The Clockwork Rot was deafening in here. Paladin floated down the halls of the massive cruiser, ducking and squeezing through the massive gears that had overrun most of it. All he could hear was the Rot. Ticking clocks, gears grinding and crushing the metal hull of the ship, the hull creaking as it was slowly consumed. He ducked and dived in between the gears with as much grace as he could, but the spacesuit was heavier than what he was used to.

  There was also something he’d completely forgotten until he’d entered the ship: his armour was immune to the Rot presumably because it originated outside the universe like he did. The spacesuit did not. He couldn’t use his hands or feet to correct his movement, needing to rely on his sword and sheath. Also he didn’t have a communicator to stay in touch with Arthur, so if he took too long, his squire would probably just think he died. He realised very quickly that he hadn’t thought this plan through. Still, it was a gamble he had to take. They couldn’t survive that long in the rocket.

  A huge gear blocked Paladin’s path, groaning as it tried to slash through the hull. Paladin helped it, drawing his sword and slicing through the metal, allowing it to spin free and let him dive through its spokes. Something floated through the dark in front of him. Paladin stabbed his sword into the ground to stop himself floating into it. He sent his light floating over to the object. Half of it was a corpse, dressed in military garb, face a perpetual scream. The other half was clockwork. A gear spun behind the man’s teeth.

  Paladin repelled off his sword and yanked it free in one fluid motion. As he floated past the corpse, he began to see other corpses. Some continued to float free, others had been fused into the side of the ship, arms reaching out in desperation. A few pieces of clockwork floated free, something Paladin had never seen and assumed couldn’t happen based on what he knew about the Rot. Examining it further, he saw red in between the cracks, and realised that it had somehow consumed the blood of the dead.

  A few signs existed in the ship, but he didn’t know the written language of this universe, even if the spoken one was familiar to him. Soon, though, he started to see fighter pilots fused to the floor, bronze spikes jutting out of their bodies. He knew he was on the right track.

  Following the trail of death, he eventually discovered the fighter bay. Most of them were still in the hanger, aligned in neat rows and ready to be scrambled at a moment’s notice. It seemed that this cruiser never got the chance to scramble its fighters before it was consumed. The ships along the back wall were already covered in bronze, but the craft near the massive silver doors that led out into space seemed to be fine.

  Paladin floated over to the doors, investigating the rim. As he floated to the top, he found a keycard reader and a lever hidden under glass, with some words in bright red above it. He knew pretty clearly what it was. He smashed the hilt of his sword against the glass, the keycard reader giving a beep of disagreement but doing nothing to stop him yanking the lever. One side of the massive silver doors flung open. The other half creaked and whirred, but soon ran into the Clockwork Rot. Paladin heard several long bangs and crashes as its mechanisms were minced by stronger gears.

  “One door will do,” Paladin said to himself.

  He investigated the fightercraft. Most of them were one seat and definitely not big enough for both him and Arthur, but there were a few bigger ones with two seats and slightly more space in the back, presumably designed for long-range reconnaissance. If that was the case, then it was very likely to have some lightspeed capability. Paladin found a latch to open up the cockpit, letting himself in to investigate the controls. It was rather different from the spaceships he’d seen, but the controls were familiar enough. He also made absolutely certain to check for Rot, but the ship seemed clean.

  Floating in, he closed the cockpit, strapped himself into the pilot's seat and started to mess with the controls. To his surprise, the ship still seemed to have power even now. The console began to light up, engines beginning to whir, a screen to the side showing a bunch of red text that he could only assume were error messages. Still, Paladin had what he came for. He grabbed what he assumed was the throttle and pushed it straight forward.

  The ship lurched forward, crashing into the nearest fighter with a loud bang, before ploughing through and eventually flying straight out of the door. He then immediately had to pull up and ease off the throttle as he almost crashed into another wall of bronze gears, trying to use the reverse and forward thrusters to bring himself to a halt. Sighing with relief that his piloting instincts still worked in another universe, he tried to find his way to where he’d left his squire.

  /////

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Arthur was incredibly shocked to see Paladin return with a functional ship. He was even more shocked to see the empty space suit floating across the episode of the rocket towards their airlock. He activated the airlock door remotely and the suit, mercifully, floated inside. Once the space was made habitable again, Arthur got the space suit and put it on, before starting to pile stuff into the airlock, starting with Paladin’s armour.

