Chapter 2
The meteor shower I’d been trying to outrun was gaining on me. The small two-passenger leisure shuttle I was piloting jerked, and I lost my white-knuckled grip on the steering mechanism. “Blanting useless nav system.”
Heart racing, I knocked on the glitchy screen, then buckled into the harness system, all the while floundering with one hand for the steering stick.
Why had I listened to my older brother?
“It’ll be quick,” D’iver had said. “In and out. Just take the leisure craft, drop the new containment system at Thermal Station C and you’ll be back at the poolside, tossing my younglings overhead before you know it.”
This was my first vacation in five annums. Despite knowing that, he’d used my need to be helpful against me.
“You know I’d do it, but poor little D’izzy’s not feeling well. This delivery is way overdue. It somehow slipped by me.”
An image of my niece’s beautiful dark skin covered in itchy white spots formed in my mind, and I found myself nodding, yet again, filling the role of naive younger brother despite knowing how many things managed to “slip by him.”
The faulty nav system beeped, but instead of restarting and highlighting the obstacles I desperately needed to avoid, a red emergency banner scrolled across the fuzzy screen. The message broke up with static.
Evacuation Orders—
A chunk of debris hurtled toward the view shield, and on instinct I ducked, even though the shuttle would take the brunt of the force.
In Place Until—
Ice-covered rock shattered as it hit the cockpit’s viewing window.
Further Notice.
Then another notification panned across the screen.
No Entry Granted.
My heart raced as I twisted in a sharp arc to the left, redirecting the shuttle away from Tern. The trembling craft skimmed the atmospheric rim—strangely distorted and pink—much faster than it should have.
A spray of debris rained down on the left fin, tilting my family’s small shuttle onto its side.
Blant! No entry? What in the goddess Sola’s name did that mean?
It was just like D’iver to take shortcuts and skip the routine disembarkation plan.
Bent at an awkward angle, I had just flicked the switch for the overhead coms on, attempting to make contact with Tern, when a huge meteoroid sucked the pleasure craft into its gravitational field.
Paralyzed, my mind raced through crash sequences, while my limbs lay stiff and useless under the massive force.
A helmet dropped from the overhead compartment, glancing off of my shoulder.
The sudden movement kickstarted my senses, and I fought against gravity to jam it onto my head.
I might have been young, but I wasn’t as dumb or useless as everyone thought.
Oxygen from the helmet hissed in my ears before my head slammed into the headrest and the leisure shuttle shook like a rattle.
It was all I could do to dig my heels into the floor and brace to prevent my jaw from being launched into my brain.
In a flat spin, the shuttle hurtled through Tern’s atmosphere, dragged along in the meteoroid’s wake. With a busted nav system, I couldn’t outrun gravity’s sharp pull. It stretched my ligaments until every joint in my body elongated to the point of dislocation.
Please, I’m a good Boola. The best Boola. I promise I’ll be even better.
Every nerve fired and pain washed my face in tears.
Through blurry eyes, I saw the orange caution light for the faulty nav system blink out altogether.
My whole body juddered. Thruster one sputtered and stalled, but the force of the acceleration was still gluing my useless body to the seat.
Sweat dripped down my face, making my eyes sting as I watched the temperature regulator hit its threshold and give up its fight.
All I wanted was to see my family again, to hold my niece and nephews in my arms and protect them.
A chunk broke off from the meteoroid, taking out the remaining thruster.
The meteoroid shot ahead, launching the pleasure craft sideways, where it continued to roll through a pink dust storm.
Blant, I’m never making it out of this alive.
My stomach heaved and roiled until I couldn’t hold on to its contents any longer.
Horrified, I moaned as the helmet’s mask filled with vomit.
Was this how it would end? Free-falling with no guidance system and no engines? The rancid odor of sour tinga fruit burned my nostrils, and my closed eyes stung from the stomach acid sloshing around in my mask. With nothing else to do, I prayed to the goddess Sola.
Please let me experience another sunrise and moonrise. And most of all, if you have any mercy…
Don’t let my time in this universe end before I’ve lost my virginity.
A stabbing pain in my leg and a mouthful of sour blood was all I remembered before the shuttle slammed into the ground and everything went black.
Blant, what in the Sola is that taste? I inhaled. And that awful smell?
