by Kyle Larson
“Oh damn,” Riz said, as he turned his head to Kelvin. “You had Mara re-task all the tech bots to doing preventative maintenance cleaning procedures instead of repairing our propulsion. That’s pretty sneaky, Kelvin, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say I’m a little impressed. However you got her to do that, and I haven’t even seen you on your phone.”
“It wasn’t me,” Kelvin said. “It was Amelia. They are not going to let me go. They’ll follow you and however many of your ships. You both are acting like you’ve already won, and you don’t even know what’s really going on.”
Aren turned and glared at Kelvin.
“Just because I’m not going to let Riz turn you over to the Colonel doesn’t mean I’m going to be easy on you. I didn’t earn these soldiers respect because they think I’m some wise princess. I did it because I’m stronger than them, and you’re going to have to prove that you are too. I’d suggest you think twice about you’re talking to. I’ll always protect you, but you’ll start at the bottom, just like I did,” Aren said, her eyes like daggers going through her brother.
“Trust me, Kelvin,” Riz said, almost sounding sympathetic. “You’re going to thank us once this is all over. These are good people, they will make you stronger and they are only interested in freeing the Nine Kingdoms.”
“Good people don’t fire on ships filled with civilians. If they wanted to change anything in the Nine Kingdoms, they could have approached planets or attempted diplomacy. Instead, they hid in here and stole and plotted an attack that is going to hurt a lot more people than help them. You haven’t been to Earth in ten years. If you had, you’d know this is not what our people want. It’s not too late. You can be Queen of Earth, once mother and father step down. You can help bring these people out of the Antioch Belt and help them find a home on Earth. It doesn’t have to be this way. War is something humanity forgot a long time ago. Don’t bring it back,” Kelvin pleaded.
Aren’s glare dropped and she spread a sad smile across her face. Her eyes dropped with what looked like regret, before she regained her composure and looked Kelvin in the eye.
“Kelvin, there’s no other way. That’s not who I am anymore. I’m not a princess, and I’ll never be queen. I don’t believe in the Nine Kingdoms. I believe in living out here – amongst these people – I truly know what it is to be free. I hope you will, too – someday.”
She and Riz turned their focus back to the control station and arguing about the Colonel. Kelvin made a note of everything they were saying about this mysterious person. Riz didn’t sound like he was telling the truth, at all. Kelvin was surprised his sister seemed like she believed him. Kelvin studied the airlock door, one final time, and then sprung into action.
He darted across the shuttle and snatched the helmet. Without turning to see if Riz or Aren noticed, he slammed it over his head and the magnetic locks clicked in. A display appeared in front of him on the glass shield. He felt the cool air start to come in as the suit began to pressurize. Kelvin ran to the airlock, swung the manual release up, and dove through the doors that parted vertically. He turned to see Riz stand and start to run for him, but Kelvin was fast enough to hop up and slam the door shut with the automatic button. Riz couldn’t get to him through the airlock.
Kelvin started the decompression cycle, which meant Riz wouldn’t be able to open the airlock until it was complete. The only way for it to be complete was for the outer airlock door to open for a full minute – which would send Kelvin into space. Kelvin could only hope there was no override. Riz just stood for a moment, his eyes meeting Kelvin’s through the small porthole. His sister’s voice suddenly came through the helmet.
“Kelvin! Don’t do this! Please come back in here. We can’t stop the decompression cycle. Try to hold on to something when the outer door opens. I will take you back to the Monarch and let your ship go. Please don’t do this! You could get killed!”
Riz joined in, his voice speaking over hers.
“Don’t waste your time with this, Kelvin. You’re just putting your life in danger. If you blow out into the vacuum, I’m going to come get you. You saw how well I fly. This won’t be any different. There’s another suit in here, and I guarantee you I’ll be able to get to you faster than anyone on the Monarch.”
“Yes! Listen to Riz! The boots on your suit are magnetic. Activate them and they will hold you to the floor through the decompression cycle.”
