The Navigator, page 56
The attack on Khai Shen began at dawn. The 42nd Fleet and their pirate allies were several dozen miles off the coast and had been blinded by the CME. Consequently, the sea people armada was able to slip past them in the dark, sailing onward toward the city's shores unnoticed.
The protective bubble of radar, sea planes, and roving Kraken-destroyers that normally walled off Khai Shen were all offline. With their electronics fried, the P.R.K. forces had no effective means to communicate with one another.
Khan Rho opened up the attack on Khai Shen himself, from the bow of the Typhoon, directing the juggernaut's fire on the city's skyline before pivoting back toward Baffin Island. The initial salvo caused an all-out panic in Khai Shen. The city's residents, most of whom had been asleep, woke up to find themselves under attack by an unknown enemy and without electrical power.
Quill watched the attack from the main deck of the flagship. It wasn't the safest place to be - not by far - but fresh air was the only thing that helped ease her morning sickness. She saw familiar landmarks from her time at the Academy pass by as her ship barreled down the coast. Nhan Zhe's elegant promenade and its main bell tower glowed red under the rising sun, shimmering like a mirage. The imposing, mirrored facade of Kowloon Tower had been hit by a naval shell and there was a large hole on the twenty-seventh floor that was still ringed with flames.
Sejanus's Jan-Jus and several contingents of marines from Sol had begun an amphibious landing just south of Nhan Zhe's campus. In revenge for Skrae, the plate-armored savages and rag-tag marines were torching and pillaging the overpriced shops and luxury homes that lined the city's coastline.
Khai Shen's police force put up no resistance. They'd been caught by surprise. With their radios and telephones dead, and all their vehicles immobile hulks, they had no way to coordinate an effective defense against the primitive invaders.
While the marines fought their way up by land from the south, and Khan Swei and Khan Jellico harried the city's north, Khan Rho redirected most of his Sand Tiger forces back to the mouth of Khai Shen Bay, to hold off the 42nd Fleet should they return, and to tie up Baffin Island's shore guns.
Baffin Island was the largest obstacle to Khan Rho's attack. Every other facet of the assault had been executed perfectly. The Island's shore guns were already firing on the sea people armada, turning the calm bay waters into a choppy mess of white foam from shell impacts.
The shore gunners couldn't use any of their computerized rangefinders to aim their artillery, or communicate with other stations to triangulate, but they were deadly enough firing by sight - adjusting their trajectory by trial and error.
Shell after shell exploded around the Typhoon, sending up clouds of frothy seawater.
Sejanus came out to protect Quill while the battle raged, putting himself between her and all incoming fire.
Quill's fear stifled her nausea. She watched the bombardment crackle overhead, huddled behind a small, protective steel panel and Sejanus's plate-armored body.
"What a homecoming this is! A twenty-one gun salute!"
Quill ducked at the sound of a shell exploding a Sand Tiger vessel. The wreck soon broke in half with a sickening snap and quickly slipped below the waterline.
Quill didn't say anything, staring at the nearby ship as it sank with a look of sheer terror.
Sejanus put a finger on Quill's chin and guided her attention away from the wreck, toward Khai Shen's chaotic coast.
"I see that Nhan Zhe's campus is in flames. Good news, eh? Now they'll have no record of your expulsion!"
"Great!" Quill shrieked, still shirking from the surrounding explosions. "Why aren't we sticking closer to the coast? Out here, we're target practice!"
"We're keeping the citadel's cannons occupied - I would presume. The island's cannons will shiver our forces from a distance if we join the rest of the fleet, and they'll harry any withdrawal from the bay, afterward!"
Sejanus accurately guessed Khan Rho's intent. However, no matter how hard the Typhoon and the Sand Tiger ships tried, they were unable to quiet Baffin Island's guns. The fortress was built in an antediluvian renaissance style, with thick earth and concrete walls and multi-directional star-shaped gun emplacements. The Typhoon's munitions harmlessly bounced off the bulwarks as the Island's shore gunners continued to lay down a haphazardly aimed barrage of high-impact shells and corkscrewing rockets.
After less than twenty minutes, the Khan ordered the Typhoon to turn around and sail back toward the city, leery of taking any more direct fire.
