by Drew Avera
The sound of a fist slamming into the bulkhead of the ship reverberated down the passageway and then the admiral spoke, "Inform me when you have access to his data files. I don't want to see you again until you’ve done as I’ve instructed. And if you fail me again, Lieutenant, don't expect to take command of the destroyer. Instead, you'll join your mutinous Captain and rot in the desert. Do you understand me?"
"Yes, sir," Harrison yelped before the sound of his running away echoed down the passageway.
Despite the pain he felt, Kevin's lips curled into a smile, showing his bloodstained teeth.
"What are you smiling at, Commander?" Kretzschmar asked through a huff.
"Nothing at all, Kretzschmar. Nothing at all."
Chapter Twenty-Two
They found Chuck sitting beside Captain Dickson, his head in his hands as he prayed fervently over the dying man. It struck Auden as odd that someone with as much contempt against the Consulate would grieve over the potential loss of life, but perhaps it was her own jaded opinion that made her feel that way about her aggressor.
"Chulukmasulatuka," Nata said, using his real name and not the one that lazy humans used by default.
He looked up, his eyes red before he slid up to a standing position and stepped towards them. "It’s not looking good, Nata," he said solemnly. "His pulse is weak."
Auden glanced up at the Nepham woman and saw her stare at the dying man. "Can you still help him?" Auden asked. Her voice cracked as she spoke.
Nata made her way towards the man and knelt beside him. "I don't know." She touched him on the forehead and then ran her hand down towards the wound that was still seeping with blood. "He's pretty far gone, but I can try."
Auden took hold of her sister’s hand and squeezed it as they both watched Nata do her work. Chuck stepped back to stand beside them as Nata lifted her hands towards the heavens and chanted short phrases. Her words were a song and the notes emanating from her lips were separated by octaves as she sang her power into existence.
Auden watched with wide eyes as the Nepham woman began to glow. It was light that first began radiating into a bright golden hue. She shielded her eyes from the light, unable to take anything in as the sharp pain ultimately led her to shut her eyes completely. Still, the light radiated through her eyelids in amber bursts.
Nata’s wail increased in volume until it felt like they were in a vacuum, sealed off from the rest of the world, or the galaxy for that matter.
And then she stopped, and her light faded until she collapsed onto the floor next to Captain Dickson.
Auden dared to open her eyes and peer at what happened. She expected to see something magnificent, a miracle, but her first thoughts when gazing upon the scene was despair. Captain Dickson lay still, covered in his blood and his face was a shade of gray devoid of life. Nata lay quiet and still on the dirty floor of Chuck's room as she shook with heavy sobs.
"What happened?" Auden asked, expecting the worst. Expecting the hopelessness that she had felt at that point to be rewarded with more of the same.
And then a gasp filled the room and Captain Dickson lurched on the cot as his eyes popped open and his fear produced an ear-piercing scream.
Auden jumped back fearfully. She hadn’t expected that, yet here he was breathing, and conscious, and alive.
"Are you all right?" Auden asked, drawing his attention to her. He narrowed his eyes and glared with confusion at it spread across his face. "Can you hear me?" She asked as her heart raced.
He erupted in a forceful coughing fit and took a moment to catch his breath before he finally responded. "Where am I?"
Chapter Twenty-Three
Separated from Sarah, Kevin hung from the ceiling by his shackles, his toes the only part of his body touching the deck. He hated to admit it, but after a few minutes of dangling from his wrist, the pain had already set in and he wasn't sure how much more he could take as an overwhelming feeling of desperation filled him.
He tried to alleviate the pressure on his wrists, but the effort was awarded with more cramping in his legs and back. He groaned, hissing expletives as he fought through the pain and focused on getting out of yet another hairy situation.
Outside, the muted voices of his captor’s droned and he wondered what they were doing with the “female" as the Heshians referred to Sarah. He hoped beyond anything that they would simply ignore her and leave her alone while they focused the brunt of their psychological warfare against him. He knew that was purely wishful thinking on his part, but he could take solace in the fact that he could not hear her scream in agony.
