MILO

Milo’s lightning storm from the sphere ceased to exist and for a moment the battlefield was calm. Sam had insulated his rig against lightning without telling Milo about it. Milo never had a chance to stop him.

“No!” Milo yelled. But it was too late. Beth had already twisted Sam’s body until it broke into two. Sam was dead, but now was not the time to grieve.

“Ha, you are killing each other,” Saif said, extending a palm at him. “She looks angry, but she is not the only one who has been upgraded.”

An invisible force grabbed Milo and pushed down to the platform’s floor. Saif had taken Tom’s telekinesis as the boy died.

Milo reached inside his mind again, the adrenaline deposit was almost drained, only a handful of uses left. He promised himself not to get stuck again, always save one additional use.

His back landed on the floor as Saif pressed him down even harder. Breathing grew difficult as the pressure against his chest increased. He tried moving his hands, but they were locked down, he couldn’t aim a lightning bolt. He let the adrenaline trickle into his mouth, his body folded into lightning and he thundered at Saif. For a moment the telekinesis eased off as Saif was launched backwards.

Milo transformed back, only a couple of uses remained in the adrenaline deposit.

The invisible force pushed him down again, Saif had already recovered.

Breathing grew difficult again and his vision started blurring.

Something heavy landed on the platform, making the whole thing rock back and forth.

Beth.

Saif turned his attention to her instead and Milo inhaled deeply, struggling to his feet.

“I am sorry, Beth, for this,” Milo said.

She roared and grabbed after him. The adrenaline was already trickling into his mouth again, as the giant fist neared his face. He folded into lighting and thundered away from the promise of imminent death.

Milo transformed back to his human form and landed on his boots, beside Sam.

His old friend was as dead as they came. Sam’s eyes were cold and still, no sign of any breathing or heartbeat. Blood was still gushing out from the severed torso and pooled on the floor.

“Fuck,” Milo said. “Goddamn.”

“I didn’t know what he was going to do. He said he was going to leverage the boy against Saif, not murder him!” Yuri said, standing behind him, right by Tom’s severed head and body. “I helped him murder the boy.”

Beth roared in the background and the whole starship shook. A crack grew from where her fists pounded against the hull, it widened with every strike.

“What are we going to do?” Claire made her way through the battlefield to him.

Milo shook his head. “I don’t know.”

Rahgon stepped up to them, with Elzrig on her shoulder. “This battle is over. Saif’s minions are either dead or fleeing in every direction.”

Milo looked down at Sam’s corpse. “I know.”

Another shake went through the ship.

“She is tearing the ship apart,” Milo said.

Claire grabbed his shoulders and shook him. “We have to get out. My rig is damaged, the vacuum will kill me.”

Milo had not noticed before, but a wide gash from neck to hip had been made through the armor plating. There was even some blood, but it was not actively bleeding. She was alright, for now.

“My adrenaline is out,” Milo said.

The ship shook again and the crack widened. A whizzing noise came into existence, as loud as the battle had been. The hulls were breached.

“Milo, come on. What’s the game plan?” Yuri said. The Russian had either dropped or his mace had broken, as his lightning rod. He had replaced the two weapons with sharp and black stones.

Milo snapped out of it. “Rahgon, claw and burn whatever stands in your way, but keep the stragglers away from us. But be careful, Beth kills anyone that comes close enough.”

Rahgon nodded. “By the mountain’s blessing, Capt’n.”

It was not everyday that a dragon titled you as captain, and a queen dragon at that too.

“Elzrig, you are with me. This way. Claire, Yuri, come on. Let’s move.”

It felt good making decisions again, instead of just thinking about Sam. Taking charge clouded the bad things. Milo found a corridor leading away from the training field and the struggle between Beth and Saif.

Elzrig spun and flapped, taking the lead into the corridor. “No opposition.”

Milo kept the blood trickling into his mouth, his barrier vibrated and crackled around him, and electrical tendrils were forming inside his palms, always ready to be unleashed.

“Diego, Birgitta, where are you at?” Milo asked, through the mental channel.

“We are busy,” Argus said.

Milo turned at the junction, going for the shuttle bay felt as a good start. “Busy? The ship we are in is being destroyed from within. We need an escape.”

“Do you understand that there is still an entire fleet of ships out there? And we are a single corvette,” Argus said.

Milo felt a burning need to yell at the omf, especially since it was Argus. But deep down he knew it would not accomplish the goal he desired, to get out alive. “Argus, please tell me what to do?”

