by Selby, Caleb
“On screen,” replied Fedrin.
A very relieved Commander Drezden appeared on the screen.
“Good work Commander,” said Fedrin. “We just destroyed our first Unmentionable ship.”
Drezden shook his head while smiling. “Next time you feel like sending one of your expendable destroyers to investigate a strange signal, don’t send us!”
Fedrin chuckled. “But you’re so good at finding trouble for us.”
Drezden rolled his eyes.
“Hey, it’s over now. We’re alive, and we’ve taken down an Unmentionable Cruiser. What more could you want in an evening?” Fedrin implored.
“Sleep,” Drezden answered immediately.
Fedrin chuckled again. “Well get to it Commander. You’ve earned it.”
“Later,” Drezden said. “Right now, we’ve got some serious repairs to attend to and a few bodies to count and identify.”
Fedrin bowed his head, appreciating that their amazing victory was not without a cost. “Will your damages prohibit you from keeping up with the rest of the fleet?”
Drezden glanced at Hoirs who reluctantly nodded. “We’re toasted but our engines and power systems are still operational. We’ll keep up.”
Fedrin nodded. “Good. Because if that’s what we can expect from a single Unmentionable cruiser, we are going to need all the ships we can get!”
“You can say that twice!” Kesler said, glancing at Tarkin with a concerned look.
“You can say that a hundred times!” agreed Tarkin. “We are in big trouble!”
“We always are,” remarked Kesler and shrugged.
17. The Lottery
“Stop thirty-four, downtown Larep,” the voice of the pod operator sounded out, waking Darion from his shallow sleep. He slowly sat up and took in his surroundings. He had ridden the pod network the entire night, jumping from one route to the next in an exhausting effort to avoid Armid and his Sentinels that had been sent to track him.
“Everyone out,” the operator said as she opened the door and stood to her feet. “That goes for you too Hun,” she said as she walked over to Darion. “Come on mister, you got to go. I got orders from the station that this pod is scheduled to start shuttling refugees to the city limits. No room for stragglers.”
Darion glanced at the woman curiously.
The woman smiled and offered a hand to Darion. “If you plan on getting out of the city, you should line up outside and get a lottery ticket.”
Darion took her hand and stood to his feet. “A lottery ticket? What for?”
The woman nodded sadly and headed toward the front of the pod. “There isn’t enough time to shuttle everyone out of the city and there isn’t enough room in the bunkers below the city for everyone to get a spot. So unless you’re someone important, your only shot at getting out of here before the Krohns land is with the lottery. Doesn’t seem right to me, but I guess it’s the only way to be fair.”
Darion followed her off the pod and onto the landing platform. The sights and sounds that met him there were enough to make him sick. Panic ridden throngs filled the streets, all seemingly trying to get to a heavily guarded stage erected in the main intersection where tickets where being handed out at one end and red tokens were being distributed to winners at the other. A podium in the middle of the platform was crowded with several frazzled looking men hurriedly puling tickets out of large buckets and calling out the winning numbers as fast as they could. It was total chaos.
“Good luck mister,” the operator said as she patted Darion on the shoulder. “You’re going to need it.”
Darion thanked the operator and then turned and descended the graded stairs. Once off the platform, he made his way into the thick of the crowd. If the scene from the landing platform was bad, he hadn’t seen anything yet.
Trampled corpses littered the streets. Mothers tried in vain to hush their terrified children. Half crazed men and women screamed and yelled at each other in the lottery lines fighting over tickets and the occasional token. Elderly citizens clutched fiercely to small parcels of belongings, suspiciously eyeing everyone that passed. Able bodied men and women with outdated weapons stood around in an unorganized fashion at different gathering points, seemingly waiting for someone to give them orders or direction. All seemed overwhelmed with uncertainty and an impending doom that felt thick and heavy on the air.
“Hey!” someone called out angrily after Darion inadvertently crossed in front of a line of people in an attempt to get through the throng.
Darion looked over his shoulder at an angry man standing in line to get a ticket. “You talking to me?” he asked.
“Yeah, I’m talking to you! No cutting! You need to get in the back like everyone else! Got it?”
Darion rolled his eyes and turned to walk through, inadvertently walking right into two Sentinels. Darion looked into their darkened helmets and hoped they didn’t notice his shaking knees. He had no way of telling if they were loyal to Armid or just regular Sentinels trying to help organize the evacuation.
“Watch where you’re going!” one of them said gruffly. “There’s enough confusion around here without folks walking around with their eyes closed!”
“Sorry,” Darion managed to say as he slowly backed away.
The Sentinels looked at him for just another moment before wandering away, much to Darion’s relief. Once they were out of sight, Darion darted away from the commotion and headed down a smaller side street, which, although was still filled with people, wasn’t as chaotic as the lottery stage scene.
“I hear ten thousand, who will make it twelve?” a man yelled from a top a large trunk as he held up a red token he had apparently just won.
“Sixteen! Sixteen thousand!” a man shouted frantically as he ran toward the seller, suitcase in hand, elated to have finally found another token for sale after the last several he had tried to purchase were bid up out of his price range.
