Warhawk's Amnesty - Ch. 3 - Solitude - Final (Patreon)

The explosive release of the lifepod thrust Seb into the back of his chair. He didn’t know what to expect from a manual release, but the initial blast forced out all the air from his lungs. It took him a few seconds to catch his breath before he gripped the throttle and stick on his chair.

“This shouldn’t be too hard, right?” Seb asked himself, sliding his feet under the floor braces. Weightlessness set in as soon as the thrust normalized, reassuring his decision to tighten his harness down. He looked over at his passenger, who was surrounded by floating beads of his own blood, courtesy of Seb’s pummeling earlier. It didn’t leave him feeling good or bad, just necessary for his own survival.

Seb settled into his chair and took a few minutes to familiarize himself with the controls provided by the sidestick controller. He twisted and turned the lifepod using the rotation of the stick, and confirmed the rear and front thrusters responded to the throttle. He had flown small shuttles when he was younger and had been around plenty of cockpits thanks to his years at university. However, that was over ten years ago, and he’d never piloted a lifepod before. A rumble vibrated through the stick as the planet’s gravity pulled the ship toward its surface.

“If you’re still alive in there, I hope you packed a change of underwear, because we’re in for a bumpy ride.”

A wicked smile crept along Seb’s face while the ship rattled through the atmosphere. There was something intrinsically primal about going down in a blaze of glory. While he had no intentions of perishing here, the danger of reentry felt . . . fun. He was finally free from the confines of the correctional system, and it was liberating. He laughed maniacally as fire lit up across the nose of the lifepod.

“I bet you never thought you’d be riding in a lifepod with a prisoner pilot, did you, badge?!” Seb shouted. “Don’t you worry. I’ve got this.”

His limited understanding of the ship’s controls filled him with a false sense of confidence. As they descended, maintaining control of the lifepod became more difficult, causing Seb to frown and look down at the control stick. His forearm burned with the constant stress of trying to keep its position. Unable to preserve control, he soon found himself spinning wildly. It felt like his brain was being pushed to the side of his skull as the ship spun like a bullet through the air. The movement soon added a feeling of vertigo and nausea. Seb let go of the throttle, bringing his left hand onto the control stick for stability.

“Come on, you fucker!” he shouted, pulling the throttle as hard as he could. He could hear the exterior thrusters release, which sounded like the hiss of a sepix. After what felt like a lifetime of pulling, the ship eventually leveled out. Seb wiped the cold sweat off his forehead while he questioned whether or not he was going to vomit.

The flames dispersed across the front viewport as the ship slowed down. It gave Seb a few minutes of visibility to see the dense clouds below. He didn’t know what to expect, only that they seemed impenetrable while covering the entire planet’s surface. Once the ship reached the cloud line and he lost all visibility, a desperate question jumped into the front of Seb’s mind. How am I going to land this thing?

His fear quickly shifted to anger as he scoured the still-sparking console, looking for any instrument panel that was still functional. “You stupid, idiotic, ingrate, you just had to pull a gun and shoot the console. Why not just let me board like a decent human being? But no, we’re plummeting to the ground with no visibility and no instruments because you wanted to play hero. Well, guess what?! If we both crash and die, that’s on you, buddy!”

With nothing on the console functional, Seb looked around his chair for a manual parachute release. However, from what he could tell, there wasn’t one. Seb slammed his fists into the chair’s controls, and to his surprise, a red lever sprang from the floor. Without any other options, he grabbed the lever and pulled as hard as he could.

For a moment, he thought his eyes had popped out of their sockets as the torque pulled him upward. He felt a tingling feeling in his stomach as the parachutes deployed, swinging the ship like a pendulum. It was just in time. Less than a minute later, the tip of the ship smacked and skid along the icy surface of the ground beneath them, sending the ship spinning across the ground like a puck on a skating rink. The view out of the front of ship was abysmal. He couldn’t see anything due to the weather. The snow was heavy, covering everything in a thick sheet of white.

