by G J Ogden
Despite the tense situation, Maria couldn't help but laugh and smile. “You must have hit your head harder than I thought!” she teased.
Kurren's voice boomed out of the darkness. “Hey, you two, I'm glad you’re having a nice time, but how about you save the chit-chat until I'm somewhere with less chance of being brutally murdered?”
Ethan snuck another look at Maria and saw that she had returned to surveying the room, but was still smiling. Perhaps it was the drugs she’d given him, but he actually felt good.
He looked around. The hangar was dark and cold and seemed as lifeless as the eyes of the Roamers that had assaulted the settlement. It was strangely calming and Ethan found his mind wandering. His thoughts strayed to Elijah and Katie, and his good mood ebbed away. He knew both were safely barricaded in the bakery during the attack and he knew that the Rangers had managed to kill the last of the Roamers, but still he worried. He felt bad for not thinking about them at the time and for making sure they knew where he had gone, and during the journey to the space port he had reflected on his choice to come with Maria and Kurren, and was having doubts. Only the knowledge that Maria would die without his help kept him from backing out. But still, he had chosen saving the life of a near-stranger over protecting the lives of his own family, and this troubled him deeply. He knew it was selfish, and he didn't consider himself to be a selfish person. After all, he’d chosen to be a Ranger, and to put his life in harm’s way for the sake of others. What could be more selfless than that? he thought. But despite being uncomfortable with his choices, he did not regret them. The thought of abandoning Maria to her death made him feel physically sick. No matter what was the rational course of action, he knew he couldn't just walk away. But it was more than just noble sentiment that was driving his decision; he cared for her and, perhaps, it even ran deeper than that.
After what had happened between him and Summer, Ethan had learned to box away his personal feelings. It was easier that way, certainly when it came to Summer, because boxing his feelings also meant closing off his guilt and shame over their brief relationship. It was easier if she was just a friend, a colleague. But he did not want to box his feelings for Maria, despite the parallels with Summer. Maria made him feel good about himself, excited and free, yet at the same time also guilty because these feelings had turned his attention away from his sister and nephew. Was love so limited, he wondered? Could you not care deeply for a person without it stealing love away from someone else? And what of Summer, still lying unconscious in the back of the transport? In his concussed, confused condition at the time, it had made sense to bring her, to make sure she wasn't left to the Roamers. But now he wished he had left her behind in the settlement. Summer also mattered to Ethan, and as she lay prone and helpless in the mud, bleeding from the impact of the door, he had realised just how much she meant to him. Summer had always been stronger than him, and so she had never needed his protection, and he had never needed to worry about her, until that moment. In hindsight, she would have been better off on her own. Maybe him leaving was good for her, Ethan considered. Perhaps it would allow her to bond with someone else, and maybe even fall in love.
The more immediate question was what to do with her now. He couldn't leave her in the spaceport, days travel from the settlement, alone and without proper provisions, but she wouldn't come willingly to wherever it was he was going. Into space? he wondered. That seemed absurd to him now. But regardless of the destination, if it involved Ethan going with Maria and Kurren then Summer would fight and do everything in her power to prevent it, even if that meant killing Maria and Kurren, and perhaps even wounding Ethan. Or she'd get killed while trying. Neither option was good, neither choice acceptable.
A low hum followed by a deep, throbbing vibration through the floor, powerful enough to shake the transport, roused him from his daydreams. The lights above them flicked on and Ethan had to shield his eyes from the sudden, intense brightness. As his eyes adjusted, he saw Kurren running back towards them.
“Okay, power is back on, so let’s get on the other side of the pod door, before any visitors arrive,” said Kurren, slightly out of breath.
Maria jumped over the side of the transport and helped Kurren to lift Summer down. Then both together, an arm slung over a shoulder each, they dragged Summer across the floor and over the threshold of the hangar door. Ethan followed, still feeling a little woolly-headed. When they were all through, Kurren went back for the transport, drove it just across the threshold and then jumped out to close the door, all the time keeping a steady eye out for any movement outside. After what felt like an eternity, the door finally thudded into the metal decking with a force that could be felt through the air itself.