Riz disappeared from the porthole. Kelvin walked over to it and peered through into the shuttle. He could see his sister frantically pleading, her body language matching her words of desperation for Kelvin to activate his magnetic boots. What really got his attention was Riz, who was in the process of putting on a space suit of his own.
“Thrusters charging. Prepare for decompression. Five seconds,” an artificial voice came over Aren. “Four…three…two…”
“Goodbye, Aren,” Kelvin said. “Be safe.”
The airlock blew and Kelvin was sucked into the darkness of space.
“There!” Amelia shouted. “A beacon from an older model suit is broadcasting just outside the shuttle! Rescue crew…lock on to that signal and moved to intercept. Maximum propulsion!” The entire crew had just watched Kelvin be shot into space. They were ready to be looking for him.
The shuttles shot out of the Monarch like bullets, racing toward where the beacon said Kelvin would be. Amelia tried to find a frequency she could raise Kelvin on, but the distortions from the asteroids made scanning for anything difficult. His phone had gone dead, just after the last thing she heard was Riz overriding Mara. She had to hope he followed the plan.
“Ma’am, we’re detecting the lead ship in the pirates fleet powering up it’s electro cannons,” an officer said over the headset.
“Oh no,” Amelia said to herself. “Fire counter measures.”
The Empress let a spread of electro blasts fly, headed in the direction of the rescue ships bound for Kelvin. The counter measures were two magnetic balls, about the same size as the shuttles, designed to attract the electro blasts away from the ships. Amelia knew there was a good chance they’d been fired too late, and even if they worked, it was unlikely they’d be able to give the rescue shuttles cover with just counter measures. They would have to bring the Monarch’s weapons online earlier than planned, risking the Pirates of Mercury really disabling the ship and boarding it. Amelia hoped they could fire off a couple shots once Kelvin was aboard and take their chances navigating their way out of the belt.
“Holloway, how’s the codebreaking going?” Amelia said.
“Well, my software works as good as I promised. I’m getting there, but he had the code altered by another party, probably the pirates. I’ve never seen encryption like this. I can break it, it’s just going to take a bit.”
The electro blasts started to veer away from the counter measures, and for the moment, the rescue shuttles were safe. It didn’t take the Pirates of Mercury long to figure out what happened, and their next set of electro blasts came by the dozens. The electro blasts wouldn’t destroy the rescue ships, but they’d be as useless as the dead rocks floating around the belt.
“Fire all counter measures!” Amelia said. She couldn’t bring the weapons back online. She knew they needed more time. Especially if they were going to have to launch another wave of ships to get Kelvin.
The hundreds of magnetic spheres launched from the Monarch, but they were too late. The electro blasts hit both the rescue ships, causing them to sputter and stop. They were floating just as helplessly as Kelvin.
“Thrusters online,” the artificial voice said in Kelvin’s headset. This did little to calm him as he tumbled through space, a rotating view that shifted between the Monarch and the Pirates of Mercury. It didn’t seem to Kelvin like he was headed for either, just spinning out of control and into the void. The sensation of helplessness was probably the most frightened Kelvin had been.
When the thrusters came online, Kelvin stopped. The fear suddenly subsided
and peace came over him. There was a quiet and a serenity Kelvin had never experienced. He’d been in artificial zero gravity trainers dozens of times, but to be truly floating free in the enormity of space was a feeling he didn’t expect to be so soothing.
That feeling went away instantly as soon as he saw a spread of electro blasts hurtle past him and smash into two objects in the distance. There wasn’t an explosion, but Kelvin assumed those had been his rescue ships, as the beacon in his suit had kicked on automatically.
Kelvin tried to maneuver his body so he could face the Monarch. The control stick for his thruster boots emerged from his suit. He took it in his hand and pressed the center button with his thumb. It was just like the suit he trained in with Riz aboard the Monarch, but just a little clunkier. Slowly, Kelvin started to make his way toward the Monarch.
The glowing indicators in his helmet showed how much fuel his thrusters had and how much air remained. He had twelve hours of oxygen in his suit, as that was all the suit could recycle until the air became toxic. It would take him longer than twelve-hours to get to the Monarch by thrusters, so Kelvin counted on a shuttle picking him up. He needed to make contact with Amelia. He could see two more blinking dots emerge from the massive ship, but just as soon as they departed, a set of electro blasts came from behind him and slammed into them.
