/ way down we go
1,763 words
"I'm still detecting an emergency locator signal," Nacarat said, tapping at her panel.
Brontide turned to the captain of the freighter "Are you positive that these are all the passengers?"
The narrow, multi-eyed Zendi nodded rapidly, always glancing out the viewport at the mass of roiling space stones "I told you already, now please, get us out of here."
"Set to rendezvous with the Nor carrier," Nacarat said "Should we go back and check that signal just to be sure?"
"I already told you, there's no one left on the craft. One of the spare pods must have been damaged when the freighter collided with the asteroids."
"Continue on course," Brontide replied to Nacarat "Vectora, I'll take a small scout ship to ensure that the signal is false and it is, I'll deactivate it so no other nearby craft try to respond and endanger themselves."
"I'm coming," Spindrift said before Brontide had even really finished.
"No. You're not."
"Yes I am, you can't go out there all by yourself."
"He's right," Sororal sighed "And I should come too. In case someone's dying or something."
"What if it's not a metal-based life-form, can you still help them?"
Sororal rolled his eyes "Trance is coming too then."
"I'm sorry, what?"
"In that case so am I?"
Brontide shook his head as Tikker put her hands on her hips "Sororal, Trance, with me, Tikker, Spindrift, stay."
"No!" the two small Vives chorused.'
"Yes," the growl in his tone left no room for argument "Come on, doctors."
They trailed after him obediently, checking their equipment.
----
"Well, I don't think anyone survived that," Sororal commented blandly as Brontide navigated the small scout ship through the last cluster of free-floating stone and the damaged freighter came into sight. It was torn in half, the two pieces nearly crushed and splintered away into nothing more than debris.
"I doubt it as well, especially if they're dependent on a specific atmosphere," Trance added.
"Nonetheless we'll deactivate the locator," Brontide said as he veered the ship towards the freighter, honing in on the signal "Keep on the look out."
"I don't see any escape pods floating around," Trance said as they circled the freighter.
"Maybe it's jammed inside the ejector tube?"
"If so, then I'll go inside while the two of you stay here and make sure the ship doesn't take any damage," Brontide looked at Trance "Anything on the scans?"
"Nope, nothing."
"Alright," He angled the ship as close as possible towards an opening on the freighter's shattered hull "Trance, come with me, Sororal, you stay here."
"Do I look like a pilot to you?"
"You know how to keep us from being torn to pieces," Brontide fitted the glass face mask to his helmet "You good Trance?"
"Yes sir."
"Then let's go."
Trance shivered as she stepped out of the flight deck and the infinite sucked her into its freezing embrace.
"Are the comms working?" Brontide's radio static voice asked remotely.
"Affirmative."
"Then let's go."
She opened her wings and slowly the two of them drifted towards the open corridor. Trance could feel, but not hear, the impact her feet made as she hit the floor. Inside she felt the slightest bit better rather than hanging over the unending pit of darkness.
"This way," Brontide said, pointing down a hall.
She nodded and followed him, wading and dodging through the debris. A spar of metal caught at her feet and she nearly fell into Brontide, saved only by the zero-gravity environment.
"Almost there," he said after she'd steadied herself "The signal's much stronger now."
"Good, let's keep going."
They rounded another corner and Trance could see the escape pods, several of them that either hadn't ejected or hadn't been needed. But only one had a red light flickering on the panel.
Trance looked towards Brontide, who nodded and together they moved towards it.
Brontide stepped in front of her and reached out towards the panel and started to deactivate it.
Before he'd finished the sequence, Trance stepped closer to the glass door and peered in, not sure if her eyes were deceiving her or if she really saw movement.
Suddenly a hand was pressed against the glass, metal skin stretching and flattening. There was no sound, but Trance imagined the loud clang and jumped backs.
"What is it?" Brontide looked over at her and raised his eyebrows "Oh."
The Vive's face was visible now, relief evident on his face.
Brontide pointed towards the door and he held his hands out helplessly.
"It's jammed," Trance realized "Can you open it?"
"Yes," he replied, reaching over his shoulder for his sword "Step back."
The trapped Vive's eyes widened and he disappeared from sight, apparently understanding Brontide's intentions.
The sword came alive with energy and Brontide swung it forwards, the tip burying into the pistons. They overheated as the sword sliced through them, sending a massive amount of pressure against the glass and in the same second Brontide had swung, the window shattered silently. Trance held up her hands to shield her face from the spray of clear shards.
The Vive stepped out, the fracture window pieces hovering around him, something awkward and bulky clutched in his arms.
Trance felt a twinge of startled sympathy as she realize it was a second Vive, injured badly.
