Talek looked forward. Bosnan still looked calm but his body conveyed his nerves. He stuck close to the containers, while the remaining thugs fired at the soldiers. The soldiers far outnumbered the thugs and the crew, so Felicia’s numbers dwindled.
As Talek neared the scientist, two soldiers jumped in front of him, firing. Several bolts hit his chest and cut through the worn armor. He hissed, returning fire through the pain. The pounding increased and Talek took his finger off the trigger. He rubbed his temples.
Before the soldiers used this pause to their advantage, Kossk charged from Talek’s left. He threw his spear forward and took care of both of them in one stab. Another thug turned his attention to the Mizan, but Trika emerged, firing four shots at him. They all hit.
Talek pulled his hand off his temple and returned it to his rifle. He had the strength to fight this and get them back to the Killer.
“Not now, Dano,” Fi said, rushing to his side. She shot into the fray. “Too much is on the line.”
“I know.”
He craned his head back. Viktor and Natalia stood a few feet behind him, also firing. Viktor helped Natalia stand, but she still had a good aim. A few of her shots connected with another approaching soldier.
“How are you, Senator?” Talek said.
“I’m fine,” Natalia said, shaking her head. “Let’s finish this.”
Another orange bolt hit her hand. Then her side. Viktor kept her standing.
“Captain,” Viktor said, firing at the new thug with his free hand. His comm sat in the hand that held Natalia. “We must be extracted. This is too dangerous for Senator Valie and, quite frankly, all of us.”
The screaming returned. Talek hissed and stomped his left foot. He had to resist.
“I’ll be there in just a couple minutes!” Sora said, loud enough that Talek heard his voice from the comm. “I just got Scout and Nait. Nait’s critically injured. Felicia got to Chok and he’s out cold.”
Talek had to focus on the right. He turned again and ran forward. Only three of Felicia’s thugs remained and soldiers overwhelmed them. While Trika, Kossk and Fi held some of them off, Naos reached Bosnan who still guarded the canisters. Talek rushed to catch up.
“Let me destroy these containers and we’ll take you back to Catalan in peace,” Naos said, pointing his pistol at the canisters. “Maybe Kasco and the rest of your people will have mercy.”
“Those canisters will remain untouched.”
Talek halted and barely kept his right foot on the ground. He wobbled back and forth. Why now? What did it want?
“My people? This will be my people’s legacy,” Bosnan said, scoffing. He stepped to the side to fully cover the canisters. “It will be my legacy and my creation. I’m not leaving them.”
Talek saw Naos’ finger reach for his trigger, but suddenly, a red laser ripped into his back. While Naos cried out and toppled over, Captain Nelson ran forward, stepping on Naos’ back and pointing his rifle at Chief Bosnan.
“Don’t move or I’ll blow your weird head off.”
Talek sprinted forward, ignoring his head. He lifted his rifle and aimed at Nelson. He could blow up his head in one shop.
“I’ll destroy your precious clay, too, so I wouldn’t move.”
“No. Absolutely not!”
The statement turned into a scream. It echoed throughout Talek’s head, bouncing off the walls of his skull. He felt the vibrations becoming more real and he felt like his actual head shook. His ankles went to the right and he fell.
A bolt hit his back. Then another. It burned through his armor.
The sky thundered. Not the sky of Wantim. The sky of Nash. He fell off the tree, hitting every branch as he fell. Jekk did, too.
“Jekk?”
His younger brother ran to their sides. He shook Jekk.
“Jekk, it’s Caleb! Can you hear me?”
He heard his parents’ wails.
“This vegetative state may last the rest of his life. It is a miracle that his twin didn’t sustain a similar injury.”
He felt another bolt. The valley flooded his vision. He saw soldiers dragging Naos away. Nelson cuffed Bosnan. Talek could still stop this.
He rubbed his elbows against the surface and pulled himself forward. He aimed his gun. Three soldiers grabbed the canisters.
“It is time.”
No. He felt the chains and heard the deep-throated screams. He saw the man in white.
“Your name shall be Selas Taban.”
“Talek! Get up!”