Quill watched the sails on the juggernaut pivot. She was thankful to see that her ship was no longer being used as cannon fodder, but knew that the coast was still in range of the island. It would take the shore crews a bit longer to get the proper trajectory, but once they did, the battle would be over.
A forest of masts soon rose over the horizon, sailing into the bay. It was the 42nd Fleet. Among the rows of indistinctive P.R.K. military ships, Quill saw one, rather unique profile.
The Widower.
The Widower was sandwiched between two Krakens, cutting its way toward Quill's ship by the power of the wind. The pirate vessel looked puny compared to the P.R.K. capital ships, but the sight of it made her cheeks burn.
"You got your wish, young prophetess. We are turning tail. Quite a shame. Although it looks like most of the leviathan's dreadnaughts are stranded out at sea, the rest of the fleet and the citadel's cannons have blockaded our exit."
Quill nodded, unable to think of anything to add. The attack was floundering more and more with each passing moment. While she could see that the men ashore were successfully shooting up the city and sacking its coast, the 42nd Fleet was closing in, and it, combined with Baffin Island's guns, had more than enough firepower to destroy their antiquated armada.
"If we're shivered and go under I propose we swim toward Chia Lai Plaza and my Jan-Jus in the south. We'll be able to hold out on dry land much longer than anywhere on the water!"
"I don't think I can swim that far. I'm too pregnant!"
The 42nd Fleet and the Widower continued to close in. The fleet's lead ships fired an opening salvo that crackled like fireworks. Large, orange, incendiary shells exploded in the air, raining down a shower of shrapnel.
Sejanus darted away from Quill, charging across the deck, tearing open every compartment he came across.
"Worry not, fair Clymene, you needn't swim the distance. I shall find us a dinghy - or better yet - a life preserver!"
As Sejanus frantically scoured the deck for a flotation device, dodging nomad crewmen who were scrambling to put out a few scattered fires, Quill turned her eyes up to the sky.
What she saw made her jaw drop.
"Seh - Se - Sejanus! SEJANUS! Look at that!" Quill chased after him. Her feet slipped across the deck's slick wooden paneling. "Up in the sky! LOOK! LOOK!"
- 88-
Petal cringed. A giant, mechanical fist repeatedly banged against the hangar door. Seraphim had closed it before the mechs could enter the fish tank room, but by the sound of the impacts, Petal thought they'd break through any moment. She retreated further into the room, hugging the whale tank, making a break for the rear exit.
"I have sealed the mechs in the hangar, but I anticipate that Cynax-8127 will be able to override the lock. The 8000 series is very skilled at hacking from a mobile platform. If one of those mechs reaches the bridge, Cynax-8127 could gain full control over this vessel."
"What do I do? How do I stop him?"
"Do not proceed in that direction. A vertical path will be more advantageous. Use the rungs to your right to ascend to tier three and then proceed down the hallway."
Petal spun around and jumped onto the rungs. They were set between the specimen tanks and went up to the very top of the room, which was almost ten stories tall. She climbed her way up, hand-over-hand, her feet slipping on the small rungs every time she reached a new one.
When she made it to the second tier, the hangar doors chimed and opened.
DAMNIT!
Petal scrambled even faster.
The mechs stepped into the room and scanned its cluttered interior.
When Petal reached the rung located just below the third tier, one of the mechs reached up with its spindly claw and latched onto her left ankle.
"OWW-FUUAHHHK!"
Petal screamed as the mech's cold steel dug into her ankle. She shook her leg violently and tried to break free, but the mech's grip was unforgiving. It held her in place, not attempting to pull her off the rungs or crush her foot. The other mech walked around, grabbed onto a parallel set of ladder rungs, and started to climb up the wall alongside her.
"GET OFF ME!"
Petal clung to the rung, white knuckled, pulling against the mech's grip. Its claw pierced her flesh and several droplets of blood dripped down from her ankle onto the mech's glowing chassis.
The mech attempted to pull Petal off the wall, but the combination of blood and sweat allowed her foot to slip out of its iron grasp. She bolted up the final few rungs and then ducked into a large tube that fed into a third tier hallway.
Petal sprinted down the hallway, now limping.
