Chapter 38: Chapter 38

ISABELLE

“This place is so beautiful,” Izzy said as she stared out the large windows of the room they were given for the night.

The endless sea of green trees, taller than anything she’d ever seen on Earth, stretched out as far as the eye could see. The elevated position of the base made for some spectacular views.

The sun went down slowly, a burning orange disk on the horizon.

“Yes, it is,” Mikhlas said behind her in a distracted tone.

She turned to look at him, and his eyes were on a small screen in his hand as he sat in the chair by a small desk.

“What’s up?” she asked, coming over to him and stroking his hair.

“I do not know. Iry is not answering me, and I cannot connect to the ship,” he said, tapping on the thin glass.

“Iry did say she was going to bed, and I’m sure Amy and Silian would much rather not be disturbed right now.”

“Even so, I should be able to contact Prime. But even she is…out of reach? Cannot be,” he said, a deep frown twisting his face.

“Could it be the shield around the planet? The commander told us about it when we landed. He said communication could be spotty sometimes.”

“Perhaps. But I will feel better once I speak with Silian,” Mikhlas said, and without raising his eyes to Izzy, he turned away and placed the device flat on the desk so he could use both hands.

“I’m sure there’s a perfectly simple explanation,” Izzy said.

She didn’t want him to spoil the excitement she felt inside at being on a new planet. She looked out the window again and felt that rush of wonder run through her.

“Something’s not right,” he said quietly, and sat forward.

“What?” Izzy asked.

“I just did a radius scan of the space around this planet to see if Silian moved the ship,” he said, his grip getting a little too tight on the thin glass in his hand.

“Okay…and what did you find?” she asked when he didn’t say any more.

“Six Fleet ships, holding position on the other side of the planet. And one small shuttle moving very fast toward the ground,” he said.

“Maybe they came to escort us back?” Izzy asked, her heart beginning to race.

“We need to leave. Now!” he said and dropped the small screen to the desk, getting to his feet.

“Why, what’s going on?” Izzy asked as Mikhlas grabbed her arm and pulled her to the door.

“Mikhlas, what’s going on?” she said, firmer.

“The ships are tagged Justice Command. It’s Kasana, and Bakrom’s flyers aren’t stopping them.”

“The boys!” Izzy said, understanding his urgency.

He let her arm go and she ran into the small bedroom on the other end of the large lounge. She swung the door open and the light came on. James sat up first, and squinted his eyes at her.

“Mom? What’s going on?” he said.

“Get up, get dressed, and be ready. We have a problem,” she said to him, and tossed the covers off him, moving fast.

“Lucas, honey, wake up. We have to go, baby.” She shook the boy with gentle hands, and when he stirred, she turned back to James.

“Make sure he gets up and gets dressed as fast as you can, okay, sweetheart? We need to leave, now,” she said and went back to Mikhlas in the lounge.

“What about Iry?” she asked.

“I can come back for her once I know you are safe,” he said, a flash of sadness flickered over his face.

“We can’t just leave her, Mikhlas. She’s part of the crew, and she’s my friend. I won’t do that to her,” Izzy breathed out with shock.

“Isabelle, she knows the risks. She can take care of herself. You and the boys are the only things that matter now.”

“What’s going on, Mom?” James asked as the boys came out the room.

“Prince James, do you know how to handle a weapon?” Mikhlas asked, and Izzy spun around to look at him.

“Excuse me?” she spat.

“Isabelle, the next few hours are going to be extremely challenging and very dangerous. I do not know if Silian is alive. I do not know if any of my crew are still alive. We cannot trust Bakron and his men.

“We are surrounded by enemies, and until this is over, I will not trust anyone that is not in this room. I am only one man.

“I will give my life to protect you, but I will need some help. If Prince James can hold a knife or fire a gun, then he needs to.”

“Mom, it’s okay. I know how to use a gun. Aunt Amy taught us,” James said.

“Oh, God. Okay. Fine. But please be careful,” Izzy said with a lump in her throat.

Mikhlas turned to the large crate they brought with them and opened it. He dug past the clothes to the bottom and pulled out a briefcase-sized box. When he opened it, four dark-gray guns lay next to each other.

“These are replicas of Amy’s gun. Silian asked Prime to make them for the princes, seeing their scores in Prime’s game simulations.

He figured until they attend the academy and learn how to fight, these were the best way they can defend themselves. They work the same way, only these don’t run out of bullets.”

He handed one to Izzy, one to James, and as Lucas stepped forward, Izzy stopped him.

“No. He is too young for that,” she said sternly.

“Mom, I can do it. I almost beat Iry in our last match. I outscored James,” Lucas said behind her.

Mikhlas looked into her eyes and she could tell he waited for a decision. She blinked a tear away and nodded. Mikhlas dropped to a knee in front of the boys.

“This is a real situation we are in. This is no time to be a child. I need men watching my back. If I give you an order, I need you to follow it, no matter what.

Take care in your movements and actions. Always keep yourself and each other safe. These guns are not toys, and this is not a game,” he said.

They both nodded seriously, and then Mikhlas came over to Izzy, pulling her to the side, away from her sons.

