The Outer Worlds: Book One of the Epherian Chronicles (18 page)

She reached
out and flicked the three reactor operation switches. The Out
Drifter’s engine instantly rumbled as it powered back to life.
‘Ethan, are you on the ship?’

‘…
I’m in the engine room. Why have you started the
engines?...’

‘
We’re taking off. The aliens are about to attack the
city.’

Ivan
reappeared and jumped into the co-pilot seat.

‘
What do you want me to do?’ asked Ajax.

‘
Buckle yourself in. This could get really ugly.’

‘
What about Cap and Cynthia? We can’t leave them behind,’ said
Ajax.

A huge
explosion lit up the city, and the building directly across from
the docking platform began to crumble as a huge blast of plasma
ripped through it. The shockwave from the explosion caused the Out
Drifter to shake.

Sara pulled
back the vertical control lever and the ship lifted off the
platform and hovered for a moment as the adjacent building crumbled
into the city below. A massive cloud of smoke and dust rose up.

Sara reached
up and grabbed the combat visor and placed it over her face. She
then pushed the acceleration lever and the ship instantly powered
forward and flew out into the city. She looked up as they exited
the docking bay. Hundreds of alien fighters clouded the sky above
the city. The Out Drifter plunged downward into the thick dust
cloud and then into the smog of the lower city. The ship rapidly
accelerated. Sara weaved through the buildings and flew just below
the smog layer. Buildings were collapsing around them and she had
to concentrate to dodge the falling debris. A thick dust cloud was
spreading through the city.

There was the
sound of an explosion; the ship shook and careered downward. She
struggled to take control and clipped the side of a building, which
caused the Out Drifter to spin uncontrollably.

‘
We took a direct hit. I can’t fly through all this falling
debris. Ivan, check the systems. What’s the status?’

‘
All the systems are operational. The electronic shield is at
forty percent.’

‘
Forty percent!’ she repeated angrily.

The ship
veered upward and shot out of the dust cloud. She rapidly ascended
into the bright blue sky. Thousands of fighters were engaged in
aerial combat and the sky was ablaze with streams of plasma,
charged particle beams and smoke trails from missiles. It was
instantly clear that the alien fighters vastly outnumbered the Zeno
Par fleet. Three massive triangular alien ships were hovering high
above the city. Thousands of mounted plasma turrets were unleashing
on the city below and causing absolute devastation.

‘
Flying in the open poses a risk,’ said Ivan.

‘
I disagree! We can move much more quickly if we are above the
buildings, and there is way too much falling debris down there,’
she replied as the Out Drifter’s main cannon started firing at a
squadron of nearby alien fighters. She unleashed several rockets as
she veered away from the battle toward the outskirts of the
city.

‘
We are being trailed by a group of alien fighters,’ said
Ivan.

‘
I can see them,’ she snapped.

‘
There are eight alien fighters,’ he added.

‘
I know!’ she yelled.

The ship
shook. Ivan checked the electronic shield console; thirty-two
percent. He then switched the ship’s external com to Michael’s com
channel. ‘Captain Michael, can you hear me?’ There was no answer.
‘Captain Michael, this is Ivan. Can you hear me?’ Again there was
no answer. They cleared the outskirts of the city. Sara brought the
ship into a rapid descent. The eight alien fighters followed
closely. She shifted from left to right to avoid the torrent of
plasma and charged particle beams.

Seconds later
they reached the mountain range that encircled the city. She
brought the ship to an extremely low altitude. They were just above
the treetops. The ship shook again.

‘…
Sara, the casings are overheating!…’ shouted Ethan.

‘
I don’t want to hear it, Ethan. Tell me some good news,’ she
yelled.

‘…
There is no good news! You have to slow down!…’

‘
That’s the one thing I can’t do right now!’