“Okay!” Kurren said, chirpily. “No crazy people are getting in here, that's for damn certain. Well, apart from the ones that are already in here, that is.” He chuckled at his own joke, but neither Ethan nor Maria appeared amused.
“You're sure there's nothing else in here with us?” Maria asked, calmly, but with a seriousness that made Kurren’s response equally earnest.
“Aside from maybe a few rats, there's nothing here but us, Sal,” Kurren said, confidently. “Relax, we're on the home stretch.”
“I'll relax when we've reached orbit,” Maria replied.
“Where’s this ‘orbit’?” Ethan asked, unable to disguise his obvious concern.
Kurren laughed. “You'll see, kid,” he said, and winked. This did not help to put Ethan's mind at ease.
They moved down a long corridor that lead to the hangar pod and laid Summer down on a dusty couch in a room off to the side that was filled with equipment, none of which appeared to be working. Ethan smoothed the hair away from Summer’s face and looked at her. She looked peaceful.
“What happens to her now?” he asked without looking up from her face. “How do we get her home?”
Kurren and Maria looked at each other, unsure of whom Ethan was addressing, but Maria’s look told Kurren that he should do the explaining. “We send her back in the transport,” said Kurren, as if it was obvious.
Ethan looked over his shoulder at him, eyebrow cocked. “She can’t control that thing,” he said.
“She doesn’t have to, it can drive itself,” said Kurren. “I can just set it to go back to the settlement, back to where it started. Strap her in, and she’ll be home in no time.”
“What if Roamers try to stop it on route?” asked Ethan, sounding wary of this plan. “What if it meets some kind of... I don’t know... obstacle?”
Maria stepped forward now. “Don’t worry, Ethan,” she said. “Kurren knows what he’s doing. We can make sure it gets back without incident, I promise.”
Maria’s assurance helped, though Ethan was still distrustful of the contraption that had brought them here. It appeared to be the only way, though. “Can we set her off, before we leave?” he asked, standing back up and facing Maria. “So I know she’s safe. I need to know she’s safe, before I go with you.”
Kurren looked over at Summer and rubbed his chin, thoughtfully. “We’ll have to keep her sedated,” he said, “because I doubt she’d go back willingly, at least not without you.” Ethan agreed with that assessment. “I can track the transport’s transponder from here, so we’ll know when it’s back,” Kurren added.
Maria smiled. “It’ll be okay, really.”
“Okay,” agreed Ethan. “So let’s do it now; let’s get her home.”
Kurren dumped his gear and jacket in the side room and then they all left with Summer still unconscious on the couch. Kurren went back down the corridor to the transport to begin making the modifications needed to auto-control it back to the settlement, while Ethan went with Maria, at her request, to help prepare the ship, by loading supplies and generally just doing what she asked him to do. The UEC ship loomed large in the middle of the hangar, and as they approached it Ethan began to wonder how such an enormous object could possibly get airborne.
Maria and Kurren set to wo
rk, chatting to each other using some sort of voice relay that Maria called a ‘comm’, using words that Ethan did not understand. He tried to keep busy by packing the remaining provisions, and scouting the hangar for anything else potentially useful, although he had no idea what was useful and what was not when it came to space travel. Eventually, Maria got out of the ship and asked Ethan to stand back against the wall with her. She manipulated some controls on a panel nearby and then Ethan watched in quiet astonishment as huge metal arms swung down from above them and manoeuvred the UEC ship into the centre of the hangar, as if it weighed no more than a small child. Part of the decking then rose up and attached to the sides of the ship, before the entire floor opened beneath it, tilting the ship upwards. A hatch then hissed open, slowly, and Ethan guessed that was how they would get in. The noise that accompanied all this was near deafening and Ethan imagined that if the Roamers didn't know they were here before, they certainly would now. Hopefully the doors at the entry point to the launch pod were as solid as they looked.
“Don't worry, this is perfectly safe,” said Maria, smiling at Ethan. She was amused by his look of boyish wonder. “It's going to be one hell of a ride, though.”
