Krystal
With one hand gripping the edge of the cockpit hatch, Krystal glanced up at the Xakul ship hovering ominously above her. The two ships were tethered together in three places, one at the nose of the small stealth ship and two at the rear.
She had only stepped outside of the vessel with T’arq’s encouragement, and the thought of what exactly that Xakul soldier would do to her if she didn’t make it to safety. She swallowed past the lump that had formed in her throat. It didn’t bear thinking about, or she’d freeze and never get away from here.
“T’arq?” It just felt wrong to go without him, like she was missing a limb. Her chest squeezed at the thought.
“Go!” his reply was muffled by a grunt of exertion.
She hesitated, one hand on the ship holding tight to the edge of the hatch while she stared at the great expanse of space spread in front of her. While the Xakul ship had been towing them, they had left the depths of the asteroid belt. She had never been skydiving. The thought had terrified her, but this felt so much worse. At least there weren’t so many obstacles to crash into here. It looked like this was it. She either went now or she faced the Xakul. Her stomach clenched, and she fought nausea. Vomiting in your space suit would not be a good way to start her first spacewalk. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and pushed off with her legs as hard as she could.
“I’m out,” she whispered, not wanting to open her eyes.
It had taken all of Krystal’s courage to push off from the ship and send herself drifting into the deep cold of space. Thousands of years of evolution were screaming inside her that this was a terrible idea, but she trusted T’arq. With her life, she realized.
With every second, she drifted further and further away from the ship, and further and further away from T’arq.
Oh god. I should have stayed!
She panicked, eyes flying open as she rolled onto her back to watch the ship as she drifted away. Her heart pounded in her chest as she fought to keep her breathing calm. To conserve oxygen, she had to stay calm. She counted backwards from ten slowly, trying to calm her rapid breathing and her frantically beating heart.
“Are you out of range?” T’arq’s deep voice filled her helmet, and she squeezed her eyes shut.
“Why? What are you going to do?” Please don’t let him be doing anything stupid. All he had to do was set the timer and come out after her. He still had time… didn’t he?
The reply did not reassure her. “Plasma cannon.”
What? A plasma cannon in such close quarters would rip the ship to shreds… and everything inside it. It was suicide! “No! T’arq, you’ll kill yourself.”
“Are you out of range?”
“Yes,” she whispered. Eyes wide in horror, she watched as dark shapes swarmed down the tethers from the Xakul vessel to enter the stealth ship.
She hit the comm, “T’arq—”
A flash of light had her lifting her head to see the ship engulfed in a fireball that winked out almost as fast as it had begun. She gasped.
Oh no.
Krystal sobbed into her helmet. Unable to wipe her tears, they ran unchecked down her face. What had he done? Why hadn’t she stayed? She might have been able to help.
She blinked to clear her vision, horrified at what she saw. Where the stealth ship had been was a single panel that dangled from one of the broken tethers. The Xakul ship spun in a lazy circle, the two remaining tethers flailing and unattached.
T’arq!
She blinked, fighting to clear her tears. He was gone. There was no way he could have survived that blast if he even made it that long. How many Xakul had there been? She had been too stunned to count. Too many for him to fight on his own. She felt sick.
But what about the Xakul base they had discovered? She had to get the information back to the Zataras. They were so close to Earth’s solar system that it could only be an advanced launching pad for an attack on Earth.
Krystal forced herself to slow her breathing. “I can do this.” She chanted the words until her voice became firm. And T’arq? He would want her to stay calm. If she was to get out of this, she had to stay calm.
She straightened, and taking a deep breath, turned on her back to survey her surroundings. When Krystal had pushed off from the ship, she had aimed for the biggest of the asteroids she could see, hoping for a place to hide in until she could be rescued.
She had got quite close to it and, turning onto her back, realized that if she released a little of the oxygen from the tank on her back, she could propel herself close enough to climb onto it.
But how much oxygen did she have?
According to the display on her comm, the tank was close to full. There was nothing for it but to try.
