Elena bent down to pick up the key. She went over to Ninu and Kyle, who took a step back, and released the girl’s shackles. Ninu stumbled forward and was gracefully caught by Kyle who set her down on the floor carefully, where she started rubbing her ankles and wrists. Kyle knelt down beside her. Elena released Hal Nedrong and Lona Brant and then went to the adjacent chamber to unshackle the other crewmembers of the Aladna.
Kyle looked around. In a minute it would be – what – twelve unarmed humans against three armed Split. Did the aliens trust the superiority of their weapons so much that they weren’t concerned by this mismatch? Or did they believe the humans wouldn’t resort to hostile actions because the patriarch had promised them to be able to leave the planet safely? And if so, then why did they need guards and blasters at all – was it a sign of their uncertainty? Or just their paranoia?
He caught a questioning glance from Danna and gave the agent a short overview of what had happened so far. Elena, who had just finished unshackling the prisoners, came back in time to catch most of it as well.
“The creatures be silent!”, demanded Ghinn.
“Mylady be silent!”, Kyle shouted. The Split woman growled and took a step toward the humans.
“Kyle, we’ll have to use both ships – the cargo bay of the X is only good for six, perhaps eight men.” Elena knelt down beside Kyle and Ninu and Ban did so as well. All around them, the recently unshackled humans were rubbing their tormented joints and limbs.
“They are disregarding my orders”, the Split woman said. She was towering high above Ban Danna, who was kneeling. She lowered the blaster until its muzzle pointed right against the Argon’s head.
“Not even in our wildest dreams we wouldn’t!”, asserted Danna. In a completely unexpected sleek movement he kicked hard at Ghinn’s shin, then shot up and grabbed for her weapon, while she was struggling to keep her balance.
Shins and knees were especially damageable areas with Split, which was why both the guards wore protectors; the bonds wife of the patriarch wasn’t protected, nor was she a warrior in the first place.
A beam from one of the guard’s weapons singed over Danna and hit the wall behind him without doing any harm. Danna instinctively wrapped his left arm around Ghinn and put the captured Blaster against her head. The guards froze.
“Creature!” the Split woman hissed in rage. Split were splendid and powerful fighters, and even Split women could usually take it up with even the sturdiest human. Ghinn however was pregnant and concerned for her unborn – and of course, handicapped in her mobility just enough to enable Danna to keep her under control.
“We want your weapons”, Danna said to the guards who glanced at their mistress utterly confused.
“Never, creature!”, Ghinn shouted.
One of the guards made a move to put down his weapons anyway, but the other one held him back. “The patriarch will not be pleased if his bonds wife is harmed; after all, she is carrying his offspring!”
“He pick up his weapon or die”, said Ghinn in a dangerously low voice.
The second guard, still clutching his blaster, formed the inpatient gesture for “immediate obedience” with his other hand, but his comrade didn’t react. The guard raised his weapon and pulled the trigger without hesitation.
Elena saw that the dying guard would fall on his blaster on the floor; impulsively she made a dive for it, rolled over and tried go grab it before the corpse would bury it. The remaining guard fired at her; the laser beam singed her soles and made her cry out in pain. Before the guard could aim for a second round, a beam from Danna, who had moved his weapon away from Ghinn’s head just long enough for a single shot, hit him. The guard went limp and fell to the floor as well.
Kyle pushed the now lifeless body aside and extracted the blaster from its still twitching fingers. Elena, who held the other weapon in her hand, stood up and hobbled back to Kyle and Danna, grimacing with pain. Kyle looked concerned, but she waved it aside.
“No worries. Asian specialty. Bruised duck, sweet and sour”.
“You’re indestructible, Lin!”, Kyle grinned.
“Had a good coach”, she said under her breath.
The patriarch’s bonds wife started to rampage and Danna took a few hard hits. Still, he didn’t let go of the slender woman. “This isn’t going to help a bit”, he said. “We’re going back to the throne hall nice and easy now and we’re going to have a look what the patriarch has to say.”
Ghinn t’Whht snarled like a wild beast, inarticulate and full of hate.
