From Above

When my arm came off, I knew something wasn’t right. It wasn’t the pain, because there wasn’t any, it was the way it detached from my body—as though a small portion of the world was suddenly freed from the pull of Earth’s gravity. It rose up, cut clean, still clinging to my C130 Magnum, and disintegrated, piece by piece until nothing was left. But not just my arm; a perfect circle of the warehouse was carved out as if by a giant, invisible cookie cutter. Everything within the warehouse and the ground beneath that was inside the affected radius simply floated free and then disappeared—atomized. There was no explosion, no twisting of metal or bursting of pipes, it happened as silent as a mouse fart and was over in seconds.

As far as I could tell, I was standing at the edge of ground zero. Another foot forward and I would have joined the three perps I had cornered in the warehouse. Poor bastards were either in deeper than The Authority thought, or they did something to really piss off God.

I looked up and saw the sky; at least it looked clear during the day. A hole, fifty feet wide had been carved into the roof of the warehouse—one of several warehouses I had been checking for Dretch production. Being a narc wasn’t my idea of important police work, but some of the hot shots up-town didn’t like my style. Of course, that would all change now.

Peering down into the hole, created by whatever invisible force was at work, I came to the realization that this was going to be a big case, maybe the biggest ever. And with me as the only survivor, I’d be back in business.

A tingling in my arm tore my attention away from the gaping hole and thoughts of the future. A stump wiggled below my shoulder. I swore I could still feel my arm moving, but the smell of burnt flesh confirmed my suspicions. Whatever had taken my arm had also cauterized the stump, and it happened so fast that my nervous system didn’t even register the catastrophic wound. What was worse, my leathers were ruined.

I decided that I’d find out who took my arm and make sure they paid for what they did. At the very least, they could buy me a new Tac-suit.

That was a year ago. Shit.

Sure, I’m up-town. I’ve got a new synthetic limb that puts my old arm to shame. But I had to buy my own damn new Tac-suit, and I’m no closer to finding out who put a mile-deep hole in the Earth. The tech-boys tell me it came from an object in orbit, which makes finding the source near impossible. Back in the twentieth century, the human race started putting things in space. Three thousand years later and we haven’t stopped. At night it’s impossible to tell what’s a star and what’s some yuppie’s space-winni.

A layer of crap, a half mile thick, surrounds the Earth on all sides and bulges at the middle, like the rings of Saturn. And with almost as many people living up there as there are down here, finding out who or what owes me for this Tac-suit is near impossible. The fact that only three wanted felons and my arm were taken makes this case a low priority. Until someone decides to take another potshot at the Earth again, I’m grounded. Not that I’m complaining. My new partner is a fox.

“You on Dretch or something, Priest? Watch the freakin lanes.”

Rehna has a way with words that I always enjoy.

I twist the wheel and dodge some old lady driving way too slow for air-trans. She should have stayed on the ground with the rest of the simps. Damn people, afraid of technology. When the human race took to the skies en masse it gave us room to breathe and new freedoms that led to a technological renaissance that lasted for thousands of years. Cities grew up, thousands of feet tall. Vehicles took to the air, traveling faster and safer. Life sped up. Got better.

But not everyone took to the air. Some, afraid of change, stayed on the ground—living slow, unproductive lives; hugging trees, driving cars with wheels and sniffing the damn daisies. Aren’t many simps left now-a-days. Good thing too.

“Daydreaming again?” Rehna asks me with a smirk.

“Not about you, so don’t get your hopes up.” She’s gonna love that.

“Do you want me to land and beat you like a school girl?” Her face is turning red. She’s either embarrassed or about to shoot me. I decide to find out.

“Keep talking. I think I’m fallin in love.”

“That’s it.” She shoves me to the side and I see her take the wheel, but it doesn’t quite register in time to stop what happens next. We’re hurtling straight for the ground. My instincts tell me to take the wheel back, to scream, but I know Rehna. She’s not suicidal.

Our air-trans mobile unit comes to a stop five feet above the ground, face down. If it were a civilian unit we’d be a smudge on the pavement, but these sleek new mobile units can stop on a dime and cruise at nearly the speed of sound. It’s sleek and smooth, the way I like my women, but I can’t say I like the light blue color. Kind of Nancy if you ask me.

The hatch opens and I fall five feet onto the pavement. She knew I wouldn’t be wearing my belt. I hear Rehna’s boots hit the pavement behind me. A second later I hear the hum of her C130 warming up. We have a winner. She’s gonna shoot me. Now I know I’m falling in love.

