by Jack Lance
“Trajectory error.” the voice of the navcom said. “Entering Narcosia one orbit.”
The sun stopped its motion and a planet grew to an enormous size in the view.
“Ah shit. I’m rusty.” Arc spat and began to try his best to pull the station's trajectory away from a collision course with the first planet in the solar system.
He was unable to do so, and entered thin atmosphere of the boiling world.
Arc continued to pull on the controls, desperately trying to bring the station out of its fall.
The huge station appeared from the chaotic, marbled sky of the planet, with its arms still spinning around it.
“Probability of structural survival twelve thousand to one.” the navcom said.
“Screw your odds.” Arc said.
The ship flew over a mountain range just before a boiling brown sea. One of the bulbous ends of the spinning arms struck the peak of the mountain tearing it from the rest of the land and sending it hurtling down into the sea. Somehow the impact knocked the station on an ascending course and Arc took it back up and out of orbit.
The fleet of motherships and automated solar defences had filled the space above the planet already, but there was a small gap through them leading to the sun. The whole horizon rotated in the window as Arc took the station past the ships that were slowing into the high orbit. Once clear it accelerated past them and then kicked out toward the star. He continued to tug the station smoothly forward utilizing a relay of gravity rips until the station had reached a close orbit and began to blast its way around the star. The coppery glare of the sun’s flames soaked through everything, although the windows had automatically hued in a series of blinds morphed into the glass.
The rest of the fleet followed close behind as the station swung at dangerous speeds, low around the back of the star. Some in pursuit ignited and exploded being unable to shield against the solar tides and flares that burst all around them. The weather station had some shielding but not enough, and Arc started to feel the heat in the control room.
The weather station made it full circle around the sun and began breaking out of its orbit. The whole structure had been melted and was on fire in several places, but it still had functioning power.
Arc hoped the backspace drive would still be working, and found to his elation that it was.
The backspace tunnel sucked the station into it, and he watched as the other planets slid by in the solar system.
“Entering Narcosia six atmosphere in ten seconds.” the navigational computer read out. “Entering Narcosian atmosphere in five, four…”
Just then the Sheriff leaped onto his back, wrapping its arms and legs around his chest. He looked at it in shock and alarm, seeing that it was some sort of fly or insect like creature. Its jaws were wide and primal, and its many eyes were bulging with an hexagonal patterning.
Arc cried out at seeing it and tipped forward tugging it over his shoulder and slamming it onto the navigational computer. Somehow it pushed the right buttons and the station dropped out of backspace beside the arctic planet.
The men and women on the ship looked up at the weather station and the fires that were billowing out from it. Then the rest of the fleet began to warp in all around it, and Farnon gestured to Dane.
Dane Angell set the auto acquisition of weapons locks and let the huge warship do it’s business.
Highly concentrated bursts of railgun fire spread out from the Indus Lynx cannons at all sides, and one by one the fleet of ships exploded. A wall of fire grew behind the station, and was then sucked down in the pull of gravity toward the atmosphere.
The weather station itself had not completely stopped, and flew rapidly toward the bridge windows. The steeples at the front of the station fed between the pylons at the front of the Indus Lynx, and then the two vessels impacted against one another.
Everyone on the bridge lurched forward as the station slammed into the outer wall.
The two vessels hugged one another momentarily as the station twisted and then fell away in the grip of the gravity well of the moon.
“Oh son of a bitch.” Thom said standing back to his feet, then helping Jayne also.
They watched as the station flew away, slightly catching sight of the scuffle that was taking place on the bridge.
Arc and the Sheriff had been dazed a little by the crash, but not for long, and so Arc took advantage of the Sheriff’s disadvantage. He held it where it lay on the console, and began punching it repeatedly in its hideous face, trying to break its razor sharp jaws.
“You’re under arrest.” it seemed to say as it lay on the console, and grabbed Arc by the arm and chest and picked him up from the floor.
It tipped him upside down and threw him up against the window, slamming him into it as itself rolled from the console. Arc flipped over too and landed rolling from his shoulder on the console then diving down onto the man-machine, that he now clearly saw it was. It was some kind of insect race, that had fused itself into the suit that encased it.
Arc punched at it furiously over again, breaking his skin against the bare metal, and cutting deep as he scraped against its razor sharp mouth.
Arc lost the will to go on, and the Sheriff stood with what looked to be a smile on its alien face. It hadn’t seen how close to the hologram gullies ledge it had been pushed. With a final muster Arc crouched and lunged up, side kicking the Sheriff’s stomach and just pushing it over edge of the floor.
He heard a crumpling as the Sheriff’s body hit the dirty grounds below, and Arc glanced at it just to make sure. It was immobilized but not dead, and lay twitching and groaning at the bottom in a puddle of oil.
Shaking his head, Arc turned and ran back to the consoles, and saw through the windows the Indus Lynx moving further away as the station dropped in the direction of the Narcosia atmosphere.
“Farnon do you read?” Arc said into the microphone. “Please someone, come in.”
“Bailey.” the voice of Randall came over the line. “It is done. The fleet has been destroyed.”