“Is it for the bunkers or a trip pods?” another man called out as he too approached the seller.
“It’s a pass into the bunkers!” the owner answered excitedly. “And it’s yours if the price is right!”
“I’ll give you seventeen!” a Branci woman suddenly shouted out, waiving her multiple pairs of arms in the air as she ran to the man, leading a young Branci girl with curly hair and a dirty face beside. “For her, please, Sir?” she begged as she retrieved her payment card from one of her tattered bags.
“Twenty-two!” the other man desperately interjected. “The kid will never make it down there all by herself! Sell it to someone who’s got a chance!”
“Is that your last offer miss?” the man asked the woman coldly, waving the token tantalizingly close to her face.
Tears flowed down the mother’s eyes as she shook her head. “She’s just a child. Please...she is all I have! Please help her!”
“Maybe if you Branci scum spent more time working and less time leaching off of the Federation, you’d have more money!” the other man sneered.
The woman looked at the man, mouth wide open, at a complete loss for words.
Without hesitation the seller looked away and faced the growing crowd. “I have an offer of twenty-two thousand for this bunker token. Do I hear twenty five?”
The Branci woman began to sob as she picked up the little girl with two of her arms, and struggled to pick up her disheveled bags with another two.
“Do I hear twenty five thousand?” the seller called out again. “Its a small price to pay for life!”
“Forty thousand!” Darion yelled out, before he knew what he was doing.
The man with the token looked at Darion suspiciously. “You really got forty?”
“Right here!” Darion said holding up his card. “Take it or leave it! Right here, right now! No more bidding!”
The seller didn’t think twice. He ran toward Darion, took his card and scanned it over his link.
“Looks like you’re good for it. Here you are,” he said, handing
Darion the token.
Darion took the token from the man and straightway handed it to the tearful mother. “For her,” he said, nodding to the girl.
The Branci woman didn’t even have a chance to thank Darion when a shot from somewhere across the street struck him in the shoulder, spinning him around and sending him crashing into the ground.
Someone in the crowd screamed and others began to run chaotically.
“Get down, get down!” Darion yelled as he pulled the mother and daughter to the ground with him. “Stay low!”
Several more shots rang overhead before Darion withdrew his lydeg and with a great deal of effort, managed to squeeze several haphazard shots in the direction of the attack. Following his salvo he jumped to his feet and took off down the street, clutching his bleeding arm as he did.
He didn’t know how long he had been running when he finally looked over his shoulder and realized that he was alone, or at least so it appeared. Taking advantage of the apparent reprieve, he crept into a darkened alleyway and sat back against the cool brick of a building and went to work dressing his wounded arm. Fortunately, the wound was nothing more then a graze that had been mostly cauterized by the blast itself.
He finished fashioning a makeshift bandage around his wound when a burst of powerful laser rounds suddenly smashed into the ground right before him.
“Get out here Darion!” a voice shouted out.
Darion had no options. His position was marked and he had no retreat. He slowly stood up and walked out into the open street. The sight that met him there was chilling. Armid stood in the middle of the street looking as malevolent as ever. Two Sentinels stood imposingly at each side of Armid, weapons in hand and pointed at Darion.
“Isn’t this a bit overkill?” Darion asked, eyeing the men and then forcing a chuckle. “I mean, I know I’m good but is all this really necessary?”
Armid tossed a tele-link on the ground before Darion’s feet. “You dropped this,” he said with an amused expression.
“And you came all this way to bring it back?” Darion said reaching down and picking it up. “And they say the government doesn’t do anything for you.”
“Do you have it or have you just been playing games with us?” Armid asked furiously. “Because if it’s the latter I promise you that words will not be able to describe how agonizing your death will be.”
“Have what?” said Darion coolly. “I’m not sure what you’re talking about.”
“I’ll start by removing every hair on your body...one at a time,” Armid said coolly.
Darion shrugged. “I hate shaving so that works for me.”
“I’ll then peel off your skin starting at your eyelids. The screams will be deafening.”
“Maybe you could make me into a sweet pair of boots? My skin is pretty tough.”
“Enough!” yelled Armid with overwhelming furry. “You obviously care nothing for yourself but what of Reesa? You seemed to care for her yesterday. I have only to speak the command and she’ll be dead before her body hits the floor. Now do you have it or no?”
Suddenly, without warning, a volley of blinding light beams came from across the street, striking two of the Sentinels, which let off unnatural roars and fell to the ground. Armid and the other two Sentinels immediately dashed back across the street for cover.
Without waiting for explanation, Darion promptly rolled back into the alley, inadvertently dropping his lydeg at the entrance as he tried to pull it out. He was just about to reach for it when a hand suddenly appeared from the shadows and picked it up. Darion braced for the end but was shocked when the hand twirled the gun around and handed it back to him.
“Don’t drop this,” the unseen figure said roughly.
Darion took the pistol by the handle and held it firmly. “Who are you?” he asked.
“Follow me,” the voice said as it trailed off into the darkness.
Having no other options immediately available to him, Darion reluctantly followed the stranger deeper into the pitch-black alleyway.
“Slow down!” Darion called out after running into a wall. “I can’t see where I’m going!”
