Ray’s mind was as focused as a needle’s tip. Several sirens were going off because of the ship’s rapid descent. She turned them off. She set the controls to manual and released the foot rudder controls. She slammed down on them with her feet making sure she could easily depress them through their entire range of motion. She adjusted the pilots seat to the far forward position and centered it in the cockpit bubble. From here she had the most unencumbered view of her surroundings as possible. She pulled up all the exterior cams and positioned them around the forward displays.

She grabbed the quick-rigged anti-grav controller and pulled out a length of duro-bond strip from the roll on her side. She very carefully ripped a chunk off with her teeth, peeled the backer and stuck it to the bottom of the remote. She slammed the remote to the control panel hard. The sizzling sound and faint wisp of smoke told her it was bonded.

The ship shuddered as it began to breach atmosphere. She set the repulsion shields to full forward and focused them in as tightly as possible. She knew there was no way she could avoid all the debris in the atmosphere, but just maybe she could punch a hole in it big enough for her ship to pass through. Ray locked the throttle at full. She keyed up the last known coordinates of the town into the computer and the telemetry came up in front of her. She hoped it would get her close at least.

The ship hurtled from the sky like the white hot meteorite it was. The radio crackled to life.

“Ray, Ray, this is Jimmy, I know you can’t respond, don’t try. Just listen. I’m looking at the weather from up here and talking to the guys on the surface. You’re going to have to pass through that storm that we just missed, it’s almost covering the entire moon now. But the good news is it doesn’t seem to be so violent closer to the surface. You’re telemetry looks good but you will have to slow down to avoid one of those floating mountains below you.”

“I’m not slowing down.” Ray said to the universe. She bobbled the controls a little and took the ship though a quick spiral familiarizing herself with how it responded, then continued on her previous course.

“Ok, well if you’re not going to slow down then adjust your course 6 degrees, let’s see, spiralwise from center. That will take you just clear of the edge.”

She made the adjustment. The ship blew through sheets of water and waves of air which each knocked it a few degrees off course. Ray did her best to wrangle the fiery missile back on track. The viewscreen was almost worthless but she could just make out the a dark shape taking form and expanding in front of her. The view cleared suddenly and she was staring at the massive mountain that floated underneath her. Jimmy had been right, there was a sort of bubble of non-storm around these mountains.

She jumped as she noticed how fast it was coming up. It didn’t look like she was going to clear the edge.

“Steady on, you’re doing good, should have plenty of room on your current course.” Jimmy’s voice came over the radio.

There it was, she could see the edge now and rotated the ship slightly. Jimmy was right, she would clear it. Just then the entire mountain seemed to break up shooting large chunks and a hailstorm of rubble in all directions. There was no time to even think about course corrections and vectors. She aimed the ship at the biggest open spot and screamed.

It was like being in a tin can tossed into a speed-dryer full of ball bearings. The ship shook so violently that her skull rattled. Her teeth chattered together catching a chunk of her cheek, she tasted the metallic flavor of blood in her mouth. The pain somehow brought her focus back to her and she wrenched the yoke and stood down hard on her right foot. The ship pivoted avoiding the denser shower of rock, before blasting out the other side.

Her scream turned to crazed laughter, but she locked it down hard. She was far from out of danger. There were falling, moving, flying rocks all around her. She banked the ship hard to avoid one, then swerved it back the other way to avoid another. Her stomach jumped but along with it came a rush of thrill. There was something amazing about being in total control of a powerful machine. She felt it shudder behind her.

Ray put the ship through another quick spiral, getting it back on course and making sure all the controls were still responding. Her eyes flicked quickly across the different viewpoints, she was sure there had to be some damage after that gravel shower, but the tails were still there so that was good. Anything else was really beyond her control anyway, the ship would either hold together or it wouldn’t. He was a good little ship, he’d hold together. She patted the control panel affectionately.

“Ray! You’re signal’s breaking up” came Jimmy’s voice over the comm. If you can still hear /sssshhhhhsssssss/ should be through the worst of it, but /sssssshhhhhsssh/ got to know about getting back. You’re going to have to /ssssshhhhhsssssssssshhhhhhssssss/” The radio cut out completely, blocked by something in the atmosphere no doubt. We’ll whatever it was she was going to have to figure it out for herself.

