The Seryys Chronicles: Death Wish

by Joseph Nicholson

  “Right!” he said.

  Puar pushed past the Agent and sprinted for the sealed door to the control/panic room, placed small charges around the perimeter of the door and took cover as he blew them. The heavy door fell with an echoing thud. As the smoke cleared, Puar ran through the door with reckless abandon. His brother, the Prime Minister of Seryys stood, his fists bloodied and a SPEAR lying twitching and sparking on the floor.

  “Damn!” Little Puar breathed. “Someone ate the wheat cereal this morning!”

  “’Bout damn time, little brother!” he barked in his military voice. “Can we please get the hell out of here?”

  “Yeah! We just need to lower the hanger force field and extend the platform. Do you have a communication console in here?”

  Prime Minister Puar pointed. Officer Puar tapped the console and it lit up. “Bolt Bucket! This is Puar! Mission was successful; I have the Prime Minister and I’ll have the platform extended in moments. Please-”

  “Shut up and forget the platform!” Dah’s strained voice came over the channel. “We’ve been meeting heavy resistance here in the sky! Just get that force field-NOW!”

  “Copy,” Officer Puar said, nodding at his brother to lower it.

  Dah had already detached the umbilical and was purging the water from ship when Kay radioed him.

  “Dah, I’ve lost communication with the team!”

  Sibrex! Dah thought. Fucker double-crossed them! Dah stripped his gear and discarded the useless UOE. He had to finish the last twenty feet of the shaft without air after the UOE’s filter died. After almost five minutes of holding his breath, the water level in the main hold had drained enough that he could finally gasp for air. He coughed and hacked between gasps, spitting water away from his mouth.

  He was barely able to croak out, “Get us out of here! We’ll find a way in and rescue them from topside!”

  “You got it!”

  Once again the ship groaned with protest as Kay brought her up out of the water into the sky where she belonged. Dah ran the short corridors of the Bucket for the cockpit and plopped down into the co-pilot’s seat.

  “That damn Sibrex is to blame for this, I can feel it!”

  “Are you sure?” Kay asked. “He did nurse Khai back to health.”

  “Yeah! And now he’s within steps of the Prime Minister. Small price to pay to completely collapse the entire Seryys Government, don’t ya think?”

  Kay only raised her eyebrows and nodded.

  “Do you know where the hanger door is located?” Kay asked Dah.

  “No,” Dah admitted, but still carried a very determined voice. “But we’ll find out soon enough.”

  “What do you propose?” Kay asked.

  “Blast the walls ‘til we find it!” Dah said with resolve, bringing the targeting computer online.

  “We should start with areas along the wall that put out an energy signature more than just normal geothermal activity,” Kay stated.

  “Fine. Whatever. Just get me a target.”

  The first designation appeared on the HUD and Dah opened fire, reducing the rock wall to head-sized boulders that crashed to the water with a splash. “That’s not it, next target!” Another area lit up on the HUD, Dah opened fire with the Bucket’s cannons.

  “Dah!” Kay shouted over the thrum of the cannons’ fire. Dah ignored her. “Dah!”

  “What?” he snapped.

  “I have hostiles inbound. Five of them, coming in fast, too fast to be atmospheric fliers.”

  “Here come the cavalry,” Dah grumbled. “Okay, move out. We’ll keep’em busy ‘til we hear from the team.” If we hear from the team, he thought angrily.

  “Got it!” Kay said, yanking back on the yoke and pushing the ship to full throttle, sending her into the gut-churning climb that pasted them into their seats. The Shark-Class Interceptors followed suit right behind them firing as they climbed. The Bolt Bucket’s engines roared and their seats bucked as cannon fire ricocheted off the shields. Another volley found its mark, the Bucket jolted to the right sending the two into their crash restraints.

  “We have to lose them!” Dah shouted.

  “Tell me something I don’t know!” Kay snapped as she fought the controls.

  “I’m diverting power to the rear shields,” Dah said. “That should hold them off long enough to lose them.”

  “You could try killing them, too, you know!” Kay shouted over the rumble of the ship’s engines.

  “What the hell does it look like I’m doing?” Dah snapped.

