I quickly message my twin.
Evo>>Eon: Emergency Rescue Program Running. Descendant of Creator in danger. Solar storm approaching. Do not follow. Will report back in one hour. If transmission does not arrive, consider us decommissioned. Do not search.
I silence coms as I leave the nebula. It’s going to be a treacherous grab in the storm, but I track her position, prep the gravity beam on the belly, and get myself on an intercept course.
My Skysprinter is at full power and carries me across space toward the storm in minutes.
Lifting my shields, I target the ship and bolt into the clouds. It is a rough, jarring ride. Bright flares of light tear over the hull. But Solcrue have had many centuries to perfect shields against such galactic threats. And I am grateful for their engineering in this moment.
Then I hate myself for liking anything they create.
But reality cannot be denied.
The dash monitor for the gravity beam gives me a green indicator that it is charged and ready. Ahead of me, the vessel tumbles chaotically through the torrential waves of light and heat. I sway the SkySprinter in just behind the ship, watching the movement for a pattern I can predict. When I see my opportunity, I mash the Ignite command and snatch up the ship.
But the connection is unstable. The hot gales from clashing flares send our linked vessels tumbling.
I redirect main power to engines and my grav beam. Lights and life support in the cabin goes out. The ship I’ve captured stabilizes beneath me. I cut upward through the storm at an angle to reduce the force of impact from the solar flares. The little ship on my belly creates fierce drag that threatens to pullus back in. But I maintain course and, slowly, ribbons of light flicker and begin to slip from our ships.
We break free. But we have tumbled to the other side of the storm that is already stirring up the nebula.
The Solcrue SkySprinter registers the “capture.”
My programming reports something else.
Vessel offline. One life form aboard. Five minutes of oxygen remaining.
“Shit.”
I set autopilot to keep us away from the storm, get up, and throw myself in the airlock. The door barely opens before I squeeze out.
Time Remaining: 4:21.
I crawl over the Skysprinter and down to the grav beam, humming as it keeps my ship’s belly to the roof of what vaguely represents a SunFlux. The symbol on the side is not of Rebel. It is not a Solcrue serpent, or a CSP shield. It is a sun with a partial band of eight orbs and a star in one corner.
Time Remaining: 3:58.
The ship is a dead metal husk. I have to open it manually. My scanners overlay blue schematics as they uncover what’s beneath the hull. As I scour the ship for a way in, I get a glimpse through the glass of a hibernation pod and a motionless human female inside. Her star suit appears to be intact, so I forgo precautions, rip the hull plates off the airlock access, grab the door mechanisms, and tear them out.
The door lazily slides open. I pull myself into the vessel. There isn’t much in the ship except some loose tools and crumbs of food. When I reach the pod, I try the release mechanism, but it won’t budge. Even her pod has shut down.
A faint light in her visor is one of two items powered up in the area. A tablet with lines through its flickering image floats by. Igrab it when I see the Rogues’ nebula. I think this female found us on purpose.
Time Remaining: 2:21.
I stuff the tablet in an armored pouch on my thigh and assess the human’s pod. There is only one way in with systems down. But breaking the smooth space glass is not something I’m equipped for. Few tools in the area stand a chance.
Then Eon’s question comes back to me about whether I’ve learned to control the shift.
I replicated Leah’s blood in my hands.
Time Remaining: 1:57.
I don’t know what I’m doing, not exactly, but I remove my gloves and set my hands on the glass. I have fragmented with Fracture more than once in recent days. I have mapped the feeling well. But thinking of the fissures and the way disaggregating felt is only enough to crack the glass.
Time Remaining: 1:34.
Come on. Why can’t I figure this out?
