Matt & Michelle 1: The Fugitive Heir

by Henry Vogel

  That didn’t leave me time to tape the two pieces together, much less finish typing in the remaining two digits. I stared hard at the gap between our cover and the keypad. Never had half a meter seemed so far before.

  Taking a deep breath, I said, “To hell with it. My hand is already wounded.”

  “Matt, what-”

  Releasing my deep breath and fighting the pain, I raised my right hand to the keypad. The sharp smell of blaster fire against metal increased as the pirates shot faster. Two keys. I just needed to tap two keys. Then I could curl up around my shrieking hand again.

  Tap.

  I felt the heat of near misses and sharp prick of minor burns as sparks showered my hand.

  Tap.

  The door control light switched from red to green. Without giving myself a chance to think about it, I slapped my palm down on the door control. The jolt sent pain lancing from my hand and through my arm but then I felt the deep, metallic thump of doors releasing and the deeper hum of large motors pulling a heavy load.

  “Matt did it!” Michelle called over the comm. “The doors are opening.”

  A pirate yelled, “Looks like we’re out of time, boys, and the boss says hostages will come in handy. Let’s get ‘em!”

  With a roar, half a hundred pirates rose from behind cover and charged our position.

  I scooted up next to Michelle and we took turns firing around our metal barrel barricade. Michelle’s blaster had much greater range and accuracy than my little taser—especially with me firing left handed—but the mass of charging pirates was hard to miss.

  Just as I leaned out for my third shot, Michelle grabbed my coverall and pulled me to the ground. “Daddy says duck.”

  The high-pitched whine of repulsers came from our right, followed by the harsh glare and floor-melting heat of a ship-mounted laser cannon. Pirates screamed in pain and terror as another laser blast burned some of them and blinded a lot more. The mass of feet pounding toward our position became a rout of feet running away.

  As I blinked my eyes to clear the after-image of laser bolts, I heard the whine of several more repulsers. In the dim light, the state-of-the-art starfighter hovering ten meters to our right shone like a beacon of hope in the darkest night of the year. Flight Commander Nancy Martin gave me a two-fingered salute, all the while barking out orders to her fighter wing. The five ships under her command maneuvered through the docking bay, harrying pirates and taking shots at the unshielded engine of the closer Q-ship.

  Grinning from ear-to-ear at our sudden reversal of fortune, I said, “Michelle, tell Jonas we need a ride up to the catwalk so we can get my parents.”

  “Daddy already has that covered, Matt. Look.” She pointed up at a small personnel shuttle hovering overhead. A team of armed men sprang from the shuttle to the catwalk and charged into the office.

  “Once your parents are aboard, the shuttle will pick us up, too. Then we just wait for the Federation navy to arrive and mop up the pirates.” Michelle took my uninjured left hand. “You did it, babe. You rescued your parents.”

  I gave Michelle a quick kiss, wishing we had time for a more leisurely one. “We did it, Michelle. I couldn’t have done this without you.”

  Michelle’s eyes danced as we watched the team hustle my parents out of their prison and onto the shuttle. She put the comm into my ear, saying, “Daddy wants to talk to you.”

  “Are you there, sir?”

  “I married your daughter, Jonas. It’s time to stop calling me sir.”

  “That might take a while, sir. Old habits die hard.” Despite the formal tone, I heard the humor in Jonas’s tone. “Once your parents are secure in the shuttle-”

  An explosion rocked the docking bay, drowning out Jonas’s next words. The remains of a starfighter rained down on the floor as the pirate ship furthest from the door rose ponderously from its docking cradle. A glowing laser barrel protruded from an open gun port. The ship’s other lasers came to life, sweeping the docking bay firing at the darting starfighters.

  Through the comm, I heard Jonas issuing orders over another comm. Despite all the noise and confusion, I still heard the hiss as Nancy opened the canopy of her starfighter. Her ship slid closer to us and she tossed a cloth pack our way.

  “Put on the vacuum harnesses and then climb on top of my ship. You’re coming out with me right now. I don’t have room inside the cockpit, but the ship has lots of hand-holds and I’ll be as gentle as possible.”

