by M. Shaunessy
Chapter 9
Shootout in the Hanger
Justin entered the hanger and looked around to see the only ship left was the Thunder Claw. He frowned as he saw the large tiger felines attending his ship’s engines with CRAIG. He recognized him from the VidPad Tygla had shown them. He saw that he was bigger in person that on the screen, but he did not care how big Xman was. He had to pay what he had done. He gathered all his strength and walked over.
He tapped Xman’s large shoulder blade and said irritably, “Xman?”
The warrior prince turned to see who it was, and Justin threw a strong punch to the nose. Xman drew his gun, but Justin already got there first.
“Don’t even think of it,” Justin said to him firmly.
“Who the hell are you?” Xman asked angrily.
“I’m one of Tygla’s friends. And no one hurts my friends.” Xman looked at him curiously as he continued, “You know we risked our lives to save your butt, and this is how you pay us?”
“You have a big mouth human,” Xman said harshly.
“And you got a stupid one,” he shot back.
Xman growled, “Do you know who you are talking too?”
“Yeah, a very selfish prince,” Justin informed him.
“I could kill you for that remark,” Xman said.
Justin replied, “Try it.”
He was about to fire when Mike and Tygla finally arrived and saw the situation. Mike could not believe it, his friend was about to kill his girlfriend’s brother. He did not want that. Tygla however did not want Xman dead.
“Justin!” They cried franticly and at that same moment, CRAIG, with his supersonic speed, grabbed Justin’s gun out of his hand. He then threw the weapon way.
“What the?!” Justin exclaimed. He looked down at his empty hand and saw the gun was gone, but how?
Xman lowered his gun, as he grinned. He growled as he pulled his shoulder back and swiftly punched Justin in the face. Justin fell down on his butt as his nose started to bleed. He cursed himself.
“That was highly irregular Prince Xman,” CRAIG told him.
Xman just said slyly, “But it felt good.”
Justin then swiftly got back and lurched at Xman, but Mike and Tygla foiled him as they held their friend back.
“You son of a bitch!” Justin exclaim as Mike held him with his good arm. “Let me go!”
“Settle down Justin!” Mike said to him.
Xman walked towards him still grinning slyly, but Tygla stepped in front raised her hand up to him. Xman stopped.
“No Xman!” Tygla said to him courageously, “He’s my friend!”
“Out of my way sis!” Xman ordered her, “He needs to learn a lesson in proper etiquette.”
“No!” Tygla said again as she paused, “Look at us. If our father found out we were fighting each other like this, he’d be furious. This is not how our family behaves and you know it.”
Xman knew she was right but argued, “Well he started it.”
“That’s bull!” Justin disagreed, “If you hadn’t-.”
Tygla shouted furiously, “Enough, both of you!” She then calmed herself down, turned to Xman, and said, “Xman, I love Michael, and nothing is going change that, but if you just get to know him. You’d find out that you might like him. Just give him a chance please.”
“But he’s a human,” Xman argued. “It s forbid-.”
“I don’t care if he’s a Slugton, I’ll still love him,” she pointed out to him, “Maybe not now, but soon our people will realize it’s not what we look like on the outside, but who we are, inside that makes us special. Maybe when I become queen, I’ll change all that, but right now I’d rather be cast off the planet and be with the man I love, than spend the rest of my life with the feeling of emptiness in my soul.”
For once Tygla was right, Xman thought. He could see that she love him that much to sacrifice her royal status. He really did not want to see her disowned from her family or be cast off the planet. He loved her too much for that to happen.
“Is this what you really want?” Xman asked calmly.
She nodded slowly, “Yes.”
Before Xman could speak, a cold authoritative voice suddenly boomed throughout the hanger, “Prince Xman Tyger! This is the Xatu Imperial Guard. Come out with your weapon down and your hands up.”
Xman did not realize that the Xatu were still following him until now. He would knew, that they would catch up to him eventually and this time he was ready. Tygla’s heart leapt once she heard the voice. The last thing she wanted was the Xatu army bringing her brother back to their imprisonment. They drew their guns immediately upon hearing the Xatu guard and edged their way to the nose of the ship just enough to see where they were.
Xman saw two armed Xatu soldiers standing in front of a B’tar ship about five yards away from them. One had a weird small shaped megaphone in one hand and a blaster in the other. He also saw a third in the cockpit. He noticed that the entire B’tar cockpit was visible because it had pivoted at an angle. He saw this before when they were escaping. He saw them exited the cockpits that way as they landed. He did hear a ship dock before when he was quarrelling with Justin, but disregarded it as he thought it was another cargo ship passing through.
