We had been flying blind through the mist-filled chasms of Yueld. The sensors on the Vostok weren’t much better than what we had on the Freya—even though the Vostok was a newer vessel—but I had hoped they were enough to help us avoid the megafauna that dwelt in the lower reaches of the planet.
No such luck.
“Prox plates!” Ana-Zhi yelled, as she tried to right herself.
The ship heaved again and all I could think of was how impossible it was to toss a 40-meter spaceship around like a child’s toy. But impossible or not, it was happening.
I plummeted down towards the console as the power flickered.
“Jannigan!” Ana-Zhi bellowed.
I managed to grab ahold of the pilot’s seat she had been sitting in moments before, and hung on to it. The Vostok shuddered again. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted the shield control, but I was too far away to reach it.
My muscles burned as I tried to pull myself up on the side of the upside-down chair. Somewhere below me I saw Chiraine’s body crumpled on the ground. She wasn’t moving. And a wave of panic washed over me.
“Chiraine’s hurt!” I yelled at Ana-Zhi.
“We’re all going to be worse than hurt if you don’t hit those shields!”
The Vostok groaned and trembled and new alarms sounded.
Screw it.
Before the ship could change its orientation again, I dove for the console, twisting my body as I fell towards it. I stabbed out at the shield control and managed to flip the auxiliary power rocker for the proximity plates.
Then I crashed down to the ground, narrowly missing Chiraine. Pain spidered through my shoulder and back, but I rolled just like I had been trained to do.
The lights flickered again and then faded off, plunging us into darkness.
That went well.
“Jannigan!” Ana-Zhi yelled again.
“I thought I got the shields!”
It turned out that I did activate the proximity plates. The process wasn’t instant, though. The plates took a few moments to charge. A loud electrical whine filled the cabin, and then through the main viewport I saw a shockwave of lightning dance over the hull.
The ship’s hull creaked again, girders complaining at being twisted at such unnatural angles. I felt the ground beneath me shift once more, but this time it was gradual. The various inertial and gravity systems were finally coming back online.
I crawled over to where I thought Chiraine was, and found her limp body in the dark,
“Chiraine? You’re going to be okay.”
I was relieved to feel her pulse. She was alive, but unconscious. Beyond that, I had no idea.
Chiraine moaned. I hoisted her up over my shoulder and made my way down the walls as the Vostok gradually righted itself.
On my right Ana-Zhi wiped the blood from her forehead, eased into the pilot’s seat, and started checking the systems. “Fucking cthulian.”
“Is it gone?”
“I think so. I’m going to try to find that cave mouth and get us someplace safe. How’s the princess?”
“Messed up,” Chiraine groaned. She looked up into my eyes. At least she was conscious.
“I’m going to take her to the infirmary,” I said.
“Check on Qualt once you’re done. But don’t let him out.”
“Obviously.”
Chiraine faded in and out of consciousness as I made my way down to the infirmary with her in my arms. I’d get her settled in a MedBed before checking on the former captain of the Vostok, Agon Qualt, who was now residing in the brig.
“This is what it takes to get me in your arms?” she joked woozily.
“We don’t have time for anything else,” I grinned back at her.
Even though the MedBed here on the Vostok was newer than the one we had on the Freya, it was automated enough that I didn’t have any problems operating it.
Soon Chiraine was being scanned for a concussion, broken bones, internal injuries, and anything else the AI thought might be relevant. She was also being pumped full of pain suppressors, anti-infectives, an array of stabilizers, coagulants, and neuroid picobot healants which would repair any physical damage.
“I’ll be right back,” I told her—though at that point she was too out of it to notice.
As I grabbed a Medascap case, the overhead lights flickered ominously. They weren’t supposed to do that—given that Lampreys were designed with probably a half-dozen back-up power systems. But I couldn’t worry about that now. I borrowed Chiraine’s AuraView and set a timer. I’d return to the infirmary once her treatment was complete.
My next stop was the cabin where we had stowed my father’s unconscious body. Thankfully, Ana-Zhi had secured him with the webbing that was a standard part of every crew bunk, so he hadn’t been banged around. Even though he was wearing his exosuit, being slammed around a cabin probably wasn’t the best thing for someone who had been preserved for seven years.
The power indicator on the suit still glowed strongly. Thank Dynark for Welkin’s wafer battery technology. Even this old model was rock-solid in the power department. And the various power losses and surges from the ship’s power seemed not to have affected the suit.
“We’ll get you out of there soon, Dad,” I said more to myself than anyone else. It was a promise I intended to keep, but we needed a stretch of at least 24 hours when we weren’t running from exploding asteroids, fascist armadas, or creatures bigger than our ship.
I returned to the top level of the Vostok, and made my way to the brig.
Even out in the corridor, I heard Qualt groaning—although I’m not sure if he was making those sounds for my benefit or not.
“Fucking A, kid. What the hell happened?” He was slumped on the floor in the small cell, but didn’t look injured at all. “A.Z. forget how to fly a starship?”
“Never mind,” I said. “I just wanted to make sure you weren’t dead.”
“Almost, sport, almost. Seriously, what the hell is going on? You didn’t break my ship, did you?”
“The ship’s fine,” I said. Although, in truth, I
