The Last Horizon

by Anthony Hartig

  “Hang on to your ass!” I bellowed as I flipped on the toggle switches and fired the thrusters. The Zephyr punched forward with the added power surge as the rockets flared to life and gave the ship a bright heat signature as we hit 4.8 HsD.

  “It’s working, the Seekers are moving toward us!” I laughed maniacally as I looked at the VDU. “Damn! We’re hauling ass!” I hooted as I checked our speed.

  “Zephyr,” Seinz’s voice boomed over the intercom, “ramp down and surrender!”

  “Eat carbon, you asshat!” I spit back into the intercom knowing he could track us by infra-red now.

  The Moria was less than twenty miles away when they fired several missiles. The first one detonated three hundred feet in front of us, and large superheated shrapnel smashed into our fuselage as we hurled through the daggers of particle lite and fire…

  “Goddamn it!” I screamed as I banked a hard left and nosed down thirty-five degrees in an evasive maneuver; that pitched the gyroscope wildly in the opposite direction and the drives screamed…

  …the second warhead exploded less than a hundred feet on our left and almost threw us into a spin. The heat from the blast scathed the hull and shredded a main RAM panel. Scotty was jolted hard in his seat and I could barely hear him cussing as the detonation engulfed us with a thunderous boom and bright flash of light…

  …the Zephyr rocked sideways and the instrument panels and overhead console lit-up in red as alarms sounded…the third missile blew up and ripped a portion of the left vertical rudder to pieces and punctured one of the main cryogen pipes feeding the right hypersonic drive…

  I throttled the drives back and ramped down to exit hypersonic. I kept the thrusters on and drove forward as the whine of the drives began to recede. I could see the image of the Moria Balá on the VDU…they had caught up to us and matched our speed.

  Seinz brought the ship two hundred feet above the Zephyr. It was a lot larger than I thought; the Moria was a dark, steely grey with reactive armor and a series of probes grouped at the front of her hull. From what I could see up close, the craft was at least three times larger than the Zephyr and looked like a Serenian deep space battle cruiser.

  I looked at Scotty and nodded, “Get to the pod.” I said calmly as I looked at the vector scanner. “When you see the door of the decon chamber open, eject.”

  Scotty stood up steadily, grabbed his flight helmet, and walked to the bulkhead door to the pressure-lock that led back to the hold.

  “Good luck, Nikki.” He said sullenly, then stepped into the lock.

  The thrusters of the Moria Balá burned radiantly in the blue-black void of space, and I could see their flicker reflected off the surface of the cockpit anti-glare panel. I looked up through the glass canopy and saw the retro-jets on the bottom of the Moria’s massive hull firing in an even pattern to slow down as they loomed over us. I also noticed a ball gun turret with the twin barrels of a pulse cannon trained at my cockpit. We were at cruising speed but the chase was over.

  I sighed and I punched in my code to initiate the self-destruct sequence and set it for a silent countdown. All that was left was the voice command…

  Chapter 7

  I flipped the drives to idle and they slipped into a quiet hum that was ghosted by the drone of the thrusters. The Zephyr was damaged and wouldn’t be able to take a pounding like that again.

  “Cut your main burners, pilot.” Seinz’s voice ordered coldly through the cast.

  I reached forward and hit the toggles and the jets began to shut down.

  “Aviator, engage your auto-pilot and maintain cruising speed. Keep the gravity cells enabled and prepare to be boarded.” Another male voice commanded on my headset.

  The seconds ticked by painfully slow. I took a deep breath and cringed at the thought of what lay in store for me in the time I had left. Scotty should be ejecting soon. I hoped he would be able to get safely to the shipping lanes.

  The Zephyr’s cargo bay had a simple lay-out; there was a small overhead crane on a track running above a narrow center aisle. The floor was a grated poly-alloy that allowed for the cross-ventilation of cargo. The containers of cosmetics were stacked on each side of the aisle in two rows twenty feet high from front to back for fast, easy unloading.

  A minute later a small shuttle had deployed from the Moria and descended to the right side of the Zephyr where the docking port was located. There was a heavy clang as it clamped to the port collar and the decon chamber in my ship began to depressurize.

