Chapter 37: Chapter 37

AMY

Amy smiled as she looked at the two bottles of champagne in her picnic basket. ~Bubbly, a killer view, and a few hours alone with an amazing man who loves me. What more could a girl ask for?~

As she approached the observation room, she wondered exactly how much time they had left. The door slid open, and she stepped into the tiny lift that would take her down.

She shifted the basket into her other hand, and as the door opened again, her grin fell at the sight of Ali sitting on the bench, laughing at something that looked like a yellow blob. ~Great. So much for some privacy.~

She turned to leave but heard someone call out to her, “The Amy is here.” The blob’s strange voice echoed through the room.

“The Zaxary is looking forward to meeting the Amy. The Zaxary has heard many great stories from Prince Lucas and Prince James.”

Amy pulled in a deep breath and turned to face them, forcing a smile onto her face.

“Hi, Zaxary. Ali, nice to finally meet you,” she said, shifting the basket to her elbow and stepping off the lift. “I’ve heard all about you.”

“It’s nice to meet you too. Prince James has told me much about you,” Ali said, standing up to greet her. “I thought you would be taller. James made you sound like a warrior.”

Amy laughed. “I am, but we humans aren’t as tall as the rest of you. Doesn’t mean I can’t kick butt,” she said, sitting down and placing the basket on the bench.

“Would the Amy and Ali like to hear another joke? The Zaxary has one special.”

Ali turned to the blob with a smile. “Please.”

“The Zaxary is reading a data unit about antigravity. It is impossible to put down.”

Ali snorted, then covered her mouth with her hand. Amy smiled, shaking her head. ~That’s like the worst dad joke ever.~

“That’s funny. Why do you tell so many jokes, Zaxary?” Amy asked.

The blob shifted his mass around until he faced Amy.

“The Zaxary is different from many sapients. Gahaals have a difficult history. When The Realm tried to colonize Ghaal, our planet, Gahaals made war against them.

“Many lives were lost, on both sides, until they realized we were sapient. This history makes others uncomfortable. There is prejudice.

“Many saw Gahaals schloop others and think the Gahaals are just mindless consumers of mass. When the Zaxary tells the jokes, it helps. Means the Zaxary becomes relatable. Not so much prejudice.”

“That’s smart,” Amy said.

The yellow blob wobbled. “The Zaxary thanks the Amy for the compli—”

“Alert status, set alert status throughout the ship,” Prime’s voice cut down from the ceiling.

Amy looked up with a frown. “What does that mean?”

“Trouble,” the Zaxary replied. “We should stay here.”

“Battle stations!” Prime’s clipped voice barked from the ceiling.

With a shiver, the Zaxary moved forward, faster than Amy thought the blob capable of, flattening himself before flowing around her and Ali’s feet.

Tendrils of yellow mass whipped around the bench seat, holding them securely in position.

A sharp jerk to the left almost made Amy lose her balance despite her restrained legs. She steadied herself with a hand on the bench and caught Ali as she shifted.

“Are we under attack?” she asked, heart in her throat at the thought of all that cold space outside just waiting to suck the oxygen from her lungs, as the Zaxary split off part of his mass.

“The Zaxary does not know.” Both parts of him spoke at the same time as one moved over to the window.

“Prime, what just happened?” Amy asked, shifting the basket back so it wouldn’t fall.

“Breeeeeech—” The voice of Prime, usually so precise, drew the word out and trailed off, and Amy felt a shiver slide up her spine.

“Prime?” When Prime didn’t answer and the lights in the room flickered, the little hairs on the back of her neck rose and her hand moved to her hip, but her service gun still lay in a small drawer in her room.

~Shit. What the hell is going on?~

“I’m scared,” Ali said, hugging into her.

“It’ll be okay, Ali. I won’t let anything happen to you. We just need to find out what is going on.”

She nudged the gloop around her feet, and it moved away. She got to her feet and turned toward the smaller blob looking out the window.

“Zaxary, can you see anything?”

The blob looked out the window and peered around. “The ship has detached from the Anchorage, the Amy. The ship moves away.”

~We’re running. Fuck! But Izzy and Mikhlas are still on the planet.~

From the corner of her eye, she saw a bright flash and turned to see a tiny lance of energy streak out from the ship. It flashed across the window and struck something that exploded in a brief burst of light.

