Nathan Hystad - The Survivors - Books 1-3

“Oh, Patty didn’t tell the Bhlat her real name. When we arrived, she called herself Mary Lafontaine, in hopes it would give them some respect for our group. It made things worse,” Clare said, clearly upset by Patrice Dalhousie being gone.

“I can’t believe it,” Leonard said, wide-eyed, probably conflicted between feeling terrible for killing someone and trying to record everything in his mind for his next comic issues.

Mary was alive, and I was so shocked I nearly forgot what we were doing.

“We have to go. Everyone touch my arm.” I held my arms out, the Relocator in my left hand. I nodded to Tres, who kept her distance, and she gave me a grave nod back. With the tap of a button, we all disappeared from the prison cell doorway.

“A nyone know how to fly this thing?” Magnus asked as we made our way from the back of the Bhlat drop ship to the cockpit. The craft was empty, so we didn’t have to fight our way out.

I grabbed the communicator from my pouch and tapped it. “I need to speak with the Empress.” A garbled voice said something unintelligible before the Empress’ weak voice carried over the device.

“Dean Parker, missed me already?” she asked.

“We’re in one of your drop ships. Have them open the bay doors. We’re going to head out.”

“Done. We will leave as promised. Good luck.” She said another phrase in her native language, and the communication ended.

“I think I can muster some semblance of understanding here,” Mary said, and I couldn’t help but smile as she sat there, looking confused at the alien controls.

Slate stood behind her suggesting things, and soon, with Clare chiming in, we had the engines running and Mary was ready to give it a go.

“Say a little prayer,” she said, and I instantly thought of the Theos. Were they still out there? Could they hear a prayer?

She gently lifted a lever, and we moved slightly.

“We don’t have all day,” Magnus said, clearly frustrated.

“Do you want to fly?” Mary asked, and jammed the lever back, lurching us toward the hangar ceiling. She pulled down just in time to narrowly avoid crashing. She cringed and smiled back at us before moving the ship toward the open bay doors. The opening was a couple hundred feet across; a dim green barrier glowed as we passed through it, and into space.

We were free of the Bhlat ship. My tight back loosened for a second before I spotted the gigantic fleet ships coming toward us.

“Damn if they don’t look impressive,” Magnus said proudly.

“When they blow us out of the sky, you won’t think so,” I said. “How do we contact them and tell them to stand down?”

Nick crowded in behind us, and I got a sense of how poorly they’d been treated. He’d lost a good fifteen pounds, and his eyes had a look I’d never seen in them before. “Is there any way to send a message?”

Clare moved into the seat beside the pilot’s chair and attempted to find a communication device. The viewscreen had radar on it: the green lights, which identified the Bhlat master ship and their other orbiting ships, were moving away from Earth. The red lights, showing our incoming fleet, started to move toward us.

“I can’t see how to do it.” Frustration and panic melded together in her voice.

“They’re coming for us. If we don’t tell them what transpired, they’ll chase the Bhlat and break our peace.” I had to think of something. “Magnus, you have the Kraski beams in those ships?” I fiddled with the chain and pendant still around my neck.

“Yeah, you can use the suit’s pins to get access if needed. That’s just an emergency EVA situation…” He stopped his thought, looking at me and grinning. “One more adventure for old times?”

I smiled back, hiding the stress I was feeling. “One more adventure. Did you leave the pack by the pyramid?”

He nodded.

“Mary, we’ll be right back. Magnus and I will get on board the lead warship and get them to stop.”

Our eyes met, and a flicker of hope and exhaustion transferred between us. I mouthed “I love you” to her, and she said it back.

“I’ll see if I can find anything useful in the back,” Slate said, moving out of the cramped cockpit.

“Ready?” I asked Magnus, and touched his arm, hitting the location for the pyramid on the Relocator.

T he first thing we did, when we got the EVA suits Magnus and Mary had stashed near the pyramid, was try to communicate with the fleet in space approaching Earth.

“They’re too far for these suits’ comms to work,” Magnus said, slipping into his suit. Mine was made for Mary, and the fit was tight. They had a little give, so I was able to stand up in it, but not comfortably.

“How do I look?” I asked, serious behind the face shield.

“Like a man that would do what it takes.” I’d expected a joke in return.

“I don’t think Earth has much time either.” The clouds were black, angry, and the air was thin and getting harder to breathe. We needed to get these people off the planet. It was as if all the things we needed to do had severe urgency, but we couldn’t save the people without stopping the fleet from attacking the Bhlat.

With a tap of the Relocator, we were back on the drop ship, and I once again thanked Kareem silently for the gift.

Slate jumped at our sudden appearance. “Look what I found.” They were backpacks with thrusters. The kind of thing I’d dreamt of flying over the farm fields with when I was a little kid, wishing for something more than canola crops and chicken feed. I guess I’d gotten my wish. Now I wanted to swap with myself and live that quiet life.

“How do they work?” Magnus asked, already trying to put it on.

Our suits had the mini-thrusters Mae and I had used to tether the vessels heading toward the sun almost two years ago. Two years .

“Boss, are you with us?” Slate asked, concern on his gaunt face.

“I’m here. Wearing down, and my mind is drifting. Go ahead.”

Slate showed us how he thought they worked, and we had nothing to lose. If we flew up to our approaching ships, they would blast us away. We needed to have some stealth.

“Will they show up on the sensors?” I asked Magnus.

He shook his head. “The sensors are for ship drives and radiation, mainly. Whatever’s fueling these will be so minuscule compared to their search parameters, we’ll be able to slip by with no problem.” He looked to me and shrugged. “I hope.”

That didn’t give me full confidence, but we had no choice.

“I can go instead of you, boss.” Slate looked ready to take my place.

“If you haven’t noticed, I barely fit into this suit. And even though I’m tired, I haven’t been in a cell for months at the hands of an evil alien race.”

“Godspeed,” he said, clapping me on the back, then Magnus. “Make sure you stay out of their range.” With that, Slate left us in an airlock, sealed it, and we opened the doors to dark space.

The jetpack was heavy on the ship, but out here, it didn’t matter. My stomach lurched at being out here again, untethered this time. The huge ships from outside New Spero loomed in the distance, and we had some distance to travel to get there. Our suits were made for this, but I still worried something would happen.

“Let’s test this out,” Magnus said through my helmet’s earpiece. He hit the handheld controls and one thruster fired up, sending him into a slow spin. “Damn it,” he said, adjusting and getting both going. Soon he’d stabilized himself, and he called instructions to me. After a shaky start, we were both close to competent with the packs, and we started toward our target.