Who needs phasers, anyway?
The whoomph echoed around the room as the lights, computer systems, and mechsuits all simultaneously went offline. We were enveloped in almost total darkness - the only source of light being the small window at the end of the corridor.
Without wasting a second, I sprinted towards the door, through the group of frozen Iyr.
‘Syl!’ a voice called out behind me.
Oops - Te’rnu.
I looked back, over my shoulder, but couldn’t make him out in the darkness.
With a sigh, I turned on my heel and rushed back towards him.
‘Ah,’ I said when I saw him. ‘Sorry. Forgot you’d be stuck.’
Te’rnu, like the rest of the Iyr in the room, was wrestling with the hydraulics in his suit - but getting nowhere.
I pulled at the clips around his limbs, one by one, releasing them.
Some of the Iyr guards had managed to move their arms to aim at us, but the click-click-click of the triggers suggested that the rifles hadn’t rebooted just yet. I knew, at least, that we didn’t have long; the phaser in the outpost hadn’t taken too long to re-start, and waiting around here for a more precise estimate was perhaps not a great idea.
My friend wriggled free of the last limb - a leg frozen in place on the ground.
‘The suits are beginning to reboot already,’ Te’rnu told me, voice anxious, ‘We don’t have long.’
‘We don’t need long,’ I assured him.
Te’rnu now free of his suit, we bolted for the door, weaving through the Iyr who were slowly moving to block our exit. We sprinted down the corridor, echoes at our rear of mechsuit feet occasionally hitting the floor as the Iyr trudged on.
We turned the corner at the end of the corridor, heading back the way we’d come - from the shuttle bay. I crashed into an Iyr, who was frozen in place by the rebooting mechsuit.
‘There!’ they called at another Iyr, standing nearby, equally stuck in their place.
They growled as I picked myself back up to my feet, and joined Te’rnu in continuing our escape.
A phaser beam shot over our heads. The phasers were on back online, then - but at least the Iyr were still struggling to move to aim.
Another shot came - closer this time.
‘Te’rnu!’ I called out, signalling for him to make a turn.
We shot down another corridor, off to our left.
‘We did not come this way?’ Te’rnu asked through heavy breaths.
‘No,’ I replied, equally out of breath. ‘But I didn’t fancy risking a third shot. I know the way.’
We turned another corner - bringing us back on route to the shuttle bay. In this corridor, fortunately, there were no Iyr to speak of. Perhaps because they were retracing our steps - and we hadn’t come this way before.
Soon, the doors to the shuttle bay were back in front of us. Our escape was in sight.
All we needed to do was get in there, barricade the door, and call a shuttle… and then I could get off this damned planet.
We burst through the shuttle bay doors - straight into a squad of armed Iyr guards.
‘We thought you would come back this way,’ one of them gloated.
18
A Brave New Z’h’ar
I grabbed at the back of Te’rnu’s suit, pulling him in the opposite direction, away from the ten or so phaser rifles being pointed our way. We bolted back through the doors… and into yet more Iyr. This was it, then; we were, at last, surrounded - with no more tricks up our sleeves.
Speaking of…
I glanced at the EMP device on my wrist. It was still rebooting, currently up to only 18%.
I looked around for a weapon, for an escape route, for anything… but came up empty.
Shooting Te’rnu a sad look, I put my arms up in surrender and slowly returned to the shuttle bay.
The Iyr squad leader gestured towards an empty wall by the door. ‘Our boss will want you up against there,’ they told us.
Without saying a word to one another, Te’rnu and I walked up to the wall, placed our backs against it, and faced down the group of armed Iyr.
‘No,’ the same Iyr instructed. ‘Face the wall. You will not have the honour of looking your death in the eye.’
Te’rnu slowly turned around to face the wall. I remained still.
‘You do not turn around?’ the Iyr asked.
I sighed, and in a resigned tone, asked, ‘What if I don’t? What you gonna do, kill me?’
‘Turn around,’ the Iyr repeated. I ignored them and instead looked over my shoulder to Te’rnu.
‘I’m sorry,’ I whispered.
‘It is OK,’ he replied. ‘I think I have done, now, what I was born to do.’
Te’rnu’s voice was shaking, and yet his words sounded so confident. He showed strength in the face of death.
Reaching behind me, I gripped his hand, squeezed it gently.
‘Turn… around,’ the Iyr growled, ‘I will not ask again.’
The shuttle bay doors shot open and the Head of Guard stormed inside, followed by the same squad from the mainframe terminal. He took a moment to survey the situation here, before walking up to me.
The red-helmeted Iyr grabbed my right wrist and twisted it so that he could look at the EMP. Upon seeing that it was on only 21%, he nodded.
They looked down at my other hand and snickered.
‘Holding hands, are we?’ they asked.
I didn’t grace them with an answer.
The Head of Guard walked over to the side of armed guard squad, clearing their line of sight.
I glanced at my wrist again: 23%.
‘I know what you are thinking,’ the Head of Guard continued, ‘But that device you have is not going to save you this time. We will be done here long before it re-charges.’
‘“Done here”? What exactly does that mean?’ I asked. ‘You’re gonna shoot us? Why?’
The Iyr laughed. ‘Why? You ask why?!’
‘There’s no point harming us now! The damage is done! You’re not preventing the truth from getting out there, there’s nothing left to hide!’
The Head of Guard said nothing for a moment, and instead simply stared with
