Seventy Hours on Raener-12 : Part 18 (Ending)

I was still blinded by Ty's sacrifice, still on sensory and emotional overload, when the bridge came into blue focus.

The three of us panted deeply. I watched Natalie weave a path around rows of consoles. She was coughing fervently. The vacant room felt intimidating. Large holographic monitors were at their cardinal spots on the walls. Rows of consoles and desks tiered down like an amphitheater to a sunken flat command center, where the Vertigo elite had once sat. Beyond the tools and monitors were the windows. We had backtracked up the slanted ship to reach the room, and were high enough to look out at the gray sky and mounting snow in the dark. The vista reminded me of what we were preventing, of what we had to save...

I quickly recomposed myself, blocked out the death of a hero, and focused on severing the security systems to disarm the bombs. Home was so close.

Natalie had worked her way around the funnel-like levels of desks and stopped at a screen.

"Sean!"

I jogged with Collin to her spot and stared at the monitor while I took off my helmet. The interface could not have been more concise. The console displayed a reset screen ready for use. Natalie quickly thought of a new registration code and password. I wasn't convinced.

"Should it be this simple?"

"The system was completely overridden after you rebooted it. No old passwords are kept. It's a very effective way of protecting data. The system is acting faultlessly."

Her keystrokes were blazing fast. Menus and layers of information piled on screen and my princess finally halted at a display full of options. The title read:

Security Override Successful
Emergency Measures Activated
Countdown Initialized - 00:09:49

I saw the numbers on-screen heralding nine minutes and forty-eight seconds...nine minutes and forty-seven seconds...

What?

Then it all connected.

Son of a bitch.

Natalie grasped the betrayal as quickly as I had. I saw treachery boil behind the princess's eyes.

"The bombs. No, they couldn't--"

Natalie leaned back in her seat, expressionless, coughing hoarsely. " I should have guessed...how could I let them blind sight me again? Those bastards..."
Natalie looked at me; her expression matched mine, one of painful understanding.

"Resetting the ships power armed the bombs. They knew the crew would ensure stopping the defense systems by resetting them...so you could leave with me. Shutting down all security fields starts the timer. Raener-12 never had a prayer."

They had lied to her. Implanted the hope that the bombs could be stopped. Vertigo never meant for her or the planet to survive. They planned for her to die, for her to lead a squad to stop the bombs, enough time for radio waves to meet the council and promise the return of a princess. They would destroy the ship with or without her inside. Nothing but total destruction would satisfy them. Complete doom for my home.

I watched with Collin as the timer reached eight minutes, almost cruelly.

"Princess?"

Collin moved to her side and I saw my ultimate fears unfold. Natalie had fallen from her chair; spatters of blood escaped her lips. She was shaking in her hands and feet and her eyes softened. The poison was taking its final toll and I was terrified.

"Captain Hentz, what--"

"Help me lift her, Collin!"

Natalie looked up at me, her body resting in my arms against my chest plate. "Leave now..." she sputtered in between twitches and coughs. I glanced one final time at the counter: seven minutes, twenty seconds.

"Natalie, where is the nearest exit from the bridge? Off the ship?"

"The airlock...in the foyer..."

I rested Natalie gently over my shoulder, her face near my neck, Walt trailing behind. I knew we had no time, that no distance from the blast would save us. I knew even stronger that nothing would stop me from trying.

We ran. Past the immobile turrets and crates, past Ty's lifeless body, down that long connection of slanted halls.

After breathless minutes we burst into the foyer. I looked around for the target, distracted by Natalie's rasping breaths.

"Sir!" Collin shouted, and led me to the airlock.

I passed beneath the gash, now swirling afternoon flakes from dark suffocating sky. He fired a short burst from his rifle and the holographic lock disappeared. The howling winds and sub-zero cold met the three of us as the airlock hangar opened wide. I ordered Collin to unpack our shawls and gloves. Natalie was shaking too violently to dress them around her properly. I folded them around her form and held her ever closer.

The ship's angle placed us stories above ground - perhaps thirty meters above the mounting masses of white below. Wordlessly Collin unpacked his grappling gear, secured his tether to the airlock frame, and offered me a hook. I secured it to my belt and repelled off into the blizzard, amidst the snow with my princess in clutch.