“You will have to reach us, Milo,” Diego said. “The emission cloud has dissipated. If we try to go in and get you, we will all die.”

“We don’t have material to throw up the cloud again,” Birgitta said. “How is Beth doing?”

Milo sighed, but he couldn’t lie to his crew. “Beth transformed. She roars about corpse making and tries to kill anyone that is within her reach. She and Saif are fighting, that is what is causing the ship to be torn apart.”

“God,” Birgitta said. “But who is winning?”

“We don’t know,” Milo said. “But we would like to survive. Come to you? Alright, we will get working on that.”

Claire stepped up to him. “You are moving us to the shuttle bay?”

Milo nodded. “Seemed as the best choice.”

“Whoever survived the clash in the training field will have the same idea,” Claire said.

“It’s the best option. We will just have to solve it,” Milo said. “Yuri, how much of your deposits are left?”

“A good quarter of water, maybe a bit more. My blood is almost depleted,” Yuri said.

“It will have to be enough,” Milo said.

-

They turned another junction. An opened door at the end of the next corridor. Elzrig sat outside it, looking through it.

“Elzrig, how does it look?” Milo stepped up to the dragon and placed a hand on his shoulder, the scales were cool and stark. Very much like the armor plating on combat suits.

“Enemies. About nine of them,” Elzrig said.

“We can deal with that,” Milo said. “Rahgon, how is it going on your end?”

“These metal men you call combat suits. There are a lot of them,” Rahgon said. “They are crunchy, but their fleshy inside tastes nicely enough when burnt all the way through.”

Milo decided not to comment on that last bit. “We might need you here. Finish up what you have started.”

Rahgon answered with a roar.

“Around me, crew,” Milo said. “I have the outline of a plan.”

-

Milo walked into the shuttle bay. There were still two shuttles left. Five of the nine enemies were not in combat suits, and they were using a varied array of powers trying to force the shuttle bay’s airlock open, since it was in lockdown mode. Beams of different colors and textures struck at the door. The inner door was starting to crack in its seams. One of the five was not discharging beams, a woman, but she was floating off the floor. Lori.

The blood trickled into Milo’s mouth, but he kept his barrier off for the moment. He needed the crew to move into position before the hell started. Some tendrils were forming in his palms, he kept his fists behind his back.

“People, please, let’s be civil about this,” Milo said.

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All of the nine turned to him, weapons and palms were raised and aligned at him.

“Stop or I will punch holes through you with my laser cannon,” a deep voiced combat suit said. His laser cannon was spinning up.

Lori looked down at the combat suit beneath her. “Wait, it could be a trap.”

Another tremble went through the ship.

“Lori, Yuri told me what a psycho bitch you are. But maybe you could try to be nice? Challenge his perception of you,” Milo said. “There are two shuttles. Let’s split them and I will open the airlock for us all.”

“Yuri?” Lori said. “Attack!”

Milo’s barrier came online with a crack of thunder. The moving tendrils put a blue tint on everything in his vision.

Laser beams struck his barrier, but they were unable to punch through.

Milo leaped forward, extending his palms and discharged lightning bolts. The deep voiced combat suit was the first to go down, after the third lightning bolt some seal or insulation must have broken, because the man was electrocuted.

Elzrig crashed together with Lori.

Claire leaped into the battle from the left and Yuri from the right.

Elzrig landed hard on the floor, but held Lori pinned down, but unable to finish the kill. Yuri stepped forward and shoved a sharp rock all the way through her chest. Her body went still.

Something glanced off Milo’s barrier as he moved forward, discharging lightning bolts at the last two combat suits. He sidestepped, another set of laser beams, but they missed him.

The shuttles exploded as those beams struck them.

Milo was launched forward, landing on his face. His barrier had gone offline as his focus had shattered from the shockwave.

A combat suit towered over him, holding his spinning laser cannon against his head.

A metal gauntlet grabbed and pulled the laser cannon away from him, and a sword was thrust through the neck, helmet and face of the combat suit. The laser cannon spewed a laser beam to the side.

Claire stepped around the corpse and its combat suit, offering him a gauntleted hand. “You, okay, Capt’n?”

“Now I am, thanks, Claire.” Milo was on his feet again. “The shuttles are fucked.”

“You are goddamn right,” Claire said.

As Sam would have said, but Milo kept his mouth shut.

A new tremble went through the entire ship, more terrible than the previous ones. It risked making them stumble and it kept trembling.

