The Corsair Uprising #1: The Azure Key

by Trevor Schmidt

  7

  “How can that be?” Saturn asked. “Nothing can travel faster than light.”

  “We didn’t. It was a wormhole, connecting two points in space separated by thousands of light years.”

  “Like a shortcut?”

  “Like a shortcut.”

  Liam sat back in his faux leather seat and took it all in. No human had ever traveled past Titan in their own solar system. It wouldn’t have been profitable. Now they were a third of the way across the galaxy in ship that could hardly go a fraction of light speed.

  Saturn turned off the star map and crossed her arms. “If we never get back to Earth, I’m blaming it on you.”

  Liam understood her frustration. He too was questioning his choice, but the alternative wasn’t any better. One bit of good news was that there weren’t any other ships on this side of the wormhole and the distortions behind them had ceased, closing the hole. Somehow he didn’t think Saturn would see the bright side at that moment. They sat in silence until a flashing yellow light lit up his console. He moved to press it and when he did, a hologram appeared of a beige sphere, patched with brown. Liam zoomed out and saw their flashing yellow position a couple million kilometers from the small world.

  “What is that?” Saturn asked.

  “A planet. And close.”

  “Do you think that’s where the other ship came from?”

  Liam ran his fingers through his long blond bangs, which were still sweaty from their escape. It was a tough call, but there was one thing he knew for certain. Staying there wasn’t going to do them any good. Liam made a split decision and jerked the joystick, bringing the ship about so they were on a course for the planet. The bright rays of that solar system’s star peeked out behind the planet off in the distance.

  “We have to try,” he said. “Are we in scanning range yet?”

  “We need to be closer than one million kilometers for an accurate reading.”

  Saturn pressed one of the controls and brought some figures up on the panel’s display. Liam watched the blue glow of the screen as several columns populated with data. Saturn pointed at the screen and said, “From here all we can tell is that the atmosphere is comprised of nitrogen, oxygen, and trace amounts of other elements, but not enough to be toxic in the short term. We should be able to breathe.”

  Liam locked in the auto-pilot and unbuckled his straps. The last laser hit had taken out their small gravitational field generator, leaving them weightless. He floated out of his seat and used his hands to guide himself to the back of the cockpit, where he examined a control screen. He took images from the forward camera and blew them up on the display. The surface was mostly brown but gave off a slight yellow glow from the atmosphere.

  “It looks rocky. Maybe a desert.”

  Saturn unstrapped herself from her seat and floated in place. She guided herself over to Liam, putting a hand on his shoulder to steady herself. “It will take almost twelve hours at our current rate of acceleration. We should try to assess the damage.”

  Liam nodded and swiped his hand an inch over the panel. An image of the scout ship appeared as a grey outline with flashing orange sections where damage was present. Their nose was scraped up pretty bad and there was minor structural damage in patches around the ship. Nothing was as bad as their starboard wing. It wasn’t necessary in space, and they could get by flying on Earth, but he wasn’t so sure about entering this planet’s atmosphere. If there were windstorms or if the atmosphere was too thick, they could run into some problems. Liam pointed to the wing on the screen. “What do you think?”

  “Well we don’t exactly have a replacement,” she replied.

  The cockpit’s door slid open and Ju-Long floated inside the cramped area, forehead bloodied and lip split open, bruising fast. His white tank top was stained with blood from where he’d used it to wipe his mouth. Ju-Long’s muscular arms held him steady in the frame of the hatch.

  “You should probably come see,” he said.

  Liam and Saturn exchanged a look, then followed him out of the cockpit and into the main corridor, kicking off from the walls to gain momentum. Along the main passage were four rooms, each only a few meters square. Enough room for a bed and a small trunk for personal items. Regardless, they were more spacious than the quarters at the mine, where workers were stacked three high in rows of uncomfortable cots.

  They used the railing on the ladder to descend to the cargo bay, which was the main intersection between the cockpit, the airlocks, and the engine room, forming a cross. Yellow strongboxes of cargo were strewn about the bay after their little adventure. Ju-Long led them to the starboard side, pointing vehemently toward the airlock’s window. When Liam pressed his face up against the porthole he knew why.

  The starboard wing sparked and jolted violently. Chunks of the panels were missing from the frame of the wing where the laser had cut clean through. It was worse than he thought.

  “What are we going to do?” Ju-Long asked.

  Liam thought for a moment. The scout ship’s supplies were limited, but if they had welding equipment they could salvage some interior panels and perhaps work out a fix. Liam took a deep breath and let it out. The cargo bay smelled of stale air and sweat. Ju-Long and Saturn looked to him expectantly, though he didn’t know why. No one had made him leader, but he was beginning to feel he’d been placed in that role regardless. He went with his gut and ordered, “Start checking these boxes, we need to know what we have in inventory.”

  Ju-Long and Saturn nodded in agreement and began tearing the tops off of the crates, careful not to let the contents float away. Liam searched the cargo bay for a panel that might fit, preferably something only aesthetic in nature. It took five minutes, but he finally found a wall panel near the ladder to the main passageway that could work.

  “I’ve got something,” Saturn said, holding up a small cylindrical device that fit in the palm of her hand. “I think it’s a laser cutter.”

  “Bring it here,” Liam said.

  Saturn pushed off from the floor and met Liam at the ladder. Liam pointed to the rectangular panel.

  “Try to get a clean cut along the edges. Start with a lower power so you don’t burn what’s on the other side.”

  Saturn shot him a questioning look.

  “What is on the other side?”

  Liam didn’t know what was behind the panel, but he was sure whatever it led to was still inside the ship, so he said, pointing to the seam in the metal, “It’s a living quarters, don’t worry about it. Right here.”

  Saturn reluctantly pointed the laser cutter at the panel and turned the dial to medium power. Ju-Long pushed off from the floor and met them at the ladder, interrupting Saturn before she turned on the cutter. “Forgetting something?”

  He handed Liam and Saturn a pair of darkened goggles, putting a third pair over his own eyes. He jeered, “Have you guys learned nothing at the mine?”

  Saturn’s mouth opened to give a retort but she stopped after the first syllable, simply nodding and pressing the button on the cutter, sending a blue laser at the seam of the metal panel. The plate turned orange around the cut as she went, a few bits of molten metal floating away. Liam hadn’t thought about cutting in the weightless environment. A small chunk flew out and caught Liam in the shoulder, burning his skin through his gray jumpsuit. He brushed it away with his hand and pressed his palm down on the burn. Liam kicked off from the wall and stayed a few meters back while she worked.

  Luckily, Saturn finished quickly and punched the panel through to the other side. The orange edges of the remaining fixture faded until they retained only a small amount of color. Saturn removed her glasses and admired her work. Her expression changed from satisfaction to disdain. She moved her head close to the hole and looked inside, then turned toward Liam, fuming.

  “What?” Liam asked.

  “Take a look for yourself.”

  Liam pushed off from the wall he was holding on to and floated to the hole in the w
all. Upon inspection it was pretty obvious why she was mad. If she’d cut into one of the living quarters it would have been fine, since they had a spare. Instead, she’d cut a hole a half meter by a meter into the side of their only bathroom.

  Liam smiled and said, “Come on, that’s a little funny.”

  “I’m not laughing.”

  Ju-Long Ma snickered in the background. “I guess this means we’re all going to get pretty chummy.”