Star Navigator

by Naomi Lucas

  Three gunshots went off. Tears trickled down her cheeks. They gushed hot over her skin. Tiny streams of molten lava, burning her anew with each drip.

  His shadow appeared over her again, the door shut closed with a grinding thump. The suction was gone, leaving nothing behind but dust motes in the air. Air capsules released and stabilized the ship’s atmosphere.

  The Trentians came to mind, her superiors, the lost souls that had never returned, and the dozens who had died from the cybernetic mutation. She thought of her regression and the loss of her freedom, the loss of the network, the digital channels, Taggert and the mysterious Larik and his stolen goods. She stumbled further inside herself, seeing Atlas as a hologram, hearing his voice the first time, seeing him come to life, choosing to break down some of her walls to let him in. She thought of Antix and the pirates... the pirates. Her ship.

  And everything that had led to this.

  “We have proof,” he said with harsh reality.

  Reina tugged off her helmet and wiped the sticky tears off her cheeks. Atlas kneeled before her, his helmet off as well, and kissed the remaining dew off her face. His velvety, hard mouth trailing over her, affectionately, cleansing her, worshipping her in silence.

  She thought of the creatures outside and their colors–the dead, grey tentacle that had broken off after wrapping itself around her. She leaned into Atlas’s kisses, her gloved hands rounding his head and gripping his unruly hair.

  “I have a plan,” Reina said as determination replaced the lingering sadness in her heart.

  Chapter Twenty-Four:

  Reina sat at the helm and stared out at the jellyfish beyond the glass. The ship continued to sway and her nausea slowly vanished as her body became used to the rocking.

  Once again she had to wait and hope. Waiting and hoping were two things that she had begun to hate.

  The sirens began to shriek again, but she kept her fingers on the console to turn them off as soon as they started.

  “I want to see them.” Yesne broke the silence, now with a scientific note-screen in his hand. Atlas, hunched over with his elbows on his knees, twirled a flash grenade in his hand.

  “No.”

  “I could learn more about them–”

  “No.” Atlas cut him off.

  “They didn’t attack you,” Yesne continued to argue, “And you killed them anyway.”

  Reina tried to ignore them, watching the readings on her screen, waiting.

  “If you ask one more time I’m going to stick you in the closet with this grenade.” Atlas tweaked the weapon in his hand before clipping it back onto his belt. The sound distracted her. Yesne sighed and paced. Atlas shifted the screen his way, preventing her from monitoring the reports. “You’re going to burn a hole through it if you keep staring at it like that.”

  Reina leaned back. “They should have received it by now.” She heard a thumping noise, but dismissed it and looked at Atlas. “They’re still within your reach?”

  The sirens blared to life, she winced and shut them off. One more time.

  “Yes.”

  “Quite an answer, Cyborg, since you’re so keen on saying no,” Yesne grumbled.

  They both ignored him as he was unconcerned with their predicament. Yesne’s lack of a self-preservation instinct was a magical quality to behold.

  The sound of slimy, slithering thrashes grew in frequency, and Reina wondered if it was because her ship was literally disappearing around her. The bubble they had was quickly vanishing, and she didn’t want to leave this world huddled in the center of her ship, waiting for her own asphyxiation.

  Her only source of comfort was that the window, the reinforced glass, was unaffected. Just as much as Yesne was.

  “They’re getting closer,” Atlas interjected.

  “I know.” She eyed the squirmers.

  “I meant the pirate fleet.”

  Reina could scream with joy. “We don’t have much time! They’re picking up our distress call.” She shot forward with excitement and hugged Atlas. “We need to get them close enough.”

  “Oh they’ll get close, sweetheart. We have the best bargaining chip.”

  She was almost giddy with haphazard hope.

  “We need to be ready. If this works, we may only have a small gap of time to get free.”

  “And that’s only if they don’t destroy the exterior,” Atlas added with a laugh, all while confirming the path back to port. The sector system hologram filled the room, showing their previous course, and now the incoming ships that wanted them. “They’ll suspect it’s a trap.”