"Hey, you remember when I said I wasn't a pilot?" Sororal's voice cut in through the comms "Well, I'm out here, failing at being a pilot."
"Sororal what is your status?" Brontide asked, gesturing for the rescued Vive to follow after them.
"Not very good. The ship is making a weird screaming noise."
"We're on our way back. Prepare for injured."
"What? Who's hurt? Did you find someone?"
"Affirmative."
Sororal shook his head at the console as Brontide ended the comm call "Pilot the ship, prepare medical, don't break the ship. Seriously."
He slipped out of the pilot's seat
trying to ignore the constant howling emanating from the engines.
Barely a minute later a console beeped, indicating that Brontide and Trance had returned.
“Alright let’s see what you have for me- oh Sweet Seventh,” he broke off as he saw the injured Vive’s wing “Quickly, quickly , get them on the table.”
The big Vive did as he was told and immediatly Soroal was checking the vital signs.
“Well, they aren’t dying, but that shoulder’s pretty bad and that wing needs surgery. What happened?”
“He ah…” the Vive paused as if he was struggling to put what had happened into words. Or, Trance mused, he was about to tell a lie “When we were trying to get to the escape pods, the wall plating burst… One of the internal pressure regulators must’ve been damaged. And he got pinned down. That’s what happened.”
“Sororal! What did you do to the engines?” Brontide called from the pilot’s console, intterupting them.
“No idea. I heard a clunk sound, I think.”
“Seventh,” Brontide growled "Trance help me up here."
“Is he going to be alright?”
"Probably.... what's your name again?"
"Aveth."
"Dr. Sororal. And your unfortunate friend?"
"Tovoth. He's a doctor too."
"I gathered that from the medical crest on his helmet."
"Sororal, Brontide says to strap in, things are about to get bumpy," Trance stuck her head into the tiny medical bay "You, Veem, come up with me."
"But... Tovo-"
"He'll be fine with Sororal, come on," as he continued to hesitate, glancing nervously at Tovoth, she snagged his hand and pulled him after her.
"Sit down and hang on," she ordered pushing him towards the passenger wall while she slid into the co-pilot's seat.
"What even is going on?" she asked, poking at the flashing lights.
"The engines were damaged by stray asteroid," Brontide's voice was terse and his eyes never left the screens "Navigation is going to be unreliable."
"Can the computers map a way out of the field?"
"Negative. I'm only getting a plotted course that runs for 29 kim before it goes to static."
"What do you want me to do?"
Brontide paused, his fingers hovering over the panel "Does this ship have jump capabilities?"
"Are you insane? We can't jump!"
"Does it, Trance?"
"Yes, but-"
"Do we have enough fuel to jump?"
"Are you serious?"
"Yes," Brontide began to tap at the screen again.
"What are you doing? What's a jump?"
Trance twisted around in her seat to answer Veem "It's highly experimental transport technology. It relies on creating artificially created wormholes to predestined locations, then hurtling the ship or star craft through at over 9000 kims."
Veem clutched the edges of his seat a little tighter "The last time I went through a wormhole it didn't go so well."
"I'm tending to agree with him Brontide. Why don't we just send out an broadcast to Vectora? They can pick us up, and if they can't get close enough they could probably still transport us back to the craft."
"I highly doubt that."
"Why?"
"Because a the reason our scanners only reach out to 29 kim is because a gravimetric blackout is coming up across the entire asteroid field."
"What!?" Trance began to tap her scanners "Why didn't you say that!?"
"Can't we just go the other direction?"
"That's not how a gravimetric blackout works!" She snapped over her shoulder "Brontide, I'm priming the engines."
"Good. Sororal prepare for jump."
"Prepare for WHAT?"
"Just hold on Doctor."
"Ready," Trance said, her voice tight, one hand on the console, one gripped into a tight fist "On your orders."
"Now," he said.
It was only a light tap, but the whole ship responded with a heavy jerk. Lights flashed outside the viewports. There was an explosion of sound and they all felt the ship accelerate without really moving. Then as the smattering of brightness died away, they could see that the asteroid field was gone, replaced by the glowing sheen of a planet.
"Wow. What, 900 more kims and we would've jumped right into solid matter?"
"I don't know," Brontide blinked a bit, even he seemed phased.
"Hey, Brontide?" Sororal voice came over the comms "Was the button you pushed up there a 'set things on fire' button? Cause things are on fire back here."
"Tovoth!" Veem burst out of his seat and was gone in a second.
Trance looked dubiously at the planet beneath them as alarms began to go off.
"We're going to have to land."
"I was afraid of that," Brontide sighed "I'll try to send a signal to Vectora. You take us down."
"Alright, well, today couldn't get any worse. Down we go."
