Chapter 36
Havali
The artificial gravity in the ship meant that movement, in the vacuum of space, was difficult, if not impossible, to feel. But the motion was fast enough that Havali could see the ring getting closer. The lights filled their window.
“What’s happening?” She asked, looking back at him.
He was grinning. “The ship has been set to get closer to get a better view. It’s almost time.”
“Time for what?”
“I told you that, during the energy harvesting process, they purposefully use the lights as a means of preventing overwhelming heat from releasing during the transformative process of the solar power become useful energy.”
“Yeah, I remember.”
“Well, that is true, but it’s not the full explanation.
The energy gathered through the night shields will start building up as heat.
So, they have to release it. But they can’t release that energy all the time.
Not without making very bright lights that would disturb life in the ring.
So, instead, they gather it up and when the energy builds up too high, they release it all at once in one big, beautiful display. ”
Scarlet felt herself starting to smile as she looked back through the viewing window. “And we’re getting closer to see that?”
He grunted in affirmation, rubbing his thumb along her side.
“Is that safe?” Alanna asked, frowning.
“It’s just light,” Tuvo said with a careless gesture. “It can’t touch us.”
“Well, that’s not strictly true,” Havali hedged. “The lights aren’t fully harmless. They’re the visual representation of the overflow of harvested solar power from the night shields. Essentially, waves of energy.”
“So, they aren’t safe?” Peony looked concerned.
“Touching them directly wouldn’t be safe, but the shuttle shouldn’t get so close that we would be in the path of any of the released energy. It’s just going to give us a better view.”
“Is this thing being piloted manually?” Alanna didn’t look reassured. If anything, she looked more uneasy, and it only got worse when Havali answered her question.
“It’s on an automatic flight path.”
“Er,” Alanna grimaced. “I don’t know about that. What if something happens?”
“There are protocols and safety measures in place.”
“Alanna?” Scarlet looked at her friend, concerned. “What’s wrong? Did you have a dream?”
Alanna hummed, nodding her head uneasily.
“I’m lost,” Peony admitted.
Havali was glad he wasn’t the only one. Alanna spoke strangely sometimes. Usually, the other females just agreed with whatever she was saying, but when pressed, they couldn’t actually explain what Alanna was talking about.
“I never dream. Dreaming is a bad omen. And that?” Alanna pointed at the drone. “That’s definitely a bad omen.”
“Of nosy gossip mongers?” Havali asked, really trying to keep up with her thoughts. It was difficult, because he really only had a passing knowledge of what an ‘omen’ even was.
“The fact that it’s here at all!” Alanna insisted, giving the other females a look like she expected them to understand her fully. “That means something went wrong in the security process, and if that goes wrong, then something else could go wrong.”
Tuvo frowned at her assessment but couldn’t really argue with it.
Domini didn’t really have spiritual beliefs like most other species did.
He knew what magic was – deities, spirits, ghosts, and all of those types of things.
But he only knew them because he learned them in relation to other species that did believe in such things.
An omen, as far as he understood it, was some kind of warning signal that something random or unpredictable was going to happen.
But not something that was actually connected in any way to the event – like evidence.
It was, in fact, the lack of connection that made it an omen in the first place.
Which really made it seem more like a coincidence to his way of thinking, but apparently it wasn’t.
It made no sense to him, no matter how hard he tried to grasp the foreign concept.
Peony hummed thoughtfully. “I thought it was the other way around? That if something small goes wrong, then something big is less likely to go wrong, because something already went wrong.”
That made no sense at all. Before Havali could point that out, Alanna was speaking again.
“Yes, but the drone isn’t wrong, per se. It’s indicative of a problem, not an actual problem. See, it’s not doing anything. It’s just floating there. But that makes it a malevolent presence. Like a crow. Or a raven. It’s even dark when drones are normally colorful.”
“Scarlet?” Havali leaned over her as Peony and Alanna continued to debate the likelihood of the drone being a good or bad sign.
The fact that they couldn’t decide seemed to indicate to him that it meant nothing at all, but humans, he knew, didn’t necessarily feel the same. “Can you please explain this to me?”
“Er…” She made a face. “Alanna is catching bad vibes, and Peony is being optimistic.”
“That did not help at all.”
She chuckled, leaning back into him. “Do you trust the shuttle?”
“The likelihood of something going wrong is infinitesimal.”
“Then, I’ll trust you,” she smiled, turning her attention back to the lights.
They had changed colors again. Now, they were swirling between pink and light blue, creating a lovely shade of purple between them.
A bit closer, it was easier to see streaks of light, almost like comets, rushing through the air before they dissipated into the cool vacuum of space – like sugar being dissolved into water.
They left behind them trails of light that streaked up and outwards – the only proof of the invisible energy waves that were pushing against them.
The shuttle came to a stop. They were still a long way from the lights, but they had an even better view as the light show suddenly changed.
The females all gasped, their chatter falling away as their attention was stolen.
The lazy, slowly shifting colors were gone.
There was vibrance to them now. The languid swirls were replaced by quickly erupting lines.
Each a different color. All of them leaving sparks behind.
The sparks didn’t dissipate but began moving up and out like bleeding paint.
They grew larger and more vibrant as the amount of energy being pumped out suddenly increased.