The hallway was beautiful with a golden, tiled floor and a glittering glass canopy. The right half was also glass with a sinewy, golden skeleton. The view from Petal's vantage was incredible, overlooking the rest of the Kingfisher - two gray, cylindrical tubes and three large donut-shaped bulges that twinkled under the morning sun in front of a powder blue backdrop.
Before Petal made it halfway down the hallway, the mech that had been shadowing her from the parallel rungs reached into the corridor with a lanky arm and snapped its claw at her.
Petal jumped right and rolled out of the path of the claw, watching it grab the air, feeling around blindly for her body. About thirty feet to her rear, the mech that had latched onto her leg climbed into the hallway and lumbered after her.
The hallway ended in another lounge with a glass dome for a roof. This lounge was much larger than the one Petal had been in previously. She limped into it and then froze. The lounge was in disarray; there was a sea of overturned tables and chairs and other assorted furniture that had been upended and thrown back and forth during the Kingfisher's brief moment of zero gravity. She scanned the room for an exit.
Seraphim quickly activated a golden barrier which sealed off the lounge from the preceding hallway.
"This room is a dead end! Why did you lead me here!"
"I wanted you to lure the mechs into that hallway. I have weakened its structural integrity and have deactivated its outer shields in preparation for a controlled depressurization."
"What?"
Petal watched as the two mechs closed in on the golden barrier. One held its green chassis 'eye' up to a panel that was mounted on the wall. It shone an emerald beam of light onto it, initiating an overload.
Before the mech could finish its hack, there was a loud bang.
The windowed side of the hallway shattered into thousands of glass shards and a hurricane-force wind tore through the exposed hallway.
The mech next to the barrier was sucked out, into blue sky. It quickly disappeared from view, tumbling end-over-end, in a five mile free-fall. The other mech fell to its knees and dug its claws into the floor tiles, straining to maintain its grip as the high altitude winds tried to push it into empty sky.
Petal climbed her way further into the lounge, throwing overturned chairs and tables out of her path, tripping over their jutting legs whenever her clothing snagged on them.
"How do I get out of here? Where's the exit! Tell me!"
"There is an elevator at the rear of-," Seraphim stopped mid sentence.
The remaining mech stood up and reached around the golden barrier. It began to climb on the exterior of the ship, on top of the glass dome that enclosed the lounge. It clenched its claw into a fist and then punched a large hole through one of the glass panels.
All of the air in the lounge was drawn to the puncture, which sucked everything toward it like a black hole. Tables and chairs rolled like tumbleweeds across the lounge and out into the stratosphere.
"I will decrease altitude to compensate for depressurization," Seraphim calmly hummed. The mech continued to punch out more sections of the canopy. "I rescind my prior recommendation as to your path of escape. I am in the process of analyzing possible alternatives."
"HURRY!"
Petal watched, helpless, as the mech forced its way inside the ship. It landed with a thud that shook the floor. Before it could stand, she picked up one of the flimsy lounge chairs and threw it at it.
The chair harmlessly bounced off the mech's tough, metallic hide. It stood up from its knees and balled its claws back into fists, raising them up into the air, preparing to smash Petal into a meat wad.
Once again gravity ceased. Petal and the mech were pulled into the air, toward the top of the dome, which was now cracking in a spider-web pattern. The hundreds of jumbled tables and chairs scattered across the lounge rose up from the floor and hovered in the air around them.
"Please use the furniture to protect yourself from falling glass. I will restore gravity momentarily."
Petal snatched a table from the air and balled up under it, trying not to twirl around as she floated, weightless. Once she got a firm grip, gravity returned, and the lounge's ceiling shattered just like the glass in the hallway.
A torrent of razor sharp shards crackled on the table propped over Petal's head. She cringed in terror.
Seraphim banked the Kingfisher right, attempting to dump the unbalanced mech over the exposed shipside.
The listing caused a tidal wave of furniture to tumble toward the right side of the lounge. The mech flailed its arms, launching chairs and tables into the sky as it fought to grab onto something that was anchored.
Petal was swallowed up by the wave of debris and she too began to slide to the right, toward the floundering mech, and the blown-out wall that was now only blue sky. Before she fell to her death, Seraphim righted the ship.
"I have slowed speed and decreased altitude. Your best route of escape is to climb along the Kingfisher's exterior and then access the compartment two levels above. There is no other exit."
