Dystance 3

by Mark Tufo

  It was difficult for me to distance myself that much from what was happening. Yes, they were both opposing forces to us, but we shared some destiny with the Iron Sides, didn’t we? There was a bright flash and in an instant, the Iron Sides left; her fighters, however, still waged a vicious war. Stryver fighters poured forth from the battle vessel closer to us; the one further away buckled immediately after the Iron Sides left. The pulsing ship began to quiet; its tendrils, no longer waving about and the seed pods, for lack of a better term, did not detach.

  The Iron Sides’ fighters were outnumbered and now had no back up; they were easy pickings, yet it was the Stryver fighters that seemed to be taking damage, occasionally flaring up from explosions. It took me a minute to realize that some of the Iron Sides’ vessels were drifting aimlessly around, some lazily swirling or spinning slowly.

  “What’s happening?” I asked.

  “The Stryvers are firing something that is incapacitating the human ships,” Porter said.

  “For what purpose?” Tallow asked.

  “They will round them up, take them prisoner, question them to the point of death and then consume their vessel,” Porter replied matter-of-factly.

  “They’re going to eat them?” Tallow looked how I felt.

  “While that is extremely distasteful, I must remind you that your fate, while not quite as gruesome, involved a similar outcome. Do not spare them too much pity. We must now think upon our own survival. It is my hope that we can move past the range of their sensors. Cedar, please shut down the drive.”

  “Inertia, right?” Tallow looked to Cedar.

  “You’re getting it. You’ll be a pilot soon enough,” she said without looking back.

  “I’d rather not.” I was the only one that heard his answer.

  “Biology,” I said quickly when the thought popped into my head. “That is what that looks like.”

  All eyes were on me with varying degrees of question upon their countenances.

  “I didn’t look for long; I was in the education section of the library, I was trying to learn more about the world around us, rather than in us. It was a biology book. That thing looks like something that was on one of the pages. I mean, from the limited portion I read, they’re supposed to be tiny, impossible to see without something called a microscope, but that looks a lot like a germ.”

  “A germ? Something that makes you sick if you’re dirty?” Tallow asked.

  We knew about basic hygiene because of what we’d been taught in the bio-buildings, though none of us had ever seen a picture of what could make us sick. Like everything else, we just took their word for it because that was the way it had always been. They told us and we believed.

  “Apparently, Michael Talbot knew more than he let on,” Frost said. She seemed slightly bemused. “It is well known that he had a fear of all things germ related, and with good reason.”

  “If he ever saw that, he sure did,” Tallow said.

  “Something detached from the germ-thing,” Cedar said. “And it looks like it’s heading in the same direction we are.”

  “Can we outrun it?” Serrot wanted to know.

  “Passive scans show it moving at a slightly faster pace than we are,” Porter replied. “It will take more than seventy-two hours to overcome us.”

  “They’ll pull back long before that, right?” Tallow asked, but no one could answer that.

  There was also the possibility that the much larger ship it had broken free from, or the Stryver ship itself, would come for us. It seemed strange that the tendril would have acted on its own, but what could we possibly know about an enemy so entirely foreign to us? For a long while we watched as the large ships began to fade from view, and then for an even longer time, we kept tabs on the piece that was still following us. When nothing happened and didn’t appear like anything was going to happen any time soon, we went back about our normal routines. For most of us, that meant eating and resting. Cedar was pouring over the Genogerian manuals, which, luckily for her, had been translated to our language, although I really don’t think that would have stopped her for very long.

  We’d been traveling for hours. The intensity of the battle had begun to wear off. I hadn’t thought to ask at first because just getting away was of paramount importance, but now it seemed like a question that needed asking.

  “Porter, where are we going?” The way he looked at star maps gave me every indication he had a destination in mind and wasn’t just flying around looking for a place to land.

  “It is not by chance that we stopped the Iron Sides where we did or that we Jute buckled in the direction we had.”

