by Tammy Walsh
The wooden frame gave and the wood splintered into a thick explosion of spikes.
Too far, I thought. I only wanted an inch and it gave me a yard.
My hand was still perched around the handle as I planted a foot to prevent the door from opening any further.
Instead of pulling the door shut and pretending it hadn’t happened, I left the door open.
It wasn’t going to be a surprise what’d happened and we needed it open anyway if we wanted to pass through.
I expected to see Draw’s guards standing with weapons drawn and aimed at our heads.
I expected to see them clearing up the remains of their friends, either or both of whom could already be dead.
What I did not expect to see were the armed guards speaking to three prison officers, and a pair of drones floating above their heads.
The drones snapped to attention faster than the guards, but they weren’t much slower.
The shuttlecraft sat to one side and there was no doubt in my mind we weren’t going to reach it if we attempted to bolt across now.
I slammed the door shut as the drones whirred, charging up the bolts of plasma that would fire from their underside.
The door could withstand the blast from their weapons but I took Agatha’s hand and led her away from it anyway.
I slipped the lock into place and backed away.
The attack on the door didn’t come.
“What are they doing here?” Agatha said.
“Their drones must have found something,” I said. “Or they’re only here asking questions.”
Well, they certainly got their answer when they saw us standing there.
“Come on,” I said.
I took her by the hand and led her back up the stairs.
Two flights and we were on the second floor.
The drones buzzed below like angry hornets.
They would first check the empty doorway opposite that led to the other side of the building.
It wouldn’t be long before they realized we’d headed back upstairs instead.
We ran to the window that looked out on the main clearing.
I eased it open.
Peering down, the fall wasn’t a long one but it might be enough for us to slip past the guards of both stripes.
I pulled the security device from my pocket and stabbed at the buttons before thinking better of it.
“Computer,” I said into the device. “Deactivate all security protocols on the shuttlecraft in the hangar.”
“There are multiple shuttlecraft in the hangar,” Computer said. “Please specify the model.”
I did, and Computer paused for a moment.
“All security systems are disengaged,” it said.
“Activate the engines and bring the shuttlecraft up to us,” I said.
“Negative. The shuttlecraft is not plugged into my system. It cannot be activated remotely.”
Damn.
“We’re going to have to get down there ourselves,” I said.
The buzz of approaching drones issued up from the stairwell.
They were coming up, and they weren’t alone.
Heavy thudding footsteps climbed one step at a time, their booming clumping boots echoing up the sparse stairwell.
I peered out the window and noticed none of the guards down there.
Or any of the drones.
They would have called for reinforcements the moment they spotted us.
They would be on their way here now.
As fast as they were, it would take them some time to reach us.
That was our window of opportunity.
I kept an eye on the doorway and took aim with my rifle.
“Agatha, I need you to climb out this window and get down there.”
“What about you?”
“I’m going to hold these guys off. When you get to the shuttlecraft, tell Computer to pick me up. If there are too many guards, tell Computer to take you to New Haven. It’s a planet. You’ll be safe there.”
“No. I’m not leaving you.”
I brushed her skin with my thumb.
“You’re not leaving me. I’ll find you.”
I planted a kiss on her lips and felt the heat pulse through my body.
The footsteps grew louder and soon the buzzing drones would be even more cacophonous as they eased up and locked onto me.
“You must go,” I said. “Now.”
She looked torn but she did as I asked.
She turned and climbed out the window.
She shimmied down using the broad angles of the corrugated side to slow her descent.
Zzzzzzzzzzzz.
The first drone rose into sight and I focused my attention on it.
I squeezed the trigger of my rifle in rapid succession.
The first few bolts flew before the drone was fully in view.
One clipped its wing and twisted it off balance, knocking its own retaliatory fire into an adjacent wall.
I fired again, this time taking it through the heart.
Agatha squealed as she fell the final few feet, breaking her fall with her hands.
She turned, peered up at the window, and then bolted inside the hangar.
The second drone took the place of the first and I opened fire again, shooting wildly this time, knowing the drone will have automatically learned from the mistakes of its fallen comrade.
That was what made defeating them so difficult.
The drone bucked and weaved.
I fired another volley and the drone unleashed its own sporadic gunfire.
My eyes bulged and I threw myself to the floor.
I took aim as the drone passed into view, its underside glowing bright and glaring.
I fired and didn’t notice if my bolt struck it or not.
I couldn’t take the risk its shot might hit me.
I was rewarded with the broken buzz of the drone as it fell to the stairs.
The guards hustled up to the doorframe and took position on either side.
I couldn’t hope to defeat them all.
They would pin me down and wait for their reinforcements to join them.
And that would be the end of me.