"What?" Petal kicked a table off her legs. It flew away. She struggled to stand, pushing aside all of the surrounding furniture. "Where?"
Seraphim's clone hologram appeared on the opposite side of the lounge, pointing at a missing section of the wall and over the shipside.
Petal rushed over to the hologram, stumbling over detritus.
The mech clawed its way to its feet and lumbered after her, occasionally throwing furniture in her direction.
Seraphim's hologram was pointing to the exterior of the Kingfisher.
Petal poked her head outside, into the open sky and the roaring wind. She could see a series of narrow copper rungs that snaked their way across the slick, gray shipside.
"You want me to climb outside of the ship? I'll fall! I - I can't do that! I'm not that strong!"
Seraphim didn't answer, continuing to point at the rungs like a statue.
Petal could feel the mech bearing down on her. It threw a chair that nearly took her head off, careening through the empty window and then fluttering down to the ocean like a piece of chaff. She reached through the broken window and grabbed onto one of the rungs outside. Before the mech reached her, she swung out, over the shipside, clinging to the handhold.
Below Petal were a few scattered clouds, several miles of empty sky, and a sheet of wavy blue glass that was the open ocean. Although Seraphim had slowed the Kingfisher's speed, the wind was still raging.
Seraphim's hologram beamed out from a small yellow light on the ship's exterior. It pointed to a series of rungs next to Petal that were bunched together like a ladder. Petal followed the cue and began to make her way over to the ladder, her hands trembling from fear and freezing on the ice-cold rungs. It felt like she was leaving behind a thin layer of frozen sweat and skin on each one of them.
The mech poked its headless body out of the lounge and grabbed onto the nearest rung with a spindly claw. It then exited the ship, swinging from rung to rung, mindlessly chasing after Petal like a mechanical monkey.
Petal ascended the ladder to the top of the Kingfisher. The wind continued to rage, forcing her to keep her chest pressed against the ship as it hurtled toward the rising sun.
Seraphim's hologram popped up behind Petal, pointing back to a section of the ship that was raised up a few feet from where she was clinging.
As Petal tried to figure out a way to get back there, the mech pulled itself onto the top of the ship, looming next to her.
The mech glittered under the sun. It let go of its hand-hold with one claw and reached for her.
The protective bubble of radar, sea planes, and roving Kraken-destroyers that normally walled off Khai Shen were all offline. With their electronics fried, the P.R.K. forces had no effective means to communicate with one another.
Khan Rho opened up the attack on Khai Shen himself, from the bow of the Typhoon, directing the juggernaut's fire on the city's skyline before pivoting back toward Baffin Island. The initial salvo caused an all-out panic in Khai Shen. The city's residents, most of whom had been asleep, woke up to find themselves under attack by an unknown enemy and without electrical power.
Quill watched the attack from the main deck of the flagship. It wasn't the safest place to be - not by far - but fresh air was the only thing that helped ease her morning sickness. She saw familiar landmarks from her time at the Academy pass by as her ship barreled down the coast. Nhan Zhe's elegant promenade and its main bell tower glowed red under the rising sun, shimmering like a mirage. The imposing, mirrored facade of Kowloon Tower had been hit by a naval shell and there was a large hole on the twenty-seventh floor that was still ringed with flames.
Sejanus's Jan-Jus and several contingents of marines from Sol had begun an amphibious landing just south of Nhan Zhe's campus. In revenge for Skrae, the plate-armored savages and rag-tag marines were torching and pillaging the overpriced shops and luxury homes that lined the city's coastline.
Khai Shen's police force put up no resistance. They'd been caught by surprise. With their radios and telephones dead, and all their vehicles immobile hulks, they had no way to coordinate an effective defense against the primitive invaders.
While the marines fought their way up by land from the south, and Khan Swei and Khan Jellico harried the city's north, Khan Rho redirected most of his Sand Tiger forces back to the mouth of Khai Shen Bay, to hold off the 42nd Fleet should they return, and to tie up Baffin Island's shore guns.
Baffin Island was the largest obstacle to Khan Rho's attack. Every other facet of the assault had been executed perfectly. The Island's shore guns were already firing on the sea people armada, turning the calm bay waters into a choppy mess of white foam from shell impacts.
