Every corridor in the place looked the same. Reyes thought she was heading back the way she came from, but she couldn’t be sure. It didn’t help that she had to view everything through tear-blurred eyes. But she had to keep moving forward. SA would hold onto the leveller for as long as she could. Still, it wouldn’t be long enough. They had about ninety seconds at best.
Just before Reyes ran around the next corner, she heard the laboured breaths of another being. She stopped. The heavy slaps of her feet would be a dead giveaway of her approach if she hadn’t already blown her cover. The butt of her blaster wedged into her shoulder, she fought against her exhaustion, blinked away her blurred vision, drew a deep gasp, and stepped towards the bend and the being on the other side of it.
Not in the best frame of mind for a one-woman gunfight, Reyes didn’t have the luxury of time to prepare herself. The second-best option had to be surprise. She jumped around the corner and aimed her blaster at the creature. Before she pulled the trigger, she stopped. “Sparks?” When she looked at the small Thrystian’s sweaty face, her heart sank. She looked defeated. Hardly surprising considering what she’d had to carry. “Bruke?” she said and squatted down next to him, her legs on fire with fatigue. “What have they done to you?”
His left leg completely gone, Bruke’s eyes rolled from him fighting to remain conscious. He looked at his wound before turning his attention to Reyes. “Sparks …” He drifted off.
“I had to cauterise it to stop it bleeding out,” Sparks said. “I’m not sure I got to him in time.”
Reyes ruffled her nose at the smell of burned flesh and said, “He’s still alive, so you got to him in time.” Because Sparks had used both of her hands to move Bruke, he held onto her computer for her. The timer on the screen read one minute and fifty-two seconds, fifty-one, fifty …
Reyes shook her head while watching it and said, “We’ve got less time than that. SA’s going to blow the transmitter and the palace up with it.”
The look in Sparks’ eyes suggested she’d already given up, so Reyes pulled Bruke’s left arm around her shoulders. Grimacing from the strain of supporting him, she said, “Lead the way to their hangar. We need a ship to get out of here. We’ll make it.”
“What about SA?”
The question made Bruke’s weight seem to double across her shoulders. Reyes shook her head and gasped from her effort and emotional exhaustion. “She’s not coming.”
Sparks stared at her.
“If she’s going to blow the transmitter and the palace up, she has to be there.”
“Has to?”
“There were hundreds of soldiers there. We couldn’t fight them, so she decided to arm the leveller. She locked me out so I couldn’t follow her. She’s going to hold the army back for as long as she can. When she goes down, the grenade will go off.”
The spread of Sparks’ purple eyes was magnified by her glasses.
“Come on, Sparks,” Reyes said. “SA sacrificed herself for us, the least we can do is have the decency to survive.”
The small Thrystian nodded, pulled her computer from Bruke’s hands, and tapped against the screen. A map appeared. “It’s not far,” she said as she set off ahead of them, her blaster drawn.
A dead weight on her, Reyes might have hated every second of her marine training, but it now came in handy as much as it ever had. You had to be able to carry your brother as far as was necessary to save their life. The crystal floors helped. It meant she could drag Bruke.
Three short corridors later and none of Enigma’s army in sight, they arrived at the hangar. The space looked to take up half of the palace’s footprint. A vast stalt floor, tall walls, and a high ceiling, the hangar had a fleet of ships of all shapes and sizes.
Still taking the lead, Sparks ran over to a small vessel. Large enough to get them and Seb out of there if they found him, but small enough to be effective in a dogfight. She used her computer to open the back while she ran at it.
While gasping, Reyes laid Bruke down in the back of the ship before leaning over him and kissing his head. “Hold on in there.”
“You flying?” Sparks said.
Before Reyes could reply, she looked across the hangar and caught sight of a line of mechs. She shook her head. “No. I’m going to fly one of them. Two ships in this fight are better than one. Let’s find Seb and get the hell out of here.”
A moment’s pause, Reyes then leaned close to Sparks and kissed the top of her head too.
