Starbounders

by Adam Jay Epstein

  “Don’t take another step,” Kaylee warned.

  Skold put his hands up slowly. “Let’s talk about this.” Then he took a stride toward them.

  “I said don’t move,” Kaylee repeated.

  “What are you going to do, shoot me?”

  “If I have to.”

  Skold smiled. “All right. You win. What now?”

  He stepped closer.

  Kaylee pulled the trigger on the photon cannon. But the weapon didn’t fire. She tried again, but no beam of superheated light shot forth. Zachary fought off a sickly feeling. The plan had backfired.

  “I took the cartridge out before we left this morning,” Skold said. “I stopped trusting you after you kicked Kur’tuo into that acid lake.”

  He reached out and took back the photon cannon, then replaced the cartridge with a loaded clip.

  “Now get on the ship,” he said, waving his cannon toward the steps.

  Zachary, Ryic, and Kaylee did as they were told, and found another fist-sized indentation at the door. This time Kaylee stuck her warp glove inside. The pod opened, allowing all four of them to enter.

  The inside of the ship was sparse, with a half dozen seats that made a circle around a control panel. There was little else. This was the planet’s life raft, built for survival, not comfort. They all buckled in, and Sputnik climbed out to look around.

  “Launch us out of here,” Skold said. “Any of your gloves will do the trick.”

  Zachary reached out and inserted his glove into the lone indentation on the control panel. The door closed with a surprisingly loud bang, startling Sputnik, who ducked back into Kaylee’s pocket.

  Zachary looked out the porthole but could only see one of the haven’s walls. He heard the bunker’s roof retract and felt the hopper ship’s four mechanical legs begin to move. They seemed to bend at the knees before vaulting upward, taking to the air. The force of the jump pushed Zachary down into his seat, like a spatula pressing down on a pancake. It felt as if he would flatten at any moment. The pod sprang through the open roof of the bunker, and once it was several hundred feet above Sirocco’s salty surface, the engines kicked in. The hopper ship soared higher and higher, fighting the planet’s gravity before freeing itself from Sirocco’s atmosphere and rocketing into space.

  A small holographic image projected over the console, displaying a path from Sirocco to the Desultar Prospecting Station. Estimated time until arrival was 00:22:41—less than twenty-three minutes.

  Skold looked as if he was typing on an invisible keyboard in midair. Clearly he had executed some kind of remote command, because after a moment, a message appeared on the holographic display reading, Request for Clandestine Approach Accepted. The lighting in the ship immediately changed color to a cool blue.

  “What does that mean?” Zachary asked, wondering what the fugitive was up to.

  “It means the ship will be cloaked and our arrival at the prospecting station won’t be announced. Probably best if I don’t have a welcoming party.”

  As the estimated arrival time dwindled to just a few minutes, Zachary alternated between staring out at the cosmos and nervously eyeing the barrel of Skold’s photon cannon. He feared that once they landed and Skold got ahold of his own ship, they’d be of no use to him. Then what would prevent the ruthless space convict from killing them as easily as he’d killed Jahir?

  “That must be it.” Ryic’s voice shook Zachary from his thoughts. He saw that his friend was pointing out the porthole to a space station.

  Curved like a boomerang, it had two halves connected by a single walkway. It looked big enough to fit half of Kingston inside. A river of space rocks was hurtling toward the center of the station. Large asteroids and comets tumbled into an opening beneath the walkway in a steady flow.

  Fixing the crosshairs of his lensicon on the station, Zachary blinked twice.

  * * *

  CELESTIAL OBJECT:

  DESULTAR PROSPECTING STATION

  LOCATED IN THE PATH OF A GRAVITY SINKHOLE, THE STATION COLLECTS PARTICLE DEBRIS FROM TEN GALAXIES AND SEPARATES PRECIOUS HEAVY METALS FROM ROCK THROUGH A SERIES OF CENTRIFUGES. THE EXTRACTED ORE IS ONE OF THE MOST VALUABLE SOURCES OF MINERAL WEALTH IN THE KNOWN OUTERVERSE.