  The stainless steel locking bolts of the port hatch beeped electronically and opened with a mechanical whirr. The neoprene seals hissed softly and the thick hatch swung open as light from the foreign ship flooded the chamber. A faint whine of fans penetrated the silence as a small airborne reconnaissance drone hovered into the compartment and paused to survey the area.

  The sensor for the bulkhead door to the cargo hold chirped twice, a LED status light mounted above the entrance blinked green, and the door automatically slid open. The probe hung in the chill for a few seconds, then crossed the threshold. The Zephyr was officially invaded.

  The automaton floated six feet above the floor and drifted slowly into the Zephyr’s dark hold between the crates. Suddenly, the drone projected a thin, pale blue light and began to scan the cargo hold from the grated floor to the perforated ceiling panels as it glided forward in the direction of the cockpit.

  Seconds later, shadows emerged through the door of the chamber and the gloom was pierced by thin red beams from the laser sights of assault rifles. Three figures appeared and slowly moved forward through the dim compartment single file.

  Scott stretched out on top of a group of crates located in the middle of the cargo hold. He inched forward to the edge of the container and peered down as the probe hovered past him. He controlled his breathing and closed his eyes as he reached down and pulled a Black Raven automatic pistol from a nylon holster strapped to his leg.

  He watched in silence as he sized-up the bandits when they passed below him. Scott could tell from their silhouettes that two of them were wearing night vision goggles, but all of them were trussed in ballistic vests. He could also see the plumes of breath being expended from their rebreathers.

  The pirates knew how to move through unfamiliar space to an extent, but they weren’t professional soldiers. They were careful in the way they pressed through the cargo bay--they kept their spacing eight feet apart and two constantly scanned the opposite areas to their sides while the pointman focused on what was in front of them. Their only mistake was a fatal one: they neglected their overhead and relied too much on the reconnaissance drone for accurate information. Amateurs.

  Scott attached the flash and sound suppressor to the pistol and flicked off the safety. As far as he was concerned, they walked right into a kill zone…

  I heard the bulkhead door to the pressure lock slide open, a few seconds passed then the cockpit door opened and a probe trekked into the bridge and came to a hover less than a foot away from my face. I felt the small wafts of air from its power source buffeting gently against my skin and could hear the whirr of small servos as it adjusted its pitch to maintain level flight in front of me.

  “Aviator,” a deep, electronically enhanced voice sounded from behind, “remain facing forward, put your hands on your head, and stand.”

  I raised my arms slowly and laced my fingers together as I placed them on top of my head. The probe stayed at eye level as I rose to my feet. Why hasn’t Scotty ejected yet? Why is he still on board? I wondered as I stared out the canopy.

  The intruders stood in a half circle around me with their weapons raised. “Pilot, turn and face me.” The one behind me ordered.

  They removed their rebreathers and I was surprised to see the one to my right was a female. She was a little taller than I was and had straight, platinum blond hair that fell to her shoulders. Her emerald-green eyes were cold and unnerving; I could see her lean frame even with a kevlar vest and rebreather pack on
.

  The two men were a little over six feet tall. The tallest of the trio was also the oldest--probably in his mid-forties. He was also the one that gave the orders. His skin was fair, and he had red hair pulled back into a ponytail. He frowned as he eyed me suspiciously. The second male had short, dark hair; and there was a nasty scar that ran from his left temple down to his chin.

  “So you’re the one that interrupted my dinner and pissed-off Seinz.” The younger male said menacingly as he passed his eyes over me. “You’re just his type,” he grinned as he eased his weapon down and took a step closer, “mine too.”

  “Keep it tucked, Edik.” The female interjected. “No one touches her for now.”

  “Oh come on, Echo,” the young male replied as he frowned at his female shipmate, “just let me have a little fun with her. Seinz don’t have to know.”

  “In your dreams, numbnuts.” I growled. “Not in this lifetime or the next.”

  “Woo! I’m gonna have to teach you some manners.” Edik snarled as he leaned into my face.

  I could feel his breath as he brought his head down and sniffed the left side of my neck behind my ear. I turned my head the other way and closed my eyes in disgust. “EEW!”

