Ep.#5 - Balance (The Frontiers Saga - Part 2: Rogue Castes) Page 3

  Vladimir turned and looked out the forward cockpit windows as the ship rose above the damaged bay roof that had surrounded the ship only moments ago. As they cleared the top, four onrushing Palean security shuttles peeled right and left, barely avoiding a direct collision with them.

  “We gotta move!” Josh declared.

  “Not yet!” Loki warned. “Get more altitude first!”

  “I’ve got enough power to take those shuttles out, if you’d like,” Marcus declared.

  “Not yet!” Vladimir replied.

  “Gimme power to the docking thrusters!” Josh insisted.

  “What?”

  “Trust me!”

  “You got it,” Loki replied.

  Josh grabbed the docking controller and fired the forward docking translation thrusters at full power, holding them there long enough to get the ship moving forward, albeit at a slow rate of speed.

  “It’s going to take more than that,” Loki warned.

  “Yeah, but now we’re thrusting against the roof instead of the ground,” Josh pointed out as the Seiiki continued to rise.

  “Reactors are at twenty-three percent!” Loki declared.

  “Those shuttles are coming back around,” Marcus warned. “I’ve got two on my side.”

  “Two on my side, as well!” Dalen added. “Coming fast!”

  “If those shuttles have EMP disruptors…” Loki began.

  “They won’t fire them while we’re over the port,” Vladimir insisted. “They won’t risk us crashing down into other ships!”

  Four screeches came from their port side as Marcus opened fire again.

  “What are you doing?” Vladimir wondered. “I didn’t tell you to fire!”

  “I’m just giving them something to think about!” Marcus replied.

  Dalen followed suit, opening fire. “Me too!”

  “Twenty-five percent!”

  “I’m gonna start moving forward!” Josh decided.

  “I’d give it another ten meters,” Loki warned. He was not surprised when Josh ignored his advice.

  Jessica leaned to her right slightly as she backed off on her hover scooter’s throttle, causing her climb to angle slightly right. As her rate of climb decreased she glanced straight down to her left and spotted her pursuer climbing after her, pulling out his stunner to take aim as he gave chase. Seeing his stunner appear in his hand, Jessica immediately straightened up and then chopped her throttle to idle. As her vertical rate of climb quickly diminished, she pulled her stunner out of her belt again. A few seconds later, her ascent stalled and she and her scooter began to fall back toward the surface. With the gap between them now rapidly closing, the pursuing officer opened fire with two shots streaking past Jessica on either side and the third one slamming into the bottom of her hover scooter. Despite the descent, she twisted her falling scooter around to get a clear shot and landed two stunner blasts directly into the officer climbing toward her. She fell past him as he went limp, held up only by the restraint ring around his abdomen.

  Jessica throttled back up to slow her descent, but nothing happened. “Oh shit!” She pumped the throttle several times but still nothing. The console showed the engine was shutdown and she was falling rapidly with only seconds until she would hit the ground. She shut the system down and tried to restart it several times but again to no avail. She scanned the surface rushing up toward her as she tried to restart a fourth time, hoping for some trees or bushes that might break her fall but there was nothing but concrete and open ground below her. Then, just as she was resigning herself to her inevitable demise, the scooter’s thrusters sputtered to life. She jammed the throttle to full power and felt an immediate surge of power that would have collapsed her knees without the help of her assistive bodysuit. Regardless, the force of the thrusters caused her to half-squat to absorb the sudden force. Her descent slowed quickly and she came to a hover only a few meters off the ground, causing the people below to scatter in all directions for safety. An overwhelming sense of relief washed over her. She took a deep breath and sighed, looking around at the stunned faces of those in the crowd around her. A little girl, clutched in the arms of her frightened mother, looked at Jessica, smiled, and waved.

  It had been a bold maneuver, more so than she had originally intended, but it had worked. She had shaken her pursuers.

  Jessica pulled out her comm-unit as she continued to hover a meter off the ground. “Seiiki! Nash! What’s your status?”

  “Jess!” Vladimir replied over the comm-unit. “We just dusted off! We are on our way to pick you up at the park northwest of the financial district! ETA is two minutes!”

  “I’ll meet you there,” she replied. Jessica put the comm-unit back into her pocket, smiled and waved back to the little girl, then leaned forward hard as she gunned her throttle, speeding off between the buildings as she began to climb again.

  “You! In the black coat!” a security officer yelled at Nathan and Deliza.

  “Uh oh.” Nathan grabbed Deliza’s hand, dragging her behind him as he shoved his way past the last few people between them and the edge of the promenade. He glanced behind him and spotted two officers suddenly looking his way, alerted by the other officer’s shouts. “We have to make a run for it,” he urged as they broke through the crowd and headed down a side street at a full run.

  Deliza followed him, quickly becoming accustomed to the sensation of running barefoot as she had in her younger days on Haven.

