Phoenix Rising (Dragon Legacy) (2 page)

An alarm sounded, and a crackly female voice came over the speaker system.

“Don't be alarmed, Ladies and Gentlemen. We've encountered a spectral anomaly, and there could be some...turbulence ahead. Whatever you do, don't panic. The captain will have the issue resolved soon.”

People looked concerned, and some of the adults whispered to each other. Stella knew that was a bad sign. It meant they were saying things they didn't want children to hear, and right now that couldn't mean anything good. As if to confirm her fears, the ship shuddered again, and there was a flash of light from the spectral storm, accompanied by another shudder, this one harder and stronger than the last ones.

People began to talk openly about what they were afraid to voice just moments before.

“Dragons,” she heard someone say, and Stella's pulse quickened to a powerful drumbeat in her ears. She grimaced and clenched the knees of her jeans, not wanting to give into the fear and adrenaline coursing through her. She wanted to stay calm, focused, in control, like her father had taught her. Her resolve gave way to cold fear though, as the first explosion rocked through the large chamber like a chariot of death. It blasted through a dozen people she hadn't even noticed before that moment.

Stella cringed, her ears ringing, as the governance shields instantly cordoned off the damaged section of the room. People were silently sucked out through the gaping hole in the bulkhead, their faces twisted in penetrating terror and disbelief.

Retching, Stella's chest heaved as she reflexively scrambled away from the carnage. Tears filled her eyes as she wondered who those people were, the full gravity of the experience too much for her to process right now. What was happening? What was she going to do? A hand on her shoulder jerked her back to reality.

“Come on!” Mtumba's mouth moved soundlessly. “We have to get to the shuttles!”

Stella squinted as she tried to hear him, but couldn't make out anything other than that the loud ringing sound. Mtumba grabbed her wrist and moved them toward the door with a green light blinking above it. She shook herself free, glaring at him.

“I'm fine! I can walk myself!” she yelled. Mtumba nodded, biting his lip, and moved with her toward the door. She grabbed his arm, and he looked at her in confusion, but kept moving. There was no time to discuss it.

People streamed out of the main room as fast as they could, and the ships-guards did their best to corral them toward the insufficient number of life-shuttles. It was a desperate stampede as everyone vied for position in the crowd. Anything to help them survive. The first thing that came back to Stella's ears was the blaring alarm. Where could they go? The shuttle entrances were all crammed with people, and Stella felt her adrenaline spike. Would any of them make it off this ship in time?

Off to the side behind where the crowd was focused, a mustachioed ships-guard saw them, and urgently snapped to get their attention. “Hey, over here!” he gestured, and waved them toward an open hatch in the wall. “Get in!” he yelled, and shoved them inside. Mtumba turned around to protest, but another blast rocked through the hallway, and the ships-guard was slammed into the life-shuttle's activation switch by the concussive explosion. The hatch closed instantly, and the small escape pod zipped away from the ship in a sudden burst of power, leaving everything behind them in one blurring instant.

It almost seemed over before it began. Stella watched in stunned silence as the ship receded behind them, but flinched as it exploded in a horrible inferno amidst the large spectral anomaly. The escaping oxygen from the life support systems gave one last fiery breath to all the doomed souls aboard the hulking vessel. Stella thought she saw a pair of great black wings briefly illuminated by the flames before they disappeared, but couldn't be sure if it was real or imagined.

Then, in a terrible implosion of indigo death, it was gone.

“Oh my God...All those people...” Stella choked through her grief and shock. She barely noticed the small asteroids that grazed their life-shuttle's deflector-systems or the imminent danger that meant for her and her new acquaintance.

“Hey, who's flying this shuttle?” Mtumba asked.

“I guess that's us,” Stella said as she moved to the controls panel, projecting more confidence than she felt. She looked around nervously while attempting to decipher the strange symbols and lights. If only she'd paid more attention in her studies! She envied the wealthy that could download information as easily as you could eat a bowl of khampa noodles.

Mtumba watched her, and chewed his lip. “You know how to fly this thing?”

