“Eadu Tower, this is Cargo Hauler NH-477. Please advise. Repeat, please advise.” Bodhi held the mike to his lips, searching through the view-screen from some sign of what the hell was going on.
The storm had come up suddenly as the convoy was coming in. Bodhi’s smaller, lighter ship had been blown sideways hard and it had taken all his skills to keep from being dashed against Eadu’s ragged outcrops.
But now he’d lost contact with the other ships; his sensors scrambled by the storm and visibility reduced to almost nothing. “Eadu Tower, this is Cargo Hauler NH-477. I have lost contact with fleet. Please advise landing procedures. Eadu Tower, please come in!”
The knot in his stomach tightened when all he got back was static. Had something happened to Eadu Tower? To the research facilities? Bodhi knew all too well how fragile these little bubbles of duristeel they flew really were. How close they were every moment to the cold hard death of space. But he knew just as well what a crashing ship could do to anything it connected with.
He banked hard as a gust of wind sent the ship sideways, managing to break the tip of one wing off on the jutting black promontory rather than ripping open the ship’s belly.
Not good. Not good at all.
“Cargo Hauler NH-477, this is Eadu Actual. Abort landing. Repeat, abort landing. Cargo platform and tower have been compromised.”
“Eadu Actual, requesting alternative landing. Ship damaged. Cannot re-enter orbit. Please advise. Please advise!” Warning lights flashed and klaxons cried. It wasn’t that bad. He could still land. He had to land. One way or another, he was going down.
The wait for an answer seemed like an eternity. The voice on the other end was frightened and tired. “Cargo Hauler NH-477, here’s a flatish outcropping 2.3 clicks north, north west of Cargo Platform. Set down there if you can. That’s all I can do for you.”
Bodhi swung the ship around hard, already scanning. “Roger Eadu Actual, I am on route.” He dropped the radio and held the stick with both hands, desperately trying to get the ship down in more or less one piece.
It wasn’t easy. Or clean. Bodhi felt one landing strut snap as he brought the ship down, landing on an awkward lean. He scrambled into rain-poncho and cap as he freed his rescue pack from its locker.
He didn’t know if the base was under attack or if a ship had come down badly. Either way, he had to get down there. He tried to tell himself he would have done the same anywhere. Pilots and crews looked out for each other. But he knew it was Galen he was running to. Stars, let him be smart enough to stay away from danger!
He slipped and scrambled down the slope, riding the rivulets and waterfalls the landscape had become. Sharp stones cut though his gloves and flight suit but he ignored the pain. He had to get down there.
The view that greeted him as he made the ridge was the nightmare of any pilot. Two heavy haulers, one wedged under the other. Tittering on the edge of the platform, all that held them up with the shattered tower, the spindly structure groaning under the weight.
He raced the rest of the way down in a controlled fall, landing on the hard tarmac with ankle jarring force. There wasn’t time to care.
Eadu station was not heavily manned. Other than the scientists, there was very minimal support and logistic team. Most of the rescuers come from other ship – those who had managed to land safely or got out before the two larger ships connected.
There were crew still trapped in the lower of the two ships and those who could were cutting at the mangled hatches with lances and vibro-blades. White hot durosteel splattered and screamed under the torrents of rain, sparking unpredictably.
Bodhi ran for the other ship, reaching up to help injured crew climb down from the warped hatch, running them to the waiting medical carriers. A massive T'Syriél cargo handler, the side of his face badly burned, fell into Bodhi’s arms, barely conscious as his feet giving out on the slick and twisted ramp. Bodhi tried to take his weight but the little human was too small to support the towering orange alien alone.
Suddenly someone else was there, taking the man’s other arm. “I’ve got him. Let’s go.”
At first Bodhi didn’t even register that it was Galen on the T'Syriél’s other side. But he felt the knot in his gut relax, as if he’s been holding his breath and just remembered how to breathe.
And then something else hit his senses like a blow to the chest. The smell of fuel.
He dumped the cargo handler and grabbed Galen. The scientist half fell as the giant’s full weight shifted onto him but Bodhi had the front of Galen’s tunic, dragging him forward. “Run!” He screamed, half running, half scrabbling to keep them both upright.
He glanced over his shoulder only to realise it was already too late.
He threw Galen down, trying to ignore to thud as Galen hit the wet durocrete. He fell onto Galen, covered the scientist’s body with his own as he pulling up his suit’s hood up.
The fireball reached them before the sound of the explosion, Bodhi screaming as the heat seared him through the tears in his flash-resistant flightsuit. But he protected Galen, staying sprawled over him till the oxygen burnt off and the flame dissipated. There was a horrible, choking moment of asphyxiation before air rushed in to fill the void and the super-heated water around them boiled to steam.
There was almost a moment a peace before the shockwave hit them, throwing them across the landing pad.
The silence that followed was absolute, their eardrums temporarily shocked into uselessness. Bodhi tried to open his eyes but the pain was too much, too great. But it didn’t matter. He still had hold of Galen’s hand. And Galen was still squeezing tight. They were both alive.
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