Ceasefire_Team Orion Nebula

by Kayla Stonor

  A dark mesmeric gleam in his eyes set her heart racing before she could stop it. She took an involuntary step back. So much for control.

  “I’ll think about Roltair Med,” Tierc said. “Let’s get Altaira out the way, first.”

  Axo straightened. “Zeke will be online in five hours.” The AI made it sound like a warning.

  Ahnna raised her eyebrows, glad for the distraction. She gestured to the open panel. “We are okay to modify the ship like this?” she asked Axo.

  “Contestants are permitted to make repairs and deploy ship’s systems and weapons for defense,” Axo replied. “A cloaking system will enhance long term defensive capability.”

  “Axo is looking beyond the space race to a future when this ship becomes ours,” Tierc explained, “at my suggestion. And what Octiron doesn’t know, it can’t rule on. Axo, when can we jump to Altaira?”

  “We are two hours from the next stable jump to the Allermo system. Conditions favorable to a wormhole are projected for twelve hours.”

  “Okay, I’ll be done here in an hour. We’ll test the cloaking shields at the jump location.” Tierc lay back on the floor, swiveled and ducked his head inside the panel. Then he popped back out. “Ahnna, get some sleep. You look like shit.”

  Startled, Ahnna frowned. She checked her reflection in the bathroom and cringed. Her hair sprouted in all directions, shadows ringed her eyes. She looked like a vampire had sucked the life out of her. She couldn’t sleep. Memories of her son haunted her dreams, his face sometimes Fais’, other times faceless. He looked up at her from far away, cried for her with his arms reaching for a hug.

  Back in her cabin she stared at her rumpled bed. Turning away, her eye followed the curve of the Orion Nebula’s hull to the ceiling and back around the four walls closing in on her. Once again, each inhale of breath didn’t go deep enough, blocked by an old panic welling from deep inside, a feeling that her emotions verged on collapse.

  When HD-X took her baby, they also wrested control of her life. Ahnna ran herself to exhaustion in the aftermath, drowned her sorrow in group meditation, and distracted her thoughts in training. She searched for a purpose, a validation that saving the human race from alien overlords justified such cruelty.

  For a long time, she had found peace, a way forward. Here in Paragon, her flimsy facade of fortitude had collapsed like a house of cards. The race trapped her. The ship stifled her. She wanted to run. She wanted her life back.

  She never had a life.

  She’d sworn to protect the human genome.

  For a moment, Fais had been her cause, instilling meaning to this sham of a race.

  Everything changed.

  Stripping to vest top and panties, Ahnna darkened the lights, crawled into bed, her blood wired, brain restless. She lay there, desperate to sleep, eyes wide open. Thoughts clogged her brain. Stars raced by outside the hull, the Orion Nebula moving through hyperspace towards Altaira, away from Trax.

  Her hands wandered to her crotch. Ahnna snatched them back, refusing to acknowledge Tierc’s power over her body. She dragged out the pillow from behind her head, plastered it over her eyes.

  She revised her reason for living.

  In her mind, Rafters killed Fais and slave trading fueled the demand for Veltais children. Octiron might be corrupt, engaged in slave entertainment, but at least they offered the hope of a new life. If extracting the high priestess exposed the evil sustaining Verdon’s economy, highlighted the devastation the Rafters wreaked on planets like Trax, then she could live with Octiron a little longer. She could make the Great Space Race more than a selfish bid for freedom. The race allowed her to make a difference, offered a new cause. A life with a scrap of meaning.

  The seconds ticked by.

  Each passing minute reduced her will to live.

  Insanity hovered on the edge of consciousness.

  She threw the pillow across the room, tossed and turned.

  The ship’s engine stopped. Ahnna rolled out of bed onto her knees, climbed to her feet and rubbed her eyes. She wanted to scream.

  “Axo. Why have we stopped?”

  The holographic AI appeared in a blinding flare of light and Ahnna flinched, turned away. “Audio only.”

  Blessed darkness returned and she sank down onto the bed.

  “We have reached our destination,” Axo said.

  “You said two hours.”

  “That is correct.”

  She hadn’t slept a wink.

  “I can’t sleep in here.”

