Frontier's Shadow: A Space Opera Adventure (Frontiers Book 3), page 20
The ground around them reverberated, and everyone gazed through the dome as more Tadrosian transport crafts flew overhead, slowing to land.
Jason frowned. “Soon this whole area will be teaming with security forces.”
“What can we do?” Aly asked.
“We can’t go up. Our only option is down.” He led the way to where they witnessed large communities gathering for their meals after a torturous day in the mines.
Sirens rang out from above, and Tadrosian forces commenced marching into the bowels of the Huugli habitat.
Jason darted his eyes left and right. “We have to pick up the pace.”
He and Aly hurried along, bumping into a group of Huugli. They all stared at the pair as if they were going to put them on the menu for their next meal.
“I wonder if you can help us?” Jason improvised. But he got no further as a bag was thrown over his head and the world around him turned into darkness.
Forty-Eight
Valkeris Station
Marissa and Tai left the examination room and followed Doctor Kirahvin from the lower levels back to the Argo.
“I can never understand how a species could be so pigheaded to consign itself to extinction because of a blatant superiority complex of its own race.” Tai said to Marissa. “I know human history had its own monumental challenges stemming from ethnic relations, but this is something else.”
“Perhaps it’s for the best,” Marissa declared.
They stopped in the middle of the corridor, and Tai stared at her in shock.
“Think about it, Doctor,” she continued. “You said yourself that once the Tadrosians are gone, the Huugli will inherit what they leave behind. The planet may be unsalvageable, but the space stations will still be here. They’ll be able to leave that mess of a world behind and live just as well as the Tadrosians do now.”
“Do you believe all Tadrosians think the same way their leaders do?” Tai asked.
“No, but the people have had centuries, if not millennia to make changes. They haven’t. As far as I’m concerned, their demise can’t come soon enough.” Marissa realized it was a harsh sentiment, but she’d lived on Mars for many years and had seen how the lowest ebbs of society suffered.
Maybe we’re just as bad…
They continued around a corner where footsteps echoed ahead of them and Doctor Kirahvin from the other end of the corridor. Tadrosian soldiers appeared and approached with their weapons raised.
Marissa stopped and grabbed the back of Tai’s mobility chair. The frantic clatter of more steps loomed from behind, and the pair glanced at a frantic Kirahvin.
“What’s this all about?” Marissa asked her.
“There’s no time!” She pointed them in the opposite direction. “Come with me now!”
They headed toward an adjacent corridor and through a disguised hatchway, which led them inside was a dark passageway.
“Did they find out what we were doing here?” Tai pressed.
“No, well, yes,” Kirahvin admitted nervously. “But only after something happened on the surface.”
“What happened on the surface?”
“The Huugli kidnapped two members of your crew, and others went to Tadrosia looking for them. The station’s in lockdown, and they want the rest of you thrown in the brig.”
What the hell’s been going on since we’ve been gone?
Kirahvin directed them through the tight space until they reached the other side where they entered another corridor free of any Tadrosian security forces. “Get back to your ship. Head this way and go left. The elevator chute will take you to the docking bay.”
She gave Marissa and Tai the traditional Tadrosian gesture of goodbye. “Now go!”
Cargo Ship Argo
Conrad added milk to his coffee and stirred, looking at the chronometer on the wall of the galley. Time was ticking down to their scheduled gateway window. He wondered if the Company would let them reschedule.
He strolled through to the bridge and sat at the systems station, sipping away at his hot drink as a crackle burst to life over the speakers.
“Tai to—”
Conrad furrowed his brow and activated the commlink. “This is the Argo. Please repeat.”
“We’re coming back… security… are… we… are… need… attack.”
The commlink went dead. He tried to reactivate it, but it was being jammed.
What the hell’s going on?
Conrad peered through the viewport at a group of Tadrosian security officers heading his way across the docking bay. “Sons of bitches!”
He knocked over his coffee, spilling it on the deck, and rushed over to the helm where he pulled the rear entry ramp up.
You bastards aren’t coming in here.
A commlink rang out over the speakers. “Tadrosian Security to the Cargo Ship Argo, you’re to stand down and prepare to be boarded.”
“Not a chance,” Conrad replied.
“Failure to comply will result in your immediate destruction.”
“Never threaten me…” He closed the channel and powered up the ship’s engines. With the burst of the maneuvering thrusters, he circled the stern of the Argo toward the oncoming security officers.
They scattered to the deck like nine pins, and Conrad reactivated the commlink, hoping he’d knocked out the mobile jamming field. “Althaus to Tai.”
“I’m receiving,” she said.
“Where are you?”
“We’re heading to the docking bay now.”
“I’ve taken out the bastards here, so you should have a free run in. I’ll have the ramp down as soon as you arrive.”
Valkeris Station
Susan punched her mobility chair into overdrive at the sight of the docking bay, while Marissa ran beside her.
A discharge of weapon fire whizzed past their heads.
“They’re gaining on us!” Marissa yelled.
Susan maneuvered her chair to cover her. More gunfire discharged toward them, but the pair reached the hatchway onto the docking bay unscathed.
