Nathan Hystad - The Survivors - Books 1-3

“Goodbye, guys,” Mary said, and everyone got in for a last hug.

Mae approached, and I went in to give her a hug.

“What are you doing?” she asked. I shrugged, taken aback. “I’m going with you.”

“Did Dalhousie approve this?” Mary asked.

“I don’t give a damn. I’m coming with you. They’re hybrids, and that makes them my responsibility. I know them, can understand their motives. So I’m going.”

It made sense, and to be honest, I was happy to have her along. Mae had proven herself invaluable many times over.

Clare was on board and called to us from the top of the ramp. It was time to go.

Dalhousie was nowhere in sight, and when I spotted Heart arriving on his cart, I pushed Mae forward onto the angled ramp. “Get on the ship,” I said through clenched teeth.

She didn’t argue or say anything, just ran up the length into the ship, limping on her left leg ever so slightly. I guessed it hurt more than she was letting on.

Magnus stood at the base of the ship, arms crossed, looking like a guard.

Heart’s cart stopped, the soldier staying in the driver’s seat.

“You have a monumental task ahead of you. Take heed in knowing we’ll do what we can to protect Earth, should anything go wrong on your mission. The colony vessel will be leaving tomorrow, and that brings new hope into our situation. Sorry for the speech.” He rubbed his temple with his hand. “This is all just so important. I couldn’t ask for better people to call on. And I mean that.”

His words touched me, but at the same time, I wished he were speaking to someone else.

“We’ll do what needs to be done, General,” Mary said.

“Joshua. Call me Josh,” he said before turning around and heading back to the cart. “Slate, take care of them for me. For all of us.” The big man emerged from the ship a few steps and saluted his general before heading back inside.

Dust was kicked up and the general was off, leaving a few people milling about, loading the last of the supplies.

“I guess this is goodbye. See you on the other side.” I scratched Carey behind the ear one last time, and when he started to follow me up the ramp, Natalia grabbed his collar, pulling him back and crouching down with him. His head turned sideways, wondering what was going on.

Mary was in front of me, and she patted me on the arm. We turned around, waving at our friends while the ramp lifted. Before it shut completely, I heard one last bark from Carey, and I wanted nothing more than to get back out and tell them to hunt the hybrids down themselves.

“We’ll be back soon,” Mary said, the ever-caring fiancée. If she was okay with it all, what use was there in me moping about?

“You’re right.” And just like that, we were loaded and in one of the new ships, heading back out to space on another impossible quest.

W e were gathered on the bridge for pre-flight: Mary, me, Mae, Clare, and Slate, as well as Doctor Nick Ellis, whom none of us had met before, though I had seen him around the facility over the past month. We were sure to have enough space on board, especially since the ship slept a dozen.

Slate stood tall, intimidating as he silently seemed to assess each of us, his military-trained mind looking for value or weakness. He wore a black vest, holding what I could only assume were multiple dangerous and deadly devices on it, overtop of his Earth Defense uniform. We were all wearing the body suits, and it actually felt like we were a trained team about to head into space rather than a rag-tag group of survivors who’d just met, looking to stop escaped hybrids from camp.

I wondered who was in charge of the mission. After a few moments of dead air, all eyes ended up on me. They were looking to me to lead the charge? How was that even possible?

I cleared my throat, hoping someone else would speak, but when no one did, I began. “I don’t have any idea how I ended up here, on the bridge of a human altered Kraski ship, about to go back to space, the one place I truly have no desire to ever see again. But here we all are. Leslie and Terrance have left us no choice but to stop them. We can’t have the Bhlat know where we are. This is imperative at all costs.” I stopped, coming to accept the facts I was saying. “We’ll sacrifice ourselves, if necessary.”

The doctor fidgeted with his sleeve and kept his eyes to the floor as I spoke.

“Everyone good with that?” I asked.

One by one, everyone agreed. The last was Nick, who finally met my eyes, and I was happy to see resolve in them. He nodded once, firmly.

“Good. Mary, let them know we’re ready to go. Mae, on screen, please,” I said, sitting down in a chair. Not the one in the center, which I could only assume, from years of Star Trek watching, was meant to be the captain’s chair. I hadn’t earned that spot yet.

The curved viewscreen showed us the inside of the hangar.

“All clear. You’re ready for takeoff,” came through the speakers on Mary’s console, and she tapped the green glowing console tablet. The ship came to life, lights firing up around the bridge, giving us a green and blue glowing aura. It was spectacular.

Everything hummed lightly as we began to move, and moments later, we were in the field, directly under the open base ceiling. The viewscreen showed a line of base workers, all watching us depart. I picked Nat and Magnus out of the crowd, Carey at their feet. Godspeed, my friends .

Our black ship hovered and raised upward to the opening.

“Return to us, Heroes of Earth,” Dalhousie’s voice cut through the speaker.

“We will, ma’am,” Mary returned, and lifted us out of the secret base and into the night sky above New Mexico.

The stars were white and bright against the deep black backdrop. Here we went again. I remembered back to a year ago, when Mary had flown the smaller ship from Machu Picchu with Magnus and the Shield, a crazy elaborate and desperate plan to save the world. It had half-worked too. Better than the alternative.

A blip flashed on the 3D map on the bottom right side of the viewscreen: the same map that showed on my chair’s sidearm console tablet.

“That’s them. Setting course for intercept. They haven’t hit the high-velocity drive yet,” Mary said. They were more than a few thousand kilometers away, with a two-hour head start on their side.

“I’ve started to charge the drive. Should be operational for in-system FTL in two hours.” Clare stood at a console to the port side of the bridge, stood straight-backed, wearing her uniform with pride. She knew that ship inside and out, and I was sure she was going to be a great asset to the team. Not only that, but she was always a positive presence in the room, no matter where she was. It was hard to be in a bad mood with her energy lifting up the people around her.

We lifted through the atmosphere and shot into the massive expanse of space. I stood, seeing the moon ahead. It was such a different experience this time. This time, we knew what we had to do. Mary shifted the trajectory, pointing us away from the sun. The map showed the current position of the solar system’s planets, each on their own pattern of rotations around the system’s star, our sun. The blip of our target Kraski ship was on a line toward Mars.

“Slate, can you give me a tour of the supply room?” I asked the beast of a man. He’d just been standing, there watching space through still eyes.

“Sure thing, boss,” he said, and I thought it might be the first time I’d heard the guy speak. His voice was higher-pitched than I’d expected.

“I’ll be in the storeroom,” I said to Mary, who just nodded, focusing on her task at hand.