Spoiler alert: This is the first draft of the ninth book in the Reckless Faith series, now with the working title of The Path of Andromeda. You can start with the prologue here: https://devonai.wordpress.com/2024/10/17/reckless-faith-ix-prologue/

In the bowels of the Flying Serpent, a small group of people was moving. Passing slowly through a twisted tunnel of grimy utility conduits, along with Ray, Richter, Vecky, and Helena, John had to wonder why the Serpent, with its huge main concourse, had been designed with such claustrophobic access areas beneath. It was as if the architect had never intended for humanoids to be down there; or at least, not for long.

They were headed to a spot that Helena had decided was her best chance to hide for an extended period. She had explained that after leaving the Order of Andromeda, and before opening her bar, she had explored as much of the Serpent as she could. That included these maintenance areas. She had further told them that since the Serpent relied mostly on the ships attached to it for life support, several of its original systems had been allowed to fall into disrepair. That made their intended destination a good choice for lying low.

So far, John was reasonably confident that she was correct, as the dust on the metal floor lay undisturbed. Still, the group was moving with caution: pistols drawn, exercising light and noise discipline, and keeping their ears open. However, as their journey reached the half-hour mark, he was starting to get anxious. Helena was right in front of him, so he spoke.

“How much further is it?” he asked softly.

“Not far,” she replied.

“The further we go, the more difficult it’s going to be to get back out when the Faith gets here.”

“I know. I’m serious, it’s just beyond this bend. Assuming I chose the right corridor in the first place.”

Richter, who was leading the way, grumbled. “I hope that was an attempt at humor.”

“It was.”

Thankfully, Helena was right, and the tunnel opened up into a room. Here, they found several ancient pieces of equipment, some boxes, and dead rodents. A single fluorescent light bravely held on to life on the far wall. Helena’s charges let out a collective sigh of relief to be free of the tunnel. It was also several degrees cooler in the room, which John appreciated. Richter retrieved a canteen from his belt.

“Water up.”

The others followed his lead, then found places to sit down.

“This looks like a research lab,” said Ray. “Or it was, a long time ago.”

“Seems like an odd place for that,” replied Vecky.

Helena put the cap back on her canteen. “There’s another entrance over there that’s been welded over with plate steel. That must have been the main way in.”

Richter got up and examined the former entrance. “Nothing’s getting in that way.”

“Exactly.”

“Welp, smoke ‘em if you got ‘em.”

Sitting back down, Richter pulled out a pack of cigarettes and fished around in his pocket for his lighter.

“I thought you ran out of cigs weeks ago,” said John.

“Earth cigarettes, yes. I bought these on the concourse a couple of days ago.”

“Some analog of tobacco? Did you even bother to scan them before you tried them?”

Richter lit one. “It smells close enough.”

John stood up. “Come on, Richter. We’ve been scanning consumables ever since we set foot on Residere Beta. Who’s got the scientific PDA?”

“You just want one.”

“Yes, I fucking want one, and I’d rather it doesn’t kill me. Immediately, I mean.”

“I’ve got it,” said Ray, producing the PDA from his bag.

Helena asked, “How comprehensive are the scans on that device?”

“Good enough for field work,” said John.

Ray walked over to Richter and activated the scanning program. A couple of seconds later, his eyes grew wide.

“Holy shit,” he said. “I’m receiving a directed stream of neutrinos from… somewhere.”

Richter looked at the screen. “That might be a broadcast. Boot up the commo program.”

Ray did so. “It says ‘Morse code detected’! Yes! That’s gotta be the Faith! Message reads as follows: ‘Ground team, this is the Reckless Faith, standing by at the Tempest. Unable to contact you via other means. Reply via neutrino stream if able. Out’.”

A cheer erupted from the group, except for Helena, who simply looked immensely relieved. Vecky sat down on a crate heavily, closed her eyes, and smiled.

“Tell them to hold position and wait for further instructions,” said John. “We’re not out of the woods yet. We need to figure out how we’re getting out of here without getting killed.”

Ray typed the message, then sent it. Five seconds later, a reply arrived.

“They said, ‘Wilco. It’s good to hear from you again’.”

“All right, then. Contact our team on the Tempest and let them know the good news.”

