Chapter 7
“Jesus wept!” I shouted as I watched the Lilacron lasers blasting the shields.
I started evasive maneuvers, but thanks to the Karaak ship I was dragging behind me, my escape was much slower than I had intended. I could hear the lasers pounding against the shields, and I knew I’d never escape the firepower as long as I was hooked to the dead ship. But I didn’t want to give up our prize, so I started to reverse away from the small yet hostile fleet. I managed to back up to the edge of the Lilacron’s range when I noticed that most of the shots, however, were actually whizzing by us as though the Lilacrons were trying not to hit us.
“What the hell are they doing?” Rayne shouted.
“Why are they shooting at us?” I growled.
“I do not know,” Occana said. “But I have an idea of who might have sent them.”
“Well, either way, the Lilacrons have a very strange way of thanking us for saving their lives,” I grumbled. “Francine, can you make contact with their AI?”
“I am working on it now, Will,” Francine replied.
“Well, can you tell them to hurry?” I asked. “I don’t know how much longer our shields can take this.”
I fired a warning shot back across the bow of the lead ship, but the lasers continued to smash against our shields. I couldn’t figure out why the hell they were still firing since we hadn’t backed away and had only fired a single shot.
“Will, it’s got to be the Karaak ship,” Rayne said, and as soon as the words came out of her mouth, I groaned.
“Of course,” I sighed. “They think it’s chasing us, and they haven’t bothered to take a moment to question why it’s not firing at us or at them. Jesus, they really fall apart without you, don’t they, Occana?”
“Apparently so,” he replied, and I could tell that the General was seething.
I could imagine that the Lilacron forces would feel the wrath of Occana as soon as he set foot on the surface. Of course, that was if we weren’t shot out of the sky first.
We couldn’t move, but not because the Lilacrons had us cornered. We needed the Karaak ship, so I knew that I had to protect it, even if it cost me chunks of my ship. So, I planted my ship between the Lilacrons and the dead Karaak vessel I had in tow and acted as the barrier between them. Their ships weren’t as well equipped or as deadly as mine could be, but there were enough of them that they could cause some serious damage.
I watched the edges of the front window and the shields that pulsed around them. I didn’t need to check the readouts to know the shields were losing power. I could almost see the electric field shrink with each new blow, and I was starting to wonder if we were about to get blown to bits by the overzealous Lilacrons.
“How are you doing, Francine?” I asked as the shields sparked again.
On cue, the other ships stopped firing, and while they didn’t back away, at least we could breath for a moment.
“Does that answer your question?” Francine replied.
“Phew,” I said. “I’m not sure the shields could have held much longer.”
“By my estimate, three more direct hits would have disabled the shields,” the AI replied.
“Christ,” I sighed with a relieved glance at Rayne. “Well, at least there’s time for them to recharge while we watch Occana bite their heads off.”
“The lead ship has indicated that we should follow the vessels to the colony,” Francine announced.
“An escort,” Rayne snorted.
“Just in case our salvage isn’t as dead as we claimed,” I remarked.
“Well, at least they’re not shooting anymore,” she replied.
The convoy of Lilacron ships led the way to the colony, and then they flanked us as we flew in through the hangar doors. I carefully placed the Karaak ship down in the center of the space before I set down at the edge of the hangar. The rest of the Lilacron fleet started to land at a distance as well as if they were afraid the ship might suddenly come back to life.
As soon as the airlock closed at the front of the hangar, General Occana was out of his seat. Francine opened the door at the side of the cockpit for him, and he leaped out of the ship like a lion hunting a bison on the Savannah. He had a wild, furious look in his eyes, and as he stormed into the center of the room, all of the Lilacrons exiting their ships hung their heads or refused to make eye contact with him.
Rayne, Bob, and I followed him outside. I sort of wished I’d had some popcorn, because this was about to be an absolute shitshow, and I had a front row seat.
“What in the name of all that is holy do you think you were doing?” General Occana bellowed.
More than one soldier flinched, but no one answered his question. A few hasty glances were exchanged, but most of the Lilacrons kept their eyes on the floor.
