by K C Luck
The next meteor was the size of a gallon of milk and it hit Catherine’s spaceship so hard it nearly knocked her out of her chair. “Shit!” she yelled as she fought to keep the craft from going into a spin while a rainbow of different lights started flashing on the console. An alarm sounded and it was followed by a screeching voice so loud it made Catherine wince.
“Hull damage warning,” the voice blared. “Structure integrity at 63%.” Pressing a button to silence the alarm, Catherine did not like the sound of that news and realized her plan to keep flying on to her aunt’s planet was not going to work. Now she would be lucky to make it back to Prospo and she knew it. Pressing a button on the dash, she brought back up the orbital positioning device. The little green dot she knew was the ED-90 was just starting to cross through the farthest edge of the planet Taswa’s orbit. Unfortunately, landing there was not an option. Everyone in the solar system knew Taswa was uninhabited because it was not much more than a frozen hunk of revolving ice. Even landing there to wait out the meteor shower was out of the question. The environment was basically a perpetual blizzard. Even the best pilots dismissed Taswa as a place to layover.
With no other options, Catherine sadly started a slow turn to reverse direction back to Prospo. With a little luck, she would get back on planet undetected and then be able to consider her options. Although the idea of getting arrested was not appealing, dying in a meteor shower was even less so. Just as she was thinking about her options, a series of six more small meteors pounded off the side of her spaceship in rapid succession. They shook the ED-90 to its core and the alarms sounded all over again. “Hull damage warning. Structural integrity at 44%” the voice screeched. Slapping the button to silence the alarms, Catherine bit her lip and did her best to ignore the reality of her situation. There is no way I’m going to get blasted to bits by some pieces of rock up here after all I have been through, she thought. No way!
The biggest meteor yet slammed into her windshield and this time it did leave a hairline crack. Before the warning voice began to blare again, Catherine knew the “structural integrity” number just went down. A lot. “I have to land,” she whispered as the reality of what was happening finally settled in. She let her eyes drift back to the holographic map. Right in the center was a glowing blue planet. Taswa. If she made a dash for it, there was a chance she could get there and out of the path of the meteor shower before she was pummeled to bits. What happened when she got there, she had no guess except that it was probably not going to be a good time. Turning her ship again, she locked in the coordinates for Taswa and pushed the rocket boosters all the way to high. The sound of tiny rocks made a tinkling symphony across the ship’s hull as the meteor shower gained momentum. Catherine knew it really would come down to her making it to Taswa before a rock big enough to breach the ship hit her. She was in the race of her life.
Catherine watched the blue planet rapidly grow bigger in her windshield. A quick glance at her map told her she was within minutes of the planet’s atmosphere. As if pushing the small spaceship along through sheer willpower, the ED-90 closed the distance in a hurry while the ship’s alarms blared out warning after warning. Catherine had stopped bothering to silence them. She was committed to her course and she knew it. It was Taswa or bust. Now she knew she would just have to hope someone would bother to come looking for her, which seemed unlikely. There was no one who gave a damn about her. Catherine felt tears threaten and she shook her head angrily. Feeling sorry for yourself won’t get you through this, Catherine Porter, she thought. Now hit the damn mayday button and let’s ride this out. Reaching out, she punched the large red button with the white letters SOS on it. It immediately started to flash, but Catherine hardly noticed with all of the other blinking warning indicators in front of her. Instead, she put all her focus on the quickly advancing blue planet in front of her.
“60 seconds to entry,” a different, much more calm voice said over the speaker. Catherine appreciated the change. It was nice to have something sound confident. Flexing her hands, she took a series of long deep breaths to calm herself. She knew her piloting experience was crap and the idea of blasting into a blizzard made her heart nearly stop with fear, but Catherine also knew she had zero other options. “45 seconds to entry,” the voice declared again. Catherine licked her lips and tried to swallow but her mouth was beyond dry. “30 seconds.” Taswa filled her windshield now. It was actually quite pretty, with its swirls of blue in a dozen different hues all laced with white. This won’t be so bad, she thought and then the ED-90 punched through the cloud cover and into the storm.
