Chapter 41
The rest of our group hurried onto the shuttle behind us. The last one was actually Violet, who seemed to be struggling; her teeth were gritted, and sweat was pouring down from her brow.
"Doc, you might want to look at her. She looks worse than I do." I pointed at the kikai divine, who waved a hand before anyone could help her.
"It's the new tails," she explained. "My master always said to attach it in a safe place, because it was going to be trouble when you first attach it."
"Then why'd you attach it here?" Lily asked.
"I didn't realize I was so flush with options," Violet said, scowling at the helivore as her tails jerked in agitation.
Lily only shrugged in response. "That's on you."
Violet growled at her counterpart before she fell to the floor, her face squirming in pain beneath the otherwise calm facade.
Veins began bulging along her temple and all over her face, and blood seeped out of the corner of her eyes, mixing with the sweat that had been pouring down from her hairline into pink rivers.
"You sure you don't need the doctor more than me?" I said, with a tilt of my head where I was snuggled up in Lily’s arms.
Meanwhile, Melgara began handing Lily several vials. The helivore was using a small needle-like finger that grew from the center of her palm to stab it into the vial, and something faintly yellow began dripping inside of it.
"Uhh… what's that?" I asked, watching her.
"For you," Lily said. "Hush. This takes a little concentration on my part."
“And we need to get going.” I gestured at the controls for the shuttle, but Brick was already on them, getting us higher into the air with more urgency than the rest of us.
Huh, I didn’t even feel the lift off. Oh… that’s probably not a good thing?
"How high do we need to go?" Brick asked, as if I had the answer.
"High enough for a ship to snag us out of the air, which means above the tallest building in the area by a good chunk," I said and then wondered how Aikari meant to snag us from the air, and I suddenly chuckled at the idea of her flying the ship backwards.
She could barely fly it in the first place.
Brick nodded, and the shuttle roared, flying at full blast.
"I didn't know you flew," Lily said to Brick, who turned to Lily.
"I'm afraid of piloting," he said, causing everyone to look at the present situation.
"Though it's not like I have much of an option, now do I.
I'm more afraid of being stuck down there when that battleship comes than crashing and being trapped alive inside a shuttle with only ten hours of breathable oxygen. "
"Oddly specific," I said, feeling fairly uncomfortable at Brick's piloting as well.
"I mean, I went through VDF training," he said quickly. "I would just rather not." He gripped the steering console like it was a flotation device and he was amid the roughest seas in the universe.
"Ships are better?" I asked, simply curious and guessing that talking would also help him.
"Yeah, if you get stuck on a ship, you have weeks or months of supplies to survive and plenty of air. Oh, but not a shuttle." He shook his head. "Especially with this many people. If we crashed into a building and got stuck in rubble, we'd most likely suffocate before the rescue teams got to us."
I knew Brick had continued talking, but somehow, it faded out to something I couldn't quite understand. And I understood that was probably part of my body trying to come to terms with its demise.
"Captain?" Lily said, grabbing me and shaking me.
"Huh, what?" I jerked back to awareness.
Lily scowled at Melgara. "Fix him."
"Working on it," Melgara said, quickly grabbing several supplies. "Are you done with your end?"
Lily glanced down. "No. But you saw that, didn't you?"
"Yes, I am aware," Melgara said, not looking up from what she was working on.
"Is he going to be okay?" Brick asked.
Melgara paused, looking at him as if a child had asked one too many times for a popsicle. "No, Brick. The captain is dying. Personally, as a medical professional, I would put that under 'not okay.'"
Her words caused Brick to scowl. "There's no need to be an ass about it."
"Then ask better questions," Melgara retorted. "I am under enough pressure as it is." Her eyes danced over to Lily before they shifted to Violet, who was still on the ground dealing with whatever came with getting new kikai tails. Personally, it looked incredibly painful.
"If that's how bad it is for her, how bad is it going to be for the captain?" Tiri asked, watching Violet as she continued to suffer on the ground.
"Could be worse, could be better. But that's part of why we need the captain to remain conscious, so we can deal with any initial complications." Melgara shrugged.
"Lovely," I said, feeling like this was not going to be the most pleasant experience in the world. However, I'd get to live, so I was all for diving right in.
"But don't worry, I have painkillers out to the moon if we need them."
