The Virgin’s Cyborg by Candice Gilmer

4

Eleanor bit back a scream as panic welled in her chest. The ship, the stable solid protective structure they depended on, shuddered, and the deafening ka-boom shook everything. She fell to the floor.

They all had fallen. The corridor's structure groaned and cracked.

Veta pulled Caoimhe along the hallway. Smoke filled the passage. The ship’s onboard climate sensors were down. Mis-firing fire prevention systems burst off and on.

Or maybe that was the smoke and the fire, because parts were on fire, very close to them. Eleanor saw each piece, each blast, and she started to tremble. Tears poured down her face. She felt them, but she didn't care. They were just another crazed thing happening.

They were going to die.

This was what she'd been afraid of, going to the Rhimodian homeworld and dying, just like it killed her mother. This was her worst nightmare come true.

The vessel shuddered again when another essential part decided to explode.

“What’s happening,” cried Eleanor, shaking. Bianca wrapped her arm around her and guided her forward.

"Come on, sweetheart, it will be okay."

"The ship is exploding! This is not okay," she stammered.

"It may be, but we're not far. The escape pods are just up the way. You'll see. We'll be there in no time. Don't worry. Just one step in front of the other." Bianca wrapped her arms around her and nudged her along.

Eleanor made herself move forward. Bianca was right. She couldn't just stay there. She had to move forward, to try and get away and save herself.

"Whatever you have to do," Bianca said. "You can do this. I promise"

"I am never doing another diplomatic mission again."

"I understand." Bianca patted her arms. "Never say you won't. You never know what you'll do when you have to."

This was not the time for this. "When we get home, we can have a heated and animated discussion about philosophy and what we will and will not do. Right now, I just want to go home." Chaos was everywhere, and every step felt like the ship was breaking up. Bangs and clatters and scary cries were everywhere.

The crew, wherever they had gone, were in the middle of this too.

And not one came to check on them.

Something she filed in the back of her mind. Why she wasn't sure, but it seemed wrong.

Not that the ship being blown up was a great thing, either.

Freya pushed Caoimhe along, the lady-in-waiting jumping and crying out with every bang and boom.

“It’s okay,” Caoimhe said. “It’s a malfunction. We’re going to be okay.”

Eleanor shook her head. "This is not okay," she muttered.

A panel shorted out near them. Freya batted at the princess’s dress, wiping at the embroidery where the sparks had hit. “Must keep the dress—”

This was not how Eleanor expected their arrival to be.

Well, no first diplomatic mission should be considered normal, should it?

She glanced at Caoimhe and inhaled a breath. This was important, and it had to be done, whether she wanted to or not. This was bigger than being scared, and whether she liked it or not, she was in the middle of this. She had to do it.

You can do this, Eleanor, she told herself. If Caoimhe is freaking out, it means it's your turn to be the strong one. Stop crying, and let's work this situation. Freaking out later is fine. Right now, get through it.

And be strong for your sister.

In her head, she heard her favorite concerto, the one that made her feel strong and vivacious. The music cleared her mind and helped her regain control of herself. She rocked her head back and forth, cleared her throat, and put her hand on her sister.

"Come on." She tugged her forward.

Caoimhe was confused and upset. Which only made Eleanor more upset.

"Sister," she said.

It did no good.

Veta got in her face and started to scream at her. It was enough to wake her from the shock she must have been in.

They all were in shock. They had to be.

When they were safe, Eleanor was going to have a good cry somewhere. Preferably with a bottle of really strong wine. Or that tea Caoimhe liked.

Again, the ship exploded all around them.

Even Diado, their formal dresser, had taken off, leaving them in the hallway, attempting to get to the nearby bank of escape pods. She kept searching for them. If all was normal, Eleanor would have known right where they were because she would have remembered them.

But not today.

Today it seemed like they had been hidden under all the metal and debris.

"We have to get to the escape pods," Freya said, her voice cracking in panic.

Eleanor saw the shift in the wall design near the pods.

"There," she said.

Veta almost tugged Caoimhe along at first, leading her. She didn't seem able to let go of Caoimhe. Caoimhe still seemed disoriented, but there was more color in her face again. Maybe she'd come out of her stupor.

Eleanor stayed by her sister, just in case she stopped walking again. Her red cloak got caught on a piece of metal that hung low, and she ripped it. She cringed at the sound of the embroidery tearing, but what was she to do about it now? Besides, it was just a robe.

She would get through this. She had to. What else could she do? Lay down and die?

Well, that certainly wasn't an option. Eleanor may not like every part of being a princess, but she wasn't about to give up just because she was scared. She'd been far more scared in her life.