  We donned the harnesses and ran to the ship. Seeing me struggle to pull myself onto the fuselage, Michelle gave me a boost. “First thing when we’re safe, we get that hand checked out, Matt.”

  “You’ll get no arguments from me.” I hooked my feet under a mechanic’s hand-hold and gave Michelle a hand up with my uninjured left hand.

  The two of us clung to the various hand-holds and each other, then Michelle gave our pilot a thumbs-up signal. With a metallic snap, Nancy closed her canopy and the starfighter rose into the air. Down the length of the docking bay, the other four remaining fighters twisted and turned, drawing fire and taking shots at the pirate ships. Above us, the shuttle carrying my parents banked and accelerated toward the huge bay doors, still in the process of grinding open.

  Keeping her speed low and the fighter level, Nancy stayed close to the floor. I guess she hoped to remain unnoticed with everything else going on around her. The sudden explosion from the closer pirate ship’s unshielded engine made sure no one had time to spare on a low flying fighter.

  The pirate ship already under way continued its slow, stately drive down the long docking bay. Pirates from the other ship ran and waved and tried to board their sister ship. Showing the compassion one might expect from pirates, none on board the moving ship offered any help. Those who managed to climb a rope and reach an open hatch were allowed aboard. Cursing or shaking fists or pleading, the rest were abandoned to their fate.

  Over the comm, Jonas ordered the rest of the fighters to cover our withdrawal and then make a run for it. “Your starfighters are no match for the pirate ship. Besides, you know the navy will want a piece of the action when they arrive.”

  Michelle squirmed close enough for our vacuum harness forcefields to overlap, allowing us to talk. “Just a few more minutes and this will all be over, Matt.”

  I grinned, gazing into her bright blue eyes. “I can’t wait. Hey, maybe we can go on an actual honeymoon, too.”

  Michelle batted her eyes. “Won’t you have to ask your wife, first?”

  “Do you think that’s a good idea? I’ve been assuming she’ll give the okay.”

  Michelle’s reply was lost when our starfighter flew from the docking bay—right into an ambush! A laser blast flashed just past the ship, narrowly missing Nancy’s canopy. Michelle and I looked back and both of us gasped. GCS-1017—Cummings’ ship—curved around Pegasus Station, the research vessel now showing itself as another Q-ship. More lasers flashed and the space around us turned from night to day.

  In the cockpit, Nancy shouted something, which Jonas relayed immediately. “Hold on tight, sir. The gentle ride is over.”

  Even as I repeated that to Michelle, the starfighter rocketed forward. Both of us nearly lost our grips in that first burst, but we managed to hang on.

  “Matt, once she puts a little range between you and Cummings’ ship, your pilot plans to swing around to another docking bay and drop you off.” Jonas’s voice held more tension than I’d ever heard before. “You and Michelle just need to hold on for twenty seconds or so.”

  Once again, I started relaying the message to Michelle. I’d gotten out three words when a laser blast hit the starfighter’s port engine. The force of the blast and the loss of thrust from the port side threw the ship into a wild spin.

  My good hand lost its grip, but my feet stayed firmly tucked under another hand-hold. The first buck threw Michelle’s feet free and then her hands lost their grips. Her eyes wide in terror, Michelle tumbled away into deep space.

 
“No.”

  I didn’t scream or shout. I whispered the word, but it carried all the love and loss a breaking heart could hold. All the while, I stared out into the depths of space, as if I might still see her.

  “What is it, sir? What happened?”

  “Michelle’s gone, Jonas. She lost her grip and I couldn’t catch her.”

  Jonas drew a ragged breath and I imagined him pulling his training around himself like a shield. He spoke in his usual, businesslike tone, but I heard the undertone of loss in his voice. “Did she have a comm unit or something else we can track?”

  “Just the vacuum harness. She gave the comm to me.”

  “At my request.” And there Jonas’s control broke along with his voice.

  “Isn’t there any way we can find Michelle?” Mom asked.

  “Without some kind of electronic broadcast signal, there’s nothing we can do, dear.” Dad spoke in the same matter-of-fact tone he used when I was a boy. I knew he felt the loss, but you could never tell from his voice.

