The Last Horizon

Chapter 7

I flipped the drives to idle and they slipped into a quiet hum that was ghosted by the drone of the thrusters. The Zephyr was damaged and wouldn’t be able to take a pounding like that again.

“Cut your main burners, pilot.” Seinz’s voice ordered coldly through the cast.

I reached forward and hit the toggles and the jets began to shut down.

“Aviator, engage your auto-pilot and maintain cruising speed. Keep the gravity cells enabled and prepare to be boarded.” Another male voice commanded on my headset.

The seconds ticked by painfully slow. I took a deep breath and cringed at the thought of what lay in store for me in the time I had left. Scotty should be ejecting soon. I hoped he would be able to get safely to the shipping lanes.

The Zephyr’s cargo bay had a simple lay-out; there was a small overhead crane on a track running above a narrow center aisle. The floor was a grated poly-alloy that allowed for the cross-ventilation of cargo. The containers of cosmetics were stacked on each side of the aisle in two rows twenty feet high from front to back for fast, easy unloading.

A minute later a small shuttle had deployed from the Moria and descended to the right side of the Zephyr where the docking port was located. There was a heavy clang as it clamped to the port collar and the decon chamber in my ship began to depressurize.

The stainless steel locking bolts of the port hatch beeped electronically and opened with a mechanical whirr. The neoprene seals hissed softly and the thick hatch swung open as light from the foreign ship flooded the chamber. A faint whine of fans penetrated the silence as a small airborne reconnaissance drone hovered into the compartment and paused to survey the area.

The sensor for the bulkhead door to the cargo hold chirped twice, a LED status light mounted above the entrance blinked green, and the door automatically slid open. The probe hung in the chill for a few seconds, then crossed the threshold. The Zephyr was officially invaded.

The automaton floated six feet above the floor and drifted slowly into the Zephyr’s dark hold between the crates. Suddenly, the drone projected a thin, pale blue light and began to scan the cargo hold from the grated floor to the perforated ceiling panels as it glided forward in the direction of the cockpit.

Seconds later, shadows emerged through the door of the chamber and the gloom was pierced by thin red beams from the laser sights of assault rifles. Three figures appeared and slowly moved forward through the dim compartment single file.

Scott stretched out on top of a group of crates located in the middle of the cargo hold. He inched forward to the edge of the container and peered down as the probe hovered past him. He controlled his breathing and closed his eyes as he reached down and pulled a Black Raven automatic pistol from a nylon holster strapped to his leg.

He watched in silence as he sized-up the bandits when they passed below him. Scott could tell from their silhouettes that two of them were wearing night vision goggles, but all of them were trussed in ballistic vests. He could also see the plumes of breath being expended from their rebreathers.

The pirates knew how to move through unfamiliar space to an extent, but they weren’t professional soldiers. They were careful in the way they pressed through the cargo bay--they kept their spacing eight feet apart and two constantly scanned the opposite areas to their sides while the pointman focused on what was in front of them. Their only mistake was a fatal one: they neglected their overhead and relied too much on the reconnaissance drone for accurate information. Amateurs.

Scott attached the flash and sound suppressor to the pistol and flicked off the safety. As far as he was concerned, they walked right into a kill zone…

I heard the bulkhead door to the pressure lock slide open, a few seconds passed then the cockpit door opened and a probe trekked into the bridge and came to a hover less than a foot away from my face. I felt the small wafts of air from its power source buffeting gently against my skin and could hear the whirr of small servos as it adjusted its pitch to maintain level flight in front of me.

“Aviator,” a deep, electronically enhanced voice sounded from behind, “remain facing forward, put your hands on your head, and stand.”

I raised my arms slowly and laced my fingers together as I placed them on top of my head. The probe stayed at eye level as I rose to my feet. Why hasn’t Scotty ejected yet? Why is he still on board? I wondered as I stared out the canopy.

The intruders stood in a half circle around me with their weapons raised. “Pilot, turn and face me.” The one behind me ordered.

They removed their rebreathers and I was surprised to see the one to my right was a female. She was a little taller than I was and had straight, platinum blond hair that fell to her shoulders. Her emerald-green eyes were cold and unnerving; I could see her lean frame even with a kevlar vest and rebreather pack on.

