Андреа Хёст - The Starfighter Invitation

The sled bucked beneath me, the current seeming to try to pull me off it, and I braced hard against the footrests, trying to turn because there didn’t seem time to slow. For a moment it seemed I would fly directly into the rings. Far closer than was comfortable, I angled into a parallel route, my whole bodied tensed against the prospect of a game-ending zap. Then my curve pointed me down , and I shot toward the central sphere.

" The current doesn’t try to turn you a second time? " Silent asked, mental voice bringing a breathlessness that matched my own.

I didn’t answer immediately, slowing just short of the inner sphere. The thing was larger than I’d realised: maybe a hundred metres in diameter. I rotated to stare back up at the space I’d just crossed, my head spinning either from the display, the effects of the current, or perhaps just the sheer realisation of size, of all the layers around us.

" Kaz? "

" Sorry. It feels like, once you’re in it, that the current doesn’t let go of you if you move back toward the rings. Moving down, it weakens until I couldn’t feel it at the midpoint of each stage. Slowing worked for the first set, but for the second it was more steering into a skid, because slowing would take too long. "

Orienting back toward the inner sphere, I called my Renba to me, settling it on my helmet, then said: " I’ll look about for an entrance ." I didn’t want to watch the others make the trip.

" Just don’t open anything ," Nina replied.

I didn’t respond, since I had no impulse to go poking my nose inside alone. By the time I’d done a single circle around the sphere, Arlen and Imoenne were both down, and we gathered by one of the hatches I’d discovered on my trip.

" Three teams in the area immediately above ," Silent said, after he and Nina had joined the cluster. " They’re racing to find an entry point ."

" They’ll still need to get through the rings ," Nina said. " Let’s not rush our own entry. "

Hares and tortoises, and there was still no choice but to be tortoise. It had served us well so far, but we were very brisk in our survey of the next sphere.

" This, it is as if we are back at the outer hull again ," Arlen said. " But the shields that provide a cover have been stripped away. "

" Matryoshka ," Imoenne murmured.

" Here’s hoping we don’t have to follow the same sequence ," Silent said, examining the control panel for the hatch I’d chosen.

" The core’s in and to the left ," I said. " Not direct centre. I don’t think there’s a lan trigger to this door, just buttons. "

" Shields up ," Nina said. " At this stage, we’d better expect traps and attacks at every point ."

We all shielded, and spread out away from the door, with Nina taking point. Her strength meant she had the best chance to survive any bolts, explosions, or other developments. But the hatch slid open without drama, introducing a different problem.

" We’re never going to fit all of us and our sleds in that ," Silent said.

I doubted the rounded chamber—another airlock—would fit all of us even without our sleds, and said so.

After a moment’s pause, Nina said: " Three of us will go in with one sled. The other two can follow with the rest. "

Even that was going to prove a tight squeeze. I stayed outside with Imoenne, and all of the sleds, since Silent decided after he, Nina and Arlen had wriggled down together that they’d be better off with room to manoeuvre.

" Airlock’s going through a cycling routine ," Silent said over the group channel, a moment later.

" Let’s anchor all but one to the hull here ," I suggested to Imoenne. " We can collect them when we head back ."

In response she made a slight gesture upward, and I looked across the dizzy vista of rings to see several tiny figures floating around the hatch where we’d entered. As I watched, one launched downward, shot through the outer rings, and successfully corrected course to float in between the two layers.

" Speed becomes necessary ," I said into the party channel.

" Come through ," Nina replied. " There’s no immediate threat ."

We pressed buttons, but had to wait through a double cycling process, achingly slow, and all I could do was watch as the tiny cluster of figures moved one by one into the middle of the rings, and then two together started down.

My hope that this paired journey would be undone by the sharp current of the second set of rings died as they controlled their arc expertly, and then reoriented. Toward us.

" Inside! " Imoenne said, urgently.

I’d been so focussed on the approaching team that I hadn’t noticed the airlock finish its cycle. I gripped the edge and hauled myself forward, Imoenne following with eel-like grace, and we watched in silence as the hatch shut the view of the approaching team away.

Nina, who must have been watching on our own stream, said: " We’ll jam open this airlock, and any others we encounter, but we can’t count on keeping the other teams out for long. "

" Even so, let’s stick to our quiet and careful approach as much as we can ," Silent added. " I don’t like the look of this place ."

That was encouraging, and I immediately checked our group’s stream, but it only seemed to show corridor, dim after the brightness of the rings, but better-lit than the rest of The Wreck.

" The proportions, they have changed, " Arlen said, as the inner hatch finally opened. " We have gone from too large to cramped ."

Wide enough for only two side-by-side, and tall enough for me and Nina to float upright, but not for Silent, Arlen or Imoenne, who angled themselves with legs drawn up to compensate. It gave the area a claustrophobic feel.

" Atmosphere is a different mix ," Nina informed us. " More oxygen, and high humidity ."

I wondered if that was the reason the walls looked faintly moist. " Decoration, too ," I observed, my eyes struggling with an Escher-esque black and white pattern that transitioned from simple diamond shapes near the floor to a disturbing claw-like tangle scratching at the ceiling. " Cheery ."

" Tempting as it is to split into two groups, I think we’d best travel in a clump ," Nina said. " Two on shielding duty at the front, and two taking turns in the rear. Leveret, can you bring the sled along? "

I nodded, glad somehow that this spared me from touching the walls. Everyone else, consciously or not, avoided the patterned wall, and hauled themselves along using the floor or ceiling.

No convenient straight corridor presented a way to our target. Instead, everything curved, worm trails through an apple. We tried to move lightly, peering through open doors, gingerly testing any closed ones, finding the area was dominated by spaces that looked to me to be laboratory rather than living quarters. There was hardly any floating debris.

" Definitely feels like a spaceship inside a space station ," Silent said, observing what appeared to be a wall of sleeping pods, each with a padded base and clear doors. " Inhabited by people shorter than human. Or…square. "

" Could it be they curl up, like cats? " Arlen suggested.

" Debate later ," Nina said, sounding worried. " This corridor seems to be taking us away from our goal. "

" I don’t understand the logic of this ship layout ," Silent said, tense minutes later. " Did these people meander everywhere? "

" Possibly there’s a level above or below us that’s more direct ," Nina said. " We should have examined the area around the airlock in more detail. "