T HIT SMALLER TARGETS BEFORE, STARLO. THERE IS NO REASON TO LIE.
“How would you know?”
I SEARCHED YOUR MEMORIES—
“What? You can search my memories? That is not cool at all.”
RELAX, I DON’T DO IT OFTEN. AND TO SEE ALL THAT YOU’VE SEEN WOULD TAKE MUCH TOO LONG.
“You’ll get used to it, kid,” Alfis said. He was still
holding the cybersoldier’s head, its wires hanging like locks of hair. “I didn’t care for it much at first, either, but,” he laughed, “the joke’s on Blue. If he wanted to look through my memories, he’d have to look through some pretty…inappropriate stuff.”
THAT’S AN UNDERSTATEMENT. Blue shook his body, which had gone back to its usual blob-like shape. AGAIN, WE’RE GETTING SIDETRACKED. HAS ANYONE CHECKED IN WITH ERADICE?
Ryze shook his head; Alfis shook the droid’s.
GREAT. SHE’S PROBABLY WORRIED SICK.
“Told you to wear a communicator,” Ryze said, turning and heading out of the cargo hold.
WHERE WOULD I PUT IT? AND HOW WOULD I EVEN TALK? Blue followed, squelching behind Ryze.
“Can’t you broadcast your thoughts through tech?” Ryze asked.
NOT THIS FAR.
“Damn. Well, good point about where you’d put it. Do you even have ears?”
KEEP WALKING, STARLO.
They entered the cockpit, which was much different than the cramped space of the Starblazer. It held enough room for each of them to walk around and look out of the large central viewscreen at the planet before them. Ryze made a move for the captain’s chair, but Alfis had beaten him there. Growling, he settled for the chair behind it.
SOMEONE HAIL ERADICE, FOR THE GODS’ SAKE! Blue said.
“Not it!” Alfis yelled. He cradled the cybersoldier’s head in the crook of his arm the way a soldier did with their helmet.
Ryze rolled his eyes. For such a badass, the Atorga was lacking in the maturity department. So are you, buddy, he thought, knowing it was the truth, but not having Jade around to remind him made it easy to forget.
He hailed the Starblazer. “Eradice? Ryze here, we’re—”
“WHAT THE HELL?!” she shouted. The feed whined and crackled. Ryze removed his helm, worrying his eardrum had popped. “You are supposed to keep me updated, Starlo. I’m so disappointed! I expected better from you!”
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