Shattered Skies

by ALICE HENDERSON

  “I got it,” she said over the comm.

  “Now we just have to take out the airship’s guns,” Byron told her. “I’m in the other gunner seat.”

  H124 couldn’t see him past the curving underbelly of the Argo, but was buoyed by his presence.

  Off the starboard side, the Death Rider ship turned slowly, revealing a mounted series of guns.

  “Taking evasive action!” she heard Winslow yell, and the Argo dropped again at a sickening speed. H124 lost sight of the airship in the clouds, but she knew it couldn’t be far behind. The Argo was no match for the airship’s maneuverability. They couldn’t outrun it, and certainly couldn’t outgun it. The Argo just wasn’t built for aerial combat. It was an exploration vessel.

  Below them, the atmospheric shield came into view. Sunlight glimmered off parts of the otherwise invisible dome.

  A blast of air hit the Argo, and they shot violently to one side as the Death Rider airship rocketed into view, drawing up moments before they would have collided. The bank of guns took aim, and fire erupted from the turrets’ muzzles all along the flank of the ship. The roar and rattle of the guns was earsplitting. H124 gritted her teeth as she released another stream of ammunition toward the airship’s gun array. A few of them exploded in flame, but the rest continued to retaliate.

  “We’re hit!” Winslow cried out. “We’re going down! They’ve taken out the starboard engine!”

  H124 craned her neck to see fire billowing out from the spot where one of the engines had been. Careening straight for the atmospheric shield, with no engine on that side to direct them away, H124 braced for impact. If this shield was anything like the PPC ones, they’d be incinerated. Winslow pivoted the craft, turning them a hundred and eighty degrees as they plummeted. She fired up the port engines, angling them away from the shield. But it was too late. The engines couldn’t make up for the angle of descent fast enough, and now they were exposed to the guns on the left side. H124 couldn’t see the airship anymore, but she could hear the bank of gunfire, then the answering report of Byron.

  The edge of the shield came into view on her side. They were still too close. It rushed up beneath them.

  “We’ve lost port engines!” Winslow shouted.

  Byron continued to lay down a steady stream of fire. The Argo shuddered. H124 could feel heat radiating from its body, reaching her in the exposed gunner seat. Flames shot out on the other side of the glass gunner bubble, closing in on all sides as the Argo’s skin went ablaze.

  “We’re losing air fast!” Winslow cried.

  Now they were dead in the air, plunging downward, no engines. The atmospheric shield drew ever closer. H124 grabbed her seat, and her stomach flew up into her mouth. They had only fifty feet before they’d hit the shield. Twenty-five. Ten. Five. H124 clenched her jaw, clutching the edges of her seat as she became weightless.

  Then the shield blinked off, and they passed through, still falling. She peered up through the flames around the glass of the gunner bubble to see the section of shield wink back into place. The Death Rider airship remained on the far side.

  They continued to plummet. She’d be crushed if she stayed where she was. “Byron!” she shouted over the comm. “We have to get out of these!” She grabbed the ladder and climbed up through the open hatch, struggling against the force of gravity to keep hold of the rungs. She rose up through the floor of the Argo.

  Briefly she caught a glimpse of Raven and Astoria, strapping themselves into the seats in the main lounge. Willoughby reached out, and she managed to take hold of his hand. He reeled her in and she grabbed a seat, then its safety harness. She buckled herself in. Twisting her neck back, she saw Dirk helping Byron into a seat. He clicked his harness seconds before they hit.

  Then everything went black.

  Chapter 23

  H124 lifted her head. Her neck throbbed from the impact.

  Beside her, Willoughby unbuckled his harness and gripped his shoulder, pivoting at his waist. “Ow.” He turned to her. “You okay?”

  She nodded.

  Slowly everyone around the cabin unbuckled their harnesses. Though banged up, none of them had serious injuries.

