Havek

HAVEK

My thoughts swirled, and I couldn't focus. Sensations, memories, plans, and recalculations flew through my head. How did we get here?

For some dumb reason, all I could think about was the smell of fresh-baked bread. I could really have gone for some of Makar's bread. Or a cupcake. Just anything to remind me of Thodos III and home.

I felt Payton's hand shaking me out of my reverie. "What are you doing, you jackass? Are you asleep ? Wake up and do something!"

I thought about our options, none of them optimal, and hit upon the one that would mean the highest chances of survival for us. Unfortunately, I was pretty sure Payton would hate it.

"Follow me." I didn't give her the chance to argue. Rather, I grabbed her wrist and half-dragged her toward the back of the ship.

"Where are we going? What's the plan?" she demanded as she bounced down the hallway.

"No time. No time." I repeated it over and over like a mantra, settling into the rhythm of the words. There was an escape pod at the back of the ship. If we could just…

Reaching the rear dock, my shoulders sagged with relief to see the long, low oval of the escape pod.

"Are you kidding?" Payton whirled to face me. "Those things don't have the thrust to break out of the atmosphere. Even I know that."

"Do you have another plan?" I shouted. "Neither do I. So get in!"

I shouted the last portion as I shoved her inside, pulling us to the tiny bridge. I would have strapped her into a chair if that's what it took.

"Will we have the fuel to–"

"I don't know! Buckle in and hold on! " I couldn't think about anything but escaping. All I thought about was that the takeoff time of the shuttle was too long and we would never get off the ship in time with what little fuel it had left.

We didn't plan to have to escape again so quickly. No matter what I thought was going to happen when I brought the shuttle here, it wasn't my plan anymore.

If we were very, very lucky, this pod could take us as far as a neighboring satellite, but I wasn't sure if we would make it at the rate we were going.

First, we would have to escape the small fleet on our tail and we only had one gun designed to scare off a brief threat.

But we worked with less and survived.

I started up the engine and didn't wait to see if Payton had strapped herself in.

No time. If she had bruises and bumps, I'd kiss them away.

If we survived. Better than a fiery, explosive death.

With a low rumble, we burst out of the tail of the star runner, screeching around the maze of stalactites in our path.

"Dammit." I slapped at the control panel. "Glass trees sounded pretty, but now they're a pain in the ass. My instrument readings are all over the place."

"Are they tracking us?" Payton asked, her voice shaky.

I glanced over at her. Her face turned a sickly pale green color.

"I don't know, babe," I admitted, wishing I could comfort her. "But I'm hoping what's screwing with my readings is giving them a problem as well."

Or not.

A couple of poorly aimed long-range missile shots glanced off the hull. Even though they technically missed, the size of our vessel didn't give us any advantages. We rocked one way and rolled the other.

"How ya doing?" I asked rhetorically.

"Not so good," she answered anyway.

"Okay, give me a minute," I reassured her for no reason at all. If I could have gotten us out of there, which was very much in doubt, it would certainly not have taken a minute.

But the idea of her being unhappy, uncomfortable in any way, stung me.

Her safety, her comfort, was my job. And I wasn't doing it very well.

Weaving my way through the stalagmites, I had to face the problem that was growing bigger by the second. Now that I knew the enemy pilots knew we had ejected and had us in their sights, I couldn't stay among the stalagmites—they would only slow me down.

On the other hand, if I took the time to get up and over them, I would lose enough ground to be caught for sure.

I navigated on a slow upward trajectory that I hoped would take us forward far enough to stay out of reach of their more accurate short-range missiles, but would still get us over the stalagmites before they caught us.

Just another moment.

That was all I needed.

Next to me, Payton breathed heavily, as if for the first time since takeoff. I realized I also held my breath and released it. We locked eyes as I got the pod back up to speed. We weren't out of danger, but every small victory was a crucial step.

Just as I thought we could outrun them, an alarm blared that we had an incoming missile off our starboard flank. I dodged to avoid it and it crashed into the moon, leaving a crystalline trail in its wake.

It kicked up a cloud of mist that enveloped us, which would have been a good thing if I was able to sink once more into the satellite's bristling teeth. Before I could take advantage of our sudden cover, however, chunks of ice pelted the metal skin of the pod, denting it and knocking out our navigation.

"What just happened?" Payton asked as the screens before me sputtered.

"Oh, nothing, I'm just thinking about flying analog," I joked, hoping she wouldn't hear the worry in my voice.

When they sent another missile our way, I wouldn't be able to dodge it.

Sure enough, the second missile hit us square in the tail, knocking out one of our engines.

There was no way we'd break out of the gravity well now.

There might not even be any way for us to survive at all.

A third shot sailed past us, kicking up more ice chunks, rattling the hull and making the last of the screens short out.

This wasn't good.

We used too much fuel, and took on too much damage.

Not only did we lose the option of using the pod to escape into space, but I could barely see where we were going.

All I could do was run.

Ahead of us was a massive body of water, huge waves like mountains crossing its surface. Quickly I ran scans.

It was risky, but maybe, just maybe…

"What are you doing?" Payton screamed as we neared the waves.

"The only thing I can do!" I shouted as I steered us right into a crash landing. The force of the impact sent shock waves radiating through us and all of the pod's safety measures went into effect.

The engines automatically reversed thrust to slow us down, our safety harnesses ripped at exactly the point our bones would have broken and our organs would have bruised, and the airbags deployed just in time to cushion our landing against the walls.

Even with all of these considerations, the crash hurt like hell.

"Payton!" I called the moment we stopped. "Are you all right?"

Slicing through the airbags I found her, pulling her frail human form to me.

She was breathing. She was alive.

I took that as a win.

"Where are we?" she murmured. "Are we safe?"

Ah. Chances were good she wasn't going to like this part.

"I think so," I told her. "I need to check something."

The pod's lights went out on impact, replaced by the red beams of the auxiliary power. In the soft glow, I tried to locate the communit that flew off its cradle.

Once I found it, I tuned it manually until I reached the frequency of the Deathgate ships. Goddess bless old-timey technology.

"… survived that?" I heard crackling over the airwaves.

"Don't know," came the reply. "Check for heat signatures."

Shit. Would we ever catch a break?

"Can't. All this ice is making my signal screwy. The whole damned thing is a heat signature. How ‘bout yours?"

"Same. They're too far underwater to pick up anything clearer, probably sinking fast."

Break caught! Now if only we could convince them we were dead without them coming down to investigate.

"I don't want to go down into that, do you?"

"Nope."

Wow, two wins in a row. That's gotta be some sort of record.

"Looks like their power's out. They have no way to take off again. If they're not dead, they will be."

"Sounds like a job well done to me, boys! Let's go home!" We heard the sounds of engines taking off as the ships left the satellite.

"Woohoo!" I pumped my fist in the air. I could have done a happy dance, but I saw the look on Payton's and stopped. "What?"

"Didn't you hear them?"

"Yeah! They're leaving! We won!"

She nodded slowly. "That's one way of looking at it. The other way might be that we've crashed, don't have a way off the planet, and it sounded like they said we're sinking underwater." She tilted her head to the side. "Is that true?"

"Technically…" I started, then stopped myself. "Yes. We're underwater, but not sinking." I coaxed the backup system's to life, eked out enough power to get the screens running. "See? We're on the continental shelf. Perfectly safe until we figure out our next move."

She crossed her arms, looking doubtful. "Okay, so what do we do now?"

Right.

Now that I knew she was okay, I could do anything.

I turned back to the scanners, starting looking for options.

Anything we could use.

But…

"Oh. That's not good."