Ava, page 29
part #1 of Secrets of the Ship Series
“Whoa,” he remarked, “I was out there and now I’m here… That’s wild. Thanks.”
He approached her, ready to land a thankful hand to her shoulder, but she pushed him away as a bolt of deadly energy tore through the closing gap of the ship and exploded in a spray of blinding sparks off an interior bulkhead. “Thank me later,” she replied, “we need to get off this planet, remember? Getting here was only half the fight.”
“Right,” he nodded, getting to his feet. Dull explosions rocked the hull as energy crashed against it creating deep pressure waves that travelled through the Ixion. Feelo charged through the ship, towards the bridge where Caesar sat waiting.
“Where have you been!?” a slight tinge of panic laced his words.
“Oh, you know,” Feelo replied whilst jumping into the pilot’s seat. “You better strap in, this is gonna be rough.”
“What’s new…” the ageing man grumbled as he made way for a breathless Ava.
“We ready?” she asked, listening to the increasing frequency of the incoming rounds, “it’s getting worse and it won’t be long before they get a lucky shot off on something vital.”
“Just… One… Second…” he stretched across the console before flicking a switch, “there!” The entire ship sprang to life. The generators on the lower deck rumbled through the superstructure. A deafening, sickly wheeze came from the engines as they spluttered online before roaring to life, spewing blue flames from the exhausts like coronal ejections. He had no idea how many soldiers were outside now, but whoever was near the ship would be diving for cover. “Strap in,” he smirked, “let’s get out of here and save the galaxy.”
She shook her head. “Always so dramatic.”
He lifted the Ixion from the landing pad and used the ship’s gravitational drives to bring it to a vertical, pointing towards the sky.
“This is gonna suck,” he said. Power surged from the generators to the drive engines and propelled the ship forwards at incredible speeds. He was pushed back into his seat and bit his lip as the entire ship rocked from side to side as the thrust vectoring struggled to keep the Ixion from destabilising.
“Something’s not right,” said Ava whilst swiping through the flight systems. The ship bucked and yawed sharply to the right triggering a deafening alarm.
“Can you check it,” he squirmed, holding on to the flight stick, only just managing to keep them from spiralling out of control and heading back where they came from. Ava struggled against the G-forces to lean over and check the alarm.
“Erm…” she panicked.
“What is it!?” Feelo yelled over the moaning ship.
“It’s not good… We’ve got incoming. They’re disrupting our thrust.”
“Great. How many?”
“A lot.”
“A lot, a lot, or just a lot?”
“A lot, a lot,” she emphasised.
“Why always us?” he sighed, bringing a screen online. It populated with hundreds of signatures, many of which were neutral travellers, but the swarm of red triangles which approached from every direction was enough for him to gulp nervously. “That’s a lot.”
“That’s what I said! What are we gonna do?”
“Let me think!” he looked across ill-maintained console, seeing what was online and functional in the sea of counter-measures and weapons which were either broken or unreliable. He sat up straight in his seat and smiled. “If we can get out of the atmosphere, I’ve got something… I think.”
“Something that’ll work against those massive cruisers and frigates waiting for us up there?” she struggled to believe him as the sky outside darkened as they neared the edge of the mesosphere.
Feelo gave her a non-commital shrug before focusing on the incoming transmission into space. The entire ship shook as plasma licked across the front window creating an oil painting of vibrant oranges and blues which blurred their vision. But, after a few more fearful seconds they punched through the planet’s atmosphere and emerged into the cold blackness of space. He wasted no time and accelerated hard. The thrusters kicked up a gear and flared a fragrant azure, propelling them away from danger and towards safety.
“Incoming on channel seven,” Ava declared, “it’s from a registered TUPOS frequency.”
“Ignore it,” said Feelo, looking down at the console, noticing the hard-red light which showed they were within the planet’s local interdiction field which blocked faster-than-light travel.
“They seem insistent.”
