“Nope, not a chance!” Mal yelled back, equally as frightened.
“We’re toast!” Skye yelled.
“You couldn’t think of anything better to say?” Bharat snapped.
“Sorry!” Skye replied, thinking of the plasmathrowers. They turned a corner in the hallway, and found themselves face-to-face with a horde of Drekynns. They all growled, deep in their throats and each carried either the vile, plasma-spewing tubes or rusting, ancient spears. Despite their quick pace, they were surrounded on all sides by a group of at least thirty Drekynns.
“Oh, dear,” Mal said. “Not good. Not good at all.”
Chapter Eight
The Drekynns led the away team through the ornate building. The team walked in silence. Skye felt like she had betrayed the team by leading them down a bad path.
“Chin up, Skye.” Mal commented.
“What?” Skye whispered.
“Chin up. We’ll be able to figure out a way out of this, I’m sure of it.”
“I’m not so sure this time, Mal,” Skye said under her breath. “We’re so outnumbered.”
The Drekynns’ leader sat in a large chair carved out of same polished, brown bricks as the exterior. It had intricate scrollwork that covered the sides, and there were two creatures loosely resembling earth-lions holding up the arms of the chair. His posture was upright, his rounded chest was puffed out and he stared down at the away team with a smirk that revealed he was taking a special pleasure in knowing he had captured three humans in his domain. He was dressed in dark animal-skin, dotted with intricately carved bones that highlighted the seams of the clothing.
His face was terrifying to behold—long tusks looped from his jaw, and he had a deeply lined and furrowed brow, with large, fleshy lips that were stuck in a permanent frown. That this being was capable of great cruelty was undeniable. He seemed to emanate malicious intent.
“The Drekynns call him the Tal,” Mal said.
“What about the legate?” Skye hissed through gritted teeth.
“The Drekynns tortured and executed all of the Vorian leadership within hours of landing,” Mal replied. “They’re quite notorious for their rather grotesque executions and brutal torture methods.”
“No more,” Skye begged, fear flooding her receptors. She didn’t want to know what horrors were in store for the commander and Bharat.
Beside the leader’s chair, stood V’ktal, he contorted his face into his best approximation of a smile. His large, fan-shaped hands were clasped in front of him. All of his eyes glittered with anticipation.
“It seems as though the miltebugs have fallen into the sandpit,” V’ktal bubbled haughtily. “Or have you come to surrender the artificial human?”
“Silence, worm,” the leader of the Drekynns said in an enormous, booming voice, causing V’ktal to shudder. “I see before me undeniable proof of the Council’s meddling in our affairs! This infuriates me deeply!” He let out a growl that reverberated throughout the mansion as he stood. “You mock the treaty we signed!”
“Careful Skye. He’s coming closer,” Mal said. The Drekynn Tal took heavy steps toward the group, stopping just centimeters in front of Skye, towering over her. She looked up, causing the hood of her Vorian robes to fall off of her bubble-like helmet.
“Your meddling comes with a price,” the Tal said, grinning widely, a fell light within his eyes. He touched a long finger with a dirty yellow nail to her helmet. It made a screeching sound as it ground against the reinforced transparent alloy. Skye’s heart began to pound. “With your technology we will be able to produce many warriors and their weapons. You will help us to strengthen and build our Empire, and we will crush all those that oppose us!” Skye did her best not to break eye contact with him, even though every fiber of her being told her to run away.
She had to think of a way to play this situation so that the others could make it to the Swallowtail and escape. Regardless of Bharat’s feelings toward the subject, she was expendable. Even though she may not survive, the instance just prior to her leaving for this mission was synced across the Council’s enormous territory. Commander Bradley and Chief Bharat weren’t so lucky.
“Kill the others,” he said to the other Drekynns, and then turned to his chair.
“No,” Skye said breathlessly. The leader turned, and his tiny, beady eyes went wide in surprise. He wasn’t used to being challenged. “I won’t agree to help you unless you let them go.”
“A human with some spine,” the leader replied. “You truly are a unique specimen.” The Tal studied her. “No, you do not get to dictate the rules. Not in my territory. Not to me.”