Already wide purple eyes widened as Sparks looked up at her.
While Reyes stepped towards the ship’s exit, a loud explosion went off in the direction of the ballroom. It shook the ground. The hope she’d held onto that SA would be okay vanished with the earth-trembling detonation. Popping and cracking stalt—she shook her head as the sounds of the failing structure caught up to the large hangar. She called behind her as she ran at the mechs, “We’ve got to get out of here now!”
Chapter 47
The tingling that had started in Seb’s hands ran up his arms. Vines of energy, they seeped into him, intoxicating in their languid and warm-honeyed crawl through his being. A slightly woozy feeling as the wind rocked him. The tingling sensation then reached the sadness in his heart. The sadness he’d felt a moment ago when driven back from his aunty. The pain of every being in the galaxy. Of their loss. He let go of his aunt’s hands and stepped back again.
Serene as she looked at him, his aunty frowned, her long flowing gown riding the elements. “What’s wrong, dear?”
Without realising it, Seb had put his hand to his heart. It did nothing to dilute the darkness swelling through it. “How do you know this is the right way to do things? Why destroy societies? I mean, should you be going to all these planets and overthrowing governments when you can change things peacefully?”
“That’s what we’re doing. You’re helping me so we can take the violence out of the revolutionaries. You’re helping me talk to more of the slaves, to guide them to do the right thing.”
Something in her voice didn’t ring true. Her words were accelerated with the slightly frantic sound of desperation. “But we’re still taking their planets by force. It doesn’t seem right. There has to be a democratic solution.”
“What? You think we should go to those in power and ask them politely to give it up?” Scorn in her tone, she shook her head. “You think those benefiting most from the way things are will stand aside while we disempower them? Your mum knew better. She saw what we had to do.”
It made sense, those in power wouldn’t give it up.
“Democracy doesn’t exist in this galaxy. Our lives are controlled by the games the rich and powerful play. They sell us the illusion of choice, but it’s not real.”
“But what’s the alternative? We replace their leadership with your leadership?”
“Our leadership.”
It was like she was trying to sell him on being in power. He craved a quiet life with—
An explosion then sounded out. The palace shook beneath Seb’s feet. He saw for the first time something he hadn’t before. A flicker in her green calm. The look of deceit. Something about the explosion had pierced the veil. He stepped back another pace.
The sound of cracking stalt possessed the palace. Loud pops raced through the structure as it failed.
As much as his aunt looked like she wanted to project calm, she’d clearly been rattled. A bitterness had risen up from inside her. She thrust her hands in his direction, her charm gone. “We need to do this now. Come on, help me contact the revolutionaries before those in power take it back. Help me do what your mother wanted to help me with all those years ago.”
Seb stepped back again. The sadness he’d felt only a minute or two ago resurfaced. Stronger than before and somehow more personal. It swelled through him. Something had gone seriously wrong. Something irreversible and his aunt knew exactly what.
Chapter 48
The cracking and popping of the palace’s failing stru
cture chased Reyes through the vast hangar. The entire place could come crashing down at any moment and end them all. Where she’d felt fatigued before, adrenaline now spurred her on, surging through her as she ran. The line of mechs in her sight helped her move. Get to one of them and she’d be home free.
Another sound came to Reyes over the noise of the palace falling apart; the stampede of boots.
One eye on the way they’d come from, Reyes saw the first of Enigma’s army appear. Halfway between Sparks’ ship and the mechs, she stopped. Those in the ballroom might be dead, but the palace clearly had more guards.
As she watched more of Enigma’s army stream into the hangar, Reyes looked at Sparks’ ship again. It would be easier to run back to it. She could get out of there with them. But before she moved, the army opened fire on it and the back of Sparks’ ship closed. The small vessel’s shields repelled the attack, the blaster fire ineffective against it. For now. Sparks would have to get out of there before a soldier with a larger gun arrived.
