December

by Karen Lofgren

  *

  Ted had no idea where they were going. When it seemed clear they were in a section of the ship that was lightly manned, he worked up the courage to ask, “What about the others?”

  “They have their instructions. The second the power goes off, they are to take weapons from the storage locker I indicated and make a run for your ship as quickly as possible.”

  As he spoke, the hum of the ship around them came to a halt. Emergency lights barely lit the hallway, only enough so they could see where they were going.

  “It’s starting,” Vandoraa said, his voice tinged with relief. Ted found himself wondering if his Drevi companion knew what he was doing.

  “And where’s Alana?”

  “Just down here.” Vandoraa looked guiltily at Ted. “I... I honestly don’t know what they did to her.”

  Vandoraa pressed a code into an odd-looking panel on the wall and the door slid open to reveal a room almost identical to the one Ted had been put in. Alana sat in the chair in the center, only she looked much worse.

  “T—Ted...?” she croaked. The feathers around her neck were stained with blood and there was another nasty-looking injury on her head that had turned the skin under the feathers an ugly purple.

  Ted felt rage boil up inside him, and he turned on Vandoraa, even though his conscious mind knew this wasn’t Vandoraa’s fault. “Why did they have to do this to her!?” he roared.

  “Keep your voice down!” Vandoraa hissed, strangely assertive.

  His shoes clacking angrily against the hard floor, Ted strode over to Alana and gently uncuffed her. “Can you stand?” he asked.

  She nodded, and attempted, slowly. Just as she had gotten to her full height her right leg gave out and she stumbled. Instinctively Ted reached out and grabbed her torso, supporting her so she could stand.

  “I guess that’s a no.”

  “Very funny,” she muttered, sounding half-asleep.

  “We need to go. Gavton isn’t going to be out of commission for long,” Vandoraa said. “The bay where your ship is being held is nearby, but we have to hurry.”

  “I don’t know if we’re going to be able to hurry,” Ted said, glancing at Alana as he helped her walk to the door where Vandoraa was still standing.

  “Well, do your best,” he said, before addressing Alana directly. “I’m truly sorry for what my brother did to you. I swear this is not the kind of behavior the Drevi people condone.” Alana said nothing, but her expression was one of reluctant acceptance.

  Alana limped down the hallway, Ted stumbling along beside her, stabilizing her. Vandoraa strode beside them, trying to cover both the front and the rear. He was pointing his weapon around wildly, hoping against hope that he could neutralize any threat before it had time to react.

  A bunch of Drevi were running through the hallways, but none of them stopped. Some of them glanced at the odd trio stumbling along the corridor, but the emergency on the ship seemed to be a more pressing matter. A few locked eyes with Vandoraa in particular, speaking the unspoken word: “Traitor.”

  “Why are they...?”

  “Gavton either gave them orders not to interfere, meaning he’s gotten all the information he thinks he’s going to get and doesn’t want to alienate me further, or they’re more preoccupied with keeping the ship together,” Vandoraa said in a bitter voice.

  “Either way, it means this is easier than I thought it would be,” Ted said, his apprehension obvious. Maybe he was naturally a paranoid person, but his first instinct when something was going well anymore was that it was too easy.

  Suddenly the ship rocked underneath their feet, almost causing Ted and Alana to fall to the floor, but Ted steadied them fast enough. Vandoraa did lose his balance and slammed into the corridor wall.

  “Or, they’re getting attacked by the Koleans, on top of my sabotage,” Vandoraa said through clenched teeth as he got to his feet.

  “Let’s get out of here, before this gets any worse,” Ted said.

  “Just a little further,” Vandoraa said as he started forward again. “I don’t think the Koleans will hurt any of you, but in the middle of a firefight, things get messy. If we can avoid a fight, I think we should.”

  Ted nodded and followed him, doing his best to pick up the pace. Alana, to her credit, did her absolute best to make it easy for him and moved forward as quickly as possible.

  “Here,” Vandoraa said, opening the door to the hanger and allowing Ted and Alana to go in first. He followed, shutting the door behind him and commanding it to lock.

  “There’s the ship,” Ted said, his voice tinged with relief when he saw the Kolean ship they’d arrived on, sitting in the far corner of the hanger among a sea of Drevi ships, some fighters, others scout ships. The three of them got onboard, and as Ted settled Alana onto the floor to get her off her injured leg, Vandoraa used the computer to power up the ship.

  “Damn it. They cut the cables to the main computer. We can’t tell the ship to take off,” Vandoraa swore, collapsing to his knees in exhaustion. He simply couldn’t take much more.

  “Of course they did,” Ted said with a groan, though it wasn’t entirely unexpected. The Drevi would be absolutely stupid to leave the ship here where their prisoners could escape in it.

  “Here. I can get it working again,” Alana said, struggling to get to the computer panels. “Help me, Ted.” Ted did as he was told and maneuvered the injured Kolean to where she could work.

  The sound of the door to the hanger sliding open caused all three of them to freeze.

  “Who is it, Vandoraa?” Ted asked, too scared to look out the hatch himself. If it was Gavton or his security force, Ted had no doubt they would shoot him in the head and be done with it.

  “It’s not Gavton,” Vandoraa said, chancing a look. “It’s our people.” His welcome statement was accompanied by more good news, a shout of “Yes!” from Alana. All around them, the ship stirred to life. Lights turned on and whirring sounds started up.