When the lifepod settled, Seb opened his eyes. His hands jolted across his body, confirming he was still alive. When he was certain he wasn’t dead, he let out a victorious shout of laughter, slapping his hands to his knees in quick succession. “I’m telling you, badge, no one could have done that better. You missed the landing of the century!”

Seb’s smile faded as he looked at the string of blood dripping from the man’s face. He unbuckled his harness, twisted his chair, and leaned over the officer.

“You still alive in there, badge?” Seb asked, leaning closer, placing two fingers on the man’s neck. He could feel a faint pulse, which was good enough for him. The officer’s breathing was strained, but not erratic. He was bloodied and bruised, but nothing life-threatening. Given Seb’s conflicting feelings of his own actions back on the ship, he was thankful for that.

Seb turned and leaned on the front window. He rested his forearm on the top of the circular viewpoint that gave the impression of a spider’s web. The snow was thick and heavy, limiting his viewable distance to just a few feet in front of the shuttle. But the bright, blue-green ice they sat upon was visible thanks to the relentless wind that swept it all away. Seb turned around, kneeled next to the officer, and grabbed his WICI after using his foe’s other hand to activate it.

“Now, where did the captain say we were? Inoi 3?” Seb asked. With the device turned on, Inmate 5313 was free to use it as he needed. The most recent message had the captain’s order to abandon ship, along with planetary details. The orders repeated the same message given over the intercom, but there was a secondary notification from Captain Hawthorne directly to Lieutenant Dover. Benjamin, I’m leaving everything in your capable hands. You must get this information to the board. A full investigation needs to find out what happened here. I just hope I’m wrong.

Seb sat back on his foot, covering his mouth as he let out a childish giggle. “Benjamin Dover? Damn, I thought my parents didn’t love me. I’m sure they loved you in bootcamp or whatever you badges go through. But the laughs can wait till later. I need to find the closest ship off this rock.”

With his laughing under control, Seb flipped through the information downloaded from the abandon ship call. He pulled up the galactic map and rotated it to get a perpendicular view of where they were.

Seb scrubbed the side of his face with his nails before lightly backhanding the unconscious lieutenant’s arm. “No wonder I didn’t know the name. We’re in unclaimed space! Why in the Maker’s creation would we be all the way out here?!” Seb jumped to his feet and paced around the ship. “Maybe they were taking a shortcut? Wait . . . was Rabeero wrong?”

The thought festered at the back of Seb’s mind. He shuffled to his previous position next to the officer and expanded the galactic map, looking at a projected path from Marcum Penitentiary to Ano Supermax. The starlane between the two points took them close to unclaimed space, but someone would have had to steer them into it.

Seb looked at the officer and pulled back up the captain’s last message to read through it again. He slumped against the interior wall and let out a sigh. Ignore it, this isn’t your concern. You still need to survive this frozen hellhole. The flash of the red dot on the map drew his attention, and Seb zoomed into the planetary view.

As he read through the statistics, he couldn’t help but laugh at his misfortune. “A complete tundra wasteland, minimal inhabitants, and temperatures that don’t rise above freezing . . . just great.” He kicked at the officer’s chair. “You guys couldn’t have brought us to a tropical paradise, could you?”

While he flipped through the various imaging that were on file, he stopped at the thermal view. A spark of hope filled him with energy as he consistently flipped between the visual and thermal view. The visual pictures of their location weren’t clear enough because of the storm; however, the thermal readout looked like there was a settlement nearby. He decided not to question his luck, given the size of the planet. Drawing a line between the escape pod and his destination, he estimated the journey to be roughly three miles.

Even though the distance was short, the combination of wind and temperature would put him at serious risk of frostbite, or worse. His blood-splattered jumpsuit was good enough to not freeze to death in a temperature-controlled spaceship, but the wind would likely cut right through it once he stepped outside. He needed more protection.

Seb stood up and looked at the back of the collar of the officer sitting in the chair. “Too small,” he muttered before looking around the cabin. Lieutenant Dover’s pistol caught his eye, causing Seb to walk near the side-mounted seats. When he bent down to pick it up, he noticed metal clasps under each chair. His curiosity got the better of him, and he reached out and clicked one. The bottom of the seat sprang upward, revealing a stocked cubby.

