by Joe Vasicek
Thinking quickly, Reva scooped up the guard’s assault rifle. She turned on Wolf just as he turned on her, but her finger was faster on the trigger. The rifle bucked and recoiled in her grip, and she dropped it after just a couple rounds.
That was enough, though.
Wolf landed against the wall and looked down at his chest, now gushing blood through a hole the size of Reva’s fist. His eyes rolled back, and he slumped to the floor.
“Reva!”
Isaac and the second guard were struggling for the energy pistol. With Isaac sprawled helpless on the floor, Reva picked up the rifle and took careful aim. She fired, and the guard fell off to one side, his body twitching.
“Stars of Holy Earth,” she said, her heart racing. The stench of burning flesh filled the cargo hold, and blood started to pool beneath the bodies of the three men.
“Are you all right?” said Isaac. He tried to stand up, but fell down again, clearly hurt.
“I’m fine,” she said, dropping the rifle as she rushed to his side. “How about you?”
“Just weak from the torture, that’s all. Stars, it hurts.”
“I’ll get you out of here,” she said, pulling his arm over her shoulder. As they both stood, the drone bot sped out of the room. Moments later, an alarm began to sound.
“Uh-oh.”
“Do you have the wrist console?” Isaac asked.
“The one I gave you?”
“Any console.”
She took hers off and gave it to him. “Is the ship ready? Can we leave?”
“I think I remember the codes,” he muttered as he accessed it with one hand. “Just give me a minute.”
“We can’t stay here,” she said. “The others will be here any moment.”
“Then use the maintenance shaft to get us to the shuttle bay. I’ll have the outrider ready when we get there.”
Strength born of adrenaline flowed through her arms and legs. She picked up the rifle and half-led, half-carried Isaac away from the grisly scene. Whatever Gulchina had promised her, there was only one path left to them now.
Contact Unawares
Isaac stumbled with Reva through the maintenance corridor as quickly as his battered body could manage. The floor grating cut his bare feet, and the cool air from the cargo bay nipped at his skin, but none of that mattered. All that mattered was getting to the outrider shuttle before the pirates cut them off. At best, they only had minutes, and at worst, they were already dead.
He leaned on Reva’s shoulder as he toggled through the menus on her wrist console with his free hand. The outriders were small boarding vessels and designed to launch quickly, so if he could—
There. The codes took, and the passwords cleared. The wrist console was synced.
“We’ve gotta move,” he said. The console was connected though the ship’s network, which meant that anyone could see what they were doing.
“I’m moving, I’m moving,” Reva snapped at him.
Before Isaac could answer, shouts sounded behind them. Reva broke into a run, and Isaac limped alongside her as well as he could. Somehow, they managed to get through the door without tripping. The moment it shut, Reva fired a round into the access panel.
“That won’t hold them for long.”
“Long enough,” she muttered. “Which way to the shuttles?”
They were in one of the side corridors just off of the main one. It was risky, but speed was more important than stealth.
“Up a level,” he said. “The combat suiting rooms should be just above us.”
Reva led him to the nearest emergency stairwell and let go to open the hatch. Isaac leaned against the wall for support, but there was enough adrenaline in his system that he hardly felt any of his wounds. While Reva opened the hatch, he used her console to begin the launch sequence and warm up the outrider’s jump drive.
Twenty minutes, he told himself. That’s all we need to charge the drive.
“Go!” Reva shouted. Together, they dashed up the stairs. When they reached the hatch, they both threw their weight against it, so it swung open almost immediately.
There were two men in the corridor outside the stairwell. Reva blew them away without a moment’s hesitation. The crack of gunfire resounded loudly in the narrow space, making Isaac cover his ears. He was so on-edge, he almost ran back the way they’d come.
“Quick!” Reva shouted. “Which way?”
He took a moment to regain his bearings, then pointed past the twitching body of one of the men.
“There, through that door.”
Reva grabbed his arm and took off, pointing the gun ahead of her. Shouts sounded off to their right just as they passed through the door. They ran through the suiting room, Isaac stumbling as best as he could, and made it to the launch bay.
“Which one?” Reva asked breathlessly.
A long walkway with identical docking nodes on either side stretched out in front of them. The only markings were the numbers stenciled on each airlock door, with no other way to tell which outriders were docked where. Isaac cycled frantically through the menus on the wrist console.
“Number seven,” he said. “But—”
Shouts and heavy footsteps sounded in the fitting room. Reva grabbed him and dove into the shallow inset of the nearest docking node. With Isaac pressed up against the door—shuttle number three—she fired in the direction of the oncoming pirates.
“Which one?” she asked again. The air around them sizzled as the pirates returned fire.
“Opposite side, two doors down,” said Isaac.
She raised the gun to fire again, but it only made a hollow clicking sound. Her eyes widened and her face fell.
“Shit. I’m out.”
The pirates ceased their fire. Moments later, a canister hit the floor and rolled a short distance away from them. A dark green gas began to issue from it, quickly spreading across the narrow space.
“Let’s move!” Isaac shouted.
