by Nick Braker
“Jules, flip us over or we’re going to be on the ceiling,” he yelled.
“Our gravity well is overloaded,” Seph yelled back.
She nodded and rotated both hands, slowly. The force pulled at them. First it wanted to pull them up, then sideways, and then down into their chairs. It was disorienting. He heard someone heave from his left but he didn’t bother to look.
“Done,” she said calmly.
“Is there something wrong with the gravity well generators?” he demanded.
“I stole power from them to keep us alive,” Seph exclaimed.
“Asher, the pursuing ship is gone and I am reading a large energy dispersion from--”
“Did it hit the ground?” Zara interjected.
“Wait... no... I think its shields failed,” Mira said, excitement growing in her voice. “It blew up.”
“Hell yeah,” Brandon cheered. “Kicked its ass.”
Weston gave Brandon a high-five.
“What about the other one?” Asher directed to Mira.
She took a second to respond.
“It is not on the sensors, it must be on the other side of the moon still coming around.”
“Turn us around then, Jules. Head back the way we came, this time outside the atmosphere and get us to Earth. We need to hide.”
Her hands moved again over the controls. The crew all leaned left involuntarily as the ship turned and accelerated back around. They were still on the dark side of the moon. He didn’t know how but he was certain of his position. The ship accelerated smoothly. Piloting the ship came easy to her though her foolhardy actions could have killed them. Her hands and fingers were flicking and twitching at the same time she would tilt them and rotate them. It was marvelous to watch but it still didn’t make sense.
Why would she tap her index finger in the air, as if pressing a button?
It was complex and there was no way she should be able to do this. Hell, there was no way Seph or the two other girls should be able to do this. If they survived, there were going to be a lot more questions for them. Questions he had tried to ask earlier but allowed himself to be sidetracked.
“Asher, we are coming out from the dark side and I still do not see the other ship on sensors,” Mira said.
“Seph, can you get the view screen working?” Greg asked.
“I am sorry, Greg, I have not had time and it did not rate higher than getting important things like life support working,” Seph replied tersely.
“Sorry, Seph, I didn’t mean it the way it sounded,” Greg apologized.
“Hold the chit chat, you two love birds,” Asher barked.
Greg immediately blushed and looked away. Seph turned red also but it was anger that flushed her cheeks. She opened her mouth but Asher cut her off.
“Not now, Seph,” he said. “Where is that damn ship?”
“Nothing yet,” Mira stated.
“Good then, plot a course for Evansville, Indiana. I have a place I know is safe and we can hide this ship,” Asher declared.
“Once we get to Evansville,” Jules added. “Do you have coordinates I can feed into the system or do you just want to tell me when to turn right or left as we go?” she replied trying to lighten the mood.
Asher liked Jules more and more. Her spunky attitude only increased his attraction to her.
“Just don’t turn left at Albuquerque,” he joked. “Seph, systems?”
“Barely holding. I have rerouted power back to normal levels,” she said, her anger still evident.
Asher ignored her. Brandon looked better as he was no longer covered in blood.
“Brandon, you okay?” he asked.
“Hell yeah, man. I had to save Weston’s pansy ass from hitting the wall by sacrificing my own safety,” he bragged.
“You’re full of shit, brother Brandon, but if it makes ya feel better, you can go with that story,” Weston responded.
“Seriously, both of you. Cut it out. We have another ship out there trying to kill us,” Seph said, firing back at them with such intensity both men shut their mouths.
“Asher, we got company again,” Mira yelled across the deck.
“Okay, Jules, how close are we to Earth?” Asher asked.
Mira interjected first.
“They will intercept us in 40 seconds, well before we even get into the atmosphere.”
Jules nodded agreement. He cursed.
“Okay, eggheads, why aren’t we using this ship’s super speed?” Brandon asked.
Jules, Seph and Asher all responded at the same time.
“Planetary gravity well...”
Jules glanced at her left-most panel. He went through several ideas hoping to elude their pursuer. They all led to dead ends. He had nothing. The other ship was faster and better armed. His ship had better shields but right now they were somewhat damaged. Jules stared at the panel this time, obviously wanting to say something. It had one small screen and a single button under a clear, glass-like material. He remembered there were two other stations with the exact same panel. Seph’s and Mira’s.
“What are you thinking, Jules?” he asked.
“Wondering if this will get us out of this mess,” she said pointing at the panel.
“What does it do?” he asked, knowing she already knew.
“It will blow up the ship,” she said, her tone was calm as if she were a teacher checking attendance in school.
Brandon and Weston both started laughing. Jules was way ahead of most of them but he was damn sure not going to let her get ahead of him.
Obviously, she doesn’t intend to blow up the ship, so how can she use that to...
Then it hit him. She wanted to use it to trick the aliens. The idea had been used in a popular science fiction television series almost twenty years ago.
“Seriously? Hasn’t that trick already been done before?” he asked.
“Yes, but I bet not with these aliens. They do not have access to Earth’s remarkable video and television entertainment venues,” she smirked. “It is worth a try.”
