by Drew Bell
Chapter 32
Miles woke in a small cylindrical cell, wearing only a thin suit; his breath fogged the glass in front of him. The room had two Callos in lab coats hurriedly typing at consoles. He tried to move his arms to bang on the glass, but his wrists were restrained, his whole body was strapped to the gurney inside the tube.
He called out to them, his voice weak:
“Let me out! Where am I?” He shouted.
One of the Callos faced him, his eyes wide behind enormous glasses:
“You are aboard CLERGY 1, Captain Doctor Melric has ordered that we access your capabilities before we present you to the Admiral.” He responded.
“Listen.” Miles said in a hushed voice, his breath fogging up the glass even more, “I am not dangerous. Let me help you, I need to escape.”
“How does letting you escape help me?” The Callos scientist asked.
“Because, the Doctor and the Admiral have been hiding secrets from you, from the Convoy.” Miles explained.
“I must get back to my work.” The scientist turned away from Miles, returning to his desk where he shuffled through holo-foils.
“The Doctor killed Lalia Tarrus!” Miles shouted, both scientists looked up for a moment shocked, but then returned to their work.
A door hissed open, Alvar Tarr stepped into the laboratory, the other scientist tried to hold him back from Mile’s pod, Alvar batted him away; the scientist hit his own desk scattering his holo-foils.
“This is it?” Alvar shouted, pressing his palms against the glass, his own breath fogging the glass.
“Yes…” The scientist stuttered as he tried to recompose himself.
“So, this is the creature that killed my brothers, which killed a squad of the best trained and equipped members of the Convoy?” Alvar demanded an answer.
“Best equipped?” Miles laughed, “They were nothing!” He taunted.
Alvar banged his fists against the glass and began to enter a release code on the key pad; he stopped when the door hissed open again; Doctor Melric and two of his guards stood in the doorway, Melric with a gun raised at Alvar.
“Step away, Alvar.” Melric demanded, “He is my prisoner, he is within my rights. Do not touch the detainment cell.”
Alvar backed away with his hands held up mockingly;
“How did you do it?” He asked spitefully, “How did you find him?”
“To be honest you made it easy for me.” Melric teased, Alvar lunged at him but a guard caught him and threw him back. Alvar brushed himself off and stormed out of the room, as the door hissed closed Melric hollered:
“You shot her, I followed the blood.” He laughed, Alvar continued down the corridor furious.
“You’re a hot commodity.” Melric named Miles.
“Am I? It seems like maniacs are in demand up here.” Miles sneered.
“Keep in mind, I am in control here.” Melric warned, “I could depressurize this tube and expose you to space-like vacuum. But you’re worth more alive, for now.”
“What will you do with me?” Miles asked, with resentment.
“I will show you to the Admiral, and ask that I be named his second-in-command. You see, only blood descendants to the Admiral can succeed the Admiral, due to a biological requirement for ancestral memory transference.” Melric explained.
“Even then, the Convoy will never accept you as a replacement Admiral. Even a dead Admiral would hold more prominence than you!” Miles exclaimed.
“Perhaps. Should an Admiral die, the next rightful heir would be a relative; that means Alvar.” Melric began to pace the room, he dismissed the two scientists with his hand, the guards remained.
“You plan to kill both the Admiral and his brother?” Miles assumed.
“Yes, in a round-about-way, yes.” Melric continued pacing; “Alvar will die first, and then I will proceed to dishonor the Admiral. The beauty of my plan is this; I won’t kill either of them.” He said excitedly, smiling through the glass at Miles.
“You are going to frame me!” Miles solved.
“Yes! Initially I was going to use you as a token to get myself a position below the Admiral, but then I realized I have so much potential for more!” Melric exclaimed.
“I won’t do it! Not for you!” Miles refused.
“I will kill Alvar, which will be easy. The Admiral, however, required a more thorough plan. Already he appears to have lost his sanity; he fired upon Aurrus and its moon…” Melric started.
“Aurrus?” Miles interrupted.
“Oh, yes. While you were out, I assured the Admiral destroying the Ailios Temple was in the Convoy’s best interest. Never again should the Aurrus aid enemies of the Convoy. A lesson needed to be learned.” Melric explained.
“Where was I?” Melric asked rhetorically, “Ah, yes. The Admiral is currently planning on using the very same weapon on Phlasia. He will destroy the deity of his own people! I won’t need to kill him; the Convoy will do it for me!”
“The Admiral isn’t the one to blame! You are!” Miles exclaimed!
“The best part of all of this; the Admiral considered pardoning you for the prison break. Only due to my advising did he do otherwise.” Melric smiled.
Miles shouted squirming in his restraints; “I won’t help you. As soon as I am out of this tube I will…” He began to cough and wheeze.
Melric turned a dial at the console, lowering the amount of air in the tube:
“This is to make sure you stay there.”
Melric turned to leave the lab; he snapped his fingers and his guards followed.
Miles slumped in his restraints, there was no way out. He closed his eyes.
