CHAPTER TEN

Soran awoke to a tumultuous clamor of raised voices emanating from the cockpit. He wandered through, rubbing his eyes and clumsily fastening the straps of his overalls. Before he could muster so much as a good morning, he was tackled to the ground with the blunt force of a falling comet. Tugg used his massive body to shield the boy from falling debris, the Horizon shedding anything that wasn't bolted to its hull. The boy grabbed onto Tugg’s trunk-like arm, his eyes clenched as he braced himself for impact.

“Take it to manual” Ranna barked over to El who helmed the ship's controls with dignified confidence. She shot Ranna an incredulous glare; A backseat driver was both unwelcome and unneeded. The Horizon shook. A clamorous rattle reverberated through the ship's hull as clusters of meteoroids bombarded the exterior shell. A fragment of cosmic chaff clipped the glass shielding at the ship's bow, and a lattice of cracks spread over its surface like a winter frost.

“No breach yet Captain” El replied, relief in her voice.

“Keep her steady and try to escape the pull zone.”

Pull zone? Soran’s breathing slowed almost to stop. He knew what was happening. An unexpected gravity well had materialized just weeks before his rendezvous with the Horizon crew. It had pulled the Hyacinth's host asteroid out of its orbit, threatening the lives of everyone on board. Anything within a gravity well's pull zone is hauled towards its center and crushed into nothingness. The Horizon would be no exception.

Soran dipped under Tugg’s arm and carefully maneuvered his way over to the rear of the ship. Without hesitation, he dismantled an assemblage of crates, pawing through their contents.

“Where are they? The explosives.” Soran yelled, assuming a crew with the arsenal of the Horizon would at least have something that blew up. Ranna’s head swung round with a perplexed look.

“That isn't going to help kid, focus,” Ranna said firmly, dismissing the boy's feverish scheming.

“It's a gravity well. I can get us out.” Soran said, flinging boxes of ammunition and sacks of food rations. Ranna seemed surprised the boy was even familiar with the anomaly, let alone how to escape one. Clambering from the co-pilot's seat, he held onto the wall and navigated his way over to Soran, stopping periodically for tremors as debris continued to bombard the ship. He entered a code into the lock pad of a sizable black crate. Soran took note of Ranna's hesitation, each keypress a delicate tap. The lid slid open with a hiss, revealing four lustrous metal orbs. Each was crafted with three red lenses arranged in triangular formation on their surface.

“Shattertank Mines," Soran said in a whisper, his mouth agape. Never wishing to be this close to such a dangerous manifestation of destruction. Manufactured for use on Citadel and Vanquisher class Naval vessels, the mines were highly illegal for anyone outside of the government to possess.

“Had to pull a few strings for these beauties,” Ranna said proudly as he admired the devastating power laid before them. Soran paused, questioning whether or not to employ such a device. One false move and the Horizon, its crew, and everything within a hundred miles would cease to be.

“Are we doing this, or what?” Ranna asked, the ship shaking violently from a large impact.

“She's not gonna hold much longer.” El chimed in from the cockpit. Soran’s thinking time was up. He clasped a mine in his hands with the same delicate precision Ranna had used to unlock its cage. Taking one careful step after another, he traversed the trembling vessel and flicked open the vacuum shoot. Its primary use was ejecting waste, but today it would shepherd something far more sinister.

“Align the ship with the well's center.” Said Soran.

The effect of pull intensified as the ship slipped further into the core of the anomaly. Soran covered the three lenses with his fingers and simultaneously, they began to glow. A blip sounded for every five seconds he kept the lenses hidden. On the third chime, he released his grip and the mine dropped into the shoot, propelling out into space at high velocity.

“Full reverse thrust” Soran called out. El slammed the throttles to maximum. The ship groaned, fighting against the immense pressure of the well. Immense meteors hurtled past, several narrowly avoiding a direct collision.

Within seconds they were engulfed in violet light. The Shattertank converged with the center of the well, exploding with magnificent ferocity. An enchanting array of colors expanded in a luminous halo. The gravity fought with the immense destructive power of the mine, attempting to claw back the expanding fountain of light. Soran embraced his closest fixture as the shockwave battered the ship, propelling the vessel backward in a violent thrust. The cracked glass plating continued to splinter. Shards rained down on El and she looked up in horror, terrified they were about to be plucked from their ship.

The Horizon soared through the abyss on the calamitous wave, her rust-worn skeleton aching under the thurst.

Colliding with a field of static debris, they came to a sudden and violent halt.