His eyes lit up as he pulled out the orange, waterproof backpack. He rummaged through the pack to find it had food and water to survive for seven days, more if he needed to ration. It also contained the same stim pens he’d found in the medical container on the ship. Only these were unused. Already feeling some soreness creep in, Seb grabbed the multicolored one, which he remembered was labeled ‘aio,’ and self-administered it.

“Fuck yes!” he said, jumping up to his feet. He hopped on his toes, running in place, before throwing some lightning jabs. He felt pressure from pops and cracks occurring in his body, but there was no pain. They were louder than he expected, so loud he thought they were coming from outside. However, as long as he was mobile, he was fine with it.

Filled with vivacity, Seb finished going through the rest of the bag. He laughed with glee and pulled out the tape, emergency blankets, and heating pads. Finished with this bag, he went to every chair and hit the clasp underneath the seats. To his displeasure, only the right half of the chairs contained one of the backpacks. “Leave it to Williams Correctional Corp to cheap out when it’s needed the most. Huh, I wonder if that’s the reason I didn’t see any of the lifepods?”

He shrugged off the thought and focused on packing for his trek across the white abyss. The WICI was what he really wanted, and he took the time to double-check if the lieutenant was foolish enough to leave it transferable. However, when he received the error code that it required physical and verbal approval, he moved into the officer’s pockets. There was nothing of note except for a small credit chip worth a few hundred credits.

With Ben Dover searched, Seb turned to focus on his creation. Unwrapping the emergency blankets, Seb took out the survival knife and cut out a body-sized shirt and pants. The shirt he eyeballed, given how difficult it would be to trace around his body with a knife. However, he found cutting the pants much easier, as he could sit on the material while cutting around his legs. With two patterns cut out of the four blankets included with his pack, Seb combined them with duct tape.

He test-fitted the shirt, which came out worse than he thought it would. It pulled tight around his chest and almost ripped in half when he moved. However, it wasn’t anything that more duct tape wouldn’t fix. The pants fit much better, which he tied tightly around with the adhesive. He was walking around like a store mannequin covered in aluminum foil, but he was pretty happy with his results. He just hoped it worked.

Seb picked up two of the survival bags, slinging them over his shoulders before shuffling to the rear door. He grabbed on to the rear door’s manual lever, pressing it upward to the open position. The door slammed open, shaking the entire pod. But it wasn’t just the vibration from the doors that Seb felt and heard. The cracking sound he heard earlier was much more audible with the door open. The weight of the ship shifted, nearly throwing Seb to the floor. He jumped from the pod out into the open and turned to see the pod sliding in the cracking ice shelf they’d landed on.

He caught the back of the officer’s head and glanced away. Don’t do it. The eyes behind the rear door of the lifepod flashed into his mind. The sounds of their hands started softly until they barged into his mind like war drums. He clenched his jaw, staring back at the bouncing ship.

“AH FUCK ME!” Seb shouted, dropping his bags and jumping into the back of the ship. His weight shifted the ship backward, causing it to move like a teeter-totter. He jumped to the back of the pilot’s chair, holding on to the headrest for support. The ship lurched forward as he unbuckled the officer. He grabbed him by the arm with no concern for his injuries and pulled as hard as he could. As the other two bags rolled to the front of the ship, Seb managed to grab them on his way out. The shift in weight assisted their exit as they descended downward, giving Seb enough momentum to slide the lieutenant across the ice. Seb jumped just in time to feel the top of the rear door scrape on the back of his heel. When he landed, his feet slipped out from underneath him, sending him skating on his back along the ice.

When his body stopped gliding, he leaned up to see the lifepod sinking below the surface to the bubbling sound of water below. Seb leaned his head against the ice long enough to catch his breath. The hard winds cut through his makeshift jacket, reminding him that the danger wasn’t over. He rolled to his stomach and crawled over to the officer.

