SAM

With two of his crew away the ship seemed empty. Like a hollowed tree. In the Navy, this would never have been accepted, running a starship with such few numbers was absurd. Dr. Birgitta could do little to even serve any functions on the bridge. Put her on any duty and she would bombard you with questions. It was easier and more efficient if he just did it himself, or put it on someone who had actually gone through the Navy academy. But where would he find more of those this deep in space? Maybe there was an alien species interested in serving aboard a Navy corvette. That would be weird.

He sat down into the captain’s seat. Claire was down in engineering and Birgitta was in her lab. Leo sat in his pilot’s seat, overseeing all the sensor data that flooded in. Being inside this giant alien dock had its ups and downs. A lot of interesting data, but he felt trapped, as if his hands were tied behind his back and a bag had been put over his head. There was nothing to do except to wait and see.

“Why build a space station this big?” Diego said, taking the place behind Leo. He was to provide navigational assistance to Leo.

Sam could have ordered the Doc to sit with the gun controls, but he knew that their medical officer would never accept a post like that. Sam knew his crew well, thus the Captain held the trigger for the weapons. It was just better that way.

“Because they can?” Sam asked.

If he wanted to cut his way through this station with the Final Sight’s laser weapons, would it be possible? The sensors told them the material was similar to metal, but the size and thickness of the station seemed too big to be held together. And how was it able to be hardened against the star’s heat and radiation? Either they were able to create force fields or they were able to strengthen the metal beyond what he could comprehend. Their laser would do little to this material. They were stranded.

“And I cannot wrap my head around it. It had not been there and then it appeared from nothing,” Diego said.

Sam sipped his coffee. “I know what it means. I want your analysis, Doc. Your thoughts.”

“Yes, Beth made a compelling argument about the alien species potentially being able to mask their emissions. But the station is just too big, they cannot mask all of them,” Diego said. “Something is wrong, that’s all I can conclude,”

Leo stepped into the conversation. “That is not the only thing weird about it. There are too many questions. Are we even in their dock? What if this is their version of a brig? Just shove ships into this space and keep them here, and see what happens. Maybe we are an experiment to them? Like children with ant farms. There was this time when I...”

Sam interrupted him. “Shut it. No more stories.”

“Affirmative, Capt’n,” Leo said.

Sam activated the comm link. “Claire how are the new batch of nukes coming along?”

They needed to replenish their stock, the last encounter had depleted their munitions thoroughly. The laser cannons could always spew out beams and the iron balls could be accelerated by the railgun, but without the nukes he felt naked, exposed even. And this solar system wide space station didn’t improve his mood.

“I have handmade the propulsion systems for a handful of them. You saw what I did there?” Claire said.

Sam grunted. “Stop it. No more goddamn puns or stories. I want facts. This is serious.” 

“Okay, Capt’n. The checks look alright. But I will need to take some reactive material from the core, otherwise they will not become nuclear. You know this. I cannot take too much or the reactor process will stop and re-igniting it will be difficult. I could try my hand at some smaller yields, but you will not get the result that you are looking for.”

Sam tensed his hands, grinding his teeth. “Do what you can. Crew do what crew do. Just give me something that goes nuclear.”

If it came to battle, they would need to shove whatever they had down their enemies’ throats. And cutting their way out this space station was not an option. What if Leo was right? What if this was a trap? This situation was a time bomb that was slowly ticking down. His crew was shorthanded, the armory and supplies depleted. A headache bloomed behind his forehead. They were at the aliens’ mercy.

Sam sipped at the coffee in his mug, it had gone cold, but he swallowed it down either way. Goddamnit. He put the mug away and cracked his knuckles.

“Sensor pings and motions. Is that a black cloud? Why is there a cloud in space?” Leo said. “Diego, list the specifics for the Captain.”

The main view screen switched to the black cloud. There were no clouds in space and this was not a nebula or meteorite shower, shape and consistency didn’t match.

Footsteps outside the bridge, at running pace. There was anxiety in those legs and he knew it was bad before the information arrived.

“I know! I know what it is!” Dr. Birgitta yelled at the top of her lungs. “A portal! Their portal! Saif’s soldiers.”

Sam turned back to the view screen.

The cloud had expanded, its circular shape distinct and the object that protruded form it was something he was well aware of. The bow of a dreadnought class starship, The Breach to Heaven.

