Chapter 66: Volume III: Chapter 3: Amelia’s Revenge

“Hello, this is your pilot speaking. Be advised, we may experience some turbulence.” The ship jerked under their feet. “Please find your seats and pray to whatever deity tickles your fancy. For those of you who are undecided, I’ve provided a list.”

“He always was one for understatement,” Melody said trading a wry look with Jack.

“He takes after you.”

Melody smiled as she buckled Chleo into the crash seat. She kept her eyes low refusing to look her daughter in the face. It was a habit she’d caught herself following more and more lately. Chleo’s blank eyes were too much of a reminder…

The ship jerked again.

“Honestly, I expected it to be worse with everyone’s reactions earlier,” Will said goggles pulled down and safety mask in place. “This isn’t too bad.”

Melody smirked, moving to the next crash seat. She strapped in. The poor kid had no idea.

“Has anyone else checked Mic’s list?” he asked.

“Nah, dysfunctional goggles,” Chleo joked tapping the frames. Melody suppressed a flinch. Another piece of tech her daughter would never use… because of her. “Who did he add?”

“Jupiter?” Will said sounding unsure.

“Roman.”

“Oh, right. Zeus is next. Hermes, Hera, Mercury, and Juno. Amun, Nut, and— oh, come on, Mic. There’s no way you didn’t make up Coyolxauhqui.”

“Aztec goddess of the moon,” Mic’s voice rang over the speakers. It sounded strained. Melody hoped he wasn’t overdoing it. If they survived, she resolved to update his hacks package with whatever he wanted.

The ship jumped then dipped, the artificial gravity unable to keep up with Mic’s maneuver. Something banged then crunched. The klaxons blared before Mic cut them mid-ring.

“If you’ll all turn to your attention to the starboard window, you’ll see the beautiful, enigmatic view of Amelia’s Revenge burning with a rage as bright and chaotic as a barmaid’s feelings for Merk. Our shields are now down to 50%. If you’re not already, buckle up folks.”

Melody turned, knowing what she would find, unable to resist the view. People rarely saw it more than once.

Rocks stretched as far as the eye could see. Big, small, jagged, dull they drifted in a lazy dance each to its own tune. Some waltzed through discos gliding around their erratic counterparts. Others favored a salsa, sultry, sensual, enchanting. Occasionally, an overzealous partner would rocket into a neighbor, exploding both in a shower of debris, adding more dancers to the foray.

It was unchoreographed and messy and dazzling, but that wasn’t the appeal. No. Amelia’s Revenge didn’t tempt ships because it looked like every other astroid field in space. Its allure was much more sinister… and lucrative.

As Melody watched, a boulder the size of a small mountain shuddered. Purples, magentas, violets coalesced around the rock. The surface shined, then bled.

Space was silent. The explosion did its best to prove the assertion wrong. Chunks of the boulder blasted into neighboring astroids. Purple light clung to the molten rock as they shot into their targets’ cores. Other pieces hurtled deeper into the field or off into the black. What was left of the boulder smoldered, steam flowing from the pockets and crevices swirling the rock in a haphazard limp. Purple blobs mixed with the steam cooling almost instantly and dimming to nothing.

Humans called it space gold. Neons called it Luxka. Lunas… lunas called it Dancing Lava.

Will swallowed, the sound echoing behind his mask. “All of them… Mic, I’m choosing all of them.”

“Better get started.” His voice crackled through the speaker. Another rock blasted nearby. They watched as Mic swerved them out of range.

“Gods help us.”

~*~*~

“What is it?” Chleo asked. Something danced on the edges of her void, a hint of a flicker then it was gone.

“Remember the Steam Pits on Luna?” Will’s voice was dull with resignation.

“Yeah…” Of course, she remember them. She’d crossed them twice and vowed never again.

“That… only, you know, bigger… in space… on astroids.”

“Right… suddenly, I’m not as broken up about missing the view.”

“Don’t say that,” her mom hissed at her side.

Chleo cringed. She’d forgotten she was there. “Sorry.”

Something flickered again. It tickled her senses, catching her attention before fading. She reached for Dai’s glow. The blue pulsed brighter feeding off of her friend’s adrenaline as the ship jolted through another maneuver. Chleo braided it into Merk’s red and created a tether. She grew the end shining it like a torch in the void.

