Command Decision

by S. E. Smith

  “Leave them,” Josh ordered, reaching for Sergi’s foot and pulling him down. “We need to get out of here now.”

  Josh saw Sergi glance at the walls that were beginning to shift. Sergi nodded and motioned for him to go first. They both turned and used the railing to pull themselves down to the opening. Using their feet, they pushed off and exited through the gaping hole.

  “Josh, look!” Sergi muttered, grabbing his arm.

  Josh turned in time to see each of the sections light up. He glanced up at the thick cables. Each one was lit a bright red. His gaze narrowed on the second gateway. It was moving as well.

  “Josh, we need you to get back to the Gliese now,” Ash ordered in their helmet.

  “What’s going on?” Josh demanded, grabbing the tether they had secured when they first began working on the gateway.

  “Those things are lit up like a Christmas tree and are beginning to do some weird shit. I’d feel better if you and Sergi were back inside the ship,” Ash replied.

  “Can you please define weird?” Josh asked in frustration as he and Sergi pulled themselves along the tether.

  “Josh, it looks like the gates are opening up,” Julia’s calm voice came over the headset. “I think the Gliese being so close to the gate has activated it. We can’t move as long as you and Sergi are outside.”

  “I’m going to have to burn fuel to keep it from being pulled in,” Ash’s muttered voice echoed in the background.

  “No!” Josh ordered. “We barely have enough to get back as it is.”

  “Josh, if we get pulled in, there won’t be any going home,” Ash stated in a grim voice.

  “Try to keep it steady, we are coming in as fast as we can,” Josh ordered. “Sergi, use the Jetpack.”

  “I won’t argue with you on that,” Sergi said, reaching to unhook the tether attached to him.

  “Watch out!” Josh yelled as the rotating gateway ripped the tether out of his hand just as he unhooked it.

  Josh felt his body rotating at a crazy angle for a moment before he fired the Jetpack and regained his orientation. He slowly turned to see where Sergi was when he heard a muttered curse in Russian. Horror gripped him when he saw Sergi being reeled toward the massive gateway as it turned. Tilting his body, he focused on using the propulsion system to push him toward the twirling figure.

  “I can’t get the tether undone,” Sergi bit out in frustration.

  “Hold on, I’m coming,” Josh replied.

  Sergi’s nervous chuckle echoed in his helmet. “I don’t think I’ll be going anywhere,” he replied. “Though, I would appreciate it if you can hurry.”

  Josh pushed forward, working each thrust to move him closer. He didn’t want to overshoot Sergi. If he did, he wouldn’t have time to turn back around for a second try before Sergi was crushed.

  He reached out for the other man as he drew closer. His fingers brushed the back of Sergi’s Jetpack. Gripping the controls of his unit, he calculated when Sergi would rotate again. Pressing the button, he sent a long burst of nitrogen into space and shot forward. This time, he was able to grab the back of the pack.

  “Josh, you need to put a move on,” Ash warned.

  “I am,” Josh replied through gritted teeth.

  “Josh,” Sergi muttered. “Commander, leave me.”

  Josh ignored Sergi, working on the clip that held the tether onto him as they both twirled closer and closer to the second gateway. With a loud curse, he forced the metal back and slipped it off the belt attached to the Russian.

  “Brace for impact,” Josh ordered as they bounced into the turning gate.

  The impact tossed them in separate directions. Josh was thrown outward while Sergi was pushed up into the glowing cables. Josh saw a flash before a loud cry escaped the other man and his body stiffened.

  “Sergi! Josh, I received a spike in Sergi’s life support. He flat lined for a moment,” Mei said in an urgent voice.

  “I’m going after him,” Josh replied, gripping the controls to the Jetpack. “How long does he have?”

  “I’m getting a weak signal, but his respiration is low,” Mei replied.

  “I’ve got him,” Josh said, reaching for Sergi’s foot. “We are coming in. Mei, be ready.”

