Under A Winter Sun by Johan Dahlgren (ink ebook reader txt) 📕

with Eirik.” The elevator accelerates and Finn looks up at me and waves. “Good luck Perez.”

Damn it. “Don't be stupid Finn. There's no way you can get aboard that ship.”

But I am wrong. Finn steps to the side as a vibration shakes the ground and the airlock doors come shooting into the void. They are followed by hundreds of Goliaths flowing like a living river onto the bridge. The airlock on the Naglfar rumbles open to receive them and the Goliaths stream inside. As they run across the bridge, scores of Goliaths are pushed off the bridge and fall to their death in the bowels of the moon.

“Finn,” Hildr calls. “Take this.”

She throws Skallagrim's sword down to Finn. “He would have wanted you to have it.”

Finn catches the sword and gives it a practice swing. “Good blade.”

Damn the Goliaths and their sense of honour. “I'll get you out of there, Finn.” I can't lose my only friend.

“Go. This is my fight.”

Finn steps into the flow of undead Goliaths and is soon swallowed by the crowd streaming aboard the ghost ship.

“Damn you, Finn. This is my fight too. I promised I would help you.”

“Aye. But you …” The signal is breaking up. He must already be inside the ship and our rapid ascent is taking us out of radio range. “… to do alone. See you in …”

And he's gone.

His icon on the helmet HUD fades to grey. Shit.

The elevator moves fast enough to make my limbs heavy, and the bridge and the boarding Goliaths disappear into the yellow fog far below.

At his speed, the Goliaths will have boarded the ship in minutes. I hope they have rigorous launch procedures to go through before they can blast into space, but something tells me they don't care about that kind of thing.

Jagr watches her wrist console as we rise. “A little more, and we should be in radio range.”

We pass the bow of the Naglfar. “Almost … there …”

A chirp from the suit tells me we have reacquired comms with the Sundowner.

“Braden, are you there?” Jagr calls.

A heartbeat later Braden comes online.

“Braden here. What's up?”

“We have a problem down here. Arm the guns.”

The line goes silent for three seconds. Then she comes back. “Repeat, Jagr, over.”

“You heard me, Braden. Ready the guns. We need to blow something up.”

“Righty-ho. Arming guns.”

We keep rising higher and higher. The altimeter in my suit's HUD says we should reach the surface in thirty seconds.

Five seconds later, the comms-line crackles again. “Guns armed and ready.”

“Good, now get ready to fire on our position.”

“What?”

I've never heard Braden surprised before.

“You heard me. Fire all the guns on our position.”

I grab Jagr's shoulder and turn her to face me. “What the hell are you doing, Jagr? You might have a death wish, but I don't intend to die just yet.”

Even Tyrus looks at Jagr.

“Relax, Perez. You won't die.”

She reaches up and ejects the locator beacon from her chest plate and holds it up. Whew. For a second there, I thought she was going to blow us all up.

I glance at Tyrus, but his skull visor tells me nothing. “Ah. That old trick.”

“Yes, that old trick.” She leans out of the cage and throws the beacon into a wide crack in the rock wall. “You didn't think I was going to kill us all, were you, boys?”

“Nah.”

“Nah,” Tyrus agrees. Then he punches my shoulder. Hard.

Ouch.

“Braden, on my mark, prepare to fire.”

“Will do, boss. Will you be safe?”

Jagr's response drowns in a storm of blistering hot sulphur and dust blowing up from the abyss at hurricane force. The rock shakes like it's been nuked.

The ghost ship is taking off.

* * *

As the cage reaches the rim, we dive for the safety of the open ground.

The ship's main engines ignite deep underground, and a pyroclastic cloud of superheated smoke and debris shoots a kilometre into the sky like a volcanic eruption. We struggle to stay on our feet as we sprint from the crater.

The ship rises like a mountain from the depths of the moon, and there's no longer anything we can do.

We were too late.

One suit collapses on the gravel. I think it's Soledad.

The bow of the Naglfar ploughs into the clouds above, while the stern is still deep underground. That fucking thing is huge.

“Um, Mr Perez?” The priest tugs my arm as we stand watching the rising ship, our heads bent as far back as possible.

A lightning storm plays through the pyroclastic cloud, lending the monstrous ship's departure a fitting ambience.

“What?”

“What happens when the engines reach the surface?”

Missile tubes as wide as the Sundowner tear past us as the gargantuan ship ponderously accelerates towards space. I've never felt so helpless in my life.

“Hmm?”

“The engines. Should we stand this close?”

“He has a point, Perez.”

There's urgency in Aeryn's voice. “They will burn you to ash.”

Shit. I search around, trying to find something that will shelter us.

What looks like a deep ravine angles away from us, far out in the mist. It will have to do.

“Run.”

“Why?” Soledad looks like she is done running.

“The engines are coming.”

The others are quick to realise the new danger, and Soledad gets to her feet.

We run for the ravine.

There's no way of knowing how much time we've got. All we can hope for is to be over that edge before those titanic engines burn us to cinders. Along with everything else on this side of the moon.

I reach the edge and jump.

The ravine is deeper than I thought. Shit. According to the suit, it's ninety-six metres to the bottom. If the blast doesn't kill us, the fall will, even in the weak gravity of Muspelheim. My typical luck.

“Wings, Perez.” It's Tyrus.

Oh, right.

I spread my arms, and the wingsuit deploys its monofilament wings.

Five seconds later we're down on the bottom and still there's no blast.

“Everyone OK?” Jagr looks around her team.

“Think so,” Soledad replies.

Hildr waves a gloved hand. The priest collapses on the ground, but I can see his chest moving, so he's still alive.

“Fine,” Tyrus affirms, and I