Bentley struggled, trying to wrest herself from Loco’s grasp. “Let go of me, you dumb fuck! You’re going to kill us all! Do you hear me? Every last one of us!”
Loco frowned. “If you try to fight me, you’re just going to kill yourself. As in, I might accidentally kill you. I’m sorry, it’s nothing personal, really, but I’m not a big fan of losing fights, and once I get going, and I’ve got some good momentum, then boy oh boy, it can be really hard to stop and—”
Bentley managed to get her right arm free. She drew her arm back and threw a punch at Loco, hitting him square in the jaw. It didn’t seem to have any effect on him. He didn’t even flinch. Bentley shook her right hand, in incredible pain. She felt as though the bones in her hand had been shattered by the impact.
Loco grabbed her right arm and shook his head. “Hey. It’s also not a great idea to punch me in the face. You might hurt yourself. And I might hurt you even worse.”
Loco pulled his right arm back, his hand clenched into a fist, but Shango grabbed Loco’s arm, pulling it behind his back, restraining him. “All right! All right! That is more than enough of that!”
The door to the bridge shot open, and Jelly Bean, Jade, and Svend burst through. They saw Bentley, Loco, and Shango grappling with each other, engaged in an apparent melee near the entrance to the bridge. Looks of confusion spread across the faces of the newcomers.
Svend stepped forward. “Wh— What the fuck is going on in here? Bentley, are you all right?”
She continued to tussle with Loco. “No! I’m not all right! None of us are all right! Unless someone changes the fucking flight path, then we are all going to die! Why won’t anyone listen to me? Why won’t anyone stop this nightmare from happening?”
Loco held one of Bentley’s arms with one of his hands and tried to wrestle his other hand free of Shango’s grasp. “If that nightmare is you repeatedly screaming about an imaginary, invisible fire hazard that’s floating around in space, then I’ll gladly stop this nightmare from happening. Just give me a few minutes to fashion a nice little gag for you.”
Shango had pinned Loco’s hand to the small of his own back and attempted to pull him away from Bentley. Loco’s grip on Bentley’s arm loosened, and Shango pulled him back, away from her. Finally free, Bentley started to dash towards the command deck.
Shango saw Bentley moving, and he turned to face Jelly Bean. “Jelly Bean! Restrain Bentley! Now!”
Jelly Bean nodded. As Bentley ran past her, Jelly Bean put her arms around Bentley, trapping her in a tight hug. Bentley flinched and squirmed, trying to get free. “Fucking—Fucking get off me, Jelly Bean!”
Jelly Bean looked at Bentley, a sad expression on her face. “I am so sorry, Bentley. But you do not seem well. I am afraid that this is for your own good.”
Bentley broke down in tears. “Stop! Please! Everyone, just, just fucking leave me alone, okay? Or we’re all going to die!”
Shango glared at Bentley. “Bentley! Enough is enough! We are not in any danger, so please calm yourself!”
Bentley glared at him. “How do you expect me to calm myself when you insist on taking a course of resolute inaction that is going to get us all killed?”
Shango turned to Jelly Bean, shaking his head. “Jelly Bean, please take Bentley to the med bay. I am afraid that she might need to be sedated. I do not want unauthorized personnel on the command deck, attempting to operate navigational systems.”
Shango turned to Bentley, his expression hardening. “And as of this moment, you are not authorized to be on the bridge, much less on the command deck. This is my ship, under my authority, and you will treat it as such. Is that absolutely clear?”
Bentley continued to struggle, trapped in Jelly Bean’s arms. “Look, I don’t care what you think. I know what I saw. Or, what I keep seeing. I keep having this dream, or this premonition, or whatever the fuck you want to call it, and every single time, the Chesed, following the exact flight path that we are currently on, drives headfirst into a huge ball of fire, destroying the ship and killing us all.”
Loco grinned. “Even Legba? That sounds like a pretty sweet dream, if you ask me.”
