Harbinger

by Stephen Christiansen

  “What do I think?” Vincent asked holding the doctor pinned against the wall. “I think you talk too much.”

  Both of Vincent’s arms shifted and caught hold of Richard’s prosthetic arm. Vincent put his full body weight behind his hold as he held back the synthetic limb. The power of that arm was enough to hold them both to a standstill, at least for the moment. But that moment was all Vincent needed.

  Quickly Vincent brought his knee straight up and into the doctor’s groin as hard as he could. As soon as Richard doubled over in pain, Vincent brought his knee up again this time into the doctor’s face. A doubled handed fist blow to the back of Richard’s neck sent the doctor sprawling to the ground.

  Before Richard had a chance to react, Vincent fell upon him as quickly as he could. He needed to put this man down before he had a chance to fully use that prosthetic arm of his to its fullest ability. His knee came down onto the doctor’s back while his hands reached for Richard’s chin. He pulled back while his knee pushed down.

  Richard tried to struggle the best that he could. His left arm tried to push him upward in an attempt to overpower the man that was threatening to rip his head off. Yet it was no use, he simply couldn’t get the leverage. In one last desperate venture, he failed. All he heard was a loud snap before all went dark and his body fell limp.

  “Vincent!”

  The security officer pulled himself up off of the dead corpse. He thought that the doctor was the last of the others on board. He hadn’t expected Eric to still be alive. Now things just got complicated. He turned to the new arrival. He was surprised to not only see Eric standing at the far end of the hallway, but Eric was also wearing a spacesuit with his helmet in one hand and a sonic blaster in another. He had to hand it to the young wannabe; he was starting to use his head. Unfortunately, it was coming far too late.

  “It was in self defense. He came after me, twice. Who knows who else …?”

  “I’ve seen the footage, Vincent. It was you who killed Peter.” Eric leveled the sonic blaster towards Vincent’s midsection.

  ‘Aim at center mass.’ The voice came from the past. His drill sergeant was giving him pointers on how to fire a weapon. ‘All other body parts will be moving except center mass. That’s your best target.’

  “Why did you do it, Vincent?”

  Vincent shook his head. “You don’t want to know.”

  “What’s in the cargo hold? What’s so important that you’re willing to kill to keep it a secret?”

  “I’m not at liberty to discuss that and you are not at liberty to receive that information.”

  “You do realize that once I put you down and get you into stasis, I’ll find out.”

  “I can’t let you do that.”

  “Oh, and what…”

  Eric’s statement was interrupted by a sudden jolt that rocked the ship. The vessel shifted to one side and then another, tossing both individuals up against the walls.

  Red lights started to flash and the area was lit up with eerie shadows as the lights blinked on and off. Its strobe-like effect dazzled both Eric and Vincent and it was hard to see what was going on. All motion came at their assaulted senses in blurs and mixed images.

  With the sudden rocking of the ship and the new flashing warning came something else to assault their senses. The fallen conduit pipes smashed against one wall and then another giving an echo that bounced throughout the corridor. On top of this there was that feminine voice that seemed to give out warnings of doom as if she enjoyed the sound of her voice and was pleasured in the knowledge that she could scare the living daylights out of anyone.

  “Warning...Coolant at critical levels. Singularity engine degradation. Destruction immanent.”

  It was Vincent who had recovered first. Before Eric was able to pull himself up off of the floor, he saw Vincent in motion running toward him. With the flashing lights going on and off, Eric was only able to catch glimpses of the senior security officer. Without hesitation he was able to squeeze off two shots of the sonic blaster.

  The sound of the shots echoed through the hallway and only seemed to add to the already building chaos that had surrounded them. Pieces of coolant spilling conduit and pieces of broken monitors went flying as they were struck with the sonic blast. But the intended target, Vincent, had not been hit.

  Vincent’s body collided with Eric’s and the two of them tumbled through the hall. Both of them fought for control of the blaster. Punches were thrown. Eric felt his nose crack under one blow while Vincent was sure that his eye would be swollen under another.

  In the struggle for the weapon, the two men were able to discharge it several times. The air rippled with the concussion force. The hall echoed with the sound of the blasts. Several fallen ship parts were blasted further down the hall.

  Vincent came up one more time and put everything he had into one final punch. He had to pull the sonic blaster away from the younger security officer. The blow landed hard and it was just enough. Eric had been dazed just long enough to momentarily let go of the blaster.

  Eric knew that he had lost his only chance to take down the more experienced security officer, but he wasn’t going to just lie down and watch as Vincent struck. It was time to run and find a better time to take care of him. First, he needed some space.

  Eric pulled his knee back and shoved his leg forward. His foot connected hard against Vincent’s body. It wasn’t enough to do a whole lot of damage, but it was enough to catch Vincent off guard and send him off balance.