Deep breaths.

Move forward.

Veta pushed up pieces of bulkhead that had fallen in the halls leading to the nearest bank of escape pods.

“We’re under attack,” Veta said as she raised another piece. “We have to get off this ship. The damn Rhimodians double-crossed us.”

It broke her heart to think that the Rhimodians would destroy this opportunity to end the war. Did they not want peace after everything? Caoimhe worked so hard to bring this together.

Why would they destroy it now?

The ship rocked, and everyone fell into the wall. Caoimhe stood, her headdress caught on a hook.

Veta and Freya worked to get it free.

“Stupid thing,” Veta muttered and yanked the piece.

Fabric ripped, and the sound felt like it was tearing into Eleanor's heart.

Caoimhe cried out as her hair ripped out of the braids she wore underneath the headpiece.

The piece flew across the walkway as Veta threw it out of the way.

It was enough to bring her out of the shock, and she stared at Veta.

“It’s just a headpiece,” Veta replied.

“Yes. We must get to safety.” Caoimhe was still a little out of it.

They were close. So close. The hall was torquing left and right, sending them careening back and forth into the walls.

"They couldn't have done this," Bianca whispered.

Eleanor looked at her. "Why?"

"Because they would not have gone to the trouble to do all the things we requested if they were going to destroy us before we got here."

Eleanor absorbed the words.

She wasn't wrong.

The logic followed.

That meant someone else had been responsible, which was an idea Eleanor wasn't ready to entertain just yet.

Maybe there were factions, like there are in the Terran Empire, that have their own agendas? Some were not interested in ending the war between them. It was possible.

Oh, if she could see one, she'd, she'd, well, she'd punch him in the face! This was such craziness.

She grabbed a bulkhead and held on as the ship groaned. The sound grated and made them all pause for a second.

Bianca looked around.

“Where do we go?” Bianca asked as they reached the escape pod dock. “Back to the Empire?”

“We can’t,” Veta said, her hand on the wall over the escape pods. “Not enough fuel. We’ll have to land here and call for help.”

“I cannot believe it,” Caoimhe whispered. “I just cannot. They wanted peace. Why would they do this?”

“Believe it, Your Highness,” Veta said. “Even your father knew it would go this way.”

“He must be wrong,” Caoimhe said.

Veta waved her hand. “Your ship is dying. We have minutes. We'll talk the politics later.”

She shook her head. “They wouldn’t do this,” Caoimhe said. “We were going to work together to save our system.” Caoimhe stood there trembling.

Veta grabbed her shoulders. “Princess.”

Caoimhe looked at her.

Veta grabbed her hand. “We have to save you.” She turned to Eleanor, and for once, Eleanor appreciated being included. “Both of you princesses.”

“There is only room for one,” Caoimhe said.

"In the pods, right?" Eleanor said, finishing Caoimhe's words.

She reached over and squeezed her sister's hand.

Caoimhe turned to look at her. "You have the most beautiful eyes. Have I ever told you that, Sister?"

Eleanor squeezed her hand back, knowing exactly what her sister was doing. She was saying goodbye. Well, Eleanor wasn't ready to say goodbye just yet. "And you have the strongest spirit." She leaned in closer. "We're not going to die. Go. Save yourself. I'll see you soon. "

"Promise?"

"Sister promise."

Caoimhe shoved her toward an available pod. "Go, sister. See you soon."

Veta nodded. “We can do this. Land your pods. They’re stocked with survival gear. Stay in contact. We’ll get through this.”

Eleanor climbed into her pod. It was small, and her robes bunched up around her. She probably would have been giving someone a great view of her underthings as she got situated, her skirts flying around her.

“Head toward civilization,” Veta said, reaching in the pod and straightening the skirt. She winked at Eleanor.

Eleanor mouthed, "thank you."

“Civilization means communication. Communication means we can reach each other," Veta called out to everyone.

“And don’t lose your jewels,” Caoimhe said.

Veta stopped and stared at her. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“Our future depends on them.”

“On jewels?”

“Trust me,” Caoimhe said. She glanced at Veta. “You’re not the only one who thought this mission would fail.” She patted the necklace. “It is insurance.”

Eleanor patted the hairpin she had been given. It sparked as she tried to adjust it--the pin coded to her particular DNA so no one else could use it.

What had Caoimhe done? She had been working on some kind of project, but she would never admit to what it was. Maybe they had some sort of tracker in them, so they could find one another if they got separated.

That would be very helpful and forward-thinking of her. A great idea, in fact. She glanced at her sister.