Fierce winds grabbed at Catherine’s spaceship and tried to slam it to the ground, but she fought with all her strength to stay airborne. Not that I have any idea what way is up and what way is down anymore, she thought. All she could see out the window was white. Only by watching the instrument panel could she keep on a semi-level course as she whipped along, occasionally seeing a black outcropping of rock whizz by her. The question now was where and how to land. Her holographic map was proving to be about useless as it only showed fields of white glaciers on all sides. Then she had an idea. What if I just fly around here in circles for a few hours? And let the meteor shower pass? It would use up more of her precious fuel than she wanted, but under the circumstances, it seemed like a minor problem. If she had to arrive at Untas on fumes, so be it. She could wait for the all-clear message and then return to space to finish her journey. Catherine almost kicked herself for not thinking of it sooner.
As she continued to cruise along being buffeted by the wind and feeling pellets of ice spray over her windshield, Catherine began to think Taswa was not really so bad. Certainly not a place to live, but not the horror it was made out to be by pilot friends of her father's. Mostly, it was just cold. Catherine likened it to being stuck in a subzero freezer and turned up the dial for the heater to take the chill off the inside of the cabin. Feeling the heating elements kick in, she let herself relax a little. The last hour had taken a lot out of her and she could feel the adrenaline from it all just now starting to drain from her body. Hopefully, the worst part of the trip was behind her. As she twisted her head from side-to-side to work out the kink which had developed there during the stress of flying through the meteors, Catherine saw the flashing SOS. Feeling almost embarrassed at having turned it on in her near panic, she leaned forward to shut it off. Just as her fingers grazed the white letters, the ship suddenly swung hard left and Catherine had to grab the wheel again with both hands. What was that? she thought just as the ship was pounded with more wind. The storm appeared to be picking up steam and Catherine did not like it. Is the meteor shower still going on? It felt like it might be time to leave Taswa after all.
As if hearing her thoughts, the blizzard roared even louder and rocked the small spacecraft hard from right to left, as if trying to shake it to pieces. Catherine fought the wheel as best she could, but she quickly realized she was no longer controlling what was happening. This is not good, she thought and peered as hard as she could through the windshield to try and see what was ahead. There was nothing but white. But wait. What is that? Something was starting to materialize out of the blowing snow. It was massive and edged in gray and in a flash, she realized it was a mountain of granite. Panicked, Catherine wrenched on the wheel to try and pull up, but it was too late.
The ED-90 flew headlong into it, and only by luck and her last attempt to steer did the craft avoid being smashed to pieces immediately. Instead, it glanced to the side and, plowing up plumes of snow, slid along the mountain face. Catherine could hear the wrenching of metal as the small ship, her one last hope of getting anywhere safe, was torn apart around her. For a moment, she wondered what she could try next, but then it did not matter. The craft came to a final collision and slammed to a stop. Catherine was thrown forward and her head hit the console. She had time for one fleeting thought. I’m going to die... but does that really matter? She suddenly did not think so and then everything went black.
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CHAPTER 5
NAT
Nat was settling in to enjoy a good glass of red wine and the next book in the classic storyteller Sue Grafton’s private eye series when the SOS alarm came over the ship’s speaker system. Anytime a distress call was set off in a fifty-million-mile radius of a Space Ranger ship, all available pilots were notified. When Nat went to check the monitor to see the location of the mayday, she froze. It was at the center of the reported meteor shower and near the cusp of the ice planet Taswa. Although it was possible she was wrong, Nat somehow knew in her heart the ship in trouble belonged to the beautiful young woman in the runaway ED-90. In a split second, she made the decision to go after her.
Slipping into the pilot’s chair, she fired up her P-527 spacecraft and radioed Prospo’s aviation tower while buckling into her harness. “Control, this is Space Ranger Captain Natalie Reynolds requesting clearance for takeoff to answer a distress call,” she said. There was a pause and Nat knew her request was causing some discussion up in the tower, but she did not wait. Slowly she accelerated the thrusters and lifted off of the tarmac.