  “Of course they will, because it is,” Yesne huffed. “We don’t suffer idiots, ignorants, or fools in this age.”

  “It won’t matter.” Reina just wanted things to come to a head, impatient to be away from the jellyfish that surrounded them. “They just need to get close enough.” She released her hair and re-tied her bun, wanting to burst from her skin.

  Wanting to find the temporary bliss she had had in Atlas’s arms again. Wanting to either move forward in time or go back to the stolen moments that they had already had together.

  Reina looked over at him.

  He was watching her as if he knew what she was thinking and what she wanted from him. His large hands clutched his knees and as they continued to look at each other, his pants bulged between his spread legs, she responded in turn. Her body attuned to his as a tingling, empty pressure opened up, wanting to be filled.

  It was unreasonable, but the adrenaline was pumping through her veins, the risk was near, and all she wanted was to straddle his lap and ride him as if death itself was breathing down their necks.

  Something hissed and wheezed nearby. Larger flakes of her ship were breaking off and being caught in the bodies of the creatures outside. The mass was a rainbow of colors as they swallowed up the pieces but the majority of them were still flashing yellow.

  A strange smell permeated the air. Atlas stood up just as she wrinkled her nose.

  It took her a moment to discern it.

  Citrus. Sour, pungent citrus.

  With a quick glance back at the creatures outside, Atlas made his way toward the door that was now back in place. Reina and the doctor followed him curiously until a pained cough, an inhuman cry, like the ones she had heard just minutes ago stopped her. But they were much closer.

  “Stay back,” Atlas warned.

  “It can’t be. You killed them.” The acidic smell filled her nostrils, overwhelming her. Yesne gagged next to her.

  “I did. They were already dying before the shot.” He felt around the door. “I left them unmoving, unreadable,” Atlas hesitated when the sound of cracking cut him off. “The density of the door...” A gap appeared before he finished his sentence. Atlas had a gun in his hand.

  “The smell, oh hell,” Yesne sputtered, his hand clamped over his nose as his eyes watered.

  The waves of reeking fruit filled the room were now mixed with the stench of sulfur.

  Something pale and grey flashed across the hole, and what looked like long, slender fingers threaded through.

  Atlas shot his entire clip. The sound stopped and the elongated, ghoulish fingers fell away.

  The bottom of the door broke to pieces, revealing the twitching body of a human male covered in greasy tentacles sprouting from his body, and dulled, dead-looking blood bubbling up and pouring from his wounds. It trailed down the passageway behind him...it. Reina cried out and stepped back in horror.

  Yesne clutched his stomach and vomited, turning away. The bridge went crimson as the squirmers outside the window switched from yellow to a ruby-red.

  The wounds on the creature closed up, replaced by stiffer, grey skin. Atlas stepped forward, blocking her and Yesne from the door and she wasn’t sure if it was a relief to be shielded or a shock at the sight of the suffering creature bawling on the ground.

  The metal began to splinter beneath it.

  Sirens flared back to life, drowning out the hoarse sounds o
f the amalgamation, as its brethren outside began to attack the ship.

  “We’re out of time.” Atlas stared down at the thing creeping its way into the room.

  ATLAS EYED THE HALF-living mess on the floor at his feet, a humanoid hand slothed forward and touched his boot. The pinch of fingers straining at the buckle on his waist, tugging him away, could not make him move. Without glancing back at Reina–keeping his eyes on the target that appeared immune to bullets–he finally took a breath.

  The stench didn’t bother him, he had smelled worse than this creature when he had awoken from the dead. Dead things never smelled good, it was a universally understood truth.

  “Atlas, we need to contain him.” Reina gave the squirmer a gender. She tried to move to his side but he blocked her.

  His head snapped up. “Captain, fire up the ship.” Atlas stepped away and the hand slipped off his foot with a harried cry. He took her arm and led her away. “Power up the cannons.”