Patted the pin. "Good thinking."

Caoimhe grinned. "I knew you would like it," she said and touched the necklace.

"Caoimhe, get in the pod!" Eleanor called to her sister.

“Fine. Yes. Go.” Veta shoved her in. “Don’t lose your jewels, Imperial order.”

Eleanor closed the hatch. The pod sealed, and the air pressure shifted. She hit the release. One deep breath and she was launched out into space. The tear-drop-shaped escape pod sort of arced away from the ship, and as it did, she got a very good view of what was going on around her.

Utter chaos.

Terran ships were swarming. Where had they all come from? They were only supposed to have a small escort and the Rhimodian escort. Why were there so many of them? It was a lot more than she expected.

And then there were the Rhimodian ships. Those flew around, fast as a blink, zipping by the escape pods. Though there were not nearly as many of the Rhimodians as there were Terrans.

Where was their backup? Shouldn't they be overwhelming the stars right now with all their people? Didn't they have backup ready to fly?

And she remembered the enormous list of requirements the Terran Empire had demanded of the Rhimodians for them to come to their homeworld.

One particular item stood out in her mind.

The Rhimodians were not to have an over-abundance of fighters ready for launch or hovering in the system. It would be too close to resembling an ambush. One of the odd requests from the Terrans that the Rhimodians had agreed to.

And now look at this--the Terrans were overwhelming the few Rhimodian escort ships.

Okay, overwhelming might be too strong of a word. The Rhimodian ships were holding their own. Their long, transformable ships weaved in and out of the Terran ships. On her vessel, she'd seen them, and they were a sight. In holovids of them back at the palace, they showed the flexibility and maneuverability of the Rhimodian vessels.

Usually with words like "disgusting," "horrific," "terrifying," but that's what news did.

Looking at the Rhimodian ships, she didn't see one heading for the escape pods.

Where were they all?

She started counting.

One.

Two.

Three.

She made four.

Where was the fifth ship?

A few seconds later, a pod burst from the cruiser, just as the cruiser exploded again.

"Where were we hit?" Eleanor wondered. "What in the world did they do to us to hit us like this?" On the outside of the ship, she couldn't see any major scarring like it had been hit. She wasn't a forensic battle analyst, but the Rhimodians must have had some really unusual weapons to not leave any residual blast shots.

Veta called out for a quick roll call.

They were all present.

Everyone answered.

At least, except Caoimhe.

Eleanor got a lump in her throat.

Wait. She'd seen all the pods launch. Including Veta's. Had something happened when she was looking the other way?

"Get to the ground," Veta said. "I will find you."

"Affirmative," Eleanor said.

Everyone else responded.

A cough came through the comm line. "Affirmative."

"Caoimhe, glad you could join us."

"Well, I had to change my outfit for something more appropriate for an escape. You know how that goes."

"Glad you are with us," Eleanor said.

"Me too."

"See you soon, sis," Eleanor said.

Okay, now she could get away.

What was the best path to take? She pulled up her telemetry. Nearest planet.

That one.

The golden one.

She hit the scanners, wanting to get a read on the planet's surface environment as she aimed her escape pod toward it. Desert and Mountains. Hot and steamy. Not a lot of water.

Veta had said she packed up survival gear. Hopefully, that included plenty of water pods.

"It would be hot, but I could manage," she said. "If I land here." She pointed to a spot on the world map. It was near the mountains and not as much in the desert. She could likely find some kind of shelter in the world in the rocky area versus the desert. It would work, she thought.

Everything was going fine for a minute.

Then it wasn't.

Blaster fire hit the pod.

She started to roll.

"Oh no." Eleanor tried to stabilize the ship's tumbling. "This was not what I had in mind." She tapped every button and control that even slightly looked like it could help. Nothing seemed to work.

She glanced up at the starfield.

Two Terran Empire ships were coming right at her.

She sighed in relief. They saw her tumbling, and they would catch her. Probably the only benefit she had being an Imperial princess--she got help when she needed it. There wasn't a Terran out there who wouldn't help one of the Imperial Princesses to earn favor with the Emperor.

"Terrans, this is Princess--"

The Terran ships fired on her.

By some miracle, she hit the shields. She managed to salvage enough power to maximize their coverage before the Terran ships fried every system in the pod. Though they tried. The pod buckled. Alarms went off like mad and threatened to blow up her eardrums; they were so loud.

For a second, she swore she heard a communication come in, but she couldn't be positive.

She started slapping the controls, trying to stop the screeching alarms. Once one would stop, another would start. Another shot was fired. That one rattled the pod a lot, and a new sound joined the notices.