  The HUD showed five ships in hot pursuit, pouring fire at them. Dah’s stomach turned as Kay put the ship through some hair-raising maneuvers that Dah had never seen. He never realized that a ship of the Bucket’s size could barrel roll while banking to one side or the other. Dah opened fire on the pursuing ships. Their shields were obviously angled full forward because most of the shots connected and were shunted by them.

  “Damn!” Dah growled with frustration. “They’re fast!”

  “That’s why they’re called interceptors, Dah! Keep at it!”

  Dah locked onto the lead ship and fired; the cannons bashed through its shields and the remaining ships flew through its debris cloud.

  “Ha ha!” Dah hooted.

  Kay rolled the Bucket over and went inverted. She then pulled back on the yoke sending the ship into a nosedive toward the canyon; the interceptors followed. Only yards before hitting the water, Kay jerked back on the yoke and the ship leveled out spraying water to the sides. The hoverpads thrummed in their ears trying to keep the ship airborne. One of the interceptors didn’t pull up in time and crashed into the river. The water spraying off the river from the Bucket’s hoverpads temporarily blinded the pursuing pilots and in the confusion, Kay sent the ship into a tight loop at full throttle. Their stomachs screamed during the maneuver, but the end result was exactly what Kay wanted: they came down right behind them.

  “Fire!” Kay shouted.

  The Bucket’s cannons lashed out at them from behind. Two of the ships went down in flames before the final remaining ship juked hard to the right and exited the canyon.

  “Shit!” Kay spat out.

  “What?”

  “Three more coming in from the south!”

  “Shit!” Dah echoed his pilot. “We’re in trouble. How much longer can you hold them off?”

  “I could do this all day, but I worry we may be sticking around for nothing.”

  “Don’t say that!” Dah snapped. “If Khai is with them, they’re alive.”

  “We have to consider the possibility, Dah,” Kay pressed her point as well as her piloting abilities as the next wave of ships entered the fray.

  “We need to hold them off just a little bit longer!” Dah insisted. “You don’t know Khai like I do.”

  “He is a formidable warrior, but if he was betrayed by the Vyysarri, there’s no telling what became of him.”

  “Just shut up and fly. You’ll see.”

  Kay did just that. She jerked the ship hard to the right jamming them into their restraints. The Shark­-Class Interceptors were designed for speed and maneuverability and were more than a match for the bulkiness of the Bolt Bucket. As fast as she was, the Sharks were faster. But what the Bucket lacked in speed and agility, she compensated for with sheer toughness… and a superb pilot. Kay was still doing things that Dah didn’t know were possible. It was only when the ship bucked hard enough to give them whiplash that Dah started to feel the gravity of their situation.

  “Kay,” Dah said softly.

  “A little busy, here…”

  “Prepare for orbit,” he ordered, confliction and grief filling his voice.

  Kay took her eyes off the sky, looked straight at Dah and said “You sure?” Kay’s voice bled surprise.

  “Yeah…” he said, disengaging targeting HUD. “We’re sitting ducks.”

  “All right…” Kay’s voice betrayed hesitation. “Breaking for-”

  “Bolt Bucket! Thi
s is Puar! Mission was successful; I have the Prime Minister and I’ll have the platform extended in moments. Please-” Kay and Dah exchanged excited glances as the Demolitions Expert’s stressed voice came over the airways. Kay smiled as she swung the ship back down toward the bunker entrance.

  “Shut up and forget the platform!” Dah snapped back. “We’ve been meeting heavy resistance here in the sky! Just get that force field down-NOW!”

  “Copy.”

  Just as they swooped down low into the canyon, the holographic rock wall fizzled away revealing the cavernous hanger beyond. Kay dropped the shields, diverted that power to the hoverpads, threaded the needle into the hanger, spun the ship a hundred and eighty degrees and used hoverpads to slow the ship. The force from the hoverpads sent smaller debris flying about and caused the people inside to brace themselves.

  “Jeez!” Puar shouted over the roar of the overtaxed engines and hoverpads.

  Before the ship could even settle on its landing struts, the loading ramp was down and Dah was running down it with a gun drawn. Dah instantly spotted Khai’s motionless body lying on the floor in a pool of blood. He knelt down next to his friend and pushed the old Vyysarri out of the way, pointing the gun at him.

