Chapter 7 Aera
Evo takes his time closing up the seals on my suit like he’s making extra sure they’re tight.
When Rebel patched my head and gave me another booster, he quietly told me that Evo is not a typical Titan. He and Eon were built in isolation due to their unpredictable natures, but he will protect me as long as I let him.
“I can’t believe we’re here already,” I admit to Evo, my voice still hoarse. I’m barely upright, but the second booster is still kicking in. “Portals... I didn’t know Titans had such technology.”
“We didn’t.” Evo closes my helmet, which lights up a familiar StarJumper’s visual dashboard on my visor. It switches to my ear com. “A human Rebel has one. And another setup was found on a CSP ship Relics recently captured.”
“I wonder why they never found us. The other Rebels, I mean.”
Evo leans back on the bed and gives me a once-over like he’s checking my setup, like he doesn’t trust what he has already checked twice. “Yes, Atox, she is suited up. Depressurization is a go.”
“Ramp lowering.” A Medic unit like Rebel steps inside the room as air leaves, and hands Evo a rifle and a bag. His voice relays over my helmet com. “You ready?”
“In a second.” Evo magnetizes the rifle to his back and then slings the bag across his chest. He turns to me.
“They did not know you were out there. Toriszi’s group was clear on the other side of the solar system from you.
They were hiding in asteroids until Solcrue forced them out. That was just weeks ago.”
“Oh.”
Evo kneels before me, putting him at eye level.
“Aera, there are a lot of things we can all blame each other for, plenty of things we carry guilt about, but as I was recently reminded, we cannot focus on those things if we’re going to get out of this alive.
We’re here now. We must be present. If you wish to remain in communication with the other Rebels, then make it happen. ”
I nod and regret it. A thumping pain in my head makes me wince. “Okay. Am I safe to leave now?”
“Are you?” Evo’s face moves through micro expressions of doubt and concern like a human.
“Will you stay with me?” I ask. “I want to go, but I am pretty woozy. Rebel said the last booster will take a few minutes.”
“I will stay with you.” Evo gets up and leads me out of the room to the edge of the lowering ramp.
“Are the guns really necessary?” I ask as a beastly unit with Diesel on the chest of his armor clips a rifle to his back.
“Yes, ma’am. In case Solcrue have invaded since you left. It is always possible. We must assume there could be a few. Or you could be CSP leading us into a trap.”
“I would never do that.”
A dark Titan with blue swirls in his armor and the name Castor on his digibadge stands guard by the ramp. “It has happened to us before. All of us.”
Evo grunts. “This war has made us distrust others until trust is earned.” Then he looks down at me. “But I believe you. I heard you in your sleep. I know you are worried.”
My body isn’t ready for action, but my heart urges me into the hangar. What if he’s right? What if Solcrue got to them? Is anyone left?
The hangars were dark when we arrived, which tells me one of two things is possible: Solcrue came through and used an EMP to shut down the last of the life support, or it has died on its own. No matter which way I look at it, even though not a whole day has gone by, I fear I’m already too late.
The moment the ramp nears the floor, my eagerness to see if my friends have survived makes me jump off the ship and land on the dark hangar floor. I fumble for the light on my helmet and switch it on.
“Aera!” Evo calls after me as I run to the hangar’s backup airlock. Eight other ships hover inside and set down inside the hangar. He chases me to the control panel. It doesn’t respond when I tap it.
My pounding pulse ratchets up in my skull as frustration surges.
A hand rests against my back. Evo guides me away from the door. “Let us help you.”
I look back as Titans gather around the door. Down the hangar, at another airlock, a different team has formed up.
“They are going to take care of the engines and get this ship back online. We are on life support duty,” Evo adds.
Diesel walks up to the panel, his eyes bright green in the dark.
He pulls a cable out of his side and hands it to a dark unit with a pink digibadge Tor.
Tor takes the cable, connects it to his side, then gets down and removes his gloves.
His fingers peel apart into an array of snaking cables, which he feeds into a nearby access panel.
Evo removes a glove and sets his hand on the control panel. It lights up and fills with schematics and command options for the ship. But it’s the way Evo’s face paints with the same moving bars of light that has my attention.