Bentley glared at him. “This isn’t some fucking joke, Loco! This is serious!” She turned to Shango. “I don’t know how much more clear I can be about this. We are about to die, Shango. If we don’t do something, then everyone under your command, and you yourself, will be incinerated beyond recognition. Chain of command won’t mean a fucking thing if we’re all going to be transmuted into lifeless clouds of ash, suspended in deep space forever. And that is exactly what is going to happen, unless someone – anyone – moves this ship off of its current course. Right. Fucking. Now.”
Loco looked back at Shango. “So, do you think you could let me go now? I think it’s pretty clear that I’m not the crazy one here.”
Shango released Loco, who took a few steps away, stretching the arm that had been pinned behind his back. Shango approached Bentley, taking a deep breath, attempting to calm himself. “Bentley. I believe you, in that you have almost certainly had this dream that you’re describing.”
Bentley nodded. “I did.”
Shango paced, thinking. “And you might well have had this same dream, many times. But that does not mean that it is a prophesy, or a guarantor of its own truth. Sometimes a dream is just a dream.”
Loco smiled. “In fact, I’d say always. A dream is always just a dream. And if you don’t believe me, take it up with a dictionary.”
Bentley took a deep breath. “This thing that keeps happening to me, though, it isn’t just a dream. It’s more than that. For one thing, it always happens exactly the same way, every single time.”
She stared at the bridge’s main screen. “Every time it happens, I’m right here, on the bridge. And I look at that very screen, and somewhere in the darkness of all that empty space, I would see something moving. A miniscule, yellow circle, glowing yellow. Just a tiny little thing, but… Holy fucking shit…”
Bentley’s jaw dropped. She saw the familiar pinprick of yellow light, situated in the very center of the screen. “It— It’s here! It’s happening!”
Everyone else turned towards the screen, searching for the yellow dot that Bentley had described. Bentley watched as all of her crew mates’ faces stared at the large screen, momentarily distracted. She glanced down at Jelly Bean’s arms and noticed that they had slackened as she peered at the screen, trying to make out the dot of yellow.
In one swift movement, Bentley pushed her body away from Jelly Bean’s, towards the command deck, and she sprinted headlong towards the steps.
Shango noticed a flicker of movement in his peripheral vision and turned towards Bentley. He saw her running towards the command deck. “Bentley! Stop! That is an order!”
Loco also noticed the movement and turned towards her. “Hey! What did we just say about calming down?”
Bentley watched as he threw one of his arms towards her, to grab her. She felt the familiar feeling of time slowing down, much as it had when she had been in the hallway, and she watched as Loco’s arm made its way towards her, his fingers grasping slowly towards her.
She deftly pivoted out of the arm’s arc, and she continued to sprint towards the command deck. Loco’s arm swooped past her, grasping nothing, as she placed her left foot on the first step.
Bentley glanced at the main screen once more. Time still felt like it was moving extremely slowly, yet the pinprick seemed to be moving very quickly, expanding to the size of a circle. It was directly in front of the ship, and it was coming right at the Chesed.
Despite the apparent glacial pace of time, Bentley managed to get up the steps, and throw her body at the navigation console. With all of her strength, she shoved the controls to the right. The ship shuddered as it made a drastic, 90-degree turn, sending most of the people on the bridge tumbling to the floor.
Bentley felt a sudden burst of physical discomfort. She felt the prickly feeling of radioactive heat on
her skin. She stared up at the screen, and saw the yellow circle, even closer, seemingly moving even faster. Fuck, she thought to herself. I don’t think we’re going to make it. I can’t turn this ship any more, and we’re still in the path of this fucking thing. Maybe I could still get the sword. But where the fuck is it?
