Starbounders #2

by Adam Jay Epstein

  “Let’s stop, then,” Ryic said. “We’ve done nothing wrong. We can turn ourselves in. Ask for help.”

  “They’ll detain and question us for hours,” Skold replied. “We don’t have that kind of time. Keep moving.”

  “We’re armed with stun balls and will not hesitate to use them,” a Binary patrobot warned the oncoming Starbounders.

  Zachary didn’t slow, and as a result a volley of stun balls came soaring toward him. He was able to dodge most, but one struck Quee, who was still piggybacking on top of him. She went rigid, her body freezing up immediately. If she hadn’t been clinging to him, Zachary would have been the one sent into paralysis.

  The barricade was just yards away. Zachary lowered his head and braced himself for impact. With tremendous force, he plowed right through the crowd of robots, sending them scattering like bowling pins. His companions knocked down the few left standing in his wake.

  Nothing would keep them from reaching the sledge now. All that was left was to figure out how to stop.

  “One last question!” Zachary shouted. “How do you stop these things?”

  “The robots return themselves to a standing position and glide to a stop,” Skold said.

  “Yeah, but our bodies don’t rotate that way,” Zachary called back.

  “Which is exactly why they don’t want flesh-and-bloods like you using these,” Skold said.

  The dead end was rapidly approaching.

  “So, what do we do?” Kaylee asked.

  “You let go,” Skold replied, and he was the first to release his grip from the handwheel bar. As soon as he did, he went tumbling across the surface of the quickway. Zachary and the others had no time to contemplate a better solution. So they all opened their hands.

  Zachary used the edge of his back speedwheel to decrease his velocity, but it didn’t bring him to a full stop. He lost control and went rolling. It was still a painful crash. Zachary’s face smacked against the ground and his legs went flying over his head. He could feel bruises forming with each successive bounce along the steel pathway. Quee was tossed from his back.

  He strained to sit up, and once he was certain that nothing was broken, he kicked his boots free from the footwheels and got to his feet. Skold, Kaylee, and Ryic were doing the same.

  Quee lay limply on the ground.

  Zachary and the others ran to her side.

  “Quee? Are you okay?” Ryic asked.

  But she remained motionless.

  “Quee!” Zachary pleaded.

  He looked back to see that the patrobots had picked themselves up and were charging toward them.

  “Get her legs,” Zachary said. “We’ll have to carry her on board.”

  Kaylee grabbed her by the ankles and Zachary picked her up beneath her arms. The group ran for the entrance portal of the sledge. But Zachary’s attention was on Quee.

  “Guys,” he said. “I don’t think she’s breathing.”

  “Let’s put her in the hyperbolic pod,” Zachary said. His heart was racing fast. Quee’s life was in the balance and he knew time would be precious. He felt responsible. This had all been his idea. Quee had followed him, never questioning his leadership, just to prove she belonged as a Starbounder. And now she lay dying.

  Zachary and Kaylee hurried through the main cabin to a clear plastic bubble with gray tubes snaking out from it. Ryic popped open the top and they lowered Quee inside. Ryic sealed the pod shut once more and began adjusting digital levers beside it.

  “Go,” he ordered Zachary and Kaylee. “There’s nothing you can do. Get us moving.”

  Zachary didn’t like the idea of leaving Quee behind, even though he’d just be in the neighboring flight deck. But he also knew that Quee wouldn’t be the only casualty if they didn’t stop Commander Keel and his robot army. He waited until he saw billows of white smoke pour through the translucent gray tubes and fill the pod chamber, and then he left the main cabin.

  Once he and Kaylee arrived in the flight deck, they buckled themselves into the pilot seats and activated the ship’s starbox. Zachary looked out the front window and saw that the Binary patrobots had surrounded the sledge. They were swinging metal grappling hooks with magnetic claws at the outside of the ship.

  “Those are density tethers,” Kaylee said. “If they attach enough of them, we won’t be able to take off.”

  A pair of the claws had already affixed themselves to the left side of the hull and more were being lobbed rapidly. Zachary tried to kickstart the sledge as fast as he could.

