Rift Breaker (9 page)

Milton's shoulder slammed into someone. He apologised, and the other guy, who had a face drooping with fat folds, grunted and mumbled as he kept walking. Milton went to the far wall and moved along it, towards the long-necked beasts. Darting quickly around a jutting pile of cargo crates, he reached the cages.

The two wryhaidon wore restraints on their mouths; a good idea given their location. They snorted, breath steaming from their nostrils, and flicked their heads woozily, jangling the chains that ran down their backs. Milton saw the caretaker markings on the sides of their legs, indicating they were consummated mates. The wryhaidon bond was strong. This was all the more useful to the situation.

Milton edged around the cage, glancing about and finding no wrangler on guard. He stealthily unlocked the door. The beast heard the sound and lowered its head to Milton, alternately blinking its transparent and non-transparent sets of eyelids. The animal's eyes were glazed over, a sign of space travel drugging. The docile beast flexed its neck, touching the top of its head to the cage door. With a creak of the rusty metal, the cage swung open. The creature lumbered out.

Screams rose from the hangar and the crowd shoved away to escape the path of the beast. The wryhaidon simply looked at them and continued exploring its surroundings. Its tail whipped
out and toppled a pile of cargo crates as it turned its focus to a towering cargo crane. Hairy nostrils opened on its snout and sniffed along the piece of equipment. The wrangler darted to its side, waving his arms in a feeble effort to get the thing's attention.

A cargo loader backed up behind the wryhaidon, trying to install an oversized crate into a ship. Before the driver noted the shouts to stop, the loader's tracked wheel met the wryhaidon's tail tip with a crunch.

The beast whipped its neck straight and let rip a bloodcurdling roar. It turned its head to the loader and struggled against the weight. The startled driver, finally noticing the animal loose in the hangar, escaped the loader and slunk away.

The beast stood on its hind legs and lurched itself forward. The scaly skin where its tail met its body darkened to a black-brown colour. The wryhaidon heaved and grunted with forelegs fluttering. The blackened section of skin gave way. The tail detached with an explosion of dark green goo into the air. The appendage thumped to the floor; its muscles twitching in spasm, flexing up and continuing to spurt ribbons of bio goo.

The beast charged forward into the open space and turned on the spot, sending a spray of green discharge from its open drop-tail wound. It stood up and stomped the ground in an instinctive response to a subterranean predator.

From in its cage, the second beast roared concern for its mate. Milton released the lock and it galloped out and barged into the cargo loader.

The panicking creatures whipped their necks and remaining tail, their stomping legs warding off everything in proximity. The cargo crane came crashing down. Howling screams rose from the crowd. The masses bustled to one side of the spaceport.

Trying to level his pulse rifle, the pompous commando pushed his way through the stampeding crowd. Once he got a clear sight, another soldier came up and pushed his aim away. Too many fuel containers dotted through the hangar.

A wrangler approached the soldiers. The hairy hard-faced being was dressed in thick leather with a necklace of jagged teeth. After a brief exchange, the soldiers slung their rifles across their backs and followed him. The wrangler approached the beasts in an arms-open stance. The two soldiers broke away from him on either side, surrounding the creature awkwardly.

Luylla bolted across the hangar to her ship. On her way, she pulled a lever on a console and the circular door directly above the
Inhibitan
opened, unleashing a cold spray. Tazman raced after her into the ship's unfolding ramp entrance. Milton weaved through the bustle. He stepped behind a Composite soldier, who unknowingly backed into him. Milton was able to slip by unnoticed in the confusion.

The thruster shield surrounding the
Inhibitan
's platform began to rise from the floor, already reaching the height of Milton's chest. He jumped, vaulted over as it continued to rise, and tumbled down the other side. He raced into the ship. Tazman slammed the control button to retract the entrance, howling in delight.

Milton slapped him a high hand before he crossed the cargo hold and passed into the cockpit passage. The engines fired up. Luylla stood over the controls, flicking a line of operational switches.

‘Good luck to those guys,' said Milton, looking out to the left at the commotion. A Composite soldier, flailing in the air, shot past the front of the ship; his scream was cut short when his head smacked against the arm of a cargo loader. Milton winced at the sight. The
Inhibitan
lifted through the open ceiling and rotated into the downpour.

