by Power, P. S.
"What do you plan?"
Dareg shrugged, then shook his head. That move didn't seem to carry any information to the other man however. Why that was, he didn't know. It worked with almost everyone on Earth, and the Forten were from there initially.
"Seeing what he wants to be done. I got him into this. If he insists that I stay and face penalties as well, then I have to do that. I'd be honor bound to." Which was probably true enough. Hopefully Lynd would see running away from everything he'd ever known to be superior to that. It could be that going into that room would be the end of his life, as he knew it.
Yarl wasn't buying that one in the slightest however. The Forten had a very strong hold on the idea of duty, and law, but honor had been gotten rid of long before. That meant it seemed like a trick when he stood on that, even if it were as real to Dare as anything else in the messed up situation he found himself.
He felt drained, and still like he was in shock. Oddly that had little enough to do with murder, and more to do with Merriland, who, if he had it right, was the template that his mother had been taken from. She looked youthful enough, but the feeling from her put her age at around sixty. Older than his mother would have been by about twenty years.
Thinking about that drove him to distraction for a moment.
"I have to know what's required of me. So, can you get me in to see him?" That didn't seem possible, but the man nodded, feeling sad. After all, it was clear that this boy from the original home world had done the right thing. They simply didn't have a good way not to punish someone for it.
Which apparently wasn't a thing that the child was going to allow to happen. The sense of all that practically poured from the leader.
They walked into the hallway, which was done in white and gray, since the room they were in was still not too far away from the main port. About three hundred feet from the airlock that would let them into the vacuum of the hangar itself. No one used that kind of thing back home, but it was kind of clear what it had to be. The difficulty there was that Dareg had no way to make the doors work.
He also didn't have time to worry about that kind of thing. What was needed in the moment was getting at Lynd, and making certain that his shield, when turned on, would wrap two people in it. That was a thing that he couldn't manage rapidly. Not in the unfocused and worried state he was in. So he fought to clear his mind, which caused his body to become much slower. It was enough that Yarl looked at him even as he waved at one of the two bulky, but still short, men in the hallway.
"Are you feeling well?" There was concern in his voice, but Dare didn't answer. He couldn't, really.
The guards were waved over, and they came, probably due more to the President being there than anything.
"Mr. Canton is requesting to speak to Mr. Zise. Can that be arranged?"
The two guards, police, who were both in gray outfits that reminded Dare of Austran jumpsuits, seemed troubled, but one of them finally nodded, not wanting to anger the man in charge. He didn't think it was a good idea however, since it could be an escape attempt. Dareg picked that up very easily from the man. Then he realized that Yarl hadn't spoken in Standard at all, even though he'd understood him. That was due to reading him, he realized. He'd understood the intent behind it, not the sounds.
Then he shut all of that down, and let himself be placed in restraints, not struggling at all, and walked slowly into the room with Lynd in it. They were thin shackles, with a hardy chain between them, which secured tightly behind his back. Those would have to come off, before they left. Not that he had anything on him that would allow for that. In a combat rage he could rip them apart, even if doing so damaged him, so, calmly, for the first time ever, he started to work that out. How to trigger a combat rage on purpose.
It wasn't going to be hard.
All he had to do was think of the situation with his mother. His kind, almost doting parent, who might have been much different than she'd seemed. The betrayal of it all slid across him, even as Lynd glanced up at him, and the President suggested they leave them alone.
The silver man stared at him, and then lowered his eyes to the cuffs behind him.
"I'm sorry. This was the price of saving people however. I'd heard that they were letting you go free... I did what I could to clear you, but the record is fairly clear. That we worked together?"
It was hard, since he was actually both worked up on a physical level, and mentally calm. He needed to be a lot more of both however, if this was going to work out, so redoubled his efforts, trying to speak at the same time.
That meant he stood there for a long while, shaking. Lynd seemed to think it was fear, but he wasn't capable of that for the moment.
"Do you... Want to leave?" The words were slow, and sounded almost like a drunk person were saying them. That or a person that had been hit to hard on the head.
Lynd stared, but just felt confused.
"I don't understand. We can't leave. We're probably off to a work crew. It might take a few weeks, but there's no way to really show we didn't execute the medical officer. We did, so... What do you mean?"
It was too hard to put into words, and there was too much to say, in the time they had. In a few minutes the men outside the door, which was just a regular thing for the place, not a special reinforced one, not being a real cell, were going to come back, and lock them both away in a far sturdier facility.
So he struggled.
"Escape. I can... Maybe get us away. Do you want that? You can't stay with your people..." That was the big thing. The man might prefer a life of servitude and privation to being taken from his own people. In that case...
Well, then Dareg was escaping alone. That might even be easier, since he didn't know for certain he could get the shield to act the way it needed too.
He tried however, and kept working on it, so that it might work if the time came.
"How? We're in chains, with guards on the door. Even if we can best that, we'd need a way off F-Two. They'll have locked down the hangar here, so no ships will be left inside it, just to prevent that from taking place."
Dareg looked at him, not able to explain it all, as his mind drove deeper and the combat rage took him.
