Chapter Nineteen
Sacrifices
The second Pax entered the ship and saw the Cerebral’s face he knew something was wrong. Sci was holding himself straight, but his gait was off, his breathing looked labored, and his eyes didn’t focus on anything very long.
He was obviously drained. But he didn’t say anything.
Unfortunately, Pax needed Sci’s help too much to address it and offer to let the male rest. He was willing to push the Cerebral’s mental capacities to the max until the male fell unconscious. In the past, Pax had watched Sci do just that during training exercises.
“To the bridge. The captain is already on a quantum video call so he can be kept up-to-date on our progress as well as the cleanup of the Absaloka mine.”
A subtle nod letting Sci know he heard him. Pax lead the way to the bridge.
Amevi was in the pilot seat when they arrived. A Grach.
“Take off. We don’t have time.” At Sci’s sway when the ship took off…Pax realized they really didn’t have time.
“You don’t have your blocker on, Pax, I can hear your concerns,” Sci said without much emotion or energy. “I’ll be fine.”
“You don’t look it.”
Sci’s glossy eyes turned. “I choreographed an incursion, keeping every single member of your team alive while giving all eleven of you individual viewpoints for access.”
Pax couldn’t exactly empathize because he would never be able to understand the depth of the mental strain, but he understood multiple lines of attack. However, he was a Red Demon and liked to joke, so he responded, “You act as if you did all the heavy lifting. I’m the one who had to fight the Krant.”
Sci turned back to the screen. “I had to experience his pain of being stabbed in the eye. Not to mention taking sides.”
Pax was confused. Taking sides?
“You viewed him as the enemy, and he thought the same of you because he believed in his job. He was being paid to deliver mine workers to their next mining planet. To him, they weren’t kidnapping victims. They were products. They were bought to be miners, and he saw nothing wrong with his job.”
Anyone with eyes could see that they weren’t machines. They were people. Dirty and unkempt and in great need of nutrition. Pax didn’t care if the Krant believed that he was in the right. Didn’t care that Sci had had to endure the pain. He would be long dead before he allowed the Cerebral to flip the script and make the slave traffickers the good guys.
Sci’s grip on the chair in front of him increased as the ship started to slow. “If I disagreed with our side, I wouldn’t have helped as I did.” Blue eyes turned Pax’s way, a little duller than before. “But you need to get down the ramp. I can’t sense Vivra at all. As in, her mind is gone. But Yon is fighting an entire group of Terrans on his own right now. He’s cornered and needs your help.”
Pax wanted to go, but he stuttered on the cold words that were now grinding in his mind. Her mind is gone.
To the captain, Pax heard Sci say, “There are too many minds for me to count, and I can’t say for sure, but the slaves here appear in the thousands.”
“Pax,” was all Rannn said. With that one word, Pax’s training, his callused soul, came back online as if it had never gone. He had to let Vivra go and move on. He had a crewmate to save…and, apparently, thousands of slaves, as well.
Sci waved his fingers in front of him as if he were swatting a fly in the air. But the gesture was not lost on Pax. Sci was mentally attacking the Terran hostiles. Then, slowly, Pax watched as Sci’s head dropped forward, his shoulders hunching before he crumpled to the floor.
Pax dropped to his knees to grab his comrade before he hit his head. He laid him gently on the floor and then looked at Rannn. “Ansel should take a look at him when we get back.”
Rannn said, “He’s already on standby for your return.” He wiped his mouth and added, “I’ll let Sasha know.”
Good enough for him. Pax took off, knowing that a group of eight Grach and Shady followed.
The ship had landed right by the massive hangar. They ran in, phasers in the air, and then they all stopped. Pax wasn’t sure what he was looking at.
“Are those people…glowing?” Shady asked.
“Are they in cages because they are dangerous?”
One cage, Pax realized, was open, yet the occupants were still inside. Their skin was glowing, but their clothes were ratty and covered in what looked like black, sparkly soot.
“Find Yon. Spread out,” Pax commanded and ignored the glowing men and women as he passed their cages. A phaser in hand, he took in all the things he saw, the bodies on the ground, and when he crossed by an open cage, he noticed several of the occupants on the ground, bleeding or dead.
“Medic. Over here. Someone help the ones in this cage.” Pax continued searching for his half-Demon crewmate. His eyes never stayed in one place long. He scanned from right to left, up and down, and then behind him when he stopped to secure an area.
He saw more people bleeding in cages—holes in their bodies, mostly red blood. Terrans, then. He saw several prone forms on the ground, limp. And once he checked their necks…lifeless. But he didn’t see any blood, so he assumed it was Sci.
The Cerebral could take out minds, but it quickly depleted his energy. He must have used the last of his reserves to protect Yon.
Looking at the bodies around him, Pax decided to call out instead of stumbling into Yon’s arsenal, whatever he was using.
“Yon. Get out here and tell me what the hell happened to Vivra.”
Everything was silent for several seconds, and then Yon walked out from behind a wall. His shirt was wet with either blood or sweat; from the distance, Pax wasn’t sure. But his pale arms were dripping with his Yunkin grey blood. His white Federation jacket was gone, but he still wore his grey undershirt, the Red Demon lines on his collar visible.