I sat up, head spinning, and pulled the helmet off my head. Pink sand drifted through the wreckage surrounding me and filled the air with choking dust. I coughed and grabbed my aching head, every neck muscle screaming in complaint. But at least the horrid smell had lessened.
What a blanting mess. With trembling fingers, I took off my outer shirt and fumbled for the blade on my belt.
Nerves shot, it took me much too long to cut off a section to wipe the filth from my stinging eyes and nose.
My left leg screamed in agony as I twisted to wrap another scrap around my lower face to filter the dusty air.
Blood soaked my black pants, and a gash spanning the length of my palm had started to bleed again. Great. Just what I need. There’d better be a Boola at the research station willing to donate. The need for blood already had my mouth watering and fangs lengthening.
I scanned the surrounding area. The cockpit shield had remained whole and it mostly covered me where I sat, still harnessed in my seat.
The fins were nowhere to be seen, and below the seat, the metal had curled back to expose pink sand and glossy black rock.
Strangely, plasmasteel joists and crossbeams rose above me, their edges warped and twisted until the pink dust swallowed them whole.
What the hellfire did that?
It felt like I’d landed in one of my favorite simulator worlds, hiding out in the remnants of a destroyed skyscraper after a post-apocalyptic rain. Only I didn’t have a sweet-ass weapon, a med kit or my big brother teamed up beside me.
I groaned as full sensation came back to my leg, the steady throb shooting hot fire to my toes. Keeping as still as possible, I stripped off my belt, bit down on the flat of my blade and cinched the strap of black webbing around my thigh.
“Sola, have mercy,” I cried, catching my knife before it fell into my lap.
I loosely covered the exposed area in a sloppy attempt to keep the sand out.
The spare supplies were tucked inside the missing fins, and with no water, food or shelter, it was becoming clearer by the moment how perilous my situation was.
But I wouldn’t give up on the second shot at life the goddess Sola had gifted me.
With a determination I hadn’t known I was capable of, I lurched to my feet. Sweat broke out on my brow as I attempted to compartmentalize the pain. There would be time to moan after I sank my fangs into a willing Boola brother or sister at the station.
Once I was out of the shelter of the cockpit and the building’s wreckage, sand blasted my exposed skin, stinging it like a thousand tiny needles.
Every gritty breath I took made me cough and choke.
I debated returning for the protection of my helmet.
But the thought of putting that cesspit back over my head sent my stomach reeling.
Instead, I cut a couple of slits in the fabric over my mouth and tugged it up to cover my entire face, then squinted into the dust.
Sola’s blaze, the containment unit… Where the hell is it?
Forget about the stupid containment unit. Where in hellfire is the research station? Or Tern’s capital city?
I staggered to the right and hoped my sense of direction wasn’t as messed up as my leg. A twisted length of plasmasteel stuck out of the sand ahead, and I braced myself against it to catch my breath. The gale-force winds sent an icy chill through my body, and my hands began to tingle.
My gaze dropped to my wristport when it chimed, as it did every sun. My wristport! Why hadn’t I thought of it earlier? My brother would laugh at my incompetence, not understanding how I took it to heart, and use it to add to his dumb-brother jokes. That was, if I ever saw him again.
I frantically commed my brother—nothing. Then Thermal Station C—nothing. And when I powered the unit down and restarted it, a blinking ‘No signal available’ notification overrode all the messaging systems. Wonderful.
But by the goddess Sola’s light, a little dot blinked when I flicked to the nav program. Thermal Station C’s location. I closed my eyes and sighed.
Focusing on the blinking path now dotting my wristport, I yanked the length of busted plasmasteel out of the ground and used it to take some of my weight as I hopped forward with renewed determination.
Sand beat at me with each painful step. I’d never visited Tern in the cold season before, but I didn’t remember hearing it described as stormy.
What seemed like an eternity later, another chime sounded from my wristport.
I frowned. How had I only been walking for one sun?
I leaned against the plasmasteel rod so hard I thought I might topple over.
Despite the shirt around my face, sand clung to my lips and pooled in my ears.
My limbs felt as if they’d been filled with rocks, and mustering the energy to move forward was rapidly becoming a losing battle.
The desire to lie down and nap was taking the lead.