Descent

by Erik Schubach

  I finessed the controls, and rotated the ship on her axis, trying to line up our cargo doors with an open airlock. These ships were never meant for docking at airlocks, they were meant to fly into landing bays or dock on the city rings above. I said, “Get the docking system ready Glitchy.” I don't know how, but it felt like he was grinning as he squeed out an “Aye Aye.” And a little panel on his mobility platform flipped open, and the tip of one of his four anchoring harpoons gleamed in the harsh light in space.

  Ok, so it wasn't the most glamorous option, it was our only option.

  Vashon's voice, sounding artificially mechanical, started calling out the distance, “Fifteen meters, fourteen meters, thirteen...” As a more emotional sounding Vash coaxed over it, “You're doing great, Vega. Take it slow. Umm, you're going to want to slow do...”

  I could hear her wince as we clanged into the city. I squinted one eye hearing the groaning and screeching of metal on metal, feeling a little embarrassed. I whined in defense, “Hey, I've never flown in space before. So what if I marred the paint on your pretty little butt a bit.”

  Her instant retort was, “Does this city make my butt look big?”

  We were snickering when Lady Peregrine leaned into my field of view, looking incredulous as she chastised us, “Girls, please. We have only thirty-three minutes until atmo. We're already strafing the mesosphere, and frictional heating is going to be starting.”

  My cheeks felt like they were on fire. I had completely forgotten others could hear us. But then Vash and I started chuckling again when she said, “Yes, mother.” I don't know what was so funny, we were likely all going to die in the next half hour. But Sai was giggling so it must have been catchy.

  I almost lost it completely when first Anna, then Lady Peregrine herself joined in. Were we all hysterical or something. Well, it was pretty funny. Then we all stopped when McGreery's voice interrupted, “Ladies? Please.”

  Right.

  I exhaled and put the ship into station keeping and moved back to the cargo area with Glitch. I had no clue if this next part was going to work. I exhaled and said as I tapped a code on the multi-tool at my hip, “New Terra, Dodo, opening bay doors.”

  Robo-Vash answered, “Affirmative, go for bay door deployment.” She was such a smartass, and I loved her for it.

  I felt the nano panels flow over me. I wasn't taking any chances just in case the tumbril's containment field didn't work. Once I was armored up against the harsh environment of space, feeling stronger, I magnetized my boots, and with a clank, I attached to the deck. I said from within my helmet, “Ok buddy, let's do this.”

  He squeed and hit the controls at the doors and with a thrum and haze of light, the containment field went up, and the doors clanked then hissed open, leaving us looking across empty space to the gaping maw of the airlock. It was just slightly too small for us to have just flown into.

  I said to everyone, “Yup. There's space out there.” So far so good. I glanced at Glitch, and he shuddered, sparks drizzling. Then he turned to the door and with a thrum, fired a harpoon through the energy field that was keeping us pressurized. It clanked off the armored hull, just left of his target. He adjusted and fired a second. This one hit its mark, the soft seal of the airlock opening. He squeed in triumph and started reeling us in so that we were in contact with the city again.

  He quickly welded the cable to the deck then moved over and fired a third harpoon, which hit its mark on the other side of the airlock. Once he tensioned and welded the cable, he squeed, and I praised him. “Good job Glitch! You're the man!”

  Then I told the others, “Dodo secured.”

  Robo-Vash repeated, “Dodo secured.” Oh, I got what she was doing. It was like that space adventure wave we last watched before they took her topside to recover and be repaired. The one where the evil ship's computer started killing everyone one at a time. Classic!

  I stared at a couple of meters of open space between the door and the floor of the airlock and swallowed as I crouched to unsecure my tool belts from the cargo bay floor and fasten them over my shoulder. Ideally, I'd have just my multi-tool for this, but as it was currently making me into the SS Vega, self-contained spaceship, I'd have to go old school.

