“Pretty sure you just killed us.” She’s pissed. I can’t blame her.
“Where do you fly when you’re being chased?” I ask.
“Familiar territor—”
I think she’s figured it out.
My ship shudders, and I feel like everything is lost all at once, her faith in me, her trust, possibly her life, my ship, my life.What was the purpose of this existence? Did I do everything I could?
“MONA, call Aurelius.”
A two-tone beep tells me we’re connected.
“Elix, stars have burned out since we talked last.”
I grip the nearby support pillar as I squint out at my destroyed engine. “Aura, I’m down. I need help, brother. Are you still in rogue orbit?”
“Always. Send me the coordinates. I’ll get there as fast as I can.”
AI sends him our location as smoke trails out of the busted engine.
“What are you doing?” Zariah asks as I throw on a harness.
“We’ll lose cabin pressure for only a few seconds. You’ll be fine. You’ll black out, but you’ll be fine.”
“Blackout?” She rests a hand on her forehead and slumps. “What about you?”
I grab the handle of the hatch and connect a tether to my harness. “I love you. Deep breath!”
“Elix!”
We’re running out of time. I tear open the door and feel the oxygen fade. Breathing becomes more difficult. The brumal wind is still a knock to my chest. Zariah sways limply in her seat.
I climb out onto the aileron, lug the charred power cell out of the engine, and let it fall away toward the mountains. I slip in the one in from the back half of the ship as the icy descent claws at me, and the ship rattles around. The indicator light turns green, letting me know the capacitor inside is charging. A growing hum tells me the transformer’s kicked on. The engine sputters from sporadic ignition, but I can fix that inside.
As I make my way back to the door, we pass clouds filled with snow. I slip as the air litters with frozen crystals. My body slams against the ship. The punch sends me dangling from the harness and thrown around by the wind. Through the clouds that scrape my face, I see an electrical disruptor missile lodged in the back half of the ship.
When I smash into the aileron again, I grab on. I don’t have enough strap to reach the disruptor. I have two choices. Unstrap and jump. Or try to land as is.
I’m not eager to throw my life to the wind—literally. So I draw a gun from a hip holster, steady myself as best as I can, and fire. The missile shreds and rips a hole in my tail. But it’s better than losing MONA or worse, landing in a deadly ball of fire.
“Two minutes to impact, sir,” MONA reports.
I scale my ship’s hull back to the door and close it behind me. The cabin pressurizes.
Zariah is drowsy when I make it up to the pilot’s seat. I tap the button on her seat that locks her into place. A net hugs her as a crash guard seals her in a cocoon of metal.
“I’m sorry.” I turn to focus on the approaching landing. Lateral engines are online, the repaired one kicking on after a restart, but the rear thrusters and engines are not responding.
“Sir, you will land with your tail in the snow.”
“I know. Help me find a trajectory with the least damage. Maybe a field of snow. Emraldi meadow could work, or something similar.”
Screens flash around the one I’m working on. A screen blinks with a possible option ahead. I guide us toward the wintry plains of my home planet, wondering if anyone is hiding here. But I don’t feel anyone close except Zariah.
“Impact in ten,” MONA says.
The barren, snow-covered hills blend into streaks as we race toward the snowy field.
