With Eyes Turned Skyward

by Gregory Stravinski

  She pushes another clip into her side arm before looking back up, “There’s no other way to think about it. You take care of her, or I’ll find you. You understand?”

  I swallow, pressing myself against the railing. “Understood Captain.” I say.

  Before I can get in another word, Janna stands up among the crossfire. “Aries Vanguard! It’s about time we proved our name again, wouldn’t you say?” she asks.

  “Sir, yes sir!” the black brigade surrounding us responds without pause.

  Despite their agreement, the looks on some of the men and women’s faces mirror another sentiment entirely.

  Dixon grits her teeth, setting one foot on the railing. “That’s not enough you sorry sons of bitches! I feel like I didn’t get in enough killing in today,” she says, glancing around wildly, “Let’s get our bang for our buck, shall we?”

  Cheers erupts into the creeping sunlight. Down below, faces begin turning up at us, away from the trapped engineers.

  Captain Dixon grabs the banister, turning to me with a face as hard as concrete.

  “Find her,” she whispers.

  The impulse to grab her shoots through my arm, but it never makes it to my hand. Some destinies are meant to be fulfilled.

  “Cry Havoc . . . ‘Til the fucking last!” she roars, throwing herself over the railing into the fighting below.

  “Cry Havoc!”

  The rest of the black clad marines echo her cry, rushing after their mistress. Hitting the deck below, the group drives a wedge between the Cascade and our stranded servicemen.

  I lose sight of Captain Dixon in the melee. Using the diversion to their advantage, the marines caught in the retreat burst through the gauntlet. As they scramble over the side of the deck, I see the separated engineer party. Many have abandoned their equipment, breaking into a run to catch the departing ship. Reaching down to grab one of the stricken soldiers, I notice movement.

  The wreckage of Stenia’s perch shifts, pieces of broken metal falling to the side. It can’t be. I pull the woman up over the lip of the hull before rushing to the pile of debris. Grabbing onto the largest sheet of metal, I wrench it aside. The heat of it sears my fingers. Swearing, I pull them away.

  I wave out my hand. Nothing they haven’t felt before. Holding my fingers into my stomach, I angle my foot to get leverage. With the sole of my boot providing a little more protection from the heat, I kick away the large swath of sheet metal. A pair of violet eyes peeks out from below.

  “Stenia!”

  She curls inward, her body bent unnaturally.

  “Stenia! Can you move?” I ask.

  “I can’t hear you Baz,” she chokes.

  “What?”

  “I can’t hear what you’re saying,” she says again.

  I take another look, noticing the hair to the side of her face is singed. Burns run from her cheekbone, back behind her flight cap. Her right ear melts into the side of her head.

  I recoil. “Stenia, turn this way.” I point past her damaged ear. “I’m going to get you out of here!”

  “Duck,” she whispers.

  “What?” I ask.

  The glimpse of a shadow is the only answer I need. I hit the ground, her knife breezing just past my shoulder blade.

  The Cascade soldier claws at the dagger in his forehead before crumpling onto the deck.

  “Here I was thinking this was the first time I get to save you,” I say.

  “You still can,” she responds, blood dripping from the side of her mouth.

  I need help getting her to safety. That help’s getting harder to find as the Cascade take advantage of the rank’s collapse, rushing to board as well. Stenia shuts her eyes as a bullet sparks the fallen railing next to her head. Another whizzes past my nose.

  Ducking, I turn at the source. One of Garon’s men hastily loads a rifle before snapping it up to my chest.

  Instead of a shot, I hear a roar. A sword glints as a large man explodes out of the bulkhead behind us, catching the Cascade soldier as it arcs downward.

  The rifle splinters, slumping the soldier over the broken stock. The cry rises up again as Olan turns to face another blue soldier scrambling over the side. The man raises his sword to engage, but Olan rends him in half between the pelvis and stomach, sending the man’s torso falling over the railing of the ship. Olan pushes forward, grabbing hold of the belt loop of his victim’s legs. Twisting, he hurls them after their owner.