  THIS IPDL-SANCTIONED FACILITY IS CONSIDERED A SAFE PLACE TO DOCK.

  * * *

  What about those accompanied by an armed felon, Zachary wondered? Was it safe for them?

  The hopper ship was nearing the station, and the ship’s mechanical legs were now stretching out beyond the pod like tentacles preparing to latch on to something.

  Through the porthole, Zachary could see spacecraft large and small, docked along the outside of the station. Swarms of flying motorcycles manned by aux-bots zipped among them. One stopped and began to repair holes in the station’s hull.

  The holographic display read Approaching Auxiliary Terminal as they neared the end of the prospecting station. Zachary watched as their ship slipped between a decrepit fuel tanker and a rusty dreadnought. Its legs reached out and gripped the footholds of a station docking portal.

  “Don’t try anything funny,” Skold warned them as he concealed the photon cannon beneath his jacket. “Once I secure a ship that can bound me past the Asteroid Curtain, I’ll set you free.”

  The top of the pod opened, and the group floated into what Zachary’s lensicon identified as an atmospheric atrium, a small isolated room where gravity could be gradually adjusted to acclimate new visitors to the station. Zachary felt his feet sink slowly to the floor as the sensation of zero gravity disappeared. By the time the process had finished, it felt as if the gravity was even stronger here than on Earth. His legs were straining slightly under the weight of his own body mass.

  “It feels like I’m carrying a pillowcase loaded with bricks.” Zachary flexed his leg muscles, trying to adjust to the unusual feeling.

  “This is what Klenarog feels like all the time.” Ryic was smiling and stretching his arms and legs. “You’ll get used to it.”

  Zachary took a couple of strained steps. Walking was an effort, and he was glad they didn’t have to go any faster.

  Skold approached a locked doorway leading into the corridors of the prospecting station. He pointed to an indentation in the wall, but Zachary already knew what he was supposed to do. He stuck his gloved hand inside, and the door retracted into the floor.

  They emerged into the station’s docking terminal, which was so busy with bustling workers and residents that no one seemed to notice their arrival. The vast majority of them were a short, broad-shouldered species of alien. Their facial features were similar to a human’s, but their eyes were bigger and their ears smaller. The rest of the crowd was made up of other odd humanoid creatures. It didn’t seem like Zachary, Kaylee, Ryic, and Skold would have any difficulty blending in as they passed from the terminal into the station’s dining hub. This portion of the space station reminded Zachary of the mall food court by his house, only the vendors weren’t selling tacos and pretzels. Their stands lined the halls, peddling foul-smelling soups and exotic fruits. There was even one food stand offering plates of meat that were still on fire.

  Skold began leading them through the crowded market, pushing Zachary with the back of his hand. As they passed an algae stand, Ryic couldn’t contain himself. He stopped for a moment to sniff in the pungent odor. The smell reminded Zachary of a wet swimsuit that had been sitting in a closet for a week, but Ryic was clearly enjoying it.

  “There’s nothing quite like the smell of fresh fungus drizzled with plutonium flakes,” he said, still sniffing.

  “As appetizing as that sounds, we need to keep moving,” Skold said. He led the group through the inside of the space station to a directional kiosk tucked between a pay-by-the-minute shower stall and a friction-boot repair shop.

  Skold waved his hand in front of the kiosk, and the motion-sensitive screen displayed a map showing an overview of the entire Desultar Prospecting Station. There were the two curved halves
of the station connected by the single walkway Zachary had seen from space. A small marker indicated their current location on the far eastern end. Skold pointed across to the other side.

  “That’s where the bounder ships are,” Skold said. “My ticket beyond the Indigo Divide.”

  “Indigo Divide?” Zachary asked.

  “It’s a smugglers’ term. Means somewhere the IPDL can’t touch me, somewhere outside their jurisdiction. I’ve got a moon past the Asteroid Curtain that’s my personal chop shop. Ships and parts. Be nice and I’ll give you my business card. Now get a move on.”