  Paladin’s ship floated just outside the airlock door. Arthur recognised the make: it was a long range scout ship used by the Federation. Notably, the cargo space in the back was pressurised separately from the front cockpit. Loading ended up being less of an issue than he expected. The only issue was that there was far less space in this ship than there was in the rocket. He ended up having to leave a lot of the spare food. An absolute waste in his book, but they didn’t have a choice. The rocket was left drifting aimlessly in space.

  Arthur climbed into the cargo bay and locked the door. He knocked on the door into the cockpit. The door to the main ship opened up.

  “You figured this out quick,” Arthur said.

  “I have seen a few spaceships in my time,” Paladin admitted. “I just needed time. I must learn your written language swiftly.”

  “Knights and spaceships. Your universe must be weird.”

  Paladin floated over the chair, doing his best not to hit any of the controls in the tight cockpit. “I am not the best pilot, and I trust you know these ships better than I do.”

  Arthur blushed. “Y-yeah, sure, if you want.”

  “Something wrong, Squire?”

  “No, it’s just…I expected you to be rugged and tough and scared. You’re a lot…I dunno…”

  Paladin smirked. “Prettier than you expected?”

  “Just let me get in the pilot’s seat.”

  The two drifted past each other, Arthur tearing his eyes away from Paladin as he sat in the pilot’s seat, Paladin settling on the back. Arthur worked the controls with practiced ease, and was slowly becoming shocked that Paladin had even got this thing to fly.

  “Alright,” he said. “Just need a clear opening through the Rot and then we can jump to lightspeed. Thanks for this, Paladin.”

  Suddenly, there was a bright light above them. Arthur and Paladin looked up to see their rocket had just crashed into the Clockwork Rot and exploded. Through that explosion, they could see other lights. Lights they’d seen very recently.

  “Strap in, it’s time to go!” Arthur said. He pushed the throttle forward all the way. The ship launched forward with a kick, narrowly avoiding a laser beam aimed at the wing. A radar came up on the ship’s cockpit, above Paladin’s head.

  “We’ve got five of them,” Paladin explained. “These must be the hatchlings. Beams incoming, roll left.”

  Arthur did as he was told, lifting up the ship’s wing as a laser beam sliced under it.

  “There’s a lever to your right for the incendiaries,” Arthur explained. “Pull it to aim, press the button to fire.”

  Paladin did as he was told, a small screen appearing on the back of Arthur’s seat. He was right: the five dragon hatchlings were chasing them, snarling, each one firing their laser beams haphazardly. The beams were clearly weaker than that of the full grown dragons they’d fought, but it seemed to be able to fire more regularly. Paladin waited until they were all in view, then pressed the button. A large bomb rolled out of the back of the ship, suddenly detonating near the dragons. They scattered, panicked, one of them losing its tail in the explosion. Fleeing to the walls, they climbed into the rot and vanished.

  “You got them?” Arthur asked.

  “Hardly,” Paladin said. “I fear an ambush. Do not lose pace.”

  “Roger!”

  The fighter continued to fly at full speed through the clockwork, only slowing down when it needed to squeeze through a tight gap without touching the rot. Just as they went through one of those tight gaps, a dragon flew out in front of them, snarling. Arthur pressed a button on the front dash and a massive bolt of plasma flew from the wings and straight through the dragon, melting it’s core. The fighter ducked under the corpse to make sure it wasn’t infected, and continued its escape. Open space was in sight.

  “I’m gonna make the jump!” Arthur shouted. “Buckle up!”

  The engines began to whir and the ship came to a halt as Arthur tapped and pressed buttons, preparing the jump. Then something came up on the radar.

  “Dragon, on your right!”

  The ship spun as the hatching crashed straight into the wing, biting into it. Arthur fired another plasma bolt that went through its head. As the corpse drifted free, Arthur restabilised the ship and jumped to lightspeed with a lurch. The outside world became a rush of light and Paladin breathed a sigh of relief.

  Arthur didn’t, though. He knew the damage was done. Systems on the right wing were failing left and right. The Clockwork Rot had got its hold into their ship.