A Dash of Scarlet In Paradise

THE PAINTING WASHES AWAY

XVIII

"Hang on, it's slippery!" Vector's hair stretched down into his eyes as the rain poured from the edge the shuttle's cover. The torrents of water shaped these streaks along the verges of the pistons that kept the boarding ramp secure.

"Catch! We need to speed up." With three pods left outside, Marcus helped them gain momentum and shoved them up into the body of the shuttle.

"Final one, then we'll roll."

The last cryogenic capsule was a feisty one. Instead of listening to Vector's command, it decided to shake loose and slip away from Marcus. It was wandering near to the gravelly cliff side.

If we lose that now, we have failed one fifteenth of the mission. One fifteenth too many.

Marcus and Vector both dived towards the pod, then they grappled the handle just in time. The capsule was halfway down the slope and so were the two men.

"This is it! Lean back! Dig your feet into the soil!"

"I'm already pulling!"

"Get the repulsion system to work!"

"Don't move!"

Marcus had to tap on the system activation switch on the opposite end of the capsule, in order to do so, he had to do the same action as touching his feet and not to bend his knees or elbows.

Damn I hated this back at school. Vector would make a pretty ferocious physical education trainer.

"Got it!"

There was a beep, then some whirring. The pod changed its path and hurried back with the others. Vector had Marcus' arm rest upon his shoulder and they both hobbled back to the shuttle.

"Thanks Vector, I couldn't have..."

"Hey, save the victory speech for later, I still need to pilot this."

Marcus shut his mouth as if his father had told him to be quiet.

The cockpit was perfect, it was dry, had two seats, and it also had a coffee machine built into one side of the armrests.

"Hey Vector, check this out."

Marcus was sitting on the leather seat, fiddling with the coffee maker as Vector was still back at the hold, closing the hatches and the boarding ramp.

"No way."

The machine automatically took a paper cup out from under the spout and began dispensing coffee into it. Latte, just the way Marcus wanted.

"Now that's something we gotta tell the admiral to allow. It'd be sick to have these in every ship, wouldn't it?"

"You want one? I think it can make an espresso too!"

"You enjoy yours, I need to get her off the ground first."

Marcus took a sip from his freshly brewed drink, and he savored it, closed his eyes. Everything was still colliding in his head, all his thoughts. He didn't believe that he did it.

The day before, he was still dreaming, but now everything seemed like it had cleared up for Marcus to see what he had accomplished.

He saw his own blood soaking the stolen armor, it was coming from his gut.

Oh, so that's what hurt so much.

He ripped his shirt apart and removed his suit.

What happened to the others? The ones I couldn't save? Where did they take them?

He knew there was no point in gripping onto the past, so he let go of those questions. Perhaps he would never find out. The booklet that had all the answers was burnt along with the bones of their enemies.

He opened his eyes. The sky was no longer grey and sobbing, but it was bright and the sun dozed on the clouds.

"Where are we?"

"Past the storm. We're almost out of the atmosphere."

Marcus looked back, he admired the planet for the last glance that would soon become nothing but memory. It reminded him of Earth, and as much as he wanted to stay on Nirvana, it wasn't his true home.

Until we meet again.

"Hey Marcus, I've just managed to make contact with the UDCF fleet, we did it..." Vector's voice dissipated, it was like the man himself was walking away.

Marcus closed his eyes gently and blanked out his mind. He fell into a deep sleep, into a trance, into infinity...