A Hero Rising

by Aubrie Dionne

  Chapter Eighteen

  Uninvited Guests

  Outpost Omega started as a speck in space, smaller and duller than a distant star. Skye watched the speck grow over the course of the day, her stomach clenching and unclenching as she thought of the confrontation awaiting them. Scavenging alleys, she’d only taken what others didn’t want. Tonight they’d try to take over a coveted spaceport, the final link connecting all of the colony ships.

  She thought of Grease attempting to control Utopia, and wondered if he’d stewed about it as much as she worried over the Outpost. She’d turned into a gang member, whether she liked it or not, for the sole reason that she had no other choice. Outpost Omega was their last chance at a life.

  Skye glanced at James as he watched news footage of Earth. His drawn face confirmed her suspicions, but she had to ask. “How bad is it?”

  James rubbed his hand down his face as if to wipe off what he’d seen. “They nuked all the major cities, but the moonshiners continue to spread. Most of the news teams still broadcasting have moved to bunkers below the surface.”

  So much for going back to visit. “You think anyone will be left alive?”

  James shrugged. “Good thing Dal thought of this starship business.”

  Dal harrumphed from the corner of the room. He sat on the floor teaching Carly how to play cards with a real plastic deck. “It’ll only work if we can get ourselves on that little bubble of paradise. Go fish.”

  Carly sighed and pulled a plastic card from the stack. If it was any other day, Carly’s acceptance of Dal would please Skye, but too many what-ifs plagued her mind. “You don’t think they’ll be willing to share with three thousand refugees, eh?”

  Dal shook his head, studying his cards. James answered for him. “It doesn’t matter if they are or not. It’s our only chance. Dal had men pack up everything from our hideout, but we’re running out of food and water. This ship didn’t have much stored up, only enough for the last work crew. People are getting restless in such close quarters, and fights are starting to break out. We’re going to take Outpost Omega. We have to. Hell, they may call us space pirates—I don’t care. All I care about is finding a home for everyone on board. If that makes me a bad guy, so be it.”

  Something beeped and James turned back to his miniscreen. His expression changed from angry to apprehensive, making Skye’s hair prickle on the back of her neck. “We’re close enough to establish a communication channel.”

  Dal placed a few cards down. “Go ahead, but I think we’ll have to fight our way on it.” The pessimistic sound of his voice cut through Skye like a blade. “Those government bastards wouldn’t let us on even if it was the end of the world.” He slapped his forehead, making Carly laugh. “Oh wait. It is.”

  “I have to try.” James’s fingers danced over his keypad. He glanced at Skye and she summoned an encouraging smile.

  “Here goes nothing.” James opened the com link. He cleared his throat and spoke into the receiver. “This is the captain of the USS Destiny, requesting docking privileges.”

  A sharp, questioning voice shot back at him. “What is the purpose of your visit?”

  James looked at Skye and Dal for the appropriate answer. Skye shrugged. Dal scratched his head.

  James took a deep breath. “We’re refugees from Earth seeking shelter.”

  Silence buzzed on the channel, weighing down Skye’s shoulders.

  “Access denied. This base is not a haven for the unchosen. Change course.”

  Skye had never heard the word unchosen before, and it made her feel like she had a disease.

  James raised his voice, his face turning red. “There are three thousand of us with nowhere to go! Haven’t you seen the news?”

  “We’re well aware of the current state of affairs. Our mission is to preserve the communication between the colony ships. We don’t have the means to accommodate a large rescue effort.”

  “Resources should be split among everyone equally,” James growled into the microphone, his fists bunching so tightly the skin around his knuckles turned white.

  “A population that size would overextend our resources. We can’t allow you to dock. We will use force if necessary—”

  James snapped off the com link with a frown. “I’ve heard enough.”

  Skye pulled on a thread of her torn jeans, wringing it around her finger until her skin turned pale. “So much for asking nicely. Now what?”

  “Plan B.” James turned to Dal. The old man had already shot up from the floor.

