Nebula's Music (6 page)

“Yes, sir.” This time Angstrom did not seem so eager to pick up the intercom.

“Just put him on the speakers.” The captain massaged his temples. “I’ll talk to him myself.”

Oso’s deep tone came through within seconds. “Yes, Captain?”

“Oso, we don’t have three days. Nebula calculates the Gryphonite Warbird will be here within twenty-four hours.”

Despite the dire situation and the captain’s impossible demands, Oso’s words were as even and smooth as aged wine. “Captain, the damage is extensive. The ship in its entirety cannot be fully repaired in twenty days, never mind twenty-four hours.”

The captain pursed his lips. “Is there an alternative?”

Oso’s intercom went dead. Although Angstrom took it as a negative and put his head down on the controls, Nebula suspected Oso was thinking. He was a strategist, just like herself. An eerie silence settled on the control deck.

“Oso?” The captain sounded as though he called to a spirit that disappeared.

“Two out of the four power cells still work, sir. They are not enough to power the entire flight ship, but if we separated the main control deck from the back, we may have enough power to propel us into flight speed.”

The captain slapped his hands together. “It will have to work. Inform everyone on board to move to the back of the ship. Close off sections A through H of Decks One through Twelve.”

“Yes, sir.” Angstrom was already sending the warning throughout the other decks of the ship.

“Captain.” Oso’s tone sounded heavy. “It is not that simple. Someone needs to stay behind to direct the blasts that would propel us into space.”

“It can’t be done by a remote location?”

“No. It is too risky. Such delicate corrections to booster launch and speed can only be done on the control deck. There is no secondary control deck for the bottom half of the ship.”

“You mean we will be hurtling blindly through space?”

“Negative, sir. I will be able to monitor fundamental functions from the computer mainframe. Someone must remain on the control deck to complete the launch—”

“I will stay.” Nebula silenced Oso and everyone on deck.

The captain and Angstrom stared at her in awe. Angstrom was the first to speak. “Neb, no.”

Her tone was as tough as a general’s. “Sacrificing myself for the greater good is what I am programmed to do. It is in my orders.”

Angstrom’s gaze pleaded with the captain in disbelief, but the captain’s face remained tight and unyielding. “Flight Fleet regulations, section one-hundred twenty-eight, evacuation procedures.”

“We should make one of those rebels stay behind.” Angstrom rolled his eyes. “They’re the ones that got us into this trouble in the first place.”

The captain shook his head. “They are not to be trusted. Besides, Nebula, Angstrom, Oso and I are the only senior officers with the expertise to run the separation and propulsion programs.” He touched Nebula’s arm. “I can stay in your place.”

“No.” Nebula took a step toward him and held his eyes in her own glaring gaze. “Do not disgrace me. Allow me to do my job.”

The captain took one long look at her, summing her up.

“You will be needed to lead the crew back home.” She knew she had him in a tough spot. There was no way he could forsake his duty.

With a jerk of a nod, he walked back to his office, speaking over his shoulder. “Very well. Begin evacuation procedures immediately.”

Stowaway

Angstrom squeezed the air right out of her as he grasped her tightly in his arms.

“It is all right,” Nebula whispered near his pointed ear. “This is what I wanted.”

He pulled away with shock in his eyes, but there was no time for explanations. Gasps rang out on the main control deck as a warp hole formed just a half parsec away from their coordinates. The Gryphonite Warbird was on its way.

“We must leave now!” The captain ushered the remainder of the senior officers off the control deck and into the elevator.

Angstrom ignored the ripple of space appearing before them and looked into Nebula’s eyes. “You’ve been a great friend, Neb.” He broke into tears and his lips trembled.

The captain put a hand on his shoulder and pulled him away. “Come now, before it is too late.”

Angstrom entered the elevator and covered his face with his hands. He went to move back onto the control deck as if he had second thoughts but another crew member held him back. As the others entered the elevator, the captain stood before her. They were the last two people on deck.

“Nebula, once we are on Deck Thirteen, begin the separation procedures.”

Nebula nodded. “Yes, sir.”