“This time, I do,” Skye said, sounding more confident than she actually was. Her heart was hammering wildly against her sternum. “If you had captured a standard-issue T.A.S. from the Council, I would agree, you wouldn’t need my help. But operating my T.A.S. is too complex for your captured scientists. It requires an artificial mind that I carry with me, a mind that can’t be persuaded by threats or manipulation.”
“An artificial mind?” The Tal growled. “Tell this artificial mind that if it doesn’t cooperate, I will torture each of you until you break.” Skye clenched her fists to keep them from shaking.
“I’m afraid it doesn’t work that way,” Skye said. “You see, while a person might be broken, the artificial mind has no body to break. The lives of three Spacewing members won’t persuade it to release such a valuable technology. It’s a sacrifice the Council is willing to make. Listen to reason, Tal!”
“Do not lecture me on reason!” The Tal slapped Skye hard across her helmet, knocking her to the ground. But he didn’t issue the order to kill the others. Skye looked up from the ground, searching his face for a sign of inner conflict. Instead, he face burned more brightly with anger and he turned to V’ktal. “You scum! You told us nothing of needing this artificial mind to use the machine!” V’ktal stepped backward. “If you overlooked this detail, we will not honor our deal.”
“I have spoken with this mind, Tal,” V’ktal said. “It has a personality and it is my impression that it cares deeply about these individuals.” V’ktal stroked his gills. “No, I believe it can be persuaded like any other individual.”
“I suppose there’s only one way to find out,” the Tal said. He grabbed a spear from one of the guards and pointed it at Bradley’s chest. She didn’t move.
“Little mind,” the leader said. “I hope you are listening!” He pushed the spear’s sharp point so that the fabric of the commander’s suit flexed inward. “You’ll get to hear your human friends die slow, painful deaths.”
“Skye,” Mal said. “I can’t let him do this! Surely we can think of something!” The Tal pushed the spear even harder and Bradley’s suit threatened to rip. The commander clenched her teeth in pain, but stood firm. A tear fell down her cheek.
“Wait!” Skye yelled. “I’ll do it. I’ll help you. Just don’t harm them.” The Tal smiled and looked over to Skye.
“Is this you speaking or the artificial mind?”
“Both of us! We don’t want anyone to die from this. Take us to the T.A.S.”
“No, Skye!” Commander Bradley said. “I’m prepared to die for this. Sekar and I both are. We knew the risks going in.” The Tal laughed and withdrew his spear.
“Come, manufactured human,” he said. “You will find that the Drekynn can be a reasonable people if you treat us with respect.” At his signal, four guards restrained Bradley and Bharat while two others moved in behind Skye. “Come. You will show me how to print weapons. Guards, bring the other two along just in case we need additional cooperation.”
“Lieutenant!” Commander Bradley cried out. Skye looked at her morosely and followed Tal out of the room.
“This isn’t going to end well,” Bharat said under his breath through the com. “Now the Drekynn will have the ability to mass manufacture weapons and warriors.”
V’ktal slithered in behind the Tal, smiling at Skye as he pushed pas
t her.
Chapter Nine
The Tal led Skye through a network of hallways. She tried to keep tabs on where they were being taken, until they arrived at a large metal door. The Tal pressed the keypad and the door swished open, revealing a repurposed dining room hooked up with various mismatched scientific instruments. In the center of the room, Skye spotted the T.A.S. along with the two energy modules she had taken off of her ship earlier. The Tal grabbed V’ktal by the back of the neck and pushed him toward it.
“You, see how she prints the weapons,” he said. “Watch her closely!” The guards behind Skye shoved her toward V’ktal and she approached the T.A.S.
“Oh dear,” Mal said in her ear. “I’m not sure how we’re going to get out of this one, Skye. I’ll let you know if I discover anything by scanning the equipment in this room.” Skye nodded her head and picked up the first energy module.
“Wait,” V’ktal said. “What are you doing?” Skye locked the module into place behind the T.A.S.
“I can’t very well print anything if there’s no power,” Skye said. She picked up the other module while the Tal chuckled in the background. V’ktal looked nervously to Tal and grabbed the second module from Skye.
