***
A small parade of men was striding down a corridor ten floors below Kate’s route. Two guards led the way, followed by Manutaai, the fake Sataal, Talokta, and two more guards. Talokta had taunted Manutaai, “Yes, you are going to Marone’s ship with a gift for him, and you are going to take Sataal with you.” Manutaai read the look in his master’s eye and knew he was a dead man walking.
Manutaai felt the onset of panic. Had three years’ absence made him sloppy, stupid, or both? He knew he had been double crossed. But why let Sataal go? What the hell had they done to the guy? He was acting dopey. His clothes were different, and his voice when he had cursed at one of the guards for pushing him sounded strange. This was not Sataal. It just looked like him. It had to be a trick. Talokta was going to hold onto the real Sataal.
Manutaai was desperate, a sense of self preservation fed into his soul and he searched his mind for a way to hold on to that preservation. He needed freedom, and there was only one opportunity open to him. Manutaai knew the Domain ship’s layout, just as well as he knew Talokta’s, at times, unorthodox, unpredictable methods. The irony of it all! Years earlier, he would go to any length to impress the master he held in deep respect. Now he was running from him. He knew once he stepped into the Transfer room he might as well kiss his ass goodbye.
Twelve meters ahead was a soft lift. A soft lift was voice operated and carried one or two people. It was called soft as it had a dampening field against the G forces due to its capability to travel to any section within the huge ship in seconds. It was reserved for Talokta, his guests and senior ranking warriors. He had only dared ridden on it once, when Talokta was not present. Otherwise, there were the larger, cumbersome lifts for the warriors and freight.
He would have to act fast if he was to have any chance at all.
That moment, two guards were approaching Talokta’s group from the opposite direction, and out of respect for their Leader, they stopped a few feet from them and turned with their backs against the corridor wall. Just as Manutaai passed them, he spun around, elbowed one of the guards in the head, and grabbed his Gloctol. He somersaulted between the two front guards and raced forward, ducking low. He heard Talokta yell, “Sonel!”
Pumped with adrenalin, Manutaai rounded the bend and the blessed soft lift was in his line of sight. Just behind him, he heard the guards running and energy shots rang out and passed over his shoulder and his elbow. He ducked, dived, and skidded to the lift.
“Brehm!” he screamed and the door instantly opened. He threw himself inside yelling “Colehm!” The door slid soundlessly shut thwarting a bombardment of energy beams. Manutaai collapsed on the floor gasping for breath, fighting panic. He commanded the lift to take him to his chosen destination. Within five seconds, he arrived. “Brehm!” The door opened, and he peered out cautiously. Time was of the essence.
The way was clear. Just before he exited, he fired on the door control rendering it useless. He ran towards Talokta’s quarters. There were no guards, only an open doorway with no active force field. That meant no one was inside. Shalash!
He heard a familiar voice just around the corridor up from where he was. He ran into the room looking frantically for somewhere to hide. He ran to the end, spotted the room around the corner, and hid on the far side of an enormous bed. He thought his heart was going to explode. Talokta had dramatically changed the décor of his quarters. Was he trying to impress the woman or what!
“Thanks, guys. Chivalry is not dead with the Trimadians. Hic!”
Manutaai hoped they would not scan the room before she entered. The rule for one prisoner was always at least two guards to be stationed. In Kate’s case, she might have four.
He heard the familiar sound of a force field activated.
Kate was humming a tune and had wandered into the bedroom barefoot. She threw her shoes on the floor just a meter from him. He heard her throw herself on the bed.
“Ahhhhh!” I think I’d better knock this booze stuff on the head. I hope I don’t get a friggin’ hangover.”
Manutaai got to his knees and peered cautiously over the edge of the bed. Kate, still dressed in her stunning sleek gown, had her eyes closed and her hands behind her head. She looked so relaxed. Talokta had obviously drugged her. She should be easy to handle.
He put his hand over her mouth simultaneously pressing the Gloctol to her temple. Kate opened her eyes and a look of incomprehension filled them. She turned her head to him with fear filling her eyes.
“Quiet, please, Kate,” he hissed. “I’ve no time to explain. I’ve escaped from Talokta. He wants to kill me. Please, you are my only hope of getting out of here. If I take my hand away, will you promise to stay silent?”
She nodded, and he removed his hand. She pushed herself onto her elbows, shaking her head. “How the hell did you get out, man?” Kate whispered.
“Long story, I hope to live to tell you one day. Right now I’m sorry to have to do this but I need you as a hostage.”
“What?!”
“Please, Kate, I don’t want to hurt you, but Talokta will do anything to protect you, therefore you are my best bet of getting out of here alive.”