  They entered what looked like a factory floor, where broad-shouldered aliens manipulated robotic arms to break apart larger space debris. Farther down the line, others were running the cracked rocks through water, and any gleaming bits that were found were chipped out and placed on a conveyor belt. The noise was deafening, with constant clanging and cracking. Their path followed the conveyor belt into a different room, where the most valuable bits of metal—capendium—were plucked off and transferred into lockboxes. IPDL officers of every alien race then secured the boxes and carried them away.

  Zachary was straining his face muscles to catch the attention of the uniformed officers without saying anything.

  “If they try to take me, I can’t help it if you get caught in the crossfire,” Skold said quietly.

  The threat was enough to keep the three Starbounders-in-training and Sputnik silent. They crossed through unnoticed, exiting the refinery and moving into the living quarters. They were walking swiftly now—at least, as swiftly as they could with the heavier gravity—passing another kiosk, which indicated they were nearing the walkway to the other side of the prospecting station. They reached a long hallway and found themselves approaching a guard post where a line of people waited. Skold slowed to a stop. It was clear that warp gloves alone weren’t going to be enough to get them past this point.

  “Please wait in line for your cranial DNA identification scan,” a guard called out.

  Anyone crossing through had a handheld electronic device, roughly the size of a thermometer, waved in front of their forehead. It was only a brief inconvenience if the device lit up orange, but if the reading turned up blue, the individual being scanned was immediately cuffed in shockles and dragged away.

  “Looks like we need to take a detour.” Skold pulled the young Starbounders out of the hallway.

  “You saw the map,” Zachary said. “The walkway is the only way to get across.”

  “From the inside,” Skold replied.

  He was guiding them toward an emergency exit, where a ladder led down to a sealed door.

  “Are you crazy?” Kaylee asked. “Executing an untethered space walk?”

  “Don’t they teach you anything at Indigo 8?” Skold replied.

  “We’ve only been there a week,” Ryic said.

  “Well, nothing beats on-the-fly training.”

  He ushered them down the ladder and unlatched the door. They stepped into another atmospheric atrium. This one had a wall full of off-planet bio regulators and what appeared to be hi-tech rock-climbing equipment.

  “Everyone gear up,” Skold ordered. “Grab a magnetic grappling hook and a bio regulator.”

  Zachary, Kaylee, and Ryic equipped themselves. Kaylee gave a reassuring pat to Sputnik, who was sticking his head out of her pocket.

  “You’re going to need to hold your breath for a few minutes,” she said. “Think you can do that, Sputnik?”

  The vreek let out a meep, seeming to understand.

  Zachary inserted one of the clear mouthpieces between his lips. As his mouth formed a seal around the breathing apparatus, he felt a whoosh of pure oxygen enter his lungs. With his first breath, the bio regulator formed a repulsion barrier around him, just like his lensicon said it would.

  “Look,” Ryic said, his word garbled by the device held fast in his jaw.

  Zachary turned to see that Ryic was trying to clap his hands together, but no matter how hard he pushed, the unseen barrier kept them an inch apart.

  Skold held a pair of grappling hooks in his hand but didn’t wear a regulator.

  “Where’s your mouthpiece?” Zachary asked.

  “Don’t need it. I told you I’ve got internal oxygen tanks,” Skold replied. “Now remember, I need at least one of you alive on the other side, so try not to die out there.”

  “Thanks for the pep talk,” Zachary said.

  Skold prompted Zachary to punch a button, which he did. First the gravity in the chamber disappeared, then the air was sucked out. A heavy door leading to the vacuum of space slid open. The four drifted through, weightless, each holding a magnetic grappling hook.

  The first thing Zachary noticed was the silence. The spaceships that passed by above and beyond them, the comets and asteroids bouncing off the side of the space station, the blades and grinders of the prospectors’ mining operation. None of it made a noise. Zachary remembered learning that in space, without molecules of air, sound didn’t exist. But he hadn’t really comprehended it until now.

  The second thing Zachary noticed was how tiny he felt. Of course, infinite cosmos in every direction would probably make anyone feel insignificant.

  Skold signaled with his hands for the three to watch him. Using his mag hook, he latched on to a distant spot on the side of the space station and started to pull himself along the rim toward the thin walkway, motioning for them to follow.

