by Jaleta Clegg
"It'll take us two days to reach anywhere at this speed," I said.
"Slow it down a bit more. We aren't in a hurry, are we?" He raised one eyebrow.
"What is it with raising one eyebrow?" I asked as I slowed the ship. "Does Lowell teach that to all his people?"
"Required course," Vance said smoothly. "Eyebrow communication techniques."
I turned my head to stare at him. He sounded completely serious. He met my look and held it for at least a minute. Then he grinned.
"Good, now you're comfortable enough to start teasing me. I'm not the scary crazy lady anymore."
"I didn't say that." Vance turned back to his equipment.
"I'm getting something to eat," I said, not touching his comment.
Chapter 5
Time passed. Slowly. We crept into the system. We were still at least half a day out from Serrimonia. The star had grown as we came closer until it hung in the viewscreen, a ball of glowing orange. I'd entertained myself mostly by staring at nothing and trying to get the Eggstone to talk to me. It was deep in a trance. I couldn't get any response no matter how hard I concentrated. I didn't have any cards. Or books. Or anything. I really needed to find a hobby. Picking lint from between my toes wasn't good for more than a few minutes, an hour if I really stretched it.
Vance spent most of the time playing with the scanning equipment. I looked up from a fruitless session with the Eggstone to find him giving me a wary look. He thought I was crazy. Maybe I was. What he thought of me wasn't important. Finding out what was going on, finding Tayvis, and getting back in one piece were.
Serrimonia grew larger. It was a speck of light when I first located it. It expanded as we drew closer, first a crescent of light, then a mottled ball of orange, blue and green.
We picked up nothing that would indicate any other ships in the system. Not even the normal radio chatter of a settled system.
"Come listen," Vance said, holding out the earphones for the com. "See if you can pick anything up. There should be something, shouldn't there? If the Sessimoniss are down there."
"They don't use much technology," I said. But I got up from my bunk and took the earphones.
I settled into the pilot's chair and started the com cycling through normal transmission frequencies. I sat back, closing my eyes to concentrate better. I heard the hissing static of space. A burst of sound from the star nearby. Nothing that wasn't explained by nonintelligent processes. I set it to cycle more slowly.
I caught a brief burst of something, a very degraded signal. I slowed the com, zeroing in on the frequency. There was a lot of static, nothing I did cleared the signal. I thought I heard words, in a language that was tantalizingly familiar.
"Find something?" Vance asked.
"Maybe." I tweaked the equipment. The voices were gone. If they'd ever been there to begin with. "A ghost of something," I said with a shrug. The occasional eddies of radio transmissions haunted space.
The ship was quiet again. Vance kept the scanners cycling. I listened to the music of space, hissing and crackling from the nearby star and nebula. I scanned the frequency of the ghost signal very carefully, but I caught nothing more.
I finally pulled off the headset. "There's nothing out there." I studied Serrimonia in the viewscreen. It was getting closer. Very slowly. I rubbed the Eggstone through my shipsuit.
"What are you thinking?" Vance asked as he reached past me to the subspace radiation detector.
"There isn't anything here. There should be something. The Sessimoniss still had a few ships. We should have been able to detect something."
"Commander Lowell gave strict orders. We stay one week, in space, scanning. If we find nothing, we still go back and report. Are you suggesting we land on Serrimonia?"
"And ask you to disobey orders? I wouldn't dream of it." But I was thinking about landing, now that he mentioned it. The Eggstone stirred at my thought, a distant twinge in my head like someone deeply asleep beginning to wake. The Eggstone drifted away again. "You can quit watching me all the time. I'm sorry about scratching you earlier. I wasn't myself. I'm fine now."
That only seemed to make things worse. He shifted away, shooting a wary look at me as he turned to reset another scanner.