“Teleport me out of here. “ Arc said fearfully as the glow from the fires of the atmosphere began to soak everything.
There was a pause then Randall said “We can’t. I’m sorry Bailey. The station is pretty beat. There’s too much radiation. You need to get away from the station, maybe in a shuttle… I dunno.”
“There aren’t any.” Arc said. “And I’d burn up in the atmosphere anyway.”
The station suddenly toppled around against the bubble of the high atmosphere so that the windows were looking directly down at the planet.
The whole structure around him croaked and groaned, and Arc watched as fingers of lighting fanned over the top of the thinning cloud far below, over the prison domes. He could see now that there were six domes around the citadels in the giant crater.
Arc looked around, a little worried now since there were no ideas forthcoming.
“Bailey?” Randall pressed. “If you can’t get out of there then there’s nothing we can do. I’m sorry.”
“Cloak the ship.” Arc nodded solemnly. “The emergency services will be here soon. They’ll think the ship warped out. Keep it cloaked. If you can get a lock on me, pull me in. If not, wait until it’s over, then jump out.”
“Ok mate.’ Randall said, and the line went dead.
Arc entered commands to the screens, plotting a course to crash the station into the crater. He submitted it then ran from the bridge and teleported down to the docking bay. He ran across the floor as the view from the glowing entrance moved rapidly by. The station was spinning as it plummeted into the orbit of Narcosia, and it would by a matter of minutes before it crashed.
Behind the weather station, the Indus Lynx blurred and then disappeared, rendered invisible against the night sky.
Arc ran toward an airlock tunnel, skidding on the floor as the growing inertia build up outweighed the artificial gravity of the station. He grabbed the upper corners of the corridor and
baby walked along to the space-suit locker. He snatched up one of the upper body suits, pulling the jacket over his arms and then fastening it at the neck. The jets hung from the back and the controls hung over his chest, and since there was no need for a helmet or pants now he stepped into the airlock. The air was roaring by just beyond it and he knew that this could be the part where he’d be knocked unconscious, or worse.
He reached over and entered the command to open the outer airlock door, then grabbed a tight hold of the straps on the inside as the five second counter ran down.
It did and the airlock door snapped aside. Arc held tight as the change in pressure tugged at his body, then it was equal and the pressure eased. He let go of the straps and stepped back two steps to the edge.
Arc jumped back out into the air and hung in front of the opening for a second before the air that wasn’t spinning grabbed his body and tugged him up over.
At first he was out of control and toppled away from the cylindrical wall which he had programmed to spin along the curved side. He flew out, then began to push himself with small bursts from the shoulder jets.
One of the stations giant arms flew by a hundred meters away to the side. The cloud and ground were becoming clearer now, and he knew that time was shortening.
Arc would have to slow his fall by blasting in the opposite direction with the jets, and so began to launch himself toward the back of the station.
He flew steadily up along the side of the station as it span dangerously close by. The arms could be seen coming from a good distance so he had time to fly aside, running his feet against one that he had a hard time out manoeuvring.
He had made it at least half way when he heard the sound of an airlock behind him. Looking down he saw a small black spot in the flowing air, leaping out from the station.
The sheriff had followed, and from the back of its armoured suit two wings unfurled with tiny jets housed on its underside. It blasted off in pursuit of Arc, and having seen this Arc pushed on toward the backside of the weather station.
A plasma shot whistled by, then another, before a shot struck the outer wall of the station, smoking momentarily in the flow of the wind.
Arc took the pistol from his trouser back pocket and began firing back at the creature. All shots by both men missed by a long way, and Arc knew that it was just a matter of time before one of them hit.
The station fell into the first of the last of the cloud from the storm, and the sky above was now a pastel blue of the morning.
He decided to sacrifice a little of his height to close the gap between himself and the Sheriff and so powered down his jets momentarily. The winds push him back to bring him level with the Sheriff and he engaged the thrusters again, while elbowing down on top of its head and then firing a barrage of shots into the Sheriffs armoured body. The force of the shots knocked him away slightly, then the Sheriff, who had been unharmed it seemed, jetted toward Arc and grabbed him with its powerful arms. Arc punched and kicked against it as they toppled through the cloud.
Above them, through the murk of the cloud, one of the huge arms of the station swung toward them. Both of them seeing this kicked against the air and then jetted away from one another as it bombed between them. The backdraft of it sucked both men into its wake, spinning them out of control for a moment.
Arc righted himself and then, both men reached a realization of how close now they must be to the ground, and gave up on the fight, and began jetting upward. Parallel to each other they travelled past the bulk of the station and up and away from it.
The huge station crashed through and out of the clouds and slammed down into the surface of the crater. The arms snapped and crumpled at its side, with one of them draping over the peaks at the rim of the crater.
The two men fell to earth still blasting to slow their descent, and fell hard into the huge thrusters at the rear of the station. The Sheriff slammed down into the soot covered metal between two enormous cone shaped jets, while Arc clipped one of them with his leg and topped down, landing beside him.
