“What’s wrong?”
“This shuttle is old. We can’t outrun them. There are five pursuing ships in all.” He waved his arm across the hologram, and it disappeared. Seconds later, another appeared. It looked like a different map. He tapped at the hologram, several dots appearing.
“What are you doing?”
“I am checking all the planets near us to see if any are enemies with the Cristos. They wouldn’t follow us if we managed to land on one. All of these planets are uninhibited though. Now I’m trying to find a way for us to reach The Vorge before those ships overtake us. I didn’t want my brother and his crew to have to engage in a battle, but now there’s no choice.” He snarled seconds later. “We won’t make it.”
“Are you sure those are the Cristos?”
“Yes. Their ship signatures are distinctive.” He tapped on the circles again, making them larger.
“What are you doing now?”
“Finding us the best planet that is survivable.”
“You just said they’re uninhabited.”
“That doesn’t mean they won’t support life. Uninhabited simply means no sentient race has officially claimed the planet. We’re not going to be able to outrun the Cristos in this shuttle long enough to reach my family. Our only chance is to crash and make them think we didn’t survive. They’ll likely leave.”
She launched out of the chair, panicked. “No! There’s got to be another way. We’ll be stranded on some alien planet until we die.”
He didn’t spare her a glance. “We won’t. The Vorge will come for us. I’m going to send them a goodbye message.”
“Yeah. Right! You said goodbye message. You know we’re going to die.”
He had the nerve to chuckle. “It’s all part of my ploy. You need to trust me, Kelsey.”
“I don’t even know you.”
He rapidly did something with the controls and she felt vibrations under her feet. “What was that?”
“I’ve overridden the autopilot safety controls.”
“Why would you do that?” She didn’t know if she should attack Crath to stop him or let him implement whatever crazy plan he’d come up with. The Cristos were coming, at least according to him. If they captured her, she’d pray for death regardless. She did trust Nexis and wasn’t about to forget what her friend had said about that horrible race.
Crashing almost sounded better than being captured.
“Almost,” she muttered. “But not quite.”
“What?” Crath shot her a confused look.
“Nothing. What can I do?” A fast death was better than being forcibly implanted with eggs that would ultimately kill her in a horrific way.
“Find a bag and start stuffing food supplies inside. Look inside the cabinets by the table and in the kitchen. Hurry.”
She spun, rushing to the tall cabinets first. It took her a few tries to figure out that she had to twist the handle upward to get them to open. “What’s the plan? Just tell me. It will help me remain calmer.”
“I’m pushing the engines beyond their safety limit to put more distance between us and the Cristos. Every minute will matter.”
“And then?” Kelsey found packets that looked like the ones her alien captors had fed her a few times. She also found a large black heavy-duty sack made out of a weird rubber and started filling it.
“We don’t want the Cristos immediately behind us when we hit the planet’s atmosphere. I’ll set a course to fly right into a mountain. The shuttle should explode. We’re going to launch the only life pod this shuttle has before that happens.”
“Shit!” she hissed. Kelsey grabbed some knives she found in the kitchen, stuffing them inside the bag. One cupboard had a stack of folded towels of some sort. They were long strips of material, stretchy and plush. She decided they might come in handy later and shoved about a dozen of them inside the bag. There were also pouches with some kind of liquid inside. All the markings on them were alien gibberish, but they resembled the pouch Crath had given her after waking. She just hoped they were water or something similarly safe to drink. For all she knew, she was packing cooking oil or another equally useless substance.
“We’ll make it. I’m sending a goodbye message to my brothers. The signal isn’t secure. I’m counting on that, to help the Cristos believe we’d rather die than allow them to catch us. Don’t say a word.”
Fuck, she mouthed.
“Calling Kuta Ta.” Crath’s voice came out deep and loud. He spoke English. “Second mate, remember my biggest challenge on the job? I’m transmitting our last coordinates. York and Sara’s eyes are what I’m seeing. We’re being overtaken by the Cristos. I’d rather die than be captured. Thanks for the lift. I really needed it. Please notify my family that I got into trouble. Brit out.”
The floor under Kelsey vibrated again, and there was a popping sound. She spun, looking toward Crath.
Blackness didn’t cover the entire windshield anymore. They were heading toward a large dark moon.
Her entire body trembled. “Is that where we’re crashing?”
“No. This moon has extremely strong gravity. I’m using it to help us pick up speed as we pass by. The planet is behind it.”
“What was that popping noise?”
“The ship, venting plasma to make the Cristos believe we’re having engine trouble.”
“Are we?”
“No. Not yet.” Crath rose from the pilot seat and rushed toward her, grabbing her arm. “It’s time to go.”
He was lying to her. Kelsey knew they were going to crash into that moon.
Fear had her stumbling but she allowed him to drag her into the narrow hallway. He stopped at the room where she’d been previously, grabbing a small case. He moved back down the hall and threw open the door to the owner’s cabin, pulling her inside.
She inhaled, gagging. The stench was bad enough to make her halt. The first thing she saw was the bed. It was large, with green, slimy stains all over the yellow blankets.
Crath grabbed her arm and jerked her farther into the room. “Hold your breath. The life pod is just over here.”
He released her when they approached a wall, but she saw the outline of an oddly shaped door. He punched a white square button and it slid open, revealing a single seat in a circular room about the size of a small closet. Crath grabbed her again and threw his case on the floor. He sat, yanked her onto his lap, and practically tore the sack from her hold.
“Face forward and put your legs over mine. We don’t have much time.”
The lights flickered in the stinky bedroom. She did as Crath ordered. The door slid closed and they were left in utter darkness for just a second. Pale yellow lights came on from above and a panel in front of her slid open in the rounded door. It was a small monitor with a control pad. Alien symbols glowed.
Crath wrapped his arms around her and yanked her closer, her back pressing to his chest. “It’s a tight fit with the belts but we need to be strapped in.”
“This wasn’t designed for two people,” Kelsey said, stating the obvious.
He began belting them in, the straps going over her thighs and hips. “No, but some larger aliens buy this model. We’ll make it work.”