Angel's Feather (Flyer Chronicles, Book One)

by Alina Popescu

  “Okay, now that we got that settled, set the course I’ve given you and let’s get going before someone comes looking.”

  I grabbed some food and made a sandwich. Not exactly the space food we were supposed to carry around. We hadn’t managed to have a proper food dispenser working on time, so whatever supplies we’d found had to do. The perishables had to be eaten before we touched anything from the refueling station. At least the artificial gravity systems were working.

  I retired to my quarters to eat in peace. Unfortunately for me, the further we got from Earth, the more they felt like challenging me. It was a game they were never going to win. Yet they kept playing it because it made them feel better about themselves.

  Or maybe, on some primal level, they knew they shouldn’t trust me. Too bad no one in the Freedom Alliance would listen to their gut feeling when they could be out here with me, flying from one star to another. The chance of escaping Earth was enough to dull their common sense and survival instincts.

  We were now heading for Gamma 5. The course I’d set ended in sub-space, leaving us hovering in the middle of the route. I hadn’t decided where to drop us yet, and I’d need a little time to think this through. We had to do it far enough from the meeting point that we wouldn’t get detected.

  Once we dropped, I’d have to make up some story about why we were cloaking ourselves. Oh, well, I still had a couple of days to think of something. Until then, I could go over my speech. Enjoy my food. Maybe even rest.

  “Adam, come to the storage room please.”

  Victor’s voice sounded weird over the intercom. We hadn’t had time to properly tune it, so we all sounded like sickly robots when we used the comms. It didn’t matter though, I’d reaped enough benefits off the imperfect system.

  “Coming.”

  I pushed myself off the bed, dusting off the bread crumbs that had fallen over my shirt. The storage room was an unusual place to meet. Maybe they would space me and try to make it on their own, who knew?

  Our supplies were strapped safely to the walls of the storage space. There was a large container in the middle of the room, thick and unmoving. It held most of our fuel and you had to squeeze between it and the luggage on the sides to make your way around the minuscule hangar.

  “We have a problem,” Victor said, Tom and David flanking him.

  I assumed Mark was left to man the deck, but my senses were still on high alert. I didn’t like this one bit, being in a dark corner of the ship with all of them.

  I took a deep breath, closing my eyes on the inhale, and opening them as I exhaled. I hoped it looked like I was readying to deal with our troubles. I was in fact trying to quell the fear coursing through me. What if I didn’t make it? I’d allowed myself to dream about what happened after I escaped Earth after leaving our solar system. Maybe that had been a wrong move.

  “What is it?” I sounded weary even to my own ears. I hadn’t really slept. Not with their challenges and questions, and my own plans keeping me in a feverish state, somewhere between sleep and being awake.

  “You alright, kid?” Tom asked, his brows furrowed. “Hope you’re not coming down with something.”

  His concern calmed my rambling thoughts. They knew they needed me. I was safe for the most part. “Fine, just tired.”

  They all nodded. Of course they did, the dark circles under everyone’s eyes mirrored my state. Freedom sure was stressful and exhausting, wasn’t it? Besides, we weren’t free to roam the dark expanses of the Universe. We had to slink into the shadows, choose wisely, and hide our tracks.

  At times I felt I’d planned ahead a lot further than the Freedom Alliance ever had. All they wanted was to take a ship, fly it off Earth, and then? Then nothing. They hadn’t thought it through because they’d never expected to succeed.

  I knew from what Michael had fed into my brain that Earth’s situation was re-evaluated every year. Had we not attempted to break the rules, the ban on space flights would have been lifted a long time ago. The leading races in the Universe had hoped we’d take the time to reconsider our ways. Heal ourselves, heal our planet, then be welcome back with open arms.

  Instead, we insisted on trying our best to defy everyone. Silly, if you thought about it. This little scheme we’d pulled through with us flying into space? This wouldn’t look good at the next evaluation.

  “So, like I said, we have a problem,” Victor said.