“Leo! Give us distance. Now!” Sam yelled, his fingers went to the weapon controls.

Weapons’ lock acquired. It was time to shove back. Fuck what the aliens would think of a shotout in middle of their giant space station. He would go down swinging. Iron balls were accelerated and laser beams heated across the gap in space. But he knew what would happen. Their small corvette stood no chance against the mighty power of the ship before them.

Sam leaned back and double checked the seat’s emergency button. His embedded rig. Not yet.

The iron balls shattered against the shower of close range turrets and the laser beams deflected across the enemy’s hull. They really needed those nukes and a lot of them. They could do nothing to stop The Breach from exiting the portal.

“Are the aliens reacting?” Sam asked.

Diego didn’t pull his face away from the console. “Nothing.”

Birgitta sat beside him. “Last time, alien versus the Au-delà, they fled after the initial skirmish.”

“Yeah,” Sam said.

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And without their heavy hitters, there was little resistance they could muster. His finger lay against the button. He would have to shove hard and fast when it started.

The portal faded away and the full might of the dreadnought floated forward, full in view.

“Portals inside the ship!” Leo yelled. “Multiple enemies.”

Sam pushed the button. His seat grabbed unto him, enveloping him with interlocking pieces of metal plating. The hydraulics and motor muscles slid into place and hummed online. Fiber threads interfaced with his cybernetic arm. Gauntlets came into place. His rig hugged him. He stepped up, clad in metal, the four pieces of the helmet slid together and merged, and the helmet’s inner display lit up.

“Seal the bulkheads behind me,” Sam said and went into a run, augmented by the rig’s motor muscles.

The laser cannon warmed up, its multiple barrels spinning up and the acid shotgun loaded its deadly munitions with distinct clicks. The lightning rod still lay quiet and would continue so without Blue’s present. This would have been a great opportunity to try it out.

“They have reached the reactor chamber,” Leo said. “Temperature is fluctuating all over the place. Both Carl and Lisa are there.”

Goddamnit.

His fingers tensed and grabbed the controls inside the gauntlets, squeezing just enough not to trigger the weaponry. He was not interested in being boiled alive again. He bit down and shoved the memory and the pain away.

“Eject the core,” Sam said.

“But what if...” Leo started. 

“Do it!” Sam yelled.

There was a rumble through the ship. The reactor chamber had been sealed and launched out. It would detonate, like a giant nuke.

“The emergency reactor is somehow not kicking in. We are running on batteries now, Capt’n. They will not last long if I need to keep these patterns running,” Leo said.

Sam came around the corner, skidding it in his bulky rig.

The man covered in flowing lava stood outside the reactor chamber’s bulkhead door. Too bad the ejection had not taken Carl with it. Molten rock and fire snaked around him, the overflow dripped to the floor, burning it. Lisa Rands, in her icy barrier, came up to Carl’s side. 

“Carl!” Sam yelled. 

Laser cannon locked target, barrels spinning up to combat readiness.

Carl turned to him.

The spinning barrels fired the superheated beams, bombarding the two people’s barriers. Sizzling and explosions of smoke where the lasers impacted the molten rock or ice.

“Let me shove this down your throat!” Sam yelled.

It felt good. To burn away at that which haunted his sleepless nights. But there was something wrong.

No laser beams in the world would stop Carl, who leapt forward through the superheated lasers.

 Sam rearranged the rig’s legs, giving him additional balance. Carl crashed into him, both of them fell backwards. Molten rock burnt against the rig’s hardened plating and its embedded life support made struggling noises as it fought the extreme temperature. It made its best efforts to keep him alive, but Sam knew what faith waited for him. Lisa stood over them, prodding his suit for weakness with her iced hands. Sam rolled and kicked, launching Lisa across the corridor with a lucky hit, but Carl held his grip tight.

The ship shook and twisted. Carl lost his grip and fell away in one direction and Sam into the other. Breathing became easier again.

It must have been the reactor core that exploded and since the lights were still working the EMP shockwave had not fried the Final Sight’s circuitry. Sam turned towards Carl, who lay still on the floor. Knocked his head on the ceiling? Sam smiled, this was his moment. He started the movement to make his rig stand up from the floor.