“On your feet,” Rehna tells me.

I stand and turn to face her; damn she looks hot in a Tac-suit. I gotta remember to thank the man who designed them. They’re projectile proof, which is nice, as most perps can’t afford C130s. In a pinch can even protect the wearer from the depths of the ocean or the vacuum of space. Not that I’ve had occasion to test either claim. The point is, in most cases, they’re nearly indestructible. But the hot laser Rehna’s packing will cut through me like a slab of lard. I admire the curves of her body, which are accentuated by the tightness of the black Tac-suit. Her belt hangs loose on her hip…My eyes linger.

“Ugh. That’s it,” Rehna says. She’s losing patience with me. Her C130 falls to the ground. Her belt falls next. This is getting interesting.

Rehna swings high and then low, missing both times. She’s fast, I’ll give her that. But I’ve got ten years experience on her, and I can scan her like an unsecured porn server.

“This is stupid,” I say, but I don’t think it goes through.

I duck two more swings and a third catches my arm. Too bad for her, she picked the wrong arm. Cling! My synthetic arm is hard as steel, and she hit it with enough force to knock out a Rhino. Her thick glove keeps her fingers from shattering, and she lets out little more than a stifled grunt. She’s tougher than I thought. Her fist comes at me from the other side. I feel a breeze on my chin as her knuckles skim past my face. Too close.

I step back and prepare to end a fight that should have never begun. I told The Authority adding women to up-town was a bad idea. Of course, they didn’t listen and now I have to teach Rehna a lesson. One punch to the side should do. Don’t want to ruin her pretty face.

As I clench the fist in my human arm, a slight aberration in my vision catches my attention. My memory surges back to the warehouse. I saw the same distortion right before I lost my arm. My eyes track up. A wavering visual phenomenon, like heat rising from hot pavement, cuts straight through the center of a ten thousand foot behemoth, constructed a thousand years ago.

Whack! My check burns with pain after Rehna’s punch connects. But my eyes don’t leave the sky. Rehna must have noticed, because I don’t feel a second punch—good thing too, the first almost broke my jaw. What a woman.

Then it happens. Just like before. Gravity ceases to exist. Half of the behemoth and what looks like miles of other buildings come loose and float toward the sky, turning to dust as they move. Then it’s over.

Down the street, I see a hole like the Grand Canyon, but I can’t see the other side. It’s beyond the horizon. Then I hear the screams; folks panicking, shrieking in fear. We kick into gear and head for the mobile unit. Rehna’s in and buckled up in seconds, but two nearby noises catch my attention. Both are whiny—one from above, one from below. I turn to the second and see a little girl, the daughter of some simp probably, but still just a kid.

“Priest, move it! The whole thing’s comin down!” Rehna sounds panicked. That’s not good.

I look up and see what remains of the behemoth begin to crumble. I run for the girl, arms stretched out. The mobile unit’s engines are loud behind me. Rehna’s on the ball.

The girl must sense my urgency because she’s running for me now. I scoop her up like a football and look over my shoulder. Rehna’s coming on fast. Thank God she left the hatch open. This is going to be close.

I toss the girl back, and she lands hard in my seat. Probably hurt like hell, but at least she’ll live. Can’t say the same for me though. Let’s hope Rehna’s reading my mind and doesn’t want to kill me.

The mobile unit is on my heels when I jump into the air. I feel the closed hatch sliding beneath me, then the hard metal of the rear casing. I dig my mechanical fingers into the metallic roof and feel a tug as Rehna hits the accelerator, making a beeline for the edge of the city.

Like a falling redwood, the solid building begins to topple above my head, its shadow looming and blocking out the sun. My face begins to sting as dust moving past at one hundred fifty miles-per-hour scours my skin. Rehna must be able to see what I’m seeing. We have ten thousand feet of twisting metal and cement to outrun. As we hit the two hundred mile-an-hour mark, I think about how much of a bitch paper work for today is going to be back at up-town. Then I remember there might not be an up-town left.

We hit four hundred miles an hour, and I’m not thinking anything. My face is burning like its being held against an open flame, and the skin stitched to my synth-arm feels like it’s going to tear off. The wind is so loud in my ears I don’t hear the explosion as the building hits the ground behind us, leveling miles of city blocks and destroying several other buildings.

The mobile unit slows to a stop somewhere outside of the city. I don’t know where, wasn’t really paying attention. My forward momentum carries me over the roof and I slide across the hatch, landing on the pavement.

I look up and see Rehna leaning down above me. “You still alive, Priest?”

“Been worse. Help me up.”

