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Shuddering, gulping in air, I looked down and realized that the man’s skull had been bashed to bits, his blood covering the walls in thick droplets, and spreading out beneath us in a pool.
I leaned forward, catching myself on the wall just long enough to vomit before rolling away. Eventually, I crawled over to the man’s body and relieved him of his blaster. After a moment of reflection, I tossed my mechanical arm aside, realizing I could not carry it with me if I wanted to fight my way out. Whatever happened next, I could always replace my arm. But I could not replace the satisfaction gained by loosing all the anguish I had been holding inside for so many years.
As I stalked down the hallway, I passed the room where I had been tortured. Peeking through the window, I could see the remains of Mia’s ashes still marring the neat white floor. Swallowing back my remorse, I turned away.
“It is time for you to have the rest you deserve, sister,” I muttered. “I should have let you go long ago. None of this would have happened if I had just let you go.”
Although I forced my mouth to form the words, I was not sure that I had accepted them in my heart. After all, if it were not for my endless search for Mia, I would not have met Cosma, something that I did not regret at all.
With that thought fresh in my mind, I moved on with single-minded focus. The only thing that mattered now was returning to her. I needed to see her. I needed to tell her how I felt. I needed her to know that it was not her fault that I had left. She was perfect, and I was too blind to see it. But now it was as clear as day.
Making my way through the ship, it surprised me to discover that it was a rather small thing. This was not one of the Sovann’ash’s flagship research ships. In fact, it appeared that the cell they had locked me in was little more than a spare closet, and the room they had tortured me in was the closest thing to an infirmary I could find. I suspected this crew had not actually come out here expecting to capture me. It was probably only pure chance that led them to recognize who I was, which made me even more angry. They’d been waiting for me, holding Mia’s ashes for ages, just waiting for the opportunity to torture me.
This also gave me hope that there were a few more of these assholes for me to run across. If I could take them out with no surprises, I might hold the biggest breakthrough in Sovann’ash technology the Vaclan Brotherhood had ever claimed. It could seriously change the tide of the war. But mostly, it could provide me the means to get back to Cosma, and that alone was driving me forward, one step after another, even when my whole body was screaming at me to stop.
A noise up ahead made me freeze, bringing the blaster up level with my shoulder as I waited patiently for my adversary to round the corner. By the time I saw his misshapen head, I had already fired my first shot, stopping him cold. There was a shout, and another soldier appeared, just in time to receive the same fate.
I stopped checking to make sure the blaster still had enough charges to continue. I might need another one if things kept going this way.
As I stepped over the fallen bodies, I turned in the direction they’d come from. I had to be getting close to the cockpit. And when I got there, I had big plans for whoever was flying this thing. Judging by the size of the ship, there couldn’t be more than two or three people in there. Easy enough, I thought, although a twinge of muscles in my back reminded me I had better take it easy.
At the end of the long hallway, I came upon the cockpit door. Inside, I could hear the squawk of radios and the yammering of the Captain and his underlings. All of it made me sick with a hatred so primal I could practically taste it. I had to still myself, wait for the perfect moment to enter.
Just as I was about to try the knob, there was the rattle of gunfire and the screech of metal being shredded. I almost lost my balance as the floor shifted beneath me, and I heard the Captain unleash a string of hissing curses inside the cockpit.
We were under attack.
19
COSMA
“That ought to get their attention,”Torgus chuckled, twisting in his seat to look back at the holes we’d just peppered down the side of the Sovann’ash ship.
But I wasn’t feeling as jubilant as he was. Scanning the debris that was floating in a wide arc around us, I searched desperately for any sign that this was a mistake, that it was someone else’s ship that had been blown to bits. For what it was worth, I saw no indicators either way, and I did not see any discernible body parts either, so I was still holding out hope.
“Round two?”
I glanced at him warily. “We didn’t come all this way just for you to shoot guns.”
“Of course not, but that doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy it, anyway.”
I sat back in my seat, crossing my arms over my chest and glaring at him. “What if he’s in there? Did you think of that? You could fire a bullet straight through him.”
He snorted. “Hardly. These little guns won’t do much more than punch a few holes in the exterior and make some noise. They’re not meant for blowing anything up. Like I said, I just wanted to get their attention. Now let’s get in there and see what my dear little brother is up to. I feel a lot better about that if we can ensure that the ship will not take off with us in it. You see?”
I sat silently for a moment, reflecting on his plan. We had discussed none of this. I suppose he thought I was too stupid or inexperienced to add anything to such a conversation. He was probably right about the experience bit, but I wasn’t stupid. Even I could see that his plan made sense, and he’d done this once or twice before.
“Okay, fine. So, when do we go in?”
“Well, as soon as I disable the engines on my next pass, we should be able to find a way in.”
With that, he turned us around in a wide arc, taking aim at the exhaust port of the starboard engine, and letting his guns fire all out. Flash after flash disappeared into the dark hole, but there was little to show for his efforts. He didn’t seem deterred, though.
“You know what’s odd?” I remarked, watching curiously, waiting for some sign that the Sovann’ash were reacting to our onslaught. “They don’t seem to mind what you’re doing.”
“Oh, I’ll make them mind.”
“No,” I said, laying a hand on his forearm and squeezing. “I mean, they haven’t responded at all. Their engines aren’t even on. They haven’t fired a single shot in return. It’s like… they’re not even home.”
