by Trevor Scott
Ju-Long smiled and said, “There’s a spot open on my lap.”
Astrid shot him a repulsed look that Ju-Long must have gotten frequently from women because he only shrugged and returned his attention to his console.
“Sure you made the right choice coming along?” Saturn asked Astrid.
“Time will tell.”
Liam could see the fragmented moon ahead of them. Nearly half of the moon was still intact while the other half was broken into thousands of smaller pieces, each drifting along in a drawn-out path following its orbit around Taleris. The surface of the large remaining chunk of moon was pockmarked from countless impacts with meteors and debris, its chestnut brown coloring an afterthought among the deep shadows cast across it.
Liam maneuvered The Garuda closer to the large landmass where the biggest chunks of debris spun in their elliptical path.
“They’ll be in firing range in two minutes,” Saturn said.
“They won’t have a shot.”
Liam jerked the controls and moved the ship around a large piece of spinning rock and then wove between two more, turning the ship on its axis to fit through the colliding chunks. Once through, a small piece of rock bounced off the cockpit window, not large enough to make a dent. A small part of Liam began to think he’d made an error in judgment. The debris was more closely packed than he realized. It was going to take precision to come out unscathed.
“Saturn, Nix, get on the guns and clear a path.”
Nix used his good arm to manipulate the controls and dual lasers fired from the front of the ship, cutting through the rock with ease. The remaining slices edged away from one another with less urgency than Liam had expected. They were only creating more debris to avoid. A devious thought came to him.
“Hold your fire,” Liam ordered. “Can we turn those lasers around and fire to the rear?”
“The lasers won’t penetrate their armor,” Nix remarked.
“They won’t have to. Break up as many of the bigger rocks as you can. Following us is going to be like stepping into a minefield.”
23
A laser blast struck The Garuda and Liam was forced against his straps, the material cutting into his shoulders from the violent shock. He heard a cry to his left and saw Astrid thrust to the ground where she fumbled for a handhold. She bore a bright purple cut on her forehead where it’d struck the metal flooring.
“What are you waiting for? Fire!” Liam demanded.
Liam maneuvered the ship around several small pieces of debris, showing off the unparalleled agility of their vessel. He pulled up an image of the pursuing ships on his console, making sure to keep one eye on the path ahead. The Reapers were long and sleek, black as space with a slight sheen to them that reflected the glow of their lasers as they fired. The green spark illuminated their ship on his screen just before he saw the lasers pass by them out of the cockpit’s windows.
Saturn and Nix turned their lasers and began firing at the debris to their rear. A couple of the broken pieces collided with one of the Reapers, denting its smooth metallic hull. All three of the Reapers were in close pursuit now and were managing to move around the rocks, though it was affecting the accuracy of their blasts. Every time they made a quick course adjustment a laser went astray, slicing an asteroid in two and adding to the glut of space rocks.
Astrid held a palm to her head, bearing down on her wound to quell the bleeding. She had a firm grip on Liam’s cracked leather seat and brought herself up to one knee. She said, “Can you please try to keep this thing in one piece?”
Liam moved The Garuda through the canyon of a large piece of moon, twisting along its many curves before shooting back up into the debris field.
“As long as we have the gravity generator, up will remain up. Just don’t look out the window.”
The Garuda’s innards churned. It seemed aware of the situation and was preparing itself for its closing number. The lines of purple energy flowed overhead and the turbines beneath Liam’s feet growled up through the grates from the engine room below. She was ready.
Liam said, “Ju-Long, I’m going to bring her about. Get ready to fire.”
Liam pulled up and the ship responded forcefully, picking up speed and turning to avoid a large spinning boulder nearly the size of the vessel itself. He moved toward the half moon and hugged the rugged surface. The Reapers had fallen behind to avoid the spinning debris. The backside of the moon had almost no rocky fragments. Whatever had struck it must have only blasted through the other side. Liam used the small amount of gravity from the moon to slingshot around to the other side, increasing their speed dramatically.
