by M. D. Cooper
“Do you have any idea what’s going on?” he stammered.
Alissa set the autopilot and slouched in her seat. “I’d been hearing rumors, but didn’t think they’d come after us.”
“Who?”
“The Vorlox.”
Jack shook his head. “Can’t say I’ve heard of them.”
“Consider yourself lucky.” Alissa ran her hands down the side of her face. “Do you think anyone made it out in time?”
“I have no idea.” It was then that Jack remembered the women on the station were—or had been—her friends. That was a lot of potential loss to process. “I’m sure they’re fine,” he added.
“We’ll find out when we meet up with Triss, I suppose,” Alissa said. “Just need to stay focused on the mission.”
“You’re being rather calm about this, considering that your home was just destroyed.”
“I wouldn’t say it was my home exactly. And they were my friends, but not really a family.”
Jack examined her out of the corner of his eye. “You seemed ready to take some pretty big risks for them.”
“Not for them,” Alissa clarified. “This was a job for me.”
“But still...”
“We all just try to find our way through life.”
“Wow, that got deep suddenly.”
Alissa shrugged it off. “It’s been a tough few minutes. Can you not make a joke for once?”
“Sorry, it’s involuntary.”
“Yeah, I got that impression.” She sighed. “Look, if the Vorlox are after us, this may change the plan.”
Jack was unnerved by the idea of having a crazed, heavily armored group of… “Wait, so who or what are the Vorlox, anyway? Aliens or—”
“Oh, no no,” Alissa cut in. “They’re human, based on every account I’ve heard. They just spent a little too much time on spaceships with subpar radiation shielding. Rumors have been floating around about them attacking space stations and freighters.”
“So, went kind of…” Jack circled his index finger horizontally near his ear.
“Yep. And murdery.”
“That’s unfortunate.”
“Yeah…” She got a distant look in her eyes. “You’re right, they probably got out.”
Jack nodded. “That’s the spirit! So where are we meeting Triss?”
“A secret weapons dealer hangout,” she replied. “Fortunately, Triss left an hour ago so I know she got out before the attack.”
“That’s a relief.”
Alissa’s mouth twitched into a subtle smile. “Yeah, it is.”
“Wait… you two are a thing, aren’t you?” Jack realized.
“That doesn’t matter,” Alissa shot back and turned her attention out the front window.
“Oh, come on—you can tell me!”
“Not important right now,” she said. Her tone had turned serious.
Then, Jack noticed the warning light flashing on the control console. “What’s wrong?”
“The fuel line must have been damaged in the attack. We’re running on fumes.”
“Where are we?”
Alissa grabbed the yoke on the flight controls. “We’re about to find out.”
CHAPTER 5: A Stroke of Luck
The Little Princess dropped out of hyperspace within half a kilometer of an asteroid.
“Whoa!” Alissa quickly buried the yoke to the left, away from the giant rock.
“That could have been better or a whole lot worse,” Jack commented as soon as they were clear.
“Dropping directly into an asteroid would be bad, but drifting endlessly through space without any fuel might be worse.”
“Well, we’re in luck.” Jack pointed up ahead.
Alissa’s gaze followed his arm. Their new course was leading directly toward a space station built around another asteroid. “Well, that’s convenient.”
“I’ll take it.”
The space station was a rambling sort often found in the more backwaters systems, cobbled together with random parts salvaged from other vessels. Though not pretty to look at, it should at least have a fueling depot to help get them back on track.
Alissa directed the Little Princess to the tanker at the far end of the station—the most likely location to procure fuel.
A chirp sounded on the front console.
“Docking control,” Jack said and accepted the communication request on the holodisplay in front of him.
“Business and duration?” a woman asked in the monotone of someone who needed to ask the same question dozens of time each day.
“Fueling and… however long fueling takes,” Jack replied.
“Go to Berth E-792,” the dock controller replied and ended the call.
“You really have no idea how to be a functional adult, do you?” Alissa questioned.
Jack groaned. “What did I do wrong now?”
“Any worthwhile pilot knows exactly how long it takes to fuel their vessel.”
“Guess what? I owned this ship for eight hours before Svetlana’s goons came after me, so it’s not like I really had time to read the instruction manual.”
“Excuses!”
Jack then noticed the smirk playing on Alissa’s lips. “You’re just messing with me.”
She gave him a sidelong glance. “Well yeah. You make it entirely too easy.”
“I really can’t figure out your angle. You save my life—sort of—then make everything worse, then are mean to me, then joke. I don’t know what to think.”
She was silent for several moments. “This whole thing wasn’t my idea,” she replied at last. “I don’t have a personal problem with you—actually, I find you kind of entertaining in that way you do when watching someone fail in slow motion.”
“Hey!”
“Sorry.” She blushed slightly. “But in all seriousness, there are no ill feelings on my end. This was a chance for me to use Svetlana’s motivations for my own benefit.”
“So what are you after?”
“Now is not the time or place to get into that.” Alissa kept her gaze focused ahead as she maneuvered the ship toward the designated berth highlighted on the HUD.
