by S. E. Smith
“Sorry, it took me a little longer than I expected,” he said.
Kella nodded and shot a quick glance over at Natta’s stony expression. A pleased feeling flooded her. She looked up at Ash. His gaze was the warm, reassuring one he gave her earlier. Either Natta didn’t tell him about what it meant to be a Turbinta or Ash didn’t cared.
“I have received disturbing news,” Kubo stated.
“What is it?” Ash asked, leaning forward so he could see Kubo’s face.
“The Legion is planning to attack Tesla Terra. This time, they plan to destroy all the cities on the planet. It will be the ultimate example of what is to come, I’m afraid,” Kubo replied with a deep sigh.
Kella frowned. “Can you not warn them? They can start evacuation procedures, move from the city, something,” she said.
“We can’t,” Natta said. “The Legion forces are jamming our signals. They have placed a ban on all outgoing flights. Any ship caught trying to leave the planet will either be stopped or destroyed.”
“There has to be some way to warn them,” Ash said.
“I fear the rebellion may be over before it has even begun,” Kubo remarked in a suddenly tired voice.
“Father,” Natta murmured in concern, rising to her feet and coming to stand near him.
“If there was a way to go myself, I would,” Kubo murmured.
“I could go,” Kella hesitantly suggested.
Natta turned to gaze at Kella in shock. “How? The Legion has the entire planet locked down,” she demanded.
“I would leave the same way I came in. My freighter is stored on the outskirts of the city. I would cut through the mountain passes, keeping low until I reach the Sand Deserts on the far side. The Legion does not have the resources to stop all transports,” Kella stated.
Natta shook her head. “The only people crazy enough to try that route are the pirates. The area is littered with spaceships that have tried and failed. There are only a few handfuls of ships that have ever made it through the canyons unscathed,” she retorted.
Kella nodded. “Yes… and I am one of them,” she replied in a calm, confident voice.
Kubo picked up Kella’s left hand and held it tightly in his. She could feel the slight tremble in it. Her fingers curled around his and she gently squeezed them to show him she understood.
“Tell us what you need,” Kubo instructed.
17
Several hours later, Natta, Kella, Ash, and three of Kubo’s elite guards peered down from a rock outcropping. Ash decided the entire planet had to be riddled with underground passages and hidden entrances. They just popped out from one that led them to the outer rim of the landing site where Kella’s freighter was docked.
“Which one is yours?” Natta asked, scanning the area.
“Fourth row, third one from the end,” Kella murmured.
Ash lowered the rifle he was carrying and propped it on the rock next to him. Next, he shrugged his backpack off his shoulder. He reached for the binoculars in the side pouch. Lifting them to his eyes, he aimed them on the spaceport below and adjusted the focus.
His gaze swept down the rows to the fourth one and then moved over to the end until he reached Kella’s spaceship. He must have reached her ship at the same time as the others from the chorus of grunts and snorts that burst out next to him. Natta pulled her viewing glasses down and turned to look at Kella with a raised eyebrow and a very doubtful expression.
“Please tell me you are not serious. I do not know how to fly a spaceship yet, but even I know that ship is nothing more than a death trap,” Natta stated.
Kella shot Natta a heated glare. “It is fast,” she said.
“It is small,” Natta retorted.
“It has to be to get through the canyons,” Kella replied.
“It looks like it will fall apart before it escapes our atmosphere. This will not work. We must think of another plan,” Natta snapped and turned away.
Ash laid his hand on Kella’s arm when she started to protest. She turned to look at him and he could see the resentment and hurt in Kella’s eyes. He knew the feeling. Sometimes you just connected with the plane – or in this case, spaceship.
“Will it hold together?” Ash asked in a quiet voice.
Kella nodded. “I know every bolt on that ship. It will get us out of here,” she promised.
“If you say it will, then it will. Let’s go,” Ash said.
