Steph Bennion - Hollow Moon

“Captain Quirinus!” Fenris barked. “Prepare to be boarded!”

“Don’t be foolish,” snapped Quirinus. “I will not permit our ships to be linked whilst you have a gun to Hanuman’s head. I suggest you request landing clearance from Wak and we’ll continue this conversation on the Dandridge Cole .”

“I don’t think he was asking for your permission,” Hanuman said cautiously. “Ganesa was trying to warn you. Fenris has planted a bomb on your ship.”

“What!?” cried Ravana. “A bomb?”

As one, she and her father looked at the panel covering the AI unit, removed by persons unknown whilst the Platypus was at Hemakuta and hurriedly shoved back into place by Ravana after they left Yuanshi orbit. As quick as a flash, Quirinus tugged at the panel and pulled it free, leaving it to float away across the cabin. The computer had given the all-clear prior to take-off. It had not occurred to either of them that something may have been placed inside.

Looking now, Quirinus cursed as he spied an unfamiliar orange cylinder attached to the console power feed. The device was small, yet positioned in such a way that when detonated would leave the Platypus incapacitated but otherwise undamaged.

“Crap,” he muttered. “There’s something there alright.”

“You should listen to your friend,” said Fenris, showing them what they now guessed was the bomb trigger, his thumb still hovering above the red button. “I order you to power down your ship and prepare for boarding. We can do this the easy way, or the hard way.”

“Taranis said he has been watching my progress,” Surya murmured, looking warily at the holovid screen. “How is that possible?”

“Do you want to meet with him and discuss it?” Quirinus asked Surya, glancing up from where he had been peering into the hatch.

Surya shook his head. “Not on your life!”

“There’s your answer,” Quirinus told Fenris. “Your prince wants nothing to do with you or your mad priest. Put the gun down and behave.”

The watchers on the Platypus suddenly saw a third figure move quietly out of the shadows behind Fenris and Hanuman, unseen by the two men. Ganesa had a nasty bruise forming around her right eye, but her glare was defiant. In her hand, cautiously held at arm’s length, was what seemed to be a bundle of rags.

“This is your last warning,” Fenris declared, holding up the trigger in his hand.

“There’s innocent people aboard!” exclaimed Ravana. “You can’t be serious!”

Fenris opened his mouth to reply. His next words were lost as Ganesa lunged forward and clamped her hand across his face. With a gurgled cry of disgust, Fenris tore off his safety harness and tumbled from his seat, releasing the plasma pistol as he scrambled free. Caught by the force of his departure, Ganesa reeled backwards in the zero gravity.

Hanuman had not moved. Still strapped into his chair, his gaze went to the pistol and pair of socks spinning lazily above his head. The pilot reached up, plucked the gun from the air and pointed it at the fallen Fenris, who had come to a halt entangled in a rack of spacesuits. Ganesa ricocheted off the ceiling, twisted and grabbed a handrail.

“Are those my dirty socks?” asked Hanuman. He sounded offended.

Seizing his chance, Quirinus ducked into the maintenance hatch and gingerly began to undo the wire clips securing the bomb to the console power conduit. On screen, Fenris scrambled free of the rack and faced the holovid cameras once more. The trigger device remained in his grip.

“Go to hell!” Fenris spat, ignoring the gun in Hanuman’s hand. “The lot of you!”

“No!” cried Ganesa, lunging towards him.

She was too late. With a final determine grimace, Fenris pressed the button.

“Father!” yelled Ravana.

A sudden explosion ripped through the console of the Platypus . Quirinus flew across the cabin in a shower of sparks, then the flight deck was plunged into darkness as the lights, controls and holovid screen went dead. The deafening noise of the blast gave way to Ravana’s anguished cry as she frantically scrambled to her father’s side. Hers was not the only scream, but the wail of anguish burbling from the wrecked console was a cry of pain from the Platypus itself, born from the blackened tendrils of the AI unit.

“No!” screamed Ravana. She reached for her father’s unconscious form.

The emergency lights came on and the darkness was replaced by a smoky red glow. Ravana’s heart sank when she saw the bloody mask that was her father’s face, but he was alive and breathing. She barely noticed the pain in her own shoulder, but could not ignore the red globules floating from her blood-soaked sleeve where she had been caught by a piece of shrapnel. Ostara and Surya also sported cuts and bruises but it was clear Quirinus had caught the worst of it. Ostara grabbed a fire extinguisher and had just doused the minor blaze in the console when a panic-stricken Miss Clymene appeared at the entrance to the flight deck.

“I turned on the coffee machine and something went bang!” she exclaimed, then saw the wounded Quirinus. “My word! What happened?”

“Fenris happened,” Ostara said bitterly. “He planted a bomb on the Platypus .”

“A bomb!” exclaimed Miss Clymene. She pulled herself down next to Quirinus and with an expert touch checked his vital signs. “I have a little medical training,” she reassured Ravana. “Saint John Ambulance, Newbrum division. I don’t think your father’s injuries are life-threatening, but he is losing blood. How long before we get to your asteroid?”

“We’re less than twenty minutes away,” Ravana whispered, sounding distraught, then looked at the damaged console. “I need to check the controls. We may not be able to land.”

The kilometres-wide lump of rock that was the Dandridge Cole loomed dead ahead. Following earlier manoeuvres, the rectangular airlock of the dock had been perfectly aligned and horizontal as they made their final approach, but this was no longer the case.

“Land?” said Ostara, looking through the windows. “I think we’re going to crash.”

The next twenty minutes saw a flurry of activity aboard the stricken Platypus . Zotz, Endymion, Bellona and Philyra were evicted from the bunks in the carousel to make room for the injured Quirinus. Bellona too had some training in first aid and quickly dealt with the minor injuries amongst the crew with what medical supplies were aboard.

Although reluctant to leave her father’s side, Ravana knew she was the only one who had a chance of guiding the stricken spacecraft into dock. She took her seat amongst the floating debris on the blast-damaged flight deck and feverishly tried to coax the flight systems back into life. Helping her was Zotz, Endymion and Surya, the latter doing his best to maintain contact with Ganesa on the Sun Wukong via his headcom. With all systems down, this was currently the only way the crew of the Platypus could relay messages to Wak on the Dandridge Cole .

It did not take them long to notice that the passenger carousel had also lost power and was slowly coming to a halt, taking away the artificial gravity inside. Ravana realised it was this that had upset their carefully-calculated final approach; they were still on course for the dock airlock but the decelerating carousel had affected the spin of the Platypus , which had subsequently fallen out of synch with the spinning asteroid ahead. The latest message from Wak, via Ganesa, brought more bad news.

“Wak says he’s struggling to reach the dock airlock controls,” relayed Surya. “The control room was abandoned when the Indra left and the lifts are not working.”