“Right,” Jorgen said. “Um, thank you for the…etiquette lesson. My team will do our best to learn what language you prefer. For now, can you tell us how to reach you? Are you saying that giant star…flower…thing is going to eat us?”
“Yes, the mammoth starpod. It generally prefers minerals and other space matter, but the feeler tubes on its limbs can’t distinguish the metal in your ships from more nutritious varieties, so you might get past its mandibles before it realizes it has captured you in error. I recommend avoiding the limbs entirely by flying around the back side of the…Oh, that’s unfortunate.”
Beyond the mammoth starpod, several objects soared toward us. Ships, from the look of them on the proximity monitor, probably the ones waiting for backup from the Superiority. Except they must have noticed us, because they weren’t waiting anymore.
“Please,” Cuna said. “Hurry.”
“Skyward Flight,” Jorgen said. “We’re going to fly around to the…side of this rock that doesn’t want to eat us. Anyone not clear on which side that is?”
“The one without the pretty space monster,” Kimmalyn said. “Got it.”
“Right,” Jorgen said. “Avoid the enemy ships, but if one shoots at you, shoot it back.”
“Always solid advice,” I said. “Formation?”
“Double V,” Jorgen said. “Orient so the giant space monster is on top of the…giant space rock.”
Without a planet nearby to orient which way was down, I supposed it made sense to agree on it in advance.
“Why on the top?” Nedd asked. “Couldn’t the tentacled monster of death be on the bottom?”
“Because flowers grow up,” Sadie said. “Even giant death flowers. Everyone knows that.”
“She’s got you there, Nedder,” Arturo said.
“Less chatter,” Jorgen said. “Let’s keep an eye on what we’re flying into.”
We quieted down and fanned out, rotating so that the starpod bloomed upward into the dark sky, then accelerated toward Sunreach in wingmate pairs, Arturo and Nedd taking point on one side with Sadie and me on the other. With my proximity monitor still zoomed out, I could see ten enemy ships closing in on a location near the center of the underside of the rock. Another ten ships were closing in on us now. They outnumbered us, but we were used to it.
“FM and Sentry,” Jorgen said, “draw off as many as you can. T-Stall and Catnip, back them up. The rest of us will try to punch through to the other group of ships. Divide and conquer.”
Dividing the team into two groups also weakened us, but it seemed like a good choice, all things considered. If we spent too much time on the intercepting force, the remaining ships had more time to kill or capture Cuna.
“Understood,” I said, and Sadie and I sped toward the incoming ships. When we drew closer, we pivoted our boosters to slow down to dogfighting speeds. Sadie would follow my lead, which meant the specific shape of this maneuver was up to me. The smarter thing for these ships to do would be to refuse the bait and keep a perimeter to prevent us from getting close to the base where Cuna and their team were sheltered. I had to make it look like I was trying to punch past the ships instead of trying to distract them from their mission, and hope they saw me as enough of a threat that it worked.
“Cover me,” I said to Sadie.
“I’ve got you,” Sadie replied.
I kicked into a complicated sequence of evasive maneuvers, the kind that would have made Rig turn green. I slipped past the enemy ships through a shower of destructor fire. Several pivoted, their lines of red fire following me. I took a hit, but it glanced off my shield. I sped toward Cuna’s location, gathering tails as I went.
“Nice going, FM,” Jorgen said.
“We’ve got you covered,” Catnip added.
Now it was time to fake panic. I let my evasive maneuvers grow wider and sloppier, not so much that I gave the enemy too wide of a target, but enough that they might interpret it as me losing control. Then I reversed my boosters, feeling the sharp drag as the g-forces overwhelmed the GravCaps. I switched direction, darting back toward the enemy ships in a way that was impossible to do in atmosphere but worked beautifully in a vacuum. I roped one with my light-lance and used my own momentum to execute a turn, then flew off to the side, letting the ship go once I was past.