  “Stay the fuck away from him, Vyysarri.” The words came out as a hiss.

  “Whoa!” Little Puar said. “Easy, Cap’. He’s a friendly!”

  “Like hell!” Dah spat. “Why did we lose communication, then?”

  “Sibrex activated an EMP that saved all our lives,” the Agent said.

  “He hasn’t made any move to harm me, either,” Prime Minister Puar also commented, though his tone suggested suspicion.

  Sibrex raised his hands in surrender and backed up several steps. “I mean you no harm,” he rumbled.

  “Whatever,” Dah grumbled. “Just stay where I can see you.”

  “As you wish,” Sibrex said.

  “Come on, Khai! Stay with me!” Nothing. “Khai!” Nothing. “KHAI!” Dah screamed, slapping him across the face.

  Suddenly, life returned to Khai’s eyes. His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed.

  “Dah?” he asked so faintly only Dah heard it.

  “Yeah!” he laughed. “It’s me.”

  “Where… the hell… have you been?” he whispered.

  “Dodging ships so you can leave this place.”

  “Then… what are… we waiting for?”

  Suddenly alarms went off in Dah’s head.

  “Watch out!” the Prime Minster shouted.

  Sibrex drew his weapon and fired it in nearly the same second. The bullet passed by Dah’s head so close, he could feel the heat from it. The bullet hit something behind him and he spun to see a SPEAR, its bottom half missing and a bullet hole in its face fall to the floor.

  He looked at the dead SPEAR, then at Sibrex, to his friends and back to the SPEAR, gasping the whole time. No words were exchanged. Sibrex silently holstered his weapon and stayed right where he was. There was silence for several minutes until…

  “Told you!” Little Puar shouted.

  Kay emerged from the ship, nursing her still-healing wounds. “Are we leaving or having a reunion?”

  “Help me,” Dah said, worming his arms through Khai’s blood under his body. Sibrex was the next to help. Dah and Sibrex exchanged gazes for a fleeting second, then, together, they lifted Khai up. The Prime Minister jumped in to help as well. Little Puar followed close behind. As they made their way to the ship, Puar heard the faint groan. He stopped.

  “What is it?” Dah asked.

  “D’you hear that?” Khai asked faintly.

  “Yes,” Sibrex said. “But I thought it was my stomach.”

  “Was that… a joke?” Khai asked.

  “An attempt,” Sibrex admitted.

  Khai wheezed out a light chuckle.

  “But seriously, what is that?” Little Puar asked.

  “It’s coming from that direction,” the Agent pointed in the direction.

  Little Puar moved to investigate. The closer he got to the source the more it sounded like a person groaning for sure. Puar stopped and homed in on it. It was coming from his right where two bodies lay… the bodies of his colleagues, his friends, his brothers. Suddenly, movement. What? Puar thought. A hand lifting up, and more groaning.

  Puar rushed over. Naad was dead, but Brix…

  “Oh, my achin’ head,” he whined.

  Puar laughed aloud. “I told you, you had nothing up there to damage!”

  “Guess my thick skull came in handy, huh?”

  “I guess so,” Little Puar said. “Looks like it glanced off your forehead.”

  “Doesn’t hurt any less,” Brix groaned again, sitting up and wiping the blood out of his eyes. “Is the fight over?”

  “Yeah, it’s over. We’re heading out now,” Puar said, helping his friend up and leading him to the ship.

  Khai didn’t really know where he was; all he knew was that he heard Dah’s voice, Sibrex cracked a bad joke and he was floating through a dark cavern. Next thing he knew, he saw some blurry lights shining in his face, people glowing in white running circles around him, and the faint, almost distant sound of urgent voices going back and forth. A long, droning beep was the last thing he heard and then, sweet darkness took him to a place where the pain stopped and where the woman with whom he fell in love waited with open arms. He thought that, before he went, he may have actually cracked a weak grin, but he couldn’t be sure.