The two men were a little over six feet tall. The tallest of the trio was also the oldest--probably in his mid-forties. He was also the one that gave the orders. His skin was fair, and he had red hair pulled back into a ponytail. He frowned as he eyed me suspiciously. The second male had short, dark hair; and there was a nasty scar that ran from his left temple down to his chin.

“So you’re the one that interrupted my dinner and pissed-off Seinz.” The younger male said menacingly as he passed his eyes over me. “You’re just his type,” he grinned as he eased his weapon down and took a step closer, “mine too.”

“Keep it tucked, Edik.” The female interjected. “No one touches her for now.”

“Oh come on, Echo,” the young male replied as he frowned at his female shipmate, “just let me have a little fun with her. Seinz don’t have to know.”

“In your dreams, numbnuts.” I growled. “Not in this lifetime or the next.”

“Woo! I’m gonna have to teach you some manners.” Edik snarled as he leaned into my face.

I could feel his breath as he brought his head down and sniffed the left side of my neck behind my ear. I turned my head the other way and closed my eyes in disgust. “EEW!”

“Edik that’s enough!” Echo said firmly. “You’ll have plenty of time to use her later.”

“Mmmm!” Edik exhaled loudly as he closed his eyes. “You smell delicious…” he smacked.

“And you…just smell.” I grimaced. “You remind me of something I saw floating in the water closet of a public restroom, except the lump of shit had more personality than you.” I smiled.

“Why you little…”

“Give it a rest, Edik.” Echo smirked as she put her hand on his shoulder and pulled him back. She kept her weapon pointed at me. “What was your point of origin, pilot?”

“Earth.”

“What was your destination?”

“Medusa.”

“Solo flight, thousands of miles away from the main shipping lanes, and we didn’t detect any distress signals from you when we fired on your vessel.” Echo stated matter-of-factly. “You’re a smuggler.”

“That means she has no manifest.” Edik leered.

Echo shouldered her rifle and turned to Edik, “Cover me. I’m going to pat her down for weapons.”

She took a step closer and gestured for me to turn around. “Take off the jacket slowly.”

I removed my bomber jacket, let it fall to the floor, and put my hands back on my head.

“Look what we’ve got here,” Echo smiled as she grabbed my Cobalt from the shoulder holster, and handed it to Edik.

“What do you have in the hold?” The older man demanded.

“Deodorants and skin care products for androgynous, ponytailed male hijackers.”

“Wiseass!” He pressed the barrel of his rifle between my eyes. “I otta blow your fu…”

“Back off Grey.” Echo said calmly as she took my tactical knife from its sheath. “Seinz wants her alive for now.” She continued to pat me down. Echo paused for a second and sighed as she removed the ankle wrap with the spikes and tossed it to Edik. “Why don’t you make yourself useful and see what she’s got in the back?”

Edik examined the spikes and shook his head.

“Yeah, Edik, take the probe and check it out.” Grey ordered. “Echo, can you run a diagnostic on this ship?”

“I’ll work on access.” Echo said sternly as she stood back up and stared at me. “She’s clean.” Echo nodded then backhanded my left cheek hard. “You’ll do what you’re told if you know what’s good for you.”

“Grey what’s your status?” A deep voice sounded over the older man’s headset.

“The ship’s secure, Seinz. It’s just the pilot--no passengers.”

“Send someone back to the shuttle and find out what’s going on with Rell.” Seinz said angrily. “I’ve been trying to reach him for the last ten minutes. If he’s asleep at the controls again I’m going to dump his ass out here.”

“Give us a few more minutes and I’ll have Edik look in on him.”

“What’s she hauling?”

“Don’t know yet. Edik’s checking on the cargo now.”

“Hurry it up. We just picked something up on the scanners. Something’s heading toward us.”

“10-4, Seinz.” Grey said humorlessly. He put his hand over the left ear piece of his headset. “Rell, you copy?”

Silence.

“Rell, you there?” Grey shook his head with disgust. “Bastard!”

“Seinz is right,” Echo glanced over from the instrument panel, “he probably fell asleep again. You know how he is.”

