Chapter 2 Aera
Rations are running out. The few children we have are starving, but not as much as their parents, who are sacrificing everything they can to keep their kids alive. We cannot wait any longer to find help.
Our greenhouse atrium is dark as I pass it on my way to Commander Tarrant’s main conference room.
We’ve pulled power from those systems to stay warm.
But it’s time we break cover and hunt for supplies.
And with our remaining population camped out in the central chamber of our mothership Centurion, illness will spread fast. Only pilots have remained in isolation due to the critical nature of this mission.
We must be quick if we are to avoid capture by Solcrue.
I enter the conference room and stop. It’s empty except for Captain Edersen, Commander Tarrant, and Isa and Brodin, the two who cared for me after my parents died.
“Where is everybody?” I ask, looking around at the empty chairs.
“They are transferring the last of our resources to your vessel as we speak.” Commander Tarrant hands me his tablet.
His gray-blue eyes are sunken and do not shine with determination like they once did.
“While you were prepping your ship, we voted. The entire crew elected to sacrifice their fuel and supplies for the community and you. We have a week at most.”
This change of plans isn’t something I’m ready for. “I’m sorry… Where are the other pilots?”
“You’re going alone.” Captain Edensen lethargically sets a backpack on the desk. His hands, the ones that once wrestled a thruster engine back into place during a frantic escape, have been rendered to skin over bone. “We pooled food and supplies for you.”
They’re sending me. Just me. The others might die here. We were supposed to go as a team, the six of us still flight-capable!
I stumble over my words. “Why me? Why not Daken? Or Charlee?”
“Your biometrics are closest to healthy. Your knowledge…” Commander Tarrant glances at Edensen.
There’s more going on than they’re saying.
They knew my parents. They served with them back when we were still a flying force to be reckoned with, before the Solcrue consumed everything and built more patrol ships, pushing us further into the void between the solar systems to avoid enslavement.
“You need to head for this nebula. That is where I believe the Titans are hiding.” Commander Tarrant taps open a star chart and slides a finger along a trajectory to a dot in the cosmos.
It opens into a vibrant purple nebula. “Iridithatium. You’ll be safe there.
We just don’t have the fuel to make it. Only you have a chance, but it’s a long shot. ”
“What makes you think they’ll come out to help us? What if they’re no better off than we are?”
“Programming,” Isa says. “I knew one of the Titans’ Creators, Besha. We grew up together. If one of us is to survive, it must be you, if for no reason but to find out what this is.”
She hands me my father’s chiseled honeycomb-shaped memory chip. The moment it settles into my hand, the hexagonal pattern lights up blue.
“It recognizes you.” Brodin’s beard has grayed and thinned in recent months like many of the older men of our colony. “Your parents trusted us to care for you but not with whatever secret that holds. Just…don’t lose it.”
“I won’t.”
Brodin walks up to me and takes me by the shoulders. “They would be proud of you. We are.” Yet in his eyes hides fear that he cannot protect me any longer.
He draws me into a hug like his entire body aches.
I know it does. Mine does too. Lack of food causes the body to enter a catabolic state, basically digesting itself to repair critical systems and keep us alive.
But there comes a point where stores are not enough.
It is why our numbers dwindle more every day.
“If you run out of hope,” he whispers, “Look for it in something new. Even if that means giving away your location to Solcrue. You must live. But do not let them have this.”
He leans back and raps a knuckle on the armor over my sternum.
“Brodin.” Isa grabs his arm and gives his eyes a fearful study.
Water is precious. Tears are considered wasteful.
He wipes them away with a finger and licks the water from his skin. “I’m sorry.”
Isa hugs me. She is skin and bones, and I fear she will not survive the week. Brodin isn’t much better. He used to be so strong, jovial, and full of life.
The Solcrue have scavenged every supply depot, leaving us with nothing. They patrol our old routes to Earth Minor and now abandoned Rebel bases on planets and moons. We do not have the fuel to land on a planet after barely outrunning the last patrol squadron.
They will rot in hell at my first opportunity.
I sling the backpack over my shoulders and salute my captain and commander.
Captain Edensen salutes me back.
“Forgive me,” Commander Tarrant says as he sinks into a chair. “I do not have the energy. But I salute you, Aera, for what you are risking, and for the burden of lives you bear. I know it is not easy.”
I want to stay with them, but the longer I stay, the more time I waste, and the closer my people get to death.
