by Alex Guerra
I turned to the scientist. “Open it up, we’re taking him with us.”
I inspected the other tubes and wiped my hand across them as well, revealing another Codari. “This one too.” I pointed out.
There were other bodies in here, a Darkkon man, and another—a species I’ve never seen before. “Were there any of your team that was not Codari in the other rover?” I asked.
“No, not at the time,” said Ellar, walking over to me. “I don’t know that one—must be an imperial.”
The first tube drained and opened up, the Codari inside slowly awoke with a fitful cough. Ellar rushed over to the tube, checking him out. I continued clockwise around the room looking for more.
The last one was on the right, near the door now, having come full circle. I held my breath as I tentatively approached the tube.
Please…I thought.
Reaching my hand towards the surface, I wiped the condensation away. Inside I found hair of snow floating around a familiar lilac face—Seya.
“Yes!” I cried out. “You—this one too, open it,” I demanded.
The liquid drained out and Seya gently floated down until she rested on the back of the tube. The cylinder popped open, lifting away revealing newly faint scarring across her naked body. Dotty scanned her and noted that she, along with the others, were still needing further recovery.
I saw her face wince a few times before she coughed up some liquid painfully to her side.
“Seya!” I said, putting a hand on her shoulder.
Ellar came over with something resembling a towel and began wiping her face.
“Do you hear me?” I asked.
All she was able to manage was a groan, her movements very slow and dulled.
“Ellar, is she okay?” I asked.
“The liquid in these pods have anesthetic properties,” replied the medic “I can give her something, but we need to put these three in the extraction kits. It’s best if we leave them as it is before they fully awaken inside one of these things. It’ll be easier, trust me.” He unhooked the extraction kit from his hip, making his way over to the first Codari.
I leaned in and pulled Seya out of the tube, laying her on the floor, wiping her off quickly. “Bon, get the extraction device from Habi,” I ordered.
He brought the kit over a moment later, unrolling the body bag inside the helmet, placing it out next to her. I opened the front of it and laid Seya inside. Once managing to get her inside, I brought the helmet down over her head.
“Arthur, we’re here,” said Kayton.
“Nearly done, we need one more extraction device. Have the rest of the team ready to leave,” I said, closing the front of the bag.
“Once the injured are completely placed inside the devices,” Dotty explained to us over the comms, “press the button on the collar. This will cause the device to become air-tight and grow rigid. A handle on the back behind the neck will allow you to wheel the injured easily.”
I pressed the button on the collar and the bag began to shrink wrap over Seya, forming to her body. The edges became rigid like Dotty explained, and I easily found the handle. This was indeed, an easy way to transport these guys without having to carry them. With the rifle in my right hand and Seya in my left, I wheeled her out of the room like luggage and into the hallway. Bon and Ellar followed right behind me.
“That’s all of them, then?” asked Kayton, viewing the three.
“That’s all, Commander,” confirmed Ellar.
“We must have lost one,” she said, under her breath.
“Hurry, let’s get the hell out of here,” I said, jabbing my rifle in the direction we came from. I turned back to the unwilling scientist and said, “Thank you...and for what it’s worth, I’m sorry,”
He nodded quickly, likely glad to survive the ordeal, and quickly closed the door between us before I could think about keeping him as a hostage.
I shrugged it off. He helped us out and survived. Now we needed to get out alive.
We pushed back the way we came, this time we would all take the elevators the armored suits took and stick together. It would be difficult to go through the stairwell again with our injured in tow.
At each intersection, we slowed our pace, checking its corners before moving on—maneuvering in a highly effective dance of move and cover. We assumed our original formation, with the armor suits sandwiching us softer troopers in the middle. Garvo would set up a position at the intersection and always be at the ready to unleash hell with his large automatic weapon.
The first part was complete, making it to the elevators without a problem. We checked on the injured, Dotty informing us that their life signs were all good, despite their appearance suggesting otherwise.