“You know, looking back,” Seb said, “you would have frozen to death if I left that door open. That’s two times I saved your sorry ass.” With no response from the man, Seb rustled through one of the other bags, pulled out the stim kit, and unrolled it. “I’m not planning on dragging your ass the entire way, so when you wake up, you better be cordial, or I’m throwing you in that freezing hole over there.” Seb grabbed the all-in-one pen and slammed it into the thigh of the officer. Even though he’d used the stims multiple times now, it still surprised him at how effective they were.

After a few seconds, Lieutenant Dover jerked upward, gasping for air. He brought his fist up to his mouth in a coughing fit. Seb waited until the lieutenant collected himself, intrigued to see how he would react. When Lieutenant Dover looked up at Seb, his eyes went wide, and he slid on the ice as he attempted to scramble backward.

“Woah, easy there, sunshine,” Seb said, holding up his hands. “Welcome back to the world of the living.” Seb watched the lieutenant’s eyes dart around the surroundings, surveying everything that was around them. He was looking for something to defend himself with. “Now, I’m guessing you’re looking for this.” Seb pulled out the officer’s gun from his pack before putting it back in. “I think it’s better for me to hold on to this for now.”

“Where the hell are we?” Dover asked.

“We’re on Inoi 3, about three miles from the nearest settlement, and judging by how bad you’re shaking, we might want to get a move on.”

“How did we get here? Last thing I remember was you jumping aboard the lifepod and—” The officer touched his face, slack-jawed, as if he were having trouble telling a memory from reality. “It doesn’t hurt.”

“Yeah, I hit you with one of these boys,” Seb said, skidding the empty pen to Dover.

“Why?”

“Well, I’m not going to carry you the entire way, now am I.”

“What happened to the lifepod?”

Seb stood and shouldered the two packs. “I can tell you on the way, but we need to get moving, otherwise, we’re both going to end up like a couple of popsicle sticks for whatever creatures live on this makerforesaken place.”

The lieutenant paused before slowly rising to his feet. Seb let out a chuckle when his traction slipped and he thought he was going to slam headfirst into the ice, but he covered it with a cough when he didn’t. With the swelling down, Seb could see the youthfulness of the man’s face.

Lieutenant Dover had to be in his early twenties. With a crew cut of black hair and a wrinkled uniform, he looked like an officer who just came back from a hard night of drinking. He was short, maybe five foot four at most, and didn’t look the part of military officer at all. It made Seb wonder what kind of officer he really was.

While Seb pondered the thought, he watched the officer struggle to grab the necessary supplies in his pack. His hands shook in the cold. Seb wasn’t sure if it was pity or his own selfishness to get a move on, but he unshouldered his pack and pulled back out his duct tape.

“Open your four emergency blankets out of that bag and wrap yourself in three of them,” Seb said, pointing down at the pack. “I want to try something different to yours.”

“What are you going to do?”

“We don’t have time to make you an extra pair of clothes like mine, but we can work around it.” The lieutenant slowly did as he was told and opened the first package, only to lose his blanket to the wind. “Grab on to it like it’s a winning lotto ticket,” Seb said, chuckling.

Learning from his mistake, Dover unwrapped the remaining blankets before wrapping them around himself. Seb pulled on the tape and started securing it tight to his body. When he finished with the first two, he cut holes in the side of the blankets for the officer to fit his arms through. Once he was finished, he gave Lieutenant Dover the third emergency blanket to wrap himself with.

“That’s the best I can do,” Seb said. “Now grab those two bags, and let’s go. I’d say we should jog our way there, but the ice is slippery, and I don’t think either of us needs any more broken bones.”

“That’s a good point,” Dover said, his teeth chattering.

“If those stims are to be believed, the all-in-one and temp ones should help regulate our body temperature, but we still need to hurry.”

“Let’s go, then.” Seb took a few steps forward before Dover called back out to him. “Where are you going?” Seb turned and pointed in the direction where he thought the settlement was, only to have him corrected by Dover’s WICI.

Good thing I kept him around, Seb thought. The two men marched in silence as they weathered the storm. The wind felt like their faces were being shoved through subsequent windows of glass. The visibility was minimal, causing Seb to get the feeling they were wandering in circles. He looked over at Dover, who took the signal and pulled up the hologram of their path.