I stand to my feet and see my reflection in the mobile unit’s slick paint job. “Damn.”

“What is it?” Rehna asks me.

I look at my Tac-suit, torn and shredded on my body, hanging like a limp corpse. “Now they owe me two Tac-suits.”

Rehna smiles.

With most of up-town reduced to atoms there isn’t anyone left to report to. Hell, I might be the highest ranking cop in town. All city-bound lines of communication are inoperable, so I turn to the next best source of information. The dashboard sat-link blinks on and is instantly filled with the image of a screaming woman. She appears to be reporting on the wave of destruction that just ravaged my city, but she’s incoherent. Useless.

“Channels one through fifty, news filter priority one.” The sat-link responds to my voice like an obedient dog, filling the screen with twenty three thumbnail feeds. I scan the images and listen to the mix of voices.

“English only.” One by one, images disappear. Only five remain when it’s done. Three screens show women reporters crying their guts out. Another displays a man wailing like a stuck pig—embarrassing. The fifth shows an aerial shot of the carnage, something had carved a clean, perfectly round hole in the center of the city, miles wide and countless fathoms deep. Millions of lives have been lost.

Rehna gasps. “My God.”

Women…

The kid is sitting in Rehna’s lap, staring intently at the screen, eyes wide. Kid’s taking it all in stride. Probably not old enough to be an emotional wreck yet.

“Track five, audio only. Enlarge.” The image of the destruction fills the screen.

The voice of a reporter speaks calmly over the feed. “Once again, as it did a year ago, a sinister force from orbit has struck the Earth. The source of the devastation is still unknown and with The Authority headquarters destroyed, chances are, we will never know where and when this evil force might strike again. Scientists studying the clean-cut hole of last year’s attack could not identify what kind of weapon was used, only that it is far more advanced than anything in the World District’s arsenal. Could technology finally be turning on—”

Before I have time to react, the kid reaches out and messes with the sat-link controls. We lose the feed.

“What the hell, kid? Don’t touch this shit,” I say, while attempting to readjust the controls.

“Move your damn hand,” the kid barks at me.

I stop and give her the coldest stare I can muster—sends most mutts running scared. But the kid just gives it back to me.

“What’s your name, kid?”

“Well, it ain’t kid.”

I wait.

“Gawyn.”

“Well, Gawyn. I ain’t letting no simp mess with my mobile unit.”

“Good. Cause I ain’t no simp, old man.”

Old man? Kid’s looking to get a close up look at my knuckles talking like that. I clench my left fist. Then I feel a squeeze on my shoulder. Rehna’s glaring at me. “Let her play with the freakin sat-link, Priest.”

I smile. “There you go talking dirty to me again.”

Gawyn goes to work. Her fingers are a blur on the screen, working the controls masterfully, faster than I could even with the synth-arm. My eyes widen with every half second, cause that’s all it takes for her to access The Authority’s satellite mainframe. She’s no simp. She’s a damn cyber-genius.

“What are you doin, kid?”

“The anti-matter pulse came from orbit.”

“Anti-matter pulse?” Rehna’s as confused as I am.

“That’s just what I call it. I detected its energy field twenty minutes before the pulse. That’s how I got out of the target area in time, but just barely.”

“You can detect it?” I ask, knowing it’s a dumb question.

“Duh. Any kid with an old 40-Gig system and a sat-link could detect it. But you have to look for it. Auto detection won’t pick it up as more than a temporary heat-spike.”

“And you were looking for it?”

“Since last year.” The kid’s fingers continue across the controls. She breaches several protected servers and accesses classified surveillance systems. “It’s the most kick-ass weapon since the beginning of time.”

The kid looks me in the eyes. “You’re must be lucky or something. Missed you twice now.”

Rehna and I look at each other. “You know who I am?”

“Who doesn’t. Your wrinkly face was pasted to every sat-link transmission for a month… Of course, not everyone has been tracking you for the last year. You know, for all your research, you didn’t find much.”

I look the kid in the eyes and try not to blink. “You’ve been spying on me for a year?”

“It’s not like it’s hard, you know.” The kid smiles. I have one of the most secure systems in the city. She probably sees it as a playground. Damn kids today. “You’ve been trying to find out what happened that day…what took your arm, and your Tac-suit. You’re obsessed with Tac-suits.”

I’m losing patience. “Get to the point.”

“When I detected the heat spike, I came to find you. The anti-matter pulse cut the engines off my hyper-scooter. Almost got me too, and I crashed just outside the target area. That’s when I found you. I knew that you, more than anyone else, would take action once I told you what I know.”

