by Darrell Pitt
“So it is true,” Ragin said as the group drew near. He was a tall, pale grey man with large eyes. “There are strangers in Sartaria.”
“We didn’t mean to intrude –” Brodie started.
Ragin cut her off. “It is too late for that. You have already brought trouble.”
“What do you mean?” Ebony asked.
“The Tagaar soldiers are in the main square,” Ragin said. “They are demanding that we hand you over.”
“And if you don’t?” Dan asked.
“If we do not,” he said, “they will execute one of us every hour.”
Chapter Twenty-One
I was standing in a small lane in the early morning light. I felt terrible about leaving Chad behind, but there was nothing else I could have done. Peering down at the wrist compass, I saw that the Russian Premier was nearby – and on the move. He and his security forces had probably been warned of my approach.
I flew straight up into the sky. I had been worried before about the authorities catching sight of me, but I was beyond that now. There was only one direction, and that was forward.
Hovering over the town, I looked for movement on the landscape and found it immediately. A convoy was leaving the other side of the village. It was comprised of a dozen jeeps and personnel carriers. In the midst of it was a limousine.
My stomach turned over uncomfortably. It wasn’t so much at the thought of taking on the convoy – although that was difficult enough. It was what awaited me if I succeeded. I would have to use the Stonekiller weapon on the Premier of Russia and then –
And then my whole life would never be the same again.
Creating a shield around me, I started toward the convoy. A gunshot rang out; they had already seen me. I swung around behind the convoy as the firing continued. Soon an angry hail of bullets was rebounding off me. The convoy accelerated out of the town, followed a road through a field and into a thickly wooded area. I hung back and waited until it reached the forest. It would be more difficult for me to manoeuvre in the woods, but it would also be harder for them to spot me.
Waiting until the convoy reached the heart of the wood, I focused on one of the trees near the road. Building up an enormous gust of wind, I applied some force and it fell with an almighty crash behind the limousine. The vehicles behind it screeched to a halt. Stranded. Only a few armored cars remained in front of the luxury automobile.
A rocket flew out of nowhere at me. A launcher must have been on one of the lead vehicles. I flew erratically through the trees, but it still pursued me. Flying high above the field, I created a cannonball of air and propelled it straight toward the rocket.
Ka-boom!
The shockwave knocked me flying for a few seconds. I shook my head to clear it before once again sighting the remaining convoy. Good. The rear vehicles were still stranded behind the fallen tree. Now I only had to focus on the others.
I zoomed straight down again and blasted another tree, but this time the remaining vehicles were too fast. They whizzed past before it struck the road. A rocket raced toward me, but I blasted it out of the air before it drew too close. Making up for lost time, I sped after the convoy and knocked another tree to the ground. This one crashed into the bonnet of the limousine, dragging the car to a halt. The remaining vehicles slammed their brakes on, but I threw a hurricane blast at them. Within seconds the vehicles had rolled and crashed into the forest.
Agents leapt out of the front and back of the limousine. They screamed something in Russian and started firing at me. My shield held. If it failed for even a second, I would be cut to pieces by the barrage of bullets. I knocked the men to one side as I advanced on the car.
I grabbed the handle of the middle door, but it did not move.
Damn.
They were going to make me fight them every step of the way.
Focusing on the tiny gaps of air between the door and the frame of the vehicle, I expanded the air until the door shuddered and broke loose. I grabbed it and threw it to one side. At the same time I was hit by another hail of bullets. This time it was from the two occupants of the vehicle. A man and a woman.
I had not expected a woman. I looked at her dumbly. Of course, she was the Premier’s wife. Ivana. I saw an expression of utter terror on her face. My first thought was to console her, but then I realised that was simply ridiculous. I was here to consign her husband to a living death. There were no words that could candy coat that fact. Knocking the guns from their hands, I reached in and knocked out the Premier with a single punch. They had been teaching me how to make my blows more powerful by constructing an invisible glove around my hand. I never knew I would use my training against an innocent man.
The Premier sagged in the seat. Reaching for him, Ivana screamed something at me and started slapping at me with her bare fists. None of the blows struck me, but I was all too aware of her hysteria.
I threw the Premier over my shoulder and withdrew from the vehicle. A number of soldiers had gathered around the vehicle, but someone who looked like a captain barked out an order. They would not fire for fear of hitting the Premier. I zoomed straight up into the sky.
I had him. Now I had to find a place to use the Stonekiller on him. Fortunately the wood in which I had stopped the vehicle was large. After a few minutes of flying, I located a small clearing. I crashed into the soft earth untidily. The effects of the last few days were beginning to take their toll on me. As I lowered the Premier to the ground, I felt him stir and he swung about wildly. He landed a punch in the middle of my face.
Everything went white for a moment. He had taken me off-guard. Without my shield up, I was as vulnerable as anyone. Releasing him, I hit the ground hard. He turned to run, but I recovered quickly, knocking his feet out from under him with a blast of air. He landed face first into the soft ground. Wiping a line of blood from my nose, I struggled to remove the Stonekiller from my backpack.
