Chapter 32: Chapter 32

MIKHLAS

“Captain, we are approaching the wreckage,” Iry called out.

“Do we know what happened yet?” he asked, standing up from his seat.

“Unclear,” Prime said. “The wreckage is of an obsolete class-two transporter used for the transport of living cargo. These ships have not been used for a very long time.

“I have assessed the wreckage, and it appears to have been fired upon with an untraceable energy signature. Three cryopods were ejected from the ship before its destruction.”

“Are they still functioning, Prime?” Silian asked.

“Barely. Two have been damaged. They are drained of main power and only the tracking beacon is working. One is still functional, but the power is almost gone. It will not last much longer.”

“Where is it?” Mikhlas asked. The screen in front of them changed and the picture moved away from the debris field to a small white pod floating alone in the dark.

“Prime, lock onto it and bring it in,” Mikhlas commanded and turned to Silian.

“What do you think?” he asked.

“I do not know what to think,” Silian said, leaning closer to Mikhlas to speak quietly. “I have more questions than answers. Why is a ship this old out here?

“How was it destroyed if Prime cannot recognize the energy signature? And why is it carrying the cryopods of a long-dead noble family?”

“Perhaps our new passenger will be able to answer some of them.”

Izzy came to stand by him biting her nails. “What about the other two?”

“There is nothing we can do for them,” Silian said louder to her. “Their pods were damaged, and all life support has stopped working.”

“Who did this?” Amy asked.

“That is one of the questions our guest will need to answer,” Mikhlas said.

“I have placed the pod in the recovery room of the ship,” Prime said after a few minutes. They all stood and began to walk off the bridge.

“Izzy, I will ask you to not enter the recovery room. I don’t know who we have brought on board, and I cannot put your life at risk,” Mikhlas said quietly to her.

“Fine, I’ll watch from here,” she said, and turned back to the bridge.

Mikhlas wanted to say something to her, anything, but what could he say? He wanted to thank her for giving him even a slim chance of being with her. Tell her he loved her and hold her in his arms.

Yet the words would not come out, and now his duties as Captain appeared to get in the way. ~Is it too much to ask for some peace and quiet so we can focus on us?~

He caught up with Amy and Silian, and they walked together.

They rode the lift down in silence, and when they made it to the recovery room, the pod lay on a slab in the center of the white room.

Silian walked up to it first, and his face instantly went dark. Mikhlas looked in through the glass and his mind filled with more questions as he recognized the young teenager.

“What is she doing out here?” Silian asked.

“I do not know. But this is a very big problem,” Mikhlas said, giving Silian a knowing look.

“Who is it?” Amy asked.

“Alianat. She is the only daughter of the rebel leader, Hemkon,” Silian said.

“And why is that a big problem?”

“Because if we wake her, her father will know where she is and come looking. By doing so, he will find the unascended next Queen of the Realm. I’m sure you can imagine what he will do to Izzy if he knows who she is.”

“Then don’t wake her.”

“If we don’t, she will die. Her pod is failing and the only way to keep her alive is to wake her up and put her in a new pod. But once we wake her, her bio tracker will activate.”

“Shit. Can’t we just give her back to her father?”

“No. If he knows she is alive, he will send a Fleet of ships after her. This ship will not survive an attack like that,” Mikhlas said.

“So, what now?”

Mikhlas knew what they needed to do, and he hated the idea, but it was the only way to keep the ship, the crew, and Izzy safe.

“We will need to leave her here,” he said.

“What? You want to leave her here to die?” Amy asked, the shock in her voice evident as she looked into the cryopod.

“I don’t see any other choice.”

“We can’t do that. She’s alive, isn’t she?”

“For now, yes, but her life support will be depleted soon, and she will wake.”

“You want to send this little girl back out into space, to wake up, and then die a horrible death?” Amy looked between the two men.

“I have no other choice. My first and most important task is to make sure Izzy and the Princes are brought to the Realm unharmed and alive.

“The rebels will not show mercy on us. They will blow this ship out of the sky as soon as they see it.”

“You really think her father would kill her for one ship?” Amy asked.

“If the future Queen is aboard, he may. That is a risk we cannot take,” Mikhlas said, and knew Izzy would hate this course of action.

