‘Sir,’ an officer replied as he tapped the controls on the desk, ‘there is a small structure ten kilometres north-northwest from the fort. On the screen, now.’
The screen showed a half-spherical structure sticking out just above the planet’s surface, partly concealed by the trees of a light, leafy forest.
‘Sir, confirming there are no other similar structures anywhere around the ten-kilometre perimeter of the fort.’
‘That’s it, that’s their secret evac point,’ Vorlar said. ‘Take us there.’
‘Aye aye, sir,’ the officer replied. The massive command ship turned with grace, and then its massive engines shot it across the plains.
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
EVIE THREW her backpack on her shoulder and took Aino by the hand. They looked at each other and put on hesitant smiles. It was going to be all right.
Henning talked with his people, apparently making sure they knew what to do after he was gone. ‘I might never return,’ he said, ‘and this is why I name Skyla Almer to succeed me as the Starlight.’
Everyone turned to Skyla. She took a step back and put a hand to her heart, her round cheeks blushing even more than before. ‘Me?’
‘Do not fear, Skyla.’ Henning took a step towards her with open arms. ‘Yes, this is sudden, but you’re versed in every aspect of the Children of Light, and I’m confident you will be a great leader. You will rebuild this community, and with your leadership the spirit of Jilius will carry on. The Shades will bestow their spirit upon us.’ Henning removed the emblem from his jacket and fastened it on Skyla’s chest. He stepped back and tilted his head as he looked at her wearing the silver fan. ‘You have the Ray of Starlight now, child of Avalon. Wear it with honour.’
Skyla put both of her hands over the shield, and looked flustered and at loss for words, but the people around her started looking up at her with supporting smiles. ‘I don’t know what to say…’
‘Don’t say anything,’ Henning said, and held Skyla by her arms. ‘Someday we might meet again, but for now it is farewell.’
Everyone in the room bowed.
With a soft voice, Skyla said, ‘Farewell, Starlight.’
Henning stepped back to the command desk and bent down. He pulled out a small bag and threw it on his shoulder. ‘No time to pack anything else,’ he said, and turned to Aino and Evie, gesturing for them to move. ‘We have a journey ahead of us, so let’s go.’
Although Henning didn’t show any emotion, Evie could sense that he was torn inside about leaving Avalon. The others too, though they were stoical in the face of his departure. There were no cries, no questions, no begging him to change his mind. Perhaps it came through their belief, but even for Evie as an outsider, the moment of departure felt gloomy.
Evie had hoped that Tredd would suddenly appear, perhaps with Eddie, and they would continue their journey together. But now it was time to leave, and they hadn’t returned. She felt the ground tremble yet again.
‘All right, let’s go,’ Evie said. They stepped out to a dark, greenly lit corridor, and just as they did, Eddie came running towards them.
‘There you are!’ he said leaning on his thighs, panting. ‘What’s happening around here?’
It was good to see Eddie well, but looking behind him, Evie saw no sign of Tredd. ‘Where’s Tredd?’
‘He’s not here?’ Eddie said catching his breath.
‘No. The navy’s storming this fort. They want Aino, and we are getting out of here. Tredd went looking for you,’ Evie explained, and turned to Henning. ‘This, by the way, is Henning Dal, Aino’s father.’
Henning greeted Eddie with a nod. Eddie nodded back, and then turned back at Evie with a concerned frown. Drops of sweat appeared on his forehead and temples. ‘Tredd went looking for me?’
‘The Dawn Alliance wants these two,’ Evie said, pointing towards Aino and Henning, ‘and of course you, me and Tredd as accomplices. Their force, led by some Dresnean, has already landed in the Garden and it will only be minutes before they find a way down here. We really need to go.’
Eddie wiped sweat from his brow. ‘I see, but where?’
‘Avalon has many escape routes,’ Henning said. ‘We take a bullet capsule, which will take us ten kilometres from here to a satellite bunker with a ship capable of interstellar travel.’
‘Sounds good.’ Eddie looked somewhat absentminded and took a long pause before continuing. ‘Also very confusing, to be honest, but I guess you guys know what you’re doing.’