He bore headlong back into the debris field, weaving in and out of many smaller rocks, many of which were surely of their own making. Up ahead he saw a blue circle, glowing bright like the base of a flame. Liam made a few more adjustments until they had a clear path to the other ship.
“Now,” Liam yelled.
Ju-Long pressed down on the trigger and a jet of blue fired from the nose of The Garuda. It didn’t look like the fire and lightning mixture he’d seen in their last encounter with the Kurazon. Instead, it looked like a beam of pure energy, less precise than a laser but far larger in girth. Before it could reach the other ship a piece of debris floated between them. The massive boulder exploded into dust, shooting out particles in every direction. The cockpit’s window was cascaded with the tiny grains, which bounced off and found a new trajectory out into space.
“What the hell was that?” Astrid asked.
Liam regarded her and said, “It’s better if you don’t know.”
“Get me another shot,” Ju-Long pleaded.
Liam nodded and attempted to follow the Reaper. Something was wrong. He’d lost track of the other two. As if on cue, they were rocked by another laser blast, this time too close to penetrating their hull. Red warning lights flashed and his console buzzed in protest. Liam made a defensive maneuver and broke off from his pursuit of the bait ship.
Saturn said over the noises in the cabin, “The longer this goes on the worse it’s going to get.”
She’d said what Liam already knew. They needed to draw them into a trap of their own. If they could take out one of them it could buy his crew some time and even the odds. Liam drew up a quick plan in his head. It wasn’t much, but with any luck it could work. Liam would rather be lucky than good any day of the week.
“Hold on, things might get a little bit bumpy.”
Liam jolted his controls to his right, moving once again toward the remaining half of the moon. He said to Ju-Long, “Get ready to fire on my mark.”
“Ready,” Ju-Long replied.
Liam waited until they were uncomfortably close to the surface of the broken moon before yelling, “Fire!”
Ju-Long pulled the trigger and a thick jet of blue came rushing out of The Garuda. It hit the half moon and continued to streak along until a long line of sapphire lit up the darkened surface.
When it hit the moon, Liam noticed that the substance was wet like acid but had cut like a laser. Chunks of debris shot up from the surface in multiple trajectories. Liam avoided them and checked his monitor to see how the Reapers had fared behind them. The monstrous boulders that shot into space were slowed by the half-moon’s weak gravity field. Instead of rocketing off into space, they hung there directly in the path of their pursuers.
One of the Reapers pulled up and avoided the rocks, moving out of the debris field entirely. Another was not so lucky. It tried to maneuver out of the way but caught the left side of its sleek folded-back wings. The ship was turned right into a much larger asteroid, where it struck the surface hard against the jagged rock. Explosions engulfed the interior of the vessel but were squelched almost immediately by the vacuum of space. It lay there in crumpled ruin, hugging the asteroid’s weak gravitational pull, only a few scrap pieces firing off away from the ship.
Ju-Long pumped his fist in celebration and shouted in Chinese, “Qù sĭ!”
“Nice shot,” N
ix said, “But there’s still two more.”
Saturn spoke up, “One of them just faded from sensor range.”
“And the other?” Liam asked.
A crash shook the ship and the cockpit came alive with flashing lights. Out the cockpit window Liam saw the remaining Reaper shoot past overhead and leave the debris field, firing all of its thrusters and increasing its acceleration as it shot past the fragmented moon.
Liam felt his insides become weightless and his long blond hair begin to rise up into the air. That last blast had taken out their gravity generator. Astrid was holding onto Liam’s seat cushion with one hand, floating in the center aisle.
“Where are they going?” Liam demanded.
“They’re moving to where the other ship disappeared from sensor range, out by the outer moons of Taleris.”
“Do you think they’re just regrouping?” Nix asked.
Liam shook his head and said, “I don’t know, but we need to make what repairs we can before they come back.”