  As quickly as he could, Eric rolled to his right, sprang to his feet and ran. He gave a zigzag pattern down the hall knowing that between his movements and the flashing lights, he would be a difficult target to shoot. His suspicions had proved to be accurate.

  Eric could hear the sound waves echo from down the hall and ripple through the air. Pieces of the ship were hit and were flung in all directions. The walls were hit and the sound waves ricocheted off of them.

  Eric continued to run as quickly as he could. He needed to put enough distance between him and Vincent. His arms pumped as he gained speed. His legs were pushed as fast as they could. He could hear Vincent’s footsteps behind him, even over the constant computer warnings and the sonic blaster shots. He rounded one corner and then another only to find…

  ...a dead end.

  Quickly Eric looked back. If Vincent was far enough back then maybe he could backtrack and find a different corridor. But that wasn’t the case. Vincent was far enough down the hall to block all other routes. Yet, he didn’t advance any further as if to let him know that Vincent not only had the upper hand but that he could take his time in relishing it.

  ‘Good,’ Eric thought, ‘I hope he takes the time to gloat. It will give me time to…”

  “You were a good soldier,” Vincent started. “Perhaps some other time I could have known you better, perhaps even liked you. But things are just too complicated.”

  Eric was about to make his move. Vincent had started his boasting statement and the only thing he had going for him was that sonic blaster. If he could rush Vincent then there was a possibility of reaching him without being struck. He never had the chance.

  Suddenly Vincent touched a control panel on his right and before Eric knew what was happening, a section of the wall between him and Vincent closed. At first, Eric had no idea what it was but after the initial shock, his mind was able to take in the features. This was a portal, a door and he was in an airlock chamber.

  A new warning started to come over the ship's intercom.

  “Warning...Airlock controls initiated. All personnel must leave the airlock chamber.”

  “Warning...Coolant at critical levels. Singularity engine degradation. Destruction immanent.”

  “Warning...Airlock controls initiated. All personnel must leave the airlock chamber.”

  Eric ran toward the glass window of the closed portal. He could see Vincent start to punch in the sequence to the second airlock door behind him. With all of his
strength, he pounded on the door as if his feeble attempts would be able to knock it down. When that didn’t work, he tried to bang his helmet on the glass. With any luck he could break the glass and the controls would shut off. It was no use. Unfortunately he now knew, despite everything that he did and everything that he said, Vincent wasn’t going to stop.

  “Vincent! Vincent! No! Don’t do this! Please! You’ve got to listen! It’s space sickness! We can work this out! We can…”

  The hiss of the door behind him caught his attention. For one brief moment Eric stopped in complete terror. There was nothing he could do but turn and watch as the airlock opened and the cold, airless vacuum of space rushed in.

  Chapter: 40

  The vacuum of space hit Eric like a fist. It felt as if someone had hit his chest hard and released all of the oxygen in his lungs. He could feel the air being sucked out of this room and he knew that he would go with it into the great, cold void.

  Like he felt the last time back in the railgun room when it had a hull breach, he could feel the water in his body start to turn to steam. The lack of pressure was turning his body’s water to gas. His form was starting to bloat.

  Eric knew that he would die from lack of oxygen well before the coldness of space set in, so he really didn’t need to worry about the cold. However, in that split second, Eric almost had to laugh at the absurdity. He was going to die.

  All of this registered in his mind in a fraction of a second. His adrenaline had kicked in and time seemed to have stopped. However, in reality his thinking had just sped up. It was also in that fraction of a second that he understood what to do and knew that he had very little time to do it.

  As his body start to tumble out of the airlock, Eric activated the controls to his magnetic boots through his gloves. It wouldn’t have mattered if he got his helmet on first only to tumble through space and never be rescued. There was no one out here to rescue him and his only hope of survival now lay with hanging on to this ship that was already half destroyed and was currently in the process of creating a black hole.

  Eric twisted with his tumble so that his momentum could carry his feet toward a part of the ship’s hull. Once he was close enough, the powerful magnets in his boots were able to catch hold of the metal frame and even though he was upside down he wasn’t going anywhere, at least for now.

  Quickly Eric put his helmet on. He knew that he would need it eventually, perhaps on the fourth planet or perhaps if he encountered a compromised room. He just hadn’t thought that he would need it this soon and under these conditions. With a slight twist the helmet locked into place.

  Eric took a few moments to catch his breath. He had to be careful not to hyperventilate and use his much needed and precious oxygen. He needed this air long enough to find a way back inside. He also needed to take a few moments to let his suit self pressurize. These suits had the ability to increase their pressure, slowly, once the helmet was put on and when there was a lack of pressure detected. It could also self repair small punctures, but again, it was over time. He hoped the later part of the suit’s ability wouldn’t be needed.

  Once his suit stabilized, Eric slowly made his way back toward the door that had closed off his access to the ship. He was able to shut off one boot, move forward, and then turn it back on before repeating the process with the other boot. Walking was slow and difficult, but he made progress.

