Escape to the Fringe (Fringe Chronicles Book 1)

by Adam Drake

  “Honey, I did it! You're good to-,” she started to say when the entire transport lifted up a short distance then abruptly banked. Femke barely had time to jump up as the landing gear smashed into her. Stunned she clung on for dear life as the transport moved out of the cave, its roof scraping loudly along the cave's ceiling.

  As the ship banked, Ash lost his balance and accidentally bashed his forehead into Stacks's face, again. The second time was the charm and Stacks went cross-eyed, collapsing to the floor.

  Ash grabbed the gun from the other man's limp hand and tried to focus his blurred vision on the cockpit panels which were blinking madly with proximity warnings. Somewhere a klaxon rattled off.

  The transport finally scraped its way out of the cave and shot out into the clearing.

  The Constabulary scout had managed to lift up several meters as worms slipped off its hull like nightmarish party streamers.

  Then the transport collided with it.

  Beneath, Femke screamed as the top of the scout's bubbled hull sheered off the landing strut directly opposite of her.

  Then they were lifting off. Below, the scout wobbled under the loss of lift and its engines sputtered out. As it fell to the ground, it was immediately overrun with hundreds of worms.

  Clinging to the landing gear, Femke grinned into the wind as the transport accelerated up over the hills.

  “You were right, honey ,” she shouted into the comms. “This is way more fun than our honeymoon!”

  PART TWO

  “We did it!” Ash cheered as he piloted the transport around jagged hills. “For a second there I didn't think we'd make it.”

  “Honey,” Femke commed.

  “Yeah?”

  “I'm still under the ship!”

  “Oh, right. Hang tight and I'll find a spot to land.”

  “No, don't! You're missing one of the rear landing struts.”

  “Look at that, you're right. What do you want me to do, then?”

  “Just take it low by some cover and I'll climb over to the hatch.”

  “Will do. Hang on.”

  Ash slowed the transport to a stop and descended into a narrow valley. Once he locked it into a hover he gave Femke the all clear.

  Clinging to the landing gear, Femke peered at the hull's skin for the hand-holds which lined every ship. They made repairs much safer when crews needed to maneuver around outside in space. She found the closest one and grabbed it. The wind buffeted at her with ferocity, willing her to slip and tumble into the darkness below.

  Carefully she picked her way across the ship's belly hand over hand, legs dangling. Her arms and shoulders burned with the effort.

  “You okay?” Ash asked.

  “Yup, just needed to make a detour around the damaged section.”

  “How bad is it?”

  “Bad enough that we might need a land-yard. If we did too many landings without the strut, the hull integrity will eventually be compromised.”

  She made it to the starboard side of the ship and pulled herself up so she was next to the hatch. “You lost your ramp, too.”

  “Figures. I didn't really have time to retract it since Stacks here was busy trying to kill me.”

  Femke palmed the keypad, but it beeped in protest.

  “Hatch please!” she said. Her energy was nearly gone, she could feel it. And with the wind tearing at her body it wouldn't take much to lose her grip.

  “Sorry,” Ash said.

  The hatch slid open and Femke performed a last bit of acrobatics to get herself around the entryway and inside. She flopped to the floor on her back and the hatch closed. Merciful silence replaced the screaming wind in her ears.

  The inner airlock hatch opened and startled her out of sleep.

  Ash looked down at her with concern. “You stopped answering my comms. Are you all tapped out?”

  “Yup,” Femke said, groggy. “Gonna need a hand here.”

  Ash helped her to her feet and carried her along down the main hall. “You did good, honey.” Ash said as he kissed her cheek.

  “We both did. And did you notice?”

  “Notice what?”

  “I didn't shoot you this time.”

  Ash chuckled. “You didn't have an opportunity.”

  He guided her into the cockpit and eased her into one of the padded chairs. She sunk into it and smiled.

  “Nice and comfy,” she said, but the smile vanished when she saw Stacks hogtied and out cold on the floor at her feet. “Oh, he's still here?”

  Ash had put restrainers on the man's legs and arms, cinching them tight behind his back. Stacks looked like a sacrificial offering that nobody wanted.

  “Yeah, he is. Although I did debate tossing him out the airlock once we made orbit.”

  “Orbit won't be happening for a while, if ever,” Femke said.

  Ash patted the console. “Too hot?”

  Femke shrugged weakly. The motion made her look all the more adorable to Ash. “We can't know until we've done a complete check.” She removed her goggles and breather in one practiced motion. A long ponytail of silver-white hair spilled down to her waist.

  “Check of what?”

  “Of everything.” She looked down at Stacks and nudged him with her foot. “Is this transport hot?”