At least not yet.
Kevin relaxed, slowly letting his heels droop downward, as he fought back the escalating cramps in his calves. Instead, that pain was replaced with the sharp, metal cuffs cutting into his wrists as all his weight was compressed onto the rigid framing. He cursed, biting back the pain as he focused on formulating an escape plan.
Kevin glanced at the ceiling for the dozenth time, noting the one-inch copper pipe that Kretzschmar had draped his shackles over. His eyes followed the line where the piping terminated at each end of the bulkhead. Most service pipes were labeled on naval ships, but this one was either neglected or was unsuitable for painting. The mystery only deepened his concern until he saw the water supply shut off valve protruding from a breakout in the line.
"At least it’s not a steam line," he muttered under his breath. He had seen what a steam burn would do to bare flesh and he was reluctant to press his luck.
The first rule in captivity was to try and escape.
The second was to not do anything stupid.
He learned both lessons the hard way.
Kevin listened for the voices and was pleased to be met with silence. He could only hope it would last long enough for him to do what needed to be done. If not, it was going to get awkward quick, and by awkward he meant painful.
Kevin stood on his tippy toes, fighting to leverage himself enough to jump and take hold of the chains to take the stress off his wrist where the cuffs were cutting into his skin. His shoulders were weak, and his arms trembled as his toes tried to support his weight. If he was going to act, he had to act now, before what was left of his strength failed him.
He propelled himself upward, his grip sliding down the chains as he swung his legs back and forth, leveraging for an acrobatic stunt he hadn’t performed since he was a teenager. Old tricks gave way to a spark of hope as he flung his legs feetfirst towards the overhead. He draped one leg over the pipe to support his weight and took hold of the copper pipe with both hands as he took a moment to rest before the real exertion began.
He surveilled the area, searching for a weak point in the pipe when he noticed a bead of green corrosion growing along a stress point in the pipe. It was a repair, shoddily done, and the only defect he could take advantage of as he was trapped by a series of mounting brackets going the length of the pipe.
“Let’s hope for a weak weld job,” he muttered, not wanting to be too hopeful that he could break it without tools.
Kevin used his free foot to leverage himself against the overhead and attempted to do a reverse deadlift. His arms, back, and legs strained as he tugged on the copper pipe with all his might.
"Come on," he hissed through clenched teeth.
He pulled harder, straining until something let loose and he collapsed to the deck with a splatter.
The pipe broke and he was rewarded with relative freedom.
And a shower.
But both were short-lived when Kretzschmar barged into the room.
Kevin rose from the deck as a geyser of water poured overhead creating a curtain between him and the massive Heshian. He watched as the lumbering form swayed from side to side as he peered through the rushing water.
Kevin gasped for air, stalling for time as he was too exhausted to fight, despite knowing what was coming.
Without uttering a word, Kretzschmar leaped towards the human and swiped a heavy hand through the fal
ling sheets of water narrowly missing the commander's face. Kevin flinched backward, not intending to back himself into a corner, but the space was too tight for him to go anywhere else and not be trampled by the Heshian lieutenant.
Kevin stopped short, bracing himself as another giant fist swept forward. Kevin ducked and then acted on instinct. He flung the chain of the shackles around Kretzschmar's wrist and used the other man’s momentum to bring the brooding giant to the deck.
Heshians were strong, but they lacked the finesse of other species when it came to hand-to-hand combat. Still, Kevin didn't want to take the chance of Kretzschmar getting a hold of him, so he capitalized on his advantage and sent his booted foot crashing down onto the back of the lieutenant's head and smashed his face into the deck. There was a sickening thud and a pool of red was immediately diluted by the water filling the space.
He smirked triumphantly now that Kretzschmar was out of commission, but Kevin was still not safe. He unwrapped the chain from around the lieutenant’s wrist and reached for the man's pockets in search of the key to uncuff himself. Kevin hissed a slur of vulgarities under his breath as his search came up short.
