After helping Cash find a place to secure the pilot’s body and helping Dick find the nearest planet to land, I returned to the passenger cabin to check on Minerva and the others. I quietly explained the situation to Minerva, trusting her to explain it to the rest of the passengers in a way that would keep everyone relatively calm and reassured.
As I made my way across the cabin to double check the breach patch, my foot softly kicked a bottle of whiskey that had tumbled from the bar in all the commotion. Consider it a sign, I thought, picking up the bottle and dropping into a nearby lounge chair.
Glancing around, I took stock of the other passengers I hadn’t noticed before in the chaos. A man and a woman huddled together on a bench across the lounge. He was reassuring her that help would come soon. An old man sat talking quietly to Ryuuk, who looked like he had regained some composure. I could hear Ryuuk telling the man a story involving a posse of bandits that ransacked his town. The man nodded earnestly as he soaked up the tale.
A young guy with a slight frame was sitting on a nearby lounger. Dressed in long, dark robes, he had the look of a clergyman but not the serene disposition I often associated with the devout monks and priests I had met. His eyes were wide in shock as he stared into space and mumbled to himself almost inaudibly. I moved to a lounger closer to him and offered him the bottle of whiskey.
“Do you drink?” I asked.
“Not really,” he replied, snapping out of his terrified musings to focus on me.
“Seems like a good time to start,” I said and shrugged.
The guy reached out, tentatively grasped the bottle, and took a swig. To my surprise, he didn’t even flinch. That was top quality whiskey. Even I sometimes flinched.
“Feel better, ...?” I asked, intentionally drawing out the question to inquire his name.
“Matthew,” he answered, “and actually, yeah a little.”
“I’m Skye,” I offered, and took the bottle back for a swig. “This is turning out to be one fucked up trip, and somehow, it’s still not the worst flight I’ve ever been on.”
I didn’t know if my words would be any comfort to him, but as I said them, I realized they at least helped me. During my time as an Outlaw, I had indeed found myself in much more dire situations and emerged unscathed.
“This is my first time traveling off planet,” Matthew said with a shaky smile. “So, it’s definitely the worst flight I’ve ever been on.”
“Well, look at it this way,” I responded, keeping my tone light to put him at ease. “When we survive this, every other flight is going to seem really boring by comparison.”
Just then, Cash emerged from the front of the ship to get everyone’s attention.
“We’re getting ready for reentry,” he said, his voice raised to carry across the passenger cabin. “You may want to strap in and pray to any gods you believe in. It could get a little rough.”
He walked over to where I was and lowered his voice to a more conversational tone.
“I’m going to belt myself into that spot near the breach patch in case there’s any need for sudden repairs,” he said. “Dick could probably do with another set of hands in the control room...Just try to keep yours off him long enough to get us on the ground, would ya?”
My eyes rolled as I shook my head.
“Wow,” I said sarcastically. “You’re a man of many talents. Space ship repair guy, corpse whisperer, and now comedian.”
“I prefer to think of myself as an onion,” he said.
“Because you make people want to cry?”
“No! Because I have layers.”
I groaned and started walking toward the hallway that led to the control room.
“What!?” Cash called after me. “You know, layers. Intriguing, complicated, muscular layers!”
As I turned back to shoot him an incredulous look, I caught sight of Matthew struggling to hook himself into a seat harness near the door. The kid really didn’t have a clue and was trying to be brave despite obviously being scared out of his mind.
“Hey kid,” I said, and he stopped fumbling with the buckles to look at me curiously. “There should be an extra seat in the control room if you want it. It might be a little less hectic in there.”
“Yeah, thanks.”
Matthew scrambled out of his half-done harness to follow me down the hallway. Dick was already in the pilot’s chair preparing the ship for reentry procedures. As we entered, he cast a curious look at Matthew, to which I just shrugged in answer. There was no time for introductions and none were really necessary, anyway. I pointed the young guy toward an empty seat that had a simple lap strap harness then took a spot in the co-pilot chair.
My flying skills were basic at best. I could steer a ship and knew how to dock one pretty well. It was something that I had done often on multiple contracts with my Outlaw crew. So, I understood the basics of what I was looking at on the control panel. Some of the read-outs were for life support systems and shields. The transport didn’t have any weapons systems that I could tell.
A glance back at Matthew to make sure he wasn’t accidently strapping his seat belt around his neck revealed his curiosity of the ship’s controls was overpowering his fear of flying. He was taking everything in with wide-eyed interest, watching every command Dick entered into the control center with fascination.