  Glitch helped me free the makeshift relay apparatus from the cargo hold and then float the quarter ton device in front of me. I stood in front of the door and looked at my target and swallowed hard. My mechanical friend squeed with concern. I shook my head. “No buddy, you can't come. You weren't built for the harsh conditions of space. It might damage you beyond my ability to repair. You watch the Dodo for me. I'll be back soon, I promise.”

  He nodded sadly and backed up. I said into coms, something from the history files, “On small step for man, one giant leap for Fixit kind!” And I pushed the relay then jumped after it.

  As I drifted through space, trying not to hyperventilate, I saw a bright flash. I blurted, “What was that?”

  McGreery was the one who answered. “That incoming gravity signature just fired pulse cannons at the Dreadnaught! It is too far out of range to do any damage. But it was a knock at their door. The attack tumbrils are retreating, and the Dreadnought is powering its gravity projection bump drives. They're retreating!”

  Oh, thank the mother of all crystal. That was one less thing to worry about.

  I hit the deck running, my magnetic boots keeping me grounded, telling me the artificial gravity was off even in the lower levels here. I caught up with the relay before it hit the deck and grabbed it with one hand.

  I blinked, even though Vash told me what to expect. It would have taken a lot more than me grabbing it to stop the momentum of the device as it out-massed me greatly, but in this makeshift EVA suit, it was like being in Sky Guard armor. I was multiple times stronger. I may as well have been catching a ball the boys threw at me.

  I looked back at Glitch in the Dodo just once. He looked like a beaten puppy. Sorry boy. Then I started running down the open corridors that were illuminated in red by the emergency lighting. I was amazed at how fast I was with the suit augmenting my speed and strength.

  I stopped at a panel on the wall and tapped it, and a map of the lower level sprang up. It was pretty much a straight shot to the core. I'd never be able to make it the half mile in time if it weren't for the suit. I swallowed as I looked at how fast I was burning through power. I could feel the bandolier of crystals across my chest heating up.

  I was halfway to my goal, seeing the power levels, I wouldn't have much time when I arrived at my destination. I turned a corner and squeaked in distress and tried hard not to puke in my helmet when I saw the body of a woman dangling from some sort of netting floating outside a maintenance bay. She must have gotten snagged by the industrial netting during the explosive decompression when all the airlocks were vented to space.

  Vash was on coms, concern in her voice. “What is it, Vega.”

  I shook my head and started to run again. “Nothing... it's nothing. A dead worker.” The poor woman. Vashon didn't respond, what could she say?

  I just stared at the end of the corridor and steeled my resolve. “I'm four hundred meters from the core. Stand by. I'll...” Then I was oofing when something hit me like a runaway harvester. Sending me into the opposite wall of the corridor so hard I left an impression.

  Then I was screaming as white-hot pain seared into me from the side. I looked down to find a sewage maintenance pinger, about half my size, firing its industrial laser it used to clear out clogs in the sewage lines at my side as its two grapplers... well, grappled me.

  It wasn't piercing the nanoplates that made up the armor, but it was heating them red hot and sizzling my flesh below it faster than the makeshift life support system could compensate. I lashed out with a fist, and it connected, deeply denting the pinger's armor that was designed for harsh environments. It still grappled and started trying to tear at my suit. It had gone insane. Was this what that malicious code could have done t
o my pingers?

  I was losing time and bit back another scream as it fired again, this time into my midsection as it tried to scrabble out of my reach. Vash was almost yelling in my ear, asking what was happening. I was starting to hyperventilate when the pinger was torn from me so violently it lost one of its grapplers.

  Then over the coms came Glitch's warbling scream as I turned to see him holding the offending pinger and firing his last harpoon into the sparking hole where its grappler had been. It went still. I was about to yell at Glitch to get back to the Dodo before he got irreparably damaged when I saw three more of those sewage pingers roll out of the door on magnetic treads, where the dead woman was.

  Glitch swiveled his orb from me to them. Then squeed out for me to go over the coms. My eyes watered as I sat there in indecision. He was my best and oldest friend. I couldn't just leave him.

