HAWK

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT: OBLIVION (4/6)

The Pegasus was in a bad way.

They had managed to get safely away from the wormhole but the freighter had already suffered too much damage and was ready to collapse. The only reason it was still in one piece was that there was not enough gravity in space to give it the nudge it needed to finish it off. It was like a bubble riding the wind, ready to pop at the touch of the first object it came across.

The engine had also stopped working, meaning they had no shields and no thrusters and a large number of the ship's power cells had been depleted by the F-88's weaponry during their escape. With no way to recharge them, Worm estimated they had two days left at most before the few remaining cells dried up and their life-support systems shut down, at which point they'd have to don their spacesuits if they wanted to continue breathing.

In short, it would be a rough ride home.

The two days passed extremely slowly.

Worm tried her best to repair the engine but her attempt didn't last long. Even with the best repair equipment, there was little she could do, let alone with the junkyard tools she had to hand. To keep herself occupied, she returned to work on her broken X1 suit while the other three moved into the lounge where they talked about the Federation and the Intelligence.

Kas and Mack took it in turns to tell the president their own stories, with Kas explaining Swanne's databeam and Sae-quin Lor's X1 and Mack recounting the captured Kikoan alien and Astrid's virus. While they told him about Xeo and the secret rebel base, they were both very careful not to mention Rhaspa, deciding that would be a conversation for another time.

Mantana, in turn, told them his story about how he'd been rushed into presidency following Selva's destruction. He'd been on Lysan at the time, giving a speech at a school when he received orders from the Federation to make his way to the Torus. He didn't know why until he was already off-planet, by which point he knew something terrible had happened because of all the traffic building up outside the atmosphere. He was soon informed of Selva's destruction and that he along with the ambassadors of the other Primian planets were being sent to the Torus to form a new government, and since he was the ambassador for Lysan (which was the origin of life in Primi), he had been automatically elected to the role of acting president.

He arrived at the Torus prepared to do his part to restore order to the solar system, but he fast began to suspect something was wrong when he was met not by the other ambassadors, but by a Kikoan alien and an entourage of X1's. They had no interest in his ideas or his leadership and treated him more like a puppet than a president. They told him what to say and do and made sure he said and did only that. Every member of staff who had been stationed on the Torus was sent away, their work to be carried out by the X1's.

They forced him to continue sending out transmissions, pretending everything was fine and under control when in fact he had no idea what was happening. When he finally protested, they locked him away where he more-or-less stayed until Kas, Mack and Worm arrived. Then he was instructed to gain their trust and learn how they'd discovered the IRIS. If he could not do that, they said, he'd be killed.

Just as he was finishing his story, the four of them began to float out of their seats. Worm flew in moments later and explained in a panic that one of the main power cells had failed, slashing their two days down to less than one - and the other cells probably weren't far behind. The four of them immediately grabbed their spacesuits and pulled them on ready in case the light went out. Poor Worm looked ridiculous in hers since it was twice the size of her, but at least it would keep her alive.

The last of the cells died less than an hour later, plunging them into perfect darkness.

For two days Astrid towed them like that, unable to even talk to them since the tannoy was also down. They were two of the longest days of Kas's life - almost as long as the days she spent in the isolation room on Eidol - but at least this time she had company. Eating and drinking - which was already hard enough inside a spacesuit - was made much harder by the darkness. Special packets of food had to be attached to a slot in their chests before they could suck them in through straws in their helmets. Going to the toilet was not much fun, either, but the less said about that, the better.

They talked and joked and slept the time away, counting down every millisecond of time before their arrival. The big day was still a full day away when the Pegasus jolted and a loud and terrible screeching noise shocked them into action.

'What the hell was that?' Mantana shrieked.

'Sounds like a ship docking with us,' Mack replied.

'Maybe we've arrived...'

'I doubt it,' Kas said. 'I think we've got company.'