Quite irrelevantly, a song flooded into Kate’s memory, Fleetwood Mac’s Rhiannon. The unique vocals of Stevie Nicks reverberating in her head. That small Earth memory of an old favorite song brought her mind awake to reality. Though her body still felt like jello, the song semi sobered her.
“Wait! We can’t go without the others. Shit, I’ve been living it up, eating and drinking, and I forgot all about why I came here–for our people. Talokta has my stone, and I assume you have given him the fake one.”
“I was going to keep the real second one with me, I had a feeling you would need it. I did give Talokta the fake one, but his men arrested me, and he would have the real one in his possession now. He’s drugged you, Kate. He’s working on you so you don’t remember your friends or why you are here, soften you up, and deliver you to his master.”
Kate looked at him. “Yeah, he mentioned that. He said Kalvich or somethin’ I’m sure Pete mentioned that name to me, but I don’t know, I can’t remember. Who the hell is this master?” She looked down at her gown. “Apparently this is a gift from him.”
Manutaai looked agitated. “It’s lovely, but Kate, we have to go now. There are escape pod ships we can use in the cargo bay. I know a shortcut we can take.”
“How the hell do you know your way around this huge tug, especially when I sure don’t?”
“Please Kate, I will explain but we must go!”
“Okay,” she said seeing the desperation, “but not without my friends.”
“No time!”
“I’m sorry, Manutaai. I’m not leaving Pete behind. I love him.”
Manutaai stared frustratingly at her and realized it was not going to be as easy as he first thought. He had been given enough information about Kate to know that Talokta’s one mission in his life would be to deliver Kate to Kalvich above all costs. The fate of the universe was something that had hit his ears.
“Sorry, Kate, I’m going to have to force you.” He dragged her along the bed. “We are leaving one way or the other.”
Kate put up a struggle but she was no match for his strength. “No, Manutaai, please.”
He grabbed her wrist, and yanked her off the bed and hard up against him. Her perfume, her pretty hair, she was so warm, her body yielding. Last time he held her close, he had kissed her. This time he pressed his lips hard against her neck and licked along her throat tasting her. “For luck,” he whispered hoarsely.
He spun her round with her wrist behind her back and the gloctol against her temple.
Without her stones, Kate felt powerless.
Manutaai pushed her into the main room and towards the doorway.
“I’ll kill her if you don’t lower the field,” he threatened. The two guards outside whipped round with weapons at the ready. They appraised the s
ituation just as a voice emitted from one of the communication devices on the guard’s belt. Talokta, speaking in Trimadian was alerting his men to the escape of Manutaai.
At the same time, a deafening alarm went off around the ship. Manutaai wondered why he had taken so long. Manutaai bared his teeth in a scornful grimace. Obviously his ex-master thought he could quickly contain the situation. Perhaps the urgency went up a notch as Talokta realized his plans.
Manutaai drew Kate closely in front of him and pressed the Gloctol harder against her head. “LOWER THE FIELD NOW OR SHE DIES AND YOU CAN TELL TALOKTA!”
The two guards looked at each other. One of them slowly and reluctantly lowered the field.
“BACK AWAY NOW!”
He shoved Kate out and thrust his Gloctol at the guards, “DROP YOUR WEAPONS AND GET INSIDE NOW.”
The guards sullenly obeyed, not taking their eyes off him.
Manutaai turned the field generator back on, grabbed Kate by the arm and ran down the opposite way he had arrived. The cargo lift was twenty meters east and would take them to where he wanted to go. He desperately hoped Marone was still in the vicinity. He would rather take his chances with him than Talokta, any day. With no Sataal or stones to give him, at least he still had Kate. He was not sure if Marone and Talokta were working together or if both Trimadian masters would try to outdo each other. His pained memory kept taunting him that he was arrested because of the fake stone, keeping the real one and fooling his master, which instantly would seal his fate.
But one thing was for sure, creating a dummy Sataal was, to him a booby trap. He knew Talokta had a perverse habit of sending “gifts” to enemies and having these niceties blow up in their face. He assumed the fake Sataal was the bomb.
They got to the lift door. Talokta would have all exits and lifts covered. So he had to make sure Kate was in front of him to enable his safe passage.
He felt a pang of pity for himself and Kate. An attractive, intelligent female; an excellent companion. If they were in different circumstances, if they had more time. Shalash! It was doomed before it could begin.
He commanded the lift to open, and hurried inside. The lift drove hard downward. While it was nothing like the almost motionlessness of the soft lift, it was just as efficient. A moan came from Kate who looked a bit green as the lift slowed after fifteen seconds.
The door opened, revealing a hangar filled with scores of various fighter craft and small pods. Manutaai snapped his free arm around Kate’s waist and nudged her cautiously outside just in front of him. No guard was in sight. He focused on his pod of escape twenty-five yards directly in front of him.
