Traitor

by Drew Avera

  "Neither did I, but I’ll take what we can get. Sorry for using your kids as bait but at least you know they're tucked safely on your ship."

  "What was that?" Kevin asked. "They’re on the ship. Are your certain of that fact, because they’re not supposed to be?"

  Harrison doffed his helmets and looked back at the commander with a puzzled expression. "Yes, I’m certain, sir. It was Captain Dickson's idea for them to stay behind while we came to rescue you."

  Kevin was taken aback. He had given his girls explicit orders not to leave the room until morning but knowing that they disobeyed him was disappointing.

  "I’m sure they had good intentions, honey," Sarah said as she placed her hands on his shoulder.

  He embraced her and muttered under his breath, "I hope you're right. But if they're on the ship and you're wearing extraction team gear, then where did you get those uniforms?”

  Harrison let the helmet dangle from his hand as he stammered, "We stole the gear from Chief Nesbitt and his team when they were sent to come and get me. We secured them on the Interceptor before we came to retrieve you," he answered.

  "For heaven’s sake," Kevin seethed as he brushed his wife's hand off of him and began pacing in the dark room, glowering and brooding with each step as he channeled his anger without a proper outlet for it. "You mean to tell me that my children are on the ship with trained killers and you people decided to leave them there to come to save me and Sarah?"

  "That’s an unusual form of appreciation you have there, Commander," Chuck said before removing his helmet. He eyed the human warily as he sat the helmet on the table next to him before approaching. "Everyone here is working for the benefit of you and your family," he said. "Maybe we didn't do things the way you would have, but we were trying to make do with what we had. I understand that you're upset, and you think your kids are in danger, but we couldn’t risk bringing them with us, there was no way we would've come on board without drawing unnecessary attention."

  Kevin stopped pacing and crossed his arms over his chest with a forlorn expression on his face. He hated to admit it, but Chuck was right. It was a wise decision so long as those men were contained.

  "Forgive me, it's been a long night. My one bit of solace was that they were safely tucked away this whole time."

  Harrison nodded, "I understand, sir. I would be concerned too." He stepped towards the hatch and opened it an inch to peer out through the crack. He stood there for several moments before turning his attention back to the room. "I think we’re in the clear," he said. "I don't know where Captain Dickson and Nata are, but our best bet is to get you off the ship and to your kids."

  Chuck grabbed his helmet from the table and said. "I agree. The other two are on their own."

  "I'm not sure this is the best idea," Sarah said. "They're in harm’s way because of us. Shouldn’t we do something?"

  Kevin took his wife's hand and held it gently. "We’re useless to them right now, honey. We need our ship to stand a chance against Hardak. With the Interceptor we have a cache of weapons and a means to escape."

  Harrison stepped forward and placed his helmet on. "I agree, sir. I can escort you off the Tempest and back to your ship. But we have to stay out of sight."

  Kevin nodded in agreement though the constant need to make plans on the fly nagged at him. It was difficult not to second guess every decision, but ultimately that way of thinking would make it impossible to act as they would be frozen in fear. He thought it best to stick with the plan and hope for the best, as much as it made him cringe.

  "Lead the way," Kevin said as he lifted a two-foot piece of pipe off the table and tucked it under his jacket just in case.

  "Roger that," Harrison said as he turned for the door, opened it, and took the first step to lead them to freedom.

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Dickson flinched, expecting to be downed by the hit of the century. But instead of following through with the strike, Kretzschmar froze like a living statue before collapsing onto his back, falling like a tree. Dickson blinked in confusion before glancing up to see Nata standing there with a taser in her hand. She was gawking at the fallen Heshian, still squeezing the trigger and sending six-hundred volts from the probes directly into his body.

  "You came back for me?" he asked, the sentence sounding more like a statement.

  "Better safe than sorry?" she replied questioningly.

  "Fair enough."