~It’s not like Star Wars~, she thought as the small craft shattered into a million pieces of debris, flung out in all directions.

“The generator is nearly expended, the Amy. The ship is helpless. The Zaxary must go to the engine room!”

Saying this, most of the mass under the bench seat whipped tendrils toward the main yellow body and launched itself through the air.

From within the blob, Amy saw through the transparent yellow skin parts of the mass spin rapidly and heard a soft grinding noise, smelling ozone in the air.

Before she could call out to him to stay, the blob launched itself to the roof and slithered up a ceiling vent she’d never noticed before about the width of a Coke can.

“He left us,” Ali said.

“Not all of the Zaxary left.”

Amy looked down, and from under the bench seat a considerably smaller blob about the size of a basketball moved out.

“What’s he—you—shit, what’s happening?”

“The Zaxary has gone to help recharge the engines,” the little blob said in a sad tone. “The Zaxary will hifen. The Zaxary is a silicate lifeform. Water bonds to the Zaxary from hydrostatic charge.

“If the Zaxary grinds the silicate and carbon cells of our form together we build up electrical potential. Doing so means most of the Zaxary mass will be destroyed.

“The Zaxary left this portion behind so that the Zaxary may live on. This is the smallest size the Zaxary can maintain and still retain memory.”

Amy stepped across the room toward the stairs, wondering if there was a way in which this room could be isolated from the rest of the ship. As she moved closer, above them she heard heavy footsteps, many people.

~Prime said ‘breech’ just before she went offline. Does that mean boarders?~

She looked around for somewhere to hide.

~They’re coming this way. Shit, there’s nothing here but the bench seat, and the elevator won’t work if Prime is offline. This room is a bad defensive position. There’s only one way in and out.~

“Amy what’s happening?” Ali squeaked. “The ship is under attack. Oh, this is just like before. I don’t want to die.”

Amy crossed back to the small blob and Ali, taking the child in her arms for a brief second and spying the champagne bottles. She quickly bent and grabbed one by the neck of the bottle.

She pressed a finger to her lips before holding Ali’s hand and pulling Ali behind her. ~Those slat stairs won’t give us much cover, but they are better than nothing.~

Amy looked for the small Zaxary, but couldn’t see him. ~Good.~

“I tell you, I heard something!” A deep voice, unmistakably a Homie, and Amy remembered just how sensitive their hearing was. ~Are they close enough to hear our hearts beating?~

She remembered how even in pitch blackness Mikhlas was able to track Jounan during his match. ~How do you hide from someone who can track your heartbeat? Fuck!~

More noises, and she heard someone step down at the top of the stairs.

~Lesson four: Homies have dense bones, but I know that they are top heavy, with high centers of gravity.~

As quietly as she could manage it, Amy undid her belt buckle, sliding the thick leather through the loops of her jeans.

She passed the bottle to Ali, and as a booted foot appeared in front of her, she swung the leather around the ankle, braced her foot against a lower stair, and heaved with everything she had.

The man slipped, his whole leg protruding through the gap in the stairs, and landing hard enough on the dark-gray metal stairs that she heard a huff of breath. “Dastax!”

~Fuck, there are two of them. We are boned.~

At a screeching sound from above, she just managed to dodge out of the way as a long, shining silver blade penetrated the stairs above her.

As the leg in front of her began to move, she snatched the bottle out of Ali’s hands and smashed it against the stairs.

The bottle exploded, the sweet smell of champagne filling the air as she stabbed the sharp green glass of the neck deep into the leg.

Her assailant roared in pain as with a hissing screech the blade above was withdrawn and the second Homie leaped over his companion to land on the floor. ~Fuck, fuck, fuck.~

Ali screamed, a high-pitched wail of terror at the sight as the Homie turned, a wicked combat blade clutched in his fist, his face twisted in anger.

He rushed them, and out of nowhere, a thin yellow tendril wrapped around his neck. He pawed at his neck as others joined them before the basketball of yellow mass smacked into the back of his head with a wet squelch.

The Homie yelled in surprise, clawing at his head, fingers stabbing into the blob for a second, before, with a look of horror on the Homie’s face, the Zaxary disappeared inside his mouth with a sound remarkably like ~schloop~.