  “Tierc is running simulations to aid his shield repairs. Maybe you could assist him.”

  Ahnna cringed. She could still taste him. His presence tainted the whole ship. Qui usually had more control of their pheromones. He reacted to her. She reacted to him. The irony.

  “Or I could prescribe you—”

  “No, no drugs.” She paused, thinking. “The shields are down?”

  “Yes.”

  Ahnna rose to her feet, crossed to the window and looked out into space. It looked beautiful, so peaceful, so open… On the ship, she felt imprisoned. Tierc permeated the ship’s air.

  “Axo, I need your help.”

  “Of course.”

  There was so much animation in Axo’s response that Ahnna experienced a momentary guilt for giving the AI such a hard time. “You can’t tell Tierc. I need your word.” Now she cajoled the AI into deceiving the ship’s captain. She grimaced, anticipated refusal.

  “I am coded to assist you in any way I can, but I cannot endanger your life, or allow damage to the ship.”

  “I saw EVA suits in the cargo hold. I want to go outside.”

  “The ship is not damaged.”

  “I want peace and quiet. I need to get away from the ship. I have to sleep, or I will become a liability.” She appealed to Axo’s logic. “If Tierc asks about me, tell him I’m still asleep. Where is he now?”

  “On the bridge.”

  Ahnna jumped up. She needed to be gone before Tierc returned to work on the shields. She issued a stream of instructions aimed at keeping Axo quiet, amazed she could think so clearly. “Don’t report my movements, or that the airlock is open, or anything. But check what I’m doing. Keep an eye on me.”

  “I will monitor your status. Zeke will also check on you on his return.”

  “When does his shift start?”

  “Three hours.”

  “Tell him I’m asleep. You won’t be lying.”

  “At rest, you will have several hours of oxygen. The spacesuit is pressurized for emergency use and will protect you from normal space debris. The safety line extends beyond shield range. The risk is acceptable.”

  Ahnna checked the corridor, then slipped to the small cargo hold barefoot in her sleep attire. The need to escape consumed her. Axo greeted her in the cargo hold in holographic form. For once she didn’t object. The AI wanted to ensure she suited up correctly, depressurized the airlock before opening the hatch to freedom. She spun the wheel, pushed the door open, and stared out into the vacuum of space.

  “Axo, thank you.”

  “I will alert you to any danger. Connect your line to the safety ring.”

  Ahnna did. She stepped out, floated away from the ship, felt like swimming underwater but with no resistance, except for her gloves. So peaceful. She turned and faced the ship. The Orion Nebula looked beautiful against the background of space. There was no sun, just myriad stars twinkling around her. Quiet tranquility. She turned around and gasped at a colorful nebula spread across her range of vision in cloudy formation.

  “Axo, can you follow me?”

  “There is no need. You are attached to the ship.”

  “I want to be completely free.”

  “That is not wise while Tierc is making repairs.”

  “To the shields. You can still track me. Follow me.”

  Such a simple solution. Why did anyone bother with safety lines?

  “Ahnna, if you disconnect your safety line I will inform Tierc.�
��

  She frowned. “Fine.”

  Air mixed with a high percentage of oxygen filled her lungs. Not a hint of spice. She closed her eyes and floated. Soon she forgot all about her safety line.

  * * *

  Inside his simulation, Tierc swore. So close, but yet so far.

  He’d cobbled together a cloaking system that bent random particles of the ship’s energy force-fields, rendering the ship invisible to an external sensor. Reduce the ship’s output to minimum life support and detectable emissions became negligible. Not the efficient cloaking systems developed by the Qui armadas, but better than nothing. The limitation was expected. He didn’t have access to an independent power source so cloaking was limited to the energy borrowed from the T-47’s defensive shields. What he couldn’t figure out was a way to transition the random energy distribution back to the defense shields without resetting the system.

  Removing the simulator headgear, he headed back to the open panel. Zeke was due online in ten minutes and Tierc needed to be all cleared up by then.

  “Axo, analysis?”

  “Port A0787 reports an intermittent response.”

  The AI was hyper engaged in this task. It had no need for refreshment or rest and seemed to have forgotten Tierc was mere flesh and bones. Tierc grabbed water from the galley on the way.