A faint rumbling began in the distance, it grew louder and louder until Garth opened his eyes; he was slumped in the corner of the house. The last thing he remembered was Mile’s pulse. Garth glanced around the room; singe marks on the walls formed silhouettes of the Callos Miles incinerated. The rumbling grew louder, screams and wails were carried on the breeze. Garth stumbled towards the window, rubbing his head; a large knot was forming. Outside the window the air felt frigid, the screams were coming from towards the middle of the city, Garth leaned out of the window to get a better view. A pillar of blue was drilling into Ailios Plaza, huge clouds of dust and snow flew into the air. Garth’s eyes began to well with tears; he pulled his head back into the house. He turned to where Lalia had been lying; he had forgotten about her, he dropped to his knees to help her.
“Lalia.” He tried to shake her awake, “Lalia, are you ok?”
She began to stir; she opened her eyes and gasped: “Water.”
Garth set her on the bed, he ran downstairs to fetch her some water. He held the cup to her lips and helped her drink; in a few minutes she was able to speak.
“Did they take him?” She asked.
“Yes. I was out. They just abandoned us here. CLERGY 1 is firing upon Ailios Plaza.” Garth explained.
“Are you ok?” She asked him with concern.
Garth paused, “Yes.”.
“We need a way back to the Convoy.” Lalia thought out loud, “We need to save Miles.”
“The Convoy hasn’t left yet, they are trying to freeze the planet. We need to find a way back up.” Garth sighed.
“I am out of ideas; I don’t have any other connections on Aurrus.” Lalia said with defeat.
“Why haven’t you asked about Braes?” Garth asked.
“Because I knew her intentions, she gave her life to provide insight to Miles. It was her decision.” Lalia explained, taking another sip of water.
“Are you ok to leave? We need to leave this house; they might send someone after us.” Garth lifted Lalia to her feet.
“I think I will be fine.” Lalia stood, wobbling slightly, but ultimately regaining her composure.
Garth stepped on Mile’s shielding system; now having regained its static charge.
“He took it off.” Lalia assumed.
“He must have.” Garth picked it up, “It saved our li
ves.”
“It might save them again. Lets head towards the outskirts of town, and maybe if we hurry we could stowaway on a shuttle.” Lalia thought out loud.
As they stepped outside into the cold icy air, their hot breath was visible; the freezing attack had stopped. Above Ailios, CLERGY 1 loomed ominously.
“It was a power statement, not an attack to destroy Ailios.” Lalia explained.
Garth helped Lalia down the street towards Braes’ home; they turned the corner to find two Callos soldiers armed with rifles. Garth clenched his fist in a defensive stance, Lalia behind him.
“Stand down!” The tall Callos soldier called out to Garth, “My name is Terk Lovar, we were sent to retrieve you. We must leave quickly.” He introduced himself.
“I am Yaric Lovar, Captain Elioc Barras sent us to pick you up. The Convoy will be leaving soon, come with us. We are on the same side.” Yaric assured them.
Garth took a step back, cautiously,” How did you find us?”
“We captured one of the Admiral’s soldiers; they led us to where Doctor Tarrus was being held.” Yaric answered, showing them a groveling Callos soldier tied to a vendor’s cart.
“Why would Captain Barras offer us help?” Garth asked.
“Because the Admiral has gone too far. He requests your assistance; he refuses to tolerate the senseless attacks on our allies.” Terk answered.
Garth turned to face Lalia, she shrugged:
“It is your call. I don’t know Elioc well enough to trust him. He did let us escape the prison.” She reminded him.
“We can use a little support.” Garth shook Terk’s hand.
“Come now, we have a shuttle waiting. We must rendezvous with Captain Barras on CLERGY 6 before we confront the Admiral.” Terk ushered them towards the wider street behind the houses.
Their shuttle’s engines revved slightly, the shuttle began to hover as they approached;
“As I said, we are in a hurry. The Admiral is planning a jump to Phlasia; Captain Barras needs to exercise martial law immediately. We were waiting for you.” Terk hurried them aboard.
The shuttle doors lowered down quickly, hissing shut. Lalia and Garth sat in jumper seats across from the backwards facing seats Terk and Yaric took. The shuttle lifted from the ground; its nose pointed towards the belly of the departing CLERGY 1.
“We were told there would be three of you, one of you would be a foreigner.” Yaric shouted over the roar of the thrusters.
“There was, he was kidnapped.” Garth shouted in response.
“It isn’t the Admiral you need to worry about!” Lalia shouted.
“Tell the Captain when we reach him.” Terk responded.
They exited the orbit of Aurrus with relative ease, they leveled towards CLERGY 6. Each of the vessels began to line behind CLERGY 1 in the distance.
“How long until we make the jump?” Terk asked the pilot.
“Approximately an hour until CLERGY 1 activates their jump sequence.” The pilot answered.
“Damn.” Terk cursed, “This is gonna have to happen fast, people! The Convoy will be floating dead with our engines fried from such a long jump; CLERGY 6 won’t be in a position to block CLERGY 1.”
“What does that mean?” Garth asked, concerned.
“It means we can’t just board CLERGY 1. We will have to space walk on.” Yaric answered with a serious face.