by A. K. DuBoff
“Because that’s the last place anyone should go alone,” Toran stated. “We need to look out for each other—that’s why we are a team.”
“All the same, sorry for talking you into my crazy idea,” I said.
“We had no leads about how to stop this thing. You’re not wrong that a more hands-on approach might give us a clue,” Kaiden replied.
Toran grunted behind me. “And here we thought our role might end when we sealed the Archive.”
“Did we really, though?” Kaiden countered.
“As soon as Commander Colren said we had a special immunity to the Darkness, I figured we were in this for the long haul,” I said.
Maris sighed. “Just my luck to be placed on a team of people who run toward the danger rather than from it.”
I smiled. “We have a chance to make a difference. Not many people get the opportunity to save an entire civilization.”
“Elle, your hero complex is showing,” Kaiden joked.
“Right, like I’m the only one in this shuttle who gets any satisfaction out of saving the day.”
“It’s true,” Toran admitted. “If I can’t be with my family, then I want to take an active role in making our worlds safe for them again.”
“Yeah, but there’s trying to solve a problem, and then there’s going into that.” Kaiden made a sweeping gesture toward the planet below us.
“Yet, you were the first to agree to come with me.” I eyed him with a playful smirk. “Don’t deny that part of you likes the thrill of danger.”
“There is something empowering about venturing into the unknown,” he admitted.
Maris nodded. “Well, yeah! Why else do you think I came along?”
I chuckled. “All right, so all of us are a little crazy.”
“More than a little, by my estimation,” Toran replied. “Some might say we have a death wish, visiting a planet like this.”
“Nah, we’ve got this.” I grinned.
“Pretty sure that casual dismissal is exactly what would make people call us crazy in the first place,” Kaiden pointed out.
“Without that attitude, we’d still be back on the Evangiel and the Archive wouldn’t be sealed.”
“I suppose you’re right,” he agreed.
“Too late to turn back now,” Toran muttered when a glow formed around the shuttle as the nose pushed through the outer layers of the corrupted atmosphere.
The comm on the front console flashed, accompanied by a beep.
“Shuttle 1, the four of you going was not the plan,” Commander Colren stated tersely.
Kaiden and I exchanged glances. He shook his head and sighed.
I pressed the comm controls. “We decided we were stronger as a team,” I said.
“Then you should have maintained that point in our meeting earlier,” the commander replied. “Changing plans without expressing that intent is a great way to get yourselves killed.”
“It seemed like a better idea five minutes ago,” I mumbled.
“It’s reckless. Turn back now,” he instructed.
“With all due respect, Commander, no,” Kaiden stated. “To beat this thing, we need more information. Our best chance of getting the insights we need is by investigating the planet, and sticking together as a team is how we’ll do that safely. Yes, we agreed, and then we went behind your back, which was wrong. However, wasting time arguing isn’t going to accomplish what we need to do any faster. We’re taking action, because that’s what the situation requires. We could have gone about doing that in a more ‘official’ way, but the outcome would be the same.”
Colren sighed. “I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that you take advantage of the fact that I have no direct command authority over you.”
“Nothing personal,” I said. “We just want to see this through as quickly as possible.”
“I can’t fault you for that. Just… please don’t run off again in the future.”
“Yes, sorry. It won’t happen again,” I assured him with the full intent of keeping my word, though I was well aware that circumstances could change at any moment.
“Be careful down there,” the commander added. “We’ll be awaiting your safe return.” He ended the commlink.
“So it begins…” Kaiden said melodramatically.
The shuttle shuddered as the high-altitude air currents swirled around our tiny vessel.
Toran gripped his armrest. “I must trust in the belief that this is what we’re supposed to do.”
“Yes, definitely going to keep telling myself that.” I cinched my restraints tighter and then gripped my own armrest as another jolt wracked our shuttle.
As much as I did want to be a hero, I couldn’t shake the nagging doubt at the back of my mind that I was hopelessly out of my depth. We’d won a handful of fights and had successfully sealed the Master Archive, but those few activities didn’t make us seasoned pros. I hoped my grand aspirations would make up for some of what I lacked in practical skills and experience, though I knew my ambition would catch up to me eventually. With any luck, others would be there to help me make it through whatever ordeals I might face.
As we descended through the atmosphere, the oppressive Darkness seemed to close in around us. My heart leaped every time the shuttle jostled in the turbulence. Worse, my inability to see more than a few hundred meters ahead through the black clouds gave me a strange sense of claustrophobia I’d never experienced before.
“How close are we to the ground?” I asked Kaiden.
He shook his head, concern knitting his brow. “I can’t tell.”
“That seems bad,” Maris commented from the seat behind him.
“The ground appears to be quite unstable,” Toran reported. I glanced over my shoulder and saw him consulting the workstation along the starboard bulkhead behind me; a planetary model was displayed on the screen. “The mass and density of this world is not what it should be.”