  “So we boost the energy transformer.” Tierc ducked down and pulled out the identified unit. He lay flat on the floor. “Shut down ship’s force-fields.”

  Zeke came on duty ten minutes later; Tierc could hear the vid drone hovering over his prone body.

  “What’s happening?” Octiron’s cameraman asked.

  Tierc reached farther into the wiring. “Axo identified a problem with the forceshields. Needed a new transformer. Should have it back any moment now.”

  “Oh. Where’s Ahnna?”

  “Asleep.”

  “No, she’s not. I checked her room. Can’t find her anywhere.”

  Tierc stopped tightening a bolt, slid out, and sat up. The vid drone shot back out of his reach. Zeke materialized, concern creasing his face.

  “Axo, where’s Ahnna?” Tierc asked.

  The AI didn’t respond.

  “Axo!”

  “Ahnna is asleep outside the Orion Nebula. I cannot raise her. This needs to be rectified as a meteor spray approaches that exceeds her EVA protection. I estimate fifteen minutes until impact.”

  For a moment, Tierc couldn’t speak, stunned to silence. Then he jumped to his feet and raced to the bridge. “Show me.”

  A close up of a floating body appeared on screen. Ahnna drifted in space at the full extent of her safety line, a good fifty feet away.

  “Pull her in.”

  “The safety line is jammed.”

  “Patch me through to her.”

  Axo nodded.

  “Ahnna? Wake up.” She didn’t respond. “Wake up!”

  Still no response.

  “Is she unconscious?”

  “Her vital signs report normal. Her comms could be down.”

  Tierc checked the approaching debris field. Without force-fields the ship would sustain damage. Couldn’t be helped. He raced out the bridge towards the hold. “Axo, can you move the ship to Ahnna?” he shouted on the move.

  “Her line is wrapped around the engine.”

  Tierc slammed through the cargo hold and hunted down a second EVA suit. Another minute ticked by as he pulled it on. “Okay. There’s one airlock. Is it pressurized?”

  “Stand by.”

  Another minute passed. Tierc used the time to check his seals and comms-link. It failed. Fuck. He opened his visor and glared at the holovid drone. “Comms is down. Anything else you want to tell me doesn’t work?”

  Zeke reappeared. “The shields have been working fine! Crandal’s on his way in to Octiron now.”

  “Perfect,” Tierc groused.

  “Airlock pressurized.”

  Tierc entered, closed the inner hatch behind him. Waiting for the airlock to depressurize took forever. When Axo offered permission, he turned the handle a full revolution and pushed. Connecting his safety line, he grabbed ahold of Ahnna’s and followed it up and over the ship to a tangled mess around the port engine. Then he started to pull her in. For the first couple seconds, she drifted towards him and then her whole body jerked. Momentum swung her around and she tumbled through space. Tierc continued to haul her in. She stopped fighting, found him, and then her eyes widened in anger. Very deliberately she disconnected her line, an act of pure defiance.

  Fury rushed through Tierc, anger so intense it invoked a shift. Pain shot through his nerves. He pushed off the ship directly towards her, his teeth clenched as he fought both his shift and the pain.

  He had seconds before Ahnna drifted out of reach.

  She saw him coming, but he had the momentum and she’d barely turned before he had gripped her boot. He hauled her into his embrace, clutching her around the waist with one arm, as he tapped his helmet with the other.

  “Comms down,” he mouthed.

  She suddenly stopped fighting him, waking up to his urgency. He pointed vaguely into space, didn’t matter which direction, as long as he conveyed an approaching danger. Now she nodded, mouthed something that looked like “okay.”

  He spotted the approaching debris two meters in from the ship. It moved fast and the airlock was on the far side. A rock slammed his helmet and Tierc pulled Ahnna into the leeway of the engine. The micro-meteorites smashed against the ship at an angle which left little protection. He shoved Ahnna into the protected recess and covered her body with his own.

  * * *

  Pressed into the overhang, protected by Tierc’s body, Ahnna felt rather than heard the clunks of rock hitting the metal hull. Tierc’s body was rigid. He clutched two handholds and shielded her from the storm pelting them. A couple of times he jerked, the chin of his helmet hitting the top of hers.

