Chapter Twenty-Eight

Any Landing You Can Walk Away From

Colby wasn’t exactly surprised when he woke up to warning Klaxons. The ancient tub they were riding in probably had about three of these kinds of events every crossing. Still, the silence from his fellow passengers was a little worrying. Either everyone here was familiar with this kind of event and staying calm, or something was very wrong.

You ever considered extensive therapy?

“What?” Colby muttered, pulling on his clothes and boots as quietly as possible.

Your dreams are frankly disturbing, my dude. Like, even for me.

“What’s going on? Can you tell?”

Oh, there’s fuck all oxygen in here. Everyone's unconscious thanks to their shitty lungs.”

“Shit! And you ask about my dreams?” Colby peeked out of his doorway, seeing a couple of people lying on the floor.

There’s plenty of air for you, but they are probably toast in a half-hour or so.

Colby frowned, moving out into the corridor and checking on the few people he saw. They were alive, but their color did not look good. A couple already had blue lips.

“Is it a leak, or have we been attacked?” Colby asked.

I can check the airflow. Lick your finger, and then hold it as high above your head as possible.

Colby did, holding the pose for a good minute.

“Well?”

A slow leak in the left rear portion of the bay. It looks like damage to the frame that gave up the ghost.

“Can I take my hand down now?” Colby asked.

Sure, sure.

“How did that help?” Colby asked as he moved quickly toward the right area.

Oh, it didn’t. I just wanted to see if you would do it.

“Asshole,” Colby sighed.

Don’t hate me 'cause you made me!

“Don’t remind me,” Colby winced.

Can I call you Daddy?

Colby refused to answer, following his ears to find a tiny breach in the wall ringed in frost.

“Hey! Hey! Can you hear me?” The crackly voice came from the speakers near the bay doors.

Colby hurried over and pressed the talk button down.

“Yes, I hear you. There is a micro breach in here. Where’s the patch kit?” He let go of the button.

“I have no idea how you are awake, but bless you for knowing what that is,” the line cut into crackles for a moment. “Locker by the main door. Near the stairs.”

“I lost a bit of that,” Colby replied. “Patch kit, locker by main entrance to ship, near stairs to lower level. Confirm?”

“Confirm!”

“On it, hold for further,” Colby hurried up the bay and searched around the entryway until he found the lockers. The patch kit was in the locker nearest to the stairs, just like the crackly voice had said. He also found a small air canister and emergency breather. He pulled them on and sprinted back, cracking open the patch kit. It was an older model, but he knew how to use it—a round rubber patch with adhesive on one side and a spray can. Peeling off the protective paper, Colby held the rubber taught until it was pressed against the hull. It slapped in place, and he popped the top of the can, spraying the foam around the edges and putting a cross over the center of the patch. Before the spray could harden, Colby placed the metal cover over the top, pressing it flat and adding another ring of foam around that.

Standing back, Colby headed over to the intercom again.

“We have a double seal on the breach. Any others in here?”

“Pressures stable.” Another burst of static. “Good job.”

“Need someone to release the inner door?” Colby asked. It was a ‘safety feature’ on the older model freighters. No need to risk a second breach if no one was alive inside. It was retired in later designs because no one liked watching their friends and family die through a small glass window when they could have been saved.

“Confirmed, see you soon.”

Colby helped the crew work through the unconscious refugees. No one spent much time in space without learning how to take care of someone who had been exposed to low oxygen or low pressure. It was just a fact of life out here.

There were a lot of slaps on the back and tearful thanks going around, and Colby did his best to enjoy them.

Spying on people was a lot easier to do when they were just anonymous ‘enemies.’ It was a lot easier when one of them was hugging you hard enough to make your ribs creak for saving their adorably cute kid.

The freighter crew was a decent sort as well. They even got everyone out of that hold before the down jump, just in case the breach tore open. Luckily, the patch held, and everyone started to file back into the bay. Colby was the unofficial crew liaison, making sure no one fell or got trapped.

He was just helping the last one through the door when one of the crew tapped him on the back and asked him to head for the bridge.

Not sure what was going on, Colby went along with the idea.

It turned out to just be so the freighter’s Captain could give his personal thanks, which was nice. Pointless, but nice.

So, it was just pure luck that he was there when the call came over the comm line that the system had changed hands while they were in Transit Space.

“Aw, hell!” The captain swore. “I knew Clark would be in that bastard’s pocket!”

“We’re being ordered to hold position and contact the capital ship,” the comm officer said anxiously.

“Out them up,” the captain turned to face the large screen on the side wall.

Colby was about to leave, only to see a familiar face appear. From the gasps coming from people around the bridge, he wasn’t the only one surprised.

“This is Hellena of the Star’s Song; welcome to the Ember’s Hearth everyone.”