Alexi Kozlov rolled over and looked up at me with a mixture of fear and hatred. “You Americans are foolish to make this attack,” he said. “Russia will retaliate with all of its might. You cannot kill me without expecting terrible repercussions.”
“I know there will be repercussions,” I said.
Pointing the gun at him, I began to squeeze the trigger.
Chapter Twenty-Two
“That’s blackmail!” Dan said. “And evil…and …”
Tomay looked at him sadly. “The Tagaar are not concerned with morals. They only know of one thing, and that is domination.”
“You cannot hand us over,” Brodie said. “We are innocent –”
“Everyone here is innocent. We have all lost friends and family and worlds to the Tagaar. I’m not sure how much more we can lose.” His bottom lip trembled. “But the decision is not mine to make. We must hold an emergency meeting of the Council to discuss this matter.”
Ragin looked like discussion was the last thing on his mind. “What are these people to us that –”
“The Council must decide!” Tomay snapped. He turned to Brodie and the others. “I will ask you to follow me to the Council Chambers.”
“I appreciate the offer,” Brodie said. “But we should probably just leave.”
“Leave?” Ragin looked at her in amazement. “Child, none of us would be here if we could simply leave!”
“There must be a way out,” Ebony said. “There was certainly a way in.”
She pointed up at the hole in the ventilation shaft.
“The guards will repair that shortly,” Tomay said. “And there is no way to return up the chute. And even if there were – what then? Where would we go?”
Brodie was getting a little tired of this negative attitude, but she reminded herself that these people had been through a lot. They had lost their worlds and they had been reduced to slavery. Besides, it was one thing to try to return to their Flex Fighter. It was quite another to plan a mass evacuation of thousands of people.
“Come to the Council Chambers,” he said.
“There you will be able to present your argument.”
Brodie nodded to the others. “I think we should go.”
They followed in silence through a labyrinth of shanty town structures. Brodie peered into the structures as they passed. Some people were cooking food. Others were sleeping. Everyone looked demoralised.
Brodie decided to try to break through Ragin’s defensive attitude. “It must be very hard for you down here.”
Ragin nodded without speaking.
“How many people live in Sartaria?” Brodie persisted.
“Too many,” Ragin said. “Almost fifty thousand.”
“Fifty thousand?” Brodie was astounded. “How do you survive?”
“The Tagaar give us scraps, but we also have lichen farms which supply most of our food.”
Brodie thought she had misheard the man. “Lichen?”
“It is commonplace on Talias,” he said. “The conditions are right to grow a particular type of lichen. It sucks nutrients from the air and grows from our waste.”
Brodie’s stomach turned over at the thought, but she said nothing.
“We have learnt to work together to survive,” Ragin said. “Some of the people here were sworn enemies before we were attacked by the Tagaar. Now we are friends.”
“So you can understand how important it is to fight the Tagaar.”
“Fighting is necessary when it is possible to win,” Ragin said. “Unfortunately, we cannot prevail against them.”
“You said you built cannons –”
“Parts of cannons. The Tagaar would not be so foolish as to let us have control of weapons.”
They reached a building constructed from a framework of scrap metal and covered in rags. Ragin led them inside. A raised dais in the centre was obviously used for speakers. Another chamber lay at the back in near darkness. They were led into the rear chamber through a thin curtain. A lamp in the middle dimly illuminated the area.
“Petitioners to the Council normally wait here until they are heard,” Tomay said. “I will ask you to remain here until the Council assembles.”
Brodie and the others nodded. Tomay and Regis disappeared through the curtain. No one said anything until they left the Council Chambers.
“They can’t just hand us over to the Tagaar!” Dan exploded. “That would be murder.”
“I say we find a way out of here,” Ebony said. “We need to get away from these crazy people.”
“They’re not crazy,” Brodie said. “They’re just desperate to survive.”
“We don’t even know if it’s possible to escape from here,” Zena said. “And what would happen to those who remain in Sartaria?”
“What do you mean?” Dan asked.
“Can you imagine the anger of the Tagaar if we are not handed over?” Zena continued. “If they are prepared to kill a slave every hour –”
“Then nothing would stop them from massacring these people,” Brodie said. “No. We can’t just leave.”
“Ferdy and his friends have many advantages,” Ferdy said.
The autistic boy had been so quiet that Brodie had completely forgotten about him. “You mean our superpowers.”
He nodded. “Ferdy has great strength and great intelligence, and Dan can manipulate metals, and Ebony can –”
“Thanks, Ferdy,” Brodie stopped him. “You’re right. We do have powers. A co-ordinated attack could –”
There was the sound of approaching feet from the Council area. A large assortment of aliens entered the chambers. Some of them appeared to be members of the Council, though others seemed to be carrying crude weapons. Tomay and Ragin pushed the curtain aside.
“Why are you armed?” Bax demanded. “We are not looking for trouble.”
Tomay looked dismayed. “I told them you were peaceful, but –”
“We make our own peace,” Ragin said. “Now is the time for talking. After that a decision must be made.”
“The decision is easy,” a man behind them said loudly. “The strangers must be handed over to the Tagaar.”