“Firing at a friendly ship?” he bellowed. “Since when do we ever do that? I have never been so embarrassed or disappointed in a fleet in my life! Firing at Rayne and Will? They just saved your lives, and this is how you repay them? You selfish, murderous creatures. I should have you strung up for attempted murder!”
Occana was definitely angry, but there was something in his voice that suggested this was more than just an idle threat. Some of the soldiers looked genuinely scared, and I could see a few starting to slowly back away toward the exit.
“You,” General Occana said as he pointed at the soldier closest to him, who immediately went paler than I thought possible for their milky skin. “Do you want to tell me what happened, or should I beat it out of you?”
“No, sir,” he said and gulped. “We were given orders to protect the colony at all costs. We were told that if William Ryder’s ship got in the way, that was an unfortunate sacrifice that would have to be made.”
“And you didn’t stop to wonder why the Karaak ship, that Will has so generously brought for us, wasn’t shooting at us or at any of you?” Occana asked.
“Uh-h…” the soldier stuttered and looked around at his fellow soldiers for help.
“So, you were given orders to shoot the Karaak ship down, and if you killed us, too, then who cares?” I said.
“Well, it wasn’t phrased exactly like that,” the soldier said with a guilty look on his face.
“But that was the subtext, wasn’t it?” I pressed.
The look in his eyes answered the question for him.
“And who gave that order, I wonder,” Occana said. “Let me guess…”
“That would be me,” a voice from the entrance to the colony said.
We all turned around to see Doron, the opinionated and rude member of the Lilacron leaders whom I had the unfortunate pleasure to meet before we left. He hadn’t liked us from the start. He didn’t trust us as far as he could throw us, and he wasn’t afraid to show it.
“Doron,” I said. “I must admit, I’m disappointed to have to see your face again.”
“Your hostility will be noted in your file,” he replied as he marched over to us.
“My file?” I scoffed. “My hostility? If you’ll check the notes, you’ll see I fired one warning shot. Your guys were the ones who kept shooting even though they knew we were friendly.”
“We were protecting the colony,” he replied with that typical, patronizing tone of voice that all politicians used back home.
“Sure you were,” I snapped.
“This is quite the creature,” he said as he stepped past us to look at the Karaak ship.
“And it’s still in one piece, no thanks to you,” Rayne said.
“We’ll have to get our scientists to look at it immediately,” he replied.
“Are you sure you don’t want to try and shoot some more holes into it first?” Rayne quipped.
“Watch what you say,” he said with a warning tone.
“Keep talking like that, and you won’t be saying anything anymore,” she growled.
I put a hand on her arm to tell her to reign it in a bit, although I was quite enjoying the offended look on Doron’s pinched face as Rayne’s threat.
“You and you,” Doron said and pointed to two of the soldiers. “Please take our guests to section C.”
“On what grounds?” Occana asked.
“What’s section C?” I asked.
“The cells and interview rooms,” Occana replied.
“On what grounds?” I echoed Occana.
“You brought an enemy ship into the colony,” Doron replied smugly. “By law, you must be vetted before you’re allowed to roam freely inside the colony.”
“This is ridiculous,” I said.
“The other leaders would not agree to this,” Occana snarled.
“But, unfortunately, I am the only leader here at the moment, and therefore, I have the authority to make this decision for the security of the colony,” Doron said. “Now, are you willing to defy me as well, General? Because if you are, then there’s a free cell for you, too.”
“Don’t,” I said to Occana before he got himself into trouble on our behalf. “We’ll answer your questions.”
“Good,” Doron replied, and then he turned and nodded at the two soldiers.
They approached Rayne and I nervously. They didn’t dare manhandle us, especially since they could feel Occana’s eyes on the backs of their necks, so they politely gestured to Rayne and me to follow them.
“I’m going with them,” Occana said. “I don’t trust you to act fairly in this interview.”
“Fine,” Doron said, though he seemed less than excited at the prospect of spending more time with the General.
The six of us, and Bob, made our way through the colony. This time, however, we were led down a long corridor that took us past what felt like a hundred doorways. We walked past a sea of Lilacrons along the way, most of whom stopped to watch us in surprise.
And then we arrived at section C.
