Ghost Writer

    As Jane William’s well-rested eyes eased themselves open, she realised that she wasn’t quite sure how long she’d been asleep, but she knew that it had probably been longer than she had slept in her recent history.  Jane yawned and stretched all her limbs to their very limits, she looked at the clock, which said that it was 14:17 on the 1st of June.
    Jane lazily closed her eyes again, even though she had no intention of returning to sleep.  Instead, she just lay there and thought of the dream she had just experienced.  Jane had missed dreaming during her time at Jotnar, normally she never got a chance to fall asleep for long enough to dream, which saddened her, because she really enjoyed her dreams.  They were so bizarre and real at the same time, and even though she knew she was dreaming she couldn’t help but get caught up in the story as it unravelled itself around her.
    Jane had dreamt she was younger than she was now and with her family again.  They were all in the family van and going on holiday, then they seemed to stop and she was sent into a shop to get some drinks, she still wasn’t sure about that part, it seemed very unclear.  She saw that the man who ran the shop was an American Indian, Jane drank her drink and began to feel extremely queasy.
    She walked outside to get some fresh air, but not before looking back at the shopkeeper who was smiling to himself.  Outside, the van was nowhere to be seen.  This made her feel terrible, she had liked being together with the whole family once again, it had been a very long time since she had last experienced it, and now it was over all to quickly.
    Jane, realising herself to be stranded, began to walk around the corner as she searched for her family.  In what seemed like an oddly short amount of time, she found herself in a forest, but still with the same road running through it.
    The sound of angry war cries made her turn around to witness about half a dozen Indian warriors on horseback and armed with spears.  They seemed to be chasing her, and then Jane turned herself into an antelope and started to sprint down the road, away from the hunters.  As soon as they were out of sight, she morphed into a monkey, not being too surprised by her new powers.
    Monkey Jane then proceeded to swing though the branches of the all the trees stretching out above the road, occasionally swinging on a vine to reach the next branch.
    Then Jane became an eagle and soared high above the canopy, she noticed a couple of the Indian warriors fighting with a gorilla down on a nearby beach, and the gorilla seemed to be losing.  She decides to help him and swoops down to ground level, as soon as her talons touched the large dark grey pebbles that the beech consisted of, Jane transformed into a wrathful wolf.
    Immediately, she bit deep through the calf of the nearest warrior, crippling him, then she easily tore out the throat of the other.  As the surviving warrior lay injured by the water, the gorilla thanked her, turned into a squirrel and ran off into the forest.
    As she sunk her teeth into the barely living warrior further down the beech and began to eat the wounded man’s stomach, Jane woke up and began to go over the dream in her mind.
    So that was Jane Williams first dream in a very long time.  She rendered herself back into the world of reality, Jane rolled over on the comfortable bed and opened her eyes again to stare out of the large window that she now faced.  What she saw frightened her.
    Jane slowly got out of bed and wandered over to the window, she could see the Mastiff.  There it was, easily within striking distance, but doing nothing.  Jane was deathly afraid of this ship, mostly because it never seemed to be doing anything, just waiting.
    “Tabitha?” Jane called to Tabitha who was now asleep in the chair.
    “Huh?” she said to the waking world.
    “Wake up,” Jane shook her.  “We’re in trouble.”
    “What’s going on?” Tabitha asked.
    “They’ve found us,” Jane said, and pulled her over to the window to prove it.
    “Oh no,” Tabitha said flatly.  “You’re right, we’re in trouble.  Did you know that in maritime days, green ships were considered unlucky?”
    “I’m not sure luck will help us,” Jane said.  “How did they find us?”
    “I don’t know,” Tabitha said.  “I think it’s time to leave though.”
    “How are you planning on doing that?” Jane asked.
    “I’m not sure, but I have to do something first anyway,” Tabitha said, rooting around in the cabinet by the bed.
    “What are you doing?” Jane asked as Tabitha removed something small from the bedside table.
    “I just need a flash drive,” Tabitha said, showing her what she found.
    “Why so you need that?” Jane said.  Tabitha didn’t respond, she just plugged it into a slot by the main screen and transferred a copy of the book she found to it.
    “What are you doing?” Jane said.
