by Dave Walsh
“You are a clever guy,” she said, starting to walk out with all of Loren’s weight on her shoulders. “You got us off of Cyngen, just think of something fast!”
“I’ll try,” he said.
She shuffled out with Loren doing his best to support himself while the room was starting to flood with soldiers. Some were behind cover while others were rushing toward them, firing wildly. The shots were all going wide, thankfully, but both Loren and Katrijn had begun to fire back, Katrijn feeling less than accurate thanks to Loren’s weight. “C’mon Jace, we need something! We aren’t going to last long here!”
“I think I’ve got it!” he crackled over the comm. “Don’t get too close.”
“That isn’t a part of our problem right now,” she yelled.
“Get down now!” he shouted, Katrijn slumping over with Loren on top of her.
It was sudden—a blast of heat and a large bang thundered throughout the whole docking bay, flames emerging from the rear engines on the Pequod and the soldiers scrambling for their lives. Some had caught fire and were running around wildly, their cries filling the air, piercing through the buzzing in her ears. They were just a few meters away, Katrijn pushing herself up and not worrying about the blaster, dragging Loren along with her, him only able to help a little, pushing with his legs.
With one final push, she found herself at the door, pulling Loren in by the shoulders and sitting him up against the wall, collapsing herself to the side of the wall, stretching up and slapping the door controls, hearing the alarm through the buzzing in her ears before she clicked the comm on. “We are on! Get us out of here!”
“Are you strapped in?”
“Just go!”
“Hold on to something, then!”
The ship banked sharply, and Katrijn reached out for a handhold to grab onto while trying to place her weight onto Loren so that his body wouldn’t shift around too violently. The ship was accelerating rapidly and there were occasional rumbles—most likely shots from the ground troops. “Get us safe,” she yelled into the comm. “Then give me a few minutes to get Loren into the med bay.”
“Copy,” Jace said, the ship shaking a few more times before it evened out. “I can keep cruising altitude for a few minutes here—get him safe and then get up here.”
“Alright, Loren.” She reached down to him. “We gotta get you secured now. Were you able to find out if the planetary defenses were under their control?”
“They weren’t as of five minutes ago,” he said, gasping for air. “But I don’t know.”
“This might not be much of a ride, then.” She pulled him up, slinging his arm over her shoulder. “But I still want to get you to the med bay.”
“Roger that,” he said.
She dragged him down the corridor—him shuffling his feet slowly along the way, and her using the railing to stay upright under the pressure of his weight. She slapped the door controls for the med bay and dragged him inside, laying him onto the table and securing the buckles one by one before pulling up the menu and choosing a few painkillers to pump into him.
“Before I pump you into oblivion here,” she hovered her finger over the confirm button. “What will happen to my uncle, you think?”
“Oh, Kat,” he said, smiling. “You always were an optimist, weren’t you? I’m sorry, darling,” he groaned. “I don’t think he made it.”
“Yeah.” She tried to keep a straight face but felt her heart writhing in her chest. “That’s what I thought.” She pressed the button and saw the vials filling up with fluid before the needle slowly traveled down and pricked his arm. “I’ll come and wake you once we are safe, alright? Don’t you die on me as well.”
“I’m doing my best,” he said while fading out of consciousness.
“Good.” She patted him on the shoulder and walked out of the room, closing the door behind her before running up the stairs and into the cockpit. Jace was sitting there, looking tired and frazzled, but otherwise holding it together. “He said the planetary defenses shouldn’t be a problem.”
“Well, that’s one thing, then,” he said, not turning back to her. “But that fleet of warships out there is another thing.”
She sat down in the co-pilot’s chair, securing her seatbelt and looking at the readouts. “My gods,” she said, shaking her head. “That’s a lot of ships. What happened to our fleet?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “Maybe some of them are the ships that Loren gave the launch order to, but I just can’t tell. I don’t have their frequencies programmed or anything.”
“Fuck.”
“Yeah.” He looked up at her and forced a smile. “Never said this was going to be easy, the whole hero thing, I guess. Is Loren alright?”
“For now,” she said. “He lost a lot of blood. I have the med bay pumping him full of fluids and painkillers right now, and should be giving him some blood as well, but I’m not sure of the severity of any of it; I didn’t have time to run a full check.”
“That’ll have to do,” he said, fiddling with the controls. “Alright, I’m taking us up.”
“Do you have a plan?”
“No,” he looked over at her. “Do you?”
“I guess we could go to Andal-3,” she said. “Jack and Hideo are there, if not, then back to Cyngen.”
“He’ll need medical assistance before we get to Cyngen, plus we don’t know how many ships are out there or how far they’ve reached. We are fugitives right now, remember that.”
“I guess we’ll have to play it by ear,” she said, feeling a pit in her stomach.
He gave her a nod and in a flash the ship accelerated toward breaking the atmosphere. It was by far the worst part of space flight, especially considering what they were heading into. There were a few tense moments as it felt like she was being pulled to the chair by the weight of the world before that moment of release came when they breached and were in open space.
“Dear gods,” Jace muttered at the scene.