  “Are we going back home?” Tallow asked. I knew that wasn’t the case, but I can’t lie and say my heart didn’t race at the possibility that maybe that was the answer.

  “It is more than likely, even if we possessed the food stores to make such a trip, that we would all die of old age long before we arrived at Earth,” Porter replied. “There is a habitable planet less than two weeks from here; that is our destination.”

  The thought of spending the next two weeks confined in this small ship held absolutely no appeal, but that was far from the most troubling aspect.

  “And then, Porter?” I asked.

  “There is an abandoned Genogerian base there, or so we would lead others to believe. We can get help there.”

  “Can’t you just call in help from here?” I asked.

  “The machinery necessary to make those types of transmissions is enormous and requires a much larger vessel to house it. Our best chance is to arrive.”

  “And what of our uninvited guest?” Cedar asked about the germ tendril still following us. “If your base is to remain a secret, I don’t think it’s such a good idea to bring it there with us. They are still following, and we are no longer in sight or range of the other vessels. We’ve got to assume that they’re going to keep on coming.”

  “I do not like attacking an enemy when we have no idea its capabilities. But you are right; we cannot bring it with us. First, we will change course and see if it alters as well. If so, we will move to intercept.”

  “About time.” Cedar rubbed her hands together. “May I?” Cedar grabbed the controls, Porter nodded. “Oooh, so much smoother than the shuttle! I feel like I could fly this in a cave.”

  “No!” Serrot exclaimed. “Winter, you’re her sister; can you tell her that’s not such a good idea?”

  “Let’s just hope flying into a cave never becomes necessary,” I told him.

  “You and I both know this is foreshadowing.” He walked back to the crew area with his head bowed. He was mumbling as well; I didn’t pick up on it as I was so tense waiting to hear what the alien craft was doing.

  “Nothing so far,” Cedar said. There was excitement and a little disappointment in her voice, if I’m being honest. “Hold on,” she said, tapping at a screen. “Porter?”

  “I saw it as well, though it is an impossibility—at least according to all of the astrophysics laws I am aware of.”

  “What happened?”

  “The ship disappeared then reappeared nearly ten thousand miles closer, and on our new course.”

  “Something like a Jute Buckle?” I was trying to understand what happened.

  “Again, the machinery to do something like that is large; it would not fit inside something of that size, and besides, the movement was much too quick. It is unlike anything I know of.”

  “If they have the ability to do this and could seemingly do it at any time, then it seems safe to say that their primary mission is to follow us,” I said, letting the tactical side of my mind think like my enemy. “How long can we stay out here?”

  “If your boyfriend stops trying to explode his stomach, we have enough stores for two months,” Porter replied.

  Inwardly, I groaned at the thought of two months cooped up in here, eating the mystery protein bars. “Maybe we can outlast them.”

  “Perhaps. Or maybe it is nothing more th
an an unpiloted reconnaissance craft that could be out here indefinitely,” Porter responded.

  “I don’t think that’s the case,” Cedar interjected. “I think the craft itself is alive.”

  “As hard as this is to fathom, I agree with you, Cedar, but that doesn’t answer the question of how long it can stay out here with us,” Lendor said. “And the longer it keeps tabs on us, the more chance it has of communicating with the big ships, and if they show up, Porter has already said we don’t stand much of a chance against them. If we are voting again, I say we go straight after them. If we are victorious, we can get to this hidden base quicker. If we lose, well, at the very minimum we will no longer be stuck up here.”

  Lendor was very much of the same mind as I was regarding being trapped in this small ship, though I wasn’t keen on not being in the ship because we weren’t alive anymore.

  “Cedar, make a course for the ship. I will man the guns,” Porter said. “The rest of you are going to want to be restrained in your seats.”

