The cannon issue was resolved, but the surface was fast approaching.
“Ian,” Gil called out.
“Don’t even have to say,” he replied, his red face pulling back on a pair of levers in his console, firing the thrusters against their trajectory with the returned energy from the now defunct remaining cannon. Berserker One began to curve, pulling up its nose to face the horizon just in time. The bottom of the ship scraped over the top of a hill formation as it lifted back into the air. They rocketed back upward and leveled out a mile above the surface, soaring through the rainstorm.
“YES!” Olivia McCarthy shouted, pumping her fist into the air.
The rest of the crew turned to her.
“I’m proud of you guys!” she said.
Gil slunked down into his captain’s chair, exhausted. “Likewise,” he mustered, spinning his chair around to face the barren landscape they cruised over. It was a still place, or, at least, a place of closed system. No life, no internal activity, just consistent rains. In its consistency, Gil felt a stillness, something that allowed him to take a breath and feel an ounce of stress deplete.
Then his eyes caught an aberration, a stirring in the dark skies out before them. A circular shape seemed to spin the clouds around, until it burst through, a more controlled Central Command maneuvering its way into their path.
“Just when I was enjoying myself,” Gil muttered.
Twelve.
Big Cat, Little Mouse
____________________________
CC spun in place, surveying the area, pointing its intel gathering antennae in all directions, scanning the planet, until it came upon its point of interest. Berserker One, hovering in place, kept a distance from CC as its crew watched with anticipation how their pursuer would act.
“It’s a quick learner,” Olivia stated.
“Mm,” Gil sounded in agreement.
“Not great for us,” said Ian.
“Our defenses can’t withhold an attack,” Cameron stated.
“How many hits before it’s completely gone?” asked Sheri.
Cameron adjusted his glasses. “The first hit will tear through us.”
Sheri’s eyelids slowly shut as she ground her molars together, keeping her from cursing.
“Shit,” Gil went ahead for her. “Is what it sounds like to me.” He took a deep breath, fingers playing in Alexander’s golden hair. He stared down into his furry friend, listening to him pur. “But that hasn’t stopped us before, has it? We’ll have to play it smart.” He looked to their enemy, already preparing its weapons, six cannon aimed their direction. “And fast. Cameron, drop shields entirely, give it all to Ian.”
Cameron sighed. “Sending energy to nav.”
“Firing up engine for a hasty dodge, cap,” said Ian.
They waited a moment longer, and the six shots came hurtling towards them, long tails evaporating the rain as it fell into its wake. Berserker One lurched upward on a diagonal, and the six parallel shots flew beneath them, crumbling rock formations in the distance with a powerful explosion.
Gil watched CC as it held position. “Alright, not so smart yet. Still doesn’t know to lock. Sheri, what do we have left?”
She paused on a breath, then replied, “The rear gun?”
“Use it.”
“Ian, give me a little window.”
“Sure thing.” Ian twisted the ship to the side and CC came into view on Sheri’s gunner targeting system. She fired, the rear gun blasting rounds off, tearing through the air, ripping through the side of Central Command. Still, they were only minor wounds to its massive body, blowing out windows and rooms along its flank, but leaving it largely unharmed.
It turned, lifting off from its lower position to align with Berserker One, recharging its cannon.
“Damn,” Gil muttered.
Then the blue glow of its shields rising revealed that the entity had discovered defensive systems. CC was now encased, rain evaporating against its otherwise invisible shield, tiny blue ripples extending from droplets’ impact.
“What would you do?” he asked, staring into the entrancing stare of Alexander in his lap. His hand continued to pet the creature, fingers running along its soft back, admiring the brilliant color to his coat. The color. Golden. Like a star’s light.
“Wait,” said Captain Gil Graves. “Hold your prayers, lieutenants, I’ve got an idea.”
Thirteen.
Playing With Gravity
____________________________
Gil’s eyes dropped from the cat to the engine beneath him, through the transparent floor. It’s cubic body encased the intricate machinery within, the exact details of which he only knew bits and pieces of. Something about dark matter pulling light around in a loop. Something about the memory of Cameron’s explanation had collided with Alexander’s image to produce an uncanny plan. Light, and weight.
“Cameron, your brilliant little engine uses dark matter to accelerate light around the core, yes?”
“Well, that’s the short of it, yeah,” Cameron answered.
“What if we put it to work on something else?”