I raise an eyebrow. It’s all I’m willing to give.

Gawyn taps one last button on the sat-link. A diagram of Earth orbit and every piece of space junk currently above the city blinks onto the screen. One of the objects is highlighted with a red circle.

“And this is?”

“How’d you ever become a cop?”

Kid’s a wise ass. I like her.

Gawyn rolls her neck and speaks quickly. “I figured that if the antimatter pulse fired on this city again that it was probably in a geosynchronous orbit above us.”

“Okay…”

“This cuts out bazillions of other possible suspect satellites.”

Rehna leans forward. “Meaning we’re left with the millions of orbiting objects currently over the city.

“Right, but not everything up there is geosynchronous and the fact that nothing in orbit was destroyed means that what we’re looking for is on the bottom layer of a half mile of junk.”

Damn kid is smart. Not even the tech-boys could have figured this out. Good thing too, now that they’re all dead.

“Now we’re left with only a few thousand targets.”

“And you’ve narrowed it down to one?” Rehna asks.

Gawyn nods.

“How?”

“It’s hot,” I say, finally catching up with the kid.

“Right, but not for long. It’s already cooling off.”

I activate the hatch and it seals down over us. “What are you doing?” Rehna asks.

“Buckle up,” I tell them.

Gawyn looks nervous. “I don’t have a seatbelt!”

I smile. “Better double up then.”

Rehna and Gawyn wrap a belt around the two of them, and I gun the throttle to the max, pulling more G’s than a Disney Universe shuttle pod. I aim for the sky, swerving in and out of airborne traffic—most of it fleeing the city. Three minutes later, we clear ten thousand feet and leave most of the traffic behind.

“Priest, what are you planning to do?” Rehna asks. I can tell she’s afraid of the answer. I try to go easy on her.

“Even been in space?” I ask.

Rehna and Gawyn stare at me blankly. The kid explodes, “Bring me back! Bring me back down!”

“I can’t,” I say as calmly as possible.

“Why not?” Gawyn shouts.

“Cause, kid, I might need you.”

Gawyn stares at me. I can feel her trying to gauge my seriousness. Her eyes narrow. “You’re right, old man. You do need me.”

“I hate to break it to you, Priest, but mobile units aren’t rated for space travel.” Rehna is trying to remain calm. I’m pretty sure that if the kid weren’t on her lap, she might fight me for the controls.

“Actually, that’s not entirely true. Up-town might not have let me change the color, but they did let me make a few modifications.” I can’t help but smile.

“Priest… What modifications?”

I respond by opening a panel next to my right knee. After flipping a switch, the mobile unit beings to shake as loud whirs and clacks emanate from the back. Sounds like we’re falling to pieces, but I know better. Rehna screams as we lose power and our ascent slows.

Just as our forward momentum ceases and gravity reclaims its pull on our mobile unit at twenty-five thousand feet, the secondary propulsion unit kicks in, slowly at first, but building in power with each passing nanosecond. Suddenly with a burst of speed, we’re flattened against our seats, skin stretching back as we enter Earth’s crowded orbit.

For the first time since I’ve joined the force, I’m wearing my seatbelt. Hard to drive in zero grav when you keep floating off the seat. The kid is having too much fun, working the sat-link upside down, drifting in the cabin. Rehna just looks mortified…or is it pissed? Kind of hard to tell with Gawyn spinning around between us.

“Which way, kid?”

“Gawyn. My name is Gawyn, old man.”

“Fine… Gawyn. Which way?”

“Well, Priest, straight-a-freakin-head.”

Through the windshield is a mass of floating objects. Some are satellites, serving some purpose to someone. Some are space-decks, orbiting apartment units for people afraid of gravity. The rest is crap—trash tossed into space by folks in the late twenty-first century when they ran out of room for their trash. They figured it would all just float aimlessly through space for all eternity. Dumb bastards didn’t count on picking it all back up a year later when they caught up with their own shit. The thought that this is only a year’s worth of trash makes me sick.

“Heat signature is faint, but we’re within fifty meters,” Gawyn says.

All eyes scan the debris field. Some of the trash separates and we enter a clearing, twenty meters wide, twenty tall. Strange.

I cut the gas and we drift forward, toward the center of the clearing, where a satellite floats alone. It’s big, the size of an air-bus. At its base, pointed toward the Earth is what appears to be a satellite dish attached to three metallic coils extending out like a solidified DNA sequence.

