ARC OF THE IMMORTALS: Book 1/Pursuit

7/CasaNoir: Chapter 7.5/ Descent

Recap: He emerged from unconsciousness. Shocked. He saw a tall wide-shouldered bald man with his arms crossed over his chest looking down at him with a scowl.

“Bendel?” It was his old best friend — estranged.

Bendel vanished upon Jac’s recognition. His clothes had dried, it felt like he was in a different body. No time to ponder that. To the bridge, he thought.

Approaching Rift Exit

“It worked,” Touzdae threw her arms around Jac.

“Nez, revived?” Jac wondered aloud.

“Yes, Jac, am here. We are one,” Nez stated matter-of-fact. “Out of the fire and into the frying pan. You’re up Jac.”

“She’s right. We’re nine to twelve minutes out from exiting the rift,” Touzdae. “The helm is yours.”

Jac smiled gingerly.

He climbed into the helm chair. He opened himself and the neural implants found attachment spots through his hair.

“Signing off in three, two, one…” Nez stated. They could hear the whir of her consciousness shutting down. Jac wondered why she couldn’t have done that before.

He felt his sensory field expand to include Nez’s neural pathways. In essence, his body became Nez’s sensorial body or Nez’s senses were loaned to Jac’s body.

The buffeting was overwhelming, the vibration intense. The G-force in the downward plunge was almost too much. There was a choice point ahead. It was an easy look into a twelve-second future and make a decision. To veer to starboard or port. A deep part of him took the port descent vector. It was treacherous and steep. He applied thrust braking. Leveling off he flew a slight down angle skidding onto a sandy beach on the edge of the planetoid. The ship cut a groove in the sand. Then nothing.

He arose from unconsciousness in the helm chair. It was all the way up into the domed observation bubble. Nez — the ship was at an angle. He looked outside. It was Gata’s far shore — the fourteen-and-one-half-mile beach. He could see the rocky abutment that held the beach to the shore. Anchor guy lines had secured the Fish after the crash. He exhaled. The Nez was safe at least temporarily.

“Nez,” he said. No response. “Nez, Alpha One Response Required,” Jac used his command voice. Again, no response. The helm controls were lit. He flipped a switch for a backup computer response. Nothing.

He sent a command to lower the chair to the deck without effect. As he reached up the headband halo responded to his touch. It deposited itself in his hand after morphing through his helmet. He noticed that he was completely suited.

“Auxiliary power,” he spoke into his com. Nothing: no backup auditory response, and no power. He put his hand under the control console and fingered a switch.

Wait for it, he told himself in his thoughts. At 33 seconds in, he heard a whir come through his open com. Power came up at minimal levels. It was not enough to lower the helm chair to the deck. He reached up and released a long-handled winch. He wound it up counterclockwise, locked it in place, checked to see that the helm chair blocks were open. They were. He released the winch. The chair descended too slowly. Jac was impatient with the leisure of the winches’ motion.

Jac breathed. He reminded himself to be patient.

“Jac, Jac, where are you?” A duplicate thought arrived in his head from Touzdae.

Oh my Spirits, Jac thought back. How long? How long was I gone?

Thirty-three seconds, she thought.

Do you see it? Jac./ Yes. Touzdae./ Partition, please.

Touzdae began and initiated the partition process.

Jac paused outside Bendel’s private salon to eavesdrop.

“Here’s why Jac keeps crashing on M Fifteen Beach,” Bendel began.

“I don’t want to know,” Touzdae said with pleading edge in her voice.

“It’s the only way he can get away from his Ma-Ma,” Bendel mocked. And added, “My solution is he bequeath Nez to me.”

“Oh please, Bendel,” Touzdae rolled her eyes. “Envy and childish meanspiritedness are beneath the royalty and lineage of your station.”

“Oh come on, Touzdae, where’s your sense of fun?” Bendel boasted.

“This is why I broke up with you years ago,” she said, tears rolling down her cheek.

“I have Luna, your better half.”

“Stop it. You’re nothing but a bully.”

Jac walked in.

“In a sense, it’s -” Jac’s thought interrupted as the partition formed and closed.

Partition in place, Touzdae delivered the partition and the thought simultaneously.

Thank you sweet one, he thought back and his focus went to flying.

Standby and brace yourselves. We’re breaking out of the Tubari Rift in twenty-four seconds; mark.”

Descent

The Fish lurched as breaking thrusters fired full. The Fish puffed as she slowed, breaking into a trajectory for orbit.

Jac switched all throttles in full reverse. The ship skimmed the upper atmosphere in a full burn. The viewports and view screens, obscured by the burn and atmosphere friction blackened. Jac counted under his breath.

“One thousand one, One thousand two, One thousand three…”

The Ship careened down into the upper atmosphere. Re-entry burn and thrusters still on full. Jac watched the attitude controls and the rate of descent.

He held his breath as the Fish burst through a cloud layer. Nez-Fish plunged into the inky blackness of the cove side of Gata short of the Winnow Port. He fired a second full burst as the Fish dropped like a rock. Nez, under Jac’s helm, shot in an arc across the harbor out of the descent vector. She halted. Descending rapidly breaking with all thrusters blazing. Nez slowed past the orange layers of the upper atmosphere. She went down through the cooler blues and purples. Down into the depths of the inky black and stopped. She had stopped shy of the swift currents below the ship. Nez bobbed to the surface. On maneuvering thrusters, she stopped, leveled, and floated. Gliding down she effortlessly slipped into a zero-gravity mooring at the far end of the marina.

An electromagnetic cushion formed as Fish woke. She interacted with the asteroid’s gravity and the ship rose into a mooring channel.

“We made it,” Harry beamed.

“There’s not much time,” Jac said as the helm seat turned and he stood on the deck. He looked up and said, “Nez prepare Lifeboat Alpha for debarkation brown.”

Touzdae’s glanced at Jac and then Harry, then Jac.

Got it, that’s why the code, Jac thought to Touzdae. By the way, no more telepathy until we get to our suite at the Casa Noir.

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