Black Star

Chapter Twenty-nine

Antoine and Jak sat helplessly in the cockpit and could only watch as events unfolded. Neither knew of the professor's fate or that of the stones. The shuttle shook now and then, as they sat motionless and silent. One of the ship's paper manuals floated across their field of view, through the holographic image of the shuttle and crashed into the windscreen. Jak swiped it with the back of his hand and it spun off crashing into a side wall. A few moments later a small hammer drifted into Antoine's view and he plucked it from the air, rolling the handle in his palm. He watched it thoughtfully as it spun in the palm of his hand, then he caught it and spun it the other way.

"I don't know which is worse," said Jak, crashing to our deaths or being dragged back to the Lazarus."

Antoine let go of the hammer and let it float in space whilst he undid his seatbelt. He pushed himself upwards in a sitting position and grabbed the hammer once more. Then he pushed himself backwards, grabbing a ceiling rail above him with one hand. Jak spun his chair and faced his friend and locked his fingers across his chest, curious to watch whatever foolishness Antoine might be readying.

Antoine stared back. "There might be a way?"

"What do you mean?" said Jak.

"What you said about us running out of fuel and crashing back to Earth," he said glancing to the left where the book was still spinning in mid-air.

"I don't understand," said Jak.

Antoine held on with his left hand, floating in free space. "This shuttle has all the cat7 standard safety features and more. Let's suppose we did run out of fuel or became damaged in some way, what would happen?"

Jak rubbed his chin. "The A.I. safety procedure kick in and try an emergency landing."

"Exactly!" Antoine cast an eye at the hammer spinning in his palm.

"What are you saying?" said Jak nervously.

"What I'm saying is we scuttle the ship, it goes into emergency mode and takes us back down to Earth."

"Jak looked up at his comrade in surprise. "Antoine, we would have no way of knowing our survival chances, what damage we could do. It would be suicide."

Antoine pushed himself backwards, closer to the control cabinet.

Jak shook his head in disbelief. "No Antoine, no!"

He froze for a moment at the sheer horror of what Antoine was contemplating. He knew his colleague well and he had no doubts he would consider this lunatic idea. In those seconds of doubt, he saw his friend turn and punch the glass door on the control cabinet. Tiny blood-red droplets burst from the cuts in his hands, hanging in the air like cherries. This seemed to wake Jak from his trance and he thumped his seat belt buckle with the side of his fist. By now Antoine had delivered his first blow with the hammer, forcing the head into the array of electronics inside. Jak rolled and pushed himself full force across the room towards Antoine. The momentum carried him at such speed he crashed through a cloud of blood and shards of glass, straight into his friend's middle. The pair spun towards the back wall and Jak took the full force as Antoine careered into him. One lever went full force into his kidneys, winding him and his limp body hung in the air for a moment. Gasping for breath, he tried to right himself, but in weightlessness there was no up or down. He saw his friend as if sideways on ready to take a second swing at the panel. Sparks and smoke could be seen inside the cabinet, but they just hung in the air. Connecting with the cocktail of blood and glass. The cockpit lights flickered and the smoke was acrid, like burning plastic, even more shrapnel was now floating around in the space. Jak propelled himself once more at Antoine, but this time he misjudged it completely. A shift from Antoine was enough to send Jak tumbling in the opposite direction to ram against the windscreen. Jak felt his eyes burn from the tiny specs of dust and burning smoke as he passed by.

The interior lights went out for a second and were replaced by red flashing beacons. They could hear the A.I. announcer offering calm instructions to the non-existent passengers.

"Ladies and gentlemen, please do not be concerned. The shuttle has developed a slight technical fault. We will be forced to make an emergency landing. Please return to your seats and ensure your seat belts are securely fastened."

Jak was coughing but had accepted defeat as he pulled himself into his seat and attached his seat belt. He looked up to see the face of Antoine framed in the floating droplets of blood and shrapnel. The lights flashed red, white, red, white. Amongst the smoke and the flashing, he was smiling like the devil himself. Not for the first time but possibly the last, he genuinely thought Antoine to be insane. The argument was all over now, Antoine had decided for both that they would fall back to Earth rather than face the music on the Lazarus. How hard or how far they fell was up to the machine technological brain. The only thing that could save them now was the artificial intelligence of the shuttle itself. 

He recognised the irony of a situation he found himself in, his life was now in the hands of the thing he had fought against all his life.