A few minutes later, Edik reappeared with a bottle and the duffle bag.

“What’s that?” Grey asked.

“First crate I opened is full of this hooch!” Edik beamed as he took a swig of whiskey and belched.”

“Gimme that!” Grey snagged the bottle out of Edik’s hands and studied it. “Moving alcohol across space.” Grey raised the bottle to his nose and sniffed. “This is the good stuff.”

“Alcohaulin’!” Edik grinned. “And check this out!” He held up the bag.

“What’s in it?”

Edik set the duffle bag on the floor, unzipped it, and stood back up with a huge smile.

“Damn!” Grey’s eyes widened as he stared at my money. “Anything else we should know about?” Grey frowned.

“Yes, the dietary supplements I’ve been taking give me a nasty case of the vapors, how does my ass smell?”

“This one’s trouble, Grey,” Edik glared as he held up my ankle wrap, “I say you let me have at her for a few, then we end her and tell Seinz she tried to pull some shit.”

“Shut up, Edik!” Grey spat. “Get back to the shuttle and wake up Rell. We’re bringing her back to the Moria.”

Edik shouldered his rifle and stomped through the pressure lock. The drone followed him through as the door slid shut and he headed back to their ship…

Scott moved silently into the shadows of the last stack of containers that stood next to the door of the decon compartment when he heard footsteps coming down the aisle. He stood motionless in the darkness with his back against the wall and his weapon in his left hand.

The pirates had gotten careless and assumed Nikki was alone. This was a mistake Scott would exploit. He let Edik walk by and enter the chamber.

“Rell, you dumbass!” Edik bellowed as he stepped into the shuttle and trudged into the cockpit where he saw his partner sitting in the pilot seat facing forward. “Wake up you idiot! Grey’s really pissed!” He grabbed Rell’s right shoulder and shook him.

Rell’s head lolled back and forth lifelessly and his body slumped forward and fell against the instrument panel. Edik jumped back in shock and turned around when Scott pulled the trigger of the Raven and put two rounds into Edik’s forehead. The back of Edik’s skull blew open and canopy was splattered with blood, small lumps of gray matter, and bone as his body was thrown backwards from the impact.

Scott grabbed the drone and smashed it against the wall where it blew apart with a shower of sparks and smoke. He moved quickly through the Zephyr’s cargo hold with the Raven drawn in front of him and stopped at the bulkhead that led to the cockpit…

The Zephyr shook hard and almost knocked me off balance when warheads detonated and rocked the Moria Balá. I looked through the canopy and saw the flash of the Moria’s pulse cannons firing rapidly; the Seekers had arrived and were making their run. They homed-in on Seinz’s heat signature and strafed his vessel with their pulse cannons.

“We need to get back to the ship!” Grey shouted as he turned his attention to the unfolding chaos outside.

I started laughing when one of the Serrenian drones attached itself to the Moria’s fuselage and drove a tentacle through a gun turret and began pulling the panels apart.

“Echo! Let’s get back to the shuttle!” Grey shouted in a panic as he stumbled backwards toward the pressure lock. “Let’s go! Let’s go!”

Echo grabbed her rifle and growled. “What about her?”

Grey looked at me. “What the hell are you laughing at?”

“Sequence, 3M-TA3.” I chortled, “Initiate.”

“What the hell was that?” Echo blurted.

The bridge lights dimmed, flickered brightly three times, and began to pulse in red. “The beginning of the end.” I smiled and glanced at the control panel. “Seinz can you hear me?”

“Who is this?” Seinz screamed back over the intercom. I could hear the pandemonium of his crew’s hysterical shouts mixed with loud popping noises and explosions in the background as the Moria engaged the Seekers in battle.

“How do you like our new friends?”

“I think she enabled the ship to self-destruct!” Echo piped as she looked at the blinking lights on the instrument panels.

“YOU DID THIS!” Seinz roared.

“Hubba-hubba-hubba!” I laughed.