The hole was getting bigger. It looked like it sucked the stars right into it, bending the nature of space and time in its wake.

The captain backed into the elevator. “And try to hold the Gryphonites off with conversation. Stall as long as you can.”

“I will try, sir.”

“We’ll send reinforcements to this location as soon as we contact help.”

Nebula nodded again, although she knew the Warbird would be long gone by then and she secretly wished to be taken prisoner anyway. She watched as the captain pushed the code into the panel.

“And Nebula…”

“Yes, sir?” She wondered what he could possibly have left to say.

“Try to stay out of trouble now, okay?” He smiled a crooked half grin of regret mixed with respect and pushed the button. The doors melted into place and the other members of the crew were gone.

Nebula was entirely alone. For a moment, she stood on the brink of oblivion, staring at the sight panel where the warp hole loomed. A cold feeling swept over her and she felt her skin prickle. She collected herself as if she’d been scattered all over the floor and hovered over the controls to release the back of the ship when the time came.

The time it took the elevator to reach the lower decks felt like an eternity. Once it opened and closed on the lower deck, Nebula authorized the directions for the front-back separation. Warning alarms rang in her ears as the deck’s lights flashed red. The locks on the bridge unfastened, and she could feel a tug underneath her feet as the back of the ship detached.

Nebula said a silent good-bye to everyone on board, including Radian. At least she’d kept him safe. However, she knew he’d be taken to trial and a rush of guilt swept over her. She felt like she’d delivered him into the hands of the enemy. Not only that, but any clues to her past went with him. She had to remind herself she had had no choice.

Once the other half of the ship was free, she engaged the thrusters, sending it launching into space. She calculated the coordinates for optimum flight speed and sent it on a clear path back to Earth. The engines weren’t working at full capacity, but they would make it. Nebula had completed her job.

Now all she could do was watch as the Gryphonite ship loomed closer in the black void of space. She stared it down and felt her destiny looming every minute it came closer. The elevator opened behind her, interrupting the spell of fate and she whirled around.

There Radian stood haloed by the golden light. She saw determination in the lines of his face and the set of his shoulders. His eyes held an emotional tug. Nebula felt a wash of relief to see him, but damned his presence in the back of her mind. She’d sacrificed everything to keep him safe, and there he was at her side.

“What are you doing here?”

Radian closed the distance between them. “I couldn’t stand to lose you again.”

“But I am not Mirilee,” she declared, her voice forceful. “A person is the sum of their memories and their experiences. I may have her body, but I will never be her.”

He was now only a breath away. His hands cupped her cheeks, bringing her face up to meet his. He looked like someone who’d made up his mind for good. “I know, and I stand by you nonetheless.”

A blinking red light called her attention away and Nebula moved, breaking the spell. “It is the Gryphonite ship. They are hailing us.”

Radian nodded his approval. She put them on full screen and pressed the receive button.

Although she knew what the Gryphonites looked like from images in her database, it still shocked her when the black eye turned in her direction. Beneath it, a jagged beak dripped drool at the tip. The eye blinked once and narrowed as the beak opened, flexing the jaws.

There was a series of shrill squeaks and piercing chirps. She did not need the translator to tell her it was a warning. “Surrender now or die.”

Radian ran a hand through his spiked hair. “How long does the crew need to get away?”

“A few minutes more, just to be safe. We are lucky they have not noticed half the ship is missing.”

“And they say Gryphonites have the eyes of an eagle.”

Nebula was surprised to find that she had an opinion. “More like the eyes of a vulture.”

Radian laughed but there was no happiness in it. “And maybe their brain size as well.”

“You are aware when they seized a ship that crash-landed on Gryphod, they stole the mechanics of space travel?”

“It makes sense that they’d have to steal it. A race that flew to begin with would never have the need to dream up a flying machine, never mind space travel. Go on, buy them some time.”

Nebula recorded her voice and put it through the language processor. She knew they would never fall for their claims, but because of the translation required, the correspondence would be time consuming. “We are a UPA-alliance vessel and fall under the jurisdiction of the UPA. An attack would violate rule two-hundred twenty-five of the Interplanetary Regulations.”