Visibility was obscured by furious white at ground level. Collin landed beside me. My mind flashed to the oarves my team had stored what seemed so long ago, but there was no time to search. We had to move. Fast.

The endless snow ahead, the fading lights of The Mastery behind, we wildly ran and rested in the white with metal looming behind out of sight. I no longer thought of time. My dying princess harbored my thoughts. I dwelled on my men, of their valor, of knowing my planet would end and how shameful I was to die knowing my princess could not live and lead my system.

I cursed Vertigo and lowered Natalie to my side, wrapped her tighter against the snow. Natalie's body was still twitching; her coughs had turned red and raw. She was fading fast. The irony of our fate crept upon me - huddled for survival, hoping for rescue, not unlike Natalie had been when we discovered her. I held her close to warm her body, her shield only a blanket against the encapsulating flurry.

I was ready to die.

Then, bright and beautiful on the horizon I saw home. I saw the call made over a day before come alive.

I saw our ship.

The swirling snow coalesced with the updrafts propelled outward by the transport's descent. I helped Natalie to her feet. She formed her arm around my waist and looked skyward to the bright cruiser, then crunching down. Several camouflaged men, white in their suits, filed down the cargo ramp and escorted the three of us aboard. I had no time to be grateful, only time to worry. His questions hit me fast and hard. The only thing I could say was "Take off now!" The man touched his helmet's side, his subordinates copied, and the vessel's warmth met my body as the ramp closed.

Natalie's grip was crushing. She shook violently. Snow clung to her clothes but her neck and forehead were beaded with sweat. From her solemn face I saw her polished eyes; it was hard not to picture the worst while she grasped my suit.

Focused on her I hardly paid respects to the captain of the ship. Like his entire crew mixed emotions of hope and concern flashed across his face. Old happiness to see her alive but fear of her health. The captain insisted that Natalie have her own private room, where doctors could tend to her. They asked her, but she stayed by me, clinging, fading.

After too many moments they finally led the three of us to a corner room. I told the captain to take off immediately.

He asked why: I said, "You'll see."

Natalie had begun to convulse in every appendage. I felt her grip loosen and listened to the ship's engine fire up. Gingerly she let go of my body, and leaned against a window by her seat. She kept a gloved hand of mine within hers.

We were airborne. I took my helmet off and saw the ship shrink away from The Mastery in a white vortex. We each watched through a window and in the silence of that room I heard the blast. Every bomb had detonated. The shock wave was low and static. We felt the vibrations but couldn't see it; the ship was climbing too high into the storm.

I pictured the vapor, rising and falling across the ice and into the air. I imagined the poison climbing and spreading, killing my planet as it was killing my princess. I closed my eyes tight. Then I scanned the room.

Collin's face was stark and stale. He stared out a window opposite while the ship powered upward, glancing at Natalie and me. His helmet was off and revealed a sad visage; despite it all he tapped his head twice. I returned the gesture and he closed his eyes for sleep. He would survive.

To my right Natalie clasped my fingers within hers. Her chest was heaving, her eyes wide ajar with pain and fear. She gripped ever tighter, staring out the window at my doomed home and her last prison.

Then as quickly as it happened she ceased. I watched her shoulders slump and her head lay to rest on the glass before a backdrop of buzzing snowflakes. Then her grip failed and her breathing faded until she sat lifeless beside me.

She had gone.

I let myself cry again. I was with my princess during the longest moment of my life. I gripped her limp hand and didn't let go, wouldn't let go. I should have felt anger toward her. For risking my men's lives, for not telling me of her true state until it was too late. Yet all I felt was dark sadness.

As the years passed, I never could bring myself to blame Natalie for what my squad suffered to save her. I refused to attach her to their deaths; I never blamed her for it, and I still do not. All I saw in my princess as she drew her last breaths was loss. Loss of hope for my system, of my planet, and of her future ruling sighed short.

I stared at my princess while my tears streamed down and our ship left the atmosphere.

Clouds fused into stars...and I was alone.