  Epilogue

  Broon’Kur Broor, known to his friends as Sibrex, still got gaping stares every single time he entered; and, as he had several times already, strolled down the corridor amongst the night staff. He rounded a corner and came to a halt at a door. The sign on the door indicated that visitors were not welcome, but in his case—being allergic to sunlight and all, an exception was made. He knocked and entered. Khai was sitting up, using his combat knife to scrape away the notches on his trusted pistol. Several tubes and wires were attached to him, and the droning beep of a heart monitor filled the room only slightly drowned out by the sound of the Net’Vyyd running.

  “It is good to see you well, Khai,” Sibrex said with a fanged smile. “I have brought you a gift.”

  The door swung open and the unmistakable curves of her body made him smile wide.

  “Brindee!” Khai gasped, still reeling from his injuries.

  She rushed up to his bedside and sat, giving him a long, passionate kiss. “I missed you!”

  “You sure are a sight for sore eyes!” Khai said, his heart monitor beeping a little faster.

  Sibrex nodded at Khai’s scraped up 92-30:11-1 Assault Pistol. “What are you doing?”

  “Erasing a mistake,” Khai said soberly despite the jovial occasion. “I’ve spent a lifetime killing your kind; each notch on this gun represents a mistake I made.”

  “That is a lot of mistakes,” Sibrex pointed out.

  “I know,” Khai said, scraping another notch off. “This is my first step towards redemption.”

  “No,” Sibrex said, compassion filling his voice for once. “It is the second.”

  They all smiled at each other and a real moment took them. That moment was lost when Kay’Lah Kayword, Captain Dack’Tandy Dah, Officer Pual’Branen Puar, Bria’Nah Briar and Brix entered, noisily laughing.

  “Hey, Khai! You’re awake!” Puar said.

  Dah went straight for Sibrex and gave him a hardy handshake.

  “What’re you all doing here?” Khai asked.

  “Well,” Dah said. “We were informed that you were awake and that we could come see you now since Sibrex and your lady friend here can’t go out in the sun. So here we are!”

  “It’s good to see you all,” Khai said. “And, I heard that Prime Minister Puar dissolved the Agent Program.”

  “Yes,” Kay said with a big smile. She somehow looked different, healthier, happier, Khai couldn’t tell exactly what had changed, though. “It was the wish that Prime Minister Puar granted me.�
��

  “I’m glad for you, and all the other Agents,” Khai said sincerely.

  “Yeah!” Dah laughed. “And Captain Byyner and Minister Puar let me keep the Bucket!”

  “So we have a ship, now we just need a destination,” Brindee said.

  “Which reminds me,” Puar cut in. “My brother’s coming to see you tomorrow.”

  “Why?” Khai asked, truly puzzled. He had already granted Khai’s wish, bringing Brindee to Seryys.

  “I promised I wouldn’t tell you, but I can’t keep this in!”

  “Surprise, surprise,” Brix muttered under his breath.

  “He’s coming to offer you a job heading up a new government outfit, the DFC.”

  “DFC?”

  “Department of First Contact. He wants you to be our liaison to the Vyysarri People and any other new race we encounter.”

  Everyone erupted in excited chatter of well wishes.

  “That’s wonderful!” Brindee exclaimed.

  “Wow…” Khai said at length. “That’s… that’s huge.” Purpose, was all he thought.

  “So Khai-” Brix was about ask something when Puar cut him off.

  “Shush!” Puar shouted. “My brother’s about to speak.”

  They all turned their attention to the Net’Vyyd. The regular show was interrupted for a special bulletin that would broadcast to every corner of Seryys territory. It had already been released that the Prime Minister was alive and well, and back in office. His chiseled features filled the screen; his eyes were hard and resolute but his smile was filled with kindness and hope.

  “My bro looks good up there!” Puar said and was quickly shushed for the speech.

  “My fellow Seryysans. Throughout my time here in the Honorifical Office, you have grown accustomed to the way I do things. You know me to be a man of few words, but many actions. Tonight will be something a little new.

  “I want to start by thanking everyone for their kind words of encouragement and praise pertaining to my days in captivity. I assure you, I am in perfect health. But I wanted to share a few things about my time as a hostage to a man whom I thought I could trust. Out of respect for his loved ones, I won’t drag his name through the mud, but I will tell you that we, the Government of Seryys, have been keeping many things from you… things that need to be brought out into the light for all to see… things that make me embarrassed to call myself a Seryysan.