Stella shot him a glance of cool composure. “Of course I do.” Then, silently added to herself, “I hope...”

Settling into the flight chair, she was rewarded with a light-wheel projected in front of her. Stella pointed to a spot on the right, and the life-shuttle veered off in that direction, its artificial gravity compensating for their weight as they narrowly avoided being hit by a medium-sized asteroid. The asteroids weren't visible until they were nearly hitting into the shuttle, and reminded Stella of malicious ghosts as they jumped out of the darkness. She'd be a ghost soon too if she didn't figure this out right now!

“Look out!” Mtumba shouted as they veered toward a large asteroid. “If you don't know how to fly this, then let me do it!” he yelled, moving toward her. She slapped his hand away.

“I'm doing fine!” Stella growled, irritated that he was getting in her way just as she was figuring out the controls. He backed off, clearly upset.

“Great, just don't get us killed,” he snapped.

As she started to understand the controls better, Stella maneuvered them around the large asteroid, and noticed a reassuring shade of blue beneath them. “A life-planet!” she gasped in relief, and then swerved to avoid being crushed by another cluster of asteroids.

“I hope it's terra-formed,” Mtumba muttered, but Stella was too focused on flying to answer.

She did everything in her power to take their small shuttle toward the calm blue glow of the planet. It involved a series of disorienting swerves and dodges, but eventually they passed through the heart of the debris. She sighed with relief, and the planet quickly grew larger in the front view-glass.

“Look out!” Mtumba yelled as he pointed at another meteor coming in fast from the side. “Don't hit it!”

“Working on it!” Stella shouted as she narrowly avoided the lethal collision. It grazed the side of their small ship as it hurtled past, and sent them into a tailspin.

The small shuttle was bounced by the friction of atmospheric entry, rocked around as its deflector systems desperately tried to correct course during their spinning descent. Mtumba held onto a safety brace, clearly about to be sick, and Stella tried desperately to correct course with the maddening controls, but that seemed impossible.

The last asteroid must have damaged their propulsion system. Stella grimaced at Mtumba and realized that he might throw up the soup she'd given him earlier. Perhaps just a bit selfishly, she was glad she hadn't eaten it, and a small smile briefly quirked her mouth...but only briefly.

Stella felt queasy. The ground was a spinning blur beneath them as they plummeted toward the grim fate awaiting them below. Her hands shot across the controls, hunting for anything useful. A red icon blinked at the bottom of the flickering light-wheel, and she punched it hard.

Stella grunted as the brake-pulses kicked in and they were rocked by a series of stomach-dropping, directionless lurches. They'd slowed their descent to something less deadly, but still not enough for a smooth landing.

She wasn't quite so glad they'd found this planet now, and squeezed her eyes shut. Stella experienced flashes of memories in her mind. Some she'd forgotten, but others were vibrantly clear. Bits of her life that had stuck with her over the years, high points and low points, such as they were. Stella suspected this might be her last memory, and her pulse pounded in her ears.

She decided to risk opening her eyes and saw the ground rushing at them in a blur. One final burst of the brake-pulses, Mtumba screamed out something in a language she didn't recognize, and then there was an abrupt, loud crunch followed by absolute darkness.

The old man looked up from his garden into a clear azure sky marred only by the streak of light marking an atmospheric entry. “Strange,” he muttered, and set down his plow. He walked up to the small, ancient cottage framed by the distant mountains of snow and ice. It was time.

Stella was awakened in stifling darkness by the faint sound of chanting. She didn't understand the language, but figured it must be the one Mtumba had used right before the crash.

“The crash!” Stella tried to bolt upright, but was caught by her harness. She rolled her eyes, glad Mtumba hadn't seen her do that. “Still here,” she winced, though whether from embarrassment or the twinge in her left wrist...well, she couldn't be sure. If asked, she'd blame it on her wrist. “Mtumba,” Stella called out, answered by a creak and brief illumination of the cabin from a sparking circuit. Then they were back in darkness. The front window must be covered, she reasoned.

