Five Minutes To Impact

“*Five minutes to impact*”

“Fuckfuckfuckfuck.”

“*beep beep beep*”

“*Landing mechanism disabled*”

“What?!”

“Ejection mechanism disabled*”

“Why?!”

“Engines One and Two offline*”

“Goddammit Computer, do you have anything useful to say?!”

…

“Engine Four offline*”

“Fucking fantastic”

As the smoking remains of The Wanderer plummeted towards the planet below, Robyn desperately pulled on the manual steering controls. The comically small wheel and joystick did little to change the doomed ship’s trajectory. Strapped into the seat next to her, Theon clasped the armrests of his chair, knuckles white as the ship shook violently. Through a small, oval window to his right, he could see the harsh orange glow of the ship burning its way through the atmosphere. He turned back to watch Robyn, stood over the control board, wrestling with the steering.

“*Three minutes to impact*”

“Aaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!!!!”

They yelled in unison as the ship was nosediving now, the forested ground looming closer every second.

“*One minute to impact*”

“How much fuel?!”

“Zero point five percent and falling*”

“How many engines?!”

“Engine Three still online*”

“Right then.”

Theon yelled at her over the roar of the plummeting ship.

“What are you going to do?!”

(Earlier)

Late afternoon sunlight filtered through a small square window set into a low brick wall. Dust particles danced in the sunbeams as they reached down to illuminate a pair of worn brown boots, kicked up on a wooden desk. The boots were worn by Robyn, leaned back in a silver metal chair, fast asleep with a manilla case file laid open over her face. Her slumber remained undisturbed, even despite the presence of a large, muscular man sporting a thick mustache. Even thicker eyebrows, furrowed in a fierce glare of disapproval and crossed burly arms radiated an air of authority. A creak sounded as Theon elbowed open the door, a steaming mug in each hand. His eyes widening in panic as he took in the scene, he hurried over to Robyn, set the mugs down with a clatter and slapped her hard on the shoulder. With a yelp, Robyn sat up, the case file tumbling down to the floor.

“Bastard!”

Theon cleared his throat and saluted the mustached man.

“Sir!”

Robyn’s eyes widened and she scrambled up to stand next to Theon and joined his salute.

“S-sir!”

“Detectives.”

The mustached man, formally known as Captain Loras, addressed them.

“Noting your leisurely attitudes, might I have the pleasure of inferring that you have at last located Novalin, gathered enough evidence to arrest and fully convict him as well as his followers, and brought lasting peace to the Advialli Sector?”

They continued to salute in apprehensive silence.

“I thought not.”

Novalin referred to the elusive figure governing the Sostallian crime syndicate that had been terrorizing the Advialli Sector for the past three years. Robyn and Theon’s team had spent the last two hitting one dead end after another in trying to bring them down.

“Robyn, report.”

“Sir!”

“At ease.”

They lowered their arms and relaxed their stance.

“Sir, three days ago our contact reported that he would be meeting Novalin himself. We've been waiting for him to contact us, but so far he’s been silent.”

Captain Loras raised a hairy eyebrow.

“Novalin himself?”

“Or so he claimed. He’s been our contact for two years, I doubt he’d start lying now.”

“Unless he’s been messing with us this whole time.” Theon muttered. He had been less convinced by this mole than Robyn, who had first struck up the deal. Robyn gave him a look.

Captain Loras let out a breath.

“Either way, let me know when he reports back. Until then, occupy yourselves.”

“Yes sir!” They responded in unison.

Later, still having received no news, they were walking along the market spread along the street outside the small police station. Every so often Robyn would check a thin, watch-like device on her left wrist, the communication device she used to contact her mole. It remained silent and she frowned in frustration. Around them, colorful tarps fluttered in a dry breeze, the air filled with the chatter of sellers and buyers conversing in the dimming sunlight.

The Advialli sector comprises numerous small towns scattered throughout the heart of the massive desert that takes up three quarters of the planet Kasson’s surface. While some were beginning to undergo development to accommodate a growing population, Osso, the town Robyn and Theon currently resided in, remained as small and remote as it had been for millennia. Its people were just as steadfast, and it had taken some time for Robyn and Theon, foreigners from across the galaxy, to gain their trust as officers. After twenty years of hard work and ingratiation, they had managed to gain some foothold, although some of the older residents remained apprehensive. Their strongest relationship was a steamed bun salesman whose daughter they had once saved from a kidnapping. It was his stall they walked to now.

“Mandy!” Robyn called out. In response, a round, cheerful looking figure poked his head around the tarp, welcoming them with a wide grin. He wore a plain green tunic, tan pants, and a white apron stained with dough and flour. After hastily wiping likewise stained hands down this apron, he clasped a heavy hand down on a shoulder of both Robyn and Theon.

“My friends!” He said in the Southern dialect unique to Osso. It was often difficult for outsiders to learn, but Robyn and Theon had travelled so many places during their days in the military that they had managed to pick it up quickly.

“My friend!” Robyn said in response, clapping his shoulder in return. Theon glanced around the man and smiled at a young girl sitting inside the stall. Upon recognizing him, she grinned and ran over, hugging his waist. Mandy laughed, stepping back.