Fi’s voice took him back to the valley. She scrambled to his side, diving to her knees and grabbing his arm. “Come on, we—”
Three red bolts hit her back and she collapsed. Talek yelled and dropped his rifle, reaching for her. Another soldier grabbed her.
Trika entered his vision, firing like a madwoman. Talek saw the sweat that drenched her face. She focused on the soldier who had Fi and paid no attention to Nelson. He shot her three times in the stomach. She fell.
Green beams hit the valley. Several soldiers died but so many still charged forward. Talek heard the engines. The Killer hovered above them.
“Kossk, get the Senator onto the ship! If we all attempt to board, there is a higher probability they’ll kill all of us,” Viktor said. Talek couldn’t see him but heard the frantic shouts. “You can get her onboard faster than I could. I’ll distract the soldiers.”
“Your body is not that of a warrior—”
“Take her!”
Talek slammed his palms into the ground. He tried to pull himself up. He heard the shuffle of footsteps behind him. He lifted his head but pain crawled into his forehead. It ached. It throbbed. Worse than ever before. His head fell back to the ground.
“Kossk, we can’t leave him!” Natalia said. Her voice sounded farther away. “We can’t leave any of them!”
“Viktor, we don’t need sacrifices!” Sora’s mechanical voice said. Viktor rushed past Talek. “Get Talek. Get everyone, I don’t want to leave—”
“It’s too late, Captain!” Viktor said, firing at the soldiers. Talek had never seen him fire a gun so much. “Go, for all our sakes!”
Six bolts hit his legs. Viktor collapsed. Talek heard Natalia’s scream, but it sounded distant. Talek could hear the ramp closing.
Most of the gunfire ceased. Some of the soldiers fired at the Killer, but Talek heard it soar through the sky. He fumbled with his rifle, trying to press the trigger. He didn’t know where the bolt would land, but he didn’t care.
His hands trembled. The crawling overpowered his focus. Everything in front of him blurred. The screaming overpowered his brain.
His body came off the ground. Soldiers grabbed him, but Talek couldn’t see them. He couldn’t hear them. Only the screaming.
“It is time. It is my time.”
Darkness filled the nebula. The true nature of this galaxy called. Darkness and its consequences trickled everywhere, even down to a lower-class ship crew. Indeed, darkness that he and his family had personally seen.
Darkness filled his vision and screams peaked. Talek’s consciousness vanished.
15
Chok rubbed his head and released the stick, letting the Killer come to a stop. Sora leaned forward and glanced in both directions out the viewport. The scanner said nothing flew nearby, but he didn’t fully trust it. The Bombard sat on the other side of Wantim and, if it hadn’t left yet, it could appear at any moment.
He saw nothing. Nothing except the blackness of space. The infinite blackness that Sora always came back to. The Killer drifted through it alone.
“I can’t believe you didn’t go after them!” Scout said, yanking Sora’s jacket. “You’re just sitting here while they take them!”
Sora sighed, turning around and looking at the several bandages that clung to Scout. Two large bandages sat on her arms. “The reason they got captured is so that we could get away. Not even the Killer could take out that many soldiers and look at us.”
; He motioned to Natalia, who had changed into a casual shirt and pants. Gel covered her wounds. He pointed at Kossk who had a few bandages over his damaged scales. Sora felt the ache in his chest. He struggled not to wheeze. “We couldn’t take them down on Wantim and we certainly couldn’t get them back if they’re on the Bombard.”
“Hopefully they kill big butt who hit me,” Chok said, growling from his chair.
“I hate that we had to leave, too, but we have to recover,” Natalia said, placing a hand on Scout’s shoulder. “Otherwise, we’ll be of no use to them.”
“We already are!” Scout said, pulling away. She stepped away from both Sora and Natalia. “By leaving Wantim, we lost. We’re done. You missed your chance.”
“If we had stayed, Nait could be dead,” Sora said. “I’m sorry, Scout. I’m upset, too.”
More than he currently showed, in fact. He had to remain strong for what crew he had left, but fury filled him. He still felt the flames. Sora couldn’t believe that any of this happened.
