The Key

by Brian Fisher

  Chapter 53

  "Kamira, get down!" Corin yelled as he skidded to a halt. With his good hand, he drew his pistol and aimed at the monster. The beast towered over Kamira. Standing more than three meters high, it had six long legs, and long, powerful tentacles reaching out of its gaping mouth.

  "What?" Kamira asked in confusion. "No! Don't shoot!" she screamed as she realized what was happening. Dropping the tools she had been carrying, she ran towards Corin. "Don't shoot! It's a repair drone, not a Ta'Reeth!"

  "A what?" Corin asked, lowering his weapon. He was breathing hard, and starting to get light headed. "Repair drone?" he asked, starting to sway.

  "Corin!" Kamira reached him as his knees began to buckle. She grabbed him, and eased him to the ground when she noticed his wounded shoulder, and the bundle tied around his chest. "What in heaven's name is this?" she asked, peaking into the blanket.

  "Nonono!" Mekala screamed, and buried her face deeper into Corin's chest. She squirmed, gripping him tighter and tighter, until he reached up with his good arm, and held her tight.

  "Sshh. It's alright Mekala. Kamira's a friend. She won't hurt you." his voice wavered as he spoke. The pain in his shoulder grew worse, causing him to wince. He had lost a lot of blood, but he hadn't noticed until he had stopped moving. The adrenaline rush had been intense, fueling Corin's flight, until now, when there was no more need to run.

  "A kid?" Kamira asked, too shocked to say anymore. She simply stared at the child, a Bakeeron child, tied to Corin's chest. Her eyes went wide as Corin fell limp to the ground.

  "Corin? Corin!" she yelled, gently shaking him, trying to wake him. "Oh no." She muttered to herself. Grabbing Corin under the arms, Kamira drug him closer to the ship. "Come on!" she yelled in desperation, dropping her charge to the ground. When he fell, Corin rolled slightly, revealing the first aid kit on the back of his belt. Kamira saw the kit, and instantly dug into it.

  First, she removed the spray bandage, and coated Corin's shoulder with it. Next she found a hyper spray that gently stimulated his system, bringing Corin back to the edge of consciousness.

  "Come on, we've got to get you to the DioBed." Kam whispered, helping Corin to his feet. He was unsteady, but slowly they made their way into the ship, leaving Brutus to guard the entrance. The corridors were lit and still littered with debris. Mekala made little snuffling noises as they went, reminding the adults that she was still there.

  "Where did you find the kid?" Kamira finally found her voice to ask the questions that had been banging around inside her mind. "How old is she? Where are her parents? Was there anyone else out there?" the questions tumbled out of her mouth before Corin could answer any of them.

  "There was a small village where I found Brutus." Corin grunted, forcing the words to come out. "I don't know how old she is, or who her parents were." He stopped, letting his words hang in the silence, not wanting to explain anymore.

  "Were?" Kamira felt the weight of Corin's words, and the ones that he had left unspoken.

  "Yeah, were." Corin forced his eyes to find Kamira's. "Everyone else is dead. The Ta'Reeth were there. Brutus and I got into a fight with a couple of Hunters."

  Kamira simply stared first at Corin, and then at Mekala. This girl was the only survivor of a Ta'Reeth attack. Her entire family was gone, dead. The horrors that must be hidden behind those gentle eyes had to be more than anyone her age could possibly cope with.

  Finally, Kamira was able to get Corin the help that he needed. The DioBed was running, and she had a lot of work to do. She was carrying the girl now, not sure of what she should do with her. Kamira closed her eyes, forcing herself to think as she turned and started to walk away from Corin.

  "No no no! Me down!" Mekala screamed, pounding her tiny fists against Kamira's chest. Reluctantly, Kamira set the little girl down. She watched in awe as Mekala ran over to the DioBed and placed her hands against the cool metal sides.

  "Be o.k.?" Mekala asked Kamira without looking.

  "Yes. Corin will be fine." she told the little girl, holding back a few tears, and wondering how much Mekala actually understood.

  "O.k. Me here." she said, sitting down within arm’s reach of the machine. Mekala sat there, unmoving, watching the lights lazily flash for long moments before Kamira could pull herself away and get back to work. It amazed her that a child so young could care so much for someone that they had only just met.

  Kamira smiled to herself as she walked away. She left Mekala with Corin, trusting that she would be fine. Focusing on work was going to be difficult at best. Jason, T'Sula, Corin, and now Mekala all demanded her thoughts. She knew there was nothing that she could do to help any of them, except to repair this ship to the best of her ability. That was exactly what she intended to do.

  Walking down a cluttered corridor, Kamira pulled a data pad out of her pocket. Quietly she scrolled through the list of things that needed done. It was a long list, almost unmanageable. The drone could do most of the heavy repairs, so she set different priorities for herself and for the robot.

  She had tested the drone on a section of the hull while Corin was gone. Things had gone well. Well enough at least, that she felt confident that she would in fact be able to get the ship back into space. Getting Vengeance back into the battle was going to take some special attention though.

  The engines were underpowered, the shielding seriously needed help, and Corin's weapons needed an upgrade. Sighing, Kamira got back to work. She decided that she would come back soon, and check on Corin and Mekala, but for now, she had too much to do.

  It wasn’t long before Kamira saw Brutus. He was still standing guard, eyeing the repair drone as it methodically worked on the hull. Kamira watched her creation for a moment, and then retreated to engineering.

  Corin was lucky in one respect. Even though his engines were drastically underpowered, Kamira knew several ways to modify them.

  She began to work. The engines were simple enough. She needed to fabricate some replacement parts, but mostly the engines required adjustments in the programs that ran them. With the higher power output of the engines, the flight profile needed revamped. Kamira easily lost herself in her work, allowing time to disappear like morning mist.