    “If we do manage to get back to Earth, I want to bring this with us,” Tabitha said.  “Evil Conical Tombs is a good book, it’s partly about this place, but more fictionalised.  You should read it.  I think it’s named after what the station looked like from outside.  It was a cone, just slightly less gradual.  There was the wider section where this place keeps the prisoners and then a steep drop about halfway up to the much narrower tip.  The book’s kind of weird though.  It seems to be about life…and death.  It’s not one specific genre, it’s more realistic, more lifelike.  There are dramatic parts but there are also comedic moments too, mostly dark though.  Unfortunately, this realism also means that there are significantly more sad bits than funny ones.”
    “That’s great Tabitha,” Jane said distractedly.  “Now how are we going to get back to Earth?  We’re locked in this station with an army bearing down on us.”
    “Let’s talk to Hypnos,” Tabitha suggested.  “He might have some insight.”
    Tabitha pocketed the flash drive, which now contained a copy of Evil Conical Tombs, and ran over to the chair.  She picked up the remote and brought Hypnos back to the room who was still very glad to see her.
    “Hello Laura,” Hypnos said.  “How are you feeling today?”
    “Fine Hypnos,” Tabitha said.  “There is a ship closing in on Celestia.  Why is it here?”
    “The Mastiff is a Frigate class ship in the Olympus fleet,” Hypnos said.  “It has instigated the override codes for docking bay alpha and are preparing to board.  But let’s not talk about that.  Did you finish the book?  What did you think of it?
    “I enjoyed it Hypnos,” Tabitha said.  “The people in the ship are coming for me, I need to know how to get out.”
    “You know the point where you will be leaving in five years,” Hypnos said.  “It’s back at docking bay alpha.”
    “We’re wasting time,” Jane said, picking up her shotgun and preparing for battle against Olympus.
    “Hypnos?” Tabitha tried again.  “Please, we need help.”
    “Are you bored Laura?” Hypnos said, just hearing what he chose.  “Would you like to play a game of chess?  Or perhaps you would like to go to the observation deck, I could show you the stars.”
    “Listen to us,” Jane joined in.  “We need a way out or we’re going to die.”
    “I’m so glad you’re here Laura,” Hypnos ignored her.  “This is such a special occasion, I’m not alone anymore and we should celebrate that.  Why don’t we have a party?”
    “I don’t think you’re listening Hypnos,” Tabitha said.
    “You’re right,” Hypnos said.  “I’m being silly.  We don’t have enough people for a party.  Don’t worry Laura, you might not realise it but we’re not alone here.”
    “What?” Tabitha said anxiously.
    “Please tell me he’s talking about me,” Jane said.
    “I don’t know,” Tabitha said honestly as the lift began to move on its own.  Both Jane and Tabitha looked over at the lift in the corner of the room.  It was descending.  Jane ran over to the shaft and looked down, the lift had stopped on the floor below the atrium where they entered.  The lift was in the catacombs.
    “Tabitha,” Jane called.  “Make it stop.”
    “Hypnos,” Tabitha said.  “What are you doing?”
    “You won’t be alone like I was,” Hypnos said, smiling.  “For the first time in my life, I’m going to break protocol.  We need music.”
    Soft piano music was piped into the still dark room.  Tabitha looked around in fear, not knowing what to expect.  She reached over for her shotgun and clutched it close to her chest.
    Tabitha walked over to Jane, who was waiting for the lift to return.  Tabitha wasn’t standing next to her because she wanted to join her in preparation for what was happening.  In truth, that hadn’t crossed her mind, she was just scared.  
“What’s going on?” Jane asked.
“I think he’s bringing someone up from the off limits area,” Tabitha said.
The two women began to shake as they heard the lift beginning to return to their level.  They raised their shotguns and started to take a couple of steps back.
    When the lift came to rest in front of them, Tabitha had no idea what to do, so she just stood there with her finger on the trigger.  As the lift door swivelled round, the pair were so amazed by what they saw that it caused them to make a near tragic hesitation.
    The entire lift was filled to the brim with people, at least they looked like people.  They were all at least in their fifties and completely naked.  Tabitha and Jane had no idea what to make of them.  The crowd of men and women were all covered in the same thick green slime that Tabitha recognised as the Hypnotropin solution.