“Yeah? You sure seem like it,” Scout said, scoffing. She threw her hands up. “What’s our move now, Sora? I don’t know where Bettina keeps the Bombard and that ship is far more powerful than ours. A lot more men, too. Letting those carriers get there was a mistake.”
Sora coughed, grabbing the main console for support. He hunched over, coughing two more times. The pain in his chest increased. He felt bruises in his ribs as he gasped for air. He didn’t know what to do next. He needed to rescue them but didn’t know how.
For the first time, Sora didn’t have hope to give.
“Exactly,” Scout said, like she read his mind. “Bettina wants them on Etionapa in a day. She’ll kill whoever is left then.”
Sora stood straight, catching his breath. He saw the grimace on Scout’s face. She curled her fist and slammed it into the wall. Sora winced, imagining the pain that would come after. Scout yelled, but anger drove the yell. Not pain.
“I should’ve killed her,” Scout said. “She beat me. How pathetic.”
“Queen Bettina is a warrior, Scout. You couldn’t—” Natalia began.
“So am I! She freaking trained me!”
Scout kicked the wall with her wounded leg. The bandage and medicine underneath numbed the pain, but Sora still didn’t find it a good choice. She whimpered and clenched her teeth.
“Your body needs to heal, these actions will not aid it,” Kossk said, stepping in front of Scout and blocking the wall.
“She’s going to execute Naos on the capital ship,” Scout said, whirling around again. Sora saw the growing water in her eyes. “He may be dead already. Bettina just doesn’t want him dead. She wants to kill him to hurt me.”
Sora closed his eyes. Bettina used the pain of someone Scout cared about to get to her. He knew the feeling.
He opened his eyes and stepped forward to rest his hands on Scout’s shoulders. “I’m so sorry. We will get them back, Scout. We’ll find the Bombard and get them back, including Naos. She won’t kill him.”
He had to have hope. He had to make hope, even if he didn’t feel it.
“How?” Scout said, shaking her head. She brushed his hands off her shoulders and locked eyes with him. The water diminished. “We’re no better off than when we started, Sora. I’m still nearly dead. Someone close to me is captured again and now your crew is with him. Nait’s worse than he was in that prison. This is useless, Sora.”
She turned and left the cockpit. She didn’t punch the wall again or storm off. She just walked away.
“I will go check on Nait’s body,” Kossk said, nodding to Sora and following her out.
Chok hopped out of his chair and also walked toward the exit. “I need rest. Head still hurt.”
Sora took a deep breath and leaned against the wall, rubbing his eyes. He needed to have hope but didn’t know the answer. He touched his chest and felt the burn. He winced as the flames appeared in his closed eyes. They raged and he could do nothing to stop their touch.
“You still need to go to the medical bay, Sora,” Natalia said, snapping him back into reality. He removed his hand from his chest and the pain lessened. She tapped a dent in the wall closest to her. “You still haven’t gone into detail about what happened with Felicia but it left some damage.”
“Probably not much different than you would expect,” Sora said, shaking his head. He gritted his teeth as his chest tightened. “She tried to take the ship and we fought. She almost won but the chaos distracted her.”
“What is it between you two?” Natalia said, crossing her arms and rubbing them against her shoulders. She stepped into the center of the cockpit. “I know your history, but you always try and control yourself when you talk about her. I know that it goes deeper than what you let on.”
Sora felt a singe from the flames. They crackled in his ears. “I’ve had plenty of time to deal with it.”
Natalia shrugged. “Sometimes time isn’t enough.”
Sora bit his lip and looked to space again. He hoped that perhaps blackness could dull the flames but it didn’t. He still felt them. They still flashed in front of his eyes. He still saw his father screaming and dying. He still saw Felicia screaming at him as he flew away on Bolton. He still heard 13-BZ stating that she hired him.
“The day I found out Felicia killed my father changed my life,” Sora said, continuing to stare at the blackness. He focused on it, forcing the lights and computers out of sight. “I got the Killer that day and everything changed. I felt so betrayed, hurt and angry, but I also realized that I wanted something more. I wanted to be something better than a spacer who worked for the same drug lord who killed his father.”
