Silent Flyght – Chapter 25

I resurface to consciousness with a gasp. The sound of footsteps pound away from the room, and Gus’s groans knock me into battle mode. I think I was only out for a moment, and that was Tomu running away.

I struggle to my feet, and the room spins. Turning to the bed, I puke straight onto it. Ugh. I hate throwing up and throwing up while dizzy is even worse. Blood drips down my arm from the bite mark Tomu gave me. I slap my hand over it.

“Viv,” Gus whispers between cries.

I pull myself to him. He’s cradling his left arm against his chest.

“Gus.” I reach out gently, not wanting to hurt him or make this injury worse. “How can I help?”

“Get the pillowcase. Tear it. Make a sling.” His instructions are bitten out through gritted teeth. “Splint it later. It’s a fracture but not broken all the way through.”

Thankfully, I threw up at the end of the bed, and the pillowcases are untouched by my stomach contents.

In an unprecedented display of strength, I rip the seam and open up the pillowcase. Gus instructs me on where to tie his arm and then secure it against his chest, over his shoulder. His skin is pale white, and his teeth chatter. He’s definitely in shock.

“Gotta warn the others,” he says, as I help him get to his feet. “Leave me. I’ll catch up.”

I pull his face down and kiss him. “I love you. Stay strong.”

Turning my wristlet over, I summon up the ship’s comm systems and set them to a ship-wide alert. “Attention, everyone. Tomu is loose on the ship, and he is dangerous. I am now establishing a communications blackout. Vivian out.”

I turn off ship-wide comms and ping my AIs. “Nanci, Ai, give me a status update.”

I grab a towel from the bathroom and wrap my arm in it. Hopefully, the bleeding will stop soon. Hauling Gus up the step into the hallway, I groan as my head pounds.

“The military ship continues to approach. They will dock in fifteen minutes,” Nanci says.

“Tomu is making his way through the galley,” Ai states. “I believe he’s heading for the cargo bay.”

“Fuck. He either wants to steal Marcelo’s shuttle, or he’s hoping to take hostages and steal the military shuttle that docks with us.”

Gus glances at me. “Do you think he’s that stupid?”

“Anything’s possible,” I say, angling him towards the stairs.

“Leave me here, Vivi. My room…” He jerks his chin at his room, closest to the stairs. “I’ll get a weapon and keep him from coming back this way.” Each word is a chore for him. As soon as I leave or set him down, he’ll pass out. Still, I don’t have time to attend to him. I have to find everyone.

“You’re in too much pain to do anything.” I bring him to his room’s door and open it for him. “Get inside and get some pain killers.”

“Be safe.” He turns away from me.

Guilt weighs down on my shoulders. This man has put his life on the line for us all. He nursed my fucking stupid brother back to health, and then that fucking stupid brother just broke his arm without mercy.

Anger rises in my chest, hot and bright. I will kill Tomu before this day is over. He doesn’t want to go to a military prison? He can go to hell instead.

“Ai, where’s Jinzo and Ken?”

“They’re in the auxiliary cargo bay. Lia, Carlos, and Skylar are there with them. Marcelo has barricaded himself in his shuttle.”

I suck in a deep breath through my nose to steady myself and my pounding head. It doesn’t work. Creeping forward, I heel-toe quietly along the treads to the galley, afraid I’ll run into Tomu again. If I do, I’m done for. He took martial arts when I was studying the workings of the farm. In retrospect, I should have learned how to fight, but who knew my life would be so damned thrilling one day?

The galley is clear, but I keep my profile low and run through. In the cargo bay, rhythmic thumps echo, loud and hollow, from below me.

“Open! Up!” Tomu growls.

I lay down on my stomach and lean over the edge of the gangway. My view is upside down and my head throbs even more, but I can see Tomu pounding on the airlock door to Marcelo’s shuttle with a fire extinguisher. He’s already opened the Amagi’s airlock door by brute force. The panel to the side of the door is open with wires hanging out. Now he’s damaging Marcelo’s shuttle.

I pull myself back up and tip-toe to the auxiliary cargo bay. Using my captain’s override, I release the latch but opt for a manual opening. The door mechanisms would be too loud on their own and call attention to my presence. I don’t want Tomu to know where I am.

“Twelve minutes, Captain,” Ai says in my ear as I pry the door open. Two pairs of hands join mine and move the door faster. “Nanci has shorted out the controls on the aft airlock so the boarding crew will have to open the door manually. It should give you an extra minute.”

I don’t acknowledge Ai as I slip through the crack in the door and join everyone inside. Jinzo and Ken push the door closed behind me.

“We’ve got twelve minutes. What’s happening here?”