He glanced around the room looking for anything that could help him. There was nothing. Even Kretzschmar, with his blatant overconfidence, had disarmed himself before handling the prisoner.
"What am I going to do?" Kevin muttered as water poured over his head, blurring his vision with each blink.
There was nothing he could do except run and hope that Sarah was not in the same situation he had been in.
Kevin rushed through the door and was met with a toothy smirk.
"Don't run, traitor," Chief Nesbitt said whimsically. "The fun is only beginning." The chief lifted what looked like a handgun and leveled it at Kevin's chest. “I thought you might be stupid enough to try something. I’m glad I was right.”
Fight or flight kicked in and Kevin knew he had to act, so he did the only thing he could think of and slashed the dangling shackles towards Nesbitt and hoped for a lucky shot.
It was a swing and a miss as his action was met with a cocky grin. Nesbitt leaned towards the commander, bracing for retaliation as he lifted his weapon once more and pulled the trigger.
Six-hundred volts shot through Kevin's body at two points. He couldn't feel the barbs in his skin, but he sure as hell felt the electricity that coursed through his body. He went rigid as the current stiffened his muscles to the point that he could no longer stand. Kevin collapsed onto the deck and smashed his head against it. His whole body convulsed as Nesbitt continued pumping the voltage into him.
And then, miraculously, it stopped.
Nesbitt knelt to the deck, lowered his face, and looked the commander in the eye. The grim smirk painted on his face contrasted the elation in his deep, blue eyes. "I know you thought I was going to kill you, but I thought that we might play a little first. What do you think, Commander? How about a little practice before I play the same game with your wife?"
Nesbitt dangled the taser in front of Kevin's face as he slowly backed away. The chief sat on the deck with his back against the bulkhead, lounging nonchalantly as he watched the paralyzed commander lay with his eyes wide open. He squeezed the trigger producing a three-second burst of voltage through Hoyt's body before letting off the trigger.
“What made you think you could escape the admiral’s wrath?” Nesbitt asked, but he did not allow Kevin to answer, not that he could speak through his paralysis anyway. Nesbitt zapped the commander again, the convulsion of his body splaying water as it pooled around him on the deck.
“You know, I thought Dickson was a noble man until I watched him pursue you like a coward. We had the shot that could have put you out of our misery many times, but he relented. It was about the tenth time he let you go that I knew he was just like you; a traitor to the Consulate.”
Another unnerving jolt.
“That was when I approached his lieutenant, the squirrely, pissant of a human being that contacted Admiral Hardak. He was easy enough to manipulate. He craved taking command of a ship and Hardak dangled it in front of him like cheese to a mouse that was too stupid to know it was a trap.”
Nesbitt leaned forward, eyeing Kevin warily, but he resisted another squeeze of the trigger.
“That’s the problem when dealing with stupid people. They think they’re doing the right thing and then looked shocked when the truth is revealed. I saw that expression on Dickson’s face before I blew him away. I expect the same expression on Harrison’s face, too. Though, I also expect a trickle to run down his pants before I pump a magazine into his belly.”
He leaned back against the bulkhead with the satisfied expression of a selfish lover etched on his pale face.
“Of course, you won’t be alive to see it.”
He pulled the trigger, sending six-hundred volts through Kevin’s body a dozen more times, unblinking and unflinching as he tormented the commander like a child attempting to scorch an insect with a magnifying glass.
Kevin's mind spun as his hope waned. He was unarmed against the wickedness before him, and he knew as he lay soggy and broken on the deck of that ship, that he was about to die.
And there was nothing he could do to stop it.
Chapter Twenty-Four
"What happened?" Dickson asked as his eyes fell upon his bloodied uniform.
"It looks like you got shot," Chuck said flatly.
