Part 25: Cold Destiny
"Hurry up, hurry up!" Mason shouted as he charged ahead of the group of girls down the hall toward the second docking bay they'd found on a nearby map of the ship.
"Such chivalry." Clover smirked. Sam and Lisa chuckled, but Madison remained silent. They ran through the winding hallways, struggling to keep up with Mason until he turned into another room. The flashing red lights didn't really help them move any faster, but eventually they did catch up to him and turn into what should have been a secondary docking bay.
"Wh... where are all the ships!?" Clover shouted in surprise. The entire bay was empty, like a giant steel tomb. "What the Hell is going on here!? There were ships in the OTHER docking bay!"
"Something must've happened to make them abandon ship..." Sam looked up at the ceiling, from which the Zardexian voice was grumbling in an endlessly repeating pattern. "If only we knew what that warning meant."
"We know well enough what it means. We need to get off this ship, now." Madison replied.
"How do we do that without any SHIPS!?" Clover pointed out, her voice rising as she began to panic. Madison slapped her across the face calmly, then turned to look at the outer door of the docking bay. It was huge and tightly shut. Mason was standing in front of it, crying softly to himself and dropping down to his knees in despair.
"We find a ship." Madison replied simply.
"And if there aren't any?" Clover demanded.
"Why bother even asking that?" Madison smirked. Clover fell silent. "Come on, the quicker we move the better the chance we'll find a way off." She turned to walk away from the others, letting them either follow or stay behind. Clover and Sam turned to follow her, but Mason stayed in the docking bay. Lisa looked back at him, then hung behind as well.
"Should we go back for them?" Clover asked when they were out of earshot.
"They'll catch up to us..." Sam stated. Then she added softly. "If they want to." Clover nodded solemnly as they walked through the suspiciously empty halls. Occasionally they had to duck to the side as a small group of Zardexians or two rolled past them, but there weren't nearly as many of them as one would've suspected a ship this size to carry.
"Why am I getting a horrible sinking feeling in my stomach?" Clover quipped drolly.
"Try to relax, Clover, we'll get out of here. It's not the end of the line yet." Sam gave her a comforting smile and squeezed her shoulder. In a few moments they rounded a corner and came to a stop when they saw a thick steel door blocking the hallway in front of them. There was a thick glass window in the upper middle of it, and above it was a sign with strange words and a picture that matched the 'bridge' symbol on the maps they'd been following.
"Okay, is THIS the end of the line?" Clover asked drolly. Madison and Sam ignored her, approaching the window and peering through curiously. They could see the bridge on the other side, but it was empty. The front window was completely missing, opening the bridge out into the field of stars beyond. In front of the ship they could see the blue orb of the Earth growing larger and larger.
"Someone blew out the window in the bridge..." Madison growled. "And this ship is drifting into the Earth's atmosphere. If we don't get out of here, we'll either burn up on reentry or be crushed on impact."
"So yeah, end of the line." Clover smirked.
"I think the map said the next docking bay was over this way..." Sam pointed down another hallway. "Come on, there's still a chance we can make it." She took off down the hallway, with Madison and Clover running quickly behind her. They reached the docking bay and ran inside, skidding to a stop when they saw it, too, empty.
"Uh... should we find another one...?" Clover asked softly.
"Damnit..." Sam growled and clenched her fists. "There's no point... all the ships are gone. They abandoned the ship and didn't leave us anything. We're dead!" She howled as she collapsed to her knees.
"Maybe we could find our way back to the missile we came in on?" Clover suggested half-heartedly.
"One, we don't know where it is from here." Madison pointed out. "Two, what would we do then? We couldn't steer it from the inside, we got lucky we hit this ship or we would've kept hurtling endlessly through space." She scoffed. Clover hung her head, looking down at her redheaded friend. Sam began to laugh lightly, her shoulders shaking.
"Ironic isn't it? Alex flies across the galaxy to save us, only for us to fail miserably with the second chance she sacrificed her life to give us..." She sighed deeply. "Some heroes we are... we saved the world a hundred times from insane lunatics, but we just can't get a leg up here..."
"We don't know that Alex is dead..." Clover pointed out half-heartedly.
"Stop being stupid." Madison scolded her sternly. "Neither foolish optimism or pessimism are going to help us. We have to try to find a way off of this ship. Now."
