25. Chapter 25
Mika
I held Nadia tightly against my chest as the shuttle landed hard. I didn't know why we'd landed so soon after taking off, but I could only hope the ancient shuttle had an issue and we were permanently grounded.
Nadia was screaming, and the Talin in a nearby seat banged on the bars of the cage they'd shoved me into.
“Quiet!” he snarled.
“She's scared,” I said. “We humans make noise when we're scared.”
“No wonder your kind is almost extinct,” he said and banged the cage again, as if that was going to help.
I still couldn't believe this was happening.
When I heard a shuttle landing, I thought it was Iris coming back. I'd planned to tease her about not being able to make up her mind, but then I'd seen the shuttle and the unfamiliar Talins sprinting toward me.
I'd tried to run into the ship and lock it down, but they were too fast. They grabbed me then searched the ship and found Nadia. Thankfully they were scared of hurting her, so they dragged me to her room and had me pick her up.
Then they forced me into their decrepit shuttle. How was the thing even space worthy?
Once we were inside the shuttle they shoved me in a cage meant for an animal and took off.
When I tried to talk, I was snarled at and threatened with bodily harm. I’d remained quiet and tried to comfort Nadia while keeping a close eye on all of them. All I needed was an opportunity.
Then we were landing with a hard jolt that sent Nadia into another fit of crying. I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs right along with her.
“What's going on?” the guy who'd banged on my cage asked the Talin across from him.
“It felt like something hit us,” the other one said.
“Could it have been a breach?" a third asked. “There isn’t much wind, but a high branch could've come loose and hit us.”
“Everyone, pay attention,” the leader said, stepping out of the pilot area. “We have a situation. Mazorium arrived as we were leaving. He used some of his bots to jam our lift thruster. He’s landing now. Arm yourself and neutralize him while I pull the bots out of the thruster.”
Maz was here! My excitement ended the moment I saw them open up a locker and pull out some extremely dangerous looking weapons. I’d never seen so many in one place before.
Oh god, they were going to kill Maz!
As far as I knew he didn’t have a single weapon, at least nothing that was purposely built to damage or kill.
“No,” I whispered, unshed tears making my eyes burn. Seven armed Talins waited for the old hatch to creak open in stages.
While they waited, the leader turned to look at me.
“You’re going to make all this worth it.
Station Director Gorum promised me enough wealth that I’ll be able to set myself up on a new colony planet.
I’m going to start a new clan and get myself on the Apogee Assembly. Everyone will have to look up to me.”
As he spoke, I finally realized I’d met this Talin before. He was one of the Talins who attacked Maz on Helsin Station.
It was hard, but I kept my mouth shut.
The hatch finally finished opening and the other Talins filed off the shuttle, but the leader crouched down in front of my cage. I pushed myself against the back of the cage, trying to make myself small.
“Station Director Gorum only wants that child,” he said, reaching a hand into the cage. I tucked Nadia against my side to keep her away from him. He was able to touch my leg, but not her. “Soft, worthless humans. I don’t understand why Talins are so obsessed with your species.”
He sounded an amused rumble and ran his claws against my skin.
He didn't dig them in, but the threat was there. “She plans to keep you for as long as it takes to make sure the child will thrive under her care. Then she’s going to give you to me. That’s part of our deal.
You’re going to be the perfect status symbol for my new life.
It might be fun teaching you to be obedient. ”
So many things popped into my head, but I held them all back. Telling this guy what I was really thinking at that moment might get me hurt.
“I can’t believe it took us so long to find where Mazorium was working,” he said. “Even though it’s not a secret, it’s not easy information to gather. Finally we get here only to have to wait until your guests left. But now that I have you and that pup, my patience is being rewarded.”
The sound of weapons fire made the Talin pull his hand out of the cage as he sounded a rattle of affirmation.
“Hopefully that means Mazorium is either dead or soon will be. I owe him for what he did back at Helsin Station. I’m going to personally make sure no one ever finds his body.
No proper memorial service. No entrance to the Domicile of Souls. ”
With that, he stood up and left the shuttle.