“Sorry?” Cameron’s bewilderment shown in his furrowed brow and open mouth. Something similar played across the faces of the other lieutenants in the bridge. None dissuaded Gil from his confidence.
“Namely,” Gil proceeded, “the work of saving our hides.”
Cameron leaned back in his chair. “You’re going to have to walk me through this one, Captain.”
Gil spied the alien controlled Command Ship through the glass at the head of the bridge over his shoulder. “How about a run through?” He turned back around to face them all. “The engine sends energy throughout the ship as it’s told. Each system receives juice from the core beneath us.” He tapped his shoe against the glass. “That little baby. Instead of energy, I want to use the same channels to siphon dark matter and load it into the cannon.”
“Why would you do that?” Ian questioned, equally frustrated and fascinated.
“To drop it into the planet below.”
Now the confused faces of his crew passed their expressions to one another, exchanging glances as Gil counted the seconds they had before the next volley came tearing through the rain. “Cameron,” Gil said, clapping his hands together to pull attention back. “What’s a dark matter loaded cannon going to do when released?”
“Drop,” he answered, unsure what answer Gil sought.
“Drop how?”
“Really fast.”
“And why?”
“Gravity.” The word left Cameron’s lips and a moment after it had, the wild plan seemed suddenly transferred to his own mind. He shook his head. “No.”
“Yes,” Gil replied.
“Sorry,” Olivia interjected, “yes and no to what now?”
“Enlighten us,” Sheri demanded.
Cameron cleared his throat and spoke, “With a payload of heavy dark matter, a cannon dropped from a ship fleeing a series of six heavy cannon blasts would pull the energy of those blasts together.”
Ian shook his head. “Then what?”
Sheri’s jaw dropped. “Oh no.”
“Oh what?” Ian asked, perturbed.
“Superbomb,” Gil explained. “Six shots from the most powerful cannon known to man, forging into one big momma as they’re pulled together by dark matter, sunk straight into the brittle little planet below, and,” he placed his two fists beside one another, then opened them up and pulled them apart, mimicking, crudely, the sound of an explosion with his cheeks.
“And with the planet goes the enemy,” Sheri concluded.
“That’s right,” Gil responded. He looked back again and found the cannon prepared to fire their second round. “We need to move. Ian, get us out of its sights, we’ll dodge this round, given it hasn’t figured locking still. Cameron, while he does that, find a way to push the dark matter through to the cannon. Sheri, distract CC with a little gunfire. Olivia, pray to the thousand gods this m
ad plan works out.”
Olivia nodded. “I’ll work my way through as many as I can.”
Gil winked, then watched while the ship dove beneath the line of fire. The blazing red balls soared overhead, past their ship, without returning. “First bit of luck. Now for a ton more.”
As Ian attempted to steady the ship in its trajectory, Cameron stood from his seat and rushed to the side of the room. “I have to displace the holding cell manually to ensure the distribution system circulates the dark matter without overloading the line and cracking it.”
Gil dug a finger into his ear, then replied, “Sorry, what language was that?”
As Cameron lifted a tile beside the wall and descended a series of seven steps into the engine room, groaning, he said, “Gotta pour the heavy stuff in slow to keep the ship from exploding.”
Gil nodded. “Ah.”
Ian hugged the rock formations, twisting Berserker One through narrow passageways with minute precision. From the back of the ship, the rear gunner blasted a stream of bullets across the surface of the planet to evaporate into the shield of CC as it chased after them, smashing its way through. Olivia’s eyes shut as she recanted an old prayer her mother had taught her as a little girl, one that comforted her even long after she stopped believing in its power.
When Cameron emerged again onto the bridge, lowering the tile behind him, he cracked a smile. “It worked, it’s all going into the cannon.” As he returned to his chair, he slapped Ian on the back. “Good driving.”
Ian nodded.
“It hasn’t worked yet,” Gil commented. “Ian.”
“Yes, Captain,” Ian replied, not lifting his head from the screen projected before him.
“How’s about a steep climb?”
“To get away from these rocks,” he said, “gladly.”
The ship turned on a near ninety degree angle, rocketing skyward and throwing everyone into the backs of their seats. Alexander clung to Gil’s uniform as Gil clung to the bottom of his chair.
“Sheri,” Gil called back.
“Yes, Captain,” she shouted.
“On my count,” he said. He forced his arm forward against the pull of the G force to press a button beneath the screen before him and pull up the rear camera in a box in the corner. Against a backdrop of clouds shooting past, with an occasional lightning strike leaping across the nose, he watched the six cannon along the side of CC load themselves. The ship twisted to aim, an unnatural maneuver to align the sights without locking. Without bodies on board, however, it made sense to the entity controlling it.