  Smoke filled the cabin. The windows were all cracked, some shattered. The heat of the flames on the ship’s exterior intensified, and the air grew stifling. Sweat beaded on H124’s forehead and back as the acrid stench of burning wires and insulation greeted her nostrils.

  “We need to get out of here,” Winslow said from the cockpit. She unstrapped her belt and stumbled into the lounge area. The ramp came down. “Everybody off!” She waited by the door. The DisPos soldiers went through first, Garrett and Scarlet taking up the rear of their contingent.

  H124 grabbed her toolbag while Raven scooped up a number of rolled up maglev sleds and his pack. Byron and the others grabbed all the weapons, and they piled out as quickly as they could.

  Once outside, H124 wasn’t sure what to expect. Above them, she could see that the shield remained intact. The Death Rider airship hovered up there, a small speck high in the sky, locked out for now. But someone had let the Argo in. She hoped they’d gotten the message. As they moved away from the smoking wreckage, she could make out some of the terrain around her.

  They stood in a meadow, surrounded by trees. She caught hints of the scent of sun-warmed pine, and off to her right stood a massive granite boulder with bright orange and yellow lichen growing on its sides.

  A small aircraft landed in the distance. Coughing from the smoke, H124 pulled her shirt up over her face and moved away from the burning Argo.

  Several figures piled out of the aircraft, and approached them hesitantly. Some started running through the smoke. They ran past her, men and women in fire gear, faces covered in masks, oxygen tanks strapped on their backs. Once they reached the wreckage they began dousing the flames with powerful handheld suppression units that streamed out white foam.

  The smoke began to dissipate immediately.

  Three other figures continued to approach them at a slower pace, then came to a halt. The tendrils of smoke parted, and she could just barely make out their faces. In the center stood a tall woman with long brown wavy hair. She looked to be about Willoughby’s age, with kind blue eyes and a tanned peach face.

  Flanking her were a man and woman. The former had some kind of mobile device tucked under an arm. He was a bit younger, with short blond hair worn close to his scalp and brown eyes set in a fawn face. The other woman was about his age, with dark, wavy hair. Her ochre face appeared kind, with a hint of curiosity crinkling her almond eyes.

  As the last tendrils of smoke drifted away, the older woman’s face came fully into view. Slackjawed, she brought a hand to her heart. Next to H124, Willoughby let out a strangled cry. He went down to his knees. He barely caught himself in the grass. H124 stooped beside him. “Are you all right?”

  His eyes were fixed on the woman’s face. She came forward reluctantly, then began to run, closing the distance. She threw her arms around Willoughby, kneeling in the dirt with him. He squeezed her tightly, tears streaming down his cheeks.

  H124 stood up and stepped back. The two remained locked in a trembling embrace. Then Willoughby started to laugh, a shocked reflex tinged with joy. He pulled back and stared at her, cradling her cheeks. “Is it you?” he asked.

  “Yes,” she whispered. “When I saw that video message, saw your face, I couldn’t believe it.”

  Willoughby laughed again, this time with pure ecstasy, and clutched her to his chest again.

  H124 looked at Byron, then Astoria and Dirk, who likewise watched the scene with puzzled expressions.

  Finally they stood, not once breaking contact. He slid his arm around her. He turned to H124. “H, this is Juliet. Your mother.”

  The words punched her in the solar plexus. She could only stare as her mind tried to make sense of it. “What?”
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br />   The woman came forward, finally releasing Willoughby’s hand. She reached up and touched H124’s hair, her chin, her cheek. Her expression wavered, then the woman brought her into a fierce embrace. H124 hugged her back tentatively. The woman pulled away, her eyes brimming with tears. “I thought I’d never see you again.”

  “Where have you been?” Willoughby asked her.

  She wiped away her tears with long, slender fingers. “Well…here. Mostly.”

  “What happened?”

  “After I escaped Delta City, we were attacked at the rendezvous site. Lawrence was killed.”

  “I went there. Found his body. Looked like Death Riders hit the place.”