  “Thank God,” Ted gasped as Trell came in through the door, looking tired. But as Alana jumped forward the best she could on her weakened leg to embrace him, that tired look evaporated from his face and he hugged Alana tight against him.

  Behind Trell came Juiya, holding a Drevi weapon that Ted wasn’t sure he wanted to ask where it came from. Juiya’s beak was clenched and he looked understandably tense, but the sparkle of hope in his eyes was unmistakable. In a flash, that hope vanished, replaced by a look of shock as he fell forward, barely a gasp of surprise and pain escaping his beak. Standing behind him was Gavton, his eyes hard as stone.

  “That was my price for letting you go,” Gavton said coldly, blood still dribbling from the gunshot wound in his shoulder. “Maybe next time you’ll think twice about defying me, even if you do happen to be my brother.”

  “Juiya!” Ted screamed, dropping to his knees beside the fallen Kolean officer.

  Juiya died before he could say anything. There were no last words, no dramatic fight for life. He simply laid still, his eyes rolling back into his head before sliding closed forever. His arms, looking like broken wings, sprawled limply across the floor.

  “Take off, Trell, now!” Alana cried as she fell to the floor near the back of the ship’s cabin, unable to support her weight on her leg anymore.

  Trell didn’t need to be told twice. Just before Gavton could step onboard the ship, Trell closed the doors in his face to staccato Drevi swearing. “He’d better get out of here before I depressurize the bay,” Trell said.

  Alana looked at him, impressed. “You hacked into their system?”

  “They really need to invest in new security measures.”

  The hanger door opened with a loud hiss and within moments the Kolean ship was sailing through open space.

  “What’s going on out there? Are the scanners working?” Alana asked, frantic now that she couldn’t see what was going on.

  “There are three Kolean ships attacking the Drevi one. But it looks like reinf
orcements are arriving from the rest of their fleet,” Trell reported.

  “They should be retreating,” Alana said, trying to stand but Trell reached over and pushed her back down. She glared at him but didn’t try to move again. “We can’t have a confrontation now.”

  “I don’t think they’re going to retreat until we’re back on board,” Trell said tensely. He was flying the ship as fast as he could without being unsafe, because they would need to be traveling at relatively low speeds to dock with anyone.

  Ted, lost in a world of pain and heartbreak, couldn’t bring himself to pay attention to what was happening. He sat there, on the cold floor of the ship, next to Juiya’s dead body. This wasn’t supposed to happen. None of this was supposed to happen. Ted was supposed to continue with his boring, ordinary life. He was supposed to be at home, with his daughter who had never gone missing and his wife who had never died.

  He barely noticed when their ship landed in the hanger of the nearest Kolean cruiser, and a whole bunch of Kolean soldiers rushed on board. When the soldiers seemed sure it was not a ruse or a trap, they holstered their weapons and moved to help the bedraggled escaped prisoners.

  “No, don’t,” he heard Alana’s weakened voice snap at the soldiers as they tried to drag Vandoraa away. “He’s the reason we escaped.” They glanced in confusion at Trell for confirmation, but he simply nodded, so the soldiers let Vandoraa go.

  “No,” Ted began to say as two women reached down to carry Juiya’s body away, but Trell gently grabbed his shoulder, snapping him back to reality.

  “He was a military officer, Ted. They’ll take care of him.”

  Reluctant to do so, Ted finally let go of the still warm body. He was shaking so hard he wasn’t sure if he could carry himself off the ship.

  “Are you hurt?” someone asked him. He shook his head and the soldier moved on.

  General Toka himself stepped aboard, his gaze first falling across Juiya’s corpse. A look of deep sorrow passed over his face before he looked at Ted and Alana, relief present in his eyes. “At least you are safe. This mission is not ready to go forward without you. And you.” He turned to Vandoraa. “I heard we can thank you for having our people returned to us.”

  Vandoraa did not respond verbally to the praise but bowed his head respectfully.

  “It is,” Alana said. “If it wasn’t for Vandoraa we would not have escaped.”

  Toka seemed surprised but responded, “If they say it is so then I believe it to be true. I’ll formally thank you once I know all the details. You will be treated as a guest here, not as a prisoner, and I will make sure everyone knows it.”

  Vandoraa once again said nothing, though Ted could read the relief on his face.

  “You’re not seriously going to allow that Drevi free run of the ship,” Hoguh said, stepping up behind General Toka, furious but trying to hide it in the presence of his superior officer.

  “I will not allow him free run of the ship,” Toka said to his subordinate, irritation present in his voice. “But he has saved some of our people and quite possibly the mission itself. I’m not sure what his reasons were but treating him like a prisoner would be wrong. He will have limited access to the ship but he will be treated like a guest until I say otherwise, understood?”

  Hoguh relented, glaring angrily at Vandoraa but unable to act on his aggression.

  “Gukor, find Vandoraa a vacant cabin,” Toka ordered. “Hallim, escort Trell and Alana to the medical facility so she may have her wounds attended to, and see to Mr. Anderson if he needs it. And Kilartha... send a message back to Kama’s family. We’ll hold a service at the first opportunity.”

  Ted did not need Hallim’s help, and waved it off, leaving Ted kneeling alone in the ship as everyone else departed. He struggled to keep from crying.

  XIV