by Drew Avera
She placed the file back onto the table and looked up at us. Her eyes had a sad look about them and I knew what she was going to say before she said it. "One million coin each for bail according to the Warden," she answered, “but it does come with the added benefited of not being traceable by the Consulate. Your Mom and Dad would simply be lost in the System. That too happens from time to time.”
Disheartened by the amount of coin needed to free my parents, I asked, "How are we supposed to get that kind of money?" My question bit at the air with just as much fear as it did rage. It was impossible to accumulate that sum of money on this world or in the whole System. There was no way the economy on Naxela could support it.
"I'm sorry, but smuggling carries just as much punishment as murder in the System. I wish there was something I could do for you." Her eyes were gentle, but the only thing I felt towards her at that time was anger. They say that you should never shoot the messenger, but I was beginning to see the satisfaction someone would feel giving in to the moment after hearing the news she was telling me. That was the feeling of needing to avenge my parents that made me feel this way and it was a useless emotion now, clouding my judgement for what needed to be done to free them. As much as I hated what she was saying, there was nothing I could do to change it—I could only try to find another way. I shook the murderous thoughts from my mind and turned to leave without saying goodbye.
“Let’s go, T'tireva,” I snapped, shuffling out of the Consulate Office. Come hell or high water, I thought, I'm going to get the money or find another way to save Mom and Dad.
Chapter 11
After several attempts at finding a way to earn the money needed to free our parents, we returned with empty pockets. The office of the Consulate seemed to be waiting for our return. Two armed guards stood watch as T'tireva and I stood across the street in a narrow alley out of view. I should not have been surprised, looking back on our encounter with the secretary as it was clear that she knew more about the case against our parents and the files it stated. That should have been my first clue, but I was not thinking logically at the time. I was wearing blinders, purely focused on saving my parents when I should have been paying attention to what was playing out behind the scenes.
Why would the Consulate have waited so long to prosecute if the charges were true? There was no reason for Bora-Donna to be present, but one thing Armilus said made sense, and that was that Dad felt it was an act of jealous revenge that led to his and Mom’s capture. If that was true, then the answer as to why they would wait for the execution was simple. The Consulate, or rather Admiral Bora-Donna, wanted T'tireva and me to meet the same fate as our parents so there were no witnesses and no evidence that the false accusation of the smuggling crimes ever existed. Now, what I could do with that information was anyone’s guess as we made our way through the crowded streets.
"It's like a mob around here," T'tireva said, stepping closer to me. The best thing about this situation was that T'tireva seemed to want to be closer with me than ever before. “How are we supposed to break through this crowd?”
She is right, I thought, the longer we are in this crowd the harder it will be to see where we are going. There were protesters littering the narrow streets and it was clear the judicial system was their primary target. With so many poor and homeless people on this planet, it was no wonder why people were not happy. This was a planet firmly rooted in corruption, and the only people who benefited from it were the corrupt. On every planet in the System the poor stayed poor as the rich became richer. It was economics designed to feed those in power with more power, Dad always said before he left the Consulate Navy, not wanting to be part of the problem any longer. I had never paid attention to exactly what his perspective of the Consulate looked like, until today. For the first time, I understood why my father wanted to get away from it and start fresh. The people crying out in the streets were victims just as much as T'tireva and I, if not more so. The ruling system taught us to hate each other when the truth was, we are all the same.
"Stay close," I said. We walked together, hugging the wall on the other side of the street, when I saw the incoming procession. Armed guards marching in rank-and-file, blasters held at the ready. It was not until half a dozen of them were visible that I spotted the prisoners in their custody.
I swallowed a lump in my throat as I watched them. My parents, their arms bound in clasps which covered their hands and rose halfway up their forearms. That was not the worst of it, though. They looked hungry, beaten, and defeated. I had never seen either of them in such a way and it broke my heart. My hands balled into tight fists as my heart pounded, the sound of it like a drum in my ears.
"Auden, it's Mom and Dad!" T'tireva said as she pulled at my arm. The procession made it obvious that Mom and Dad were being led to execution. But according to Armilus, they should still have had time before Bora-Donna arrived. "We have to do something, Auden, now!" It was clear that T'tireva wanted to run to them. I did too, but as my feet began moving, I realized that this was staged and it was nothing more than a trap.
Unfortunately, as I stepped out and ran towards my parents, I brought attention to myself. I could have stopped. I should have stopped, but it was already too late.
Chapter 12
Being rational was not at the top of my mind when I acted. It felt like a dream, T'tireva standing behind me, her hand losing its grip with mine with her eyes wide, the crowded street seeming to part as I darted through it, my heart fluttering like the hum of our ship’s engine. I felt every shove of strangers hands as I slipped through the commotion, barreling towards my parents with every intention of doing something to free them, but no idea what that something was. It was not until I stopped, standing mouth agape, looking into the eyes of the armed guard in front of me that rationality sudden came back into focus. That sudden realization went off like a bomb, but it was nothing more than his cocking his blaster and preparing to fire. Nausea attacked with the wretched realization that I should not have done that, but it was too late. There was no going back, no starting over.