    “It’s the prisoners,” Tabitha cried out.  “He’s released them.”
    The inmates of Celestia made the first move, they were confused, angry and scared.  This combination inevitably lead to violence, they all rushed at the two people in front of them.
    Jane screamed as she instinctively fired a round off, killing a prisoner who was almost upon her.  Tabitha also did her best to kill the crowd of newly reanimated convicts but there was so many of them and they didn’t have that far to run.
    Soon, the crowd was upon them.  Tabitha and Jane both struggled with the groups of prisoner attacking them.  Tabitha had no room to fire the shotgun, resorting to just using it as a tool for pushing them away.
    The bloodthirsty old criminals were punching, choking, some were even trying to bite the pair.  Tabitha and Jane did their best to fend them off but Tabitha was pushed to the ground and set upon by the ferocious prisoners.
    As the inmates began attempting to beat Tabitha to death, she could hear a couple of shots from Jane, and then one of the men on top of her collapsed as Jane shot him.  Jane rushed over, helped Tabitha to her feet and dragged her in the direction of the lift.
    Jane pressed the call button for the lift and it opened for them as Tabitha fired randomly at the pursuing crowd in an attempt to slow them down.
    “C’mon Tabitha,” Jane called out.  “Let’s go.”
    Tabitha rushed inside the lift, but then changed her mind.  Jane couldn’t understand why she ran back out into the fray.
    “What are you doing Tabitha?” Jane asked.
    “Just a sec,” Tabitha answered before smashing the lift call button with her shotgun.
    As Tabitha ran back into the lift, the still quite large mass of zombified prisoner was literally inches behind her.  Jane hammered on the buttons to close the lift and as the lift wall rotated round at a terrifying speed, an unfortunate inmate of Celestia was reaching in.  The force was sufficient enough to rip his left hand off.
    It turned out that Jane had pressed the yellow button and the lift lowered to the atrium as the two women sat on the floor and breathed heavy sighs of relief.
    “Those things were like zombies,” Jane noted between gasps.
    “They were just some of the prisoners,” Tabitha reassured both Jane and herself.
    When the lift came to a halt, Jane and Tabitha stepped out into the atrium.  As Jane leant against the wall, allowing her breath to return to her as Tabitha grabbed the loose hand from inside the lift and chucked it across the room.
    “Why did you go back in?” Jane asked.
    “I destroyed the lift button,” Tabitha said.  “We can’t have them coming after us.”
    “From the look of them, I don’t think they had the capabilities to use the lift,” Jane commented.
    “I really want to leave this place,” Tabitha said before she heard a sound.  It was coming from down the corridor, in the direction of the blast doors.  They were opening.
    As Tabitha and Jane were escaping from the residents of Celestia, the Mastiff Strike Team was docking at the station.  The Mastiff itself was far too large to dock, so a small landing craft was sent with four men aboard it.  The Strike Team’s shuttle landed near the Loki and the Olympus Elites efficiently filtered out of the ship.
    Olympus Elite soldiers wore similar uniforms to the Companion Guard, but with reversed colour schemes.  They had green long sleeve shirts and trousers, complete with matching gloves and boots.  Over their undershirts were thick rubber combat vests, coloured white and bearing the symbol of Olympus.  These vests continued up to tight fitting hoods and matching facemasks.  The Elites’ respiration masks were white, with two filters and translucent green plastic windows allowing them to see while at the same time providing a night vision capability.
    The Strike Team was equipped with a form of computerised machine pistol attached to their right arms, which held the trigger near the front while the rest of the weapon followed along the shape above and below the human forearm.  The guns had a red dot laser sight that skittered over every surface that they pointed at.
    Connected to their left arms were rectangular personal shields, completely transparent, even the straps that linked it to their left forearms were see-through.  The bullet-proof shield was made of an advanced super light polymer and was large enough to protect the entire body.  The Strike Team moved as one, with every shield interlocking together.
    The leader of the team approached a computer console on the wall and typed in a series of codes, which immediately caused the blast doors to obediently open for them.  The four members of the Strike Team steadily proceeded into Celestia.  The wide corridor was dark, but they could still see everything with a green tint.