Radian patted her on the back. “Well said.”

Nebula waved away his credit. “It is a programmed response contained in my circuit boards for this exact type of situation.”

The response was forthcoming. “By aiding and abetting terrorists, you have violated rule forty-six of the same UPA-alliance treaty you speak of. You must be taken to Gryphod and charged under our terrorist act. If you do not surrender and provide us the phase coordinates, we will attack.”

He shrugged as if their fates were predetermined. To her surprise, he did not look afraid. “Well, this is what you wanted, wasn’t it?”

Nebula nodded and smiled, emboldened by his confidence in her. “All part of my plan.”

“For Mora, then.” Radian pressed the monitor back on again.

“For Mora,” Nebula whispered under her breath. She said into the language processor, “We surrender.”

Radian placed a protective arm around her shoulders. “Let them come.”

* * * *

It did not take the Gryphonites long to materialize on board. They were taller than Nebula imagined, rising a full foot above the common human height, and leaner, with sinuous muscles running through their feathered bodies. Five of them solidified in front of them, wearing nothing but their feathers and holsters armed with lasers.

Two of them stepped directly into the elevator, searching for more prisoners, while the three remaining Gryphonites fluttered toward them. Their sharp, taloned feet left scratches in the pristine metal floor. Their movements were fluid like snakes and their eyes cold and calculating.

Communication was not probable without the language translators. They approached silently, like wraiths collecting the damned to usher into the depths of Hell.

The leader leaned toward Nebula’s face and she had to resist the urge to cringe. It smelled foul, like wet down and sweat. With an eye on either side of its head, it had to crane its neck to study her directly. Nebula shrank back a measure, afraid it would see she wasn’t completely human. She held out her hands in a gesture of obedience. The bird man pulled back and seemed to exchange a glance with its cohorts.

“Don’t let them scare you,” Radian assured her in a whisper in her ear. He raised his hands as well. “I’ve been preparing for this moment for five years now and they all seem like a big bag of feathers.”

The one in the middle let out a war cry and Nebula’s ears immediately adjusted to dull the high-pitched sound. She looked over to Radian, but he was not so lucky as to have a pitch adapter. He gritted his teeth and squinted until the echoes of the wail faded.

Metal handcuffs were clasped on their wrists with clawed hands. Soon, the deck faded into a billion dusty particles as they were phased out. Nebula felt her body and mind travel to a dimension where time had no meaning. She’d been phased in and phased out before, but this journey seemed all the more spiritual to her since she developed the emotions to feel the vastness of the galaxy at her fingertips and her spirit soar through space. For a moment, she was cast away, weightless like a single grain of sand in an ocean tide, and the next, she was herself again, feeling her feet underneath her as the world came back into view.

They appeared in the lower levels of the Gryphonite Warbird. Although made from metal, the ship looked like more of a den than a medium of space travel. At one time, it belonged to another race. Now the Gryphonites claimed it for their own, scattering their feathers, half-eaten bones and droppings along the corridors like a primitive species.

Nebula assessed the stench and found traces of human blood, fecal matter and urine. The conditions were definitely violating a number of UPA health and safety standards, never mind casting the race in a negative view. Her eyes logged all information like two tiny video inputs. Ironically, she was doing exactly what Pink and her crew had come to do, although a cyborg’s visions and recordings would be much clearer and hold up without a doubt in the context of court. If only she could make it out with her memory board intact.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a shove as the Gryphonites herded them down the corridor and into a cell where other humans cowered in the shady corners. A metal door closed behind them and they found themselves trapped.

“Are you okay?” Radian brushed his hand against her cheek like she was a child.

“Perfectly fine.” Although the question was unnecessary, she couldn’t help it from entering her heart. She had to remind herself it was Mirilee whom he cared for, not her.

Nebula didn’t waste one second as she traced the confines of the cell with her delicate fingertips. Radian waited patiently, watching her every move. When she stood back and took another look at the metal door, he spoke. “Is it possible to break out?”