She passed beneath the storm and pulled the ship gradually up, scrubbing speed and turning the momentum to something approaching horizontal flight. As she passed into the comparatively calm skies she was not ready for what she was seeing. The surface was a crazy mix of geological events. Streams of lava ran down from mountaintops that hadn’t been there earlier in the day.

The water from the moon-wide storm was gathering into raging torrents, carving out rivers as she watched. In some areas it gathered into ever growing lakes. Off in the distance she could see what appeared to be jets of steam so powerful they touched the stormclouds overhead. It was as if they were feeding the storm.

As she watched, the volcano closest to her erupted with a massive explosion shooting molten rock miles into the sky. From it’s center another massive cloud of steam poured. It slowly grew across the sky until it too reached the clouds. The entire mountain disintegrated as the jet of steam expanded.

She carefully guided her ship around the pillar, all the while dodging the occasional falling rock or bits of flung mountain. It should have still been daylight out but all that atmospheric activity must be blocking it, she realized. All around her bolts of lightning lit up the dusky landscape.

She followed her computer’s vector in toward the town, or at least where the town used to be. Fragments of several buildings were still there but it seemed to be almost totally overrun by an encroaching prairie. It was also littered with chunks of rock. She couldn’t hardly tell which end of the town was which, she dumped more speed as she rocketed by overhead and circled as she scanned for the comm building.

Coming at it from the other side she could see how little was left, just random squares here and there. They seemed to be spreading out, like the surface was being filled in one piece at a time. It was still happening too, as she watched one of the few remaining hunks of street disappeared into the sea of green grass.

Ray scanned the building fragments looking for anything that could have been the old comm building, it wasn’t where the telemetry was telling her it should be, that was certain. Suddenly, a bright flash of light in her peripheral vision caught her attention, a small rising fireball faded into nothing, another one followed it, like some sort of flare or something. It had to be them! She wrenched the ship back around hard and aimed it straight at the strange flashes. They must be burning something.

There wasn’t much left of the building, perhaps half of it, the lower level was open on one side and she could see one of the terminals she had spent so much time at in the past months. She brought the ship in slowly next to the building and keyed the override and rear hatch open. She blew up the rear viewpoint and centered it on the primary screen. Backing up was always a bit tricky but she had handled plenty of load lifters and various other vehicles, she could do this. The open door screeched as she drug it across the roof. She could feel the wind and moisture of the storm whipping though the ship.

She saw some shapes emerge from the stairwell but they stopped there. What were they waiting for? She moved the seat to its fully rear position, slipped out of the pilots harness and reached back to the comm with one hand while keeping the other on the yoke. The ship lurched slightly and she corrected as best as she could. She keyed on the shipwide intercomm and dialed the volume to maximum.

“What are you doing?, Get on here now! Jump on!” The figures started to move and she climbed back in the seat and returned it to the forward position, all the while keeping one hand on the yoke and her eyes glued to the screen. Two figures stumbled on then two more that appeared to be carrying another, finally a tall slender figure followed the rest, obviously the alien. That was six. She held the ship for a few more seconds to allow them to get up the ramp and hit the close button.

“We’re all on. Get us out of here.”

Ray didn’t need to be told. She ramped up the throttle and began to accelerate at a steady rate. She didn’t want to fling her new passengers around too much. Well maybe one of them. As she pulled away from the town she noticed there were only a few squares remaining. She heard the sound as the stragglers came into the forward section.

“Everybody get strapped in!” She yelled. “It’s gonna be a rough ride.”

“Ray! I knew you’d come through, you’re beautiful girl.” Cosmo’s vaguely familiar voice rang.

“Cosmo, shut up you farking jackarse, make sure everyone is strapped in and then get on the comm, and I mean fast!”

“Yes, my queen.” He replied as he moved aft.

“And if we live though this I’m holding you to your promise.” She yelled back to him.

She ramped the throttle up to full power and started climbing. The ship felt amazingly responsive with both engines running well. She poured on the speed and headed toward the roiling clouds. Cosmo returned and got into the comm station seat.

“All set, got Reggie strapped into a bunk and everyone else is here. By the way, did you know Maltavian’s could light their ‘digestive gasses’ like that? I sure didn’t.”

“Youuu shall never speak of thhhis again.” Said the Maltavian in a surprising clear and firm voice.

So that was what the fireballs had been. Ray hadn’t known that and found it hilarious but there was no time for that kind of sillyness now.

“Alright,” Ray said. “As soon as we get into that storm, start trying to reach Jimmy up at the spacedock. There was something important he was trying to tell me before I lost him.”

