Nathan Hystad: The Event

“I think we should get going, da ?” Natalia asked from the smaller ship, through the speaker.

Magnus shifted from side to side and shrugged at me as if he’d decided something. “Nat. Bring your ship over here. I’ll do the same tether business and make my way into your ship. I think you could use the company, and if I’m being honest, I miss you. I’ll bring some food and water for you.”

She agreed, and I helped Magnus get hooked up in the cargo room. In a matter of minutes, Magnus was across and with Nat on the other ship. I was on the bridge with Mary and a clone of my dead wife, and we were accelerating for the sun. We devised a plan on the way. I sure hoped it would work.

The sun was blazing at us from the viewscreen from quite some distance. We were moving at full speed; stars in the distance didn’t quite streak as move slowly along our view. We were close to where the ships would be, according to Mae’s last intel. The last leg of the trip was upon us, and all I could do was hope that we weren’t too late. Would our plan work? It seemed the only logical move, and we’d find out very soon.

“Are you sure this ship is linked in to their communication systems?” Mary asked Mae, her eyes narrowing slightly as she looked at the other woman.

“Yes, the Kraski ships are all linked to the transport vessels. We’ll be upon them in moments.” Mae stepped toward the screen and pointed when multiple lights blinked up onto it.

The stars slowed in the viewscreen and I was once again amazed that we could go from super-fast to a stop and not feel the inertia at all inside. These guys had some serious engineering capabilities. All the science fiction I’d read or seen on TV had engines that required massive power sources and crash couches for the bone-breaking sudden lurches of space travel. This was nothing like that, and I was glad for it.

“Mae, we’re trusting you here,” I said as I put a tentative hand on her shoulder. My voice wavered slightly when I spoke, and I felt bad for not trusting her all the way. I wasn’t sure I would ever trust anyone fully after Janine.

“I know what you’re thinking, but you don’t have to worry about me. I want to save your people and live among them, free, instead of a slave to the Kraski.” She sat down and keyed in something to the control panel.

I tried to count the containers I saw out there and figured there were around ninety. To think there were more than seventy million people on each of those cubes was mindboggling. We figured the huge cubes were about seventy rooms wide and tall. I wondered how many of the people were still living on these things. Even if this worked, I knew the Earth would never be the same; its population would be sorely depleted.

Natalia and Magnus pulled up beside us, their smaller ship a blue blip on our screen.

“Attention, all loyal to the Kraski. The war is over and we have been ordered to return the humans to their planet. An agreement has been made for their lives. I say this with the orders from the Supreme Legislation’s full authority. Feed the oxygen back through the rooms, turn the thrusters on, and work your ways back to Earth. K53251 over.”

We waited for someone to reply, and I had to tell my brain to keep me breathing. My heart was pounding in my chest.

“Roger that, K53251. We are turning around now. N32154 over,” a voice called over the speaker.

“Roger that, K53251. We are also turning.”

Mae turned it to mute, and we all cheered loudly. Magnus was cheering and I could hear Natalia laughing. We watched as dozens of the cubes started heading toward us slowly.

“This might actually work!” Mary said excitedly.

About ten minutes later, most of the containers had changed direction, and we were ready to get help to our people. I noticed there were a few units hanging back, and at this point, they were extremely close to the sun.

“What do you think they’re waiting for?” As soon as I asked, one of them sped up and headed directly to the sun. It happened so fast that we didn’t have time to react. Just like that, a whole cube of our people snuffed up in a flare of hot orange light, hardly visible since we were so close.

A new voice cut over the comm-system. “Do not listen to these traitors. There is no way the Kraski would renege on this. This is what they lived for; Earth was their last hope. We were created to serve them, and this is our ultimate sacrifice. Let us do what we were made for, and end this!” The voice was full of venom, and Mae visibly paled.

“I know that one. He was always a bully but was more than happy to lead this endeavor.”

“What do we do now? Do they have any weapons?” Mary asked.

As if her words were a curse, a green blip appeared on our screen and headed quickly toward us.

“Yes, he had a Kraski ship, like this one. For emergencies. I think this constitutes an emergency to him,” Mae said.

Thoughts raced through my head, and I tried to make some sense out of what we were seeing here. A couple of the containers had turned around, presumably persuaded by the newcomer’s words.

“I have an idea. Natalia, you know where the guns are on that thing, right?” I asked.

“ Da . Teelon showed me. I think in case the Kraski figured it out and we needed to shoot our way out of there.”

“Good. Can you lead this guy away, keep him on his toes? We need a few minutes.”

Without saying anything, Natalia’s ship raced in front of us, firing at the incoming ship. She veered off and he followed, firing on her. I silently hoped she could evade him long enough for us to succeed.

Two other containers started their thrusters to full speed and were crashing into the sun’s deadly heat. They too faded in massive flares as we sped toward the rest of them. Millions of lives snuffed out like nothing. I had to push the pain down for the time being. I would have time for mourning them later, after we saved the rest of them.

“Mary, you get in close. Mae, where are all the thrusters?” She hesitated, unsure of what I was asking. Another cube was starting to head into the sun. The ships were insulated, but beads of sweat fell down my face as we were so close to the massive burning ball of gas. Any closer, and its gravitational pull was going to drag us down. “Dammit, Mae! Where are the thrusters?”

We gained on the cube closest to us, and she directed Mary to each of the glowing thrusters. Mae took it upon herself to fire away at them, blowing them up with precision. We followed suit on the rest of the cubes nearby.

While she was firing, she called out on the open line to all of her hybrid people. “The Kraski are all dead. We are now free to do as we will. I’ve met some humans and they are more than willing to let us live side-by-side among them. Stop what you’re doing, and we can have lives for ourselves!” she called, her passion obvious to anyone listening.

The last few containers still nearing the sun stopped and turned around. I wiped my forehead and kissed the top of Mary’s head.

Our ship shook, and Carey began barking loudly as we were tossed around. Apparently, we could still get shaken up in this thing. The other Kraski ship flew by us, lasers blasting, Natalia close behind him. There wasn’t much more frightening than a gun-wielding man with nothing to lose. This was one of those things that was. Sensing his new focus, I realized what he was going to do. The beams cut into one of the nearby containers and ripped the sides to shreds. We were close enough to see people floating away by the hundreds.

Mary was already heading after him, Mae firing their weapons, hitting his shields a few times before he veered off. But his work was done, and we saw small explosions starting throughout his target.