  “Win, you sit there,” Cedar said, referring to the first seat directly outside the cockpit. “If this goes poorly, I would like to be within hand-reaching distance. Serrot, you sit next to her. Wait, that’s not fair; I’m sure Tallow would want to sit next to her just in case. Win, would you mind sitting on Tallow’s lap? That really does fix two problems at the same time.”

  “Cedar, we are piloting a craft into a battle situation. Now might be the time to concentrate on that,” Porter said.

  “Serrot, how about you sitting on Tallow’s lap then?” she said quietly.

  “There will be no lap sitting!” Tallow demanded. “Just go and win this thing and then we won’t have to worry about it!”

  Cedar’s eyebrows furrowed. “Okay! If that’s the case, just let Serrot have your seat.”

  “Fly the ship, Cedar. I’m sitting right here,” Tallow told her. She stuck her tongue out at him before turning back around.

  “Yup, humanity’s best chance right there,” Tallow said sarcastically.

  I laughed when I saw Cedar stick her hand up over her chair and only one finger was raised. It was even funnier because Tallow didn’t know what it meant.

  “Turning now,” Cedar said aloud, more for us. I got the feeling she was going to narrate so we weren’t sitting back here in the dark; for that, I was extremely thankful. I noticed Frost and Ferryn were exceedingly quiet, though, on some level, I sensed they were speaking with each other.

  “Burn the engines for five seconds and no longer,” Porter told her.

  “If anyone wants to know, that’s because in five seconds we will be up to maximum speed and it makes no difference to keep the engine running, except to consume resources, which, because of the way this drive operates, are fairly unlimited, but not quite infinite. Just because you have an ocean full of fish doesn’t mean you should indiscriminately kill one.”

  “Pretty soon I’m not even going to know what she’s saying anymore,” Serrot said with some pride and some measure of angst.

  “They’ve stopped.” I sat up straighter as Cedar said the words. I was watching on the screen. The tendril top pulsed slowly, yet did nothing. “Five minutes to contact.” We were hurtling through space straight at it and still it did nothing. “Three minutes to contact.” The words had no sooner come out of Cedar’s mouth when the ship pulsed brighter, then just disappeared. Loud whooshes reverberated through the ship.

  “Railgun deployed,” Cedar told us. “Ship visible. Shots wide right.”

  The alien ship was no longer stationary; it had moved much closer with its mysterious propulsion system and was now coming forward and staying in view.

  “Do you wish me to take command of the controls?” Porter asked.

  “No, I’m better at piloting. You stay on the guns; I think we’re going to need them.” Cedar was concentrating.

  Porter was studying her; if he hoped to see some falsehood in her face, he was going to be disappointed. Cedar was a spritely, fun-loving person, but she took flying seriously.

  “If there is something you don’t understand, you will let me know immediately,” he told her.

  “Uh-huh,” she replied noncommittally.

  We were now flying straight toward the craft as it was coming toward us. If what we had seen happen to the Iron Sides was any indication, a collision greatly favored them. Their ship was a weapon unto itself. This fact was not lost on either of those locked in combat with it.

  “Evasive maneuvers in thirty seconds. Pull hard right; I will fire at that time,” Porter told her. “Five, four, three…”

  I held on as the pressure mounted from the ship pulling to the side. I felt like I was going to be deposited onto both Tallow and Serrot. There was the now familiar whoosh of the railgun firing and also the lasers or rays. It was a combination of all Porter had on hand, I figured.

  “Hit.” Cedar did not use any inflection of excitement and it was easy enough to see why. A few of the railgun projectiles punctured the walls of the craft and passed through, seemingly without any affect. “That can’t be good,” she said aloud.

  “One would think not,” he replied just as the ship once again blinked out of existence.

  “Whoa!” Cedar shouted as she pressed us down hard; if not for the belt across my lap and chest, I would have become one with the roof. The alien vessel had materialized directly in front of us, and if not for Cedar’s fast action, we would have flown straight into it and whatever it had in store for us.

  “Safe to say they are no longer content with just following,” Porter replied. “That is good news.”

