I couldn’t hope to defeat them all.
They would pin me down and wait for their reinforcements to join them.
And that would be the end of me.
I had one choice.
And when you think about it, having a choice of one isn’t really a choice at all.
I ran across the open space and threw myself out the window.
I didn’t have time to slow my descent or hope for a soft landing.
Three streaks of plasma scorched the air and zipped past me.
One came so close I heard it crackle before screeching into the distance.
I hit the ground hard and entered a roll.
My landing was rough and I felt my shoulder dislocate.
I came up onto my feet and clutched my arm to my side.
I’d lost my grip on my rifle and couldn’t see it through the haze of sand kicked up by my fall.
I became aware of a dull whirring sound.
The front cone of the vehicle was turning, speeding up fast.
Draw and his men would soon be out of here, digging up the earth and disappearing down a tunnel of its own making.
There would be no chance of the shuttlecraft taking off then, especially if they left the hatch open the way it now was.
I bolted across the open space, clutching my arm close, and ran for the open hatch.
A pair of prison guards opened fire.
Their aim was off.
It must be the cloud of sand messing up their line of fire.
The whirring cone drill bit couldn’t have helped matters.
I entered the hangar and found my shuttlecraft hovering, its engines glowing as they defied gravity and turned around.
The hatch door was open but it swung away from me as it turned on the spot.
Through the front window, I made out Agatha, sitting in the pilot seat, in control.
Her eyes alighted on me and we shared a grin.
A thin layer of sweat dampened my brow at the pain of my dislocated arm, but it didn’t matter.
All that mattered was her.
And escaping with her.
Then her grin broke and her eyes fell and she shouted a warning, one I couldn’t hear over the shuttlecraft’s hum and the grinding crunch of the giant drill bit.
I dropped immediately and rolled to one side from her warning, not knowing what was behind me.
A bolt of plasma struck the floor and melted the metal grating.
I kept rolling until I passed around a tall collection of artifacts neatly arranged on a shelf that stretched to the ceiling.
The bolts of plasma chased me, tearing up the grating in my wake.
I came to a stop behind the shelf but my assailant continued to fire, blasting the items off the shelves like sliding targets at a traveling fairground.
The shuttlecraft’s engines whirred and bolted forward, striking a clutch of Draw’s guards and knocking them off their feet.
I could see them now through a gap in the shelving unit.
The shuttlecraft knocked them back again and they lost their feet in the gathering swirl of dust.
The shuttlecraft’s ass waved side to side.
I got to my feet and ran toward it, hurling myself inside.
“Egara!” Agatha yelled.
“Go! Go! Go! Go! Go!” I screamed back.
“Computer, take us out of here!” Agatha screamed over the overbearing screams.
The shuttlecraft banked and took us away, ascending into the sky at a sharp but not precipitous angle.
I crouched and waited as Agatha ran to me and kissed me on the face, the cheeks, the forehead.
“You’re okay!” she said.
“Mostly,” I said.
She glanced at my arm and her eyes turned round with concern.
“It’s all right,” I said.
I ran a hand through her hair and smiled at her.
I pressed my lips to hers and fed her every morsel of my deep undying love.
“We’re leaving,” Agatha said.
“Yes,” I said. “We’re leaving.”
I couldn’t imagine a happier thought.
Alone.
Out among the stars.
Free.
With Agatha.
Zzzzzzzzz!
I heard the noise but it took a moment to register.
It made no sense in this shuttlecraft.
It wasn’t until I heard the dull clink of metal snapping together that the truth of our situation came to fruition.
The hatch door was closing, but not fast enough.
Sunlight sparked off the white outer shell of the drone that activated the powerful magnets on its underside.
It had locked a cuff around an ankle and would carry its prisoner away.
But which one of us?
Agatha’s eyes bulged.
She scrabbled at the floor and clung to the small shuttlecraft’s protruding innards but the magnets were too strong and she lost her grip.
The cuff on her ankle snapped as it struck the drone’s underside and it took off with her.
It carried her out of my life, away from me forever.
Agatha
I thought I was going to fall.
Hell, I was falling.
Only my left foot was attached to the flimsy-looking drone.
I twisted and swung and feared the device would lose its grip on me and I would sail unimpeded to the ground below.
I screamed and flailed my arms.
“Oh my God!” I wailed. “Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God!”
The drone’s high-pitched buzzing engines dropped an octave as it struggled to maintain its hold.
I was too heavy for it and we dropped at a terrifying speed.
The wind whipped at my hair, stinging my face.
From “Put me down!” to “Don’t drop me!” in less than a second.
The tiny prison guard figures swelled into view as I returned to a safer height.
A second drone joined me and took up my other leg.
I was eager for it to do so.
My arms flopped down and almost dragged along the sand.
My heart thumped hard and my blood flooded my face, for the moment relieved.
I hadn’t felt a rush like that since I took the Demon’s Chase rollercoaster.
I was still a little breathless.
The prison guards opened fire on the merchant’s vehicle as it tilted toward a dune and kicked out great plumes of sand as it disappeared into the side of a mountain.
The guards’ shock rifle fire did nothing to slow it.
A pair of guards approached.
I could only make out their boots and peered up at them.
“What do we have here?” one of the guards said.
“Prize number 3214,” the drone’s electronic speaker said, distorted