Claire activated a display on her gauntlet, showing what was happening. “The ship has been broken in half, we are falling down to the planet.”

“I was launched by an ejected cabin before,” Milo said. “Back into the corridor, crew.”

“Let’s go!” Yuri said.

Milo led the way with Elzrig flapping just behind him, and put them into the first he found.

“Now what?” Claire said. “There are no control panels for activating the ejection. Maybe it’s master controlled. And not from here.”

“But there got to be some way to launch them from the cabin, there has to be,” Milo said.

“We could start a fire,” Yuri said.

“A fire?” Milo said.

“Yes. It’s cheaper for the starship control system to eject the cabin, instead of trying to suppress the fire in other ways,” Yuri said.

“Yes, that would do it. Elzrig, fire,” Milo said.

“What?” Elzirg asked.

“Put this cabin on fire,” Milo said.

The ship started shaking violently.

“We are entering the outer atmosphere. Elzirg, do it!” Claire said.

Milo locked the door leading back into the ship’s corridor. This was their last chance to get off the ship. They had to commit all the way through.

Elzrig’s liquid fire spread quickly around the cabin, the decorations and furnitures were meant to withstand fire hazards, but then again, a dragon’s fire burns hotter than a normal one. Smoke billowed as the various objects caught fire.

Another set of locks locked down the cabin door.

“Here we go,” Milo said. “Hang on to something.”

A series of smaller detonations went along the seams of the door and wherever the cabin was anchored to the ship.

Milo was pulled into the wall as the cabin was ejected from the ship. The cabin lacked its own private inertia mesh, it depended on the ship’s outer hulls for that. Claire stood firm and well balanced in her rig, Elzrig flapped steadily in the air and Yuri planted his stone leveraged legs down to the floor.

“We are not heading into the planet, that is some luck at least,” Claire said, keeping the display activated. “Our trajectory is moving us closer to the Final Sight.”

“I think we will be alright,” Milo said.

The cabin slammed into something, making the whole thing shake and its seams scream by the tension applied to them. It started spinning.

Claire reached and grabbed Milo, pinning him down as the cabin kept spinning. “The cabin hit a starship.”

“Where are we going?” Milo said.

“In the wrong direction,” Claire said.

Elzrig landed on a couch, digging his claws into it and anchoring himself to it. “Rahgon, we need help. We need to be led correctly. We cannot steer the cabin.”

“Great plan!” Milo said.

Rahgon roared. “On my way.”

“Another ship! Hold on!” Claire yelled.

The cabin slammed into another ship, it felt as if it was going to rupture, but somehow it kept its integrity. The spinning slowed down. Everything slowed down.

Milo struggled to his feet. “We are not moving anymore. Rahgon, are you far out?”

“I am doing my best here! There are many starships between you and me and they are mean,” Rahgon said.

“Diego, can you do a flyby if we are a little closer to you?” Milo said. “We are dying out here.”

“Maybe!” Argus said. “What do you think we are doing? We are also dying. Your crew is occupied by staying aliv...” An explosion sounded in the background. “We are still alive,” Argus said.

“Goddamn!” Milo said. “What to do? What to do?”

Then it came to him.

“The cabin must have vac suits. Maybe Elzrig can pull us to the ship?” Milo said.

Claire scrounged through the cabin’s storage units. “That last tumble wrecked the suits. They are not sealed.”

“I am caught in battle again,” Rahgon said.

But maybe some of them could survive.

“Goddamn. Elzrig, when this cabin cracks open, take Yuri and get him back to the Final Sight,” Milo said.

“What?” Yuri said.

“You have shown some resistance to the vacuum of space and Elzrig can fly you. You two should be safe,” Milo said.

“Roger, Capt’n,” Elzrig said.

Milo stepped up to Claire. “Are there any other starships in the vicinity?”

Cracks grew on the inside hull of the cabin. Time was short.

“I might have one for us, but without suits we are not making it,” Claire said.

“We don’t have anything else left,” Milo said.

“You need a ride?” Someone asked through the mental channel.

“Leo?” Claire asked.

“Leo!” Milo said.

“All limbs accounted for,” Leo said. “Wyrghon, bank left, feint a spin and instead push forward. Milo, do you guys have vac suits?”

“Leo!” Diego and Birgitta yelled at the same time.

“That’s a negative on that,” Milo said.

“I have made some repairs to the bubble, I think it might work,” Tern said. His voice was distinct. Tern was alive, and they were coming to save them.

