ARC OF THE IMMORTALS — Book 1

Pursuit: Chapter 6.2 — Through

Nez, under Touzdae’s helm, cleared the kilonovae. The ship’s trajectory was wild.

[one scene of violence]

The Nez Fish careened out of control through space. The pitch and yaw balanced by some miracle; a rare blessing. On the way out of the craft Touzdae did a cursory inspection of an EVA pod. Fish had hobbled together usable parts from the damaged pods. It appeared to be a usable craft. It was the last craft.

She emerged from an airlock garbed in a space suit with electromagnetic foot pads. The EM pads anchored her to the hull. She used a turbo-torch to free the carbon scoring, corrosion, and damage from the starboard port of the cargo bay.

Minimal lighting and thin life support skimmed the interior of Fish. On the bridge, Harry was shivering and pacing wrapped inside a sliver thermal blanket.

“I’m so cold, so cold.”

Shivering he climbed into the melding chair and enclosed himself within.

Outside Touzdae freed the last solar door. The panels opened and the solar sail unfurled.

Touzdae depressed the com-button on her suit.

“Harry switch over.” She waited for a response. “Harry?”

“Come in, Harry!”

The Needle Craft passed through a gaseous cloud remnant of the kilonovae intact.

Touzdae, still in her space suit, marched forward through the tomb of the interior of Space Fish. She made slow and deliberate steps up the ladder toward the Bridge.

A snowstorm engulfed Jac. He slid off a hill into a drift and got buried. As he swam to the surface of the snow he was immediately covered in sleet.

Touzdae uncovered Harry from the melding chair. She worked the controls to switch to the solar sail as their new power source. And she felt Harry’s neck for a pulse.

“Weak, wait.” She pulled paddles from the first aid box. And delivered a shock to his heart. Full light, power, and gravity came back to the bridge. As she shocked his heart for a second time Harry coughed and breathed.

Without a word, she took the helm. She unhooked the manual maneuvering arm, and re-sequenced it to the solar sail. The Fish righted herself and took a new course and heading. The sails shifted catching the solar wind. Blown like a leaf blown in a hurricane across a vast chasm of space towards a few distant stars the sleeping Nez flew.

Jac’s frozen body was carried down a roaring brook into a steaming river down towards a magnificent waterfall. He managed to grab a hold of a log and hauled himself out of the water onto the shores of the humid jungle.

The Space Fish changed course again, moving into a solar system with ten planets. Five probes launched automatically.

Harry sat on the side bench rubbing his head.

“You’re lucky I found you when I did. A few more seconds and I wouldn’t have been able to bring you back. No one enters the chair without training.”

Touzdae shakes her head:

“Why did you do that, what were you thinking?”

“I was cold.”

She shook her head again as the console speaker beeped. She looked down and said:

“The Fifth Planet has a high-water content. I hope we’re in time to save Fish.”

Jac threw his arms up into the air as a flock of crows soared overhead. One crow dipped lower than the others and Jac’s body translated into the crow. He was inside their social net. With crow’s eyes he saw a distant spire.

The Space Fish slipped into orbit around the fifth planet and the aft compartment of the Fish opened. The repaired EVA Pod emerged with Touzdae at the helm. It moved away from the Fish. It descending into the atmosphere, fire blazing around the force fields.

Touzdae’s flew the craft moved into the upper atmosphere into clouds of dense moisture and rain.

“Harry, stand by for Water Vapor transport.” Touzdae.

“Ready.”

Harry floated weightless in the Fish’s central hub. He was between two pieces of independent equipment. He stared into the screen of a scope. The scope displayed two objects. One was the small EVA blip. The other blip was a much larger unidentifiable larger object moving that changed shape. It disappeared and reappeared. He depressed his com switch.

“There’s something large approaching your position, Touzdae.”

“I’m not getting anything on my scope.”

“It’s not all there, I think.”

A long black creature resembling a horse with bird’s talons, armored exterior bones, and wings appeared. It weaved its approach masked by the clouds. It faded in and out of the space-time continuum. It dwarfed the EVA Pod was tiny net to the huge creature.

Touzdae banked the craft into a dense fog bank. Condensation whipped into torrents of rain.

“Prepare for transport on my mark. Two, one, mark…”

Water Vapor vacuumed into a dorsal port on the Pod.

“… Seventy-five percent capacity,” Harry reported reading the meters.

A large gaping mouth appeared outside the port window.

“Oh, Shit!”

The Pod broke off vapor collection and banked sharp to the right. The Creature released an electrical discharge, diffused by the pod’s shields. The Creature spewed a viscous liquid some of which spattered on the vehicle. It began dissolving the metal.

“We’re losing pressure. What’s happening down there?”

“Resuming collection. Prepare transdimensional transport on me as soon as we’re at one hundred percent.”

The interdimensional winged creature swooped in as the pod inhaled more water vapor.

Touzdae wrestled with the controls, swirling and dipping and weaving. She shoved the throttle to full as she opened the gate wide for water transport.

“What’s happening down there?”

“Transport all the rest, now!”

The Pod sucked a wide trail of water vapor following it into an electrical storm of the beast.

“Capacity reached. Transdimensional jump in — -”

Venom spewed onto the front window of the pod. It melted and entered the cabin as Touzdae transported out.

The beast absorbed the remainder of the pod and regurgitated the pieces.

Touzdae materialized with venom on her arms, screaming. She rolled into the Pool of Life over Jac and into the water. It gushed and boiled.

The crow swept out of a sky licked with flames. Jac translated out of the crow.

Touzdae emerged out of the pool and dried and healed.

The Fish began rotating as it tested her reflexes and moved backward ascending.

“On my way to the Bridge. We’ve got to get out of here!”

An armada of beasts surrounded Fish at the edge of the atmosphere. They threw out electrical bolts as the Fish moved further out into space and away from the planet.

The previous chapter:

The Next Chapter:

Thank you for joining me in the adventures that span lifetimes and worlds. (If you do NOT wish to be tagged, let me know, and I’ll tag you not):

Dougfrombk | Rebecca Romanelli | Joseph Lieungh | Adam Mackay | Dr. Preeti Singh | Pene Hodge | Ravyne Hawke | Dr Mehmet Yildiz | Kris Bedenian | Alberto García 🚀🚀🚀 | Blaine Coleman | madmess’s thoughts | Lee David Tyrrell | DL Nemeril | David Price | Rip Parker | Annelise Lords | Dr Mehmet Yildiz