He rolled his eyes, dragged the communicator over his head and accepted the call. “What?”
“This is Captain Paul of the T.S.F. Vanguard. Lower your speed and prepare to be towed into our hangar and boarded. Comply if you value your life.”
“Jokes on you,” replied Feelo, “my life has no value.” With that, he pushed the accelerator to its fullest. The Ixion groaned and shuddered, it’s entire structure sounding as if it were about to implode.
“Incoming enforcement!” Ava yelled, “I count fifteen ships with more launching from the police carrier now.”
“I just need a few more minutes.”
A boom which exploded through the ship was followed by a cobalt latticework from the shields which wrapped around the front window, indicating their pursuers patience had been eroded. He threw the ship to port and glimpsed the ground fighters rushing past. The radar was awash with incoming enemy activity, they had jammed a fist through the centre of a beehive and now hoped to not get stung.
Suddenly, an alarm blared from the console. Feelo looked to Ava as he threw the ship about in an erratic evasive pattern. She reached over and her already panicked features turned dark. “We’ve got another problem,” she said.
“Tell me something I don’t know!” he gritted his teeth.
Ava unstrapped herself and grabbed onto one of the computer banks as the ship tilted to its side. “We’ve got a leak in the engine room,” she yelled, “I’m on it, though, don’t worry.”
He didn’t pay her any attention – He couldn’t. But she ran from the bridge down towards the sealed engine room. With both hands, she turned the door’s release and immediately a cloud of blood-red steam rushed from the room. Coughing, she pulled her shirt over her nose and stepped into the now below-freezing enclosure. MECO’s two blue eyes blinked through the mist as it sat in the corner, charging its batteries, unaware that the entire ship could break apart at any moment.
“How’s it going down there!?” Feelo’s voice barked from the intercom.
“Great…” said Ava, rummaging through a bag of supplies in a locker, “where’s the stupid borcilian sealant on this junk heap!”
“In the second overhead bin, Ellie put it there ‘cause I kept leaving it out.”
She reached above her and unlocked one of the bins. A slew of bottles, tins, and opened bags poured out as if it had all just been jammed in there and closed. Her anger flared, as she grabbed the sealant and turned to the engine. The blood steam pumped out at regular intervals from behind the giant machine. The engine sat snug in its compartment and its rear was only accessible through a tight gap between its protective railings and the wall. She sucked in her stomach and squeezed through the opening. Her vision was restricted to inches as she felt the pipework for a leak, complaining under her breath at the ship’s lack of advanced diagnostic and repair tools. But eventually, she found the cracked negative pressure point and applied some of the thick gel. After a few seconds in the air, it hardened into a bond across the wound which stemmed the flow of the noxious coolant.
Above deck, however, Feelo swung the Ixion into a vertical loop. TUPOS fighters rushed past as he banked them back in on themselves before throwing the craft to port. The edge of the interdiction zone neared, represented by a blue sphere on his HUD that enveloped the planet. But a deafening boom struck the side of the ship. Sparks flew from the consoles on the bridge and the concussive force from the impact threw Feelo face-first onto the flight controls. For a moment his entire world spun. The wailing alarm sounded as if it came from underwater and the new warning lights which erupted around him intensified his already pounding headache.
“Ugh, man,” he gingerly touched his forehead as his senses returned. Pulling his hand away he noticed a stream of blood trickling between his fingers. “Okay, that’s enough of this.” The Ixion’s belly opened, the separated parts tucking back against the hull. Fingering through a screen of what armaments they had aboard, he made his choice and took in a final, deep breath. “Here goes nothing.”
He cut the ship’s forward motion and engaged a brutal reverse thrust. He was thrown about by the immense forces the gravitational plating exerted on their bodies as it tried to stifle the negative G’s coming from the move. As expected, the chasing fighters rushed past the cabin window, unable to match his unpredictable movement. It was then he turned the ship on its axis and slammed a hand against the firing command. A small pod dropped from the weapons bay. Within seconds it burnt a white-hot with azure mist leaking from its construction. Then, with a smile and a short, sarcastic salute, he pressed the trigger.