  Dickson turned his attention back to Admiral Hardak who seemed to have disappeared back into the room from which he had emerged. For all Dickson knew, the senior officer could be waiting with a weapon drawn and ready to fire. Dickson surveilled the deck and found his gun just out of reach. He would have to expose himself to a direct attack from Hardak if he went for it.

  Not worth it, he thought. Then again, I don’t want to miss what could be my only opportunity to end this here and now. He looked down at Kretzschmar and noticed the man was unarmed, but he caught sight of Nata and the gun holstered to her thigh.

  "Nata, would you be willing to lend me your firearm?" Dickson asked as he extended his hand expectantly.

  She obliged, pulling the weapon from her holster and handing it to him. He figured she had enough of an opportunity to kill Kretzschmar but instead opted to incapacitate him instead of taking his life. It was a noble decision not to kill him, but a decision that wouldn’t have been extended had the shoe been on the other foot.

  He chambered a round and pressed himself against the bulkhead as he slowly advanced towards the door. It was ajar and inside was dark as night. Dickson switched on the laser sight before spinning and kicking the door the rest of the way open. He used the laser sight as a light to scan the room, searching for movement but found nothing.

  "Where are you?" He grumbled as he took another step inside, nervous that he was walking deeper into a trap.

  It was a small space, with no doors other than the one leading into it. Relatively empty, there is nowhere for Admiral Hardak to hide either.

  “Where did you go?” Dickson muttered as he turned a half circle and let the laser follow the bulkhead around at chest height. He canted his head towards the opened door, listening for a moment before stepping closer. "Did you see Hardak leave the room?" he asked Nata as he stepped out of the space.

  "No, I didn't, I'm sorry. I was too focused on him," she replied as she gestured towards Kretzschmar's unconscious body. The slight rise and fall of his chest showed he was still alive which was more mercy than the lieutenant would've shown Dickson had his swing connected. The strike was intended to kill.

  "We need to rendezvous with the others. I'm not sure if they freed Kevin and Sarah yet, but we need to verify and get off this ship."

  Dickson led her down the passageway towards the room where Kevin and been held. It was empty, save for the shackles left on the deck as a reminder that the space had been a makeshift jail cell.

  "It looks like they got him," Nata said, the sound of tension easing in her singsong voice.

  "If so, does that mean they got Sarah too? I didn’t think to have a contingency plan if we were separated, but hopefully, they took the opportunity to get off the ship instead of waiting on us," Dickson said under his breath as he glanced out the door to see if anyone else was coming down the passageway. Their ruse was up, and if anyone saw his altercation with Admiral Hardak, then it was only safe to presume they would believe the other three people in squad armor were also the enemy.

  "What should we do now?" Nata asked.

  "We would be wasting time waiting for them to come back for us. It's not safe here. We need to depart get back to the Interceptor. Follow me." Dickson rushed over to the nearest ladder well and made his way down to the cargo bay. What he found at the bottom of the ladder was half a dozen squads standing in formation and preparing to disembark to do God knows what. "Wait here," he said, stopping Nata from fully descending the ladder. He watched from around the corner as the squads marched towards the quarterdeck t
o leave.

  Once all the ranks had filed out, he motioned for Nata to continue.

  "All right, the coast is clear," he said. Dickson moved to step out into the cargo bay, but a sound startled him.

  It was footsteps.

  He acted on instinct, drawing his weapon as he stepped out of the narrow passageway to face the enemy.

  "Don't take another step," he ordered. He stared down the sights and centered his aim on the forehead of the nearest operative.

  The two men in armor stopped in their tracks and lifted their hands, but Dickson looked past them and recognized a familiar face.

  "Kevin?"

  Kevin positioned himself to get a better line of sight with Dickson and responded, "Hey, Captain. It's good to see you back on your feet."

  Dickson drew his attention back to the men standing with their arms up. "Harrison, Chuck, is that you?"

  "Yes, sir," Harrison replied. "I was trying to lead the Hoyts off the ship and back to the Interceptor."

