“It is not.”
“Sounds fun. How are we doing on fuel?”
“Our fuel reserves are currently at three per cent,” Clive said. It was strange when he spoke, his voice coming from everywhere at once. “I’m not entirely sure how I know that. I feel like I have a fuel reserve personally, which of course as humans are an organic race, I do not have.”
“You’re not human is why. For the millionth time you’re a robot,” Michael said. He looked up as he spoke, directing his voice at the ceiling, it felt like the right thing to do. “Well, I guess you’re a spaceship now?” Michael turned back to Aileena. “Why was this destination in the list if we don’t have the fuel.”
“We might not have the fuel. Might. Jump tunnels aren’t an exact science. No-one really understands this weird dimension. Sometimes the trip takes a little more, sometimes a little less. It depends on how the tunnel forms. We can guess at their lengths with reasonable accuracy, but there are always exceptions.”
“So, when we form a tunnel, other ships can come in, right? That’s how the Gallant followed us?”
“If they’re close enough. The specific signature they need to jump into our tunnel only lasts for a few minutes at most.” Aileena smiled. “That’s a good question, we’ll make a spacefarer of you yet.”
“It has been two days, and I’ve already been shot at several times, thrown into a gladiator ring and forced to do a kid’s puzzle on pain of death. Not sure being out here is good for my health.” Michael tossed his jacket over his shoulder.
Aileena laughed. “Wait? That impossible Earth puzzle thing was a child’s toy?”
“Oh yeah. An easy one too, once you have one side done there’s a set sequence that solves it. I learnt it when I was younger. Thought it might impress girls.”
“Well, it saved our asses, so consider this one impressed at least.”
Michael clambered up the ladder, into the crew quarters section of the ship. He had never felt more useless. The rest of the ship’s occupants had spread around the ship, doing what they could to lower power consumption. They rerouted relays and bypassed components, eking what they could from a hundred different complex systems. Michael had tried to help, but it had taken only ten minutes of twiddling his thumbs before he had given up on that.
There was a loud clanking noise as Michael pulled himself off the ladder. Meggok was in the thin hallway between rooms, a huge metal rectangle in his hands. It took a moment for Michael to realise it was one of the beds, unbolted from the floor. The blue-skinned alien was trying to move it from one room to another, the solid slab getting stuck in the hallway.
“You ok there?” Michael asked, standing on his tiptoes to look over the bed.
“Yeah, this stupid thing is stuck.” Meggok sighed. “I feel like a spare part a little.”
“I know the feeling. So, what are you trying to accomplish here exactly?”
“Well, they’re single bedrooms, so I was going to bolt this to the floor next to another, make a double bed for Kestok and me.” Meggok tugged on the bed. It screeched as it rubbed against the door frame.
“Makes sense. You guys been together long?”
“A fair few years. Ten maybe? We got married two years ago and decided to take a honeymoon to Ossiark. A big casino splurge you know? That was a terrible idea. Our species is naturally pretty strong.” He gestured to his rippling torso. “Not as strong as some, but enough to make the arena survivable. Turns out we were a natural team. Funny that.”
“Lift and twist it this way,” Michael said, placing his hands on the bed. Meggok did as instructed, and the bed moved a full foot forward. “Must have been hard, the arena I mean.”
“That’s the scary part, it was at first. After the first few matches, I started liking it.”
“It’s a high-pressure situation, you cope however you can. Maybe even finding pleasure in it. Lift on your side.” The bed came free from the doorframe at Michaels instruction, sliding partway into the other room. “I don’t think anyone will blame you. I don’t anyway.”
“Thanks, that means a lot. Really. Think we can get it in if we push from behind?”
“Nah, that’s a trap. Trust me, I’ve carted furniture between a lot of shitty flats in my time. Pushing from behind means you can’t see. You want to lift from the middle.” Michael smiled and grabbed the bed. He nodded at Meggok and the alien did the same. They lifted, and the bed pushed mostly into the room, its end sticking from the door. “See. I might not know about spaceships and science stuff, but this I can do.”
“Hello everyone!” Clive said. “We have re-entered real space. I thought you should know.”
Michael stepped into the control room to a scene of panic. Aileena and Brekt were strapped into their seats, whilst Kestok was stood up, examining the wall panel next to himself frantically. Mellok was strapping himself onto the couch.
“You two!” Aileena said, her head not moving, her vision locked forward. “Sit down and strap in!” Through the glass before them a planet loomed, it was covered in thick grey cloud, but through the gaps, its surface was a mixed blue and white. A single small moon drifted lazily on the other side, sliding out of sight.
Michael did what he was told, grabbing his usual chair and clicking the strap closed. He could feel the gel working its way around his body. “What’s the matter? We made it out of the tunnel, right?”
“The ship’s engines are not responding,” Clive said. “It’s very curious. I keep expecting legs, but they’re not there. Regardless, what is there, isn’t working.”
“Hold on people, we’re caught in this planet’s gravity,” Aileena said. She flicked a switch and Michael could feel the gel in the chair expanding. It crept over his body, smothering his torso. “We don’t have the power to keep us in orbit, so I’m bringing us in. It’s going to be a rough one.”
Chapter Fifteen
Commander Orson felt the sickness in his stomach slip away as the Gallant cascaded back into normal space. Before him, on the viewscreen, Earth loomed large. It always amazed him, the view from space, the blue and green marble hanging in the star-speckled black. He had seen it once before, from the windows of the international space station. He had tried to sear the image in his mind back then, never imagining that he would see it on a day to day basis, not even when The Council had arrived.
Orson had been eating a cheeseburger, the kind that went into the microwave cold and came out hotter than the sun. He had flipped the bun over, long ago learning that somehow heat generated in microwaves sunk to the bottom, fighting all common sense. It had been a middle of the night snack, a secret purchase hidden away behind a tub of margarine. His wife had complained repeatedly that he had let himself go since his days as an astronaut and had thrown everything out in favour of soggy lettuce and celery sticks.
He had been taking a deep bite, regretting his haste as the still searing burger burnt his tongue when his phone exploded with sound, messages pouring through. He fumbled with it, burger held tight in his mouth as he tried to switch it to silent. Light danced across his face as he swiped through the messages. Orson would have assumed it was a hoax, were some of them not from his old bosses at NASA. He opened his social media, searching for a live video.
The images he saw would be repeated over and over on the news for the next few days. Enormous starships hovering over human cities. The satellite images were worse, an entire Council war fleet orbiting the earth. The ships were all sharp curves and angular edges. Like the Gallant, they looked like deadly claws, and in a way, that’s what they were. For millennia the Council had crusaded across the galaxy, scratching away at the space of other civilisations, searching for a fabled holy planet. Orson often wondered if they had been caught flatfooted upon discovering their sacred goal inhabited.