Alien Refuge (50 page)

The fanaticism was pure insanity. It went against everything his faith in the Temple of Life preached. Not to mention these animals had aided a monster like Conrad Slade who so obviously did not care for his former wife and child.

Jol landed where the enemy would have to come out into the open to fire at them. He was aching to rush right off the shuttle and wade into battle, but he forced himself to look the situation over first. He considered his clanmates’ strengths and what he knew of the traitors.

It only took a few extra seconds, but they felt like hours. At last Jol said, “I’m off the shuttle first, shooting. If Kilef still stands, that’s who you will take, Ospar. He likes blades. Rivek, you can have Soha. He’s pathetic at hand-to-hand, but shoot him if you can. Stay low, and give them as little a target as you can.”

The other two nodded. Behind them the outdoor view vid played and Jol tried not to notice the shuttle disappearing into the sky, taking away his Matara and child. Instead, he gave his clanmates a quick once-over. He knew they wore their armored formsuits beneath the extra padding of snow gear. They should be safe from everything outside of headshots and point-blank blaster shots.

He raised his own percussion blaster, knowing the men outside were similarly defended but hoping to take out a couple in the first rush anyway. “We’re going,” he announced, and opened the hatch.

Jol dashed out, running in a complicated pattern while moving towards the six Nobeks who had begun firing as soon as he’d released the hatch. He managed to catch one with a headshot right away. The shuddering air and sounds of firing behind him let him know Ospar and Rivek were right on his heels, shooting as they came. Neither was much with a blaster, but it made their enemies duck and miss with their own shots.

A particularly loud blast made Jol’s ears pop. He’d come within maybe an inch of having his head blown off his shoulders, but that didn’t matter right now. He was nearly on top of two men, Kith and Weh, who threw down their blasters and drew blades from their belts. His mouth stretching into an animal grin, Jol did the same. The next moment, his hands were full of knives and he was parrying with his enemies.

Both men were good fighters, the best of the group that faced his clan. Jol had gone after them for that very reason. Rivek was the superior fighter when it came to hand-to-hand, and he was just as adept with blades as Jol. Still, the Nobek would not have his Imdiko taking on the best of the enemies, not when Jol was capable of doing so.

He ducked blows and thrusts, jabbing at his foes aggressively to keep them off balance. His stabs were thwarted time and again by the other Nobeks’ armor, as were theirs against him. They circled him, trying to find an opening in which they could slash his throat. He was forced to keep moving so he could keep them both in sight. Meanwhile, he looked for his own opportunity to land a killing blow.

It came as so many chances did; quickly, with less than a second to take advantage. Jol managed to catch Kith’s ankle with his toe, putting the briefest wobble in the other man’s balance for only the barest instant. In that infinitesimally small moment, Jol was able to thrust his longer blade up through the bottom part of Kith’s jaw, just in front of the hyoid bone, sending it on a fatal journey through Kith’s mouth, sinuses, and ending finally in his brain.

There was no time to watch the traitor fall dead. Jol turned to Weh, who was smaller and faster than his co-conspirator. Jol had sparred in practice with the man before and knew his fighting style quite well. When Weh executed a move that had taken him down a few times in the past, Jol was ready for it. He countered and used his greater weight to bear the other Nobek down. In a flash, Jol’s second blade speared through Weh’s eye, shoving deep to kill.

He still had no time to pause and savor victory. Jol leapt back to his feet in time to see a bloodied but still vertical Ospar shove his blaster into Nobek Kilef’s face and pull the trigger. A little distance away, Rivek was a whirling blur, taking Soha down with a bloody geyser springing from the Nobek’s throat. As the Imdiko turned to face Dalwer, the second assailant was springing at him, knives raised to be buried in Rivek’s skull. Ospar shot him dead in midair while Rivek jerked to one side. Dalwer hit the ground with an unimportant thud.

Jol wasted no time congratulating his clanmates. Instead, he ran towards the air control office, desperate to bring up the stasis field that would freeze the shuttle Iris and Thomas were on, keeping them from reaching the orbiting transport.

As he rushed, he screamed back at his clanmates, “Get a space-grade shuttle ready to go up!”

He was moving so fast, he almost couldn’t hear Ospar’s return shout, “We’ve got it! Hurry!”

Hurry
. The Nobek couldn’t have run any faster, and yet the air control office never seemed to get any closer. Jol prayed to the ancestors and Mother of All that he’d get to Iris and Thomas in time.

* * * *

Iris’ mind flew as she clutched Thomas in her lap, stroking the sobbing boy’s hair to soothe him as best she could. There was the Nobek pilot and Conrad to deal with, both armed with blasters. Iris thought she could discount the Kalquorian as an actual bodily threat to her and Thomas since he was busy flying the shuttle. As long as she didn’t attack him and he could get her on the transport to Mercy and away from Empire space, he would probably be content. She could live with that. Once on Mercy, she could figure out a way to get back to Haven and her clan.

Conrad was the immediate problem. He sat near the cockpit’s open door, staring at her and Thomas at the back of the shuttle. The blaster was holstered on his hip, too easy for him to reach. Somehow, Iris had to get the firearm away, to get the upper hand on her ex-husband. To finish his threat once and for all.

Could she do it? Could she kill the man she’d once loved enough to marry and dreamed of spending her entire life with? Right in front of her son? Part of her shied from it, but Iris knew as long as Conrad remained among the living, he would be a threat to her and Thomas. She’d never truly escape him until he was dead.

I have to be strong. If I’m going to do this, I can’t hesitate for even a second. When I go after him, it’s got to be with everything I’ve got. Kill or be killed. No other way.

His voice interrupted her thoughts. “Come here to me, boy. Come to your daddy, Thomas.”

