Fatal Extraction

by Evangeline Rain

  “Maybe I haven’t fully registered this in my brain, yet,” he said with a sardonic smile. “I might need the pill or jab later when I truly freak out.”

  “I’ve packed them,” she grinned. “I asked Eryn if you could take a pill, just before I go in, for pre-emptive measures. She said you could, so maybe you’d like to do that?”

  “I will.”

  “Good.” She beamed, looking very pleased. “Let’s go have something to eat, and we’ll head out.”

  “You mean all this time…” It suddenly occurred to Zane. “…you were lying here worrying about how to break the news to me instead of how this mission might endanger our baby?”

  She gave a ludicrous bark of laughter and said, “Honey, this kid is a Faust-Hayashi. I’m not worried about how the baby is going to survive this mission. If there’s anything to worry about it’d be how I’m going to survive raising this kid.”

  Zane smiled fondly at the thought of having to raise their little hellions together, and almost immediately, a wave of fear exploded in his chest again.

  Nirvana rubbed his chest and frowned at him. “You’re not going to lose anything, Zane. We’re going to make it, baby. You HAVE to believe for it to be true.”

  He nodded and let out a shaky breath, “Maybe it’s time for that pill now.” He opened a bottle of water from the fridge and chugged it down with the pill Nirvana handed him.

  “We’ll make it,” he said with conviction this time.

  Chapter 43

  Nirvana beamed as she held a basin of water with fresh flowers floating in it while Ching and Dawa held onto two ends of a huge black decal on the body of her new spacecraft.

  “I’m excited and thrilled today to finally have a ship to call my own,” she announced. “I inherited Marian from my father. It was his. It became mine in name but it belongs to the crew as much as me. I’ll be going into retirement after this mission.”

  Zane double blinked. He didn’t have time to check out the reaction of the others beside him, but from the look on Ching and Dawa’s faces, they were clearly unprepared.

  “After doing this for almost thirty years of my life, I think I’m ready to explore what else life has to offer,” she grinned at Zane. “I plan to sell Marian to the highest bidder and split it among the seven of us. Here’s to new beginnings!”

  Nirvana hurled the basin of water and flowers on the black patch. Everyone clapped and cheered as Ching and Dawa removed the sticker from both ends to reveal the name, Soulcraft.

  “I read an interesting book sometime back with that title,” she explained. “Written in the twenty-first century by Bill Plotkin. I thought it was apt given where I am in life now and how much I love nature. I’m happy to explain if you’re interested, but for now, let’s celebrate!”

  Ching handed Nirvana a bottle of champagne. She popped it and poured a glass for everyone.

  “I have an entire crate of this in Marian,” she told Dawa. “Give them to your crew as a thank-you for working overtime on Soulcraft.” He gave her a thumbs up and hurried away.

  “Are you a lightweight?” she teased Zane when he walked over to give her a congratulatory kiss. “Better not drink too much if you’re flying.”

  “I am, so just a sip for luck. You can have the rest,” he said.

  “I will have the rest,” Ching interrupted, taking the glass away from Zane. “You better not drink any more than this,” he lectured Nirvana, looking pointedly at her stomach.

  “Why not?” she asked, looking puzzled. “I paid good money for that bottle!” She reached over to try to take the glass back from Ching.

  “You shouldn’t be drinking with the baby,” Eryn giggled. “You need to do some reading.”

  “You can tell me right now and save me the reading,” Nirvana grumbled.

  “I can do that. For a start, you shouldn’t be going on this mission,” Zane said, earning a glare from her. “But I love you, so I will respect your decision on this,” he added quickly and gave her another kiss. “I’ll go in and work out the navigation path.”

  He took his leave quickly before he got on her nerves. He powered up the control panel and started plotting the navigation path to Chikara. He prayed to all the cosmic powers that the Galactic Navigation System that Nirvana had installed into her control panel had the most updated information. The last time he’d tried this, he’d taken a risk with his brother’s life. This time, he was risking eight lives. No, nine.

