by L O Addison
Lio’s hope extinguished, while the fire consumed more of the craft. Smoke swirled into the cabin, choking his lungs and stinging his eyes. Darkness clouded his vision. Lio wasn’t sure if it was from the smoke or the pain and panic suffocating his brain.
He blinked, trying to clear his vision, and stared across the aisle at Beck. The lieutenant’s face was pinched in a look of determination. Beside him, Kaylin stared out the smoke-clouded window with her face locked in a blank expression, refusing to show any fear.
A small, hysterical laugh bubbled up the back of Lio’s throat. He’d been so frustrated with these humans and the way they let emotions control them, but now the tables had turned. They were staring down death calmly, while his mind felt ready to explode with fear.
He was going to die. He’d traveled all this way to try to help, but none of it had mattered.
“What’s the status of the shields?” Beck yelled into his comm unit.
“Inner shields still at eighty percent!” Jamison replied, his voice barely audible over the chaos. “Cabin and cockpit are secure.”
Kaylin reached out and grabbed at Beck’s comm unit, yanking it from his ear and holding it to her mouth. “What about the cargo hold?” she demanded, her voice high and frantic. “Do the shields reach there?”
“Negative. Only vital areas.”
Her composed expression disappeared, replaced by a look of horror. “The hold is vital!” she shrieked. “Red’s in there!”
“Impact in five seconds!” Jamison called.
Lio leaned back in his chair, closing his eyes. Marin reached over and gripped his hand, and he had one moment to feel a flare of warmth through his cold terror. Then an explosion knocked all feeling from his body.
13
Beck
Beck fumbled at his seatbelt, his hands shaking as he struggled to unclip it. His ears rang from the crash landing, and his heart hammered painfully in the chest. He tried to take a deep breath to calm himself, but it turned into a coughing fit as acrid smoke flooded his lungs.
The interior shields had done their work and cushioned the impact. They were alive. But those shields weren’t made for combat, and they sure as hell weren’t going to last much longer.
“Evacuate!” Beck called into the smoke. “Everyone out!”
The cockpit door creaked open, and Jamison and Cate stumbled into the cabin. They looked all right except for a gash on Cate’s cheek that trickled blood down her face. But it must have been minor, because she looked alert and had an air filter mask strapped over her face.
“What’s going on out there?” Beck called.
Cate shook her head. “No clue. Can’t see anything through the smoke.”
Liam shakily stood from his seat by the cockpit door. He looked dazed, but his lips were pulled into a determined frown as he lurched toward the weapons’ locker beside him. He pulled it open and grabbed two assault rifles, keeping one for himself and throwing the other to Cate, who easily caught it.
Jamison tossed a filter mask to Liam and one to Beck, and they both strapped them on. Beck gasped in deep breaths of clean air and scrambled to the other side of the aisle, where Marin and Lio sat.
Marin had already managed to get out of her seat, but Lio was limp, his body leaned forward and caught by the strap of the seatbelt. Blood trickled from his forehead, marring his pale face with garish streaks of red.
Beck cursed and knelt in front of the ambassador, grabbing his wrist. He had a pulse. And his chest was definitely moving, but shallowly.
Beck drew in a deep breath and then ripped off his filter mask, strapping it on the ambassador’s mouth instead. He slapped at Lio’s cheek, trying to rouse him. Lio’s head flopped helplessly to the other side, but then he let out a groan, and his ice blue eyes fluttered open.
Beck turned to the emergency cabinet next to the seats, but it was already open, the filter masks ripped off their hooks. A mask dangled in front of Beck, and he looked up to find Kaylin offering it to him. She’d already managed to get one strapped to her own face, but the dark mask wasn’t enough to cover her expression of terror.
Beck strapped the new filter over his mouth, and Kaylin shoved the other mask into Marin’s hands. The bodyguard eyed it suspiciously, but then a cough wracked her chest, and she strapped it in place.
Beck gestured at Jamison. “Help me carry him,” Beck said, nodding down to the ambassador.