“How long does she have until she wakes up?” Amy asked. Mikhlas checked the pod and looked at Silian again.

“No more than an hour at most.”

“Then we have an hour to figure out what we’re going to do that doesn’t involve letting an innocent kid die,” she said and walked out.

After she left, Mikhlas looked at Silian again. “Get Sus up here. Have him see if there is anything he can do to buy more time.”

Silian nodded and walked out. Mikhlas looked into the pod again at the young girl behind the glass. ~This is the reality of my world. Innocent people die all the time. I’m sorry, child.~

When he returned to the bridge, he saw Amy and Izzy talking.

“What’s the plan?” Izzy asked him when he came up to them.

“I have Sus working on her pod, to see if there is anything he can do to give us more time. If he is unsuccessful, we will have to leave her here.”

“Amy said waking her up is not an option?”

It surprised him to see that she wasn’t as angry about this as he expected her to be.

“No. If she wakes on the ship, the rebels will find us. Find you and the princes. There is no way to block a bio tracker until she is out of the pod, and by then the rebels will know where we are, and track us.”

“Would contacting her father not help?” she asked, her voice concerned.

“For what purpose?”

“To tell her father that we found her. To make a deal with them. He can have his daughter back if he leaves us alone.”

“The law prohibits us from making any kind of contact with rebels. We have a kill-on-sight order for them. Zaftar will—”

“Zaftar can go suck one!” Izzy interrupted him.

“I’ve heard enough about him to know that I don’t like him. I am to be the Queen. It’s time I start taking my own path. And we start as we mean to continue, by finding another way that does not involve violence and death.”

He felt his face twitch into a smile. Hearing her words of hate for the man responsible for so much pain and death and her determination to avoid causing unnecessary death sounded glorious.

“I love the idea, but how do you intend to get around the kill-on-sight order?”

“Prime, tell him what you told me.”

“The law states that the rules of conflict can be changed as needed by any Royal on board a ship. Prince Lucas or Prince James can countermand the order,” Prime explained.

Mikhlas heard the words, and his smile only grew wider. So did Izzy’s and Amy’s.

“Prime, can you ask my sons to come to the bridge, please?” Izzy said with a smile.

“We are contacting her father. See if we can get a feel on where he stands with killing his own daughter, and see if he would be willing to make a deal. If not, then we go to plan B.”

“What is plan B?” Mikhlas asked.

“We do what you said. We leave her here. As much as I hate to say it, if it is a choice between my children dying and someone else’s, I’ll choose to save my sons,” Izzy said as her smile faltered.

“I hear and obey, Dakira.”

Izzy met his eyes then, and her smile returned. His unspoken words rose in his mind at the sight of her smile and chestnut eyes gleaming at him, but he couldn’t kiss her here on the bridge.

He just tried to soak in the way she looked at him. All too quickly the boys ran onto the bridge.

“Hey, Mom, you rang?” James asked, holding a small clear pad in his hand.

“I need to talk to you about something really important. Can we do that?” she asked. The boys both nodded, and they walked down to the main screen. Silian came onto the bridge and went to Mikhlas.

“Sus can’t do anything with the pod. The tech is old and needs parts we do not have. There is not enough titanium in the store for Prime to replicate spares. The best he can do is give us thirty minutes more,” he said.

“It looks like Isabelle has found a way around. We will know soon enough if it will work,” Mikhlas said, not taking his eyes off her and the way she spoke to her boys.

They nodded a few times and then came back over to the main controls.

“Let’s do this,” James said. Mikhlas nodded at the young man and then turned to his crew. They all looked at him, waiting for his commands.

“Miran, contact the rebels, and try and get in contact with Hemkon. See if you can determine if they try to track us. Prime, use sub-light engines to move us away from the wreckage. Ten thousand should be enough.”

He barked out to the room, “Silian, how long before the FLT drive is recharged enough to jump to Homeworld?”

“Three hours, fifty-four minutes,” he answered.

“Too long. We may need to leave quickly if we are to have any hope if anything goes wrong. What is our current range?”

“Three hundred,” Silian said.

“Three hundred what?” Izzy asked.

