Beth

A stupid plan. Beth knew it as Admiral Harris detailed it. He stood next to her bed and Tom behind him.

“Board the ship. Smash their heads in,” Admiral Harris said, looking stern. “Hopefully they will fly off and hopefully our electronics will come online again.”

Beth coughed. “It is stupid and it assumes a lot of things.”

“Bonkers,” Tom said behind the Admiral.

Beth righted herself in the bed, her stomach paining from the movement. How would she even move under this pain, let alone make the trip across?

“If you think it is a genuinely good idea then be my guest and go ahead. Hike over there yourself, Admiral.” Beth said.

“No. For being a woman of science you can be pretty stupid. Anything electric is not working. The life support. Hydroponics plants are dying. We will die if we don’t get back those,” Admiral Harris said.

Tom frowned, as if he fueled his power. Admiral Harris was shoved by an invisible force to the side, pressed against the bulkhead wall. She must have missed when they entered, but now three guards pointed rifles at Tom’s head.

“Let me go, kid!” Admiral Harris said, still pressed against the wall. “Do you think for a moment that you control this situation? Dream again, boy.”

“Tom! Let him go,” Beth said.

Tom hesitated for a moment. “Alright.”

Admiral Harris landed on the floor again, the invisible force extinguished. He looked jarred. He had not expected the kid’s strength or willingness to act. The Admiral eyed Tom.

“Do that again. I dare you,” Admiral Harris said, drawing, cocking and placing the muzzle of a pistol against Tom’s forehead in one single motion. “Try it.”

“Now calm down,” Beth said, sliding her feet out from underneath the blanket.

Admiral Harris kept his pistol steadily pressed against Tom’s forehead. “My men barely scratched those things. You hurt it and you can hurt it again.”

This was directed towards Beth and she knew it. She placed her feet to the floor, feeling the cold on the skin. Beth stood up. Straining and grinning before the throbbing pain in her stomach.

“I will do it,” Beth said. “The Admiral is correct. If nothing is done we are dead anyways.”

The Admiral looked pleased. “Of course you will. We have some combat drugs that can sort out that pain.”

Admiral Harris holstered his pistol and relaxed. Tom stood stiff as a stick. She gave him a friendly nod.

“I will see if my guys have sorted out the vacuum suit yet. Getting it to work properly without electric power is a no-go. We will see what we can do,” Admiral Harris said and walked out the room.

Beth breathed for a moment. Trying her best to stand still. Every motion stirred up a new series of painful throbs. She did not want to look weak in the Admiral’s presence. He looked like a man who did not understand or at least misjudged weakness. She sat down, back to the bed.

“I might have been fast enough to stop their bullets, you know,” Tom said and walked over to her.

Beth looked down. “Good point. But it would not solve that thing outside. We share the same goal as the Admiral though his methods are crude. If you can think of anything else that might save us, speak up. This is it.”

Tom looked at her. “Can’t we try to talk with them? Maybe that was their plan all along and the Admiral’s people opened fire first.”

“Naive of you. A friendly attitude will not produce a breathable atmosphere,” she replied.

-

Beth stood up. Was the wound healing? The metallic flakes were re-molding themselves. Were they trying to assume their original shape? Like a passive mechanism. If the damage would have penetrated the metal skin deeper she would have died on the spot. The metal flakes moved and merged so slow that it was difficult to observe any changes. The process must be affected by her fatigue.

The gravity core was still online and no one had been able to figure out why. If they had more time then maybe. And applied the mechanism across the whole ship.

Tom turned to her. “I will try to keep you safe and nudge you into the right path.”

Beth stepped into the slim vacuum suit. It would not protect against more than the pressureless space. The suit would have plenty of oxygen, but without power its regulator units would not operate. Its atmosphere would be diluted with her exhaled and unbreathable air. She could not ignore the idiocy of the plan. But sometimes you were left with only a stupid course of action.

“Here,” Tom said and handed her a meter long metal rod.

She grabbed it and weighed it in her hands. It had a sense of sturdiness to it. Hardened steel. “Why?”

“So you don’t damage your suit when prying your way in,” Tom explained. “A leaking pressure suit is not too healthy for one’s well-being.”

She nodded and hooked down onto her suit’s back.

The pills Admiral Harris had provided had successfully numbed the pain in her stomach.

She stepped into the airlock which was able to be operated manually. The inner door slid closed behind her. A powerless airlock could not depressurize itself, but the moment she started to open the outer door it would be solved. She grabbed the manual wheel and turned it. A sharp pop and the air escaped into the vacuum of space. With her back against the inner door she willed the sweetness forward. Three powered strides and she jumped.

A few hundred meters separated the two ships. The alien ship was even stranger than the boarding creatures. It looked like a collection of large metal spheres which seemingly stayed bundled together. The spheres rolled over each other and switched positions. The ship was in an ever present state of change. Where should she land? Admiral Harris had said to aim for the middle. How did you define a middle section of an ever shifting ship?

Tom’s invisible telekinetic power grabbed around her like a blanket and tugged her to the left so she avoided a cluster of asteroids. The kid’s range had improved. Hopefully he could halt her momentum before she slammed into the alien ship. Without electric power the suit could not repair itself, any breach would be lethal.

In movies, people who sacrificed themselves to save others always came across as heroic and had no hesitation about their decision. Beth was not that person. Her breathing was quick and shallow, her body tensed. She wanted to live.

Tom rolled her and moved her safely away from yet another small asteroid. His invisible reach tugged at her. Her speed diminished. Booted feet met the surface of one of the giant spheres on the ship. Knees bent and she tensed. Finally, some luck. The ship’s surface was magnetic and the mag boots held her in place. How would the pressure suit handle the strength of her fingers if she tried to dig into the ship? It would be crushed. She pulled out the rod from behind her back. She raised the rod with the other hand. Sweetness flooded. With all her strength she hit the ship. Metal meeting something that might be metal. The dent the rod left was evident. It worked! She swung again. Cracks spread from the deepened dent. Crystalized smoke escaped the breaks. There was pressure inside the ship. She raised the rod a last time, readying to breach the hull.

The hull lit up and vibrations shot up her legs.

Beth froze. What could this be? She held the rod high. Maybe she should not hit it again?

The vibrations became increasingly intense by every passing second. Was the ship readying to fly away? Would she be carried away by an alien ship? Go! She launched away from the hull.

Beth turned around. A light and vibrations. Something exploded in her head. Fingers went numb first. Breaths became rasped. Her body tensed and cramped. No sweet taste. Vision blurred. Something tugged at her. Moved her. She curled into a fetal position.

Convulsed.

Darkness.

Nothingness.

Beth gulped for air. Oxygen raced through her body. She became alert. Light returned. The Admiral’s wrinkled face towered over her. Lisa’s description of his face being like a sad banana made sense.

“Easy now,” Admiral Harris said.

Her body cramped as it feasted on the oxygen and warmth. Fingers went from being cold and numb to scalding hot. Stomach tensed in agony. Pain was better than death.

“You are alive!” Tom said from the Admiral’s side.

“Crap plan,” Beth coughed.