  Dal nodded. “I’ll get the gang ready.”

  Skye reached for her high emission beamer and clicked it on, feeling the energy chambers warm underneath her cold fingers. Adrenaline shot through her veins. “I’m coming with you.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  Hovering City

  As the Destiny closed in, the dome at the center of Outpost Omega rose like a gigantic snow globe, hovering in space. Underneath the glass, skyscrapers crested a treeline of birch, maple, and oak. Birds danced at the peak of the dome, reaching for the stars. Eight runways branched out from the center where ships could dock and bring in supplies.

  A crash sounded above their heads, jarring Skye from the placid view. “What was that?”

  James gripped the controls. “They’re firing.”

  “Firing? At a ship with thousands of people on it?”

  “They warned us.” He yanked a lever down and the bridge pitched under their feet. Carly shrieked behind them and Skye ran to her, holding her close. “What are you doing?”

  “Evasive maneuvers.” James flipped a few switches and ran his fingers along the front panel. “Which isn’t much, considering I’m flying a small city.”

  Another crash came from the left wing. Skye squeezed Carly against her. “Can the hull withstand these explosions?

  James pulled on a lever and the bridge rose. Outpost Omega disappeared and deep space filled the viewing panel. “If I can get us high enough, we can dive and prevent a full frontal attack. There’s only a certain range they can fire into before we reach the landing dock.”

  “Will we make it?”

  James shrugged. “The ship won’t look pretty, and she may never fly again.”

  They had nowhere else to go. They’d run out of provisions and the nearest colony planet was three hundred years away. Skye gritted her teeth. “Do it.”

  Her stomach flipped as the gravitational rings fought the change in forces. The explosions racked the floor under their feet, each one sending a jolt through Skye’s spine. Warning alarms beeped, and the deck went dark. Emergency lights flashed on.

  “We lost power in one of our engines.” James’s fingers moved across the panels. “I’m rerouting energy to life support systems.”

  “Won’t that slow us down?”

  “Yes. But slow and steady wins the race, right?” He gave her a half smile. “It’s the only thing I can do. We don’t want a fast ship with everyone on it dead.”

  A train of explosions pummeled the hull. Pieces of the ship flung off, and Skye held onto Carly. “Close your eyes, honey.”

  “They’ve switched to multipulse lasers.” James pressed the panel with his fingertips, holding them down. “Evacuate the lowest level.” His voice resonated through the main intercom. “Everyone out!”

  He switched to a private intercom. “Dal, you there?”

  “Yeah. Just trying to help the wounded. There isn’t a medical bay anywhere on this thing, is there?”

  “’Fraid not, Dal. They’ll have to wait until we dock. Can you check on the lower level for me, make sure everyone has cleared out?”

  “Sure thing.”

  James turned back to Skye. “Once it’s clear, I’m going to reseal the deck above. That way they can fire at the belly of the ship all they want.”

  Minutes went by like hours. Skye hoped all the people they’d brought on were safe. She couldn’t imagine escaping sudden apocalypse only to die on the transport ship.
<
br />   Dal’s voice came through the intercom. “Lower level cleared.”

  “Good.” James’s fingers flew over the panel. The engines that still worked roared in response. “We’re close enough to the landing docks to dive down. Make sure you’re belted in.”

  The dive drove all the air from Skye’s lungs. She held on, wanting to meet the type of people who would fire on other human beings. She’d give them a piece of her mind, along with something else.

  The ship stopped and the firing ceased as James pulled up to the nearest landing dock. “We made it. For now.” He typed on his miniscreen, trying to decode the door lock.

  Skye unbelted herself and glanced at Carly. Tears rolled down her pink cheeks. “I don’t want you to go.”

  “I’m securing our home.” Skye bent to her eye level. “I will come back for you; I promise.”

  Carly sniffed and wiped her eyes. “You’re the only mom I’ve ever had.”