An unseen hand promptly grabbed his own and began to lead him through the labyrinth of passages between the towering buildings far above.
How strange it felt, being led by an unknown, unseen hand through the dark and stinking alleys of outer Larep. His arm was bleeding. He had just given away all his money to an unknown little girl...Branci no less. He was officially homeless and at the moment friendless. The barrage of foreign experiences overwhelmed him, but he kept up his courage the best he could. What else was he to do?
The surreal journey finally ended on the other side of the city block. As Darion’s eyes slowly became reacquainted with the light, he looked over to catch a look at his guide. “Reesa!” he exclaimed in shock as he noticed her unmistakable face emerge from behind a pair of night-sight goggles. “What are you doing here? Where is Kebbs?”
Reesa looked at Darion without expression and motioned for him to be quiet, a command Darion obeyed. She then withdrew a slender lydeg pistol from a holster strapped to her leg and held it up, ready to fire at a moment’s notice. Darion noticed the same adapter fixed to the end of her gun that he had in his pocket.
“We were followed,” she said nervously.
Darion glanced around. “By who?”
Reesa looked at Darion and rolled her eyes. “The Arts and Crafts Club!”
“It was just a question,” Darion said as he peered back into the darkened ally.
“Keep your questions to yourself!” snapped Reesa. “I don’t have time to baby you anymore! This is the real deal!”
“What is that supposed to mean?” asked Darion.
“That was a question,” Reesa said coolly. “Now come. We need to keep moving.”
The two traveled in quiet along the mostly empty street. Occasionally they would pass a few citizens frantically running the opposite direction but the further they walked from the city center, the fewer people they spotted until it was only them.
“Where is Kebbs?” asked Darion, having finally worked up the nerve to speak again. “Is he ok?”
“Yes,” answered Reesa as she pointed down an intersecting street.
“You know, for someone that just helped save your life, you aren’t being that nice to me,” remarked Darion. “I think a thank you would be in order.”
“You saved me, I saved you,” remarked Reesa. “We’re even. So I’ll be as nice or as mean to you as I feel like.”
Darion rolled his eyes and had just taken a step down the new street when a shot burned past his head, striking the side of the building right behind him and shooting up chunks of brick and mortar into the air.
“Get down!” he yelled, as three more shots struck the building and ground around about them, each narrowly missing.
“Where are they coming from?” Reesa asked as she crawled toward Darion, gun in hand.
“I think it came from behind that loading platform,” said Darion, pointing with his pistol just as two Sentinels stepped into the street with weapons pointing at them.
“Alright,” said Reesa, poised to get up and run. “You hold their fire here and I’ll circle around. And don’t get killed!”
“I’ll try not to,” answered Darion as he crawled over to the corner of the building and peered back down only to be met with another barrage of laser rounds crashing all around. He quickly raised his pistol and fired two shots in the assailant’s direction.
“General Darion!” one of the Sentinels suddenly called out. “We mean you no harm! Put your weapon down and let us talk with you!”
“After you!” Darion called out and fired another round in their direction.
“All we want is the Codex!” the other yelled. “Give it to us now or we’ll kill Reesa!”
“Go ahead!” Darion shouted and fired again. “She’s a jerk anyhow! You’ll be doing me a favor!”
The Sentinels,
enraged, began to run down the street boldly, relying on their armor to protect them from Darion’s sporadic shots, several of which hit them with no affect.
Darion was just about to get up and run for cover further back when yet again, dazzlingly bright weapon’s fire from multiple directions suddenly struck the Sentinels, brining them crashing down face first into the street. Darion rolled away from the corner and fired several more shots into the fallen corpses, just to make sure they were down. Once he was sure they were dead, he stood up and was about to claim their position when Reesa, followed closely by Kebbs, appeared from the other side and approached the fallen bodies.
“Disgusting,” cringed Reesa as she kicked one of the corpses over.
Kebbs knelt and examined the other. “Incredible,” he said and then stood back up. “Just like the others.”
Darion walked beside Reesa and Kebbs and was just about to express his gratitude when he caught sight of the slain enemy. He nearly jumped back in disgust as he recognized the familiar monstrous form as that which had attacked Reesa when they had dined together at the Larep Crown. “What is it?” he exclaimed in astonishment.
Kebbs glanced at Darion and then back to the ground at the monster wrapped up in mangled tentacles. “Something very bad,” he answered ominously.
Distant angry voices suddenly sounded out from somewhere further up the street.
“We have to go,” Reesa said after holstering her pistol. “We still have time to get the Codex and fix Clear Skies if we act fast. You two coming?”
Kebbs nodded thoughtfully and followed Reesa’s lead. “You bet!” he said and smiled. “And with the pods all tied up, it looks like it’s going to be all by foot all the way there.”
“At least I’m not wearing heels anymore,” Reesa said tapping her boots reassuringly on the ground. “If I had to pretend to be a concierge for one more day I think I would have hurt someone.”
“I think you did,” commented Kebbs with an antagonistic smile.
Reesa shook her head. “They don’t count.”
Kebbs and Reesa took the lead as the trio began their arduous trip. Darion followed several steps behind the two cousins...in more ways than one.