The Last Horizon

Chapter 13

I retracted the landing gear as we climbed away from Cybelle. Suddenly, a jagged white light rippled across the sky and shook the Zephyr as we rose above the mining sites and cleared the mountain ranges.

We were pushed against our seats as we hit Mach 4 and gained altitude over Nexus.

“Scotty, how are you doing?” I asked. When he didn’t answer, I looked over my shoulder as saw that he had passed out.

I saw a thick dark cloud in the distance. It was huge and had to be at least fifteen or twenty miles long and a mile high. I looked at the scanner and it was defined as a solid mass moving across the sky.

“What is that?” I asked aloud as I stared at the strange undulating cloud.

“Butterflies.” Summer said softly as she turned her head and looked at me.

“What?”

“Those are butterflies. Every five years they come home to Fluture.”

“Incredible. Take a good look at them, Summer. They’re the last you’ll see of Nexus.”

Summer looked on silently as we watched the butterfly migration dancing in the morning light, thousands of fragile wings fluttered blue like brilliant jewels.

The terrain vanished as we ascended into the high cloud banks. She lowered her head and cried quietly.

“Thank you, Nikki.”

I smiled as I tipped the Zephyr’s nose up and the sky darkened as we punched through the ionosphere.

“We’ll going hypersonic as soon as we clear Nexus’ gravitational pull. Then we’re only six days from Earth.”

“I didn’t know your planet was that close.”

“It’s not. Summer, there’s something you need to know about our journey…”

_____________

When we stabilized in deep space, I engaged the auto-pilot and Summer helped me tend to Scotty’s injuries with the medi-pac. He had lost a lot of blood from the nasty lacerations, but he seemed alert.

“We need to get the suit and shirt off, Scotty. Summer, can you grab that bag over there?”

“Go easy, I think my wounds finally stopped bleeding.”

“What’s left of your shirt is soaked.” I tossed it aside, took a wet rag, and wiped the dried blood and grime off his upper body as his wounds started bleeding again.

“Geez, what happened to you?” I gasped as I used some steri-pads to clean his forearm and abdomen. “Any gunshot wounds?”

“No, I’m not shot. Long story, Nikki.” He grimaced as he bit his lower lip. “Shit that stings!”

“Sorry about that. I’ve got just what you need, hang on.” I stood up and went to the cargo bay. I opened the container with the whiskey, grabbed a bottle, and brought it back to the bridge.

“Here, this will take the sting off.” I opened the bottle and handed it to Scotty, “Go ahead, take a slug.”

Scotty nodded with a smile. “Cheers.” He took a long swig and lay back against the wall.

“Give me some of that, I could use a drink myself.” I grabbed the bottle and took a shot. “So, you were saying you had a story. Well, I’m all ears.”

Summer gave me a puzzled look. “All ears?”

“Just an expression from home.” I grinned. “Who did this to you, Scotty?”

“I’ll give you the condensed version.” Scotty groaned as he sat up. “I was hunting in the mountains the other day, and on my way back to camp, I was attacked by a Tavara pack. As you can see, they tore me up pretty bad. Barely made it out of there in one piece.”

“Hunting is illegal in Icarus.” Summer gave him a wary look.

“You went to Nexus to poach?” I asked doubtfully as I took out an injector and popped an anesthelogical cartridge into the casing and began to administer the local painkiller.

“Can you hand me that?” I asked Summer as I pointed at a stainless steel instrument in the kit.

“Yeah, I was hunting illegally,” Scotty took a deep breath and clenched his hands into fists as I began to seal the flow of blood with a medical cauterizer, “you might say things didn’t go exactly as planned.”

“Am I supposed to believe that’s why so many cops were chasing you?”

“As I told you before, the less you know about me the better off you are.” He coughed as he took another drink. “This is really good hooch.”

“Uh-huh. Back to working that sorry-ass “mysterious stranger” act again, I see.” I shook my head as I sutured the wounds closed.

“Have it your way, Scotty.” I winked as I smeared antibiotic ointment around the abrasions, and we bandaged him up.

“Here, take these for the pain.” I handed him a couple of pills. “They’ll help fight infection and make you sleepy too.”

“Nice job, Nikki.”

“What do you want me to do with this?” I held up the weapon he brought onboard with him.

“Careful with that, it’s a Kirsten Automatic.”

“Hunting, huh?” I chuckled.

“Just put it in my pack.” Scotty said thinly.

“We’re done here.” I exhaled in relief. “Let’s get you into the e-pod, we’ve got a ways to go before we get to the Pipe, and you need the rest.”

_____________

Scotty woke up two days later and joined us on the bridge. It was good to see him moving around and he was recovering nicely. He seemed to be in high spirits and his appetite was voracious, unfortunately, he was limited to FFR’s and vitapacks to satisfy his hunger.

Summer’s mood was also lighter considering she left everything behind in Fluture. It seemed like a great weight had been lifted from her shoulders now that she was starting over with her life.

I got to know her better as the days passed and she told me the story of her life in Nexus. I was impressed by her ability to adopt and survive a lifetime of abuse and overcome an addiction that brought ruin to so many people.

She was an incredible and courageous girl, proud and strong, and I was glad our lives crossed paths.

She was moving on, and so was I. Behind the innocence of her youth was the heart of a warrior; a girl that wouldn’t give up hope, and a girl that would fight to keep her dreams alive. We decided to stick together for a while when we got back to Earth. We would help each other put the pieces of our lives back together.

Our friendship is just one of those things that I’ve come to consider a gift from fate. She and I came from such different upbringings but somehow a thread had pulled us together. It’s like we were meant to be friends, and even the light years couldn’t put the distance between us.

Scotty remained a mystery to me. There was still a side of his personality that remained hidden and dark, but all I had to do was look into his eyes and the whole story was right there. I managed to get one look in when we were in Cybelle, and it was like looking at the floor of an ocean; shadowy, unpredictable, and desolate.

We braced ourselves as I ramped the drives to full capacity and headed into the void of the Event Horizon. We were going home at last…