Liam guided The Garuda toward the largest piece of debris he could find. It was easily ten times the size of the ship with topology that would hide the ship reasonably well among its large craters. Liam fired the reverse thrusters and slowed the ship down to a crawl. He’d grown so accustomed to The Garuda, that it only took him a few minutes to maneuver into position and set the ship down on the massive rock. The landing gear crunched down, pulverizing many smaller pieces of rock.
Liam unstrapped himself from his seat and pushed off, floating up above his console. He regarded Saturn and ordered, “Shut down any system that’s nonessential. Try to make us blend into this rock as much as possible. If we’re lucky, it might buy us some time. Nix, take Ju-Long to the gravity generator and see what you can do.”
Nix nodded and he and Ju-Long left for the engine room. Saturn began fiddling with her controls, shutting down the exterior lights and reducing the interior lights to minimum. When she was finished, Liam added, “Keep an eye on the sensors and let me know if anything changes. These things are fast, so we won’t have much time to react before they’re on top of us.”
Astrid let go of Liam’s seat and pushed off, trying to remain upright in relation to the floor and failing. She asked Liam, “What about me?”
“We’re going to the cargo bay to get your head looked at.”
Astrid felt her forehead and stared at her blood-stained blue hand, globs of it floating out as she pulled her hand away. Liam took her wrist in his hand and pushed off from the console, dragging her weightless body toward the corridor.
Liam heard Saturn say harshly, “I guess I’ll just stay here then.”
Liam was tired of their petty tiffs. If Saturn had something to say she should come out and say it. He continued on with Astrid, ignoring Saturn’s comment, and curved around the corridor to the cargo bay.
24
The cargo bay held several yellow crates that were strapped to the floor. Liam led Astrid to one of them and had her sit on top, having her take hold of one of the straps to keep her in place.
“I’ll be fine,” she said. “You don’t have to worry yourself over a small scratch.”
Liam could see that it was a little more than a scratch. Astrid’s eyes were a little loopy. She hadn’t lost enough blood to be woozy from that. He was no expert on alien anatomy, but he had a nagging suspicion that she could have a concussion.
“Don’t be silly. This will just take a minute.”
Liam pushed off from the crate and found the medical supplies in the box where Saturn had found the antibiotics. When he opened the top and rustled through it, he had to fight with syringes and bandages that tried to float away. He grabbed a piece of cloth that felt like gauze and some alcohol and closed the bin.
He kicked off the ground and found his way up to Astrid, who held out a hand and guided him toward her. Liam held the gauze over the bottle of alcohol and shook it to get it wet. He started cleaning the wound, holding her chin steady with one hand and dabbing at the cut with the gauze in his other hand. Astrid’s face was cool to the touch, but her gaze conveyed far more warmth.
“Back on Taleris, why did you help me?” Astrid asked.
“I told you, I’m not going to let an innocent girl die.”
“I’m not innocent. My House has brought a lot of pain to this system. I deserve the hatred Nix has shown me.”
Liam stopped his cleaning and looked into her big eyes, swirling with blues and greens as they gazed back up at him. He refocused on her wound and said, “Nix will come around. He’s had a lot of trouble with Ansarans before. It’s not a reflection on you.”
Astrid’s eyes appeared to have trouble focusing despite her best efforts. She blinked several times and finally squinted at him. She wore a relaxed smile as Liam continued to work. Astrid asked him casually, “And what does Captain Liam Kidd think of my race?”
Liam shook his head and responded, “Well, I’ve had my own problems with Ansarans, but I think I can say I like the females a little better.”
Astrid smiled and then winced as Liam continued to clean out her wound with a fresh dab of alcohol. She looked at him with calculating eyes, as though trying to find an answer to a question before asking it. Finally, she relented and asked, “You and Saturn, are you two—?”
“No,” Liam said quickly. “Actually, it’s complicated.”
“Complicated how?”