The pod exploded into a spherical shimmering sapphire field. It quickly expanded, growing faster than any could have expected. Every ship caught in its field went dark, their electronics and engines fried. Fighter after fighter was caught in the trap until a sea of metal drifted through space, waiting for their recovery.
Feelo let out a cheer and punched the air. “Woo! Hell yeah, see ya later, suckers.”
With that, he crossed the interdiction boundary and set a course for the nearest uninhabited system. He took one final glance at the planet on the computer’s viewer before shaking his head, disappointed that they couldn’t get what they needed to help in the upcoming fight. But there was little time to waste, so with the FTL cranked up and charged, he pushed them into subspace where they disappeared from the system and into the unknown.
22
THE KEY
The distant hum of the FTL drive soothed Feelo’s spent mind. He laid back in the captain’s aware of the blood that trickled down from the wound which bit deep into his forehead. His eyes closed, he thought about what was to come, what they had to do next. Their trail had gone cold, all they had to go on was “following the light,” a cryptic riddle no one understood.
“Fee!” a woman’s voice – Ellie’s voice – called out from behind him, “are you all right?”
He opened his eyes as she cleaned the oozing wound. “Yeah, I’m fine,” he pushed himself upright, “it’s just a flesh wound.”
Ellie tutted as she pulled him from his seat. “That’s more than a flesh wound. You need stitches.”
Feelo shrugged and followed her from the bridge almost colliding with Ava jogging up the stairs. “Engines not looking great,” she said, panting. “I’ve applied a quick fix, but she needs to be shut down and looked over in the next few days.”
“Great…” Feelo wiped away the fresh blood meandering down his nose, “can’t something just be easy for once.” Walking past Caesar, he saw the man studying printed out star charts but thought nothing of it. In medical, he jumped up onto the bed and sat on its edge, kicking his legs back and forth like a child waiting for an ice-cream. “How long’s this gonna take?” he asked, “we’ve gotta find that Vanth ship and do… Something.”
Ellie approached with a long device in hand and held his head still with the other while she sprayed the thin liquid over the wound. “And what are we going to do?”
“We’re gonna take it on head-first.”
“Is that wise?”
“Probably not, but someone has to do something. They’ve already attacked Intu, already attacked us. With these new… These new powers Ava and I have we won’t be far from the top on their list of ‘thing’s we don’t like.’”
“I don’t doubt it, but there has to be more to this than that? You can’t expect to take on their firepower with, and I’m sorry, this,” she looked around the room. “I love her as much as anyone else, it’s home for me, but she’s not in the best of health and certainly not equipped to fight off more than a squadron of fighters.” She pulled back, thumbing away the last few remaining droplets of stitching liquid that clung to his skin, “anyway, you’re good to go.” Feelo jumped to his feet, stretching his arms out wide to relax his muscles, “but please… Go easy for a few days – For me, okay?”
“I’ll try, I promise.” He found Ava and Caesar looking over a seemingly random assortment of star charts. “What’s all this then?”
Caesar flipped through the archaic charts, muttering to himself before angrily pushing them away and sitting back, his arms folded. “There has to be something – right? This whole ‘light’ stuff can’t just be some wild goose chase… Can it?”
“Why not?” Feelo said, tentatively touching Ellie’s repair, “the Tarchon have hardly been good to us, have they? No offence, Ava.”
“None… Taken?” she raised an eyebrow. The room fell silent while she examined the maps. They showed the known galaxy, each star, gaseous body, hazard, and anomaly were mapped. To the untrained eye, they were a jumble of numbers, lines, and pictographs that seemed to convey little information. But with some basic knowledge, they came together in a forced harmony that gave the pilot or starfarer almost everything they needed to map a course. “What about if we take it literally,” she said, “’the light that binds,’ it could refer to a dense star with an intense gravity well.”