  “It won’t work, we tried. Twice.”

  “We’re going to try again.”

  They shared a look before she strapped into her seat, bringing the console to life. The energy began to flow. Sparks shot through his system, Atlas ate it all up.

  “Yesne, guard the creature,” he ordered. The doctor took a blanket and covered it up; it slumped to the floor like a deflated balloon. The others at the window thrashed against the glass as the cannons initiated.

  Atlas hovered his finger over the trigger.

  “Captain, Atlas, there’s another one crawling down the hallway.”

  His hand twitched, waiting for the right moment. He could hear the other slither closer but he was waiting for something else. Reina watched him, her eyes narrowed with curiosity.

  Come on. COME ON!

  The beasts outside shattered entire plates of metal, they streaked across the window and into the horde before they vanished. Atlas could feel their shell breaking apart around them, shredding like gossamer.

  He couldn’t imagine what Reina was feeling, he couldn’t find her within the channels, knowing as well as she did that if she connected it would feel like her skin was being sliced off.

  His fingers spread out, his thumb hovered. Yesne made a sound of distress behind him.

  The comm dinged and he hit the trigger.

  A plasma blast that made the swaying ship shudder and creak like old wood. It blasted out into the crimson monsters, lighting them up like beacons but went nowhere, absorbed by the creatures.

  “Fly!”

  Reina shot the thrusters with all their remaining power just as a minuscule opening appeared in the bubble. Beyond lay a dozen ships, arranged in a spherical grid to enclose them from every side, now visible through the swarm.

  His captain let loose a sound between a cry and a shriek, a harpy of adrenaline. Atlas felt it too, seeing the ships.

  The ship tilted and shook, fighting with everything it had to break through. Atlas gripped the armrests of his seat and crushed them as he surged into the systems.

  The heavy contraption in his chest went ablaze, burning him from the inside-out. He couldn’t bring himself to care, nothing mattered when he subdued his humanity and gave himself over to his Cyborg side. Nothing but his goal.

  Reina cried out somewhere in the distance. The ship was cracking like an egg.

  Atlas was vaguely aware that she had answered the pirate’s call. The flyer burned up around them, the sad weeping of the squirmers overlaid the crushing destruction.

  Even if we get away...we might never make it back.

  “Atlas! Where is Larik? They won’t help us without something now!”

  He spoke without thinking, “Not on Taggert.”

  “That’s not good enough, Robot.” An unknown voice filled the bridge.

  “He’s alive.”

  “More!”

  “Please,” Reina begged, “Our ship is breaking apart. We’ll tell you everything once we’re safely retrieved.” Atlas would have commended her for her lies, if he cared enough to process them.

  “We’ll move no closer until you tell us where he is,” the man answered.

  Atlas could feel Reina’s eyes on him. A pressure that added little to their situation.

  “Urbà,” he said. “You’ll get no more from us, shoot us down, save us, or go away.”

  The ship shot forward half a league. Everything felt on fire around them. Sirens kept wailing only to be shut off and overridden afterward. The man on the other line didn’t respond. Probably looking up the classified planet. He’ll get no more. Atlas could practically feel the rage on the other end. Someone always had to concede in a standoff.

  One of the ships sailed toward them, every league set off in internal radar.

  “What the fuck is around your ship?” The voice yelled, then called out, “It’s not a shield! Fire at the lights, Axel!”

  Blasts could be heard in the background, Atlas sucked the energy generated between the ships, feasting on it and giving it back to his ship. Their vessel broke through the balloon, only to run into a riotous spray of gunfire of every kind. The swarm might have popped but now they faced immediate annihilation. Reina flew up and into a cluster of flashing squirmers.

  Atlas tore out of his seat and rushed to the window. His hands hit the glass as he sourced out any nearby ferromagnetic material.

  The comm shut off on a screamed order to subdue them.

  He shielded what he could of all incoming firepower, holding it outside the ship, keeping it and building a secondary wall around them to waylay the creatures. The ones that clung on began to fall off the ship, and every microsecond they gained a little more speed.