“Three hundred million light-years. A normal jump at full power with a standard safety margin gives us five hundred million. Homeworld is four hundred and ninety million light-years from our current position,” Mikhlas said.

“A jump of three hundred million seems far enough to escape pursuit,” Amy said.

“We are not the only ones who have jump technology. Three hundred is not very far in the grander scale of things.

“Also, stopping short of Homeworld could pose more dangers. We do not know what is out there, or who might be looking for us,” he said.

“Prime, can you scan that far ahead?” James asked.

“Yes, but it will take some time, and new ships might jump in after the scan process.”

“Some information is better than none. How long?” Mikhlas asked.

“At that distance, it will take me four hours.”

Mikhlas dropped his head. ~It’s too long to be of any use. Any emergency jump, we will have to take blind. ~“How long does the pod have?”

“With Sus’s estimate, one hour and nine minutes.”

“If we wait an hour, how far will we be able to jump?” James asked.

“Three hundred and eighty million, with standard safety margins,” Prime answered.

“Not far enough,” Amy said.

Lucas came over to James and grabbed the glass screen from his hand. “What if we take the power from somewhere else?” Lucas asked.

Mikhlas nodded at Lucas’s question. “Prime, run a simulation. Divert all power from the shields and weapons to the FLT drive.”

“Based on current levels, this simulation shows the FTL generator will be fully charged and capable of a jump to Homeworld in 107 minutes. However, this plan has a flaw.”

“What flaw?” Mikhlas asked.

“If we divert all the power from the shields and weapons, we will not be able to use them until the FTL drive is fully recharged.

“Silian emptied the secondary power storage unit in our last jump, so there is no reserve of power.

“To make a maximum jump distance, we would be left with under 10 percent of power in the main drives, insufficient to restore nonessential secondary systems.

“If the rebels follow us through the jump, or we receive any kind of hostile reception near Homeworld, we will have no way to defend this ship.”

“Will it give us the distance?” he asked.

“Yes, but we would be unable to restore teleportation systems to ensure Dakira Izzy and the Prince’s safety by transporting them into the Black Palace,” Prime said.

~We’re so close. If we simply had more time or a safe haven we could use.~

“Iry, confirm the location of Tekran 4.”

She tapped on a screen in front of her and then nodded. “Four hundred and seven, Captain,” she said.

“Miran, contact Commander Bakron. Request he make ready with a Fleet of flyers to protect Dakira Izzy and the Princes.

“With the flyers protecting us, we won’t have to worry about rebel ships, and we can wait there for the ship to regenerate,” he said, and gave Silian an apologetic look.

~This is not going to be easy for Silian, but it is the only chance to save the girl~.

“What’s Tekran 4?” Izzy asked.

“It’s a small planet mostly used for mining. After the last war, the Fleet set up an anchorage and resupply base with thousands of small, single-pilot fighters to protect the battleships,” Mikhlas explained.

“And they will help us?” she asked.

“They are part of the Royal Fleet. They have to help us,” Silian said in a clipped tone.

“Can we trust them? What makes you think this Bakron won’t be in league with Zaftar?”

“Bakron has no love for Zaftar and Kasana. Zaftar tried to have him hanged, but the Captain’s vote didn’t go his way and instead, Bakron was demoted.”

“Good, so we have a plan that can save the girl,” Izzy said.

“It would seem so,” Mikhlas said to her.

She gave him a grateful smile and walked off the bridge with Amy. James and Lucas followed behind her, and when it was only Mikhlas and Silian left, he turned to Silian.

“Is this going to be a problem?” Mikhlas asked. Silian met his eyes, and they shone a deep red color.

“No...no problem,” Silian said, his jaw twitching.

~I’ll need to keep an eye on him. If Silian tries for revenge, Bakron is within his rights to kill him.~

“I hope so. It is the only way we can save the girl, and you can see how important this is to Dakira Izzy,” Mikhlas said.

“I know. Fear not, I will do as I am ordered, Captain,” Silian said.

He gave Mikhlas one last look and left the bridge. Mikhlas let out a long breath and sat down in his seat. He could understand Silian’s anger. ~The last person Silian ever wants to see again is his father.~