  “Edik that’s enough!” Echo said firmly. “You’ll have plenty of time to use her later.”

  “Mmmm!” Edik exhaled loudly as he closed his eyes. “You smell delicious…” he smacked.

  “And you…just smell.” I grimaced. “You remind me of something I saw floating in the water closet of a public restroom, except the lump of shit had more personality than you.” I smiled.

  “Why you little…”

  “Give it a rest, Edik.” Echo smirked as she put her hand on his shoulder and pulled him back. She kept her weapon pointed at me. “What was your point of origin, pilot?”

  “Earth.”

  “What was your destination?”

  “Medusa.”

  “Solo flight, thousands of miles away from the main shipping lanes, and we didn’t detect any distress signals from you when we fired on your vessel.” Echo stated matter-of-factly. “You’re a smuggler.”

  “That means she has no manifest.” Edik leered.

  Echo shouldered her rifle and turned to Edik, “Cover me. I’m going to pat her down for weapons.”

  She took a step closer and gestured for me to turn around. “Take off the jacket slowly.”

  I removed my bomber jacket, let it fall to the floor, and put my hands back on my head.

  “Look what we’ve got here,” Echo smiled as she grabbed my Cobalt from the shoulder holster, and handed it to Edik.

  “What do you have in the hold?” The older man demanded.

  “Deodorants and skin care products for androgynous, ponytailed male hijackers.”

  “Wiseass!” He pressed the barrel of his rifle between my eyes. “I otta blow your fu…”

  “Back off Grey.” Echo said calmly as she took my tactical knife from its sheath. “Seinz wants her alive for now.” She continued to pat me down. Echo paused for a second and sighed as she removed the ankle wrap with the spikes and tossed it to Edik. “Why don’t you make yourself useful and see what she’s got in the back?”

  Edik examined the spikes and shook his head.

  “Yeah, Edik, take the probe and check it out.” Grey ordered. “Echo, can you run a diagnostic on this ship?”

  “I’ll work on access.” Echo said sternly as she stood back up and stared at me. “She’s clean.” Echo nodded then backhanded my left cheek hard. “You’ll do what you’re told if you know what’s good for you.”

  “Grey what’s your status?” A deep voice sounded over the older man’s headset.

  “The ship’s secure, Seinz. It’s just the pilot--no passengers.”

  “Send someone back to the shuttle and find out what’s going on with Rell.” Seinz said angrily. “I’ve been trying to reach him for the last ten minutes. If he’s asleep at the controls again I’m going to dump his ass out here.”

  “Give us a few more minutes and I’ll have Edik look in on him.”

  “What’s she hauling?”

  “Don’t know yet. Edik’s checking on the cargo now.”

  “Hurry it up. We just picked something up on the scanners. Something’s heading toward us.”

  “10-4, Seinz.” Grey said humorlessly. He put his hand over the left ear piece of his headset. “Rell, you copy?”

  Silence.

  “Rell, you there?” Grey shook his head with disgust. “Bastard!”

  “Seinz is right,” Echo glanced over from the instrument panel, “he probably fell asleep again. You know how he is.”

  A few minutes later, Edik reappeared with a bottle and the duffle bag.

  “What’s that?” Grey asked.

  “First crate I opened is full of this hooch!” Edik beamed as he took a swig of whiskey and belched.”

  “Gimme that!” Grey snagged the bottle out of Edik’s hands and studied it. “Moving alcohol across space.” Grey raised the bottle to his nose and sniffed. “This is the good stuff.”

  “Alcohaulin’!” Edik grinned. “And check this out!” He held up the bag.

  “What’s in it?”

  Edik set the duffle bag on the floor, unzipped it, and stood back up with a huge smile.

  “Damn!” Grey’s eyes widened as he stared at my money. “Anything else we should know about?” Grey frowned.

  “Yes, the dietary supplements I’ve been taking give me a nasty case of the vapors, how does my ass smell?”

  “This one’s trouble, Grey,” Edik glared as he held up my ankle wrap, “I say you let me have at her for a few, then we end her and tell Seinz she tried to pull some shit.”

