Chapter 16
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Arin watched from the walkway as the second military transport took off, ferrying another load of people towards the FSS Marcia.
The thrusters of the grey transport roared as it lifted off from the floor of Docking Bay One, heading towards the airlock.
The crowd of people waiting to be evacuated had thinned out considerably, and with every successful drop-off, Arin’s anxiety eased just a little bit more.
They were doing it. They were actually getting people off the ship, saving them from this terrible precarious limbo, where shit could go down at any moment, without warning.
As the airlock closed, one of the navigators appeared at Arin’s side. “Uh, Sergeant Varga?”
“What is it?”
He peered down at his datapad, a frown creasing his forehead. “We’ve registered everyone onboard except for seven.”
“Show me.” Arin looked at the list and realized the seven missing were the men from her squad, the ones Rykal had beaten up and locked in one of the lower cargo holds.
“Shit.” With everything that had happened, she’d forgotten all about them.
They had been stupid and disobeyed her orders, but they were still members of her squad, and she had a duty to get them off, just like everyone else.
Everyone fucked up from time to time. It didn’t mean they deserved to get left behind.
Poor deceased Harris was another matter, but he’d stood on the tail of the tiger, and Arin couldn’t rescue people from their own arrogance.
“I know where they are,” she told the navigator. “I’m going to have to go and get them. How many more retrievals until everyone’s off?”
“After this one, three more.”
The cargo hold wasn’t too far from here.
Arin could run across, unlock the cage, and bring her men back without too much fuss and plenty of time to spare.
She should probably bring some backup, just in case Xargek were swarming down there, but if they encountered any mature ones, she’d be fucked either way.
Part of her wished Rykal was around. Death was most reassuring when he walked by your side.
Arin was contemplating who she should round up for this little mission when the emergency lights of the airlock flashed red. She nodded in its general direction. “What’s going on?”
“I-I don’t know.” The navigator inclined his head, pressing a finger to his comm as he received a communication from the bridge. He started to back away. “We have to get out of here.”
“Explain what you just heard.”
“They’re being attacked by something with enough power to breach the transport’s hull. They’re losing cabin pressure.”
Xargek. They were everywhere, and they tended to show up at the most inconvenient times.
Some very dirty swear words ran through Arin’s mind, but she held her tongue.
A great boom shook the dock, causing both of them to stumble and grab the railings as people below screamed. It was the sound of a pulse weapon discharging fire.
“Are they fucking crazy?” Arin gasped. They couldn’t shoot at them, even if they were trying to kill Xargek.
Someone must have panicked.
The navigator was still receiving information through his comm. “There’s a monster tearing through their hull. The pulse gun didn’t do anything. Didn’t even touch it. How the hell are they surviving in space, anyway?”
“Beats me.” Arin thought hard and fast. For this kind of situation, they needed a Kordolian warrior. The lethal silver aliens had turned into unlikely superheroes, but aside from Rykal, she wasn’t sure the others cared enough about humans to come to their aid.
They’d all disappeared into the shadows without explanation, and Arin and the rest of the crew had no way of locating them or contacting them. Perhaps they were watching her people from the darkness as they evacuated, but they certainly hadn’t done anything to harm them.
Surely the Kordolians had eyes on the docking bay right now. They wouldn’t let humans land on this freighter without checking them out. That would go against any soldier’s instincts.
Arin began to run, her boots clanging on the metal walkway as she sprinted towards a ladder that led down to the floor of the docking bay.
The navigator called after her, but she ignored him.
She jumped off the ladder with several rungs to go and hit the ground running, heading towards the assembly area, where the remaining Fortuna Tau workers had been waiting patiently to board the transport.
They weren’t waiting patiently anymore. That pulse blast had caused panic and chaos, disrupting the neatly formed queues. Some people headed for the exit, some crowded around the airlock, and others just ducked, waiting for the next blast.
Arin hoped that whoever was manning the artillery on the Marcia wasn’t stupid or callous enough to fire at them again.
She ran to the nearest peacekeeper, a guy belonging to Brosa’s squad. “Hey, we need to get them out of here!”
“What?” He had to shout to be heard above the chaos.