“This whole experience so far has been one hell of a ride,” Ethan replied, honestly. Kurren appeared from across the other side of the hangar and attached a couple of large tubes to the rear section of the vessel, and then proceeded to check a nearby console that was blinking and flashing, with lines of text scrolling along a brightly illuminated screen. “It all seems so unreal.” Ethan mused, out loud.
“You ain't seen nothing yet, kid,” Kurren said, grinning down at the console. He was then quiet for a few moments as he concentrated on the text as it floated past. “We're pretty much done here, Sal,” he eventually added, more loudly and more seriously. “Everything checks out, and it has enough power to reach the base. Air might be a little stale, but it's breathable.”
Maria nodded. “Okay then, let's go.”
“You... are going... nowhere.”
They all turned around to see Summer standing in the doorway of the side room. She was holding a weapon, one of the smaller guns that Kurren and Maria wore. Ethan looked at Maria and saw the glint of a pistol’s metal grip inside her jacket pocket, but Maria was looking over at Kurren, who had his hand where his weapon should be. His face told the story.
“The jacket,” Maria said quietly, so that only Ethan could hear. “He left his jacket in the room.”
Ethan understood. The weapon was not a relic, but fully working, and loaded. Ethan looked back towards Summer. She was aiming the weapon at Maria, her finger clasped around the trigger. Ethan began to panic. “Summer, wait...” he began, but he was sharply cut off.
“No, Ethan!” she shouted back at him. “This has gone far enough. You're coming back with me, or I kill her, right here, right now!” Her voice became more intense as she completed the sentence, and her grip on the weapon tightened. Maria looked scared. Ethan tried to fight the fear swelling in his gut, and tried to think. He looked at Summer, helplessly. “I won't ask again, Ethan!” she said, fiercely. “Either you come with me, or she dies. The soldier can go back to where he came from in that... thing... for all I care. But if you want her to leave here still breathing then you stay.”
Ethan started to walk towards her, but only managed two small steps before Summer fired the weapon. Ethan's heart stopped. He looked back at Maria, desperately hoping she wasn't hit. She was still standing, but her expression showed pure terror. Summer had aimed the weapon off to her side, but not by much, and not with any aptitude. She was too full of anger and adrenalin; missing was as much luck as judgement.
Summer stepped two paces forward, her arm outstretched and rigid with tension, pointing the weapon directly at Maria. Her eyes flashed with malice. “I saw enough of the soldier over there to know how to use this, Ethan,” she warned. “It's just like shooting a bow, really, and you know how well I shoot a bow, don't you? So do as I say, or the next one goes in her pretty head.”
Ethan stood, numb, not knowing what to do or what to say. Summer had killed Roamers before, so she was not squeamish. But murder? Would she kill Maria if she was pushed to it? Ordinarily, no, he reasoned, but Summer had gone past her tipping point, and exhaustion, anger and fear had taken over.
“What's it to be Ethan?” Summer started again, “your family and your home, or her?” and then she practically screamed at him, “WHAT’S IT GOING TO BE?”
Not knowing what else to do, Ethan instinctively stepped in front of Maria, his heart racing and head pounding, placing himself between her and the outstretched arm of Summer, still clasping the weapon with deadly intent. Summer did not adjust her aim, though her expression betrayed a wavering of her resolve. She did not want to shoot Ethan, but she had committed to this course of action and to back down would mean letting him leave with Maria and Kurren. She would not allow that.
“Summer, please put the weapon down,” Ethan said as calmly as he could manage, but with strain breaking his voice. “Look, you win, I'll stay. I'll stay, Summer. But only if you put the weapon down and let them leave.”
Summer was not so easily placated. “No, Ethan. I don't drop this weapon until they are in that thing, and you are well away from her. Only then.”
Ethan again tried to take a pace forward, but Summer adjusted her aim to his right and squeezed the trigger. The shot rang out and again Ethan froze in terror as he heard the speeding projectile ricochet off the metal decking behind them. The sound was like a bell ringing, loud and clear, signalling danger.