It was obvious where we were, because it featured the only guarded door we’d seen so far. The soldiers on duty barely blinked as we all walked up, and when Doron nodded, they opened the vault-like door to a line of prison cells on one side of the hall and a line of locked doors on the other that I assumed were the interview rooms.
All of the cells were unsurprisingly empty. I couldn’t imagine that in a time like this, when their species was on the brink of extinction, that someone would decide that prison was an essential function, though that didn’t bode well for anyone who was deemed a criminal, and that was clearly what Doron wanted to do to us.
The soldiers opened one of the doors on the right side of the hall and held it open for Rayne, Bob, Occana, and me. We walked inside, and then Doron and the soldiers followed us in.
There was a single table and a handful of stools inside the room. Everything was smooth and every edge had been rounded so there was almost no way to injure either oneself or someone else. Although the seats of the stools looked so smooth that I thought I might slide right off and break an arm of something.
At a nod from Occana, Rayne and I sat down while Occana moved to one of the corners where he could stand and glower at Doron. Doron tried to ignore the General as he sat down across from me and Rayne, and the Lilacron soldiers stood by the back wall on either side of Doron, though they looked less than happy to be there, possibly even less so than we were.
Bob sat down beside me and beeped in solidarity.
“I almost didn’t recognize you when you first got off the ship, Will Ryder,” Doron said as he looked me up and down, and I remembered then that I was only wearing some jeans and a t-shirt.
“This is the uniform of my planet,” I quipped.
“Clothes made out of natural fibers,” he replied. “How rustic.”
“Are we going to sit and discuss fashion choices, or are we going to get these questions over with?” Rayne asked as she crossed her arms in front of her body.
“What is the rush?” Doron asked.
“I don’t want to have to spend any more time with you,” she said.
One of the soldiers chuckled slightly, but he managed to regain his composure when Doron’s head snapped around to look at him.
“Listen, I don’t know why you think this is necessary,” I said calmly. “I know you don’t like me. Maybe it’s ‘cuz I’m not one of you, and that’s fine. Maybe you just dislike me, and that’s fine, too. I don’t care if you do or don’t like me, to be honest. But this is insane. I brought some of your people here, and I risked my life and Rayne’s life to save them. I brought the Karaak ship and two of the bodies here so your scientists could figure out a way to stop these bastards, and again, we risked our lives for you. I don’t get why we’re being treated this way when all we’ve ever done is try to help you.”
“Because I do not trust you,” Doron said.
“And you don’t see how deluded that is?” I asked.
“Clearly he doesn’t, or else we wouldn’t be sitting in here,” Rayne said.
“It is astounding that people of such low intelligence are able to get into such positions of power,” I said, and she smiled.
“How dare you,” Doron seethed.
“How dare we?” I scoffed. “How dare you! How dare you put us in here! How dare you disrespect the people trying to help you! How dare you shoot at us when we are bringing you the one thing that might save the lives of everyone here.”
“We shot at an enemy ship, and you refused to get out of the way,” he said.
“Ah, yes, the enemy ship that was being dragged along by mine, that was dead, and that wasn’t shooting at you,” I said. “That makes sense. Jesus, isn’t there some kind of IQ test they do before you’re allowed to lead your people? And if so, whose answers did you copy in order to pass?”
“Stop this at once!” Doron demanded as he slammed his bony fists on the table. “You come into my colony and--”
“Oh, it’s your colony, is it?” I interjected. “I thought that the leaders of what’s left of your people worked as a group.”
“You know what I meant,” he said.
“Yes, I think I do,” I replied. “Are you seriously using a difficult time like this, when your entire species could be killed at any moment, to make a play to take over the colony?”
Doron opened and closed his mouth while he tried to come up with a lie to deny what I’d said.
“Jesus, you psychopath,” I said. “Your selfishness almost got us killed, not to mention that those soldiers almost destroyed the Karaak ship that we brought you to save your people. If that Karaak ship got destroyed, then everyone’s blood would have been on your hands. And yet… a part of me thinks that you couldn’t care less.”
“That is absurd,” he scoffed.
