Galactic
Unity 2
By: Mark J. Hadley
* * *
The professor rushed into the cockpit of the ship, sitting down in the pilot’s seat and quickly starting up the ship systems. Behind him, Silver climbed into his own seat and glanced back towards the station, “I hope the girls will be all right…”
“Me too,” the professor replied, examining the controls and recalling how Blossom operated them. “I think I can plot the course to Centraxia, using that info we received. As soon as the girls are on board, we can depart.”
“I hope that’s soon,” Silver said, looking out of one of the ship’s windows at the Invader ships outside. “I’m not sure we have much time left.” He watched as the alien vessels opened fire on the station again, and gripped the sides of his chair nervously, thinking, C’mon girls, hurry…
* * *
Blossom listened to the odd hissing sounds the two of the Invaders were making as they approached. The translators she was wearing didn’t interpret the sounds at all. “Bubbles,” she said, without taking her eyes off of them, “can you understand what they’re saying?”
“No… no, I can’t…” Bubbles replied, surprised and scared at the same time. Her powers should have let her understand any living creature, and these things were obviously alive, yet she couldn’t make out anything at all. Maybe they really are from another universe, Bubbles thought.
“All right, let’s see what you’ve got,” Buttercup said, focusing on the approaching Invaders and grinning to herself. She dashed forward and swung a punch at one, and it leaned to the side, dodging it… surprised, she followed up with a kick, but it had already leapt into the air, doing a somersault over her head. As it landed, it swung a heavy fist, slamming into her back and knocking her a few feet down the corridor.
Blossom cringed, realizing that the creatures were stronger and more agile than she had expected. The other Invader approached the two of them… thinking fast, she shouted, “Bubbles… Beta-Alpha-2, now!” Bubbles nodded, and Blossom darted towards it, aiming a flying kick to its head. As she expected, the creature dodged downwards… right into Bubbles’ path, as she charged towards it, throwing a strong punch.
When her fist connected, though, it got stuck in the creature’s chest, feeling as though she had just punched her fist into very fine sand. As she looked in surprise and tried to pull her arm free, the creature’s shape flowed around it, changing form... the bulk of it flowed downwards, and the part still surrounding Bubbles’ fist became a pair of arms, grasping it tightly. Before she could react, it spun in a half-circle, flinging her up against the inner station wall.
Buttercup, in the meantime, picked herself up from the ground and dove for the Invader that had struck her, in an attempt to tackle it. The creature reached out with one if its arms, which grew large claws, and grabbed her by the head out of the air. She struggled and tried to pry the claws off, but they wouldn’t budge. Blossom saw the danger Buttercup was in and shouted, “Buttercup!”
“Mmmph-mmfmrh!” Buttercup cried out, her voice muffled as she thrashed. Afraid the creature would suffocate her, Blossom quickly fired her eyebeams at the claw’s wrist… the shot hit, slicing through the hand and severing it. The Invader stumbled back a bit, making a strained, hollow breathing sound that was probably their equivalent of a howl of pain. No longer attached to it, the hand vaporized into a blackish mist and dissipated, and Buttercup, now free, gasped for air.
At least these things can be hurt, Blossom thought. “Girls,” she ordered, “use your eyebeams, they’re effective against them!” Bubbles, who had just recovered from being thrown against the way, nodded and narrowed her eyes, firing eyebeams at the creature who threw her. It jumped over the beams, growing the spider-like legs again and grabbing hold of the ceiling. Buttercup’s eyebeams caught it before it could move again, though, striking it dead center. The creature howled and released its grip, plummeted back to the ground… its entire body burst into a cloud of the black mist when it landed.
“Ha! Gotcha!” Buttercup exclaimed triumphantly. “One down, one to go!” The girls all focused their attention on the last one, which had backed up against the wall further down the corridor, grasping what was left of its arm. “Better just give up, man,” Buttercup warned him. “You don’t wanna go poof too like your buddy there, do ya?”
The Invader didn’t answer, but instead, thrust its good hand against the wall, gripping the metal surface. As it did, little black tendrils flowed out of its hand and into the wall straight through the surface. The metal itself gradually started changing from its usual reddish hue to a more black color. A few lights from interface panels along the wall flickered, and went out entirely, replaced a moment later by deep red lighting, not unlike the glow of the creature’s own eyes. The girls backed up a little in alarm… Bubbles asked, “Wha… what’s it doing…?”
