Titans
[51] CAL

LOCATION: The Hermes Starship/Base Planet PORHOM1, Quadrant 1, Aion Universe

The Hermes is down to one. But I no longer want to think about population statistics. Especially not when our fantastic four could dissolve into a terrible trio.

There’s a comms panel by the door, just as there are several scattered around the ship. I switch it onto the RSC channel and speak into the mic.

“Merc. Merc, come in. Do you read me?”

“I read you.”

“Lilith isn’t on the ship anymore.”

“What? Cal, what are you saying?”

“Have you found Atara?”

“No, I haven’t found Atara! There’s nothing out here, Cal. There’s nowhere.”

“That’s a physical impossibility.”

“You know what I mean. It’s just darkness. Where’s Lilith?”

“Down there, with you. She jumped.”

“Seriously? From a moving starship?”

“She has a gun.”

He doesn’t reply for a moment. I hear nothing but static. “Merc?”

“Cal, you can’t bring the ship down. If she shoots and it hits–”

“I know.”

“Can you–”

His sentence cuts off with a loud bang, followed by a cacophony of noise and static. My heart skips a beat. “Merc?” I say. No reply. “Merc, do you read me?” Nothing. “Merc!”

I turn off the comms channel. Shaking, I walk down the hall to the pilot ready room and replace a pair of space boots, putting them on in place of my black cargo boots. I grab a flashlight off the wall and slip a small taser onto the back of my belt. Then I head back to the ramp, trying to gain control of my pulse before my heart bursts in my chest.

It’s been a few minutes since the starship started its slow ascent, which places it at about 1000 metres above ground. A jump from this height is too deadly to perform unaided. But with momentum-slowing space boots? I’d place my chances of survival at a good fifty-fifty.

I try the comms one last time. “Come in, Merc. Do you read me?”

When he doesn’t respond after a few seconds, I hang up and brace myself at the top of the ramp.

“You can do this,” I tell myself. I take a deep breath and exhale slowly. “Come on, you can do this.”

I turn to the comms panel and input a command for the ramp to close. After a second, it lets out a hiss and starts to rise up.

“Come on, Cal, now or never.”

My back is against the wall. I push off at a run, vault across the rising ramp and leap out, over the lip, into the dark.