It was clear the man was willing not to be a slave, at the very least. Not for doing the right thing. He just didn't see another way. Other than death. That was an option. Trying to escape unarmed, would probably mean that. Especially while in chains.
Taking a deep breath, still shaking so hard that he probably seemed ready to pass out, he noticed his new partner in crime rock backwards. That was the disorientation field from the rage, he knew. A sign that he was ready. Pulling with his arms, he could feel the biting pain of the shackles tearing into his flesh. With a thought he activated his healing amulet, which meant the metal tried to heal into his flesh, even as the things snapped, causing his left arm to make a second sound that was similar to that.
Then it clicked, the metal being rejected from his body. Most of it, but not all. It hurt, but his hands were free. The man in front of him went wide eyed. It wasn't a noiseless thing however, which meant the two guards ran in at full speed. They didn't seem to really understand what was happening, and reeled themselves, when they got close to him. That meant he was able to fight. His shield turned on, so the whole thing was far from fair after that. They had weapons, but given the space they were in they couldn't use them without risking the apparently non-escaping Lynd, who was simply sitting there, his own hands still behind him.
So they had to try to use small, closer range things that, thankfully, didn't do anything to him at all. He on the other hand was more than capable of battering the men with punches and kicks that were far more solid than flesh would have allowed. They didn't go down easily, but after three or four minutes of fighting, having knocked them each out several times, they didn't get up again. Dare wasn't certain, but they felt alive.
"Come. We need to run."
The other man had his hands behind him, which
slowed them both down, but he moved at a better pace than most would have managed that way. If it hadn't been for the restraints he might well have matched what Dare himself was doing, which was interesting. Probably for the same reason, really. The man had been genetically designed to be that way.
They headed toward the airlock, or what he hoped would be that anyway. Thankfully his new friend could make the door on it work. Then the man used his head to point at a panel on the wall.
"We'll have to override the air system. That's vacuum on the other side right now. I can close the door behind us, by getting the thing to claim that we're planning to open the outer doors, but that won't buy us much time." Indeed, there was a hammering from the other side of the door, the recovered police trying to get at them. That, it felt like to Dare, was frustration rather than a plan to tear the thing down.
He had to move his mind upward a bit in order to speak again. That meant his body hurt, and head ached a little, since he was still healing from his efforts. The combat rage was still going on as well, which was interesting to note. His body was panting from the effort of it, and Lynd looked sick. Breathing deeply he tried to shut that off, but it was hard at the moment.
Worse, he was pretty certain that the conflict, his being both calm mentally, and in a total rage, was probably killing him. He ignored that part however. If he had to die to get the other man away, then he would.
"No. We need to be in a vacuum. I'll wrap you in my shield, and we can jump as soon as there's almost nothing around us. The shield isn't designed for it, so we'll probably die." It was true, but he sounded very flat. Like he was drunk and not caring at all. About anything. Which was true, as far as that part went.
The other man, gave him a funny look, and then laughed.
"Eh. Why not try?" Then, using his hands carefully, since they were behind him, he took a deep breath and moved to strike an orange colored button near the door. "When I hit this, the air will evacuate. What do I do?"
There was more banging on the door, but it sounded a little more purposeful now. Regular, and like metal was being used to pry at something.
Dareg looked at the other man.
"I need two minutes. When I nod, hit the button and move to me. Get as close as you can. Then hang on, since if it works, we'll be in orbit around Earth. We'll need to land then, but it shouldn't be hard to stay with me. If it is... Then don't let go. It will take a few minutes."
It couldn't possibly make sense to the man, but he waited, ready to elbow the button, and a few moments later, as it seemed the door would be truly forced open, Dare nodded and threw everything he could into telling his shield not to push the other man away, insisting without words that it wrap him up instead. There was a hiss of air going away, and a panicked expression from Lynd as he threw himself forward, harder than was needed, then held on to Dare for dear life, placing his legs around him, since his arms were behind his back.
The shield activated, and tried to push the other man away, even as part of it wrapped him up. Only the strength of the other man let them stay in contact, even as the shield was around them. Dare kept trying to make it easier, but nothing happened. He held on to the man's upper body as hard as he could.
His mind fought, but he was losing. Rapidly.
"Change of plans. Hang on. Don't let go..."
He didn't know if there was air in the space they were in at the moment or not, but he set the jump instructions as precisely as he could, and leap to the only place other than space itself that he knew, for certain, wouldn't have air in it. The docking bay on Harmony. There was a ship there, he saw, which he flew toward, moving fast. Headed toward the main window he hoped. Praying someone was inside. There was as luck would have it. A small, very dark colored Afrak lady. She even seemed to figure out what two people being there, holding each other, had to mean.
Maybe not how incredibly hard it had to be to keep in contact, the shield slipping off the other man, and what little air they had slipping away like it was. Just as they both started to choke to death, unable to breathe, the side of the ship formed around them, and once they were sealed behind a wall of glowing green, air slapped them, making his ears pop. It hurt, but he wasn't going to whine about having air again. He couldn't, since gasping was the order of the day.