Kella’s eyes widened with surprise before narrowing with determination. She gave him a brief nod and stood up. Together, they turned and began threading their way down the rocks.
“Father will think of another plan,” Natta said while she motioned the guards with them to return through the entrance.
She turned to motion for Ash and Kella to go next only to find they were no longer there. Turning, she released an exasperated snort. One of the guards turned back in concern and frowned when he saw what happened.
“Do you wish for me to go with them?” he asked.
Natta shook her head and a reluctant smile curved her lips. “No, something tells me they will be fine. We have work to do here,” she said, watching the two figures blend in with the other workers down below.
Ash motioned for Kella to slow down. They both turned and began acting like they were talking to each other when a Legion soldier walked by. From what they had seen so far, there weren't very many in this area. They either already did an inspection or were spread too thin to care about what looked more like a spaceship junkyard than a spaceport.
“This way,” Kella murmured, turning and walking along the dilapidated vessels.
They walked side by side. Ash couldn’t help but feel a wave of indecision. He glanced at Kella, but she didn’t appear to be having the same doubts. He honestly hoped her freighter looked better up close than it did from a distance.
His hopes were dashed when Kella turned left and walked over to a dark gray spaceship with long streaks of black along the sides. He followed her, glancing over his shoulder to make sure they didn’t attract any attention. Kella opened a panel near the back and pressed in a code before closing the panel. A platform next to the panel began to lower. It made it halfway down before it stopped.
“Argh! I thought I fixed that,” Kella cursed under her breath.
“Thought… What do you mean you fixed it? Don’t you have mechanics and engineers to do the repairs? You know… someone who is certified in spaceships?” Ash asked, following her around to the side of the ship.
“I am the mechanic. It is my ship. No one touches it but me,” she growled.
“I understand, but…. What are you doing?” Ash asked.
Kella walked over to a pile of discarded parts. She rummaged through the pile, picking up assorted pieces. She examined each piece before she tossed them aside. She continued searching the junk pile until she found two long pieces of metal pipe. He watched as she weighed each piece of pipe in her hands before she threw the one in her right hand back onto the pile and turned around.
Once again, Ash followed her. His eyes widened and his hand lifted in protest when he saw her grip one end like a bat and swing it at the hydraulic joint. Her whole body shook from the reverberation when metal struck metal. She struck the joint two more times before he was able to rip the pipe out of her hands.
“What… are… you… doing?” Ash asked in a slow, measured, exasperated tone.
“Repairing it,” Kella said, placing her hands on her hips.
“Repairing…. Are you crazy? Beating the shit out of a complicated piece of equipment that goes into space is not repairing it!” he retorted.
The words no sooner left his mouth than the platform kicked into gear and lowered to the ground. He shook his head when Kella gave him a triumphant look. She looked so damn cute, he wanted to kiss her.
“You there! What are you doing?” a voice called out behind them.
Ash didn’t think. He threw the pipe he was holding with deadly accuracy. Ash winced when th
e man’s head snapped backwards. He watched in slow motion as the soldier’s eyes rolled back in his head and he collapsed.
“Well, shit,” Ash swore.
Kella stared down at the soldier for a moment before she turned to look at him. A huge grin curved her lips and her eyes glowed with admiration. He shook his head when he heard what sounded suspiciously like a chuckle escape her.
“That was very good,” she said.
“Has anyone ever told you that you are a blood-thirsty woman?” he asked.
Kella nodded. “Yes… you,” she retorted with another laugh.
“Help me hide him. We need to get out of here before anyone sees what’s happened,” he grunted.
He walked by her and bent to grab the man’s arms. Kella picked up the soldier’s feet. They carried the body over and hid it behind the pile of discarded junk that Kella was searching through just minutes before. Ash came to the conclusion that life would never be boring again as he wiped his hands together.
“I will start the engines while you release the locks,” Kella instructed.
Ash reached out and touched her arm. He waited until she looked at him. Doubt and concern clouded his expression.
