B2 Chapter 8: Fly Me to the Moon Shaped Portal (Patreon)

The warehouse contained an array of spaceships of different sizes and styles that were neatly parked on either side, while the center was left empty to act as a runway. In other words, the four of them knew with a single glance that there was no secret portal there.

“What the hell? I thought you knew where it was!” Jason yelled at me.

I ignored him and checked the timer.

[12:39]

Damn, that’s not a lot of time. Okay, think. The System might not have tried to play a joke on us, but it still thinks we’re idiots. If it’s not here, then it will be somewhere even more obvious. My eyes widened. Of course.

“If it’s not here, then it’s somewhere on the estate grounds. We have to move,” I said.

“You sound confident,” sniffed Roland, unimpressed. “But you were confident last time as well.”

“Hey, I never asked for any of you to follow me,” I replied.

Damn it. I’m wasting time arguing with these people.

“We can’t just aimlessly wander the grounds,” Eloise said. “I saw some of it from my patron’s spaceship window as we were coming into land. This place is massive. We’ll never search it all in twelve minutes. We need to think of the most likely place it would be next.”

I shook my head. She was right about there being too much ground to cover. Even with our enhanced speed, we wouldn’t be fast enough on the ground to cover it all. But then again, maybe we don’t have to be.

“Forget it,” Jason said. “I’ll find the thing on my own.”

Roland shook his head in agreement. “I should not have trusted others.”

They started moving towards the door, which was stupid. They’d never find it in time, but I let them go. Instead, I went towards one of the smaller spaceships. A silver and blue cylindrical one that looked like it was designed for short distances. Eloise’s words had given me the idea. I can cover the grounds of the estate far faster in the air. I just have to hope I can get the thing off the ground in the time that we have left.

As I got closer, the back door of the ship automatically opened and lowered itself. Inside was a space of seats on either side and a two-person cockpit at the front. It looked like it was made to deliver a small amount of cargo or transfer around ten people, which was perfect. I didn’t need something with crazy speed or weapons. Just something reliable that could fly at low altitude.

I went on through into the cockpit and sat down in front of the alien controls. The dashboard was covered in buttons and levers, none of which were labelled. Not that that would help much since it would’ve been in an alien language, anyway. Luckily, there was a flight stick in the center for steering. Looks like all I have to do is find out how to start the engines.

“Okay, this is a much better idea,” Eloise said.

I jumped. Again.

“Would it kill you to make a little noise when you approach somebody from behind?” I asked.

She shrugged with a wry smile. “Yeah, but it’s less fun that way.”

“You’ll end up giving someone a heart attack. Namely me,” I muttered.

I pushed buttons on the console at random. They all did nothing, which means there’s some sort of power on switch that I’m missing. Eloise hopped into the seat next to me and tried some of the buttons on her side, all to no avail.

“You just have to say ‘ship on’” said Roland, who suddenly appeared behind us.

Eloise jumped, and I chuckled darkly. “Thank you, Roland. It’s always nice to see someone taste their own medicine.”

She rolled her eyes and tried more buttons.

Nothing had happened when Roland had said it, but maybe it only responds to whoever’s sitting in the captain’s chair? I decided it was worth trying.

“Ship on.”

The console buttons lit up, and I pushed a large round one right in front of me. The ship vibrated and the engines on either side started whining.

“Is it out of fuel?” asked Eloise, afraid that it wouldn’t work.

The engines suddenly roared to life, and the ship lifted off the ground.

“Hey, the transport door is still open!” yelled Jason, who’d come aboard at the last second and had nearly fallen out.

I pushed another button, hoping that it would close the door, but the ship's interior became icy cold instead. Pressing that same button again didn’t undo it and just made the place twice as cold. Eloise leaned over and pushed the button next to it twice, and the ship instantly returned to room temperature.

I gave her a questioning look, and she shrugged. “Where else would you put the other climate control button? I bet if I pressed it again, it’ll heat the place up.”

Jason, meanwhile, had found his buttons near the transport bay door and had figured out how to close it.

“If you’re done playing with the air conditioning? We only have 8 minutes left,” he said.

I nodded. It was time to get out of here. I pulled the flight stick back at what I thought was a reasonable amount and the ship shot up and banged into the warehouse ceiling. Jason and Roland, who were not strapped in, both fell over.

“Sorry,” I said. “First day flying a spaceship.”

Gently, I nudged the flight stick forward and pulled a lever next to it. The ship smoothly and silently sailed out of the warehouse.

Wow, I could get used to this. What are these? Anti-gravity drives of some kind? It’s moving through the air effortlessly.