Jamison stepped forward, but Marin shoved her hand out, pushing back on his chest. “I’ll help,” she barked, and her stern tone left no room for argument.
Beck nodded and grabbed his knife from his belt, flicking the blade open. He sliced Lio’s seatbelt from his chest, catching the ambassador as he fell forward. Marin quickly slipped her arm under Lio’s shoulders and stood up, forcing the ambassador to his feet. Lio let out another groan, but he managed to get his feet under himself, bearing at least some of his own weight.
“Jamison, Kaylin, get the emergency supplies,” Beck said, ripping open the supply cabinet as he spoke. “Liam and Cate, get ready to give us cover by the door. The second I open it, everyone needs to run for the nearest cover.”
“Where’s that?” Marin demanded.
“Away from the sounds of the battle,” Beck said.
It was a laughably vague answer, but he didn’t have anything better to offer them. He didn’t know who was attacking them, or why, or where they’d landed. All he knew was that the sounds of yelling and explosions were seeping through the thick metal walls of the cargo ship, and there was a damn good chance they’d landed right in the middle of the battlefield.
Jamison scrambled to the supply cabinet, joining Beck in grabbing emergency packs. Something tugged at Beck’s waist, and he looked behind him to see Kaylin ripping something off his belt. He cursed as he realized what it was.
The key to Red’s cage.
Kaylin sprinted toward the door to the cargo hold. It was already cracked open, seeping dark smoke into the room.
“Kaylin!” Beck yelled. “Stop! It’s not shielded in there!”
Kaylin ignored him and grabbed a fire extinguisher from beside the door. Then she yanked at the door, making a gap wide enough for her to slip through.
“Kaylin, don’t you dare!” Beck roared.
Without a single glance back, Kaylin slid inside the cargo hold. The air around the door shimmered as she stepped through the forcefield of the interior shield. Then she was gone.
Jamison’s eyes widened in disbelief. “Where the hell is she going?”
“To get her goddamn pet dragon,” Beck spat.
He took a step toward the cargo hold and froze. He couldn’t go after her. As the leader here, he was in charge of getting everyone to safety, and that meant guiding them away from the wrecked ship. Not further into it.
Beck leaped toward the exterior door of the cabin and punched in his access code. The thick steel door slid open, and the shield’s forcefield shimmered as smoke and heat bombarded them from outside. An explosion rang out, and the forcefield let out a high-pitched whine as shrapnel struck its rippling surface, stopping just inches from Beck’s face.
He stumbled back a step and cursed. They had to get out. There was no choice. Diving out into the battlefield was beyond dangerous, but staying in the ship was a sure death sentence.
He gestured Liam over, and the soldier gripped his rifle tightly as he made his way over to the door. Beck opened his mouth, getting ready to formulate a plan for both of them to charge out of the ship together. But all he ended up saying was, “Get the ambassador out of here, Liam. Find shelter and radio me your position.”
Shock widened Liam’s eyes, flashing to anger a second later. “We shouldn’t separate.”
“I need to get Kaylin out of the cargo hold,” Beck said.
Liam grabbed Beck’s shoulder in a tight grip. “Let Goodfellow burn. We can complete this mission without her.”
Beck knew they could. But that didn’t mean he could bring himself t
o leave her.
He pointed firmly toward the exterior door. “Go. Now. I’ll catch up.”
Liam cursed as he glanced toward the smoke billowing out from the cargo hold. “You’re going to get yourself killed!”
“Go!” Beck roared, jabbing his finger toward the door. He didn’t give them any more time to argue before grabbing a fire extinguisher, sliding through the same gap Kaylin had used, and stepping into the cargo hold.
A wave of heat struck him as he passed through the rippling forcefield of the shields. Beck gasped in a startled breath. Even with the filter mask, the air felt too thin and hot. Beck glanced around the cargo hold, struggling to take in his surroundings as the smoke stung his eyes.
The far side of the hold had crumpled in the impact, leaving a smoking mass of rubble in its place. Fire licked at both ends of the room, where the cargo bins had ignited.
Beck stumbled toward the nearest corner, where Red’s cage had been. Thick smoke clouded his view, but he did his best to ignore it as he stepped deeper into the heat.