I had one choice.
And when you think about it, having a choice of one isn’t really a choice at all.
I ran across the open space and threw myself out the window.
I didn’t have time to slow my descent or hope for a soft landing.
Three streaks of plasma scorched the air and zipped past me.
One came so close I heard it crackle before screeching into the distance.
I hit the ground hard and entered a roll.
My landing was rough and I felt my shoulder dislocate.
I came up onto my feet and clutched my arm to my side.
I’d lost my grip on my rifle and couldn’t see it through the haze of sand kicked up by my fall.
I became aware of a dull whirring sound.
The front cone of the vehicle was turning, speeding up fast.
Draw and his men would soon be out of here, digging up the earth and disappearing down a tunnel of its own making.
There would be no chance of the shuttlecraft taking off then, especially if they left the hatch open the way it now was.
I bolted across the open space, clutching my arm close, and ran for the open hatch.
A pair of prison guards opened fire.
Their aim was off.
It must be the cloud of sand messing up their line of fire.
The whirring cone drill bit couldn’t have helped matters.
I entered the hangar and found my shuttlecraft hovering, its engines glowing as they defied gravity and turned around.
The hatch door was open but it swung away from me as it turned on the spot.
Through the front window, I made out Agatha, sitting in the pilot seat, in control.
Her eyes alighted on me and we shared a grin.
A thin layer of sweat d
ampened my brow at the pain of my dislocated arm, but it didn’t matter.
All that mattered was her.
And escaping with her.
Then her grin broke and her eyes fell and she shouted a warning, one I couldn’t hear over the shuttlecraft’s hum and the grinding crunch of the giant drill bit.
I dropped immediately and rolled to one side from her warning, not knowing what was behind me.
A bolt of plasma struck the floor and melted the metal grating.
I kept rolling until I passed around a tall collection of artifacts neatly arranged on a shelf that stretched to the ceiling.
The bolts of plasma chased me, tearing up the grating in my wake.
I came to a stop behind the shelf but my assailant continued to fire, blasting the items off the shelves like sliding targets at a traveling fairground.
The shuttlecraft’s engines whirred and bolted forward, striking a clutch of Draw’s guards and knocking them off their feet.
I could see them now through a gap in the shelving unit.
The shuttlecraft knocked them back again and they lost their feet in the gathering swirl of dust.
The shuttlecraft’s ass waved side to side.
I got to my feet and ran toward it, hurling myself inside.
“Egara!” Agatha yelled.
“Go! Go! Go! Go! Go!” I screamed back.
“Computer, take us out of here!” Agatha screamed over the overbearing screams.
The shuttlecraft banked and took us away, ascending into the sky at a sharp but not precipitous angle.
I crouched and waited as Agatha ran to me and kissed me on the face, the cheeks, the forehead.
“You’re okay!” she said.
“Mostly,” I said.
She glanced at my arm and her eyes turned round with concern.
“It’s all right,” I said.
I ran a hand through her hair and smiled at her.
I pressed my lips to hers and fed her every morsel of my deep undying love.
“We’re leaving,” Agatha said.
“Yes,” I said. “We’re leaving.”
I couldn’t imagine a happier thought.
Alone.
Out among the stars.
Free.
With Agatha.
Zzzzzzzzz!
I heard the noise but it took a moment to register.
It made no sense in this shuttlecraft.
It wasn’t until I heard the dull clink of metal snapping together that the truth of our situation came to fruition.
The hatch door was closing, but not fast enough.
Sunlight sparked off the white outer shell of the drone that activated the powerful magnets on its underside.
It had locked a cuff around an ankle and would carry its prisoner away.
But which one of us?
Agatha’s eyes bulged.
She scrabbled at the floor and clung to the small shuttlecraft’s protruding innards but the magnets were too strong and she lost her grip.
The cuff on her ankle snapped as it struck the drone’s underside and it took off with her.
It carried her out of my life, away from me forever.
Agatha
I thought I was going to fall.
Hell, I was falling.
Only my left foot was attached to the flimsy-looking drone.
I twisted and swung and feared the device would lose its grip on me and I would sail unimpeded to the ground below.
I screamed and flailed my arms.
“Oh my God!” I wailed. “Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God!”
The drone’s high-pitched buzzing engines dropped an octave as it struggled to maintain its hold.
I was too heavy for it and we dropped at a terrifying speed.
The wind whipped at my hair, stinging my face.
From “Put me down!” to “Don’t drop me!” in less than a second.
The tiny prison guard figures swelled into view as I returned to a safer height.
A second drone joined me and took up my other leg.
I was eager for it to do so.
My arms flopped down and almost dragged along the sand.
My heart thumped hard and my blood flooded my face, for the moment relieved.