“Izzy, I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“I’ve made a mistake in coming here. I’m sorry for taking you away from your home and putting your life at risk like this,” he said, reaching out one large hand to cup her cheek.

“I’m sorry for being afraid of the only thing I’ve ever truly wanted and wasting precious moments. For all of it.”

Izzy saw the swirl of red in his eyes fade and bright green, shining like the purest emerald, appeared. ~Blue is calm, red is for anger, and green must mean sadness.~

“Don’t do that. Don’t talk like this is the last time we will ever speak. You have something to say, make sure you stay alive long enough to tell me when we get out of here, got it?” she said, her voice breaking.

“I hear and obey, my beautiful Queen Isabelle,” he said with a smile.

“Time to go. Lucas, stay next to your mother. James, you follow from the back. I will go in front.

“We need to assume that if Kasana is here, since Bakron did not shoot her out of the sky, he is working with her, and so are all his men.

“So, shoot anything that is not me or each other. The only chance we have is to get out of this base and into the jungle.”

They walked up to the door and stopped in front of it. Mikhlas put his hand up to them and closed his eyes. He tilted his head to the side to listen and nodded.

“The hall is clear. Let’s go,” he said.

***

“Wait here. I will return soon,” Mikhlas said.

Izzy stopped at the edge of the mess hall in which they found themselves and ushered her boys to the wall. They pressed their backs to it, holding their guns to the floor.

“What is it?” Izzy mouthed.

“Two men. In the room ahead. I will take care of them and then we can continue,” he whispered and slipped into the room like a massive wraith.

~Please be careful, my love.~ She turned to her boys. They both held the same expression, scared but determined. She felt so proud of how brave they were, but her nerves threatened to unravel.

She knew her heart beat a thousand miles an hour in her chest, surrounded by those she loved, but haunted by the thought that at any moment, someone might step out and hurt one of them.

Izzy jumped when something big hit the wall next to her, crashing through to land on the floor at her feet.

She looked down and saw a bloody and very dead Homie in a uniform lying on the ground, his neck twisted in a disturbing way. Mikhlas looked through the hole and nodded to them.

Hand over her heart, Izzy stepped over the dead man and then helped her boys do the same.

The room they moved into was another large, open space. Desks were arranged around the room with workspaces set out.

From this point, she could see a few doors at the other end and a large black screen in the middle, under which a second Homie man lay crumpled.

“What now?” Izzy asked as James came to stand next to her and Lucas moved next to Mikhlas.

“Quiet,” Mikhlas said in a hushed voice. He turned his head to the side and smiled. A door on the far end of the room began to slide open, and James and Lucas raised their guns.

“No. Lower your weapons,” Mikhlas said to the boys. Izzy focused on the door and saw Iry step out of the room, her face covered in blood and a dead body lying on the floor.

“Captain, Dakira. It is good to see you are all right.”

“And you, Iry. What do you know?” Mikhlas asked her as she came to stand by them.

“Communications to our ship are completely cut off,” Iry said, wiping at the blood on her face with her split tongue.

“The base is locked down, and Commander Bakron has sent his men out to kill us. I traveled over the roof to get here, and I saw a shuttlecraft land on the other side of the river. I think it is ours, sir.”

“Kasana would have landed within the base. It must be Silian,” Mikhlas smiled.

“Lady Justice?”

Mikhlas nodded. “There are six destroyers above the planet tagged Justice Command. I get the feeling that this shuttle is all the help Silian can provide.”

Iry nodded, rubbing her chin before one long talon picked at something between her large teeth.

“But it will not be easy to get into the base. From my vantage point, I saw guards in the trees, on the ground, and many were heading toward the landing field.

“I am unsure of how many have taken to the sky. It is dark out now, and this planet’s beasts will be roaming the forests. The closest city lies across that forest,” Iry said.

“We cannot stay here. They want Isabelle, and I will never let that happen,” Mikhlas said as his eyes began to change.

“How do we get to the ground? We’re at least five floors up here. If we can get down, we have a better chance of finding Silian and getting to the shuttle,” James said.

“The shuttle will be no use,” Mikhlas shook his head. “They already know where it is, and it will be surrounded. Our best chance is to get to the city and steal a transport,” Mikhlas said.

“Captain, I must disagree. The city is thirty miles away through a dense forest that is filled with predators. Walking in the night with such a small group is asking for trouble,” Iry said, dipping her head a little.

“I know, but our chances are better out there than they are in here. We need to get to the ground and assess the situation. I have no idea yet how to get out of the base past all those men.”

“I know a way,” Lucas said.

Izzy looked down at her youngest as he made the ick face. “What are you talking about, sweetie?”

“Well, you know how we’ve been playing games with Iry? I managed to sneak up behind her once and almost got her.”

“That’s true. I wondered how you managed that.”

“I crawled under the wall through the sewer system and cut my way up into your base,” Lucas said, sticking his chest out.

“Sewer system?”

“Yeah. I mean, shit has to go somewhere, right?”

“Language!”

“Sorry, Mom. Poo has to go somewhere. We just need to find the storm grates on the ground that help wash the system out.”

Izzy looked across at Mikhlas, seriously hoping he wasn’t entertaining the idea of walking out of the base through a sewage pipe. One look and she knew.

“The Prince is a tactical genius.”