While the captain talked to the new controller of the Ember’s Hearth system, Colby was just staring at the screen. The comm lines on this tug didn’t show much in terms of detail, but it was enough.

It was definitely the same woman. Colby had last seen her when she contacted them on the Fair Weather to wish them luck on their mission. According to Prim, she was initially from the Confederacy, and it looked like she had come back.

The chances of this being a coincidence were virtually nil, he figured.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

She had returned, it seemed, at the request of the clan chief of the Ember’s Hearth and had left the Imperium.

Yeah, right. People didn’t just leave the Imperium like that. In his brief time there, Colby had learned enough to know that those on the inside… stayed there.

This was clearly another covert move by the NIghtmare Queen. More than once, he saw her eyes flicker to his and knew she recognized him as well. Neither of them said anything, which further confirmed she was still part of the Imperium.

“We will proceed to the capital city as ordered, Headman Hellena,” the captain confirmed and closed the line.

The moment the line closed, Colby turned to head back to the cargo bay. It looked like getting back to the Imperium was going to be a lot easier than he thought.

The walk back through the ship was a bit of an eye-opener. More than one of the kind and professional crew had an opinion on Hellena, and very few of them were good. While most of them were generally in favor of the system not being in control of the leader of the Ember’s Hearth, none of them were in favor of a Clan being run by Hellena.

“She needs to marry or step aside and let a man run the Clan…”

“Hellena can’t be trusted. She turned on her own…”

“She’s too close to Cyrus. I’ll bet she’s working for him…”

And so on.

Colby just kept his mouth shut and hurried back to his room. The trip to the central planet would take a few hours, but he wanted to be ready to go as soon as possible. The moment the doors opened, Colby wanted to get off this tub and find the nearest Imperium guard to contact.

With a bit of luck, he could be back in the Imperium before the end of the day and on his way back to the Rest. Someone there would be able to figure out if whatever Sec had done was stable or could be undone or… something.

Not that he was in a hurry to get rid of the nanites. They had already saved his ass a couple of times, and Colby had to admit, he liked the feeling of strength.

It was just that he wanted someone to check out if he was actually okay. Buddy made it sound like Sec had done something a bit like building an AI with tape and glue, which was worrying when it was jammed into his skull.

/===<<<>>>===\

Colby wasn’t even thinking about the patch in the hull a few hours later as the ancient freighter creaked and groaned on its way through the atmosphere, being too busy arguing with Buddy. With all the excitement of the last few hours, just about everyone had forgotten about the incident.

Only one topic of conversation was floating around the ship: the Star’s Song Clan and their leader. All of that changed with a sudden tearing sound, followed by wind rushing through the cargo bay.

Colby was sent flying as the flimsy walls between him and the cargo bay tore, the pieces sucked out through the rapidly growing hole in the side of the bay. Buddy acted a little faster than Colby did, with Colby’s left arm whipping out and grabbing onto an anchor point on the bay’s wall as they tumbled through the air.

The pain as his shoulder was wrenched out of its socket broke Colby from his shock, and suddenly the roar of the wind and the screams as people were sucked out of the hole in the side of the ship was all he could hear. The lights in the cargo bay shorted as another piece of the vessel was ripped away. The breach in the hull let in the only remaining light, making the gap glow like the light of a sun.

This is bad

“NO SHIT!” Colby yelled into the maelstrom around them.

A woman flew past, being sucked toward the gap, and grabbed into Colby’s leg in desperation. He reached down, trying to catch her hand and pull her up, but she lost her grip and was gone before he could get even halfway there.

Uh-oh

The metal wall twisted and bucked before it tore away, taking Colby with it out into the open skies.

Falling through the skies of Ember’s Hearth felt like being sandblasted from all sides at the same time. The burning pain built every time he spun clear of the chunk of metal he was clinging to.

Hold on! Hold on! Buddy was yelling. I can fix this! I can! Just hold on!

Colby grabbed the chunk of metal with his other hand, pulling himself close against it to try and get out of the wind before he lost what remained of his skin.

This might hurt!

“Just do it!” Colby yelled into the wind, getting a mouthful of sand in the process. He was going to die. He had long ago lost track of up or down, the universe replaced with what felt like an endless sandstorm. Deep down, he knew the ground was rushing up toward him, but that was almost a mercy—anything to end the pain of his sand.

His hands bled silver into the metal beneath his fingers as it began to warp and thin. With no idea what Buddy was up to, all he could do was squeeze his eyes and mouth shut and hope for a quick end.

What felt like hours later, but could only have been seconds, his arms were wrenched powerfully upward, and he opened his eyes in shock as his fall suddenly slowed.

Looking up, Colby saw a thin metal weave covering his arms and extending up into a cast canopy above him. His bleeding body hung from it like a party decoration as the sand swirled around him.

Boom! Instant parachute! Who’s the fucking genius? Eh? EH?