  About halfway down the side street, Nathan stopped and turned back, firing his stunner at the two officers coming around the corner. Neither officer had anticipated the stunner fire. The first officer took a stunner blast head on, dropping him paralyzed to the ground in an instant. The second officer tripped over the first and caught Nathan’s third shot in the left leg, paralyzing it, as well. His arms still working, the second officer returned fire, barely missing Deliza as she scrambled to the side for cover. Nathan fired again, this time completely immobilizing the second officer, as well. “Let’s go!” he ordered, grabbing Deliza’s hand again and continuing to run.

  “We’re not gonna make it!” Loki exclaimed as the Seiiki continued to lose altitude as she accelerated forward. One of the spaceports many control towers was directly ahead of them, rushing toward them. “Brace yourselves!” he added, closing his eyes and readying himself for impact.

  Josh pushed his flight control stick slightly left, firing thrusters that were normally used in space to push the ship to port, barely missing the control tower. “What a wuss.”

  After a moment, Loki opened his eyes, surprised that they had not collided with the tower.

  “I can’t believe you’ve lost faith in me,” Josh complained. “And after all these years.”

  “What makes you think I ever had any faith in you?” Loki replied, returning his attention to his copilot duties. “Reactors are at thirty percent.” He glanced over at the sensor display in the center of the forward console. “Port security does not appear to be pursuing.”

  “Damn right they aren’t,” Marcus sneered over their comm-sets. “They don’t want to get lit up!”

  “Palee has military forces, you know,” Josh reminded them. “They’ll be on us in minutes.”

  “Just keep us low and over populated areas,” Vladimir instructed. “Maybe they’ll be afraid of collateral damage.”

  “You don’t know the Palee militia,” Josh said.

  Jessica darted between buildings as she sped along just above the highest transit lines, snaking her way between buildings, rising as much as she dared, mentally willing the scooter to keep working. Suddenly, two security officers, who had been lying in wait, darted out in front of her from behind a building, nearly colliding with her in the process. She leaned hard to her right, chopping her throttle to idle as she did so. She and the sc
ooter rolled over within arm’s length of her airborne enemies, who were visibly upset. As she rotated upright, Jessica gunned her throttle again, the sudden surge of thrust nearly knocking the scooter out from under her feet. She wrestled with the scooter for several moments as she hurtled toward an oncoming transit car, regaining control and climbing above the car at the last moment.

  Jessica glanced over her shoulder, spotting two more officers falling in behind her. She leaned further forward to increase her forward speed to maximum, turning toward the rendezvous point as she accelerated.

  Nathan and Deliza ran down the street, weaving through the last of the Paleans making their way out of the area as instructed. Behind them, officers shouted for Nathan and Deliza to stop but they ignored them.

  Suddenly, blue stunner bolts slammed into one of the nearby Paleans and the man fell as they sprinted past. More stunner bolts whizzed past them, barely missing. Another bolt struck a woman beside Deliza causing her to stumble and knock Deliza to the ground, pulling Nathan down with her.

  Nathan jumped up, pulling Deliza back to her feet as more stunner blasts streaked over his head. He returned fire, dropping two of the four nearest security officers, but a quick scan of the surrounding area revealed that more were closing in from either side. “Come on!” he urged, pulling her to her feet again. “We’re almost there!”

  Deliza scrambled back to her feet and continued on Nathan’s heels. The sparse number of remaining bystanders had scattered to avoid getting taken down by stray stunner fire from the Palean security officers. While the newly empty walkways made for easier going, Nathan and Deliza now had the sickening sense that they had become easier prey.

  Nathan could see the park at the end of the block, but he could also hear the screech of thrusters in the distance. Unfortunately, they were not the Seiiki’s thrusters, and their sounds seemed to be coming from all directions.

  Twenty seconds later, they reached the park. Nathan looked around, but the Seiiki was nowhere to be found. There were, however, at least a dozen Palean security officers closing in from all sides.

  “Drop your weapon and surrender!” one of the officers ordered.

  Nathan raised his hands slowly, indicating his surrender.

  “Drop your weapon!” the officer repeated.

  “Deliza?” Nathan whispered.

  “Yes?”

  “Get down… NOW!”

  Deliza dropped to the ground as Nathan dove to his left. He tucked and rolled coming up firing, taking down two officers with the first three shots. He stepped from side to side as he ran, finally diving behind a park bench while blue streaks of stunner energy rained past him, sizzling as they slammed into the trees and ground around him.

  Deliza tried to find cover herself, but was immediately hit in her left leg with stunner fire. Her leg instantly went numb and limp and she fell to the ground as two more shots completely paralyzed her.

  A bolt of stunner energy caught Nathan in the left hand, causing it to go numb and limp, as well. Two more shots slammed into the bench from behind him. He spun around to return fire, only to take a blast directly in the face. He collapsed, paralyzed, on his side, staring helplessly out across the park as security officers approached.

  Vladimir held his comm-unit to his ear. “Why isn’t he answering?” he wondered aloud. He looked forward at Josh and Loki who were periodically glancing out the forward windows as they flew low over the outskirts of the city, headed for the taller buildings of the financial district. “How long?”

  “Thirty seconds,” Loki replied. “Reactors are at forty-two percent and rising.”