“We encountered that before, right?” I said, thinking back to the planet where I’d fought the dragon for my sword Valor artifact. At the time, I’d hoped that the planet had naturally lower gravity than the small handful of other worlds I’d encountered during my brief travels. However, the more we experienced the ravages of the Darkness, the more I was convinced that the infection changed the very composition of the worlds.
“Yeah, but this is far more pronounced,” Kaiden said.
“It’s been months,” Toran replied. “Whatever we witness here is likely a preview for what to expect on the other infected worlds.”
“Is the Darkness hollowing them out?” Maris questioned.
I shook my head. “No idea. But I’d really like to know what the end game is.” No matter the methods of the planetary transformation, mass just didn’t disappear; it had to have gone somewhere. Given everything we’d observed, whatever was controlling the transformation of the infected planets seemed to follow a set of rules. If we could learn enough, we might be able to gain control of that system so we could put everything back to how it was supposed to be. Just as importantly, we could make sure it could never happen again.
Toran didn’t say anything more on the matter, which I took as a bad sign under the circumstances. As the most scientifically minded member of our team, I relied on him to be the voice of reason when it came to throwing out random hypotheses related to what alien force we were up against. It was worrisome that he had no commentary on the bizarre conditions, even though geophysics was somewhat far afield from his engineering background. If even he and Kaiden were out of their depth, then anything I might say on the scientific front may as well be pure fantasy.
We continued the descent in silence for another minute until the occasional jolts wracking the vessel turned into constant rattling.
“Nav system is glitching,” Kaiden reported. “It’s just like what happened on the other worlds—can’t maintain a lock.” He took the manual controls.
“We need to set down,”
Maris said.
“I advise against setting down at random,” Toran cautioned. “The ground is too unstable in some places to support the shuttle’s weight.”
“Plus, the entire point in coming here is to look for clues,” I added. “We should try to find one of the crystal monuments.”
Toran nodded. “Agreed. Since the Darkness appears to spread through the crystalline network, studying one of the monuments makes the most sense.”
Kaiden focused on the controls. “I’m flying blind here, so start searching!”
“Already working on it,” Toran replied. “I’m vetting reaction pings from prospective crystals.”
I swiveled around in my seat to give him a questioning gaze. “Don’t you need Kaiden’s or Maris’ pendant for that?”
“I’ve been busy for the past week figuring out how to make it work remotely,” he responded without taking his attention from the monitor.
The search method he’d devised using one of the caster pendants and the ship’s sensor suite had allowed us to locate sites by pinpointing the concentrated energy signatures associated with crystals. Previously, one of the pendants needed to be placed in a cradle on the device for it to work. Toran’s new innovation would certainly make our new searches more convenient.
“There are several strong signatures around the planet, but the closest is ten kilometers to the northeast,” Toran continued. “I believe it may be the crystal that serviced the capital city.”
“Sounds like a great place to start,” I said.
“Let’s do it,” Kaiden agreed. “Send me the coordinates.”
Toran relayed the location to the nav console, and Kaiden identified the point on the holographic map that was overlaid on the front viewport.
“This should be easy to get to,” he said while redirecting the shuttle’s course toward the new destination.
“It’s getting back out that worries me,” Maris muttered. As much as I wanted to project an aura of self-assurance, I had the same fears.
We sped through the blackness outside the viewport. As we neared the destination, Kaiden decelerated and directed the shuttle toward the ground. However, even as we descended, there was no ground in sight. My heart lodged in my throat as the readings on the proximity sensors continued to jump around.
“Shouldn’t we have touched down already?” I asked.
“Yes,” Kaiden acknowledged, confirming my worries. “Prior comments aside, we can still bail.”
“No, we owe it to our loved ones to vanquish this menace,” Toran replied.
“Yeah, no risk, no reward,” I said.
Kaiden took a slow breath. “All right.” He inched the shuttle downward.
Out the front viewport, the blackness around us began to take on more definition. I squinted into the dim surroundings, trying to make sense of the forms. “What is that out there?”
I reached forward to adjust the overlay settings, hoping to increase the contrast so we could navigate by sight. After fiddling with the slider for several seconds, the view out the viewport took on an amber hint, which brought out previously hidden details in our surroundings. My chest constricted as I realized we had descended into a chasm with steep cliffs rising at least a hundred meters above us.
Kaiden sucked in a sharp breath. “That’s not good.”
“How did we miss ground level?” Toran mused.
“No idea. Up. Now.” I pointed toward the sky.
“Don’t need to say it twice.” He hit the yoke to gain elevation. The shuttle continued to descend.
My stomach turned over. “Why aren’t we…?”
Kaiden paled. “I think we’re trapped.”
3
I swallowed hard. “We can’t be trapped.”
“Well, the shuttle isn’t responding.” Concern pitched Kaiden’s voice while he continued trying to direct the craft upward. Despite throttling the engine, the vessel continued to descend deeper into the black chasm.
“What’s pulling us down?” I asked, panic setting in.
“I don’t know!” Kaiden’s hands raced over the controls.
