Colt and Clay moved through the doors.

  The air inside was different. It didn’t smell like dirt or torch smoke or anything like a cave. It smelled like the HUB.

  “Alright, Clay.” Colt kept his voice low. “It’s in here somewhere.”

  Clay didn’t answer. His boots scuffed the polished floor as he followed.

  The lights above them flickered on one by one as they walked. Each new section lit up when they got close, buzzing that same hum the HUB had. White walls stretched on both sides, smooth stone that didn’t look like any stone Colt had ever seen.

  His hand stayed on the conduit dagger.

  Doors lined the corridor. Not the big vault kind. Regular ones. Each had a window set at head height with glass dark on the other side.

  Colt stopped at the first one and looked through.

  Desks inside. Three of them. Chairs with wheels, flat black squares sitting on each desk.

  He tried the handle. It didn’t budge.

  “What’s in there?” Clay leaned over his shoulder.

  “Don’t know.” Colt squinted through the glass. “Looks like where people worked, maybe.”

  They kept moving. More doors. More dark windows. All of them locked.

  The corridor went straight for maybe fifty feet, then ended at another set of doors. These were the same size as the entrance. Twenty feet tall at least, metal panels that were fitted together.

  Next to the doors sat a box. Same kind that had scanned his eye at the entrance.

  Colt walked up to it and leaned in. A line of green light shot across his vision. He flinched but held still. The light swept his eye, then blinked out.

  The doors groaned.

  They started sliding apart with that metal scrape.

  “Huh.” Clay stepped past him and looked inside. “Another one of them things like at the museum.”

  “Just bigger.” Colt followed him through.

  Metal walls boxed them in on three sides. A single button sat on a panel next to the door, glowing faint green.

  Clay pressed it.

  The doors slid shut and the floor lurched.

  Clay grabbed the wall with one hand. “Whoa.”

  The room dropped.

  Colt’s stomach went light. His knees bent to catch the shift. The hum got louder. He could feel it in his boots now, running up through his legs.

  “I hate these damn things,” Clay muttered.

  The descent went on longer than Colt expected. Ten seconds. Twenty. The walls stayed solid around them but his gut kept telling him they were falling.

  Then it stopped.

  The doors slid open.

  Colt stepped out and stopped.

  The room stretched out massive in front of them. Had to be two hundred feet across, maybe more. The ceiling rose high enough that the lights up there looked small. Metal catwalks ran along the walls at different levels, connected by ladders and stairs.

  And in the middle of it all sat a ship.

  Not like the boats Colt had seen on the Mississippi. This thing was built for something else entirely. It rose up from the floor on landing struts wide as wagon wheels. The hull was dark metal, smooth except for panels and vents running along the sides. No sails. No paddle wheel. Just that long shape he’d seen in his vision, the one that had climbed into the sky with fire pouring from its bottom.

  “Holy shit,” Clay breathed.

  Colt’s throat closed up. “I seen a thing like this before.”

  Clay looked at him. “Where?”

  “Toyahdoh showed me.” Colt couldn’t stop staring at it. “It went up into the sky. Past the clouds.”

  “Past the clouds.” Clay said it like he didn’t understand, “How’s somethin’ that big supposed to fly?”

  Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

  Colt didn’t have an answer.

  They moved along the catwalk. Their boots rang against the metal grating. Below them, shapes stood in rows along the floor. Twenty of them at least, spaced out even.

  Colt stopped at the railing and looked down.

  Metal men. But not like Kevin. These were huge. Twenty feet tall, built heavy through the chest and legs. Arms thicker than Colt’s whole body. Heads small compared to their frames, with dark glass where eyes should be.

  His hand gripped the railing. Pa used to tell stories about giants. Colt had always figured they were just tales. But standing here looking down at twenty of them lined up like soldiers waiting for orders, he wasn’t so sure anymore.

  “Colt.” Clay pointed at one. “Look at the shoulders.”

  Colt followed his finger. Mounted on each shoulder sat something that looked like a short cannon. Barrels as wide as his leg, angled forward.

  “Someone was buildin’ an army,” Clay said.

  Colt’s gut dropped. He thought about the ninjas. About the fort they were building. About what Toyahdoh had shown him, those demon things pouring through the tear in the sky.

  If someone had built these things, they’d been getting ready for a fight.

  But where were they?

  They found a ladder and climbed down. Colt’s boots hit the floor and he walked between the metal men. Up close they looked even bigger. He had to crane his neck back to see their heads.

  He opened his UI.

  The interface flickered.

  Colt frowned. He focused on it and the map tried to open. The screen appeared for half a second, then cut out.

  ERROR: INSUFFICIENT CLEARANCE

  He tried again.

  It flashed. He saw the star sitting right on top of where the ship was, then it was gone.

  The same message appeared.

  He blinked hard. The system had never done that before. Not once.

  “What the hell,” Colt muttered.

  “What’s wrong?” Clay asked.

  “Map’s actin’ strange.” Colt looked at the ship. “But the module’s in there.”

