Read Online Storming Heaven by Christopher Nuttall - Free Book Online
Authors: Christopher Nuttall
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no way out and nothing ahead, but a slow lingering death…
She shook her head, dismissing the thought, and walked over to the hatch leading to the outside. She considered pulling on a space suit before deciding only to wear a breath mask; if the outside was that hostile, she was dead anyway. Besides, the spacesuits were as dead as the rest of the craft. The mask wouldn’t last for long either. She stepped through the airlock and had to struggle with the manual release before it slowly cranked open. It was more of a struggle than she remembered, but then, she hadn’t had to do it since her first training session. No one had anticipated something that would kill every system on the craft, but leave her alive.
I shall have to inform them to change their procedures , Chiyo thought, as she peered out. No wave of outpouring air threw her into empty space; no mass of implacable metal confronted her. Instead, she was staring into an empty bay, illuminated only by glowing green smoke. It was an eerie sight and she found herself rooted to the spot, before she realised where she had to be. She was onboard a Killer starship, the first human ever to set foot on one of their ships – as far as she knew. If she had been taken onboard, it was quite likely that others had been as well…and vanished. No one had returned from such an encounter. She stepped gingerly onto the deck and was relieved to find that it was solid below her feet. The mists seemed to withdraw slightly as she stepped forward, circling the remains of her scout ship, but pressed in behind her. She couldn’t see more than a few meters ahead of her.
The scout ship looked as if it had been in the wars; it was scorched and pitted, every sensor node or weapons system burned out. It was so far beyond any theory that Chiyo abandoned any lingering thoughts she’d had of recharging the scout ship and escaping – as if escape were possible. Whatever the Killers had done to her ship had killed it stone dead. She turned away from the craft and stared into the mists. After a moment, the mists cleared in front of her, revealing a path into the heart of the starship. It occurred to her that the mists were the Killers, but it seemed impossible. It was far more likely that they were just part of their environmental system. She wished, desperately, that she had a working remote sensor. She would have loved to know what the mists actually were, or even what was in the atmosphere.
The breath mask fell from her face before she could react and she found herself gulping in a mouthful of their air. It was cold and clammy, but breathable. The working theory about the Killers suggested that they came from a planet like Earth, which suggested that they would breathe a similar atmosphere to humanity, yet no one had ever located a Killer-inhabited world. They might destroy inhabited worlds with gay abandon, but they didn’t even seem to settle the worlds themselves, or even the uninhabited Earth-like worlds they encountered. It was another mystery surrounding them and she wondered if they were providing an atmosphere suitable for her. If that were the case, it was yet another reminder that she was completely dependent on them for everything, including life-support. She was nothing more than a prisoner.
She took another breath and walked slowly into the mists. They closed in around her, seemingly just out of reach, and orbited her threateningly. She looked behind her, but the scout ship had already vanished into the mists and she was certain – very certain – that if she ran back, she would discover that the scout ship had vanished. There was nothing for it, but to press onward through the mists and see where the Killers wanted her to go. There was nothing else she could do. It felt as if she had been walking for hours – an effect of the higher gravity – and she almost yawned as she stopped for a
She shook her head, dismissing the thought, and walked over to the hatch leading to the outside. She considered pulling on a space suit before deciding only to wear a breath mask; if the outside was that hostile, she was dead anyway. Besides, the spacesuits were as dead as the rest of the craft. The mask wouldn’t last for long either. She stepped through the airlock and had to struggle with the manual release before it slowly cranked open. It was more of a struggle than she remembered, but then, she hadn’t had to do it since her first training session. No one had anticipated something that would kill every system on the craft, but leave her alive.
I shall have to inform them to change their procedures , Chiyo thought, as she peered out. No wave of outpouring air threw her into empty space; no mass of implacable metal confronted her. Instead, she was staring into an empty bay, illuminated only by glowing green smoke. It was an eerie sight and she found herself rooted to the spot, before she realised where she had to be. She was onboard a Killer starship, the first human ever to set foot on one of their ships – as far as she knew. If she had been taken onboard, it was quite likely that others had been as well…and vanished. No one had returned from such an encounter. She stepped gingerly onto the deck and was relieved to find that it was solid below her feet. The mists seemed to withdraw slightly as she stepped forward, circling the remains of her scout ship, but pressed in behind her. She couldn’t see more than a few meters ahead of her.
The scout ship looked as if it had been in the wars; it was scorched and pitted, every sensor node or weapons system burned out. It was so far beyond any theory that Chiyo abandoned any lingering thoughts she’d had of recharging the scout ship and escaping – as if escape were possible. Whatever the Killers had done to her ship had killed it stone dead. She turned away from the craft and stared into the mists. After a moment, the mists cleared in front of her, revealing a path into the heart of the starship. It occurred to her that the mists were the Killers, but it seemed impossible. It was far more likely that they were just part of their environmental system. She wished, desperately, that she had a working remote sensor. She would have loved to know what the mists actually were, or even what was in the atmosphere.
The breath mask fell from her face before she could react and she found herself gulping in a mouthful of their air. It was cold and clammy, but breathable. The working theory about the Killers suggested that they came from a planet like Earth, which suggested that they would breathe a similar atmosphere to humanity, yet no one had ever located a Killer-inhabited world. They might destroy inhabited worlds with gay abandon, but they didn’t even seem to settle the worlds themselves, or even the uninhabited Earth-like worlds they encountered. It was another mystery surrounding them and she wondered if they were providing an atmosphere suitable for her. If that were the case, it was yet another reminder that she was completely dependent on them for everything, including life-support. She was nothing more than a prisoner.
She took another breath and walked slowly into the mists. They closed in around her, seemingly just out of reach, and orbited her threateningly. She looked behind her, but the scout ship had already vanished into the mists and she was certain – very certain – that if she ran back, she would discover that the scout ship had vanished. There was nothing for it, but to press onward through the mists and see where the Killers wanted her to go. There was nothing else she could do. It felt as if she had been walking for hours – an effect of the higher gravity – and she almost yawned as she stopped for a
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