  Without conscious thought, I pulled my feet from under the hand-hold and, as the ship swung into a turn, pushed away from Nancy’s starfighter. The little ship vanished into the distance in seconds as I floated in the void.

  Back toward Pegasus Station, lasers flashed and seared holes in ships’ hulls. The hulking pirate Q-ship nosed out of the secret docking bay, all gun ports open and laser fire spitting from every gun. Cummings’ ship flew ahead, clearing a path for its still-ponderous sister ship. I assumed starfighters buzzed around the larger ships, but I was too far away to see them. And I didn’t care about them, anyway.

  I turned my gaze out to the depths of space and fought against my emotions, trying to clear my mind.

  “Sir? What have you done?” Jonas was back in control of himself. “Your comm signal isn’t with the starfighter anymore.”

  “I’m going to look for Michelle,” I said. “Follow my comm signal and pick me up with the shuttle. We’ll need it when I find her.”

  “Find her? But sir-”

  “Hush Jonas,” Mom said. “Let him concentrate.”

  To my surprise, the comm fell silent. I stared out into the black and shoved everything that wasn’t Michelle from my mind. I remembered her look, her feel, her scent, her sound, her grace, her humor. I remembered her and she filled my mind and consumed my senses. She filled me as no one ever could. I only had to find the spark, the emotion, the source of all that I held in my mind. And I couldn’t do it.

  I saw the bright sparks which were my parents. I saw, back on Pegasus Station, a third spark. Dim and barely perceptible, just like when Michelle and I reached the pirate docking bay. But I couldn’t see Michelle. I couldn’t see anyone else. It was like a wall blocked me from seeing more—a wall I couldn’t break.

  In frustration, I pounded my head with my fists and fed on the pain. I could not fail. I could not lose Michelle. I would not fail.

  Through the pain and the pounding of my fists, through my rage and ranting, an image rose. Michelle and me on the floor of the M&M, her hands holding my head, her eyes closed, her mouth hungrily kissing me, her breath warm on my face.

  Read me now.

  I charged at my mental wall, borne by the strength of Michelle’s love, and it shattered before our combined might. I stood beyond the ruins of the wall and vast waves of emotions crashed down upon me. Instinctively, I fell back from the onslaught. Instinctively, I went to hide behind my wall.

  No! If I retreated behind the wall, I knew I’d never break through it again. If I retreated behind the wall, I’d lose Michelle forever. I forced myself to turn into the face of the emotional tidal wave.

  “There’s too much! How can I find her through it all?”

  “Find her through all what?” Jonas asked.

  “Through everyone. They’re all there and I don’t know how to get rid of them.”

  “Matt, honey, do you mean your ability?” Mom and Dad always called it that. I guess it was safer than calling me an empath.

  “I broke through the wall, Mom, but there’s so much out there.”

  Dad and Jonas began speaking, offering confusing and contradictory suggestions before Mom cut them off. “Shut up, both of you and let me help my son find Michelle.”

  The emotions of half a million people continued hammering at my mind and I was beginning to lose myself in them. I felt my grip on sanity weakening.

  “Help me, Mom. I don’t know how long I can hold on.”

  “Be my brave boy, son, just like when you were little and afraid of the dark. Concentrate on the sound of my voice.” Mom hummed a few bars from the lullaby she used to sing to me. “Now, can you identify different emotions? Like fear? I’m sure Michelle is scared right now.”

  Fear was easy. It felt like everyone in the solar system was afraid of something right then. But I concentrated on the fear and the torrent of emotions ebbed slightly.

  “Yes. But there’s a lot of fear, Mom. I still can’t pick Michelle out of all of that.”

  “I know, baby. That’s just the start. Now, can you filter through all those frightened people for the ones feeling love? Michelle loves you and she has to be feeling that love even as she feels fear.”

  I opened myself to love slowly, careful to hold the fear filter in place. I managed to push aside more sparks of emotion. “Okay, got it, Mom. What next?”

  “Sorrow. Michelle must certainly be feeling that.”