“This large central screen on the control dais displays various settings the pilot can change depending on the type of maneuvering required, such as docking, hovering, taking off, and reentry,” I explained to him, thinking that a little information would distract him.
As I spoke, I took time to examine other secondary systems on the screen. It didn’t appear that Dick actually needed help flying the ship, but I would have come even if Cash hadn’t suggested it. Truth be told, I wasn’t entirely comfortable letting him steer the ship unmonitored. Again, I thought back to the timing of the pilot’s death.
“So, it’s kind of like auto pilot?” Matthew asked in response to my explanation of the ship’s flight systems.
“Far from it, actually. Once the settings are dialed in, the pilot still needs to guide the ship onto the correct trajectory. The actual steering is done manually. The control settings are only meant to stabilize and engage necessary systems during the process,” I said.
Dick cast a sideways glance at me, as if slightly surprised at my knowledge of a transport’s operation.
“What?” I said innocently. “I have some experience with watching people fly ships.”
He snorted a laugh at my play on his earlier remarks.
With a touch of a button, the reddish-brown globe of the nearest planet was projected on the viewing screen. The heads-up display called the planet X12-OU. Given its alpha numerical designation in lieu of a name, it was most likely just a minor outpost of some type, like a travel stop or mining colony. If it had been uninhabited or inhospitable, it wouldn’t have been in the transport’s database at all. Still, it would surely have a Federation outpost where we could report our mishaps and arrange transport elsewhere.
“Here we go,” I warned when the ship dipped sharply to the right as Dick steered the transport into a reentry trajectory.
The screen, which was not an actual window but a projection from the ship’s navigation cameras, lit up with the orange glow of aerodynamic heating mixed with the blue sheen of the ship’s atmospheric shield kicking in to buffer the transport from the heat and drag associated with reentry. The ship's hull began to shake violently, however, as the buffer shields were already pushed to their limit trying to compensate for the damaged hull. Normally, this would be a smooth process, but this was the tricky part we had been worried about all along.
I couldn’t help but squeeze my eyes shut and pray to Sagittarius that I wasn’t about to die in this rust bucket with a bunch of idiots I just met. Warning messages started appearing on the screen in front of me. The shield was past capacity and would become critically disabled if current conditions continued.
Reroute power from life support systems? Systems will function at minimum capacity for life-sustaining function. Yes/No?
I tapped yes, knowing that if the shield quit during this stage of reentry, none of us would likely survive long enough to notice the low oxygen levels. I adjusted the gauge that popped up on the screen until just enough energy was diverted to keep the shield intact.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
Ten or so of the longest minutes of my life later, the shaking subsided, the orange and blue haze cleared, and the dusty, rusty landscape of the planet’s surface appeared in the view screen. I looked back at Matthew, who had returned to his panicked state of staring blankly and mouthing something under his breath. As the ship settled, his eyes lost the glazed look as he snapped out of his fear-induced state to look at me. I smiled encouragingly.
“Don’t worry, the worst part is over,” I said. “We should be landing soo—”
For the second time this trip, I was interrupted by an explosion hitting the hull of the ship.
“Are you fucking kidding me?!”
* * *
“Hold on!” Dick shouted over the warning alarms blaring from the control panel.
He abruptly maneuvered the ship to the left just as another blast of blue plasma energy came soaring past the peripheral of the viewfinder. The energy of the blast passing by, although it missed hitting the ship directly, was enough to cause momentary glitches in the viewing screen. Without the shields being active, the ship’s systems were vulnerable to the static residue from the plasma blasts.
“What the hell is going on?” I asked nobody in particular.
The faulty display made it difficult to get a clear view of our attackers. Why would someone attack a random transport in the first place? The only thing besides basic supplies that transports carried were people. And anyone worth capturing for ransom or other nefarious purposes wouldn’t be traveling on an unarmed, third-class passenger vehicle. My mind flashed to the image of the dead pilot, throat slit as if caught by surprise. If the two were connected, the saboteur might be looking to make a move.
The glitching was making it hard to navigate, but Dick, who apparently had more than a little flight experience, managed to wrestle control of the transport as we dove to a lower altitude. The sparse cloud cover offered little protection from the attacking ship, but breaking line of sight for even a moment might give us the advantage we needed to get away.