  I nodded, wiping off beads of sweat from my forehead. Man, it was hot in here!

  “The engine room is too hot. We’re trying to cool it down, but our systems aren’t doing enough.” Victor looked sad, just like everyone else did.

  “Worst case scenario?” Unless we were going to go boom en route to our destination, this was manageable.

  “We blow up.” Tom shrugged and leaned against the supply padded wall.

  I sighed and rolled my eyes. “Figured as much. In what conditions?”

  Victor scratched his head and looked at David who nodded, the movement unsure. “In sub-space, we can’t fly for more than five days at a time. We have to drop out and use sub-light until we cool down enough for another flight.”

  I bit the inside of my cheek until I tasted blood. It wouldn’t do if I started cheering like a crazy person right now. I nodded and crossed my arms over my chest and looked down. This was too good. It worked so perfectly into my plan, I thought it might be a trap.

  “Tom, how long until we reach the coordinates I gave you?”

  Tom tilted his head, his eyes on the ceiling. “A day and a half, maybe two.”

  “And we’ve been in sub-space for about two days, right?”

  Tom nodded. “Yup, that’s about it.”

  “Okay. I was thinking to set another course through sub-space when we arrived.”

  It didn’t matter how long it had been since I’d started lying with such ease. It still surprised me I could do it. What baffled me more was that no one was catching on.

  “So drop out of sub-space when we arrive?” Tom asked, pulling me out of my sudden introspection.

  “Yes.” I sighed and rubbed my forehead. “Cloak us the moment we hit the coordinates and drop out. I’ll try to think of a sub-light path to the nearest refuel point. If we found an unmanned one with a repair station attached to it, we can replace our cooling systems, at least for the engine room.”

  “And if we don’t find what we need?” David asked.

  I shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. Our destination is close by.”

  “Our destination?” Tom’s voice thundered. “Where are you taking us, kid?” He took a few steps closer, towering over me. “And no more bullshitting us.”

  I looked up into his eyes. “Back off.”

  He growled and wouldn’t budge until Victor pulled him back.

  “Right. I have a place in mind. It’s a colony. Mostly Earthlings.”

  Their jaws dropped almost at the same time.

  “What are you blabbing on about? There aren’t any humans anywhere but Earth,” Tom said, snorting.

  I sighed and grinned. “Of course you’d think that. There are. All of them in Gamma 5. It’s why we are here in the first place. We’ll have to infiltrate. Find out if there are any dissidents. If there are, they are the most likely to help us.”

  Tom in particular looked unconvinced. The others weren’t sure, but wanted to believe there were humans somewhere in the Universe that could shield us from the flyers’ punishment and help us free Earth.

  Once again, I was giving them hope when there was none. There was such a colony in Gamma 5, even if that wasn’t where I was going. But their humanity had nothing to do with their morals. They didn’t share our values or our need to rebel against the other species who’d banished us. They lived in peace with the other races, they weren’t mistreated for being human, there was no point in putting themselves in danger for some runaways on the sole basis of sharing some long-forgotten heritage. They’d turn us in the moment we stepped on their land.

/>   They’d been lucky to not be on Earth or close to it when we fell. They were all diplomats, scientists, and artists. Most of them had never stepped foot on Earth, being born elsewhere. Because of their standing with one race or another, they’d asked for one thing when our entire race was sentenced: that their exile wouldn’t be on Earth. They’d been granted their request, and apart form a few no-flight decades that they’d complied with willingly, they had little restrictions to what they could or couldn’t do.

  “Does this place really exist?” David asked.

  “Yes, it does. It might not be too friendly, though. We’ll have to be very careful.”

  David sighed and propped his hands on his hips. “Why didn’t you tell us?”

  I rolled my eyes and stepped closer to them. “Because I don’t want us to rush to our doom. We don’t know how these humans think. They’ve not seen Earth in generations. They might have been brainwashed with propaganda. They might not even know Earth still exists.”