“Prince Xman, you have about ten seconds to comply,” the Xatu guard told them.
“What do we do brother?” Tygla inquired.
Mike glanced to Xman and answered, “I say we kick their asses.”
Xman smiled at him and commented, “I’m beginning to like you hu-.” Tygla gave him a mean look that said ‘you better reword that mister’. Xman corrected himself quickly, “Michael.”
Mike smiled at him. He and Justin made their way to the rear of the Thunder Claw as Tygla CRAIG and Xman stayed at the front. Justin looked about for his gun and saw it near the Xatu guard. The guard noticed it and picked it up. Justin cursed at himself, wondering what he will do without any firearms. He then noticed that his nose was bleeding badly as Mike advised him to get out his one of his tissues and put pressure on it and he did.
“Time’s up Xman,” the Guard announced.
He then nodded to his partner as they started advancing to the Thunder Claw. Xman touched his wrist remote as the force shield surrounded them. He then aimed his gun at one of the guards and fired. The bolt hit him dead on. The Xatu fell down dead as the other one alerted the pilot and started firing upon them with their guns. Mike fired his gun a few times missing the Xatu guard by inches as he ducked behind some cargo boxes. The Xatu guard fired back as the shield deflected the bolts. The pilot however using the ship’s guns as a weapon, the Thunder Claw’s shield absorbed the firepower. The Thunder Claw vibrated as the battle continued. Tygla with her small gun drawn kept firing at the concealed Xatu, when he peeked out. She aimed and finally shot him in the head.
“Good shot sis!” Xman commented.
CRAIG then informed them that the pilot was increasing B’tar’s guns to full power as the cockpit started to ascend to in to take off position. His ship also started to lift from the ground at the same time as Mike aimed and fired. The bolt shot the pilot dead just before the cockpit area closed shut. The lifeless pilot lurched forward on to his flight stick and the B’tar was out of control.
“Get down!” Xman warned, as the B’tar turned clockwise and trusted into the hanger wall. The ship exploded and ruptured the hanger. Xman and his friends flew back from the force of the shockwave as pieces of the B’tar flew everywhere. Some bounced off the Thunder Claw protecting them as they fell on the ground a bit shaken up.
“What in tar nation was that?” Sheriff Morgan wondered as he heard the explosion in his office. He looked at the monitor on his desk, saw that there was fire, and smoke inside hanger two. He grabbed his Winchester once more and took off. “I’m getting too old for this.”
Mike stirred and looked about.
“Is everyone ok?” He asked.<
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Justin nodded as he slowly pushed himself up, “Yeah,”
He looked to Tygla, who was by the hanger door and saw she did not move. He was scared and hurried over to her.
“Tygla!” Mike called. Once he reached her, she moaned and moved her head. Mike crouched down to Tygla and smiled in relief as he held her. “Thank god you’re ok,” he said as she smiled back to Mike and they both kissed lovingly.
“I’m fine love,” she replied reassuringly.
Xman finally stirred, realizing that Tygla may be hurt, looked over and saw Mike with her. He then understood why Tygla loved him. He saw that Mike was checking her to see if she was hurt and that showed Xman that Mike might be worthy to love her, even though the law forbade it, Xman thought screw the law, but what would their father think? He had to wait until they cross that bridge. The last thing Xman wanted to see was Tygla miserable for the rest of her life. He looked at the damaged briefly, then got up and joined them.
“You’re a good fighter,” Xman said as Mike looked to him.
He saw that Xman had his hand out. Mike took it with his uninjured arm and they shook in good gesture.
“Thanks,” Mike replied friendly as he smiled to him, “You’re not so bad you’re self.”
They then heard Sheriff Morgan come in as he looked as the damage. He looked at Mike and asked, “There’s better be a good explanation for all his mess?”
Mike looked back to Morgan then to his new friend Xman and they all chuckled. Justin got up, still holding his nose with his tissue and walked over. Xman looked to him and Justin stopped abruptly seeing if he would attack him again. Xman walked over and extended his hand to him as well.
“You got a mean right hook there,” Xman said to him as Justin looked at his gesture.
Justin knew that Xman finally came to his senses and shook his hand, “You too. No hard feelings?”
“No hard feelings,” Xman repeated as he pulled his arm, “But uh, if you ever hit me again, you won’t see the day of light, ever again, got me?”
