Everglow: The Trials Of Agaron

34 - Sky Of Acid

"Well, ok then," Spatch began. "I uh, I didn't really have a home planet honestly. Can't remember where exactly I was born but my family used to travel a lot. We lived on a jump ship called the Andromeda. Was a great ship. Never knew my dad though. He uh, he died before I was born. He was a great explorer though, charted lots of the common trading routes used in the outer edges of the galaxy nowadays. Found lots of new planets too. I guess I'm kinda chasing after his shadow a bit. Well, until we all met."

"Huh. Interesting. Your dad sounds like a hell of a guy," Quin replied.

"Yea, The stories my mum and uncle used to tell me about him were pretty crazy too. Apparently he once went a month without power in the middle of the Alpha arm, the ship broke down and his EB had an electrical fault. Was only found because a cruise ship picked him up."

"If you don't mind us asking, what happened to him?" Fischer asked.

"He got cocky. Like most of the greats, he thought he could tackle The Rift. He bit off more than he could chew. Apparently he flew too close to one of the beasts and was eaten. That's what my uncle used to say anyway."

"Beasts?" Ko raised her brow.

"Black holes. Part of the reason the Rift is so damn deadly. They're everywhere. Explorers nicknamed the larger ones 'beasts' because of how much they chew up. And once it has you, not even the fastest jump ship in the universe can save you. They drag you down into an infinite singularity. They pull so hard not even light can escape them. They're the biggest fear of any space explorer."

"Scheiße," Fischer mumbled.

The sudden thought of being ripped apart by the immense gravity of an invisible threat lurking unseen in the galaxy sent a shiver down his spine. Spatch seemed to notice his sudden surge of anxiety and chuckled.

"Don't worry though, the big ones are mainly located in The Rift. We've charted out most known ones in the galaxy and they're pretty easy to spot with x-ray and gravimeter. So you don't have to worry about being a space snack any time soon. And despite being the single densest object in the known universe, Tonner's a pretty damn good pilot. I hate to admit it but we're in safe hands."

"That's. . . comforting. . . I guess," Quin hesitated. Looking out the window the streaks of gas were now floating all around them. They had entered the nebula.

Tonner's monotone voice suddenly echoed through the observation deck over the ship's PA system. "Alright, you might wanna take a seat. We're inside the nebula now and flying blind for the next few minutes. It's going to be a bumpy ride."

"Alright you heard the brick," Spatch said, clapping his hands together. "Back upstairs for now folks."

-------18 hours later -------

The Icarus lurched violently as Tonner wrestled with the controls, dodging and weaving through the asteroid field they had now found themselves in. Spatch was in the cockpit with Tonner acting as co-pilot, Quin, Ko and Fischer strapped in the main room. 

Ko's grip on her seat was like iron, her pupils as slit as knives. Space flight didn't seem to be something she was particularly interested in. She could hardly be blamed either when some of the asteroids were less than fifteen metres away from the ship. Tonner wasn't lying when he said it was like a minefield. 

The ship rolled violently and a brief scream of terror escaped the zapher's trembling lips. Quin wrapped one hand around her while Fischer held her hand tightly, the two of them trying to provide any sense of comfort to him. However they weren't that much more confident than her. Fischer's already white skin was as pale as snow and Quin's bio lights were almost jet black. 

"You guys doing ok? Helluva ride!" Spatch called from the cockpit, the only answer being terrified screams from the passengers. 

He chuckled as he turned his attention back towards aiding Tonner with navigation. Suddenly, the bright yellow gasses surrounding them dissipated, a thick black cloud seemingly surrounding the ship. As it did, it looked to almost cut away the gas, making it possible to see in front of the ship. 

 Tonner let a breath out that he didn't even realise he was holding in, his feathers moist with sweat. 

"Beam's back. How are the instruments looking?" He asked, his eyes unmoving.

"We've got red and green. Our GPS isn't responding but the local mapping systems are back online. RADAR and LIDAR systems are back," Spatch replied as he inspected the cockpit.

"Alright, start a scan. Make sure we know what's in front of us. I don't care how big or small. We need to know what it is we're flying into here."

"Copy that, scanning now."

A series of brief beeps sounded before a noise almost like a heart monitor flat lining filled the air. The RADAR screen suddenly lit up and started spinning, albeit rather glitchy with brief pulses of static interfering with the scan. After a few second small dots started to appear on the screen, signifying hazards in front of them. However as soon as the darkhouse's beam appeared, it vanished. All of a sudden they were flying blind again. 

Tonner's eyes narrowed.

"Alright what did you see?" He asked.

"We've got several large bodies to our north west, looked like they were bearing around three thirty. We've got a large planetary body below us to the east as well, looks like we're getting close," Spatch stated.

"Alright, goo- shit!" Tonner cursed, quickly bringing the ship to starboard. An enormous chunk of rock suddenly emerged from the fog and was hurtling right at them. 

Just before they impacted it, the Icarus tilted quickly and violently, barely scraping the rock. 

Back in the main room of the ship, everyone was seated in place with their straps on. However the sudden movement caused the three passengers to lurch violently, Fischer's head slamming against the wall with quite a bit of force. Ko and Quin were also shaken around but aside from Ko's petrified cries, they seemed to be alright.

"What's going on up there?" Quin yelled, her patience beginning to run rather thin.

"Just had a bit of a close call, sorry!" Spatch yelled back. 

The carcan sigh and shook her head before looked over at her friends. 

"You two ok?"

Ko nodded despite her whole body shivering like they were in an earthquake. Fischer however was slumped over in his seat, unresponsive. 

"Fisch? You good?" she repeated, still getting no answer from him. 

Ko looked over at him as well when she noticed something. Her eyes shrunk even more. 

On the back of Fischer's seat was a small red stain.

"Fischer? Fischer can you hear us?" Ko asked, shaking his shoulder. Quin realised what had happened and immediately checked the back of his head. 

"Shit. He's bleeding. Probably a concussion."

"W-what does that mean?" Ko asked with fear in her eyes. 

"Means he'll be out cold for a little while. Spatch! We've got a problem!"