“Nice flying,” Mtumba coughed. “But...I'm okay, I think...are you all right?”

Stella smiled in the darkness, letting his comment slide. “Yeah,” she said. “Thanks. I'm glad you're okay. Although how we made it through that...I have no idea.”

Stella groaned. If there was one thing guaranteed to simultaneously pique both her interest and her ire, it was knowing someone had a secret that they wouldn't share. “Okay, fine,” she said as calmly as possible. “We need to find a way off the shuttle.”

“And do what?” Mtumba asked. “Wander through the snow? That's all I saw on our way down. That and rocks. And judging by the fact we're still here, I'd say we landed on the snow.”

He had a point. “There must be some sort of survival gear in here,” she suggested, and he grunted.

“Maybe. We can check.”

Didn't he realize this was important? Stella hustled out of the flight chair harness and started feeling along the sides of the cabin to find some sort of container or bin...or something useful. Her hand finally came across a pressure-latch and she grinned as the bin popped open. Light spilled into the cabin as the circuit let out another spark. There was something about the sparks...something she couldn't quite remember. Something her father had said...

“Here, let's look at what's in here,” Stella suggested, rooting through some clear vacuum-sealed bags. “Open this one,” she said and tossed a bag to Mtumba. Stella inspected the one still in her hands, and smiled. “Do you know what these are?” she smirked.

“No, what are they?” Mtumba asked.

Stella stood up and opened the bag, glee written on her face. A survival jumpsuit rolled out. “This...this is how we're gonna stay warm out in the snow!” she smiled. Mtumba looked skeptical.

Mtumba had located another bin, this one with dried rations. He lifted them up to her, and smiled. “Now this is what I'm talkin' about,” he grinned. “Anyway, how do you know that'll fit?” he asked, and she felt her confidence waver.

“Because it has to,” she huffed. “Here, I'll show you.” She started to unfold it, but felt a spike of embarrassment as she saw how large it was. He grinned at her, and she scowled. Apparently, they were made for adults... “Put yours on, too,” Stella instructed him. No need to look silly all by herself, she reasoned. He grudgingly conceded, but muttered something in that strange language again, and tried to figure out his own suit.

After only a few minutes in, it was abundantly apparent that Mtumba's concerns were well founded. The gigantic jumpsuits draped off their arms like great tentacled sea-beasts, and pooled around their feet like melted popsicles. He looked at her, mouth open as if to say something.

“Don't...say it,” Stella grumbled over the link in their bubble helmets. Mtumba just bit his lip, and nodded.

What were they going to do now? It was freezing outside, and they needed some way to move around out there. This had seemed like such a good idea, but now...she was feeling really discouraged. What else could they do? This meant they'd be stuck in the shuttle indefinitely, and how long did they really have? Stella considered the food Mtumba had found, and figured that maybe it would last a few days if they rationed it, but they'd have to be careful. She took a deep breath, hoping they could figure something else out.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a squishing sound, and she noticed Mtumba's suit had pulled itself in to fit him correctly. His finger was still on the resizing button. He looked at her, about to speak.

The circuit sparked again, and then again. The sparks were coming more frequently, and Stella suddenly remembered what her father had told her...how a spark could mean fire, and that could mean loss of oxygen, or an explosion. She moved into action, locating the hatch release and securing the helmet of her jumpsuit.

“They'd better take us in,” she said urgently, “because we have to find our way to the Garden Citadel! My dad's gonna meet me there.” Stella looked at Mtumba, her hand on the switch. “You ready?”

Mtumba secured his own helmet and gave the thumbs-up. Stella nodded then pressed the release switch, and the hatch popped open with a hydraulic hiss. A gust of snow blew into the cabin, and they stepped out into the frozen wastes to search for signs of life. “I hope we find someone soon,” Mtumba said, and she nodded.

The old man poured a hot cup of lavender tea with a wistful smile, and then another. He stirred a bit of honey into the second, and set it in front of the chair across the small table. He looked out the cottage window at the garden, and took a sip. “It will have to wait, I suppose.” He was alone.