*
Ban Danna had pushed to leave immediately because he reckoned they might be discovered any moment now, but Lona Brant had asked for a few Mizuras delay. The crewmembers of the Aladna were still too weak, the blood circulation in their limbs wasn’t back to normal yet; so they spent their first Mizuras in freedom continuously rubbing their arms and legs and doing some exercises until they were able to walk reasonably well again.
Then the group left for the alleyway, lead by Kyle. Directly behind Kyle came Danna who aimed the blaster at the Split woman. Ghinn had accepted her fate only very reluctantly; despite the laser in her side she tried to escape on more than one occasion. She struggled savagely like a beast of prey in captivity, and only the combined power of Veithman, Elena, Danna and Kyle would suffice to bring her back under control.
Due to frequent interruptions, the group of twelve made only small progress. At two occasions they encountered Split who acted reluctantly as soon as they saw Ghinn, but Elena and Kyle didn’t hesitate to use their blasters anyway. Too abominable what the Split had done to the Aladna’s Crew, and too high the responsibility for the lives of the twelve to struggle with qualms.
Eventually they entered the throne hall through the same entrance by which Kyle and Ghinn had left it merely twenty Mizuras ago. The situation was nearly unchanged: still, only Chin, Cho and Whi where present. They were excitedly arguing with each other, albeit the one-eyed Whi always seemed to answer conspicuously short.
“Kyle, would you burn a nice hole into the throne for me”, Danna asked, while he headed for the patriarch, pushing Ghinn along in front of him.
Kyle immediately complied. As soon as the beam came flashing across the hall, leaving a blistering marking on the throne’s base, Cho t’Nnt made it behind a pillar with a fast, fluent reaction, while the patriarch simply jumped up, alarmed. Whi, however, slipped a dagger from his cloak’s sleeve into his hand. With suppleness unexpected for an aging Split like him, he flung the well-balanced blade at Kyle who managed to dodge it in the last moment – more or less at a hunch, not because he had actually seen it coming.
Ghinn t’Whht cried out in surprise and pain when the dagger sank into her right thigh with an ugly thud where it remained embedded in flesh. She didn’t even have to fake the panic in her voice when the muscles in her leg collapsed and she went to the floor. The patriarch staggered backwards a step when he heard the shrill sound of his bonds wife’s voice; he crashed into the throne’s seat and fell down on it in sitting position with a surprised puff. “The creatures will pay for this, each one of them will die under excruciating tortures!”, he cried, but he didn’t dare to draw his weapon in fear of inflicting more damage on his unborn son and his wife.
“I don’t think so, patriarch”, Danna replied. “If we’re not back onboard our vessels shortly, Brennan’s ship will detonate and destroy you and us before you manage to say Jadmanthrat.”
The patriarch hesitated for a Sezura and then wanted to say something; but then another shrill cry of pain echoed through the hall. Elena had stooped to help Ghinn, and had removed the Dagger from her wound.
“Don’t kill her! You may board your ships!”, Chin shouted frightened, suddenly changing his form of address to that of peers. “Cho… Cho!”
The special representative reluctantly left from behind the cover of the pillar.
“Cho, he guide them to the airfield!”
“Mylord…”
�
�Only four hours left!”, Kyle shouted.
“Your unborn son”, Danna amended.
“Cho! He understand me?”
Confusion spread on the young special representative’s face, clearly visible to anyone. What was he supposed to do? Obey his master – or did Chin really want him to act?
No time to think. Cho shot up and forwards, took a roll over his shoulder and fired at Danna in mid-flight. Danna jerked back and lost his weapon, which hurtled through the air in an arc then fell down. Veithman Wolsh, until now forming the tail of the group, dove for the weapon without much thinking, grabbed it while it was still skidding over the floor, and fired back. The beam missed Cho by far but hit Whi instead, who collapsed without even a sound. Cho on his part rolled himself again, rose to his knees, fired at Veithman and immediately hid behind another pillar. Wolsh made a sharp sound of pain and dropped the captured weapon.
“Veithman!”, Ninu shouted. She ran to the giant who had just gone to his knees, holding his right upper arm with his left hand.
