Chapter 39: Chapter 39

AMY

~I can’t let him get close,~ Amy thought. ~I remember how strong they are. Mikhlas almost tore Jounan apart once he got his hands on him, so keep your distance.~

She backed away from the stairs to give herself room to move as Ali slunk further back behind the stairs.

Somewhere off to her right, the other man thrashed around, bumping into the walls with the small Zaxary inside him.

~Maybe I don’t have to win. Maybe I can just hold on until that guy dies, and Zaxary can do his disappearing trick again.~

Dastax lunged at her, and she managed to get enough of her sword in the way to avoid being skewered and backed away toward the bench seat.

~He’s got twice the reach I have. Probably the only reason I’m not already dead is the wound to his leg.~

Amy locked her eyes to a blazing-red gaze and watched the man limp closer to her. She felt the metal of the bench touch the back of her legs and stopped, raising the sword in front of her as her heart raced.

A wicked smirk spread on his face as he swung his blade around in a flashy move with ease and inched closer.

“Nowhere to run, little runt. I’m going to enjoy killing you.”

“Bring it, asshole. I’m not scared of you,” Amy snapped back. ~Lesson one: He’s trying to intimidate me. ~“I’m not the one already bleeding.”

Dastax leaped forward, his blade extended, and Amy dropped to the ground, rolling under the bench away from him. She barely had time to react as he jumped onto the bench, stumbling with an angry groan.

She grinned at his pain, and his red gaze intensified. She pushed her body away using the leg of the bench chair as leverage, sliding on the floor before rolling to her feet, her eyes locked onto his.

He stepped off the bench slowly, as though the challenge to kill her was nothing more than stepping on an inconvenient insect, a trail of blood on the floor as he inched closer to her.

“Ooh, you look like you’re losing a lot of blood there, champ. Go on, you can stop and tie it before you pass out,” she said with a smile. “I won’t take your head.”

He growled and swung his blade again, but she managed to block it, the hit sending vibrations through her arms that threatened to tear her arms from their sockets. ~Fuck, nothing wrong with his arm strength.~

“I do not need my leg to kill you. Only one hand will suffice,” he said as he moved closer to her, forcing her back to hit the window.

He raised his blade to swing, and as Amy readied herself to block what would be a killer blow, a fruity white explosion erupted from the back of his head, sending broken glass and champagne flying into her face.

He stumbled forward, his blade falling to the ground. Amy spotted Ali standing on the bench behind him, her big green eyes wide and scared.

Without hesitation, she leaned forward and placed the tip of her blade at the base of his throat. “You so much as blink, and I will slit your throat,” Amy growled. Dastax froze, his eyes going wide.

Amy applied gentle pressure to the sword, making the huge man back away until he pressed against the glass. Just a small amount of pressure and the sharp metal would slide into his throat.

~I can’t kill him in cold blood,~ she thought.

Without taking her eyes off him she hooked one toe under the blade lying on the ground and kicked it over to Ali. She stared into his angry eyes as he straightened.

~He’s expecting me to kill him. What was it Silian said? We always fight to the death.~

“Why aren’t you killing me?” Dastax asked.

“It’s your lucky day. I’m not in the mood.”

His eyes flicked to one side, toward where the first attacker thrashed on the ground. She saw a moment of panic in his eyes before a deafening explosion tore through the room, sending them both flying sideways into the glass.

She lost her grip on the sword as the world went fuzzy, striking her head on the glass wall.

Her eyes stinging from smoke, she only saw a distorted figure roll over and then felt his huge hands around her neck. “You should have killed me when you had the chance,” Dastax growled.

Vise-like pressure bore down as she scratched ineffectually at his hands. The strength in those hands made the entire world reduce to a single pain-filled tunnel with a pair of red eyes at their center.

As the world faded around, her grip suddenly eased. Spots of blood rained down on her face. As her vision widened, she saw the bloody point of a sword sticking out through the eye socket of her attacker.

She just had enough presence of mind to shift her head despite her protesting neck muscles, when the heavy body slammed down on top of her, the point of the blade scraping the floor next to her ear.

She drew great gasping breaths that hurt her throat, and suddenly the weight on top of her was removed.

“Amy?”

~Silian! He saved me.~

“Come here, you beautiful man, and help me up,” she croaked, putting one hand to her own throat.

“By the Sentinels, I thought you were dead,” Silian said, rushing to her side.

He easily picked her up in his strong hands and carried her over to the bench seat, and she blinked. “Where’s Ali?”

“I’m here,” she called, stepping out from near the stairs.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I think so, the blast just threw me.”

“What caused that?”