The small woman stared at them both, since they were now on the bridge of her ship, where she'd been sitting alone. He wanted to apologize to her for the inconvenience, and thank her for their lives but had to fall down to the floor, making a powerful wheezing sound for a while first.
That meant she scrambled for her neck, and pulled a healing amulet. Then, moving forward she tried to use it on him first. Dare had damage, such as blood vessels in his eyes having burst, but so did Lynd. He desperately waved her to the other man, not able to explain why. She did it anyway, making her one of his new favorite people, he decided.
Her words were frightened however, though that seemed about being scared for them, more than anything else.
"How did this happen? Should I get someone?" She was speaking in Afrak, but he got her meaning, even if he couldn't speak yet really. He pulled his handheld however, not knowing who to get in touch with first. The Queen came to mind, because it was her world, but dumping a situation on her like that seemed a bit mean. Possible impolitic as well. After all, Dareg had escaped from the Forten, kidnapping one of their people at the same time. That could be an issue at some later date, if they wanted to press things.
What he needed then was someone that could get things done, who wouldn't turn them in immediately. No one actually came to mind at first, which probably had to do with how hard it was to think when you didn't have enough oxygen. Finally he picked among the people he knew lived on the Moon, almost at random.
That got him Timon Baker.
The man saw him and smiled, but that faded almost instantly. Looking around, trying to see past Dare, the man focused, hard. To make that easier, he moved the device from side to side, slowly. Only after a full rotation did the other man speak, his voice calm.
"Vacuum exposure. The other man seems to be one of the Forten. You don't have a ship, so... You used your jump shield to get both of you here? There are bindings on him, and you have one on your left wrist, so... You escaped from someone? They're unusual, not Earth type, that I know of, but not too different from what are used for criminals in Austra. Thicker and more substantial seeming. You wouldn't have come here from there however, and the odds of having a Forten from there... Well, that isn't too farfetched. I can see that one happening, actually. You would have just flown away, not gone into space, if that was the case. So, something happened away at the new fleet?"
It was a good guess, so Dare nodded, then, finally managed to speak. Between gasps.
"Yes... Advers... saries. Killed one... Murder there."
The man nodded.
"You're with Kimi, which means on Gerent's ship. Kimi? Can you let me in when I get there? I'll come directly. Hang on." The the screen went blank. After a second the sigils came back up, but he didn't know who to even begin to call about the mess he'd made of things.
That meant sitting and panting was in order, for both he and Lynd. Really, that showed a lot of improvement, and the other man's eyes cleared of blood, even as his own stung. By the time Timon got there, about seven minutes later, they were both nearly back to normal.
Kimi hadn't spoken the whole time, just seeming quietly freaked out, but he didn't get it. Not until Timon came in, and looked at the scene, then leaned way down to give the tiny woman a hug.
"I'm sorry, I know this must bring back memories. We all miss him."
That was enough for Dareg to understand at least.
"Erid was... The best of us." This time the pause was just about not knowing what to say. That this was the widow of a man that had fought against the darkness and died for it hit him solidly. Hearing that they'd killed such a being might be hard for her to take.
After all, Dareg hadn't managed t
o save her husband, in the first fight. No, he'd frozen at first, while the man died.
Looking up at his giant uncle, he tried to explain, hoping it wouldn't seem too weak to anyone.
"I went to take some magic to the Forten. Lights I made, and some boxes. The floating kind? I made a few thousand of each, for practice, so when their leader got with me about lights, it just made sense." He took a few deep breaths, then went on. Timon had his communications device out, and was pointing it at him, the whole time. Capturing what he was saying.
Swallowing, Dareg shook his head a little. He really didn't want it taken down. Not with what it likely meant.
"I... There was a woman there, Merriland. Forten, one of their leadership class. I... She's my mother. I mean, she looks like her... Only she wasn't one of the Adversaries. She was, is, really just one of the Forten... I noticed that there was one of the enemies there too. He looked like a slightly shorter version of Kevin Straughan. It looked like him, and he was distorting time, if just a bit. I couldn't feel him otherwise. I managed to have Neesa the Ysidril get the President, the Forten leader, and the others clear. Lynd here stayed with me, and Kiernan Tag, the Kevin lookalike. When we could, and it was safe, we killed him. He vanished in a puff of black smoke, like the others did here?"
Timon was intelligent, and watched him carefully, his mind going so still that there seemed to be nothing to read from it, even though he was still trying too.
"To their laws, we were both guilty of murder. The President was trying to let me run away, even if it broke their laws, since he knows the truth, but their legal system couldn't do that. Lynd was just... Stuck. So I kidnapped him, and forced him to come with me. It's my fault and responsibility. I tried to rework the shield, so we could both jump, and it kind of worked, but I realized that I wasn't going to be able to land on Earth from orbit. So I came here. Thankfully Kimi saw us and let us in almost instantly. We would have died otherwise." He bowed, still sitting in her direction. She was breathing hard still, and sweating a bit. Mainly with worry for them still.