He paused. White speckles filled the black canvas. “I’m not sure if I am better than that, Natalia. I’ve flown across the nebula and tried to help people, especially people like me. People who want more. Still, though, Felicia bests me and leaves me with no idea of how to move forward. I’m still filled with an anger that won’t go away.”
“Why do you think you are angry?”
“Sometimes, I think it’s because I didn’t kill her on Bolton,” Sora said, gulping. The flames interrupted the black and burned over the white. “I always see a fire, Natalia. The same fire that killed my father. It died down after she did or so I thought. It never actually went away and now it wants to consume me. I can feel its heat.”
He blinked, trying to shove the image away. It didn’t leave. He grabbed his hair and pulled. “Felicia has done terrible things but she has a point: I did steal her ship and leave her to die. As angry as I am, I don’t know if that was the right decision. Maybe that makes me angrier.”
The flames singed him again, but suddenly a hand grabbed his chin. He expected to feel another burn but didn’t. The orange vanished first and then the black. The cockpit appeared before him as Natalia turned his face toward her. She stood close to him now. He sighed.
“When Bettina’s troops came after me, I was shocked. I ran, but even after I escaped I felt worthless,” Natalia said. Sora hadn’t noticed how much hazel her eyes had before now. “You saw me like that and talked me into coming out of it. Betrayal hurts and, in the moment, it changes us into people we’re not.”
Sora frowned. He had not felt this vulnerable in a long time. He’d never talked about the flames out loud. He had never seen a reason to admit their existence.
“I’ve seen the way you run this ship. It is your ship. You gathered us all together and fought for us. You’ve shown how much you care, even when we resist it,” Natalia said. She smiled. “Maybe you made a mistake in the past, but that’s done. You are not the same man you were when you left Felicia.”
Sora heard Viktor asking if he could call him ‘captain.’ He saw the officers chasing Scout. He saw himself sitting at her bedside. He heard Natalia ask him to take her to the Killer. He remembered the calm walk to the Consortium and the brief instances of laughter that the crew shared along the way. His life had changed since Bolton. He had changed,
too.
“I see how you became a senator. You have a way with words. Bosnan missed out by not taking your offer.”
Sora flashed back to the lab. He saw Kasco handing him that pad. As Natalia came back into view, Sora’s eyes widened.
“I got a few tips from a freighter captain in the middle of the countryside once.”
Sora chuckled. He hadn’t laughed in a while. He wanted to ask Natalia about her relationship with Jet. He wanted to hear if she’d ever had a relationship.
However, his crew needed him. Scout said they had one day. If Sora wanted to make hope, he needed to get to work.
He pulled away from Natalia and walked toward the exit. “Our reflection reminded me of one option we may have. Come with me.”
Sora hurried into the corridor and made a hard left into the next room. As he entered the communications center, he gestured to the pad that sat on the large, circular communicator in the center of the room. A set of televisions sat in a tall nook to the left.
“If you could, get the center console to the frequency that’s on that pad,” Sora said, walking to the chair and sitting down in it. His fingers hit the keyboard in front of him, activating the primary television. “Remember the pirates that Kasco mentioned? Maybe they can help us. Pirates know the space of the nebula better than any other group.”
“Pirates? That sounds like a dangerous game to play,” Natalia said, hitting several buttons on the central communicator.
“I don’t think we can be picky at this point.”
“How would we compensate them for any help?”
Sora inhaled. “We’ll deal with that when we have to. If I can work with Felicia, I can work with them.”
He heard the comm beep. He tapped his fingers against the side of the chair as he waited for someone to pick up. This had to work.
Suddenly, the beeping stopped. Dots materialized on the television. Sora rose an eyebrow and glanced to Natalia, who shrugged as she approached the tall chair. He didn’t expect a pirate to answer that quickly unless they had a threat ready to go.
Sora returned his attention to the screen, clearing his throat and straightening his back. He needed to look as professional as possible.
Survival, Dark Times Page 21