Back on the original floor we entered, the imperials threw everything they had at us. We were at a complete standstill, even with the onslaught of the armor suit attacks. Nearly double the number of sentries flooded the corridors with their metal bodies. I didn’t even have to aim to hit something at this point—we unleashed everything we had.
We formed up behind Nadu in his armored suit. He accelerated forward some ways, acting as a sled, both ramming and pushing aside the enemy, while his turrets shredded those he hadn’t reached yet. Habi snaked around to the front and followed up with her own bladed attacks, finishing off anything Nadu left in his wake.
The rest of us kept up as much as we could behind the killing machines.
We would have been screwed had we not brought them along, I kept thinking to myself.
I risked a glance every dozen paces down at Seya and to the troopers running behind me. Bon tripped and fell on his face, resembling a yard sale, with his weapon sliding to one side of the hallway, his pack sliding off to the other side and by far the worst thing—dropping the injured trooper.
Good idea on the helmets, Dotty.
It wasn’t designed for blunt force trauma, Arthur, it was meant for survival during spacewalks.
Yeesh.
“Come on, Bon, you idiot,” said Kayton, picking the trooper up. He scrambled to grab the downed trooper, while Del gave the marksman back his weapon.
I couldn't see Bon’s face, but I was sure he was more concerned about his rifle than the trooper he dropped—something Kayton would chew the trooper out for once we left this damned ship.
At the last hallway, Del pulled out a remote and instructed us to hold onto something. While the armor was firing at the remaining enemies in the busted-up hallway we entered from, Del pressed a button on the remote. It turns out that not only was the spray foam the sealant, but it was also a highly explosive substance. The pen-shaped device he placed into before we left was a small explosive that would set the whole thing off, once activated by the detonator.
A huge explosion came from far down the hall. Dotty closed the next available emergency doors around us, effectively isolating the damaged section yet again with us inside. The air escaped through the hole within seconds until we could hear nothing again.
“Move,” said Del to the team.
When I moved around the corner and peered at the corridor, there was now a gaping hole around twice the size of the original. The blast either outright killed the troopers and sentries or sucked them out into space, leaving little debris behind.
The team gathered beneath the huge hole, the starfield beyond shone brightly inside the jagged void, now that the hallway no longer drew power. Kayton climbed up Nadu’s armor suit, exiting the ship. She peered back over the broken edge of the carrier’s hull and ordered the next trooper to pass the injured up.
Garvo slung his weapon onto his back and brought up each of the three injured individuals, handing them off to Kayton, who was now only sticking to the hull with her magnetic outsoles. Fighting the gravity field of the ship was a pain on the ground level, but ten feet up, the gravity was nearly nonexistent around the mouth of the hole. We all got out of the carrier, Nadu and Habi using their thrusters to pull their massive suits out into space.
Dotty brought Dagger in close, its cargo hold yawning into existence. The armor suits went up first and secured their frames inside the dropship. I grabbed a hold of Seya and lightly pressed off the hull towards the ship. Dotty would control the fine tuning of the thrusters to guide us in while I looked down at Seya’s face. She looked surreal with a sense of calm peace across her face as she slept lightly.
Homestretch now, I thought.
A warning on my HUD came from my left.
The imperial frigate off the starboard side of the carrier began rotating some of its smaller turrets at us.
“Oh shit! Incoming fire—everyone move quickly!” I shouted, boosting hastily into the hold and bouncing off one of the inner walls. The rest of the team followed suit as large rounds flew towards us.
The ripple of blue waves appeared as the carrier’s shield ignited to life, blocking the shot. Dotty brought Dagger just under the carrier’s shields, way too close for comfort. I didn’t want to stick around any longer.
“Go-go-go!” I shouted over comms.
The rest of the team came in hot, bouncing into each other and off the walls of the hold and armor. Kayton being the last one in, yelled, “All secured, move!”