  Reina pushed them hard, he could feel her need to create as much space as possible between them and the globule regardless of what cost the ship may have to pay.

  Come on. Come on. Come on, Atlas chanted.

  His fingers spread as electric pressure flowed through him, his muscles strained as he focused his magnetic antennas toward each target, capturing them in a net of his own power. Hurling pieces away into any creatures that tried to attach themselves to the exterior, knowing without knowing that they chased after them. Knowing that there could be millions more that awaited invisible, hiding amongst the stars.

  But they continued to gain speed and he could smell the sweat trickle down Reina’s brow. They flew up and up and as they did so, other ships, ones that had not gotten caught flew outward and away.

  Reina shut off their distress call.

  He could practically hear the pirates scream ‘HELP US’ from countless leagues away and gaining.

  Atlas shifted their coordinates and, releasing his breath, he saw his eyes flash red in the glare of the window. He had overclocked himself. Striations of muscle grew up from his fingers like vines to his neck. The blood vessels in his eyes framed his pupils, clawed over, revealing burned wiring. He smelled smoke and burnt flesh, sour citrus and death, sweat and soft oatmeal hair.

  Atlas shuddered as he lifted his hands from the window, leaving infinitesimal cracks. His brow hit his sleeve.

  “Follow my route,” he rasped. Reina was already making her way toward it but he had to say it anyway.

  His hands lifted back to the walls of the ship now to keep the exterior from continuing to fall away.

  They had escaped. Atlas turned himself off and became part of the ship.

  Chapter Twenty-Five:

  It took them several weeks to make it back to Port Antix. The first time they had traversed this distance, it only took three days.

  The ship was dead around them, only being held together by the sheer willpower of Atlas. Everything was broken. The sanitation systems, the landing tech, they couldn’t even power down the cannons, as they were stuck in target lock and partially destroyed.

  They slowly ate their way through any pre-processed food, even resorting to swallowing the powder stored in the replicators. Reina washed the tasteless sand down with a water ration.

  But
they had survived. And they hadn’t encountered anyone or anything since. She reached up to retie her hair only to have her hairband snap over her fingers.

  She sat there, in the lounge alone, half-dead from lack of sleep, and stared at the elastic string in her hand.

  Reina took a shaky breath and pocketed the band. She gargled the rest of her water and headed toward the bridge. Atlas was still standing sentinel at the helm. He hadn’t moved nor responded to her or Yesne since their escape.

  She missed him. She missed his presence in her periphery. He was always at the edges.

  Yesne was at his side, checking his vitals. “Any change?”

  “No. Has he contacted you in the channels?”

  “No.” Reina turned away and grabbed a cleansing cloth and began to wipe it over Atlas’ skin. They had cut off his clothes weeks prior when they realized he wasn’t going to awaken. It broke her heart. Yesne stepped away to give her privacy as she untied the sheet around his waist. “I’ll take over now. We’re do to arrive soon. Whatever that means for us,” she took a deep breath and glided the cloth over his wrists and under his arms. “We’ll face it like we’ve faced everything else.” There was no way they could survive a warp.

  Yesne’s footsteps stopped at the other end of the bridge where the entire back section had been divided off, medical supplies and beds from the empty crew’s quarters lined the walls, between unused chairs and consoles. Reina bent down and rubbed Atlas’s thighs while looking back at their new additions.

  She still thought of them as squirmers but they resembled nothing of the sort now. One of them, the female, stared back at her. Reina broke eye contact and folded up the cloth and located her moisturizer, massaging the shea butter into Atlas’s skin, having hoped that her scent might bring him comfort, or better yet, wake him up.

  Reina stretched up and kissed the back of his neck. “I miss you.”

  She re-tied the cloth around his hips. When she looked back across the room the female ‘it’ was still watching her. She tried not to let it bother her. The eyes of the female were white with tiny black pupils in the center. There was no irises, no color at all.