Chapter 18
Seelan leaped across the table toward me with his arms stretched out in front of him. I dove out of the way of him toward Melion, who was frozen to the spot beside the table to the right of me. Melion gawked as both Seelan and I hurtled toward him. He pulled my gun out of his belt and tried to fire at me, but it wouldn’t fire without my finger on the trigger.
I crashed into him like a battering ram and wrenched my gun from his hands. At the same time, I pushed him behind me toward Seelan, who was about to reach us. Melian flew into his boss from the force of my shove, and the two of them went down like bowling pins. I switched my gun to laser and looked down at Melion and Seelan who were still in a pile of limbs on the floor.
“Get him!” Seelan cried at his crew.
“Alright, Frankie,” I said as I pointed my gun at the room filled with murderers and kidnappers. “Let’s have some fun.”
I pulled the trigger and a burst of light erupted from the end of the gun. I took out the first row of slavers that had started to scramble toward me in one swoop. The laser severed them in half at the waists, and the halves fell in writhing messes on the floor.
I shoved the keys down the neckline of my suit to keep them safe, and then I dove into the fight.
I felt two hands land on both of my shoulders from behind, so I grabbed one of the arms and pulled the alien’s entire body over my shoulder and slammed them onto the floor with a sickening crunch. I stood on its chest and fired a laser blast through him and into the floor. It died under my foot.
I was charged up and raring to go by that point. The amount of bodies that had started to push in on me had jump-started my own drive to fight, and I was aided and abetted by the nanobots that coursed through my body. I was faster, stronger, and smarter than the entire crew put together, and the bastards didn’t stand a chance.
I fired a few more rounds of the laser to take out the slavers that were the closest to me, and as I did so, I leaped up onto one of the tables to give myself a good vantage point. Out of the hundred that were in the room, there were about seventy-five left.
A bullet whizzed over my head, and I quickly jumped from the table back into the fray. With so many crew members around me, the slavers were scared to shoot at me in case they shot one of their own instead. But as the fight went on, they began to realize that they didn’t care who they hit.
Laser blasts and bullets flew in every direction. I ducked low to avoid the laser fire that zipped across the room from all directions, switched firing mode, and then returned the favor with an Electro-launch bullet to the head of the nearest slaver. The pink and orange striped thing stiffened and fell to the ground a second later.
Suddenly, I had three of them on me at once. All three grabbed hold of my arms and pinned me down on one of the tables. My cheek was pressed into the tabletop while one of them tried to pry the gun out of my hand.
I threw my head back and headbutted the one in the middle square in the face. He let go just enough for me to get some momentum behind me, and then I threw the other two off. The one on the right had managed to get his hands on my gun, but I put a quick end to that maneuver.
I slammed the one on the left onto the table so hard that the wooden slab fell to the ground in pieces with him on top of it. Then, I turned to the other one, who had my gun pointed at me. He kept pulling the trigger as I advanced toward him, and then I saw his face fall when he realized he couldn’t use it.
“I’ll take that,” I said as I picked my gun from his hands in one quick motion before he could react.
I punched him so hard in the face that his skull caved in. Blood spilled out of the mush and splashed onto me, but I wiped it away as I kicked the body out of my way.
“To your left,” Francine said.
I turned just in time to see about five or six running at me with their weapons raised. I dove over the broken table and took cover, and then I popped out from behind the fallen table and lasered them all down.
I started to run around the outside of the room where I could keep an eye on the mayhem I was causing. I started firing the more silent Electro-Launch bullets as I passed people so I wouldn’t draw attention to myself, though the sound of one more blaster would hardly be noticed in the chaos. I wasn’t even looking where I was going. I just saw a body and shot at it. I was like Moses parting the Red Sea, only the path I had left behind was covered in bodies.
Eventually, I found myself in the middle of the room and changed my firing mode again. I fired a few bursts of real bullets for a short while until I was out, and then I switched back to the laser and mowed some more of them down. By that point, It was hard to see the floor anymore because there were so many dead slavers on the ground.
