Sorcha led the charge out of the Roobarb, trotting down the open ramp and into the hangar. "Do you have Nia's pass card?" she asked Jillian, who was right behind her.
The mutt nodded, showing it to Sorcha. "Sure thing. It was in her dress pocket."
"Great." Sorcha paused to glance back at the ship; Blason and Travis were carrying Nia and Chesney out and laying them on the hangar floor. Sorcha hoped that the sedative would take for long enough this time. Nia.
With that in mind, she and Jillian ran to the explosives lock-up and swiped the passes to get the doors open. "We'll have to take one each, O'Riordan," Jillian told her. "Come back for the third one."
Sorcha was about to reply when Palmer jogged up from behind. "Thought you might need help loading the charges," the burly Wolf said modestly.
"Or that," Sorcha muttered. She went over to the rack of charges and slid one out of its cradle. Jillian and Palmer each took one as well. "This is the dumbest thing I've done since I wore tights with shorts," Jillian sighed.
Sorcha ran a few checks on the device. It was fully operational. "Yours showing the three red lights?" she asked the others. One quick round of affirmative head-bobs later, and they were off again. Sorcha kept her charge tight in her arms, hunched over it.
Palmer suddenly skidded to a stop. "Oh, crap."
Sorcha saw what she meant as she looked up.
Four more security guards had materialized in front of the Roobarb, and standing off to the side was Gallagher. "What the hell are you doing?" the captain spat, his expression incredulous. "You are not leaving this hangar with those charges."
"Captain, we don't have time to explain!" Sorcha told him firmly. "We're taking these explosives and reigniting that sun!"
"That anomaly has knocked out our instruments!" Gallagher shot back. "You really think I'm going to let you lot head back out in that? Sorry, but I don't want to be the officer who lost a whole team because of some shared delusion."
"It's not some delusion," Sorcha barked, impatience and frustration beginning to rile her. "The Dark Sun will consume everything unless we stop it, and now."
"The electromagnetic readings from that event are off the scale," Gallagher went on. "It's clearly scrambled your minds, and unless you put those charges down and return to your quarters so we can get out of this system, I will have you arrested." He gestured to the second squad. "Commander Pedder, do you understand the situation?"
One of the guards, a big Husky, nodded. "Aye, Captain."
"Now, I urge you to reconsider," Gallagher told Sorcha and her companions, specifically Jillian. "Team Leader, order your team to stand down now."
Jillian shook her head after a moment of obvious indecision. "No. No, Captain. On our flight back, I saw and heard things, things that convinced me that this isn't a product of our minds. This is... something else. That Dark Sun out there – I don't know if it's alien, or something else entirely, but it's dangerous. It's already attacked our engineer. You can see her over there, knocked out on the deck." Jillian inclined her mousy-haired head towards the comatose Nia. "We can't leave and risk this having a bigger impact than it's already had."
"Team Leader, you're in hot soup here," Gallagher protested. "Stand down or you're stripped of your position."
Jillian hefted her charge. "Nope. We came here to reignite this sun. And you're stopping us from doing our job."
Gallagher twitched his whiskers. "Fine. Team Leader Toki, you are no longer in charge of your team." He motioned to Pedder. "Commander, please escort Miss Toki to the science commons. Take O'Riordan and Catterick as well. Miss Goodwin and Miss Chesney need to be taken to the medbay."
The Husky started forward. "Roy, don't do this," Palmer yelled at him. "Everything these two have said is true! We have to do something."
"Sorry, Terri," Pedder said. "Captain's orders."
Palmer hung her head. "Then I'm sorry."
As the Husky passed by her, reaching for Jillian, Palmer delivered a left hook to the side of his head. He staggered away, reeling, and Palmer looked to Sorcha. "Go!" she bellowed, haring toward the Roobarb.
"Go, O'Riordan!" Jillian yelled, following her, and Sorcha took off after them.
Gallagher uttered something, but Sorcha didn't take notice of it until a low-impact rifle round hit the deck just in front of her. "They're firing at us!" she squealed.
No sooner had she said this than a sudden, sharp pain blossomed from her right arm, and she gasped, nearly dropping the charge.
"O'Riordan!" Jillian cried out to her from the bottom of the ramp.