Fwang! A series of laser blasts ricochet off the mobile unit’s hull. The kid jumps back, away from the windshield, but there’s nothing to get cranky about. “Ratchet down, Gawyn. Lasers barely left a scratch.”

Rehna looks at me, more relaxed now that we’re seeing action. “Maybe they’ll let you change the paint color now?”

The smile on my face must tell all, because Rehna looks away quickly. Never in my life has a woman remembered something I’ve said, unless it was an insult. Of course, now might not be the best time to think about it.

Fwang! Fwang! Lasers barrage the outside of the mobile unit doing nothing more than providing a cheesy lightshow. “Must be low yield,” I say.

“Probably to deflect space junk,” Rehna adds.

I steer us toward the satellite and pull up close next to what looks like a maintenance hatch. Then it occurs to me, this might not just be a satellite…maybe it’s a space station. Someone might be alive inside this thing.

As we come within inches of the orbiting beast’s hull, the laser fire dies off. Gives me a chance to inspect the outer surface for clues as to who owes me money. “Shit,” I say, now knowing I’ll never get reimbursed for my Tac-suits.

“What is it?” Rehna asks.

“Mooners,” Gawyn spits out. “Dirty Mooners.”

Fifteen hundred years ago a moon colony was established and its population grew. Low grav made them multiply like rabbits on Dretch. But their advance in everything techie grew just as fast and they quickly adapted to supporting a massive population. It was one of the most modern facilities ever built and larger than any Earth city at the time. Damn toilets probably wiped their asses for them.

Millions were thriving when Albin was born. The bastard rose to power two hundred years after the colony was formed. He was some kind of religious zealot and fancied himself as God’s divine prophet. And the Mooners, ungrateful little whelps, whining about being controlled by us Earthers, staged a brutal and savage revolt. Under Albin’s direction, a series of hit-and-run attacks on Earth cities were carried out. The cowards couldn’t stand toe to toe with us, so they took aim at normal people, the simps, the young, the yuppies, people who never see the inside of a mobile unit. Killed thousands. They forced Earth to retaliate. Rather than wipe the Mooners clean from the moon with nukes, like I would have done, the government at the time opted to carry out a strategic strike aimed at Albin himself.

A single Earth agent managed to infiltrate Albin’s organization and rose to power from within, as a trusted General. Too bad for Albin; he lost his head while taking a crap. A single, high-caliber bullet splattered his brains against the bathroom wall. Got what he deserved too. But he died a martyr. The Mooners continued to piss and moan and soon gained their independence. Not much has been heard from them since. The colony hasn’t grown in size. No new construction has been reported…but from the insignia on the outside of this satellite, I now know that they’ve kept busy over the years.

I attach the docking seal to the side of the satellite—another modification. The sat-link gives the OK and I unbuckle myself and float through the tight opening into the mobile unit’s backside. With my new C130 tight in my hand I head for the hatch.

“Wait for me.” Gawyn says.

I don’t even look back. “Sit your ass back down. No one moves until I say so.” I can hear her fold her arms. Must not be used to being told what to do. What I’ve seen her do with a computer this far leads me to believe she hasn’t had much parental supervision. Not that parents are any good for anything other than feeding you.

I open the docking hatch, and a burst of stale air surges into the mobile unit. “Ugh, smells like old farts.”

Gawyn’s right. Something either died in here or they’ve got a miniature cow farm tucked inside. At least the air is breathable. “Stay here,” I say, as I float forward, into the belly of a beast capable of wiping out entire cities.

Floating inside an orbiting super-weapon isn’t something I tend to do often. And the smell has got me spooked—so I lead with my C130 aimed high. It’s cramped inside, like a soda can just big enough for a human. I float through the entrance tube into what must be a cockpit and—holy shit!

I fire my weapon three times with deadly accuracy; two to the chest, one to the head. Too bad the bastard is already dead; shots that precise and that quick would’a gave me braggin rights. But this guy is a rotting heap. His skin is tight and dry, wrapped around his skull like a facelift for the dead. He’s probably been here for years, maybe hundreds, with nothing to break down his flesh. Nothing but a human-sized stick of jerky now.

For a dead guy, he packs a lot of attitude. His dried lips are frozen in a sinister grin and his two middle fingers are extended toward the entrance hatch. This guy died knowing he would eventually be found. Definitely Mooners. No one else is this fanatic, to deliver a message hundreds of years after his death. A thought occurs to me; if this guy is dead, who is picking targets and firing this hunk of junk?

“Out of the way, asshole.” I take the dead guy by his gray flight suit and toss him to the back of the inner cabin. I hear him hit the wall with a crack. Kind of gives me the creeps, defiling the dead like that, but I’m sure he deserves it.