I pulled my feet into the chair and got out the Eggstone. The surface was still pitted and starred with cracks. But some of the smooth gloss crept over the surface. How damaged was the Eggstone's intelligence? Would it talk to me again? I felt a strange sense of loss at the thought of never hearing it again. I hadn't felt this before when I'd left Serrimonia, though I'd never expected to hold it or talk with it again.
"Look for that ghost again," Vance said, breaking the silence between us.
"Why?" I asked as I tucked the Eggstone back into my shipsuit. I picked up the headset and dialed the com to the right frequency range.
"That's odd," Vance said, frowning at a display behind me. He reached over my shoulder and tweaked the controls. His frown grew deeper.
"What?" I asked. All I heard was static.
"There was a blip there, like a ship that wasn't completely through the jump point."
"That's impossible. You can't be only partway through."
"I know that." He tapped the keypad input for the scanner. "It's gone now."
"Wait," I said. The static cleared. I heard a short command, a harsh language I knew but couldn't place. Then the static was back. I shook my head in frustration.
"This is strange," Vance muttered. He got out of his chair and did a close check of all the scanning equipment.
I cycled through the frequencies. Whatever I'd picked up was gone again. My sense of trouble quivered. Something was wrong. I flipped the switches to bring the sublight engines up to full power.
Vance sat back down, his frown wrinkling his forehead into worried lines. He looked past my shoulder and started forward, his hand snapping out to the control panel. "That wasn't a ghost. But it's impossible." He tapped another sequence onto the keypad. "Keep the course steady."
"And be ready to run. Aren't those your orders? Run at the first sign of trouble."
"We're not in trouble."
"Yet."
"I was warned you were paranoid. Nice to see they weren't wrong about that." His hands danced over the controls for half a dozen scanners.
I was trying to think of a nasty reply to his comment when the proximity alarm went off. I jerked my attention back to the flight controls. Vance swore as he watched the readouts on the scanners.
"Run," he shouted over the alarm. "Get us out of here." He swiveled to the navigation controls and started programming our escape route.
I didn't wait for him to tell me again. I hit the thrusters. The ship leapt forward, curving up and out, away from the solar plane.
It didn't do us any good. The warnings started beeping.
"Incoming weapons," Vance said.
I froze for a split second. What was I supposed to do about it? He was calculating our course. I did what I thought was best. I put on speed and reached overhead to flip the shields on full. The engine labored under the double load.
The viewscreen blazed and crackled as the energy beam was absorbed by the shields.
"Three ships behind us," I said, glancing over his shoulder at the equipment that scanned for such things. "Unknown ship type, no beacons."
"And a very odd hyperdrive signature," Vance muttered.
Another burst of energy slammed into the shields. The ship bucked and rolled to port. I steered us into an even tighter curve, dropping the ship down as I went. I didn't try to straighten the turn out until we were facing an entirely different direction.
"How long?" I asked Vance. "Shields are almost gone. The engine can't hold them long without losing speed."
"Another five minutes," he said. "I need you on vector three seven four."
I checked our heading. That vector would take us right back into the strange ships. I glanced over at the scanner. The blips of light that marked their
position winked out as I watched. I stared at the screen. I reached over and tapped on it.
"They're gone," I said.
"Impossible," Vance said. He shifted to look. He reached over me to the far wall. "That is the strangest reading."
Energy blazed along the shields.
"They're back," I said unnecessarily. "Coming in on a completely different vector. Get us a course, Vance."
He switched between his equipment, muttering to himself as he compared readouts. I glanced at the nav comp. The course was still only partway set. Another burst of gunfire from the unknown ships hit. The shields shivered. The engines screamed at the added load. I didn't dare slow us down. I sent the ship on a wild course, trying to shake off their aim.
Vance swore as he fell across the back of my chair. He shoved himself up, his attention fixed on the scanners. I swerved back the other way. He fell backwards into his own chair.
"Get us a course," I yelled. Streaks of energy filled the space around us. There were at least six ships now, coming in from all different directions and shooting at us with uncanny accuracy. "I can't program it, even if I didn't have to fly. Vance!"
