Maven whirled the ship around, but it was impossible to outmaneuver the cloud for long. It was agile and able to move in every direction, while we had to move in predictable arcs and rolls.
“I’m going to blow up this ship.”
“Excuse me?”
“I’m dying. I already can hardly breathe. I’m going to drive this ship straight into the heart of that damned cloud and blow all of us to hell.”
“I realize that makes sense given your condition, but I’m not down to be a part of this suicide rush!”
“Fine. Then I’ll eject you.”
“Into space? I don’t have a suit! I’ll die!”
“Make a forcefield around yourself just like you did with the elevator. You’ll live.” I could see him shrug even from where I was sitting in the back. “Or don’t. I don’t care. You know what I’m up to and you can’t fly this craft yourself, so tell me if you want me to eject you or not.”
He flipped a panel that I hadn’t seen before and typed a code into it. With a slight buzz, another button raised from the flat surface, with a card reading slot next to it. Genesis rounded, barreling straight towards us, and Maven slid his card before slamming the button with what little strength he had left.
Five seconds until self-destruct.
Shit.
Taking a deep breath, I summoned as much energy as I could from my center. I could tell that there was nothing left, and that every inch of my body was screaming for me to stop abusing it so, but I kept on digging and digging until I found a tiny spark of light.
Latching onto that with all of my mind, I urged it to burn brighter. Hotter. Filling me with the last vestiges of light that I had left.
“Eject me!”
“Took you long enough.”
He hit yet another button, and the next thing I knew the hood was sliding back, my seat released and I was launched into space, chair and all.
The coldness of the voice bit at me visciously, tearing at skin and instantly vaporizing any moisture on my damaged skin. But I pushed the light burning within me outward, until it was a bubble of safety around myself.
For a moment, I thought it wouldn’t work. For a moment, I thought everything was for nothing. But then I was able to take a deep breath and it quickly turned into a sigh of relief. I had saved myself.
For the moment.
I looked below me to see Genesis and Maven collide. I could hear the evil being’s insidious laughter coil around me, but that only lasted a few seconds before a brilliant red erupted in its center.
The mass tried to contain it, but the red grew bigger, and brighter, until finally it fully exploded in a rain of brilliant fiery colors. And just like that, I felt my enemy’s haunting presence vanish once more.
I wondered how long he would stay gone this time.
“Looks like you did some good after all, Maven.” I murmured. “Too bad it doesn’t nearly make up for all the bad.”
Then I realized it was not the time for self-righteous post-mortem proclamations. Yes, Maven was dead and now Genesis would have to recollect themselves from being scattered yet again, but the force of the blast was propelling me through space without any breaks. After all, it wasn’t like there was any matter in the great void to make me lose my momentum.
Already, the station was barely the size of a house in the distance, and I felt my forcefield wavering and buckling against the radiation of space. How long would I have to float amongst the cosmos? Eventually I would need sleep and I didn’t think I could hold up such a complex field when I was unconscious. Or would I run out of air first? Would I lose too much heat and have hypothermia set in?
The possibilities were endless, and it was quite daunting. I felt like I had been on the edge of death far too many times in one day, and I was too tired to care about yet another hurtle.
That’s when I saw something silver and glittering quickly approaching. It started off as just a speck, then grew in size until I saw a vessel that could be for none other than me.
I laughed, drunk on the giddy relief, and two-man ship stopped beside me, gently scooping me in before the door closed and the cabin pressurized.
“How in the hell did you get all the way out here?”
“Viys’k!” I cried, rushing to the cockpit where sure enough the krelach was sitting, a satisfied smirk on her face. “You stole a ship? Again?”
“Not any ship.” She said, sounding happier than I had heard her in ages. “But the ship.”
My eyes went wide and suddenly all the agony, all the fear, everything seemed worth it. “The ship as in the one with Jyra’s coordinates still in the log?”
“Still possibly in the log.” She corrected. “And yes. Now sit down and buckle up. We need to get to the main ship ASAP because those Council fighters are not far behind.”
I strapped myself in, gripping the armrests for dear life as Viys’k punched it into gear. “What’s the plan.”
“The kodadt have all of their specs logged into the federal scanners, so Bajol is creating DNA scramblers to pull the same caper we already did with you.”
“So another wormhole jump?” I murmured, my stomach churning as I recalled the first one.
“Another wormhole jump. From there, we’ll head to Jyra’s lab, drop off the good doctor and the kodadt to continue their research on the cure, then go find your precious little bff.”
I wanted to tell her I understood, but instead my stomach finally got its way, and I was heaving again.
It lasted for an embarrassingly long time, and was pretty noisy too. When I finished, there was a dishearteningly large puddle of goopy black in my lap.
“That’s still so disgusting.” Viys’k grumbled, pushing the engines much harder than I was sure they were supposed to go.