“How are you two doing?” he asked, “Not too much trouble happening I hope.”

“Not too much.” Robyn lied, “And you? How’s business?”

“Good good. Asha has been very helpful mixing the filling, haven’t you dear?” He smiled at the girl who still hugged Theon. Theon patted her head. “Well I’d certainly love to try some of that filling.” He handed her three silver coins. She took them and scampered back to the stall, returning quickly with two large, white, steaming buns. She reached up and handed them to Theon. He thanked her, and handed one to Robyn before taking a large bite of his own.

“Mmmm!” He exclaimed, widening his eyes at Asha, and nodding his approval. She looked delighted.

“Delicious, no? A new recipe!” Mandy grinned.

Robyn was about to say something, when a series of buzzes from her wrist caught her attention. She quickly turned away, closing her eyes in concentration as the pattern of buzzes repeated. It was a code she and the mole had devised, and she hastily decoded it. She took in a breath, grabbing Theon’s arm.

“We gotta go!”

Theon let out a startled grunt, mouth full with the last of his bun.

“Thank you Mandy, duty calls, we’ll be by again soon!” She called over her shoulder as they hurried away. Theon waved with his free hand, Mandy and Asha waved back.

Further down the road, Theon finally managed to swallow, and was able to ask Robyn what the hell was going on.

“The mole, he contacted me, he’s got Novalin dead to rights but he can’t stall him for long, we have to hurry!”

“Wait, Robyn, we aren’t prepared for such a full scale arrest, we need our team, equipment, a plan!”

“No time for that! We can call them when we get there! I have this!” She dangled a small blue button attached to a loop on the shoulder of her uniform. Theon recognized it to be a panic button, capable of bringing down the combined might of the Advialli sector police force. She must've swiped it off Loras.

“Where are we going now then?” He asked as they quickened their pace, turning off the market streets, winding through alleyways, before heading towards a long grey building, which Theon now recognized to be Osso’s small space port. A few ships were scattered in the sand around it, their hulls glinting pink and orange in the light of three setting suns. The one they headed to now was large, green, and vaguely rectangular, perched on two thin legs extending outwards from its middle. Painted with care on the side facing them, in delicate, white letters was its name: The Wanderer.

“Wren’s ship? This meeting is off-planet?”

“Mm hm.” Robyn reached into a pocket and pulled out a key, its color matching The Wanderer’s green hue. She pressed a button and The Wanderer beeped cheerfully, its cabin door opening, releasing a thin staircase which clattered down to rest on the sand.

“He lent it to me for the week.” Robyn explained to Theon’s questioning look.

A few minutes later, The Wanderer had hummed to life, and Robyn was busying herself about the controls. Theon strapped himself firmly into the seat next to her. Robyn was a pilot. She got from point A to B, only the sanity of the journey in between often left something to be desired.

“You do know, this ship is Wren’s pride and joy right? If you crash it-“

“I’m not gonna crash it!”

One hour later and it was falling out of the sky.

Theon yelled at her over the roar of the plummeting ship.

“What are you going to do?!”

She had no time to respond. The forest loomed larger every second. She swiftly unclasped Theon’s seatbelt, pulling him close to her before using every last ounce of her strength to pull the joystick back as far as it would go. The ship careened up and to the side, unbalanced as it was with just the one engine still functioning. It threw them far back into the cabin before the ship at last careened into the forest. They curled up, covering their heads as the ship’s momentum sent it rolling on through the forest. The cacophony of trees being pulverized echoed in their ears. At last, it came to a shuddering halt. They looked up. While the contents of the cabin were strewn chaotically about, the main structure was miraculously intact. They looked closer. Something was wrong. What they expected to see out of the battered windscreen was more trees and if not that, perhaps a clearing, or perhaps, heavens forbid, the remains of a dwelling. What they saw instead, was the distant bottom of a vast canyon, and as if the sudden horror of their realization was the last push it needed, The Wanderer began to slide ominously forward.

“Shit!” They screamed in unison, scrambling up. The door leading outside from the cabin was pressed into the ground. Robyn slammed the keypad next to the door leading to the rest of the ship and they ran through it. They were sprinting backwards through the ship as it slid forward, picking up speed. Leaping over strewn furniture and supplies, Robyn searched frantically for a breach in the hull.

“There!” Theon yelled, pointing. Near the back of the ship was a semicircular alcove that Wren had fitted with a large viewing window. A particularly large trunk had pierced it and been caught, torn up, and dragged along with the tumbling ship. Radiating out from it were cracks in the glass. Without hesitation, Robyn and Theon pulled out their guns and started blasting at the cracks. It shattered, and they leapt through the raining glass as The Wanderer descended into the canyon. Robyn looked over the edge just in time to see it explode, sending a ball of flame so high she could feel the heat on her face. She lay her head back down in the torn dirt. Theon, having gotten to his feet, hurriedly pulled her back from the edge to the safety of the treeline, propping her up against a trunk.

“It might collapse, you know.”