Hissing.

A new kind of panic hit her.

Air.

She was losing air.

"Oh no," she whispered. She started looking around, trying to figure out where the leak was. Maybe she could seal it, stuff it with something so that it would stop, but she couldn't find it.

A Rhimodian ship flew over the top of her.

So close she could have hit the wing.

Her ship rocked.

Maybe she did hit the wing. Or he hit her.

Regardless, she was hurling toward the surface of the golden brown planet. The Rhimodian was flying around her like a fly. A really big fly.

She saw that he shot both of the Terran ships that had been shooting at her.

With a good, or maybe a lucky punch, she managed to get the alarms to stop.

Then she heard the computer's warning that she'd been missing before.

Seven minutes of air remaining. Decompressing eminent.

From the displays, she knew she had at least ten minutes to get to the planet.

It was pulled from the shields to pick up speed or, well, hold her breath until she reached the world.

She glanced outside.

"Ambassador," came over her comm.

"Yes?"

"I am Jedriek. Your ship is losing air."

"So nice of you to notice."

"You need to land."

"I am aware," she said, rolling her eyes. "I am going as fast as I can."

"According to my data, you can pull power from your shields."

"And then I will be unprotected. Since your people blew up my ship, I feel like I had better keep some protection."

"We did not blow up your ship."

"Well, you were certainly there."

"As were you. Did you blow it up?"

"While I was on it? What are you crazy about?"

"Following your logic."

"Is there a point to this? Because I don't have a lot of air left."

"Pull power from every system you can. I will shield you."

"Sure. Whatever you say."

"you misunderstand. We are your escorts. Our job is to get the ambassadors to the peace treaty. By whatever means needed."

"So you're going to walk me in there, then?"

"I will carry you if I need to."

"I'll rework the shields." She started draining power from everywhere she could--she wasn't a master at doing stuff like this. She had minimal working knowledge of how it all came together. Still, she managed to figure out how to return the power she'd loaded into the shields and put them in the propulsion. It shaved off maybe a couple of minutes.

"It's not going to be enough," Eleanor said.

"You do not have to land," Jedriek replied. "You merely need to get into the atmosphere. From there, you should be well enough to land."

She blinked. He was right; she hadn't thought about that part.

No, she just needed to get into the atmosphere.

How long did she have before she could break the atmosphere?

She didn't know.

Only a few breaths were left. Everything started getting fuzzy. The edges of her vision began to cloud, and she could only see the white.

Is this, is this what dying was?

Was she suffocating?

"Oh well. It was fun." She started to giggle.

"Ambassador. are you well?"

"Oh, hi. You're the Rhimodian who killed my ship. Nice job."

"What?"

"You know," she said, waving at the cruiser that was now turning into wreckage right before her eyes. "That was my mother's ship. She loved that ship. It was so special. She thought it was so important."

"What are your oxygen ratios, ambassador," he said through the comms.

"Ppbbft. Oxygen? What's that have to do?" More alarms went off.

Everything was getting fuzzy.

"That planet is big," she said.

She was heading right for the golden brown planet.

"I think it's a desert."

She ran her hand over her head.

A display started beeping.

Red lights were blinking.

"Blink, blink, blink." She put her hands on the control panel.

"What is blinking?" the Rhimodian asked.

"You have a deep voice. Did you know that?"

"It is deeper than yours," he said.

"No. It's like big deep." She giggled. "Like you're big and strong, boom boom boom," she made her voice deeper.

Then giggled again.

She was getting so sleepy. "I think I'm going to--"

"Tell me about the big voice," he said.

"Ppbth. That's you. Mr. Big voice."

"And who else has a big voice."

"My dad. He's mean. And likes to yell."

"Is my voice scary?"

"No. But I bet you are, Mr. Rhimodian."

"Please, Ambassador listen, you are losing oxygen. You're slowly starting to suffocate."

"Okay," What was he blathering on about?

"You're going to hit atmo in a moment."

"Uh-huh," she said. About that time, the ship slammed into the atmosphere of the planet. It rocked her back into her seat. She hit her head on the seat rest.

"Whoa," she muttered and looked around. Everything was orange and burning. "Hey, look. I'm on fire."

"You're not on fire. In a moment---"

The lights disappeared. "Oh, the fire's gone."

Pressure hissed.

More alarms.

"These things are horrible," she muttered, batting at the controls. The hissing continued for a few seconds before it petered out and stopped.

Her head pounded, and everything was swimming.

It took her a moment.

But she realized where she was just when she was about to crash into the planet.