  “Um, excuse me…” Tallow asked when we finally leveled off, “how is that possibly good?”

  “It means that even though the railgun did not appear to cause harm, it has. It is my belief that otherwise they would have continued on with their original mission.”

  “Your belief?” Lendor asked.

  “Nothing else to go on,” Porter replied candidly. “It’s following and gaining…” he warned Cedar, as if she didn’t already know.

  “If you have guns to the rear, now would be a good time to use them,” she told him. I looked to the floor by her feet; I imagined there would be a growing puddle of sweat pouring off her brow. “As soon as you start firing and they once again do their voodoo disappearing act, I want you to fire high left and to the front. You got all that?”

  “I think I can manage,” he told her. “And if they don’t fade out?”

  “You’d better tell me about another way to make this ship go faster.”

  “There is none.”

  “Then this is going to work like a charm,” she assured him.

  “Firing. Hit! Now, Cedar, Now!”

  We rolled with enough force that I felt light-headed and my vision began to tunnel.

  “Everything again, Porter!” Cedar yelled, fighting against the same forces I was.

  We were in what felt like a free-falling dive; if I could have released my grip, I would have wrapped my hands around my stomach to keep it from coming up through my mouth. As if that wasn’t bad enough, we took a hit to the side that rattled the teeth in my head.

  An alarm began to trill: “Alert; Collision…. Alert; Collision.” Like we weren’t already aware of it. It continued that way for another five minutes, the ship bouncing around like one of the Earth trucks on a rough road. I could not even focus on Frost across from me, as my eyes seemed to be swimming in my skull.

  “She’s listing to the side,” Cedar said. I had no idea if she was talking about us or the enemy. Maybe both.

  “Bring us around.” Porter had a gash on the side of his head, wounded by a panel that had given way and crashed down. Small electrical bursts issued forth from the vacancy above him. I was pushed and pulled as Cedar fought with the ship.

  “We’ve got flight control damage.” Her hands were a blur as she moved them around trying to right the myriad wrongs we were dealing with.

  “At least we can’
t crash land.” Serrot seemed somehow pleased with that notion.

  “I’d crash land a hundred times rather than be stuck out here.” Lendor looked scared; that in itself was cause for concern. This was the same man that wanted to take on the entirety of the Klondikes with just one death squad.

  “Who said anything about being stuck out here? That germ thingy is ripping this ship apart; we’re going to be free floating in it soon if we don’t do something,” Cedar yelled back over the din.

  “That bad?” Tallow asked me.

  “No air and cold to the point we can shatter,” I told him.

  “So pretty bad then?” He was serious in that moment.

  “Stabilizing!” Cedar shouted as Porter thankfully turned the alarm off. We were squarely facing the germ ship; it didn’t appear to be doing anything and it looked like it had suffered damage as well.

  Porter unleashed everything we had into the vessel. Parts of the enemy ship blew away further into the void. We watched the yellow, throbbing light become dimmer and then finally wink out. It was a victory of sorts, but we were still very much in trouble.

  “We going to make it to this outpost?” I asked Cedar.

  “Sis, I just don’t know. Our flight system is a mess, and I think the hull has suffered a breach. Not horrible now, but as the cold works its way in it’s going to damage more and more components, and well, once that happens….” She left it there.

  Porter pressed a button and a hidden panel folded out; it contained a few dozen buttons and a much smaller flight stick.

  “What’s that?” Cedar asked him.

  “Sky Drone. Usually used for reconnaissance, but right now I think it would be best used for ascertaining the damage we have suffered.” A compartment opened up on the nose of the ship and what came out was similar in shape to what we were in, though on a much smaller scale. Porter changed the camera angle to that of the small ship. As it turned, we could see ourselves. Half of the ship looked as it ever had; the smooth black finish that made it look like a hole, but the other side had deep, metallic scratches through it like we had been attacked by a mountain lion.