It was about to go through the Gate. Madre de dios, the thing was enormous. It was almost as long as the Gate was wide, and given that a Gate was the size of a small city, that was saying an awful lot. She hadn’t seen it fire a single weapon yet, but her skin prickled at the thought, because she had a bad feeling it would get really ugly, really fast.
Not that she’d have to watch, at least. She’d be too busy falling. It already felt like she’d been falling forever, and she still had a long way to go.
Until she didn’t, because instead of falling, she was now pressed to the underside of a spaceship carefully matching her speed and slowing it to a halt.
Eva had just enough time to mutter “Qué rayo” to herself, and then a hatch irised open and a pair of strong and very familiar arms were dragging her inside.
Vakar held her so tightly she hardly noticed they were sitting on the ceiling of his ship. He was here. He had come for her. She wasn’t going to die alone. Yet.
“You came back for me,” Eva murmured.
“I always will,” Vakar replied. “Always.”
The relief that flooded Eva’s body threatened to overwhelm her, so she pushed it away before it could sap her strength. This wasn’t over. If she could get back to the Gate, cut the other power sources, they might have a chance.
“We can’t stay here,” Eva said. “We have to move.”
“Yes,” Vakar replied, releasing her reluctantly. “Would you care to pilot, or should I?”
“You,” Eva said. “I have a job to finish.” She smiled as another thought occurred to her. “But let’s make one more pit stop before we go.”
Vakar’s Javelin-class ship wasn’t built for one passenger, much less two, so Eva and Mari had to cram themselves into the small corridor behind the cockpit and try not to get banged up too badly. They zoomed through the Gate above the dreadnought while evading enemy fire—definitely drones, good ones—but the larger ship itself didn’t seem to care enough about them to do anything.
What it did care about was the battle still under way between The Fridge and The Forge. As Eva climbed out of the ship onto the surface of the Gate once again, the mystery vessel was beginning to emerge from its own galaxy. Once a few hundred meters had come through, a stream of plasma shot into the distance, blazing as bright as a star. Moments later, an explosion lit the black, too large to be anything but either the Fridge battlecruiser or the Forge space station.
Yeah, everyone was definitely fucked if she didn’t get the Gate turned off in a hurry. Eva scrambled into the access tunnel and pushed herself forward as quickly as she could manage.
Her wire cutters were gone, so Eva slid her vibroblade off her belt and went to work. It was marginally more difficult, but it got the job done, and less than a minute later she was climbing back outside. One more power source to go.
Except Vakar’s ship was nowhere to be seen, and a giant robot was standing a few meters away from her.
Mierda, mojón y porquería. Eva slid back down into the tunnel, her breath quickening. She only had one working gravboot, so the odds of her sneaking past it were low, and she was wary of spacing herself again. How had the damn thing found her? Did it even know she was there, or was this bad luck?
Eva poked her head out again. The robot seemed to be scanning the area. It was smaller than the one she’d encountered at the Fridge base, maybe three meters tall instead of closer to nine, but still bipedal in a way that was eerily humanoid. Its body was dark in some places and pale in others, the colors difficult to determine in the dim light emitted by the Gate, and its joints had sharp-looking points sticking out at angles that suggested they’d be useful during violent close combat. Winglike blades protruded from its upper back, and its face was framed on either side by what looked like palps made of metal, and its glowing blue eyes were staring directly at Eva oh shit.
All at once, Eva’s translators went berserk, like they were being hacked. Images raced through her mind, too fast for her to understand, accompanied by smells that were entirely unrelated. There was a burst of static, and then a sound like a hundred different songs playing at the same time. Then, just as quickly as it had started, it stopped, silence and darkness returning as the scent of licorice receded.
Before Eva could unclench her fingers and drop back into the tunnel, the robot was directly in front of her, kneeling down and holding something out. It didn’t move, as if it knew Eva was on the verge of peeing herself or running away; it waited, and watched her with its eerie mechanical eyes.
Eva blinked at the thing it was holding. Her missing gravboot.
“Em,” Eva said. “Gracias?” She didn’t know if the robot could hear her, what with all the empty space and no atmo, but maybe it could read lips or something. Assuming it had any ability to comprehend her language in the first place. And was it sapient, or just highly advanced?
It continued to hold out the boot until Eva emerged and took it. She was hesitant to put it back on, but it was one less thing to replace later. If there was a later.
Mierda, I still need to get to the last power source, Eva thought. She opened comms as the robot continued to crouch there, staring at her.
“Vakar, where are you?” she asked.
“I am evading a Fridge vessel,” he replied. “Apologies for the delay.”
Eva groaned and tried another call. “Pink, you there?”
No reply for a few moments, then finally, “Eva, God almighty, what happened to you?”
“Long story, but I’m back at the Gate,” Eva said. “Can you get me to the last access tunnel?”
“No way,” Pink replied. “We made a run for it as soon as you disappeared. This mess is ten kilos of nasty in a five-kilo bag. I’m glad you’re alive, though.”
“That makes two of us.” Eva closed her eyes with a frown. She’d learned her lesson about walking before, so she wasn’t going to try that again. All she could do was wait for Vakar and Mari to come back for her. Her stomach roiled with frustration.
The robot made a gesture with its hand that looked questioning. It hadn’t attacked her yet, certainly, but that didn’t mean Eva trusted it. And her translators weren’t remotely equipped for a situation like this, so she couldn’t know whether something that looked like a question to her wasn’t something else entirely.
“I’m waiting for my ride,” Eva said. That seemed innocuous enough, and it was true.
It angled its head sideways as if thinking, then raised a hand and stepped backward. Eva furrowed her brow, watching it warily.
The robot lowered its hand and began to change.
Like with the Pod Pals, it happened too quickly to follow the motions of all the parts that shifted and slid and remolded themselves into the new form. Within moments, instead of a giant robot, a small vehicle waited in front of her. It looked like a skybike with wheels, and it popped a wheelie like it was being ridden by a stunt driver.
“Huh,” Eva said. That sure was a ride. And it would be faster than walking, especially with only one gravboot.
The bike angled to one side, almost like it was looking at her quizzically.
Eva hesitated. Vakar should be back soon, assuming he was able to shake his tail, but every moment she waited was another big hunk of the dreadnought gliding into this galaxy.