‘It’s not far,’ Henning said.
As they hurried along the corridor, Evie couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. Why was it so easy for Eddie to leave Tredd behind and follow them? She had always thought of Eddie as a weird owl, whereas Tredd was very straightforward – grumpy for sure, but transparent, so she always knew what she was going to get. But Tredd and Eddie seemed to share a lot, going back to their youth and the navy, so perhaps it was just Eddie’s style not to show any emotion. However, Evie didn’t think she herself could be so cold.
It wasn’t long until they stood in front of a door with a mechanical code lock. Henning dropped his bags and turned the wheel a few times back and forth until it clicked and opened. ‘We must hurry.’
They entered an expanse that looked like a miniature rail platform, but with the ambience of a nightclub. The bullet train – a single rounded capsule of shiny back glass and metal – rested on a monorail, gleaming under the blue lights. The rough stone walls sucked in all the light, and peering into the tunnel ahead of the capsule, Evie saw a chrome rod dotted with blue lights continue to what looked like infinity.
Henning pulled a hatch on the side of the capsule, and its whole top half became transparent and opened up with a hiss. Inside, the capsule had two pairs of brown leather seats, facing each other. Pretty neat and old school, Evie thought, as she jumped on a seat facing towards the tight tunnel. She didn’t want to throw up, which might happen if she travelled backwards. Aino sat by her side, and the guys lowered themselves into the seats opposite them.
‘Should we wait for Tredd?’ Evie asked for the last time.
‘I don’t think we should,’ Henning said as he buckled up. ‘He must have been captured. They were swarming in through every entrance. I’m sorry.’
Evie gulped as she locked her safety harness. Eddie sat silently too. A short moment lasted long enough for Evie to think about Tredd being captured, or even killed. The thought of a bad outcome pulled her spirits down, but she realised her outward expression was as emotionless as the others.
Henning pressed a few buttons on the control panel by the side of his seat. The interface was, surprisingly, manual. Perhaps it had been built a long time ago, or perhaps it was made to be fail-proof. Nevertheless, everything was clean and crisp, like new; even the transparent dome, which had started to come down, did not have one speck of dust on it. Evie tried to peer into the dark tunnel up ahead, but before she could, they shot forward like a bullet.
They accelerated rapidly. Evie felt the chair push hard against her back and realised there were no inertial dampeners on this shuttle. The stony roof of the tight tunnel rushed above them in the light of the capsule, just a few centimetres above the transparent dome.
‘Yee-haw!’ Aino shouted in wonder.
Henning smiled with tight lips pushed back by the acceleration. ‘Pushing just a bit over one g, we’ll max out at twelve hundred kilometres per hour and then start braking equally hard. It will take about a minute to get there.’
Evie hoped the brakes worked, and thought about what would happen if they didn’t. Smashing into a wall in this small capsule at that speed would crush them in a millisecond. At least it would offer a quick death.
In the thirty second point, the capsule started to slow down, and soon Evie was pressed tight against the safety harness.
In a few seconds they were at a standstill. Evie’s shoulders relaxed and she unfastened herself.
Henning presse
d a few buttons and the dome opened. ‘This way.’
Everyone climbed out of the capsule and into the terminal room, almost identical to the one they had just left. ‘Come on, our escape is here,’ Henning said, with a touch of excitement in his voice, as he opened up the door.
The evening sun shone its burnt orange on dark grey walls through an open hatch in the ceiling. A small landing pad was in front of them, and as Henning had said, there was a ship sitting on it, ready to go. While Evie didn’t know much about ships, she could see from its engines that it had to be capable of interstellar travel; especially because its surface was a beautiful dark violet with some black and blue, reflecting the sun from the already opened roof of the landing pad.
‘Sheldon Bruiser GS, night edition,’ Eddie said, gazing at the ship, and holding his chin between his thumb and index finger. ‘Not bad. Not bad at all.’
