They floated through the hatch, grabbed the railing and started making their way across.
They had almost reached the far hatch when it happened. Somewhere beyond the curve of the section’s floor and ceiling, the sound of an explosion shook the level. They were about 12 feet from the hatch, Adamarus in the lead. He looked back in the direction of the explosion and saw steel beams and other debris flying toward them. Adamarus locked his legs around the railing then reached down and grabbed Evelyn. He heaved her over himself and toward the wall hatch.
Evelyn flew into the hatch’s recess, grabbed the handholds and turned in time to see Adamarus looking at her. Then the debris arrived and Adamarus vanished.
“Adamarus,” Evelyn screamed. She leaned out to look for him. His body floated limply several hundred feet away. She braced herself, preparing to push off toward him but hands grabbed her from behind.
“Hold on, ma’am…”
She turned—the hatch to the outer level had opened and three people in vacuum suits had entered behind her. Their suits identified them as Anderson Emergency Responders. She pointed toward Adamarus’ limp body and hollered, “That’s Admiral Maximus, he’s hurt.”
The one holding Evelyn motioned to the other two who launched themselves toward Adamarus then, using thrusters on their suits, sped the rest of the way to him. When they arrived, they checked him over and, after a minute, gave a thumbs up sign indicating he was alive and started helping him back to the hatch.
---
6:10 AM, Axis, The Presidential Residence…
President Wicker had just started his morning workout in his private gym when an aide burst through the doors. He ran over to Wicker and, seeing the expression on the young man’s face, Wicker stopped what he was doing immediately. The aide handed Wicker a piece of paper and the President read it. His face turned pale, “Oh my God.”
He grabbed a towel and rushed from the gym.
---
The three Anderson emergency responders helped Evelyn and an unconscious Adamarus through the hatch, which led to a spherical area about 20 feet in diameter. Directly across from the hatch they’d entered was another closed hatch leading to the next and final tri-shell section. The inside of the spherical room was covered with padded strips. In between many of these were doors to storage containers.
While two of the responders held Adamarus the other, who was a medic, pulled a syringe from one of the pockets of his environmental suit.
“Is he okay?” Evelyn asked.
The medic replied, “As far as I can tell, he just got banged up. No signs of broken bones or internal bleeding. Outside of some painful contusions, I think he’s okay.” He injected the side of Adamarus’ neck. “I’m giving him something to bring him to.”
Adamarus moaned then his eyes fluttered open. He looked around then muttered, “Where are we?”
One of the men holding him answered, “One of the old EDCs left over from the original construction.”
“EDC?” Evelyn asked.
“Emergency Decompression Capsule.”
It was obvious that Adamarus was in pain. The medic got another syringe and injected Adamarus in the other side of the neck. “This should help.”
Adamarus groaned in relief as the pain medicine spread through him.
The medic dug out a small packet and shoved it into Adamarus’ pants pocket. “Some more pain pills for later.”
“Thanks,” Adamarus said.
A crash and the sound of tearing metal came from the section they’d just left and suddenly gale force winds were trying to suck them back into the second section. A siren sounded and around the open hatch, red lights started flashing. Then the hatch slammed shut.
“Wow, we just made it,” one of the responders said. He crossed to the closed hatch on the opposite side, checked the readouts, determining that the other side was pressurized, then pressed a button and the hatch opened. “You two stay here while we check this section out. We’ll be right back.”
The medic was looking at the blood on Adamarus’ pants coming from the gash on his thigh, “We’ll attend to this…as well as get you both suited up as soon as we get somewhere safe.”
Evelyn, who was holding a drugged up Adamarus, nodded back.
The three responders passed through the hatch and moved out of sight.
“Hey, how are you doing?” Evelyn asked.
“Better, I think.” Adamarus muttered.
There was a loud explosion and both Evelyn and Adamarus turned toward the open hatch in time to see it slam shut. Just before it closed, they glimpsed the section beyond filling with fire and flying debris—flames licked at the inside capsule before the hatch completely closed, scorching the area around the hatch.
At the same time, the blast wave hit the EDC, ripping it free and tossing it into space.
All Adamarus and Evelyn saw was the closed hatch flying toward them and then, only blackness.
---
Amular Orbit, Space Tug Pool #9…
Captain Jim Turnage woke abruptly as the harsh buzzer went off and as his first officer’s voice came over the intercom saying, “Captain to the bridge,” he glanced at the clock. Shit, he’d only been asleep 30 minutes. He heard his ship’s engines fire up. What the hell?
He heaved himself from his bunk and looked out the port hole, wondering what the problem could be. There he saw the strangest sight. Every single ship, and he could see at least two dozen, was firing their engines full burn and moving off. Like his ship, The Lucky Wager, they were off-duty space tugs. He felt his ship begin to move.
He started putting his pants on as he hit the intercom, “Lt. Swanson! What’s going on?”
“It’s Anderson, sir. Word is she’s suffered multiple explosions and been nudged off station. Control has scrambled all ships to assist.”
He grabbed his shirt and put it on. “On my way.”