* * *
“They’re taking too long,” Silver said, continuing to glance back towards the rear of the ship, where it was docked with the station. “What if something’s wrong?”
“Don’t worry,” the professor told him. “They’ll make it; they’ve got to.” He looked out of the window at the station, watching as the Invader ships continued to fire upon it. A few fighters had detached from various docking ports at the far end, and were moving to intercept, but he wondered if they would be successful in driving them off… even though they outnumbered the Invaders, they were probably outmatched.
They both noticed something odd at the station itself. Part of it near the docking ring was starting to change color, the metal becoming a dull black… the effect was snaking its way across that immediate portion of the station. “What is that?” Silver asked.
“I don’t know,” the professor said. “But whatever it is, it’s spreading this way… we need to detach from the station right away…”
“But the girls…!” Silver protested.
“If whatever that is out there incapacitates the ship,” the professor told him while working at the controls, “then they’ll be stuck anyway. We’ll figure out a way to pick them back up, but for now, I’m cutting us loose.” He finished the sequence and the ship shuddered momentarily as the docking clamps disengaged… the ship drifted away from the station just before the black essence reached their port. Now free, they knew they had to come up with a way to get the girls on board fast. And worse yet, their launch hadn’t gone unnoticed; one of the Invader ships started moving in their direction on an intercept course…
* * *
As the girls watched the shadows spread across the walls of the corridor, the control panels flashed a few times, and large security doors dropped down on their section, sealing them off from the rest of the station. The Invader, safely on the other side of the door from them, closed its eyes and concentrated further…
Inside their locked section, Buttercup approached the wall and started to pull back her fist, “Stand back, I’m gonna break us out…”
“No, Buttercup!” Blossom said. “We’re close to the edge of the station here, remember? If you start smashing down walls here, you could rupture this whole corridor, and we’ll all be sucked out into space!”
“Well, then what are we supposed to do?” Buttercup frowned.
“Look!” Bubbles said, pointing out of the observation window on the outside edge of the corridor. The other girls looked outside and saw their ship, floating back away from the station. “Are they leaving without us?!”
Blossom shook her head, “No, they wouldn’t do that, Bubbles… maybe it wasn’t safe for them to stay docked.” As if to confirm this, a blast shot past the ship, narrowly missing it, and one of the Invader ships moved into view between it and the station. Their ship retreated further away to a safer distance.
“Now how are we gonna get to it?” Buttercup asked. “Our spacesuits are in the ship!”
“I know, I’m thinking…” Blossom replied, biting her lip. It was true, they didn’t have their suits, but their function was really just to give them breathable air. The vaccum outside couldn’t actually hurt them, so they’d have no problem flying around out there, but with how far the ship was, she wasn’t sure they could get to it and inside the airlock in time, especially if it was dodging attacks from the Invaders.
A hissing noise interrupted her thoughts, and she looked around to try and find the source… she spotted a series of vents along the inner corridor, probably part of an air recycling system. Flying over curiously, she put her hand near one of the hissing vents, and felt suction coming from it. Buttercup noticed her doing this and asked, “What is it, Bloss?”
Blossom felt cold as she answered, “I think they’re sucking the air out of this section!”
“What?” Buttercup exclaimed. “How did they do that? Aren’t there, like, computers to make sure stuff like that doesn’t happen?”
“They probably did it the same way they brought those doors down,” Blossom said. “Either way, we’re going to be out of air in a few minutes if we don’t do something…”
“Cover it up!” Bubbles said, flying over and trying to put her arms over the vent. She quickly saw that this wasn’t going to work, however… due to the shape of the vents, they just couldn’t cover it all the way.
“One side, you two,” Buttercup said, waving her arms. “I’m gonna try to melt it shut!” They stood aside and watched as Buttercup fired her eyebeams at the metal. She kept it up for a good amount of time, but looked as though the metal wasn’t even starting to heat up, let alone melt.
Bubbles hook her head, “Not working, Buttercup…”
Buttercup stopped firing her eyebeams and muttered, “Stupid alien metal… well, this really fixes things, doesn’t it? Now what?”