He turned back to the nav comp. His fingers flew over the keys. "It's impossible," he said as he worked. "Their engine signatures are like nothing I've ever seen before."
I sent the ship on a spiraling turn, trying to avoid the lances of energy. I wasn't completely successful. A glancing blow sent us careening off in a different direction. I spared a quick glance overhead. The shield controls were blinking red lights.
"Course entered and set," Vance said as the computer beeped acceptance.
I turned us onto the vector he gave me earlier and poured on the power. I had a yellow warning light that I was too close to a gravity well to make the jump.
Vance finally seemed to realize we were in serious trouble. He flipped power to the blast cannon and fired off a shot. The lights went out in the ship. The engine whined. Power dropped.
Another shot caught the ship. The shields flared and died.
"How close are we?" Vance asked. His voice was calm, but I heard the tension tight in it.
"Another ten minutes, if I send all power to the engine," I answered. "And if we don't get hit again."
He leaned over my shoulder, double checking my answer. I would have hit him for doubting me if I had any hands left to do it with. I was fighting the ship now.
Another glancing hit knocked us to one side. The air smelled of smoke.
"We lost the stabilizers." I rerouted all the power I could to the engine. The ship picked up speed.
Until we were hit again. This time they got the engine. All the lights in the cabin went off. The control boards flashed solid red and yellow lights. The viewscreen clouded, filling with static as the ship tried to bleed off the power surge caused by the blast. The air was thick with smoke. Alarms shrieked and clamored.
"We aren't going to make it," Vance said.
"Not now," I answered. I let the ship veer to the side, towards the gravity well, the one we'd been trying to run from.
The viewscreen partially cleared, enough for me to see the orange ball of Serrimonia coming very close, very fast. I pushed the thrusters as hard as I dared, sending us speeding to the planet.
"Hang on," I said as atmosphere squealed over the hull.
Bolts of energy rained around us from the mysterious ships. I didn't have anything left to dodge them. I kept us falling like a rock towards the surface of Serrimonia. I hoped the ship would be operational enough to land us in one piece.
The viewscreen showed a wide orange desert. The line between day and night streamed closer. We slipped into shadow as I hit the braking thrusters. There wasn't much left in the engine. We slowed, but I had no control. The ship hurtled towards the planet like a meteor. The surface was getting very close.
"One mile," Vance announced calmly.
"Tell me when it's fifty feet," I said.
"I can't get that close, that equipment is dead."
I did my best to guess how close we were. I took a deep breath and hit full reverse. The engine screamed. Smoke boiled out of the air vents. Sparks flew across the controls.
The ship hit the surface and bounced. It hit again, spinning away, scraping and slamming into the desert sands. The sound of tortured metal ripping apart almost drowned out the insistent alarms.
We hit something hard and the ship crunched to a stop. My head slammed into the wall. I passed out.
Chapter 6
"Dace?"
Hands touched me. Pressure held me so I couldn't breathe.
"Dace?" A voice I should know.
The smell of smoke filled my mouth and nose. I tried to cough and couldn't draw breath. I hung partly upside down.
Hands fumbled at the webbing that held me in my seat. I blinked, trying to clear my vision. All I could see were smears of red light. The webbing gave and I fell.
Vance caught me, holding me on a floor that tilted at a sharp angle. "We have to go. The engine's going to blow."
He let go of me. My leg collapsed in a wave of sharp pain. I toppled sideways into the controls that were almost the floor.
"Can you walk?" he asked, glancing back from where he pawed through spilled belongings. Half of the lockers had popped open in the crash. Clothes dangled from a wall that was now the ceiling.
I shook my head. That was a big mistake. A wave of dizziness and pain sent me clutching the wall. Blood trickled down the collar of my shipsuit from my head.
"You're going to have to," Vance said as he shoved emergency rations into a pack. "I don't think I can carry you far."