  Josh had a brief moment to see the gateway from a different angle as he turned Sergi around. They were above the first one and each was lit up and turning. It was both an incredible sight and one that scared the hell out of him. Julia’s words from almost two years ago came back to him as he turned back to the Gliese, Sergi’s limp body in his arms.

  Would you still go if you knew you might not come back?

  *.*.*

  Josh tore off his helmet and hooked it to the shelf near the service bay door. He fumbled with the gloves and shoved them into the net next to his helmet. His right hand instinctively shot out to grab the edge of the shelf as the Gliese violently shook and groaned, even though he was floating.

  “The force of the pull from the gate is going to rip the ship apart,” Julia informed him with a worried glance in his direction. She had braced herself to hold Sergi’s unconscious form steady for Mei. “What happened?”

  “His lifeline caught and he was pulled into one of the gates,” Josh replied, pulling himself around Julia. Mei was placing an oxygen mask over Sergi’s nose and mouth. “I need to get to the command center.”

  Julia nodded, her face pale, but composed. Josh pulled himself along the narrow tunnels that connected the payload section with the main command and living modules. It helped that this section of the Gliese didn’t have artificial gravity. It allowed him to float through the narrow area without having to pause to remove the rest of the spacesuit he was wearing.

  “Ash, give me a status report,” Josh demanded as he floated through the different sections.

  “You’d better get up here,” Ash’s grim voice echoed through the ship.

  Josh grabbed another hand grip and pulled himself up to the last section. He rotated in the air and dropped down onto the control deck. He stumbled when the boots of his spacesuit weighted him down. With a curse, he reached down and undid the top portion of his spacesuit and bent forward. The sound of the heavy, upper section echoed loudly through the room as it fell to the floor.

  “What’s happening?” Josh asked, glancing at the image displayed in front of him.

  “That,” Ash stated, nodding toward the huge curved screen.

  Josh turned to stare at the image in grim silence. His mind swirled at the scene in front of him. The view of the glowing gates was just as magnificent from inside the ship as it was outside. It also showed the danger they were in.

  “Get us out of here,” he ordered, sliding into the chair next to Ash.

  Ash’s mouth was pulled into a tight line. “The force of it is pulling us forward. If I try to get us out of here, it is going to rip us apart,” he replied.

  Josh’s mind ran through all the different scenarios they had talked about. They had two choices. He could detach the front of the Gliese and let it go forward in the hope that it would release them from the pull of the gateway. If he did that, they would never make it back to Earth. It would take out half of their supplies, including food and oxygen. The other choice was to go forward and see where it took them and hoped they didn’t get ripped apart.

  “Go forward,” Josh suddenly ordered.

  “What?!” Ash asked in disbelief, glancing at Josh as alarms began to sound.

  “Go through the gates,” Josh said in a grim voice.

  “We don’t know what will happen,” Ash hissed.

  Josh leaned forward and silenced the alarm. He glanced over his shoulder when he saw Julia and Mei holding a standing, but weak, Sergi between them. He knew at that moment what he needed to do.

  “I’m making a command decision,” he said. “All of you get suited up and into an escape pod. I’m taking control of the ship.”

  “What the hell?! No! I’m not getting into any coffin while you play s
pace cowboy,” Ash said stubbornly.

  “I’m not asking, Ash, I’m ordering you and the others to get suited up and into an emergency pod,” Josh ordered.

  “The others can go,” Ash replied in a quiet voice. “I’m your wing man. I cover your back. I always have and I always will.”

  Josh glanced at Ash before he nodded his head. “If I tell you again, no arguments,” he snapped. “Julia, you, Mei, and Sergi get suited up and into a pod.”

  Julia paused before murmuring in a quiet tone to Mei. Together, the two women helped Sergi turn back the way they came. Josh’s jaw tightened and he shot a glance at his friend.

  “You have two minutes to make sure they are secure and strapped in before I push us through,” Josh said.

  Ash gave him a stiff nod and turned the cameras to the emergency pods. Julia was closing Sergi’s pod while Mei suited up. Julia was already wearing a survival suit. A moment later, Julia and Mei were both stepping into the long, coffin shaped boxes and closing the lids.