  “You can feckin’ keep those too, while you’re at it!” he screams into the throng below. Without pause, he whirls at me. There’s no recognition. His bloodshot eyes tell me words won’t do a thing.

  I draw my saber, bracing against his attack. It comes like a freight train. The claymore hits my blade at the apex, shattering it. Unhindered, the longsword slams into the deck. Out of options, I stomp on his blade and grab his lapels. Rearing back, our heads collide.

  White and black obscure my vision, but I can see him shake his head.

  “Olan!” I shout, slapping him in the face. “Olan, fucking listen to me!”

  I ignore the blood trickling past my eye, focusing instead on the clarity returning to his.

  “Olan, I need your help. Stenia’s going to die unless you do something about it.”

  Olan grunts, shaking his head again. “Where . . . Where is she?” he manages.

  Grabbing him by the shoulder, I guide him to her. She shifts to meet him, her left leg twisted at an impossible angle.

  “Good timing,” she coughs. “That was my last knife.”

  “Olan, I need you to carry her,” I say ”Be careful; she’s got a least one broken rib, her left leg has a compound fracture, and she can’t hear out of her right ear.”

  He nods, coming back to himself.

  “I need you to find a way for both of you to get off of this ship!” I shout. “I saw the engines. If we take any more abuse, we’re not going to last long!”

  Olan kneels down, gingerly plucking Stenia from the wreckage.

  “I’ll hold them off for as long I can,” I say, glancing at the encroaching flames.

  “Khan hasn’t given the AS, has he?” Olan asks, shaken.

  “No, not yet,” I say, “but it’s only a matter of time. We’re losing control. With these flames, I don’t want either of you on here if the magazine goes.”

  “I’ll see if we can prep a life boat, but I’m not leaving until the Admiral gives the call,” Olan asserts.

  “Fine! Just make sure you’re ready,” I relent.

  “You’re not coming?” He asks.

  I recoil as another bullet slams into the ship’s siding. “I’ll be there soon!” I shout. “I need to find Cass first.”

  He nods once more before bundling Stenia away, past the fire and the fighting.

  Artemis and Cascade men alike cling to the rigging below as the Artemis gains altitude. The hangar shudders. The source reveals itself as the middle of the deck explodes, a blue ray of light punching through. Shreds of super-heated metal fall to the deck, leftovers of the beam chewing through the ceiling above. The sides of the cavern buckle in, collapsing as the Ark’s Core spirals out of control.

  The hangar sweeps out of view, revealing the tundra 9,000 feet below. A crosswind tears up the rigging from beneath, shedding some of its human weight.

  I catch my breath against the chill. That’s right, we’re out in the open again. Flipping my comm back on, I search through the signals.

  “Cass!” I shout into the frequency. “Cass, where are you?”

  Static responds.

  I throw my weight into helping another engineer clear the banister. “Cass, answer me.”

  The winter sun begins taking on a dark red hue as I cycle the frequencies. She has to have made it through. “Cass!” I shout into the receiver.

  “Sage!” a voice answers back.

  A spark of hope threatens to ignite. “Cass, where are you?” I ask.

  There’s a fit of coughing. “In the Cellar! The In
firmary took a direct hit. We evacuated the surviving staff and patients to the hangar, but it’s not any safer in here anymore.” Shouting cuts through the frequency. “The smoke’s getting thicker. I can already see some of the returning pilots are wounded.” Cass’s wracking cough disrupts her again. “I’m going to try to help them.” She pauses. “Sage . . . it’s only getting worse in here. I’m going to do my best to help, but if anything ha-“

  “No!” I cut her off. “We’ve come way too far for that. I’m gonna find you!”

  “I – “ The frequency cuts off.

  I try hailing her a few more times. I can’t get through.

  I sprint down the Outer Rim as smoke billows out of several of the portholes on the ship’s side. In addition to the crew’s drinking water, the Artemis has reserve water tanks for deck fires, but there’s only so much we can do up here. The logistics of fire suppression is one of the many complications of living at this altitude.