I took out the rest of them as quickly as I could. One of them ran at me and punched me in the chest, but that only shattered the bones in his clawed hand thanks to the suit. I shot him in the chest in return, and he fell to the ground.
I leaped up onto the middle table and mowed down five more who were running for the exit. Two more were heading toward the kitchen, so I blasted them in the heads just for trying to hide among the slaves. Soon, it was just me and a roomful of bodies, and I stopped to take a breath and wipe some of the blood from my face.
“Will!” Francine said, but it was too late.
Suddenly, two strong arms grabbed me by the torso and hurled me across the room. I wasn’t sure I’d ever been airborne for that long in my life.
I crashed into the opposite wall and fell to the ground in a heap. The suit had prevented any serious injuries, but I’d still had the wind knocked out of me. I stood up and looked back at the center table, and that was when I saw Seelan in all his murderous glory on top of it. He seethed where he stood, and his four legs twitched eagerly as he watched me stand up slowly. His hands hovered near his belt, and he drew two guns once I was on my feet.
“Oh, shit,” I said, and then I dove for cover just before he pulled the trigger.
I landed with a thud behind the table again, but it exploded into a shower of splinters. The gun he fired was insanely powerful, and I knew I had to get moving before he found his target.
I got up and started to run, but Seelan didn’t fire.
“Will, his weapons take thirty seconds to recharge after he fires it,” Francine said.
“That’s music to my ears, Francine,” I replied as I stopped and turned to look at Seelan. “Trouble with your weapon?”
He growled at me and pulled the trigger again, but the gun wasn’t ready yet.
“Don’t worry,” I said as I climbed up onto the middle table opposite him. “It happens to all of us.”
I raised my gun and fired, but Seelan was fast. He leaned backward Matrix-style, only he had his four legs to balance himself out. The Electro-Launch bullet flew through the air where his chest had just been and lodged itself in the wall behind him. We both looked at the hole it had punched in his wall, and then he rounded on me.
Seelan started to run at me, and I at him.
“Twenty-seven,” Francine said.
I kept running.
“Twenty-eight,” she said.
I kept running.
“Will!” she shouted.
I threw my legs forward right as Seelan pulled the trigger. I slid right between his legs as his shots flew just over my head, and I emerged on the other side unscathed. I leaped to my feet and turned on the bastard as I counted off the seconds.
But Seelan had learned his lesson as well, and he tossed aside the now useless weapons even as he kicked backwards with one of his four legs. I jumped back to avoid it, and then I watched in horror as Seelan’s body turned one hundred and eighty degrees without his legs changing position to face me.
“Well, that’s not something you see every day,” I said.
Seelan suddenly let out an ear-piercing screech and swung two legs at me at the same time. I jumped over the first one, but the second one caught my feet as I fell back toward the table, and I fell onto the table with a crash.
Seelan grabbed me and threw me onto the floor with so much force that I lost my grip on my gun. My senses deserted me for a moment, but I was vaguely aware that the gun had ended up somewhere to my right. I started to army crawl toward it, but something heavy landed on top of my body and held me in place.
I managed to roll over despite the pressure, and I saw Seelan crouched over me. He pressed his legs down on my body to pin me down, and he leaned forward until his face was mere inches from mine. He opened his mouth, and I got an even closer look at his teeth.
The tips were purple, which I had a bad feeling about.
“His species is venomous,” Francine warned me.
“No shit,” I muttered as I tried to keep one arm between me and the teeth.
I started to feel around in the debris with my free hand for anything I could use as a weapon. Since we’d knocked over everything in the room, there had to be a fork or knife nearby that I could use, but at first, all I could feel was blood and what felt like the sole of a boot. And then my fingers found something hard, and I snatched it up and jammed it into the side of Seelan’s neck. I realized then it was a bone from whatever animal they’d been eating.
Seelan shrieked in pain and backed off just enough for me to wriggle out from under him. The spidery creature pulled the bone from its neck, and its red blood drooled out of the cut. However, it had thick skin, so it was only a flesh wound. It would take more than that to kill this thing.