Henning did not reply, instead he just stared off to the side with his mouth open. ‘What the—’
Evie turned. The stone-faced Dresnean officer stood on the landing pad, this time in person. Either he towered taller than he had on the screen, or the dozen or so soldiers around him were midgets. Beside him rolled a blonde woman in a robotic chair.
Evie tensed as the soldiers advanced towards them, weapons pointed forward. They were no midgets.
‘Well, now,’ said Vorlar. ‘Yet another terrorist faction apprehended.’
THE INTERSTELLAR SHIP was so close, but so unreachable. Like so many times before, Evie wanted to leave, but again she was stopped at the last minute. Previously it had been her father, then Ash, then herself, and now it was nothing less than the Dawn Alliance Navy who stood between her and her freedom. The soldiers moved towards them.
Henning whispered to Aino and she nodded a silent acknowledgement. Evie hoped Aino could use her powers to help them.
Evie recognised the woman in the robotic chair as Jill, Tredd’s old friend. With her pale complexion and messed-up hair, she looked unwell. Commander Vorlar Block held a small terminal in his hands, looking at its screen from time to time. He said something inaudible that made Jill’s frown deepen, and stepped towards them.
‘You’re not taking my girl!’ Henning shouted.
Before Evie understood what was happening, Henning took Aino by the hand, and started running towards his ship. The soldiers dashed after them.
A booming voice called, ‘Stop!’
It was Vorlar. He held a melting Hotblade in his right hand, his left palm raised towards Henning. He leaned forward, his lips pursed, staring at Henning.
Henning stopped for a second, like he was scanning his surroundings, and then started hurrying towards the ship. More soldiers ran from behind Vorlar and around the ship, raising their assault rifles in front of them. In a moment, Henning and Aino were surrounded.
Seeing all the weaponry, Evie hit the floor by instinct, something she had learned from Momentum 6. The pain in her shoulder made her grimace – she might have torn the wound by going down too fast. She lay on her stomach, feeling the cold platform through her tank top.
‘Stop, or we will fire!’ Vorlar shouted.
Everyone froze.
Aino looked around nervously and then up at Henning. They were about ten metres from the ship’s entrance. He gave her a comforting look, and drew up a short wand. On activation, the wand produced a light blue energy shield that engulfed both of them. With a defiant smile Henning continued forward.
Evie thought there must be something she could do to help them. In Momentum 6 she always knew what to do, but in real life she lay frozen. There were too many soldiers with real weapons around.
The soldiers fired at Henning and Aino, but the shield deflected the shots. One of them fell from a ricochet, and they stopped firing. Henning and Aino moved slowly within the shield, but then more soldiers came, and suddenly they were completely surrounded, soldiers pressing against their bubble.
Vorlar let out a long sigh, muttering something, and took steps towards Henning and Aino. He bolted past Evie, towering tall and carrying a sword of dripping hot lava. A thought of tripping him over crossed Evie’s mind, but she could not bring herself to try it. There were too many ways the molten sword could cut her.
After Vorlar had passed, Evie looked up and saw Jill sitting placidly in the robotic chair some dozen metres from her. She had a beautiful figure, but now she looked trashed: her long blonde hair was a tangled mess and her frown made dark lines appear on her forehead and under her eyes. Evie only knew she had caused Tredd trouble, but apparently she was in too deep herself.
Jill met Evie’s eyes. Then she looked down to the side and nodded ever so slightly. She looked back at Evie again, raising her brows as if in a question.
Evie was puzzled. Is she trying to tell me something?
Jill nodded down again.
Then she saw it: the small terminal that Vorlar had been holding sat on the robotic chair just beside Jill’s clasped arm. All soldiers had run to Henning and Aino, and Jill was left alone, with Vorlar’s terminal by her side.
Evie looked back behind her with a painful stretch of her shoulder. For a moment, Henning and Aino were safe within the bubble of their shield, but constrained by the soldiers around them. They had stopped moving. Vorlar and all of his soldiers were focused on them. This was Evie’s chance.
She rose up and raced towards Jill. Her shoulder throbbed with every step, but she ignored the pain – a temporary thing that could be fixed. Midway, she glanced back to make sure no one had noticed.