“Listen, Skye,” he whispered. “You will give me, and only me, the ability to use this machine.”
“Is this so they will keep you alive as their pet?” Skye asked.
“After I have shown such loyalty to them, I will be invaluable to their operations. They will promote me within their fleet and protect me,” V’ktal replied.
“If you believe that, you’re even more misguided than I thought,” Skye replied. “I’m the one that they want.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” V’ktal said. “I will be the one with the power to give the Drekynns everything that they need to become as powerful as the Council.”
“Not a chance,” Skye said.
“Enough with our discussion,” V’ktal said. “Turn the T.A.S. on and show me how to print a weapon. And don’t try to trick me, human. I can read Standard.”
“Very well,” Skye replied with a sigh. What she would give to have been assigned a simple, boring repair mission. She was merely an engineer. She wasn’t designed to go on dangerous away missions.
“Skye, I’ve pinpointed the location of the Swallowtail!” Mal said eagerly in her ear. “There’s a rather large shipping bay not far from this room. I’m sending the schematics to Commander Bradley and Chief Bharat. Skye nodded again to show she understood.
Skye desperately ran through different scenarios trying to think of how they could escape. Lives hung in the balance. She placed her palm on top of the identification panel. The T.A.S. beeped and hummed as it came to life. V’ktal grinned and flexed his webbed hands eagerly. She leaned forward so that her eyes were above the panel, and the laser scanned them. It beeped again as her identity was confirmed. Before V’ktal could catch on, Skye ran her fingers over the different options on the T.A.S. three-dimensional printing menu. He grabbed her hand in a surprisingly tight grip.
“No tricks!” He said. “I’ll make all the inputs.” Skye sighed.
“Very well, V’ktal,” Skye said. “I’ll try to explain. First you’ll need to set the correct containment for the size parameters of the object by tapping first on the configuration settings, and then in the materials parameters. But before that, you need to calculate the displacement density.” Skye waited while V’ktal hesitated.
“Is there a problem, scum?” The Tal asked V’ktal.
“No, no problem, Tal,” V’ktal replied. “I am making the proper calculations now. Soon you will have your weapons!”
“I better,” The Tal said. “Otherwise, I’ll have your Vorian head mounted to the wall.” V’ktal cleared his throat nudged Skye.
“Perhaps you should input the instructions while I watch this first time,” V’ktal said. “But slowly! Or I will kill your friends.”
“Of course,” Skye said. She breathed a slight sigh of relief. In her mind, she had only one way out of this mess, and if she wasn’t able to access the touchpad, there was no chance of survival. She considered her next steps carefully. “This is the weapons selection screen.” V’ktal nodded as a selection of blasters appeared.
“Ah, the famous Spacewing Plasma Blaster!” V’ktal giggled. The Tal’s eyes went wide and he approached the pair.
“The plasma blaster?” The Tal asked. “Yes, create this for me!”
“How many?” Skye asked.
“You mean you can print more than one at a time?” Tal said. He laughed and put his hand on V’ktal’s shoulder. “Print as many as the machine can hold!” V’ktal looked to Skye.
“Do it!” V’ktal said. “Show me how to print them.” Skye nodded.
“First, we establish the correct containment for the size parameters for the plasma blaster like I told you earlier.” While she spoke, Skye accessed the language options and selected Japanese. She continued onward with her explanation without pausing. “Then, we simply select the plasma blaster schematic and set it as the active print, this means you can theoretically select multiple schematics to be printed at the same time should the need arise. After that, we define the outset parameters for the base triangulation mechanism to balance out the circadian turbo-chryolizers.”
“Wait!” V’ktal said. The Tal growled at him angrily.
“Yes?” Skye asked. “Is there something wrong? I’m going very slowly.” V’ktal huffed.
“Yes, of course. I just wanted to make sure. You said to balance out the-”
“Circadian turbo-chryolizers. It’s a very important process.” Skye navigated by memory to the materials selection and let out a small cough as the list of alloys appeared in Japanese.
