And with everything going on, I’m so excited that I forget about my impending doom and wonder if my father knows where he sent me.He must know!
A fire starts in my cockpit, in the dash, not far from Pup.
Now I’m definitely screwed!
Smoke fills the cabin. I can't see how I'm going to land in one piece with scanners down and black clouds in my vision. I'm flying blind. I tap the auto-landing sequence, but it doesn't engage.
“Sorry, VAL. You’re on your own.”
I break the plastic dog off of the dash and reef hard on the manual ejection handle. My seat punches skyward. The windows break free. But I’m upside down. My chute is quickly snagged and shredded by my tumbling ship. It catches me and flings me around. Pup disappears in the chaos.
No!
My last gift from my older brother is gone.
I tear myself from my harness, kick away from the seat, and tumble toward the planet's surface. Air whips around me,ripples my suit, and pushes my arms and legs around. It's chaos, and yet I laugh like a crazy person because I feel air again.
I try my reserve chute, the one built into my suit, but it refuses to open. When it finally does, my relief is momentary.
Enemy fire turns it to ash.
I fall faster again, my stomach in my throat.
Damn it!
It’s going to be one deadly landing.
At least it will be fast.
And I’ll have made it back to solid ground.
A bit morbid, but…A sad laugh escapes me.
The golden dunes shimmer below. It’s soft and smooth from up here, but I doubt it will be forgiving. As my end nears, I think of Haakon dying in a blaze as he took out a Solcrue cruiser filled with dignitaries that had just ordered the annihilation of an entire fleet of innocent human workers.
I always wanted to die like him…with purpose.
My father took that from me.
Now, I die for nothing.
A heavy gold light crashes into me. A whooshing drone fills my ears, as my body takes a hit. Heat scorches my skin.
“Gah!” I push away from the pangs.
I've been judged, and Hell awaits.
“I’m sorry!” a rumbling voice says.
I blink and look up into gold eyes filled with regret. Lights wink out over shoulders and flesh the color of the sun. We descend. He lands and leans forward, setting me on the ground.
A Titan caught me?I’m too in shock to get my tongue to work.
When he straightens, I get a full-body view of the Titan: gold skin, engines, and hoverpads all over his toned body, and a net of black armor hugging him like a spider's web.
“I didn’t mean to hurt you,” he adds.
I look down at the burned rings in my space suit and the way they smoke. My skin stings, and my heart pounds so fast I can't feel much of anything else—not the sand, the breeze, or whatever has caused the trickle of blood down my forehead.