"I think we're all open to suggestions." Clover glared at Madison acidly. "If you've got a big grand plan, let's hear it."
"At least I'm trying to think of one instead of blubbering like you two." Madison scowled.
"Why you heartless little bitch." Clover stomped up to her, snarling angrily. "You don't even care that Mandy's gone, Alex is missing, and both Mason and Lisa left us, do you?" She growled. "Of course not. All you care about is your own Goddamn pride."
"I've been through just as much shit as you two. Possibly more." Madison replied coolly, though there was a sharp anger in her eyes. "And I didn't get this far by constantly grieving the things I lost or giving up when it looked like things were about to come crashing down around my ears. Now if you two want to stand here and wait to die, go ahead, but I'm going to at least look for an alternative." She turned to walk toward the door.
Sam sighed, muttering more to herself than to anyone else. "Hope is such a precious thing... even if false it can lead to a truth that one might not have seen without its light..."
"Sammy?" Clover blinked in confusion.
"Wait up, Madison." Sam pushed herself to her feet and turned toward the violet haired woman. Madison stopped and turned to look back at them coolly. "You're right... it's better to die hoping there's a way out than to give up and lie down. Come on, we should head back to the bridge. If there's any indication of a way off, it might be there."
"But the bridge is completely sealed off, and even if we could get in, we'd be sucked into space." Clover pointed out.
"It's the only course of action we have right now. We'll settle details when we get there." Sam replied. "Now come on, we probably don't have much time left." She walked past Madison out into the corridor and turned to head toward the bridge. Clover and Madison exchanged a quick glance, then turned to follow quickly after their redheaded companion.
They reached the bridge in short order, where Sam walked up to the window to peer through it. It looked the same as before, but out the front window she could see the Earth looming larger and larger before them. It wouldn't be much longer before the ship plummeted through the Earth's atmosphere.
"Maybe if we can find some kind of space suit and go operate the thruster controls..." Sam mused. "We could change the ship's trajectory..."
"Yeah, a biiiiig round space suit." Clover smirked. "I'm sure that'd be real easy to maneuver in."
"Wait, that is a good point actually." Madison stated. "If there is a space suit around, we may be able to use one as an escape pod. After all, the Zardexians are huge and round, one of their space suits may comfortably fit all of us."
"Great, so we could float around in a big-ass bubble. Then what?" Clover asked.
"One step at a time. Maybe those space-suits have thrusters in them so we can move around." Sam said. "For now, just look for anything that resembles a space suit." So they set about searching for anything that looked big and round that was air-tight and looked like they had thrusters on them. They searched room after room with no luck until Clover opened a nearby door and stared in surprise.
"Whoa... guys, come get a look at this." Clover stepped inside slowly. Sam and Madison rushed up behind her to walk inside. They both gasped when they saw a crate of vials sitting against the far wall of what looked like a storage closet. But this crate looked familiar and was marked with the name of the substance inside...
"The Faustium they took from Moscow." Madison marched up to the crate and knelt down to pull out a vial of the dark violet liquid. "It seems they didn't think it was a threat to them as long as they had it... not enough of a threat to destroy anyway."
"It's too bad about its little... side effect." Clover smirked. "Or we could use it to get out of here."
"Yeah, this won't do us any good. We need to get back to searching for a space suit or anything that CAN get us out of here without blowing up." Sam agreed with an authoritative nod.
"Here." Madison stood up and tossed Sam and Clover each a vial of Faustium. "You never know what'll happen. If we have no other choice, we can use it and at least take as many of those bastards with us as possible." Sam and Clover exchanged a quick glance, then looked back at Madison and nodded grimly. If they had no other choice, a good suicide bombing was all they could do.
They went back to their search with renewed vigor, not really wanting to blow themselves up. It took them awhile, but at last they found what looked like a large storage closet with metal suits lining the walls shaped like Zardexian bodies.
"Metal?" Clover blinked and approached one, grabbing a tentacle. To her surprise it was as solid around as steel, but bent this way and that like cloth. "Whoa... talk about space-age stuff."