Purple smoke puffed into the air a few yards ahead. No, not smoke. The spray of a fire extinguisher.
Beck leaped forward, nearly barreling into Kaylin. She was battling back the flames that had surrounded Red’s cage, her panic-stricken face drenched in sweat. She startled in surprise as she saw him.
“What the hell are you doing here?” she yelled, her voice barely cutting through the noise of the fire and the battlefield outside.
“Getting you out of here,” Beck replied, reaching out to grab her arm.
She nimbly ducked away, and then pivoted to spray another tendril of fire with the extinguisher. The purple spray of the extinguisher easily smothered the flames, but the thick plastic of the extinguisher was already starting to turn orange, a warning that the device was starting to run low on fuel.
A loud, anguished shriek tore through the air. Beck whirled toward it and found himself staring at Red. The lizard was scrabbling at the door of his cage with his claws, frantically trying to break it open. His hide had turned a panicked teal color, and dark red blood smeared his paws and the bars of the cage. Red opened his jaws and let loose another shriek, staring straight at Kaylin.
It sounded eerily like a child screaming for his mom, and Beck suddenly understood why Kaylin had dived into the cargo hold. Beck leaped toward the cage, kneeling in front of it. There was no point trying to drag Kaylin away until he got her pet free.
Red flared out his wings, hissing and snapping his jaws. Beck ignored the enraged lizard and focused on the cage’s door. Kaylin had already used the key to open the first half of the lock, but she hadn’t had the access code to finish unlocking it.
Beck quickly entered the seven-digit code into the keypad. The cage clicked open.
Red charged forward, shrieking as he rammed the door. Beck reached for his pistol, but Red barreled past him, running straight to Kaylin. The lizard leaped up on his back legs and wrapped his wings and front paws around Kaylin’s waist, grabbing her in a desperate embrace.
Kaylin paused for just a second to rest her hand on the creature’s forehead, gently stroking his hide. Then she raised the fire extinguisher and continued her battle with the flames.
Beck joined her, using his own extinguisher to battle off the nearest patch of fire, and then grabbed Kaylin’s arm. He pointed toward the door to the ship’s cabin. “We need to get back to the shielded area,” he said, yelling to be heard over the crackling fire.
Kaylin nodded and turned with him toward the exit, jogging toward it. Red ran at her side, but he shuffled his paws frantically, whimpering as the heated metal singed them. Kaylin and Beck fended off the advancing fire with their extinguishers, but it wasn’t enough to stop the heat.
A blast struck the side of the ship, throwing them to the ground. The hot metal floor burned Beck’s hands, and he cursed as he pushed himself back to his feet. He grabbed Kaylin’s arm, helping to yank her upright. Fresh smoke billowed into the cargo hold, overwhelming their filter masks. The acrid smoke leaked into Beck’s mouth, and he broke into a fit of coughing as he struggled to fight back the fresh wave of flames.
The casing of his extinguisher had turned a dark orange color, warning that it was nearing empty. Kaylin’s was a deep red, and hardly any extinguishing liquid came from its nozzle.
They were running out of time.
Beck sprinted the last few steps to the door of the cabin. The last blast that had hit the ship had jostled the door, slamming it closed. The metal of the door’s handle seared his hand, but Beck gritted his teeth against the pain and shoved it open.
It swung open four inches before catching. Beck cursed, shock coursing through him as he peered through the crack.
The cabin was gone. In its place was a mound of rubble and a gaping grey sky. The last blast must have destroyed the shields, along with the front part of the ship.
His stomach twisted as he frantically scanned the rubble. He saw no signs of bodies, but the rest of his team might have simply been obliterated in the blast.
No. His team was smart and capable, and he’d ordered them to leave immediately. They were alive. He’d believe it until he saw otherwise.
Fresh air flowed through the small crack in the door, and Beck gulped deeply, taking it in. He shoved at the door again, but it didn’t budge. Panic seared through him, hotter than the fire at his back. He backed up a few steps and leaped forward, ramming his shoulder against the door. Pain exploded in his shoulder, but the door didn’t move an inch.