Bentley blinked, and the mass of fiery yellow was huge on the screen, about to collide with the Chesed. In the microseconds that followed her blink, she made a series of rough angular calculations. It’s now coming in on our left, she thought to herself. But it’s still going to hit us. It— It’s over…
Bentley braced for the imminent impact. She fought the urge to clamp her eyes shut, and instead stared at the screen, and the fiery behemoth that was bearing down on the Chesed. Well, she thought to herself, you only get to see your own death once…
Just as the fiery streak was about to make contact with the ship, Bentley noticed a faint green glow, between the flames and the Chesed. The ship rocked with the impact, but on the screen, Bentley watched the mass glancing off of the green glow, changing direction. Instead of pushing through the Chesed, incinerating everything it passed through, it instead bounced off at an angle, disappearing into empty space.
A loud siren began to wail, and a red light began to flash on the bridge, but Bentley just sank into her seat, awestruck. What the fuck just happened? she thought to herself. Was that… the sword? Somehow? Did I summon the force field bubble, just by thinking about it? I am paired with the thing. Maybe this is one of the perks that comes with that. Although I don’t remember any glowing green stuff when I used the force field back on the android base…
Bentley turned her seat away from the screen, and she noticed that she wasn’t the only person on the command deck. Jade sat at the adjacent console, a look of incredible relief on her face. Bentley glanced at Jade’s console, and noticed that she’d directed all of the ship’s blocking power to its left side.
Bentley took a deep breath. The Chesed was still shaking, as though it were experiencing a long, intense earthquake. The siren was still wailing, and the red light was still flashing. She looked out over the bridge, at the faces of her friends, seeing the varying degrees of panic, fear, and desperation that each one exhibited.
She glanced back to Jade’s screen. It now showed a wireframe image of the Chesed, much like a blueprint. Much of the ship’s left side was glowing an intense shade of red, and the red seemed to be spreading through the ship, burning deeper and deeper into the Chesed.
Bentley watched Jade toggling desperately though various menus. The various updates she witnessed were not promising. Various failures in sprinkler systems. Information blackouts, due to electrical fires. Spikes in heat dangerously close to fuel lines. Jade was valiantly trying to process this information, and to do something useful in response, but it looked to Bentley like a losing battle.
Bentley sighed. If only I could have got here a minute earlier, she thought. Or dealt with Shango and Loco more skillfully. Or skipped that failed search for the sword. Or gotten out of the meditation earlier. So many opportunities, and none taken. Surprise surprise, I have failed everyone. And now we’ll all pay for my mistake with our lives.
A look of resignation came over Bentley’s face. Well, she thought to herself. I guess Shango was right, in a way. My vision didn’t end up accurately capturing exactly what came to pass. But I – and everyone I care about – are probably still going to die, since we’re all in a ship that is very much on fire. So I guess not only do I get to die, I also get to be wrong…
+++
Aboard the Scythe, Edge of Leviathon-Q Sector
Ivor and Angela stood before the largest screen on the helm of the Scythe, watching the fiery yellow of the missile as it got closer and closer to the approaching Chesed.
Ivor grinned, almost shaking with joy. “This angle is perfect!”
Angela smiled. “We do have some very talented men and women in our artillery division. I mentioned how important it was to you that the missile strike the Chesed right through its very center, in order to obliterate—”
Ivor waved one of his hands. “No, no, I don’t mean the angle of the missile. I mean this camera angle. We’ll get to see everything!”
Angela nodded slowly. “That, uh, that is also true.”
Ivor rubbed his hands together, relishing the moment. “You know, it’s really great getting to kill your enemies. I certainly don’t take that for granted. But to be able to see the killing, live, on a huge screen? Now that, that’s luxury. That’s… uh….”
Ivor’s expression fell, as he noticed the Chesed starting to take a hard right, veering off of its previous course. Ivor stared at the screen, his eyes widening. “Wh— Wha—
What the fuck is happening out there?”
Angela stepped closer to the screen, her eyes narrowing. “It appears that they’re taking evasive maneuvers…”
Ivor and Angela watched as the Chesed turned its body away from the missile. The missile collided with a green-tinted force field on the Chesed’s left side, and then bounced away from the ship, careening into the empty void of space. The Chesed, its left side clearly badly damaged, continued along on its new flight path.
Ivor stared at the screen, his mouth agape. The helm was gripped with a tense silence.
