Heaven's Call: A thrilling military science fiction book (LUMINA Book 3) by I.G. Hulme

Author:I.G. Hulme [Hulme, I.G.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: I.G. Hulme
Published: 2021-05-28T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

A LEAP OF FAITH

Ryann heard himself cry out instinctively as he leapt from the edge of the platform. Every nerve in his brain told him that he would instantly plunge down into the abyss, a deathly fall to that boiling surface of the broken moon far below. He fought his instincts, screaming at himself to keep his eyes open in an effort to conquer his fear.

He felt the weight of the Defiance’s gravity field pulling him down as he flew out into the void.

But then, in an instant, the heaviness of his body melted away, and the much weaker gravity of the moon took hold. Instead of falling straight downwards, the inertia of his leap was sending him out, straight towards the Luminal wreck.

But he was still falling nevertheless. He predicted that his impossible leap would get him roughly half way across the gulf before he hit the moon’s surface.

He flew on, passing between great chunks of falling rock, tumbling slowly as he went. He caught a brief glimpse of the sheer walls of the Defiance receding into the distance, and tried to slow his body’s spin. As the Luminal wreck came into view once more, he flipped open the emergency panel located on his wrist-pack and hit the EVA button.

Instantly, he felt the weight of his body increase as micro-thrusters all about his flight suit fired out in unison, automatically stabilising his tumble. Slowly, his view of the Luminal wreck steadied, until his body was pointing straight for it.

And then the thrusters cut off and he was left in a silence punctuated only by his own ragged breathing.

Ryann gazed about in panic at his surreal situation. He was hurtling out across the void, his velocity steadily increasing as his trajectory dipped inexorably towards the moon’s surface. He was still two hundred or so metres above the clouds and roughly double that from the Luminal ship, but the shallow arc of his fall meant there was no way that he would reach the safety of the wreck at this rate.

Rocks of all sizes whipped past him on either side, above and below as he sped on getting faster and faster.

He fought every instinct to fire the thrusters on his suit once again. He knew that he needed more speed if he were to reach the derelict; and that meant falling further. His emergency EVA system wasn’t designed to overcome the gravity of this moon, weak as it was. It was created to get the wearer back through the weightlessness of space should he have an accident and find himself separated from his ship. But if he could gain the momentum to carry him forwards, he was hoping that the thrusters would give enough lift to keep him above the moon’s lava-strewn surface.

But it was going to be a close call.

So he let himself be drawn painstakingly into the moon’s pull, hoping it would increase the velocity of this bizarre, slow-motion flight across the void.

He looked down and saw the sea of vapour approaching as though it were rising up to engulf him.

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