  The pill must be working because he should be freaking out by now, but he wasn’t. He ran his navigation path through the simulator a few times to make sure he got the coordinates right. Early on, he’d done a detailed calculation of the landing based on the speed, weight and power of Nirvana’s spacecraft. It was all theoretical, never tried nor tested. The last time he’d done a theoretical flight plan, it was Dominion who flew the vessel. Dom had thrice Zane’s flight experience, and it was possible that he made minor adjustments to Zane’s plan along the way.

  Zane wasn’t sure if he could pull it off like Dom, but he couldn’t think of another way to enter Chikara without detection. He was about to check the simulation again when Ramsey’s voice broke into his thoughts.

  “Zane, bro. You’ve checked enough.” He squeezed Zane’s shoulder. “I’ve been watching you check your calculations, nav path, and run the sim test for the last hour. I’ve checked along with you, and I think you’ve got everything in place.”

  “It’s not that. I’m trying to be very familiar with the formula in case there are any changes in the variables. I need fast reactions,” Zane replied, feeling anxiety creep in.

  Ramsey looked thoughtfully at the control panel. “I don’t have much flight experience, but based on what you went through with me last night and what I’ve been seeing on the simulator, I think I can be of assistance.”

  “You’ll co-pilot with me?” Zane looked up from the screen at Ramsey in surprise.

  Ramsey shrugged, “I don’t know if the Captain’s going to allow it, but I’ll ask her if you want.”

  “Of course! You’re the only one who gets me when it comes to stuff like this. It’ll be like having two of me flying the craft. Of course, I want you to co-pilot.” Zane said, feeling immensely relieved that Ramsey offered. Nirvana and Daxon both offered to co-pilot earlier, but they admitted, after seeing his flight plan, that they didn’t think they would be able to help much. Zane was pretty sure only Ramsey trusted him. The rest had no choice but to go along with it.

  Just then, Nirvana walked into the cockpit. “We’re ready to leave. How much longer do you need?”

  “Ramsey would like to be my co-pilot. Is that ok?” Zane asked.

  “Ramsey?” Nirvana looked at him in surprise. Ramsey grinned from ear to ear and gave her two thumbs up. She pondered over it for a minute, but nodded in agreement after thinking it through. “It makes sense, I suppose. He was the only one who understood what you were trying to explain.”

  Ramsey whooped victoriously and gave Zane a high-five.

  “Alright, people!” Nirvana clapped her hands. “Let’s do this.”

  Chapter 44

  Nirvana shifted in the seat as she tried to find a comfortable position to settle in. It was her first time in a passenger seat. Soulcraft was much smaller than Marian so there wasn’t space for more than two in the cockpit. In fact, Dawa had to fit in retractable seats last minute for Nirvana when the crew decided to tag along for the mission.

  “Not used to giving up control, eh?” Daxon teased.

  “First time for everything, I guess. Maybe it’ll get easier if I let this happen more often,” she sighed.

  “Taking off,” Zane announced.

  Soulcraft lifted off the ground, the ceiling of the port opening up for her to exit. Zane flew around for a bit to familiarize himself with the handling before heading out of the atmosphere.

  Once Soulcraft broke out of the atmosphere, she headed towards the planet Chikara.

  This was it. Nirvana
could feel the adrenaline coursing through her veins. It was going to affect Zane if she didn’t get herself under control. Closing her eyes, she retreated into meditation and decided to place her faith in Zane to run the show. She should be the last person in this spacecraft to doubt his abilities.

  “Entering warp speed in thirty,” Ramsey called out from the cockpit as the sounds of the engine getting primed filled the silence.

  This is it, Zane ‘pathed. I love you.

  In case we don’t make it. Nirvana knew what was unsaid, and she refused to go there. Let me in. I’ll see if I can do anything to try to keep you calm. I’ll get out if I’m not helping.

  She could sense some hesitation in Zane.

  The medication is working. I am calm. I can do this, he told her.

  Nirvana knew she shouldn’t push any further and tried to wrestle her need for control back in. All right then. I will go back to my meditation. She pulled her thoughts inwards and focused on stabilizing her breathing and heartbeat. Her butt lifted from the chair for a moment when Soulcraft entered warp speed.