  Emotion crashed through Skye, overwhelming her. This was the moment she’d been waiting for ever since Grease introduced her to Carly. “And you’re the only daughter I’ve ever had.”

  Skye put her arms around the little girl, and pulled her close. Her tears fell into Carly’s ponytail. They held each other until a clanking sound reverberated through the ship.

  James spoke behind them. “This code isn’t like anything I’ve seen before.”

  Men ran down the runway firing at the sight panel. Skye ducked before she realized they were shooting at the hatch and not the main control deck. She shielded Carly with her own body, putting the laser between them and the sight panel just in case.

  Skye turned to James. “You have to think of something, because we have a welcoming crew.”

  His fingers sped along the keypad to his miniscreen. “The government base and the ship are simple math compared to this cryptography.”

  Dal came on the intercom. “Team is armed and ready to go. Waiting on you.”

  Skye shot a glance out the sight panel. The men were carrying large metal blocks, constructing a barricade. “Hurry, they’re sealing us out.”

  “I need to find the cipher. I’m pretty sure about one of the pairs of algorithms, but the other alludes me.”

  Skye clutched her beamer to her chest, every second building her anxiety. Carly’s fingernails dug through the fabric of her jeans.

  “Aha! The key!” James’s finger slammed the enter button, and the miniscreen charged with life. Strange strings of number and letters whizzed across the screen. “We have a way in.” He stood, checking the charge on his laser.

  It took every ounce of strength she had for Skye to leave Carly.

  If you want her to have a better life than you did, you’ve got to fight for it.

  Skye ran her hand over the little girl’s head. “Stay in the control chamber and watch James’s miniscreen. We’ll come back to get you when it’s safe.”

  Skye expected her to argue, but Carly nodded dutifully and climbed into the captain’s chair. Her little legs dangled and kicked the air. Somehow, she must have known how important this battle was. They were fighting for their right to live.

  James squeezed Carly’s hand and nodded to Skye. “It’s time.”

  They filed down the corridor and met up with Dal and his crew. Fifty men and women equipped with lasers stood at attention, waiting for Dal’s order. Behind them, regular citizens from the city lined up with makeshift weapons of metal beams and knives. It reminded Skye so much of Grease’s failed takeover of Utopia, she had to block the memory from her mind.

  James scanned the ranks. “We used to have a lot more.”

  Dal’s face hardened. “The moonshiners took out a major chunk of our force. At least these citizens are willing to help. If anything, our sheer numbers will overwhelm them.”

  “Yes, but how many will have to die first?”

  Dal’s grip tightened on his laser. For an old man, he looked fierce. Skye wouldn’t want to cross his path. “It’s a sacrifice we’re all willing to make.”

  James turned to Skye and whispered in her ear. “You’re sure you want to do this?”

  “You’ve seen my beamer skills. I’m not letting you go in without me.” She had just as much a right to fight for her existence as anyone else. Skye settled a rising current of anger. He was only afraid of losing her, just as she was him.

  James paused, his head so close to hers, she could hear him breathing. His lips brushed her cheek. She turned her head and met his mouth with her own, desperately seeking his attention. Their foreheads pressed together, and they breathed in and out as one. Before she could lose herself in their private world, James pulled away, giving Dal the cue to open the hatch.

  Chapter Twenty

  Sacrifice

  Laser fire erupted from the open space, and Skye instinctively fired back. Each shot ricocheted off the metal, firing into the glass of the corridor.

  “The barricade has laser repellant shields,” James shouted over the din. “Firing’s not going to do a whole lot.”

  A gangman went down beside Skye, clutching a burned hole in his chest. A rock formed inside her stomach. This was real.

  I could die today.

  The thought sent shivers down her spine, and she pulled the trigger harder, jerking back with each laser shot. Even the high emission beamer couldn’t break through the barricade. Two more gangmen went down.

  Dal shouted, “Retreat.”

  Skye scrambled back, feeling as though a laser would shoot through her back at any second. She rounded the corner and huddled against the curve of the corridor next to James.