  I pay no attention to the different uniforms fighting in my path. Skirting the edges of the skirmishes, I don’t draw attention to myself either. A cloudy haze greets me at the bulkhead of the Cellar. Staring down into the mess alone is enough to make my eyes water. Overriding logic, I force myself into the heat below. Clenching my fists, I fight to keep the scars along my hands from crawling at the thought of fire.

  Some things are more pressing than your worst fears.

  With the Cellar’s high ceilings and open hangar, I can actually see through the smoke once I reach the bottom of the steps. Flames are gaining ground on both sides of deck, despite the crew’s staunch efforts to combat them. Bounding over snaking hoses and deepening puddles, flashes of the Helios crash stab into my mind.

  I shake them off.

  Personnel of all nationalities shout to one another over the din, but they’re blocked out by burning wood and choking smoke. I’m in my room again. My throat closes against the death around me. More smog scratches at it, forcing its way in. Panic flares. I close my eyes, trying to find a place that’s anywhere other than here.

  It comes in the form of a voice.

  “Sage!”

  I open my eyes. A silhouette plays starkly against the white background of the open hangar. Cass kneels over a sitting man, wrapping his abdomen in cloth. The unconscious pilot’s propped up by the large parachute strapped to his back. The smoke seems a little thinner; the haze delivering less of a sting.

  Rushing to her side, I can’t help but focus on the unnerving “waterfall” forming next to us. The air pressure’s pushing the smoke down and out, making it difficult to see the edge of the opening. Cringing, I kneel down next to her.

  “Sage, I told you not to come. The Artemis is falling apart and there’s nothing more you can do down here.”

  My skin crawls as a flame lashes out towards us. Sweat rolls down over my lips. “The Artemis has seen way worse than this,” I lie. “If she’s can make it through those scrapes; she can weather this for sure.”

  There’s no way she believes me; she’s too smart for that. That’s why I chose her. She continues tying a tourniquet, unfazed.

  “The Admiral will never give up the Artemis. She’s his baby.”

  The chime of the PA system interrupts me.

  There’s a click before a record scratches onto the speakers.

  A song from a happier time plays: “I don’t want to set the world on fire...”

  I share a worried look with Cass.

  “I just want to start,”

  The hanger plunges into a dark rose red as sirens rise up to compete with the blaring music.

  “A flame in your heart.”

  Khan’s initiating a full evacuation.

  I reach out to grab Cass’s arm, but a shell from the Ark makes its move before I can. We barely hear the whistle before it ignites a hole in the side of the Cellar, collapsing one of the loading cranes.

  The Jackal attached to it plummets, sending two weeks’ worth of welding and rivets to meet their match on the hangar’s edge. Sparks bloom as the Jackal tears in half before pitching into the abyss.

  Sparing no time, Cass hurriedly ties a double knot on the man’s last dressing before kicking him over the edge of the hangar bay. As his feet disappear over the side, Cass pulls the top of the rip cord on his back. The canopy shoots outward, the man’s head barely clearing the plating below.

  “In my heart I have but one desire…”

  I tackle Cass out of the path of the crane as it crashes down over the hangar bay, blocking our exit.

  “And that one is you,”

  I study her face as she curls against me. “Why?”

  “We wouldn’t have been able to carry him. You know that,” she says, looking up beneath me.

  The lyrics croon back in. “No other will do.”

  I say goodbye to every memory I’ve ever known and take her hand.

  “I’ve lost all ambition for worldly acclaim…”

  We cut through the smoke with the rest of the pilots as flames lunge in.

  “I just want to be the one you love.”

  Off to the right, Ja’el fights the blaze with several other deckhands. I shout to him as we run past, catching his attention. Sweat pours down his dark face as it fills with recognition.

  “Ja’el you need to get out of here before everyone cooks!” I yell.

  Ja’el eyes the exit before turning back to me. “Not this time sir. You must take Miss Dawson and flee this ship. The fire is encroaching on the forward magazine. That cannot happen. We will save many more lives if I remain here with my section.”

  I search his eyes for any sign of indecision. There’s none.