“You sound like a sympathiser,” a woman said. She had a fine covering of scales that glinted in the pale light. “Since when did we start collaborating with the Fish Heads?”
“My people,” Tomay said. “Everyone will have their say. Then the strangers may speak.”
The next half an hour passed slowly. Each of the people who spoke appeared to be from different planets. They were all humanoid in shape; they had two arms and legs and a head, but there the resemblance ended. One of them had only one eye. It was a long slit that ran across the front of his face. Another man had four eyes; two were planted on each side of his skinny, pale blue face.
Brodie had expected most of them to be in favour of simply handing them over to the Tagaar, but to her surprise there was a great deal of argument. It was obvious they all hated their alien overlords. They dearly wanted to regain their freedom, but it quickly became obvious that the residents of Sartaria were all too aware of the difficulties of escape.
Tomay finally took the podium again. “Now we should hear from one of our visitors.”
Brodie had expected to be the one to speak, but much to her surprise, Ebony grabbed her arm.
“I’d like to do this,” she said. “If you don’t mind.”
“Be my guest,” Brodie replied.
She shook her head in some amazement as she watched Ebony walk up to the podium. It seemed like only a few months ago that Ebony had been almost unhealthily quiet. She had seemed afraid of her own shadow, but in a short time she had changed into a different person.
Go girl, Brodie thought. You tell them.
“Up till now you have been without weapons to defeat the Tagaar,” Ebony said. “You have been locked in this place and worked to death. You have had your rights and your freedom taken away from you.”
“We know all this, girl,” one of the men called.
“Tell us something new,” another challenged her.
“Now you have weapons,” Ebony said.
The crowd looked at her in confusion.
“What weapons?” a woman asked.
“Us,” Ebony said.
A few of the assembled crowd looked at each other. A few of them laughed.
“You’re mad, girl,” a woman in the crowd said. “What can a group of children do?”
Ebony reached into the air. In the next instant she held what appeared to be a sword of fire. She moved it about, waving it at some of the nearest people in the crowd. Brodie watched their reaction. Even she was impressed.
“My friends and I are modified humans,” Ebony said. “We have powers greater than a normal being.”
“Your magic tricks may impress some.” A man stepped forward. “I am Gardan. It takes more than a flaming sword to impress me. And it will take more than a girl with magic tricks to defeat the Tagaar.”
“You sound as if you are afraid,” Ebony said.
The warrior’s face went dark. “I am not afraid. I am a soldier of Belemus. We are among the greatest warriors of the galaxy.”
“Then join us in our fight against the Tagaar,” Ebony said. “Remaining here will only bring you death and –”
A boy came running into the tent. He whispered to one of the men.
“The Tagaar have arrived at the portal,” the man said. “They have seized a number of citizens.”
“What is the portal?” Ebony asked.
Tomay stepped forward. “It is the link between Sartaria and the upper ship. If they have already taken some of our people –”
“The time for talking has ended,” Regis said. “We must decide.”
Ebony stepped down from the podium while Tomay asked for a vote to be taken. She looked despondent as she returned to the others in the petitioners’ room.
“I don’t think I won them over,” she said.
“You did your best,” Dan said.
“You ran out of time.” Brodie gripped her shoulder. “A few more minutes an
d you would have had them.”
“We can’t give up yet,” Dan said. “They might still decide in our favour.”
“Maybe,” Ebony replied. “If we’re lucky.”
No one said anything after that. They waited in silence while the Council of Sartaria voted on whether they should live or whether they should die.
Chapter Twenty-Three
I could not pull the trigger.
My throat was dry. My vision had a sharpness of clarity I had never before experienced. I focused on the Russian leader. The gun shook in my hand until it sagged in my grip. I had come so far. I had sacrificed so much. Brodie’s life depended on me firing the weapon at the Russian Premier. Yet I could not pull the trigger. The Premier saw my hesitation.
“You are a boy,” he said. “You do not wish to –”
“Shut up!”
It sounded like my words had been spoken by a stranger.
Alexi Kozlov clamped his mouth shut. I stood there with the gun in my hand, undecided as to what to do next. If I did not pull the trigger and immobilise the Premier, I would be condemning Brodie to death.
But I could not fire.
A sound came from behind me. I spun around to find Chad stumbling through the undergrowth. He had a bruise under his eye and a streak of blood ran down the side of his face.
“I thought I saw you land over here,” he said.
“Are you okay?”
“Peachy. I feel like I’ve just gone ten rounds with Rocky.” He nodded toward the Premier. “So you haven’t put the freeze on the Russian?”
“Not yet.”
“I knew you wouldn’t.”
“How would –”
He stepped forward and placed a hand on my shoulder. “Axel. You’re just not the Stonekiller kind of guy.”
Tears filled my eyes. I struggled to speak. “But Brodie –”
“We’ll find another way,” he said. “I promise.”
We stood silently in the Russian forest. “How far away is the Flex?”
“Some distance.” He studied me. “What are you thinking?”
“The closer we are to Graal, the closer we are to Brodie.”