  “You have already broken multiple protocols,” one of the patrobots announced over the intercom. “Do not incur additional offenses. Unauthorized liftoff—”

  Kaylee had flipped an off switch, shutting down any further communication from outside. Zachary could still see the patrobot waving his arms and demanding they stop.

  “We keep this up, we’re going to have a longer rap sheet than Skold,” he said.

  “Guess that’s the price you pay for saving the outerverse,” Kaylee replied.

  Zachary gestured his right hand slightly upward, engaging the sledge’s thrusters, and rocked his left hand back and forth, shaking the ship’s nose. The spacecraft lifted from the ground, but only a couple of feet, as the density tethers were holding strong.

  “You need to give it a little more juice,” Kaylee said.

  Zachary clenched his fist and punched his arm in the air. With a burst of force, the ship jolted higher, but the tethers still wouldn’t give. Only the right half of the vessel was rising. As the sledge continued to tilt, Zachary could hear Ryic and Skold go stumbling in the main cabin.

  “What are you doing up there?” Ryic called out.

  “Sorry,” Zachary replied.

  He twisted his wrist, causing the ship to spin in a rapid counterclockwise motion. Around and around it went, until the sledge finally broke free from the tethers with a loud snap and catapulted into the sky. Zachary had to react quickly to prevent the ship from colliding with the golden obelisk. He gestured frantically, straightening the nose and launching them through the clouds.

  “Just keep us steady till we break out of orbit,” Zachary said to Kaylee.

  He unlatched his harness and ran back to the cabin, where Ryic was huddled over the hyperbolic pod.

  “How is she?” Zachary asked.

  “I’ve been trying to shock her system with adrenaline gas,” Ryic replied. “She’s breathing on her own, but hasn’t regained consciousness.”

  “You know, we haven’t exactly discussed what the plan is here,” Skold said. “Let’s say we do catch up with Keel and his army. Then what? We gonna take on a gizalith and a thousand Binary talon fighter ships from in here?”

  “If we have to, yes,” Zachary answered.

  “You got some real brass on you, kid,” Skold said. “But maybe you should take a look at what we’re up against before you start making such bold promises.”

  Zachary followed Skold’s eyeline through the door to the flight deck, and he could see the gizalith in the distance. To say it was massive wouldn’t be doing it justice. It was gargantuan—it was almost impossible to comprehend how it was ever built in the first place. All around it were crescent-shaped ships that looked like bird talons, and together they were moving like a herd toward a galactic fold in the cosmos.

  Zachary pulled himself back into the flight deck.

  “Do you think we can catch them?” he asked Kaylee.

  She checked the Kepler cartograph and made some calculations. “It’s going to be tight.”

  The sledge continued to race forward. It was difficult to judge how much progress they were actually making, if any. But they must have been closing the gap, because the gizalith and surrounding ships were coming into clearer focus. As they did, Zachary could see that something was dragging behind the gizalith: an enormous funnel connected to three giant cylinders. Zachary blinked twice, hoping to identify the object, but all his lensicon could come up with was a heads-up displa
y reading NO INFORMATION AVAILABLE.

  “That’s your star-killing device,” said Skold, who had floated into the flight deck and was looking at the same thing Zachary was.

  Of course. Those three cylinders were the perpetual energy generator that Skold had stolen from the Callisto Space Station. As for the funnel, Zachary guessed it was the kinetic force sink. The magnitude modulator must have been hidden inside.

  “Kaylee, see if you can get us within range,” Zachary said. “If we destroy that weapon, we don’t have to worry about what the rest of Keel’s plan is.”

  She was already pushing the sledge as fast as it could go. Zachary sat himself in front of the particle blaster controls. A glimmer of hope had appeared. Maybe all his worries would be for naught. Their ship seemed to be catching up. But the positive feelings vanished when two of the talons broke formation and started flying straight toward them.

  “Don’t engage,” Zachary said. “Just try to get around them.”

  The talons weren’t about to make that so easy. Whichever way Kaylee turned, the pair of fighter ships adjusted course to ensure an inevitable head-on confrontation.

  “It looks like they want to crash into us,” Kaylee said.