Astrid moved to curl her legs around Liam’s floating legs, drawing him in closer. With one hand she maintained contact with the crate, but with the other she started drawing circles with her index finger over the deep cut in his shirt, tracing the drawstrings holding the shirt together over his chest.
Liam wasn’t sure how to respond, so he spilled his guts. “She doesn’t know what she wants. Years ago, we used to have something, but now it’s like I don’t even know her anymore. She’s changed and I don’t know that I like what she’s become.”
•
Saturn pressed herself against the curved wall at the entrance to the cargo bay. She hadn’t meant to overhear but now she found her mind reeling with Liam’s words, echoing ominously within her brain. Was that what he really thought of her? She couldn’t have been that bad, could she?
Her stomach bubbled with a mixture of feelings. She wasn’t sure whether to be hurt, angry, or betrayed, but found herself feeling little bits of each. Saturn’s blood ran hot within her and she instinctively flexed her toned muscles with rage. Her knuckles turned white, visible even in the half-light of the corridor.
If Liam knew everything that had happened, he would think differently, but that was the problem. He would think differently of her. She couldn’t fathom that he would sympathize with a broken woman, especially not with Astrid hanging off him like a lost puppy.
“I’m sorry,” Saturn heard the tramp say. “I wish I could do something to help.”
The Ansaran whore continued moving her hands over Liam’s chest sensually. His rocky chin shifted down so he could watch her pale blue hands toy with the leather strings on his shirt. Saturn felt something in her eye and quickly wiped it away with the back of her hand. She pulled herself along the wall, floating back toward the cockpit, careful not to make a sound.
•
Liam put his hand over Astrid’s and removed it from his chest. He considered her for a moment. Maybe it was the light, but she was sexier than he’d ever seen. Still, something inside him was off. His stomach felt as though it was turned upside down and it wasn’t from the lack of gravity.
“I’m positive I’m going to regret this later, but I can’t.”
“It’s Saturn then,” Astrid said, nodding her head and releasing him from her embrace. “If you change your mind, you know what room I’ll be sleeping in.”
Astrid needn’t have said that much, because her eyes had said it all. She had the look of an animal in heat. It was a look Liam was accustomed to seeing on Earth, but it had been more than a year since his last time and he felt
out of practice. He wasn’t sure he knew how to respond anymore. Every time he thought of a woman, he remembered death. Sound escaped his lips, but the words that came out were half-formed and mumbled. He felt a heat grow in his loins and the slow creep of blood leaving his brain. Astrid was going to make life in close quarters difficult.
25
Nix handed Ju-Long a laser cutter with his good hand and quickly grabbed an overhead pipe to turn his floating body away to avoid the cutter’s bright light. He heard Ju-Long turn on the cutter and make the incision in one of the metal offshoots of the gravity generator. The device was small for what it did. It sat near the back of the engine room, centered against the back wall, and was the dead middle of the populated areas of the ship.
He hated seeing her like this. The Garuda had been good to him since he was old enough for Zega to let him pilot her. She’d seen many battles and had come through relatively well for such an old vessel. Every ship has its quirks, and he thought he’d seen them all. This was the first time the gravity generator had gone out, though. He’d never had to mess with it before. It just worked. In this case, Ju-Long’s technical knowledge, even if the technology was different from what he was used to, would be of great use.
Ju-Long ceased his cutting and removed the generator’s outer plate, looking around inside under the low light of the engine room. The muscular human had begun to sweat in the hot chamber and Nix began to feel himself salivate to reduce his core body temperature. After a moment Ju-Long asked, “Is this square box the power module?”
Nix bent to look where Ju-Long was pointing and winced from the pain in his shoulder, nodding with his jaw clenched tight. He said, “That’s it. If I remember correctly, Zega said we can’t connect it to the ship’s main supply.”
“Why not?”
Nix smiled and replied, “You’ve seen the main gun. If we connect the generator to the main power, far too much Aether will be drawn in and our bodies would be crushed under the gravitational pull.”
