“I know you can hear me, Ase!”
Ake roared over the static. The crackling in his ear spoke volumes more than her words had in a long time. If his sister had blocked him he wouldn’t be hearing the pops and fizzes. A sudden explosion sent Ake’s world spinning. Orange and red light disrupted his HUD and when it cleared, his island cover was gone - disintegrated. His cosmosuit protected him from the savage heat threatening to vaporize him alongside the landscape. The explosion was a deep thrum which he felt more than heard but that was just as well - sound was disturbing in the near vacuum. Voices were like painful memories; colliding shards were like dying gods. Røkkva’s limited atmosphere gave Ake the impression that he was floating through an endless graveyard. He missed the warmth of Lastland’s day and night cycle. The icy shards of Røkkva existed in eternal darkness.
Ake engaged the thrusters in his boots and aimed for a large slab of land a few drifts away. He was completely exposed as he crossed the gap but it was his only option. Laser fire erupted immediately. The light show illuminated his visor as he drifted helplessly across the divide. It wasn’t luck that let him land on the rocky surface unharmed – Ase was missing intentionally. He had seen her vaporize a Rockwaller from twenty drifts away and that was on a bad day. She didn’t want to kill Ake any more than he wanted to kill her. But this was war and there were certain expectations.
Ake took shelter behind an outcropping on the landmass. His vitals were flashing incessantly on his HUD. He didn’t need the screen to tell him this was a losing battle. He disabled the beeping and flashing and crouched for a moment to catch his breath. The earthen slab upon which he was perched was barren and colorless. He had to remind himself that he wasn’t risking his life for this endless field of floating lifeless rocks. He was doing it for the people who lived on them, people who were running out of water and resources, people who were desperate.
“Ase, listen,” Ake wheezed in his com. “You have to fall back. For once in your life just trust me.”
He thought he could hear his sister’s strained breathing over the fuzz but she didn’t utter a word.
The shard where Ake sat spun slowly and and would soon expose his cover. His momentary reprieve had given his suit’s reserves a chance to recharge and redistribute energy to vital systems. As his island continued its rotation, the battlefield inched into view. He saw two armies floating amongst the endless fields of Røkkva. Lastlanders and Røkkans clashed amidst the rockshards lobbing rockets, blasting lasers, and swinging blades. And then she came into view. Outlined against the horrific glow of the Barracore was his sister.
The Barracore’s metallic framework was like a massive spiderweb floating in the space between the landmasses. It was the centerpiece around which their two worlds orbited. Its fusion generator was the only thing holding the atmosphere of their shattered planet together and if the plan worked, it would be the catalyst that reformed their planet. The station was controlled by Lastlanders and had been since before this war had begun, since before Ake abandoned his people. Abandoned his sister.
Even after so much time apart, they knew each other better than they knew themselves. They both acted simultaneously. Ake leapt from his exposed cover using a combination of its momentum and his boots’ thrusters to propel himself toward her. Ase anticipated the act of aggression and activated the gravity wells in her suit’s forearms. She pulled a rockshard twice his girth in front of her as a shield. Ake’s rocket was loosed before Ase’s rock had even begun to twitch and the two objects collided. The shield splintered and floated in a million tiny directions. Ake’s momentum carried him through the debris-littered smoke cloud and out the other side. When he cleared the gap, Ase was there waiting for him with a thrust-boosted fist racing towards him. The punch landed against his helmet and he felt the shockwave reverberate through his body. He was sent spinning backward but as soon as his sister came back into view, he grabbed her legs with both his arms and used his own momentum to fling her down toward the monstrous Barracore. The action carried him backward as well. He landed, his feet against a passing rockshard, and kicked off toward Ase.
They were close enough to the Barracore now that the gravity pull was too much to fight against. They were falling towards the labyrinth of catwalks and machinery.
“I don’t want to hurt you, Ase!” Ake roared over the intercom.
“It’s too late for that, brother.”