  Stacks didn't respond. Instead, he snored softly.

  Femke frowned. “His face is mashed up good. Was that you?”

  Ash nodded.

  “Good boy,” she said and then made an effort to sit up.

  “Take it easy. You need time to get your strength back. Do you want me to get you something?”

  “Yeah, a new landing strut. But, no, thanks. I'll be fine after a good long snooze.” And with that, she drifted off to sleep, slumped in the chair.

  Ash smiled at her and felt his heart beat faster. She was such a beautiful woman, he thought. And great to have around when you needed to move something heavy.

  Not happy with Stacks being so close to his sleeping wife, restraints or no restraints, Ash decided to move him. He found a utility closet barren of anything usable and dragged his prisoner into it. After double checking the restraints he closed the door and locked it. They'd figure out what to do with him later.

  While Femke slumbered away, he decided to check the rest of the ship. He routed the control panel readouts through to his pocket scanner and with scatter-pistol in hand went exploring.

  The transport was of typical design with four main decks and two subdecks. There were nine crew quarters with lots of space, the kitchen, a rec room with a massive view screen at one end, and the engine room nestled in the transport's middle.

  Everything was barren. There were no personal items or even basic supplies. It was if no one had used the ship in a very long time.

  He climbed down from a subdeck into the main cargo hold. Huge stacks of collapsed crating lined either side, meters deep. There were a couple of loaders, and lines of secure strappings and clamps.

  He checked the massive rear door's datapad with his scanner and found everything was good and tight as it should be. Other than the starboard hatch this was the only other way in or out of the ship.

  Hands on his hips, he stood in the middle of the cavernous chamber and shook his head. Junk. Complete junk. The only good thing about this transport was that it still flew. He didn't even know if it could safely break orbit, he'd have to do a deep diagnostic of its systems to be sure.

  But it did save them. Without the presence of this ship, he and Femke might not be alive right now. And despite its age, he figured they could trade it in for a small jumper or even a skipper class shuttle. He didn't care which. He'd take whatever could get them off of this rock once and for all.

  “Did you fix the landing gear, yet?” Femke's sleepy voice eased over the ship comms.

  Ash smiled. “Nope. Sorry. I know miracles are my specialty, but that one will just have to wait.” He headed back to the cockpit and found Femke hunched over the console analyzing readouts. �
�You should still be sleeping.”

  She shrugged. “I dreamed of giant purple millipedes chasing me. Wonder where I got that from.” She looked over at him and her eyes widened in shock. “You're hurt!”

  Ash glanced down at his burnt flesh at his side. “Oh, this? This is nothing an injection or two can't remedy.”

  She moved to him, worried. Examining the wound closer she said, “This needs to be taken care of now. Where's the medical bay?”

  Ash smiled at her concern. “I don't think they have one. Not that I saw. But I'm fine.”

  Shaking her head, Femke looked around and spotted a medical cabinet secreted in a panel. She opened it and sighed. Empty.

  “There's nothing on this boat,” Ash said. “Not a lick of anything. No food rations, or basic supplies or even fresh water.”

  “Great,” Femke said, looking frustrated. Her face tightened up like she was going to explode.

  Ash hugged her and after a moment the tension in her body melted away as she hugged him back.

  “What'll we do?” She mumbled into his chest.

  “I think we should move the ship farther away.”

  “Away?”

  “We're only ten clicks from the bunker. If the Constable was linked up before he went down then others will come looking soon. Best we put some distance from that in case they do a search of the area.”

  She nodded in agreement. “Okay, you fly, I'll supervise.”

  They eased the transport up out of the valley and moved it onwards keeping below the clouds. Whether the ship could survive in the winds above was not something they needed to test right now.

  After twenty minutes of flying Femke asked, “What do we do with him?”

  “Stacks?”

  “Uh-huh.”

  He thought for a moment, then said. “Slave trade.”

  Femke burst out laughing, a pleasant sound to Ash's ears. “You want to be a slaver now? As if we're not in enough trouble as it is. Currently, we face countless years in various penitentiaries over several systems. But you want to take on a crime which could get us the death penalty?”

  Ash shrugged with a smile. “Just a thought. Figured he deserved it after trying to kill us and all.”

  Femke shook her head, her silver-white hair glinting under the cockpit lights. “Well, we always could...” She left the sentence hanging.

  “No,” Ash said emphatically. “We're not killing him. We don't do that, Fem.”

  “He tried to kill us! Shot at me and tried to beat you to death.”

  “Yeah, but that's different.”

  “How so?”

  “We were fighting. Locked in battle. Now he can't hurt either of us, so he's not a threat.”

  “At our mercy.”