Sensors indicate we have been targeted by seven differ- eight differ- nine diff- ten di-”
“Yeah, yeah, I get.” The thief snapped. “Drop shielding, all power to thrusters. We’re about to juke some Councilmen to victory.”
And boy did we juke.
The ship dipped, spun, drifted and spun, moving in an almost impossible manner in the hands of anyone other than the krelach. I couldn’t see any of the attackers behind us, but I didn’t need to with the ship’s voice talking every three seconds of how many were surrounding us.
I guess I hadn’t exactly thought out the ramifications of stealing what most of the universe thought of as their last hope against this terrible plague. Sure, I knew I was doing the right thing, because the cure was only going to happen on a very specific timetable on that station. Maybe, by springing them all and leaving them in the competent hands of Bajol, and later Jyra, we could get the drop on Genesis and really ruin his day.
“Mothership, we cannot kill momentum. Prepare for a very hot incoming.”
A voice came over the speakers that I didn’t recognized, and I guessed it was one of the staff of Angel’s ship. “Understood. Preparing internal dampening shields. We’ll trac’ you one you’re in, and that should help slow you down.”
“Or rip us completely in two.”
“Yes, but there is a much lower chance of that.”
Viys’k laughed as Angel’s ship grew closer and closer. “Then let’s roll the dice my friend.”
I held onto my seat for dear life as we approached the hangar way too fast. Now I could hear plasma pulses blasting all around us, the Councilmen only risking open fire now that there was a risk of us getting away.
But it was too late. Even when two shots hit us directly, we were just passing the lip of the hangar.
Everything happened at once. We hit what felt like an invisible wall, but punched our way through it, only to be hit by another, and then another. My head snapped forward with each one, no matter how I tried to stabilize my neck, and I could practically hear my brain rattling around my skull. And yet, the very real partition at the end of the hangar was still approaching far too rapidly.
Then a brilliant light filled the space, and
we were yanked backwards so violently, I was worried some of my organs were left behind. I could feel this internal struggle of the ship trying to go forward while something else relentlessly tugged us back, and then suddenly… stillness.
That lasted for about all of a second before the light disappeared and we dropped to the floor of the hangar well over twenty feet below. We landed with a thundering bang and a jolt that even made my teeth ache, but finally, we were stopped.
Too bad there was no time to rest yet.
“We’re in! Repeat, we’re in! Tell your Captain to engage a wormhole jump now!”
The comm was silent for several seconds before the voice came back. “We are en route now. ETA is five minutes to the mouth of the wormhole. We recommend you either stay buckled into your current safety restraints or make a very quick journey to a different room with similar precautions.”
Viys’k looked to me, her six eyes taking in the blood across my forehead, the gashes across my front, and no doubt the dozens of bruises I had peppering me. “What do you think you’re capable of? Got another run in you?”
It seemed adrenaline had yet to leave me, so I sent her what was probably a still-sandy smile. “I think I can manage that.”
“Good. Try to keep up.”
She unbuckled her restraints and hopped over the seat, prompting me to follow suit. Together, we moved over the broken and bumpy floor, before jumping from the hatch to the ground far below.
I knew my legs wouldn’t support me at this point, so I just rolled on landing, using my momentum to propel me forward rather than trying to absorb it all through my gams. It made me a bit dizzy, but it didn’t hurt and that was the goal right about now.
I got to my feet in a pretty seamless transition, if I do say so myself, and then we were running again.
I, personally, had no idea where we were going, but I trusted that Viys’k had probably memorized the entire infrastructure of the ship weeks ago.
Attention crew members: three minutes to jump. Please follow safety regulation and secure your person.
The smart thing to do would be to stop running and get ourselves into some of the emergency seating that dotted the halls every hundred feet or so. But both of us wanted to be with Angel as she made the jump. After being a part of the action for so long, it felt strange to be separate in what was hopefully going to be our final escape.
We jumped the elevator that lead to her quarters, and breathlessly pressed her code.
Attention crew members: two minutes to jump. Please follow safety regulations and secure your person.
The elevator dinged, and then we were out, dashing across a short hall until finally we reached the shining metal door of none of than the Captain. It shot upwards much faster than usual, and we dashed in to see it was already quite crowded.
All of the kodadt were lined up against the wall, and Bajol was in front of them, apparently giving a lesson on how to use the injectors that were in their paw-hands. I hadn’t thought of how he would inject the whole lot while we were in mid wormhole swap, and although this seemed like it definitely could go wrong very easily, it wasn’t a bad plan.
“About time for you pretty ladies to arrive.” Angel said, her eyes glued to the sensor screen above her planning table. “You better sit down fast, or you’re going to be lying down.”
We nodded and rushed to the few seats left. I barely got my butt into place before I was gripped tightly in three strong arms and mashed into a muscled chest.
“You are an idiot.”
I patted one of Janix’s biceps and allowed myself a singular sigh. “Yeah, I figured that our right when I ended up on the kodadt home world.”
