by Kyle West
Ashton nodded. “I don’t know what awaits you all in the Empire. Even though the Blights have yet to infect it, it is still a very dangerous place. After all, Augustus is a dangerous man.”
“He wants to acquire Raider Bluff,” Samuel said. “That much was made clear by his emissary, Rex, who spoke to Char while we were there. They are officially at war with Bluff, and if it isn’t already, the Empire will be sending an army there soon.”
“That must be stopped,” Ashton said. “Augustus cannot be allowed to conquer Raider Bluff, or any other city in the Wasteland, for that matter. This is a critical time in which all people must band together against the Xenos, even former enemies.”
“Yes, but how do we convince Augustus of that?” I asked.
“Augustus is surely aware of the Blights,” Ashton said. “You’ve said it yourself, Samuel – you met a patrol sent by the Empire, who was also after the Black Files in Bunker One. I don’t know their motive for wanting the Black Files, or how they even knew about them. The only way they could know is if someone in Bunker One is in Augustus’s circle. Such a person might be dead now. It has been twelve years since that attack, after all. Regardless, that might be our way in.”
It made sense. But if someone from Bunker One was in Augustus’s circle, then they would obviously also know Ashton, and maybe even be interested in stopping the spread of Blights.
“Likely, it’s not someone who is acting against us on purpose,” Ashton said. “If they are in the Empire, they may have been there for a while. They may believe the Empire is the only thing standing between the Blights and total annihilation. As such, they may have told Augustus about the Black Files, hoping that Augustus would want to find and use them. If all that is true, then it is very likely that Augustus is taking the threat of the xenovirus seriously, and is interested in stopping it.”
“I hope all of that is the case,” Makara said. “If not, it makes our job that much harder.”
“And that is why you must hurry,” Ashton said. “You must make Augustus change his mind about invading Raider Bluff before he has the chance. And I think if you can make it to Nova Roma and find him, he may yet be convinced.”
“But he is dangerous,” I said. “And unpredictable. This is a man who has murdered hundreds, maybe thousands, of people. He is probably a complete tyrant. How do you expect us to do this?”
Ashton sighed, as if expecting that protest. But I needed to know an answer. I needed one that didn’t involve us running into our own deaths.
“I’ve thought this over for the last two months,” Ashton said. “I can see no other way. It will be dangerous, but you are the only ones I know who have survived dangerous situations like this. The Empire will see through its promise to conquer Raider Bluff, if what you told me is true. How else are they to be stopped, unless Augustus is given all the facts?”
I didn’t have an answer for that. I wished I did, but I didn’t. We were going to have to risk it all again.
***
Samuel looked at me, not saying anything. I couldn’t tell what was going through his mind, but it felt like he was trying to communicate something.
“Tomorrow, you will start,” Ashton said. “Get all the rest you can tonight. I want Odin out of the bay by 0900. Remember...Augustus will be forced to take you seriously when you drop my name.”
We all turned to leave, but Ashton stopped me.
“Alex, Samuel...stay behind a moment. Makara, Anna, wait outside. I’ll go over the landing procedure with you both one last time.”
The women nodded, leaving Samuel and me with Ashton.
“Anna is training as Makara’s copilot,” Ashton said. “She’ll need a backup.”
Anna hadn’t told me a thing about that. People keeping things from me was starting to become more than a little annoying. I had to talk to her about that.
“What did you need me for?” I asked.
Ashton nodded, urging Samuel to continue.
“Alex,” Samuel said, “in case anything happens to me down there, I need to know you have my back.”
“What do you mean? I got your back already.”
“I know that. Sometimes, everything goes to hell and there is nothing you can do about it. That shot with Brux...we were lucky it was just my shoulder. Just a few inches and it would been my chest.”
“What are you saying?”
“I could die out there. Any of us could. If it’s me, I need to know...are you good to lead the crew?”
Me, lead the crew? I had expected it to be someone like Makara, or even Anna, to be a better first choice. They were both better fighters than me. I can tell Samuel saw this question in my eyes, unasked.
“We’re all here because of the xenovirus,” Samuel said. “Out of the crew, I think it’s me and you who understand the heart of this mission the most. It’s more than just survival. It’s saving the world, nothing less. We’ve both seen firsthand what the xenovirus can do. Not that Anna and Makara haven’t. They’re both great fighters. But I want you to run things if I die down there.”
“You’re not going to die.”
“I hope I don’t. But it’s a possibility we must be prepared for.”
“Why me?”
“You have a level head. You are in it for the mission. You want to avenge your father, and to do that, you must stop the xenovirus. That’s all true, isn’t it?”
It was true. But the mission had grown into more than that. I was fighting for my friends. And yes, I was fighting for the memory of my father and Khloe, who both died because of the xenovirus.
“I don’t know if I’m ready for that kind of responsibility,” I said.
“The xenovirus didn’t ask if we were ready,” Ashton said.
“I hope you never have to do it, Alex,” Samuel said. “But you don’t have the luxury to be yourself anymore. You have to always be tough, putting yourself on the line day after day, keeping everyone focused on the goal. I want nothing more than to find a place to rest and call home. I can’t have that, anymore. I’m fighting for that future, and for the future of everyone else. We all are.”
