Or maybe they had just never encountered someone quite as stubborn as Kira.
Torvald waited as Kira fastened her helmet over her head before flashing him a thumb’s up.
“Jin, I’m ready to go.”
The airlock door slid shut as Kira turned herself to face the hatch that would lead to space. There was a whoosh as the enclosed room depressurized. Kira’s feet came free of the floor as the gravity cut off.
She floated toward the outside door as it slid open, revealing an endless black studded with bright pinpricks of light.
“Raider has bought us all the time he can, but the engines are close to being maxed out. The mines should reach us in about ten minutes. You need to be back on board before that happens or you’ll get torn apart by shrapnel,” Jin warned as she kicked on the suit’s thrusters.
There was a slight vibration as Kira shot forward.
“Understood.”
The Wanderer passed over top of her. A hulking beast against the black of the void.
Kira reached out, skimming one hand along its side as she glanced out into the starry sky. Data streamed down one side of her visor. With a flick of her eye, she magnified the view of the mines.
“No time to waste,” Kira whispered to herself.
Everyone was counting on her. She couldn’t let them down.
“Tell me you at least have a plan,” Jin urged.
Kira grinned as she increased her speed. “Working on it.”
Silence echoed over the comms.
“We’re doomed.”
A snicker left Kira as a red dot flickered to one side of her visor, indicating she was nearing her destination.
She blinked, expanding the screen and zooming in on the bog’s hag.
In the short time since they’d discovered its presence, the plant’s tendrils had spread even further. It now took up a space about five feet wide. Thickly intertwined, each feeler was no thicker than Kira’s pinky finger.
Upon closer inspection, Kira could see what looked like tiny, orange blood vessels interspersed throughout the green of the vines.
The tightly furled flower bud looked like a dead thing. Its petals black and withered. Once it bloomed, however, the flower’s inner petals would be the same shade of orange as the veins on the vines.
Kira landed gently on the hull, far enough away that there was no chance of disturbing the bog’s hag. Her armor’s magnetic boots engaged.
“Finn, how are we looking inside?”
The ship bucked before he could answer. Kira’s body whipped to the side. Only luck and her quick reflexes enabled her to engage the thruster, steadying her torso.
Thank any god that existed that she’d sprung for the high-grade armor that nearly bankrupted her at the time. Otherwise, that stunt would have destroyed her legs.
“What the fuck, Raider? A little warning next time,” Kira shouted, checking on the bog’s hag.
The flower bud was still tightly furled, indicating all the jostling hadn’t brought it out of its dormant state yet.
“You act like this is easy,” Raider argued through gritted teeth. “It’s not.”
Finn cut in before Kira and Raider could argue any further. “There are no roots that I can see on the inside of the ship.”
Finally. A bit of luck.