Grey stepped into the pressure lock and the door to the cargo hold slid open. “Echo, NOW!” He yelled and turned, “Let’s get the hell out of…” Scott stepped in front of him and punched his throat with a left jab before he had a chance to finish his sentence. Grey’s eyes widened with surprise as he dropped his weapon and clutched his neck; he made a loud croaking noise then his eyes rolled white before he collapsed into a crumpled heap on the floor.

“Grey!” Echo screamed in horror as she turned her attention to her fallen comrade. I dropped to the floor and spun counter-clockwise with a leg sweep that knocked Echo off her feet and sent her sprawling on her back against the grating while her rifle bounced out of her hands and landed a few feet away.

Echo jumped back up immediately and pulled out a Kirsten Automatic pistol as I dove for her assault rifle, grabbed it, and fired a burst into her abdomen as I lay prone on the floor. The impact slammed her against a support column, and her body went limp as she slid down to her knees and fell face first to the grating.

“Bitch!” I cussed.

“Nikki, you okay?” Scotty asked.

“We need to get these scumbags off the Zephyr and strap in!” I replied as I picked up Echo’s sidearm.

The Zephyr lurched hard to the right and we were thrown against a bulkhead. I staggered awkwardly to my seat and squinted through the canopy at the flickering particle lites from the laser fire outside. A Seeker ripped a huge panel from the Moira’s fuselage and penetrated her hull…

“Scotty!” I shouted hoarsely. “We need to jettison that goddamn shuttle that’s attached to us or we’re screwed!”

…a blinding bluish-white light flashed from the Moria--it seemed to pull everything into a vacuum of silence that lasted forever…I held my hands up to shield my eyes and time lapsed into a slow motion drift as jagged shadows danced on the bridge…

…a fraction of a second, and an internal explosion from the Moria blew out a section of her hull with an orange ball of flame. Something had ignited their O2 generators and she was actually on fire…

…a secondary blast sent fragments spinning through the darkness and debris clattered loudly against the Zephyr…I looked up and the severed upper body of one of the pirates drifted by the canopy…

“Oh god!” I cried as I put a hand over my mouth and turned away.

“Nikki!” Scotty yelled through the mayhem, “What do we need to do?”

I regained my composure and leaned over the flight panel. “Terminate false load exercise, password: Faraday.” The cabin lights stopped blinking and I double-checked the auto pilot. The drives were still on cruising speed and I could see the Moria Balá slowly pulling away from us with her guns blazing. “Let’s get these two back to their ship and ditch’em!”

Scotty frisked Grey’s wilted body and fished out my Cobalt. “Nikki, your heater.”

“Thanks.” I grinned as I holstered my weapon.

He grabbed Grey roughly and slung him effortlessly over his left shoulder. I flipped Echo over with the intent of dragging her by her arms when I saw where I had shot her. “Gee-zus!”

“What’s wrong?” Scotty asked as he carried Grey over to where I was standing.

“She’s a friggin’ AI!” I exclaimed as I stared at the exposed wires still sparking and sticking out of her stomach. Echo’s eyes were still open but the cornea of her left eye was glass black.

“I’ll be damned.” Scotty scoffed. “Come on, we’d better hurry!”

The Zephyr pitched sideways and shook hard as we moved Grey and Echo’s bodies through the cargo hold, pushed them back into their shuttle, and closed their access door. I slammed the port hatch and engaged the locks as Scotty and I backed out into the decon chamber.

“We’re done. Let’s get back to the bridge!” I exhaled.

We strapped ourselves into our seats as I watched the Moria tangle with the Seekers. Two of them had already attached themselves to their ship and were pulling it apart. Even with the distance between us, we could hear the “Thunks!” of armor-piercing rounds boring through the Moria’s hull as the other battle drones fired their cannons with every high speed pass.

I leaned forward and slammed my hand on a button that detonated a ceramic ring around the docking port. The Zephyr trembled as the shuttle blew free and floated lifelessly into the void.

“Hang on, Scotty!” I grabbed the control yoke, pulled back, and banked left as a Seeker took a direct hit from one of the Moria’s pulse cannons, spun wildly by us, and smashed into the shuttle at full speed. We were pushed against our seats as they exploded and the bridge rattled from the blastwave.

“Son-of-a-bitch that was close!” Scotty shouted over the din.

“Powering up!”