“Evacuate the dock, now!”
“We can’t just—”
“You saw what just happened, soldier. We’ve got incoming. I’m ordering you to help me clear the dock, Private.”
He knew who she was. They all did. Even when everything had gone to shit, humans understood the chain of command, and if he was the plankton, that made her the prawn.
The peacekeeper saluted and ran off to herd people out of the dock.
Arin found a few other peacekeepers and gave them the same orders.
Eventually, the crowds dispersed.
“Get me navigation,” she snapped into her comm.
“What is it, Varga?” Captain Tadao’s voice was taut. “It’s not really a good time. I’ve got a compromised transport to deal with. They’re going to try and make it back to the Marcia.”
“No!” Arin shouted. “If they go across with a Xargek onboard, everyone will die. You have to open the airlock. Tell them to come back into the dock.”
“So you want us to die instead?”
“We can’t afford to allow the Xargek to cross over. Bring it back in and the Kordolians will take care of the threat.”
“You sure about that?”
“Yeah.” Actually, Arin wasn’t sure of anything.
She was just acting on a hunch. If she were running the Kordolian outfit, she’d have placed one or two super-powered soldiers up in the rafters to watch the humans and make sure they didn’t do anything stupid.
“Anyway, what choice do we have, Captain? We can let the people on the transport die in space, we can risk the Xargek reaching the Marcia and destroying the only escape route we have, or we can let them back in and take a chance, the only chance we really have.”
Hesitation.
“That’s all I see in front of us. There’s no time to think about it, Captain.”
Vicious cursing.
Then the airlock lights flashed, indicating that it was about to open.
“Bring them back into the fold, Captain. They won’t argue. They’re probably losing oxygen as we speak.”
“You’d better be right about this, Varga.”
“I know, Captain.” She cut off the comm and stared up into the dark, cavernous ceiling of the docking bay. Although she couldn’t see them, she knew a network of metal walkways existed up there, beyond the reach of the bright lights of the dock.
“Kordolian!” she yelled, as humans rushed past her, spurred into action by the threat of more terrifying pulse-fire. “If you’re up there, we could use your help right about now. We’ve got Xargek incoming.”
People stared at her as if she’d gone mad.
Arin looked up into the darkness beyond the reassuring lights, searching for a myth that could prove to be either their savior or their downfall.
If they were up there, they would have heard her. She’d observed Rykal enough times to know that Kordolians had preternatural hearing.
The doors of the airlock groaned, and a great shudder tore through the dock. An alarm sounded, warning bystanders to clear the area.
The doors were about to open.
No black-armored warriors had dropped from the ceiling yet, and they were about to encounter an adult Xargek. Arin drew the plasma gun Rykal had given her, although she knew it wouldn’t be of much use.
“What are you babbling about, human?” A dark voice made her whirl, and Arin found herself face-to-face with a towering nightmare of a Kordolian.
He was all black. Even his face was hidden behind a black helm, his visor glinting in the harsh light.
He was big, this one, bigger than Rykal and most of the others. Twin swords were crossed at his back, and his body bristled with random weapons, some of which Arin didn’t even recognize.
Thank the fucking stars.
“The transport’s coming back into the airlock,” she said. “I believe there’s an adult Xargek attacking it.”
The nameless, faceless, rather scary Kordolian replied with a sharp nod. “Tell your people to close the airlock once the transport has arrived, once I’m inside,” he said ominously. “I’ll deal with it.”
“Thanks,” Arin said, and even though he was the enemy, she meant it. “Is Rykal okay?” she stupidly blurted out, before she even knew what she was saying.
The warrior stared at her through his impenetrable visor, inclining his head. “It takes a lot to kill one of us,” was all he said, before he disappeared in a blur of black armor and weapons.
The dock was almost clear now, but the peacekeepers were having a hard time directing the remaining people towards the exits.
She couldn’t drag any of them away from their responsibilities to accompany her to the cargo hold.
She would have to go it alone and hope she didn’t run into any bad luck along the way.
More importantly, she hoped her men were still alive.
Arin activated her comm, relayed some specific instructions to Tadao, then ran.