---
Adamarus watched the black spheres spread across the universe, leaving behind spiral galaxies with dark smears spreading from their centers. Then, as always he saw the huge gas giant with the red spot churning among its cloud bans and…he realized he was dreaming.
The same terrible dream. He tried to shake himself to wake up but then he found himself standing on the churning red storm. She was beside him but, as always, he could not turn to look at her.
“Adamarus!”
He opened his eyes.
“Adamarus, please wake up!”
He was floating, the spherical EDC rotating rather fast around him. Evelyn was floating about 10 feet away. She was slowly rotating independently from the EDC. “Evelyn…” there were droplets of blood in the air, “are you okay?”
“I think so…you?”
Adamarus took inventory, moving parts of his body—nothing seemed broken. “I’m okay. Whose bleeding?”
“You. Your thigh.” She reached out but could not reach the wall. “I’m stuck here.”
Adamarus looked around. The wall was passing only a couple of feet from him. He reached out and grabbed hold. It almost took his arm off but he held on and was rotating with the wall. Immediately, he was slammed against it.
Centrifugal force.
The EDC was no longer attached to the station and was on its own, spinning around…fortunately not too fast.
He took aim and pushed off toward Evelyn but he curved away and missed her, connecting again with the wall. It took two more tries and finally he was able to grab her and both were able to attach themselves to the wall.
Between the puncture wound in his leg which was bleeding again and the bruises and contusions from the debris hitting him, Adamarus was in a world of pain. Some nasty bruises were forming on his back and left arm. He remembered the pain pills, dug a couple out and swallowed them dry.
Evelyn spotted a compartment marked with the first aid symbol. It was a quarter of the way around the sphere and she worked her way over to it and retrieved the kit.
Despite his drugged stat
e, Adamarus was functioning and had noticed that every other row of padding contained elastic webbing that could be stretched over the padding and attached—its purpose obviously to secure people to the side of the compartment. Each section of padding was just wide enough for two people. He managed to secure it then he discovered a row of compartments containing emergency supplies right next to him and found some water and food bars. He smiled at Evelyn, “Breakfast?”
“Let me get you patched up first. Get those pants off.” She opened the first aid kit and started rummaging through it.
Adamarus took a drink of water and sighed. Thankfully they’d been in one of the old Emergency Decompression Chambers when everything went to hell. He scanned the compartments, checking out the resources they had. “This place has to be 80-years old.”
“What the hell happened?” Evelyn asked.
Adamarus frowned and looked away, shaking his head, “I have no idea,” he looked around the sphere they were in. “These things are supposed to have enough air for a lot of people for several days so we should be okay.”
Evelyn had found some disinfectant, bandages and morphine. “Great, all we need is a deck of cards.” She jammed the hypo into Adamarus’ arm.
“What was that?” he asked.
“Morphine.”
“Shit, I just took two pain pills,” he said as the warmth spread through him.
“Crap! Well, don’t overdose on me. Now get those pants off.” She turned to retrieve the bandages.
Adamarus, his head now swimming from the morphine, leaned back and pulled his pants down and turned bright red. No underwear. He looked up to find Evelyn, bandages in hand, staring at him, her face red as well.
She looked away, “You’ve got to be kidding.”
“I was in a hurry,” he offered.
“Get them off and…use them to cover up.”
Cursing their ridiculous and awkward clothing situation, Adamarus covered his privates with his pants as Evelyn, in her skimpy black nighty, disinfected and bandaged the wound on his thigh. Her top was torn and it kept falling, exposing her left breast…she finally gave up trying to keep it in place and just let it hang open.
Before she could secure the bandage, the EDM started vibrating. She looked at him, there was fear in her eyes. Then a grading hissing sound like the outside was being sandblasted started up and the sphere stared to jerk around.
“Hurry,” Adamarus said.
“What’s happening?”
Adamarus said nothing. They both knew what was happening. The EDC was entering Amular’s atmosphere. He had no idea if the EDC was built for reentry.
The vibrations and jerking increased as did the hissing sound. They were being tossed around now. Finally, she secured the bandage. “There,” she said.
“Secure yourself under the webbing,” he shouted above the noise and started to put his pants back on. However, the compartment was jerking around too much and he was almost thrown from the wall. He grabbed the webbing, his pants flying from his hand. It was too late, he just barely got himself under the webbing alongside her.
“Adamarus,” she said. She was scared—so was he. They looked at each other. He said nothing.
The EDC was going crazy now. Then, it was like the sphere was hit by a baseball bat. The last thing they saw before they both passed out was the opposite wall jumping toward them.
---
Over 1,200 ships—almost every ship in orbit around or near Amular—responded to the Anderson Shipyards’ plight. People watching the sky on the night side of Amular got quite a show. Besides the seemingly countless ship drives all headed north, those in the northern hemisphere could actually see Anderson drifting away, trailing wreckage as well as the thousands of fiery streaks from debris entering Amular’s atmosphere.
The Lucky Wager was one of those ship drives and it was logically angling toward the Anderson Shipyards.
The radio crackled, “Lucky Wager, this is control, come in please.”
Captain Turnage replied, “This is Captain Turnage of the Lucky Wager.”