No one had. They were still around Henning and Aino. Evie ran forward.
‘It’s the terminal the doc used to control me,’ Jill whispered. ‘And Eddie too, perhaps others. Take it, release us.’
Evie seized the terminal.
Jill had tears in her eyes. ‘Now go. Quick.’
‘Thank you, Jill,’ Evie said, and, trying to comfort her, ‘We’ll make it through this.’
Jill responded with a sad smile as a tear fell down her cheek.
Evie turned around. In the distance, Henning and Aino had stopped, and Vorlar was addressing the soldiers.
She ran behind a pillar and sat down, leaning against the hard steel. Her shoulder pulsated with pain to the beat of her heart. She looked at the terminal. Its screen was covered in stains, but she was lucky: Vorlar had left it open for access.
She started exploring the contents, occasionally peering behind the pillar.
Meanwhile, the soldiers surrounding Henning and Aino made their way to Vorlar. He raised his blade up high, and swung it down with effortless force. The blade cut straight through Henning’s shield, making it crackle as it passed.
Henning grimaced.
The blade slashed at the wand he held in his hand. On impact, the wand cracked and the shield disappeared. Henning raised his bloody hand and cried out in agony.
The blade had cut off his fingers.
‘Daddy!’ Aino shouted.
Vorlar stepped forward, standing a head above Henning and Aino. He smirked down at Henning’s agony, and then punched him in the face, stopping his cry and felling him on the ground.
Aino curled down by her father and whimpered.
Henning pushed himself up with his better hand and touched his bruised cheek. Then he laid his hand on Aino and said something Evie could not hear. She hoped Aino would use her powers.
Aino did take her gaze away from her father. She clenched her fists and closed her eyes. Evie knew that look. She’s trying to push them away, but has she been able to recover?
Vorlar smirked down at Aino in amusement.
Aino focused.
A sudden wind burst from her, forcing a few of the soldiers to take a step back. Vorlar pushed against the wind.
A moment passed, and the wind stopped.
Vorlar raised an eyebrow.
Aino opened her fists and her eyes, and shook her head. She massaged her temples with her fingers, and sighed. Then she put her hand over her father’s
shoulder, and pressed her cheek on his, tears falling down.
Was that all she could do? Evie wondered. She had seen Aino scatter fighters. Her powers should be massive and unstoppable… Had she used it all up?
Evie turned back to the terminal in her hands. It contained complex medical access software. While the jargon and semantics remained unknown to her, she could detect certain patterns, and found what she thought could be the mind-control portion. Unfortunately, it was more difficult to decipher than she had thought.
Henning’s cut fingers lay in a pool of blood on the floor. The soldiers gathered around them. One picked up Aino and two grasped Henning. Both went along without a fight. Something is wrong with Aino. Did Vorlar somehow incapacitate her?
The soldiers also took Eddie, who had just been standing quietly, and started to lead him towards the stairs. Why hadn’t he done anything?
Evie fumbled with the terminal. Suddenly on its screen she saw a live feed of the happenings – from Jill’s point of view! She realised it was connected with Jill.
She thought she heard steps. Quickly she started turning all the switches off, not sure what they meant. There was no time to do them all—
‘Hey what’s this?’ A soldier had appeared and loomed above her with an intimidating gaze, accentuated by the pointy end of an assault rifle.
Evie gasped. Looking up at the soldier, without even gazing at the screen, she reset the terminal to the start-up screen – just in time, before the soldier pulled it from her hands.
‘The doc’s control terminal… How did you get this?’ the soldier said as he examined the small terminal. While he paced away with it, two more soldiers came and dragged Evie up from the ground.
This was it. There was no place left to run. She could only hope she had done enough.
The soldiers clutched her arms so hard they hurt. She tried to shake them off in protest, but it only made her shoulder burn and the soldiers squeeze her harder. She cried out and stopped fighting. In return, the soldiers relaxed their grip, but only a little.
Starcrasher (Shades Space Opera Book 1) Page 37