Omega Games by S. L. Viehl Page A

was how we would die, together, as we were meant to be.
    Moonfire rocked as Davidov fired at the rear fuselage, and the engine array began to fail. Reever turned the nose of the ship toward the planet and began adjusting the controls for reentry.
    “I’ll attempt to land a few kilometers away from the colony,” he told me as he increased power to the ship’s hull buffers and stabilizers. “That may help us avoid any security weapons they employ. Trellus has no atmosphere, and the temperature is minus two hundred degrees Fahrenheit, so don’t try to leave the ship without an envirosuit.”
    “I’m not going anywhere without you.” I watched the planet swell until it filled the screen.
    Trellus appeared to be an ugly, lifeless world of brown, black, and gray rock, covered with jagged cliffs, dead volcanoes, and deep craters from meteor impacts. A silver-white smear of blobs near the equator grew into ovals of ice, and then I realized they must be the colony’s pressure domes. The sky pressing all around us, black and cold, looked no different than deep space except over the domes. There I saw flares of gold, blue, and green light emanating from within them.
    “I’ve found a place to set down,” my husband said. “Do you see any weapons being deployed by the domes?”
    I scanned the elliptical complex of the colony, but aside from the lights there seemed to be no activity. “None yet.” Had Davidov lied about that, too?
    Reever leveled out the scout as the surface spread out beneath us. Then, without warning, something inside the rear fuselage exploded. Lights and audio warnings created a flashing din for a moment, and then disappeared, along with the lurching sounds coming from the back of the ship.
    “Engines are offline,” Reever said, hammering the console’s keys as he tried to compensate. Moonfire began to drop alarmingly fast. “I can’t restart them. Assume crash position.”
    I bent over, covering my head with my arms, and closed my eyes. I felt glad that I had not allowed him to put me in the escape pod. I did not want my brief life to end, but if my death waited on this dead, ugly world, I would not have to enter eternity alone.
    We will not die, something said from a corner of my heart. Remember?
    Sweat slicked my skin, and my heart hammered with frantic fists under my breast. I was no longer on Moonfire , but in some black, cold space, unable to move or speak. An ensleg with an animal’s head curled claws around the circle of metal on my neck, choking me with it.
    I tried to answer him, but the silencer strapped to my face plugged my mouth.
    We’re going to crash. He said this bitterly, angrily, as if it were my fault. His claws jerked the collar up, completely cutting off my air. Maybe that will finish you. Do you wish for death ? He released the collar and reached up to wrench the silencer out of my mouth. Tell me now.
    I said something in words I did not understand, and then I did.
    Don’t be afraid, Oforon. It will be quick.
    He curled his claws into a ball, and drew them back as if to hit me in the face. Then his eyes closed and he fell to his knees, his head back, a terrible howl tearing from his throat.
    I wanted to wrap my arms around him, to comfort him in these last moments. All I could do was rest my cheek against the top of his mane.
    The vision blurred, and then vanished.
    Moonfire bumped against the surface, once, twice, and then began tumbling over and over, wrenching me in all directions and pelting me with debris broken loose from the interior by the impacts.
    “Duncan.” I looked over at his seat, but something struck me in my face, whipping my head to the other side.
    The seat harness held me in place until the scout toppled over and slammed into something immovable. The force of the final jolt made the straps tear away from the seat. I was thrown backward into one panel and bounced to the deck to slide under another.
    I stayed where I was until I was sure the ship’s