“Now I’m really pissed!”, he said through his teeth. There was a stench of burnt flesh; the grazing shot had penetrated his biceps deeply, but the heat had sealed the wound instantly so that it didn’t bleed, and just wetted a little.
“Cho! He obey my order! Immediately!”, the patriarch cried in the highest-pitched tones he was capable of.
“Yes! As you wish, mylord!”, Cho snarled fuming and left his cover hesitantly. He threw his weapon away and sent it to the far corner of the hall with a mighty kick of his boots. “The creatures follow me”, he said in a dangerously low voice.
*
Cho considered assaulting the humans again for several Sezuras, but suddenly the twelve humans and Ghinn had boarded both ships as quick as a flash: Kyle, Ninu Gardna, Veithman Wolsh and two crewmembers of the Aladna climbed up into the jump-ship, while Elena Kho, Ban Danna and Halga Giller and the others from the Aladna boarded the AP Rhonda Crave.
They also took Ghinn t’Whht with them, because they reckoned that no Split would dare to fire on a ship the patriarch’s bonds wife was on. Clever – Cho had to admit that this tactical manoeuvre would probably prove successful. Both ships were more or less safe, since no one would fire at the jump-ship either. Danna and Kyle, who piloted the ships, didn’t hesitate to engage the engines instantly; Cho turned around and ran away as fast as he could, but the hot breath of the take-off rockets caught him anyway and blew him across the airfield several meters – directly towards a small interceptor craft. Cho didn’t think twice; he didn’t know what the patriarch’s next commands would be, but it wouldn’t be wrong to scramble the interceptor to keep track of the ships. It should enable him to exploit any mistakes the two pilots might make.
The controls of the interceptor were unusually sensitive and made the ship react sharply to any ever-so-slight yoke movement. After a few moments, the fleeing spaceships appeared on Cho’s instruments. He switched on the radio that was reporting an incoming transmission. The voice of the patriarch filled the cockpit, although no video was shown – as was standard onboard small one-man ships.
“Cho! I order him to destroy both ships!”
Cho didn’t say anything. He looked up ahead, where Kyle’s ship was already coming into optical range as a rapidly increasing, bright dot, treading constantly into the ever-darker blueness above Nif-Nakh. The Argon spaceship Rhonda Crave, on the other hand, was much closer. Stars became visible. The contrast at the horizon, where the jungle’s eternal green and the red of the far away ocean blended into one, was ravishing. If he just could…
„Cho! Cho t’Nnt!“, the patriarch’s voice called again. “He hear me?”
“Mylord, your bonds-wife Ghinn t’Whht is onboard the Argon spaceship.”
The voice of the patriarch almost overturned when he answered. “She’s a traitor! I’ve just read her letter. She is planning rebellion and deserves death. He destroy the ships. He destroy them! He hear me?”
“Yes, mylord.” Cho was completely calm now, just as if all of this wasn’t of his concern anymore. The Argon ship was now in reach of his weapons. He unlocked the heavy laser and opened fire without further hesitation.
*
“Combat alarm!”, Valerie shouted.
“No dice”, Kyle sighed. Valerie was correct in deciding that this was a cynical comment that didn’t require an answer. Instead, she opened another view field to display the stern camera’s picture. A small interceptor craft had scrambled and was just opening fire at the Rhonda Crave, who was following the X in only a few kilometre distance. The interceptor had also fired a cruise missile at the X that was homing in quickly.
The powerful 125 MW shield of the X should be able to cope with the missile easily – but what about the Rhonda Crave? Why did they fire at her although the patriarch’s wife was onboard to warrant the ship’s security as a hostage?
“Valerie – how long will the Rhonda’s shields take this?”
“A couple of minutes at the most, Captain”, the computer replied curtly. Kyle didn’t think long. Ninu was on board of the X and Elena on the Rhonda. He couldn’t abandon Elena, not even for the price of Ninu’s life! Either he would save both of them, or they’d all die here and now.
He altered the trajectory rapidly and forced the X into a sharp curve that strained structure and compensators to their limits. Perhaps he could distract the Split interceptor long enough to enable the Rhonda Crave to escape – at least for the time being.
