Chapter Eleven
Johnny awoke some time later in a dark room, alone. He panicked, remembering the last thing he saw before losing consciousness; the large, terrifying demon from his dream. What role had they to play in all this? He slowly lifted himself up from the bed and looked around at his surroundings.
He was in a cell, that much he could manage to tell. A large door was cut out in the wall, revealing the outside of the cell. A long, thin, red light lined the inside of the door. Johnny had seen enough Sci-Fi in his time to know it was a trap; there was no way out of the cell.
“Johnny?” A girl asked from the cell across from Johnny. It was Amy. “I thought I heard someone, glad to see it is you.”
Amy jumped from her bed and ran towards Johnny.
“No Amy, stop!” Johnny screamed as she reached the red-ringed door. The door flashed red, and with a large spark, Amy was thrown to the back of the cell. “Amy! Amy! Are you okay?”
“Uh,” Amy groaned, lying on the ground with her back against the wall. “Who would have thought that between the two of us…that I was going to be the one to do that?”
Johnny laughed. He never expected himself to be able to laugh in this type of situation, but if she could manage of find some humor in the situation at hand, maybe they might just be okay.
“What do we do now?” Johnny asked.
“I imagine, we wait,” responded Amy, who had already picked herself up from the jolt, and had begun pacing the cell.
“Johnny, is that you?” a monotonous, robotic voice said from beside Amy’s cell. It was Robby. Davan had seemed to have managed to make meager repairs to the robot, before they were boarded. “What happened? Last data entry I had, we were aboard the Aidos.”
“Robby! You’re okay!” Johnny shouted, looking out his cell. Remembering the last thing he talked about with Davan, he had an important question for Robby. “Do you have a Master?”
“Okay is not a measurement my scales can adjust to. While I am only operating at fifty percent efficiency, I am able to move,” Robby began. “As for Master, my records seem to indicate that I do not have a Master. Is that correct?”
“Ha ha,” Johnny laughed. It had worked, it had really worked. “Apparently anything is possible if you believe in it.”
Meanwhile, in the next cell block over, Selene was already managing her escape.
“Darn it, that hurt,” Selene said as the console in her cell zapped her with a jolt of electricity. She had managed to tear a panel off the cell wall, revealing a small console in which to manipulate. Selene had been in over a dozen forms of jail and detention centers in her missions, and had yet to find one that would hold her. Still, she thought, things were a little too easy this time.
The red ring around the door turned off, allowing Selene to walk right out of her cell.
“Now, just to find the others,” Selene said to herself. She walked down the cell block quietly, making sure not to alert anyone nearby. “Where the heck is everyone?”
Every cell she looked in was empty. What was even stranger was that no one was patrolling the area. Not one guard or droid. Maybe most everyone was down on the moon, she thought. They had to be from the Rift that opened, she thought.
Just what did the Star Master know that he wasn’t telling her? And what about Kenzel, did he know more than he was letting on? There were too many questions that needed answering, she thought, but first they needed to get off this ship.
She came to a door that was labeled, “Cell Block B.” She must have been in, “Cell Block A,” right now. If anyone was still around, they had to be over there. She looked for a panel that might house a secondary console for her to hack.
All of a sudden, the door to Cell Block B opened. Selene jumped back, bracing herself for battle.
“Ha ha,” Selene said with a sigh of relief. It was Davan, accompanied by Amy, Johnny and Robby. “When did you get out?”
“While you were still knocked out,” Davan said with a smile. “You’re getting rusty.”
“Even old man Davan is cracking jokes at my expense,” chided Selene. “I really have gotten rusty. I wish I could say that this was a hard one, though.”
“I have to agree,” Davan replied. “Something is wrong here. I have not seen one hostile, and those cells were almost inviting us to escape. I do not like this; we must find our way off this ship immediately. Where is Kenzel?”
Selene shook her shoulders. She had not seen anyone before this, either; let alone Kenzel.
“I know,” she said as she ran over to the terminal at the end of the cell block. “We can locate Kenzel on the ship with this. We’ll go find him and get off this ship.”
Selene searched through the ship layout, looking for any traces of Kenzel on the sensors.
“There!” Selene said enthusiastically. She pointed to the bridge of the large battleship. “Ugh, just when I was starting to think this was going to be easy. What the heck are you doing there, Kenzel?”
The group debated their next course of action. The children would not be safe going straight to the heart of the battleship, but they had little option. They could not leave them in the cells, and going back to the Aidos was out of the question until they could manage to break the larger starships hold over it. Whether or not the two Star Knight’s liked the idea, they were going to have to bring the children with them to the bridge.
“This whole mission has been a catastrophe,” Davan said as they walked out of the cell block, out into one of the hallways. “Missions like this are no place for students. Just why was it vital that we bring them along?”
“Believe it or not, I agree with you,” Selene said quietly. There was a guard up above; guarding what looked like an elevator. “Both Master Vol and Kenzel are hiding something from us. When we get back, we’re all going to have a nice, long discussion.”
Davan pressed his finger to his lips; motioning for Amy, Johnny and Robby to remain quiet. They hid around a corner while Selene and Davan quietly snuck up to the guard. They moved like cats, Johnny observed from out around the corner. Fast and quiet, Johnny watched in awe as they closed in on the guard, effortlessly.
Selene got close enough, and raised her arm toward the guard. And without even touching the guard, he was sent flying back, as if hit by a wall of thunderous wind. Just like that, the guard lay unconscious in front of Selene. Davan kneeled in front of the fallen guard, and grabbed some type of key card from his belt. He picked himself up, and turned around to the kids.
“It’s safe, come quickly,” Davan said, motioning for them to join him. They quickly rushed over to Selene and Davan, and they all entered the elevator.
“This should take us to the bridge,” Davan started. “Children you are to remain in this elevator at all times. Do not leave, no matter what happens.”
Davan had a very serious look on his face, but he wasn’t going to get any argument out of the children. They knew the stakes, and the risks. They had no business being there, that much was clear.
The elevator began to rush upwards, stopping at the top of the massive battleship. They had arrived on the bridge. The door opened and they were both stunned to see Kenzel already locked in battle with the monstrous man from Johnny’s visions.
Jonathan Rush and the Star Academy Page 12