I reached up gingerly and felt the side of my head. My hair was wet, sticky with blood. Pain lanced through my head at the merest touch. I lowered my hand, swallowing hard to try to keep from barfing. I would have bent down to check my leg, but I was having a hard time keeping up and down straight. I was so dizzy I could barely see.
"Come on," Vance called as he went farther back in the ship.
I limped after him, holding onto the wall like a lifeline in a raging storm. Sharp pain, almost as bad as my head, shot up from my ankle and knee at every tottering step.
Vance stopped at the back of the cabin and reached up to work the emergency hatch. He stepped back, kicking viciously at the hatch. I clung to the wall and watched. He wedged his back against what had been the floor and kicked again, using both legs.
The hatch finally gave, letting in a gust of dry desert air. He wriggled his way up and through. I staggered to stand beneath the opening. I looked up helplessly. It was two feet over my head, easy enough except my leg wouldn't hold me anymore and my head spun so badly I was going to throw up. If I didn't pass out first.
Vance looked down through the hatch. The nebula I remembered glowed dim in the sky. Vance's face was in shadow, his hair highlighted an eerie blue-green.
He reached down. "Take my hand."
I took a deep breath and swallowed my nausea. I reached up with both hands and grabbed his. He pulled hard. I tried to help with my good leg. I bumped my head on the rim of the hatch and almost passed out again. Vance grabbed me under my armpits and hauled me out the rest of the way. I sprawled on the side of the ship, breathing hard. The metal was still too hot to be comfortable. I tried to push myself up, away from the ship. My legs came free of the hatch. I rolled helplessly off the ship and landed hard on a drift of sand.
Vance slid down beside me. I lay where I landed, squeezing my eyes shut in an effort to block out the urge to vomit. The pain was unbelievable. Vance shifted my head. His fingers touched the side of my head. I curled up, a reflex action that caused even more pain from my leg, and threw up. Vance waited until I was through gagging.
"Feel better?" he asked.
I couldn't answer. I was trying not to pass out.
He lifted my chin, turning my face into the faint light from the nebula.
"Look at me," he said gently. I tried. I couldn't focus on his face. "I do
n't suppose there are any medical facilities on this planet. You could use one."
I wanted to agree. I didn't have the energy or the coordination to even attempt talking.
A ship screamed overhead, flashing across the sky. Vance grabbed my shoulder and hauled me to my feet.
"We have to move." He pulled my arm around his shoulder, supporting me. He started across the desert, stumbling over the low shrubs that dotted the coarse sand. I did my best to walk. My right leg screamed at any movement. My head throbbed. My eyes wouldn't focus. I only stayed on my feet because Vance was holding me there.
An eternity of pain passed, one agonizing step at a time. Vance was breathing hard when he finally pulled me to a stop near a tongue of stone sticking up out of the sand.
"Down," he gasped. "Stay low," he added as he lowered me to sit against the stone. I couldn't have moved on my own if I'd wanted to.
He held a packet of water out to me. I managed to move my arm enough to take it and sip.
"I've only got six," he informed me. "You don't know where we are, do you?"
"Serrimonia," I said.
"That narrows it down."
I took another sip. "There's only one city on the entire world." I leaned my head back against the cool stone. The colors of the nebula swirling dimly overhead made my head spin. I closed my eyes.
"What about ships? Communications?"
"A few ships, maybe, near the city. I don't know about communications. Where are we going?"
"Now? We're headed for those cliffs to try to find somewhere to hide," he answered. "They're going to start searching for us in earnest soon."
I took another sip of water then handed him the packet. I'd drunk half. He drank the rest and tucked the wrapper away. He stood, swinging the pack over his shoulder.
There was a bright flash of light and a loud crumpling sound. He ducked back down, crouching behind the stone with me. A hot wind blew past, flinging sand and bushes and bits of metal past. Our ship had just exploded.
"Maybe that will delay them," I said.