Free Survivor by Saffron Bryant Page B

wide open. Their blue
uniforms created a haunting pattern amongst the rubble.
    It was a struggle to navigate their way to
the control room. Luckily, there were multiple ways to get there,
or Nova was sure they would never have made it.
    Codon shouldered past the door. The massive
walls were covered with smaller boxes, showing images of both the
inside and outside of the ship. The pictures were crystal clear and
hid nothing.
    "Some of the cameras are broken," Codon
said, pointing to four black squares.
    "It was a pretty big shockwave," Nova said.
"Which makes me wonder, how did we survive?"
    She turned to Codon with her hands on her
hips, conveniently close to her gun. It still bothered her, it was
almost as if Codon had known what was coming.
    "I know what you're implying," Codon said.
"And no. My lab has the latest in shielding technology. The stuff
protecting it hasn't even been published yet. If anything was going
to shield us from some kind of shockwave, it was that shield."
    "What about the rest of the ship?"
    Codon shrugged. "The Confederacy hadn't
bought it yet. Mine was a prototype."
    "This place is massive. It could have saved
everyone!"
    She stepped towards the doctor with her
hands clenched into fists at her sides. Her vision flashed red. It
was typical Confederacy to hide technology from the rest of the
world. What if all of the ships had been equipped with this kind of
shield? What if the soldiers' armour had had it?
    "Take your sanctimonious tones elsewhere,"
Codon said.
    He stepped forward to meet Nova so that they
stood in front of each other, their noses almost touching.
    Codon's warm breath wafted over Nova's face.
A blood vessel pulsed beneath the flesh of his right temple.
    "I tried to warn you," she said.
    "Yes I heard you the first time. Now, do you
want to get a look at these bastards or not?"
    She took a deep breath and swallowed. She
forced her fists to uncurl, stepped away from Codon, and looked
back at the screens. It wouldn't do either of them any good to
argue now. They were the only two left on the planet, the only ones
who knew what was happening.
    "Cal, send a transmission out to Aart and
Tanguin. They need to know what's happening and spread the word.
Hell, get them to tell the Confederacy. We need all the backup we
can get."
    "I'm afraid I've already tried contacting
them," Cal said.
    "And?" Nova said.
    A cold sweat broke out on her forehead.
    "Our transmissions can't get through.
They're being blocked by the same thing that's keeping us
grounded."
    "Try again," she whispered.
    "I've tried many times, I've got a
continuous loop going but it's not getting through. No one can hear
us."
    "Grishnak!" she said and slammed her palm
down onto the metal bench.
    "What?" Codon said.
    "We can't communicate with the outside. We
may as well be in a black-hole, because nothing's getting out of
here."
    "What the hell do they want with us?" Codon
said.
    "I'd guess it's not to chat."
    She lowered herself into a swivelling chair
and stared up at the screens. Her eyes were tired, as was the rest
of her body. There were so many different video feeds spread out
before her that she struggled to focus, to make sense of what was
going on.
    "There!" Codon said. "Enlarge feed
forty-two."
    In response to his command, the screen
expanded to fill the whole view. Trees blocked most of it.
    "They're alive," Nova said.
    "What do you mean?"
    "The trees. My labourbot said that my plants
died, so I thought maybe the shockwave was meant to knock out
living things, but those are fine."
    Codon grunted and continued to stare at the
video feed.
    "What the hell is that?" Codon
whispered.
    Nova stared with wide eyes at the screen
before her. The trees parted to reveal monstrous beasts that were
completely foreign and yet hauntingly familiar. They were humanoid
but made of metal. They had elongated heads of sleek black metal
which attached to smooth, reptilian bodies. Sharp blades ran along
the outer edges of their arms and their hands