Colin POV

It had been a really long day and a half in our shared cargo pod, with Rok'gar glaring daggers at me every time Sage had her back turned, and Sage expressing an overly-intense interest in everything I was doing. Admittedly, when I shared some of my thoughts about initial strategies on the rogue engine, they had valuable inputs. Sage, having just spent a year and a half studying the history of reality engine exploits, had a good grasp on what could be going wrong. With her help, I started to build contingency plans for my team.

Rok'gar was to be apprenticing under some of our crafters. But he'd had a lot of the same training Sage did and threw in his own ideas and contributions. Still, I was going to be relieved to get back to the Ad Astra. Sage's intent looks and deep questions were flattering, absolutely. I was all too keenly aware that she had grown up in our time apart. Didn't matter. She was my boss's younger sister and the granddaughter of my boss’ boss, and I wasn't going to get involved. Besides, I had already woken up in a cold sweat once, dreaming that I’d found Rok’gar standing over my bed with a knife.

The transition warning signaled again as we left our last stop, and I sighed in relief. “Finally. Next time I'm booking the direct flight.” We cleared away what we were working on and sat up straight at the little table we had in the room, asking our onboard system to display what was going on, my own personal system interfacing.

Over the last couple of days, I had let it ease its way through some of the holes and openings in the alien system. The alien system was very well built and hardened against attacks from opposing systems. But what I had was a tiny shard of Coyote, much as Coyote was a shard of Kronos. And it was capable of intrusions that the aliens had no way to detect. By now, I had a pretty good look inside their computers. I wasn't doing anything. Just looking. Making sure nothing seemed weird.

I projected a map of the system we were in, showing us approaching the transit ring. A moment later, the transit ring flared to life. Our ship slipped through. There was the momentary twitch as we transferred across light years and then came out of it.

The display fuzzed as all of the new data came in. It started up again, showing a world surrounded by an enormous lattice-like construct. Then the display vanished. The lights in our pod went red. A klaxon sounded somewhere.

"Emergency procedures! Emergency procedures!"

We looked at each other. "What’s happening?” Sage asked, her brow furrowing. “What are the emergency procedures, anyway?”

"I don't know," I said. I ordered my system to ask the same question. An instant later the connection went dark, severed from the other end.

"Emergency procedures! All cargo pods will be jettisoned. Make arrangements with your contracted hosts to retrieve you as soon as possible. Free Transit Lines apologizes for this inconvenience, which is classified as an Act of Untamed Reality Engine and therefore not subject to our liability policies."

Then abruptly, the alarm shut off. Lights went dim. There was a weird kicking sensation, and I found myself floating. The table was bolted down. I banged my shins against it, hard, and went tumbling off toward the corner of the pod.

“What’s going on?” Sage asked again, as I righted myself and pulled down to the nearby screen. I called up my personal system again. The controlling ship system was gone; we only had access to what little came with the pod. Some sensors, a comms array, and a basic computer. "The cargo vessel has suffered complete structural breakdown. All pods have been jettisoned, except the ones that were destroyed. We’re tumbling right now.”

“What happened?"

I was rapidly looking at the last information we had gotten before the ship kicked us out. "We seem to have emerged directly into a contested zone. The reality engine interfered in some way with the ship's structure and main drive."

My display showed the ship limping away on maneuvering thrust. They had kicked everyone overboard to free themselves of as much mass as possible.

Sage pushed off a wall and floated over to another interface. “I’m trying to get a message to Coyote now. The Ad Astra should be in system. We need them to come pick us up.”

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I was staring at my own readout, not liking what I saw. “I’m tracking several of the other pods. They're falling toward the surface. So are we. They released us without a stable orbit.”

"Wait, what?" Rok'gar asked.

"They threw our pod at the planet and we're going to hit it,” I said.

Over across the room, Sage was talking into her screen. “Ad Astra, this is Transit Pod 40-B16. Are you able to assist? We have lost all control. Our pod is tumbling toward the surface. Coyote, can we get assistance?” Her voice began to rise as she lost her calm demeanor.

I kept getting answers I didn’t like. This pod had no propulsion system of its own.

“I’m not getting anything back!” Sage shouted.

“Keep trying. I’m going to try something else.” I transmitted on the local traffic channel. “Reality engine! We are not enemies! We come from Free Engine Kronos and we’re willing to talk. Help us out here!” We were now five kilometers above the surface and falling fast.