  “Three green lights,” Ash stated in a soft voice.

  Josh nodded. “Let’s do this,” he said.

  Ash winced and gave Josh a crooked grin. “You know, every time you say that we end up in a world of trouble,” he retorted with a wry grin.

  Josh just nodded and pressed the thrusters to full. In the distance, he could see all the gates open now. At the last minute, he remembered to hit send on the recordings that they had completed. The information would upload and relay between the communications beacons they had released. He didn’t know if the scientist back on Earth would get them, if they did, then they would know what had happened to the Gliese 581 and its crew.

  “Yippee ki yay,” Ash muttered as the Gliese moved forward.

  Josh could feel the moment they entered the gateway. The pull on the spaceship thrust them back against their seats. This was far worse than lifting off on the Soyuz rocket or hitting Mach speed in a fighter. For a moment, he felt for sure that the Gliese was going to be ripped apart. The ship shuddered before everything lit up around them and they were pushed forward.

  “Shit!” Josh hissed out before he felt like he couldn’t breathe from the pressure against his chest.

  He tried to turn his head to see if Ash was feeling the same thing, but it felt like his whole body was being held suspended. Opening his mouth, he tried to force air into his starving lungs. Dark spots danced before his eyes. He blinked, as if in slow motion, when the world shifted around him. Seconds later, the combination of the pressure and lack of oxygen were too much and he felt his grip on consciousness slipping away.

  *.*.*

  Josh woke to the sounds of alarms ringing in his ears. A soft groan escaped him as he shook his head to clear the sound. It took a moment to realize that it wasn’t just his ears ringing, but the alarms of the ship. Pushing off the console, he blinked to clear his vision.

  Pain coursed down his neck and through his shoulders. Lifting a shaking hand, he rubbed at it as he tried to remember what the hell had happened. As his memory of going through the gateway came back to him, he quickly turned his head, wincing again when it protested his sudden movement. Ash lay against the console, unconscious.

  “Ash,” Josh whispered before clearing his throat. “Ash!”

  There was no response from his friend. Glancing at the controls, he grimaced. Multiple system failures were showing. His gaze went to the front screen. The virtual screen was off. Only the smaller portholes were visible.

  Undoing the straps holding him into the chair, he pushed himself up, floating upward and tumbling when the world, or was it the ship, tilted and groaned. Whichever it was, he ignored it for a moment as he tried to get a visual of what was happening. He pushed himself away from the console and floated over the debris that covered the floor. Torn metal and shattered glass from the displays was everywhere.

  Josh bumped against the wall near one of the small windows and held on to its rim when the ship shuddered again. He twisted and pressed his face against the clear material covering the window and looked out. A soft curse escaped him when he saw the entire front portion of the Gliese was missing. Excess fuel and oxygen were being ejected into space.

  He rotated when the ship groaned again. Bracing his feet against the wall, he pushed off so he could float back to the console. He grasped it and quickly scanned the screens.

  Outer hull was failing. The ship was breaking apart. Turning, he held onto the chair he had been sitting in and pulled Ash back in his seat. A thin line of blood dripped from Ash’s temple, but he was breathing.

  Josh glanced at the console again. The interior camera was still pointed on the emergency pods. Three green lights were reflected.

  “Warning, outer hull failure is imminent,” the computer stated. “Warning, outer hull failure is imminent.”

  “Tell me something I don’t already know,” Josh muttered under his breath even as he ripped the straps off of Ash.

  He bent and grabbed Ash’s arm as his friend floated upward. One good thing about not having gravity was he could maneuver Ash a lot easier and faster. He reached out and gripped the back of the chair when the Gliese rocked and a portion of the ceiling tiles dropped.

  “Time to go,” Josh grunted as he began picking his way toward the emergency pods, Ash’s limp body in tow.

  Josh bounced off the walls in his hurry. It took him several precious seconds when he found a section of the corridor blocked. He had been forced to release Ash so he could move it. As soon as it was clear, he pushed Ash through before following. Minutes later, he was in the section designed to keep them alive until help could arrive.