“They’re in the central compartment. Remaining power at eight percent. Amp has accessed the engines. Reactor is inside, connecting to the charging system. Unlocking door.” Evo’s neck twitches. “There is an intruder. Leech attached at level six. Near the fuel cells.”
A Titan beside Diesel vanishes in a cloud of tiny orbs. His mass slinks into a nearby vent and disappears.
The doors open, and Evo, Tor, and Diesel disconnect themselves and step back. Castor and another Titan with orange fissures across his skin, named Sarge, are the first through the doors, rifles in their hands.
“Atomizer, report,” Atox says in my ear.
Another voice replies, “Scrapper ship. Slipping outside now. Will clear vessel, scavenge, and eject.”
I can’t help but try to push forward in the group, wanting desperately to get back to my people. But Evo keeps me close, one hand to my back at all times, the other now steadying his rifle. Castor and Sarge take a different passageway, heading away from my colony and toward life support.
I try to protest, but Evo takes me by the arm and keeps me with the group.
“We need life support on before we can breach the room. Oxygen is too low. They’ll suffocate if we open the doors now.”
Down a dim maintenance corridor, the Titans lead us into the critical life support power facility. Atox, Siphon, and a female with red eyes and a digibadge of Poppy, scout the hallways we leave behind.
“How do you know where we’re going?” I ask them.
“Pulled ship schematics,” Evo says. “I sent them out to every Titan. They now have record of all the systems.
As we approach the life support power generation facility, Siphon pulls translucent hoses from his side and clips one into Diesel and another into Sarge, who connect themselves to Tor’s sides. Tor removes a dark fuel cell and snakes his fingers inside the chamber.
Castor, Atox, a shadowy unit, and Poppy form up around the working Titans. It is something I haven’t seen in action in years, not since I was very young.
Diesel’s green eyes, Sarge’s crackling orange skin, and Tor’s radiant banded arms fill the dark corridor with a colorful light show.
They have formed their own power generation system.
Siphon feeds Diesel and Sarge fuel. They step it up with the transformers in their bodies, and Tor feeds the appropriate amperage into the system, controlling it with appropriate switching to get the generators moving.
Seconds later, the generator makes a revolution with a faint glow.
It circles again in the chamber, then again but faster.
I haven’t seen it turn on in many long, cold months.
It cycles with increasing speed, spreading into the other chambers around the room.
A hydropump kicks on. I can hear it hum overhead.
Evo looks up when I do.
Rebel and Atox leave our group to begin coordinating the humans from Toriszi’s Rebel force in the hallways with medical prep, leaving Castor, Poppy, and the shadow unit on guard.
An emergency light darkens by the door, drawing my attention to it and the doorway that leads into the emergency power systems. That shouldn’t switch off when Titans are charging the ship.
Evo is monitoring the generation system when I leave his side to peer through the door’s window. Blue light moves down the hallway like a fuel cell has been pulled out of its chamber.
Someone is taking our backup power. If they break the circuit, the entire system will shut down and steal the last of the life support feeding my colony until Evo’s team gets the main system online.
Oh, fuck no!
Fury thrusts heat into my weary muscles. I unlatch the door and fling it open, charging inside. My helmet light catches a flash of green skin behind the visor.
“Solcrue! Emergency power system!” I shout over my coms as adrenaline floods heat and strength into my weary body. I bolt down the hallway with everything I can muster.
He stalls as he looks up at me and draws a weapon.
I don’t have anything but my body to use against him.
I’m tired, injured, and starving, but I’m pissed.
And I’m desperate not to lose my family after everything I’ve just been through, after getting the Rebels and Relics and Rogues on board for this mission.
I throw my pathetic weight into him. It’s just enough to make him stagger back and send us tumbling to the metal floor. He shoves me off of him and points his gun at my helmet.
My father’s chip falls out of my pocket, plinking across the floor. I guess I wasn’t strong enough to zip it shut completely. Snatching up the chip, I try to hide it from him, but the surprise on his face tells me I wasn’t fast enough.
“Command, I found her…” he snarls. His tall frame rises. His forked tongue rakes over his pointed teeth with hunger as he reaches for me, venom in his eyes. “Aera livesssss.”