Part of me wanted to curl up and cry, but there was no time for that. It wouldn’t be long before all those men came back into the shuttle and my chance at escape would be over.
The cage wasn’t hard to get out of. It had been made to keep an animal in, so all I had to do was reach my hand through the wide bars and find the release switch. The warped door popped open with a loud ting.
It was awkward to crawl out of the cage while holding Nadia. I cut up both my knees from the ragged spots some poor animal had torn into the metal bottom. Ignoring the pain and blood dripping down my legs, I got to my feet and ran to the pilot’s seat.
I’d taken an introductory class on piloting years ago.
It was being offered for free to employees.
I’d been annoyed at the time that the instructor spent most of the time talking about shuttles because they were used in more diverse circumstances than ships.
If I ever saw that instructor again, I’d thank him profusely.
Sitting down, I rested Nadia on my lap, holding her in place with one arm as I took in the display.
Thankfully it was a standard display, so I knew what to press even if the language was set to Talin glyphs instead of Universal character stacks.
There were several flashing warnings, but one of them disappeared as I was watching.
I felt the bottom thruster start up and the flight-worthy indicator showed.
He’d cleared the bot out of the thruster. I needed to launch before he or the others came back in!
I smashed my fingers down on the sequence to lift off. The shuttle shook and nothing happened. For a moment I thought that was it, my escape attempt was over. Then the entire thing lifted up!
“Yes!” I screamed.
My elation didn’t last long. The shuttle listed badly to one side. I had to grab the side of the seat to keep myself from falling to the floor.
“Oh shit!” I cried, scrambling to get my feet braced against the seat next to mine. As I flailed I realized the shuttle hatch was still open and the ramp was deployed.
Normally the safety protocols wouldn’t allow a launch with that, but this thing probably had all kinds of disabled safety systems.
With the hatch wide open I could hear the lack of weapon fire. They were shouting, and at least one of them tried to jump for the ramp. The shuttle shifted more to the listing side for a few seconds, then I heard a scream slowly disappear.
I hoped it was the leader. I wanted him to die in the worst way!
The shuttle kept moving up, as if heading off-planet. That wasn’t what I wanted! Frantically I tapped around until I brought up the field for manual maneuvering inputs. The display hanging in front of me lit up to show me a 360 degree view around the shuttle. Finally!
When I saw Maz’s flier riddled with holes, I couldn’t hold back my gasp.
“Please be alive,” I whispered.
Nadia had stopped screaming but was still crying and hiccupping even as her attention was captured by the large display in front of us.
“Na-na,” she said, waving her fist in the air.
I wasn’t sure what she was looking at, but I moved the shuttle around until I was hovering on the far side of the flier.
I wasn’t worried about them firing at me.
Not only was I the reason they were here, but I was inside their only means of getting off that stump.
Damaging the shuttle would ruin their escape.
“Maz!” I screamed, seeing him hanging off the edge of the stump.
He looked back and up and let out a loud, startled rattle. “Mika?”
“Na-na!” Nadia said again, this time more insistent. She was staring at Maz on the display. Was that her word for Maz?
“We’re going to save Na-na,” I agreed, moving the shuttle around and down, trying to get the ramp under Maz’s dangling feet. It didn’t go smoothly, and I banged the ramp against the stump.
I tried to correct, but before I could input any instructions, something landed hard on the shuttle. The display showed Maz laying halfway up the badly damaged ramp.
“You can make it, Maz!” I shouted and put the shuttle in stability mode. At least I thought it was stability mode.
It wasn’t.
The thing suddenly jerked up, dragging the ramp up the side of the stump and tumbling Maz into the cabin.
“Well shit, that didn’t go as planned… but it still worked!” I shouted with a hysterical laugh.
Amazingly, Maz looked like he didn’t have a single wound. He scrambled to the empty seat next to me. The shuttle was slowly circling at a severe angle and scraping the ramp against the stump with every rotation.
I could smell smoke, and at first I thought the shuttle was on fire. Then I realized the bottom thruster had set the stump on fire.
Good, I hoped all the men burned to death. Unfortunately the wet stump smoldered and went out. Damn it!