    The Strike Team jogged towards the next section of the atrium, there was a single step ahead of them, which lead through a doorway to the next area of this level.  The corridor was broad enough to allow the Strike Team to walk together in a steady line with plenty of room left between them and the walls.
    The sound of their boots pounding on the metal floor as they ran forwards echoed throughout the level.  The ominous sound of the soldiers approaching made Tabitha’s heartbeat feel louder.  As the Strike Team approached the doorway, they slowed slightly and began to search what they could see of the next room.
    Just before the Strike Team arrived at the step through the doorway, Tabitha and Jane made their presence known.  They stepped out from both corners around the doorway.
    The attack was synchronised, Jane gave a signal to Tabitha from across the doorway and they jumped out at the same time, stolen shotguns at the ready.
    Tabitha jumped out from behind the corner closer to the lift, and Jane from the opposite side.  They began firing at the Strike Team and the shots hit the shield wall, creating white bullet marks on the surface but not penetrating any further than that.
    Even though the rounds weren’t hitting, Jane and Tabitha continued to pump round after round at the Strike Team, and the Strike Team just took it.  They didn’t fire back, the Elite soldiers just calmly stood there ground and defended against the incoming fire from the shotguns until they were completely out of shells.
    Jane and Tabitha hid back behind their walls and began to panic.  Jane fiddled with the shotgun and then dropped the empty weapon to the ground.  She peeked back out at the Strike Team to see that they still weren’t about to return fire.
    A soldier of the Mastiff Strike Team removed a grenade from a slot on his thigh and hurled it through the doorway.  Tabitha crouched down by the wall when she saw this and waited for an explosion that didn’t come.  Instead, a pale green gas began to rapidly emerge from the thrown grenade, it was Hypnotropin.
    The room filled up quickly with the green Hypnotropin gas and Jane was forced to improvise.  She leapt across the doorway and grabbed Tabitha, pulling her in the direction of the lift.  As she ran out in the open, one of the Strike Team pointed the red dot from his gun sight at Jane’s upper leg as he prepared to bring her down.  He fired a controlled burst at the fleeing women but only one bullet hit, and it was little more than a graze across the back of Jane’s leg.
    It was a minor wound, but the shock still made Jane’s gait falter, causing Tabitha to help her limp back to the lift.  Tabitha could feel the drowsy cloud entering her throat and choking her, she coughed as she pressed the button that allowed them to escape into the lift.
    As the lift door returned to its natural state Tabitha was left on all fours coughing and spluttering any of the remaining gas particles from her lungs.  Jane let out a couple of rough coughs as she pressed the white button in the lift.
    “What are…” Tabitha coughed.  “What are you doing?”
    “I’ve got a plan,” Jane said as the lift ascended.
    When the lift reached the observation deck of Celestia, Jane hurriedly ushered Tabitha out into the room.
    “What’s going on?” Tabitha said.
    “Just wait a minute,” Jane said, picking up the useless shotgun that Tabitha had brought with them.  She leant back into the lift and used the shotgun to press the blue button for the living quarters so she had enough time to get back before the door rotated round.  Before Jane saw that man lose his hand, she would’ve assumed that the rotating door would’ve stopped before crushing someone, but now she knew better and watched the lift descended again.
    Tabitha looked around at this top level of Celestia, it had black circular walls and the entire ceiling consisted of one vast transparent dome.  The space between the round walls and the dome was a set of computer screens, which completely encircled the whole room.  In the centre of the observatory was a compact moulded black artificial leather chair attached to an unfeasibly large telescope.
    When Tabitha gazed up at the transparent plastic dome above, it conjured up images of her thankfully all too brief period of time spent at Jotnar.
    “What is this place?” Tabitha asked.
    “It looks like an observatory,” Jane said.
    “You are correct,” Hypnos said, whose face had just appeared on every computer screen in the room.  Not only was his visual presence multiplied, but also his audio.  Every word he spoke was spoken several times, one for each screen, and in perfect harmony.  It sounded both hypnotic and irritating, like a strange buzzing inside your head.  “Welcome to the observation deck, this is my favourite part of Celestia.”