  “And mercy is what we'll show him,” Ash said with a harder tone.

  Femke knew better than to push her husband when he was like this and dropped the subject. “How are we for distance?”

  “At least a hundred clicks now,” Ash said with a shrug. “But we'll never be far enough. That scout would have snagged an image of you and even logged this transport, we won't be getting very far.”

  “I doubt it did. I was all covered up with my headgear.”

  “You now they can I.D. with less than that,” Ash said then noticed a flashing indicator on the engineering console. “What now?”

  Femke pulled the screen over to her seat and tapped at it. “Looks like there's something up with the core.”

  Ash sighed loudly. “Great! Just what we don't need now.”

  Femke waved a hand. “Relax, it's only a fluctuation. Nothing terminal. Or, at least I hope it isn't.”

  “Should I put down somewhere? Maybe try to land the back end on a slope?”

  She shook her head. “Too risky. Would only comprise the hull integrity. Drop down into a hover, again. I'll go take a look.” She eased out of the chair like a drunk after an all night bender.

  Ash waved his hands at her. “I'll go with you, you're still recovering.” He selected a nearby chasm and gently lowered the transport deep enough that any passing patrols couldn't pick up their signal.

  They left the cockpit and as Femke passed the utility closet she suddenly keyed it open. Stacks, awake now, glared up at her from the floor.

  She looked him over with an analytical eye. “Nope, you're wrong, honey. He's too big. Might have to cut him in half.”

  Stacks looked mortified. “What? What are you doing?”

  “Just seeing how we're going to cram you into the recycler.” Then she closed the door on his shocked expression.

  Ash frowned at her as they continued down the hall. “You didn't have to do that.”

  “Yeah, but it's better than executing him, right?”

  The engine room was smaller than expected with the main core hunkered down at its center. The protective casing flickered with indicator lights and tiny screens scrolled indecipherable data.

  “Looks fine to me,” Ash said looking around in confusion. Engines weren't his thing.

  Femke went to the main wall console. “You wouldn't see anything wrong. The fluctuation isn't that severe.” She tapped at a screen and a schematic of the core appeared. “I don't see anything here except lots of happy green numbers.”

  “Maybe an anomaly, or the cockpit console is out of whack. This boat is practically a derelict.”

  Femke kept tapping through the data. Then an orange warning symbol appeared. “Ah-ha! There it is.”

  “There what is?” Ash said as Femke went to search through a corner shelving unit.

  “Double Ah-ha,” she said pulling out two pairs of protective goggles. She handed him one and slipped the other on. “There is some sort of debris crammed up against the inner wall of the casing.”

  Ash looked alarmed. “By the core?” He watched in horror as Femke keyed the center casing's panel. It slid open revealing a large transparent tube which undulated with blue light.

  Femke motioned for him to put his goggles on, which he did quickly. “It's okay, honey,” she said holding a hand scanner up to the glowing tube. “It can't hurt us. Besides, we have to check this out. The last thing we need is another problem.”

  “I'm not convinced. What if it irradiates us?” He subconsciously cupped his groin.

  She scanned around, peering into the recesses of the casing. “Only if it were cracked, which would mean a breach, which would mean an enormous explosion. So, since that didn't happen, we're good.”

  “Uh-huh,” Ash said, unconvinced. He moved so his lower half was behind a console unit.

  Femke spotted something. “There it is!” she said in surprise.

  “What is it now?”

  “There's something attached to the interior, like a monitoring device or a-,” she gasped in surprise.

  Instantly, Femke fell back, dropping the hand scanner to the floor with a clatter and unslung her rifle.

  Alarmed, Ash fumbled to unholster his scatter-pistol. “What the heck, honey?”

  Something floated out from the core's casing.

  Ash raised the pistol, but Femke grabbed his hand, pushing it down.

  “Don't shoot,” she said. “You'll hit the core.”

  They both watched as what looked like a drone bobbed up and down before them. Its exterior was black and diamond in shape. The entire middle section was of a transparent material revealing a murky blue liquid inside.

  As they peered at it, things swam around the liquid.

  “What is that?” Ash said, incredulous.

  The things moved in unison and swam forward. At first they looked like some bizarre form of fish, then the liquid cleared slightly to reveal they were a cluster of floating eyeballs. As one, the eyeballs looked from Ash to Femke.

  “Greetings!” the floating drone full of eyeballs said.

  “That,” Femke said exasperated, “is another problem.”

  For several long moments Ash and Femke could only stare at the thing before them.

  The ey
eballs within the fluid swiveled between the husband and wife, waiting for a reaction. When none occurred, it spoke again. “Greetings!”

  Its voice emanated from a speaker along the drone's base.