“Max?” she said into the radio. She reached under her seat to grab the skeletal hand that was her lucky charm.
Chapter 47
“I thought you said our window was open!” Max said.
“It's opening and closing all the time!” Linda said. “The impactor is still spinning too fast, but the rate is slowing in the atmosphere.”
The impactor was heating in the atmosphere more and more, getting brighter and brighter, all the while getting closer and closer to the surface. There was little Max could do but fret, given the timing of the thing. He watched the screen as it changed from red to green with the spin of the impactor. The impactor's spin rate was slowing quickly, he could see it on the screen. But it looked like it would be too little too late.
Chapter 48
“Get those pods out.” It was Commander Carrack's voice over general comms.
Quin's view of the sky, from the monitor of their concrete ship, was oversaturated leaving a bright smear. Jayleen hugged Cailin tight and Quin hugged the pair of them. Greta sat alone; a look of intense hate-filled frustration etched into her face. Quin had no delusions that they would be safe underground. He imagined the shockwave passing quickly through the stone beneath the city, causing concrete to spall from the walls of the ship, shredding the occupants. Perhaps those in the pods would survive? He looked at the screen to draw his attention away from those dark thoughts. There was no data on the screen. No estimation of the distance of the asteroid. No countdown to doom. So, he focused instead on his best friends in the world. His brother, Jayleen, and Chaplin. They had been through a lot. He would have preferred them to be safe, but he felt a guilty comfort at being with them in the end.
The world faded away around them. The TV, the table, the benches, and even the walls slipped away suddenly. Everything but a thin dusty tracing of their surroundings was gone, and they were surrounded on one side by tightly packed pods arranged into rooms and floors that were no longer present. A split second later a gentle wind pushed everything apart. A small ship floated a few feet away from them. Its small cockpit was empty.
Greta reached out to grab hold of the hugging trio. Her fingers graced Jayleen's foot, but her hand closed on empty air. Then a gentle wind dragged her out of reach.
“Woah!” Cailin said, a look of wonder across his face. “I'm in space!”
Chapter 49
Carrack could feel the heat from above even through the canopy of his Roughshod. Those unprotected citizens in the park around him would be getting a sunburn today, no question about it. He gave the command for another tug to make a run. It would be close, but it was worth the risk of losing one ship for the possible gain of thousands more human lives. The people were pressing in tightly to the jump circle. In other circumstances that press of bodies would be claustrophobic, possibly deadly. But here, the added compression would save even more lives. He could make it into that last jump of course, he could stomp over the bodies of those in the way and survive to fight another day at their expense.
Carrack wanted to live. But not so badly as that. The damage would be greater than a few more lost lives. The earthlings would forever after been seen as cold, heartless, and other. There would be no unity beyond the needs of the moment.
His last command given, Commander Carrack reflexively set the Roughshod into a defensive crouch and peered up at the sky for one last look before oblivion took him. The canopy's HUD worked hard to manage the contrasting brightness of the star bright meteor and the comparatively dim sky around it. The result was a surreal mix of a giant burning rock pasted on blue sky. Quickly the rock filled his view, easing the HUD's task.
Chapter 50
Terrance held the ship at the edge of the asteroid's horizon which kept it almost entirely hidden. Snow had already vented her tug's atmosphere, which had been handy when an energy blast melted a hole through the edge of the tug's dome canopy.
“We need to be more careful,” Terrance said, “they may have other, more explosive weapons.”
“Maybe they do. But if we don't keep our eyes on that thing then we're screwed,” Snow said, “so just keep doing the gopher thing.”
Most of the Egg's blasts had landed on the edge of the Welcome bubble, which was only so much swiss-cheese now. It was no longer possible to stabilize the bubble's position by venting atmosphere. Shawna put it into a spinning tumble to keep it from drifting too far out from behind the shield asteroids. Soon though, the Egg would be close enough to maneuver around the asteroids. Then the mostly stationary people inside the bubble would start taking hits. Another volley of energy blasts punctured the bubble, close to the unconscious forms of the people inside. Despite the holes, the bubble was still round. It only needed to lose a bit more air for it to shrink small enough, grouping the people up enough to escape with a jump tug.