  With each additional filter, I got better at holding the others and adding a new one. And Mom guided me to filter for compassion and then for feelings of loss. But hundreds of emotional sparks still burned, washing out any hope I could pick a single one from among them.

  “What else, Mom? I still can’t pick her out.”

  “Now add you.”

  “Me? I’m not an emotion, Mom.”

  “You are to Michelle. You are love and life and joy and passion and laughter and sorrow and everything which makes her life worth living.”

  The shuttle slid up next to me as I added one last filter in my mind. Far away, in the normal universe, an airlock opened and my father floated toward me, a tether line stretching back to the shuttle. Dad caught hold of me and used the tether to pull us back to the airlock. As air hissed back into the chamber, my final filter fell into place.

  And there she was. Michelle, glowing with fear and love and sorrow and compassion—and all for me!

  Dad pulled me into the shuttle’s cabin.

  “I’ve got her, Mom. I found her!”

  My mother wrapped me in a hug. “I knew you could do it, son. Just point the way and we’ll go get her.”

  Mom relayed my directions to Dad, who relayed them to the shuttle pilot. The rest of the rescue team just sat and watched us. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I wondered if we’d have to pay these men to keep quiet about my ability, because there was no hiding it from them.

  Six minutes after Dad pulled me into the shuttle, I went back out for Michelle. As I caught her in my arms, I said, “I was afraid I’d lost you forever, Michelle.”

  Wrapping her arms tightly around me, Michelle rested her head on my shoulder. “Silly boy, I knew you’d find me.”

  As Dad reeled us in, I put the comm unit into Michelle’s ear.

  “Hi Daddy…No, I’m fine…Really, Daddy…I love you, too.”

  I held onto my wife all the way back to Pegasus Station.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  Terrible Choices

  The emotional pressure on my mind increased the closer the shuttle came to the teeming population of Pegasus Station. The filters I used to find Michelle slipped and slid the longer I held them in place. I struggled to put the filters back in place, to find the same serenity I’d found floating in the void. All the while, I clutched Michelle tighter, as if she were a lifeline and I was a drowning man—which I was, in a way.

  Michelle sensed my conflict and pulled my head onto her shoulder. Stroking my hair, she whispered comforting nothings in
to my ear. I breathed deeply, concentrating on her scent and her sound. Together we held the emotions at bay, but only barely. If my filters fell or if I let go of Michelle, the battering emotions would overwhelm me.

  Barely on the edge of my perception, I heard Dad speaking to Jonas over the shuttle’s comm. “The pilot put the station between us and the fighting. What’s the situation out there, Jonas?”

  “The two pirate ships are clear of the station, but their course doesn’t make any sense, Richard. Instead of running for the wormhole, they’re diving toward the sun.”

  “Is the Federation Navy in the system?”

  “Unless a patrol just happens to swing by, we can’t expect a naval response for at least another six hours. The ship carrying our message is still in the wormhole to Eridani Station.”

  Michelle broke off her whispers to me. “There’s an uncharted wormhole close to the sun. It takes you to the middle of nowhere, but there’s another uncharted wormhole from there to Rockville Station.”

  “How did you learn about that, pumpkin?”

  “Matt and I came through those wormholes when we were running from Rockville Station.”

  “The two of you went to Rockville station by yourselves?” Dad asked. “Mining stations like Rockville can be kind of rough if you’re not careful.”

  “Did you hear that, Matt?” Michelle’s laugh had a tinge of hysteria to it. My laugh sounded downright insane to my ears. “You might want to have the family lawyers contact Rockville Station on behalf of Matt and me.”

  “You’d better brief us, Michelle.” Jonas was all business again.

  “No, Jonas, she will do no such thing.” Mom’s tone said the topic was not open to discussion. “Your daughter and our son have been through a lot. What happened on Rockville Station can wait until they’ve rested and had some time to themselves.”

  “We’re going to need more than that, ma’am,” Michelle said. “Matt’s struggling with something—all the emotions, I guess.”

  “God, how stupid of me. I should have realized that.” I felt Mom sit next to me and put a hand on my back.

  “You’ve had a lot going on, also, ma’am.”