118 minutes until recharged.

  Lionel collided with the wall of his ship hard enough that he would have large bruises tomorrow. But it didn’t stop there; the side of the ship was bombarded by a cosmic blizzard, battering his ship. Rocks, pebbles, and ice plummeted at the glass, and Rover lilted to the side, pushed around at the rings' mercy.

  “Harriet. Did you land us here on purpose?” He shouted, even though she could locate his voice at a whisper, it was an automatic response to the thundering noise outside.

  I would not endanger human life.

  “Then what in ship’s sake happened?” He was weightless again so he began propelling himself towards the hand controllers to regain control of the ship.

  Preliminary reports indicate a mega-ice storm on Octoring’s surface. The temperature variations are causing extreme winds and ring rain. It was impossible to detect with our current meteorological equipment from our previous distance.

  “Nothing is ever simple.” He groaned, dragging himself towards his chair and buckling up with a click. Calibrating to the atmosphere would redirect too much energy right now, but growing up a scavenger meant he was used to neutral buoyancy.

  “Activate level two particle shields.”

  Harriet didn’t answer but he heard the whoosh of the shields as the debris colliding with the ship stopped. Rover rocked bobbing as a few gusts of low-grade storm wind passed through harmlessly.

  “How many rings until we are clear?”

  Two rings. Rover is currently located in Octoring’s sixth ring.

  He tapped his radar screen as it flickered. From his peripheral he watched the approaching debris, his reading showing an easing of storm disturbances in the seventh and eighth rings.

  He checked out the window but the rings obscured his visibility like looking through a wall of sand.

  Do you want to start using available evasive patterns to evade the debris?

  Lionel smirked. “No thank you Harriet. I will fly manually.”

  Understood. I will operate blasters as a precautionary measure.

  Lionel scoffed. “My flying is spectacular!”

  It is certainly one of a kind.

  He rolled his eyes, fingers dancing across the control panel, adjusting the throttle, modulating the thrust level before his hands came to rest against the levers. He flexed his fingers eager to take off.

  “Prepare to power down the debris shields but keep the ice shields active to protect Rover.”

  Understood.

  The shields pulsed blue as he began his countdown.

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  “Three. Two. One!”

  He didn’t wait for further confirmation from Harriet. Instead, Rover shot off into the thick of the debris. Ice pelted against the shields, the storm raging around its protective bubble. Flying felt second nature to him as he wove between the ice rocks and rugged asteroids. Learning to fly hadn’t been easy, it wasn’t exactly available to apprentice scavengers but a little rule like that wasn’t enough to stop him.

  He accelerated, darting amongst the debris with a maniacal grin. Flying was in his blood! He swerved left under a particularly nasty-looking rock and with a flick of his wrist Rover spun upside down and Lionel sailed between the rings with a holler.

  “Wooo-hoo! It feels good to fly.”

  He adjusted the controls to better manage his thrust as he approached the seventh ring, still upside down he sent himself spinning through its perimeter. A boulder the size of an iceberg flew past the glass drawing his gaze.

  “Whoa.” He said, dropping low as a second hunk of ice rock flew overhead coming too close for comfort to Rover’s antennas for his liking.

  The surface storm is gathering speed.

  A shower of dust grains pelted the shields as if to emphasise her point.

  “Enough showing off then.” He mumbled shifting in his seat. He pulled on the controls flying over a large chunk of debris.

  Weaving and dodging he flew through the ring circling against its orbit and looking for an escape. Below him, Octoring’s storm raged with surprising ferocity, enough that he could feel the winds buffeting against his Rover and shaking the metal panels.

  “Ready?” He said.

  Instinctively she knew what to do and with a resounding whamp, Harriet blasted a hole through the sand and rock as Rover exploded into the eighth ring.

  Another few blasts ricocheted into space leaving Lionel wondering if Harriet was enjoying herself. Each blast landed with a satisfying boom and pulverised its target to dust.

  Here, the icy hail was smaller and slower, consisting mostly of grains and dust particles with the occasional pebble-sized ice ball. Lionel decelerated Rover’s engines and gave the control board a pat for a good job completed.

  “Is this a good site to harvest the ice water?”

  Yes; extending vaporiser boards for collection.

  Lionel watched as several thin sheets of metal extended behind the ship and he held their pace steady. As the ice rain neared the sheet, it melted in its heat creating beads of liquid that funnelled into the ship’s pipework, travelling past an electrical current to separate the hydrogen and oxygen.

  He adjusted the temperature dials on screen to flash-cool the substance and heard a resounding groan from Rover.

  “Preserve the current fuel cells but create a new pathway for the upgraded super fuel.”

  He scrunched his face; it would be like pouring acid through cardboard but he didn’t have enough options available to him.

  Following your instructions.

  Lionel held the current trajectory, he estimated a full orbit would take several hours but he wasn’t interested in taking a scenic route. He only planned to remain in the debris until he had processed enough fuel.

  Time trickled by in silence as he flew level and steady, but with the shields active it barely took any attention leaving him free to compulsively check the coordinates of the unknown valuable object he was tracking.

  His stomach clenched as it continued slipping further and further away. He knew the risk, if he took too long it would be sucked into the Milky Way’s orbit and disappear forever. He loaded Searcher’s interface, requesting additional reports.

  If Searcher proved useful he would really need to upgrade him to voice commands.

  Painfully slowly the updated details loaded and Lionel committed the facts to memory; the object was approximately sixty centimetres long and fifty centimetres wide in an oval shape. It registered an impenetrable exterior and unknown origin, but without acquiring the physical object, Searcher was restricted from providing further information.

  The short paragraph wasn’t enough for him. Was it a valuable rock, perhaps astral-metal, mithril or moon gems? If he located the right buyer, a crafter or armourer, then a rock that size would make enough credits for him to buy his own planet!

  “How long until we are fully recharged?”

  10 minutes.

  “Fuel status update?”

  Complete in 8 minutes.

  He pulled at his straps checking that they were secure.

  “Then we’re almost ready for our departure.”

  He guided the ship out of the final ring, getting his first proper look at the blue giant below him. Its eight rings spiralled vertically while a vicious storm ravaged the surface, swathes of clouds shrouded the ground, forming in angry tornadoes that ripped through the air. He was glad they hadn’t jumped closer to the surface.

  Are you 100% certain about this?

  Should he explain to the robot that he was never 100% certain about anything?

  What if it is an unsuccessful endeavour?

  “You know humans have been doing stupid things for a lifetime.” Even with all her modifications, which he kept secure, she was still part of the Harriet Mainframe. “What’s one more questionable choice?” He shrugged.

  His feet bounced against the footrest, his heart racing as he watched the countdown. After the ten minutes were completed, he gave the order. And together they disappeared from Octoring and completed their jump.