  “So how will we get in touch with them?” Tom asked.

  “Already have. I used what knowledge I had to contact those most likely to be sympathetic to our cause.”

  They looked like they didn’t know what to do. Punch me into oblivion? Hug me and cry with happiness? Pray for their souls, wait to be killed?

  “Did you give them our location?” Tom growled.

  “I am not stupid, Tom. Of course I didn’t. I set up a meeting. I requested a ship and a transport pod at a safe distance from said ship.”

  Tom hissed and clenched his fists. “One of these days, kid. One of these days you’ll regret keeping us in the dark about everything.”

  “Are you planning on killing me, Tom?” I smirked, knowing it would annoy him.

  To my surprise, he laughed. “No, Adam. But you’ll get into trouble and no one will save you. If we don’t know where you drag your sorry ass, we won’t be able to come after you. And we’ll all die.”

  Tom turned his back to me and left the storage room. The others avoided my eyes and pretended to return to their chores.

  There wasn’t anything I could do, so I left. Safely alone in my room, I tried to relax. Were I a real part of this group, they would have been right. I wasn’t though. They were mere tools in getting me what I wanted.

  WE SWITCHED TO INVISIBLE mode the moment we exited our sub-space route. All our systems were on high alert and the five of us were all on edge. Would the cloaking keep us hidden? Had we been detected already by the ships near us? We stood there, stuck to our stations, waiting for the on-board computer to signal weapons trained on us. Our scanners showed nothing nearby, which wasn’t all that surprising to me. I had set course far enough that we wouldn’t be spotted the moment we dropped into normal space. We were still hours away from my destination.

  I approached Tom who was on piloting duties that day and gave him coordinates to follow. They’d bring us to the Gamma 5 location I’d given for our meeting. I wasn’t too worried about how many ships they’d come with. I wasn’t naïve enough to think they had indeed stopped at only one. Once I made it there, on board the one I’d requested, it wouldn’t matter anymore.

  “Coast seems clear,” Tom said, an unsure smile twisting his lips.

  The others grunted or nodded their replies. I stood to the side, looking out into the endless night. A little pang of guilt tugged at my heart, but I dismissed it. Given half the chance, these bastards would have killed me. And were they to convince others to support them, Tom and Mark would probably stab each other in the back for the leadership.

  I wondered what would happen on Earth now. With a ship launched into space, would they focus on what was important? Or would they all become like sailors’ wives of old, spending their days looking at the skies and waiting for the few who’d left to return?

  I sat on my chair, set to the left of the main control board, on deck, yet off at the same time. I liked it there, I had a clear view outside, and now that we were close enough to Gamma 5’s main solar system, Trivis, there were celestial bodies close enough for us to see.

  No one spoke to me. They rarely did unless they needed something. That was what I meant to them, a useful tool myself, talking them safely through the sinews of deep space. I’d never been one of them, not even after helping them build their ship. At least they weren’t clueless to the end.

  “Ship ahead,” Mark warned, his eyes glued to the scanner’s display.

  I rose from my chair and went to stand beside him, watching the sketch on the screen. I compared it to memories from what Michael had fed into my mind, and determined it was probably a standard dropship. Not too fancy weaponry, but enough to obliterate us. Slightly larger than our own, this ship was not a botched job of sewing together scraps. If they spotted us, the disadvantage put us somewhere at the bottom of a chasm.

  “Are these the people you contacted?” Tom asked, an eyebrow raised.

  “I don’t read minds, Tom. Probably.”

  “How do we know?” Mark chimed in.

  “Check the scanner again. Is there a transport shuttle five miles or so away from the ship?”

  Mark returned to his display and located a small dot to the dropship’s right. The small shuttle was shielded between the dropship and Trivis’ fourth planet from the system’s sun, Sauris. The dropship itself hovered in between the planet and its largest of two moons. Following approximately the same line, our ship was hovering a few miles further to their right, the planet at our back

  “How do we get to the shuttle?”