I look past Jinzo and Ken, and my eyes widen at the sight of Lia, Carlos, and Skylar.

Skylar’s eyes are unfocused, her hands at her sides are splayed, and a potted plant floats in the air in front of her.

“I didn’t think it would work.” Skylar’s voice is strained as she directs all of her concentration on the potted plant.

I race up to her. “Throw it.”

“What?” Her surprised reaction almost knocks the plant over.

“Throw it,” I repeat. “At the wall. Go ahead. We’ll clean it up later.”

Skylar’s eyebrows draw together, she purses her lips, and the potted plant shoots at the wall and bursts into pieces.

“Wow.” Her mouth is a giant O as she exhales.

Well, I guess I know that I5LTC3, the telekinesis plant, works.

“Captain?” Carlos is losing all of his color. His stomach groans and his hands fly to his belly. “Oh, God. I wondered if that was going to happen.”

I can still see him, but slowly, he’s turning invisible. This process never ceases to amaze me. It’s like watching rain wash away a sidewalk chalk drawing. Carlos is fading away, bit by bit.

I smile at him. “You’ll have to lose all of your clothes soon.”

Lia approaches me, places her hand on my arm, and her body twists. I try to draw back, dread sprouting up through my chest, but her grip on me is secure. Her body draws up, lengthening and stretching. She mewls as her face bends, her shoulders wiggle, and her hips widen.

“Lia!” I call out as her skin pales. Is she dying? What did I do to her by making her take the plants?

Wait a second.

Before my eyes, she turns into… me.

“Holy shit.” Jinzo draws up to us. Lia’s clothes tear at the seams on my taller, curvier figure.

“Did it work?” Even her voice is my voice.

I cover my mouth with my hand, unable to close my slackened jaw. She looks down at her hands, and they’re my hands. She runs her hands down her new Vivian body, and Jinzo’s eyes nearly pop out of his head.

Ken steps up to us. “Hey, now,” he warns, holding out his hands. “Watch what you’re doing there.”

“This is freaky,” I mumble out from behind my hand.

“Eight minutes,” Ai says in my ear.

The clock is ticking.

Ken closes his eyes and tilts his head. “Marcelo is worried Tomu will get through. Tomu is desperate to get away.” He squishes his eyes closed even more. “There are about a dozen people on their way here.”

“Jin, did you take anything?”

“Fuck no. I figured one of us should not be incapacitated if these all didn’t work.”

“This is why I usually put you in charge.” I try to smile at him, but I can’t.

Ken clicks his tongue. “Vivi knows better than to put me in charge because I’ll just eat everything in the fridge.”

Skylar laughs and drops a pair of gardening shears she was trying to move across the room with levitation.

“Uh oh.” Lia’s eyes are wide as she begins to shrink. She reaches out for me again, and her contact with my skin keeps her in the Vivian state.

A plan takes root, and suddenly, I know what to do.

“Come,” I urge Lia. We cross the room together, her hand on my arm. “Carlos, face the wall.”

“Yes, Captain,” he says, turning around.

I pick an invisibility fern off the table and pop it into my mouth, remembering just how much I hated this experience the first time around. The tangy, green fern sucks all the moisture from my mouth and tastes of blood. That’s interesting. I don’t remember it tasting like that the first time. I glance around for water to wash it down with, but I don’t keep water in my lab. The water used for the fish tanks is piped in and then out again to all the trays.

“Ugh. This is awful.” I strip my clothes off and hand them to Lia. She gets the picture right away and takes off her clothes, putting mine on. My whole body loses color again, and I know that it won’t last as long as the time before. Everything’s accelerated. My skin cools, goosebumps cover me, and I try to get over the mild embarrassment of Lia seeing me naked. I remove the towel from my arm and find the bite wound has stopped bleeding, right before it disappears with the rest of my body.

“Five minutes, Captain,” Ai says. “They are one hundred meters from the airlock.”

The sound of rhythmic pounding ceases, and everyone in the room freezes.

“Ai, show me Marcelo’s shuttle.”

The image of the airlock pops up in my optical implant, and Tomu is standing in front of the door, the extinguisher at his side, his shoulders slumped. He couldn’t break in. Now, what is he going to do?

His head tilts, and he turns around, eyeing the airlock on the other side of the cargo bay.

“Oh, no. No, no, no.”

I watch in horror as Tomu walks over to Lia’s tool shed, tosses the fire extinguisher, and grabs a giant pitchfork instead. I have a vivid memory of him as a teenager, training with weapons at the town’s dojo, and my father watching on, as proud as he could be.

Shit.

I run to the door. No one follows me because I’m invisible now.