Tears began to trickle down Summer's face, tracing a chaotic course over her cheeks to the corners of her mouth. She was fighting to remain composed, but the pressure was intensifying. She had backed them both into a corner and there was no return. Either Ethan would give in, or someone would die.
“I will do it, Ethan!” urged Summer, fighting back her emotion. The weapon in her hand quivered but remained pointed at him, the barrel oozing smoke like blood seeping from an open wound.
As this was occurring, Kurren, had, unnoticed by any of the others, quietly entered a sequence of new commands at his control console. All of Summer's attention had been focused on Ethan and Maria, and likewise their focus was purely on Summer and the outstretched, smoking weapon. Kurren hit a final sequence of keys, careful to keep his actions unseen by the others. The words, 'Fire Suppression Override' flashed up on the screen. Glancing up briefly to make sure he was still unobserved, he took a deep intake of breath, held it, and hit another button on the console. There was a sudden, violent rush of sound from vents in the decking below them, and the room rapidly filled with a cloudy gas. Summer coughed and gagged, lowering the weapon and instinctively covering her mouth with her free hand, and in that instant, he charged towards her.
Kurren had improvised this plan moments after Summer had arrived, weapon in hand, her intentions clear from the venomous way she had looked at them, and the rigidity of her posture, muscles taut and ready for a fight. He was perhaps seven or eight metres away from Summer and had banked on this distraction giving him sufficient time to close the gap and disarm her. As he advanced, legs and arms pumping with maximum effort, he saw Summer’s head turn towards him and panic spilled into his gut. Still retching and struggling to breath, Summer fought to bring the weapon up, tilting her body and shifting her weight with a nimbleness honed from years of training. Now Summer was focused only on Kurren, her expression a blend of pain, surprise and fear, but her eyes still burning with deadly intent. With less than two metres between them, Kurren realised to his horror that he was not going to make it. A shot pierced the air, clearly audible even over the hiss of the gas. The console where Kurren had initiated his plan exploded, launching splinters of flame and electrical energy into the air and then, fractions of a second later, he piled into Summer with the full force of his momentum, knocking her backwards; the weapon flying from her hand and spiralling into the far corner of the roo
m. Kurren collapsed into a heap, rolling uncontrollably into a stack of containers against the wall, sending some of them bouncing around the hangar. The fire suppression vents closed as quickly as they had opened and pumps began to whir, emptying the gas from the room. There was a momentary, deathly silence, punctuated only by the chaotic sparking of electricity from the console. Then a siren sounded and the lights dimmed. Red lanterns dropped from the overhangs, pulsing in time with the klaxon’s wails, and huge slabs of metal slid down from inside the hangar doors, one of which closed off the corridor and another the side room where Summer had been lying on the couch moments earlier. On them were written three words in bright yellow: LAUNCH BLAST DOORS.
The gas had caused Ethan to collapse to the ground directly where he was standing, with Maria on her knees beside him, both coughing violently. As they began to recover they reached over and helped each other to stand. The pulsing red lights illuminated them for brief moments, casting a blood red sheen over their faces. Maria looked over to the console and saw the tell-tale scorched puncture wound in its metal panel, and the cause was immediately obvious to her.
“Oh no!” Maria said.
Ethan did not hear her. Instead he was looking at where Summer lay on the decking, motionless. “Summer!” he shouted, but there was no response. He struggled to run over, stumbling, falling and getting back to his feet multiple times before he reached her and dropped to his knees at her side. He rubbed his eyes with hands grazed and bloody from all the falls to try to clear his vision as he stared down at her face. She was breathing and semi-conscious, but the wound on her head had re-opened and was weeping blood. “Summer, can you hear me?” Ethan shouted. But his words were drowned out by a deep, mechanical growl, like the guttural noise the transport vehicle had made while bringing them here, but far more powerful and ominous. The sound was coming from the UEC ship.
Maria shouted over to him, “Ethan, something has gone wrong, the launch cycle has activated. We have to get in the ship now, all of us!”