  “It wasn’t Death Riders. It was the PPC.”

  “What?”

  “A PPC exec had been moving through the area, scouting locations for a more powerful transmitter, something that could reach other megacities. He arrived at our camp with bodyguards, looking for water. And he recognized me. He heard I’d been killed. The look on his face when he realized I was alive was pure greed. He knew he’d be able to parlay my capture into a promotion, even though Olivia meant to kill me.”

  She looked to H124. “He guessed you were alive, too. Said he’d see that you and Willoughby paid the price. I tried to plead with him. Told him what Olivia had been up to with the Delta City street population and the food cubes. But he didn’t care. He gave orders for his bodyguards to grab me and raze the place to the ground. Lawrence shot him. A firefight broke out between his contingent of soldiers and Lawrence’s people. The place caught fire in the chaos. Lawrence was killed. I managed to get out with a few of his friends. But I knew then I’d always be on the run, and if anyone found out I was alive, they’d target you two.

  “Fortunately, the people I’d escaped with knew where a Rover camp was, far to the south on the gulf. We fled there, and the Rovers took us in.” She took Willoughby’s hand, gazing up into his eyes. “I wanted to send you a message so much. I heard through channels that you’d settled in New Atlantic. I knew you’d protect her.” She looked at H124. “You were both safer without me.”

  H124 didn’t know what to think. Had she been safer? She thought back to her life there, the isolation, the threat of Repurposers. But if the PPC had come for her when she was an infant, she wouldn’t have stood a chance. She’d grown up anonymously, and perhaps it had saved her life. As she heard Juliet speak, H124’s heart sank like a cold stone inside her chest, and reality no longer felt so real.

  Juliet went on. “But the PPC patrolled the area on the gulf, sending over drones. Sometimes execs showed up in the area looking for transmitter sites. It was too risky. The Rovers there kept getting this coded message. A group of people were looking for extra help to maintain and expand this place. They called it Tathra. It means ‘beautiful country.’ I decided to make the journey.”

  “We would have gone with you,” Willoughby said. H124 wondered if he was feeling the same combination of shock and joy, with the sting of hurt around the edges. Why hadn’t she asked them to come with her?

  “I wasn’t sure if I could get a secure message to you,” she told him. “We’d worked so hard to escape Delta City, to keep her safe, that I worried I’d endanger you both.”

  Willoughby regarded her with a tearful gaze. “I thought you were dead.”

  “I’m so sorry.”

  They shared another hug, this one of fervid apology.

  A hand fell on H124’s shoulder. She realized Byron had come to her side. “You okay?” he asked in a low voice.

  “I don’t know,” H124 whispered honestly.

  The two other people who’d approached with Juliet stood silently to one side, maintaining a respectful distance from the reunion. Now the man stepped forward.

  Juliet pulled away from Willoughby, constantly wiping away her tears, and cleared her throat. “Oh, forgive me. This is Porter, our resident astronomer.” She gestured to the woman. “And Parrish, our shield specialist.”

  The two nodded their heads in greeting.

  Porter spoke with a deep voice. “We’d like to know more about this asteroid you mentioned in your message. While we’ve got some rudimentary telescopes here, we don’t have the kind of facilities we’d need to track near-earth objects in any kind of detail.”

  H124 swallowed.

  Raven stepped up. “Of course.” He patted his pack. “I’ve got everything you need here.”

  Parrish reached out and shook his hand. “We need to know if our shield can withstand the blast, what the asteroid’s velocity and entry angle will be.”

  “Is there a way to stop it?” Porter asked, and H124 felt herself go numb. There had been a way, yes. And they’d fought hard for it. She looked around at the varied greenery, the giant life-giving trees, hearing bird song fill the air.

  More than ever she thought they were doing the right thing. The world deserved a chance at something like this again. A paradise for all living things.

  When no one answered Porter’s question, Juliet looked up at the hovering airship. “Let’s get somewhere safe.”