Colby tried to speak, only to get a mouthful of sand again.

Oh, shit, wait one minute!

A line of metal flowed down his arm and formed a mask over his mouth and nose.

Colby gasped, taking his first proper breath in minutes. His mouth and nose were still gritty with sand, and he tasted blood, but at least breathing was an option again.

“Good job, Buddy,” Colby gasped. “How far from the ground are we?”

That’s the bad news. I have no idea. If we are still a good mile up, we will land like a gentle stone skipping over a pond. If we are less than half a mile….

“Well, shit,” Colby said as the ground was suddenly revealed mere meters below him.

Colby felt his legs go numb a split second before they slammed into the ground. It gave him the unique opportunity to watch as his lower legs shattered like glass, the shards of bone bursting through the skin, and he slammed down, his knees cracking audibly before the bones in his thighs broke in multiple places.

Dragged helplessly along the stony ground, Colby watched the loose remains of his legs with a numb detachment.

Perhaps he was dead? Was that why he felt so numb?

Shit! Shit! SHIT! Hang in there! I’ll use the parachute stuff. Give me a minute, okay? Just hang in there. I’ve pinched off the arteries, but I have to be quick.

Completely numb and weirdly calm, Colby lay and looked up into the sky as the metal ran down his arms and over his body. Far above, he could see the trail of fire as the freighter continued on its way toward the capital. Idly wondering what the next life would be like, Colby was surprised when he felt things shifting in his body and slowly regained feeling in his legs, at least as far as his knees.

Best I can do! We really need to find some other people or wreckage. Let’s make that a priority, okay?

Colby sat up, looking down at his legs and seeing metal sheathing his thighs as they slowly regained their shape. Below his thighs, only one knee remained. Beyond that point… there was nothing but a trail of blood and ruined flesh.

Colby blinked once and then started to scream.

Calm down! I said I did the best I could!

“My fucking legs! Where are my fucking legs?” Colby yelled, scrabbling across the ground to try and gather the pieces. “Can’t you fix them? You fixed my hand. Can’t you fix them?”

COLBY! STOP! Thank you. I was able to copy your other arm for the replacement hand. I don’t have anything left to copy here. I’m not a full AI, remember?

“So, I-I won’t get my legs back?” Colby’s head swam, and he felt dizzy.

Stop that shit! Of course, you will; I just need something to copy and some more material to work with.

“Oh, right,” Colby squeezed his eyes shut, opening them again and looking away from the ruin of his legs.

Let’s get going. There has to be a leg or two around here somewhere I can copy.

Crawling on hands and stumps, Colby moved through the storm, following any reading that Buddy got that suggested metal or organic tissue. Twice, they came across the remains of passengers. First, an arm and shoulder were cut cleanly from whoever owned them. Colby crawled away from that quickly. Next, they found what looked like it had once been the torso of a woman, but the sand had torn away everything that could identify them. Something had torn the lower half away, a trail of intestines leading off into the distance.

Nauseous in a way he could not even describe, Colby followed it until they found the other end, still leading into the hips and one remaining leg.

Nice. I can scan that and build a map to replace it. Give me one minute, and then we will need to collect some scrap.

They moved on, time seeming irrelevant in this planet's endless sandstorm. The air even smelled bad, and Buddy reported large amounts of mineral and chemical signatures in the sand. Even this far from the cities, it was still tainted.

They found a couple of twisted chunks of metal, and Colby dragged them along with him. A while later, they found part of the bay doors, complete with the intercom he had used to speak to the crew.

That’s enough. Sit down and give me time to work, okay?

Colby did not watch as his new legs were built. It was bad enough to know it was happening. Seeing it as well was a touch too much to bear.

Okay, we have legs, you can look now—big baby.

Looking down at last, Colby saw a pair of metal legs just like his hand. The clear coating was still changing to hide the mechanics beneath. In less than a minute, he had legs that looked like skin again. He ran his hand over them, feeling the smooth metal.

Can you feel yourself up later? We still have to get some more metal. Or do you like walking around half-naked and bleeding like this? I mean, you do you, but I think clothes would be better.

Chuckling, Colby got to his feet, examining himself for the first time since he landed. Until now, he tried not to even think about it. Looking down at his new legs had given him a bit of confidence back. Something horrible had happened, but he wasn’t alone.

The cursory examination showed large areas of torn or simply missing skin. They weren’t bleeding, thanks to Buddy, but he really was in a sorry state. If he hadn’t had Buddy, he’d be dead twice over at least. Something about the thought clicked something inside his head, and his vision changed.

What happened? We just integrated a bit more.

“I was just thinking I was glad to have you,” Colby grinned beneath his mask.

Aww, ain’t that sweet? Buddy cackled.

“Never mind, the feeling passed,” Colby muttered.