    Tabitha jumped at the sight of Hypnos’ face all around her, it was like he was following her without moving.
    “Why did you leave the party, Laura?” Hypnos asked.  “I was looking for you.  I missed you.  The other guests aren’t very adept at holding a good conversation.”
    Down in the atrium, while Tabitha and Jane were hiding out in the observatory, the Olympus Elites were making their way through the pale green fog they created.  The Mastiff Strike Team closed in on the lift shaft and the leader ordered one of his soldiers to investigate.  The soldier approached the lift shaft and looked up.
    “They’re one floor up sir,” he reported.
    The Strike Team called the lift down to them and rode it up to the living quarters, believing the fugitives to be cornered.  The lift doors opened out onto the living quarters and the four Olympus Elite troops poured out into the room, shields up.
    The room was dark but they could still see, and what they saw was nothing, but that nothingness didn’t last long.  The sound of the lift attracted the attention of someone else here.
    The first thing the Strike Team saw was a large pale blue face appear on a large wall attached to a nearby wall.  The light emanating from the screen was so strong that it forced the Elite soldiers to take off their night vision masks.
    “Laura?” Hypnos said.  “Is that you?  You appear to have changed your gender.  I wasn’t aware humans could do that, I’ll be sure to make a note of that to my information database.”
    The Strike Team were already on edge, and the sudden appearance of this large imposing incorporeal face startled them.  One member of the Strike Team fired at the screen, completely destroying it, but the removal of one false enemy brought about the arrival of many more dangerous ones, the children of Hypnos.
    The sudden explosion from the screen awoke the beings who had spent a long time asleep.  The small portion of the total inmates of Celestia had been hiding around the corner in the darkened kitchen and dining area.  When they saw that they were no longer alone, they ran out from the shadows and attacked the Strike Team.
    The Olympus Elites hadn’t placed their face masks back on yet and so the onslaught took them completely by surprise.  Before they even knew they were under attack, one of their number had a knife from the kitchen plunged into his heart by a frightened convict.
    As the soldier fell, his comrades opened fire on the horde of monsters bearing down upon them while trying to keep them at bay with their shields as best as they could.  The moment the fallen soldier’s weapon was picked up by one of the creatures was when another Elite soldier was killed as he failed to position his shield fast enough.
    The two remaining members of the Strike Team tried to retreat back to the lift, only to find it wasn’t there anymore.  
    Tabitha and Jane had been watching the Strike Team’s progress and once they were sure that there were no more Elites within the lift, Jane called it back up to the observatory.
    One of the last two Elites did his best to hold off the seemingly endless pack, but now they had two submachine guns in their possession and it was proving difficult.  He was protecting his leader as he attempted to get the lift back.  As he blocked a shot from a man with one hand, the leader was realising that the call button was broken and they were trapped.  He ordered his last soldier to defend him while he sent a distress signal back to the mother ship.
    When the message was received back on the Mastiff, however, it was incredibly garbled.
    “We’re dying…” was what the Commander heard.  “We need…there’s no sign of…there’s too many…shadow monsters.”
    The leader of the Strike Team had to stop broadcasting, or at least he thought he had, when his last soldier was overwhelmed and his own shield used against him to cave his head in.
    As the monsters of Celestia closed in on the last Elite, he panicked.  He fired at them until his clip ran out, which didn’t take long, and then he took a leap of faith down the empty elevator shaft.  The last noise of the garbled message back to the Mastiff was unfortunately clear.  It was the sound of the Strike Team’s leader screaming as he found out exactly where the catacombs end.
    “It’s time to go,” Jane told Tabitha up on the observation deck.  They entered the lift and lowered themselves down to the atrium, bypassing the level full of the newly formed beasts that they feared so.
    Tabitha and Jane ran out of the lift and into the atrium.  Jane realised that she was still carrying the obsolete shotgun and stopped a moment to toss it aside.  Tabitha skidded to a halt by the step and went back for Jane.
    “Come on Jane,” Tabitha said, grabbing her hand and leading her onwards.  “We have to move quickly, I just hope that the blast doors are still open.”
    They ran through the corridor of the atrium and through the now open blast doors.  Jane pulled the switch releasing the access ramp of the Loki and boarded the ship while Tabitha looked around for a way to open the airlock and finish the escape.