"No duh. They're space aliens Clover, they're gonna have space-age stuff. Now hurry up and help us drag this thing back to the bridge." Sam grabbed a tentacle and yanked, but the thing weighed as much as steel. As they strained to pull it out, Clover noticed a small control device on a nearby shelf. "This must control the suit..." Sam stuffed it in a pocket and resumed pulling.
They reached the bridge panting and sweating from the effort of pulling the steel space suit through the corridors. The Earth through the window was looming dangerously close. It would be only a few minutes before they ran out of time.
"What now? How do we get outside the ship from here?" Clover asked.
"Easy. We open this door, and let the suction from space yank us out of the ship. From there, we should be able to get away before the ship drags us down into the Earth's atmosphere." Sam walked up to the thick Zardexian door and stared curiously down at the control pad. It was constructed with dozens of buttons on its face, each adorned with a strange... but strangely familiar symbol on it. They weren't quite letters... but not quite unfamiliar either.
"If you're going to be opening that thing, I'll be waiting in the bubble." Clover turned to the space suit. "If I can figure out how, that is..." She coughed. Sam smirked and reached into her pocket to press a button on the controller, that split the suit in half and opened it up for easy access. "Ah... yeah, that's fine."
"Clover, hold onto this." Sam tossed her the controller while Madison climbed into the bubble as well.
"What? Why?" Clover asked.
"I have to stay out here to open the door... if I can't get back to the suit before we're all sucked out, you'll need it to pilot..." Sam trailed off and turned back to the control panel.
"What? No, Sam, you get in and I'll-" Clover was cut off.
"You'll what? Figure out how to operate an alien door mechanism?" Sam smirked. "Stay in that suit, and hold on. The second it starts to move toward the bridge, close it up, no matter where I am. Got it?"
"No..."
"Got it!?" Sam snapped. Behind her head through the window the Earth was looming even larger, covering the entire view outside the front of the ship by now. Clover gulped and nodded slowly, sitting down in the bubble-like suit with Madison behind her.
Sam tapped lightly at the control console, slowly figuring out what all the buttons meant by matching them up with symbols she knew from Earth. It took a few minutes, but finally a voice spoke over the blaring alarms and the solid bridge doors began to open. Instantly the vacuum of space pulled at her, dragging her toward the window with the force of a thousand hurricanes.
Sam leaned against the wall and clung to the rail behind her with all her might to avoid being sucked into the bridge just yet. The solid steel space suit was sucked toward the door, with Clover and Madison still sitting just inside of it.
"Come on Sam, get in!" Clover screamed over the roaring wind.
"I can't! If I let go, I'll be sucked right out!" Sam screamed back. "Close the suit!"
"Not without you!" Clover screamed back.
"Oh for Christ's sakes!" Madison slammed a fist into the back of Clover's throat, knocking her unconscious an grabbing the controller from her grip as the suit slid right into the bridge. The pressed the button quickly to close up the suit and the solid, glittering ball hurtled into space toward the Earth. Sam leaned against the wall and peered around the corner to make sure their jets started and they took off in another direction.
Her breath grew more ragged as the oxygen was sucked into the infinite vacuum of space, and her arms were beginning to ache with the strain of holding on. Still she clung, panting heavily as she reached into her pocket and pulled out the vial of Faustium.
"Bottom's up, bomb girl..." Sam raised the vial in a solemn salute, popped the cork, and downed its contents in one swift gulp. She gagged on the sour taste and threw the vial to the floor, the shards of which were promptly sucked out into space. Already she could feel it taking effect... surging through her veins, causing them to shake uncontrollably.
Violet energy began to surge through her skin, solidifying around her until she couldn't feel anything. Not even the pull of the vacuum of space, nor the lack of oxygen that entailed seemed to effect her. She smirked and slid past the wall, letting herself be sucked out into the front of the ship. She was surprised to find that it was already entering the atmosphere in a sea of flames, as was she now... but she still didn't feel anything.
She whirled in the air, bringing her hands up. The violet power surged upward with her motion, pushing her back into space just over the hull of the doomed vessel. She streaked into the starry sea like a purple comet, looking around for the targets of her soon-to-be martyrdom. She was surprised to see that they were leaving... if they were still looking to capture the sea creatures of Earth, why would they leave...?
Well, it didn't matter to her. All she could do now was get over to them. She could already feel her body beginning to overload. She had just a few minutes to take them with her...