Luylla sat back and pulled on the flight controls, lifting the nose of the craft. The gravitational systems kicked in and made Milton stumble. He hopped into the co-pilot's seat. The
Inhibitan
blasted skyward.

Luylla swivelled the controls to dodge a pedestrian walkway, then turned again to avoid colliding with a skyscraper. She grunted and pulled the ship vertical, ignoring all traffic rules. The
Inhibitan
trailed closely along a tall building before clearing the city skyline.

Giant globs of rain pounded the forward pane. Lightning streaked menacingly across the clouds. Luylla stared ahead with a hard laser focus. The clouds hit and all visibility was lost. A tense moment passed. Thunder rumbled close — then the fog broke.

The tiny craft found itself shooting upwards in a large clear space between two layers of flickering cloud. Columns of lighting stabbed from both layers. The ship approached the top layer. An
arm of lighting snapped forth and struck the
Inhibitan
on its right side. The instruments crackled. Milton's hair stood on end. Every console light and every reading brightened to an uncomfortable intensity, and shortly thereafter, dimmed to nothing. The engines silenced. Only the sound of swishing air, rain and the crackle of lighting could be heard. The sky and clouds whirled away to the side and the
Inhibitan
fell into a nosedive. The bottom layer of clouds grew closer.

‘Come on,' yelled Luylla.

She flicked a switch up and down. The machine beneath the floor turned over and hummed. She growled and pounded the console at a seemingly calculated spot. The flight instruments beamed back to life. A loading screen appeared on the pane and Luylla pulled back on the controls. The thrusters fired and the ship levelled, propelling up through the rest of the storm.

Tazman stumbled drunkenly into the room. ‘You are insane, lady!' he yelled, strapping himself into the reserve pilot's seat.

The thunder faded. Streaked raindrops on the front shield turned to ice. Then the ship cleared the atmosphere and Lubric's orbital docking platform stretched across the view. Specks of distant thrusters flared as civilian ships cleared away. Defence cannons sluggishly rotated. Luylla accelerated and dropped the nose. The
Inhibitan
soared beneath the platform.

Milton leaned forward. A large ship loitered at a distance from the planet. The
Inhibitan
's computer targeted and scanned
it. The readout was displayed faithfully: a Tranquillian Composite flag ship.

‘Phutta!' Luylla exclaimed.

A flash came from the front of the flag ship. Luylla reflexively swerved and a blue-white blast of energy shot by. The pane display dissolved into a mess of flickering squares. Several spuckons passed as it rebuilt its resolution, reverting to the readout once the shot had cleared.

‘What was that?' said Milton.

‘EMP,' snapped Luylla.

‘It'll take a while for them to charge it again,' added Tazman.

Luylla angled away from the ship. A blast from behind skimmed overhead. The space platform cannons opened fire with recoiling barrels on every shot. Multiple volleys of blasted energy closed in. Luylla swivelled and rolled. The
Inhibitan
's projectile shield rippled blue as the scatter shot pelted it from the rear.

Smaller flashes blinked from the front of the Composite ship. Spherical objects flew in a line towards the
Inhibitan
. The scan results for those came up also. Ensnare drones. There were twenty. The line of drones split and they adjusted into a new formation. Electric wave beams shot out between the spheres, linking them together to form a net.

The trap swivelled and took a decisive dive for the
Inhibitan
. Luylla spun the flight controls and pulled back. The ship rolled to the left and shot upward. The net blew past then scattered into separate drones again.

The navi computer chirped. Luylla pushed the lever for the quantum jump. The engine stammered and a heavy vibration came from below.

A blinking, red error message stretched across the displays. Milton skimmed the readouts: something about a power overload. The lightning strike had done something to the photon reactor. He sprang from his chair. Tazman was already halfway out the door.

‘Where do you think you're going?' demanded Luylla, still manoeuvring the flight controls.