“Dotty, close the hold. Get us out of here, now!” I shouted, trying to secure myself and Seya anywhere.
“The enemy ship seems to be tracking our movement now, even with the cloak,” the A.I. warned.
“Screw it, full speed to The Pillar, Dotty!” I responded. They are going to kill us out here in the open.
“Everyone, please hold on,” said the A.I., as the thrusters came to life all around me. It plastered a few of the troopers against the hold’s door. “Taking evasive actions.”
I heard multiple thumps, but none of them tore through the ship.
Countermeasures. Dotty assured me, reading my mind.
“Nearly to The Pillar now. This may be a hard landing,” the A.I. called out.
There was nothing any of us could do. We placed our faith in Dotty to keep up alive.
“Brace for impact,” warned Dotty. We landed with a hard thump, the thrusters cut off and set to idle. The troopers who hadn’t secured themselves in time, fell to the floor in a dogpile. We were aboard The Pillar now.
“Increasing thrusters. You may now exit Dagger,” said Dotty.
“Go, move!” I called out, the troopers scrambling to their feet. Habi and Nadu cracked open their suits and exited with us.
I ran into the medical bay, rolling Seya behind me. I quickly took her out of the extraction kit and placed her in the first available pod—the one I was in myself when I arrived on The Pillar. The other two injured were right behind me and followed suit. The pods started to fill with liquid, but I didn’t wait to see the initial choking spasms that would come with ingesting the healing liquid, nor was there time. They would blow us out of the sky at any minute and I needed to see if I could do anything on my end.
Tearing my helmet off, I tossed the thing aside and ran to the bridge as fast as I could. “Dotty, status report!”
“The two frigates are in pursuit, while the carrier has released multiple fighter squadrons.
“Shit, what do we do?” I asked, frantically.
“They locked onto our signal, stealth is no longer an option,” said Dotty.
“Can we outrun them?” I asked, the team beginning to gather on the bridge around me.
“We will not be able to outrun them…yet.”
“Yet?” I asked.
“We may use a disabling attack against the pursuing forces, which should give us enough time to escape,” said Dotty.
“Then do it!” I said.
“Arthur, unfortunately, it will consume a large amount of energy from the power cores in doing so,” it warned.
I paused a moment to think about this. “How much is a large amount?” I asked.
“Twenty-five percent,” replied the A.I.
I tensed up, clenching my fists. “Dammit! Fine—do it!” I spat.
“Firing.”
There was a humming noise that spun up, continuing to grow louder and louder. Two large green orbs shot out towards the pursuing vessels and took a few seconds to reach them. Once they were within distance, the orbs detonated, and two massive spheres painted the blackness of space in their green blasts, enveloping the imperial ships and fighters. The physical force hit the ships, jerking them away from the orb’s blast, sending them listing aimlessly through space. Their thrusters cut out, and the ships went dark as if hit by an EMP. The distance between us grew with each second.
“All enemy ships disabled,” announced Dotty.
The team jumped and cheered. The mission was a success. We just did something incredible. Kayton squeezed me tightly with a huge grin across her face. I smiled back, relishing the win, but it was bittersweet.
“Dotty, break line of sight with the enemy at the nearest point. Set cloaking field once more and take us on a roundabout way back to Vallus. Great job, everyone,” I said and slowly left the bridge.
“Yes, Arthur,” replied Dotty, just before I made my exit.
TWENTY
On Vallus, the battle raged on. Sending word of the mission’s success, the conglomerate forces were continuing their attack on the imperial base. The Pillar was returning, and the team and I were on the bridge in a video call with the council.
“We are grateful to hear about the team’s success, Arthur,” said Councilor Kol. The skin around her eyes was darker than before, evidence of insufficient sleep.
“So are we,” I admitted. We were lucky, and I doubted we could repeat the mission again with the same results. We didn’t have any casualties besides Bon, who nearly bit off his tongue when he tripped. Seya and the other two troopers were in the healing tanks and would remain there for a few more days as they recovered.