“Not even a hint?”
“Let’s just say that both of our problems will go away if we can pull this off. And it will require us to work as a team. A win-win.”
Jack examined her in the pilot’s chair. “Okay… So what do I have to do?”
“Follow my lead, don’t question what I tell you to do even if it seems crazy, and trust that your money problems will soon be a thing of the past.”
“Sounds like wishful thinking.”
She shrugged. “You might be surprised.”
They pulled into Berth E-792 and docking clamps secured the Little Princess to the station. Alissa coordinated fueling with the docking attendant while Jack took inventory of their supplies. He’d been in the process of figuring out his provisions when he’d been stunned and dragged back to Svetlana’s base. Though only a matter of days prior, it felt like an eternity.
The incongruous sense of time passage was underscored by the odd rapport he’d developed with Alissa. He’d begun the day in the role of prisoner, but over the past hour it seemed like she was viewing him more as a business partner in whatever her master plan may be. Though strange and unexpected, he wasn’t opposed. His life had been on a particularly terrible downward trajectory as late, so he was eager to jump on any opportunity to try something new. Losing an eye was less than ideal, but in the larger scheme of things that was a small price to pay for the possibility of getting out of debt and on the path to success.
“Should be all fueled up in twenty minutes,” Alissa announced, coming to find Jack in the store room behind a hatch in the living area.
“We have rations for two weeks. Will that be enough?” he asked her.
“That should work,” she confirmed. “We can always stock up after we get Finn out of Hellana.”
“Oh, right. I forgot about that
part of the plan.”
“It really won’t be as difficult as you think,” Alissa insisted. “Triss is really good.”
Jack made a dismissive shrug. “I guess I’ll just do what I’m told.”
She smiled. “So you are trainable. Excellent.”
“Maybe you can make a functional adult out of me one of these days.”
“Let’s not go overboard,” Alissa said with a chuckle. “But speaking of functional, I should probably activate that implant.”
“Oh right.” Jack reached up to feel the eye. “What does it do, anyway?”
“Well, it will be able to detect things that we can’t see with normal vision. Infrared, UV, and also electrical fields. In addition, it can generate signals in specific frequencies and patterns.”
“Just fooling a biometric scanner?” Jack supplied.
“You’ve got it,” she confirmed. “It’s half of the key to breaking past GiganCorp’s security.”
“What’s the other half?”
“Me, of course.” She grinned.
“I have no doubt that your charm will win anyone over.”
“That or my gunslinging. This really could go either way.”
Jack chuckled. “All right. Well, I’m excited to have more than half my vision.”
“It’ll be better than before, once you get used to cycling the modes.” Alissa directed Jack toward the couch. She pulled out a slim black case from her hip pocket and selected a slim metal implement from inside. “Hold still,” she instructed as she leaned over in front of him with the metal implement in hand.
He couldn’t see her what she was doing to his left eye, but he detected a slight pressure on the implant as she poked at it. Then, there was a flash of white light on the left side of his vision, followed by a “Thingamado” logo with a progress bar loading in a circle around it. When the circle was completely full, his left field of vision restored in full color with only slight pixelation to differentiate the image from his organic eye.
“Oh that’s much better!” he exclaimed. “Never again will I take depth perception for granted.”
“It’s on Normal mode right now, correct?”
“Seems that way.”
Alissa nodded and extended the metal implement toward his cybernetic eye—which was decidedly more unnerving now that he could see it coming toward him. She made contact and his vision switched to infrared. She appeared in a rainbow of color with bright red at her core and a mixture of green and yellow on her hands; in contrast, the ship in the background was mostly cool blue.
“This is really trippy,” Jack murmured.
“But super handy for detecting guards in low light.” Alissa made another adjustment and his vision switched to UV.
The vibrant colors shifted to almost monochromatic, but he could suddenly make out details that were completely invisible to his other eye.
“What do you see?” Alissa asked.
Jack looked around the room and his gaze rested on several stains on the couch. “Uh, looks like the UV is working just fine.”
“All right, and now?” She made another adjustment.
His vision cycled to a spectacular display of the electromagnetic fields contained within the ship—everything from his own nerve impulses to the power conduits within the walls. Staring at Alissa and being able to almost see her thinking weirded him out while also simultaneously being fascinating. “Whoa,” he managed to stammer.
“I’ve heard that that one takes the most to get used to.”
“I’ll say. But it’s awesome!” Jack grinned.
“Good, because we’re going to need it.” She made a final adjustment and his vision returned to normal. “Now, in theory, you should be able to switch modes by thinking about it. That may take some practice to master.”
“Awesome.”
Alissa rose from her crouching position in front of him and smiled. “But for now, we have a jailbreak to plan.”
CHAPTER 6: When a Plan Comes Together
After paying for the fuel through an electronic credit transfer from Alissa’s account, the Little Princess was soon on its way to the rendezvous with Triss.
Alissa had remained reticent about where the meetup would take place, but Jack was feeling comfortable enough with her that he was content to be along for the ride. Really, anyone willing to pick up the fuel bill was good in his book.