“Let’s go! Let’s go!” Scotty drummed his armrests apprehensively.

“Sequencing!” I hollered. “Going hypersonic!” The drives ramped into a high pitch as we watched the Moria Balá blow up…

…”HYPERSONIC ENABLED!” I flipped the toggles, reached down and jammed the trim levers forward, and the Zephyr left the chaos behind as she drove into the icy darkness. I adjusted our trajectory and sank into my seat as I put my headset back on and ran a systematic scan to check for damages.

I was thankful the Zephyr had redundant power source systems; with one of the main cryogen pipes that served the right hypersonic drive ruptured, I had to run a bypass to keep the drives operating. We were hit pretty bad, and I could only run them at three-quarter capacity or run the risk of squelching at full throttle.

I snickered as I shook my head and looked over at Scotty.

“Nikki, ya done good!” Scotty smiled as he exhaled loudly.

“We’ll be at Ceres Vesta in about an hour.”

“Then?”

“At the speed were going, we’ll be minutes away from the Pipe.”

“That was a hell of an experience.”

“It was nothing compared to where we’re heading.” I nodded. “Scotty, why didn’t you get in the pod and eject?”

“Not my style, Nikki. I couldn’t leave someone like you behind to face those bandits alone.”

“Thank you.” I leaned over and kissed his cheek. “It’s nice to know there’s someone watching my back.”

“You’re welcome.” Scotty blushed. “Don’t get campy on me young lady. I don’t want to get misty-eyed.”

“You know, I’ve dealt with hijackers before but never face-to-face like that. I’ve always been able to outrun them.”

“Nasty bunch, but I think it’s safe to say we won’t be seeing them again.”

“We can always hope.”

The Ceres Vesta asteroid belt was just ahead of us, and we could see thousands of rocks, chucks of ice, and wreckage from freighters floating by as we cut through the blue and yellow ion clouds that saturated the belt. Ceres Vesta’s outer fringe was a graveyard for freighters and transports.

“Is that it?” Scott gawked. “Is that the pipe?”

“Not yet. Ceres Vesta is part of the Pipe’s spin, the field is so dense that most flights avoid this sector because of the obvious threat of collusion with debris or a stone. The only ships that venture this close are usually salvage rats and platinum miners.”

“If there are salvage and mining teams working this area, don’t you think one of them would have discovered that pipe by now?”

“Yes, you would think so, but the pipe shows up on scanners as a magnetic anomaly--a huge one. I think the reason everyone avoids the inside region of Ceres Vesta is because the emissions are so strong that pilots think it will fry their instruments.”

“Will it?”

“More than likely.”

“Has it fried the Zephyrs in the past?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t know. May be they’re protected by the drive’s fields.”

“How close are we?”

“Take a look at the VDU and vector scanner.” I pointed. “See that void the asteroid field is rotating around?”

“Yes.”

“That’s a ghost cavity. It’s the center of the wormhole. We’re fifteen minutes away from the Outer Horizon. In two minutes we’ll be entering its jet at a seventy degree angle.” I concentrated on dodging the husk of a large freighter that was adrift. “When we hit the barrier you’re going to feel some turbulence when we merge into the stream. Don’t panic, it’s just tidal gravitational force. I’m going to throttle-up and we’re going with the flow.”

Scotty was silent again. He gazed at the passing ion clouds as we neared the Pipe’s jet.

“I’m going to need you to stay calm, Scotty,” I said reassuringly, “especially when we breach the Event Horizon and push into Singularity; you’re going to feel a little strange on a physiological level, but don’t freak out, okay?”

“What do you mean by “feel a little strange”?”

“I don’t know how to explain it. It’s just an eerie sensation, and your eyes may play tricks on you. It’s not unpleasant, it’s just different. Are you ready?”

“I can hardly wait.”

“Don’t be a wiseass. Brace yourself, we enter the jet in 4…3…2…1…and…”

The Zephyr reeled sideways and the cabin lights blinked as we were rocked in our seats. I pushed the levers on the center console slowly forward and ramped the drives up, they were almost at a hundred percent capacity, and I was comforted by their drone as the ship stabilized. I quietly stared out the canopy at the thin layers of ions in their shimmering blue dance against the darkness as we entered the Pipe’s jet.

