“Sure,” Silky lied. He’d seen as many situations ruined by human instincts as made better.
“What’s going on with the Hydrogenists?” Bishop asked. “They aren’t slowing.”
“One second… Okay, Bartimaeus can now answer that question for you. Kyralla, don’t get overeager. I'm giving you high probability estimates. Wait till we hit before coming in. Check the readings carefully. If the shuttle explodes, and you are—”
With tremendous irony, a boom rocked the shuttle as the port engine unexpectedly blew. "Son of a chippy maker!”
Siv, Mitsuki, and the other two had finished putting on their suits but hadn’t reached their seats yet. The blast tossed them around the crew cabin as the ship spun like a tea plate in a tempest.
Eventually, Galen flew into Siv who helped him into the seat beside him. Mitsuki crawled into the seat across from Siv, and Tamzin thrust herself into the next one over. Terror on their faces, Galen's especially, they strapped themselves in. Silky had wanted them in the last seats in the back, expecting a nose-first crash. But now, whirling wildly, the midsection seats seemed as good as any.
“Don’t panic. Everyone on the shuttle is still fine," Silky said as calmly as he could manage. "Form a recovery team. I'll keep you apprised of our landing estimates. Extraction could potentially take too long so you may need to bail on us to escape the—"
“That’s not happening,” Oona stated stubbornly. “We are going to rescue you.”
“Your choice,” Silky replied. “But do not do anything stupid with your powers again!”
The shuttle entered the moon’s atmosphere. “Time to impact, forty-three seconds, people.”
Mitsuki nodded sedately. Tamzin closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Siv squeezed the armrests.
“What are our chances this time, Silkster?”
“About the same as last time, sir.”
Siv laughed. “That bad, huh?”
“Or good, sir.”
“How do you figure that?”
“We’ve survived crummy odds this far, sir. So it’s really all about perspective.”
“Maybe, Silkster. Maybe. But something’s off. I can’t describe it, but I can feel it in my gut. And my guardian amulet’s heating up."
“All of you is heating, sir. You’re just understandably worried, and it’s making your guts warble. We have more than enough trouble. Don’t try to borrow more.”
The door leading to the cockpit glowed a fiery red.
Tamzin tried to wipe her brow but instead bumped her hand against the faceplate of her suit. "It's getting hot in here.”
"Nothing we can do about it," Mitsuki said. She had it the best since her skin was naturally heat and radiation resistant.
The shuttle tumbled awkwardly through the atmosphere like a fish on land, only in the air. Silky cursed to himself. That sounded stupid. Sometimes metaphors and similes failed him. Such human things those. He did his best to guide the shuttle’s thrusters, updating the steering algorithms constantly, rewriting entire lines of code for the subroutines nanosecond by nanosecond, but there was little those tiny jet engines could do given the circumstances.
“Brace yourself, everyone! Impact in five…four…three…two…one…”
With a heavy starboard lean, the nose of the shuttle crashed into the ground at a thirty-five-degree angle. Voices cried out as a boom rent the air. Bodies tested their harnesses as they thrust upward and to the side only to slam back into the seats. Metal tore, and debris flew as the front of the ship crumpled in like a tin can under a heavy boot.
50
Silky
Amidst the dust, smoke, and electrical interference, Silky tried to make sense of the situation, but the static made that difficult, and the ScanField-3 was offline.
It was cycling power, so it wasn't dead. ‘Nevolence, he hoped that scanner array was okay. Losing it would be like a human going partially deaf and blind. He'd come to depend so much on it that he didn't know how to get by only using a chippy's standard sensing capabilities, albeit those of the most highly advanced model ever constructed.
The ScanField-3 had originally belonged to Eyana, and everything she had owned, everything that she had touched, was precious to him. As was Siv, who was thankfully alive after the crash. That was the most important thing. He couldn’t lose the boy. He just couldn’t.
The life-scan reading indicated Siv had suffered extensive bruising, a cracked rib, and a minor concussion. Given the severity of the impact, that was an excellent result. He was conscious but still in that phase where he was dazed and confused.