“Seven minutes and twenty-two seconds,” Eloise said, giving me another nudge.

“Right,” I said, trying not to get too wrapped up in the fact that I was flying a spaceship.

I pulled the flight stick back more gently this time until we rose above the tree line and explored the area. Eloise leaned forward and looked out through the front windows while Roland and Jason did the same for the tiny windows in the back.

“You’re going too slowly,” Roalnd complained. “Just engage the autopilot and have us circle the area.”

“How do I engage the autopilot?” I asked.

“Autopilot engaged,” said the ship in a robotic voice. “Now heading for last destination of Sarkar 4.”

The ship turned upwards at a steep angle and blasted up into the sky. The G-forces pushed Eloise and me hard into our seats. It was like an anvil was sitting on my entire body. I can only imagine that the feeling was worse for Roland and Jason, who had still not strapped themselves into chairs.

Judging by our rate of acceleration, it was safe to say that Sarkar 4 was not a place on this planet.

“Autopilot disengage,” I shouted.

“Autopilot disengaged,” the ship replied.

For some utterly stupid design reason, this caused the ship's engines to stop firing. Gravity quickly resumed control of us and we began plummeting down fast. Way too fast.

“Engines on!”

The craft’s engines came back to life and the flight stick responded to my commands again. I pulled us out of a steep dive and leveled us off in the air before glancing at the timer. We were running out of time and we needed speed. There were only four minutes left.

I pulled the lever for the engine’s thrusters back and we launched forward. Eventually, we passed over the mansion and started to come upon the open fields where animals grazed.

“I’ve got it. On our left,” Jason said.

I pulled the ship around and saw what he’d seen. There was a large orange portal in the middle of a field and in front of it, a bitter battle was being waged by some of the other tower residents.

“Here’s the plan,” I said. “We fly past them, get as close to the portal as we can, and then jump down and a make a run for it.”

Eloise nodded. “Sounds good.”

As I tried to take the ship in closer, some of the fighting residents below noticed us. Those with magic began throwing bolts of it at the ship to try and bring us down. The magic thudded against the ship, but I maintained the course and kept it steady. There was nothing else I could do. We were in a transport ship. It no weapons or special shields. All we could do was hope that the metal exterior was tough enough to withstand their blasts.

Once we were closer to the portal, I said, “open the bay door.”

A howling wind rushed in and Eloise got out of her chair to get ready for the jump.

Everything was going well, and we were almost there, but there was one problem with my plan though. The closer we got, the more we drew fire from the other tower residents. As we got almost directly over the portal, lightning came down and hit the ship. The lights on the console went out and the flight stick stopped responding. Engines were out too and my verbal commands were only met with silence.

“It’s not responding,” I yelled over the wind. “We’re going down!”

We flew past the portal and crashed hard into the field. My body whipped forward and my head slammed into the console.

Annoyed that the ship didn’t come with airbags, I looked up, groggy and dazed with the taste of blood in my mouth. My head felt so fuzzy that I didn’t want to move and could barely think. Must be a concussion. Maybe I should rest here for a bit?

A fire formed on the other side of the cockpit. Its heat reached me and roused me back to my senses. I brought out a vial of blood from my inventory and drank half of it. The blood reinvigorated me back to perfect health and my mind became clear and sharp again. The remaining blood in the vial formed into a short blood sword in my hand as I climbed out of the broken ship. There was no sign of the others, but there were tower residents still fighting. Either they were in a fight somewhere or they’d already gone through the portal.

I checked the timer. Forty seconds to go. Good, I can still make it.

A weak cough behind me stopped me.

It was Eloise. She was lying next to the wrecked ship and was barely conscious.

I cursed and ran over to her.

“Can you get to your inventory?” I asked. “Do you have any health potions you can take?”

She didn’t respond except with a weak groan. Damn, I’ve really got to start carrying some health potions for other people.

She looked seriously hurt, but I couldn’t just leave her here or the poison will kill her. I let the blood sword go and made it float in the air next to me. With thirty seconds left, I picked her up and ran for the portal.

Several tower residents tried to stop me, but my hands were too full carrying Eloise to fight them directly. Instead, I used my Blood Magnetism and Heart of Darkness abilities. Blood and shadow were thrown into their eyes, temporarily blinding them as I ran past.

[00:07]

[00:06]

I ran with everything I had for the portal. Either we’d be killed instantly for being over the 80% entrance limit or we’d find ourselves back in the tower. At the last moment, I closed my eyes and dove through the portal.