“I know. I’ve got another plan.”
Adam directed Riyad and Sherri to get the men into the nearest Juirean landing craft. Turning to Kaylor, he asked, “Can you fly that thing?”
Kaylor frowned. “I suppose so. It shouldn’t be too difficult. But what about my ship?”
Adam stepped closer and put his hand on Kaylor’s shoulder. “We’re going to have to leave her. It’s the only way we can get out of here alive.”
Adam saw Kaylor turn pale, his eyes growing large. But Jym stepped up next to him. “It will be okay,” the tiny alien said. “We’ll get another one — a newer, better one — when this is all over.”
Kaylor just stared at his ship for a long moment. “She served us well.”
“Sure did,” Adam said. “Now we best be moving.”
Once the Juirean ship was loaded, Riyad closed the rear hatch and Kaylor slipped into the pilot seat. Looking around, they didn’t see Adam.
Riyad keyed his comm. “Adam, where are you?”
“I’m in the Cassie 1.”
“Wait a minute!” Kaylor protested. “I have to leave my ship but Adam keeps his!”
“We need the counselor’s shuttle to get us off the planet. Just follow my lead.”
Aboard the Cassie 1, Adam activated the Juirean transponder and fingered the communication button. “This is Counselor Deslor’s shuttle demanding that the airlock be opened immediately.”
A startled voice came over the speaker. “It will take a couple of minutes to depressurize the chamber. Please wait.”
“Initiate whatever emergency procedure you need to do. The Counselor has been injured and requires immediate medical attention!”
The line was still open to the technician, and Adam heard him yell out “rapid evac!” Then the ceiling began to slide aside. Adam felt like screaming, as the vast metal door appeared to be moving in slow motion.
But finally the opening was large enough for the Cassie 1 and Kaylor’s shuttle to squeeze through. They both activated chemical engines and screamed out of the airlock in a cloud of black and grey smoke.
Once clear of the open pit excavation, Adam initiated a small gravity well. Kaylor did the same, and soon they were streaking for open space.
Adam pulled up a vicinity-readout and on his forward screen a couple of dozen contacts appeared. He quickly scanned the readout. There, toward the end of the Juirean line of ships! Adam tapped his keyboard and a visual popped up. It was a heavy battlecruiser. Class 5. Just what he needed. He steered toward the ship.
Almost immediately a voice came over his intercom. “To the Juirean shuttle approaching, state your business.”
“This is Counselor Deslor’s shuttle and escort. The Counselor has been injured and requires immediate medical attention. Have a medical team waiting in the hold. Estimated arrival, two minutes. Arriving on chemical drive.”
“What? Counselor who? This is highly unusual.”
“Who is this?” Adam demanded. “When the Counselor dies from his injuries I want to be able to report to the Overlord the name of the individual responsible.”
There was a brief silence before the voice came back on. “We are sending a team. Enter through the right landing bay.”
Adam had no idea where the right landing bay was, but he closed on the large cruiser, dissolved the well and reactivated the chemical drive. As he rounded the aft section of the ship, he saw an opening of the lighted bay. He slowed and maneuvered in carefully. Kaylor was right behind him.
Once in the bay, Adam cut the drive and could hear the Cassie 1 screech along the metal floor, before coming to a rest only meters from the interior wall. He felt a slight bump as Kaylor actually ran into the side of his ship.
There go my insurance rates! Adam thought, surprised he could still muster a sense of humor; he figured it was simply out of exhaustion — and the throbbing pain in his side.
Through the viewport, Adam could see a group of Juireans, as well as another being he didn’t recognize, standing on the other side of the airlock door, waiting for the room to pressurize. When it was, the door slid open and the medical crew rushed in. One particular Juirean strolled in slower than the medical crew and stood near the exit door to the shuttle.
Adam climbed out of the pilot seat, picked up an MK-17 and checked its power pack. Then he headed for the exit.
As the door slid open, Adam stepped out into the warm air of the landing bay, still carrying in it traces of his chemical drive. He could hear the creaking of the engines as they cooled.
The Juirean commander stepped past the medical crew and eyed Adam, noticing the blood stained wrap around his waist. “Who are you? And where is the Counselor?”
“Yeah, about that…” Adam pulled the MK from behind his back and sent a bolt through the commander’s forehead. Then he turned the weapon on the other aliens in the room.
Riyad, Sherri and the other humans came streaming around the Cassie 1, weapons at the ready, Kaylor and Jym bringing up the rear. Adam looked at Jym. “Find us a computer terminal and pull up a schematic. We need to find the bridge.”
The group moved out of the landing bay and into the control room, with some of the men taking up positions to cover the passageways leading in. Jym moved to a console and began to key-in frantically. “To the left and three levels up,” he called out.
Adam moved in behind Jym. “What’s the compliment of a ship this size?”
Jym did some more typing. “About forty-five, not counting combat troops.”
Adam knew he didn’t have to worry too much about combat troops being left onboard. Most, if not all, were down on the surface of Zylim-4. “Jym, show Riyad where the generator room is located. Riyad, take ten men and secure the generators. Kaylor and the rest of you follow me to the bridge.”
They set off down the corridor to the left, while Riyad’s group split off and headed aft. With Sherri and Kaylor on his wings, Adam led his group to the nearest stairway. In the lighter gravity of the Juirean ship, Adam and his men practically flew down the hallways and up the stairs, while Kaylor fell further behind. Adam noticed that Sherri had slowed to stay with him, her MK gripped tightly in her right hand.
At the end of passageway was a double secure door. Not knowing if the bridge crew had been alerted or not, Adam’s team slowed and took up flanking positions. Then Adam fingered the controls to the door and it slid open…
Sitting at the controls, with their feet up on the consoles, were three aliens, not Juireans, and they were completely taken by surprise as the Humans swarmed into the room. Adam’s men literally threw the aliens out of their chairs and toward the rear of the bridge. Others took up guarding positions over the aliens.
Kaylor finally arrived on the bridge. “Can you fly this one, too?” Adam asked him.
Kaylor moved up to the controls and considered them for a moment. “This is a Class 5 starship. It’s a complicated monster.”
“Yeah, but can you fly it?”
Kaylor studied the controls once again, and then looked at Adam. “Of course I can.”
Adam patted him on the back. “Good. Turn her away from the planet on chemical drive. Small bursts, nothing to attract attention.”
Sherri moved next to Adam. “The Juireans are going to notice if we attempt to bolt out.”
“I know,” Adam said. “That’s why I want you stay here with Kaylor and listen in on the comm. Kaylor, be ready to punch it when I say so.”
“Punch what?”
“Never mind.” Adam looked straight at Sherri and smiled. “Keep an eye on him. He means well.”
Adam left the bridge and returned to the landing bay just as Riyad was returning from the generator room. “Doesn’t seem to be very many people home. Guess they’re all down on the planet licking their wounds.”
“Good, come with me.”
Adam lead Riyad and his men into the landing bay. “Try to find anything that will explode.”
Riyad recoiled from the statement. “Explode?”