Chleo pointed it toward the latest flicker. Blank space cut it off before it hit the spot she wanted to examine. A wall. She tried to edge around it, but like most rooms on the ship it was air tight. Not even Eelock’s spark appeared, and he was only a couple rooms away on the bridge with Mic.

She gave a mental shrug and let it drop.

~*~*~

“Are you sure you can handle this?”

Mic refused to deign Eelock with a response. What did it matter? They were in the middle of the field. Either he could handle it or they would all die. No pressure.

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He zigged, then zagged straight into a flip already planning the next ten moves to reach the most optimal path. A heat sensor lit on their port side. He adjusted his next move, ducking just in time to avoid the luxka blast.

“I’ll take that as a yes.”

Good, at least someone on the bridge believed in him. His mind kept wandering to his family, his dad helping sprinkle chocolate on their lattes, Chleo drinking it like she never lost her sight, their mom watching with haunted eyes… eyes that were replicas of his own. He couldn’t let them down.

Mic shook his head and yanked on the controls, narrowly missing a hurtling boulder. He couldn’t get distracted. Whatever happened to emotionless cyborgs? But no, his dad just had to code him feelings… the jerk.

They were going to have a long talk after this. Maybe he could get his mom to write him a hack to turn them off… for emergency use only, of course. She would get it… probably.

Purple blasted the rock on their starboard side. Eelock cursed. Mic swerved. Too late, a chunk clipped them.

Mic watched sensors dance warnings across the ship knowing Eelock would read them once they hit the bridge’s monitors. A group of crew quarters depressurized and the pod was hit. The escape pod… his family, his friends.

He shot to the pod’s camera. They sat strapped to crash chairs, the vacuum trying to rip them into space with the air. Everyone had their masks on and the pod’s radiation shield was still working. He checked the stabilizer field. It’d activated with the breach ensuring all liquids in the pod remained liquid… like blood and other various human necessities. They were fine. Mic let his circuits cool flipping back to the bridge.

Just in time to watch the next explosion. Even his reflexes couldn’t save them in time. They would hit it head on.

~*~*~

Chleo sat mesmerized. Flickers, flashes, and steady glows erupted into her void. She barely noticed the pressure trying to rip her from her chair. It was beautiful.

Purple, darker and deadlier than Eelock’s, surrounded them. She grabbed it pulling and pushing until it bent to her will. The light was unruly like Merk’s, mischievous like her dad’s but wholly foreign in her grasp. It was somehow… heavy? She pulled it against the empty space that traced their hull and held tight.

A spark flashed in front of the bridge. Dots of nothing exploded through the glow. Her heart clenched. Mic.

She flexed a new muscle and hoped it was enough. The glow hardened.

Her breath caught. The sheer size threatened to tear her apart, a pressure ripping under her skin. She flexed harder.

The dots collided… and bounced off.

She released with a sigh. Purple fled from her grasp and the feeling eased.

“Chleo?” Mic’s voice rang over the speaker. “I don’t suppose you could do that again…”

She groaned.

~*~*~

Together they flew the ship to the other end of the field. When they finally broke through to clear, beautifully empty, space, Chleo let herself sink farther into her crash chair. A little nap never hurt anyone.

She woke up two days later.

~*~*~

“We need to land,” a frustrated voice cut into Chleo’s dream. It was nice. She was picking apples at Ol’ Man Jimmy’s, and Will was stealing kisses between bushels. The scene called her, luring her back.

“There are holes in the ship. There are holes in the escape pod. Even if we can get there, how do you suggest we break atmo?” A second voice jolted her back into the room. Chleo’s senses fluttered.

“We don’t,” the first voice, Mom, answered.

“What do you— no, no absolutely not. You can’t be thinking we… are you out of your mind?” Merk’s voice filled the room. She didn’t see his glow. They must be using the comms again.

“I thought you were tired of sleeping in the cargo bay.”

“I’m not that desperate.”

“Oh, suck it up, Merk. If they can help, it’s worth a try,” Dai cut in over the speaker.

“They’re Royals—

“Barely,” Mrs. Baker muttered from the corner of the room. Chleo jumped. She wished one of the Neons were there so she could see, or better yet, her own glow would decide to stick around for longer than a few seconds.

“— They’ll turn us in,” Merk continued as if he didn’t hear her. Maybe he didn’t. No one responded.

“I need coordinates,” Mic said.

Another pause stretched. Eelock took control of the comms.

“Take us to the mines.”

Merk cursed.

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