The shore gunners couldn't use any of their computerized rangefinders to aim their artillery, or communicate with other stations to triangulate, but they were deadly enough firing by sight - adjusting their trajectory by trial and error.
Shell after shell exploded around the Typhoon, sending up clouds of frothy seawater.
Sejanus came out to protect Quill while the battle raged, putting himself between her and all incoming fire.
Quill's fear stifled her nausea. She watched the bombardment crackle overhead, huddled behind a small, protective steel panel and Sejanus's plate-armored body.
"What a homecoming this is! A twenty-one gun salute!"
Quill ducked at the sound of a shell exploding a Sand Tiger vessel. The wreck soon broke in half with a sickening snap and quickly slipped below the waterline.
Quill didn't say anything, staring at the nearby ship as it sank with a look of sheer terror.
Sejanus put a finger on Quill's chin and guided her attention away from the wreck, toward Khai Shen's chaotic coast.
"I see that Nhan Zhe's campus is in flames. Good news, eh? Now they'll have no record of your expulsion!"
"Great!" Quill shrieked, still shirking from the surrounding explosions. "Why aren't we sticking closer to the coast? Out here, we're target practice!"
"We're keeping the citadel's cannons occupied - I would presume. The island's cannons will shiver our forces from a distance if we join the rest of the fleet, and they'll harry any withdrawal from the bay, afterward!"
Sejanus accurately guessed Khan Rho's intent. However, no matter how hard the Typhoon and the Sand Tiger ships tried, they were unable to quiet Baffin Island's guns. The fortress was built in an antediluvian renaissance style, with thick earth and concrete walls and multi-directional star-shaped gun emplacements. The Typhoon's munitions harmlessly bounced off the bulwarks as the Island's shore gunners continued to lay down a haphazardly aimed barrage of high-impact shells and corkscrewing rockets.
After less than twenty minutes, the Khan ordered the Typhoon to turn around and sail back toward the city, leery of taking any more direct fire.
Quill watched the sails on the juggernaut pivot. She was thankful to see that her ship was no longer being used as cannon fodder, but knew that the coast was still in range of the island. It would take the shore crews a bit longer to get the proper trajectory, but once they did, the battle would be over.
A forest of masts soon rose over the horizon, sailing into the bay. It was the 42nd Fleet. Among the rows of indistinctive P.R.K. military ships, Quill saw one, rather unique profile.
The Widower.
The Widower was sandwiched between two Krakens, cutting its way toward Quill's ship by the power of the wind. The pirate vessel looked puny compared to the P.R.K. capital ships, but the sight of it made her cheeks burn.
"You got your wish, young prophetess. We are turning tail. Quite a shame. Although it looks like most of the leviathan's dreadnaughts are stranded out at sea, the rest of the fleet and the citadel's cannons have blockaded our exit."
Quill nodded, unable to think of anything to add. The attack was floundering more and more with each passing moment. While she could see that the men ashore were successfully shooting up the city and sacking its coast, the 42nd Fleet was closing in, and it, combined with Baffin Island's guns, had more than enough firepower to destroy their antiquated armada.
"If we're shivered and go under I propose we swim toward Chia Lai Plaza and my Jan-Jus in the south. We'll be able to hold out on dry land much longer than anywhere on the water!"
"I don't think I can swim that far. I'm too pregnant!"
The 42nd Fleet and the Widower continued to close in. The fleet's lead ships fired an opening salvo that crackled like fireworks. Large, orange, incendiary shells exploded in the air, raining down a shower of shrapnel.
Sejanus darted away from Quill, charging across the deck, tearing open every compartment he came across.
"Worry not, fair Clymene, you needn't swim the distance. I shall find us a dinghy - or better yet - a life preserver!"
As Sejanus frantically scoured the deck for a flotation device, dodging nomad crewmen who were scrambling to put out a few scattered fires, Quill turned her eyes up to the sky.
What she saw made her jaw drop.
"Seh - Se - Sejanus! SEJANUS! Look at that!" Quill chased after him. Her feet slipped across the deck's slick wooden paneling. "Up in the sky! LOOK! LOOK!"