Ali pointed and Amy winced as she turned her head to look. The eviscerated body of the first man, his legs lying several feet from the rest of him, lay grotesquely on the floor.

The ribcage looked pulped into a flattened mess, and a thin yellow liquid smeared across the remains.

~Poor Zaxary. He saved us too. Oh no. What did he say? He left this piece of himself here to preserve his life and the rest he sent to the—~

“Engine room,” she croaked, pulling at Silian. “We have to get to the engine room.”

“Can you stand?”

“Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine. Let’s move.”

Silian helped her to her feet and slung an arm around her to help support her. She held a hand out to Ali and the girl ran to her, sliding her fingers into hers, and whispering, “James was right. You are a warrior.”

SILIAN

Relief flooded him. When he heard the scream that drove him to his feet, he thought the worst.

That after finding the woman of his dreams, the dark nature of the Realm had snatched her away from him as if it were not meant to exist.

Seeing the man with hands around her throat, her still body just lying there, and his sword left his hand before he knew he even moved.

Now, as he picked her up and carried her the last few stairs out of the observation room, both his hearts felt like they were beating again. ~But we could still die here.~

“What’s happening?” Amy asked, her voice sounding scratchy and dry.

“The ship is under attack. We were boarded with some kind of nanite jammer that took Prime offline,” he replied as he hurried toward the emergency stairs leading to the engine room.

“Who?” Amy asked.

“Kasana.”

“I knew I didn’t like that bitch for a reason.”

“We are not out of trouble yet. Until the nanite jammer is gone, the ship is under manual control with barely any power left in the engines. I don’t know how we’ve managed to survive this long without shields and weapons.”

“Zaxary.”

“What?”

The lights flickered and then came on full. He looked up as the voice of Prime emanated from the ceiling. “Primary nanite control restored.”

“Prime, it’s good to hear your voice,” Silian said.

“It’s good to be heard. No normal nanite jammer should be able to do that to me, Silian.”

He left that aside as a mystery to solve for another time when the ship was not in peril. “What’s happening outside the ship?”

“The battleships are not pursuing us. Fire control destroyed the few flyers who followed us, and the rest have pulled back to the planet.”

~Why? What made them do that? Did they believe their nanite jammer would take out the ship?~

Whatever the reason, he felt an immense relief as he hustled through the bulkheads and onto the walkway surrounding the massive energy drives.

He looked down to see a scene of devastation.

Motionless on the floor below him he could see the bodies of the remaining two men and the smashed remains of the nanite jammer next to a wounded I’Mag and unconscious Miran.

“What happened?” he called down as he picked Amy up again and carried her down the stairs, Ali following like a lost gimku.

I’Mag looked up, trying to get to his feet with a whir of shattered servos that jetted coolant out one side in an orange flow.

“They killed my craft brother,” he said pointing to one side, where Silian saw the slumped form of Sus against the wall, purple blood spread around him in a pool.

“I would have died too, if it weren’t for Miran. She took one of them down, and then the Zaxary exploded out a service vent. He started making lightning bolts and feeding the engine’s power.”

“He what?” Silian said, putting Amy on her feet and stepping forward to check the bleeding Miran. One of her large black eyes hung loose and deflated out of the socket, seeping fluid onto the floor.

He stretched forth his arm, and his nanites responded, streaming down his cuff.

He looked up as I’Mag nodded toward a yellow puddle, where tendrils of steam still rose to the ceiling.

“All the while Miran and the second one were fighting. When she lost an eye, he focused on the Zaxary, he was going to stop him, you see.

“That was the distraction Miran needed to finish him off, but she collapsed immediately afterwards, and the Zaxary just kept feeding the engines. Like he couldn’t stop once he started and knew it would kill him.

“I dragged myself over to the jammer and smashed it to pieces with my own leg.”

“For which I thank you, I’Mag. Silian, I’m going to transport I’Mag and Miran to the recovery room. You should get back to the bridge,” said Prime.

“On my way, Prime.”

Silian looked at Amy, who nodded at him. “You can stop carrying me everywhere. It’s sweet, but I just need a minute. Go. I’ll catch up.”

Silian nodded but took one second to lean forward and kiss her before dashing out of the room.

As he pelted along the corridor, the enormity of the attack hit him.

~Bakron is involved. He commands the flyers and controls the base. Once Dakira Izzy landed, he must have contacted Kasana.~

He felt his anger rise, the burn in his eyes so intense it felt uncomfortable, and his anger lent him more speed.

As he ran up to the bridge the blast door opened, and he sped through, heavy boots loud on the ramp leading to the Captain’s chair.

“Report!”