"Painkillers sound nice right about now," I said, staring at Violet now retching. In the shuttle, I'd seen this kikai have parts of her body torn out of her and not blink. I was beginning to sweat just at the idea of what awaited me.
Suddenly, the speakers and the screen at the front of the shuttle crackled to life.
"Attention, citizens of Toussaint. There is a wanted criminal amongst you.
" Suddenly, images of Violet flashed across the screen along with the tag: Terrorist. "She is currently escaping in a shuttle previously owned by Madame Chiksai, whom she murdered in cold blood.
" The all-spectrum broadcast was announced to the world.
"All civilians will be rewarded for any potential aid in her capture, as the ship is currently fleeing southbound on the east side of Toussaint. " A little map showed up on our screen.
"That's not great," I mumbled as our shuttle rocked to the side.
Another shuttle that had been in the air suddenly turned their guns on us.
The hits weren't more than bumps for us; however, that could quickly change if more began firing at us.
Civilian shuttles usually only had some low-grade blasters.
"Where's the Griffin?" Brick said, looking out over the horizon, his head scanning back and forth.
I pointed off into the distance. "There. And it's"—I frowned—"flying backwards."
A much more dangerous burst came from above as the battleship unleashed a barrage of heavy laser fire down towards our shuttle.
Luckily, we were too small a target, and it was still high up in the sky, coming down from orbit slowly.
They’d had to call in the smaller ships because they could only go so quickly on reentry.
"Evasive maneuvers," I ordered, taking the role of captain seriously despite my current physical state.
Brick slammed the wheel hard to the side, sending us into a barrel roll that just kept going as he lost control.
But the fire from the battleship above seared past us, causing a dozen alarms to ring out in the small shuttle before deafening booms sounded behind us, the barrage hitting the edge of Toussaint without a care for collateral damage.
"Coming in hot," Aikari squealed through the shuttle’s speakers. "Adjust your vector to level out heading due east. The closer you can get to four hundred miles an hour, the better."
That sounded like an ominous warning. And very specific directions considering that Brick was straining with the handles to pull out of his roll.
"That means stop rolling." Aikari's face appeared on the screen of the shuttle. "Oh, you're not doing that on purpose, are you?"
"We are not," I said, barely holding down my lunch as Lily's mycelial network pinned Melgara, Violet, and me in place as I got a first-hand perspective of what wet clothes must feel like in the dryer.
Brick had two arms wrapped around Tiri, and at least he was buckled in. Lily simply stood as if her feet were nailed to the floor. And, in fact, they probably were with some of her growth.
"No, no, not like that," Aikari screeched.
“Lean into the roll and then gently guide the shuttle out. Stop trying to self-correct.” Melgara had lost her patience.
The grogax slammed the controls into the roll and then eased out more slowly. The ship shuddered and finally came back level. My mind was swimming as multiple Lilys danced around my vision.
"Due east," Aikari reminded Brick, who was rapidly trying to adjust his heading while putting the ship into a full burst to try and get up to speed.
"Into the belly of the whale!" Aikari shouted, and the shield flickered off the Griffin before we were scooped up roughly into the cargo bay, bouncing off the floor twice before the grav plating caught us and clicked us in, only for the cargo bay door to begin closing.
Thankfully, the shields came up to keep the wind down.
Though it looked like the brief time with the shield down for our shuttle to pass had done some damage to the bay door.
"Lily, get the captain to the medical bay," Melgara stated, and I shook my head, even though that made the room swim.
"No, get me to the bridge. If Melgara is going to be busy with this, then someone needs to pilot."
The entire shuttle stared at me, and Aikari's hologram flickered to life at the edge as the shuttle door opened. "Is that really a good idea? I know I'm not the best pilot," Aikari said, "but I think your condition worries me." She gestured vaguely.
"I'll be fine. Right, Doc? Just hit me with more of those stimulants. If we don't get out of here now, my condition won't matter." I cut off any comment of hers before she could deliver it.
Instead, she just stabbed another injector into my arm, and I felt ready suddenly to run a mile. I was absolutely sure I would break multiple world records.
“What?” she asked the shuttle that had a range of hard stares currently being sent her way. “Do you want Brick piloting again?” The way she pursed her lips was filled with so much judgment that Brick tucked his head low.