“Is it?” I pressed. “All you want is power. You don’t care who you might have to get rid of to get it. Your greed has overtaken your logic and your empathy, both of which are qualities that a leader of a species should have. It’s disgusting.”
Doron suddenly reached over the table and grasped at my throat. I stood up, grabbed him by the back of his neck, and slammed his head down on the table. I held it there and looked down pitifully as the sorry excuse for a leader squirmed under my arm.
“Arrest them!” Doron screeched at the soldiers.
The two soldiers glanced at us and then at each other, but neither of them moved.
“I will have you put in a hibernation stasis forever!” Doron shouted at them while he continued to struggle against the weight of my hand. “All of you! You deserve to rot!”
I let go, and Doron immediately stood up and ran around the table toward me.
At the same moment, the door opened, and two more of the leaders entered the room.
“What is going on here?” one of them demanded.
“He just assaulted me!” Doron whined as he pointed at me.
I held my hands up and shook my head innocently, and hilariously, no one else in the room backed him up.
“Doron, why are Will and Rayne in section C?” the female leader asked.
She was terrifying, to say the least, especially when she was furious, which she definitely was.
“Talen,” Doron said. “He brought the enemy into our colony--”
“To try and save your lives!” Rayne said as she lost her temper again.
“How dare you repay their generosity and their sacrifice with persecution,” Talen snarled. “They risked life and limb to bring the Karaak ship to us, and here you are trapping them in a room and interrogating them for no reason.”
“No reason?” Doron said. “These are outsiders! How can you trust them more than me, your own species?”
“Because they have never given me a reason to distrust them,” she replied. “You, on the other hand, have earned our distrust over many, many years of your scheming. Did you really think we wouldn’t learn about your plan to disband the council of leaders and seize control for yourself after the invasion? You were always greedy, even when you were a fat little child who took the other children’s food.”
Rayne and I exchanged an amused glance with one another. That popcorn would have been great right about now.
“You two, put him in one of the cells,” Talen said to the soldiers, who immediately grabbed hold of both of Doron’s arms.
“Get your hands off me!” he demanded. “You cannot do this without a majority vote of the leaders!”
“The vote has already been taken,” she said. “And it was unanimous.”
I heard someone start laughing and then realized it was me. I heard Rayne join in a moment later, and when I glanced at Occana, I saw he was smiling.
“Let go of me this instant!” Doron shouted at the soldiers as they dragged him from the room. “You cannot do this!”
“We can, and we are,” Talen said. “Don’t worry. I’ll make sure you’re given food and water, though I should warn you that this section is not a priority during an attack. But then, you already knew that.”
“What? No!” Doron wailed as the soldiers tossed him into one of the cells and slammed the door.
“The official orders will be transmitted to you,” Talen said to the soldiers, who nodded dutifully. “For now, Doron is not allowed any visitors unless they have been approved by the council.”
“Yes, ma’am,” the soldiers both replied.
“Good,” she said and drew a deep breath. “Will, Rayne, Bob, and Occana, of course, I cannot begin to tell you how sorry we are for Doron’s actions.”
“It’s fine,” I said. “Watching you have him arrested was more than enough of an apology.”
“Still, we are embarrassed by him,” she said. “There must be something we can do to show our appreciation for everything you’ve done,”
I looked at Rayne and caught her mid-yawn.
“A bed would be nice,” I replied, and we all laughed.
They brought us to another section of the colony that appeared to be where everyone slept. It was another section of corridors lined with doors, but people had added personal touches to the doors, like splashes of color, welcome signs, and even a few children’s drawings. The furthest rooms were also the newest, at least by my guess, since the walls and floors were still scuff free and most of the rooms looked empty.
The room we were offered had a double bed, a small bathroom, and purple walls that reminded me of the Lilacron homeworld. The air reminded me of the too cold air of an office building, but at least it had a vaguely floral scent.
As soon as Talen left, I flopped onto the bed and pulled the thin blanket over my body. I grunted as I landed on the rock-solid mattress, but I was too tired to care about that. My eyes were already starting to flutter, and so I folded my arms under my head and closed my eyes.
And I’m sure I would have fallen asleep if I hadn’t heard Rayne shuffling around the room.
“Long day,” I said eventually.