“Agreed,” said Asher. “Mira, get that course laid in, feed it to Jules and let her take us in manually. Seph, Mira, and Jules, take a look at the far left panel at each of your stations. Flip open the lid.”
Each of them did as instructed and all three monitors went active. Each screen was filled with the strange alien symbols.
“Instructions, I bet,” he said.
Zara joined Mira at her station, reading the tiny screen for them.
“Yes, it indicates all three stations are to accept the self-destruct order by touching the highlighted word. Do you all see it on your screens?”
Both Jules and Seph nodded. Mira balked but Asher’s eyes told her to do it.
“Okay, hit the highlighted word,” Zara said.
“Wait, how much time does it give us?” Asher yelled.
Greg, Weston and Brandon all chimed in with how crazy is this and you’re going to get us killed!
Their words stung him. He had their lives in his hands. Here he was doing the very thing he worked so hard at avoiding. He cursed inwardly knowing he was stuck this time. He didn’t want the responsibility of someone else’s life in his hands. He’d failed once before with the most important person in his life and that failure had changed him into someone he didn’t really like. If he failed again, what would that do to him?
He motioned them to pipe down.
“No time to waste on talking. We’re going to get out of this alive. I promise.”
Zara paused while she read the words on the small monitor.
“Honestly, it does not say. Let me be clear, though, nobody puts a self-destruct system in place that detonates instantly.”
Again, a cacophony of dialog filled the bridge as the crew argued about the merits of the idea and the size of Asher’s brain.
“Can it! Everyone,” Asher ordered, raising his voice.
“Incoming,” Mira shot back.
Zara grabbed Mira’s
chair and held on. The ship took a direct hit. The blast pierced the shields sending shockwaves through the ship. Its lights flickered off, on and finally off. The command section was completely black with one exception, Seph’s monitors were still functioning and they were now the only source of light. The normal blue from her screens was now replaced with numerous flashing yellow warning indicators. She worked the controls and various screen options but he could see her frustration as most systems were down and not coming back up. The ship started drifting as the engines shut down. The shields dropped and, instantly, the ship was battered by the molecules of space. They were taking hits from everything in their path. Each of them had to yell louder to overcome the noise it created.
“Shit,” she yelled, pounding the panel in front of her in frustration. “We lost everything.”
“Are the navigational shields down?” Greg asked, nearly screaming over the noise.
“No, or we would be ripped apart by now,” she screamed back.
“They knew exactly where to hit us,” Asher said to Jules.
“Repeat that. What?” she yelled at him.
“Yeah,” Seph said. “They did but the self-destruct system is still working.”
Asher heard her words and the weight of what they meant. They could at least kill some aliens on the way out.
“That figures,” Greg yelled sarcastically.
The small panel to Jules’ left showed the unit was still on.
“Activate the self-destruct option,” he ordered.
Jules immediately pressed the highlighted option as did Mira. Seph hesitated but when Asher turned to look at her, her shoulders slumped and she pressed hers.
“Seph, get sensors working right now,” he ordered, still screaming over the din.
“Sensors? You have got to be kidding,” she screamed at him in anger. “Are you stupid?”
“Don’t argue with me, just do it,” he ordered.
He turned his back to her but not before her face turned dark red. He could feel her bore holes through the back of his head.
“We are not your bitches. Do not dare talk to me like that again,” Seph screamed.
Asher ignored her. Seph had lost it. Her anger was now in control.
“Greg,” Asher said, continuing to scream to be heard. “Get to Seph’s station and do what Zara tells you,”
A small rock hit the ship causing it to shake violently. It knocked Mira from her chair again while the others managed to hold on.
“Roger that,” he yelled back.
Greg pushed off from his seat and in midair grabbed Seph’s chair. Asher could tell she hadn’t moved but she knew this was not the time for that discussion. Seph dropped down into the open panel under her station and started working on the sensors. She cursed at Asher adding that the sensors were the last thing they needed to fix right now. Greg seated himself in her chair.
Zara screamed across the command deck.
“Okay, we have to turn the switch and push it down. We have to do it at the same time.
“On my mark.”
“Three.”
“Two.”
“One.”
“Push it.”
The only thing he could hear over the pounding the hull was taking was the even louder alarm that sounded all over the ship. It pierced his ears making it difficult to even think clearly but they had time now since the ship hadn’t detonated. How much time did they have? He had no idea.
“Asher,” Greg screamed.
Greg pointed at one of Seph’s displays.
“It is a purple bar. It’s getting shorter,” Greg screamed, looking back at the screen and yelling again. “Maybe 35 seconds! The other bar is related to the engines and it’s growing!”
“Seph, sensors?” Asher yelled.
“She has them working again,” Mira yelled over the klaxon. “I can see the other ship. It is already moving off and fast.”
“Get ready to turn off the self-destruct,” he yelled, his voice cracking from the strain.
The command section was a tidal wave of chaos. They had to hold on to their seats though all of them wanted to hold their hands over their ears. The noise was disorienting them.