Althaus rotated the Argo around and dropped the ramp for them. Susan let Marissa run up it first, and she followed behind. More Tadrosian blasts pinged off the hull. But they were too late. Althaus lifted the ramp, and the rest of the vessel elevated from the deck.
Susan’s chair got stuck on the edge of the ramp, and the momentum of it retracting tipped her backward off the ship. She leaned forward, but it was no use.
Marissa leaped and grabbed her by the hand, and the weight of the other woman dragged her and the rest of her chair tumbling to the Argo’s deck. They both slammed down with force, winding themselves in the process.
“Are you okay down there?” Althaus asked over the intercom as the Argo’s rear thrusters whirred to life.
Susan regained her breath, while seeing if Marissa was okay. “We’re in one piece. More or less.”
“Well, grab hold of something because I’m ramming ourselves out of here. It might be a rough ride.”
They had a few seconds to react, and prepared themselves as Althaus pushed the engines into top gear and pounded the small cargo ship against the docking bay door, crashing through it and beyond to freedom.
Tadrosia
The bag came off Jason, and he dropped his head, grimacing at the light above.
“Is that him?” someone said.
“Yes,” came the reply from another more familiar voice.
“Kione?” Jason’s eyes adjusted, and a Huugli stood before him in an elaborate robe with a recognizable four-pointed pendant around his neck.
“You’re alive,” Jason said, reassured at the sight of Kione beside the other man. “Where’s Kevin? And Aly?”
A Huugli took the bag off Aly’s head next to him, and Kevin revealed himself from the shadows. The father and daughter hugged, relieved at the sight of each other.
Jason turned his attention to Kione. “Who are these people? Have they treated you well?”
“They’ve been most accommodating.” Kione nodded. “Lahtala is the leader of the Huugli religious sect.”
The prominent man stepped forward and helped him up from his chair. “You shouldn’t have come here.”
“You took two members of my crew. I wasn’t going to sit on my hands and do nothing,” Jason blasted the older Huugli defiantly.
“And because of it, you’ve brought the brunt of the Tadrosian security forces upon us.”
“You can’t blame me for that.”
Lahtala sighed and told them the story of their religion while justifying why they’d kidnapped Kione, believing him to be special to them.
“You think Kione’s your messiah?” Jason said, flabbergasted by the whole tale.
“It is written—”
“Just because it’s written on a piece of parchment doesn’t mean it’s so.” Jason rolled his eyes. “And if it’s anything like the texts on my world, they can be interpreted in any number of ways.”
“You obviously don’t understand faith, Mister Cassidy.”
Jason shook his head and walked to the temple entrance. He peered upon the subterranean habitat and the thousands of Huugli who called it their home. “You understand I can’t allow you to keep him here.”
Lahtala looked to Kione who approached Jason’s side.
“I’ve agreed to stay with them,” he said to him.
Jason raised his eyebrows at his alien friend. “You’ve done what?”
“In exchange for ensuring you didn’t fall into the Tadrosians’ hands, I told Lahtala I’d remain with him and his people.”
“Kione…”
“You, Kevin, and Alyssa are free to go.”
Before Jason could utter another word, the ground trembled. A younger, panic-stricken Huugli man ran into the temple and approached his leader.
“Master, they’re here!”
The ground shook harder, and chunks of rock fell from the ceiling, covering them all in dirt and dust.
Forty-Nine
Everyone found their footing and hurried out of the temple with the ground quaking around them.
Lahtala peered to the top of the subterranean habitat. “The Tadrosians will come from the surface and work their way down.”
“Is there another way out of here?” Jason asked.
“The tunnels…”
The religious leader led them farther down the old open-cut mine until they came to an entrance burrowing into the side of the rocky interior. “This leads to an adjacent pit.”
Aly and Kevin stayed near each other, trudging through the tight escape tunnel, while Jason approached Kione.
“You know I didn’t come down here to just leave you behind?” he said.
“Your journey here wasn’t in vain,” Kione told him. “You’ll be able to take Kevin back to the Argo.”
“And what are you going to do down here? Dress up in those robes and give sermons to people?”
“If I didn’t do the deal, you’d be likely dead now.”
Jason frowned. “That doesn’t make any of this better.”
They followed Lahtala through to the end of the passageway and proceeded to the surface. Dozens of Tadrosian craft soared above, while their troops shoved through the crowds, knocking down anyone who got in their way. Hover tanks pushed over brittle Huugli structures and squashed them into the ground.
“This is why you shouldn’t have come here,” Lahtala said. “They’ve never sent this kind of firepower against us.”
Jason refused to get into another ridiculous argument with the Huugli preacher. “You have to let me take Kione back to my ship.”
“When we need him most?”
“What’s he supposed to do here!”
“That’s for the Firstborns to decide.”
Jason grabbed Lahtala by the shoulders and shook him. “The Tadrosians will rip this entire region apart! You, your people, and Kione will all die.”
“No, we won’t…”
Four more troop crafts descended a kilometer away, and another tank division made its trek from the marketplace.