Justin smiled falsely and replied, “No problem.”
Suddenly the cooling system came on line as Sherriff Morgan advised them to leave the area. Xman introduced CRAIG to them, while they exited the hanger and told him his tale on how they escaped. He also told them about where the Hades was and his instincts told him that Drax was up to no good. Mike agreed as decided that they should work as a team. Tygla then told her bother how they were going to rescue him and said that she had failed.
“Tygla, don’t be sorry.” Xman said bodly, as she looked him with his finger touching her check softly, “At least you tried.” He then looked to Mike and Justin, “I just want to say, thank you, both of you for trying to save me. I don’t know why father rejected to send the entire fleet out for me. I kind of figured he had good reasons not too.” He looked to Morgan, “You got a long rage transmitter ‘round here?”
Morgan replied, “There’s a VidCom in the bar ya could use.”
“Good,” Xman stated.
Tygla stopped him before he left, “You’re not going to tell father about me being here, are you?”
Xman looked at her and questioned, “Why? Are you in trouble with father?”
She sulked and replied, “Well, I sort of snuck out when I’m supposed to be grounded.”
Xman frowned disappointedly, “Tygla, I thought I knew you better.”
She frowned and said regretfully, “I’m sorry, but when I heard father say, that he traded your life with our freedom, I-I lost it. I figured if daddy wasn’t going rescue you it would be up to me.”
Xman sighed the said to her “Tygla, I can’t lie to father, besides. You’re a brave little sister, but sometimes, you got to be braver and take the punishment you are dealt with. But I’m sure father would understand that you traveled all the way here to find me, killed a Xatu guard, and faced my wrath.” Tygla frowned even more as Xman saw misery her eyes. He could not bear to see her in this way and said, “It’ll be ok. I’ll, I’ll come up with something.”
Looked to him and brightly smiled. She hugged him tightly and said, “Oh thank you Xman.”
“You’re welcome, but uh, you owe me, big.” He said firmly.
She nodded in understanding, “I know.”
Xman disappeared into the bar and Mike turned to them, “Look, it’s not gonna take the Xatu too long before they send more troops. So I suggest we finish putting the Star Hawk to together quickly and get the hell out of here.”
“Then what? We go find the Condor?” Justin hoped.
Mike replied, “No, we gotta stop the Empire.”
“Uh, stop the Empire, from what?” Justin wondered. “Getting their hands on that energy that Xman talked about? Mike, we don’t know that even exits. And besides, we’re adventures, not freedom fighters.”
Tygla then said to Justin, “Justin, if the Xatu get to that energy they’ll unstoppable. They’ll destroy my home world and dozen others.”
“And that includes Sadr and Cian. Look, I know you don’t like fighting the Empire no more that I do, but if they find this power you can kiss ‘Star Raiders Inc.’ good bye. Because once they wipe out the rest of the colonials, who do you think they’ll go after next? Every opposed humans left in the galaxy and that includes us.”
Mike was right Justin thought and replied, “Alright, but if we do survive this. I think we deserve something. Maybe half what you were going pay us Tygla? I mean we almost rescued Xman,”
“How can you think of money at a time like this?” Tygla wondered astonishingly.
“Easy, I just do,” Justin replied.
“Justin, we’ll find another job, after this,” Mike said to him.
“But Mike, we got a huge payment to make,” Justin reminded him.
“What huge payment?” Tygla inquired.
Mike looked to Tygla, “It’s complicated, I’ll tell you later.” He looked to Justin, “Look, maybe Digan has something for us. You did talk to him right?”
“Yeah,”
“And?”
Justin sighed and frowned, “Nada.”
Mike sighed as Tygla felt a bit sorry, “Look,” she started, “I am sorry that I couldn’t pay you guys, but if you need money badly, I’ll gladly give my weeks allowance, just to tie you over.”
“No Tygla, don’t,” Mike said, “We didn’t fill our end of the bargain, but don’t feel sorry for us. We’ll survive.” He turned to Justin, “Right?”
Justin said sorrowfully, “Yeah I guess you right, well if we going to get out of here fast I’m going to need an extra hand.”
“Don’t worry partner,” Morgan said as he patted on Justin’s back, “I know that ship inside and out.”
Mike said, “Ok, while Xman talks to his father, you and Sheriff Morgan get to work on the Star Hawk, while Tygla, CRAIG, and I get the parts.”