And then time was up. The Egg blazed past the shield asteroids and sent a quick succession of energy blasts at the Welcome bubble the first pair cut through the edge of the bubbles sphere and dozens of people. The next pair passed through the space at the center of the sphere. Tattered plastic was all that was left of the bubble when the barrage was complete.
Shawna had jumped away, carrying with her all the Grailliyn's, if not all of the bubble.
“Time to go!” Terrance said.
“Do it,” Snow said and palmed a glowing marble from the tug's cradle.
The alien Egg rotated towards the tug. Perhaps wondering why the tug was moving straight at the Egg. A pair of weapon points on the sides of the ship glowed blue.
“Maaaax!” Snow said.
The tug jumper ruptured. Debris spread wide in all directions.
Chapter 51
Why did the ship stay? Surely it was prudent to flee, along with the others of its kind. Joardem' e'hesh charged weapons. There was no time to satisfy curiosity. There never was time for curiosity. Only for survival.
Powerful senses, further enhanced by the ship’s own sensors, noted the folding and unfolding of space just as the enemy ship mysteriously disintegrated of its own accord.
Joardem' e'hesh had failed to completely cut off supply of the crystal to the newly interstellar people. They continued to move freely.
Joardem' e'hesh was already jumping his own ship when the asteroid appeared beside it. All senses and sensors screamed for Joardem' e'hesh to escape, though he would later pay dearly for use of the jump device. Nothing happened. The disintegrated alien ship! He threw his own ship into motion, every joule of available power was squeezed into the engines, so much so that the compensators began to slip. Joardem' e'hesh was pressed tightly into the rear of his saddle.
As the impactor made contact with his ship, Joardem' e'hesh felt a moment of regret. All the damage caused to this people, the harrying, the deaths, the destruction of culture, it was for nothing. Now Joardem' e'hesh would die. And his brood, the last brood of his kind, would be slaughtered for his failure. In the last moment as the vessel was crushed, but before it was completely smeared across the surface of the impactor, Joardem' e'hesh felt fear and sorrow for the brood.
Chapter 52
The small ship slipped sideways towards Greta, closing the gap enough for her to scramble up and into the dome cockpit. She centered herself on the seat, closed the door, and grabbed the controls. Quin could hear a faint voice from inside the cockpit, but he couldn't make out the words. Greta looked at Chaplin and the huddled group of youths. A look of fear flashed across her face, but then softened to resignation. The change happened quickly enough for Quin to doubt himself, but he knew what he'd seen it. The ship drifted towards the group. Quin held Cailin and Jayleen in his right arm. His left arm, the android one, gripped its near twin on Chaplin. Chaplin stretched out to grab hold as the small ship approached them. He expertly maneuvered the lot of them in the micro gravity of their current environment. He moved them under the ship and around to the door, all with the use of only one arm. The door opened again. Chaplin placed Cailin in the cockpit beside Gre
ta. Jayleen and Quin held on to the ship's exterior.
There was a whirring noise then a clack, and Quin felt a light breeze on his cheek.
“It will take a long time for all of the pods to move into the Travel bubble,” said a voice from the ship. It had that same slight electronic quality of Chaplin's voice, but was more relaxed and conversational. “The Rock contained many more evacuees than previous deliveries.”
“Hello, Douglas,” Chaplin said.
Douglas, who Quin assumed was the tiny ship's computer, was silent. There was a tone of uncertainty in his voice when he spoke again. “Chaplin?”
“Yes,” Chaplin said.
“Chaplin, I can't see you…” Douglas said.
“No,” Chaplin said.
Chapter 53
“Now let's test your reaction time!” Max said. “Was what I was going to say. But it all just happened too fast for one-liners.”
The Dee-Dub was still in a tumble from the expansion of the impactor's dissipating wind, but Max was elated. The impactor had been stopped. The Egg had been destroyed. And Snow had not been killed, maimed, or gone missing in action. Good times.
“Who's ready for breakfast?” Snow said.
She was also tumbling slowly through space. Though in her case, without the benefit of any sort of spaceship for protection. She'd blown hers up with its very own self-destruct mechanism. Her jump core, along with the spares she had on hand, had be destroyed along with the ship, spreading a fine Akoronite dust around the area to interfere with the Eggs jump drive. Max liked that the plan had come together.
