Chapter 6 - Debris Field

“For small creatures such as we, the vastness is bearable only through love.”

—Carl Sagan

Luca sank into his new command chair and let out a long breath, exhaustion sitting heavy in his bones. His eyes drifted to the main chronometer on the viewscreen. The numbers glowed a soft amber: 07:32 AM. They'd been running on pure adrenaline for five straight hours, and he hadn't even brushed his teeth yet.

The leatherette cushioning was firm but comfortable, and best of all, it swiveled. His body ached like hell, but for a second, as he looked out over the bridge, he felt like a real captain. The ship was quiet for the first time since the launch. The frantic shouting had given way to the low hum of stable systems and soft tapping of keys.

Ahead of him, Emily sat at her own chair by her workstation, legs crossed under her, one hand resting on the power console. She looked impossibly put together while he was falling apart.

Fighting the urge to bolt back to Engineering, he reminded himself that Ryan and Chris had it handled, Zoe and Danny were keeping an eye on things. Chris, volatile as he was, had already proven himself.

He still hated not being there, not being the one to fix it.

Dad had told him his place was up here, in command, on the bridge.

Zoe stepped onto the bridge, mask tucked under one arm, smelling like coolant and bad decisions. “Startup's ready. All diagnostics are green. Main thrusters are prepped for ignition.”

Emily leaned back in her chair, arms crossed, watching the diagnostics scroll. “We made a flying toaster.” She looked at Luca. “But it flies.”

He would take it. A flying toaster was better than a dead toaster.

“Good,” Luca said, rolling the chair left, then right. “Still the best chair on the ship.”

Emily snorted without looking up. “Glad you're comfortable while we risk cooking ourselves.”

He chose to ignore her for the moment and pressed the intercom. “Engineering, this is the bridge. How's the situation down there?”

Ryan's voice came through, slightly staticky but loud, like he was narrating a nature documentary about himself. “Ignition circuits are primed. Fuel pressure is optimal. Magnetic containment is solid. We're green across the board.”

“Power coupling stable,” Danny added. “No surges, no fluctuations. Clean delivery all the way through the new transformer.”

Chris cut in before Danny even finished. Typical. “Emergency failsafes are armed and ready. If we lose main power, life support transfers to backup fusion.”

Luca looked over at Emily. She nodded once. “Power matrix is stabilized. All buses are online and responding normally.”

He took a breath, patting his armrest. "Alright, baby, let’s show 'em how we can actually fly."

Zoe stepped up to the controls, fingers poised. "Initiating pre-ignition sequence. Fuel flow starting… now."

The ship hummed beneath them, a deep vibration running up through the deck and into his teeth. Everything rattled. His chair rattled. He loved this chair and it was betraying him.

"Containment is holding," Ryan called. "Plasma temperature’s rising... approaching ignition threshold."

The emergency lights flickered and Luca’s stomach dropped before they steadied again. Emily’s display lit up in green and amber, all within acceptable range.

"Luca," Emily said quietly, "I'm picking up engine signatures."

He leaned forward. "How far?"

"Hard to tell with all the asteroid interference, but..." Emily's face went pale. "Closing fast."

The proximity alarm started wailing a few moments later, confirming what they already knew. Two contacts, stern approach, IFF signatures marking them as UER military shuttles.

“Fuck.” Luca stared at the display. They’d found them. Somehow, the bastards had tracked them through the asteroid field and caught up while they were dealing with all the bullshit.

“They’re gaining on us,” Emily said. Her jaw was set, her green eyes finding his across the bridge.

Whatever the UER protocol was, it wouldn't end with a slap on the wrist.

“Weapons?” Luca asked.

“What? No!” Chris said from his own tactical station. “The Triumph was built for exploration, not combat.”

"Not us," Luca said, frustrated. "Them?"

The UER shuttles were closing fast. They’d be armed too, all armored up and carrying energy weapons, while the Triumph’s own gear sat in God-knows-which storage crate.

Luca stared at the tactical display, watching the two red dots creep closer, fully committed and locked on an intercept course with zero deviation, which meant they weren’t thinking. Four years of portal breaches had beaten one lesson into his skull: people who stopped thinking died first.

Unless there was one way out of this.

“Zoe,” Luca said. “Full burn on the thrusters. We need to get away from them. Now!”

She looked up at him, her dark eyes wide with surprise. “Luca, we’re still in the asteroid field. Full burn could...”

“Could what? Get us killed?” He wanted to laugh. “At least this way we go out trying.”

The proximity alarm kept wailing, and the red dots kept getting closer.

The engines roared and the ship lurched so hard he caught the armrest with both hands. The inertia dampeners screamed trying to keep up. The fusion reactor was dumping everything it had into the thrusters, and his entire skeleton vibrated with the effort.

He looked back at the rear viewport and immediately regretted it. The plasma coming off their thruster ports was blinding, white-hot, turning everything behind them into a wall of fire that stretched out and kept going.

The first UER shuttle flew straight into it.

The pilot had to have seen it coming. He had to have known, but it didn’t matter. He was going too fast and physics didn’t give a shit about what anyone wanted. The shuttle hit their thruster wake and came apart.

“Idiots.” Zoe’s eyes stayed fixed on the screen.

“Holy fuck,” Ryan said from somewhere behind Luca, barely audible over the engine noise.

The second shuttle tried to veer off. His wingman had just evaporated and the pilot had maybe two seconds to process that before the thruster wake caught him too, because he was too close and coming in too fast.

Luca’s hands locked on the console. He wanted the pilot to turn away, brake, do something, but there was nothing to take back.

The second shuttle clipped the edge of their exhaust and stopped existing.

Nobody said anything. The engines hummed. The tactical display showed two empty contacts where people used to be.

Luca stared at the empty space, his jaw locked so tight his teeth ached. He knew death. Four years of portal breaches had made sure of that. It was always fast, always some idiot who ignored the warnings or pushed too far. He'd watched delvers get shredded for less.

These UER pilots had done the same thing. Pushed too hard, flew too close, and burned for it.

"Waste," he muttered, turning away from the viewport. His hands were steady. That bothered him more than the shaking would have. Should've backed off. Should've known better.

"They were gonna kill us," Ryan said. "You beat 'em to it."

Luca nodded once. "Yeah."

They were pawns. Some politician or director had sent them after the FTL drive the same way they'd spent lives at Sandworth, throwing bodies at a problem and calling it strategy.

“They came for us,” he said. “They came for my crew.”

The viewport still glowed. He didn’t look at it.

Emily appeared at his side, her hand on his shoulder, and his brain went quiet for a second, maybe because it was just her hand and just the weight of it through his shirt.

“Luca...”

“No.” He turned to face her and whatever she saw made her stop. “They would have boarded us and taken the ship. Taken us. Probably killed us, the same way they’ve been trying to kill my family for years.”

Emily studied his face. Those green eyes, searching. He forgot what he was going to say next.

“Good,” she said.

She pulled him against her and held on. He let her. His arms found her back and he realized his hands were shaking now, which figured. Steady for the killing, shaky for the girl. His brain was wired wrong.

“I didn’t want to kill anyone,” he said into her hair, because he needed someone to hear it.

“You didn’t choose to kill them. You chose to protect us.”

He exhaled against her shoulder and closed his eyes.

He was so fucking tired.