Chapter 19 - Sea of Venus(11) - A Bad Omen

Zero woke up at the table. The woman was at the sink washing the weird object. Zero sat there awkwardly, wondering what he should do. Get up? Then what. That would be weird.

She obviously didn’t know he was now awake. What to do? Ugh.

“You’re up?”

Oh. She knew. Zero stood up and looked at her. Her right eyes seemed to pierce into his mind as if reading his thoughts.

“You better eat before it gets cold.”

Zero looked at the plate of food, “Where’s the straw?”

The woman sighed, “Think a little harder, I injected some common sense into you.”

Suddenly information flooded into his mind. He picked up a silver piece of metal, “Fork?”

The woman stared at Zero, “You know this. I released the seal.”

“Ah thanks.”

Zero paused, “What? What seal?”

The woman didn’t say anything.

Zero took a bite. The food was pretty good. Wait. How did he know it was good? He looked at the woman, “So you’re my mother?”

“Unfortunately.”

Zero was confused, “What is even happening?”

Aria glanced at Zero, “The final cycle.”

Zero’s head twitched as he ate another bite of meat, “Why are you so… what’s the word…”

“Enigmatic?”

“Yeah. That’s the word. How’d you know.”

The woman picked up a towel, “I see it.”

“It?”

“The unresolved distribution of probability waveforms.”

Zero stared at the woman, “Couldn’t you just say the future?”

“That’s wrong.”

“Who cares about specifics?”

The woman stared at Zero, “Are you really five? Get out of my son’s body.”

“Your son’s bo- AUGH.”

Zero’s eyes snapped wide, he dropped his fork on the ground, “Ah!”

The woman walked over to him with another plate of food and a new fork, “Here.”

Zero stared at her, “Who are you?”

She sat down next to him, “I’m Aria. What’s your name?”

The boy sat in uncomfortable silence, “Zero?”

“Do you still not know?”

Zero nodded.

Aria sighed, “Eat. Your food.”

Stolen novel; please report.

The food tasted good.

Io, Jupiter

“Get on the shuttle. Quick!”

The little girl and her mother stepped up onto the small drone. Above them, a destroyer hovered above the surface.

“Honey, who sent this craft?”

“Uh. Two did.”

The mother looked up, “I thought they cut you off?”

“We don’t have a choice. The other two went silent.”

“Silent?”

The family squished themselves into the drone. The ground shuddered as a small explosion launched the drone into the air.

“It’s an automated ship. We know that the branch wants us captured so they can’t do anything to us.”

“Where is it headed?”

The man smiled, “Earth.”

On the retired cruiser manned by the Bloodshot Brothers

“We’re exiting high speed drift in five seconds! Brace for deceleration!”

The retired soldiers all flipped a switch on their body suits. It squeezed their bodies during the deceleration and hardened all their cybernetic parts to ensure that the extreme force of 30 to 50 times normal gravity would become bearable. Old cruisers didn’t have inertial dampeners. The technology was a waste of ether and ether wasn’t so abundant in the first era of space combat.

“Target two hundred kilometers from the north pole of Io!”

“Setting target velocity to three thousand meters per second!”

“Affirmative!”

“Brace for deceleration!”

A large rumbling sound was heard as the entire craft shook. Explosions rang out from the rear of the ship as the impulse thrusters fired at maximum capacity. The crew members could feel each explosion as the rhythm resonated with their heart beats.

A robot voice filled the craft, “Deceleration halting in five seconds.”

In the window, steaks of white dots could be seen in the red tinted light of the front window.

The captain struggled to turn his head to peek behind himself. A beautiful blue mass of light that was the sun filled the rear window and seemed to fill the command module in a cool refreshing light.

“Cruise velocity of three thousand meters per second.”

The restraints on the crew’s bodies were released. The captain gasped for air, “Damn. This tin can is killing me.”

One of the men screamed, “We’re off by four deviations!”

“Shit. Old tech out of calibration.”

The captain looked up at the navigation. The target was 200 km but they ended up at 352 km at an angle that was almost 30 degrees off.

He looked at the captain, “How we gonna turn her?”

The captain ran through some simulations in his mind, “We’re rotating impulse thrusters to create a centripetal force! Someone get on the navigation computer!”

The group watched as the angle slowly ticked up from 30 in the thousands place.

“Hurry!”

“I’m on its captain!”

The captain looked over at the other side of the room, “What’s our fuel looking like?”

“Pressure stable! We still have half a tank of hydrogen and oxygen.”

“Good. Brace for impact burns!”

He gave a thumbs up to the crew member up on the navigation seat and he clicked a button on the screen, “We’re rotating!”

All the men felt themselves getting pushed into the back of their seats as the entire vessel spun around the control module.

“Burning!”

A series of fifteen explosions were heard from the rear of the ship.

“Returning orientation!”

The whole ship lurched as it spun around so that its rear was facing Io.

The crew looked through the window as the small dot grew nearer. The shadow of Jupiter loomed over them like a freezing specter as they followed a loose orbital trajectory towards Io.

“Final burn! Brace for deceleration!”

The last deceleration commenced and then the crew finally breathed a sigh of relief.

The captain stood up, “Men, we’re landing.”

He entered the air lock and waved some of the other men into the drop room of a Hornet-X corvette. He looked at the weapons, “Oh shit! This stuff is brand new.”

“Hornet-X too. Remember the to turn on the stealth shield.”

The pilot nodded. Stealth was a specialty of X series crafts. With a soft thud, the craft was launched by a jet of used gas out of the vessel and directly towards Io.

The pilot looked over his shoulder, “We’re reaching the drop zone. Get ready to deploy in thirty seconds.”

The captain nodded, “Let’s start the briefing. We’ll do it republic style. Fire teams of three. Squads of twelve. Support for each fire team. Channels on spades, clubs, hearts, diamonds. Choose your team leader from impact survival. Remember to use the ash if necessary. Yall ready?”

A roar shook the small vessel as the floor below them opened up to reveal the emptiness of space. The pilot had already sealed the chamber of the drop module. A green circle appeared as a hologram in the men’s helmets.

“Dropping in 2 seconds.”

A light lit up in front of the captain and he leapt out of the craft into the open air. A small burst of gas pushed him downwards at a high speed. He quickly tapped an orange button on a panel to check if his jetpack was functioning.

*Pshhht*

He continued to freefall towards the green circle on the ground as the corvette zoomed off to support from afar.

“Warning, you are 500 meters above the ground. Consider slowing down.”

He slammed the orange button and clenched his jaw. The sound of his teeth chattering from the ripples of forces sent echoes through his bones. He touched the ground and staggered forward.

“Damn. Rough landing. Pods are so much easier.”

He linked up to the network transmission, “Squad leader is active. Report.”

11 other lights lit up as human shaped figures walked into the crater that was marked with a green circle.

The captain smiled, “Lets make some money boys.”