A mountain range far below us blinked into view. I glanced at Dick, who shot me a quick questioning look before returning his attention to dodging plasma blasts.
“If you’ve got a better idea, now is the time to hear it,” he said.
“Not really, but maybe I can figure out a way to give us some cover,” I replied, pointing at the control display.
A model of the transport showed that the most recent blast had punched a large hole in the ship’s hull near the original breach. Our attackers would have known that area would be weakest. Since we were at a reasonable altitude, I thought I might be able to fire back through the hole. The ship might not have weapons, but I was not so vulnerable. Plus, I preferred to be on my feet if anyone on the ship was trying something shady.
I was unbuckling my harness when another close blast glitched the entire screen out completely. I stared in dread at the blank display. We were flying blind. There was no way we could navigate the mountain range we were headed toward without being able to see.
“Shit!” Dick and I said in unison.
Just then, the door behind us swished open, and I instinctively moved to intercept whoever was rushing the cabin, thinking it was likely the murderer. My blaster, strapped discreetly under my jacket at the crook of my back, left its holster with an ease that came from years of experience. The intruder found the barrel inches away from his forehead.
“Stop!” I commanded. It was the lizard guy from earlier. Was his name Vomero?
He paused briefly at the gun pointed at his head, then rolled his eyes as he touched a finger to the barrel. My blaster powered down instantly, rendered useless.
“No time,” Vomero said. “Move! I’m here to help.”
He pushed past me and placed his hands on the control panel. My senses picked up the energy flowing from him, reaching out into the electrical system he was touching. A technomancer. Interesting. I had only met a handful of people in my travels with his ability to manipulate technology using his life force. I looked at Dick, who didn’t seem to care what the guy was doing if it got the view screen back up. The control dais lit up again with power, blinking on shakily before stabilizing.
“I can keep it running,” Vomero said, looking back at me. With a glance at my still useless weapon, the power indicator lit up as the blaster whirred to life.
“Ok. Back to Plan A,” I said, nodding. I turned to leave, sure that if Vomero intended to kill us, he wouldn’t have fixed the transport to begin with.
When I arrived in the passenger cabin, there was chaos everywhere. The blast that blew open the side of the ship had caught a few casualties. The husband and wife from earlier had been sitting directly across from the breach and took the blast full-on. Some of the wounded who hadn’t been able to strap in properly looked unconscious or dead from being thrown around the cabin as we evaded more shots. Almost everyone else was clinging to something, bracing themselves from the wind whipping through the hole in the side. Hole was a bit of an understatement, though. The new blast was about the size of a small cargo hatch.
I found Cash pushing a large piece of metal debris off of himself. Something about it tickled my senses, but I packed it away to think about later.
“No fixing that,” he said, pointing at the open side of the ship.
“No, need. I’m done letting these fuckers take free shots at us.”
Cash grinned and nodded his approval.
“Hell yeah,” he said with enthusiasm. “Now, we’re talkin’.”
I pulled a piece of harness free from the wall and used it to lash myself to the bar rail, leaving plenty of slack to reach the hole. I didn’t want to go flying out while Dick dodged blaster shots. Cash seemed less worried about this prospect and pulled out a laser rifle from a holster on his back, which he wasted no time in firing at the pursuing ship.
I had other weapons at my disposal, but knew the one-handed blaster would be easier to aim while holding onto the side of the breach. Cash and I fired repeatedly at our attackers. So far, we were doing little damage as the pursuing ship was understandably equipped with a shield. The vessel was meant for attacking, although I didn’t recognize the model or any affiliation marks. However, even a shielded attack vessel couldn’t take multiple and repeated direct hits for long. So, the fighter was forced to start dodging.
Ryuuk soon joined us at the hole to fire shots from what looked like a long-range sniper rifle. To my surprise, he was actually a very good shot. Most if not all of his hits landed, and the power packed by the sniper rifle created serious issues for the fighter ship. Our attackers fell away from our pursuit momentarily in defense, but I could tell they weren’t giving up.
“They’re lining up for a direct shot on us,” I yelled.
Previously, we had been firing behind us as the ship pursued and Dick expertly dodged the blasts the fighter was shooting past us. Now, the fighter was approaching perpendicular to us, hoping to fire a shot straight into the cabin again. If it hit directly through the open side, it would most likely rip the transport apart—game over.
As I saw the fighter ship approaching, a small black speck in the distance, I activated an ability.
“Stand back and cover your eyes!” I told everyone who could hear me.
