Quarantined Planet (10 page)

Sephora
and
Lilith
drift apart with an occasional spark of electricity from one or the other. Their ships are nose-to-nose and so close that Chloe, doubled over in pain, and Earl, bruised and bloodied, can see each other quite well.
Sephora
’s power and gravity click back on, and luckily, Chloe drops right into the pilot’s chair.

Her vessel’s radio crackles back to life.

“It’s done, Chloe,” Earl says. “Well, not quite, now to finish it—to New Earth.”

She looks up and directly into his eyes with such deep rage her vision blurs with every heartbeat.

“But first—you,” he continues. “Can’t leave anyone behind.”

Chloe trembles, fearing she might pass out or pass away any second. She presses in sequence the off-center buttons that control her ship’s arms and hands.

“Let’s back way off,” Earl says, “get a good, long run at each other this time.”

She hammers one last switch.

Sephora
’s powerful metal arms, as if spring-loaded, jet from her bow. One bounces off
Lilith
’s hull, putting a little spin on Earl’s ship that helps the other hand punch right through her forward port.

Earl is jolted from the pilot’s seat as
Sephora
’s fingers come within inches of his nose. Air streams out to space from a gap between the metallic alien hand and
Lilith
’s pierced window, making an eerie whistling sound.

Earl backs up and away from the hand, laughing like someone possessed for a moment. Then he stops and picks up his gun, aiming it at Chloe. It wouldn’t take much to shatter both windows now. As weak as she is, the young woman stands straight, looking him directly in the eyes.

Lilith
’s flight deck is quickly turning cold, and Earl shivers, causing Chloe to flinch, thinking he’d fired.

“They say that all good things must end someday,” he says, “autumn leaves must fall…”

He turns the gun around in his hands and smashes it against
Sephora
’s fingers.

“But don’t you know,” he says with another hit, “That it hurts me so.” Another hit as he continues, “To say goodbye—to you.”

Suddenly the metal hand opens with a clang and then retracts out of
Lilith
, shredding her forward porthole. Earl is violently sucked into the pilot’s chair. He wraps his arms around it as the ship’s flight deck ices over. Anything not fastened down is siphoned into space.

Earl gives Chloe a resigned smile, but she can’t watch. She turns away just before
Lilith
’s flight deck implodes, and Earl disappears in a bloody mingling of metal and glass.

Sephora
descends through the planet’s electrically charged clouds and the jelly creature-filled sky. Tivis, Jane, Nix, and Frey, all blackened, bloodied, and bruised, seem surprised to see the ship again.

The battered craft touches down beautifully where
Lilith
had been. The others rush to her and gather at the crumpled main hatch, Nix out in front. There’s a long, anxious pause until Chloe stumbles out and right into Nix’s arms. They embrace, both holding each other up.

“Amon’s dead,” she says. “I killed him.”

“I didn’t think we’d see you again,” Nix answers, squeezing her a little too hard.

“Oh, ouch—Nix, easy.”

“Sorry.”

She checks the faces, and one is missing, “Gordon? Where’s Gordon?”

“Well, he had to be a hero–”

“Nix, where is he?” Chloe is all at once frantic.

“I’m right here, love,” Gordon says, having propped himself up against a tree. Chloe limps over and hugs him so tightly they both wince in pain. “Okay, okay, love. I’ll be fine.”

“What happened to you?”

“A story for the road home, but all those people are safe.”

“I was so afraid I wouldn’t see any of you again…”

“That was a hell of a landing,” Gordon says to a brief smile from the girl. “Had me gob smacked.”

She wraps her arms around him as tight as possible. The others, except for Tivis, gather around, and they all huddle together for a long time.

A shaft of sunlight breaks through the dark, angry clouds. Chloe and Tivis limp around
Sephora
, giving her a final inspection.

“If she’ll fly, the ship is yours,” he tells her.

“I know,” she says, tightening a bandage around her hand. “If she’ll fly, can you fly that supply ship?”

He nods yes.

“Then let’s go. The guns stay here.”

***

Chloe is in the pilot’s seat with Tivis as her co-pilot. Everyone else is strapped in. The broken moon with all its bits and pieces glides serenely by
Sephora
’s forward ports.

“Hold together now,” she tells her ship before sending it into overdrive.

Chloe stands on the hill overlooking a meteorite-ravaged Saucer City. Plumes of smoke rise in the distance. She puts a hand up to block the sun’s glare and to see the eye-shaped orbiting alien satellite. Not far from it, the large supply ship approaches and slows. Cheers go up as Governor Carver, McKenna, Gordon, Nix, Jane, Dennis, Ailee, and the rest of Gaea circle her and
Sephora
.

“We’re going back there,” she says, eye-to-eye with Carver, “to bring those people home.”

“We can talk about it,” he replies, a little put off by her uncharacteristic confidence.

“No. We’ll find a way, and we’ll do it. And everyone here will know the truth—where we are and why.”

“Chloe, I don’t believe it would be wise to reveal that now.”

“So, Amon was right, you do know.”

“Chloe, we should discuss this at a later time.”

She puts a hand up to stop him. “Look, they did save us, maybe not in the way we were led to believe.”

“Again, I’d like to talk about all this later.”

“That they went to such efforts must mean there’s hope,” she continues with a wink at Dennis. “Now, we have to stop behaving like an injured squirrel, biting the hand trying to help it.”

Carver doesn’t understand the reference, but concedes. “Okay, Chloe, okay.”

“We’re going. We’ll bring back whatever food and supplies are on that ship and get those rock busters working. Nix?”

The young man is standing right behind her. “I’m good,” he says.

“Let’s go.”

They turn for their ship.

“Wow,” Nix says as he leans in, “you should run for governor.”

“Oh, please.” She rolls her eyes.

“Could you use some help?” Jane asks.

“Yes, thank you, Jane.” Next to her, Gordon is leaning on Dennis for support. “Think we can handle this?” Chloe asks him.

“Clearly.” He winks.

***

People pat them on the back, offer up well wishes and words of love, as all three hobble toward their tattered spaceship. Before they enter
Sephora
’s main hatch, a grand cheer goes up. Nix can’t help but bask a little in the attention and gives the crowd a wave to an even bigger cheer.

On the disheveled flight deck, Chloe hesitates before taking her place in the pilot’s chair. Humanity’s fate—at least for the short term—is in her hands. Jane straps herself in.

“How is this thing still flying?” Nix says, genuinely curious and amused.

“It—
she
doesn’t have the good sense to give up. Like the rest of us,” Chloe observes. She takes a deep breath. “Nix. Strap in, ya donkey. Shotgun.”

He smiles and hops into the co-pilot’s chair.

“Watch what I do.” Chloe, looking out the spider-cracked forward porthole, confidently runs her good fingers over the ship’s helm.

Sephora
’s engines roar to life as all of Gaea watches. The battle-worn ship gleams under a shaft of sunlight. She lights up, lifts off, and rockets straight up toward the Eye and the docked Alien Grey supply ship.

Chloe crisscrosses the neatly manicured cemetery alone, passing cross after cross, including new ones for those they’d recently lost—Wray, Marshall, Naledri, and Frey. She kneels at the cross for Amon Earl.

“You’re wrong, you know,” she says out loud. “You made a murderer of me, but you’re wrong.” Her eyes well up. “My God, I hope you’re wrong.”

She slowly sits back on her legs in the rusty sand. “You know we are what we are. Sometimes our own worst enemy, but there’s no reason we can’t be better at love than we are at war. And that rock wall will come down.”

She stands and looks to the horizon, wiping the tears away. “And it’s a beautiful day.”