He pushed off the wall and sprinted for the number seven airlock, holding his breath as he did. Reva covered her mouth and followed him. It took a moment to open the airlock, but as soon as they did, they stumbled inside and quickly palmed it shut. Only then did they gasp for breath.
“Quick,” said Reva. “The cockpit.”
Isaac nodded and opened the inner airlock door that led to the interior of the shuttle. Fold-down seats lined the walls, enough for almost twenty shock troops. There were a few compartments near the ceiling and floors, with weapon racks designed to collapse into the ceiling. No time to check for supplies—he dashed into the cockpit and sat down in the pilot’s chair.
The smooth, synthetic fabric clung to his bare skin. The air in the outrider was cool enough to give him shivers, but he ignored that as he surveyed the ship’s controls. Everything seemed to be in an unfamiliar and completely unintuitive place. Fortunately, the screens and indicators showed that the systems were all powered up and ready to go.
Reva dropped the gun on the floor and took the copilot’s seat next to him. “What’s the matter? Can’t you fly this thing?”
“Just a second,” said Isaac. If the stick was there, and the throttle was to his right…
“We don’t have a second, Isaac! When the pirates find out where we’ve—”
“Strap in.”
Without waiting for her to do so, he grasped one of the handles above him and pulled. The docking clamps popped, and the floor shuddered. Reva grabbed her armrests for support while the bay doors irised open, revealing a black starfield outside the cockpit window.
Moments later, an invisible hand pushed them both against their seats as the magnetic rails shot them out of the bay. Isaac strapped himself in and gripped the flight stick, with the throttle in his other hand.
I’m free, he told himself. I’m finally free. With the controls of a starship firmly in his hands, he felt more alive than he had in months.
An explosion rocked the ship, reverberating through the bulkheads and n
early sending Reva to the floor. She cried out in shock as alarms began to sound.
“What’s going on? What are you doing?”
“Strap in,” Isaac repeated. This time, she obeyed. The moment she was in, he threw the ship into a barrel roll and dove hard to the right. The yellow haze of the planet filled the window, spinning wildly with the stars. Through the bulkheads behind them, the engines roared to life.
Seventeen minutes, he thought, reading the charge time on the reactor. We’re not going to make it.
“They’re shooting at us!” Reva screamed as a bright burst of plasma arced past them toward the planet below. “They’re trying to kill us!”
“I know. Hang on!”
Isaac pulled back on the stick—hard. His vision blacked out for a moment as the blood rushed out of his head. By tensing his legs and breathing in short bursts, he was able to keep from losing consciousness.
The Temujin was in front of them now, guns blazing as a swarm of fighter drones deployed. That was bad—very bad. Isaac made a hard left and buzzed the bridge, taking fire from one of the laser stars. Thankfully, the outrider’s armor seemed to absorb the worst of it.
“What the hell are you doing?”
“Throwing them off,” Isaac answered. He nosed down and threw the outrider into a dive.
This time, his vision turned crimson as the blood rushed up to his head. Reva made a sound between a gasp and a croak. He closed his eyes and counted to five, the roar of the engine filling his ears. When he opened them, the thick yellow clouds of the planet filled their view.
“Pull up!” Reva shouted. “You’re going to crash!”
“It’s the only way to avoid those drones,” Isaac answered. “Can you get our countermeasures online?”
“Our what?”
He scanned the instrument panel, looking for the controls to the outrider’s laser star. An explosion in the rear of the ship told him he was too late.
“Dammit,” he swore. “Those drones are going to tear us apart!”
“What are we going to do?”
He checked the jump drive. Fifteen minutes.
Flames began to lick the sides of the window—the flames of atmospheric reentry. The drones increased their fire, rocking the ship with each shot. Alarms blared across the ship, and the display panels went red.
“We’re crashing!” Reva shouted.
It’s too late, Isaac realized. The ship is gone.
He unstrapped himself from his chair and stood up, grabbing a ceiling handhold to steady himself. Reva looked at him as if he were crazy.
“The escape pods,” he told her. “Hurry!”
She threw off her seat restraints and followed him out of the cockpit. An explosion sent her reeling to the floor.
“Are you okay?” Isaac asked, helping her to her feet.
She nodded and climbed up, using one of the wall handholds for support.
The roar of the engines turned to a high-pitched whine, and the floor tilted as the ship began to spin. Isaac looked frantically for the escape pods and found the chute just to his right.
“Get in!” he shouted. The torque grew stronger, making him strain to hold on.
Reva pulled herself over to the chute and hesitated. “What about—”
He kicked her, and she fell in headfirst with a scream. A popping sound told him the pod had detached.
The whine of the engines reached a climax, and the acrid smell of smoke filled the ship. Isaac threw himself into the chute just as the cabin burst into flames. Somewhere behind him, he heard the howl of an explosive decompression, but then he landed securely in the escape pod. The hatch behind him closed shut, and with a loud and forceful pop, he shot away.
* * * * *
Is this the end? Reva wondered as she gripped the controls and stared into the tiny little screen that was her only connection with the outside universe.
The pod was tight, with barely room enough for her to lift her elbows. The foam siding on the walls and floor had conformed to the shape of her body almost the instant she’d fallen inside, leaving just a little space by her head near the controls. She was spinning fast enough to black out, and all her efforts to right the tiny pod only seemed to make it worse.