"Halt!" The man ordered, his blaster leveled at my face with the obvious intent to kill. The deep, dark stare of a killer bore into my soul and I felt the weight of my regret fall onto my shoulders. What have I done? Better yet, what can I do about it now?
The answer, regretfully, was nothing.
"Well, well, look what we've got here," a man's voice said coldly. From the back of the crowd, I saw him for the first time. His naval uniform was dark red and glistened from the medals pinned to his chest under the light of the two suns. His coarse, black hair was slicked back atop his head and the gaze of a monster fell upon me. I knew exactly who he was without need for an introduction. "Your daughter looks so much like her mother, Hawn," Admiral Bora-Donna said with a smirk that made me hate him all the more. There was a cocky smugness to him that made me want to tear his eyeballs out of his face and feed them to him.
"Leave my daughter out of this!" Dad said, his breathing heavy and his voice hoarse. Even in chains he was defiant. His stare was as deadly as I had ever seen it. I watched him fight against his bonds, my mother looking first at me and then to him. The expression on her face was regret, same as I felt.
“Hawn,” I heard her say in a soft whisper, but she was cut off from speaking by the admiral’s cold gaze.
Admiral Bora-Donna turned to face him, his face flush. "You are not the one giving the orders around here," he shouted, fear coursed through my body as his words echoed in the street. The hatred behind his words felt like gravity pinning me to the ground. Still, my father looked him in the eye, his jaw tight, his nostrils flared. I could almost smell the anger fuming from his body in hot exhales. Bora-Donna merely shrugged and smiled before he gave the order. "Shoot her."
Chapter 13
I expected the sound of sizzling ozone to follow the click of the blaster going off in my face, immediately followed by the nothingness of nonexistence, but instead, the only thing I he
ard was the crunch of something solid slamming into the guard’s helmeted head. As I looked up, I watched my father hovering over the now unconscious man drooling on the ground, his saliva creating a small amount of mud caking onto his face. I would have laughed, but I was terrified of my close call with death that was not over yet as the other guards closed in on Dad and me.
"Stop him now," the admiral said, his voice on the verge of shouting. Dad looked down at me, the look on his face somewhere between sorrow and anger. As I looked down at the guard, I noticed the man no longer seem to be breathing and I thought maybe it was sorrow I saw on my father's face for having killed the man. I knew he was not a murderer and valued life, but he was only trying to save me. A part of me felt guilty for the man’s death as well.
"Run, Auden. Run now," Dad said as three guards tackled him, shoving him face-first onto the ground with their blasters trained on his head. I turned and ran back through the crowd with the sound of heavy-booted footsteps chasing me. As I got to the other side of the street where T'tireva waited, I could see the look of fear on her face.
"Go, run," I shouted, pointing towards the alley. Instead, she stood there, her eyes wide and her jaw tight as I neared her. I saw a brisk movement as she extended her arm and out of the corner of my eye I watched something shiny spin past my face. When I looked back, I saw a small blade sticking through a guard’s neck. It did not seem to kill him, but he lay sprawled out on the ground holding his wound and no longer was chasing me. “Thanks,” I said once I was close enough to take her hand, “now, let’s go”
“What about mom and Dad?” T'tireva asked.
“We can’t do anything for them right now,” I said, feeling pained by saying those words. This was supposed to be a rescue mission, but instead, it felt like I betrayed them and now they would surely die.
Chapter 14
Not knowing my way around this part of the city made navigating the narrow alleys and streets difficult. I eventually discovered we were heading uphill as I looked over the edge and down towards the Attic and Gordus's scrapyard.
"Where are we going?" T'tireva asked as she ran behind me.
"Honestly, I have no idea.” I just want to get as far away from Bora-Donna and his guards as I could get. Unfortunately, that also meant we were running away from Mom and Dad at a time when they needed our help.
"I don't think they're following us anymore," T'tireva said, gasping for breath as we came to a stop at the top of the hill. I did not answer. Instead, I sucked in as much air as I could and hoped that my heart would stop racing. Looking out over the terrain, it was clear that we were as high in elevation as the crest at the top of the Attic. That explains why running is causing me to breathe so hard, I thought, that and the feeling that I’m running for my life.
"What are we going to do now?"
I looked down at my sister and shook my head. "What can we do? Bora-Donna and his men know that we exist and everything from Armilus finding us and sending us to the Consulate Office to parading Mom and Dad in the streets was a ploy for Admiral Bora-Donna to try to fish us out," I said, "Considering how successful he was in that endeavor, I do not think there is anywhere for us to go, now."
The look on her face said everything, that she felt the hopelessness that I felt inside. "If there's nowhere for us to go," she replied, "then maybe we should fight and try to free Mom and Dad."
The naivety of her words caught me off guard. What were two children going to do to fight a platoon of armed soldiers? Even if Mom and Dad were free, I thought, there would be too many of them for us to be able to fight. But running did not feel like the right answer either.
"Maybe if we double back," I said, "we can gain a vantage point to see where they are taking Mom and Dad. If we can find them, maybe we can break them free without having to engage Bora-Donna and his men."