Two hours in hyperspace transit passed before the ship finally dropped back into normal space. Jack was surprised to see that their destination was absolutely in the middle of nowhere with nothing in sight. “Did you enter the right coordinates?” he asked.
She rolled her eyes. “What did I say about questioning me?” She manipulated the controls to rotate the ship one-hundred-eighty degrees. A ship three times the size of their own was in the space that had been right behind them. “Always drop out on the far side so you don’t accidentally run into each other,” she stated.
“Oh, right.”
Alissa directed the Little Princess to an airlock on the starboard side of the larger vessel and lined up their own hatch. With some careful maneuvering, she made the seal.
“Let’s go.” Alissa rose from the pilot’s chair and led the main hatch off the ship. She double-checked the coupling with the other ship and released the door seal.
The hatch on the other ship was already open and a red-headed woman was waiting in the doorway. She wilted with relief when she saw Alissa and they ran to embrace one another.
“I didn’t know if you’d made it out,” the other woman murmured.
“Have you heard from anyone?” Alissa asked, pulled out of the hug so she could look at her at arm’s length.
“A few people, yes,” the woman confirmed. “It sounds like everyone was able to get to escape pods, but many were captured by the Vorlox after the attack.”
Alissa drew her in for a kiss and held her close. She pulled away after several seconds. “We move forward with the plan. We’ll find a way to get them back once we have it.”
“I know.”
The other woman turned her attention to Jack standing awkwardly behind them. “Wow, that implant really didn’t fit well.”
“You must be Triss,” Jack said.
“Yes,” Alissa replied. “Triss, Jack. Jack, Triss.”
“Thanks for volunteering,” Triss said to him.
“Didn’t really have an option, but all in all it hasn’t been that bad,” he said. “Well, except for the eye. But this one seems pretty cool.”
“Can we trust him?” Triss asked Alissa.
Alissa nodded. “He kind of grows on you. Just ignore his innuendos.”
“I can do that,” her friend replied. “Everything’s been prepped. Let’s get ready to head down to Hellana.”
“Oh, so we’re actually going down into a maximum security prison…” Jack muttered. “I thought maybe you had some sort of workaround where we could beam Finn out, or something.”
“Well, we’re not exactly going into the prison,” Triss clarified. “And you don’t have to do much for this part. Just watch and learn.”
*
Even from space, Hellana was true to its name. The planet’s surface was an inhospitable Hellscape of volcanic activity and massive blights. A lava field on the scale of an ocean marred the southern hemisphere, and only a tiny valley in a blackened region of the north looked to be remotely habitable.
“I think I’ll stay here on the ship,” Jack proclaimed as he looked out the main window on the bridge of the ship, the Prancer, which was functioning as their base.
“Nonsense! It’ll be a good bonding exercise for us,” Alissa contended.
“In the way that skin bonds to rock when you melt to death?”
“No, of course not! It’ll only be about sixty degrees Celsius. No melting at that temperature.”
“It’s a dry heat,” Triss jumped in.
Alissa flourished her hand. “See? Nothing to worry about.”
“But the
re’s also the matter of—” Jack started to object to the insane plan they’d just relayed to him, but Triss shushed him with a loud tisk.
“We’ll have none of that. It’ll be over before you know what’s happened,” she said.
Despite his continued objections, Jack was shepherded back to the Little Princess, which had made a tandem hyperspace jump with the Prancer. Alissa and Triss settled into the cockpit of the small vessel while Jack was left in the living room. It occurred to him that he could try to make a run for it—maybe by commandeering the Prancer—but he’d have nowhere to go. Alissa’s crazy plan was better than no plan at all.
The ship de-coupled from the larger vessel and approached the planet. Within ten minutes, the ship began trembling as it began to break through the atmosphere.
The radio in the cockpit crackled. “Unidentified craft, identify yourself.”
“That’s original,” Alissa muttered. “This is the Little Princess inbound with a prisoner for immediate incarceration,” she replied, presumably over the radio.
“Name on bounty record?” the Hellana official questioned.
“Jack Tresler,” Alissa stated.
“One moment.” The radio went silent for ten seconds. “Bounty confirmed. Proceed to the prisoner deposit site.”
“Roger.” The console beeped as Alissa ended the call. “You’re popular, Jack,” she shouted back to him.
“Yipee. It feels great to be the bait…” Jack mumbled.
“There’s a ninety percent chance you won’t lose another eye, so you really shouldn’t worry,” Alissa said.
“A whole ninety percent? Thanks, that makes me feel much better.”
The vibrations became more intense as the shuttle descended into the atmosphere, being tossed around on the super-heated air currents influenced by the volcanic activity. Jack held onto the couch using hidden handholds beneath the cushions since there wasn’t a proper restraint system. Many uncomfortable minutes passed as Triss fought to maintain control of the vessel.
Finally, they made it to the calmer air surrounding the valley that contained the prison facility.
Moments later, a light bump indicated that they were on the ground. The engines wound down.
Alissa and Triss came out from the cockpit.