Everything had passed in such a blur that she felt as if she were trapped in a dream—or perhaps a nightmare. Isaac, tortured and beaten, hanging by his wrists in the execution airlock. Commander Wolf and the two guards lying dead in pools of their own blood. Alarms on the outrider screaming as they were shot out of the sky. And now this.
Her head drooped and her arms went limp. Somewhere far away, she heard Isaac’s voice. The spinning gradually slowed, and her ears began to buzz. She slowly came back to herself, fighting back the dizziness to come back awake.
“Reva? Are you there? Reva, can you hear me?”
She fumbled for the comm system and turned it on. “I’m here, Isaac. Are you all right?”
“Fine, Reva, just fine. I need you to do a couple of things for me before we make planetfall.”
On the monitor, everything was an orange blur. The sides of the escape pod were growing rapidly hot, and the buzz in her ears gave way to a growing roar.
“Is your parachute activated, Reva? Can you check that for me?”
“I don’t know,” she said. More than anything else, she wanted to close her eyes and sleep.
“Stay with me, Reva. You can do this.”
“All right,” she said, taking a deep breath. “What do I do?”
“Check your systems menu—and hurry.”
She cycled through the menus and found what appeared to be a checklist. The bullet point labeled EMERGENCY PARACHUTE DEPLOY was listed as green.
“I’ve found it,” she said. “It’s on.”
“Excellent. Is your distress beacon activated?”
The bulkheads began to shake as she scrolled down the list.
“Yes.”
“Deactivate it. We don’t want the pirates following us.”
The pod was definitely falling through atmosphere, and there was nothing she could do to control it. Still, she fought back the panic and did as Isaac had told her.
“What’s going on, Isaac? Am I going to die?”
“You’re going to be fine, Reva. We both are. Is the distress beacon off?”
She swallowed and gripped her controls. “Yes.”
“Good. Now, the next part is very important. In the next few seconds, you’re going to crash.”
Sweat ran across her forehead and pooled in her elbows and neck. The pod was heating up so much, she was sure she was going to die.
“Don’t panic. Your pod’s autopilot will take care of everything.”
“Where are you?”
“I’m coming in right behind you, Reva. We’re going down in a rocky desert, in what appears to be a large canyon.”
She closed her eyes and tried very hard not to panic.
“Whatever you do, Reva, do not open your hatch unless the onboard computer tells you the air outside is breathable. Do you understand me?”
“Yes.”
“When you land, what are you going to do?”
“I’m going to—”
A sharp puff sounded behind her, followed by a message that flashed red across her display: PARACHUTE DEPLOYED. Moments later, the interior of the pod filled up with a sticky foam. Reva barely had time to gasp before she was entirely encased in the stuff, which hardened almost instantly. She tried to scream, but with her whole body encased, she could only squeal.
It soon became apparent why the pod had filled with foam. A powerful force yanked the capsule backward, throwing Reva forward so hard that her guts were almost squeezed up through her throat. Impact came a moment later, the shock reverberating through her bones like a blow from the hammer of a god. Her teeth chattered, and she fought back the urge to vomit as the pod hit a second time, then rolled end over end before coming to an abrupt and bone-chilling stop.
As quickly as the foam ha
d hardened, it turned mushy and began to recede. It had a sickly sweet smell to it, and covered her so thoroughly that every inch of her body was soaked. She coughed, then gagged, then vomited all over the monitor and controls.
I have to get out of here, she thought, grasping frantically for some way out. If I stay, I’m going to die!
She found a lever somewhere above her and pulled it. The hatch blew off, revealing a hazy yellow sky. She climbed out of her would-be coffin and stumbled out onto the rocky earth, sand blowing in her eyes and noxious sulfur fumes filling her nose.
She no sooner took her first breath of the thick, yellow air than her lungs began to burn. She coughed to get it out, but it only grew worse. Isaac’s words came forcefully to her mind, and she realized that she’d made a terrible mistake.
Thrashing about wildly with her arms, she stumbled back to the pod, where the soupy pink foam residue spilled out of the open hatch. She searched in vain for some kind of mask or oxygen tank before falling on her face. Her limbs went weak, and every muscle in her body seemed to burn.
At that moment, she saw Isaac scrambling over the nearest ridge. He was still naked, but his face was covered in a mask, and he carried a small oxygen tank in his hand. She didn’t know how long it took him to get to her, but when the mask was pressed to her mouth and her lungs filled with blessedly clean air, she felt as if life itself had been breathed back into her.
The next few moments passed in a blur. Isaac carried her away from the sticky pink mess of the crashed pod, alternating the mask between the two of them. A short while later, she heard an explosion. It was impossible to tell where it had come from.
They climbed down the rocky ridge to a gully, where a natural cave had formed. Here, the winds weren’t nearly so powerful. The air was cooler too, and moist. They climbed in far enough that the entrance was just a light in the distance and sat down.
Isaac laid her gently on the ground, which felt surprisingly cool. “Are you all right?” he asked.