  Large space rocks flowed into the whirling machinery under the walkway, and the closer they got to the center, the stronger the tug of the gravity channel became. As tiny asteroid particles flew in Zachary’s direction, he braced himself, but the bio regulator’s force field deflected any incoming debris.

  Zachary squeezed his fingers extra tight around the grappling hook’s fiberglass rope and struggled to keep his footing. Skold clearly had experience with this kind of escape. He was cruising ahead. In front of Zachary, Kaylee managed to keep pace with the fugitive. Behind him, Ryic . . . was gone. Only his mag hook remained, attached to the ship’s surface.

  It took a moment for Zachary to comprehend what was happening. He wanted to scream out for Ryic. He even thought he did. But as much as his lungs vibrated, no one reacted to his call. Zachary searched frantically before spotting Ryic drifting slowly toward the river of rocks. His arms flailed wildly, with nothing to grab on to and no way of propelling himself.

  Zachary turned back to Skold and Kaylee, who were still completely unaware of what was happening. Unable to get their attention, Zachary knew it was up to him to do something. And he needed to do it quickly, because Ryic was getting ever closer to the prospecting station’s grinders with no way to reverse his course. As effective as the force field was at deflecting rocks, it would be no match for the giant, spinning blades.

  Suddenly, Zachary had a flash of the fishing trips he used to take with his dad and brother. He remembered one time when a favorite baseball cap went overboard and started flowing downstream. Jacob thought fast and sent his fishing line flying, hooking the mesh hat and reeling it in.

  Zachary grabbed Ryic’s grappling hook, swung, and fired. It stretched out, reaching toward Ryic’s open arms. But the rope wasn’t long enough. Ryic extended his arm as far as he could, but to no avail.

  Kaylee and Skold had finally noticed what was going on. Kaylee’s face read horror. Skold looked emotionless. He was gesturing to Zachary to forget about Ryic.

  Was Skold crazy? There was no way Zachary was going to let Ryic go. He retrieved his own mag hook and leaped off the hull of the station, propelling himself straight for his friend. As he soared in space, Zachary fired Ryic’s grappling hook a second time. This time, Ryic caught the other end in his hands. Now they were both drifting toward their doom, together.

  Zachary turned to the ship and prepared to launch his mag hook back at the side. But before he was able to activate it, a small chunk of cosmic ice cracked against the mag hook’s handle, knocking it loose from Zacha
ry’s grip and sending it tumbling toward the grinders.

  Ryic had managed to pull himself to Zachary’s side but seemed too overcome with panic to think clearly. Zachary knew that they needed a way to propel themselves to the station’s surface, but there was nothing close enough to use as a springboard. The tug of the gravity sinkhole seemed inescapable.

  Then Zachary saw the end of a magnetic grappling hook flying toward him. He looked up to see Kaylee trying the same rescue tactic that he had. She was close enough that the hook reached him. His fingers grabbed the magnetic claw, and Kaylee reeled them back toward the ship. Zachary flooded with relief as his feet made contact with the rim and Ryic touched down beside him. They were both able to continue on their way. Zachary and Ryic shared Ryic’s grappling hook, gripping one another tightly until they arrived at the other side.

  Skold stopped before an emergency door to yet another atmospheric atrium. This one was beyond the walkway and the scrutiny of the DNA guard post. Zachary pressed his glove up to the indentation, and the outer door slid open. The four clambered into the safety of the atrium. Once the door closed and the whoosh of air returned, they removed their bio regulators, allowing them to talk once more. Ryic was the first to speak.

  “My hand just slipped—”

  “Save it for later.” Skold was already waiting at the locked doorway leading back into the station. “After you open this door for me, we split ways. I’m going to have to take your warp gloves and keep you locked up in here. They’ll find you in a couple hours, but by then I’ll be long gone.”

  With a sinking feeling, Zachary walked over and reached his warp glove—the glove that had belonged to his famous grandfather Gerald Night and the glove he was about to lose forever—out to the indentation.

  “And one more thing,” Skold added. “I’d stay away from—”

  But before he finished, the door slid open. A dozen sonic crossbows were pointed right at them.

  «EIGHT»