  It was Vash snapping, “Vega!” That decided things for me. One last time, Glitch was taking care of me, and I wasn't going to let him die it in vain. I saw him trundle toward the smaller pingers, his treads magnetized, then I turned back to the corridor and grabbed the relay and started running, tears blurring my vision.

  I asked in a raw voice, “How much time do we have?”

  She replied in a hesitant tone, wanting to ask me what had happened, “Twenty-two minutes.”

  I nodded and poured on the speed.

  I reached the end of the corridor and then sprinted along an arching corridor, looking for the single entry into what should have been the most secure room in the complex. I noted external hull temperatures were up to over one hundred and forty degrees. We were definitely feeling the effects of friction from the upper atmosphere now.

  Warning alarms were beeping in my ears as my power levels dropped below five percent. That damn crystal licking sewage pinger had taken a lot out of me. I arrived at double security doors that, when closed, could survive a quantum fission meltdown. It was so eerie seeing the ten meter thick doors wide open like that.

  I shook my head and moved inside. I knew what to expect, but in our minds, we build something that can run an entire city and the Prime Information Grid up to be this mammoth cavernous room with like a pillar of light in it or something. Instead, I stood in a fairly smallish room, with a single bank of servers with five huge, redundant fiber trunk lines as big around as my chest leading into it. A small shelf with a virtual keyboard protruded over a chair that was bolted to the floor. That was the only convenience for humans in the space.

  My alarms were blaring now, and I tapped the pad on my hip to silence them. Ignoring both Sai and Vash's questions as to what they were. I didn't have time to talk, only to work as my power reserve had dropped down to one percent, and the suit was shutting down systems to preserve what little I had left.

  I grabbed the relay assembly and looked for the primary trunk. It was easy to spot as it was the only non-powered fiber bundle. I clamped the assembly over it and tapped the control panel to activate the grafting program. Just a few seconds and Vash would have control. Red warnings were flashing in my heads-up display showing imminent systems failure of the suit. But nothing was happening.

  My eyes widened in terror and anger over how unfair the universe was when I saw that the skirmish with the pinger had damaged one of the power couplers. I let fly with the most unladylike string of curses as I pulled the cover from the coupler to see that the contacts were spread apart.

  That's when I heard hissing as the power in the suit failed, and my atmosphere started blowing out of the enlarging holes where the nano panels were losing their cohesion.

  I calmed for some reason instead of panicking. I was already dead, I knew that, but I was ok with it if I could save the woman I loved. I looked at my tools and then the coupler and smiled. A person can last about fourteen seconds in a vacuum before they lose consciousness, and up to two minutes if they don't have air in their lungs.

  I whispered into coms while I still had the atmosphere for sound to carry, “I love you Vash.” Then as the suit completely failed I tore the rebreather off of me as the oppressive radiated heat of room from the friction heating the city hit my skin as I exhaled violently to get the air out of my lungs. If she said anything back, I don't know as there was no atmosphere to carry the sound.

  My feet left the floor, and I grasped the relay as I felt my tongue bubbling, the moisture boiling away in a vacuum. I grabbed my largest spanner and with a silent scream in my head as I felt I was being baked alive, I jammed it between the contacts in the coupler and then was flying back to slam against the far wall when the power arced and completed the circuit.

  My vision was getting blurry as the moisture boiled from my eyes. Come on Fixit, you can't pass out now! With an internal growl, I pushed off of the wall with all my might, floating back toward the relay. My hand was outstretched toward my target as my vision blurred farther while I fought the urge to inhale.

  My biggest fear was that my hand would miss the screen that was now lit up, ready for activation. I sort of felt my fingers contact something as the darkness wrapped around me.

  The next thing I knew, I was on the floor and inhaling deeply as I heard the hiss of the room pressurizing, Vashon's voice getting louder and louder as the atmosphere thickened, “Vega? Vega! Vega talk to me!”