"Team Leader, get aboard!" Sorcha cried back. "I'm coming!"
Jillian took a moment to address Blason, who was still crouched beside Nia. "Keep her medicated," Sorcha heard her saying before nearly colliding with her. They both struggled up the ramp with Palmer in front, and it closed behind them.
"Why is a security squad firing at us?" Sylvester asked frantically as they reached the cockpit. Faint ricochets could be heard from outside.
"Get us moving!" Jillian ordered him.
Sylvester sighed as he put the ship back into launch mode. "Might as well have not bothered leaving the service," he grumbled as the took the dropship out.
Knowing that they were safe for the moment, Sorcha took a look at what remained of the team. Boland was sat at the back of the bridge, checking his drill, and Travis was in one of the chairs. "Where's the Lynx?"
"Joel's in the equipment locker, fixing the heat plate things back onto the suits," Travis explained. "Says he's also reversing the polarity in the temperature units to make 'em cold again." He grinned. "Don't ask me, he's the engineer out of us four."
"Good thing Goodwin stocked up the dropship," Jillian remarked.
Sorcha nodded. "Yeah. We didn't get time to raid the equipment bay back on the Oxen Free."
Jillian laid her charge on the deck. Out the front viewport, Carolyn M6's shimmer was looking particularly cowed by the pervading shadow of the Dark Sun. "So, how are we deploying these charges, O'Riordan? You said we don't have much time."
"We don't," Sorcha said meekly. "But... I don't..." Her eyes caught sight of Jillian's auto-mapper, left in the co-pilot's chair. "Wait. I'm gonna need to look at the dispersal sequence on your auto-mapper."
Jillian picked it up. "Let's just see if I can get it back on standard mode... ah!" The mutt's face lit up as she apparently did just that. "Yup. Here it is." She passed the device to Sorcha.
Sorcha took the mapper and studied the dispersal sequence graphic. We don't have time, she reflected grimly. "We'll have to crush the range down a bit. Plant them fairly close together."
"Will that work?" Jillian asked her.
Sorcha stuck her tongue out the side of her muzzle as she studied the screen, checking the yield of each charge and how it would react with the others in the sequence. She plopped into the co-pilot's chair and began modifying the graphic. The first charge was already planted, of course, so that gave her options. She took one of the bomb symbols and dragged it closer to two of the other unplanted charges, making sure not to break the sequence. A little fiddling later, and she had it. "We plant the second charge where we were originally going to do so," she told the others. "Then we make for this crater-like area." She pointed to the area, some few hundred miles from the second charge. "The last two go there. The reaction should still occur and produce usable data." Amaterasu help me, she thought wryly. Universe at stake and I'm still thinking about my research.
"Great job, O"Riordan," Jillian beamed.
Sorcha couldn't help but feel proud of herself in that moment. Time to save the universe. Time to save Nia.
***
Carolyn M6's fires still raged defiantly as the Roobarb's ramp opened out into the inferno. Sorcha, safely ensconced in her re-refrigerated suit and charge in paw, skipped off the edge of the ramp and fell into the dying sun. She hit her repulsors as the ground sped up from below, and landed on her boot soles.
As she did so, the ground suddenly rumbled, and a terrible howl invaded her helmet. The sky became murky, Carolyn M6's fire snuffing out. Sorcha whimpered. It knows we're here.
Boland and Jillian hit the floor nearby, followed by Palmer. Sorcha was unsure exactly what the security guard would bring to the table, but she reflected that there was indeed strength in numbers. "It's just up this hill!" she called out to the others, pointing to a slight incline ahead. Molten plasma slurped around the narrow path leading to it.
"So, these suits will keep us safe, right?" Palmer asked hesitantly as the party moved out. Sorcha rolled her eyes.
Atop the hill was the deployment position for the second charge. Boland drilled the hole, and Sorcha planted the cylinder. "Okay, that's that done," Sorcha said. "Back to the ship."
Sylvester had landed the Roobarb close by; Sorcha knew that none of this would be possible if he hadn't been able to put the dropship down; the radio channels were inoperable now. Back on board, she told Sylvester to head to the last set of coordinates.
As the dropship took flight, Sorcha slumped down into her chair and took a moment to remove her helmet and clear her mind. This is it, now. It's do or die.