Both men lay on the scorched rear of the station, while all around the wreckage, lava exploded and spurted upward. The station had broken clean through the layers of rock that had encased the molten lava for centuries. Now the case had been cracked and the old volcano began to erupt, vomiting the deep guts of the moon out onto the crater basin.
They lay side by side stirring as the lava began to pour out of the hole the station had dug. There was a quake and a huge roar as fissures split along the craters surface, then burning the snow to steam with more leaking lava.
Above, the sun burned behind the wisps of cloud, and still Arc felt it sting as he strained to open his eyes.
Arc found he had woken first, and so staggered to his feet. He saw the Sheriff behind him lying with its hands cupped around its head, and since it didn’t seem to be about to continue the fight he ran away to the side of the ship and looked down at the lava spilling out all around. A huge spurt leaped up from one of the gaping cracks, eclipsing the distant citadels.
The whole station lurched and Arc grabbed the side, then noticed that the ship was half melting and half sinking into the hole it had made.
He looked back over the edge and saw along the side of the station just below his feet, beside the engines the word ‘Refuel’ beside a large port. The fuel tanks were descending now and would ignite once they touched the molten lava. The whole place was now a gigantic hazard, and about to get a lot worse.
Arc stepped back and felt around for the shoulder jet controls, and felt cold, powerful fingers clasp his upper arm.
It tugged him from his feet, hard enough to break his arm, and flung him sidewards through the air.
“I said you’re under arrest.” the Sheriff yelled, as Arc’s limp body struck the side of one of the huge thrusters with a hollow clang.
Arc landed hard on the floor again and lay there fighting to get back up.
“We have to get out of here.” Arc said as the Sheriff marched over to him and grabbed him again by the arm.
The sheriff dragged him to his feet and swung him around again slamming him into one of the hollow thrusters. As Arc righted himself he began to throw his fists into its face and stomach. The Sheriff moved away as Arc pushed him and then it began to punch back, wrestling against Arc’s barrage.
Behind them another huge spurt of lava sprayed up into the sky, some of it landing and cooling on the back of the station.
The whole place lurched again and Arc felt the ground drop a few meters. Panicking slightly now, Arc grabbed the Sheriff’s sickly insect face and headbutted him, then pushed him back on to the floor. Using that chance he ran away from him toward the edge while fumbling for the shoulder jet controls.
Arc found them and launched away from the back of the weather station, but the Sheriff had chased him down, and leaped after him. It grabbed Arc as he jetted up into the air, clambering up his body and then around to face him. It clasped its impossibly thin arms around his back and hung staring at him with its lifeless, insect eyes.
Arc jetted up to the start of the mountain peaks around the crater’s rim, and then the weather station’s fuel tanks met the lava, and it exploded in a massive burst of rippling flame.
The shockwave kicked Arc and the Sheriff further up across the mountain tops and then down across the other side. They then fell, clasped to one another, and plummeted down the steep sides of the outside of the rim. The depths below were misted and hazy, and grew colder as they fell faster toward it.
Arc took a breath, then pulled the chord and let the parachute release from its compact pack. It spread out above him and tugged him to a stop in the air. The Sheriff slipped from its grip and fell away down into the mists below.
It snarled and shouted “No!” and then it disappeared.
Arc hung from the swing of the parachute, and glided slowly down beside the white mountainsides. He was slightly delirious now, and barely noticed that he had glided down along s
ide one of the mercenary dropships.
He looked up at it, and the throng of troops around it, and at the pilot officers in the bridge that had noticed him also. Unable to move he was trapped in mid-air, and watched as the officers pointed at him, issuing orders.
One of the huge double barrelled cannons atop the craft energized and turned toward him.
Arc sighed, and smiled slightly as the snow beat against his face.
The cannon lit up and fired, and it’s two charges flew out at Arc. But Arc was gone, and the shots sailed past and burst the snow on a smaller mountainside opposite.
In orbit, on the bridge of the Indus Lynx Arc Micormic teleported to a position over one of the front consoles. He hung in the air with his parachute for a moment then fell, striking his hip against the side of the panel. The snow covered parachute flopped to the floor of the bridge, and Arc furiously unclipped it from himself. He dropped the shoulder jets with the same anger and then pushed past people to one of the front windows.
He suddenly stopped dead, and stared at himself in the thick, double glazed windows. Two reflections stared back, as the others watched him from behind.
On a monitor below him, the revived High General Horald Kinnyck was barking an angry message out across the solar system.
“To all those who have done this I strongly suggest you turn yourselves in now while you have the chance. Respond immediately or there will be grave consequences.” he said as his fat face filled the screen.
Arc bent down to the screen and pressed the button to answer communications.
“General…” he began, then paused staring at him across the line. “Goodbye.”
Arc released the button, turned off the monitor and stood back up.
He stood staring at his double reflection a while more, and let the dizzy sensation wash over him. Then it was Bailey looking out into space.
Bailey watched as one of the two reflections changed, and looked at him. It then suddenly lunged forward and punched the window.
“Bang!” Arc said, and Bailey staggered back a few steps in fright. On looking again he saw the reflection had returned to normal.