In one hand, he held a Terran rifle, and there were two thick, black straps crossed over his shoulders.
“Vivra escaped to the other hangar. The red one. She’s with one of the Flourg.”
Pax noticed that Yon was speaking confidently, but he was slouching on the wall, still…as if the structure was the only thing holding him up. “Sci said her mind was gone. Maybe she got off the planet.” Pax said the words but didn’t believe them. He was just happy to see his crewmate alive. But he realized the male was in bad shape.
Yon pushed off the wall and limped forward. “That Bolark can’t fly, and I would bet my blood that Yelena doesn’t either.”
“Who?” And, what the hell was a Flourg?
Yon took three more steps, and then his knees gave out, causing him to hit the floor. Pax ran to him, calling out for his team. Lynn was there in the next second.
“We’re loading the wounded first.”
Of course, they were.
“Let’s get him loaded, then,” Pax said to Lynn.
Yon pointed the black barrel of his rifle at Lynn. “Don’t touch me. I’m fine. I’ll get myself to the ship.”
At that, Pax looked at Lynn, giving him a playful grin. “Ignore him. He’s old and crotchety.”
Lynn’s hand were still up, and he didn’t try to touch Yon again. “I don’t know how old you are XO, but I do know that you’ve lost a lot of blood. I can give you my shoulder if you’d like.”
“No. No, I wouldn’t like,” Yon growled, pushing himself off the ground. Pax shoved his arm into Yon’s free hand and helped to pull him up.
“You’re getting fat, and I need to find Vivra. You’re slowing me down. Take the damn help.” Pax wouldn’t leave the bastard to bleed to death just because the Yunkin was too stubborn to accept help. It was very convenient that the last time the male had almost died, he was blessedly unconscious for the entire trip.
“At least I’m not ugly,” Yon quipped, not shrugging off Pax’s help as they made their way to the front of the hangar. Lynn stayed near them but didn’t touch or say anything.
“How long ago did you see Vivra?” Pax asked, wanting to remain hopeful that she was still alive, but also knowing there was a chance she was not.
Yon pointed the gun at the closest side door. “We need to go out here.”
Uh…
Yon let his body weight direct the path, and Pax went with it. Out the door, he saw a motorized vehicle and realized what Yon was doing. Then, Yon withdrew his arm and held the doorframe.
Pax saw the red hangar, and a small, worn, dirt path created by the vehicle driving to and fro.
“What are you doing? Where are you going?” Ah, Shady. Pax could always count on her to ruin the moment. Pax turned around and watched as Shady gave Lynn a level stare. “Why aren’t you helping him to the ship?”
“I…” Lynn started.
Pax started the conveyance with a silver key that was already in the ignition. He had not driven something like this since he was a child. He didn’t look over when the seat next to him was filled, but he did hear the female voice next to him say, “I don’t care. Just get him to the ship. He’s our XO, or did you forget that?”
Pax shook his head and pulled out. Shady….
She stayed quiet and kept her hand on the side of the vehicle as they sped forward and down the road. Seconds felt like minutes as he drove. At the red hanger, they stopped and jumped out. Pax heard a female screaming. He didn’t wait for Shady, he ran, following the sound and moving across the dusty floor. Every step caused a small puff of floating debris to rise in his wake.
The door was open, and he slid in, searching for the sound. He saw both purple and black blood all over towards the back of the room. A single glowing female was on her knees next to the masses of blood. Her back was to him. Every step he saw more he didn’t like. Purple blood was Red Demon blood. And the black – Bolark. His mind already guessing what happened, but his heart was stuttering, refusing to accept the evidence.
Then he stopped to see half a purple skull with its skin peeled off.
The glowing woman was sitting in the black Bolark blood, holding the head of the body. The clothes bloody, but familiar. The non-federation wedges were Vivra's.
Pax’s heart dropped. The distress was clear in the damage. The blood was proof of the savagery.
Pax let his knees hit the floor. Vivra…her face…
Pax couldn’t breathe.
Not again.
Not another female death on his hands.
Not her.
Please, Seth. Not her.
The knot in his heart, in his throat, began to grow. He reached out, touched the Bolark’s wrist. No pulse. He didn’t expect one.
He saw but didn’t register that Shady was next to him. She was touching him, removing his hand from the light green wrist.
“Clear,” Shady said once. Then twice.
He turned, wondering why the cyborg was trying to get him away from her. “Don’t tell me what to do.” He said the words in a tone that vowed vengeance.
Shady’s eyes looked squarely at him. No fear. “Clear,” she said again and reached over to Vivra’s chest. He watched Shady’s eyes blink white for a second.
Then, Shady did it again. She was using some electrical pulse in her cybernetic fingertips to try and jumpstart Vivra’s heart.
On the fifth try, Shady looked away from him. He touched Vivra’s wrist again. He held onto the cold skin and watched as the cyborg’s arm transformed, shifted. The piston and bars moved like a well-crafted cog until there was a hole where the bicep should have been.
Reaching into the newly shifted hole, Shady pulled out a small, white rectangular device the width and size of Pax’s thumb.
A medscope.
Shady placed it gently against Vivra’s neck, and Pax finally registered the bump against his fingertips as a pulse.