  Relief washed over Dickson. He was pleased that the plan hadn't completely gone to crap, but they weren’t out of the woods yet. "Let's go. The longer we’re on this ship, the more opportunity Hardak has to stop us."

  "We’re not going to let that happen," Harrison replied with a level of confidence that struck Dickson.

  The captain turned on his heels and marched towards the quarterdeck. He didn't bother holstering his weapon, this was war after all, and he wasn't about to get caught unaware. "I'm glad we’re on the same page," he said as the rest of them followed behind in a single file. “Once we’re safely on board the Interceptor I’m going to launch an all-out assault on that treasonous bastard, Admiral Hardak. It’s time that we take the Consulate back.”

  “Yes, sir,” Kevin said from behind him. And the encouragement meant more to Dickson than the commander would ever know.

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  He approached with a sinister grin stretched across his face as Auden took a fearful step backward. "Don't come any closer," she warned again, eliciting a chortle from him.

  His outstretched, long, heavily tattooed arms flexed with corded muscle as he prepared to attack.

  Auden acted on instinct, slamming her clenched fist into his face, aiming for his nose. She missed. Instead, her knuckles dragged across his mouth, cutting against his teeth.

  He hardly flinched.

  "You have to do better than that," he said before spitting blood onto the deck. The wet splatter unnerved her as he stared wickedly in her direction. His gaze told her everything she already knew, that she was powerless to do anything to stop him.

  Auden darted around, ducking under his arm as he reached out, snarling as his empty fingers went unrewarded. She shrieked in fear as adrenaline coursed through her body. She turned right, away from the bridge where she was told to retreat to in case of this exact circumstance. But her path was blocked, and she had no choice. It was better to have room to run than to be trapped in a tight space with a madman.

  But her revelry at getting out from under him was short-lived.

  "Tara?"

  She remembered her sister was lying asleep in the corner next to her. There was no way she wasn't awake now, but she couldn’t be certain without doubling back for her. She couldn’t leave Tara defenseless against a monster. There was no way Auden could bear living if anything happened to her sister.

  Auden ran back, sprinting through the cargo bay, down the small passageway and into the lounge where she saw Nesbitt reaching out for her sister.

  He grabbed hold of Tara's neck, choking back the scream that Auden hadn’t realized she heard the sound of due to her throbbing heartbeat.

  Auden didn't have time to think. Instead, she leaped onto his back, wrapping her arm around his neck and pulling back.

  He scratched and clawed at her arm in retaliation. Auden kept her eyes locked with Tara and refused to loosen her grip. She would die before giving up, she swore to herself.

  Tara's eyes were wide, and she grunted with each forceful breath she tried to take.

  Auden clawed at his neck, desperately reaching for the man's face to dig into his flesh with her nails to try and rip his face off. She hadn't realized before that moment, but her piercing scream was a war cry for vengeance.

  "Let her go," she hissed, her voice raspy from the bloodcurdling scream.

  She didn't hold back.

  Instead, she continued choking and clawing away at anything she could get her hands on in the process, but it wasn't enough.

  Deep inside, her savagery knew no bounds. She went for the kill and clamped onto his ear with her teeth, snarling as she put every ounce of strength she had into inflicting as much pain as she could.

  It worked.

  Sort of.

  Nesbitt lost his grip on Tara's throat, but that only meant Auden was getting all of his attention. He reached behind and grabbed her hair with both hands, yanking forcibly. She couldn’t maintain her strength through the pain and her grip waned she bit back the urge to cry.

  Auden clamped her eyes shut and focused all of her efforts on clinching her mouth shut, ignoring the pain, ignoring the blood rushing down her chin, ignoring everything and inflicting as much damage to him as possible.

  Then something shifted and she felt herself falling.

  Auden dared to open her eyes, but instead of seeing her sister, she saw the overhead of the ship a split-second before Nesbitt collapsed on top of her.

  Rage fueled screams filled the room. Stunned, Auden peered around and saw Tara sitting on Nesbitt's chest, slashing at him with the karambit that Chuck had given them.

