HAWK

CHAPTER TEN: FLY (2/4)

It was day eleven of the trek.

Hik was standing in the cargo hold, neither watching nor ignoring Kas as she neared the end of a rigorous one hour exercise routine. She was drained. Her arms trembled as she struggled to pull her body up to the overhead beam for one last rep, fighting her body's screaming desire to give up and collapse. Even her workout vest and shorts felt like they were weighing her down, now heavy with sweat.

Come on, Kas... just... one... more...

She was nearly there when the Calista's synthetic voice interrupted her.

'Alert. Unidentified object incoming.'

Kas dropped to the floor like a stone, her shoulders heaving from exhaustion.

'What object?' she panted. 'A missile?'

'Object is unidentified.'

'How long have I got?'

'Arrival is expected in one minute.'

Kas swore loudly and raced to the cockpit. She jumped into her seat, her heart beating on her chest like a drum as she reached a weak arm towards the Holo-HUD. She refreshed the radial scan and an object appeared on the display, but due to its immense speed, it was nothing but a bright blue smudge. Kas swore again when she realised it was approaching directly from behind. She might've understood if the object had been coming at her from the front, but if it was catching up with her, that changed things. Unlike ground vehicles which had to withstand gravity and aerodynamic drag as they moved, spacecraft were able to accelerate almost indefinitely as there was no resistance in space. So long as continuous energy was expelled to drive the ship forwards, it would just go faster and faster and faster until either the ship ran out of energy or it was told to slow down. And as Kas had been travelling for eleven days already, her speed was furious. The only way something could catch up with her now was if it'd been chasing her for a long time.

Or if it's particularly powerful...

'Direct all power to the deflectors,' Kas said, finding her voice a little shaky.

'Ten seconds until arrival.'

Kas buckled herself in and took a deep breath.

'Five seconds.'

She clamped her teeth together and closed her eyes, ready for whatever the Black was about to throw at her.

'Three... two... one...'

A whoomph washed over the Calista and rocked it like an ocean wave. Kas kept waiting for an explosion but none came. She looked at the Holo-HUD and her eyes bulged.

The last thing she had expected the blue smudge to be was a ship, and this one was like nothing she'd ever seen. It was about twenty times the size of the Calista and shaped liked an egg, its shell a wide but shallow curve.

What the hell...?

The alien ship began to close the gap on her, edging nearer and nearer until Kas was sure they were going to crash. She maximised the Holo-HUD and was shocked to see that the egg was hollow. It reminded Kas of some great sea creature that swam with its mouth wide open, devouring everything in its path.

Kas gulped down the shock then unbuckled her seatbelt and ran back to the cargo hold. She slammed her hand on the wall below her sleeping quarters and it slid back to reveal a hidden compartment. Inside was a neck to ankle Domino combat skinsuit, matte black with yellow trim. She'd won it in a firetank tournament years before and, next to the Calista, it was the most valuable thing she owned. She tore it from its rack and pulled it on over her vest and shorts.

'Are we in danger?' a voice behind her asked.

Kas rushed a glance at Hik who was now standing in the centre of the hold. 'I think so, Hik.'

'Shall I activate my combat mode?'

Kas stretched her arms out and let the Domino skinsuit tighten around her body. The top-of-the-line artifibre was already working its magic and cooling her skin. The soreness in her arms began to dissolve and return some of her former strength. It felt good - very good. She stomped her feet into her carbachrome boots and they locked themselves into place.

'I think that would be a very good idea.'