Ivor turned towards Angela, an expression of disbelief on his face. “That— That’s not what I wanted to happen! At all!”
Angela took a deep breath. “No. Definitely not.”
Ivor’s expression flipped into one of intense anger. “H— How could this have happened?”
Angela stroked her chin. “Based on our calculations, they should not have been able to see that missile until it was too late. They changed their flight path far before the missile entered their visual range. They must have known. Somehow.”
Ivor tugged at his hair. “That—That’s impossible! Unless…”
Ivor crossed his arms and faced the screen. “I think we might have a rat. Angela, I want you to personally check all outgoing comms since we settled on the plan of attack. And if we find that any information slipped, I want the responsible parties in a fucking airlock.”
Angela nodded, her expression tense. “I’ll get right on it.” She brought her right hand to her forehead in a quick motion, saluting him, then walked away, leaving the helm.
Ivor stood before the screen, breathing deep breaths. He stared at the image of the Chesed, which was slowly making its way off of the screen. Ivor exhaled. “Head of navigation?”
A crew member stood up from his seat, hesitant. “Uh… yes, Captain?”
Ivor kept his eyes on the screen, watching the Chesed. “Do not lose that ship!”
CHAPTER TWENTY
Aboard the Chesed, Edge of Leviathon-Q Sector
Bentley leaned back in her seat at the navigation console, her eyes closed, breathing deliberately, waiting for death. The Chesed had stopped shaking as though the ship was about to fall to pieces, but the siren was still blaring, and through her eyelids she could still see the alternating flashes of the bridge’s red emergency lights. Don’t worry, she thought to herself. I mean, you will die, and that’s not great, but at least it’ll all be over soon…
At that very moment, the sirens cut out abruptly. Bentley opened her eyes tentatively. The emergency lights were off, too, and the bridge was almost entirely gripped in silence and stillness. The only exception was a flurry of movement in Bentley’s peripheral vision.
She turned to her left and looked over at Jade, who was still frantically toggling through various command windows, her eyes racing across the screen while her fingers raced across the console. Bentley couldn’t follow everything that Jade was doing, as Jade was moving very quickly through a wide variety of windows that seemed to touch on many of the ship’s internal functions. However, the images that minutes ago had been dominated by menacing warning signs in frightening shades of red and black were now replaced by sets of much more relaxed status up
dates in benign shades of blue and green. After a few more keystrokes, Jade took a deep breath, and let her head fall forward, as she collapsed into her own arms, exhausted.
Now the bridge was completely silent. Bentley gripped the armrests of her seat and started to stand. Her entire body ached, but she managed to get to her feet. Note to self, she thought. The path to feeling good in your body probably does not involve a lot of running around and screaming. Or at least not an excessive amount. Also, it’s probably best to avoid punching gods in the face, if it can be avoided.
She held her right hand, testing its mobility, despite the fact that it was still extremely sore. Not my best idea, I have to admit, she thought to herself. Still. If this is the price one must pay for punching Loco in the face, then it is a price I would very happily pay again.
Bentley turned towards the bridge’s main screen. It showed a familiar view: a wide expanse of open, dark space, with distant stars scattered in the background. Most importantly to Bentley, it was a view unblemished by any terrifying, expanding circles of fiery yellow. She smiled and breathed a sigh of relief.
Bentley walked to the edge of the command deck and faced the other members of the crew. They looked up at her, their faces showing a mix of awe and relief.
Loco was sitting on the floor, having been thrown off of his feet by the impact with the flaming mass. He sat there, propped up by his arms, and stared at Bentley, his face awash in incomprehension. He looked up at her and began to scratch his head. “How— How did you…”
Bentley gazed back at him. “How did I know that this was going to happen? This thing that I kept telling you was going to happen? Over and over and fucking over again?”
Loco nodded slowly. “Well. Yeah. How did you know?”
Bentley crossed her arms. “I don’t feel like I was being too fucking subtle about it. I told you how I knew. I saw it happen. I saw it in a dream.”
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