I was up in a flash, but Seelan was ready. He swung at me with his fists and managed to land a punch on my nose. It didn’t break, luckily, but I felt blood start to drip out of it, and my oxygen tube was ripped from my nostrils. I quickly shoved it back in, pressed the section by my neckline to put my headpiece back on, and then I looked around for my weapon.
It was under the table behind Seelan, so I had to somehow get through him to get it.
“Alright,” I said as I rolled my shoulders. “Let’s dance.”
Seelan jumped toward me, but I dodged out of the way at the last second, crouched, and kicked one of the joints of his legs. I heard a loud crack as my foot connected with his knee, and he almost fell to the ground as his leg went limp. The other three kept him upright, but he was definitely in worse condition than I was. I grabbed another bone from beside the table and squared up to him. He was more on the defensive this time, and he waited for me to make a move.
I feigned an attack to the left, which he moved to block, and I then jabbed my hand forward and shoved the bone into the thigh of one of his other legs. He cried out and grabbed me by the neck. I felt a surge of strength power through my body, and I grabbed hold of his wrist with both hands and twisted.
I wrenched his hands from my throat with ease and pushed him away. He stumbled backward, and while he did, I took a running leap at him. I felt the power inside me rise again as I launched myself off the floor toward him. I flew through the air and slammed into him. I wrapped my arms around his neck and my legs around his chest, and then I started to press my fingers into his eye sockets. He screamed and snapped at me with his venomous teeth, but even if he had caught me, the suit would have stopped any venom from getting near me.
I felt one of his eyes pop under my fingers, and he cried out again. He tried to pry me off, but I clung to him like a leech. I wrapped my legs around his torso so he couldn’t shake me off, and then I grabbed his head with both of my hands and started to squeeze. It took everything I had, but I felt his skull start to crack under my palms. And then, with one final burst of strength, I crushed his skull.
I dropped off him as he fell to the ground, and I watched as his body stopped twitching and lay still. I went over and picked up my gun, and then I shot his body one more time. I had learned from experience that sometimes things didn’t always die, so it was better to hit it twice than regret it later.
I stood there for a moment while I got my breath back. I fired a couple of quick shots when I thought I saw movement, but the place was soon still.
“Well,” I panted. “I think… that went… well.”
“I would agree with that statement,” Francine said. “As they say on Earth, you gave them a taste of their own medicine, though why medicine would be seen in a negative way on your planet is beyond me.”
“Thanks, Frankie,” I replied.
I started to trudge over toward the kitchen. When I reached the doorway, I quickly pressed the neckline of my suit and the headpiece retracted. I didn’t want the slaves to think that I’d lost the fight.
I pushed the door open slowly and then peered around the edge of the door. I found the slaves huddled together, though several of them had armed themselves with knives, pots, pans, and other implements I didn’t recognize.
“All… good…” I huffed out between breaths. “Let’s go.”
“Is it safe?” Lifion asked.
“See for yourselves,” I replied.
I held the door open for them as they walked into the banquet hall. There were gasps at first, and then one of the slaves gave a shout of joy.
“Well…” Lifion said as he took in the scene of destruction. “I can see why we sent the AI to you now.”
“Thanks,” I said. “But we still have to get off this ship and then get everyone home. Okay, everyone, follow me. We’ve got a few more people to rescue, and then we’ll put you on the ships.”
There were more cheers as I crossed the room to the door. I started to reach for the handle, but I heard something on the other side. Someone must have heard our scuffle and come to investigate, so I signaled for the group to stop and raised my weapon.
The door burst open, but luckily, I saw who it was before I fired.
“Will!” Rayne said happily when she saw me, and then she saw the state I was in. “Shit, are you hurt? You’re covered in blood!”
“I’m--” I began, but she was beside me before I could finish that sentence.
She started to check me over for injuries, and I smiled at the concern I could see on her face.