  “We’ve got to do something,” James shouted over the laser fire. “They’ll storm the ship.”

  Dal dug in his pocket and brought a shiny orb lined with blue lights around the circumference. Skye had only seen them on the holoscreen. “You have a hypergrenade?”

  He pressed the timer. “Cover me.”

  It was a death mission and Skye knew it. She grabbed Dal’s arm and squeezed as the timer counted down. “There’s got to be another way.”

  Dal faced her and James. Determination hardened his face. “Take care of that little girl.”

  Before Skye could react, he slipped from her fingers, turning the corner.

  “No!” She followed him, raising her beamer and firing into the barricade, trying to draw attention away from Dal. Laser fire hit his arm, slowing him down. He pushed ahead, and another shot burned a hole in his leg.

  “Dal!” Skye shrieked. She fired at the barricade until all she could see was white light. Crawling forward, Dal brought his arm back and pitched the hypergrenade in front of him. The orb flew through the air, glinting silver in the fluorescent light, like a tiny space station of its own, and landed behind the barricade.

  James shouted behind her, “Cover your ears!” He threw his arms around Skye and pulled her back behind the corner. A low boom rattled her insides as a gust of searing air blew around them. Although James had covered her head, deafening silence pressed in. People opened their mouths and shouted, but Skye heard a dull ringing and nothing else.

  When the air cleared, they rounded the corner. The sound came back in a rush, flooding her throbbing eardrums. Men cried for help and lasers ripped through the air. Government workers retreated deeper into the corridor. Torn pieces of metal spiraled up where the bomb had blown a hole in the barricade.

  “Come on!” James gestured over his shoulder and they pushed ahead, blasting anything in their way. Dal lay face down behind three government workers firing semiautomatic pistols with antilaser shields.

  Skye shouted through the commotion at James. “Dal’s over here.”

  She fired at their feet below the shields, pushing the government workers back. As she covered James, he turned over the old man. Skye chanced a glance down and cried out. Fire blackened half of Dal’s face to ash, and his eyes stared blankly at something beyond their world.

  “He’s gone.” James’s shoulders slumped forward.
He clung to the old man’s shirt in his fists.

  “I’m so sorry.” Skye put a reassuring hand on James’s shoulder. She couldn’t bear to think of how Dal had, just moments ago, played cards with Carly on the floor. He’d told her to go fish.

  Skye’s hands trembled as she forced herself to press on. If they grew distracted, they’d lose their advantage, and Dal’s sacrifice would be for nothing.

  James closed the old man’s eyelids with the palm of his hand. “I shouldn’t have let him go.”

  “He did it for all of us.” Fire blasted above them and Skye ducked behind a piece of the barricade. If she didn’t get James away from Dal’s body, he’d be a sitting target.

  “You’ve got to leave him.”

  James folded the man’s hands across his chest. “He was the only family I had.”

  A shot whizzed by James’s cheek, making a black streak in the wall above them. A current of anger rose inside her. “That’s not true, James. Carly and I are your family now.”

  Her words brought strength back into James’s eyes, and she took the opportunity to reach out and drag him with her behind the shelter. James turned his head back to Dal and Skye wondered if he could go on.

  “That’s if you can find it in your heart to love again.” They may die at any moment, and she had to know the truth.

  The loss blinding James’s eyes cleared and he looked into her gaze, grabbing her arm. “I can, Skye. I will.”

  Laser fire turned to fireworks around her as more of the gangmen filled the corridor. A weight lifted from her chest, dissipating in the simmering air. She nodded, swallowing tears. “We’ll come back for him, I promise. But first, let’s secure our new home.”

  They sprinted ahead, joining the gangmen pushing through the barricade. The corridor opened into a vast vaulted ceiling, painted in stars. James held up his hand, halting everyone before the entrance. “Take down those that fight against you, but leave everyone else at peace. If we are going to make this our paradise, we need to accept everyone. No prejudice, and absolutely no Morpheus.”