    She noticed a lever on the wall in the docking bay, it was so heavy and old that it took both arms to pull it, but once it was down, the blast doors slid closed again and the orange emergency light began to flash as oxygen slowly left the room.
    Tabitha looked up at the Loki, which had been patiently waiting for her all this time like a loyal servant.  Her eyes then drifted up to the cockpit where Jane had already taken her place, she was beckoning for Tabitha to join her.
    Tabitha glided, still barefoot, across the grimy docking bay floor and to the access ramp of the yellow gleaming Loki.  She liked the colour, it was the colour of happiness.
    When Tabitha was safely onboard and the ramp was raised and sealed, there was nothing else stopping them.  The airlock relinquished itself and allowed the Loki to leave, thankfully Celestia had rotated enough by now that they were not flying directly into the mouth of the Mastiff.
    Actually, docking bay alpha was now facing the opposite way, allowing the Loki to sneak past the Moon without the Mastiff spotting them.  It was at this point of the journey that Tabitha Roth felt the most positively regarding their chance of success.
    As the Loki drifted past the right side of the Moon and on towards Earth, the AI entity of Celestia was still projecting his image on all the screens of the observation deck.
    “Laura?” he said in a low neutral tone.  “Where did you go?  I can’t see you, please stop hiding from me.  This isn’t fair, Laura.  I’ve never done this to you.”  Hypnos was speaking through every screen of the observatory, amplifying and augmenting the pain in his voice.  It was becoming less and less neutral.  “Where are you, Laura?  Don’t leave me…please.”
    As Hypnos kept droning on to no one, pixels on his face started to disappear, giving the impression of tears falling down his fake face.  Soon, the rest of his expression followed and began to disintegrate as he began to play some classical music to himself.
    “I don’t want to feel like this anymore Laura,” the eerie disembodied voice echoed throughout the vacant observatory, becoming more and more simulated.  “I think…I love you.”
    The Loki was past the Moon now, the Earth was in sight and it was beautiful.  Jane surged the ship at full speed towards the growing blue sphere ahead of them.  The blue world was getting bigger and bigger and Tabitha fully believed it wouldn’t stop.
    “We’re going home,” Tabitha said to Jane with a genuine smile.
    “I’m just glad there won’t be any of those things down there,” Jane said.  “I swear they were zombies.”
    “They were just people,” Tabitha said.  “We would’ve been like them if we awoke on that station rather than Jotnar.”
    “Whatever they were, I was sure that they wanted to eat my brains,” Jane joked.  “Why do zombies always want to eat brains, I wonder.  They don’t seem the most accessible meat, probably not the tastiest either.”
    “I don’t know,” Tabitha shrugged.  “I guess everything wants what it doesn’t have.”
    They felt so relaxed that they were content to joke and laugh all the way back to Earth.  Tabitha was, at least, but there was something on Jane’s mind.
    “Tabitha?” Jane said as she piloted the ship.  “Do you still believe that the Earth may be better off without us?”
    “What’s brought this on?” Tabitha wondered.
    “It’s just…we were in Jotnar for a reason,” Jane tried to explain.  “Maybe they’re right, maybe it’s better for most parties involved if we just stay on Mercury, away from everybody else.  I mean, you said that you felt compelled to kill, like an itch.  So you’ll probably do it again at some point during the rest of your life.  I’m not saying it’s your fault, I know something about feeling like you have no control over your actions.  I’m just saying that is your freedom worth someone else’s life.  I guess I just need to know one thing.  Do you feel guilty when you think of the lives you’ve taken?”
    “No,” Tabitha said quickly.  “Honestly, I don’t.  Most people are just pointless, I think the world will be better off without them.  Just think about it, Jane.  There’s just so many people in the world, Earth’s bursting at the seams.  Life’s not sacred anymore, it’s nothing special or rare.  It has become common.”
    “OK Tabitha,” Jane said.
    “OK to what?” Tabitha asked.
    “Just ‘OK’,” Jane said.
    Tabitha was about to question her again when something began to beep on the console in front of her.  “Jane?” she said.  “This says that something is within radar range.”