As she expressed that thought, a feeling of despair and hopelessness washed over her, soaking into her skin and bowing her head. "Uhhhhh," she mumbled, unable to say anything more articulate. No, it's the Dark Sun messing with me. I can't let it in.
"O'Riordan...?" Jillian gasped from nearby, crouching on the floor, her breath coming in rapid exhalations.
Sorcha forced the feeling out. "It's the Dark Sun! Don't let it get into your head! It's making you feel hopeless!"
Sylvester groaned from his seat. "Ohhhh. What is this?"
"Sylvester, you keep your head up!" Sorcha told him, her voice stentorian. "You're flying us, remember!"
Sylvester put a paw to his head. "That's powerful, man."
Boland mewled. "Tell you what, I had nine Polestra Malts in one night, and that bloody hangover couldn't touch this."
Palmer whined like a pup.
"We have to stay strong!" Sorcha hollered. "Sylvester, get us to that crater!"
Sylvester moaned. "I'm trying."
"Try harder, Flight Corporal Catterick!" Sorcha ordered him.
Sylvester sighed. "Copy that."
***
As the dropship soared over the fiery canyons, the Dark Sun was looming large. Carolyn M6's effulgence was reduced to mere sparks now, and even they were beginning to sputter out.
Sorcha felt renewed resolve as she and Jillian carried the last two charges to the ramp. "Catterick, pop the hatch," Jillian said to Sylvester, her voice heavy with effort. Sorcha gulped. We really are running out of time.
The ramp whined open and Sorcha was over the edge before it even locked into position. She hit the repulsors and landed near the edge of the crater, nearly toppling into the thing. We gotta do this in the next few minutes, or we're all dead. She turned to Boland as he touched down. "Boland, drill just inside the rim!"
The Cat limped over to the edge and pounded a hole into the hardening plasma, and Sorcha inserted her last charge. "There. Team Leader, where are you?"
Jillian shuffled up. "Right here, O'Riordan." She flicked a gloved paw at the wide bowl. "Where's my one go?"
"A few yards over there," Sorcha said, indicating the spot with her own gloved paw. "Hurry now, 'coz we're about out of time."
Boland went to assist Jillian. While they were planting the last explosive, Sorcha felt a cold prickle up her spine. "Go away," she hissed at the Dark Sun.
The power of the Dark Sun grows, the deep voice boomed in her ears. Your candle is blowing out. Your goddess deserts you. Face the truth, little mammal. The Light is doomed. How desperate must Amaterasu have been to recruit you with the very essence of what we are?
"Piss off," Sorcha said.
You can have everything, Sorcha O'Riordan, the voice rambled on. Embrace the shadow of truth now, and...
"I said piss off!" Sorcha shrieked. In a moment of harried forgetfulness, she switched to the suit channel. "How are you two coming with that charge?"
Any reply from the others was lost in static. The radios were out even at limited range. Sorcha growled, hackles up.
"O'Riordan!" Jillian's voice barely came through the storm of fuzz, and she saw the mutt jog up beside. "Charge is in! We leaving or what?"
Sorcha joined her and Boland in running to the dropship, and they piled onboard as the last flames of this once-golden star began to burn out.
***
The Roobarb sped away from Carolyn M6 as its glow began to fade forever. Sorcha couldn't help but mourn it, and a few tears escaped her eyes. The Dark Sun was becoming massive now, ready to swallow the depleted sun.
"We might have to fight our way to the bridge," Sylvester said.
"If it comes to it, we'll do it," Palmer rumbled, raising her rifle meaningfully.
Leaving the scene of devastation behind, the tiny ship raced into docking range with its carrier and began to land. Palmer motioned to Joel and Travis, and they cocked their guns.
"Catterick," Jillian started to say, glancing at Sylvester. "Never mind. You know what to do."
The ramp whirred open below. Palmer exchanged paw signals with her fellow fighters, and they stormed out of the cockpit. "Let's go, chicklets!" Jillian commanded, signalling Sorcha and Sylvester to follow her.
As they pounded down the ramp, several shots rang out through the hangar. "Get down!" Joel yowled, shoving them toward a stack of general-purpose crates. Sorcha slumped against the pile as Joel crouched to avoid a volley of fire that peppered the dropship's ramp. "Raymond, stand down!" he yelled at whoever was shooting. "You don't want to do this, mate!"