“I could definitely eat,” Max said, patting the side of Doozer's singed fur, “as soon as the fire goes out…” He waited a moment for Snow's seat, which was on fire, to burn up all the oxygen they'd brought with them when they'd jumped from the atmosphere. It took less time to burn up than it had to talk about it. “and, there we are. Fire's out. Time to eat.”
“No, I mean… scrambled eggs anyone?” Snow said.
“Hmmmm. I'm not sure I'm in the mood for anything new,” Max said. At the suggestion of new foods, his stomach sounded a note of refusal. “Could we put off— Wait. That's Earth humor, right? Eggs are food.”
“Bah,” Snow said. “That was some quality dad humor right there! I wasted it on a Grailliyn.”
Max got the Dee-Dub back under control with a few adjustments of the control stick, and edged it towards Snow, who was free-floating in space, gripping a severed skeletal forearm and hand. Max's skeletal forearm and hand. Perhaps it was lucky.
“What did you do to dee-dee!” Snow said as she saw the damage to the ship.
“How many nicknames are you going to have for one ship?” Max said.
“Don't change the subject,” Snow said.
“It's not so bad for me,” Max said. “It's your side that's all messed up.”
“What?!” Snow said.
“No canopy. Seat is half burnt up. Even the half that is not all burnt up is all crispy and a quarter burnt up. Your controls are ruined. Or missing entirely.”
Snow said nothing.
“And we don't have a factory for repairs. So, ya, it might be a while,” Max said.
“I will just have to sit on your lap then,” Snow said.
Max thought that he would be okay with that. “I would be okay with that,” he said.
“Don't be silly. The back bench is mostly fine. You can sit there!” Linda said.
Max didn't roll his eyes at Linda's suggestion. But it took effort.
“Oh! Redact that,” Linda said. “Pretend I never said anything at all about sitting elsewhere.”
“I think I'm going to try out my new seat right now, actually,” Snow said.
Max blushed at the suggestion.
“Ahhh… this is an open channel,” said the voice of Commander Carrack.
Max's face went truly red.
A moment later the Dee-Dub closed with Snow's location. She slipped through the missing canopy, tossed her lucky charm into the back, and collided with Max.
“We're mostly not dead down here. Thanks for that,” The commander said. “What's going on up there? Any more rocks on the way?”
“We have news. Very good news I think,” Snow said. “Two birds. One big-ish stone.”
“Meaning?” Commander Carrack said.
“We smashed the alien ship with the impactor,” Max said.
“I wonder how long we have until their replacements arrive,” Commander Carrack said.
Max cringed to hear his fear spoken aloud. He looked around expecting space to fold around them and instantly drop an alien battle-fleet on their heels.
He was not let down. Dozens of green lines appeared in the blackness of space.
The dozens of lines were matched by dozens of chunky, angry looking ships, in groups of three or more, and spread all around the Dee-Dub.
“There's a transmission,” Linda said.
“You have chosen war,” said the angry, growly translation from Linda. “We accept! Forward we look to meeting you in the field of battle. There to strive for ultimate victory. There to establish who will rule the Galaxy. Who will direct its path onward.”
* * *
The end of Book 2.
This series is a trilogy, and the adventure continues in book 3, Starship Overlords.
Series Reading Order:
Lost Colony Uprising Trilogy Book 1: Starship Relic
Lost Colony Uprising Trilogy Book 2: Starship Invasion
Lost Colony Uprising Trilogy Book 3: Starship Overlords
About the Author
DARCY TROY PAULIN lives on the West Coast, where he enjoys hiking, kayaking, and rarely mowing the lawn.
Series Reading Order:
Lost Colony Uprising Trilogy Book 1: Starship Relic
Lost Colony Uprising Trilogy Book 2: Starship Invasion
Lost Colony Uprising Trilogy Book 3: Starship Overlords
More books?
Yes, there will be more books set in this world. Please visit Darcy's website for information, and sign up for Darcy's newsletter or follow Darcy's Facebook page.
For rights inquiries, technical issues, errors or omissions, etc, please don't hesitate to contact the publisher at [email protected]
www.darcytroypaulin.com
Cover illustration by Sarah Tyrrell, Briar Fox Design.
Starship Invasion (Lost Colony Uprising Book 2) Page 29