  Warp speed travel was used to drastically shorten the time needed to travel between planets and galaxies. It was extremely energy consuming and expensive, not to mention dangerous, as travelling at such high speed required a straight route clear of obstacles and possible collisions with other spacecrafts.

  Usually, warp speed occurred outside the regular space routes for safety reasons, and the ship’s navigator had to be extremely familiar with the layout in space. The route also started and ended away from the planets.

  Not only would Zane be warping straight into Chikara, he was planning for Soulcraft to exit the warp at a specific point in Chikara just two hundred feet above ground without a runway.

  Judging from the way he’d passed out entering Gebo, Nirvana didn’t think he would be able to pull it off. However, entering the planet via warp speed was the only way to avoid detection by the aerial radars, and he was the only one who knew how to do it.

  She had already hurt his feelings by insisting he was unfit for infiltrating the stronghold. Thinking back, they could have worked out a different route to compensate for his lack of strength.

  He was right when he accused her of dismissing him like that without hearing him out, and she felt guilty about it after. But the decision had been made, and she didn’t want to appear wishy-washy, so she stuck to it. The least she could do to make it up to Zane was give him an opportunity to prove himself and get some confidence back.

  It was going to be a twenty-minute trip via warp speed. The others had started chatting but Nirvana decided to keep her eyes closed and focus on the meditation. She was going to need a well-rested mind for the mission once they landed.

  “Guys, you should all brace now,” said Zane, breaking her out of her meditation.

  So soon? She wondered to herself. She looked at the time on her watch and realized the last twenty-five minutes had flown by.

  Everyone did as told.

  “Stay in brace position all the way,” Zane reminded them. “Entering Chikara in ten.”

  “Hang on to your seats!” Ramsey laughed.

  The spacecraft went into a sharp swerve upwards and started spinning.

  “What the hell is going on?” Levi yelled.

  Nirvana heard some whooping, cursing and yelling, but kept her eyes tightly closed and hoped to hell Zane hadn’t blacked out. She had no idea how he was going to keep himself conscious for this whole thing when an experienced pilot like her was already on the verge of passing out. Fighting the temptation to go into Zane’s head to check on him, she forced herself to trust his abilities. Soulcraft had better be tough enough to support whatever crazy idea Zane had.

  The spinning slowed down as the spacecraft slowly levelled itself horizontally and the descending speed became more controlled. It continued to slow until it finally came to a stop.

  Nobody got out of their seats. The only noise in the spacecraft was heavy breathing and soft groans.

  “We made it,” Daxon gasped in disbelief. “Fourteen years as a pilot, and I have never experienced anything like this. What the flying fuck was that, Zane?”

  “This is madness!” Ramsey raved. “He actually pulled this off with all of us alive.”

  “We,” Zane corrected him, “We pulled this off.”

  Levi growled, leaning back against the head rest, fingers massaging the spot between his closed eyes. Helfer was slouched against his seat harness, breathing hard. Asan had unbuckled his belt the moment they stopped and was slumped onto the floor, panting.

  Only Alden got out of his seat calmly and stood against the door, leaning his forehead against his raised arm. Despite feeling like her internal organs had just been rearranged, Nirvana couldn’t help chuckling at the sight of Alden. It was the first time he’d shown any weakness.

  “What just happened?” Levi finally got out of his seat and walked over to help Helfer.

  “Why did you spin us after we exited the jump?” Asan asked. “It was the worst!”

  “It’s a technique used in high speed aerial wars. I improvised. I pulled the ship up to avoid crashing into the trees. The spinning was to help slow us down quickly before I killed the engines without moving away from where we intended to land,” Zane replied. He walked over to the cooler, pulled out a bottle of sparkling water and drank deeply. Thumping his chest, he gave a loud and long burp.

  “Phoo, so much better,” he sighed in relief.

  Nirvana’s head was still spinning, so she just sat in her seat and smiled at him. Zane walked over and hugged her head to his stomach. Drink some, it’ll help. He placed the bottle of water in her hand.