  “They are robots,” Skold replied. “Whether they’re partially alive or not, if they’re programmed to carry out an order, they never deviate.”

  Zachary began to fire at them, and while he was making direct hits, the particle blasts merely ricocheted off whatever protective metal the ships were made from.

  With the talons forcing them into this dance of duck-and-dodge, the gizalith was getting away. And all Zachary, Kaylee, and Skold could do was watch. While Kaylee continued to maneuver the ship, seemingly at a stalemate, Zachary took a moment to focus his lensicon on one of the fighter ships.

  * * *

  CELESTIAL OBJECT:

  BINARY TALON

  FIGHTER SHIPS USED EXCLUSIVELY BY THE ROBOTS OF THE BINARY COLONIES. THERE IS NO GESTURE COMMAND OR FLIGHT DECK WINDSHIELD. BINARY ROBOTS ARE DIRECTLY PLUGGED INTO THE SHIP’S CONTROL PANEL.

  VELOCITY AND DIRECTION CAN BE ADJUSTED WITH THE SPEED OF THOUGHT. THESE FRIENDLY IPDL-ALLIED SHIPS ARE NEARLY INDESTRUCTIBLE DUE TO THEIR TRIPLE-REINFORCED HULLS.

  * * *

  Friendly? Clearly the outerverse database didn’t get the memo about the Binary robots’ rebellion.

  “Those canisters attached to the sides aren’t part of the standard model,” Skold said. “They must have been custom-made.”

  Zachary scrolled down to the lensicon display’s subheading entitled SPECS. A diagram appeared labeling every part of the fighter ship. Skold was right. There was nothing resembling the metal tanks hugging the exterior of the talons.

  “What are they for?” Zachary asked.

  “I don’t know,” Skold replied. “But it looks like they had to remove some of the hull’s reinforcements to attach them.”

  “A soft spot?” Zachary asked.

  “It’s worth a try,” Skold said.

  Zachary aimed the sledge’s particle blaster at a canister hugging one of the ships. He fired, and when the projectile hit its target, the metal tank exploded, sending a gelatinous purple ooze spraying in an ever-expanding cloud into space. Moreover, Skold’s theory was proven true, as the point of impact caused a chain reaction destroying the entire talon.

  Zachary didn’t hesitate, taking out the other Binary fighter ship the exact same way as the first. Kaylee flew the sledge directly through the cloud, which had now quadrupled in size due to the second talon’s detonation, leaving a thin purple film on the flight deck windshield.

  Zachary looked past the residue to see the gizalith and the herd of talons disappear through a galactic fold.

  “If you hurry, we can still catch it,” he called out to Kaylee.

  She pointed the sledge toward the galactic fold. Zachary fidgeted nervously in his seat. He was tempted to push Kaylee out of the way and take over command of the ship himself, but he knew that he wouldn’t be able to make it go any faster. After just a few short minutes—but what seemed like an eternity—they reached the edge of the galactic fold.

  “When we get to the other side of this fold, our only objective is to take out the star-killer,” Zachary said.

  “We’ll still be vastly outnumbered,” Kaylee replied.

  “Yeah, but at least now we know how to beat them,” Zachary said.

  The sledge flew through, and when they emerged in the distant galaxy, they were alone. The gizalith and the talons were nowhere to be seen.

  “Where are they?” Zachary wondered. “How is that even possible?”

  “Maybe they initiated their camouflage shields,” Kaylee replied.

  “No,” Skold said. “Gizaliths are too big for any cloaking mechanism to work. They must have already jumped through another galactic fold.”

  Zachary was checking the Kepler cartograph for the nearest fold, but instead of finding just one, three dozen appeared.

  “It’s a string nexus,” Skold said, “where dozens of folds meet at one point.”

  “How do we know which one they went through?” Kaylee asked.

  “We don’t,” Skold replied.

  “If everything we’ve assumed up until now is correct, we know they’re heading toward one of four suns,” Zachary said. “We can start by checking if any of these holes lead directly to one of them.”

  It didn’t take him long to cross-reference the Kepler cartograph with the location of the four suns.

  “None of the systems can be reached in a single jump from here,” he said.

  “What about two?” Kaylee asked.