TO BE CONTINUED
"Hurry up, hurry up!" Mason shouted as he charged ahead of the group of girls down the hall toward the second docking bay they'd found on a nearby map of the ship.
"Such chivalry." Clover smirked. Sam and Lisa chuckled, but Madison remained silent. They ran through the winding hallways, struggling to keep up with Mason until he turned into another room. The flashing red lights didn't really help them move any faster, but eventually they did catch up to him and turn into what should have been a secondary docking bay.
"Wh... where are all the ships!?" Clover shouted in surprise. The entire bay was empty, like a giant steel tomb. "What the Hell is going on here!? There were ships in the OTHER docking bay!"
"Something must've happened to make them abandon ship..." Sam looked up at the ceiling, from which the Zardexian voice was grumbling in an endlessly repeating pattern. "If only we knew what that warning meant."
"We know well enough what it means. We need to get off this ship, now." Madison replied.
"How do we do that without any SHIPS!?" Clover pointed out, her voice rising as she began to panic. Madison slapped her across the face calmly, then turned to look at the outer door of the docking bay. It was huge and tightly shut. Mason was standing in front of it, crying softly to himself and dropping down to his knees in despair.
"We find a ship." Madison replied simply.
"And if there aren't any?" Clover demanded.
"Why bother even asking that?" Madison smirked. Clover fell silent. "Come on, the quicker we move the better the chance we'll find a way off." She turned to walk away from the others, letting them either follow or stay behind. Clover and Sam turned to follow her, but Mason stayed in the docking bay. Lisa looked back at him, then hung behind as well.
"Should we go back for them?" Clover asked when they were out of earshot.
"They'll catch up to us..." Sam stated. Then she added softly. "If they want to." Clover nodded solemnly as they walked through the suspiciously empty halls. Occasionally they had to duck to the side as a small group of Zardexians or two rolled past them, but there weren't nearly as many of them as one would've suspected a ship this size to carry.
"Why am I getting a horrible sinking feeling in my stomach?" Clover quipped drolly.
"Try to relax, Clover, we'll get out of here. It's not the end of the line yet." Sam gave her a comforting smile and squeezed her shoulder. In a few moments they rounded a corner and came to a stop when they saw a thick steel door blocking the hallway in front of them. There was a thick glass window in the upper middle of it, and above it was a sign with strange words and a picture that matched the 'bridge' symbol on the maps they'd been following.
"Okay, is THIS the end of the line?" Clover asked drolly. Madison and Sam ignored her, approaching the window and peering through curiously. They could see the bridge on the other side, but it was empty. The front window was completely missing, opening the bridge out into the field of stars beyond. In front of the ship they could see the blue orb of the Earth growing larger and larger.
"Someone blew out the window in the bridge..." Madison growled. "And this ship is drifting into the Earth's atmosphere. If we don't get out of here, we'll either burn up on reentry or be crushed on impact."
"So yeah, end of the line." Clover smirked.
"I think the map said the next docking bay was over this way..." Sam pointed down another hallway. "Come on, there's still a chance we can make it." She took off down the hallway, with Madison and Clover running quickly behind her. They reached the docking bay and ran inside, skidding to a stop when they saw it, too, empty.
"Uh... should we find another one...?" Clover asked softly.
"Damnit..." Sam growled and clenched her fists. "There's no point... all the ships are gone. They abandoned the ship and didn't leave us anything. We're dead!" She howled as she collapsed to her knees.
"Maybe we could find our way back to the missile we came in on?" Clover suggested half-heartedly.
"One, we don't know where it is from here." Madison pointed out. "Two, what would we do then? We couldn't steer it from the inside, we got lucky we hit this ship or we would've kept hurtling endlessly through space." She scoffed. Clover hung her head, looking down at her redheaded friend. Sam began to laugh lightly, her shoulders shaking.
"Ironic isn't it? Alex flies across the galaxy to save us, only for us to fail miserably with the second chance she sacrificed her life to give us..." She sighed deeply. "Some heroes we are... we saved the world a hundred times from insane lunatics, but we just can't get a leg up here..."
"We don't know that Alex is dead..." Clover pointed out half-heartedly.
"Stop being stupid." Madison scolded her sternly. "Neither foolish optimism or pessimism are going to help us. We have to try to find a way off of this ship. Now."
