Shipborn
Page 3
trying to stick to the shadows. She flew along, letting the lack of
friction carry her silently through the vessel. It was so simple. Wasn’t
like swimming. It was like flying. Erryn knew how to fly.
She flew, like the Kolheim, down the void-black halls. They were
empty. No sign of any Pegg…or Barry.
Erryn glanced into a room. Empty bunks. A scream rang out.
The engine room.
Erryn arrived as a spurt of blood sailed into the air. The two Pegg
glanced towards her, withdrawing their daggers from the flesh of
Erryn’s crewmate. She opened fire. The one Pegg died as the bullet
fractured its thin diaphragm. The other was luckier, as the bullet missed and hit Erryn’s already dead comrade. The Pegg was
bouncing around the room, looking like some sort of grotesque toy.
Erryn didn’t fire, she steadied herself on the railing and waited.
From side to side, up, down, a blur. Then towards her. She fired.
The melon popped.
As much as it pained her, she needed to defile her comrade’s
corpse to find a new weapon. Pockets empty. No gun in sight. She
caught a glance of the corpse’s face. Valaya. She was a part of the
emergency response staff. Erryn was saddened, but this was no time
for mourning.
Without a better alternative, Erryn unclipped Valaya’s hydraulic
hammer-fist from her waist. The tool was used for repairing dents,
knocking out shrapnel or placing industrial sized nails. It wasn’t a
weapon, but it would have to do.
Erryn had used such a tool before. She put it on and clenched
her fist over the control. She then pressed the button with her
thumb. With a thump, the device flung forward a hunk of flat metal.
She let go and it slid back into position. It would do.
She continued to the engine room.
Blood was splattered across the walls and floors. A few corpses
bobbed around the expanse.
Where are you, Barry? Erryn gritted her teeth, pulling herself along the railing, pushing a corpse out the way, not bearing to look at its
face. At the end of the hal , a man whizzed past the opening, a Pegg
soon after him. Erryn surged forward.
A melee was before her, as crewmates grappled with Pegg
corsairs. A Pegg without a fight partner charged towards her. She
ended it with a right-hook. The blow left a dent in the bloated head
that started to ooze pinkish blood.
Erryn grappled a nearby Pegg, allowing her crewmate to end it
with a screwdriver.
‘So much for the unassailable Pegg pirate,’ the crewmate gloated,
panting.
‘They’ve taken most of the ship, Kyan.’
‘Oh, Erryn. I’m sorry. What’s our status?’
‘Barry’s MIA. Gravity and life support knocked out, but you
know that.’
‘The boss lady?’
‘Comatose, thank vokken Terra.’
None of them heard it, and there was no thud, as their other
crewmate fell to a thrown blade. Erryn only turned with barely
enough time to parry the chain-spear with her hammer-fist.
‘We need the grav back!’ Erryn shouted, trying to close the gap
with the more skilled anti-gravity fighter.
‘Roger!’
Kyan jumped to it, to no avail due to the lack of gravity, and then
began pulling himself towards the gravity generator.
The chain-spear was thrown again. Erryn rolled to the side and
caught the chain with the hammer-fist. She pulled on it. The Pegg
let go and charged, drawing a curved dagger.
Superior anti-gravity fighter, but not the superior fighter. Erryn
caught the creature’s knife-arm and twisted it. She locked its legs
behind hers and then kicked off into the wall. The collision dazed
it. Erryn used the chance and brought the now disentangled
hammer-fist to its face, and pummelled it. Small razor teeth mingled
with pinkish cloying blood and saliva in the aftermath.
Erryn turned. Kyan had not made much headway to the gravity
control and more Pegg were incoming.
‘Watch out!’
A chain-spear heading straight into Kyan stopped as Erryn
hurled it off course with a thrown maintenance box. She kicked off
and caught the chain, pulling its owner into her fist. His cranium
caved in.
‘Status, Kyan?’
‘Busy. They’ve fried it. Going to need to replace some of the
fuselage.’
‘ET?’
‘Five, ten max.’
‘Skite.’
Erryn used the same box from before to parry another chain-
spear. As she lowered the box, the disgusting visage of a Pegg met
her on the other side. She kicked it. It dodged, somersaulting over
her, leaving a bloody streak cut into her cheek.
‘Kyan!’
Too late. The Pegg skewered the techie before he could even
light his soldering iron.
‘Vokken Pegg!’
The Pegg replied in its guttural, yet sing-song tongue and
indicated for Erryn to charge it. She didn’t comply. She lifted a
floating dagger from a dead Pegg and planted it in its living
brethren’s noggin.
No more taunts.
‘Skiting Kyan. Vok!’
Her friend floated in globs of blood. The human red was mixing
with the pale-pink.
‘Vok,’ Erryn swore again, shaking her head.
She turned to Kyan’s work. She lit his soldering iron and began
replacing the burnt-out wires that he had already pulled out.
A bump. Corpses moving in the corner of her eye. She jumped,
retrieved dagger ready to throw.
‘Woah!’
It was Barry.
‘Vokken Terra, Barry! How…’
‘They bit off more than they could chew, even with that
mouthful of fangs. You underestimating me again?’
‘Never again,’ Erryn smiled. ‘Give me the details.’
‘They tranked me. Possibly wanted me fresh for eating or slavery.
But woke up early. My caffeine addiction paid off. Ambushed them
and then made my way here.’