- 88-
Petal cringed. A giant, mechanical fist repeatedly banged against the hangar door. Seraphim had closed it before the mechs could enter the fish tank room, but by the sound of the impacts, Petal thought they'd break through any moment. She retreated further into the room, hugging the whale tank, making a break for the rear exit.
"I have sealed the mechs in the hangar, but I anticipate that Cynax-8127 will be able to override the lock. The 8000 series is very skilled at hacking from a mobile platform. If one of those mechs reaches the bridge, Cynax-8127 could gain full control over this vessel."
"What do I do? How do I stop him?"
"Do not proceed in that direction. A vertical path will be more advantageous. Use the rungs to your right to ascend to tier three and then proceed down the hallway."
Petal spun around and jumped onto the rungs. They were set between the specimen tanks and went up to the very top of the room, which was almost ten stories tall. She climbed her way up, hand-over-hand, her feet slipping on the small rungs every time she reached a new one.
When she made it to the second tier, the hangar doors chimed and opened.
DAMNIT!
Petal scrambled even faster.
The mechs stepped into the room and scanned its cluttered interior.
When Petal reached the rung located just below the third tier, one of the mechs reached up with its spindly claw and latched onto her left ankle.
"OWW-FUUAHHHK!"
Petal screamed as the mech's cold steel dug into her ankle. She shook her leg violently and tried to break free, but the mech's grip was unforgiving. It held her in place, not attempting to pull her off the rungs or crush her foot. The other mech walked around, grabbed onto a parallel set of ladder rungs, and started to climb up the wall alongside her.
"GET OFF ME!"
Petal clung to the rung, white knuckled, pulling against the mech's grip. Its claw pierced her flesh and several droplets of blood dripped down from her ankle onto the mech's glowing chassis.
The mech attempted to pull Petal off the wall, but the combination of blood and sweat allowed her foot to slip out of its iron grasp. She bolted up the final few rungs and then ducked into a large tube that fed into a third tier hallway.
Petal sprinted down the hallway, now limping.
The hallway was beautiful with a golden, tiled floor and a glittering glass canopy. The right half was also glass with a sinewy, golden skeleton. The view from Petal's vantage was incredible, overlooking the rest of the Kingfisher - two gray, cylindrical tubes and three large donut-shaped bulges that twinkled under the morning sun in front of a powder blue backdrop.
Before Petal made it halfway down the hallway, the mech that had been shadowing her from the parallel rungs reached into the corridor with a lanky arm and snapped its claw at her.
Petal jumped right and rolled out of the path of the claw, watching it grab the air, feeling around blindly for her body. About thirty feet to her rear, the mech that had latched onto her leg climbed into the hallway and lumbered after her.
The hallway ended in another lounge with a glass dome for a roof. This lounge was much larger than the one Petal had been in previously. She limped into it and then froze. The lounge was in disarray; there was a sea of overturned tables and chairs and other assorted furniture that had been upended and thrown back and forth during the Kingfisher's brief moment of zero gravity. She scanned the room for an exit.
Seraphim quickly activated a golden barrier which sealed off the lounge from the preceding hallway.
"This room is a dead end! Why did you lead me here!"
"I wanted you to lure the mechs into that hallway. I have weakened its structural integrity and have deactivated its outer shields in preparation for a controlled depressurization."
"What?"
Petal watched as the two mechs closed in on the golden barrier. One held its green chassis 'eye' up to a panel that was mounted on the wall. It shone an emerald beam of light onto it, initiating an overload.
Before the mech could finish its hack, there was a loud bang.
The windowed side of the hallway shattered into thousands of glass shards and a hurricane-force wind tore through the exposed hallway.
The mech next to the barrier was sucked out, into blue sky. It quickly disappeared from view, tumbling end-over-end, in a five mile free-fall. The other mech fell to its knees and dug its claws into the floor tiles, straining to maintain its grip as the high altitude winds tried to push it into empty sky.
Petal climbed her way further into the lounge, throwing overturned chairs and tables out of her path, tripping over their jutting legs whenever her clothing snagged on them.
"How do I get out of here? Where's the exit! Tell me!"
"There is an elevator at the rear of-," Seraphim stopped mid sentence.
The remaining mech stood up and reached around the golden barrier. It began to climb on the exterior of the ship, on top of the glass dome that enclosed the lounge. It clenched its claw into a fist and then punched a large hole through one of the glass panels.