Nothing happened. The data flowing across his inner display told him many things, but filtering them was difficult. Some burnt circuits. That goddamn Carl. Alright, no worries, Carl’s barrier was down, it was just a simple point and shoot.

The rig’s left arm moved when his arm moved, the laser cannon aligned.

“I hope this burns you to a crisp,” Sam said.

He pressed the trigger inside the gauntlet. 

Nothing happened.

More data flowed across his inner display. The rig was damaged. The ship must also be damaged. His crew might hurt. When the violence starts, even the best welded pieces crack in the seams.

“Claire!” Sam yelled.

The comm link was still established, all pings were received on the other end and acknowledges were replied back. She should hear.

Sam sighed. “Claire. Please.”

Carl’s body started to move.

That panic. The one that had festered in the back of his mind since the wars on Mars. It stepped forward.

“Fuck you!” Lisa yelled, extending her palms at him. The two beams of liquid ice struck his rig. The temperature dropped below zero where it had been at a burning point the moment before.

Sam tried the rig’s emergency eject. Nothing. He tried to disengage parts of the rig. Nothing. Some of the plates might be too warped to be rearranged. The other limbs would not move when he tried. Nothing and no one.

Carl rose a leg, but his arms flaid, looking for purchase. Still unbalanced.

The life support came offline and the temperature dropped drastically. Lisa’s beams kept hammering at him.

Goddamnit.

A bulkhead door slammed down between him and Lisa, cutting her icy beams off. The chill faded. But Carl was still on this side of the door, while Lisa stood on the other side and banged on it. It was far from over.

“Boss!” Claire’s sweet voice cut the panic in two.

Claire crouched down besides him. “Sorry, boss. The workshop’s mic shattered by the shockwave. And I tried to get the emergency reactor online, but I failed.”

“Thank you. Thank you,” Sam said. “But watch your fingers. Much of the rig’s metal is still too cold, you might get frostbitten.”

Claire knew her way around the rig and its mechanics. Her fingers prodded and pulled at well chosen parts. Sam could do nothing but watch her work. The right arm came back online, its motor muscles whining. But the shotgun still would not discharge.

A heat spike.

Sam pulled at Claire, putting his rig and body between her and Carl.

The streams of magma impacted and he tried shielding them with the one functioning arm. The gauntlet started to warp. Carl leapt closer, intent on finishing the kill. A rookie mistake, to be so eager. If Carl came close enough Sam might be able to reach for him.

Carl ran.

Carl jumped and Sam reached.

All three fell. Darkness and silence. A brief second of rest.

Sam landed on the floor. Claire screamed. Her leg was pinned underneath the rig’s weight. Blood trickled along the floor, but not too fast. Claire found her focus again and her hands searched the rig’s damaged parts.

Sam looked up. The interior was familiar enough. A dreadnought. Carl’s.

“The triggers are jammed, I can’t move anything inside these warped gauntlets,” Sam said.

Carl lay a bit from them, on the floor motionless. In reality the fire man was probably only dazed from the portal travel and fall, and would be up in no time. They had to do something.

“I think I can reach around. I think…Yes, I can reach your acid shotgun,” Claire said, having her hands on the weapon. “What’s the problem with it? Read the screen.”

Sam turned his head, his helmet’s inner display had locked itself to the side. “Trigger is busted, like I said. Or at least the trigger inside my gauntlet. The ammo feeder looks fine and the cooling system is somehow functional. How is it looking on your end?”

“Fine. I just need to override the suit’s trigger lock, then I think we might be good,” Claire said, her hands working frantically on the weapon. “Do you have a screwdriver, a power tool or a piece of metal?”

Sam shook his head, forgetting that the suit’s motor muscles would not translate the motions. “No. These are not meant to be repaired in the field. But you know this already. Stay sharp. I have a med spray. There, inside the thigh compartment.”

Claire popped out the med spray canister, hidden underneath a hull plate on the rig’s thigh.

“Ahh, thats nice.” Claire moaning as she sprayed its content on her damaged leg, she twisted off the lid and used it to peel away the panel on the acid shotgun.

“Good work,” Sam said. “But fix the trigger, now.”

His rig registered movement. Carl, but something else, too. Movement and temperature drop at the end of the corridor that lead to this room.

“Quickly,” Sam muttered.