"I think we're all open to suggestions." Clover glared at Madison acidly. "If you've got a big grand plan, let's hear it."
"At least I'm trying to think of one instead of blubbering like you two." Madison scowled.
"Why you heartless little bitch." Clover stomped up to her, snarling angrily. "You don't even care that Mandy's gone, Alex is missing, and both Mason and Lisa left us, do you?" She growled. "Of course not. All you care about is your own Goddamn pride."
"I've been through just as much shit as you two. Possibly more." Madison replied coolly, though there was a sharp anger in her eyes. "And I didn't get this far by constantly grieving the things I lost or giving up when it looked like things were about to come crashing down around my ears. Now if you two want to stand here and wait to die, go ahead, but I'm going to at least look for an alternative." She turned to walk toward the door.
Sam sighed, muttering more to herself than to anyone else. "Hope is such a precious thing... even if false it can lead to a truth that one might not have seen without its light..."
"Sammy?" Clover blinked in confusion.
"Wait up, Madison." Sam pushed herself to her feet and turned toward the violet haired woman. Madison stopped and turned to look back at them coolly. "You're right... it's better to die hoping there's a way out than to give up and lie down. Come on, we should head back to the bridge. If there's any indication of a way off, it might be there."
"But the bridge is completely sealed off, and even if we could get in, we'd be sucked into space." Clover pointed out.
"It's the only course of action we have right now. We'll settle details when we get there." Sam replied. "Now come on, we probably don't have much time left." She walked past Madison out into the corridor and turned to head toward the bridge. Clover and Madison exchanged a quick glance, then turned to follow quickly after their redheaded companion.
They reached the bridge in short order, where Sam walked up to the window to peer through it. It looked the same as before, but out the front window she could see the Earth looming larger and larger before them. It wouldn't be much longer before the ship plummeted through the Earth's atmosphere.
"Maybe if we can find some kind of space suit and go operate the thruster controls..." Sam mused. "We could change the ship's trajectory..."
"Yeah, a biiiiig round space suit." Clover smirked. "I'm sure that'd be real easy to maneuver in."
"Wait, that is a good point actually." Madison stated. "If there is a space suit around, we may be able to use one as an escape pod. After all, the Zardexians are huge and round, one of their space suits may comfortably fit all of us."
"Great, so we could float around in a big-ass bubble. Then what?" Clover asked.
"One step at a time. Maybe those space-suits have thrusters in them so we can move around." Sam said. "For now, just look for anything that resembles a space suit." So they set about searching for anything that looked big and round that was air-tight and looked like they had thrusters on them. They searched room after room with no luck until Clover opened a nearby door and stared in surprise.
"Whoa... guys, come get a look at this." Clover stepped inside slowly. Sam and Madison rushed up behind her to walk inside. They both gasped when they saw a crate of vials sitting against the far wall of what looked like a storage closet. But this crate looked familiar and was marked with the name of the substance inside...
"The Faustium they took from Moscow." Madison marched up to the crate and knelt down to pull out a vial of the dark violet liquid. "It seems they didn't think it was a threat to them as long as they had it... not enough of a threat to destroy anyway."
"It's too bad about its little... side effect." Clover smirked. "Or we could use it to get out of here."
"Yeah, this won't do us any good. We need to get back to searching for a space suit or anything that CAN get us out of here without blowing up." Sam agreed with an authoritative nod.
"Here." Madison stood up and tossed Sam and Clover each a vial of Faustium. "You never know what'll happen. If we have no other choice, we can use it and at least take as many of those bastards with us as possible." Sam and Clover exchanged a quick glance, then looked back at Madison and nodded grimly. If they had no other choice, a good suicide bombing was all they could do.
They went back to their search with renewed vigor, not really wanting to blow themselves up. It took them awhile, but at last they found what looked like a large storage closet with metal suits lining the walls shaped like Zardexian bodies.
"Metal?" Clover blinked and approached one, grabbing a tentacle. To her surprise it was as solid around as steel, but bent this way and that like cloth. "Whoa... talk about space-age stuff."