“Outer event in ten.” I dimmed the overhead lights. “Romantic, eh?” I smiled.

“Who’s being the wiseass now?”

“Clearly you can’t be talking about me?” I said innocently.

“You’ve come a long way from that farm, Nikki. Can I ask you something?”

“As long as I don’t have to answer it.” I smirked.

“How did you get into this line of work?”

“There was a guy I used to date a couple of years ago. He was a weapons runner. His lifestyle fascinated me. He made a lot of money with every run, and his stories were exciting. He was exciting. The places he’d been, and the people he’d met. I wanted that life--that excitement. I wanted that edge.”

“Are you still together?”

“He vanished over a year ago. No one knows what happened to him. Possible hijacking by pirates.”

“Sorry Nikki.”

“Don’t worry about it. He knew the risks that came with the job.”

“And still you do this?”

“It’s all about the edge.” I grinned. “Here we go…”

Date: 6-24-2408 / Time: 01300 hours / Velocity: 4.43HsD

…I reached down again and pulled the drive levers back to trim their thrust output. We were already accelerating at an alarming rate in the jet. A huge blackness defined itself ahead of us, its border was illuminated by thousands of points of light in a rapid orbit…

…the instrument panels began to flicker as alarms sounded off with a loud buzz. There seemed to be a hollow reverberation ringing throughout the bridge--a loud humming noise that consumed the senses…

Date: 6-24-2408 / Time: 01307 hours / Velocity: 5.8HsD

…the Zephyr had surpassed the maximum escape velocity she could do under her own power; we were now at the mercy of the Pipe. The ion clouds were gone, and we were engulfed in darkness and being pulled into the great void…

…the points of light outside began to merge as they passed by in streaks. Outer event had been penetrated, and we were still accelerating…

Date: 6-24-2408 / Time: 01309 hours / Velocity: 7.3HsD

…the gyroscope began to spin wildly as we breached the Inner Horizon. The scanners were glitching on and off, and there was an immense silence that pervaded the cockpit. The hum of the drives, the beeps and buzzes of audio alarms, and the dull drone of the O2 generators--all sounds were pulled into total silence.

Read-outs on the VDU’s were frozen, and all the loose gear in the overhead stowage racks drifted to the ceiling…my fedora floated off the console…

Date: 6-24-2408 / Time: 01309 hours / Velocity: 9.25HsD

…we punched through the photon sphere of the Event Horizon and the lighting in the bridge took on a surreal tint; a diffused glow that cast strange shadows on the walls, like the peculiar shadows that one only sees during an eclipse. Other worldly. Even the lights of the instrument panels glittered brighter than normal…

…I had the sensation of being stretched, and when I looked up at the cockpit canopy, I saw the back of my own head…

Date: 6-24-2408 / Time: 01309 hours / Velocity: unknown

…everything seemed distorted as we approached the center…Singularity. It was difficult for me to focus my eyes and I felt like I was suspended in time…the hallucination of being frozen against a wall of ice--cold and unattached to my body.

There was no gravitational force and yet everything felt like it was being pulled in the same direction…everything seemed warped…floating aimlessly through time. I turned and told Scotty we were almost there, but I couldn’t hear my voice. The cabin and panel lights had blacked-out and we were in complete darkness.

The Pipe was quiet. Dead quiet.

Date: 6-24-2408 / Time: 01309 hours / Velocity: unknown

Suddenly, everything snapped back on, the cabin lights illuminated the bridge, and everything that was floating dropped to the floor. There was a blinding flash of light, and I held up my hands to shield my eyes. A split second, and I was pushed into my seat hard.

The alarms blared as I grabbed the yoke, and the Zephyr rattled. I looked up just in time to see the Medusa system ahead. The gravity fields of the Pipe launched us through space like a marble fired from a slingshot, and within a matter of seconds we punched through Medusa’s heliosphere.

I began a vector scan to confirm our trajectory to Nexus as I stabilized the Zephyr. To our right, we saw Jain 134; a huge blue-green planet with four moons. It was gorgeous and I could see the rays of Medusa’s sun pierce its horizon as we passed.

