Nathan Hystad - The Survivors - Books 1-3

Clare hit some keys, and a distant point on the viewscreen lit up. Mary maneuvered over to it, slowing the ship’s speed as they approached.

“Try one of the probes, maybe?” Slate said.

“What probes?” Mary asked.

“They didn’t practice with them, but we created some probes that are essentially nanotech. They’re tiny probes we eject, and they act as sensors for surrounding areas. We don’t have scanning technology like in the movies unless we’re right up on something, but the probes can be sent into atmospheres and will send back weather, gas levels, that kind of stuff,” Clare said.

“Clare, did you invent these?” I asked, and she blushed, answering my question immediately. “Good call, Slate. Send them off.”

We watched the monitor as blue lights indicated where the probes were. Three went flying toward the mark, and readings were being sent back to our ship.

“Wait. There is something there,” Clare said. “The radiation level changes.”

I saw the middle probe disappear from the monitor. “It’s gone!”.

“So it is. The readings from it are gone too. The others are still sending data back,” Clare said, perplexed.

“Mary, can you take us in? As close as you can get to where the probe disappeared.” I had a feeling we were right on it.

As we approached, the light changed, and a fold opened before us, just enough for us to see different stars beyond it. In my head, a wormhole was a dramatic swirling maw of light and energy, but what we saw before us was nothing but an illusion of space, a fold in the universe. It was amazing.

“I’ll be damned,” Mary said, and Clare literally walked toward the viewscreen, tears rolling down her face.

“It’s beautiful,” she said over and over.

“We have to make a choice. Do we go for it?” Mary asked.

“We know the other ship made it through, so by that, can we assume we will as well?” Mae asked.

“This is what we came for, and we have to stop them, so my vote is on entering the unknown,” I said.

“You’re in charge,” Mary said, and it struck a chord. Did anyone really think I was calling the shots? “Don’t panic, honey. I’m just kidding. Don’t worry, I won’t blame you if we disintegrate into a million pieces. Just give me a kiss before we do it.”

“I don’t remember Kirk ever kissing Sulu when they were going into a dangerous situation,” Slate said as I bent over, kissing my fiancée.

We would have all laughed if our lives weren’t at stake. Mary eased the ship forward, and we entered the almost invisible wormhole. I expected us to just appear on the other side, so when we started shaking, lightning flashing all around the viewscreen, it didn’t quite register. One minute I was standing watching the screen, the next it went blank and my head hit the ceiling.

M y eyes opened slowly, the soft alarm klaxons ringing in my head. I looked around and saw everyone strewn about. The viewscreen was blank. Getting to my feet proved to be difficult, so I stayed down, half-dragging myself to Mary, who was just starting to come to as well.

“You okay?” I asked. She just nodded, a distant look in her eyes.

I checked on everyone, and when I got to Mae, I knew it wasn’t good news. She was already so banged up from the other day, and now her head was bleeding from a scalp wound on top of it. We’d been tossed about like rag dolls.

“I think we made it through,” Mary said. “But the link to the viewscreen is broken.”

“Mae,” I whispered. Her chest rose and fell lightly. She was alive. “Where the hell is the Doc?” I asked, remembering he wasn’t on the bridge at the time. He must have been in the bunks.

Footsteps clanged from the hall, and he emerged, holding his arm up in a makeshift sling.

“Everyone okay?” he asked. “Thanks for warning me we were about to be tossed around like a sack of potatoes at the harvest festival.”

“We didn’t know it would do that. How could we?” Clare asked. “Help Dean get Mae to the medical lab, and I’ll work on the inertial dampener. I’m hoping the connections just loosened and it didn’t fry.”

That explained the flying around the ship. I made sure Mary was really okay, and headed with Mae down the hall, propping her up between Nick and me.

“I take it we found the wormhole,” he said, voice thick with sarcasm.

“I’m sorry we didn’t wake you. It just happened so fast. One minute we didn’t think it was there, the next we found it.” I felt foolish even saying it like that. He was right. We should have woken him.

We laid Mae down on the bed, and Nick went about looking over her. When he lifted her eyelids and shone a light in them, they darted around, and her leg kicked out at him.

“Mae! You’re fine! It’s just Doctor Nick,” I called in an effort to calm her. She stopped flailing, and I stood by her head, holding her hand.

“All the blood is from this small scalp wound. Their bark is far worse than their bite. I’ll have to stitch it up. You’ll be good as new, but with your other injuries, we’ll have to keep an eye on you for a concussion,” Doctor Nick said. I appreciated his bedside manner, especially after nearly being kicked by his patient.

“I’ll be at the bridge. Mae, let him do his job. We need you healthy,” I said. She nodded softly and squeezed my hand before letting it go.

I closed my eyes in the hall, trying to determine my own injuries. I could feel some pain in my knee, but I hoped it was just a bruise from landing on it. My left shoulder was a little tight, but again, that could be from falling on it. Nothing seemed too serious or broken.

A quick stop in the kitchen, and I was heading to the bridge with an armful of water bottles for everyone.

Slate stood, looking no worse for the wear, and Clare was absent, talking to Mary through her console speaker. “How about now?” her voice asked, and the viewscreen flickered, cut out, then stayed on, showing up the view before our ship.

Black sky, stars in the distance. Yep, pretty much what we had been looking at before, only I knew it was far different. No one from Earth had ever been this far out, and when we brought the map up, it zoomed in from tiny specks to large blinking icons. We were right on their tail.

The icon had moved trajectory since we’d last seen it, and to my non-spatial, linear mind, they were heading deep south in the 3D map. At their speed, it was evident the FTL drive was back up and running. As if she read my mind, Mary said, “Our drive will be good to go in twenty minutes. We were still holding a charge.”

I slumped down onto the console chair to the left of Mary, staring into the blank space outside, the blip of our target getting ever so farther away with each beat of my heart.

I wondered how long this journey was going to take.

T wo weeks later, we were settling into a routine. I’d become more of a scheduler than anything, shifts on manning the bridge swapping between all six of us. We took turns making meals and sleeping.

Slate had a great idea for training sessions, which not only allowed us to get in shape, but let us learn the ins and outs of every weapon on board.

I headed into the storage area, which had become a makeshift gym, mats layering the floor in a square. Mary and Clare were inside, doing push-ups with Slate counting them off.

“Time for hand to hand,” he said, grinning at me. If there was one thing Slate loved, it was hand to hand combat. He lit up every time, and I was sure he wished there was some competition aboard for a man his size. There wasn’t anyone close. I’d been at the bruising end of his moves a few times, but he had taught me a lot, and for that I was thankful. Now the smaller Clare was up, getting ready for some basic combat techniques against the better-trained Mary.