Lahtala turned to his offsider. “Is everything ready?”
The younger Huugli man pulled a small comm device from his ear and nodded. “All units are in position and awaiting your go-ahead, Master.”
“Tell them to proceed.”
His subordinate sent the instructions over the audio channel, and a trio of blasts shot into the air from the surface. They converged on one of the Tadrosian troop crafts and made contact, creating a large orange flash in the sky above. The craft exploded, and its remains fell to the surface in a fiery mess.
Jason looked at Kione who seemed just as stunned as he was. More anti-craft weapons fired from points all throughout the area, scorching their enemies from the sky.
“Lahtala, where did you get these weapons from?” Kione asked.
“For years we’ve been smuggling them from the space stations in orbit.”
“Quetren?” Aly whispered to Jason.
“The Huugli are a peaceful people,” Lahtala said, “but we won’t sit idly by when salvation is so close at hand.”
Cargo Ship Argo
“We’ve got two patrol ships on our tail!”
Tai strapped herself in at the helm, while Conrad took a seat in the captain’s chair.
“Punch the main thrusters to full power and take us to Tadrosia,” he ordered.
“Someone’s trying to open a commlink,” Marissa said with confusion from the operations station.
“Let’s hear it,” Conrad ordered.
“Uh.” She gazed over the console.
“Press the small green button.”
She found it and pushed it in. “Commlink open. I think.”
“Tadrosian Security to Cargo Ship Argo. You are entering restricted space. Break off your approach and return to Valkeris Station immediately. If you do not comply, you will be—”
“Marissa, close the channel,” Tai instructed.
She did so, and Conrad stared at them. “You realize I’m the one in command here, right?”
“Sorry,” the doctor apologized, “but if they fire on us, we’re dead.”
“I know that—”
“If we continue on to Tadrosia, we might have a chance.”
“Oh?”
“The Tadrosian upper atmosphere is teeming with lurilius-ze particulates.”
Conrad put two and two together. “It’ll ignite the atmosphere.”
“There’s no way they’d be callous enough to fire on us once we’re inside.”
“Stay on course. We’ll need to play for time so they don’t blow us up before we reach it.” He reactivated the commlink from the command console. “This is the Argo. If we do as instructed and turn around, I’d want some reassurances that my crew—”
“This is not a negotiation,” the terse reply came from the pilot of the patrol ships in pursuit. “This is your last warning.”
Conrad wasn’t one to make things up on the spot, but he had little choice but to try out some improv if he wanted to survive the next few minutes. “Now listen here! That’s hardly any way to treat your guests. I’m more than happy comply with your demands, but all I ask is a simple request.”
No response came, so he continued. “If you throw us in a cell, could you at least find something nicer than those quarantine rooms? It was far too white for my liking. The décor of your whole station could do with some work. More imagination preferably. I can put you onto someone I know, if you like. They have a real knack—”
“Uh,” Marissa interrupted, “I think they hung up on us.”
“Now entering the upper atmosphere,” Tai said.
The Argo pushed into the dense pocket of Tadrosia’s exosphere, and the ship shuddered around them.
Marissa checked the scanners. “The two patrol ships are following.”
Tai’s fingers danced over the helm controls. “The count of lurilius-ze particulates in the lower atmosphere is considerably less. Once we reach the stratosphere, they’ll be able to fire on us without consequence.”
“We can’t stay up here forever.” Conrad checked the scans on his command console. “But I may have an idea.”
He hurried over to the operations station and took over Marissa’s keypad. “The particulates will remain saturated on our hulls for several minutes.”
“Are you saying we could ignite them?” Marissa asked.
“It’d depend.”
“On what?”
“Whether something very old still works.” He punched in a series of commands and brought up a launch menu. “All E-Class vessels are equipped with emergency flares. If the ship crashes and both the transponder and communications fail, they’re a last resort to any passing rescuers.”
“How long ago was one fired?”
Conrad thought about it. “I can’t remember.”
“Well, there’s no time like the present to see if they’re still operable,” Tai chimed in from the helm. “We’re entering the stratosphere.”
The layer of atmosphere thinned, and the Argo’s ride smoothed out. On the scanners, the Tadrosian vessels followed. With a deft touch, Conrad aimed the dorsal discharge points in their direction and fired.
A dozen flares blasted upward in quick succession. One after another. Most missed and fizzled into the sky, but two made contact, and the patrol ships lurched sideways and lit up in a flash of blinding light. They tumbled downward, barely missing the Argo on their descent.
Conrad pumped his fist and pounded the workstation with satisfaction. “All right, let’s find our people…”
Tadrosia
From the ground level of the habitat, the sky lit up with fireworks as anti-craft artillery continued to batter every Tadrosian vessel converging on them.
On the surface, their security forces found themselves surrounded as the Huugli attached explosives to their tanks, while more resistance appeared out of hiding to ambush their assault teams. Kione couldn’t believe what was unfolding before his eyes because of him. Above, a larger, darker craft appeared. It slowed and maneuvered toward their position.