Thomas took one look at Conrad, at the arms extended towards him in false kindness. He shrieked and buried his face between Iris’ breasts. His muffled, “No!” was still easy to hear.

Iris fixed her ex-husband with a lioness’ glare. “You stay away from him, Conrad. I mean it.”

The welcoming smile Conrad had worn to entice Thomas twisted into a snarl. He stood, his hand on the butt of the blaster. “Or what? You don’t have any Kalquorians left to hide behind now. You’ll do exactly what I want, when I want, and there’s not a damned thing—”

The shuttle suddenly jerked hard, knocking Conrad back into his seat. The engines continued to hum with their usual efficiency, but the slight press of g-force that the dampeners could never quite completely discount had disappeared. The shuttle’s forward momentum had stopped.

The Kalquorian pilot let loose a stream of guttural language that Iris was pretty sure consisted of curses. Conrad shot back to his feet and yelled, “What happened?”

The Nobek’s fists crashed down on the control panel. “It’s a Plasian-style stasis field. No one told me we had something like that here!”

Conrad’s lip curled in haughty disdain. “Well, get us out of it.”

The Kalquorian turned his head slowly and sneered right back at him. “Idiot Earther. Even the Empire’s technology hasn’t solved a way to break one of these fields. We’re stuck until someone comes and gets us. And since I know what lies in wait for me, I’ll be departing now.”

He stood, pulling a long knife from his belt as he did so. The Nobek turned the point of the blade towards himself, putting both hands around the handle and pressing it below the breast bone, angling it in such a way as to pierce his heart when it was shoved in. Iris turned Thomas’ face against her neck, not wanting the boy to see what was coming.

Conrad shrieked at him in utter disbelief. “You coward! There has to be a way out of this!”

The Kalquorian snorted bitter laughter. “It is not cowardice when the game is lost and a long, dishonorable execution awaits. I die brave, having defended the purity of Kalquor to the best of my abilities. Long live the Basma. May he save my people.”

“You can’t kill yourself! I have to get on that transport with what belongs to me!”

“We’re done, you fool. If you’ve got any sense, you’ll follow my example.” The Nobek nodded at Iris and Thomas. “Their rescuers are on the way, and they’ll be no happier with you than they would be with me. My advice is to turn your blaster on yourself before Nobek Jol gets his hands on you.”

Conrad’s face went nearly purple in his rage. He jerked around, yanking the percussion blaster from his belt and pointed it towards Iris and Thomas. With a shocked cry, Iris jumped up and shoved Thomas behind her, shielding him with her body.

Conrad looked at her with insane hatred. “You are mine. No one else gets you but me.”

The Kalquorian stared in horror and let the knife drop to his side. He moved towards Conrad, his hand reaching for the blaster. “Are you mad? Killing an unarmed woman and child, even if they are only Earthers, is the mark of a true coward. Put that fucking thing down.”

Conrad never hesitated. Without even blinking he turned and fired point blank in the Nobek’s face. The Kalquorian jerked as he went down, his knife spinning out of his hand to land at Iris’ feet.

Iris shoved a screaming Thomas back, simultaneously swooping down to grab the knife. She refused to think about how the Nobek’s head had just disintegrated before her eyes. She refused to think at all, simply going on the attack.

All or nothing. Kill or be killed.

Iris sprang at Conrad, colliding violently against his body. He dropped the blaster, but managed to dodge the knife as she plunged it at his chest. Then he dropped down and tackled her, his shoulder driving hard into her gut and knocking her backwards. She lost her hold on the knife.

Conrad quickly sat on her chest, pinning her arms beneath his weight as well. His hands clenched, and the first blow descended, catching her jaw as Iris instinctively jerked her head to one side.

He kept punching. The fists came faster and faster, intent on speeding Iris to her awful death with Thomas’ screams ringing in her ears.

* * * *

Ospar’s voice had acquired an urgency as he said for the umpteenth time, “Shuttle containing E.I.K., Kalquorian rebels, and Earther prisoners, respond. You have no escape. Your immediate surrender is demanded or you will face severe consequences.”

“We’re now alongside,” Jol reported. His face was the palest Ospar had ever seen. Not even deadly threats to the Dramok or Rivek had ever made Jol look so disquieted. The Nobek was as close to looking frightened as Ospar had ever seen him.

Their codes negated the stasis field’s effects on their shuttle. They were able to move within it without opposition, though it held the escape shuttle in an inescapable grip. The trouble now was getting to the people inside. To that end, Rivek had torn apart the entire cabin looking for atmospheric suits. His search had been fruitless.

The lack of response from the other shuttle scared Ospar. He spoke to it once again. “Shuttle containing Earther prisoners Iris and Thomas Jenson, respond now. This is your last chance.”

Jol reached over to turn the com off. He told Ospar, “With no atmospheric suits, we can’t board. Issuing empty threats will do us no good. It might even make Slade panic and kill them.”

Rivek lost his temper, an event of universe-shaking magnitude. “What the hell kind of shuttle doesn’t carry suits? Aren’t there regulations about that?” he yelled. He yanked a door off one of the storage bins and threw it across the cabin in frustration.

His clanmates didn’t answer. Ospar was so desperate that he considered flinging the hatch open to suicidally brave space in an effort to get to the other shuttle. His terror for Iris and Thomas made the insane urge seem a better option than waiting and hoping.

“Fuck!” he screamed through clenched teeth. There was only one real avenue available to them, one that would mean they’d get to their Matara and son too late. It was all he had. “Cut their engine and set up the traction field, Jol. Let’s drag them back down to Haven.”

He didn’t add
and hope Slade doesn’t kill his two prisoners
. He didn’t have to, though there was little faith in the silent tears tracking down Rivek’s face or the blank look in Jol’s eyes. They were only feet away from their loved ones and incapable of saving them.