Most of the lights faded like before, their trajectory halted as their energy burned out.
Some of them, however, seemed to explode, bursting outward in sudden pops of color.
They sparkled and shimmered in the vacuum before they eventually faded out like the others.
“They look like fireworks!” Scarlet said, her face alight with joy. All three females were beaming, staring, entranced by the lights.
Havali had never seen them in person. He likely never would again. But at that moment, he couldn’t bring himself to look away from Scarlet.
Her eyes sparkled with delight. The rush of different colors across her face almost made her seem like a domini.
All except her hair. The dark red of her hair didn’t seem to change at all.
Still vibrant, still beautiful, still his lovely Scarlet.
And he was glad that the change was only a result of the different colored lights flashing over her skin.
He loved his human mate exactly as she was and wouldn’t make her a domini for all the power and wealth on Turv.
He didn’t realize he had wrapped her up in his arms, cradling her to his chest, until she smiled back at him. Quickly. She didn’t look away from the lights for long. The females seemed completely hypnotized by them.
Havali lost track of time. He barely glanced directly at the lights.
They were far prettier when reflected in the shining eyes of his female.
That’s where he stared. Awed. Adoring. Every so often, he would turn his nose into her hair and breathe deep of her unique scent.
Partially sweet from her soap, but partially medicinal and sterile from her profession.
It was a perfume that shouldn’t make his mouth water, but it did.
“No!”
The sudden shout made them all jump.
It came from Tuvo. He jumped up from his lounging cushion and was leaping over it, running for the drone.
Since they were ignoring it, the little device had felt comfortable coming closer.
And it was backing up into the ship’s control panel.
Havali only had enough time to tighten one arm around Scarlet before using his claws to grab onto the lounge cushion in an effort to keep them still.
The drone struck the panel. The hover tech of the drone hit the panel and short circuited it. There was a pulse of audible electricity followed almost immediately by a deep, ominous thrumming. The dim lights of the shuttle went off completely and the engine sputtered behind them.
The drone wasn’t unaffected. The feedback had shocked it and, with a loud thud, indicating just how dense the device was, it smacked into the panel. It hit something that immediately had an alarm ringing from overhead.
The artificial gravity switched off. Tuvo jumped just as it did, giving himself enough momentum to smack the drone away from the panel. It flew away, spinning into the air before clinking against the glass of the viewing window.
Through which they could see the lights suddenly getting closer. The gravity of the ring was starting to pull them in.
“Get it back on!” Atem ordered, clutching Peony with both arms, using his tail wrapped around the leg of the table that was bolted to the floor to keep them still.
Tuvo didn’t need the instruction. He was already desperately running the shuttle through its startup procedures. He cursed in ancient Domtri, using his claws to keep himself from floating away as he desperately pressed the buttons.
They were too close to the lights now. There was no automatic pilot to keep them from getting in range of the dissipating energy.
And as they got closer to it, the waves rocked the shuttle like a boat bobbing helplessly in the waves.
Down from gravity, up from the energy pulses.
Again, and again until their shuttle was spinning, the heavier engine side facing down.
Then around again as the energy continued to buffet them.
“Tuvo!” Atem snarled.
“One moment!”
“Now!”
The alarm cut off as the engine began to rumble properly.
Gravity slowly came back, and they floated back to their seats. Havali and Atem deposited their females onto their cushion as they leapt up and rushed for the panel to assist Tuvo. Alanna, who had been holding herself down, came after them.
“What happened?” She asked fearfully as Peony called for Scarlet in a tiny voice that Havali almost didn’t hear as he pushed Tuvo away.
Between the two of them, he had more experience with things like this. Tuvo, knowing that, stepped aside without complaint as Atem leant Havali a hand.
Havali hissed at the same moment that Atem cursed.
“What?” Alanna asked, gripping her skirt in both fists.
“We’re caught in the lights,” Havali said as he flipped a switch, lowering the protective screen across the glass windows so that light no longer flooded within – either from the power plant or from the sun as both of them were flashing inside as the shuttle spun.
“The automatic pilot can’t get us out because it’s based on where the energy is and, trapped inside, it doesn’t know what direction to take us, so it’s just giving me errors. ”
“Can you fly it?” Atem asked, looking at him.
Havali shook his head regretfully. “The orbital is specialized. Not Standard. I can operate the basic functions, but if I try to fly, especially as the lights are bouncing us, I could send us careening straight to the ring.”
“What do we do?” Tuvo asked, claws out, ready to tear into something. He needed a plan. He was a man of action. “Escape pods?”
“They’ll have the same problem.”
“Then, what?!” Atem snarled.
“We have to wait.” Havali stepped back from the panel. “The ship will keep bobbing just at the edge of the lights. The engine is back online, it will keep us safe and, relatively, stable inside. But until the power purge is finished, we can’t move from this position.”
“Er, guys?” Scarlet called to them cautiously.
The four of them all turned back to find Scarlet hovering over Peony.
Adassani had a pained look on her face, and she was grabbing her belly. His heart sank.
“No,” Atem whispered, eyes widening in terror.
Peony whimpered, and through the dress that hugged her form, they could see her entire belly clench with a contraction.
She had gone into labor.