“Hey!” I call out, and everyone turns around. “We gotta go capture Tomu now before he goes full crazy on the soldiers about to stream through the door. We either hand him over peacefully, or we hand him over dead. Got it? We can’t have him killing military personnel, or we’ll end up in jail too.”

The door to the auxiliary cargo bay clicks, and I push it open, slowly, quietly.

“What’s the plan, Captain?” Carlos is at my back. I can’t see him, but I can feel his presence in the way he moves the air.

“You and I, we’ll each take a side. You on the left, me on the right. Lia will come up and distract him.”

“Vivi, do you think that’s safe?” Ken asks.

Lia scoffs. “Please. I’m a black belt.”

And if she fights Tomu, shapeshifted as me, he’ll know right away that she’s not me. I couldn’t fight a five-year-old.

“It’s not like we have much of a choice now. She took the shapeshifting plant, and she’s me. Gotta work with what we’ve got.” It’s not my first choice, but my first choice is sitting on the beach on Laguna, so…

“Where’s Gus?” Jinzo asks.

I grit my teeth. “Tomu broke his arm. Gus is in his room, probably shooting up pain killers.”

Ken’s face pales, and Jinzo’s Adam’s apple bobs.

I plow forward. “Once Tomu’s distracted, we’ll tackle him. Ken and Jinzo will swoop in and tie him up, and we’ll hide until the invisibility wears off. Skylar, take something and prepare to throw it at Tomu if he gets away. Or maybe grab him? I don’t know. Think on your feet.”

She nods, and her hair bobs. I look down, and her feet are off the floor like she’s the only one here in zero gravity.

“Be careful. You’re floating.” I point out before I slip through the door.

“I am?” She looks down in surprise.

“Three minute warning, Captain,” Ai says. “I shall work with Nanci to prepare some fallback options.”

Carlos and I slip out the door and down the stairs. Both of us are careful to stick to the walls and come at Tomu from both sides.

My heart is beating way up in my throat, pounding in my ears, and I’m sure everyone for a parsec can hear my ragged breathing. I close my eyes for a moment and try to rein in my rising panic.

I can’t do this. I’m not a fighter. Sure, I can fight with words, but weapons? No. And I’ll have to grab him with my bare hands if Carlos doesn’t get to him first.

I swallow hard as I watch Tomu swing the pitchfork around and acquaint himself with the weapon. He gauges its weight, flipping it over end to end, thrusting it forward once, twice, three times. He’s scary in this form — formidable and not to be trifled with. This is why he gets away with everything, even being a complete and utter bastard. People are frightened of him. He never scared me, though, and that’s always disappointed him.

“Tomu!” Lia, as me, calls out as she comes down the auxiliary cargo bay stairs. “Stand down now. We’re going to hand you over to the military and be done with this whole situation.”

“I don’t think so,” he declares.

Great job, Lia! Keep him talking and distracted.

“You think you’re going to get away with this?”

“Of course, I am.” He chuckles, brandishing the pitchfork in Lia’s direction. “If this doesn’t work, I have backup plans. You think all I did was sit around in your ship for weeks and do nothing?”

My skin cools even more. How…? For fuck’s sake, he must have had people hack us from the outside! I hadn’t considered that he was busy during his time on the ship.

He has to be stopped. Now.

In a flash of panic, I realize I have no way of signaling to Carlos when to make our attack. Fuck it. Now is as good a time as any, and time’s wasting away.

I lunge and grab for his legs. He must have seen something flash in his peripheral vision because he steps forward, and instead of tackling him, I miss and swipe his legs out from under him with my flailing feet. He doesn’t let go of the pitchfork, but I watch the pitchfork seem to levitate around as Tomu hangs on, his knuckles white and jaw tight. Up on the gangway, Skylar’s face is screwed up in concentration, her chin jerking side to side as the pitchfork follows her movements. She’s got it!

Tomu buckles like he’s been kicked in the stomach. Go, Carlos!

I lunge for Tomu again, but he’s figured out that we’re invisible and coming at him. He raises his elbow just in time to knock the wind out of me. I hit the ground in a whoosh, and Tomu turns his eyes straight on me.

“I can see you… Vivian.” His face pales as he realizes I’m in two places at once.

He takes his eyes off of me for a split second to look at Lia. A mistake.

Lia comes in, fists and legs moving at blinding speed. I have to stop myself from hooting and hollering for her because she is amazing. But she’s out of practice, and Tomu knocks her into the cargo bay wall with a roundhouse kick.

Jinzo and Ken rush forward as I kick out and finally knock Tomu down.

He hits the floor, but he knows where I am, so he grabs for me. I scream and try to get him off, but his arm wraps around my neck. He pulls me up to my feet, pressed against his chest. Something sharp edges into my neck.