She guided the
Out Drifter along a deep valley between two huge snow-capped
mountains. The alien fighters were still directly behind them.
Charged particle beams and lasers shot by, and Sara did her very
best to evade the onslaught. The sound of an explosion rang out,
and the ship suddenly plunged toward the wooded valley below. The
console lights flickered off and on.

‘
Sweet neutrino!’ she yelled, struggling to take control. They
were approaching the treetops at a blistering rate. ‘Ethan,
manually increase the power!’

‘…
I can’t; the valves will crack!...’

‘
Do it!’

‘…
I can’t!...’

‘
Do it or we are finished!’

‘…
Fine, I’ll do it, but this could be the end…’

The ship
thrust forward and sharply turned upward. The rear side scraped the
treetops. Sara then pushed the forward thrust lever to full power
and entered an acute vertical climb. They could only see bright
blue sky and hazy white clouds through the viewing panel.

‘…
The valves! They’re going to crack open. Sara, you have to
power down the reactor!...’

‘
Just a second!’ she shouted as the Out Drifter rapidly
ascended.

‘…
You have to!...’

They entered
the upper atmosphere. She reached forward and switched off the
reactor power. The engines fell silent; the ship slowed to a
complete stop and then went into freefall. She turned the ship with
the lateral emergency thrusters. The eight alien fighters were
instantly upon them. She fired all the Out Drifter’s weapons at
once. Two of the fighters exploded; one was taken by a rocket and
the other was hit by the shrapnel from the explosion. They
descended through the remaining fighters; two plasma beams hit them
at once. The Out Drifter started to spin out of control as it
descended.

‘
Ethan, how are those valve casings?’ she asked.

‘…
They’re cooling down, but they’re still unstable…’

‘
I have to restart the reactor.’

‘…
Wait! The casings are still too hot…’

‘
We are in an uncontrolled descent. We don’t have a
choice.’

‘…
Wait as long as you can…’

Sara focused
her full attention on the fast approaching ground. The alien
fighters didn’t bother pursuing them as they assumed they had lost
power and would shortly crash into the rocky land below.

The main
console monitor read: EMERGENCY: IMPACT WARNING! The forested hills
were only seconds away. She reached forward and hit the three
reactor operation switches. The engine rumbled back to life; she
brought the ship out of the uncontrolled spin.

‘
Come on!’ she yelled as she tried to pull the ship up. The
angle of descent was gradually decreasing. She directed the ship
into a deep ravine to give herself more time to complete the
maneuver. Ivan watched as the base of the ravine grew increasingly
closer. His probability program predicted the chance of impact was
eighty-six percent. He gripped the handrail and closed his eyes,
expecting a heavy collision with the ground. Somehow Sara flattened
out just in time, only metres from the rushing water at the base of
the ravine. The Out Drifter sped away and followed the course of
the river.

Sara wiped the
sweat from her brow and looked back over her shoulder to see if the
fighters were following. ‘The fighters aren’t following us. They
must have thought we were done for,’ she said.

**

There was a
large wooden oak table inside the house. Acacius was preparing some
traditional tea on an old-fashioned stovetop. The interior was made
of polished wood and all the furniture was handmade.

‘
In ancient times human beings would drink tea because of its
healing properties. This particular tea is soothing for a troubled
mind.’

A sweet aroma
filled the house. Acacius took three teacups and a small tray from
a wooden cabinet beside the stove. He poured the boiling tea from
the kettle into the cups and then brought the tray to the
table.

‘
Please drink and enjoy,’ he said as he sat down beside
Cynthia.

Cynthia took a
sip of the aromatic tea. She was so used to drinking synthesized
flavoured drinks that she had forgotten how nice it was to actually
drink something that was naturally brewed.

‘
You like it?’ questioned Acacius, smiling warmly.

‘
Yes, thank you,’ she replied.

‘
We have lost much with the advancement of technology. For many
thousands of years humankind enjoyed such things. Sometimes it’s
good to be reminded.’