“Uh Ray, can we even fly though that?”

She noticed her airspeed had stopped increasing, they were at maximum velocity. “There’s only one way to find out,” she said and pulled the yoke back hard sending the ship into the roiling stormclouds.

The conditions had definitely gotten worse. The water was still coming in sheets but now it was mixed with ice. It looked like the mountains were breaking up everywhere leaving the sky littered with patches of rock and dust. She had no idea how it all just hung in the air like that but she couldn’t explain anything that was going on around here lately so why start now. There was a lot of electricity in the air for sure, as the rock and debris moved around colliding, little arcs of electricity danced between the larger pieces.

She wrenched the controls back and forth avoiding chunks of rock and ice. It was like they were inside a giant space-vac. Ray thought about the few times she had sucked up moon-rats and felt some compassion for what they must have gone through. The force of the winds tossed the small ship about mercilessly. She found that she couldn’t fight the flow, but was just able to keep the nose of the craft in the direction the wind was pushing it. She watched as her speed increased far beyond what the ship could do on it’s own.

After a while she began to feel the flow of the windpaths. There was a sort of pattern or logic to it. It was like the entire planet was a giant mechanical device, it was just trying to get all it’s parts lined-up for, for… She didn’t have any idea what. But the more she watched it, the more it made sense of a sort. Clusters of different materials seemed to be gathered at regular intervals. The airstreams moved all around them occasionally dipping into one taking a volume of matter along with it.

She stayed in the airstream she was in until it began to drop altitude and head for what looked like a particularly dense cloud of broken up mountain. She pulled the ship out of the stream and climbed until another one took them again. It seemed like the majority of the matter moved at the center of these air-paths and by keeping the ship on the outer edges she could ride the flow like a surfer on a wave. Well she imagined it was like that, she had only seen surfing on VS.

Jumping the streams like this Ray continued to work her way toward higher and higher bits of sky. She got into one fairly steady stream and pointed back to her left.

“Comm now!” she yelled toward Cosmo.

“Uh, yea,” Cosmo struggled to reach the panel but was able to just get to it and stay strapped in.

“Uh this is Ray’s ship, trying to reach Jimmy at the orbital platform, Jimmy you read us?” Cosmo tried a few more times but there was no reply.

“Hmm, hope they’re ok up there, they don’t have anywhere to go unless someone picks them up.” Ray said to nobody in particular.

The stream they were in had joined with a couple others at this point and was increasing in size and speed. There was a faint glow somewhere in the distance.

“Hey, can someone get on the scope there and tell me what you’re seeing up ahead?” Ray asked.

Seconds later the alien voice replied. “Yesss, masssive energy readingsss directly ahead, 2.2 kiln, 2.1 kiln, 1.9 kiln aaand dropping. We ssshould avoid it.” The alien had spoken very calmly but Ray was impressed with an imperative urgency. Aliens, some could just get right into your head.

She pulled the ship to the edge of the airstream but the force of the flow was too much for her to break free.

“1.4 kiln, we ssshould exssit now.” Again the sense of urgency was overpowering.

“I’m trying!” she said. “I can’t seem to get free, it’s like it’s pulling us in.”

“1.1 kiln, reading high amountsss of matter/energy exchange occurring directly ahead, appearsss to be sssome sssort of sssingularity. I do not think weee will sssurvive it.” A feeling of impending doom came over her.

“Ok, I get it, stay out of my head. I need to think.” No sooner had she finished saying it when a calmness passed through her. She put the ship’s nose into the flow again. She steered the vessel around the massive jet of air in a spiraling pattern. The ship was picking up speed, she hoped it would be enough.

“.4 kiln, the sspeed is not enough, onnne more passs.” The Maltavian said.

The ship came around the top of the stream and she could clearly see the huge glowing blob in front of them, it was going to be close. She dipped the ship through one last spiral and pulled up hard. The outlaying flash of light and electricity rippled though the ship. For a second she though she could see the glow though the hull. She flipped the anti-gravs on full and pulled with all of her strength. The energy flashed brightly all around them and she involuntarily closed her eyes but maintained her pressure on the yoke. Several of her passengers were screaming now and she joined them. Electricity arced throughout the cockpit. Suddenly the controls gave and the ship nosed up and away from the huge blob of congealing matter and energy.