“What’s wrong?” Kaylin demanded.
“The door’s jammed,” Beck said.
“Well, get it open!” she snapped as she threw her empty extinguisher to the ground. She grabbed Beck’s extinguisher from his hand, turning her back to him as she continued battling back the flames.
Beck took a shuddering breath, forcing himself to keep calm and think. He peered through the crack in the door, doing his best to examine the obliterated cabin. A jagged stack of rubble sat close to the cargo hold. That was it. That was what was keeping the door closed.
He knelt and stuck his hand through the crack, trying to shove the rubble out of the way, but it was useless. He could barely scrape the tips of his fingers against the nearest chunk of metal.
Beck snarled a curse, and Kaylin echoed him. Both of their voices were hoarse with smoke, and Beck broke into a fit of coughing. He signaled Kaylin to move closer to the fresh air coming through the crack in the door as they both scoured the cargo hold for any sign of another exit.
Red let out an agonized shriek as the floor grew hotter, burning the hide off his paws. He snapped his jaws open and closed, as if looking for some enemy to tear into. But there was only the flames, which crept closer every moment.
Something slammed into Beck’s shoulder. Before he could even register what was happening, Red scrambled onto his shoulders, using Beck as a ladder as he climbed frantically upward. The lizard leaped up, landing on a small shelf that hung a few feet above the door.
“Red!” Kaylin screamed. “Come back!”
The lizard ignored her and skittered to the opposite end of the shelf. Beck suddenly spotted what the creature was climbing toward--there was a tiny hole at the edge of the shelf. A hole that looked like the entrance of an air duct.
It was little more than a foot wide, too small for any human to climb through. But Red folded his wings close to his sides and slithered into the hole, scrambling and squeezing through.
Beck let out a short breath. At least one of them had escaped.
Beck looked over at Kaylin and saw some of her panic leech from her expression. A strange look of peace came over her, but it turned to guilt as she glanced at Beck.
“Oh no you don’t!” Beck yelled. He stepped closer to her and ripped the extinguisher out of her hands, aiming it at a tendril of fire creeping closer to them. “Don’t you dare give up.”
“There’s no other exit,” she said, her quiet voice barely audible.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t think you’d come after me.”
“Shut up,” Beck snapped. “We’re getting out of here, so there’s no reason to be sorry.”
But as he searched the room for another exit, his gut twisted. The flames were creeping closer and growing taller. Even with his mask filtering the air, it was nearly impossible to breathe.
He aimed the extinguisher at the closest tendril of fire. The canister gave a dull click as he pulled the trigger. He squeezed the trigger twice more, but the extinguisher just kept uselessly clicking. He cursed and threw the extinguisher to the ground.
“I’m so sorry,” Kaylin said, her voice a shaky croak. “So, so sorry.”
A shriek echoed through the room. For a single moment, Beck thought it was Kaylin, and his stomach dropped. But then the cry came again, louder and more frantic, and Beck realized it was Red. He stumbled in a half circle, trying to find where the lizard was.
Beck blinked a few times, shock pulsing through him. The door to the cabin was open. And the gap wasn’t just a crack anymore, but an entire two feet.
Red stood behind the open door, stamping his paw impatiently. Kaylin let out a cry of relief and leaped through the open door, and Beck scrambled to follow her. He gulped in deep breaths of fresh air, and the blackness faded from the corners of his vision.
A twisted piece of metal lay a few feet from the door, smeared with Red’s dark blood. Beck glanced around, quickly spotting a hole near the ceiling where the air duct connected to the cabin. He shook his head in disbelief. Red must have crawled through the air duct, dropped back into the cabin, and then moved the rubble away from the door.
Beck coughed, clearing his throat of smoke, and then said to Kaylin, “How the hell did your lizard know to do that?”
Kaylin shook her head, looking completely bewildered. “I have no clue.”
It didn’t seem possible, but Beck didn’t have time to stop and question it. Smoke billowed around them, and the sounds of a raging battle surrounded them.