“It may as well. It would be a better death than what Wren is going to give me.”

He snorted, and she rolled her head over to look at him.

“Don’t say it.”

“I have to.”

“Pleas-

“I told you! What did I say?? You’d better not crash!”

“It wasn’t my fault!” She protested, “The controls went haywire all of a sudden, it started blasting down to this planet, we entered the atmosphere too fast and burned up!”

Theon looked concerned.

“What could’ve done that?”

“I have no idea and what’s worse is we’re late! Novalin is going to escape again!”

“Well actually, you're right on time!”

A cheerful voice startled them. From behind a tree materialized a small stout man with balding brown hair and watery blue eyes.

“Is that-“

Theon looked to Robyn who nodded in affirmation, pure shock on her face.

“My mole! Ethan! But how? How are you here?”

“I brought you here.”

“You mean you did something to our ship? What the hell you could have killed us!”

“I had to… after all… I promised you a meeting… with Novalin… himself.”

As he spoke, his voice changed violently, electronically, screeching and slurring until the last two words were spoken in a smooth rasp that was far different from the soft tones to start. Too baffled to say a word, Robyn and Theon looked to each other before a blinding flash made them look back to see that in the place of Ethan stood a tall slender man with long black hair and piercing purple eyes.

“Novalin.” They breathed in unison. Although they had only seen his face in a hazy mugshot, and glimpsed his figure in various clips of security footage, his likeness was unmistakable. His mouth twisted into a sneer that confirmed their accusation. He let out a cold, rasping laugh that echoed down the canyon.

“As promised.”

Robyn scrambled up to stand beside Theon and they aimed their guns towards him. He widened his eyes in false amazement.

“My goodness, two guns! That’s a lot!” Then he returned to his sneer.

“But I have more.”

The forest behind him began to light up with rectangles of blue light, out of each emerged a Sostallian crime syndicate member, armed to the teeth and grinning.

“You two have been a pain in our side for two long years, detectives Robyn and Theon. You planted a spy among us, you foiled our plans again and again, captured and murdered our brethren, it is unforgivable and today, it ends.”

“You’re damn right it ends!” Robyn roared, blind with fury. She would’ve started blasting then and there had Theon not let out a gargle and collapsed, twitching to the ground.

“Theon!” She dropped to the ground beside him, watching in horror as white spittle tinged with his bluish grey blood foamed out of his mouth. His eyes were wide as he looked at her in panic.

“He doesn’t have long left.”

Robyn looked back up at the sound of a voice that was familiar, but violently out of place. There, having emerged from the last of the blue rectangles, stood none other than Mandy and Asha. They no longer wore the plain clothes of market salesmen, but instead the gaudy, extravagant armor of the Sostallians, and both wielded massive guns.

“A new recipe.” Mandy snickered while Asha giggled.

“You… you poisoned him?!”

“Yes, but..” he cocked his head to one side, Asha let out a huff and pouted.

“Why not you?”

“Truth be told, I’ve never liked your buns! Not even once!”

To her surprise, Mandy looked genuinely hurt. Then her eyes widened and she looked back down at Theon writing on the ground.

“Oh shit you ate mine!”

He gargled.

She turned back fiercely, aiming her gun at Mandy.

“Give me the antidote now!”

Mandy sighed and turned to Asha.

“Honey, I don’t have the antidote, do you have the antidote?”

“Nope, nope, nope!” She replied in a sing-song voice, swishing her head from side to side.

Novalin spoke up.

“Surrender now, and perhaps I will find the mercy within me to save your friend.”

“How about you surrender your ass to this!”

She bellowed, holding aloft the panic button and pressing it dramatically. There was a moment of silence, as everyone waited. Nothing happened.

“Bastard!” She brought it back down, spamming the button with her thumb.

“God that’s embarrassing.” Theon choked. Novalin let out another echoing laugh.

“It appears your brethren are far less loyal than mine. How unfortunate for you.”

He raised a wiry hand, and the Sostallians raised their weapons. Robyn knelt, placing a hand on Theon’s forehead.

“We promised each other to fight to the end. You fight that poison, and I’ll demolish these sons of bitches.”

He shook his head and tried to grab her, but she stood out of his reach, positioning herself between him and the guns.

“Fire!” Novalin roared.

Robyn’s reflexes were swift and her aim was true. In the split second before the hail of bullets tore through her, she landed several of her own dead center in Novalin’s forehead. Stronger than the blinding pain, was a wave of satisfaction at the look of utter shock on Novalin’s shattered face as he fell backwards. The Sostallians watched in horror as he fell. Some rushed to him, while most let out a cry of anguish and raised their guns once more. But before they could unleash their final attack, they were blinded by a burst of blue light, as an array of Advialli officers appeared around them. Before they could switch their aim, the officers fired, and soon the forest was still. Captain Loras hurried over to Robyn and Theon. Theon, still twitching, was weakly shaking Robyn’s still body. Her blood, the golden-orange color of copper, pooled around her, soaking into the grass.

“Medics! Get them to a medical bay immediately!” Loras bellowed.

“If they live, I’m going to kill them!”