“Lucky Wager we need you to head to the pole region as quickly and as close to the atmosphere as possible and attempt to intercept any falling structures that may contain survivors before they enter the atmosphere and burn up.”
“Understood. Turnage out.”
The massive space tug changed course.
---
Evelyn regained consciousness but at first everything was a blur. Slowly her memory came back and she realized that she was still secured within the webbing. Next she realized that Adamarus was no longer next to her.
She looked right and left but she could not locate him. She tried to tilt her head to look below her but pain shot up her right hand and arm. She slowly looked at her right hand and almost fainted—her middle finger was bent back lying flat against the back of her hand. It had got caught in the webbing and somehow twisted. It looked horrible and she felt sick to her stomach and broke out in a cold sweat.
It took several moments to compose herself then once again she tried to look below her feet…nothing. She finally spotted Adamarus against the curved wall above her head. His naked body shocked her anew.
“Adamarus,” she tried to yell but it came out a whisper. She tried again.
There was no response.
The EDC was rotating at what seemed to be a good clip—the centrifugal force held her against the walls of the capsule nicely.
Slowly she worked her way out of the webbing, careful not to bump her finger, then made her way over to Adamarus. He was breathing and other than a nasty bump on his forehead, nothing looked bent the wrong way or otherwise wrong with him.
She located the first aid kit and gave herself a digit block which was surprisingly painful. When her finger was numb she steeled herself and, with a yell, pulled it back into place. Then she bandaged and splinted it. When she was done she closed her eyes, took a deep breath and tilted her head back.
Her heart was pounding in her chest. She opened her eyes and let them stay unfocused for a while. When she brought them into focus, she spotted Adamarus’ pants across the chamber. Beside them was a compartment labeled ‘MANUALS’.
Half an hour later, she heard Adamarus moan and looked over at him. He was awake. “Adamarus,” she called. She was still across the chamber reading through the Emergency Decompression Capsule’s Manual.
“Evelyn,” his voice was horse, “are you okay?”
“Yes. How are you doing?”
“Okay, I think. It looks like we bounced off the atmosphere.”
“Good thing,” she said, “this thing’s not built for reentry.”
Another discovery from the manual was the location of the compartment that held spare environmental suits. It was close to where Adamarus was so she left his blood stained pants behind and worked her way back to him, stopping to get them two suits. However, when she opened the compartment, it was empty. “Shit!”
“What,” Adamarus asked.
“There was supposed to be environ-suits in here.”
Adamarus groaned, “These old EDCs are usually stripped of anything of value—we’re lucky we found anything.”
Then the vibrations started again.
“Oh no,” Evelyn said and looked at Adamarus.
“We didn’t bounce far enough…we’re skipping.”
They both knew that this almost always led to reentry.
“Quick! Get back under the netting!” He could see that Evelyn’s face had turned white. “We’ve still got a chance.”
She hurried over and they both got back under the net. As the shaking increased, Evelyn grabbed Adamarus’ hand. “I’m scared,” she said.
Adamarus couldn’t think of anything to say. Their emergency decompression capsule was skipping across Amular’s atmosphere. Almost certainly, they were both dead and they both knew it.
Amid the shaking, the capsule suddenly jumped and turned. Evelyn yelped and put her arms around Adamarus’ naked b
ody. He put his arms around her almost bare body and held her. He could feel the smoothness of her skin—the warmth of their bodies—the softness of her breasts against him. He felt himself responding and again cursed the absurdity of their situation.
---
President Wicker stood in the Capital building’s situation room, reviewing the list of names of those who’d attended the DBB. Without looking up, he asked in a flat monotone voice, “Still no word on Admiral Maximus or Evelyn Eden?”
“No, sir,” answered one of the aides manning a console.
“On anyone?”
“Sorry, sir. It’s very confused up there right now.”
Wicker nodded.
Bugs walked up and said, “The second Loud Umbrella Ship has just arrived and is joining the search for survivors. The third is still an hour out and the fourth is three weeks away but is inbound anyway.”
Wicker looked up at the avatar. “Thanks. We can use all the help we can get.”
An hour after the first attacks, three more had taken place at instillations in the next time zone, again at 6:00 a.m. just as personnel were arriving for the day shifts. Security had rushed to all the major factors, R and D sites and other concerns involved with the Defensive Buildup. In addition, a massive manhunt for Dr. Radford, as well as those involved with the attacks, was underway.
Leewood appeared on the teleconferencing screen and both the president and Bugs turned their attention to him. “Mr. President, Anderson is just too damaged to attempt anything with space tugs. Reconditions are to just let it drift for now.”
“I see,” Wicker sighed.
“Any word,” Leewood asked, obviously meaning the status of Adamarus, Evelyn or a dozen other friends that had been on Anderson.
Wicker shook his head, “Nothing yet.”
---
They had brushed the atmosphere then skipped away two more times—the intervals in between getting shorter. Both times had been jarring and painful but they had gotten through it without being knocked out. One or two more times and the capsule would go in for keeps and burn up and that would be that. They both knew it though neither spoke of it. They just silently held each other tightly.
Countdown Amageddon (The Spiral Slayers Book 2) Page 19