My body fits in the single cockpit chair nicely. This boat was designed for a single occupant. After scanning the array of controls spread out across three separate panels, I decide I’m screwed. Everything is labeled in some language I’ve never seen before. So I decide to take a chance and start pushing buttons. The first three do nothing, but the forth opens a front panel, revealing a large windshield and a stunning view of the Earth below. Few people ever get to see the Earth like this, with all the garbage floating in orbit, real estate on the lower levels is near impossible to find. Of course, this view has a flaw. Even from this far away, the clean-cut hole in the Earth, through the heart of my city, can be seen clearly. Gonna make the bastards pay for that.

I reach for another button. “Don’t touch that, you idiot!”

I can’t remember ever jumping in fright, not even once in my life, but in zero grav I launch out of the seat and hit my head on the ceiling. Embarrassment keeps me from getting angry, as I float above the control panels, looking down at Gawyn. Kid takes my seat at the controls. Probably a good thing too; I might have ended up putting another hole in the Earth.

Rehna floats in through the entrance tunnel. “Sorry, Priest. I tried to stop her.”

Gawyn looks up at me. “Can you read Mooner?”

“No.”

“Really? No kidding.” Gawyn brims with sarcasm. “Cause I could’a sworn you wanted to kill us all.”

I don’t argue.

Gawyn starts with the magic fingers again. Screens blink to life. The power comes online in full. The air is purified, thank God. I push down from the ceiling to get a closer look at the display screens. Images flash past quickly as Gawyn tears through the complex computer system. Then she stops and looks up at me, floating above her.

“I’m in,” she says.

“In where?”

“Mooner city. Their database.”

“Kid, you want a job with The Authority, you got it.” She smiles, and for the first time I notice she’s cute. Not that I go around calling kids cute that often, most of them are about as pleasant looking as an overused snot rag. But Gawyn, she manages to serve a purpose, and she ain’t bad to look at, at the same time.

I get lost in my thoughts and fail to notice the changes on the screen. “Priest, are you seeing this?” Rehna asks me.

The screen displays text and images: war machines, tactical gear, a diagram of the Earth with hundreds of orbiting satellites lit up in green. “What the hell?”

Gawyn reads my mind and digs deeper on the satellites. She brings up detailed schematics and tactical information. “Move over,” Rehna says, and I push to the side. Rehna can read faster than lightning. One of her eyes was shot out two years back, before I knew her, and she got some new-fangled eye. Lets her scan pages of information like a robot taking snapshots. Rehna scrolls through the information and even the kid can’t keep up.

“Holy…” I’ve never seen Rehna look so stunned. She looks me in the eyes, but the connection I’ve felt between us is buried deep beneath a sense of dread. “We’ve got an hour before three hundred of these satellites open fire on the rest of Earth’s major cities. Priest, they’ve been planning this for the last twenty five hundred years.”

I roll with the biggest mental punch I’ve ever received. “The last legacy of Albin. And then what?”

“Invasion.”

“So they turn the Earth to Swiss cheese and then invade,” I say. “Doesn’t sound like the Earth will be worth keeping around.”

“It won’t be,” says Rehna as plain as day.

My eyes widen with the realization that the Mooners don’t mean to take over Earth, they mean to destroy it…or at least everyone living on it.

I blink and the kid’s back to work, flying her fingers across the consoles, working the keys. “What are you doing?” I ask.

“I ain’t letting no Mooners take out my planet,” Gawyn replies. “I got friends down there you know.”

A loud hummm emanates from the rear of the satellite and the walls begin moving around my floating body. She’s turning the satellite, aiming at a different target…aiming at the moon. I can’t help but smile. This kid’s a fighter, but I can’t let her be a killer.

“Out of the seat, Gawyn, I’ll take it from here.”

“But…”

“Now.”

Gawyn huffs and floats out of the seat. I resume my place behind the controls. “Okay, now tell me what to do.”

Gawyn talks as fast as she types. I do my best to keep up. Within minutes we have the weapon powered up and aimed straight at Mooner central, which Rehna thinks contains the majority of their control centers, population and army, awaiting orders to begin the invasion of Earth. If we’re lucky, we can take them all out in one shot.

“Increase the target radius,” Gawyn instructs me. “We can take them out in one shot.” There she goes, reading my mind again.

As I increase the target radius, a blue bar races across the screen, turning green, yellow, orange and then red. Rehna looks over my shoulder. “Taking a shot that big is going to overload the system. I’d rather not die up here if it’s all the same to you.”