As their trajectory carried them away from it, Ray had the crazy feeling that she was not alone in her spacesuit. She felt something constrict around her waist and felt a surge of involuntary panic. She seemed to have a heightened sense of her body and took one hand off the yoke to pat the outside of her spacesuit down, everything seemed to be in place. Her panic subsided and she returned her focus to the viewport.

She watched in the rear-view as the glowing receded. It was being fed by similar streams from all sides making it look like a giant dancing amoeba. Whatever mass conversion had been occuring on the surface was happening on a much larger scale inside those nebulous orbs.

“Everyone ok back there?” Several mostly affirmative grumbles returned in response.

Ray hopped into another stream but pulled the ship out as soon as it began to thicken. She continued this process several more times hopping from stream to stream as they climbed. From this height she could see dozens of the glowing blobs beneath them.

“Unknown barrier ahead.” Came the alien voice. Ray wondered what she had been seeing, it was like a faint and garbled reflection of the planet’s surface.

“Detecting large quantitiesss of water, posssibly one large body. It appearsss to be sssitting on top of the unnatural presssure created by thiss unuusssual ssstorm.”

“Do you think we can pass through it?”

“Unknown.” Came the simple reply. “We will have to passs though it if we are to leeeave.”

“Alright, hold on everyone.”

Ray inverted the ship and approached the barrier at a gentle angle. She could see the rolling, moving surge as the liquid surface flexed and bowed. She eased the ship into it just allowing the belly to dip into the water. It resisted a little and the ship skipped across the inside of the seemingly endless bubble.

She eased the ship into the barrier which slowed them down significantly but seemed to move aside for them. It was not as dense as it had first appeared. As soon as the ship was fully submerged she turned it over again and began pulling it steadily upward. They came free with a surge and Ray felt the welcome feeling of weightlessness.

Cosmo and a couple others gave shouts of joy, gratitude and thanks. Another swore loudly and Ray laughed. The tension drained out of her and she took a deep breath. They had made it. Only then did she realize that she had a mind-splitting headache.

“Try the radio again.”

Cosmo did.

“Ray, is Ray ok? Where are you guys?” came Jimmy’s welcome voice.

“Ray is fine and so are the rest of us, she did it, we are in orbit, and let me tell you did we have a crazy ride or what.”

“That’s great! Now get back here fast, we might have serious problems.”

“What’s going on?”

“Eh, I can’t say for sure but we should probably maintain radio silence for now. I’ll tell you when you get here.”
____________________

The airlock door opened with a whoosh and the seven survivors were greeted by Jimmy, Dreagar and several townspeople, blaster boy peeked around from behind.

“Ray I knew you’d save us, you’re amazing, I love you girl!” Said Cosmo as he stumbled into the ship assisting the semi-conscience crewer. Two towns people jumped in to help and guided the other four into the ship. Cosmo and the Maltavian remained. “Just find him a place to rest, he’ll be ok.” Cosmo continued.

“Ray, who is this?” Dreagar said in a challenging manner as he moved directly opposite Cosmo.

“Who am I? Who is this meathead?” Cosmo replied.

“I’m her boyfriend, who the fark are you?” Dreagar said aggressively.

“Now hold it right there!” Ray interrupted. “You are NOT my boyfriend Dreagar, one little make out does not make you my boyfriend.” Dreagar looked crushed. “But neither is this moron.” She said hooking a thumb at Cosmo.

“Uh Ray?” Jimmy attempted to chime in.

“Cosmo, Dreagar. Dreagar, Cosmo.” she said making the appropriate hand gestures as the two boys glared at each other.

“Ray?” Jimmy said again, as Ray continued to ignore him.

“Now you two get along, if I have any trouble from either one, I’ll lock you both in a storage closet. Together!”

“Ray!” Jimmy demanded.

“What!?” came her inpatient reply as she turned and glared at him.

“What are those?” said Jimmy pointing at her head.

Ray’s hands shot to her head and felt the strange objects. They were soft and twitched away from her touch. “What the fark?” She said as she resisted the urge to panic. Everyone was looking at her with frozen expressions. She turned to the glass of the airlock window, finding the best angle to get a good reflection of her face.

On top of her head were two catlike ears sticking out of her cropped hair. No, not hair either, it was just as long but a bit thicker, more coarse. More fur-like.

“Oh this is great, just what I need right now…” said Ray as the all too familiar fear and panic welled up inside her.

 

stream interrupt…

further data incoming…