“Captain, please be advised a Level Orange meteor shower warning is in effect,” Control finally responded. “Leaving Prospo airspace is not recommended.”
“Affirmative, Control,” Nat said. “I am aware and I acknowledge your recommendation. Am I clear for exit?” There was another pause and while Nat felt her frustration starting to rise, she used the time to move her ship into position to blast out of the Prospo atmosphere. If they don’t answer with a yes in the next ten seconds, I’m going anyway, she thought. It would get her in hot water with command later, but in the moment, she did not care. She knew she had to get to the girl before it was too late. Nothing else mattered.
"Captain, you are clear," Control said. "Godspeed." Nat nodded with satisfaction and, throwing caution to the wind, pulled back on the thrusters to blast out into space. The P-527 shuddered a little with the sudden intense acceleration, but Nat handled it easily. As the blackness of open space enveloped her, she brought up her navigation system and checked the last location of the distress beacon. It blinked faintly from within the Taswa atmosphere and Nat swore under her breath. She was well aware Taswa was a hostile place with nonstop artic-like conditions. Chances of survival if stranded there long term were next to zero. It left Nat no other option than to use her hyperdrive booster to close the distance fast enough. Only there was one big problem. Flying at that speed through a meteor shower was a good way to kill yourself. Even hitting a small meteor could rip through any ship's hull. It would take impossibly good pilot skill and a whole lot of luck to make it through and get to Taswa in one piece. Fortunately, Nat was an impossibly good pilot. Now I just need to count on the luck part, she thought. And I am long overdue for some of that.
Typing in the coordinates for the planet Taswa, Nat saw the edge of the meteor shower quickly approaching. It was a wide swath of tannish-brown dust and debris slinging through open space and so far, nothing looked big enough to be a real problem. Her goal was to blast through the area fast enough to miss being hammered to bits by too many rocks and make her approach to the quickly growing blue orb off to her left. Once launching to hyperdrive speed, she calculated being at the beacon site within eight minutes. As she put her hand on the throttle and prepared herself for the physical shock of such rapid acceleration, she heard a transmission come through from Space Ranger Command. "Catwoman, this is Base, do you copy?" Base said. Nat considered for a moment of not answering. She knew what they were going to tell her and the result would put her in a horrible position. Still, her training and loyalty left her no option but to respond.
“Base, this is Catwoman, go ahead,” Nat said.
“Catwoman, we show you on radar and please be advised you are in danger of entering a Level Orange meteor shower,” Base said. Nat rolled her eyes. No shit, she thought.
“I see it, Base. I am responding to the SOS alarm,” she said.
“Another unit has been deployed from the far side of Taswa, Catwoman,” Base explained.
“They won’t get there in time,” Nat said. There was a pause and Nat knew she did not have time for a conversation right now.
“Neither will you,” Base finally responded. “You are ordered to reverse your position and return to Prospo.”
“Base, I am engaging hyperdrive. I will be at the beacon in under seven minutes,” she said. “I will report in when I have reached the crash site.”
“Catwoman, you will not engage hyperdrive and you will return to Prospo. Be advised, that is an order,” Base said. Then the voice on the comm link softened. “Nat, this is suicide. Just turn around.” Nat considered it. She had no reason to risk her life for the woman on the video. They had never met and there was nothing connecting them to each other. So what am I doing? she wondered. Why do I feel such a need to rescue her? Nat shook her head in frustration. No matter what she thought, the intense feeling inside her insisted she find the woman. Somehow, she knew it was her destiny.
"Sorry, Base, but I have to do this. Catwoman, over and out," she said and shut off the comm link so she could focus. Taking a deep breath, she grasped the throttle once again and before she could chicken out, yanked it backward. Instantly, Nat was pushed back into her seat as the P-527 surged forward. She gritted her teeth as the force of acceleration shook the entire ship. Rocks began to strike the hull and sounded like hail on a tin roof. There was no way to avoid it and Nat could only hope nothing too big caught up with her. She looked at the digital clock on the dash and knew she would be hitting Taswa's orbit in less than two minutes. Come on, baby, Nat thought as she rode the ship forward. 90 seconds and I’m out of this. Then she saw it. A meteor the size of a cow spinning end-over-end and directly in the way of her trajectory. Nat had two choices. Try to steer around it or shoot it with her blasters, hoping to break it up small enough that the remnants did not puncture her windshield. With only nanoseconds to decide, Nat activated the P-527’s space cannon and pulled the trigger. Twin energy blasts shot out from under her ship and struck the meteor dead center. Nat watched the rock explode seconds before she raced through what was left of it.