Her words stung with an impenitent truth but he was still glad to hear her voice. And with that, Ase unleashed a barrage of laser fire from her wrist cannon. There was nothing to hide behind this time and so Ake did the next best thing and dodged. He wasn’t fast enough to avoid every blast, but he managed to escape the brunt of it. His suit was scalded and damaged but still intact. The two of them, brother and sister, tumbled downward towards the core. Ake returned fire but aimed wide. They were falling through the clockwork of the machine now. Ake had to focus on avoiding his sister’s attacks as well as dodging past girders and cables. And then the laser fire stopped.
“This is the only way to end this war, Ase. The people of Røkkva are going to die unless--”
“You’re an idealistic fool and you always have been! Of course people are going to die. What you’re trying to do is impossible, Ake. A lot more people are going to die if--”
“Ase, watch out!”
Ake saw the swinging mechanical arm before Ase but it was too late. She clipped against it hard and spun into a freefall.
“Ase?” Ake called out.
No response.
“Ase!”
His suit was low on power but he didn’t care. He rerouted everything he had into his thrusters and rocketed toward his sister. Quick adjustments allowed him to barely avoid clipping machinery himself. They were deep now; he could see the swirling corona of the core. He reached out and grabbed Ase and held on with all his might. He reversed the thrusters and slowed his momentum as much as possible but they were falling too fast. The beeping of low power and flashing lights on his HUD told him what he already knew – they were going to die. With the last of his suit’s power Ake steered them toward the inner frame of the core. They crashed against the metal walkway and tumbled. Bright lights flashed in Ake’s eyes and it wasn’t his HUD, it was the shock of impact. He lay for a few moments on his stomach trying to analyze where he was hurt. He could see the core glowing through the slits in the walkway. After a few moments he attempted to push himself up but the pain was excruciating. His left arm was useless. He rolled to his side and grabbed a railing with his right arm.
Where was Ase? He scanned his surroundings and found her lying a few floats away – she was motionless. Ake ran to her. She was still breathing and Ake heaved a sigh of relief. He held his hand to the glass of his helmet, kissed the air, and then placed the hand against the glass of hers.
“I’m going to give you a better world.”
Ake half stumbled, half walked to the console. It looked just as it had been described to him. This was the spot. He opened a panel in his suit’s forearm and extended the interface cable. He plugged it into the console and the program began to run. Ake slid to the ground and waited with his eyes closed. He imagined a lush green world with running water. Children laughed and played under the warm glow of the sun. He breathed in deep the free flowing oxygen. It was wonderful. A painful burning sensation snapped him back to reality. He looked down and saw a charred hole where his chest had been. His suit didn’t have enough power to protect against the laser this time. Raising his eyes, Ake saw his sister, standing and pointing her laser cannon at him. She lowered her arm and ran over to the console.
“Oh, no, no, no! Ake, what have you done?” his sister cried out.
Her fingers worked frantically along the console trying to reverse what he had set in motion but it was too late. For Ake, the world was moving in slow motion. He recognized the pain in his chest but it seemed so far away. He could hear the deep thrum of the core and felt the metal framework buckle all around them. But it somehow seemed less important now. Ase slid to the ground next to her brother and became the only part of the world that still mattered to him. He could see tears in her eyes.
“Do you trust me?” Ake asked.
“Of course not,” Ase laughed through tears. “You’re always wrong.”
“Not this time,” Ake gestured upward. “Look.”
Far above on the horizon, the distant shards of a broken planet began to pull closer together.
“You have to go,” Ake said.
Ase shook her head but he knew she would listen. She embraced him and then kissed her hand and placed it against his helmet. He watched her board the lift next to the console and continued watching until it had risen out of sight. The metal beams began to come apart. The whole framework was collapsing around him. He closed his eyes and once more thought of lush green fields. He saw Ase leaning against a tree, reading a book. She looked up from her story and smiled at Ake.
And then it was dark.
Ragnarok was written by Daniel Weinell and illustrated by Maribel Navarro.
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