“Yeah,” she replied. “I’m going to have a shower.”
“Alright,” I said, and then I yawned so hard it made my whole face ache.
“We’re okay, right?” she asked.
“Of course,” I replied. “Why wouldn’t we be?”
“I just wanted to make sure,” she said. “After our disagreement.”
I opened my eyes and looked over at her. She looked stunning, as always, but there was a deep worry in her emerald eyes that saddened me. I didn’t want her to ever feel that way, and I certainly didn’t want to be the cause of it, so I sat up in the bed and gestured for her to come and sit beside me.
She sat down next to me with her eyes locked on mine, and I put my hand on top of hers.
“We’re fine,” I said. “People argue. It’s not the end of the world.”
“But I am a guest on your ship,” she replied.
“Are you worried I’d ask you to leave just because of a disagreement?” I asked.
“You’re a good person, you wouldn’t say it outright,” she replied. “But I don’t want to outstay my welcome. I appreciate that you took me off Wildern, but I’ve sort of pushed my way into your life, and you didn’t really sign up for that.”
“Rayne, there’s nothing you could do that would make me not want you by my side,” I said. “You make everything better. I couldn’t imagine my life in all of this insanity without you.”
“Really?” she asked.
“Really,” I replied.
“Good,” she said as she regained some of her bluster. “Because I was just being nice. I have nowhere else to go, and I was kind of hoping you wouldn’t just dump me somewhere.”
“Never,” I chuckled. “You’re safe with me. Your place is in that ship, no matter how many arguments we have.”
“Okay,” she said.
We smiled at one another, our faces inches away. I reached up and ran my fingers over the smooth skin on her face. Her dark blonde hair framed her wonderful features, and I stared into her eyes for so long that I thought I might get lost in them.
And then she leaned forward and put her lips on mine, and every cell in my body turned to jelly. There was an explosion of light and joy as her lips touched mine, and for a moment that felt like forever, the whole world fell away and it was just the two of us, connected.
And then she pulled away with a grin on her face and redness in her cheeks. I knew I looked the same, and we stared at one another for a little longer.
“Go to sleep,” she said eventually. “I need a shower, and you look like shit.”
“And they say romance is dead,” I laughed.
I laid down on the bed again while Rayne disappeared into the bathroom. I looked up at the ceiling for a few minutes as I smiled to myself. I couldn’t believe that I had someone so incredible in my life, a woman that was so strong and intelligent and beautiful who wanted to be in this crazy existence with me. Boy, was I lucky.
I heard something pottering over to me and looked over to see Bob appear at the side of the bed.
“Don’t look at me like that,” I said.
Bob beeped conspiratorially.
“Shut up!” I chuckled.
Bob beeped a few times as though the robot was laughing, and then he laid down at the side of the bed and went into sleep mode.
I closed my eyes and let the warmth of sleep envelop me. I barely registered the rustling of the sheets when Rayne got into the bed a few moments later, though I think I grunted some sort of welcoming statement. When she put her head on my shoulder, I wrapped my arm around her, and then we both dropped off into a deep, dreamless sleep.
The next morning, we woke up naturally for what felt like the first time ever. I peeled my blurry eyes open and yawned, and then I looked down to see Rayne’s head still on my shoulder. Neither of us had moved all night.
I could tell that I’d slept for several hours because I actually felt almost brand new. When I stretched my arms over my head, I didn’t feel any twinges or pulls, so the nanobots must have had enough time to do their thing.
“Morning,” I said when Rayne woke up a few minutes later.
“Good morning,” she replied with a smile.
And then there was a knock on the door.
“Damn it,” I sighed. “Who is it?”
“Occana,” the voice outside the door said.
“Occana?” I said. “Is something wrong?”
“No,” he replied. “The opposite, actually. The analysts have had a look at the ship, and I thought you would like to come and see what they have found.”
I glanced at Rayne, whose eyes lit up out of curiosity.
“Did they find something good?” I asked.
“Yes,” Occana said, and I could hear the excitement in his voice. “Very, very good.”
“We’ll be right there,” I replied as I tumbled from the bed.
Maybe our luck was finally going to turn around.