“Yes, Megan,” Mother replied. “You’re inside geosynchronous orbit. I can now affect your systems and aid you in what you’re trying to do.”
“Can you give me any power?” Megan asked.
“Very little,” Mother admitted. “Reyes just used the full power of the Samarian reactor and the Net is… chaotic. The power battles that had been going on shifted, dramatically, but they are ongoing. You must use the power of the engines if you wish for humanity to survive.”
“Will it be that bad?” Megan asked.
“You’re currently going nearly fifteen kilometers a second,” Mother noted. “On its present course, the ship will pass the Earth just outside of the atmosphere, circle outward and then do a nearly direct reentry impacting in the northern Po’ele Ocean. Given that entry, it is likely that the vast majority of the mass of the ship, and the fuel, will survive to impact. The impact will transmit through the water to shatter the crust of the planet and send the equivalent of the entire water in the Terrane basin into the atmosphere, shutting off light for at least two years, not counting exgassing from the continent-sized volcano that will form. It will be that bad.”
“How do we stop it?” Megan asked.
“Follow me,” Mother replied, bringing up an orbital schematic. “The power is still tied to you. You need to shove the ship to the right and forward, speeding it up on its trajectory past Earth. That will bring it around into a long elliptical orbit. Each time we come around, we’ll impact the atmosphere, lightly I hope. That’s what’s going to slow us down, but if we go in too steep, I won’t be able to hold the shields against the reentry heat. It’ll be a long process. And we can’t start until the shuttles that are preparing to dock are attached.”
“Megan, honey,” Herzer said. “You okay?”
“I am now,” Megan replied in a distracted tone. “I’m on the underside of the ship. We need to start evacuating.”
“The shuttles are just about to dock,” Herzer said, looking at one of them coming in. “We’ll reactivate some of the other shuttles, fuel them and then get out. I don’t think there’s much we can do to stop the reentry.”
“Yes, there is,” Megan said, looking at the void of stars. “Get everyone out of here. I’m going to be riding the ship down.”
“Disable the shuttles,” Satyat said, shaking his head as he unbolted the top of the fusion plant. “Enable the shuttles. When does it end?”
“Now,” Linda said, handing him the injector. “We’ve got to get out of here. Fast. The ship’s about to hit the atmosphere. We’ll pass through it, but it’s going to be unpleasantly spectacular. And we won’t want to be outside.”
“Well, this one’s up,” Satyat replied, sliding the injector into place. “Let’s slide up front and get out of here.”
“Shuttles two, three and six are scheduled for Alabad, Penan and Taurania,” Herzer said, looking over the remaining Blood Lords. “The four with crew are full. You guys go down on those on autopilot. See you on the ground.”
“Where are you going to be?” Bus asked, curiously.
“Megan has to ride the ship down to control the reentry,” Herzer said. “I’m going to ride it down with her.”
“You are alive,” Tur-uck said, grinning at the Dark One.
The elf shook his head and looked around the room. It appeared to be a small control room of some sort. And it wasn’t under gravity. And he hurt. Badly. Burns all over his body and electric shock from the feel of it. He had been tortured.
The last thing he remembered was fighting an orc just like this one, one of hundreds that had ambushed him as he was trying to penetrate the scout screen of Chansa’s main continental force in Ropasa. At the moment, he was far too weak to fight it, so he bided his time, hoping that he would recover enough to do battle one last time.
But there was no memory of the torture. Just an aching… black feeling in his mind. He felt a rage he didn’t understand. It was not in the way of the elves to feel rage. He closed his eyes and leaned back.
“Get it over with,” he said. “Torture me. Or kill me. I care not.”
“Why the hell should I torture you, Tragack?” the orc asked, grinning. “Hell, I saved your life and dragged you here when everyone else thought you were dead. I’m hoping you know something about space you weren’t letting on to the Great One. Otherwise, we’re fisked.”
“I’ve got the grav field engaged,” a thickly accented voice said. “And main power’s on to the engines. This thing’s a might rickety, though. And it’ll ne’er survive reentry.”
“Fly it I will!” The voice was high and shrill and sounded half mad. Probably a goblin Change form. At least three of them, but the orc form was the main fighter. He reached for the power, for the gaslan, and found both areas… empty. He felt only half an elf at the moment, less, nearly human. To lose the gaslan. Nothing could take the gaslan. There was no future to feel. He was riding on the winds of fate, half dead and not even half alive.
The elf felt another of those odd spasms of rage. He wanted to kill the damned orc, kill everything in the ship. And he couldn’t even move his arms. His right one felt so fried it might never be useable.
“Where is this?” he asked as the gravity slowly came on. It was still less than Earth. They were in orbit. “How did I get here?”
“You don’t remember?” the orc said, backing away. “What do you remember?”
“Fighting ones like you,” Sildoniel said, honestly if hoarsely. “Arrows. Many arrows. Too many. Falling.” He lifted his left arm, slowly, it was as fast as it would go, and ran it over his face. The hand when he drew it back was taloned instead of having finely manicured nails and the face was… broader, the nose flatter. “What has happened to me?” he asked, trying to rise, his anger getting red hot. “What have you done to me?”
“What’s your name?” the orc asked, drawing his sword.
“Wait,” Sildoniel said, rolling to sit up and feeling queasy with even that much motion. His right arm wasn’t just useless, it was gone just below the shoulder. “Just wait. Stay your sword, orc. If you are to kill me, tell me at least why I am come here.”
“You’re back,” the orc said, his eyes wide. “It’s you. What is your name?”
“Sildoniel a tor Melessan,” the former Dark One said, looking the orc in the eye. “What’s yours?”
“You shouldn’t be here,” Megan said, distantly, as the void began to fluoresce. The ship was hitting the very upper edges of the atmosphere, mostly monatomic oxygen, and she was having to shunt the power to form a protective field. Where the oxygen was hitting the field, the results were… energetic.
“Neither should you,” Herzer said. “The radiation is going to be a nightmare.” The ship was also passing through the Van Allen belt, the magnetic belt that prevented much of space’s radiation from hitting the Earth. But the belt concentrated that radiation, making it hot enough to cook eggs.
“The shield’s holding it,” Megan replied as the ship shuddered from the launch of seven shuttles. “I’ll be fine. And I’m the only one that has to stay.”
“Whither thou goest,” Herzer said, squatting down next to her.
“You’re so corny,” Megan replied with a smile in her voice.
“So, you getting used to the view?” Herzer asked. The ship’s “down” side was actually pointed away from the Earth, with nothing above but stars. The Moon would be coming up, soon, though, at the rate they were going.
“Looks pretty good,” Megan said, shifting slightly. The ship began to rotate and Herzer quickly got out a hand magnet and clamped it down to keep himself in place. The ship spun on its axis until the Earth came into view and then stopped.