  They boarded the small aircraft. Juliet introduced them to Donovan, who sat at the helm. H124 hadn’t seen anything like the craft before. It was like a small airship, but had no visible engines or propellers. They all piled inside, and the craft took off, accelerating at such a gentle pace that she could barely tell they were moving. They flew over the landscape, H124 and Raven pressed to the windows, in awe of the terrain below.

  They sailed over the canopy of a lush rainforest, where trees grew so thick she couldn’t make out anything except their top stories. Birds and insects fluttered around the branches.

  Fog enshrouded the nearby mountains, cascading over the crests like waterfalls of mist. They passed over a section of snowcapped peaks, avalanche chutes green and lush. On one slope, she spotted two bears digging for roots and tubers. A family of white mountain goats meandered across a snowfield, two babies cavorting playfully with each other.

  They then sailed over a section of desert, spotting a bighorn sheep hopping around on barren mountain slopes, a desert fox, and a handful of camels navigating the sandy terrain. Palms dotted the vista, with water pooling at their bases. Raven pulled out his diginocs, pointing out wildlife excitedly. They zoomed in to watch a desert tortoise digging a burrow, puffed up chuckwallas sunning themselves on rocks, sidewinders weaving across the warm sands.

  The flight continued. Upon a vast golden savannah she caught sight of elephants rubbing on trees, herds of zebras, wildebeest, giraffes, gazelles. A pack of African wild dogs slunk near a watering hole.

  The next few minutes took them over a temperate forest with deciduous and pine trees towering over meadows of wildflowers. H124 spotted a herd of deer grazing in a field. In an area rich with eucalyptus trees, she watched kangaroos and wallabies bouncing along, and a bandicoot digging on a hillside.

  Then an expansive grassland opened beneath them, very much like the recovered section that had thrived outside Sanctuary City. A sparkling river meandered through the grass. H124 was thrilled by the sight of it all.

  “Oh my god,” Raven breathed, pointing down. H124 followed his gaze to a herd of elephant-like animals grazing in the sun. Thick woolly fur covered their bodies, and their gleaming white tusks were tremendous, curving out from their mouths. “Mammoths!” Raven cried. Nearby, woolly rhinoceros munched on grasses. He pointed out a group of bison. “Are those Beringian bison?” he said breathlessly. “And look there!” he said, pointing out smaller elephantine creatures. “Mastodons!”

  Parrish turned to follow their gazes. “We’re hoping to reintroduce these animals back to their native continents as their populations stabilize and we restore their habitats.”

  They traversed landscape after landscape, each habitat thriving and revitalized. And this was just one continent, and one of the smallest,
to boot. H124 imagined what they could do with the rest of the earth, bringing those species that had been decimated back to life, giving them a chance.

  They hadn’t yet told Juliet and the others that they’d had a plan to stop the asteroid, but now were letting it hit. She looked over at her mother, who was sitting near the front with Willoughby, chatting excitedly with one another. She’d never seen Willoughby so animated, so lively. It made her smile.

  “Once we’re at our HQ, we can talk about the asteroid’s trajectory,” Porter started to say, but his words cut off abruptly. The aircraft slowed to a halt near the edge of the shield. On the far side of the shield wall, ocean waves broke along the seashore. A line of wind turbines ran along the beach, turning busily.

  “What is it?” H124 asked, peering out of the window. And then she saw it. The Death Rider ship had tracked their progress, still hovering on the outside of the dome above. At first H124 wasn’t too concerned. They hadn’t been able to penetrate the shield. “What are they doing?” asked H124, turning to Onyx. “Can you tap into Olivia’s communication again?”

  Onyx nodded and went to work.

  But before she could bring anything up, the clouds parted. H124’s stomach sank as dozens more retrofitted PPC airships came into view, gleaming painted skulls decorating their sides, makeshift cannons mounted on their exteriors. They wheeled in unison.