Hidden beneath my hair was a tattoo on the nape of my neck, tiny stars in the shape of a starburst. Lightly touching the Zodian mark, I called upon the power imbued upon it by the light of Sagittarius. The tattoo began to glow with energy as I pointed my finger like a pistol toward the fast-approaching ship.
“Supernova,” I whispered, activating the ability with a single word.
A small ball of light shot from my finger toward the target. Seconds later, it exploded with the light of a thousand stars, blinding anyone who gazed upon its piercing brightness. Only my eyes would be immune from its powerful effects, so I could see perfectly as the ship’s pilot veered away sharply. The pilot had already fired a last-minute plasma blast, which sailed toward us and grazed the underside of the ship.
Still, the impact rocked the transport vessel, causing more debris to come loose in the cabin. As the supernova flare cleared, everyone took stock of the situation. A piece of shrapnel from the blast had ripped through my thigh. I was clinging to the wall near the breach hole and sat to try and stop the bleeding.
A moment later, Minerva appeared next to me and started a healing incantation, her hands hovering over the wound. The powerful healing ability sealed the wound in seconds, and Minerva looked drained. I guessed it was one of her more potent abilities.
“Thanks,” I said, smiling as we helped each other to our feet.
Feeling much better, I braced her arm over my shoulders as she walked weakly toward a nearby seat safely away from the breach. Just before we reached it, however, another blast shook the ship from the back, throwing us both to the ground. Then everything lurched downward, and we were freefalling through the cabin as the ship began to spiral out of control. In the moment that it took for Dick to wrestle the vessel under control, Minerva and I were thrown backward against the far wall of the passenger cabin. Cash also smacked into the back wall with a thud, nearly demolishing the wall with his large size. He was seemingly unharmed. I had hit the door panel to the back hallway pretty hard, and the wind was temporarily knocked out of me as I coughed and sputtered to catch my breath.
I looked to my left where Minerva had hit the wall. She hadn’t been so lucky. A stray piece of pipe thrown loose during the explosions jutted from her neck, her lifeless eyes staring blankly into the distance.
“Dammit,” I spat the words out in frustration.
I had seen many people die. The type of work Outlaws undertook was so lucrative because it was usually also very dangerous. Yet, it still ached every time for me. Even for such a short acquaintance, I couldn’t be indifferent at the death of someone who had selflessly given of themselves to help others, including me.
I didn’t have the luxury to dwell on it, however. Although the ship was no longer plummeting out of control, I could tell we were still rapidly descending toward the ground. Hefting myself off the floor, I made my way carefully toward the control room with Cash close behind. Upon entering the control cabin, I could immediately see the problem. Only the viewing screen was operational, warnings flashed on the various display panels indicating malfunctions in many major systems.
“Navigation is shot,” said Vomero as soon as we entered.
“Is there any way to get it back online?” I asked.
“It’s taking everything we’ve got to keep steering operational,” Dick added over his shoulder.
“So, what do we do?” Cash asked forcefully, getting in Vomero’s face.
“I don’t know, brace for impact?!” Vomero shot back hotly.
“We’re all dead if we hit at this speed,” said Dick. “And I have no way to slow us down.”
“I...I might can help...”
The four of us turned to where Matthew sat in the corner of the cabin, still strapped in safely and looking terrified but not panicked.
“Kid, if you’ve got something. Now is the time!” I nearly shouted.
“You can slow us down?” Cash asked.
“There’s no time for explanations,” said Dick, still struggling with the steering mechanism. “Just do it!!”
Matthew unhooked his harness and stood, moving with a concerning lack of haste for someone who was about to die in a fiery crash. Then he closed his eyes and brought his hands together as if in prayer. I felt something strange, yet also familiar, permeate the air. This power was drawing from a source much like my own. I could feel it but not identify it. He wasn’t Zodian; I knew that for sure.
When Matthew opened his eyes a few seconds later, they looked like swirling voids of black and purple miasma. Then, he slowly drew his hands apart, the air between them crackling with dark energy.
“What the hell...” Dick said in confusion.
The rest of us turned our eyes from Matthew to the viewing screen Dick was staring at. It looked like a large hole in the universe opened up in front of us, the inside of it swirling with the same purple-black miasma in Matthew’s eyes. As the ship plummeted through what I now recognized as a Void Portal, I once again turned to stare in shock at Matthew.
Void Worshipper?