  Nesbitt tried to fight, using his arms as shields as the sharp blade tore through his flesh.

  Blood was everywhere. It spewed from his flailing arms and dripped from his partially severed fingers.

  Auden backed away and watched in muted horror as Tara delivered violence, hissing and screaming with each slash of the blade.

  Auden didn't know how far her sister was willing to go, but she couldn't sit there and watch. She had to stop the attack and protect her sister from going too far, even though she knew he deserved that, and so much more.

  She jumped to her feet and took hold of Tara. Her young sister glanced over to her, her face softening ever so slightly. "Let's go," Auden said as she pulled her sister off the chief and led her to the bridge.

  Auden slammed the hatch shut and locked it from the inside. She hadn’t noticed whether Nesbitt had gotten off the deck to follow them, but there is no way for him to get to them now.

  "Are you all right?" Auden asked.

  Tara still held the Karambit in her hand as blood dripped from the blade. She looked down at it and she panted to catch her breath. "Better than he is," she answered after a pause. "What about you?"

  Auden patted herself down, looking for wounds before running her hands through her hair and pulling back loose strands from Nesbitt’s violent assault. "He hurt me," she answered, "but it’s nothing permanent."

  "What do we do now?" Tara asked, the edge to her voice softening has her fear mixed with the adrenaline coursing through her veins.

  "We can’t do anything except wait and hope to God that Captain Dickson was able to save mom and dad." Auden turned her attention to the monitor mounted to the bulkhead, hoping that she would see them returning, but there was nothing more than dark, empty space.

  Auden hears a sound outside the bridge but couldn’t make out what was happening. The security cameras inside the ship didn’t function and she could only assume that Nesbitt was conscious and trying to stop the bleeding from Tara's assault on him.

  She sat down on the deck and muttered a prayer under her breath for protection. She was raised to have faith, but she struggled with it as of late. Never so much as she did now with the devil incarnate on the other side of the hatch.

  "Auden, look," Tara said with tension in her voice.

  Auden glanced up to see where Tara was pointing and noticed movement
on the monitor. "Is that them?"

  "I certainly hope so," Tara replied as she clutched the karambit close to her chest.

  Auden swallowed the knot formed in her throat and as she held back tears. “Me too,” she whispered. "Me too."

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  They approached the Interceptor and Kevin's heart pounded in anticipation. Their salvation lay ahead, and all that was left was to escape from Admiral Hardak with his family. Thanks to the help from Captain Dickson and Lieutenant Harrison, there was no going back for any of them now.

  Kevin hastened his steps in an attempt to get aboard the ship quicker, but Dickson grabbed hold of this arm. "Nesbitt and his men are still up there," he said. "How about Chuck and I sweep the ship just in case?"

  "Just in case of what?" Sarah asked as she quickly took hold of her husband's arm.

  "Just a case of anything," Dickson replied.

  "I'll go too," Harrison offered as he took a step forward.

  "No, I will go," Kevin said flatly. "Give me your weapon. I'm going aboard. I have to check on my kids."

  "Do it, Lieutenant," Dickson said with a nod.

  Harrison drew his weapon and handed it to Kevin without dispute.

  "Happy?" Dickson asked.

  Kevin checked to make sure there was a round in the chamber before responding. "I'll be happy when my family is safe, and we've escaped. Until then, I'm not happy, I’m pissed."

  His remark caused Dickson's lips to curl." Well then, let’s get this done and get out of here," Dickson said as he turned and marched towards the waiting ship.

  Kevin and Chuck followed behind him, holding their guns at the ready. There was no knowing what awaited them, but Kevin was fully prepared to squeeze the trigger towards any opposition to his family's safety.

  He glanced down as he ascended the cargo around. Dried blood created a dark stain midway up the ramp and his thoughts reflected to when Chief Nesbitt shot Captain Dickson in cold-blood. The fact that the senior officer was on his feet and assisting his family to escape the Consulate was a miracle and a testament to faith.