  The carbonated water did help reduce the feeling of nausea and cleared her head a little.

  “That was some insane piloting skills,” Nirvana praised Zane. “All my years of flying have nothing on what you just did.” She looked up at him and made sure he felt what she was feeling—the genuine admiration for what he had just done and how he looked more attractive to her at this moment.

  Given how he’d passed out when they’d first flown to Athar, it didn’t make sense to her how he could’ve pulled that piloting feat off, or had that been another convincing act he’d put up to lower her defenses?

  “How did you manage to do that?” She had to ask.

  “My eyes were closed when we started spinning. Ramsey managed the ship until we started to slow down and descend, then I took over. Anyway, we need to get out of here quickly. It’s not safe.” He finished up the bottle of water and walked over to the cockpit.

  “Dax,” Ramsey called out from the cockpit. “I don’t think I’m ready to fly yet. Still feeling dizzy.”

  “I’ll take over,” Daxon offered and entered the cockpit. “Holy hell! Where is this place?”

  Nirvana frowned and quickly looked out of the window. What in the world?!

  They were in the middle of a massive pit, easily ten times the size of Soulcraft, filled with hundreds of naked, dead bodies.

  “This is our central cemetery for this region. We ship all our dead here to be processed and turned into either compost or fuel,” Zane explained loudly from the cockpit. “We have to leave soon before the hearse drones detect us, or the smell of the dead sticks onto our ship and gives us away later.”

  “All the dead?” Nirvana asked.

  “Yes. All. It’s against our law to bury or cremate the dead. You must contribute, even if you are dead. Hey, don’t look at me like that. My father made the law, not me.”

  “Go now,” Levi growled as he looked at the scene outside the window in disgust. “Or you will all have to clean the stink off the landing probes with me later.”

  “Won’t be too hard of a scrub,” Ramsey said as he climbed onto the seat Daxon had vacated earlier. “Our boy wonder here managed to land on some kind of platform. Damn, that was some skill. I would never have guessed he was capable of that.” He shook his head.

  Asan shot Nirvana a loo
k of concern, and she knew what he was thinking.

  One couldn’t help but wonder how much more Zanetos Hayashi hiding?

  Chapter 45

  “Time check. 1524 on Chikara. We’re two hours ahead of schedule,” Daxon announced after Soulcraft landed.

  “I’d like to just get it over and done with. We have our plans in place. Does the timing really matter?” Alden asked.

  “Actually, now is a good time to go through the jungle,” Nirvana suggested, looking at Zane for a reaction. As much as she was in love with him, she had to remind herself to be prudent, in case he wasn’t who she thought he might be. “Drone patrols are increased at night and we can’t really see as well as in the day, even with night vision,” she explained to him. “Alden and I can go in now, take a short break near the lake, then enter when the sun has set.”

  Zane looked conflicted for a moment. “Let me do a patch and see if they’ve changed their drone patrol schedules,” he said, setting up his equipment.

  Nirvana could see that Zane’s fingers were visibly shaking as he typed. She wanted to say something comforting to him when Alden called out from outside the spacecraft, “Captain! You haven’t tried moving around with the hovershoes. You should.”

  “I’ve used them before, in fact, every time I’m in Long Jing. That’s how Ching got my size right,” Nirvana said as she stepped out of Soulcraft and walked over to Alden, who was holding out the pair of hovershoes. She sat down on one of the metal equipment cases and put them on.

  “I don’t trust him,” Alden said in a low voice as he knelt down beside her to help her with the shoes. “We shouldn’t stick to the plan all the way. Make some deviations.”

  Nirvana reached out and squeezed his wrist twice to show him that she acknowledged what he was saying but continued buckling her shoes in silence.

  She had thought earlier that the MLink would blast their minds open to each other, no holds barred. It was a mixture of disappointment and relief when the first thing Zane taught her after her recovery was how to shield their minds from each other. She had accepted it because she thought he was worried how his mental health might affect her, but now she was beginning to have some doubts.