“We’re coming to your location.” She scanned the sky, then the infrared monitor for signs of the other fifteen ships. The fleet trundled inexorably back to Rowan’s location. “Unfortunately, we’re not the only ones.”
Willoughby turned the ship in Rowan’s direction, pushing the airship to such a high speed that she almost lost her footing again. When they got within sight, she saw that the helicopter had been hit. It rested on the ground, with Rowan and the pilot standing beside it. Willoughby set down the airship and opened the ramp. H124 ran down it.
Rowan rushed toward her, taking her in his embrace. “I didn’t think I’d ever see you again.” He kissed her, his lips warm in the cold air. Then they turned and started running back up the ramp.
Along the way Rowan lifted her tool bag off his shoulder and handed it to her. “I believe this is yours.”
The pilot caught up with them, a tall, lanky woman with a crop of short black hair and skin the color of mahogany. “This is Marlowe.”
Inside the ship, she shook H124’s hand, smiling at her with kind eyes.
“Thank you for risking your life,” H124 told her.
“All in a day’s work.”
From the look in Marlowe’s eyes, H124 didn’t doubt it.
Willoughby raised the ramp. Inside he pointed up at the infrared monitor. “See that? The airships are about five miles away. And that triangular formation? That’s why they brought fifteen of them.”
“Hold the formation!” shouted Recht over the comm.
“What is it?” H124 asked.
He fired up the engines and started accelerating. “It’s a weapon that requires all fifteen ships to power. It destroys any motorized or computer-aided equipment with a hundred-mile blast. But it doesn’t destroy that alone. Anything remotely near its target is utterly decimated. We’d never get far enough away from this ship or the helicopter to leave. We’ll get blasted sky-high along with everything else.”
He pushed them to maximum velocity. “Hold on!” The force of the acceleration threw H124 off her feet. She slid across the floor, grabbing onto one of the anchored chairs and hefting herself up into it.
“Power the weapon!” shouted Recht over the comm.
“How far are we?” H124 asked.
“Fifty miles out!”
“Prepare to fire!” came Recht’s harsh voice.
Willoughby pushed the airship, and she heard the engines screaming below her.
“Ninety miles out!” he shouted.
“Fire!”
A blast hit them violently, tumbling the ship end over end. Everything was chaos. She tried to hang onto the chair. Equipment and carpets and glasses flew past her. Gordon hovered weightless for a moment as the ship plummeted. Rowan grabbed her hand, and she held onto him desperately, her world upside down. She heard an explosion deep in the bowels of the ship, and a blistering wave of heat swept over her.
They hit with such force that she felt every bone in her body shatter. Her head slammed into something hard, and the engines stopped abruptly. A high-pitched whine filled the acrid air, and all went silent. She strained her ears, struggling to hold on to consciousness.
She could hear the blood thrumming in her ears, as well as someone breathing next to her. She opened her eyes, but everything was pitch black. Struggling to lift her head, she almost threw up. Someone groaned in the far part of the airship. She could smell burning circuitry. Something heavy had landed on top of her. She tried to push at it, but her body didn’t respond. She couldn’t move her arms. The crushing object lay across her legs and torso, pinning her down.
She tried to shift once more, but when she lifted her head, she blacked out.
H124 heard a distant mumbling. She felt warm light on her face. Slowly she opened her eyes. She was out of the airship, lying on the ground. A stand of dead trees rose around her. “I think she’s coming around,” said a woman’s voice.
Then a man, sounding near. “What about the others?”
“Still out,” the woman responded.
H124 closed her eyes again, then summoned her strength. She tried to sit up. Couldn’t even move.
“Easy now,” said the man beside her. She’d heard that voice before. Somewhere. She couldn’t quite place it. She lifted her eyelids and stared into the familiar face. It was Raven. But he was older. No longer a teen, but in his twenties. His long black hair hung past his shoulders, framing his tan face.
“It’s you,” she whispered with a sore throat. She swallowed. “I’ve been searching for you . . .”
“We were about to leave our camp in this area, but then we intercepted your message to the Badlanders and deciphered it. Said you were looking for us, something about how all might be lost if you didn’t find us.”
“Yes,” she said, fighting to keep her eyes open. Her whole body felt smashed. Every bone and muscle ached. She could barely move. She tried to lift her arm to her tool bag, but it didn’t respond. She could still feel the strap across her chest. “Take my tool bag,” she told him. “There’s information inside . . .”
“About what?”
“An asteroid . . . it’s on its way . . . and it’ll kill everything . . .”
His warm smile vanished. “What?” He gently unlatched the strap and took her tool bag. She tried to sit up, but a wave of knives went through her entire body.
He placed a soft hand on her shoulder. “Don’t try to move. You’ve got a lot of broken bones, but we’ll fix you.” He looked into the bag and pulled out the shiny discs, along with the small objects with the sockets.
“Onyx!” he called. In her peripheral vision, H124 saw a woman approach. “Get this back to base immediately. Give it to the encryption team. Looks like very old tech.”
“Right!” she heard the woman answer, and her footsteps faded into the distance.
“Rowan? . . . Gordon?” H124 called out.
Raven’s kind smile returned as he placed a warm hand on her forehead. “They’re both alive. So is the