“This shuttle isn’t within specs,” Maz said as he took control and leveled us out.
Another hysterical laugh came out of me, and I wrapped my newly freed arm around Nadia.
“I don’t think they cared. Are you hurt?” I asked, looking him over to make sure I didn’t miss any wounds.
“No, but I can smell blood,” he said, glancing over at me as he piloted the shuttle higher.
I gave him a reassuring smile. “I’m fine. Just scraped my legs up a little.”
That might be a lie. When I looked down I could see some of the cuts were pretty deep. I was probably going to need medical intervention later.
“You aren’t fine, my Mika,” he growled. “I’ll make sure they all die horrible deaths. First I’ll get you to safety, and then I’ll devise a plan to end them!”
As much as I wanted them dead, I didn’t want him going back there. They still had all those weapons!
“They aren’t going anywhere,” I said. “Your flier isn’t going anywhere, and even if they climb down from the trunk, they won’t make it to us. Let them starve for a while.”
He sounded an amused rumble and reached out a hand to rest it on my shoulder. “I like your idea. We’ll wait until they’re weak and feeble. Then I’ll show them what it feels like to be preyed upon.”
This was a new bloodthirsty version of Maz. I liked it.
The shuttle jolted. There was something flashing on the workstation display, but I couldn’t tell what was wrong.
“Maz?”
“It’s fine, we’re almost home,” he said, voice tight and fingers frantically working the manual controls.
One of the engines failed entirely, but Maz still managed to get us home. When the shuttle landed with a hard thump, I knew it wasn’t taking off again.
Both of us sat there for a moment, stunned at everything that had happened.
“Na-na,” Nadia said, waving her fist again. Her voice sounded unnaturally loud in the silence.
“Da-da!” I exclaimed. “She’s saying Da-da!”
Maz started purring and took her from me. He held her in front of his face. “As long as there is breath in my body, I’ll love you and keep you safe.”
She gave an adorable little sniff and held out both arms. He hugged her to his body, and I lost it.
Hot tears poured down my face, and I started sobbing.
Maz put a hand on my thigh. “Mika?”
I looked up to find both him and Nadia staring at me. “I’m sorry,” I sobbed. “I don’t know why I’m crying now.”
“Because we’re not in danger,” he murmured. “It’s a safe time to release your fear.”
I nodded and tried to stop the tears, but I wasn’t able.
“What if more of them come?” I whispered.
“We’ll defeat them,” Maz said, his voice full of determination.
His words made me feel a lot better, but the tears kept coming. He must have realized I wasn’t going to be able to stop because he urged me to stand up.
“Let’s get into our ship. If anyone shows up, we’ll lock it down and leave.”
I nodded and moved to the open hatch, then stopped and gaped. The ramp was nothing but a bit of ruined metal at the attachment point.
Maz let out an amused rumble. “The ramp matches the rest of the shuttle now.”
I let out a wet snort-laugh. “True.”
As I was gauging the distance to the ground, Maz shifted Nadia to one arm. Turning me to face him, he lifted me up against him, holding me almost exactly as he was holding Nadia.
I wrapped my arms around his neck and relaxed in his hold. I trusted Maz implicitly.
He jumped and landed on the stump without an issue, but he didn’t set me down. He began walking to our ship with long strides, as eager as I was to be inside.
We were halfway there when the sound of a shuttle coming in fast made both of us tense up.
My tears disappeared as fear hit me. “Maz?”
Before he could reply, a familiar shuttle appeared. I felt Maz let out a breath at the same time I whispered, “Iris.”
The shuttle landed hard and fast, and Damascus jumped out even before the ramp finished deploying.
“There’s a strange ship hiding on one of the moons!” he shouted as he ran. The moment he got to us, he started talking fast. “We didn’t notice until we’d passed it, and then it took forever to turn back around. The ship was empty, but Iris said we—where did that shuttle come from?"
At his question, I started laughing.
“There’s a lot to tell you,” Maz said.
“Forget that,” Iris said, having caught up with Damascus. “Mika’s bleeding. Let’s take care of her, and then we can hear about what happened.”
“Yes, of course,” Damascus said, and we all moved into the ship.