Acacius placed
his teacup on the table. His eyes narrowed, and the smile melted
away from his face and was replaced by a look of deep
concentration. ‘Aliens are coming,’ he said sternly.

‘
What?’ exclaimed Michael.

‘
They are surrounding the approaches to the waterfall. There is
an entire battalion, more than five hundred. Somehow they found us
here. We only have a few minutes before they arrive.’

‘
How did they find us?’ asked Michael as he stood
up.

‘
It doesn’t matter how,’ answered Acacius as he walked to the
back of the room.

Michael only
had a standard plasma pistol which was latched to his belt. Cynthia
was entirely unarmed.

Acacius
unlocked a cabinet at the back of the room. ‘We have to prepare.
This house was once owned by an old hunter. He left most of his
hunting rifles behind when he fled Zeno Par.’ He slid open the
cabinet door revealing a gun rack with assortment of ancient
hunting rifles that looked like antiques.

Michael walked
over and reached for one of the larger rifles. The weapon had a
wooden grip and shoulder rest with an intricately designed trigger
system and a wooden hand guard with patterns etched into the
woodwork. ‘We can’t hold back five hundred aliens with these. The
magazines only hold seven rounds, and they aren’t plasma rifles;
they fire conventional bullets. The bullets may not pierce alien
armour.’

‘
They are modelled on archaic hunting rifles. As I said, the
previous owner was a hunter, not a soldier. These are the only
weapons I have,’ said Acacius as he handed a rifle to Cynthia. She
grabbed several magazines from the bottom of the
cabinet.

‘
We could use the Lore of the Ancients,’ suggested
Michael.

Acacius shook
his head. ‘I told you the End Machine is searching the Outer Worlds
for us. If we were to use our powers the machine would know our
exact location. Then we would surely die. We can only use our
powers of perception and revelation, never our outward power as you
previously did to save yourself. You were fortunate the machine was
far from you; if it had been closer you would have been located. We
must not use our powers until we find the Magnifier. You have to
understand this, Michael.’

Michael nodded
as he loaded a magazine into his rifle. He then lifted his
wrist-com. ‘Sara, can you hear me?’

‘…
Where have you been, Captain?...’ she yelled.

‘
What’s going on?’

‘…
We nearly lost the Out Drifter. The planet is under attack! An
entire alien battle group is here…’

‘
Is the ship still flying?’

‘
Yes, but only just. This flying piece of scrap metal will need
some serious work when we get out of here. Captain, we have to get
off this planet.’

‘
Listen, Sara. A battalion of aliens is surrounding our
position. I need you to extract us. Can you locate my
wrist-com?’

‘…
I’ll see what I can do…’

Acacius
crossed the room and glanced out the window. ‘The aliens are nearly
here. Prepare yourselves.’

‘
Their plasma weapons are going to tear this house apart,’ said
Michael as he took a position beside one of the front windows. He
peeked around the edge of the window. Groups of aliens were
advancing across the paved area beside the river. He counted at
least twenty. He could see three mobile hover turret guns further
back; crowds of aliens were assembling and preparing to
attack.

Dog-Two hissed
and growled. Cynthia was crouched down on the opposite side of the
window; her hands were trembling and her forehead was covered with
sweat.

‘
Wait for them to come into the house,’ whispered
Acacius.

Acacius drew a
large dagger from his boot. Michael ducked down to make sure the
aliens couldn’t see him through the window. They waited in
silence.

A moment later
the brass doorhandle turned. The door opened and an alien stepped
into the room. Acacius moved like lightning. He grabbed the alien
by the neck and rammed his dagger into its ribs. The creature let
out a gurgling moan as Acacius ripped the plasma weapon from its
hands. The alien’s lifeless body fell to the ground. He then turned
the weapon toward the open door and unleashed a torrent of plasma.
Two aliens directly outside were instantly killed. Michael smashed
open the window and began firing at the closest aliens. Cynthia did
the same. The aliens ducked for cover as bullets whizzed through
the air.