T'tireva nodded, but just as soon as she seemed to be on board with my plan, we heard footsteps running towards us.
"Oh no," I said under my breath. "T'tireva, run!"
Chapter 15
We continued running in the direction we were originally headed, leaving behind us a cloud of dust as our feet kicked it up from the ground as we ran downhill. My legs were relieved that we were no longer heading higher as we tried to evade our would-be captors. Unfortunately, up ahead, the alley appeared to come to an end, but as we neared it, I noticed that it forked going left and right.
"Which way?" T'tireva asked, her voice jumpy as her feet struck the pavement below.
I scanned the horizon, looking out over the ledge and noticed the Attic was to the right and if we continued our descent, then perhaps we could disappear in the Attic. Of all times to seek refuge in the place that kept me up at night, I thought. "Go right," I said.
We ran in tandem, T'tireva in front of me as we made our way through down the narrow alleyway. I could still hear the pounding footsteps of the armored guards coming behind us. How are they moving so fast, I wondered? As we made it to the end of the alley way, preparing to make a right turn, more of Bora-Donna’s guards approached from the left. Oh, no.
"Auden, look," T'tireva said, pointing towards the guards. She did not have to show me because I had seen them, but as I stared at them my heart sank. Are we ever going to get away from these people?
"Just keep going," I urged. As she made the turn, T'tireva picked up her pace. Gone was the steep slope of a smooth path, instead, wide steps descending downward met our path. I followed her, less than two steps behind as we fled. "Faster," I whispered under my breath as fear and panic coursed through my veins.
"I'm running as fast as I can," T'tireva replied.
Determined to escape these goons, I turned my head, looking over my shoulder at the ranks of armed guards following. Their blasters were not pointed at us, but I had the sinking sensation that within a few moments they would take aim and begin firing. As I look behind me, not paying attention to what lay ahead, T'tireva tripped over one of the steps and tumbled downward, causing me to trip over her. The steps were steep, and my body made contact with the sharp corners of each step as I tumbled downward. It seemed to happen in slow motion, but the pain of each strike was felt in real time. We came to a stop at the bottom of the path. A chorus of heavy footsteps coming to an abrupt stop followed, and I looked at the feet of the man we had spent this whole time fleeing from. I shuffled backwards, leaning on my hands as the gravel on the ground dug into my skin. It hurt, but I pushed the thought away and focused on what was important. Looking up, I saw the smirk of Admiral Bora-Donna looking down at us.
"Welcome, ladies. I've been expecting you."
Chapter 16
With Admiral Bora-Donna hovering over us, his hands on his hips and a smug look of victory on his face, I knew I was about to die. Mom and Dad stood behind him, still bound and chained, Dad with a fresh cut above his eye with the blood already starting to cake onto the side of his face. "You two aren't very bright, are you?" the admiral asked, turning his head to look at Mom and Dad. "This entire city is built in a circle, all roads leading back to the center. All it took was orchestrating my little parade near the Consulate Office and confine you to a small area of the city to lead you straight to me. I have to say, it was one of my brightest moments, wouldn’t you agree, Hawn?"
The look on my father's face was full of indignation and hate. "Go to hell, Donna," Dad spat as he lunged forward. The chains binding him stopped him from getting too close to the admiral.
Bora-Donna chuckled softly, "your act of defiance is what brought you into this situation in the first place, Hawn. All you had to do was give me what I asked for and none of this would've ever happened."
"Donna, this is unnecessary. None of this was ever necessary," Mom said. When I looked at her, I could see where tears had dried on her face, leaving smears where the dirt of sleeping on a prison floor had been. "They are only children," she whispered just loud enough that I could hear her.
"Perhaps you should have kept your husband in li
ne," Bora-Donna said. "Men, take them now."
T'tireva was already standing when a guard grabbed her wrist and shackled her. I tried to get up, to run away, but it was futile. Two guards grabbed me before I had a chance to run away and bound my hands behind my back. "Ouch," T'tireva cried as the guard next to her shoved her towards Bora-Donna, his boot extended out to stop her before she could make contact with him.
"Keep your mouth shut," he snapped, glaring at T'tireva like she was an insignificant person disrupting his life. "If you make so much as a sound as we head back to the ship, I will have my men gun you down."
"This isn’t necessary. I gave you what you came for," Dad said, the pleading in his voice making it sound like his heart was breaking. "Just let them go," he pled.
Admiral Bora-Donna looked at one of his men and nodded. The guard plowed into Dad, sending him into the stony wall with his face pressed against the sharp bricks. The barrel of the guard's blaster dented Dad's temple.
"Perhaps you didn't hear me the first time, Hawn," he said, "but if I hear one more sound, someone's going to die."
Chapter 17
Admiral Bora-Donna led us through the narrow streets of the alley towards the center of the city. The protests seemed to die down, but there were still many people in the streets looking at us as we were escorted at gunpoint. With so many thoughts going through my head, I wanted to say something, to stand defiant before the man who was out to get my family. But I knew better than to speak out. We were being held captive and the only thing speaking out would do would make things worse. The thing that made me feel my decision was the right one was that Dad kept silent as well.