“Don’t move or I’ll kill her.”

The airlock door indicator flashes from green to red in my peripheral vision.

Time’s up.

“Captain, the military ship has docked with the Amagi, and they have initiated a manual release,” Ai says. “The airlock cycle will take approximately ninety seconds.”

Tears fill my eyes, knowing that I can’t respond to her, can’t tell her what to do.

“Do you want to use the safe word, Captain?”

Jinzo and Ken have their hands out in surrender. “Don’t do anything stupid, Tomu,” Jinzo warns, his voice full of steel. “If you harm Vivian now, that will not go well for you or your family.”

“Banana cream pie,” I whisper, hoping Ai remembers our conversation from so long ago.

“I have no family!” He yells, and my whole body seizes up.

His anger and fear are palpable, a wall between us so thick it could stop a raging bull. There’s no reasoning with him.

He said he could see me, so that means the invisibility fern is wearing off, and I’m about to become very vulnerable. I don’t even have a bra or underwear on to protect me. My stomach grumbles and my bowels move, but I have something sharp at my throat.

I’m at the end of my life. Naked and vulnerable and out of options.

“I will bluff,” Ai says in my ear.

The cargo bay plunges into darkness, and an alert from Ai sounds. “This cargo bay will be flooded with pure nitrogen in twenty seconds.”

The airlock explodes with sound, yelling and pounding. The military crew is right at the door.

Tomu panics. “Shit,” he mutters and pulls me backwards with him. “They will not take me. Hear me?” His lips are close to my ear, and I cringe from his hot breath on my face. He pulls me away and out of the cargo bay as fast as possible. “You’re so fucking stupid. I was ahead of you by three steps every time. I told Gabriel Almas where I was. I tipped off the military. I had a team of people hack your system and steal everything, and I faked all your video files, and sent them to OEN so they’ll know how you imprisoned me… and how you killed me.”

I whimper and try to keep my face straight. No tears, Vivian. No smart words from Bitch Vivian. No negotiations from Business Vivian. Nothing.

Relaxing my body, I make myself into a bag of bones. Tomu curses even more as he has to drag me along.

“I’ll fucking kill you. Get up!”

He jerks me up, and a trickle of something wet rolls down my throat.

“Do it,” I spit out. “You took everything from me, you selfish prick. Might as well take my life too.”

He laughs, the shaking of his chest vibrating through me.

“If you thought I would make it that easy for you, you’re mistaken.”

He pulls me backwards, through the galley and down the lower hall of quarters. I map the ship in my head, and my heart races as I figure out where he’s taking me.

“No.” I struggle and pull at him, and my neck wets even more as a sharp pain rushes through me.

“There.” He stops, and I listen as he fiddles with something.

I tense as the alarm sounds, and the grinding gears of the forward airlock door pierce my ears. A rush of cold air blasts past me.

“Motherfucker! Don’t even think —!”

I trip as I’m pushed forward and slam my forehead into the wall. My head spins for the second time today, and I try to swim to the surface and stay conscious. Stay awake, Vivian! Tomu is trying to space you!

I blink as I stand up. No.

He said, “You killed me.”

Tomu is on the other side of the airlock door now, and I’m safe in the hallway.

“Fuck you, Vivian!” He screams through the glass, a tiny window where only his face is visible.

My whole body erupts in goosebumps as déjà vu washes over me.

“You were always a selfish bitch,” he yells. “But you got what you wanted.”

I stand in stunned silence as he punches the emergency airlock button inside, and Nanci’s voice comes over the speakers.

“Emergency override activated. Please produce either a captain’s override code, a manufacturer override code, or key.”

Tomu pulls a key on a chain from inside his shirt, and all the blood leaves my head.

Where did he get that from? Vivian, he’s been planning this for weeks, remember?

He fumbles with something on his side of the door.

“Pressure release in ten seconds,” Nanci says.

“No!” I call out. “Nanci, stop! It’s the captain!” I slam my hand against the small window, stamping out Tomu’s smug grin. “O-Override!”

“He has the key, Captain,” Ai’s voice is in my ear. “She is unable to override.”

“Help!” I call out, aiming my voice at the hall we just came down.

The lights on the panel switch from red to green, the airlock door grinds open, and air rushes past Tomu, making a quick exit to the vacuum of space. He holds his breath, keeping his eyes on me.

There’s nothing I can do… and I don’t want him to have the last word.

He doesn’t get that privilege.

I step back from the door, raise my hand, and give him the middle finger, so it’s the last thing he ever sees.

“Bye, fucker. I hope you burn in hell.”