He paused, letting me soak that in.
“I need you to step up if anything happens to me. It can’t be Makara. It can’t be Anna. It has to be you.”
“I can’t imagine someone like Makara ever following me.”
Samuel nodded. “She’s stubborn, but you’ve changed. She’d be a fool not to follow you. I don’t think you see it yet, but you have yet to reach your full potential. You don’t realize what I see in you. When we go down there, something in you is going to flip. You’re going to feel it. It might happen instantly, like a switch, or it may be more gradual. I don’t know. You’ll become who you were always meant to be, and everything will be different.”
I sighed. There was no getting out of this.
“I don’t pretend to know exactly what you’re talking about,” I said. “But I’ll do it.”
Samuel nodded, and turned to Ashton.
“You won’t be alone, Alex,” Ashton said. “I’ll be up here, letting you know the latest information. If anything changes, you’ll be the first to know. Right now, it’s just Samuel and I, trying to figure out everything and make sure we make the right moves. We let you guys know as soon as we discover anything. We just want to be ready for any possibility.”
“I’m not easily killed,” Samuel said.
“I guess all that’s settled, then,” I said.
“Get some rest,” Ashton said. “We’ll see you all off in the morning.”
Samuel and I walked out of Ashton’s office. Makara and Anna waited against the wall. I could see both of their eyes, questioning. They could sense something was different, even if they didn’t know exactly what it was. Anna gave me one last glance before going into the office. The door hissed shut behind her.
Samuel and I walked quietly back to our habs. His hab was close to Alpha Tunnel. He turned off, and pressed his hand to the entrance button.
>
“You alright?” I asked.
He forced a smile. “As good as I can be. I know it isn’t easy, but nothing is.”
He looked tired. Even after two months, he hadn’t really been resting. He and Ashton had been planning everything while the rest of us got to relax. I think it was then that I realized just how much responsibility being a leader was.
“We have a big day tomorrow,” Samuel said. “Everything changes.”
Samuel shut the door behind him, and I headed back to my own hab – about as far from Alpha Tunnel and the hangar you could possibly get in Skyhome. I looked a couple doors down, to where Anna stayed. I considered waiting for her to come back. For some reason, I decided against it. I went inside, and shut the door behind me.
Chapter 4
“Do you believe in God, Alex?”
Khloe and I were lying on our backs on her bed, staring at the ceiling. Her parents were out. When she had invited me to her bedroom, I had not expected a discussion of the metaphysical. The question hung in the air a moment before I answered.
“No.”
“Why?”
I sighed, thinking. “If there is a God, he wouldn’t have let Ragnarok happen.”
Khloe did not respond for a moment. “You think so?”
“I don’t know. What do you think?”
Again, she was quiet, as if deep in thought.
“I keep thinking of what Father Nielsen used to say, before he died. How God let it happen because we let ourselves go too far, you know? We forgot about Him because we loved things more. And...Ragnarok was his way to take away all the things that made us far from Him. Now, we need Him more.”
“Couldn’t he have taken the things, and left the people alone? Was having all the machines, all the computers, all the money, really so bad?”
“Of course it was,” Khloe said. “That’s why Ragnarok happened. We’re in the last days.”
“Well, I can agree with you on that point, at least.”
We laid there for a while longer. It was a bit awkward, as it always got when Khloe and I discussed religion. I had stopped going to chapel years ago. My dad never went, and when my mom died when I was seven, that’s when I stopped going, too. I stayed out of there as much as I could. Father Nielsen was a nice man, but for some reason, his words didn’t sit right with me. I was tired of hearing about how bad we all were, so bad that God had to wipe us all out with a meteor. I don’t know why Ragnarok came. No one did. When people don’t have a reason for anything, they make one up. That’s what I think happened with Ragnarok. People can’t stand random chance. There has to be a reason for pain, even if there isn’t one.
That’s what my dad says, anyway, and I’m inclined to agree. Then again, dad hasn’t really been the same since mom died. That was a while ago, but he smiled more, back then. He hadn’t been so harsh about life.
“You need to have faith in something,” Khloe said, breaking me from my thoughts. “Otherwise, what’s the point of anything?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. I feel like I have plenty to live for.”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know. Live for life?”
Khloe rolls over the face me, her face framed by dark brown hair. Her green eyes are young, bright, and beautiful. Full of hope, still. Even at sixteen, I already felt I had lost a little bit of that.
“Well, I hope He’s there, and I hope He’s listening. I hope there’s someone listening. I hate to think we’re left to ourselves, because we need someone to protect us.”
I wanted to tell her that I was listening, and that my listening was enough, but somehow, the words never made it out.
***
A siren wailed, piercing my hab in Skyhome. I shot up in my bed, remembering that horrible night almost three months ago, where a similar siren in Bunker 108 had marked the end of my old life, and the beginning of the new.
I was covered in a cold sweat as the emergency red lights flashed on and off. The sirens continued to shriek like banshees.