“I’m fine, Rayne,” I said. “Most of it isn’t my blood. Actually, I think some of it might even be wine.”
“Are you sure?” she asked with a worried look in her eyes.
“I’m good,” I replied.
“Did you do all this?” she asked as she looked past me.
“Um, yeah,” I replied.
“Whoa…” she said.
“Look, we can talk later,” I replied. “But I’m assuming there are more slavers on this ship somewhere because someone has to be flying this thing, so we need to get out of here.”
“There are more prisoners on the second floor,” she said. “And I haven’t been able to break through the barrier.”
“I know,” I replied as I pulled out the keys. “Ta-da.”
“I have to admit it,” she said. “I’m impressed.”
“Why, thank you,” I replied, and then I turned back to the others. “Come on. Let’s get you guys to safety.”
We led the group down the hall and the stairs to the next level down, where we found Bob. He had woken all of the prisoners that were inside the cells, and presumably Francine had told them to get ready to leave.
Rayne went along all of the cells and unlocked each one with the keys I had taken from Seelan, and the freed slaves from the dining hall helped the prisoners out of the cells. Some of the prisoners were in bad shape, but everyone was so determined to escape that we were able to move pretty quickly. We made our way back down to the next floor, weaved through the corridors, and emerged into the hangar.
“The ships are pretty full,” Rayne said. “But we can squeeze these folks in.”
“Wow,” I said as I tried to figure out how many people each ship would hold.
“Yeah,” Rayne said. “These guys had quite the hoard going on. I’m surprised they didn’t sell some of the ships, or at least raid them for parts.”
“We might have caught up to them before they could,” I said.
“Lucky for us,” Rayne said. “Francine’s already sent the coordinates for the space station to each computer, and there were enough pilots in the group that we won’t have to tow anybody.”
“Then let’s get the hell out of here,” I said. “This place gives me the creeps.”
We helped the last of the slaves onto the other ships and then headed back to our own. I started to climb back inside, but Rayne grabbed my arm.
“Wait,” Rayne said. “We didn’t open the airlock.”
“Fuck that,” I replied. “I’m not leaving this ship habitable for someone else to start up their own business.”
“Then how--?” she asked.
“We’ll punch a hole,” I said. “Francine, tell everybody to hang back until we’ve blown the doors.”
“I am sending that now,” Francine replied.
We lifted off first, though the other ships were right behind us. I was happy to see that everyone was hanging back though, as I flew toward the hangar door. I checked the shields since there was no way we would be able to avoid all of the debris, and then I opened fire with the plasma cannon.
The hangar door was swallowed in the plasma for a moment, and then the whole thing blew apart. Bits and pieces of the door bounced off the shields and crashed into the sides of the slave ship, but I was already through and on my way to the next door with a convoy of space ships right behind me.
The next door exploded just as easily, and I felt the ship get sucked out through the hole and into space. I shot out into the starry universe, and the rest of the ships followed one after the other. As soon as the last one was out, I turned around, pointed my cannons into the slaver ship, and fired too many times to count.
The rest of the ships hadn’t hung around once they were clear of the slave ship, so when I fired the fatal shot and the slave ship exploded, they were far enough away that they wouldn’t have to worry about the debris. We took a few knocks as we sped away, but we soon rejoined the convoy and then the two Kytran supply ships that had evaded the slavers.
The space station was ready for us when we arrived. They had to have seen the explosion from where they were, so when we pulled into one of their hangars, a steady stream of medics were there to greet us.
Rayne and I made a beeline for the Kytran ships and made sure everyone was accounted for. One of the space station employees had already begun to load their ships up with the supplies that Kytr needed. Bysern was helping them load, and when he saw me, he turned and nodded slowly out of gratitude.
“Let’s help them,” I said when I saw how much they had to load onto the ships.
“No,” Rayne said as she stepped in front of me to stop me.
“But--” argued.
“No,” she said as she spun me around and marched me toward one of the medical stations that had been set up.
“Rayne, I said I’m fine,” I said.