“Scotty, are you okay?”

“I can’t believe we’re alive.” Scotty gazed through the canopy and sank into his seat.

“Four minutes to Nexus. I hope Kurlie’s people are paying attention.”

“Just like that? We’re actually in a different solar system now?”

“Yes, we’re in Medusa, over three parsecs from home.” I replied.

“How long would this flight have taken if we didn’t go through that wormhole?”

“About ten weeks, give or take a few days, depending on our speed. A definite hypersleep voyage.”

Scotty looked at his wristwatch. “Do you realize it’s still the same time now that it was when we were on the other side of that thing?”

“So what’s your point?”

“Just a thought, but did it ever occur to you that every time you went through the Pipe to shave weeks off your schedule that time froze for you?”

“Froze?”

“Yes, the ten weeks you just saved; I think you and I may not have aged, but everyone else did. Everyone we know is now ten weeks older.”

“May be that’s why things seemed a bit off with people whenever I got back from a run.”

“It’s a possibility.”

“This conversation is making my head hurt, and your inner geek is showing. Are you always such a pain?”

We looked at each other and started laughing hard. We needed the levity badly. This was the only time I’ve had a passenger on a run, and I was glad I wasn’t alone for the journey. Scotty had saved my life, and now he saved my sanity.

Nexus filled the canopy. It was a little larger than Earth but had two moons. I’ve always been struck by the view of planets from space; seeing the landmasses that made continents beneath the swirl of clouds within its atmosphere from afar was my favorite part of every flight.

I lit the thrusters and ramped down the drives. The sound of the rockets was always a welcome noise to me. I brought the Zephyr out of hypersonic flight as we eased into Nexus’ exosphere where a blue halo surrounded the planet. We were traveling at Mach 6 and I held us in a high orbital pass over the hemisphere that was just receiving the first rays of morning light.

I retracted the hypersonic drive spawnsons and engaged the heat shields. “It’s late afternoon in Fluture right now. We’ll be dropping into atmosphere once I pick up the signal from Kurlie’s clients. They’ll give us the final coordinates for landing. Better put our flight helmets back on.”

“Because of the nature of this flight, I’ll assume we’re not going to land at Fluture Stellar?”

“Probably not, but you never know with these people.”

I checked the scanners when the VDU lit up and the image of an older man with dark hair and glasses appeared. He had a headset on with a small microphone, and his expression was solemn.

“Blue Zephyr, copy.”

“Roger, Blue Zephyr copies.” I responded dryly.

“I have you on panel. Confirm identification: “Swamp”.

“Blue Zephyr confirms: “Fever”.

“Welcome to Nexus, Ms. Wells. You should be receiving a beacon transmission in a moment. Set your final coordinates to that point. You are thirty-five hundred miles northwest of Fluture. Drop your speed to Mach 4 and maintain your altitude. Have you received the transmission?”

“Got it!” I smiled. “Transmission received and coordinates plotted.” I disengaged the autopilot and slowly began to decelerate.

“Very good Zephyr. Maintain course until further instruction.”

“10-4. Thank you, Fluture.”

I exhaled and enjoyed the warmth of the sunlight. Within the hour, the Zephyr would be over the North Icarus continent and entering twilight as we neared the city.

“Are you going to have a place to stay when you get there?”

“Yes. Everything has been arranged for me. How about you?”

“I’ve got to tend to the damages to my ship. I’ll figure it out from there, but I am planning on hitting the dance clubs.” I glanced slyly at Scotty. “Think you’ll have time to join me some time?”

“I’ll be around.” Scotty smiled as he turned his attention to his SCaT Pad.

The VDU chirped again, and our contact reappeared. “Blue Zephyr, copy.”

“Blue Zephyr copies.”

“Drop altitude to forty-five thousand feet and change heading to thirty-three minutes southwest.”

The signal from the beacon grew stronger as we descended rapidly through the troposphere. It was a clear evening and there was a slight breeze coming from the east. I turned on the composite satellite image of the terrain below us as I made the changes to our flight path as instructed.

“Blue Zephyr, drop your altitude to fifteen thousand feet, bring your airspeed to subsonic, and hold your course.”