‘Engine problem,' shouted Milton on his exit. He followed in the direction Tazman had gone, finding the Freegu climbing down a hatch in the cargo hold floor. Milton slid down the ladder after him. The narrow space was taken up by the large cylindrical reactor. Tazman examined a terminal screen down the right side.

‘The connectors are wasted,' Tazman yelled. ‘Damaged on the strike. We have to re-route power.'

Milton rushed to the opposite side and found the circuitry port. He gripped the handles and pulled off the covering. A tuft of black smoke billowed out. He winced and fanned it with the lid, spotting the black splotches dotting the circuitry chips inside.

‘Roasted,' he called back.

‘Let me see,' said Tazman, appearing behind him.

Milton stepped back. The tech-savvy simian reached in and pulled out one of the chipboards, discarding it over his shoulder. ‘Kid's stuff,' he yelled ecstatically. His tail flapped as his quick
hands reordered the burnt compartment. The ship rocked and the light above them flickered. Tazman extracted two loose wires, skinned them with his teeth and twisted them together. He went back to the terminal screen and his fast fingers flew over the touch keys.

Back in the cockpit, Luylla jerked the flight controls in every direction. The drones had attached to the ship and refused to shake off. Another one clamped itself to the hull. A thick connector beam of electricity snaked diagonally across the pane. Another one intersected and the
Inhibitan
's speed dropped dramatically. The flight controls lagged and their response slowed. The console flickered and instruments began to peter out one by one.

‘NO!' screamed Luylla.

Suddenly, a surge of new power flared through the console. The error message disappeared. New photons were ready and the navi computer had locked a path. Luylla slammed the lever forward and the hyperdrive sang at a healthy pitch. The ensnare drone beams snapped apart as the hyperspace tube exploded fantastically into view.

Nine

Milton stepped off the last rung of the engine room ladder and pushed onto the cargo hold floor. An unhappy Luylla appeared, again with pistols drawn. Tazman's head emerged from the hatch to come face to face with a barrel. He paused, shook his head and sighed, scoffing at the threat before continuing to climb. ‘What now?'

‘Did I say you could tamper with my ship? What have you done down there?'

He got to his feet and waved his arms in a satirical version of surrender, then raised his voice. The pair argued, throwing around terms like ‘proper conduct' and ‘situational exceptions'. Tazman yelled about certain emergency protocols, some of which Milton recognised from the Nova Corp induction manual.

Milton's vest pocket buzzed. He pulled out the gold disc. It shook again in his hand. He brushed his fingertips along the perfectly polished metal. Its top spun around half a rotation and
he pulled his fingers away. It rotated the other way at the same quick speed. Then it started to spin. Cracks of light leaked from the seams. Tazman's excited tail knocked the device from Milton's hand. When it hit the floor it increased speed.

‘Hey, guys,' Milton exclaimed. Four small sections flipped out from the edges. Beams of light shot to the ceiling. ‘Hey,' he yelled, cutting off Tazman who was still trying to get in the last word. Luylla and Tazman turned. He pointed to the floor. ‘It's doing something.'

The little gold disc wound faster. The beams melded. Moving parts snapped open. A wall of whirling light exploded forth. Milton, Tazman and Luylla stepped away. A blinding flash, then the light sank to a more concentrated level. The image of a familiar galaxy hovered in the air between them.

The image exploded and billions of stars rushed out. Milton felt as if he were shrinking. Suns of every colour streamed out. Tiny planets revolved in their orbits. A miniature asteroid belt of exceptional detail flashed past Milton's eyeline. The elaborate display came to a halt and focused on a lone green nebula.

‘That's where it must be,' he said.

‘What are you talking about?' asked Luylla.

‘The safe haven. Our lead. It's in that uncharted territory, our next stop.'

‘What makes you think I'm going to help you?'

‘You have no other option,' replied Milton. ‘Like it or not we're all in this together.'

Tazman and Luylla exchanged a brief look of pure disgust.

‘Okay, look,' said Milton. ‘Grow up and stop this stupid squabbling. We need to find out what happened to that space colony.' He pointed at the nebula. ‘There is someone here who can give us the answers. Luylla, if you would kindly take us there, we can clear up this mess. And you'll never have to see either of us again.'