“Are you sure this thing can get us out of here?” he asked in a somber tone.
Her expression softened and she reached forward to brush a kiss across his lips. “Yes,” she replied.
Ash watched her turn and scoop up the soldier’s fallen laser rifle before she hurried up the ramp. Releasing a long sigh, he turned and focused on releasing the locks. He really hoped that the engines were in better shape than the rest of the ship. Hell, he hoped the hull was in better shape than it looked or it wouldn’t matter about the Legion, the engines, the canyon, or the ramp! If the hull breached, they would be popping louder than a can of biscuits on a warm Sunday morning and oozing out of the seams.
“That is not the picture I need in my head at the moment,” Ash muttered.
He released the last lock and strode around the ship to the platform. He groaned when he saw two more soldiers walking toward the ship. The damn Legion was like a mosquito, every time you thought you killed the last one, another one – or in this case two – appeared.
“Damn it all to hell,” he cursed, swinging around and jogging up the platform. “Kella! We’ve got company coming,” he shouted.
He turned, eyeing the men who had picked up their pace. Ash searched for the control to close the platform. He could feel the rumble of the engines powering up under his feet. His gaze focused on a red button next to the opening. He slammed his palm on it at the same time as one of the soldiers lifted the rifle to his shoulder.
“Close, damn it!” Ash snarled.
He shrugged off the rifle on his shoulder and fired from the hip. Not the best plan of action, but the only choice he had. The first shot hit the soldier on the right in the chest while the second blast spun the other soldier around. He didn’t have time to fire again before the platform blocked his view.
He stumbled to the side and reached for a support beam to steady himself when the freighter began to rise off the ground. A loud curse exploded from his lips when the platform stopped halfway again. Turning, he placed the rifle up against the side under the control for the ramp. Right next to where he set the gun was a long metal bar. With a shake of his head, he held onto the beam and reached for the pipe.
Raising the pipe, he swung as hard as he could at the hydraulic power. The force of the blow reverberated down his arm. He couldn’t tell over the sound of the engines if it was going to work. Drawing back his arm, he was about to hit the joint again when the platform suddenly began moving.
“Ash, we have company coming. I need you to get buckled in,” Kella’s voice echoed over the intercom system.
He turned and replaced the pipe, grabbed the rifle, shrugged off his backpack, and took off across the storage area to a doorway across from it. He stumbled and bounced off the framing around the door when the freighter tilted to the side. A long list of colorful words that he hadn’t said since he was a kid escaped him, followed almost immediately by the disapproving image of his grandmother’s face.
“Sorry, Grandma,” he muttered, holding onto the wall and trying to stay on his feet. “Kella! Where in the hell do I go?”
“This way!” Kella yelled back.
Ash followed the sound of her voice. It would appear that the corridor was a straight shot to the front of the freighter. Up ahead, he saw a short set of stairs. He sprinted forward.
He grabbed the railing and his body swiveled almost one hundred and eighty degrees when the freighter suddenly turned at an angle. Such a maneuver would have been impossible for anything back home except maybe a helicopter. He sat down and braced his feet when the freighter suddenly shot forward, throwing him back against the steps. Pain lanced through the center of his back where the edge of the metal step bit into his flesh. His head snapped back and he gritted his teeth.
“Bloody hell!” he snapped.
His arms strained to hold on until the ship leveled off enough for him to twist around and stand. He really wished he had more time to savor seeing the cockpit of an alien spaceship. Unfortunately, his eyes were not on the controls, or even Kella, but on the rapidly approaching hole in the mountains.
“You need to buckle up, this is going to be tight,” Kella instructed loudly, glancing over her shoulder.
“Tight?! You call that tight? You need a bigger hole if you plan on taking this thing through it,” Ash retorted in a tight voice.