The prospect of Kelvin being rescued by the Monarch diminished in his mind. He tried to remember everything from his training and focus on his breathing to stay calm. The signal indicator for his emergency beacon was strong, so Kelvin was confident Amelia could steer a rescue crew to find him. Everything was out of his control, so he just kept his thrusters going and inched closer to the Monarch. He could also due a rapid burn of his thrusters and try to create enough momentum to push himself closer to the Monarch. All he’d have to do was click the center button on his control stick three times to start the charge. There would be a quick countdown and then he’d be propelled across space with hopefully enough speed to push him that much closer to the Monarch, or at least close enough for the rescue ships to get him.
“Kelvin,” Riz’s voice came over his helmet.
Kelvin knew the radios in these suits were very short range and the vacuum of space had pulled him far away from the shuttle he’d escaped. Riz’s voice in his helmet could only mean one thing, so fright overtook Kelvin when he turned to see him just behind him.
“Come back to the shuttle and this will all be over. We’ll take you back to the Monarch and send everyone out of the Antioch Belt. You don’t need to do this. There’s no way you can make it back to the Monarch with your thrusters,” Riz said.
“You’re lying! You and Aren! I don’t need to make it back. They’re sending rescue ships for me.”
“Kelvin,” Riz said, in a tone that was nearly sympathetic. “There are already six ships that have been disabled by electro blasts. They aren’t going to make it, and once again, Kelvin – you’re being selfish. These people are putting their lives in danger to come rescue you, just like I’m putting my life in danger to come pull you back in here. You saw the star dragons earlier. There’s hundreds of them in the belt. They stay away from larger ships, but they’ll go for those shuttles, and they won’t think twice about going for you and I.”
Riz had his hands raised, as if he were trying to disarm Kelvin. Kelvin didn’t believe anything the man said at this point. All he knew he had to do was get back to the Monarch. He knew if Riz took him back aboard the shuttle he wouldn’t have a chance to escape again. He’d be taken back with the Pirates of Mercury and put into the low ranks of their army – forced to fight a war against his own people and the rest of the Nine Kingdoms. Everything good Kelvin wanted to do as king was in jeopardy.
“Just come back. You’re right. Your sister and I will find another way. The Pirates of Mercury will find another way,” Riz said. He extended his hand. “I’m sorry I lied to you, Kelvin. I understand you’re angry. I hope someday you can forgive me and we can be friends again.”
Kelvin clicked the button on his thruster control stick three times, hoping Riz wouldn’t notice. The ten second countdown began and he knew Riz wouldn’t be able to get to him after that. Whatever his fate would be, Kelvin would at least be free of the man and the sister that would lie to him and use him to further their immoral cause.
“Riz,” Kelvin said. “Can you give a message to my sister when you see her?”
“You can tell her yourself.”
Kelvin ignored him.
“Tell her that if she ever wants to come home, I’ll always forgive her. Tell her that she doesn’t have to do this, and that my parents miss her very much,” Kelvin said.
The red indicator light came on in Kelvin’s helmet, for the final three seconds. Kelvin could see the look of horror in Riz’s eyes when he realized he was about to lose him forever.
“Riz,” Kelvin said, with a smile. “We’ll never be friends. You lost.”
The thrusters ignited and Kelvin was propelled like a bullet across the sky. Riz vanished in the darkness within a few seconds, swallowed by the distance between them. The thruster burn had a countdown of it’s own and had already begun. There would be forty-five seconds of a hard burn and after that, he’d be at the mercy of the vacuum. It all relied on Amelia and the crew of the Monarch.
When the thrusters switched off, Kelvin couldn’t tell if he slowed or was still traveling at the same speed. He tried to make his body more sleek and arrow-dynamic, but at this point Kelvin kind of knew it didn’t matter.