Looking between the vent and the window, Blossom tried to think of some way out, but was drawing a blank. Already, the air was starting to get thin, so she made a snap decision and said, “We’ve gotta try for the ship, it’s our only chance. On the count of three, we take a deep breath and fly out of here, all right?” Bubbles and Buttercup both nodded, and each of them took hold of one of Blossom’s hands, so that they’d stick together. Blossom focused on the window, and closed her eyes, “One… two…”
* * *
Outside, their ship dodged and weaved around blasts from the Invaders as well as it could. A few shots came close, grazing off of their shields but doing no serious harm. Still, the Professor knew they couldn’t keep this up forever… they had to leave. I just wish I could get closer to the station, he thought… I need some kind of opening to get past the Invader ship, but it’s just too maneuverable…
Silver, in the meantime, kept a watch on the station for any unusual activity. At the same time, he was studying the way that black essence or whatever it was had spread across the docking ports… It’s almost like a disease, he thought. It’s spreading like an infection… but what’s it spreading through? The metal? Or maybe it’s using the sensor arrays or power conduits inside the station itself…
As he watched, he saw a showering of debris as something exploded outwards coming from inside the station. With shock, he recognized the girls, even from this distance. All three of them were holding their breaths tightly, and flying for the ship. “Professor…” Silver began.
“I see them,” the professor nodded, but then rolled the ship to the side to avoid another volley of blasts. “I can’t drop the shields, or we’re a sitting duck!”
Silver thought for a second and asked, “Will the cargo transporter work through shields?”
“I’m not sure,” the professors answered, “but it’s worth a try. Hurry, the controls are in the back!” Silver nodded and quickly moved to the back of the cockpit, locating the cargo transporter controls on the interface panels along the wall. He started moving the array around so that it faced the station, keying up a sequence at the same time.
The results looked risky… “Professor, we can get them through the shields, but this thing has a really short range. We have to get within about eleven meters, and hold that position for about five seconds…”
“That’s better than using the airlock,” the professor called back. “Okay, as soon as there’s an opening. C’mon, girls, hold that breath just a little longer…”
* * *
Blossom was beginning to have second thoughts about this idea as they neared the ship… it was flying around way too erratically for them to find the airlock. She glanced at her sisters as they neared it, and saw that both of them realized it as well. They had maybe at best another ten seconds before they had to release their breaths… Bubbles was clenching her mouth shut as best as she could, but her cheeks were turning red, and it looked as though Buttercup was going to give at any moment as well…
The ship flew closer for a moment, stopping not far from them and turning part of the bottom to face them. The bottom?! Blossom thought in confusion. The airlock isn’t there! We need the airlock! She prepared to fly around the other side of the ship, when a blue cone of light spread out from the ship, surrounding them… it was a familiar light, and she suddenly realized what it was, with a surge of relief.
A few seconds later, they materialized inside the round cargo transport area within the ship. All three of them released their breaths together, and started panting. “Oh man… *pant*…” Buttercup managed to say, “…that was… *pant*…too… *pant*…too close…”
The ship shook from an impact, and then lurched, as it started flying once again. “C’mon, let’s get up to the front, quickly!” Blossom ordered, flying for the exit door. The other girls followed, and they made their way to the cockpit as fast as they could.
Silver looked over as they entered, smiling, “Whew… glad you’re safe. I didn’t have much time to get a lock on you…”
“You did great, bro’,” Buttercup said. “Another couple seconds, and we woulda had it.”
“Yeah,” Bubbles said, flying over and giving him a quick but firm hug, “Thanks, Silver!”
The professor said, “All right, everyone, to your seats now…” as the ship, no longer needing to stay nearby, used its superior speed to distance itself from the station and the invaders. He continued, “There’s no time to waste. I’m going to make the singularity jump as soon as possible.”
The girls and Silver quickly strapped themselves into their seats. As the professor started the sequence for the jump, Bubbles looked over at Blossom and asked, “Will the station be all right?”
Blossom watched Paradise Fringe from the window, the ships still doggedly firing at the Invaders in an attempt to drive them back, and said, “I really don’t know… we can only hope for them now…” As their thoughts turned to what they had learned about the Invaders themselves, they realized more than ever how difficult it would be to stop them, and hoped the Repository could find a solution. The ship’s singularity generators activated, propelling the ship into faster-than-light speed, heading away from the battle, but taking them dangerously close to the war itself…