All of the air in the lounge was drawn to the puncture, which sucked everything toward it like a black hole. Tables and chairs rolled like tumbleweeds across the lounge and out into the stratosphere.
"I will decrease altitude to compensate for depressurization," Seraphim calmly hummed. The mech continued to punch out more sections of the canopy. "I rescind my prior recommendation as to your path of escape. I am in the process of analyzing possible alternatives."
"HURRY!"
Petal watched, helpless, as the mech forced its way inside the ship. It landed with a thud that shook the floor. Before it could stand, she picked up one of the flimsy lounge chairs and threw it at it.
The chair harmlessly bounced off the mech's tough, metallic hide. It stood up from its knees and balled its claws back into fists, raising them up into the air, preparing to smash Petal into a meat wad.
Once again gravity ceased. Petal and the mech were pulled into the air, toward the top of the dome, which was now cracking in a spider-web pattern. The hundreds of jumbled tables and chairs scattered across the lounge rose up from the floor and hovered in the air around them.
"Please use the furniture to protect yourself from falling glass. I will restore gravity momentarily."
Petal snatched a table from the air and balled up under it, trying not to twirl around as she floated, weightless. Once she got a firm grip, gravity returned, and the lounge's ceiling shattered just like the glass in the hallway.
A torrent of razor sharp shards crackled on the table propped over Petal's head. She cringed in terror.
Seraphim banked the Kingfisher right, attempting to dump the unbalanced mech over the exposed shipside.
The listing caused a tidal wave of furniture to tumble toward the right side of the lounge. The mech flailed its arms, launching chairs and tables into the sky as it fought to grab onto something that was anchored.
Petal was swallowed up by the wave of debris and she too began to slide to the right, toward the floundering mech, and the blown-out wall that was now only blue sky. Before she fell to her death, Seraphim righted the ship.
"I have slowed speed and decreased altitude. Your best route of escape is to climb along the Kingfisher's exterior and then access the compartment two levels above. There is no other exit."
"What?" Petal kicked a table off her legs. It flew away. She struggled to stand, pushing aside all of the surrounding furniture. "Where?"
Seraphim's clone hologram appeared on the opposite side of the lounge, pointing at a missing section of the wall and over the shipside.
Petal rushed over to the hologram, stumbling over detritus.
The mech clawed its way to its feet and lumbered after her, occasionally throwing furniture in her direction.
Seraphim's hologram was pointing to the exterior of the Kingfisher.
Petal poked her head outside, into the open sky and the roaring wind. She could see a series of narrow copper rungs that snaked their way across the slick, gray shipside.
"You want me to climb outside of the ship? I'll fall! I - I can't do that! I'm not that strong!"
Seraphim didn't answer, continuing to point at the rungs like a statue.
Petal could feel the mech bearing down on her. It threw a chair that nearly took her head off, careening through the empty window and then fluttering down to the ocean like a piece of chaff. She reached through the broken window and grabbed onto one of the rungs outside. Before the mech reached her, she swung out, over the shipside, clinging to the handhold.
Below Petal were a few scattered clouds, several miles of empty sky, and a sheet of wavy blue glass that was the open ocean. Although Seraphim had slowed the Kingfisher's speed, the wind was still raging.
Seraphim's hologram beamed out from a small yellow light on the ship's exterior. It pointed to a series of rungs next to Petal that were bunched together like a ladder. Petal followed the cue and began to make her way over to the ladder, her hands trembling from fear and freezing on the ice-cold rungs. It felt like she was leaving behind a thin layer of frozen sweat and skin on each one of them.
The mech poked its headless body out of the lounge and grabbed onto the nearest rung with a spindly claw. It then exited the ship, swinging from rung to rung, mindlessly chasing after Petal like a mechanical monkey.
Petal ascended the ladder to the top of the Kingfisher. The wind continued to rage, forcing her to keep her chest pressed against the ship as it hurtled toward the rising sun.
Seraphim's hologram popped up behind Petal, pointing back to a section of the ship that was raised up a few feet from where she was clinging.
As Petal tried to figure out a way to get back there, the mech pulled itself onto the top of the ship, looming next to her.
The mech glittered under the sun. It let go of its hand-hold with one claw and reached for her.
