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“Mhm,” he says.
My curiosity is intensifying now. He definitely knows something. I want to know what he’s getting at, but before I can ask him, emergencies happen.
BOOM!
There’s an explosion on the docks, large enough to make the entire ship rock back and forth as if we’re on water. Sirens go off everywhere, all at once. The bridge gets busy with half a dozen more crew suddenly appearing at their posts with near military precision.
Malik turns to the controls and starts tapping at buttons and issuing curt but intense orders. He doubles the screen with the feed from the dock, so now there are two large images of what is happening outside. The interior of the ship has been erased. There are only the docks, and the chaos ensuing on them.
The traders have scattered, mostly heading for the interior, though some are doing their best to reach their ships. It’s not clear where the explosion actually took place, but it is clear that it has caused great destruction. Torn and twisted metal are everywhere, crates of goods and wares scattered over the dock. Here and there, bits of what look like they belonged to a sentient being very recently are dotted about the debris. It is a grisly sight.
“Prepare to depart, all crew to positions, all passengers to cabins. Vacate public areas, secure loose items.”
Malik is giving the commands with a smooth purr that completely belies the anarchy outside. We can hear gunfire now.
His sister is out there. I’m surprised at how calm he remains, knowing that. A lot of the crew went with Shah, if crew is what you call his gang. I doubt they left the ship undefended, but I’m not sure who Malik is giving orders to.
“Man the gangway, medics, be prepared for casualties.”
Suddenly, this operation doesn’t seem as haphazard as it once did. Underneath the facade of free-will and larceny, I can see this ship is just as organized as the Colony.
A small group of people, including Zeki, bursts out the archway, heading for the ship. I see Malik’s shoulders lower a fraction, as if he has relaxed a bit seeing that she’s okay.
The gunfire becomes more concentrated and intense. Soldiers are giving chase from the interior, firing at all those who are fleeing.
Zeki is hit. She goes down. Malik leaps from his chair, unable to do anything to help. Just when I think he is going to try to crawl through the screen to get her, Shah comes blasting through the rear of the soldiers like a wild beast, shooting them from behind as he breaks through the line. He grabs Zeki, hauls her up over his shoulder, and makes for the distant gangplank as laser fire rains around him. It makes a fizzing, hissing sound as it snaps against the ground around them. The ship’s feeds are so sharp and clear it is almost as if we are there with them. Adrenaline surges inside me, bringing me to my feet. Malik and I both might lose someone important any second now.
Then, somehow, things get worse still. Fire begins to emanate from a freshly revealed battery of guns along the top of the rainbow arch. This fire is not concentrated on the fleeing crew. It is aimed at us, at the ship itself. As the laser bolts hit, the ship starts to shudder and roll back and forth, like a beast struggling under assault.
The door to the bridge bursts open. “RAISE THE SHIELDS!” a woman cries.
“I can’t,” Malik responds. “Not until they’re on board.”
Even a short distance feels like an eternity when under fire. Shah is running with Zeki, but he still has several hundred yards to cover, and the ship is being hit dozens of times a minute.
“Raise the shields or there won’t be a ship for them to board!”
I don’t know who she is. I don’t know who anyone is. I’m a stranger trapped in the crisis of strangers. I can hear the urgency in her tone. She’s begging Malik to save those aboard at the cost of the handful who are outside. But Shah and Zeki are among those outside, and Malik is clearly ready to die, and let us all die, to give them a chance to survive.
“MALIK!”
The woman steps forward and I get a good look at her. She’s tall, almost as tall as he is, and she’s broad. Amazonian. Her skin is beautifully dark and she bears… holy shit, is everybody on board this ship an Elite? The bloodlines of this place are incredible. For someone who has spent her entire life among the pale worker drones of the Colony, it is an awesome and terrifying sight to see these hallowed people.
“Don’t touch those controls, Asari,” Malik says. “Ten seconds. Ten seconds and they’ll be safe. We can stand that long.”
“And if our propulsion systems go offline?”
“They’re shielded. We’re fine. Seven seconds.”
It is the longest seven seconds of my life. Time slows to molasses and draws itself out in excruciating detail. I have time to take in everything, Malik’s expression, Asari’s frustration, and out on the dock, Shah’s grim determination written on his handsome features as he hauls a bleeding Zeki over the final stretch to safety.
He lunges for the ship and the camera loses him. Malik hits a button, and the firing that was making the whole ship feel like a rickety tin can being riddled with bullets is instantly muted by ninety-five percent at least. Now it sounds like soft rain on a spring afternoon, almost nice.
“Shields activated,” Malik says. “Retreat pattern alpha in effect.”
Asari looks at him furiously. “You had no right to risk us all for them. That’s not the protocol, Malik. Your responsibility was to the people on this vessel. Shah’s orders.”
Malik turns to look at her, his expression almost impossible to read. “My sister has been wounded,” he says. “Take the bridge, Asari.”