“I’m on it.”

“Thanks. Okay, team. Options?”

Richter looked at Helena. “If the body has been discovered, what happens next?”

“I’m not sure,” she replied, glancing at her PDA. “There hasn’t been a mass notification yet, which is odd. Maybe a lockdown? I don’t know how they’d enforce that, though.”

Ray said, “Either way, we need to avoid the main concourse. How about this: ask the Faith to scan the entire structure, and see if they can find us a route to an airlock with the least likelihood of running into anybody.”

“I like it,” said John. “And now that I think about it, if they can dock with the Tempest undetected, they should get the rest of our people out of there. There’s no reason to wait.”

“The Tempest only has the one airlock,” said Richter.

“Damn it, you’re right. But there’s got to be an emergency escape hatch somewhere. Ray, just ask them to see if it can be done.”

Ray nodded. “Sure. This will just take a minute… hey, it doesn’t look like my message to our team here got through. Probably interference from the superstructure. I’ll try again after I contact the Faith.”

He set to work on the messages. Helena found a chair, brushed the dust off, and sat down.

“I feel compelled to remind you that I don’t expect you to use violence to protect me,” she said.

“You’ve said that several times,” replied John. “That’s the last thing we want.”

“Never mind that all of our long arms are still on the Kestrel,” muttered Richter.

“I’m going to miss that shotgun,” said Ray. “It’s been with me from the beginning. Anyway, the Faith has acknowledged our requests. They’re going to send telemetry on the structure as soon as they have it, and assess the feasibility of accessing the Tempest. They said to expect a long time to transfer the data.”

“Excellent,” said John.

Richter found a rectangular table upended in a corner. He flipped it over and dragged it to the center of the room.

“Helena, do you want to learn a card game?” he asked.

“I don’t know how you can think about playing a game at a time like this,” she replied.

“We’ve got time, apparently. What would you rather do?”

“I suppose a distraction might be good.”

Richter moved a crate over to the table, and pulled out a deck of cards. “Cool! Anybody else?”

Everyone else found something to sit on, and joined Richter. Over the next fifteen minutes, he taught Helena the basics of Texas Hold ‘Em, with the others going along with the sample games. She seemed to be as disinterested as someone could possibly be while still participating. Every few minutes, Ray would check his PDA; it wasn’t until Richter declared Helena to be competent that Ray had something to report.

“The results of the scan are complete,” he said. “At first glance, it looks like there was some degradation of the data stream. There are some areas of the Serpent that are just white blobs of nothing, scattered everywhere like snowflakes on a window.”

Ray showed the screen to the others.

“Damn it,” said John, sighing. “Fine, let’s orient ourselves to the Tempest and figure out where we are.”

Though it was a difficult task with the PDA’s seven-inch screen, John and Ray spent the next several minutes working out their location, then possible routes to an alternate airlock.

“Okay,” he said, looking at Helena. “It’s hard to be sure, but it looks like there’s a relatively short route to an access panel, that leads to a side corridor, where there’s a ship docked. It has three other airlocks in addition to the one that connects it to the Serpent. What do you know about the Fortuna?”

“A lot, actually,” she replied. “That’s the ship that I sabotaged.”

“That is indeed fortunate. So you know the layout. How many people are typically on board?”

“At any given time? I don’t know. Usually it’s just the former captain, a woman named Sinfonietta. She’s not a threat.”

Richter asked, “Don’t you think they would’ve posted guards there after you damaged the water tanks?”

Helena nodded. “I guess they probably would have.”

“We’ll deal with that if we have to,” said John, standing. “C’mon, let’s get going. Ray, set the nav program to active scanning.”

Everyone got packed up and ready to move. Richter resumed his position at the front of the line, with Ray right behind him. Then, they went back inside the tunnel. It took about fifteen minutes to reach the access panel they wanted. It was a hatch, with two thick metal halves that moved to each side when opened. An old electric switch was mounted on the bulkhead next to it, rusted almost beyond recognition. However, they could see the mechanism that operated it, and the levers and gears appeared to be in serviceable condition. The team examined it with their flashlights.

“It looks like we’re going to have to hotwire this thing,” said Ray.