Proximity alert! Foreign mass incoming, velocity: four kilometers per second. All inhabitants, take shelter in an airlock or escape pod. Impact in one minute: thirty seven seconds...
I rushed out of bed, throwing on my clothes. I grabbed my Beretta from my nightstand, and threw on my backpack. It was always packed and ready to go. Outside my door came panicked screams and running feet.
My first thought was going to Anna, and making sure she was safely out of her hab.
As the emergency warning blared again, I rushed out the door into the Mid Ring, running straight for Anna’s room. While every other hab door was wide open, Anna’s had remained closed. It was supposed to open automatically in an emergency.
I felt panic clench my chest.
“Anna!”
I pounded on the door. From within, I heard her scream. I could not decipher the words, but she was terrified and the goddamned door wouldn’t open.
“Hold on!”
I mashed the open button on the control panel. It didn’t respond. It was as good as dead. And Anna was too, unless she could open it from the inside.
Fifty eight seconds...
I retrieved my Beretta, pointing it at the control panel. I had no idea if this would work or not. Shooting a gun in a space station was an incredibly stupid idea, but I had nothing else. Anna was going to die, trapped in her room, if I didn’t at least try. I pointed, aiming right for the panel, and fired.
In a shower of sparks, the bullet entered the panel. Immediately, the door hissed open. I couldn’t believe my luck.
Anna ran out, falling into my arms. I held her shoulders and looked into her face.
“There’s no time! We need to get to the Inner Ring.”
Proximity alert, the warning system began again.
“There’s no way we can make it to the Inner Ring before the blast doors close,” Anna said.
“We have to try to make it.” I grabbed her hand. “Come on!”
We ran around the circle of the Mid Ring. Everyone was out of sight, now.
45 seconds...
“Shit, we’ll never make it!” Anna said.
We ran on, about halfway to Alpha Tunnel. Lines of doors rushed past us in a blur as we sprinted full speed around the curve of the Ring.
20 seconds...
At last, we reached Alpha Tunnel, turning into its long, straight path. On either side were windows that showed the spinning stars as Skyhome continued its rotation. The entrance to the Inner Ring lay at the end of the tunnel. Standing on the other side of the blast doors were Samuel and Makara, screaming at us. Distance and noise masked their words. In less than twenty seconds, the blast doors to the Inner Ring would close.
We were clearly not going to make in time.
“Come on,” I said. “The hangar’s this way!”
“What?” Anna asked. “We’ll die there!”
“We need to get to Odin. Come on!”
We ran partway down the tunnel, turning into the hatch that led to the hangar. Once inside, we gunned it for Odin, the nearer of the two ships that were docked side by side. If Anna and I could get inside the ship and close it off, we might be okay.
That is, if the incoming foreign mass didn’t hit the hangar or the ship.
I saw no other choice, though. I pulled Anna along, sprinting for the ship.
10 seconds...
We ran up Odin’s boarding ramp. Anna mashed the code into the keypad.
5 seconds...4...3...
The titanium alloy door opened with a hiss. I pushed Anna inside, following after her. As I pressed the button to shut the door, the voice sounded again.
2...1....
***
The ship skidded across the hangar when the foreign mass impacted Skyhome. Anna and I crashed to the floor, toppling into one another. It felt like the entire station had been flipped on its side. For a moment, I was terrified Skyhome might fall off its orbital path and get pulled down to Earth.
Then, I was floating. The Mid Ring was slowing from loss of power. The ring would soon be at a complete standstill, meaning there would be nothing to keep our feet on the ground. My back banged into the ceiling, just enough to cause some pain. The ship’s interior was lit with dim, red lightning. A stainless steel container shot past my face and crashed into a cabinet. From the cabinet spilled silverware that did a crazy zero g dance. Somehow, Anna and I had both been thrown into the ship’s kitchen.
The red lights blinked off, then on, flickering a few times before remaining steady. The room spun around us. In a dizzying revelation, I realized that I was the one spinning. Pots and pans floated before me as if on strings, doing their own crazy spins as they clanged into one another.
“Grab onto a wall,” Anna said.
I reached for the wall, stopping myself from spinning. I stayed still, willing my rising nausea to go away.
“You alright?” Anna asked.
“Not sure. I think I’m going to be sick.”
“You should be alright in a second,” she said. “The ship is anchored to the floor with struts, so it’s not going anywhere.”
That was good to know. Upon hearing this, I already felt better. I let go. Anna pulled me away from the wall.
“We need to get to the cockpit,” Anna said. “There’s a transceiver and we can see if the others made it.”
Samuel and Makara probably had, because I had seen them at the end of the Alpha Tunnel, in the Inner Ring. Unless that part took a direct hit, then they were probably okay.
I pushed myself along cabinets and walls to get to Odin’s main corridor. I turned to the cockpit, clawing along the smooth walls to propel myself. Upon entering, I pulled myself toward the captain’s chair, and strapped myself in. Outside the front window I could only see darkness. The lights in the hangar were all out, and for all we knew, all of the air was as well.
“That’s not good,” I said.
“Here,” Anna said, flicking a few buttons on the dash.
Odin hummed, powering on. I could hear the fusion drive in the ship’s back firing up.