Coming out the other side, Nat blinked with surprise when she realized she was alive. Letting out a whoop of excitement, Nat grinned and rode her spaceship as it looped around into the relative safety of Taswa's atmosphere. The key word was relative. As soon as Nat punched through the cloud cover, icy gusts of almost hurricane-speed winds ripped at her craft. The entire vessel shook and Nat could see nothing through the windshield glass. Snow and ice clouded the air and left her no option but to rely on her advanced navigation systems to get her safely to the distress beacon. Following the blinking dot, Nat wrestled to keep the P-527 airborne and within a minute she was over the downed ship. I did it, she thought with extreme satisfaction. Now if only I am in time. Using infrared imagery, Nat scanned the ED-90 wreckage. A single faint red blob appeared and Nat’s heart surged with relief to know the woman was at least still alive.
Moving her ship as close as possible to the ED-90 and then setting it to autohover in place, Nat unbuckled and quickly put on her spacesuit. She grabbed some medical supplies and an emergency blanket and, with not a moment to spare, she opened the hatch. Dropping the ramp, she jogged out into the open. The wind was incredible and at first impact, nearly sent her sprawling in the snow. Leaning into it, Nat used all her strength to shuffle along to the downed wreck. What she saw filled her with fear. A gash had ripped through the center of the craft and snow mixed with ice was blowing into the cabin. The inside would be at subzero temperatures by now and Nat knew the girl had to be half frozen if not dead. Still, she pushed on and climbed in through the torn opening. It cut the wind some, which helped, and Nat turned on her headlamp to see the interior of the ship better. The ED-90 was as much an old piece of shit on the inside as the out. For the life of her, Nat could not understand how the thing could still fly and vowed to find the person who let
the young woman try to travel off-planet in it and kick his ass.
Within a minute, Nat was in the cockpit and saw the girl slumped over the controls of the craft. Her face was pale with a hint of blue around her lips. The wind had blown a thin layer of snow and ice over her body like a blanket. Nat did not hesitate. She immediately wrapped the girl in the emergency blanket and picked her up, not even stopping to check if the woman was still alive and made her way back to the exit. As soon as she stepped out, the Taswa blizzard threatened to rip the girl from her arms and Nat had to battle every step back to the P-527, which was rocking precariously in the gale. Thankful to make it, Nat climbed back inside her ship and used her elbow to hit the button to close the ramp. Even though her starship was unsteady, it was a huge relief to be back onboard and safe. Now I just need to save this woman, she thought.
Nat carried her through the craft to the small sleeping quarters and set her gently on the bed. Pulling off her own spacesuit, Nat assessed the situation. She was not sure how severely the girl was injured aside from the small cut on her forehead, but it was clear the woman was nearing, if not already, slipping into a hypothermic state. The key now was to raise the girl's body temperature as soon as she could, and this would require removing her freezing wet clothes. Don’t think about it, Nat thought as she went to the cabinet and took out scissors. This is just a rescue and I’m an experienced captain in the Space Ranger Corps. Nat turned back to the woman and forced herself to be all business. Using the scissors, she cut away the emergency blanket and peeled it back. Next, she slipped the blade under the woman’s shirt and sliced it down the middle. The fabric fell away and Nat realized the woman was braless. Nat forced her eyes away and, with shaking hands, pulled off the girl’s boots and socks before focusing on removing her pants. It was difficult to cut through the thick fabric and knowing precious time was slipping away, Nat tossed the scissors aside and gripping the cloth, yanked with all her strength to tear the pants apart and off the girl’s body.