“We are clear of the flyers, sir. As soon as they peeled off, I made for the asteroid field. I don’t know how it’s possible, sir, but I’m registering a 15 percent charge in the primary engines.”

“Crewman the Zaxary gave his life to the ship. Let’s make sure his sacrifice is not in vain.”

“Prime, can you deploy your nanites to Tekran 4 from this distance? We must warn the Captain.”

“I already have. It will take some time to get to the surface.”

“We don’t have time. Every moment Dakira Izzy is on that planet, she is in danger. Is there any way you can contact the Captain?”

“No. Tekran 4 is a strategic military post. They have the best cloaking and jamming technology. It will take me longer to break through that than the nanites I have already deployed.”

~There isn’t much I can do with the ship, even with 15 percent power.~

With six destroyers guarding the place like rabid Xinthas, there’s no way a battleship could escape detection. ~But maybe a fast shuttle.~

He heard Amy’s footsteps coming onto the bridge, Ali trailing along behind her.

“What’s going on?” she asked, guiding Ali down to the large chairs.

“Kasana has placed six destroyers here to guard. The base is cloaking. There is no way Prime can port the Captain and the Royal family out of there. She is making her move.”

“Shit! What are we going to do?”

“I’m not sure. We don’t have enough power, and are up against six-to-one odds. There is no one to stand with us, and Bakron has Izzy and the Princes.”

“Do they know what’s going on?”

“I don’t know. Prime cannot get through the field they have over the planet. I cannot contact them at all.”

“Have they made a move?” Amy asked, gesturing to the screen that showed the Justice ships in formation.

“No. They have stopped on the other side of the planet. For now, they are still. But I fear that will not be so for long.”

“They can’t just shoot at their own people, can they?”

“This treachery runs deep. This is a bold move, and one you do not make unless you are sure it will work.”

“Do you think the whole Fleet is compromised?”

“I do not know. Prime, connect me to Commander Remkin.”

A face appeared on the screen, but it wasn’t the familiar long face of Commander Remkin.

“Kinn. Where is the commander?” Silian asked, frowning at the screen.

“He is dead,” Kinn said, lowering his yellow eyes for a moment as a green hue pushed the vibrant color from his gaze, making his dark hair fall around his face.

He turned away from the screen for a moment, exposing a faint straight scar on his neck, just under his ear. Silian felt the same. Commander Remkin was a fixed point in his life for so long.

“What happened?”

“He was killed this morning with all of his senior crew. Lady Kasana hung them at the gate for betraying the Crown.”

“That cannot be,” Silian mumbled to himself as he felt the rare burn of his eyes turning green. ~The commander is dead. One of the most honest men I ever met.~

“He was charged with espionage.”

“Commander Remkin would never do that!” Silian barked out.

“I know. He was a good man. But he asked the wrong questions to the wrong people.”

“How deep does this go?”

“Very deep. I have been given orders to kill you and Captain Mikhlas, including all your crew, and the impostors you carry.

“Lady Kasana has convinced the court that the Queen you carry is not the one chosen by the Sentinels. The Fleet has a kill-on-sight order.”

“Do you believe this?”

~This is madness, how can the captains believe her? Or are they just acting out of fear? ~As he waited for Kinn’s answer the man studied him, the seconds drawing out as Silian wondered if he could find help anywhere.

“No. I stand with you.”

Silian breathed a sigh of relief. “But I fear we stand alone. After what happened to Commander Remkin, no one will disobey any more orders.”

“I need your help, Kinn. Queen Izzy is the true Queen of the Realm, I assure you of that. But we are one ship, with no power.”

“I am not sure how I can be of assistance.”

“Gather all the captains you trust. Tell them Kasana’s plan is not only to kill the Queen, but to destroy the Sentinels as well.”

Kinn’s mouth dropped open, his eyes widening. “The Sentinels? But they cannot be killed.”

Prime’s voice echoed from the ceiling. “A short time ago, Captain Kinn, a nanite jammer was brought aboard this ship powerful enough to disrupt my operations.

“I have a recording of Alianat here, daughter of Hemkon, the rebel leader.

“She testifies that she overheard a meeting between Hemkon and another stating the goal is to destroy the Sentinels, presumably so someone other than the Chosen One can assume the throne.”

Alianat nodded at the image of Kinn on the screen, confirming Prime’s words. “When my father refused to be a part of it, Fleet vessels attacked us,” she said.

“I suspect it was this line of questioning that resulted in Commander Remkin’s murder. And there is one other thing,” Silian said.

“We found an unknown energy signature. Kasana is getting help from somewhere else who also wants to see the Sentinels destroyed. Gather as many men as you can. I will contact you again in one hour.”