Chapter 16 #2
He scanned the area quickly. Two maintenance workers near the fuel cells, heads down, focused on their work.
One security guard at the far edge of the pad, but he was watching the main entrance, not the service tunnel exit.
No sign of pursuit, and no sign of alarm beyond the distant wail still echoing from the main facility.
“Clear,” he said quietly, and led Melissa out into the open.
They crossed the landing pad at a controlled pace—fast enough to cover ground, slow enough not to draw attention. The maintenance workers glanced up as they passed but didn’t comment. Why would they? He was a captain, in uniform, walking with purpose. Nothing suspicious about that.
The shuttle’s loading ramp was down, its cargo bay open and dark. He guided Melissa up the ramp and into the shadowy interior, his eyes adjusting quickly to the dimness.
“Becsul?”
A voice from the back of the cargo bay—female, human, trembling with fear and hope. He recognized it immediately.
“Sarah.” He led Melissa towards the sound. “We’re here. Everyone all right?”
Two figures emerged from behind a stack of supply crates. The first was a woman with pale skin and hair the color of dried grass, her blue eyes red-rimmed from crying. The second was smaller and younger—a girl of perhaps ten years, clinging to her mother’s hand with white-knuckled intensity.
“This is my daughter Katie.” Sarah pulled her daughter closer. “They took her too. To make sure I cooperated.”
He couldn’t stop himself from flinching. He’d known about the child, of course, and he’d suspected that Naran was holding her as leverage, using a mother’s love as a weapon. But hearing it spoken aloud and seeing the fear in the girl’s eyes…
What have we become, he thought bitterly. What have we allowed ourselves to become?
“Where’s the other one?” Melissa asked. “You said there were two other women.”
“Here.”
Another voice from deeper in the cargo bay. A small female with dark, close-cropped hair and an expression of wary determination. Wei-Lin.
“Three women and a child.” Wei-Lin’s voice was flat, controlled. “One Cire captain. A cargo shuttle with no weapons.” Her gaze swept over him, assessing. “Please tell me you have more of a plan than ‘fly away and hope for the best.’“
“I have a plan.”
“Does it involve more people who want to help us, or is this it?”
He opened his mouth to respond, but before he could, Melissa grabbed his arm and yanked him sideways.
“Someone’s coming!”
He spun, reaching for his weapon, and saw a figure ascending the loading ramp. Male, Cire, dressed in pilot’s coveralls—
Melissa moved faster than he would have believed possible. One moment she was beside him, Robbie tucked securely against her chest. The next, she’d snatched a cargo hook from a nearby crate and was swinging it towards the pilot’s skull with lethal intent.
“Wait!” He caught her wrist inches before impact. “Melissa, stop! He’s with us!”
The pilot stumbled backwards, eyes wide, hands raised. “Ancestors’ mercy! Is this how humans say hello?”
“Sarven.” He released Melissa’s wrist and stepped between them. “Melissa, this is Sarven. He’s our pilot. The one I told you about.”
She didn’t lower the cargo hook. “You didn’t mention he’d be sneaking up on us.”
“I wasn’t sneaking.” Sarven straightened his coveralls with offended dignity. “I was returning to my own ship. How was I supposed to know you’d brought a tiny human warrior with murder in her eyes?”
“She’s protective.”
“I noticed.”
She finally lowered the hook, though she didn’t put it down entirely. “You’re the friend? The one who’s committing treason?”
“I prefer ‘righteous rebellion against tyrannical authority.’“ Sarven gave her a broad grin. “But yes. I’m the friend.”
“Why?”
The smile faded. “Because Becsul saved my life during the Battle of Karren’s Ridge.
Because he carried me twelve kilometers through enemy territory with a plasma burn through my leg.
Because when he asked for my help, he didn’t have to explain why—I already knew.
” Sarven’s gaze moved to the women huddled in the cargo bay, to the child still clinging to her mother.
“Some things are simply wrong. This is one of them.”
She studied him for a long moment. Then, slowly, she set the cargo hook down on a nearby crate.
“Fine. What do we do now?”
“Now we leave.” Sarven moved towards the cockpit, his limp barely noticeable—a permanent reminder of that plasma burn. “Strap in back there. It’s going to be a rough ride.”
The shuttle lifted off with a shudder that rattled his teeth.
He stood near the cockpit entrance, watching through the viewscreen as the secret facility shrank beneath them.
Smoke still billowed from the lower levels, a grey-black plume against the amber sky.
Emergency vehicles clustered around the main entrance, their lights flashing.
From up here, it looked almost peaceful.
That place held three innocent women and a child prisoner, he reminded himself. There’s nothing peaceful about it.
“Patrol craft on approach.”
Sarven’s voice was tense but controlled. His hands moved rapidly across the controls, adjusting their course, their speed, their trajectory.