The whoosh of Sparks’ ship’s boosters rumbled through the hangar as she lifted the small vessel into the air. When she spun it around, Reyes saw her in the cockpit. She threw a shooing motion at her to encourage her towards the mechs. All the while, the sound of the collapsing palace cracked around them.
Reyes took off at a sprint, large chunks of stalt falling from the ceiling at random points as she closed down on the line of giant metal humanoids. Behind her, Sparks opened fire on the guards, driving them back and sending a shower of crystal spraying up from the ground.
Despite there being a line of available mechs, Reyes only had eyes for one. When she reached them, she ran straight for the largest of the lot. So tall its head nearly touched the hangar’s ceiling, it stood open, steps leading down from its chest. The steep climb almost too much for her, her legs wobbled as she got to the top, strapped herself in, and started the bot.
Two button presses and she encased herself like a mummy in an oversized sarcophagus. Before Reyes had worked out how to use it, Sparks came through to her on the radio.
“Reyes, this place is going to collapse any minute now. We need to get the hell out of here.” All the while, Sparks continued to lay down fire against Enigma’s army, keeping them pinned in the doorway. “You ready to go?”
After several more button presses, Reyes smiled as the mech lifted into the air. Her favourite thing to fly in the entire galaxy. Although her smile quickly faded; too much had happened for it to last. “Ready when you are, Sparks.”
A second or two more of shooting, Sparks then spun her ship around and boosted out of there.
Even through the mech suit, Reyes heard the creaking and groaning of a palace about to collapse. She followed Sparks out into the crystal landscape.
Chapter 49
Despite the destruction ripping through the palace beneath his feet, Seb still heard boosters. A second later, he saw a small vessel and a mech rising from out of the building. Several ships burst out after them, clearly trying to hunt them down rather than escape themselves.
Seb already knew who piloted both vessels, but he waited for the confirmation. Both the mech and the ship flew straight at him, skimming over the roof of the palace. The mech caught up to him first and spoke with Reyes’ amplified voice. “We’ve stopped the transmission from getting out, but Enigma cut Bruke’s leg off, and SA’s dead. I’m so sorry, Seb. Take her down, and we’ll get the hell off this planet.”
It took for both Reyes’ mech and Sparks’ ship to fly past before the words truly sank in. Where Seb had been painfully aware of the cracking and popping structure beneath him, it suddenly vanished with his concern for his own safety. His attention back on the woman with the green eyes, he saw the serenity had left her. His fists clenched, he spoke through gritted teeth. “Who are you?”
“It doesn’t matter who I am. It’s what I stand for.”
A bubbling rage boiling within him, Seb stepped close to the woman, another shudder running through the soles of his boots. “You stand for evil. Death, destruction, deceit. You might have fooled yourself into thinking you represent something good, but you don’t fool me. Nothing good can come of all the lives lost because of you. The lives lost to brutal regimes that you’ve supported. The lives of the slaves devastated from being forced into a living hell, and the carnage you’ve let loose on the galaxy. Thousands, if not millions, are dead because of you!”
No more than a background noise, the ships that had followed Reyes and SA out of the palace soared overhead. Their engines wailed and their blasters pulsed as they laid down rapid fire against his two friends.
A loud crash to Seb’s right broke his focus on the green-eyed woman. A large section of the palace had crumbled and fallen to the ground. It wouldn’t be long before the entire structure went with it.
Seb looked out into the stalt desert and saw guards escaping the building in every direction. They were so far away they looked like ants.
One of the ships exploded above them, the grey cloud of smoke broken by Reyes flying her mech through it.
Seb turned back to the woman. Although tears filled his eyes, fire roared within him. “SA and Bruke? One dead, the other mutilated!” The sadness he felt when she’d tried to take him over must have been for his friends. For his love. Were it not for the grief derailing him, the green-eyed woman would have taken control of him.