Adrenalin emptied from their bodies in clouds of panicked breath. Ranna was the first to his feet, the wellbeing of his crew outweighing any injury he might have sustained. El and Soran were both relatively unharmed, and even though he had taken the brunt of the fallout, Tugg showed no outer signs of damage. After a slow stumble to their feet, the crew observed a large cluster of oddly shaped rock through the rear viewing slit. The collection of sediment had bought the Horizon to a standstill, saving them from a potentially mission failing detour.

“That was too close,” Soran said. His voice crackled, still reeling from shock. He took a moment, acknowledging the fact that this mission could end up taking his life. Never again would he see the Hyacinth, his friends, or get the opportunity to save Lanic. Never had he contemplated death so frequently, the act crystallizing his priorities. Adventuring in the distant reaches had always seemed a sure way to make the most of your life. But the more he experienced, the more his heart called for home.

I can't fail. He refused to accept any outcome in which he didn't end up back on the Hyacinth with Lanic. Any thoughts to the contrary were banished to the far corners of his mind.

El swept off the thick layer of dust from her jacket and emptied glass shards from the pockets of her overalls. A think coating of dust and debris had been shed from the Horizon's hull; Spring-cleaning it seemed, was long overdue.

Soran had noticed that all three of them wore matching jackets. The crew's logo adhered to both the breast and back, the stitch work in various states of disrepair. Most hunter crews operated similarly, having an item of clothing or even an entire ensemble to represent them. They wore it as a badge of pride, and nothing was seen as a more egregious display of disrespect than the defacing of a gang’s crest. Despite being mostly lowlives and vagabonds, hunters provided a much-needed service in the galaxy. This was a fact that even the galactic government couldn't deny.

Tugg looked down at Soran who gave a smile of thanks for his protection. The Accran replied with another disturbing attempt at a smile, this time revealing a second row of jagged teeth that had previously remained hidden.

The Horizon was in a pitiful state. Mauled by a multitude of meteor shards, she had been left with large fissures in her outer hull. The Glass plating at the bow was the worst affected and seemed to be only an aggressive flick away from completely shattering.

“What do we do about this?” Asked El, eyeing up the ever-expanding collection of cracks that littered the screen.

“We proceed as planned,” Ranna said bluntly to the surprise of his crewmates.

“But…”

“If we don't get to Kaligan soon, he won't be there. You remember what I said about this mission not having a plan B? That’s still the case. Unless any of you have something to add?” Ranna looked around, confirming they were all on the same page. Even though the boy had not been with the Horizon crew long, he knew that Ranna’s word was law, and questioning him would be unwise.

Soran’s attention was drawn to the front of the ship. For a second, he thought his eyes were deceiving him. A trick of the light maybe, a mirage conjured by his sleep-deprived brain. The puzzled faces of his crew confirmed that no mistake had been made. Drifting before the Horizon was a monolithic stone eye. Not that of a human but something else, something alien, ancient. It was unlike anything he had seen before, ten times the size of their ship.

“How is this possible?” Ranna said as more strange rock formations appeared. They looked almost like bone fragments, fang-like shards ascending from innumerable rocky surfaces. It felt as if they were floating among the remains of a primordial secret and forgotten by time. It was beyond their comprehension, and even El remained silent as she observed the odd silhouettes sail past. Soran looked closer, seeing something he recognized. A fungus.

It couldn't be.

Although uncertain, he could swear it was the very same as had been growing on Valaterra. He looked over at El to see if she had noticed, but her attention had been snatched by a sparking coil that was jutting dangerously from the control terminal.

She said they only grew on Valaterra. Soran took note of the fact that there was no ice crystals insight, just a graveyard of primeval sediment.

“Whatever this is, or was, I think it's wise we be making our move,” Ranna advised. He jumped into the pilot's seat and rerouted the course from their new location.

“Only an hour away. The blast helped us out.” He said surprised, looking at Soran who was relieved that his time in confinement was almost over. He was acutely aware of time, knowing the swifter they progressed the more chance that Lanic would still be alive.

Ranna accelerated upward, hastily withdrawing from the eerie cluster of stone. As the ship ascended, Soran noticed the fragments coiled on for miles. Whatever it had once been, it would have been planetary in scale. He shuddered at the thought, laughing at the absurdity of his imagination. Sitting back down on the bench, he watched Tugg use a machete to clean chunks of crustacean from his innumerable teeth. Having spent the majority of his life in the company of aliens, he was used to the unique cultural quirks they each possessed.

Ranna turned on some music that hummed gently through the speaker system. Soran recognized it as the same folksy tune Lanic used to play as they worked, and he caught his feet tapping along to the rhythm. With his eyes closed and sitting under the warm draft of the heaters, he almost felt at home.