“They’re hailing us.”
“Answer it.” he moved to stand behind the pilot’s chair. “Standard supply run, returning to the central depot. If they ask why we left early—”
“Emergency evacuation protocols. Already thought of it.” Sarven activated the comm. “Patrol leader, this is supply shuttle Seven-Seven-Three. Responding to your hail.”
A burst of static, then a gruff voice: “Seven-Seven-Three, you’re not on the departure schedule. Explain.”
“Fire emergency at the research facility, patrol leader. All non-essential craft were ordered to evacuate. I’ve got a hold full of sensitive equipment that can’t be exposed to chemical contamination.”
A pause. Becsul held his breath.
“…Confirmed, Seven-Seven-Three. Proceed to Central Depot Gamma for inspection and manifest verification.”
“Understood, patrol leader. Seven-Seven-Three out.”
Sarven killed the comm and exhaled heavily. “That was too close.”
“Can we avoid Depot Gamma?”
“Already plotting an alternate route.” Sarven’s fingers danced over the navigation controls.
“There’s a secondary landing zone near the eastern mountains—used for emergency evacuations during the Red Death quarantines.
It’s been abandoned for years, but the infrastructure should still be functional. ”
“And from there?”
“From there, we need to get them off the planet.” Sarven glanced back at him, his expression serious. “You said you had contacts in the merchant fleet?”
“One contact. A freighter captain who owes me a significant favor.”
“Significant enough to transport five humans and a Cire deserter off-world without asking questions?”
He thought about the warehouse fire on Kolvan Station. The bodies they’d hidden. The evidence they’d destroyed. Captain Veran’s voice, rough with gratitude. I owe you my life, Becsul. My ship. My crew. Anything you need, anytime, anywhere. Just say the word.
“Yes,” he said. “Significant enough.”
In the cargo bay, Melissa sat with her back against the hull, Robbie sleeping peacefully in her arms.
The other women had arranged themselves nearby—Sarah and Katie on one side, Wei-Lin on the other. They weren’t speaking, not yet, still processing the reality of what was happening. Escape. Freedom. Concepts that had probably seemed impossible an hour ago.
He crouched in front of Melissa, his tail automatically seeking her warmth, curling around her waist.
“How are you doing?”
“I’m fine.” She smiled faintly. “I keep saying that, don’t I?”
“You keep meaning it.” He reached out, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “Most people would have fallen apart by now.”
“I don’t have that luxury.” Her gaze dropped to Robbie’s face, soft with a mother’s love. “He needs me to be strong. So I’m strong.”
“You’re extraordinary.”
“I’m tired.” The admission came out quiet, almost surprised, as if she hadn’t meant to say it aloud.
“I’m tired, and I’m scared, and part of me still can’t believe this is actually happening.
” She looked up at him, her dark eyes searching his face.
“But I trust you. I trust that you’ll get us out of this. ”
The weight of that trust settled on his shoulders—not like a burden, but like armor. Like purpose.
“We’re not safe yet,” he said honestly. “The patrol craft might circle back. Naran will figure out what happened eventually. We need to get off-world before he can mobilize a real search.”
“I know.”
“The journey will be difficult. We’ll be moving through dangerous territory, relying on people I haven’t seen in years, hoping that old debts are still honored.”
“I know.”
“Melissa—”
She cut him off with a kiss.
It was brief and fierce and tasted like hope. When she pulled back, her eyes were bright.
“Stop trying to warn me about all the ways this could go wrong,” she said. “I know it could go wrong. I’ve known since the moment you told me about the plan. But I’d rather die trying to escape than spend another day in that cell, waiting for them to turn me into a broodmare.”
He should have been horrified by her casual mention of death. Instead, he felt a surge of pride so intense it nearly stole his breath.
“When we’re free,” he said roughly, “when we’re safe, when this is finally over—I’m going to mate you properly. With ceremony and witnesses and everything you deserve.”
“Is that a proposal?”
“It’s a promise.”
Her smile was like sunrise.
The shuttle banked east, leaving the smoke and chaos of the facility behind.
He watched through the viewscreen as the landscape changed beneath them—the abandoned cities giving way to untamed wilderness, the amber sky deepening towards rust as the sun began its descent. Somewhere ahead, his contact was waiting. Somewhere beyond that, a ship that could carry them to freedom.
The first stage of the plan had worked. They were out of the facility, away from Naran’s immediate reach, surrounded by allies however few.
Now comes the hard part, he thought. Now we have to survive.
But for the first time in years—perhaps for the first time since the Red Death had taken everything he loved—he felt hopeful about the future.
His people were dying. His species faced extinction. The world he’d known was crumbling around him. But this small, fragile, impossible family he’d somehow gathered was still worth fighting for.
They were worth everything.