“I’ll believe it when one of the medical stations tells me that,” she said.
“Francine will back me up,” I protested. “Francine, scan me.”
“I am not able to detect any major injuries--” the AI began.
“See?” I said to Rayne.
“But I would also like a medic to check you over, just in case,” Francine added.
“Damn it,” I sighed. “I hate it when you guys team up.”
Rayne stood guard over me while one of the space station medics checked me over. I felt more imprisoned here than I had on the slave ship and sulked accordingly, but the woman from Wildern didn’t let me out of her sight until the medic was done with me.
The medic was a nice woman with three long fingers that she used to check me over. She ran a scanner over me and cleaned away some of the blood on my face, before she turned to her computer screen to check the results.
“I’m fine,” I huffed as I ripped the cuffs off both of my wrists and chucked them aside. “See?”
“He’s right,” the medic said. “He’ll have a black eye, and there’s some other bruising, but there are no severe injuries. I expect he’ll be healed up in a few days.”
“I told you so,” I said smugly.
“Shoot me for worrying,” Rayne said as she sat down beside me.
“I like that you worry,” I admitted as I looked over at her.
Even after everything we’d been through on the slave ship, she looked stunning. She didn’t have a single perfect hair out of place, and her jade eyes glinted in the light. Her lips looked soft and kissable, and after a few close calls back there, I decided that I had to do what made me happy while there was still air in my lungs.
So I leaned over and kissed her. I felt her eyelashes tickle my cheeks, and I felt an electric shock run all the way from my lips through my body as soon as they touched hers. I could have stayed there forever, but then I felt a tap on the shoulder and pulled away.
“One day, we won’t be interrupted,” I said to her, and she laughed.
I turned to see who had tapped me, and I found myself looking at Lifion, the Lilacron I had met on board the slave ship.
“That’s awkward,” Francine said.
“Shh,” I muttered.
“Sorry to disturb you,” Lifion said.
“No worries, Lifion,” I replied as I stood up to talk to him. “What can I do for you?”
“You have already done so much for me,” he sighed. “I feel bad for asking you to do anything more.”
“Never feel bad,” I said. “What can I do?”
“Well, I was wondering if you are going back to the colony anytime soon?” he asked. “I could take one of these ships, but I doubt my people would recognize me and would probably shoot me down before I got there. But I would very much like to go home.”
“Do you wanna ride with us?” I asked.
“Only if you have room,” he replied.
“Of course,” I said with a warm smile. “We’d be happy to have you. We just have to drop the Kytrans back with their supplies and do a bit of business there, and then we’ll head back to the colony. If you don’t mind waiting around until that’s done, then we’d be happy to bring you home to your people.”
“We really would,” Rayne assured him.
“Thank you,” he said and he was visibly overjoyed. “I cannot believe my luck that you found us. Thank you so much.”
“Go and get some rest,” I said with a smile. “Bob will show you where to go.”
Bob beeped in a friendly way and led Lifion over to my ship, where he could have a well-deserved rest.
It took a few hours for the space station crew to check everyone over. Some of the prisoners were wheeled off to the hospital, but most of the one-time slaves were told that all they needed was some food and rest.
“Are there rooms where they can stay?” I asked one of the space station crew who had been giving orders. “Or will they have to go somewhere else?”
“They can all stay here as long as they like,” he replied. “We’ll work with them to get them home, or wherever they want to go.”
The alien was called away, so Rayne and I wandered back over to the Kytran ships. Soon, it was just those of us who were loading up the supply ships for the reverse trip to Kytr left in the hangar.
“Well, Callora can’t deny us a look at the weapon after this,” Rayne said.
“Mmm,” I replied distantly.
“What is it?” she asked.
“I’m just thinking,” I replied. “One of the slavers told me they were tipped off that we would be there. But only someone on Kytr would have known when.”
We shared a glance that carried the weight of the situation, and then looked back over at the Kytrans, who were ready to go.
“Time to get back,” I said. “This isn’t over yet.”