He staggered and half fell into the co-pilot seat. His eyes remained glued to the dark hole they were approaching even as his hands frantically fumbled with the unfamiliar straps of the seat harness. The sound of the buckle clicking registered in his mind and his hands dropped to the armrest.
Kella shot him a brief look. An amused smile curved her lips. Ash ignored her. He was afraid to take his eyes off the ever-narrowing distance between them and certain death.
An explosion of rocks rained down from near the entrance. Ash pressed back against his seat as the freighter swept through the entrance. Above him, Ash could see the fragments of basketball size rocks raining against the thick clear view screen of the ship. The sound was abnormally loud, perhaps due to his fear and the enclosed space. Darkness swallowed them, blinding them for a moment before a glow of red lights lit the area in front of them.
“The tunnel, Kella. The tunnel is ending… Kella, I hate to tell you this, but the tunnel is ending…,” Ash urgently chanted, seeing nothing but a wall of rock in front of them.
“No, it isn’t,” she replied, pressing the controls forward.
The freighter tilted and the nose turned down. It took Ash a moment to realize that it was an optical illusion. The tunnel actually curved downward. The freighter dipped, skimming the floor of the tunnel before shooting forward out the other end and into a long, equally narrow canyon. Ash glanced up at the screen in front of them. The two blips that were following them on the screen suddenly disappeared.
“Where in the hell did you learn about that?” Ash asked in a hoarse voice.
“There were a lot of freighter pilots who came to Tallei’s bar over the years. Tallei told me the reason she opened a bar was to gather information. It helps when….” Kella paused before continuing. “You learn a lot from listening.”
“Yeah, I can see that,” Ash muttered under his breath. “Shit, we have more blips.”
“I see them,” Kella replied.
Ash decided right then and there that he was going to owe his grandma’s memory a lot more apologies. His knuckles were almost white from his grip on the armrests. It had been a long time since he was in the passenger seat of an aircraft and he definitely didn’t like it.
“Careful,” he warned.
“I can do this, Ash,” Kella reassured him.
It took everything in him not to crawl out of his seat when the freighter drifted closer to the wall of the narrow canyon. He pursed his l
ips to keep from saying anything that might distract Kella. Instead, he tried to think of some of the prayers he learned in Sunday school. Unfortunately, his mind was a blank. Well, not entirely blank – more like filled with every cuss word he ever learned in every language he could remember.
“Too narrow!”
The words slipped from his lips before he could bite them back. His startled hiss filled the cockpit when the freighter suddenly rotated. The sound of scraping followed by a loud explosion shook the ship.
“I told you… I know what I am doing,” Kella replied.
Ash nodded and watched in fascination as she threaded her way through the canyon. The three blips went to two, then one. The last one hung on to their tail like a Rat Terrier to a squeaky toy – irritating and tenacious.
Actually, he was very proud of himself when he didn’t release a squeak or two of his own. The first time was when Kella fired on a low-hanging rock cluster in an attempt to stop their pursuer. The second time was when they came upon the unexpected wreckage of a still smoldering spaceship which did not make it through the canyon. It was only Kella’s quick reflexes that prevented them from becoming another one of the skeletal remains that already littered the area. The flying remains of burning metal that flew past them told Ash that the last blip wasn’t as quick thinking.
“Finally! I thought he would never die,” Kella muttered.
Ash melted back into his seat. He had to focus on each of his fingers individually to get them to relax their grip on the armrest. Wiggling his stiff digits, he lifted a hand and ran it down his face. He could see the end of the canyon up ahead. They shot out of it, skimming the low desert for several miles before she pulled back and the freighter cut a path upward through the atmosphere and into space.
“Where did you learn to fly like that?” Ash finally asked, turning to look at Kella.
She shot him a quick look. “The gaming programs at Tallei’s bar. I used to play them when she wasn’t looking,” she said with a grin.
Ash gaped at her. He knew his mouth had to be hanging open, but he couldn’t help it. Snapping it shut, he unstrapped his harness.