It worked. Half of the ships followed me as I shot off toward the side. T-Stall and Catnip joined Sadie in firing on the ships from behind, adding to the adrenaline of the chase. The enemy ships raced after me, destructor fire surrounding me, weakening my shield. I sped up—I wouldn’t be able to outrun them, but they’d become less accurate at high speeds, and out here we had all the space in the world.
“Well done,” Jorgen said. “Moving in toward the base now. Amphi and Nedder, take point. Quirk and I will cover you.”
“They’re on to us,” T-Stall said. “Peeling away and coming your direction, Jerkface.”
It was true. Two of the ships were still hot on my tail, but the other three were making a wide loop and heading back to chase down the rest of the flight.
“Sentry and I can handle this if you want to follow,” I said to T-Stall and Catnip. They both readily agreed, circling around to go after the returning ships.
I continued my evasive maneuvers, trying to hold the interest of my two tails. I couldn’t keep it up forever though.
“Ready to take care of these guys?” I asked Sadie.
“Ready and willing,” Sadie replied.
“You take the one on my left wing,” I said. “I’ll take the one on the right.”
“You got it,” Sadie said, and I abruptly cut speed, slowing myself with a reverse of my boosters. The enemy ships shot past me and I engaged my IMP, dropping their shields.
Both Sadie and I opened fire, ripping the enemy ships apart against the dark sky.
“Good work,” I said to Sadie. “Let’s help the others.” We paused while I reignited my shield and then we reversed course, now far enough out that I couldn’t get a visual of the others against the dark expanse. I listened as the others exchanged orders over the radio, engaging with the enemy ships.
“Jerkface, they’re headed for you.”
“I’ve got them. Cover me.”
“Jerkface, I’ve got a clear shot. Can you bring down their shields?”
“On it.”
Sadie and I accelerated as I found the others on my monitor. It was scudding hard to take down a Krell fighter without bringing down their shields first, but these ships were too good—all enemy aces, not the less-skilled drone pilots we’d been fighting. Our team needed backup.
“Jerkface, you’ve got three ships on your tail,” Arturo said. “Don’t bring down your shields.”
“I see them,” Jorgen said. “I’ll jump out right after. Engaging IMP.”
Sadie and I soared closer, and I finally spotted Jorgen’s ship against the backdrop of space just as his shield went down.
Half a second later, he disappeared. I immediately zoomed out my proximity monitors, searching for his ship.
Jorgen reappeared on the other side of the rock, up near the mammoth starpod and its dangerous tentacles.
“Jerkface, what are you doing?” I said over the radio.
“I overshot,” Jorgen said. “I think the slug misunderstood me.”
“Get out of there!” I said.
“I’m on it,” he said. “I’m going to go evasive and try to fly out. If that fails, I’ll engage the hyperdrive again.”
On the monitor, the arms of the starpod moved slowly, like they were swaying in a breeze.
“Um, guys?” Nedd said. “What is the enemy doing?”
I watched on my monitors as several of the ships near Cuna’s base—and all of the ones we’d been dogfighting—sped out around the edge of the rock and upward toward the tentacles of the
starpod.
They knew more about this creature than we did. If they thought they could survive flying through the tentacles, they probably could.
But Jorgen couldn’t take all those ships. Not by himself.
“Humans,” Cuna said over the radio. “Our analysis of the enemy flight patterns suggests that their primary focus is now to kill your cytonic.”
“You don’t say,” Nedd said.
“Jerkface,” Arturo said, “they’re coming for you. Get out of there.”
“Engaging hyperdrive,” Jorgen said.
“We’re on our way,” I said, accelerating to follow the other ships up and over the rock.
Scud, the starpod was enormous. This rock was far smaller than a planet, much closer to the size of one of the larger platforms around Detritus. But the arms of the starpod reached many times farther than the diameter of the rock, each tentacle many wingspans wide and several kilometers long. They were whitish in color, with a smaller purplish stalk growing up the middle of each arm giving the illusion of a purple racing stripe. If the starpod was using those feelers to catch debris out of the space around it, it could almost certainly grab and hold a starship. As if attracted to my motion, one of the arms began to lean slowly in my direction, and I rolled my ship out of the way to avoid it.