The Homie dropped his weapon, grabbing at his throat and dry heaving, trying to force the Zaxary out of his lungs.

He staggered toward the window, pawing and gasping, as Amy dashed ahead to grab the fallen blade.

She looked up as the one called Dastax pulled his leg free, blood gushing from his calf. “You’ll pay for that, you runt!”

She ran back to where Ali stood shivering. When she saw the terrified eyes of the little girl, Anna flashed into her mind’s eye. Her twin, so full of joy and dreams, who never got the chance to grow up.

~Her life ended far too quickly. Not this time!~

The fear for her own life snuffed out, replaced by a fire to fight and save the child whose only hope for survival lay in Amy’s hands. ~Lesson two: The fire of Infernia.~

“Come and get me, you murdering bastard,” she said, positioning herself in front of Ali.

SILIAN

Silian strapped on the force projectors with haste, the whole time smelling the scent of moonflower in Amy’s quarters. Worry for her clawed at his insides.

He wanted to find her, but the presence of the nanite jammer on the ship overtook everything else.

Without Prime and barely any power left in the engines, they were probably dead, anyway, and more than anything he realized if he faced Morkai’s embrace, he wanted to do so fighting at her side.

Yet the thought of those two missing men twisted him up as he stepped out of Amy’s guest suite into the flickering lights of the main corridor.

Four attackers remained on this level, and he wouldn’t face them in a narrow corridor near the stairs. They would be at one of the main junctions with plenty of room to swing weapons.

He adjusted the force projectors. He’d need as much protection as he could manage. He broke into a run, his sensitive ears picking out unfamiliar sounds on the ship.

At the sound of a retort followed by a gurgling cry, he took the next left and saw ahead of him, barricaded behind some crates, two of the boarders, having just cut down an Orbanite with some kind of projectile weapon.

He shook his wrist, forming the tower shield he’d used in the bout against Gronar, and held it in front of him as he ran, footfalls heavy on the deck.

The two looked up and raised open muzzles toward him.

He stiffened his arm as bright flashes sped toward him, impacting against the shield to ricochet off against the floor and ceiling, leaving small burning craters in his wake.

In his main hand, he formed a glowing sword with a long protective handguard and increased his speed to a sprint.

As several more bolts impacted his shield with terrific force, he lowered his head and smashed into the crates, his heavy body slamming them back against his opponents.

They stumbled back before ramming hands against their barrier and steadying the crates.

He swept out the sword, claiming one’s head as the second stepped back, still blazing away with the gun and causing his arm to shake from the repeated impacts.

Beyond the barrier, he saw another opponent step out from the junction, pulling something from his waist and tossing it in his direction.

As the man transferred his fire to the crates, causing the metal to smash into his shield and setting them alight, he reached up with the sword to swat the blinking device down.

With a shocked expression, the gunman looked down as the device stuck to his chest and promptly exploded.

Only his shield saved him as burning shrapnel ripped past him. He felt the heat of it pass by and as the smoke cleared, he flung his sword at the barely-seen shape beyond.

The fleshy tear that vibrated through his glove confirmed the hit, and he double-clenched his fist to morph the weapon into a large spiked ball to confirm the kill.

He paused in his spot, trying to focus on the sounds around him. ~One left. Where is he?~

A dull ringing still vibrated in his ears from the explosion, and as he forced his mind to hear past it, a blazing projectile skimmed past his head.

Without thinking about it, he dove left into the still-blazing crates. He dug the tip of the shield into the deck to stop his fall.

He spun around, his back striking the deck, and faced the last attacker, moving the shield in front of him as the man raised the barrel to Silian’s head.

With a quick squeeze of his fist, the shield shimmered before three quick bursts erupted toward the man, sending him flying back down the narrow hallway.

Silian rolled to his feet, producing a shorted blade from his other glove and leaped toward the falling body before it hit the ground.

Without hesitation, he repeatedly drove the blade into the man’s chest, then pushed the handle down so the blade cut all the way to his gut.

Silian knelt over the corpse, panting from his exertion as the body below him gurgled its last.

In that moment, a high-pitched, terrified scream filled his ears, coming from the observation room, and the thought of Amy in danger drove him to his feet, his weariness forgotten in an instant.