Mitsuki was alive, which delighted him. Galen made it through, which was good for the mission and the girls. Tamzin, unfortunately, had survived as well. He could’ve done without her.
A shard of steel protruded from the wall, penetrating Mitsuki's right wing membrane. Her wings poked out from the environmental suit by design. Her faceplate was cracked but hadn't failed. She favored her left arm, cradling it across her chest, but he couldn't detect a break of any kind.
Blood specks dotted the interior of Tamzin's faceplate, probably caused by the dent in the side of her helmet. She gripped her right shoulder and winced.
Galen's right foot was pinned between two metal plates jutting up from the floor. A shard broken off from one had sliced into his right calf, and blood flowed out from the suit. Silky couldn't yet tell how bad that wound was or how badly Galen was pinned.
The anemic, red emergency lights flickered once…twice…then gave up, abandoning them to utter darkness. Silky deployed the spy-flies to illuminate the compartment with their emergency LEDs and to gather more data on the crunched-in cabin with its bulging walls, cracked ceiling, and injured passengers.
He attempted to connect with the Outworld Ranger, but with the ScanField-3 offline, he couldn't reach them. If they followed his instructions, they should be landing nearby soon. He had no idea how far off course the shuttle was, but it definitely hadn't crashed in the midst of the broad open plain he'd planned on. The shuttle had struck rock or earth several times as it crashed.
“Silkster?”
“With you, sir.”
“Everyone alive?”
“And whole, sir, if a little worse for the wear…yet again.”
He delivered a status report to Siv, Mitsuki, and Tamzin. Then he sent another reboot command to the ScanField-3. His hopes rose as the operating system initialized but then collapsed when it crashed before loading. He started a detailed analysis. He couldn’t see any external damage, so the cause was either internal damage or a firmware problem.
Siv triggered the release for his seat’s harness then made the mistake of stretching. He drew in a sharp breath and tears welled in his eyes. “Shit-damn. Are you sure I’m not hurt worse?”
“Every part of you from your toenails to your spleen to your skull absorbed kinetic energy from that impact, sir. That’s going to smart. Be thankful you’re not suffering from internal bleeding and a severe concussion. And by the way, shit-damn…good one, sir.”
Siv scooted to the edge of his seat, drawing in another shallow breath. “Mitsuki, do you need some help getting free?”
“I’d appreciate it,” she gasped. “I don’t want to make the tear worse. My wings heal slowly."
Siv shambled across and knelt to examine the puncture. Silky guided one of the spy-flies over to assist. “Even using my smart-lenses, I can’t see much. The drone just isn’t putting out enough light. Silkster, can you enhance the image for me.”
“You’re seeing the enhanced image, sir.”
“There’s a c|slate and a flashlight in my—” Mitsuki cursed. "I left my pack in the cockpit. Guess it’s smashed now.”
“Actually, Wings, it flew out into space during the second explosive decompression.”
“You could’ve told me it wasn’t secured, Circuits.”
It was always the same with his human friends. They had no appreciation for all that he was doing, and so they
thought he should know everything. "I'm not omniscient."
Tamzin stumbled over to Galen and stroked his cheek tenderly. "You okay?"
"Banged up…again,” he moaned. “My foot’s stuck and…I think Tekk Reaper torture would have done me in faster.”
“Don’t talk like that.” She squatted to check on his foot, and Silky brought a drone in close to give her light and get a more accurate reading for himself.
"We’re going to need to cut it free," Silky told her. “And carefully. There’s a torch in the toolkit, in the cabinet where you got the environmental suits. I’ll send you the data from my scan.”
“I’m not an idiot. I can cut him free with my chippy’s help.”
“Sure. Go ahead. You’ll figure out that his foot is turned sharply to the side when you cut into it. You’ll probably also discover that your chippy didn’t know that.”
“Fine," she growled as she limped toward the supply cabinet. “Send me your data.”