“What the…” She was speechless; they were surrounded by hulking warships, all firing at each other in two distinct lines, although it was nearly impossible to tell who was on whose side. “Who is friendly?”
“I don’t know and I’m not about to broadcast our presence to the two fleets of goliaths trying to blow each other up, either,” he said, weaving in between the giant ships looking for a way out. “Cyngen is out of the picture, they have a blockade up,” he muttered.
“What about Andal?” she asked, in awe of the battlefield.
“I’m looking but it looks cornered. This isn’t just one fleet—this is a bunch of fleets.”
“Damnit,” she said. “Is there anything open?”
“Hold on.” He kept studying the map. “Yeah, I can break through right there.” He pointed at a point on the projected map.
“That’s by the Gimle sector,” she said. “That’s where the damned gate is.”
“That’s our only hope!”
“There’s no atmosphere on Gimle and from the sound of it, there is nothing from the Republic there!”
“It’s that or get blown into space dust,” he said. “I’m gunning it.”
“Gods, you are dense!” She couldn’t believe him.
“There are two escape pods, you know that, if you want to try your hand at being a prisoner of the Earth Ministry, go right ahead, but I’m taking you to where no one will think to look for you.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” she said, wondering if she said it aloud.
“The Old Man told me to keep you safe and I intend on keeping that promise.”
The ship continued to weave around the warships, dodging fire and collisions every few seconds. For once, Jace looked competent behind the wheel and she realized that he had maybe never given himself enough credit. All she could do was watch as giant hunks of metal came into view and disappeared, no longer able to recognize what was up or down anymore or where they were headed. He punched in the coordinates for Gimle and started up
the sequence for the HyperMass drive. There wasn’t enough time to calculate a perfect jump, he just had to hope they’d come out of the jump in unoccupied space or else they wouldn’t survive to see the other side.
There was a silence between them while the stars streaked all around the Pequod. Jace leaned back and felt the cut on his side, hoping it hadn’t done any damage to his barely-healed ribs. “Is the path to the med bay clear?” she broke the silence.
“Should be,” he said.
“We should get you patched up and check on Loren,” she said, staring out the window. “Maybe put him into stasis.”
“That’s probably a good idea,” he said, picking himself up and starting the walk toward the med bay. “I’m not sure when we’ll be able to get help for him.”
“There’s stuff out by Gimle,” Jace said, trailing behind Katrijn while she descended down the stairs and through the hall toward the med bay. “We just don’t know what else is waiting for us.”
“This wait might kill us,” she said, tapping a few commands into the pod Loren was in. The glass cover slid over his body, encasing him before sealing off.
“Or if the jump was bad,” Jace added.
“That…doesn’t help, Jace.”
“Sorry.”
The jump to the Gimle sector wasn’t a long one. Gimle was technically considered a part of the fringes but it was close to Andlios, it just didn’t contain any habitable planets. There were a few tense hours where Katrijn sat staring off into space and Jace sat at the controls trying to keep himself occupied. The jump itself was only around two hours, but the time dragged knowing that everything was changing. Jace had kicked himself for not having one of those Earth Ministry drives on his ship because of how quickly they filtered in from Gimle to Andlios, but it gave him time to consider their options.
“Alright,” he stirred Katrijn from her thoughts. “We’re about to come out of the jump, better strap in.”
“Is there any way at all to know what will be there?”
“No.” He could feel beads of sweat gathering on his forehead. “Not at all.”
“Well fuck,” she said.
“Here we go…” In an instant, the stars returned to normal and the view of the massive gate filled their window, in front of it a line of heavy cruisers. “Damnit!”
“My gods,” she muttered.
“Hang on,” he shouted, quickly taking evasive maneuvers. “This is going to be a bumpy ride.”
“Where are we—” Boom, shot after shot came in, Jace dodging as best as he could while he gritted his teeth. Finally, the ship shook and Jace swore under his breath and started to panic. “What happened?”
“We just took a hit,” he said, flipping a few switches quickly. “Nothing serious, but I have to depressurize the aft crew quarters. Is Loren still in med bay?”
“Yes,” she yelled over the chaos.
“Okay, he’ll be fine, but we shouldn’t go anywhere until we are safe. Fuck.” He slammed his fist onto the dash. “The steering is fucked!”
“What does that mean?”
“It means that the engine might have gotten clipped as well; it’s not reading anything, but dammit, possibly the side thrusters. The gate is approaching,” he said, his knuckles white while he gripped onto the ship’s wheel.
“The gate?” she asked, confused. “What do you mean the gate?” She looked up and saw the giant series of objects arranged into an oval-shaped gate moving ever-closer to the ship. “You don’t mean—”
“Yes, I do!” he said, steering them directly into the heart of it.
“You don’t know how it works, or where it will send us.” She felt panicked, the restraints on the chair feeling oppressive while she began to sweat. “Or who will be waiting on the other side!”
“We got caught up in a fleet battle! Nobody will care about a few civilians on a civilian ship…”
“You just said they were looking for us!”
“They are looking for us.” He turned to her for a brief second. “They are looking for us in the Republic.”
“Oh,” she said. “Right.”