Feelo shrugged. “It could – Sure. Doesn’t that seem a bit… I dunno, a bit pointless, though? Any of the Tarchon could have just given us some stellar coordinates to the star and, knowing us, we’d have jumped at the opportunity and rushed there first thing. There has to be more to it.”
“What about here?” she pointed to a gaseous region on the map near the edges of the Milky Way, “it’s a nebula – a star factory – if you bend the meaning enough this could refer to something close to a ‘light that binds.’”
“Again, you could be right,” Feelo puffed out his cheeks before getting up and flicking on the coffee machine, “I suppose I was just expecting something a little more… Spiritual… Theatrical. With the puzzles and cryptic rubbish these lot spout I just thought it would be deeper.”
“Why does it need to be?” asked Ava, “if we were waiting for something ‘spiritual’ then we could be waiting millennia.”
“Or!” Caesar jumped to his feet, “how about…” just as he was about to propose his idea a silent alarm bathed the kitchen in a deep, pulsating crimson. Feelo jumped to his feet and grabbed the data pad from the wall. ‘Foreign body detected in the hold, locking down area,’ it read. He turned it to face the crew who each recoiled, their eyes widening whilst their hands moved towards their holstered weapons.
“Come on,” Feelo whispered.
The stairs rattled with every ‘silent’ footstep and the grating that made up the floor would have woken the dead, but in their minds, they acted with guile and grace. They pressed up against the computer-locked hatch that led into engineering. Feelo laid a hand on the manual release and pulled away, nodding to Ava.
“Why me!?” she protested.
“You’re the one with the gun!” he angrily whispered back, thrusting a finger towards her pistol.
“God, I hate children,” grumbled Caesar, pushing them out of the way. “Ready?” he looked back at the pair who both nodded. With that he burst the door open and rushed through with his weapon aloft – But the room was empty. “Clear,” he whispered, heading cautiously towards the hatch that led into the hold. He slammed through the entrance and stopped, his arms locked in place and his weapon trained on something.
“What’s going on?” Feelo asked, trying to sneak a peek.
“Put your hands where I can see them!” shouted Caesar, “no funny business!” He advanced towards his target giving the others a clear view. Stood at the centre of the hold was the blonde woman from the port, she held her hands high whilst looking past Caesar towards Feelo and Ava.
“She’s fine,” said Feelo, “put your weapon away.” After a glare that would have killed a weaker man, Caesar holstered his weapon. The nameless woman lowered her hands and took a step towards the team. “Nope, stay where you are, I have no idea how you got onboard let alone why.”
“My place is beside you as you grow into the man you are destined to be.”
“She sounds like my mum…” Feelo said. “Anyway, how did you get onboard? And how did you evade the sensors for so long?”
“If you will something enough its form will become a reality.”
Feelo rubbed his aching forehead and closed his eyes. “What? Okay… But there has to be more to this than you just wanting to come along for the ride.”
She smiled. “The start of your journey ends and the light is revealed; I must be here to oversee the transformation.”
“But why? We still don’t have a plan.”
“Your instincts will lead you towards the righteous path.”
Feelo grew frustrated. “Speak plainly, your riddles are lost on us.”
“Your enemy – Our enemy – has already tainted these lands. One of their travel gates sits at the heart of this plain, offering distant adversaries a highway to your heartlands.”
Feelo clapped his hands together. “That’s more like it, something I can understand. This gate, it’s at the heart of the galaxy, right? That could only mean one thing.”
“The black hole,” whispered Ava.
“Exactly. If we can find that and destroy it, they couldn’t bring reinforcements when we destroy that ship.”
“Well, what are we waiting for?” asked Caesar, “let’s get out there and finish this.”
“Do not walk blindly into blazes, unsure if they blister,” the woman said. “I am here to assist and there is much to share before we tackle the beast.”