I hadn’t felt a rush like that since I took the Demon’s Chase rollercoaster.
I was still a little breathless.
The prison guards opened fire on the merchant’s vehicle as it tilted toward a dune and kicked out great plumes of sand as it disappeared into the side of a mountain.
The guards’ shock rifle fire did nothing to slow it.
A pair of guards approached.
I could only make out their boots and peered up at them.
“What do we have here?” one of the guards said.
“Prize number 3214,” the drone’s electronic speaker said, distorted due to having been damaged at some point.
“A Prize?” the guard said, turning his nose up. “I didn’t even know we were missing one.”
“I doubt anyone misses a Prize when they can always bring in more,” the second guard said.
That was just how low on the pecking order I was.
They hadn’t even noticed I was missing.
“Still, she’s a deserter,” the first guard said. “Put her in the truck. We’ll get the story out of her later. The supervisor can decide what to do with her.”
The scuffed boots turned to the drone.
“Take her to the truck,” he ordered.
A light blinked on the drones’ underside and they whirred as they carried me toward a small but growing mass of prison guards.
I peered up at the sky and looked for the little shuttlecraft Egara was riding right now, whizzing away to freedom and safety.
I was glad for him.
At least one of us deserved to get away from here.
Still, I was sad.
I wanted to be with him.
To think we came so close to being free together in the vast and limitless expanse of space…
Only for it to be snatched from me at the last moment.
My nose clogged up and my eyes stung.
Don’t cry, I told myself. Don’t cry. Not here.
I lacked the same level of control I had if I was upright.
I could blink the tears back and force them not to fall.
But I was upside down and the tears seeped not just from the corners of my eyes but between my eyelashes.
They trailed down my forehead and into my hair.
I didn’t want to be here on my own.
I didn’t want to be surrounded by these prison guards.
I didn’t want to go back to Ikmal and take up my previous occupation.
That was, if they even let me return.
They might think I’d tasted the forbidden fruit of freedom and might infect the other Prizes.
It was a very real fear, I realized.
My time outside the prison walls had changed me.
He had changed me.
I wasn’t the same person I had been before we escaped.
I knew that.
I wondered if Egara was the same prisoner he’d been.
I didn’t think so.
“Let’s load up and get out of here,” a tall figure said.
It was difficult to distinguish the guards from each other as they all wore the same uniform and were of a similar height.
But one stood out, and it was the guard that just spoke.
He was taller than the others, broader too.
Were they assigned their rank by size? I wondered.
The guards climbed into the back of the van and took a seat on the benches that ran down either side.
It reminded me of typical military transport ships for US soldiers.
One guard pressed a hand to my back and pushed me forward.
The drones rose automatically so my head didn’t hit the side panel.
I was small enough to fit in the back, still hanging up
side down.
I took a moment to peer up at the sky and noticed no metal lump, no sign of Egara anywhere.
The last guard climbed on board and sat opposite me.
He slammed the back door shut.
I wondered where Egara would go now he was free.
I imagined him in his pirate ship, taking command of his men and raising hell.
It brought a smile to my lips.
Maybe he would find someone to love, a girl who wasn’t a damn Prize and had more value.
Okay, so maybe I was saying these things to make myself cry.
I’d been separated from the kindest prisoner I’d met and he’d been stripped from me.
If there was a reason to cry, it was now.
A slat at the front of the truck slid aside revealing the oversized leader of the team.
He leaned an arm through the window and peered back at the others.
The prison guards focused on their gloved hands and feet.
If I had to guess, I would have said they were forlorn.
“Will the warden launch a search party for him?” the guard closest to the leader said.
“I don’t know,” the leader said. “Probably not. Better to sweep it under the rug than let it be known a prisoner escaped Ikmal.”
A prisoner.
One.
That meant they had caught other escapees.
And they were letting him go without even chasing him.
Not that he would know that.
He would spend the rest of his life looking over his shoulder.
I snorted, realizing that wasn’t much of a change of pace for a pirate.
“The warden’s not going to be happy all we caught was his stinking Prize,” the agitated guard said, leaning back, folding his arms, and kicking at the truck wall.
A couple of the guards glanced in my direction.
I might not be able to read their expressions but their body language was clear enough.
They were pissed.
And I was the object of their disgust.
“Maybe the prisoner didn’t escape,” a guard halfway along the bench said. “Maybe we found him in the desert and we buried his body.”
The suggestion hung heavy over the assembled.
The leader shook his head.
“It’s bad enough he got away,” he said. “What do you think the supervisor will do to us if he discovers we lied to him?”
“I don’t know,” the guard said. “But I know what he’ll do to us if we tell the truth.”