  They walked to it. A ramp led up to an opening in the hull. The door sat open, pulled back into the frame.

  Colt stepped onto the ramp. The metal creaked under his boots.

  Inside, the ship looked like the HUB. Smooth walls. Clean lines. That hum sitting in the air. A hallway stretched out ahead.

  Colt walked forward. His hand stayed on the dagger.

  Something pulled at him. Not physical. More like a feeling in his chest, tugging him deeper into the ship. He followed it.

  Past the first door. Past the second. The pull got stronger.

  His boots wanted to stop but the rest of him kept moving. Like when you smell smoke on the wind and your body turns toward it before your brain catches up.

  “You know where you’re goin’?” Clay asked behind him.

  “Yeah.” Colt didn’t know how he knew. He just did.

  The hallway opened into a larger space. Consoles lined the walls with those black screens sitting dark. Chairs bolted to the floor. A window stretched across the far wall, wide enough to see through if the ship was moving.

  The pull led him to another door. This one was bigger. Above it read: Engine room. He stepped through.

  The space opened up into something huge. Machinery filled it, pipes and cables running everywhere. Some of it looked familiar from the HUB. Most of it didn’t.

  In the center, suspended in the air with nothing holding it up, floated a sphere.

  About the size of a cannonball. It glowed faint violet, pulsing slow like a heartbeat. Lines of light ran across its surface, shifting and moving.

  Colt’s breath caught. He’d seen violet before. Seen it in ninja eyes and portal shimmers and corruption spreading across his Earth. But this was different. Cleaner somehow. Like the difference between muddy water and creek water, both wet but one you could drink.

  MODULE DETECTED: DISPLACEMENT DRIVE MK-I

  The text flickered. Glitched. Like something was wrong with it.

  “That’s it,” Colt said.

  Another notification appeared.

  HOSTILE SIGNATURE IN PROXIMITY

  The words stuttered across his vision, breaking apart and reforming.

  “Fuck,” Colt said.

  “What?” Clay turned toward him.

  A loud crash echoed from somewhere above them. The whole room shook and dust fell from the ceiling.

  “What was that?” Clay turned toward him.

  “Don’t know.” Colt grabbed the sphere. His fingers closed around it and it was warm. The glow faded the second he touched it.

  MODULE ACQUIRED: DISPLACEMENT DRIVE MK-I

  He shoved it in his satchel and opened his map.

  The interface flickered on. He thought Earth 145. Started to focus on Travel.

  The screen cut out.

  Colt’s jaw clenched. He tried again.

  Nothing. The map wouldn’t stay open long enough.

  Another crash. Louder this time. The lights overhead flickered.

  “Clay.” His voice cracked.

  “What’s wrong?” Clay backed toward the door.

  Colt focused harder. Wanting the map to work. Needing it to work.

  ERROR: INSUFFICIENT CLEARANCE

  The words flashed and disappeared.

  “It ain’t workin’,” Colt said.

  “What, why?” Clay said.

  “I don’t know, but let’s get the hell outta here.”

  They ran.

  Back through the engine room door. Down the hallway. Their boots pounded the metal floor. More crashes echoed above them, one after another, shaking the walls.

  Colt burst out of the ship and onto the ramp. Clay was right behind him.

  They stopped at the edge and looked up.

  The ceiling had a hole in it. Not the elevator shaft. A new one, torn through the rock. Violet streaks cut across the opening, flashing past too fast to count.

  “Oh shit,” Clay breathed.

  One of the streaks changed direction.

  It angled down through the hole and dropped straight toward them.

  “Move!” Colt shoved Clay.

  They dove off the ramp.

  The streak hit the ship.

  The impact threw Colt forward. His body went weightless for a second, then he slammed into the floor and rolled. Metal scraped his shoulder. His head cracked against something hard.

  Everything went white.

  He blinked and the room came back. His ears rang. Smoke filled the air.

  “Clay?” His voice came out rough.

  No answer.

  Colt pushed himself up. His shoulder burned but he could move it. He looked around.

  Clay lay a few yards away, flat on his back. Not moving.

  “Clay!”

  Colt scrambled to him and dropped to his knees. His hands went to Clay’s chest. It was rising and falling. Shallow, but steady.

  Blood ran from a gash on Clay’s forehead. His eyes were closed.

  Colt grabbed his shoulders and shook. “Clay. Come on, man. Wake up.”

  Nothing.

  The ship was on fire. Not normal fire. Violet flames crawled up the hull, spreading fast. The metal where the streak had hit glowed orange.

  Another crash from above. More violet light flashed through the hole in the ceiling.

  Four violet spheres shot into the air and flattened out.

  Colt looked at Clay, then at the elevator across the room.

  He looked back at the shimmers in the air.

  Ninjas started jumping out. They just stood there.

  Colt grabbed the handle of his revolver.

  Then one more jumped out landed in front of the rest.

  It turned towards Colt.

  It was him. The one eyed ninja.