  “As long as it was within fourteen days,” Josh muttered as he pressed one of the empty pods opened.

  The pods were designed to slow the metabolism and respiration of the person inside to prolong life support. There was technically enough oxygen and heat to keep them alive for thirty days in space. In reality, Josh figured fourteen if they were lucky.

  They were also designed with an advanced life support detection system built by a group of students from MIT for extra credit. The group of three students had won a contest to design a program so that if the pod detected a suitable habitat for survival, it would guide the pod to it and open the parachute after entry. In theory, it had sounded great. In reality, the likelihood of finding an alien planet with an environment that could support a human was a trillion to one, by the hundredth degree.

  Josh finished strapping Ash into the pod and settled the mask over his friend’s relaxed face. A gas with a mixture of oxygen and a sedative would keep each of them in an unconscious state until it ran out. Once it did, they would either be dead or hopefully rescued. Personally, he liked the latter option better.

  Closing the lid, he pressed the button on the side, waiting for it to turn green before he pushed it into the chute. He did the same with the other three. Through the clear window, he could see Julia, Mei, and Sergi’s relaxed features. They had each slipped into a survival suit. He and Ash didn’t have time, though he was still wearing a portion of his spacesuit from earlier.

  Floating over to the panel, he programmed the emergency sequence into it. If an outer hull breach was detected, it would automatically eject each of them into space and away from the ship. If not, well, in fourteen days, they would all wake up.

  Pushing off the wall, Josh quickly slipped into his pod and pulled the straps over his body to hold him down. Adjusting the mask over his nose and mouth, he reached up and pressed the button to close the lid. Once the lid closed and sealed, the gas mixture would start. Holding the controller in his hand, he pressed the button and felt the pod move into the chute. Almost as soon as he heard the pod lock, he felt the Gliese shake, as if in the throes of a death rattle. A moment later, his stomach turned as the pod was ejected out into space. He blinked several times, trying to clear his vision as the gas mixture dulled his senses. He stared up into the blackness of space and swallowed.

  No, Julia. I
was wrong, he thought as his mind grew hazy. I think I would mind if I never saw Earth again.

  Chapter 8

  Telsa Terra:

  Cassa glanced up as a dark shadow passed over the vineyard where she was checking the new crop that was almost ready for harvesting. The vineyards had been in Cassa de Rola’s family for centuries. Each generation nurtured the plants that provided a lucrative income for them and the small settlement nearby.

  On the other side of the mountains lay the desert and the Badlands. Generally, either her father or older brother, Packu, were the ones who normally traveled there. That was where the mines and the closest large trader Spaceport were located. It was a lawless area and best left alone.

  “Cassa!” A young boy called out in excitement as he ran down the long row. “Cassa! Look!”

  “I see it, Jesup,” Cassa replied, not looking at her younger brother, but up at the massive ship. A sense of unease washed through her. “Is father back yet?”

  “Yes,” Jesup replied in a breathless tone. “He didn’t look happy, either. It’s a Legion Battle cruiser; not one of their old ones either.”

  “How would you know if it was one of their old ships?” Cassa asked in disapproval. “Have you been talking to the traders down at the market again?”

  Jesup shook his head. “No, I heard Packu talking about it. He had a hologram of it and a bunch of other Legion ships.”

  Cassa’s lips tightened. Their brother, Packu, had been listening to the other young men in the village. More and more of the young men and women were leaving the small settlement, making it harder for Cassa’s father to keep up with all the work. With the harvesting of the crops coming soon, it would be even harder on them if Packu joined the resistance that was growing.

  “Why would they be here?” Cassa mused, watching as it disappeared over the mountains.

  “Cassa!”

  Cassa grimaced and turned when she heard her name again. Packu, or Pack as the family called him, was running toward her. She frowned when she saw the bag he was carrying. Placing her hands on her hips, she knew she was already shaking her head in denial before he drew to a stop.