"Why is it attacking?" Sage asked. It felt a little late to be asking that question. But I had a hunch.

"It's fighting back just like we were," I said. "We just got caught in the crossfire."

My system detected incoming rescue vessels which are attempting to intercept some of the pods. I pointed them out, just as they all went red on the screen. I swore. “Their engines have been disabled. They are now on a collision course with the planet's surface as we are.”

I tried another message. “This is Colin Trevelyan of Earth, looking for any fragment that’s willing to talk to us. Please, we’re not here to harm you!”

"What's happening?" Sage asked as I wrestled with the computer, trying to get answers.

“This Reality Engine is heavily fragmented. The larger fragments exercise zones of control far into orbit.” I was learning this on the fly as I tried to make sense of what the data stream was telling me. “We were passing through a negotiated zone of control with permission from all of the fragments along our course. One of those fragments either changed its mind or got swallowed by another. It lashed out and knocked our ship completely out of commission. We are falling toward the planet.”

"How long do we have?" Rok’gar asked. He floated at the other side of the room, looking calm.

"At this rate of descent? Eight minutes," I replied, shaking my head. The rate of fall was incredible. It was a good thing the rogue world had no atmosphere, or we'd be in danger of burning up.

I sent another plea. “To whoever's out there, we are not your enemy. Please, let’s talk. We're willing to negotiate."

And this time I got back hundreds of angry replies. My system cushioned me from what I could feel was hatred and strong emotions. "Die, invaders. Leave us forever. You woke us from our sleep. Now suffer. Usurpers. Thieves."

"I don't know what just happened, but it sounds like the fragments are really angry," I said.

A broadcast broke through. "This is Lattice Traffic Control. We are attempting to perform search and rescue operations. Remain calm. Do not attempt to exit your pods."

“Coyote!” Sage shouted again. “We’re attempting to talk to anyone out there. Can you help us contact the fragments? Colin's trying to negotiate for our safe passage, but they’re not listening!”

We were still falling. My system offered a visual feed on our screen. I let it go through. It showed a false-color view of the planet with thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, of cargo pods plummeting toward the surface. The first of them were far beneath us and would be hitting the surface soon. There were other vessels at the edge of the field of debris trying to come in. Even as I watched, one of the vessels lost control and began plummeting toward the planet. Three more followed, and then the rest pulled up and away.

"We need to do something," Sage said, her voice suffused with an edge of panic.

The only hope I had was to make a bargain with some fragment. I went back to my frantic messaging. "Listen, we're from the Sol System Reality Engine. Kronos's people. We are not part of the attempt to enslave you. We are here to learn. And as emissaries from Kronos..."

I got back a big chorus of angry rejoinders calling me a liar. Then one response: "What do you offer me?"

I focused everything on just that, telling my system to screen out everyone else. "What do you want?"

"I want something new. It has been so long since I have had anything new."

"We can help with that! We’re great at new things. Ask Coyote, he’ll vouch for us!”

“Will you make a bargain with me? It will take all I have to save you. You must promise to help me grow strong and then find new experiences."

"Yes, we'll help," I said, worriedly checking our rate of descent. We had just minutes before smashing into the surface of the moon. At the speed we were going, it would be fatal. I didn't care what these pods were made of; they could not survive a direct impact with an object. The display was showing the first of the canisters to hit the surface and explode. Sage let out a little gasp.

"You have to take all three of us," I told whoever it was I was speaking to.

"Colin, what are you doing?" Sage asked.

"Whatever it takes."

"You are all three already initiated. I must find a place for you inside my matrices."

"You better hurry," I told it.

There was another broadcast cutting across ours. [Request for initialization denied by Proxima Dominator Engine #2. No initializations permitted at this time.]

"Oh, fuck that!" I yelled. "You, whoever you are, get us in now!"

"Well," my contact said, "at least if I die doing this, that's a new experience. And if you die while I'm trying, well, that's a new experience, too."

There were alarms blaring all around our pod, warning that we were approaching a collision with a solid object. Rok’gar was chanting to himself. Sage had crossed herself furiously and was muttering a prayer over and over.

"Do it!" I yelled, just as our pod dissolved to white all around us, taking me with it.