  I coughed and gasped as my vision came back to me. I could feel heavy vibrations through the floor, and I noted the doors were now closed. Alarms were sounding all around me, but they were almost drowned out by the rumble of engines, which could move a small moon, straining.

  I held a hand up and looked toward the nearest camera on the wall. My voice sounded hoarse as I wheezed out, “I'm ok. The city?”

  It was Doctor Germaine who responded. “Our descent is slowing, two more minutes at full burn and it will be arrested, and we can start proper insertion into the gravitational wakes.”

  I realized I had gravity as I stumbled to my feet and toward the door, asking my girl. “The rest of the lower levels?”

  She was quick to respond, “Pressurizing, all airlocks sealed.”

  I stumbled to the door, tears feeling like they were burning paths down my decidedly red skin. I heard myself almost sobbing out, “Glitch... he saved me. We have to...” I slapped the door release, and it cycled, and there was a whump when the higher pressure of the room equalized with the lower in the corridor which was still pressurizing.

  I let out a squeaking sob when, just a few feet away, moving slowly toward me, sparking from damage all over his orb and mobility platform which had only one tread now, was Glitchy... his grappler dragging behind him. Pieces of destroyed sewer pingers were strewn about the corridor, some embedded in the walls.

  He squealed out a two-toned question that sounded like, “Fixit?”

  I dove on him hugging him as tight as I could to me as I was rasping out, “Vash, we need Anna down here now, Glitchy is injured!”

  I passed out hugging my mechanical hero to me, just after Vash said, “Medics and engineers are on their way, Germaine will be there in a moment. You did it, Vega.”

  As darkness took me, my final thought was that I just wanted to go home.

  Epilogue

  The next eight days were hectic, though the first two I spent with doctors before Vashon or Lady Peregrine would let me out of my bed. The rest of the time I split between the room my girl was suspended in a cocoon of fiber optic neural nets and the secret Covert Sciences level where Glitchy was being taken care of.

  I had missed some tense moments after I had passed out. Vash had lashed out at the escaping Dreadnaught. It took Sai and Anna a moment to realize what had happened when the entire city had lost power for a moment, and then a debris field was detected where the ship had been.

  All of the cities were built in other star systems as Tau Ceti Prime was being terraformed, and they had to fly the cities to the rifts and do a rift jump to get them in-system here. So for all intents and purposes, the cities were m
ammoth spaceships.

  Vash knew that if the carrier had escaped, they would bring the rest of the Pacification Fleet possibly before we could get our own fleet here for defense while we rebuilt the system facilities. The city has no defenses except small armament against small craft trying to land, so what my girlfriend did, was to project the gravity well used to bump the city to sub-light speeds.

  She had targeted the artificial microscopic black hole at the position of the dreadnaught. It took only an instant to implode its power core. It was an old tactic used by the first of the rift jumpers when we had run across one of the two other intelligent alien races discovered in their exploration. Weapons were useless against the more violent of the two races, the Unwelcome Ones, or Scourge, who had some sort of holy mission to purge the galaxy of all other intelligent life.

  Captain Aiden Barret of the Rift Jumper Skimmer, the North Star, Old Earth's greatest hero, found that gravity was the one weakness in the Scourge defenses and so had used this tactic on the enemy vessels while sending the others through the rift to warn Earth.

  Somebody knows her history.

  It was a little chilling knowing how efficiently she had taken the lives of the people on the carrier. Sai had shrugged and said matter of factly as she rubbed her chin on my shoulder and explained, “She was a bit upset that they had almost killed you and Glitch at the time.” Was it wrong that I wanted to scratch the assassin between her ears?

  When they finally let me in on the debriefings and aftermath, I learned of the fate of the other cities. And I understood why my ranger seemed distracted whenever I spoke with her. They had fitted relays in all the data cores, and Vash was controlling the systems on all of them until they could replace the core processors with some of the cores Prime was manufacturing for our Dark Fleet. That was the only way to be sure there was no malicious circuitry built into them. It was going to be a few months before I got my girl back.