Siv further brightened and enhanced the live feed Silky provided him in his HUD. Silky didn’t see how that was supposed to help. It just made the image blurry. If he had more time or resources to spare, he would’ve animated an accurate overlay.
"You're not going to enjoy this, Mits.”
“I didn’t expect to, Sivvy.”
“We can pull you forward carefully and try to match this jagged piece to the hole, or we can take the time to cut the end off and maybe—”
“Is there more than one torch?” she asked.
“Just the one,” Silky told her.
“Then we don’t have time. Galen has to be cut free. I don’t, and I’ll live.”
Siv eased her forward. She gritted her teeth and groaned as the piece tore through more of her wing membrane. Luckily, the tear didn’t cross any veins, nerves, or tendons.
“How did your wing end up spread out like this?” Siv asked her.
“Force of the crash, I guess." She glanced around. “What now? Tamzin, do you need help?”
A fiery glow ignited from the torch. “No.” She lowered the torch then paused and glanced back at Mitsuki and softly muttered, “Thank you.”
Silky filed away his surprise at Tamzin being a decent human. “I suggest trying to open the door.”
Siv and Mitsuki stumbled to the rear of the compartment, stepping over a fallen beam that would have crushed their skulls if they’d sat where Silky wanted them to.
Life on the knife’s edge. Between Siv’s Shadowslip missions and Eyana’s Empathic Services deployments, Silky was no stranger to it. But he'd never danced along the blade so intensely or with so much at stake. If it were possible for a chippy to have a nervous breakdown, he would’ve had one by now. Thankfully, he’d not become that human and hoped he never would.
Siv triggered the electronic release for the door. Nothing happened. Mitsuki pulled the manual release lever on the right side. A grinding sound offered a moment of hope, but only a moment. Siv yanked the release on the left, and the door budged again. They heaved at it in tandem, and it lowered enough for a faint line of bluish light to shine through.
The ScanField-3 rebooted again, and this time the operating system loaded. According to the initial diagnostic, it was functioning at forty percent standard capacity. That worried him, but it would be enough to allow him to contact the Outworld Ranger, once the diagnostic routine completed in one hundred and forty-two seconds.
Tamzin shut off the torch, set it aside, and wiped sweat from her brow. “Got it.”
Galen carefully pulled his foot free and examined the damage. Silky hovered a drone nearby to get a better read on it.
“Ambassador dude got lucky, sir. Nothing severe, no permanent damage. Just the bruising and scraping that seems to be a continual part of your existence these days. He’s going to be limping even more than before, though.”
Siv relayed the information as Galen, aided by Tamzin, hobbled over to join them.
“Can we help?” Galen asked.
Siv studied the door. “You and Tamzin pull on the levers. Mits and me, we’ll shoulder into it.”
“Your shoulders must feel better than mine,” Mitsuki complained as she got into position.
On a count of three, they gave it their all. The door moved outward and down by five centimeters then stopped. All four collapsed to the floor, gasping for breath.
“I don’t think it’s going any further,” Siv said. “Is something blocking it, Silkster?”
“I’m scanning now, sir.”
“You hadn’t scanned the nearby area already?” Siv asked with absolute shock in his tone.
“The ScanField-3 was offline, sir. Did you miss the status alert in your HUD?”
“Shit. No. Is it okay?”
“I think it’s going to need minor repairs to regain full functionality, sir,” he snapped. “And please, check your status alerts. I can’t tell you everything all the time.”
Siv groaned. “I’m doing my best, Silkster. I’m not a machine.”
Silky regretted his tone but not his message. Siv was too used to having everything spelled out for him. Usually, that wasn’t a problem, but there was just too much going on right now.
The area analysis from the ScanField-3 loaded. Shitty shit shit. They’d crashed way far off-target. Instead of the open plain he’d picked out, they’d struck dirt within a narrow canyon, which explained the bumps near the end on the way down. The Outworld Ranger was larger than the shuttle. It wouldn’t be able to land beside them as planned.