“Or spray it with a metric shitload of WD-40,” said John.

Richter said, “Ray, is there anybody in the corridor?”

“Hold on,” he said, tapping at his PDA. “Yes, two life signs at the airlock.”

“Shit. We’ll be at a huge disadvantage once this hatch opens. We’re going to need a diversion first if we don’t want to end up as tunnel sausage.”

“I agree,” said John. “Ray, see how the Faith is doing with accessing the Tempest.”

“Sure thing,” he replied.

Everyone else tried to make themselves comfortable while Ray relayed the message. John holstered his pistol and leaned against the wall. Helena sat on the floor, then looked at Vecky.

“I’ve been meaning to ask you,” she began, “why you’re lugging that staff around with you this whole time.”

“It’s yet another long story,” Vecky replied. “Let me ask you, do you feel anything when you look at it?”

She raised an eyebrow. “Feel anything? Like what? Nostalgia for my martial arts training?”

Vecky held out the staff. “Okay then. Here, Richter, shine your flashlight on it.”

“Okey dokey,” he said, complying.

“Helena, what do you see?”

Helena looked confused. “What the fuck? Wood. Are you fucking with me right now?”

John said, “Vecky, you could have saved this for another time.”

“Seriously. Nice staff. It’s great for clonking people on the head, I’m sure.”

Vecky returned the staff to her side. “You’re right, John. Sorry.”

“I’ve received a reply,” began Ray, “and things are looking good. Though they still haven’t been able to directly contact our team, they’ve set themselves up next to an emergency egress hatch on the Tempest and are ready to try to open it.”

“Awesome,” replied John.

Helena’s PDA chimed, and she looked at it. “Shit. An alert has been sent to all Serpent residents. It’s a call to apprehend me, with a bounty of the entire Canopus. Oh, my god.”

“What’s the Canopus?”

“It used to be a luxury yacht and it’s the nicest ship on the Serpent; well, that is, the nicest one that can’t fly anymore. It was unoccupied due to an accident that rendered its life support systems inoperable. There were some technicians in my bar recently talking about how they had gotten close to fixing it. I guess they succeeded.”

“I thought that nobody really owned anything here,” said Vecky.

“The ship you donate to the collective is still yours as a private space, if you choose. The owner of the Canopus died in said accident. It’s a huge prize, Captain Kitsune. Everyone here with a functional pistol is going to be looking for me.”

Richter said, “We learned that the population of the Serpent is close to a thousand people. If even a tenth of them go after you, that’s still ten people per docked ship. We have to assume that the Fortuna will be searched soon.”

“Fuck,” said Ray. “We’re going to need that distraction tout suite.”

“Then let’s hope they can get our people of out of there quickly. In the meantime, all we can do is inspect this hatch and get ready to open it. C’mon, we got this.”

__________

In the galley on the Tempest, Kyrie, Cane, and Malthus waited. It had been a little over an hour since the rest of their team had departed with Helena to look for a hiding spot for her, and they hadn’t heard anything from them. At first, they had busied themselves with making breakfast and caffeinated beverages, then meandered through several topics of conversation. As time wore on, they were getting increasingly anxious. They were in the middle of discussing the merits of natural sunlight for vitamin D production when they heard a thump, and felt a vibration.

“What the hell was that?” asked Malthus.

“A ship just made contact with us,” said Kyrie.

Cane stood up. “Yup. Let’s get to the bridge, maybe this old thing can tell us what’s going on.”

The trio exited to the central corridor, and headed toward the bow. As they approached the door, they heard a noise behind them. From the ceiling about halfway down, a shower of sparks appeared, cascading down to the deck and bouncing everywhere.

“Holy shit,” said Kyrie, drawing his pistol. “Someone’s cutting through the hull.”

Cane did the same. “Do you think it could be the Faith?”

“It would make sense. The Tempest only has one airlock. Still, let’s not take any chances. Malthus, get to the bridge.”

“No problem,” he replied, activating the doors and moving ahead.

Cane and Kyrie followed him, then posted up on the other side. Cane hit the mechanism to keep the doors open, and they crouched down. They kept their pistols pointed down the corridor as the cutting continued; at first forming a line, then a square. The sparks ceased and, with a couple of sharp thumps, the hull panel slammed to the floor with an enormous bang.

