“Oh, all right.”
6
- Umbra-
“They appear to be pulling me in,” I report to the station. “I’m running the maneuvering thrusters at full power, but they’re having no effect.” There’s nothing else I can do. It’s as if some other force has taken hold of the shuttle and is dragging it into the alien ship.
“Copy you’re being pulled in,”Emma says from the station, her voice tight as a bowstring. She’s the only one on the station who’s allowed to talk to me, being the ’capcom’ for this flight. It’s a tradition from the old days, and right now I like it. It’s as if I have a buddy with me.
“A hatch has opened in the ship,” I report. “There’s a white light inside it. If they’re bringing the shuttle into that ship, I’ll save whatever power I have left in the capacitors and fire the laser when I’m inside. It’s not having any visible effect on the outside.” Of course the station is receiving video from all fifteen cameras on the shuttle, but we’re instructed to give narratives anyway.
“Copy that, Shadow,”Emma replies. “The President sends her approval. Quote, ‘Give that outstandingly brave pilot every damn medal we have. We’re fighting back at last.’ End quote.”
I allow myself a tight smile. The President and I agree about this, it seems. It’s obvious that she left it up to me to decide how to handle this unexpected event. And this is what she wanted, resisting the aliens with any means. I will keep fighting back for as long as I can.
I stop using the thrusters to resist the movement. That ship has me in some kind of grip.
I hate being helpless like this. But it’s only temporary.
I’m pulled closer and closer to the open hatch. My heartbeat is loud and fast in my ears, my breathing too. “This fight isn’t over,”I say to myself.
“I’m passing into the alien ship,” I report. The light here is so bright that my helmet’s visor automatically adjusts to it, turning dark.
It’s a big, square room that looks like a hangar. There are no other craft in here that I can see.
Suddenly all the lights on my panels go dark. The controls are limp in my hands.
I pull the trigger for the laser, but nothing happens.
“Damn it! My shuttle just died. Laser does not respond. Thrusters offline.”
There’s no response from the station. The radio died, too.
I’ve never felt more alone.
But the shuttle is still flying. I’m coasting slowly further into the hangar, just drifting as in empty space. The front dips as the shuttle starts to tumble gently end over end.
There’s no movement outside. But looking behind me, I see the big hatch sliding closed.
I’ve officially been abducted by aliens. Because we all know the ‘boarding party’ thing was a bluff. And they called it.
“Well, my shuttle may be dead,” I mutter, despite not having any connection to the station. The AI will record what I say. “But I’m not. And I’m not going to just sit here and wait for those aliens to pry me out of my seat. I’ll do something they don’t expect.”
I release the safety harness, the shuttle’s movements making my stomach lurch. Then I pop the hatch. My suit has its own air supply.
I slowly make my way out of the shuttle, kicking off to propel myself towards the ceiling of the alien hangar. The big hatch is now completely closed, and I have no obvious way to escape.
The panel in my helmet shows that the whole room is being quickly filled with gas, and soon I can hear it, too. Oxygen, nitrogen, a whole bunch of other gases, none of them toxic in these tiny concentrations… I can actually breathe it.
Either they breathe like us, or they knew I was coming.
Anyway, giving me air to breathe is a tactical error on their part. It lets me save my own supply until I really need it.
I turn off the life support in my suit and take my helmet off with a hiss of escaping gases.
The alien air is cool and doesn’t smell of anything that would kill me.
I’m slowly rising through the air, going towards what I assume is the ceiling. The normal disorientation from being weightless lasts for only a split second, and then I’m on top of it. The hours playing in the Cube have made me pretty good at this.
