Codename Alpha: Intervention

Chapter Nineteen - Rotating Heads

For just a moment, I had a bizarre glimpse, or... vision, or something. Really, I wasn't quite sure what to call it.

It seemed that I was in a relatively normal neighborhood, standing in the driveway of a detached house, much like in the pictures I'd seen of the American cities and towns. It was cold, and the sun had yet to rise, and yet I felt at home. The street was familiar in a way that I couldn't describe. The windows of many houses on the street were lit, and somewhere down the road two people were having an unintelligible conversation in English. I could hear somebody blasting music on a radio in the house nearby.

I looked up towards the sky, where their single moon was silently standing alone. It was a stark difference from the five moons of Valdera - three being asteroids - but even then, it didn't feel strange. Without really trying, I seemed to be looking for the distinct light being reflected off the Valiant's metal hull. For just a moment, flying fast above, I thought I spotted it. From here, the Valiant was just a small little speck of light speeding across the sky.

"Conrad!" a seemingly distant, but familiar, voice shouted.

I blinked once, and the scene vanished. A deeply unnerving shiver crept down my spine. I was back in the shuttlebay, surrounded by confused and concerned looking people with guns. Back in reality, the general emergency klaxon was now blaring.

"Conrad!" The voice came again. Now, I was easily above to recognize it as Lubos, coming in over my radio. Simek had now gone silent. "How soon are you going to get up here? I've got mutineers trying to open the door!" I hopped backwards, trying not to bump into anyone as I was fixated more on the shuttlebay control room above me. I could see him up there, banging against the window, trying to get my attention.

There was not a chance in hell we'd be able to get there fast enough to give backup. Thinking quickly, I fished out my own radio, taking special care not to use Yashina's. "Can..." Still stumbling over my words, I raced to think of something. One idea came to mind, and it seemed particularly insane to try, but it was the only one I could come up with. "Can you try shooting out the window and jumping out?"

"Are you kidding me?" He retorted, incredulously. There was a second of pause as I contemplated whether or not to affirm that I was not, in fact, kidding.

"If you lower the gravity, the fall should be... not as bad?" I tried my best to sound convincing, but I just couldn't come up with anything fancier than 'not as bad'. Whether or not it worked remained to be seen.

"It's the deceleration that does you in, not the height of the fall itself!" I could hear the distorted sounds of banging on the door from his end. With a resigned sigh, he continued. "Hell, it's not like I have another option. That's it, then. Get everyone out of the way! This stuff isn't gonna shatter easily!"

"Roger," I answered. I turned to face the crowd behind me, holding my stun shotgun above my head so I didn't accidently point it at someone. "Everyone, back up!" I shouted, trying to pull them all away from the control room. "And get ready for variable gravity!"

Another alarm blared in the shuttlebay, this one warning of changes in the local gravity. The noticeable feeling of getting lighter was almost nauseating. I watched as the g-level indicator affixed to the wall above the airlock counted down from .7 to .35.

It probably went lower, but I looked back up at the control room when Lubos came on over the radio again. "Just to be clear, lower gravity doesn't mean I'll lose the inertia from jumping out! I'm-" He was suddenly cut off by loud gunfire. Though muffled, I could hear it from the control room, and almost feel the vibrations through the deck plating. The panic I instantly felt lessened when I saw cracks forming in one of the control room's windows. It seemed like it was just him trying to destroy the windows. Between gunfire, Lubos shouted "Poshol na khuy, klas kremnezemu!"