Rivers of Orion

had already begun to turn.
“Computer’s swingin her about, Cap’n, and I cannae fly this thing manually!”
“Then do not ignite main thrusters until I give the word, you get me?”
“Aye, Cap’n.”
“Lomomu, hold on to something!” Reggie pulled the airlock’s entry ring, and the door swung open. He set down Ellylle’s sphere, switched off his boots, and used his arms to launch toward his friend.
Lomomu grabbed for the joining frame and watched as his captain sped toward him.
Just then, the path buckled and shattered. Reggie vanished into the wreckage, and Lomomu screamed as the broken path flung him backward. Globes of fuel perforated the wall and stuck to the grating, where they continued to burn.
Bits and pieces of sheared steel floated away, bumping silently against the rent remains of the plastic walls. Upside down now, Lomomu felt dizzy as he took in the blur of stars. His breathing came in increasingly ragged gasps, and his whole body ached. His eyes throbbed, and his ribs burned. Looking at his side, he noticed a wide slash. Air rushed out, along with tiny globules of his blood. Gripping both sides of the breach, he clenched tight enough for the air pressure to normalize.
Directly before him, he stared at the underside of Big Huey’s main thrusters as they slowly came about. “By the seven suns,” he muttered, and he closed his eyes.
Clinging to the other half of the passage, Reggie climbed hand over hand along the wreckage. When he reached the airlock, he found it closed. From inside the compartment, Ellylle peered back at him. “Ellylle, open up! I can save him, but I need a tether!”
Ellylle vanished back into the shuttle.
“Ellylle? Zella? Zella, do you copy?”
No one responded.
He checked the transmitter housing on his helmet. It was badly dented. Desperately, he banged on the airlock door, but no one came. “Now that you got what you wanted, I guess you don’t need us anymore,” he growled. His voice felt empty, and it sent a chill up his spine. Gritting his teeth, he faced Lomomu from across the void as the shuttle completed its move.
Within the alien compartment, the shower of sparks faded.
Using all his might, Reggie jumped, crossing the distance to his friend. He grasped a curl of pathway grating and swung around hard. After bouncing against the metropolis, he rebounded back toward the wreckage, but managed to catch himself in time to avoid injury.
Lomomu smiled sadly to see him settle in at his side. Reggie gripped the back of the sudasau’s helmet and pressed its face against his own. Glassy tears floated from his eyes.
Big Huey’s thrusters began to glow.
Reggie jumped as something struck his shoulder. When it tapped him insistently, he turned around to look. Tethered to the shuttle’s airlock, anchored to the wreckage by a dozen vines, Ellylle regarded them impatiently with an outstretched branch.
Grinning, practically laughing, Reggie nodded and hooted, “Thank God for you!”
Lomomu, however, grimly shook his head and pointed at his boot. It held fast to what remained of the path. She swayed and creaked, her expression flat. With a precise thrust of her branch, she cracked the boot’s outer casing near the heel and gutted its power cell. The error light faded, and Lomomu grinned.
From the other side of the airlock, Zella used the upper winch to reel them in.
As they crossed the void, gloss black figures breached the compartment. Air surged from inside, pelting the shuttle with debris. Seemingly unaffected by the gale force winds rushing past them, they gathered in a ring and waited.
The instant Big Huey’s crew boarded, Zella closed the outer door. As the compartment pressurized, Zella sprang for the cockpit, where she executed a full burn. “See ye in hell,” she spat.
Bathed in white-hot flame, the figures merely stood as silhouettes, anchored in place. Silently, they watched Big Huey pull away. As she zipped out along the tunnel, they turned around to face one another. The exterior door rolled back into place.
◆◆◆
Big Huey closed on the starship Old Siberian. She wore a coat of weathered white paint. At her fore, a massive spherical capsule joined a lengthy, narrow hull made of beams and struts that sandwiched a thriving hydroponics deck. The hull joined an enormous thruster array.
Slowly, the shuttle turned fully around as it completed its approach. Directional thrusters fired with greater force as the ship settled in, and docking clamps rose to engage. Just before the hangar doors sealed shut, the crew caught a glimpse of the Milky Way’s northern arm.
Lomomu stopped by sick bay on the berth deck to stitch and bandage his wound.
Not long after, they gathered within the adjacent lounge. Nodding toward the orb, Lomomu asked, “What is that thing?”
“I told you,” said Ellylle. “It’s a container.”
“Why was it worth risking our lives?” asked Reggie.
Her flowers bloomed slowly, taking on pastel blue tones that shifted and faded to orange. “I’d have risked my own life for what’s inside.”
“If ye tell me it’s a decoder ring, I’m pushin ye out the airlock,” Zella grumped.
Ellylle laughed musically. “No, it’s not a decoder ring.” From her trunk, vines crept forth to surround the globe, where they turned dozens of latitudinal bands simultaneously until something clicked. Carefully, she lifted away the top half to reveal a large, black gem cradled within. Each of its facets portrayed a dark continent of verdant plant life, and it radiated blinding light that managed somehow not to hurt the onlookers.
“What’s goin’ on?” Lomomu squinted as he gazed.
“It’s okay to look,” said Ellylle. “The longer you do, the more you’ll see.”
“What is it?” whispered Reggie.
“Her name is Nyx, and she’s a world seed,” said Ellylle. “We’re taking her to Earth.”
“Why Earth?” asked Lomomu.
“Nyx will take Gaea’s place,” said Ellylle.
“Gaea,” said Reggie. “From ancient mythology? Are you serious?”
“I’m usually serious,” said Ellylle. “Gaea is the name for Earth’s world seed. Anyway, once she’s settled in, Nyx will remake the planet in her image.”
Reggie chuckled at first but found no humor in Ellylle’s gaze. “Oh! Uh, how long will that