Maris’ face drained. “Is it, like, a gravity well or something?”
“I don’t think it works like that,” I muttered in reply.
“The sensors aren’t picking up anything in our surroundings to indicate we’re trapped in such an anomaly. This shuttle’s engines are strong enough to break orbit, so there’s no reason we’d be unable to pull away now,” Toran explained.
“Unless we’ve been tethered,” Kaiden said.
My heart skipped a beat. “By what?”
“I don’t know, but see if you can identify anything.” Kaiden continued fighting with the controls. The shuttle swayed side to side, but it was unable to gain any elevation.
I used the console in front of me to bring up detailed sensor data around the shuttle, including pressure points on the hull that may indicate a grapple. The aft frame of the vessel did appear to be stressed, though I couldn’t make out a singular point where an anchor might be tethered. “Does this thing have a rear-view camera?”
“Not for close-range observation,” Kaiden replied.
“Then we’ll need to get a look the old-fashioned way.” I unbuckled my harness.
His eyes widened. “Where are you going?”
“To look out the rear airlock,” I replied, bracing myself on my seatback as the shuttle rocked. “Hold it steady.”
“Elle, don’t—”
“I convinced all of you to come down here, so I better figure out what’s preventing us from going home.” I jogged toward the common area with my arms outstretched to either side to catch myself as the shuttle bucked. My heart pounded in my ears. It was my fault we were in the mess. I couldn’t let anything bad happen to my friends, especially not before we had a chance to accomplish our mission.
I passed by our packs and the four hazsuits on my way to the aft airlock beyond the sleeping cabins. If things took a turn for the worse, those suits might be the only thing standing between us and the unstable environment… Not that I had a lot of faith that the thin material would last long against the corrosive properties of the Darkness.
At the end of the corridor running the length of the shuttle, the airlock entry door was sealed. I checked the panel to confirm it was pressurized and then opened it. The outside hatch had a one-meter-wide square viewport at its center, and I pressed my face against the thick plastic to see if I could spot whatever seemed to be tethering us inside the chasm.
To my horror, a thick, vine-like structure appeared to be wrapping itself around the shuttle. The vines thickened toward the base, though I couldn’t make out the anchor point through the blackness. “Hey, guys! There’s a bad thing going on back here,” I shouted toward the bridge.
“What do you see?” Kaiden shouted back.
“Black vines, or something,” I replied.
A moment later, I heard the heavy thud of footsteps, and Toran came into view down the corridor. He squeezed into the airlock next to me, motioning me aside so he could look outside.
“Stars!” he exclaimed. “What is that?”
“Certain death… if I’m not being overly dramatic.”
He frowned. “That’s a little too on-point to be a joke.”
I looked down, all too aware of my predisposition for ill-timed humor. “We need to detach it,” I said to get us back in the right headspace.
“I have no idea what to suggest, given we don’t know what that is.”
“Cut it?” I suggested.
“With what? We need to use a laser cutter from a completely different angle.”
“To cut the tendrils from the base, yeah. But what about sheering them off from where they’re attached to the shuttle?”
He examined me. “What do you have in mind?”
“What if we make it impossible for the vine-things to grip the hull?”
“Like an ele
ctrified fence?”
“Yeah, along those lines.”
“That general idea could work if we had time to play around with it, but it’s too risky to try as a one-shot.”
“What else, then?” I asked.
Before Toran could reply, Kaiden shouted again from the bridge. “What’s going on back there?”
“Trying to figure out how to sever the evil, alien vine-things,” I shouted back. I returned my attention to Toran. “If we can’t science this thing on short notice, then it’ll come down to magic.”
He nodded. “But how?”
I shrugged. “Giant fireball?”
“Sounds like a job for Kaiden.”
“It does, but he’s flying.” I braced myself as the shuttle rocked. “Do you know enough from your engineering classes to take over for a few minutes?”
Toran scowled. “Not really, but I suspect we may not have another option.”
There were two more possibilities—either Maris could try offensive magic, or I could—but neither one of us had Kaiden’s degree of control. Given the surgical nature of the task at hand, I decided against voicing the alternatives. “Take over in the bridge and get him back here. I’ll get a suit ready.”
The large man nodded, then took off toward the bridge.
I followed him as far as the common room, where I started putting on one of the hazsuits and unfurled another so it would be easy for Kaiden to don. He appeared in the common room just as I’d secured my suit up to my hips.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“Getting ready.”
He warily examined the suit. “For what?”
“You use a fireball or lightning, and I slash and make sure the vine-things don’t snatch you. Easy.”
Kaiden picked up the prepped suit and frowned. “And where are we going to do this from?”
“The back airlock,” I replied.
“Elle, that’s crazy!”
The shuttle rocked again, knocking me into the dining table. I caught myself and used my hands to steady myself until the ship’s internal stabilizers compensated. “Sounds like a better plan than waiting until the tendrils either pull us all the way to the bottom of the chasm or we run out of fuel.”