“10-4 Fluture, fifteen thousand feet.” The sky took on a gold and blue tint as the sun dipped below the horizon and gave the windswept clouds the violet color of evening. We were over a mountainous region, and we quietly looked at the shadows stretching over the landscape as Fluture city lights appeared in the distance.

“Zephyr, drop down to forty-three hundred feet and drop your speed to four hundred knots.”

“Roger, forty-three hundred.” I responded as I nosed the ship down.

Less than a minute later, the blue running lights of a runway appeared just outside city limits.

“Zephyr, you should have a visual on the landing strip from your position, please confirm.”

“10-4, Fluture, I have a visual and have initiated final approach sequence.” I glanced at Scotty and nodded.

“Adjust airspeed to three hundred knots.”

“Welcome to Nexus.” I smiled as I pushed forward on a lever to my left that lowered the landing gear. “Looks like we’re setting down in a mining colony.”

“How far are we from the city?”

“Not far, about sixteen kilometers.”

“I’m going to have to make arrangements for transportation when we land.”

“Fluture. That’s a beautiful name for a city.”

“It’s Romanian.” Scott smiled back. “The founder of the city, Dimitrie Lascăr, was from a European continent on Earth. Fluture means butterfly.”

“The city’s named Butterfly?”

“Yes. The area that Fluture was built on is actually the breeding grounds for a species of butterfly called the Blue Morphus Luna Didius. It’s the largest butterfly known to man. Every five years, millions of Didius migrate here to mate. It’s a spectacular event to witness.”

“Why here?”

“It’s the fauna. Their larva feed on a variety of plants that can only be found in several places on Nexus. The Didius that come here were born here. After their metamorphosis, they make a twenty-five hundred mile journey to a coastal region where they spend nine months. When they come back to Fluture, they mate, lay their eggs, then fly lack to the southern coast to die.”

“How do you know all this?”

“I’m a genius.” Scotty smirked. “This is the year for the Didius to return to Fluture. Maybe we’ll get to see them.”

“Blue Zephyr,” our contact said briskly, “once you touch down, full reverse on your thrusters. The landing strip is only a mile and a half long.”

“Shit!” I laughed and shook my head. “It’s always something.”

“Is this a problem?”

“We’ll be okay…” I grinned, “…trust me.”

“Good god.”

We could see a huge mining site sprawled ahead as we made our approach. Wide dirt roads crisscrossed for miles in the darkening landscape that had been scarred by intense excavations. Heavy earth-moving equipment dotted the ground and the silhouettes of conveyor systems in steel trestles loomed in the darkness as we neared the landing strip.

There were hundreds of white, three story tilt-slab apartments, and dozens of glass office buildings that stretched for at least five miles on the western border of the mines. There was also what appeared to be a water treatment plant seated on the southern portion of the colony along with a series of process facility buildings, warehouses, and bulk chemical tanks.

I centered the Zephyr between the running lights of the strip and brought the nose up ten degrees. The thrusters droned heavily, and I extended the leading edges of the wings and rear stabilizers along with the air brakes to slow our descent as I lit up the high intensity beams under the fuselage and wings to illuminate the terrain in front of us.

We touched down with a slight bump as the main landing struts absorbed the force, and the nose wheel made contact with the steel tarmac. I reached down and pushed the trim levers forward steadily and began reverse thrust with the engines.

The Zephyr barreled past the small control tower of the landing strip, when I deployed a drag chute and put the thrusters in full reverse; the engines screamed and we were pushed forward against our seat harnesses as the ship vibrated hard and came to a slow taxi.

We came to a full stop at the edge of the airstrip where steel deflector barriers lined the perimeter. I could see the high grass in front of us being blown flat from our jets when I ramped them down to a five percent thrust and turned the Zephyr around a hundred and eighty degrees. A pilot truck pulled in front of us with its lights blinking and we were flanked on both sides by two black FAV’s as we taxied forward.

The VDU blinked and our host appeared once again. “Bravo, Zephyr.” The man smiled widely. “A well-executed landing on your part Ms. Wells. Please follow the truck to the designated hanger. Welcome to Cybelle.”