“I will do everything I can,” I tell them.
Isa braces my cheek with a cold hand. “I will not be here when you return. My time comes. I feel it. But don’t you dare cry for me, child.”
Tears burn in my eyes, threatening to break free. “Yes, ma’am.”
“I got to see you grow up, and I got to grow old with this pain in the ass,” she adds.
Brodin laughs once, sadly, draws Isa against him, and kisses her forehead. Then he looks at me and tilts his head toward the hangars. “Go now, before more have to die.”
I glance once more at my commander and my captain and, after a nod from them, hustle out of the room, through the empty passageways, and to my small starfighter.
Charlee’s voice sounds weakly over the hangar speakers when I enter. The dark ships around me break my heart. “SunFlux, Dragon Nine, ready for launch.”
Behind her, through the glass, I see Daken, Racer, Colt, and Steele. Daken and Steele have their arms around the only other female on our team and are holding her up. She has taken a turn for the worse. But they’re giving her the honor of sending me off.
I am their last hope. We are too far out in dead space for Solcrue to hurt us, but they won’t hear our cries for help either. If I can’t reach the Titans, I have to turn to the enemy to save my people.
I must reach the Titans.
Screw Solcrue.
My ship, Dragon Nine, is fully charged and steams with heat. It feels criminal to have such things when there is nothing left for anyone else.
Looking in at my friends and their gaunt faces and dull eyes, I realize they’ve all been sacrificing more than I have. We ate and slept separately to avoid the spread of diseases. Captain Edensen told me we got the same food. That there was enough. But I see now that he lied to me.
And it is destroying me.
My stomach hurts some from hunger, mostly from guilt. I cannot waste this chance. They planned this without me. But I cannot throw away their sacrifices because I’m upset, or everyone dies.
So I salute my friends, wishing I didn’t feel like I was abandoning them. They salute me back. Daken helps Charlee get her hand to her brow.
Reluctantly, and with painful steps, I hike the ramp into the belly of my ship. The ramp seals up behind me, and I slip into my pilot’s seat. My cabin is mildly warm, but life support is set to minimum standards to conserve power and supplies.
“Dragon Nine, Centurion Hangar Control. Opening doors, Bay Nine.” Charlee sounds like she’s desperately trying not to cry.
I tap my ear com and call back. “CHC, Dragon Nine.” I ignite my thrusters. “Fire under my wings. Fury in my soul. Solcrue will reap what they have sown.”
As I hover toward the blue sealscreen, I hear a crash over the coms.
“Aera,” Daken rasps over the dash. “Light a bonfire under that ass. Charlee is down. We are running out of time.”
My lips quiver as I think of my friends and all the hours of flight training when we were younger, the hand-to-hand combat sessions on the gym mats, and how Charlee liked gummy bears in her ice cream back when we still had homes and hope on Earth Minor.
But Solcrue were winning the war, so our colony fled to the stars. The aliens wrecked every outpost and spaceport. They took over highways and jump portals. And here we are, adrift in space, dying because we wanted only to be free.
Anger strengthens my resolve and my voice. “Keep her warm, Colt. I’ll be back soon.”
“I’ll do my best,” Colt faintly replies.
The moment I’m through the hangar, the doors begin to close. I bank and fly over Centurion’s dark thrusters, aiming for the nebula. It is several days away at a conservative pace. But I have no intention of walking around my empty ship for that long while my colony dies.
When I’m a safe distance from our mothership, I increase speed. My thrusters push me harder toward the distant stars. The force sinks me back and into the cushions of my seat. My thinning body shifts inside my loose suit, and I realize how much weight I’ve lost.
My friends and my colony have lost more.
I increase speed as fast as my body can handle. Breathing gets difficult. My vision swims.
Stay focused, Aera. They need you.
I blink hard and keep my eyes on the navigation screen and the ink of space…the faint purple blaze in the distance.
The ship’s power drops, as does the time to my destination.
Two days, 12 hours.
I push the ship harder.
1 day, 18 hours.
I max the throttle until my ship rattles. Power drops to fifty percent.
Momentum increases. That’s the thing about space. No resistance of air means constantly adding velocity until I cut power to the thrusters. Trouble is, I need enough power to stop.
I ease back on the throttle until I shut the engines down completely. My little ship races across the stars. Power drops to forty-five percent. I’ve gone too hard.