Up ahead I could see Jorgen’s ship near the center of the creature. The enemy ships raced toward him, opening fire, as the tentacles of the starpod slowly swayed in their direction.
“Engaging hyperdrive,” Jorgen said. His ship blinked out—
And back again, this time closer to the body of the starpod.
“Scud, the slugs aren’t listening to me,” Jorgen said. “I think they’re trying to get into a smaller space.”
I steered my ship up to get a better view.
And stared into the scudding maw of the creature. Rows and rows of long ivory protrusions jutted from its center like teeth, but these were clearly flexible, waving about like the much-longer tentacles.
Tongues. This creature had a thousand tongues arranged in circles around its pink, cavernous mouth. And at this moment, all of them were reaching for Jorgen’s ship. The enemy ships continued to move toward him and I followed, Sadie at my wing. Jorgen pulled up, clearing the tongues, then evaded a tentacle that undulated down, looping toward him. The enemy reached him, destructor fire raining everywhere.
“Get out of there!” I said to Jorgen.
“Engaging—” Jorgen said.
His shield cracked.
“Hyper—”
His ship jerked to the side, like he was trying to avoid the fire for one more moment to give himself enough time to frighten one of the slugs. One final movement, and then his shield broke.
“Scud—” Jorgen said over the radio.
And then his ship ripped apart, torn to bits by enemy fire, the pieces floating backward as the creature licked toward them eagerly with its tongues.
Sixteen
No.
I pulled my ship up, then ducked down again to avoid a tentacle that swung toward me and the enemy ships with a broad stroke. The enemy avoided it as well, but I wished a fiery death upon every one of them.
Jorgen had a ship full of hyperdrives. He should have been able to get out when his shield dropped. But if he did, the slugs would have teleported him somewhere out into space. If Jorgen wasn’t dead yet of depressurization, he would soon asphyxiate.
No.
“FM? Sentry?” Arturo said over the radio. “What’s going on up there?”
“Um,” Sadie said. “Um, Jerkface—”
I wasn’t going to make her explain this. “Jerkface is down,” I said.
“FM?” Arturo said. “Say again?”
“Jerkface is down,” I repeated. I didn’t know how I could sound so dispassionate. My voice was foreign to my own ears. “His ship was destroyed. Salvage irretrievable.”
Silence over the radio.
Finally, Kimmalyn was the one who spoke. “He got out, right? He had all those slugs. He must have gotten out.”
“FM?” Arturo asked.
“I don’t know,” I said honestly. I didn’t explain what the likely outcome was if he had. My friends already knew.
“All right,” Arturo said. “Mourn later. We have a mission.”
“Amphi—” Nedd started.
“Mourn later,” Arturo said firmly. He was first assistant, now our flightleader. “Flight, regroup. We’re going to make a run for the base, try to take out the remaining ships on the way.”
“Humans?” Cuna said. “I have lost contact with your commander.”
“This is Amphisbaena,” Arturo said. “I’m in command now.” His voice was tight, clipped. He was clearly struggling to follow his own orders, and I didn’t blame him. “We’re still coming to get you and your people out of there.”
“That would be appreciated,” Cuna said. “The ships are firing on our location, and our shield has been breached.”
Sadie wove among the tentacles of the starpod, headed for the edge of the creature where we could dive to the underside of the rock again. The enemy ships followed, and Sadie and I performed a double scissor, avoiding their fire. As one of the ships tried to chase us, a starpod arm slapped it from beneath. The ship stuck to the stalks and the tentacle carried it away down toward its mouth.
If ships weren’t nutritious, the creature clearly hadn’t figured that out yet.
“Status, FM?” Arturo asked.
“We’re on our way, Amphi,” I said. “Don’t wait for us.”
“Copy. All pilots, move toward Cuna and destroy the enemy ships.”