“Where are you at with the negotiations?” I asked.
“We just sent word to the Darkkon Empire that Seya is in our hands, and the base is nearly ours. They have no choice but to back off and heed our demands,” she said with confidence.
“How long until we get word back?” I asked.
“We are expecting it within the hour,” she said.
“We will standby until you receive word from the empire. There is also something else I wanted to discuss with you,” I added. “The power core you gave us—to make our escape, we needed to use some of the ship’s combat capabilities. Unfortunately, it also used a significant portion of the power core’s energy…I can't return the core in the same condition you gave it to me.”
“You did what you had to do, Arthur. If things go the way we hope, we may not need the power core back. Consider it yours once the negotiations are done,” she said.
“Thank you,” I said.
“May I speak with my granddaughter for a moment?” the councilor asked.
“Of course, Councilor.” I squeezed Kayton’s shoulder as I left the bridge with the team, leaving her and her grandmother to speak in private.
I made my way to the power core room aft of the bridge. Seated within three cradles, were the cores that both saved us and continued to imprison me. We were now sitting at a total of seventy-two percent power, between the three of them.
Considering how long it took just to get this meager amount, the thought of using any of the power to fight the enemy was something that would only extend my stay here. I wasn’t going home after this anyway, so nothing changed on my end. I took solace in the fact that we saved Seya and two others from the Darkkon’s hands, however.
Pushing the thought aside, I leaned against an empty cradle and continued peering at the cores—or rather, I looked through them. I was so exhausted. Sinking my head into my hands, I rested my eyes for the first time since the drug-induced nap from Ellar’s medicine. I just wanted to rest.
Sleep found me in that moment, seated uncomfortably in the cold glow of the room.
I didn’t fight it.
*****
/> I woke up to Kayton shaking my arm. My face was sore from stretching it with my hands and a small pool of drool accumulated between my boots. Great, I thought.
“I’m sorry to wake you, Art,” she said. “I figured you would want to sleep somewhere more comfortable.”
I inhaled sharply, sucking up some excess drool. My body hurt from the hunched sleeping position, and I wiped my mouth with my sleeve before looking up at her. She pursed her lips in a concerned smile.
“No…it’s alright.” I took her hands and stood up slowly, squeezing my eyes through the stiffness. “That’s embarrassing…thank you for not letting me stay there any longer.”
“I was debating on whether to wake you or not, I guess I chose correctly then,” she said.
“What time is it? How long was I out?” I asked.
She glanced at the dataslate on her gauntlet. “It’s mid-morning on Vallus now. I spoke with the council at length. So, almost an hour.”
“Nearly an hour? Damn.” I rubbed some feeling back into my numb legs. “We should be getting a reply soon from the empire then on negotiations, right?”
She nodded and paused. “Are you alright? You didn’t seem too happy that we accomplished our mission. We saved Seya and removed the empire’s only real leverage. You…left so suddenly,” she said, casting her eyes down.
“I…I’m happy. This has been a lot to take in, you know? I’m just trying to help out and survive long enough to get back home is all, but…” I peered at the cores. “I don’t think that’s going to happen anytime, unfortunately.”
“Listen, Art. I’m not going to pretend I know how it feels to be in your position. I can only imagine how much you miss home—your family,” she said. “But look at what you’ve done in the short amount of time you have been on this side of the galaxy. All your accomplishments in just the last few days here on Vallus.” she gently grabbed my hand.
The warmth from her fingers melted my ice-cold hand.
She had a point.
“Back home on Earth, I was a mechanic. I would have a few special projects each year, some of which brought me incredible amounts of joy and even pushed my skills to try and do something I never did before. Before that, I was in the Marines—they are similar to your troopers. I did that for a few years and saw some combat, but…nothing like this. Everything is just so different now is all...” I let out a soft sigh.