Then, suddenly, from behind the Monarch a large ship appeared. It was almost as big as the Monarch, but it was much more foreboding. It looked like the great white sharks in Earth’s oceans, much more narrow and angular than the Monarch. Almost like a blade. Kelvin couldn’t take his eyes off of it.
It didn’t stay still for very long and it moved in Kelvin’s direction. In a few moments, it became apparent it was headed right for Kelvin. It didn’t take long for the ship to be right above him and a large cord shot out and wrapped itself around Kelvin. He struggled as the cord pulled him into the belly of the ship, but there was no breaking loose. Whatever or whoever this was, Kelvin was now their passenger.
Lights flickered on in a small hangar and Kelvin heard the hiss of decompression as the doors to space closed behind him. After a few moments, the doors in front of him parted, and an uncertain but most welcome figure appeared.
“Kelvin, my boy,” Earlos Monsoon bellowed with joy. “Fear not! The Lunar Guardians are here!”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
THE HANGAR OF the Lunar Gale was made of stone, which Kelvin assumed to be moon rock. He hadn’t even taken his helmet off and he could tell the ship was cold. Over him, a familiar face looked down–stern, but with a sense of relief. It was his uncle, Earlos Monson, of the Lunar Guardians. The only problem was that Kelvin didn’t know it was his uncle. He didn’t know who the man was, but he recognized him.
“Welcome aboard the Lunar Gale, Lord Sellwood,” Earlos said, with a large smile that seemed to come out of nowhere. “Let’s get you back to your ship and get our people safe.”
Kelvin ripped his helmet off and jumped to his feet.
“You’re the old man from my speech!”
“Old?” Earlos said, as he motioned for him to follow. Earlos walked out of the hangar and through the halls, with Kelvin behind him. Kelvin didn’t know who the man was, but he knew right away that Earlos was on his side. “I wouldn’t be walking around these halls calling people old, if I were you, Lord Sellwood.”
“What are you doing here? What is this ship?” Kelvin said.
“Well, Lord Sellwood, there’s not an easy way to say this and we’re pressed for time, so you’ll just have to believe me when I tell you. In a way, your mother asked me to come here, along with the Lunar Guardians. Now, before you get upset, because of our exile, we are not associated with Earth, so this in no way violates the Tradition of Service.”
“How do you kn
ow my mother?” Kelvin said, not letting Earlos continue.
“Your mother is my sister. So, you’re my nephew, Lord Sellwood,” Earlos responded, matter-of-fact.
Kelvin stopped in his tracks.
“You’re a Monson? A Lunar Guardian?” Kelvin said. He knew of his mother’s heritage to the Lunar Guardians, but he didn’t know they were still around. And his mother never mentioned a brother.
“Earlos Monson, that’s my name. One-third of the Lunar Guardians!”
“Why am I just hearing about you now?”
“Your father and I will have a long talk with you about it someday when this is over. That’s supposing the Lunar Gale can get us out of this,” Earlos responded. He looked back and could tell Kelvin was very confused, and even a little hurt. Earlos stopped and turned to his nephew. “Now, Kelvin, no one was dishonest with you. Your father and I have a lot of issues and I asked your mother not to speak of me to you or your sister. I wanted to meet you both when the time was right. Unfortunately, that didn’t end up being an option, so here we are.”
After a few seconds, Kelvin stepped away and started to take in his surroundings.
“The Pirates of Mercury! Their fleet!” Kelvin said, becoming frantic and nervous when the reality of the situation returned. Suddenly all the questions he had about his uncle could wait.
“Those little things,” Earlos said, at the beginning of a deep laugh following. The other Lunar Guards, whom Kelvin didn’t yet know, joined in the chuckle. As strange as it was, it gave Kelvin a relief. “My boy, there may be a lot of them, but they’re no match for the Lunar Gale. And the Monarch just came back online, all systems restored. They don’t stand a chance.”
“I am Lord Rewill Tarrida, Lunar Guardian, at your service, your majesty,” Rewill said, bowing his head and nudging Raige.
“Lord Raige Auvola, Lunar Guardian. Welcome aboard, your majesty,” Raige echoed.