Palmer stood and trained her rifle on someone else. "Put it down, Sharla. There's no need to shoot us."
Sorcha rolled herself around to peer over the crates. The other security team had taken up positions around the hangar, ready to mow down anyone who got off the dropship, but the fact that everyone aboard it had returned safely and without reason to harm anyone else suddenly seemed to sink in. "Woah, Terri," presumably-Sharla breathed. "You're okay. We thought..."
"Save it for later, Sharla," Palmer told the female Raccoon. "Where's Gallagher?"
"On the bridge," Sharla said. "He's telling OSA Command that you're dead."
"That prick!" Travis snorted.
Sorcha flicked her eyes around the hangar, and a realization hit her between the eyes. "Where's Blason with our teammates?"
The other guard blinked. "Gallagher arrested him and sent your lot to the infirmary."
"Oh, no," Sorcha moaned. If Nia wasn't being sedated... She whipped round to face the others. "We gotta trigger the charges now."
"Are you OSA yipyaws crazy?" Sharla chittered. "We're way too close. We'll fry."
Sorcha nodded, that good ol' resolve hardening her to the knowledge that her life was now likely forfeit. "I know. But we have to do it now."
Jillian whimpered. "O'Riordan, we might not..."
"We might not," Sorcha woofed. "The Light needs us."
Boland sighed. "You never think about it, do you?" he said. "You never think about it until it's..." He threw his paws up.
"Bridge. Now," Sorcha said, shrugging her suit off.
***
Sorcha led the charge out of the hangar and up the main corridor towards the bridge. "I don't care if Gallagher doesn't like it," she snarled, "I'm hitting that detonator."
"O'Riordan," Jillian puffed, that mad glint in her eye, "I'll press the switch."
"You got it, Team Leader," Sorcha replied. The "BRIDGE" sign appeared on a bulkhead. "We're there!"
"Little mammal!" a raspy voice echoed from somewhere behind them. "How wonderful to have you here, at the end."
Sorcha's fur stood on end. "No. No, please." She turned to see Nia, her mint-green dress billowing in the draught from a nearby cooling fan. No, not Nia. The thing inside her.
The face that had been Nia's was contorted into that wicked smile. "I'm not wasting any more time," the creature gargled. "Your end is now!"
"Run!" Sorcha howled, doing just that. As she pelted down the corridor, she could hear Nia's mary-janes clacking against the deck behind her.
"Why can't we just shoot it?" Joel asked irritably.
"You'll kill Nia!" Sorcha shouted.
The door to the bridge was locked; Sorcha realized that as she slammed into it and slid to the floor. "Gallagher, let us in!"
The captain's voice was hazy through the door speaker. "What is that?" he inquired pointedly, obviously meaning the entity controlling Nia.
"Let us in!" Sorcha yelled. "We have to detonate the charges before the Dark Sun eats Carolyn M6!" She looked back; Nia was paces away, her eyes black and featureless, that repellent grin shining brightly.
"Open the door or we force it open!" Jillian implored Gallagher. It began to whir open, and Sorcha slid through before it could do so fully. "Gallagher," she told the shaken-looking Cat, "we need to blow the charges now!"
"We're too close!" Gallagher spluttered. "We'll be reduced to ash!"
"We have no other choice," Sorcha barked. She espied the detonator near the helm officer's station. "Team Leader, get the detonator."
Jillian rushed past to grab it. "When you're ready, O'Riordan."
Sorcha screamed as something slammed into her from behind. She hit the deck and rolled over, knowing that Nia's fluffy face would be hovering over hers, and so it was. "I'm going to enjoy devouring you, Sorcha," the demon whispered eagerly. "The shadow of truth is triumphant over your pitiful goddess. Know now the hunger of the darkness as it feeds on you!" Nia's maw stretched unnaturally wide, and the monster lunged for her throat.
"Jillian, now!" Sorcha yelled. She threw her head back and called to the heavens. "Amaterasu, accept our lives!"
Then everything went white.
***
Sorcha opened her eyes. Her ears were ringing, and her body felt like lead, but one thing was certain, one improbably impossible thing.
She was alive.