“Okay,” he said, still doing his best to steer the ship and looking like he was truly struggling. “Hold on!” he shouted, the ship steering right into the gate.
A field engulfed them, the space around them warping and turning into a tunnel of light. It felt peaceful, calm and like there was no danger, but she looked down and saw that the instruments were all reading to the contrary—the speed reading off the HyperMass charts and the heat outside at critical levels. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the space around them returned to normal and the instruments all went back to normal levels.
“What in the…” she gasped, looking around and seeing an entirely different view than she had ever seen before. There were a few scattered ships, none of which looked too imposing and a giant orb of metal and rock just a few moments away. “Where are we?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “I’m trying to get a calibration, but the ship is giving me nonsense right now.”
“What does it say?” she asked, still staring off at the surreal scene.
“It says we are by Jupiter in Earth’s solar system; that giant rock right there is Ganymede.”
“It can’t be,” she shook her head. “That was almost instant, it would take weeks to get here.”
“That’s what the damned thing says!” He turned to her, looking as lost and confused as she felt. “But it can’t be.”
“I think it is,” she said. “I think we are in the Earth system.”
“Well, we haven’t been shot down yet,” he said. “I think my plan might have worked—for now.”
“For now,” she nodded. “But now what?”
“I really don’t know,” he said. “I have no idea.”
Epilogue. The Crash
Rorian
The great gate hung in the air like an omen, illuminating the sky that had previously just been dark space. Life on Ganymede was difficult enough, Rorian mused, brushing aside his long, stringy black hair from out of his eyes. Father had told him to check on the harvesters while he went into town, but Rorian wasn’t feeling too great and was taking his time with his chores all afternoon.
He was born on Mars and had lived his whole life inside the great bubble cities that had spawned there and when his father explained that they were moving to Ganymede, he had assumed that it was to live in a similar, although newer and more advanced city. There was a special project that was attracting some of the greatest minds in all of the Earth Ministry to Ganymede, which he now knew just to be that stupid ring in the sky that the fleet had flown through. His father explained that it was to reach the Andliosians easier, that they were working on repairing things and pulling everyone back together, but it seemed remote to Rorian. What did anyone on Andlios matter in the grand scheme of things, anyway? They had left and it was before any of them were ever born.
The Omega Destiny was one of the three ships that claimed independence when they got to their destination and one of two that found human life on other planets. Well, he guessed it depended on what you considered the Cydonians. The Alpha Destiny had reached Alpha 27 and discovered the Cydonians, who had technology beyond anyone’s wildest imaginations. While there was initially some concern about the Cydonians, led by a man dressed in a dark suit with a red cape called Am’ranth, when they vowed to help those on Earth with their technology, that unease quickly dissipated. Especially when they learned of the mission and how one of the ships was headed to the planet they had called Andlios.
All of those things were exciting, though, unlike Rorian’s life now. He thought he was headed out to the frontier to live in a state-of-the-art facility where his father would continue being a professor. Instead, they had moved all the way out here to be farmers. His father taught botany on Mars and the Earth Ministry had found his research into farming on alien planets to be valuable, thus here he was, the son of a farmer now, who had to don a
vacuum suit to go check on the harvesters and make sure that everything was still working.
Ganymede’s surface was cold and unforgiving, but they still found ways to grow the crops they needed out there. Rorian wasn’t sure how it worked, but his father was so proud of his work that he found it hard to complain that often to him. Rorian pulled on his vacuum suit. It was bulky, but it needed to be to keep him warm out on the surface that ranged from -170 Celsius to -120 when it was “warm.” He had seen cases of men who had been exposed to the elements and they didn’t look pretty. In a way, it was an adventure, although he would have been much more comfortable living on the station proper, which snaked around most of the surface of the moon.
Their plot of land was immense, but it was hard for it to not feel isolated and depressing. After he was suited up, he stepped into the airlock and ran the cycle, waiting for the green light before he opened the outer hatch. He had left their rover out a few meters, which was a stupid decision considering he’d have to cycle the airlocks on that as well, but he simply sighed to himself and stepped out onto the surface, making sure not to overstep and find himself drifting off toward the abyss. It was only a few steps thanks to the reduced gravity before he activated the magnet on his glove and zeroed in on the rover, feeling the click before he opened the airlock and stepped inside, pulling the heavy door shut with a click and waiting for the cabin to pressurize.
When the light came on he moved into the driver’s seat and pulled his helmet off, placing it on the seat next to him, wondering how crazy his hair looked. His dad had always been on him about keeping it trimmed and short, but after they had moved out into the middle of nowhere he had let up on him about it, especially considering how few people they actually interacted with on a normal basis. He drove toward the first set of harvesters; although he had considered saving them for the return trip, they were usually the ones in the best working order, so he figured he might as well start things off easily.
Just before he reached them, he looked up when he saw a flaming streak across the sky. It was moving quickly and heading toward the third set of harvesters when he heard a loud boom and quickly checked the readings from the harvesters and saw them reporting damage. “Goddamnit!” he swore. “Guess I have to head out there first. More junk from that stupid ring of theirs.”