“If we leave even one control system intact they could still plug the Earth full of holes. I’m not gonna let that happen, even if it kills us all.” Rehna doesn’t argue, neither does Gawyn. Figures, I’m minutes away from dying and I’ve finally found a family I could get used to. Oh well.

A vibration tickles my ass beneath the seat as the weapon reaches full charge. I can feel the raw power being built up. Before I can finish my thoughts on how the Mooners were able to leap ahead of us technologically, I see movement in the debris field between us and the moon. Four men in space suits with rocket packs come at us like laser rounds. “We got company,” I say plainly.

“Who are they?” Gawyn asks.

“Doesn’t matter.” I look at their weapons. They look powerful enough to destroy the satellite before we can get a shot off. “Can we set this thing on a timer?”

“I don’t know!” Gawyn’s starting to panic.

I take her by the shoulders. “You stay here. Set a timer on this thing.” I look at Rehna. “Stay with her.”

Rehna takes my shoulder as I head for the exit. “Be careful,” she says.

What’s this mushy stuff? We’re trying to save the world from Mooner terrorists and my partner is about to cry over my freakin life, which I have yet to lose and don’t intend to lose. Ahh, screw it. I’m growing tired of being the rude, manly hero anyway. I take Rehna by the waist and pull her toward me, an easy feat in zero grav, and plant a wet one on her lips. I feel my normal stew of negative feelings cool to a light simmer before I pull away. Rehna floats away from me, looking stunned…and stunning. Now I know I love her.

Before Rehna can say something to change my mind, I launch through the docking seal and back into the mobile unit. I fire up the engines and prep the weapons systems. No way I’m gonna let these punks kill my girls.

The assailants pause at the sight of me bearing down on them in a fully armed mobile unit. I don’t give them time to figure out what to do. I take aim at the two closest to one another and open up with a lase-sweep. The solid beam of red hot energy slices through space, cutting the two men in half like meat on the butcher’s block. The other two rocket away, weaving in and out of the debris field.

They think they’re getting away. They’re wrong. Obviously, these jokers have never seen what a mobile unit is capable of, or they wouldn’t be fleeing in a fairly straight line. Probably think all the junk between me and them will slow me down. Heh, this is going to be fun.

I switch on the mobile unit’s auto-defense system and step on the gas. My cannons open up on all sides and unleash Hades. Every hunk of crap within twenty feet is turned into space dust. Anything missed by the cannons, I just plow through. Good thing there’s no sound in space or these jokers would hear me coming, like an angry avalanche…with guns. Too much fun.

I lock on to one with an intelrocket. This is gonna scare the crap out of that last guy. The rocket flings through space, dodging debris with incredible agility. Aside from teleporting, there’s no way to escape an intelrocket once it’s locked on. Two seconds later, the third man explodes in a silent splash of guts, leaving just one more.

He must have seen bits of his friend fly past, because his movements become erratic. Hasn’t he learned that shaking me is impossible? The man takes a ninety degree turn and I follow with ease, clearing a wide path for myself the whole way. I lose sight of the man and suddenly burst free of the debris and into a clearing.

Shit! Shit, shit, shit. I should have seen this coming. At the center of the clearing, are what appear to be three Mooner-versions of my mobile unit. They open fire with everything they’ve got.

I turn hard right and take two hits to my left side. Shakes me up, but I’m otherwise unscathed. After turning off the defense systems, I launch into the debris field, weaving in and out of old satellites and garbage cans. I know I can lose them and it might buy me some time…but for what?

I turn on the com system and try Rehna. “Rehna, this is Priest. You copy?”

“Roger, Priest. We copy. Where the hell are you?”

“Got some unwelcome guests on my tail. How close are you to pulling the trigger?”

“Ready when you are.”

Fwash! A laser skims off the hull. Getting closer.

“I want you to wait until I’m in your sights. Then fire that thing, full power.”

I hear the kid grab the line. “You can’t! That’s crazy!”

“Shut-up, kid.” No time to play wet-nurse. “Pull the trigger or I’m gonna die anyway.” I hang up, not in the mood for goodbyes.

After entering the path I carved earlier, I floor it, pouring on the speed like a cybernetic cheetah. They’re right on my ass. Fast little bastards. I make a beeline for the Mooner-weapon’s attack zone and set the controls: straight ahead, full speed. I take my biohazard mask from its compartment and strap it to my head. Might help me survive.

I pick up the com. “Rehna?”

“We’re ready, Priest,” she replies, voice wavery.