She groaned and sat up, looking about her. She was on the bridge of the Olly Olly Oxen Free. All around her, instrument panels sparked and spat flame, and light fixtures hung limply from the ceiling. The viewports had held, and the life support was still functioning.
What commanded Sorcha's attention, though, was what was beyond those viewports. Standing on rubbery legs, Sorcha shrugged off something that had fallen across her and staggered to look out on local space, and the wonder it now contained.
Carolyn M6 was aflame, a mighty sphere of pure light that had not been seen in millions upon millions of years, and from the planet nearby, Sorcha could see a blinding light shining up from the surface. The weapon of the Light.
Even all of that paled to what Sorcha saw next. Around Planet One had formed a great web of light, and as Sorcha studied it, the glowing lines formed a face she had loved, then reviled, and now loved again.
Amaterasu.
The goddess's face, her eyes taking the form of two planets, regarded Sorcha with a loving smile.
The Dark Sun was nowhere to be seen.
"Sorcha?"
A voice from behind made her turn, and a few paces away stood Nia Goodwin. Her face was set in the same warm smile. Her eyes weren't blue, but they were golden, and brighter than a summer's day.
"Ni-ni," Sorcha babbled. "No. Amaterasu."
Amaterasu took a step forward, Nia's shoes not making a sound. She giggled, her voice melodic and soothing. "Sorcha, you truly are my champion. I cannot thank you enough for bringing the Light in this terrible time."
Sorcha shook her head. "Amaterasu, I'm still so upset at what you did to me. But... I guess you're off the hook for now." She couldn't help but chortle.
Amaterasu laughed. "Sorcha, I regret my actions. But now you see why I had to act." The smile faded. "I do not know now, with the accord in tatters, what the future holds for us. At least for now, the Light has survived."
Sorcha nodded. "One more thing."
Amaterasu smiled again. "Yes?"
"I want my life back."
Amaterasu inclined her head. "It would be my pleasure. I release you from my service. May you journey onward with hope and courage. Goodbye, Sorcha O'Riordan." Nia's eyes closed, and she collapsed to the floor.
Sorcha knelt to stroke Nia's hair. "Goodbye, Amaterasu." She let her tears flow, let them run down Nia's face as well.
"O'Riordan, are you okay?" a voice suddenly inquired, and Sorcha recognized the speaker as Jillian Toki. She squealed in delight and wrapped her arms around the mutt. Jillian laughed and eased her off. "Easy there, pumpkin."
Sorcha looked around again, seeing curious, confused faces. Boland gawked out of the viewports at Carolyn M6. "Woah."
"Damage report," Gallagher mumbled faintly from his station.
As one of his underlings responded, Sorcha went back to Nia. "Ni-ni," she squeaked. "Nia. Nia, wake up."
The Arctic Fox snuffled and her eyes opened, and that cobalt shine filled Sorcha's heart with song. "Sor," she whimpered.
Hearing her voice once more made Sorcha feel as if she were walking on air. "I'm here, Ni-ni."
"Where am I?" Nia asked woozily.
"You're on the bridge, love," Jillian informed her.
"Hmm. Lovely," Nia smiled.
Sorcha laughed.
"O'Riordan, are you aware that you've been shot?" Jillian blurted suddenly.
"That would explain the pain in my arm," Sorcha said.
***
The Oxen Free had been damaged by the sudden reigniting of Carolyn M6, but most of it was repairable, and Gallagher had called for assistance from OSA Command. That would be a day or two out, and so there was little to do but sit around.
Sorcha was sitting around in the dormitory, back against a bunk, the Amaterasu charm in her paws. The bullet that had hit her had been removed, and a thick bandage applied around her arm.
Nia was atop the bunk behind her; after receiving medical treatment, the little Arctic Fox had had just enough energy to slip off her Luvie Dovey mary-janes and socks before passing out on top of the covers. She was sleeping peacefully, her hair messy, her dress rumpled, her bare feet pungent. Sorcha smiled as Nia buried her muzzle in her pillow and snored loudly.
"That's attractive, Ni-ni," Sorcha chortled. She suddenly found herself yawning, realizing just how tired she was, and she decided to close her eyes for a bit. As she drifted off, she realized that this would be her first real sleep since she could remember. She smiled once more.