“Three,” he began. The ends of the barrels glowed red. “Two,” he continued, watching as the formerly welcoming ship fired upon him. “Zero!” Gil shouted, skipping one as he watched the cannonfire race up towards their rear.
Sheri smashed her fist into her console, and a surge of power broke the remaining cannon from Berserker One’s underbelly and allowed it to plummet back down through the rainclouds to the surface of the rocky planet below. Gil watched with bated breath as the former appendage sank through the storm. As its silver body dropped between the six red orbs shooting past, their trajectory arced sharply and followed it down.
“Yes!” Ian celebrated.
“Not yet!” Cameron reprimanded. “They need to merge in order to be strong enough to destroy the planet.”
All eyes returned immediately to the screen while the ship rocked in its steep climb through the atmosphere. The six red spheres dragged closer to one another as they chased the cannon towards the surface. Then, one by one, an unprecedented event occured. Gil clutched Alexander as he watched the six merge into a bright, white one just before catching up with the cannon at the surface of the planet. It was a split second image that disappeared into a whiteout of bright explosion that shredded through the rainstorm behind them and rocked Berserker One as it exited the atmosphere into the vacuum of space. Gil gripped his armrest as he watched the stars come into view and felt the pulse of the massive eruption quake through the hull of their ship. In the rearview he witnessed the planet’s destruction. The rock fractured and burst into clouds as a white ball expanded in its center. Then, the white ball receded, pulling everything back into an implosion.
“Ian,” Gil called back with worry.
“Yep,” Ian replied, pushing Berserker One’s thrusters to the limit to escape the pull of the implosion.
The bridge shook with a powerful force as the ship drained itself on its escape. For a moment, it stalled, holding position, threatening to backtrack. Then, with one last push, it escaped the tug of the collapsing planet behind it and emerged into black space unscathed.
Gil spun his chair around to witness a jubilant response from his lieutenants, each jumping from their chairs and hugging one another in celebration of survival. Cameron was last, verifying the hijacked Command Center had perished in the implosion before leaping onto his chair and releasing a wild call into the bridge that filled the space with his unbridled enthusiasm.
Gil merely sat, a modest grin adorning his lips as he turned down to the companion resting in his lap, having returned to its usual stoic feline demeanor.
“We made it through another one, old friend,” he whispered into its ear. “Now, making it back…”
Fourteen.
Stranded
____________________________
When the reverie had calmed and the lieutenants took to their seats once more, verifying no damage had been sustained, Gil was the first to speak, “Good work, one and all. That was truly one for the books, and the IUR is forever indebted to you.”
“If it ever cares to acknowledge us,” Ian remarked.
Olivia scowled, “Of course they will. After this--”
“Don’t be so sure,” Sheri interrupted.
Cameron cleaned his glasses with his shirt and bit of hot breath. “They’ll have quite a while to prepare our hero’s welcome, that’s for sure.”
Ian turned to his controls, reviewing a map before him. “He’s right. Without our engine’s special sauce we can’t manipulate wormholes, and the nearest stable bridge looks to be months away, if we travel at top speed without any interruptions.”
“Well,” said Captain Gil Graves, “I guess it’s good we’re not going back to the Fleet, then, hm?”
“Where is it we’re headed, Captain?” Sheri inquired.
“That answer,” Gil began, slowly rising to his feet, Alexander bounding off his lap and racing into the hallway, “lies somewhere in the belly of an adventure, my dear Lieutenant McBride.”
She narrowed her gaze, but couldn’t help the smile break out beneath her fierce eyes. “Oh? Where does this one start?”
Gil took a step forward, wincing with the pain of his bum leg, then sighing as he stepped with his right. “The Belt Buccaneers knew something. They fled the area when that bizarre cargo vessel appeared. I want to know what it is.”
“I’m sorry,” Cameron spoke, “do you intend to sit down with them to ask?”
Ian shifted in his seat, lifting his leg beneath himself, rubbing his chin as he smiled and turned to Gil, eager for his reply, hoping for another wild answer.
“That sort of diplomacy would be a unique challenge,” Olivia commented, attempting optimism.
“Diplomacy?” Ian questioned, lifting an eyebrow. “Or something else entirely, cap?”
Gil Graves crossed his arms and smiled back. “You’ll have to come along and see.”
*
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