  “There’s hundreds of possibilities,” Zachary replied. “And with three or more jumps, thousands.” He clenched his fist and looked like he wanted to punch the holographic display. “We could really use Quee right now.”

  “Guys, get back here!” Ryic shouted from the main cabin.

  Zachary detected a hint of panic in his voice. He flew out of his seat and exited the flight deck.

  “What is it?” he asked. “Is Quee okay?”

  “It’s not her,” Ryic replied. “There’s a sound coming from the cryo freezer.”

  Zachary took a moment to listen and could hear it, too. There was rattling and banging, and it sounded violent. He immediately remembered the diamond-shaped creature pinned down to the metal table inside. But why was it suddenly acting up now?

  Kaylee and Skold had both soared back into the main cabin to join the others.

  “I think I know what’s making all that noise,” Zachary said. “There’s some kind of crystalline creature in the freezer.”

  “Are you talking about that souvenir the Black Atom Society left for us?” Kaylee asked.

  “Yep,” Zachary replied. “And I didn’t think it was very happy before.”

  “Let me go have a look,” Skold said.

  As the group moved toward the cryo freezer, Zachary heard not only the clatter but a vile screeching sound, as well. He was becoming less and less eager to have that door opened. But Skold was undeterred. He grabbed the metal handle of a nearby mag mop and gripped it like a combat stick. Then with his free hand he unlatched the freezer door and pulled it open to reveal the same creature Zachary had encountered during his dare. It was still pinned to the table, but its spindly legs were thrashing like mad in a desperate attempt to extricate itself. Skold choked up on the mag mop and was about to swing, but stopped himself when he realized that the creature was restrained.

  “A scorpiosite,” he said. “That’s what you get when scorpiositic fever evolves. The question is, what’s one doing on this ship?”

  Opening the freezer door had only angered the creature further. In a moment of sudden fury, the virulent agent tore off its restrictive bindings and leaped from the table. Zachary tried to seal the freezer shut, but the scorpiosite had already made it halfway out, wedging itself between the door and the jamb. Skold tried to prod it back inside with the tip of the mag m
op, but the virus squirmed its way through and attacked Zachary. The thin pincers at the end of its legs dug into his jumpsuit. He reached out to grab the creature’s crystalline body and attempted to shove it off him. The scorpiosite didn’t budge, though, its grip tightening. Skold swung at it with the mag mop, but the predator was relentless.

  “Somebody get it off!” Zachary shouted.

  Kaylee used her warp glove to punch at it, but that didn’t help, either.

  Zachary’s eyes went wide in terror as he watched the base of the virus open up like a mouth and a syringelike appendage emerge. Now it was Zachary’s turn to thrash. He could only imagine what would happen to him if he got infected.

  Just then, Zachary heard a splintering, cracking sound. He looked down to see an ionic dagger embedded in the back of the scorpiosite. Then he glanced up to see who had thrown it: Quee. She was awake and floating five yards away. The creature released its grip and Skold swung the mag mop like a bat, slugging it back into the cryo freezer. Kaylee slammed the door shut.

  The group let out a collective breath, but no one was more relieved than Zachary. All this time, he had convinced himself that he could face any obstacle on his own, but the truth was, there would always be something he didn’t see coming. And that’s what his friends were there for. That’s why he needed to trust others to help him.

  He touched the inch-deep pincer gashes left in his Starbounder jumpsuit and double-checked to see that his skin hadn’t been cut. Between the photon blast hole in the suit’s elbow and now this, he was going to need to see about getting a new one as soon as he got back to Indigo 8.

  “Quee, you’re okay,” Ryic said, sounding beyond relieved.

  “Yeah, and it looks like I woke up just in time,” she replied.

  “So, anyone want to tell me how a scorpiosite ended up on this ship?” Skold asked. “Come to think of it, whose ship are we on, anyway?”

  “We stole it from the Black Atom Society,” Kaylee replied.

  “Maybe they were looking for a cure,” Zachary added. “We walked past a research lab under category-one quarantine. Robots were experimenting on a family of cinderbeasts that seemed to be infected with some kind of disease. What if it was scorpiositic fever?”