by J.P. Yager
The ship lurched as it reached the end of the light jump. Trevor looked down at a world that seemed much like Earth. It had a natural atmosphere, oceans, mountains, lakes, islands, and so on. His heart ached at the thought. He pulled on the controls and shot the spacecraft at it.
The Salarian joined them inside the cockpit. “Where is Cleph’thera?”
Trevor grimaced. “He crashed into Aquaria and died later of the injuries he sustained. I’m sorry.”
The creature was unable to hide his sadness. “He was a good friend.” Then he brightened when he put it into perspective. “Well, at least you found us.”
Trevor flipped the planetary entry gauge down.
“I will do the rest of my part by showing you where you need to go. I’m Dosh, son to the Guardian of the Temple, Keeper of the Star.”
“That’s great, Dosh. Well, we need to land first, and technically, this is my first, so I’d buckle up.” The ship began to lurch as they entered Vale’s outer atmosphere. A mixture of temperature differential, turbulence, and wind shear tried to pry control away from Trevor.
Dosh could not believe his luck in finding the chosen one. What was odd, he thought, was that it told him to take it off the planet to begin with. But then if he had never tried to leave with it, he wouldn’t have used the beacon that involved the Eckelions, which brought in the humans, who routed the Ruverans and then returned to this starting point. There must have been much more to the story. A pattern that had to play out. He turned and watched a red light start to flash.
“Another ship is tracking on us.” Boost pointed to the radar.
“Nya…” Trevor said to himself. “Let’s hope she crashes.”
“Nearing planetary threshold.” Boost dialed back the engines.
“We’ll have to perform a rapid-D to shake her.”
“A rapid descent will pull this ship apart.”
“She’ll hold,” Trevor said.
“Incoming!” Boost called out.
The ship took a massive hit that shot her forward. The panels flickered on and off, some not returning. They had taken a killer blow, but paranoid Velkas had to have the strongest ship imaginable.
“Oh no,” Dosh said from the back. A large contingency of weapons clawed at them again.
“Releasing all countermeasures.” Trevor punched several red switches on the middle console. Velkas’s ship responded with a bombardment of mines, countermissiles, and walls. They coughed out in a mess.
“She’s disengaging,” Boost announced. He paused. “There is a fire in avionics. Should I get it?”
“No. Just hang on. This is going to be rough.” He turned to look at Dosh. “What position is this place at?”
Dosh yelled the numbers above the scream of the air speeding up to meet them. Trevor typed them in.
“We’re in the outer atmosphere, coming in hot.” Trevor pulled a switch on the side console. “I don’t think we have a way to slow down. Emergency spoilers out.” The ship tried to slow. He paused. “How far to our destination?”
“We are ten thousand meters from the indicated position.” Boost pointed to the guidance.
They burst through the lower atmosphere. Trevor did his best to float her down.
At ten thousand feet above ground, they were going too fast to crash land, let alone perform a normal landing. The point on the display now read six thousand meters from their destination and continued to fall rapidly.
“We’re too fast to land,” Boost began.
“We’ll be fine,” Trevor claimed.
The ship continued screaming across the landscape. They passed a massive spaceport built on a mountain. They flew over forests, oceans, and ancient remains of cities long lost.
“We’re overshooting.”
“I know.” Trevor pulled the guidance computer off the console. “Time to abandon ship!” he yelled. “Autopilot engaged.” He unbuckled himself, and the others followed suit.
As they passed the avionics compartment, Trev, holding his breath against the smoke, reached into the avionics bay and disengaged the power core for the ship’s weapons system. He placed it in a case. Boost picked up the still body of Raxus and carried the Eckelion into the escape pod where Trevor and Dosh waited. When they were all inside and accounted for, Boost closed the door.
As soon as the portable ship display reached below one thousand and the case was tied down tight, Trevor hit eject.
The escape pod immediately shot out. Even though they were all strapped down, their bodies were thrown toward the max their safety harnesses would go. The g-force pushed hard against Trev’s chest and almost made him lose what little was in his stomach. It was hard enough to jolt the Eckelion back to consciousness. He woke up to a surprise fall.
Trevor tried to get used to his new sight, watching the ground as it sped ever closer. It looked like they were tumbling in an uncontrolled free fall.
They spun and swirled riding the high winds down until the autorelease on the pod’s chutes engaged. It came to an immediate stop and floated gently down.
When they finally landed in a large grass field, Trevor and Boost popped the pod top and helped pull the others out. When he was back breathing the fresh air outside, Dosh saw the remains of his own ship, which had crashed in the nearby forest. How long ago had that happened?
The Eckelion was still trying to piece things together. “Where am I?”
“Glad you’re with us,” Trevor answered.
Raxus’s fear subsided when he saw the Salarian was there too. “Dosh?”
“Raxus.” The Salarian gave him a quick hug.
“I intercepted your beacon and was able to get the Void Star back.”
Dosh pointed to the human. “This is the human we’ve been looking for.”
“I know. The star showed me,” Raxus said. He looked to be in as much disbelief as Dosh. “I only have one more task to perform.”
“Me too,” Dosh agreed.
Then a familiar ship reappeared on the horizon.
“It’s Render…” Dosh couldn’t hide his fear.
“Great. Now what?” Trev asked himself.
He wasn’t able to answer; he was too busy watching two smoke trails burst from the craft and speed toward them. They were two laser-guided missiles.
Chapter 26