  Her heart pounded with shock. A minute ago she’d been peacefully asleep.

  “Axo?” she hailed.

  No response. Axo must have tried to contact her, and when he couldn’t get through, the AI would have been forced to inform Tierc.

  After several seconds, the storm passed and Tierc moved back, giving her space. He reached for her hand, missed, and she grabbed him before he floated away. The pockmarks on the ship’s hull suggested the reason for his lack of coordination. She turned Tierc around and her heart dropped at the sight of his shredded suit. Several red patches of skin plugged the shredded layers of protection making up his EVA suit. When he grabbed his tether and slowly pulled along it, Ahnna leapt ahead, wrapped his line around her glove and hauled herself along her safety line held taut between airlock and engine. Within seconds they were at the open air lock, Tierc dazed and sweating profusely. Ahnna shoved him inside, untethered them both, and closed the outer hatch.

  “Axo, re-pressurize the air lock!” Shit, she forgot Axo couldn’t hear her and she couldn’t remove her helmet. For a moment she panicked, but then she felt a change in pressure.

  Tierc was on his knees.

  She checked the tears in his suit.

  His spine had been exposed to the vacuum of space, a large red bubble of cerebral and body fluid. Tiny stones peppered a scaled shoulder. The micro-meteorites had worked through his suit. Each one would have hit with the speed of a bullet. No human would have survived. Tierc had managed a partial shift. That concerned her. The ShiftLok cuffs protected them both.

  Had they failed?

  Ahnna’s mind raced as she pulled off their helmets, torn. His shift was on display. If Zeke caught sight of his scaling, there would be questions to answer. Tierc had saved her life, risked his own to rescue her, and yet, the thought of his alien Qui, unfettered, terrified her.

  Tierc was clenching his fists, his brow creased in concentration. Zeke held the holovid drone to the inner hatch window and Ahnna blocked its view. Perhaps Zeke’s holo program couldn’t operate inside the air lock. She stared at him, im
agined the pain he was suffering, and her resolve broke. Tierc needed all his strength, had endured indescribable pain to save her, and it was in her power to release his Qui, the least she could do. She wrestled with her fear, understood it was misplaced—Tierc had risked his life for her—and gripped his cuffs, prayed her psycom worked in Paragon.

  Before she could invoke the psy thought to release the ShiftLoks, Tierc pulled his wrists free, turned his back to the wall and looked at her, his pupils a perfect circle. “Don’t. I’ll be fine. A blanket… something to cover me.”

  Relief filled her, relief mixed with guilt.

  Ahnna hauled in a deep breath, raced to the door and turned the handle. The vid drone raced in, seeking the best shots of them both. Zeke remained outside the airlock, supervising a second vid drone. Ahnna ripped off her gloves, found an insulating blanket, and headed back to Tierc. She draped it around his shoulders and helped him up, wrapping an arm around his waist when his knees gave way. He stumbled against her, regained his balance. Sweat poured off his brow. One hand clutched the blanket to his chest as she took him to the galley that doubled as a medical facility.

  He refused to lie down, sitting on a chair, still in his EVA suit.

  “Not yet,” he said when she moved to inspect his wounds. “Let my nanos do their job.”

  Ahnna bit her lip. Did he mean nanos, or did he mean his Qui healing ability? Clearly the cuffs didn’t curtail his shift completely. That would explain his pain, his concentration. She pulled down the med kit.

  The holovid drone circled over him. “Zeke got everything,” Crandal said appearing in holo form. “Audience is going to love this one.” His tone turned serious. “Tierc, you look hurt. How bad is it?”

  Tierc slowly dragged the blanket off and the holovid drone shot around to inspect the damage. Ahnna did, too. Tierc’s skin looked red and swollen, but no longer showed any hint of scaling. “He needs proper medical attention.”

  “My nanos have it,” Tierc said. “Just get the rock out before it burns more flesh.”

  Ahnna nodded, found tweezers, a scanner and a bowl. She went for the biggest one first. Some of his suit had boiled into his flesh. Her fingers began to shake. If Tierc hadn’t come for her, hadn’t protected her…