"No duh. They're space aliens Clover, they're gonna have space-age stuff. Now hurry up and help us drag this thing back to the bridge." Sam grabbed a tentacle and yanked, but the thing weighed as much as steel. As they strained to pull it out, Clover noticed a small control device on a nearby shelf. "This must control the suit..." Sam stuffed it in a pocket and resumed pulling.
They reached the bridge panting and sweating from the effort of pulling the steel space suit through the corridors. The Earth through the window was looming dangerously close. It would be only a few minutes before they ran out of time.
"What now? How do we get outside the ship from here?" Clover asked.
"Easy. We open this door, and let the suction from space yank us out of the ship. From there, we should be able to get away before the ship drags us down into the Earth's atmosphere." Sam walked up to the thick Zardexian door and stared curiously down at the control pad. It was constructed with dozens of buttons on its face, each adorned with a strange... but strangely familiar symbol on it. They weren't quite letters... but not quite unfamiliar either.
"If you're going to be opening that thing, I'll be waiting in the bubble." Clover turned to the space suit. "If I can figure out how, that is..." She coughed. Sam smirked and reached into her pocket to press a button on the controller, that split the suit in half and opened it up for easy access. "Ah... yeah, that's fine."
"Clover, hold onto this." Sam tossed her the controller while Madison climbed into the bubble as well.
"What? Why?" Clover asked.
"I have to stay out here to open the door... if I can't get back to the suit before we're all sucked out, you'll need it to pilot..." Sam trailed off and turned back to the control panel.
"What? No, Sam, you get in and I'll-" Clover was cut off.
"You'll what? Figure out how to operate an alien door mechanism?" Sam smirked. "Stay in that suit, and hold on. The second it starts to move toward the bridge, close it up, no matter where I am. Got it?"
"No..."
"Got it!?" Sam snapped. Behind her head through the window the Earth was looming even larger, covering the entire view outside the front of the ship by now. Clover gulped and nodded slowly, sitting down in the bubble-like suit with Madison behind her.
Sam tapped lightly at the control console, slowly figuring out what all the buttons meant by matching them up with symbols she knew from Earth. It took a few minutes, but finally a voice spoke over the blaring alarms and the solid bridge doors began to open. Instantly the vacuum of space pulled at her, dragging her toward the window with the force of a thousand hurricanes.
Sam leaned against the wall and clung to the rail behind her with all her might to avoid being sucked into the bridge just yet. The solid steel space suit was sucked toward the door, with Clover and Madison still sitting just inside of it.
"Come on Sam, get in!" Clover screamed over the roaring wind.
"I can't! If I let go, I'll be sucked right out!" Sam screamed back. "Close the suit!"
"Not without you!" Clover screamed back.
"Oh for Christ's sakes!" Madison slammed a fist into the back of Clover's throat, knocking her unconscious an grabbing the controller from her grip as the suit slid right into the bridge. The pressed the button quickly to close up the suit and the solid, glittering ball hurtled into space toward the Earth. Sam leaned against the wall and peered around the corner to make sure their jets started and they took off in another direction.
Her breath grew more ragged as the oxygen was sucked into the infinite vacuum of space, and her arms were beginning to ache with the strain of holding on. Still she clung, panting heavily as she reached into her pocket and pulled out the vial of Faustium.
"Bottom's up, bomb girl..." Sam raised the vial in a solemn salute, popped the cork, and downed its contents in one swift gulp. She gagged on the sour taste and threw the vial to the floor, the shards of which were promptly sucked out into space. Already she could feel it taking effect... surging through her veins, causing them to shake uncontrollably.
Violet energy began to surge through her skin, solidifying around her until she couldn't feel anything. Not even the pull of the vacuum of space, nor the lack of oxygen that entailed seemed to effect her. She smirked and slid past the wall, letting herself be sucked out into the front of the ship. She was surprised to find that it was already entering the atmosphere in a sea of flames, as was she now... but she still didn't feel anything.
She whirled in the air, bringing her hands up. The violet power surged upward with her motion, pushing her back into space just over the hull of the doomed vessel. She streaked into the starry sea like a purple comet, looking around for the targets of her soon-to-be martyrdom. She was surprised to see that they were leaving... if they were still looking to capture the sea creatures of Earth, why would they leave...?
Well, it didn't matter to her. All she could do now was get over to them. She could already feel her body beginning to overload. She had just a few minutes to take them with her...
TO BE CONTINUED