  I turned to Tom and smiled. “We are not. I am.”

  “Not going to happen, kid.”

  “Yes, it will. I am valuable enough to you, and I will be valuable enough to them so that I’m not killed on the spot.”

  “Why would they care about any value you have?” Mark asked, slightly less combative than Tom.

  “Because I know where you lot are.”

  “This is not right,” Tom insisted, looking at Mark for support.

  “This is the only way. I have a guarantee you wouldn’t leave me behind. You don’t. We can manage without anyone but me.” I shrugged, knowing I was stating the obvious.

  “And you would, wouldn’t you?” Tom snarled.

  I smiled, trying to put some feeling into it. “If everyone else’s safety depended on it, I might just.”

  “But you expect us not to do the same?” Tom took a step closer to me, baring his teeth like a wild animal.

  “What would you do after that?” I tilted my head and stared up at him. “What chance do you have without me? Better yet, what do you know of these people so that you could talk to them, negotiate?”

  Tom grunted and stepped back. He nodded, but wouldn’t look at me or say anything. He always hated it when I was right and he couldn’t contradict me any further.

  OUR SPACE SUITS were a joke. Old, dirty beyond washing, and most likely unsafe. They’d do though. They were equipped with a lightweight oxygen tank and a small propulsion system. I doubted they’d been tested over a distance that was a few miles long in recent years. But that was all I needed to do, get to the shuttle. If I managed that, I’d be safe.

  The others walked me to the entrance of the small chamber separating the side exit trap from the rest of the ship. I stepped in without looking back and waited for the doors to shut behind me. Red lights blinked, signaling that the atmosphere was being drained from the chamber. We had no fancy vocal warnings. But this sufficed.

  I tapped the trap door’s control panel with my large gloved fingers and entered the string of commands to unlock and open it. When it slid open and black night faced me, my heart sped up. I’d never been in space, I’d never been prepared for it, and suddenly the idea of being surrounded by endless nothingness overwhelmed me. What would it be like to die here? Drifting through space, waiting to suffocate when the oxygen ran out?

  I shook off my dark thoughts, pushing myself out of the ship and gripping the propulsion controls secured to the f
ront of my suit. I pressed the power button and was jerked forward, the move more controlled than I’d expected. Still, it was enough to make me want to throw up.

  The moment I made it to a few meters away from the ship, I’d no longer be shielded by their cloaking mechanisms. It wouldn’t matter though. I was too small, and my energy print just as tiny to be caught up on their scanners unless they knew where to look. They’d detect me the moment I reached the shuttle.

  The small transporter came into view the closer I got to it. It probably would have had trouble holding more than five people. They were smart. They couldn’t possibly know how many of us had left Earth, and how many were heading toward the shuttle.

  When I reached it, I wondered how to open it. A simple touch to the exterior panel caused the door to slide open. I took a deep breath and stepped inside.

  It was tiny and cramped, just how I’d guessed. A pilot seat and three more chairs for passengers. I wondered, were they limiting the scale of an assault, or had they believed me when I’d said I’d come alone?

  Lights flashed and a disembodied, foreign sounding voice announced breathable atmosphere had been restored.

  The suit felt more constricting now that I knew I could breathe without it. I took the helmet off, considering whether it was smart far too late. If the air had been poisoned… I’d already be done for.

  I removed the rest of the suit and sat in the pilot seat. Commands and the voice from earlier came alive. “Automatic course set for flyer dropship, class B, identification XTY 200345. Press ‘Auto’ to confirm or change course.”

  Surprised by the freedom of movement afforded to me, I chuckled. Of course they would give me a sense of control. If I went a different way, they could either take control of the shuttle, or track it. Win-win, no matter what I did.

  I chose the pre-set course and leaned back. In no time, the shuttle was docked on the side of the dropship. I stood and approached the door I’d entered earlier. “Breathable atmosphere outside the shuttle. Gravity appropriate for form of life in transport.”