  Ja’el grabs my arm. “You must go now Mr. Basmon. Every second I argue with you, the fire finds another foothold.” He looks down to Cass. “Goodbye now Miss Dawson.”

  Cass’s eyes widen. “Ja’el, no!”

  I wrap my arms around her waist, picking her up.

  “We’re not leaving him!” she screams, kicking out against my hold.

  I run with her just far enough to get space between us. I wouldn’t have been able to hold onto her any further than that anyways. She tears away from my hold, but keeps our course out of the Cellar under her own power. Glancing back at Ja’el, I see him turn around and rejoin the fight.

  The song bleeds back into my consciousness as we hit the stairwell. “And with your admission, that you feel the same.. . . . ”

  Cass rounds the stairs. The parachute still on her back from the infirmary evacuation bounces with each step. We need to find another.

  Turning the last corner before the bulkhead, a speaker squawks the eerily mismatched song. “I’ll have reached the goal that I’ve been drea-“

  The music cuts out.

  An impact ripples through the Artemis, lurching the stairwell sideways. The shockwave sends me into railing, nearly knocking me unconscious. My head pounds, trying to recollect itself. Cass lands on my chest, breaking her fall with my body.

  Her hand grasps mine as she looks wide-eyed at the bow. “Sage, you need to get up. Sage, look.” Her voice breaks as she points towards the front of the ship.

  I try focusing on where her finger points. It doesn’t take much concentration to see the spitting flames billowing from the Artemis’s Bridge. The Ark looms behind it, shells still blasting from its cannons. From its middle, a blue beam pierces upwards, puncturing through the stratosphere and beyond.

  The powers of self-preservation work every trick to get me to stand back up, but somehow I find the will to ignore every single one of them. This is the end of the dream. These are the decisions we make.

  “Baz, get the fuck up!”

  My morbid thoughts disperse like rats in a beam of light as Cass powers through, pulling me to my feet. Control floods back into me; we don’t need to die like this.

  Cass elbows her way through the crewmen running up and down the Outer Rim as flames shoot through the interior cabins.

  “We need to find you a chut
e too, just in case things get worse,” she yells back.

  The nakedness of gravity weighs down on me as she mentions it. Her undaunted optimism shines through with the suggestion that we’re not already headed planet-side.

  A fireball falls from the Roost, plummeting toward us. Narrowly missing the

  Outer Rim, I make out the faint outline of a zeppelin hunter as it falls to earth. Separate from the plane, a flaming body follows close after it. Shuddering, I hear the unhindered engine of a second zeppelin hunter hurtling from the upper hanger. Dropping past us, I can see the cockpit’s filled like a hastily packed suitcase. With the Cellar in flux below us, the Roost is the only place our life boats will still be functional.

  “Cass!” I shout out ahead, “we need to get to the Roost! Olan and the rest are up there.”

  “Where’d you think we were going?” she shouts back, keeping her stride.

  Despite everything we know coming down around us, she’s still always one step ahead.

  The world changes in pitch, rumbling in my chest. My ears strain against the low bass as the flickering blue pillar of light blasting from the top of the Ark catches my eye. Slowing down, I grab onto the railing, watching the beam struggle to fire upwards.

  Once.

  Twice.

  Three times.

  Then nothing.

  Silence permeates the sky. I hear the whizzing of collective energy rising up from inside the beast. Blue tendrils pierce through the Ark’s hull, listing the fortress to the side. Cass stops, turning in front of the Living Quarters’ bulkhead to face the source of the building screech; it reaches an earsplitting pitch before ceasing entirely. Artemis crewmembers watch along the Outer Rim breathlessly. The blue beams punching from the Ark’s hull disappear. I let myself breathe.

  Then the sky tears itself in half.

  25

  An azure wave of energy erupts from the Ark’s center, splitting it diagonally. The lower portion meteors into the ground below, throwing up snow and debris a mile high. The top half of the ship explodes outward into countless pieces. Unhindered, the circular shockwave lashes out into the rest of the world, carving a line into the earth straight towards us. I brace against the railing as the shockwave narrowly misses our burning bow.