“You what?”
Attention crew members: one minutes to jump. Please follow safety regulations and secure your person.
“I do not understand,” Anjali said, talking over Bajol. “What is the use of changing our DNA signal? They are no doubt going to track us into the wormhole, and if we come out the other side with twelve suddenly new signals where we just were, won’t they put two and two together?”
“Absolutely.” Angel answered. “That’s why we’re going to jump wormholes.”
“Jump wormholes? That’s impossible.”
“Nah, we figured out how.”
“You figured… you figured out how?” Another kodadt chimed in. “Are you saying that you group has made a life changing technological advancement and you’ve kept it a secret?”
“Well, it’s only been maybe a month or so, so it’s not like it’s been hidden for years. We’ll release it to the public. Now just not exactly the opportune time for something like that.”
We have reached our coordinates. Initiating jump.
That pulling feeling set in again, and I felt like I was being scraped backwards across time and space. It was unsettling, but not entire terrible. No, that part would be coming later.
“Steady.” Angel ordered into the comm. “I want almost all of them in the wormhole after us.”
“Captain, we count over a hundred fighters are already locked onto our signal!”
“Well then it’s going to be a very crowded slipstream.”
“Yes, Captain.”
We rattled through the near-blinding miasma of not-quite-space, and not-quite-not-space. I still wasn’t sure that I understood what wormholes were beyond a tunnel that connected two points in space much more closely than they were over their original distances, but beyond that I was pretty fuzzy on the actual science.
Maybe Jyra could explain it to me. I was so close to seeing her again, after all.
That thought pulled me through, and I steeled myself to the incoming stomach scramble.
“Sensors indicate approximately ninety of our pursuers are in the wormhole with us.”
“Start the jump now!”
“Understood. Initiating cross-wormhole shift now.”
I took a deep breath, then it happened. One moment I was sitting on Angel’s bridge, the next I was in my computer chair. Everything was shifting, a kaleidoscope of colors and realities, some aspects from my life, some from this reality, and some that I could not recognize.
My perception was churned and twisted, and I felt like I was everywhere and nowhere at once. I was like water, being pulled down the end of a drain at the end of a long bath, pulled into a complex system that I had no understanding of.
“Injectors, now!”
I heard the responding hisses of the medical equipment being deployed, and that helped pull me back. It was difficult, and I felt like my mind was constantly losing footing on loose ground or slick earth, but the dimension started to solidify around me.
And then, it just stopped. As suddenly as it had started, the mind-numbing confusion vanished and I was just sitting down, Janix’s arms wrapped around me.
One could have heard a pin drop as we continued to zoom through a wormhole. I suppose it was impossible to know if we had actually succeeded in jumping paths until we emerged out of the other side.
Two seconds until return to standard space territory.
I was holding my breath, as I think was almost everyone else, and when we finally shot out, it was Angel let out a triumphant cry.
“Coordinates check out! The jump was successful!
The previously quiet room turned into an explosion of cheer and roars. Relief flooded my entire being and I finally felt myself come down off of my high.
My eyelids started to flutter, and various points of pain were abruptly throbbing with no recourse. Somehow, I managed to grip Janix’s shoulder.
“I think I need some medical attention,” I murmured before slumping against him.
But this time, I let myself fall into a well-earned unconsciousness willingly. I was safe. We were safe.
And the moment I woke up, we would be making sure that Jyra would be safe too.
Chapter Ten: Ground Me in Your Reality
When consciousness first started to fade in, I realized that I was not in a me
d-bay bed. The air wasn’t nearly hyper sterilized enough, and the sheets weren’t crisp with a recent washing. That alone made me curious enough to open my eyes, although by body still felt like one giant bruise on top of other, smaller bruises.
With a groan, I pushed myself onto my elbows and glanced around. I was in the room that Viys’k, Janix and I all shared. And while the krelach wasn’t present, the mooreerie smuggler definitely was.
He sat up as we made eye contact, the dark expression on his face fading.
“Andi!” He murmured, moving to sit on the edge of my bed. “You slept well. How are you feeling?”
“Not good enough to brag about,” I answered, mouth dry.
He laughed lightly, and quickly handed me a cup of water. I took it gratefully, and barely remembered to drink it down slowly rather than all in one giant gulp.
“So, how long was I out this time?”
“A little less than a day, actually. I don’t know how, but you survived a rumble with a dimension eater, a visit to the kodadt homeworld, being ejected into the cold of space and a ship crash all in one day.”
“What are the chances, right? Maybe I should pick up gambling.”
“Or maybe you can stop pressing your luck and be reasonable in the future.”
I rolled my eyes -although even that movement hurt a bit. And was that my cheek I could see slightly swelling into my view? “I just woke up. Can we please not start with the lectures already?”
The Rescue (Alternate Dimensions Book 3) Page 11