Dickson reached down and touched the now healed wounds and pulled his sticky fingers back watching the blood and plasma ooze between his fingers. His eyes shot up to Auden and Tara and he said, "The last thing I remember was talking to your parents about surrendering." He glanced over to the floor to see the Nepham woman sobbing next to the cot. "Who is this and where am I?"
"We don't have a lot of time to explain, Captain Dickson," Auden said, pulling his attention back to her. "We need you to help us find our parents."
Dickson sighed, "Yeah, I gathered that considering they’re not here with you now." A dull ache throbbed behind his eyes and he tried to shake it off so he could focus. Something about his near-death experience and miraculous recovery was affecting him.
"So, the last thing you remember is our parents?" Auden asked.
"Yeah. I remember putting the shackles on your father and leading him off the ship. Perhaps I should have cuffed your mom as well, but I could have sworn that both of them were unarmed."
"You think our mother shot you?" Tara shot indignantly.
Dickson gazed up at her apologetically. "I don't know what I think happened, kids, but I aim to find out." He turned on the cot and let his legs fall to the floor of the small hut before pushing himself up. He was dizzy, and he wasn't sure if it was because of the headache for the evident loss of blood "Where's my helmet and my weapon?"
"We weren’t looking for it," Chuck said. "We were too focused on saving your life."
"And who are you?" Dickson asked bluntly.
"Other than the man who helped save your life?" Chuck spat, matching the indignation coming from the human Captain
Auden stepped between them and put her hands up to separate them. "This is Chuck," she answered. "He's helping us. He's a friend."
Dickson eyed him warily but relaxed his shoulders and attempted to de-escalate the situation. He knew the Grotans had no love for the Consulate. Not that he could blame them. But the fact that the children sought him for help puzzled the captain. "Fine, he's a friend," Dickson implied a slight inflection on the way he said friend. "I have a sneaking suspicion why I'm not remembering things correctly, but my helmet cam is always recording. If we find that, then maybe we can piece together what happened before I got shot."
"All right," Auden said, "If we help you, then you have to promise not to kill our dad."
Dickson stared down at the teenager as she stood boldly up to him with her eyes narrowed into slits. He could see the conviction behind her gaze and the fact she couldn’t believe her parents had any part in wounding him.
He didn't want to think that they had either, but there had to be some explanation for the gaping bullet hole in his uniform and his blood smeared all over it. "Fine, if we find your parents, I won’t shoot first. That's all I can promise," he said as he extended his bloodied hand out to her.
He half expected her to shy away from it, but instead, she took hold of it and shook his hand with a firm grip. "I accept those terms. So, let’s go retrieve your helmet."
They released hands and he looked down at his tattered uniform and shrugged. "I don't think it’s a good idea for me to go out like this. I don’t suppose anyone’s got a change of clothes that I can borrow, do they?"
Chuck stepped forward. "I might have something in your size," he said sardonically.
"Excellent," Dickson shot back skeptically, matching the sarcasm coming from the Grotan man. “I would appreciate it.”
Chuck outfitted Dickson with a spare, gray cloak. It fit snugly against his body, but it certainly beat the bloodied uniform jacket he had on before. Unfortunately, he had to keep wearing his uniform pants because Chuck didn't have anything suitable for him.
"I appreciate the change of clothes," Dickson said as he stepped from behind the curtain partition that served as a changing area.
Chuck glanced up and nodded, "It was my least favorite article of clothing, you're welcome." The response elicited a chuckle from the captain’s lips.
"We're going with you back to our ship," Auden said, interrupting whatever served as banter between the human and the Grotan.
"I don’t think that’s a good idea," Dickson replied. "Don't take this the wrong way, but I'm afraid if your parents saw you walking with me that it might make an awkward situation more difficult."
"Nonsense. We found you outside the ship and no one was there. We’re going back with you so we can find out what happened to our parents," Auden insisted.
Dickson shook his head but kept his rebuttal to himself. He felt it better to count his blessings than starting an argument with another person with the Hoyt last name. "Fine, but we do things my way. If I say stop, stop. If I say run—"