I rolled away from another tentacle as it arced toward me, shooting over the edge of the creature and plummeting down the side of the rock. Sadie followed right behind me, finally out of the starpod’s reach. My flightmates coordinated with each other over the radio as they engaged the enemy. I knew we had to join them—we were still outnumbered, and the more of us got involved in the fight, the greater chances we’d get out alive.
Though I wasn’t sure what the point was. We’d lost Jorgen, our only cytonic. Without him, what were the rest of us going to do? We’d be as stranded here as Cuna, waiting for the Superiority to send reinforcements to finish us. Cuna probably had a slug and a projector for their communicator, but without a cytonic we couldn’t use those to get home.
We’d lost. We’d gambled and we’d lost.
And so—despite my absolute agreement with Arturo that the time to mourn would come later—I felt tears forming in my eyes. Hot streams of them ran along my cheeks, and I pushed my ship faster, almost welcoming the g-forces as they overcame the GravCaps.
We were approaching our flight now, and as we did a shape popped into existence on my dashboard, causing me to jump.
Gill sat there, nuzzling my arm.
Had he tried to save Jorgen? If his body was lost in space somewhere, we wouldn’t be able to bring him home.
Gill slipped off the dashboard and onto my lap, quivering up against me like he wanted to comfort me. I didn’t blame the slugs for what happened to Jorgen. I was glad Gill had gotten out, and hoped the others had as well. Maybe Jorgen had opened the box at the last moment, realizing he wasn’t going to make it out, giving the slugs the chance to escape. The communications slug couldn’t hyperjump, so it had likely been consumed by the starpod.
Without cytonic abilities or a holoprojector, I couldn’t make Gill hyperjump, so his presence wasn’t useful to me. We were still in far too desperate a situation for me to feel relieved.
I couldn’t help but be glad that he was here though. I ran one hand up his back as I engaged my destructors with the other, distracting a ship that was tailing Kimmalyn. As if he could sense my distress, Gill cuddled closer, tightening around my waist like a leathery belt.
&nbs
p; And then everything changed. My ship disappeared, my monitors, the whole of space. I was plunged into darkness.
And landed with a thud onto a cold concrete floor.
“Ouch!” I shouted, cradling my shoulder where I’d landed. Gill dropped off my waist, rolling over on the floor. I couldn’t see anything, but I was definitely not in outer space anymore. Or in my ship, as I lay on a slab of cracked concrete. As my eyes adjusted to the dark, I could see a shadow up ahead, and I crawled toward it with one arm out.
My hand met wood. A doorframe, I realized, and there was the door, which moved on squeaky hinges. Gill had hyperjumped and taken me with him, though I didn’t know where or why. Technically we could be anywhere in the universe now, but the taynix didn’t tend to go far without specific instructions.
I stood, pushed the door the rest of the way open, and stepped into a shadowy corridor. What little light there was came from a thin band of tube lighting that ran along the ceiling, and I followed it, moving up this corridor and then down another. The air was warm, I realized. There was atmosphere for me to breathe and gravity to hold me down and heat to keep me from freezing to death. Wherever Gill had brought me, it appeared to be somewhere relatively safe.
And then I felt the explosion. It reverberated through the building, the stone trembling beneath my feet. This might be the source of the cracks, I realized. This building was under attack.
I had begun to suspect where I was, and so I was only slightly astounded when I reached the end of the corridor and stumbled into a room filled with creatures unlike any I’d ever seen.
A tall, slender humanoid with bright blue skin stood at a control panel of some sort, flanked by two similar creatures, though one of them had skin that was entirely red. They had ridges over their eyes that were similar to Alanik’s, though without the crystalline growths, and cheekbones too prominent to be human.
Next to the slender blue alien was Jorgen, looking out the glass window at the stars.
“Jorgen!” I said, and launched myself across the room to throw my arms around him. I overshot a bit, running into him and knocking him off his feet and into the console. I ended up mostly hugging his shoulder as I tried to keep from falling over.
Untitled 6619 Page 15