“I need you to go ahead and open the outer airlock doors.”

She responds just the way I like it. “Done.”

“Be ready to seal the airlock on my signal.”

“What signal?”

“You’ll know.”

Bachoom! A shot hits me directly in the rear. Then another and another. Better make this quick.

“Priest, you got five seconds before we fire.”

I pop the hatch and it floats away at five hundred miles per hour. I push off the floor and float out of the cab at the same speed, as I enter the target area. The three Mooner ships continue after the mobile unit, guns blazing. Probably thought I was a piece of shrapnel they blew off. Their mistake, my salvation.

Reaching out with my synth-arm, I wield a grappling hook, which I launch toward the Mooner satellite. It finds its home, embedded in the metal hull and catches tight. At five hundred miles per hour, even in space the pull is incredible. It takes all of my cybernetic strength to hold on, as I swing wide, out of range. A second later, my vision blurs as the weapon fires and the three Mooner ships cease to exist, along with my mobile unit.

My chest begins to burn. I’m longing to take a breath, but I know if I do, I’ll just suck in the cold of space. The face mask over my eyes holds nicely and gives me the ability to aim where I’m going, spinning around the satellite, over and over again like a wild tetherball getting closer and closer to the pole. My speed slowed at first, but has picked back up with every revolution. This is gonna hurt.

On my last revolution, I can tell that my aim was true. Instead of slamming into the outer hull, I’m about to be flung inside the open airlock. I lead with my synth-arm, letting it take the majority of the impact and using it to slow the rest of my body before I slam into the airlock doors.

The impact knocks the wind out of me and I feel desperate to suck in air. But I know if I do, I’m dead. My vision starts going black, and I concentrate on keeping my mouth shut, clenching my jaw. I feel hands grab my shoulders and pull, but it’s the last thing I sense.

I wake up ten minutes later to the sound of Gawyn yelling up a blue streak. “What are we gonna do! We’re gonna be splattered!”

After opening my eyes, I quickly survey the situation. Through the windshield I see the Earth spinning below and coming up quick. I must have knocked the satellite out of orbit when I hit. Better lay off the cheeseburgers.

My stomach turns as I feel gravity begin to take control. A sudden jerk pulls me off the floor, and I fall down the now vertical satellite. I fall past Gawyn and Rehna, and slam onto the windshield, face down. I open my eyes to a close-up view of the Earth’s surface. But now it’s approaching more slowly.

I roll over onto my back and face Gawyn and Rehna, their eyes wide. “I think it’s safe to say this thing has a parachute.”

“And hard freakin glass,” Gawyn says with a smile.

I smile back. Kid’s making me all warm and freakin fuzzy. Maybe I’ll retire.

After twenty minutes of floating through the sky, we land back in the city, on the top of one of the few remaining ten thousand foot buildings. Popping the hatch proves a challenge for my weary and burning muscles, but my synth-arm is still up to the task. We’re greeted by the cool night air, kept clean and breathable by air scrubbers running up the sides of every building in town. I suck the air in like a siphon.

The girls climb down the side of the satellite one at a time, both refusing my help. I’m just shocked that I offered to begin with. As I roll my neck back, letting the bones crack back into place, I notice how bright the stars are. Stars… I laugh as I realize that when the weapon was fired it cleared a clean hole over the city. Probably killed a bunch of civies in the process, but you know what they say about breaking a few eggs.

My vision follows the stars to a bright object floating in space that I’ve only seen in books. The moon. With all the crap orbiting the planet, no one on the surface has seen the moon for a thousand years. Probably just the way they liked it, being able to move in concealment, like sneaking up on a scared kid hiding under the blankets. Too bad for them, this scared kid got hold of a big gun.

A perfectly round hole, the size of Maine, stares back from the Moon’s surface—evidence that any threat from the moon has been wiped out. Any Mooner forces remaining are probably scattering in a confused daze, unsure where to run. Rehna and Gawyn stand next to me, staring up in silence.

“Hard to believe we did that.” Rehna says.

I look her in the eyes. “Think they’ll let me go back up there and turn it into a smiley face?”

She just smiles back and takes my hand. Feels funny, but I let it linger. A pressure on my finger brings my eyes back down, and I see Gawyn holding onto my index finger. My muscles tense and I fight the urge to shrug them both off, but after wiping out an entire civilization, I’ve destroyed enough lives for one day. I pick the kid up and throw her over my shoulders. With my arm around Rehna, I head for the roof stairwell, thinking about starting a new life. Maybe I’ll get a dog too.

Heh, I’m all freakin heart.