“Oh, Skye, I see what you’re doing and I must warn you that-” Skye cut Mal off with another small cough and tapped her finger at the materials list. “Okay,” Mal said, defeated. “It’s the fourth item down. I do hope you know what you’re doing. I’ll warn the others.” Skye continued delivering instructions without missing a beat.
“After that, you just select how many, in this case we can print up to twenty, no forty, plasma blasters at once.” A large green confirmation button appeared on the screen. “All that’s left is to-”
“Yes, yes, human,” V’ktal said as if annoyed. “I can take it from here.” Skye took a step away from the machine and gestured toward the Tal.
“V’ktal, I think you may risk dishonoring the Tal if you don’t at least ask if he’d like to do the honors.” The Tal poked his chest out and took a confident stride to the panel.
“Out of the way, scum,” The Tal said, shoving V’ktal aside. He turned to Skye and smiled. “I can see now that you understand our ways better than I thought.” He looked to the button and laughed. “It’s amazing what we can accomplish with the proper motivation, isn’t that correct?”
Skye stepped away as the Tal pressed the on-screen button to begin printing. The T.A.S. whirred and began building the bases for the forty plasma blasters inside the sealed chamber.
“Remarkable,” The Tal said. His eyes glowed and he rubbed his hands together in anticipation. “With this device, we shall print weapons for our entire army!” He turned to Skye. “How long until it is complete?”
“It’s pretty fast,” Skye said. “I imagine it’ll be finished in about thirty more seconds.” The Tal lifted his arms and let out a triumphant roar. The T.A.S. emitted a beep to signal that the printing has completed.
“Well?” Tal said to V’ktal. “Open it and bring me one to try!” V’ktal moved his webbed fingers over the clear pod, grasping the opening mechanism. Skye looked toward Commander Bradley who winked. Just as the Vorian clicked the handle, Skye, Bradley, and Bharat dropped to the ground. The T.A.S. erupted outward in all directions in an explosion that sent a shockwave throughout the room, sending the Tal and V’ktal flailing into opposite walls and knocking the guards to their backs.
The boom left a ringing in
Skye’s ears and she became disoriented. “Skye!” She thought she could hear someone yelling, but her vision was cloudy and a monotone buzzing drowned out all sound.
Through the smoke, Skye saw a hand reaching toward her. It belonged to Bharat. She reached out and he pulled her to her feet and rushed her out of the smoky room. As they approached the exit, she could make out Commander Bradley just ahead of them. She stepped blindly over the fallen guards and out into the hallway.
“Skye!” It was Mal. He was trying to tell her something “-to the ship. Stay with Bharat!”
“What?” Skye asked.
“I gave them the schematics of this building. They’re heading to the ship. Stay with them, Skye!” As they ran down the hallway, the smoke began to clear and Skye’s hearing slowly returned. The building trembled under their feet.
“What’s going on?” Skye asked.
“It appears the explosion did some structural damage to the foundation,” Mal responded. “Keep running, Skye. You’re close to the Swallowtail.” Skye coughed and tasted blood. The smoke made her lungs burn. She did her best not to slow down Bharat as he followed the commander.
After several twists and turns, they burst into a large oval room with a collapsed ceiling. Skye had to look at the floor due to the blindingly bright light of the Vorian sun.
“There it is!” Skye heard Commander Bradley say. They ran down a flight of open stairs and across the room toward their ship. As they arrived, Mal lowered the exit ramp. They bounded in.
Mal was ready. As soon as they entered, the ship left the ground and shot out through a hole in the collapsed ceiling. Bharat helped Skye into a seat and strapped her in. Her arms and legs felt heavy like cement and she just took a moment to stare through the viewport as the purple sky darkened to black, revealing a sea of stars. A warning klaxon went off.
“Two destroyers in pursuit!” Bharat said. “We won’t have time to charge a jump!”
“Stay ahead of them, chief,” Bradley answered. “Thanks to Mal, I’ve arranged a rendezvous point nearby. Maximum power to thrusters.” She tapped a new heading and the Swallowtail blazed into a steeper orbit. “By the way, Sekar, get ready to dock at full thruster velocity.”
The Vorian Incursion: The Swallowtail Voyages, Book 2 Page 7