  At the portal, Eric found the control panel. If he could find the correct sequence of commands then he could close the door behind him, stabilize this room, and finally open the door and he would be back aboard the Harbinger.

  With each command code that was put in, Eric received the same error with the message “access denied”.

  ‘Damn, he locked me out. It wasn’t just good enough for him to flush me out into space, he had to go and lock me…’

  The idea struck and interrupted his line of thinking. Vincent may have been able to program the electronic doors, but there were other places along this ship that would allow him assess and didn’t have electronic doors and he knew of one in particular. The route would take him to the other side of the ship and the journey would be long, slow, and arduous. He would be pushing the time limit that the ship had before it imploded, but it was his only chance to get aboard one of the landing ships.

  Eric turned and slowly made his way out of the airlock chamber. One foot after another he made his way. Each time he wanted to move he had to release one magnet, move his foot, activate it again, and repeat the process with the other. Over and over he continued, one foot after another, one magnet turned on while one turned off.

  Although there wasn’t any weight in space, there was the artificial gravity that the ship was creating. Then there was the bulkiness of the spacesuit and the thick magnetic boots that Eric was wearing. With all of this combined, Eric felt as if he were trying to walk through waist deep of mud. This was something he had to do in basic training while being weighted down with all of his gear. He never thought that such training would ever come in handy, now he had proven to be wrong.

  Time passed as he continued to make his progress a few feet at a time. It would have been a lot faster if he had been able to tether himself and float across the ship, but even if he had a tether, there were too many sharp, jagged points where the ship had been damaged that could easily cut his cord and send him flying through space.

  There were a couple of holes in the ship that had degraded the ship’s integrity. Where these were closer than the one that he had in mind, there were two reasons why he didn’t choose these and upon closer inspection his suspicions had proven to be accurate. Either the holes were too small and both he and his suit wouldn’t fit or the metal around them was too jagged. Although his suit would repair some small punctures, these metallic jagged edges would not only slice through the spacesuit like it was tissue paper, it would also tear though his flesh, muscle and bones. No, he needed a safer way to get into the ship and he stayed with his initial route.

  More time passed and Eric’s muscles started to ache. His legs were burning from being overworked and started to feel like lead. He moved his arms in a desperate attempt to keep his legs moving, but soon they also became victim of fatigue. Sweat started to bead across his forehead and his heart started to race.

  Step after step, one at a time. Each footstep clanked on the metal surface of the ship. Each step was carefully made to avoid damaged parts of the hull. Each stride was measured perfectly as to circumnavigate around parts of ship that stood in his way.

  Breathing was becoming labored with each passing moment. Eric knew that this was detrimental to, not only his health, but his time as well. If he tried to breathe less and tried to conserve his oxygen then his muscles suffered, the more lightheaded he became, and the harder it was to think. Yet, if he didn’t conserve his oxygen then he might not make it to his spot. He wanted to hurry and pick up his pace to make up that time, but in doing so it would mean that he would burn through his oxygen that much faster.

  As if to try to take his mind off of his situation, Eric looked up at the stars. He didn’t stop moving as his steps continued one right after another, nor did he take his mind off of his route. He continued to make sure that each step was sure and that the path around half of the circumference of the ship was precise, he didn’t want to take any more steps than he needed to.

  He had to admit that the stars were an overwhelming sight out here. They were all around him and he felt lost. There wasn’t an up or a down anymore. There was just a sky full of stars that tumbled and swirled…

  Eric’s knee buckled. He had been too distracted and too lost in the stars to focus on the timing of pushing the buttons in his gloves. His magnetic boot didn’t dislodge when he thought it would and he was thrown forward. Just as he had, he pressed the wrong button and the wrong boot became dislodged.

  Quickly Eric pushed both buttons simultaneously and locked himself in place. His body stopped moving forward but the damage had been done. T
he exhaustion upon his body had knocked the wind out of him and the time he took to recover had only depleted some of the precious time that he had left.

  Between gasps of air, Eric looked at his oxygen levels. They had dropped considerably since he had last looked at them and he wasn’t sure that he was going to make it.

  There was nothing else to do. Either he could give up now, release the magnetic boots, and drift hopelessly into space or he could keep going. Although his chances were slimmer than before, it was still the only chance he had and he would fight until his last breath before giving up.

  With renewed vigor, Eric started his trek once again, one step at a time. He picked up one foot then put it down, picked up his other foot then put it down. One by one, step by step, he slowly made his progress across the ship’s outer hull.

  As Eric rounded yet another side of the ship, he was able to see his destination. From here there seemed to be more damage than he remembered. The sides of the metal hull were ripped open as if someone had taken a can opener to the area and tore it like paper. Jagged edges grew up from the metal plates of the ship and Eric almost stood in awe over the power that it took to create such a destructive force.