As Seb stepped closer to the woman, the woman stepped back, cracks and pops of breaking stalt all around them. So what if he went down with it? As long as she did too. “Did you even know my mother?” Before she could answer, he said, “You got into my head, didn’t you? You mined my weaknesses and used them against me. But I think what you said about me being a transmitter was right. You wanted to use me as a tool.” Another splash of collapsing stalt as another section of the palace fell. “And now you have nothing, no transmitter in the palace, and you won’t be using my mind.”
The woman with the green eyes finally spoke, pressing her hands together as if praying. “It’ll work. We can change the galaxy forever with this. We’re so close to seeing it through.”
When Seb didn’t reply, she pointed at him, her finger shaking. “And if you don’t, you’ll have to live with the consequences. You’ll have to live with things exactly as they are now.”
A life without SA hardly seemed worth living anyway. “How do you know it would work to use me as a transmitter? What evidence do you have that I could even do it?”
“It’s what SA’s been doing to communicate to everyone.”
“What?”
“Ask her.” A wicked smile streaked the woman’s face as she covered her mouth, pretending to be shocked. “Oh, that’s right, you can’t.”
The raging furnace burning within Seb spilled over. Lava ran through his veins, and he clenched his steel-lined fists. The ferocity of the wind grew and swirled around him as if reacting to his increasing power. Another ship exploded above them, a large flaming engine falling from it and shattering through another part of the palace.
Without knowing how he did it, Seb reached out with a shaking hand and held the green-eyed woman in place. He had total control, and the stretch of her wide eyes showed she knew it. Although he remained on the spot, his mind rushed forwards, directly into hers.
So dark in her head it made Seb’s skin crawl. Veiled in shadow, he couldn’t see anything. Then he turned a mental spotlight on, and he saw her truth. He saw the lies she’d told him. Although still in her mind, he spoke aloud, a vague awareness of everything falling apart around him. “You’re not my aunt at all. You never knew my mum and dad. You pulled that out of my head. You lied about everything.” As he delved deeper into her mind, he said, “SA was using me to project her telepathy, but she didn’t know that. You wanted me to think she was manipulating me.”
The power surging through Seb swelled as a pulse, a deep thrum of energy. And he had more to give … lots more. He reached out to every slave in the galaxy. He felt their
insanity, their sadness. He felt their fear and their fury. He pulled it all into him, relieving them of their suffering and the desire to inflict it on others. Every being screamed through his mind—a hive of chaos, thousands of voices deep.
Seb gathered it as a swirling mass. He shook as if he’d burst. Then he fixed on the woman in front of him, the woman in white with the green eyes. She looked weak now. He loosed a scream that shook the heavens before sending every shred of torment he’d pulled into himself at her.
Confusion in her green eyes, they spread wide with panic before she opened her mouth in a silent scream. Too much to even vocalise, she couldn’t escape the feeling of what she’d been responsible for. Every shred of pain she’d inflicted was forced into her. Three more ships blew up in the sky above him while he held the woman, making her live the torment of what she’d created. The palace shook again, another section of it falling in on itself.
When Seb let go of the green-eyed woman, he watched her clamp her hands to the sides of her head as if she could contain the burden. She then dropped them and released a throat-tearing scream before running at a flat-out sprint towards the edge of the palace’s roof. A second later, she vanished over it.
When Seb caught up and looked down, he saw her broken body on the stalt below. Blood pooled beneath her head, growing ever wider as a crimson halo. Despite the power of his ancestors surging through him, giving him the ability to rip her limb from limb—even with the distance between them—he opted to kick a loose piece of stalt from the roof instead.
He watched as it sailed down and hit the now dead woman in the face.
Chapter 50
It took for the palace to shake beneath Seb’s feet again to snap his attention away from the dead woman below. The wind continued unrelenting while a dogfight raged overhead. Reyes and Sparks flew through the air, lighting it up with the explosions of Enigma’s ships. One after the other, their enemy fell, bursting into flames, smoke rising while their vessels dropped from the sky and shattered what remained of the stalt structure below.
The Shadow Order - Books 1 - 8 + 120 Seconds (The complete series): A Space Opera Page 129
