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“Seal the room, lockdown all exits, and take off,” he ordered through his com while spinning on his heels.
I couldn’t say whether he’d meant for us to hear this or if he simply didn’t care that he’d still been in close enough range to the hover mic for it to pick up his conversation, but that lit a fire under us.
“Everyone out! To your vessels, now!” I ordered before turning to Tagar. “Baldur?”
He shook his head. “Haven’t seen him.”
We still didn’t know if Baldur and Thanor had managed to take out the two Sarenians who piloted this module. If they had survived and got us airborne, we’d be fucked.
“We must take the energy shield down before Deimos escapes,” I said, pointing in the general direction of the stage. The giant screen displayed an empty stage and part of the open secret door through which the three Sarenians had escaped.
To my dismay, rather than running outside with the others, Dawn, Jaek, and Vintor weaved their way through the masses towards us.
“Keran!” Dawn called out.
She threw herself in my arms, and mine instinctively closed around her. Ancestors! How I had missed the feel of my woman against me. Even the blood rising in my throat from the impact against my battered insides didn’t dampen the bliss I felt to be reunited with her. But now wasn’t the time to revel in my female.
I gently pushed her away, holding her upper arms with both hands. “You must go. Take the others to Genxia. We will meet you there.”
“No! Come with us!” Dawn exclaimed.
“We must catch Deimos. We can’t let him escape,” I said in a stern voice.
“But you’re wounded!” Dawn argued.
“I’ll be fine. You must go. I need to know you’re safe.”
She looked about to argue again but said nothing, worry and confusion etched on her beautiful face.
“Your men need you to lead them to safety, Dawn. We each have our duties,” I said.
Her breath hitched. By the way she rapidly blinked, Dawn was trying to hold back the tears pricking her eyes. Cupping her face with both hands, I crushed her lips in a desperate kiss for a brief moment before releasing her.
“Keep her safe,” I ordered, my gaze landing first on Jaek then on Vintor, who stood on each side of my woman.
They both gave me a stiff nod, before leading her towards the exit. I made a beeline for the stage where my men were already shooting at the energy shield with the Guldans’ blasters and bashing it with the tables and benches. It was taking too long. That the doors had not locked down as he had ordered gave me hope that Baldur and Thanor had succeeded in dispatching the pilots. But if Deimos had a shuttle back there, we’d likely never be able to stop him before he vanished.
Just as those thoughts were crossing my mind Thanor’s voice pierced through the fog of my bloodlust.
“Move! Let me through!” he shouted, shoving his way between my men.
My joy at seeing him back with Baldur in tow soon gave way to surprise when he raised his forearm in front of the energy shield. He frantically tapped instructions on the interface of the strange bracer wrapped around his wrist. In seconds, the energy shield collapsed. A million questions pressed themselves on my tongue, but they’d have to wait.
My men echoed my victorious roar as we stormed the stage and dashed through the still open secret door. The short hallway behind it opened onto a hangar containing a single shuttle. To my surprise, the large set of doors through which it would fly out remained shut. In the distance, Deimos’s voice echoed through the mostly empty room, berating someone named Zeory to hurry up.
We circled around the shuttle to find the three Sarenians near the control panel by the doors. The one fiddling with it—likely Zeory—looked flustered while Deimos glared at him. The third Sarenian had an air of resignation as he observed his companions.
“Don’t waste your time!” Thanor shouted to the Sarenians in a taunting tone. “You and this ship aren’t going anywhere,” he added, raising his left arm to show off the bracer around his wrist.
Where many other species would have given in to panic and either started begging for clemency or displayed erratic behavior like banging on the sealed door, the three Sarenians turned to face us with defiance. As much as I wanted to make them suffer for what they had done to the hybrids, my men, and me, their reaction stirred a begrudging respect from me. They knew they were about to die but would do so fighting until the end, and likely hoping to take a few of us down in the process.
“It seems I grievously underestimated you, Jakar,” Deimos said, taking a few steps in my direction, before stopping at a non-threatening distance.
“And Braxians’ loyalty to each other, which includes hybrids,” I said in a harsh tone. “You say everything you do is for Sarenia, yet you expected far less devotion from my own people. Fanatics like you, who remain stuck in the past, almost always end up on the wrong side of history, if they’re even remembered. Despite suffering tremendously at the hands of tormentors still alive today, our hybrids decided to leave the past behind and fight for a better future. You are obsessed with revenge on people who died over a century ago.”
“They deserve to pay!” Deimos shouted, his temper flaring.
I shook my head with pity, surprised to be able to form such coherent thoughts in my condition and through my Berserker haze. “Hatred… More hatred. It only brings pain and suffering to innocents, and ultimately always ends in failure.”