“We’re still going the right way!” Dover shouted, trying to be heard over the wind.

“Good! The sooner the better!”

“You never did tell me how we got here.”

Seb gripped the bridge of his nose as he recollected on the past events. The faces of the crew flashed in his mind. He shook his head before looking Dover in the eyes. “Well . . . when you tried to shoot me, the blast knocked out the central console of the pod. I guided us down here, landed us successfully, and then pulled you out of the ship when the ice broke.”

“Wait,” Dover said, holding up his hand. “You expect me to believe you guided us down here and landed manually?”

“You’re welcome,” Seb said with a smug grin.

The two continued on for another minute before Dover called again. “Why did you rescue me?”

“Pardon?”

“I keep coming back to how the situation plays out. I thought I was dead when you pummeled me unconscious. Then when the lifepod was sinking, you pulled me out. I just don’t get why; you’re a criminal, aren’t you? I mean, I pulled up your file and—”

“What kind of logic is that?” Seb asked, pulling his head back. He took a few more steps forward before scoffing. “You read my file . . . you know, that’s the thing that’s wrong with you badges. You’d much rather read nonsense that some biased asshole wrote than just have a conversation with the person. You can take that file and shove it up your ass!”

“I didn’t mean any offense.”

“Do you even know what would have happened if you said that to the wrong person in the joint? Don’t worry, I’ll tell you. You’d get a half-inch piece of steel in your side that someone managed to bend off from one of the railings that rusted away.”

Seb stopped and stepped in front of Lieutenant Dover, jabbing him in the chest with his pointed finger. “Look, I’ve got enough on my conscience than to leave you to die, but I expect you to realize what I did for you, and I expect repayment.”

“How?”

“I’ve only got one more week. Once we get on a ship and get out of here, I expect there to be some kind of concessions. I’m NOT spending another night locked up. Do you understand me?”

Lieutenant Dover’s head lowered, and his eyes darted, refusing to look at Seb for too long. Seb could tell something was wrong.

“Why won’t you look at me?” Seb asked.

“Let’s . . . let’s just keep moving.” When the officer tried to move past him, Seb stepped in front of him.

“Tell me now.”

Lieutenant Dover took in a deep breath before looking up at Seb. “You don’t just have one more week.”

Seb squinted and leaned into Dover’s face. “Now’s not the time for jokes, badge.”

Lieutenant Dover changed the screen on his WICI, scanned Seb’s face, and then twisted the hologram to face the inmate. Seb scanned his file until he found his remaining time. Even before he saw the screen, deep down he knew when he struck the officer that he would be in there forever. But seeing another twenty years added made his blood boil. He shouted as loud and as long as he could.

When he looked into the officer’s eyes and raised his finger, Dover flinched at the sudden movement. “I am NOT going back! I saved your sorry ass twice. Now you better repay the debt. A life for a life.”

“There’s nothing I can—”

“Don’t give me that shit! A life for a life!”

Lieutenant Dover retreated within his space blanket, his eyes darting back and forth. When he made his decision, Dover looked up and nodded in agreement.

“Good,” Seb said, smiling and punching the man on the shoulder. “Now, how much farther? It’s fucking freezing out here.”

“It should be another fifty feet or so,” Lieutenant Dover said, pointing off into the distance.

The two men stomped forward until they heard a chugging, mechanical sound. Without speaking, they both acknowledged they heard the same sound before taking off into a sprint. The thick cloud of the blizzard seemed to die down as they approached their destination. They slid to a halt as the first metal hut became visible thanks to a neon sign that read Solitude.

Seb and Dover sprinted as fast as possible to the front door. The crescent moon-shaped hut was split in half by a long bar that extended the length of the building. Light shined through a circular window at the peak of the roof, illuminating a robot bartender like a holy man chosen by the gods themselves. He was serving drinks to two patrons who Seb was certain were passed out. The familiar smell of citrus, strong sanitizer, and stale beer conjured forth a wave of déjà vu that brought a smile to Seb’s face.

After ten long years, he’d done it. He’d reached civilization beyond the bars, and it finally felt real.