‘And thank vokken Terra for that, eh…I’ve repaired the fuselage,
but grav’s still out.’
‘Control’s in the cockpit,’ Barry frowned.
‘Once more unto the breach?’
‘Unfortunately. Grab a spear.’
The spears came in handy. Unaware Pegg were skewered with
ease as they rummaged through their victims’ belongings. When
they were outnumbered, Erryn and Barry were able to drift past,
silent. They arrived at the cockpit door and pulled themselves in.
With a start, a Pegg wearing a human frigate captain’s peaked cap
turned, he held Madias in his stringy arms, a knife to her throat.
Erryn laughed. The Pegg looked dubious. Laughing was similar
to both species, and they both knew it. He tightened his grip and
brought the knife closer. He chattered in his guttural, sing-song
tongue.
Erryn ignored him, smiling. She moved off to the side, ignoring
the hostage scenario.
‘Button’s here?’
Barry nodded.
She turned to the Pegg, who was making slicing motions and
pointing menacingly with his dagger. She waved and then pressed
the button.
Madias and the Pegg fell with an oomph.
The big-headed runt dropped his knife. Barry caught it. The Pegg
tried to stand, but the gravity so soothing to humans was death to a
Pegg.
Wails were heard around the vessel. Gunshots followed. Cheers
afterwards.
Erryn moved to the prone and sobbing figure. Barry turned on
the lights. It wasn’t so scary now. Pallid grey skin. Eyes too big for
the light. Its razor teeth were not so menacing with the bright lights
on.
‘This is what killed my parents?’
Erryn raised her eyebrow, hands on her sides. Barry didn’t
respond, he was too busy getting the controls back online and
coordinating the clean-up. Holes needed patching.
‘Not even worth the effort.’
Erryn turned and took her seat. Some of the noodles had
somehow landed back in the bowl. She finished them off.
‘Um, pilot…Erryn.’
‘Yes, Gabs?’
Madias winced, but held back.
‘Thank you.’
‘Don’t mention it. This’s what Kolheim does.’
‘Holes’re patched, Captain,’ a voice over the intercom sounded.
He was referring to Barry. There was no pretense now.
‘You heard him, pilot. Let’s shake ‘em off before they get wiser.’
‘Roger, Captain.’
Erryn grinned and strapped her seatbelt.
‘Prepare for turbulence, Kolheim. Clean up’ll have to wait. Take-
off in T-minus-twenty.’
Erryn examined the outside. Skiffs, corvettes, stars beyond. Her
stars.
This was her route, and she wasn’t going to give it up.
The Kolheim’s thrusters purred and then boomed. She burnt off
some of a derelict’s hull and then boosted forward. Groups of skiffs
were hanging on by grappling coils. She used that against them.
Barrel rolling, she used the hangers-on as wrecking balls, smashing
a corvette and other skiffs. The destroyer activated its deflectors,
destroying its friendly skiff in the process. Not good enough. The
impact weakened the deflectors and the next skiff pierced the hull.
‘Why were we scared of these guys?’
Barry shrugged, ignoring the blood on the walls.
Skiff and corvette fell to their own brethren. Eventually, the coils
loosened and the wrecks were allowed to float away, joining the
labyrinthian graveyard.
‘All clear for jump,’ Erryn announced. ‘Warp drive ready?’
‘Ready,’ a technician announced.
‘Next stop, Nova Zarxa.’
Obzi Terrace blurred and blackened. Only the void was left, void
and the Kolheim barrelling through it.
Erryn wouldn’t have it any other way.
Dear reader,
I hope you enjoyed Shipborn. If you want to read more about
Erryn, then you definitely need to check out Shadow, book 1 of
the Warpmancer Series.
You can check it out here.
If you love your sci-fi epic, then you’ll love Warpmancer.
Curses in order of severity
Void – equivalent to hell, a term some humans still use.
Zot – a scaly rodent, insult used to refer to the untrustworthy.
Grako – one who has forgotten the face of their father.
Skite – broad meanings. Typically, a waste product or trash, or a
sign of severity.
Vok – broad meanings. Typically, an adjective to describe the
intolerable.
Vushla – Imperial swearword. Roughly translates to: From all
that is the most vokked up, this is more so.
Glossary
Askaia Prime – a frontier system.
Exanoid – a pig-like alien renowned for its mercantile prowess.
Extos III and the Extos strip – a system of frontier planets at the
outskirts of human and free race dominated space.
Kolheim – an independent freighter specialising in frontier
commodities.
Merka – a genetically modified cousin to the Exanoid, designed
to be better at physical labour and fighting.
Nankei – an ape.
Nova Zarxa – an ice world and capital of Extos III. Known for
its mining of warp crystals.
Obzi Terrace – an abandoned Armada facility.
Pegg – short aliens with big heads and razor-sharp teeth. They
excel at piracy due to their adeptness at anti-gravity combat.
Squogg – naturally rotund, always masked aliens known for their
aggression against humans.
Stardust – a brand of rum.
Armada – the naval branch of the Troopers.
Titan Corporation – a human megacorporation branching into
many different industries.
Troopers – a human military organisation that governs Mars and
provides defence for other human worlds around the galaxy.
Xank – an alien empire currently harrying the human frontier.
Zerian Corporation – a human megacorporation, known for
their mass-produced firearms.
Warp – a form of energy used to power space travel.
Route 103 – a stretch of deep space providing a safe warp jump
path for travel to the Extos strip.