37. Moonfall

The enormous body of the Giant was pushed by tiny yet strong detonations. Randomly poking at it where it was pulled just moments before. The tight space between the civilian crafts just hastened the chain reaction.

The outer ships seeing from afar what happened, hit their emergency cut and fled from the scene. Just as the Swordfish fleet had disappeared too, the stern section of the Perseus Train gave way for the rapidly growing fireball.

Its engine was running on max when the shrapnels from Bendeghuse tore apart the bridge, the controls, computers and everyone on the ship. Now the uncontrolled reactions overheated the core, melting down the components and leading to the detonation of the section.

• “Dan, why so stubbornly sticking to life? Would not it be easier to just give up?” — the familiar voice again on the radio — “We can make a deal. You give up, and I give you a quick end. How about that?”

Lost some oxygen before could patch up the suit with the right hand. His left shoulder bleeding, implants and the helmet display throwing warnings. Luckily the bullet went through and the automatics put pressure on it. Has to hold until he can get away, or beat this guy.

• “I don’t make deals when I don’t know your name. Professional standards.”
• “Why not, you won’t get out of here. My name is Talm.”
• “Talm Shibar, the ship’s XO?”
• “The one in the flesh, pointing his attention to a lowly dockworker.” — Is this guy always so cocky?

He could have lied about his name. Dan needed to buy time as he lost his methods to locate his enemy.

• “Nice to meet you, Talm. Counteroffer. You tell me what is this whole damn thing about, and I am not gonna kill you.”
• “Hehe, yeah, you won’t.” — bright sparkles blow off from the metal plating centimeters from Dan. Another bullet scraped his thigh before he could roll behind a fallen steel beam.

Next moment the remaining brightness disappeared. Dan touched the floor again, no vibrations. Gravity modified again. It started to be lower now, he had no idea what was going on out there as the Giant’s rotation gradually stopped and weightlessness settled in once again.

Vince still screaming after the hit, shouting into the destroyed comms, as on the screens he was able to see his kid’s and wife’s metal coffin blow up.

The flying heavy metal parts tearing into his hull, killing his crew and a piece cutting deep into his abdomen. Emergency shutdown kicked in able to avoid the total destruction of his section.

As the remainings of the Perseus Train diverged from course and thrown into a fast tumble, Vince finally lost his consciousness.

Something must have triggered the Giant’s partially restored controls, the thrusters came alive again and stopped its rotation as it was accelerated tangentially.

• “What do you have to live for, Dan?”

The voice tried to mock him. He found the question interesting. Never really reflected on his life, just pushed ahead, not caring what the next moment brings. Survival instincts? Definitely. Principles? Maybe?

He lived for himself up to this point, chasing fleeting riches and satisfaction. But when he saw Ava, looking deep into those blue starry eyes. He felt something more is out there in the universe. Something he could not find yet. And now he wanted that.

Unable to put it into words, felt a connection to something bigger than himself for the first time in his life.

Touching the wall, Dan felt the strongest bump so far. He leaned over the corner and pushed the trigger. He hit something other than metal as only his gun’s muzzle fire provided any brightness.

Victoria and the bridge crew of Irondome could do nothing, but sit in mortified silence as the Steiger’s visual stream played on their screens. Still hours away, even their lucky discovery wasn’t enough.

• “Captain Sebes to dock control, prepare all troop transports operating as life boats.” — her voice trembling in midsentence.

Turned on his flashlight, Talm’s body floating ahead of him, soaking up some of the movement energy from a pistol clip worth of metal.

• “Damn you…” — surprise in his voice as Talm started to realize he lost.

But didn’t lost everything yet. His mission was still a success. Unable to push away Dan’s arms, he was forced into the connection. Giving away the last part of the encryption key to Dan.

Half the civilian ships jumped away in fear of their life. Steiger remained following the Giant, Captain Cadaver had analyzed the situation, able to tell they were in no danger anymore.

Their drones followed the wreckage of the Giant as it tumbled around its own axis, slowly, over hours. The tiny push from the detonations were enough to undo all of their work pulling it up.

• “Still, you didn’t… win…” — Talm’s lifeless body floated away as Dan didn’t care about it anymore.

Unlocking the file with all the keys, he sit down and immersed into his own digital library of files. Running through tables, databases, and lots of numbers and text in them. It was a shipping manifest. With military encryption. Top secret classification.

The passenger’s name and signature he took the data from. An attached memory, this is the content of company-restricted docking bays. Running through the items.

Thousands of small arms, then bigger guns, and at the middle, buried under sub-categories and bureaucratic jargon. Alcubierre torpedoes. Kinetic warheads, capable of faster than light travel. The planet-killer deterrents of the Federation against the aliens invasion. And the colonies insurgence.

There was no time to do anything. The rotation dangerous for all ships to dock, yet they tried. The Steiger coordinated the remaining brave souls piloting their ships, docking one after the another, using the remaining hours to save as many as they can.

Finally the Irondome appeared next to them, launching dozens of troop transports empty. Their pilots facing an impossible challenge, still none of them have any doubts or questions. People are to be saved, work to be done proudly.

Dan was pulled out of his own mind as the world turned around him. Hours, a day may have passed for him deep-diving into the gigabytes of data. His helmet knocked into the floor as his body didn’t follow the Giant’s tumbling.

• “What is happening…”
• “The ship falls to the moon.” — a feminine factual voice chipped in into his loneliness.
• “Wait, what… But…”
• “I am with you till the end.” — heard a silky voice in his head. And the blue eyes looking deep into his soul. — “I will show you the universe.”
• “Thank… you…”

Dan curled up in the computer hall, hoping his chip, unencrypted may survive the crash. Even if he won’t.

Still tens of thousands awaiting rescue, most not understanding what is happening with them. No-one communicates on the radio anymore. Whoever are near the docks, rushed to the leaving ships. Controls and organization be damned among the civilians so they are ordered to leave as the Irondome’s swarm arrives.

After half a day, Giant’s trajectory deteriorate too much for any more transports to dock. Irondome loses three transports, two collides inside the Giant. One suffers a mechanical failure on docking with the carrier and the pilot crash-lands saving his survivors over his own life.

The Irondome stands guard above the moon as the Giant falls down. Someone may still be alive on the bridge as it again fires up some thrusters. They fluke out quickly, yet the giant cylinder is able to flatten out its fall.

The dust thrown up from the surface covers the lower half of the Giant’s body from the eyes. By the days it settles back again, the Giant lay down on its flattened side.

A renewed effort to search and rescue potential survivors from the Irondome initiated immediately as the wreckage stopped. Swarms of transports now shipping mobile hospital crew and equipment onto the surface, looking like an ant colony at work from the orbit where the Irondome hangs for the next years.

Read the story leading up to now:

Giant of the Stars

Fictional story of a luxury starliner’s catastrophy