“Seph, I need… engines now,” he screamed, his voice cracked again but he forced the words from his throat.
“Asher--” was all Greg could get out when the klaxon ended and the ship became quiet.
“Shields are back online,” Seph said, still halfway inside the panel near her station. “We do not have life support or engines and pretty much everything else is down too. I am on it. The gravity generator is working and is powering up now.”
Several of the crew started falling slowly to the floor. Weston twisted himself and got his legs underneath him as he gently landed on the deck next to his chair. He moved over and sat down, turning to watch Brandon cross his legs in midair as he started to fall slowly toward his seat below. He smiled at Weston as his butt and chair met perfectly, his legs crossed. He put his hands behind his head and leaned back.
“You do realize we’re still about to hit the planet at over 200 miles per hour?” Weston reminded him.
“Yeah, but I make this look good,” Brandon said, grinning.
“Two hundred miles per hour? It will be much, much faster than that,” Mira said, correcting him.
Asher settled into his chair as gravity started to build.
“Mira, did you shut off the self-destruct?” Asher asked.
“Yes, we had about two seconds left when I did.”
“And how did you know we had two seconds left?” he questioned.
“I patched into Seph’s control panel when Greg mentioned the purple bar was shrinking. I could at least see her functioning station although all of my normal feeds were down from the last blast.”
“And?”
“And the bar was a clear indication that the engines were about to explode,” she added.
“Where are we?” he said, as he let his head drop to stretch the muscles knotted in the back of his neck. The tension throughout his body was fading, but it had left his muscles sore and strained. Mira watched him intently. She had something to tell him having already examined the information from her console.
“We are falling again into Earth’s atmosphere. We have about five minutes to impact,” she said softly.
“We’ve been here before,” Asher retorted. “Seph, I’m doubling your pay.”
“Nice work, Seph,” Greg whispered, leaning down to where she was buried in the panel.
She smiled back up at him as she got up and left the command section.
“I have to get to engineering. Greg, you are with me,” she said.
“Mira, what is the location of the other ship?” Asher asked.
“The other ship is out of sensor range, theirs and ours. I gather they felt they needed to get pretty far away. I am curious as to how big a blast radius this ship’s engines could generate?”
She let the impact of that trail off in her half-formed question. He ignored it. Asher felt elated that their first encounter hadn’t already ended in disaster. They were alive and still able to fight. He hit the buttons on his chair that controlled communications on the ship. Zara’s training had paid off this time.
At least the comm-system isn’t rocket science. I can handle that part of the ship. He mused.
“Seph, you there?” he asked.
A mumbled female voice in the background answered through his speaker. The voice sounded irate and nothing intelligible came through.
“Greg here. She’s already cussing you knowing you’re going to ask her how long,” he laughed.
Asher heard the voice in the background again.
“Hang on there, Seph,” Greg said. “I wasn’t laughing at you.”
Greg’s response left no room for doubt that Seph had focused her anger on both of them.
“She said to kiss off but that’s the translated version, of course,” Greg relayed.
“Can
you get her under control?” Asher asked, then quickly added. “How long?”
“She says the engines will be back online in less than a minute but we have to land to complete repairs. They have to be completely offline to fix the problem,” Greg said, ignoring his first question.
No sooner than Greg had finished speaking, the ship vibrated with the sounds of its engines powering back up.
“Asher?” Jules asked, prodding him for an answer.
“Land us anywhere that is isolated, like we did in England,” Asher said. “I want--”
“We just lost sensors again,” Mira said.
He rubbed the back of his head with one hand and then the other.
“Flying blind again?” he asked.
Mira appeared reluctant to answer.
“Yes and no. I already fed Jules the course. She could get us to within a few hundred feet of our landing spot and we could land it visually from there.”
Asher hadn’t known Mira that long but he understood her a great deal. He could see her reluctance to offload more bad news on him but she also knew she had to.
“I hear you. Good idea. Let’s do it. Jules, you good with it?” he asked.
“Sure thing. We will be there in a few. I would suggest we all get ready to land.”
A few?
That was like blasphemy coming from her. She almost never spoke in generalities. He shrugged. Jules’ hands, once again, played the ship’s controls. The ship responded to her movements and began its descent into the atmosphere.
Asher, Weston and Brandon chose different quarters on the lower floor at each of the three viewing portals. Weston’s viewport faced Earth during the approach which let him see the entire planet. Brandon and Asher joined him, staying until they were closer to the ground. The Americas were dark with large and small clusters of lights scattered across them. Some of the lights twinkled as they watched. The strongest lights came from North America and were concentrated mostly on the coastlines. Asher marveled at the view for several minutes, trying to find the lights from his hometown in Indiana.
The ship’s course took them directly toward North America. It shot through the atmosphere creating a white, cloudy trail in its wake. The shields flared against the atmosphere as it descended and the night sky lit slightly where it passed. Eventually the ship slowed its approach under Jules’ guidance. Animals and humans alike looked up to see the falling star streak across the sky. The comm-system clicked.