“Captain – a Teladi vessel is closing in!”, Valerie shouted while a colourful blur spun around the ship: the dark blue of the sky, the green of the jungle and the red of the oceans. Kyle paused. Teladi – here? Never mind; it would have to wait. In a mere 90 seconds he would be directly behind the Split interceptor.
A view field opened above the instrument panel. From the corner of his eyes, Kyle saw that it was a Teladi. Wait – wasn’t that…?
“Nopileos?”
“Correct, oh Captain Kyle William Brennan! Is the star warrior aboard your ship?”
“The what?” Kyle was confused – what was the Teladi doing here? At this point in time, he should be in quite a different corner of the universe! “Nope, she isn’t”, he answered with some delay. “Elena is aboard the Argon vessel over there. No time now – gotta help her.” Kyle focused his attention to the shuttle’s controls again. He didn’t want to imagine what would happen to his passengers in the freight bay should the inertia compensators drop for just a few moments. Probably, they were shaken up enough already now.
“Valerie, do you see the Teladi ship somewhere?”, he inquired after a few seconds when there was still no further word of confirmation from Nopileos. From the corner of his eyes he noticed that the video connection had already been terminated.
“Yes, I do, Captain. The Nyana's Fortune is coming in low from south-east and will rise above the horizon in nine seconds.” Valerie backed her words by showing some information that told Kyle the exact position of the Ceos’ Yacht. The Teladi ship was closing in with an enormous speed that was definitely not suited for flight within a planet’s atmosphere.
The stern camera showed the lone Split interceptor still at the same relative distance, relentlessly firing at the Rhonda Crave. Shields? Not much anymore, already there were single rounds penetrating through to the hull. Damn! Kyle wished he could fire now, but the X, being able to fire only straight ahead, had not yet completed the large curve that would bring her behind the interceptor.
“The Nyana's Fortune is approaching. I have submitted the most relevant information to her on-board computer”, Valerie said.
Kyle looked at the gravidar, where a blip represented the young Teladi’s ship – and inhaled sharply. The Yacht was coming in way too fast! More precisely, she was even accelerating! What was Nopileos planning to do?
“Valerie… what is he doing there?”
“It seems as if he was trying to cut right through the interceptor’s course to drive again
st it.”
“He’s trying to – what?”
“Crash into it”, Valerie patiently explained.
Kyle didn’t want to trust his eyes and ears. Why in all the world would the Teladi run over the Split interceptor? If he wanted to help the X, why didn’t he use his weapons?
“Put me through to Nopileos!”, Kyle shouted. “Quick!” The young saurian’s face appeared on the view field again. “Nopileos, what do you think you’re doing? Why don’t you use your lasers?”
“I would like that, oh Captain Kyle William Brennan, but this ship of mine isn’t equipped with lasers!”, Nopileos replied. His scale plate was a dark green and his pupils tiny slits. “I’m going to run over the interceptor. Probability of shield breach is only at 67%. Inanias asserts. The shields of the Nyana can take anything!”
“Nopileos, don’t do it!”, Kyle imploringly shouted, but the Teladi shook his head in a human manner.
“Oh captain, my friend, the star warrior Elena, is aboard that vessel! I’ve got to save her! Bansai!”
Kyle looked out the window. The Nyana's Fortune came in on three o’clock in a shallow angle with flaring engines. She was so fast that the atmosphere – although thin at this altitude - blazed in her shields.
“Nopileos – don’t!”
The course of the Yacht was calculated very precisely. It wasn’t until now that the Split aboard the interceptor noticed the large, egg-shaped ship headed directly for him, still accelerating. He ceased fire and began changing his trajectory.
With a terminal velocity that Valerie’s data fields showed to be several thousand km/h, the Nyana’s shields blazed down into Cho’s interceptor. The comparatively tiny interceptor didn’t stand the slightest chance; for a fragment of a second, the shields of both ships overlapped like two soap-bubbles penetrating each other. Just before the interceptor collapsed in a glowing, iridescent cloud, it’s dying shields tore a huge hole into the hull of the Teladi Yacht; like a knife with a dull blade, the energy cut through one of the four Boron ion engines.
Farnham's Legend: The beginning of the X-Universe saga (X Games Book 1) Page 36