  After she finished with the engines, Kamira moved on to the flight controls and thrusters. She quickly tore them apart and began to inspect them. She was elbow deep in transducers and encoders. She had lost track of time while repairing one of the main maneuvering thrusters. The transducers had burned out when the power had gone out, and the thrusters had crumpled upon impact. Nothing seemed to have survived the crash unscathed.

  She worked quickly and methodically, losing herself in what she was doing. Her data pad began to beep and vibrate beside her, breaking her concentration. A little frustrated, Kamira picked the pad up and looked at it. Her blood froze in her veins. She had been sure to repair the sensors first, and now her foresight was paying off. The Ta'Reeth were coming. In fact, they would be landing in mere minutes.

  It was a single ship, but it was still more than enough to finish them off. She began to panic.

  "Oh crap." Kamira muttered. "Alright, think Kam, think." she picked up her pad again. "What would T'Sula do? Crap! What would Jason do?" she frantically tried to think. Finally, she looked down at her data pad, and started to scroll through the menus. It was time for her to stop wondering what others would do, and start doing for herself.

  After a couple of tries, Kamira found what she needed. Diagnostics for the entire ship appeared on her screen. Engines were working well enough for now, thrusters were off line, the hull was fractured, weapons were all but useless, and the shields were nonexistent.

  The shields were off line? Kamira thought to herself. Taking a chance, she ran a more thorough diagnostic. The program ran quickly, taking only a few seconds, before reporting that a couple of the relays had been fused.

  Kamira located the relays on the schematics, and then ran out of the compartment that she had been working
in, picking up a couple of tools along the way. It was only a few meters down the corridor, Kamira skidded to a halt.

  Setting her tools down, she ripped open the access panel and started separating relays. Deep in the back of the compartment, behind various arrays of conduits, transducers, and terminals, she found what she was looking for. The relays for the shields and the engines sat next to each other, only a scant few centimeters apart.

  Picking up her tools, Kamira took a deep breath. "I hope this works." she said to herself as she spliced the relays together. The engines required more power, so there was the possibility that this was literally going to blow up in her face.

  When her work didn't explode, Kamira smiled to herself and ran a diagnostic. The shields were working now. They were working at a hundred and fifty percent. She accessed the sensors with her data pad just as the entire ship shuddered under the impact of a Ta'Reeth lander.

  The screen on her data pad lit up with incoming landers. The Ta'Reeth ships streaked through the air, smoking as they went. Massive landers, larger than the ones used on Olcai, slammed into the ground, breaking open amid great clouds of dust, smoke and debris.

  When the smoke cleared enough for Kam to see, Ta'Reeth soldiers strode into view. Each of the soldiers carried the standard plasma cannons attached to their arms, and stood over two meters tall. They didn't flinch as other landers crashed to the planet’s surface; they simply opened fire on her ship.

  Kamira watched, as more landers came streaking down. Some of them hit her shielding, while others crashed nearby. Dozens of Ta'Reeth soldiers surrounded the wounded ship, constantly firing their cannons against her shields.

  Not all of the Ta'Reeth were mere soldiers. For every six soldiers, there was a carrier, a mammoth beast standing four meters high. It stood on six clawed legs, and had pincers that protruded out of the front of its armored body. The body consisted of a crab-like shell and head. On the beasts back were six large bumps that grew and cracked open periodically, releasing a newly born Ta'Reeth soldier. Once released from its birthing chamber, the new soldiers jumped down from the carrier's back, ready for combat.

  The carriers lumbered up to the shields, and proceeded to pound their massive pincers against the invisible barrier. Before long, Kamira could no longer count the Ta'Reeth.

  Kamira remembered to check on her repair drone. She quickly reviewed its status on her data pad. It had finished the repairs on one section of the hull only moments ago, and was waiting for new instructions. She thought quickly and programmed it for what she needed.

  By her calculations, she should have just enough time to check on Corin and Mekala, enroot to her new destination. She ran quickly through the debris littered corridors, hoping that everything was going to be alright.

  When Kam opened the door, she could not have expected what she saw. Mekala still sat on the floor by the DioBed. The little girl looked in Kamira's direction when she came in, then went back to looking at the lights. Mekala knew that Kamira was in the room, but had decided that her attentions were better served watching Corin’s DioBed. For being only two years old, Mekala seemed unflappable.

  Kamira shook her head, and then closed the door. When she turned to go, she stopped in her tracks. Brutus sat in the corridor, watching her.

  "Brutus, you startled me." Kamira barely stopped herself from screaming. "Corin and Mekala are both in this room." she pointed to the door behind her. "Don't let anyone in other than me. Do you understand?"

  She didn't know why, but she felt that the giant feline was smarter than he was given credit. She was surprised when she realized that she actually expected him to understand her.

  Brutus made no sound. He simply stood and nudged Kamira out of his way. When he was satisfied that she was far enough away, he turned his back to the door and sat down in front of it, blocking it entirely.

  "I knew it." Kamira smiled at Brutus, and then ran off down the corridor. She stopped only when she reached her destination. It seemed to be just another section of corridor, until Kamira looked up. In the ceiling, there was now a hole just large enough for a person to climb through it.

  Kamira stepped back from the hole and checked her data pad. She watched out of the corner of her eye as a ladder slid down from the ceiling and locked into place. The drone was done with this job. Before pocketing the data pad, Kamira programmed a list of jobs into the repair drone.

  When she was done programming, Kamira climbed the ladder. Reaching the top, she closed and sealed the hatch behind her. She then strapped herself into the seat and activated the dual Gatling railguns.

  Kamira checked her readouts. The turret was working fine and targeting systems read within parameters. She took a deep, steadying breathe, and then Kamira engaged the enemy.