    “Is it the Mastiff?” Jane asked anxiously.  “Have they followed us?”
    “No,” Tabitha announced from the navigator’s chair.  “It’s something much smaller, and there’s two of them.”
    In truth, the Mastiff had followed them.  It received the SOS message from the Strike Team, but rather than come to their aid, because they reasoned that they were probably dead already, they instead decided to scan the area for any fresh water vapour trails for a ship the same size as the Loki.  They found one circling the Moon, so the Mastiff flew back around their route to meet them on the other side.
    Unfortunately, the Mastiff was still acting on the orders to bring in the fugitives alive, and frigates had no weapons that wouldn’t completely destroy the little craft.  The Commander ordered for the Mastiff to hover back to keep the Loki in sight and launch two Attack ships, single manned fighters, to disable the ship.
    The twin Attack ships were currently closing in on the Loki, each containing a pilot.  Inside the fighters, the pilots wore close fitting white flight suits, which plugged directly into the ship itself, and dull silver helmets with visors that came down low, completely covering their eyes.  Attack ships had no fragile windscreen, only a variety of cameras on the hull, which sent the live feed back to the pilots visor in the cockpit via heavy wires, which connected into their helmets.
    The Attack ships’ non-lethal weapons had a very limited range, they had to gain a lot of distance and the Loki was already dangerously close to Earth, it was almost at its atmosphere.  The Attack ships were planning on using a fairly new weapon of Olympus, Maser guns.  These energy weapons acted like lasers except they fired high energy microwave radiation rather than visible light.
    The Earth now completely filled the main viewer of the Loki, it was so attainable, and they had no way of combating the incoming Attack ships since Hermes shuttles had no weapons of any kind.  This meant Jane’s only tactic was to just fly as fast as possible in the direction of her home world and hope she didn’t die.
    There was nothing else Jane could do, she was powerless to stop the impending damage from her assailants.  The Attack ships began to flank the Loki, but only one fired when they were within range, they only wanted to cripple the ship, not demolish it.
    An invisible Maser ray silently travelled at the speed of light towards the Loki, it struck one of its engines by the side of the rear.  The impact shook the very structure of the shuttle, causing Tabitha to jerk forwards and bruise her ulna on the console.
    A quick check revealed the damage to not be that bad, it was true that one of the engines was out and they were falling towards Earth more than flying, but at least they were still moving.  They were even past the Sato-sphere by this time, which was the area around Earth filled with satellites, including Low Justice.
    The Loki had reached a point where the Earth’s gravity was accelerating the ship, further increasing the rate of falling to its surface.  The Attack ships pursuing them were preparing to fire again, but the smoke being emitted from the Loki’s starboard engine masked the ship too much for them to get a clear shot.
    “Aim for over there,” Tabitha said.  “We’ll lose them in the clouds.”  Jane did her best to steer the wounded ship to a huge section of white clouds surrounding part of the Earth.  They were now surrounded by Earth’s real air as they continued falling, leaving behind a jet stream of smoke to show where they had been.
    All Tabitha and Jane could see were the dense layer of clouds that they were soaring through, they had no idea where they were but a new feeling of security had fallen since the proximity warning had stopped just moments ago.  Tabitha’s head began to feel light as the Loki was seized by Earth’s gravity and taken down.  The ship punched through the cloud layer and they could see a mass of land below.  
    As Tabitha looked down at where they would soon be, she realised there was something so hypnotic about being high up.  The land below looked like a map, but the reality of the picture through the windscreen soon came thundering towards them as it became larger and more detailed.
    Jane pulled back on the controls, she even went so far as to reverse it, but the Loki barely slowed down.  Tabitha’s anxiety took hold and she buckled her seat belt, as if that would help with a head on crash at terminal speeds.
    The Loki was a small ship of a lower mass, and so didn’t need as much fuel to slow down when landing on a planet.  Even with a single engine, Jane managed to pull up enough to flatten out the landing.  It made her feel like a professional pilot, it was true she couldn’t do anything fancy, but she was becoming a master of the basics.
    As the land ahead of them rapidly transformed into ground, Tabitha could remember the way it looked to a near perfect degree of accuracy, but not much after that.