“Tern! How are you alive?” Milo asked.

“Later. Leo and Wyrhgon needs the channel free from noise in order to make the distance,” Tern said.

A green colored dragon appeared in front of the airlock. Leo sat on the base of the dragon’s neck with a smaller and purple colored dragon in his lap. Tern floated just behind him.

Milo stepped up to the airlock. “You don’t know how good it is to see you guys. Thank you Tern and Leo. Beth transformed, fueling with adrenaline. And Sam is dead.”

“Fuck,” Leo said. “But later, we have to survive the next moment. Wyrhgon, you will need to claw open the airlock, the controls are busted. On three. Guys and gal, hang on.”

“One.”

Milo grabbed a hold.

“Two. Tern, be ready with the bubble.”

“Three.”

Wyrhgon clawed the airlock to shreds and the explosive decompression went off immediately and pulled all the objects and people inside the cabin towards the newly opened rent. Tern’s bubble opened and closed around the opening and the pull vanished.

Claire hugged Leo. “Are you riding Wyrhgon?”

“A dragon rider, in the flesh.” Leo smiled, stroking Wyrhgon behind his ears, which the dragon seemed to enjoy.

Milo gave Tern a pat on the side. “Thank you, for being alive.”

“The same to you,” Tern said.

“I helped!” The smaller, purple colored dragon in Leo’s lap said. “My name is Nym, remember that name, because I have done great deeds today. Deeds worthy only of the greatest warriors.”

“It is an honor to become knowledgeable of you, Nym. Thank you,” Milo said.

Rahgon, her red scales glimmering by the backdrop of laser beams going off from the surrounding starships. “Brother, you are still alive! I told Elzirg, you were too sly to let yourself get killed. And Nym! You fierce warrior.”

“Of course, sister. But I have been better,” Wyrhgon said.

“Your eyes!” Rahgon said.

Wyrhgon tilted his head to the side. “And other things.”

“Go!” Milo said. “Diego we are coming back.”

Dragons flew fast in space, especially on shorter distances and their maneuverability was much greater than that of the ordinary shuttles. Leo directed Wyrhgon, like a pilot injecting flight patterns into his ship. It was amazing to behold and the old pilot’s previous fear and almost hatred towards alien beings had dissolved completely.

They navigated the space back to the Final Sight without any major issue. Some nukes flew past them, but dragon fire efficiently disarmed them.

The Final Sight’s cargo bay opened. Diego must have flushed the atmosphere from that compartment. The dragon eggs were safely stowed away deeper in the ship.

Leo steered Wyrhgon and landed inside the cargo bay. The doors slid close and the atmosphere returned. Tern disengaged the bubble.

Milo placed a hand on Tern’s shell. “I am glad to see you alive, old friend.”

“The same,” Tern said.

Milo imagined the omf’s very surface grow a smile, but he knew it was not possible.

“The bridge,” Milo said.

Leo moved like he was twenty years younger. His adventures down on Shuvoq had invigorated him. Being as close to death as he had been for that long, it spiked his body with adrenaline. It did things to him.

“You don’t understand how close I was to Saif, without him noticing me,” Leo said. “Like ten or twenty meters, tops.” Nym, the purple dragon was still in Leo’s arms.

“We are brave. No villain can scare us, we scare them,” Nym said.

“Maybe it is something with the mountain that hinders his power?” Milo said.

“We guessed the same,” Leo said.

They entered the bridge.

“I would have hugged you all, if not this section of space would have been as populated with our enemies as it is,” Diego said from the pilot’s seat.

Birgitta stepped forward and hugged them in order. “Leo, you are alive. Tern! Thank the heavens. Milo. YURI!”

Leo slid down into the co-pilot’s seat.

“You can have your old seat back, Leo,” Diego said. “Let me just solve this one thing first.”

Leo shook his head. “Diego, you have the hands of a surgeon. The precision, speed and accuracy that entails is far more and far better than I am able to do. You are handling this ship better than I ever could have. And your mind is thirty years younger than mine. No, that seat is yours. You will hold the sticks and I will feed novel flight patterns into the system.”

“You think so?” Diego said.

Milo watched the reunion take place from his Captain’s seat. The two friends looked so happy to see each other, it was amazing and they way Leo handed over the mantle to Diego. This was one of those moments a Captain strived to experience, the growth of his crew.

A terrible rumble went through the ship.

“Look alive, crew. We are not out of here yet,” Milo said. “Everyone, to your stations.”