“Unfortunately, sir, there’s a boulder blocking the door. It can’t extend any further. The only solution is to cut our way out. Tamzin, how attached to your laser rifle are you?”
“I could buy another.”
“Good, because we’ll need it once the blowtorch burns out.”
“I have another suggestion,” Mitsuki said, drawing a round disc from the supply cabinet. “I found two shaped charges in here. B says they’d be safe to use for punching our way out of here.”
Silky chastised himself for being too preoccupied to think of that. Of course, the shuttle would have one or two of those in stock. He needed to focus on the most critical readings and variables in play at the moment. He needed to ignore the Thousand Worlds fleet, the Hydrogenists, the other players, and the WOW signal that he'd just picked up again.
“Good work, Wings! Those are designed for situations exactly like this.”
Mitsuki eased toward the exit. There was a slight limp to her step, from a strained achilles he suspected. “So, we just place one against the door and activate it?”
“Place it on the starboard side, Wings, a meter back from the exit.”
“Why not on the door?” Tamzin asked as Mitsuki starting placing it according to the instructions he’d beamed to B. Mitsuki and Siv trusted him to know best.
“I’m concerned the boulder could cause blowback in the explosion.”
While she placed the charge, Silky spoke with the Outworld Ranger crew and told them everyone was safe and alive, just banged up to hell and back again.
“What took you so long to communicate with us?” Kyralla snapped. “We were extremely worried. That shuttle’s a wreck. Honestly, I don’t know how you all survived.”
“Troop transports are built on the assumption that many will go down hard in battle. As for the lack of contact, the ScanField-3 was offline for the first several minutes. I didn’t even realize how bad the terrain was until a minute ago.”
“It’s awful,” Bishop agreed.
“I have identified a landing point and a safe approach,” Artemisia said. “But there aren’t many. You threaded a needle going into that canyon.”
“I can pilot the route she chose, but only just with the ship in this shape,” Kyralla said. She then switched off her connection to Silky, which made him smile. For some reason he couldn’t explain, her finding his personality off-putting brought him joy.
“The landing point is forty meters from the shuttle’s aft,�
�� Artemisia said.
“We’ve picked up your WOW signal,” Rosie said, “and it’s heading this way, but we still can’t make sense of it. It doesn’t match anything I have on record. Sending our readings to you for analysis.”
“Mr. Bishop and I applied some human intuition to the signal but couldn’t come up with anything either,” Tekeru said.
“Looking at the data you captured and what I’m getting now, I think it’s a masking signal.”
“So it’s going to be an enemy closing in on us,” Bishop said.
"I would think so," Silky replied. "Oona, has it tickled your mojo?"
“I sense that it means us harm,” she answered, “but that’s all I’ve got…so far.”
“That’s enough to know we should be extra concerned,” Silky replied. “Keep watching.”
He informed his chippy companions about the plan to blast their way out of the shuttle. Then he used the data he had available to slightly alter Mitsuki’s placement of the explosive charge.
“Okay, it’s set.” She smiled. “Luck of the Star Gods upon us.” It was a line from one of Silky’s favorite movies.
“Thanks for that, Wings.”
Crouching and covering their heads, the four humans huddled in the front corner on the same side as the shaped charge. Silky triggered the device. With a loud pop and a crunch of metal, it punched a hole in the side of the shuttle. A minimal spray of plastic and steel shards kicked back inside the compartment.
As everyone stood, rocks began to tumble and slide outside, pounding into the shuttle’s starboard side as dust flowed into the crew compartment through the hole they’d blasted open.
51
Silky
As the dust settled, light spilled into the crew compartment. Large rocks had piled up just outside, beneath a thick layer of debris. Siv raced over to the two-meter-wide opening, looked out, and groaned. "Silkster, what happened?"
Silky analyzed the collapse using the diminished ScanField-3. "I failed to recognize the fragility of the canyon wall, sir. The blast hit a fracture, and that lead to collapse."
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