“This is just like Star Wars,” said Kyrie.

Cane didn’t budge. “I have no idea what you’re taking about.”

Though the corridor had filled with smoke, it quickly dissipated. They heard a whirring sound, then a sleek, four-propeller drone dropped through the opening. Both men stood up, smiling, as it was instantly recognizable to them.

“A snoopy!” shouted Kyrie. “It’s the Faith!”

They waved like idiots at the drone. It withdrew upwards, and a few seconds later, a rope ladder unfurled itself downward.

Cane looked over his shoulder. “Come on, Mister Brewer. Our salvation is here.”

Ari dropped through the opening and landed on the deck in a crouch. She posed dramatically with her Glock before rising up, and grinned at her friends.

“Long time, no see,” she said.

The men were about to run up to her when the doors to the airlock slid open. Three people entered: two men and one woman, all humanoid and all armed with pistols. Ari turned to face them, and at the same time, Evangeline began climbing down the rope ladder. The new arrivals stood there, confused, but keeping an eye on everyone they could see. Eva finished climbing down, and put her hand on her own gun. She didn’t draw, though, equally as confused. The man at the front of the group spoke.

“I’m not sure what the hell is going on here,” he began, “so I’ll keep it simple. We’re looking for Helena, the owner of Nepenthe. If she’s here, it would be better for you to tell us, otherwise we’re going to detain you and turn this ship inside-out.”

“I’ll speak for our group,” said Kyrie. “We don’t know who that is, and it doesn’t concern us. What we do want to do is get off of the Flying Serpent. That’s going to happen now, whether you want it to or not. The five of us are going to climb up that ladder and be gone. After that, you can search this ship as you see fit. If you have a problem with that, there’s going to be a lot of shooting.”

After a moment, the other man spoke. “Looks like she’s not here.”

“A shame, too,” said the woman.

The other group retreated into the airlock, and the door slid shut. Malthus let out a huge sigh of relief.

“You people are taking years off my life,” he said.

A happy reunion ensued, with lots of hugging and tears. As difficult as it was to interrupt it, Ari and Eva knew they had to deal with another problem.

“We have no way of resealing the hatch we just cut through,” began Ari, “so we need to evacuate the other six people our sensors tell us are on this ship. Do you know where they are?”

Kyrie shrugged. “There’s a guy in room 112, as for the others, I don’t know.”

“All right. I’ll go to the bridge and see if I can issue an abandon ship warning. Meanwhile, you might as well see if you can get that guy to leave. Once everyone has been evacuated, we can board the Faith.”

“On it,” said Cane.

Kyrie and Cane ran down the corridor toward the aft of the ship. Ari and Eva ran to the bridge. It didn’t take long for them to figure out how to activate the abandon ship message. The room lit up with red flashing lights, and a grating klaxon began to blare. A voice in Caracali accompanied it, sounding rather calm in contrast to the wailing alarm. After that, they returned to the rope ladder. Cane and Kyrie had roused an extremely annoyed Tengshein man from his bed, and were all but dragging him to the airlock as he protested.

“Keep him here,” Kyrie said to Ari. “We’re going to grab the rest of our stuff from our quarters. It won’t take long.”

“You’ve got two minutes.”

Over the next few minutes, the other five boarders appeared, haphazardly clutching their belongings. The team ignored their questions, rushed them through the airlock, and closed the door behind them.

“Friday,” began Eva, “can you confirm that we’re the only ones left on the Tempest?”

Friday’s voice came through on her radio. “With complete certainty.”

“Good, let’s get the hell out of here.”

One by one, they climbed the ladder, navigated the disorienting 90° change in gravitational alignment, and gathered on the Faith. Once the airlock doors had closed, Ari spoke.

“I wish we had more time to catch up, but we’ve got to get over to the Fortuna ASAP. I doubt those three we just ran into are going to keep their mouths shut for long, and this place has four functional starships that can cause a lot of problems for us. Let’s get to the bridge.”

Continue reading: https://devonai.wordpress.com/2025/11/01/the-path-of-andromeda-rfix-chapter-11/