Beowulf's Children

"I'm sorry," Cadma

A flash of lightning, very close by, too close. It split their universe, blinded them, and Cadma

"I see it!" Carlos yelled. "Damn it! Two o'clock. There."

An arc of fire rolled along the underbelly of the cloud, lightning swelling in its belly. And there, gliding like a great dark predator, was Robor.

Cadma

"If we don't, can I quote you?"

They rose up above the flat top of Robor, and Cadma

"All right," He said. "I'm setting her down. You take the right-side mooring cable, I'll take the left. If either of us makes it, we're safe."

The engines quit.

"See?" Trish said, laughing. "No SOS. It was a bluff."

Jessica stared at the control panel, and then looked out at the storm.

A bluff. She hoped it was a bluff. She freezing prayed it was a bluff.

Otherwise...

They slammed into Robor's landing deck just as another lightning flash tore a hole in the sky. Robor jolted, and then stabilized. Its gyros would compensate, and keep the deck level. It was slick, though. They skidded for three feet before coming to rest.

Cadma

A violent shudder struck Robor, and the skeeter started sliding again. Cadma

Carlos was on his hands and knees, and his face smashed against the metal sheeting as the skeeter behind him crashed onto its side. He knew in that moment that he was going to die.

It pulled him toward the edge, and his knee hit the anchor ring. He scrabbled for it in the darkness, and found it, flipped it up, and clipped the line into place. It snapped taut in the next instant, and behind him he heard a scream, and a grinding crash, and he knew that Cadma

He was on the verge of muttering a prayer when he heard the groan.

"On my way!" he sang. He followed the cable to the wrecked skeeter, and climbed around it, finding handholds every step of the way. He came around to the other side and heard a thump. He peered over, and saw Cadma

Jesus. "Cadma

His friend looked up at him. Stu

Trish found Aaron in the main galley, supervising as the crates were hauled up from the hold and opened. Provisions, and equipment, mostly, and he had chosen well.

"We've got a problem," she said. "We've lost power in engines two and three. We're ru

Aaron's head snapped around. "What?"

"It's true. Five minutes ago. We lost two and—"

Her collar speaker crackled. "Trish. We just lost engine one. We have no power."

"What in the hell!" Aaron seemed to grow, his face reddening, and his entire body growing even as they watched. "We'll be blown back toward land, dammit!"

"I'm afraid so. We have the rudders and stabilizers—"

"I'm going up," he said. "Something is very wrong up there."

Carlos slapped Cadma

The wind howled around them, and Cadma

"Get back, dammit. I have a grendel gun, and I'll use it."

"Cadma

"Power of human stupidity. Just get back down."

"We'll crash if we don't have our power, you know that."

"No, you won't. I'll give you engine one again. You are going to use it to turn around, and head back to land. And then you are going to put down."

"Cadma

Cadma

"Worse than it is. All right."

There was a flicker of movement behind him, and Carlos suddenly screamed, his entire body arcing, Cadma

"Toshiro!" Aaron screamed.

Cadma

And Toshiro Tanaka would plunge two thousand feet to the water below.

And from that height, the water might as well have been concrete.

"One dead, Aaron," Cadma

"You killed him, Cadma

PART II

GRENDELS

Which way I fly is hell; myself am hell;

And in the lowest deep a lower deep

Still threatening to devour me opens wide,

To which the hell I suffer seems a heaven.

JOHN MILTON, Paradise Lost