  “Shut up, Edik!” Grey spat. “Get back to the shuttle and wake up Rell. We’re bringing her back to the Moria.”

  Edik shouldered his rifle and stomped through the pressure lock. The drone followed him through as the door slid shut and he headed back to their ship…

  Scott moved silently into the shadows of the last stack of containers that stood next to the door of the decon compartment when he heard footsteps coming down the aisle. He stood motionless in the darkness with his back against the wall and his weapon in his left hand.

  The pirates had gotten careless and assumed Nikki was alone. This was a mistake Scott would exploit. He let Edik walk by and enter the chamber.

  “Rell, you dumbass!” Edik bellowed as he stepped into the shuttle and trudged into the cockpit where he saw his partner sitting in the pilot seat facing forward. “Wake up you idiot! Grey’s really pissed!” He grabbed Rell’s right shoulder and shook him.

  Rell’s head lolled back and forth lifelessly and his body slumped forward and fell against the instrument panel. Edik jumped back in shock and turned around when Scott pulled the trigger of the Raven and put two rounds into Edik’s forehead. The back of Edik’s skull blew open and canopy was splattered with blood, small lumps of gray matter, and bone as his body was thrown backwards from the impact.

  Scott grabbed the drone and smashed it against the wall where it blew apart with a shower of sparks and smoke. He moved quickly through the Zephyr’s cargo hold with the Raven drawn in front of him and stopped at the bulkhead that led to the cockpit…

  The Zephyr shook hard and almost knocked me off balance when warheads detonated and rocked the Moria Balá. I looked through the canopy and saw the flash of the Moria’s pulse cannons firing rapidly; the Seekers had arrived and were making their run. They homed-in on Seinz’s heat signature and strafed his vessel with their pulse cannons.

  “We need to get back to the ship!” Grey shouted as he turned his attention to the unfolding chaos outside.

  I started laughing when one of the Serrenian drones attached itself to the Moria’s fuselage and drove a tentacle through a gun turret and began pulling the panels apart.

  “Echo! Let’s get back to the shuttle!” Grey shouted in a panic as he stumbled backwards toward the pressure loc
k. “Let’s go! Let’s go!”

  Echo grabbed her rifle and growled. “What about her?”

  Grey looked at me. “What the hell are you laughing at?”

  “Sequence, 3M-TA3.” I chortled, “Initiate.”

  “What the hell was that?” Echo blurted.

  The bridge lights dimmed, flickered brightly three times, and began to pulse in red. “The beginning of the end.” I smiled and glanced at the control panel. “Seinz can you hear me?”

  “Who is this?” Seinz screamed back over the intercom. I could hear the pandemonium of his crew’s hysterical shouts mixed with loud popping noises and explosions in the background as the Moria engaged the Seekers in battle.

  “How do you like our new friends?”

  “I think she enabled the ship to self-destruct!” Echo piped as she looked at the blinking lights on the instrument panels.

  “YOU DID THIS!” Seinz roared.

  “Hubba-hubba-hubba!” I laughed.

  Grey stepped into the pressure lock and the door to the cargo hold slid open. “Echo, NOW!” He yelled and turned, “Let’s get the hell out of…” Scott stepped in front of him and punched his throat with a left jab before he had a chance to finish his sentence. Grey’s eyes widened with surprise as he dropped his weapon and clutched his neck; he made a loud croaking noise then his eyes rolled white before he collapsed into a crumpled heap on the floor.

  “Grey!” Echo screamed in horror as she turned her attention to her fallen comrade. I dropped to the floor and spun counter-clockwise with a leg sweep that knocked Echo off her feet and sent her sprawling on her back against the grating while her rifle bounced out of her hands and landed a few feet away.

  Echo jumped back up immediately and pulled out a Kirsten Automatic pistol as I dove for her assault rifle, grabbed it, and fired a burst into her abdomen as I lay prone on the floor. The impact slammed her against a support column, and her body went limp as she slid down to her knees and fell face first to the grating.

  “Bitch!” I cussed.

  “Nikki, you okay?” Scotty asked.

  “We need to get these scumbags off the Zephyr and strap in!” I replied as I picked up Echo’s sidearm.