  “These are the slowest damned reactors I have ever seen,” Vladimir cursed.

  “This ain’t a military ship,” Josh pointed out.

  “Remind me to take a look at them when we get back to the Aurora,” Vladimir said.

  Nathan and Deliza helplessly listened to the Paleans shouting in both Takaran and Angla, advising their prisoners that they were under arrest. One of the officers cried out in warning, pointing at a distant ship approaching from between the buildings and closing in fast.

  “I’ve got them!” Loki declared, pointing out the front windows. “They’ve got them!”

  “Not if I can help it,” Josh decided, pushing the ship lower.

  “What are you doing?” Loki asked.

  “I’m gonna give them a haircut,” Josh replied with a slight giggle. He pushed the ship down closer as they passed between the buildings and out over the park, barely passing between two tall trees on both sides of the intersection.

  The security officers hit the ground, several of them covering their prisoners, protecting them from the unknown ship’s thrust wash. Two officers who failed to hug the ground were tossed into the air, sending them tumbling.

  “Bring us in over that open area and spin us around so our aft end is facing them!” Vladimir ordered as he climbed out of his seat. “Then put us into a hover just above the surface.”

  “Where are you going?” Loki wondered, noticing that Vladimir was leaving the cockpit.

  “To rescue them!”

  “What?” Loki replied in disbelief.

  “Marcus!” Josh called over his comm-set. “Go aft to help Vlad!”

  “On my way!” Marcus replied.

  “Dalen, can you keep those fighters away from us for a few minutes by yourself?” Josh asked.

  “I can if you keep our starboard side to them!”

  Vladimir slid down the short ladder from the forward landing to the cargo bay floor as the cargo ramp lowered. He stepped quickly over to the port weapons locker and grabbed an energy rifle, checking to ensure it was charged and ready.

  Neli watched as Vladimir pulled the lid off a rectangular cargo pod and headed for the ramp, which was now approaching the level position. Her eyes widened as Vladimir continued marching out onto the ramp as it came down. “What are you doing?” she shouted.

  “Break out that gun and cover me!” Vladimir ordered. “I’m going after them!”

  “Are you nuts?” she yelled back, but it was too late.

  Vladimir ran out and jumped off the end of the ramp, dropping the last three meters to the grassy park below as the Seiiki settled into a hover and began rotating to bring its aft end around to face Nathan and Deliza in the distance.

  “Shit!” Neli cursed as she scrambled to swing the overhead mounted plasma cannon down and into the ready position. “Vladimir jumped out!” she called over her comm-set. “Hurry up and swing us around!”

  Vladimir rolled as he landed, coming up firing in the direction of the nearest officers who were moving in to assist with the capture of Nathan and Deliza. Within seconds he had dropped two officers and was running toward his friends, raising the lid from the cargo pod in front of him as a shield and dodging side to side to avoid the incoming Palean stunner fire.

  Blue bolts of stunner energy bounced off of Vladimir’s shield as he advanced. With the shield held in front of him with his left hand and his energy rifle in his right, Vladimir fired wildly in the direction of his friends, taking care to keep his aim at least a meter off the ground to avoid hitting them. His weapon was at its lowest power setting; he had no desire to kill any of the Paleans. As far as they knew, they were only enforcing the laws of their world. If hit, it was unlikely to kill them but they would definitely be knocked off their feet for a short time. Finally, he got close enough for a clear shot at the officers guarding his friends. He took out two more officers but was forced to cower behind his shield as six more opened up on him with their stunners.

  Vladimir’s shield was not big enough to cover him and he took a glancing hit to his left foot, causing it to tingle. He crouched down, keeping the shield only a few centimeters above the turf, careful to keep the rest of his body behind it.

/>   When he closed to only a few meters, several of the Palean security officers surprised him, switching their stunners to higher settings. His shield began to burn his hand as it absorbed the unending fire.

  Just as Vladimir was beginning to doubt his headstrong decision-making, the area around him was flooded with red-orange energy bolts coming from behind, striking three of the six Paleans, burning holes through their bodies and dropping them to the ground in smoldering heaps.

  Vladimir glanced back over his shoulder, spotting Marcus charging toward him from behind, continuing to fire as he ran.

  The remaining security officers turned their fire toward Marcus, just as another of them fell. Vladimir rose and lunged forward, throwing himself shield first into the remaining two officers, bowling them over. The three men crashed to the ground together and Vladimir rolled over them to get back on his feet.

  One of the officers raised his weapon to fire at Vladimir but was struck by fire from Marcus’s weapon, killing him instantly.

  The last officer had dropped his weapon and was about to pull his stunner stick when Vladimir swung the cargo pod lid, striking the officer in the side of his head and knocking him unconscious. “I just saved your life,” he mumbled as he dropped his shield and moved over beside Nathan.

  Vladimir looked at Nathan, whose eyes were open but staring straight ahead. He bent down to check that his friend was still breathing, then picked him up and put him over his shoulder.

  Marcus ran up to join him; firing at the Palean officers on the nearby corner, holding them at bay.