“Come on.” He grabbed Kate by the hand and pulled her towards the pod. Kate gasped as the rows of craft went on as far as the eye could see. She had no idea just how huge the domainship was.
Half way over, at least thirty guards appeared from two other lifts on opposite sides of the hangar. Talokta emerged, his face dark and hostile.
“STOP OR DIE!” he commanded in Trimadian and strode out toward them.
Kate seized the moment, yanked her hand free from Manutaai, and ran towards Talokta, but Manutaai was too quick for her and tackled her to the ground, instantly thrusting the Gloctol to her head. He yelled, “BACK OFF OR SHE DIES! NOW!”
The guards automatically lifted their weapons but Talokta raised his hand to stop them from firing. Apart from labored breathing from Kate and Manutaai, the place was as silent as a graveyard.
Manutaai picked Kate clean off the floor and back onto her feet keeping the deadly weapon pressed against her head. “We are leaving right now, and you are not going to stop us,” he said looking defiantly at Talokta.
Talokta, his face a stone, slowly walked towards them, his knee high shiny boots tapping on the hard floor.
“That is not a wise thing to do, Manutaai. Et ah mai-te Verone Elite.”
“Ha! You never intended for me to join. I saw through your conniving game,” Manutaai spat. “No more talk. We’re going.”
“Join what?” Kate gasped.
Manutaai ignored her.
Talokta’s voice boomed, “If you harm or kill her, you also die.”
“Do you want to tell your master that you lost his one hope, his beloved queen again? Do you want to face him with that news, and suffer at his hand too?”
Talokta’s eyes darkened with anger, his voice, steady, deadly, and menacing.
“Consider your options Manutaai. You can have the stones, give them to Lord Marone, yes, he’s there waiting for you, but leave her here. You have a better chance to get out of here alone than with the woman.”
“Shalé Sha!” Manutaai yelled.
Kate and Talokta’s eyes met, and at that ill timed moment, a vision slapped her. She was dancing with a tall dark man, who held her tightly but whose face was deep in shadow. The most beautiful music, like a waltz was playing. She closed her eyes and could feel the warmth of the sun on her face, a familiar lover’s embrace. Yet when she opened her eyes, the face was only in shadow. No matter how hard she put her face to his she could not see him.
It was so unnerving that Kate broke out of the vision with a scream.
“LEAVE HER ALONE, MANUTAAI!” Talokta shouted.
Manutaai dragged a pale, limp Kate up the ramp. He pushed a code into a plate at the side of the pod entrance. Nothing happened.
Manutaai growled at Talokta, “Override now.”
The leader nodded to a warrior close by who pressed a code into a hand held device. The pod door silently slid open. Kate glanced at the plate. It had clear Trimadian markings, how she knew that, she did not know. Was it in one of those books Pete had? But it spelled out clearly one thing. She faced him accusingly, “You–you are Trimadian. You are a traitor to Sataal, to your people, to me. I trusted you! God! I gave you my stone!” Tears of anger rimmed her eyes.
“Get in,” Manutaai snarled.
He shoved her through the entrance and turned to Talokta. “Give us safe passage out of here, if you ever want to see her alive.”
Talokta silently stared at him. He knew using any weapon now, including mind torture was too risky with Kate so close.
Manutaai locked the door, pushed Kate into a seat and sat at the controls.
“Surely you don’t think they will let you get away.”
“While you are with me, oh yes, I think they will.”
Jesus! Kate thought to herself. I feel like a puppet with a noose around my neck, being pulled tighter no matter where they turn me.
Manutaai was right. The bay doors opened. The pod drifted to the rim and shot out like a bullet.
Lord Talokta crossed his arms across his chest as he dourly watched their progress on a monitor from his command post. It was imperative to get Kate away from Marone’s ship so the bomb could be detonated. That was easier said than done.
Manutaai checked his readings. Marone’s ship was there alright, a mere five thousand kilometers away. The ETA was three minutes.
Inside the pod, a red light was flashing and an intermittent beeping noise sounded. On the pod’s video, Marone appeared.
“Ah Manutaai, I did not expect you to arrive in an escape pod.” I didn’t expect you to arrive at all, maybe Talokta is getting soft. “Nevertheless, I gather you have Sataal and this leverage you mentioned. I assume you were talking about the legendary blood stones?”
“No, my lord, Sataal is still on Talokta’s ship, along with the stones.”
Marone’s eyes grew cold, “Well then, I see no need for our arrangement to carry on. I suggest you find another way to Zhesta.”
“Wait, I have something far better than Sataal or the bloodstones.”
Manutaai grabbed Kate and pulled her to him so Marone could see her.
“Who is this? Are you playing games with me?”
“She has great powers and is far more valuable than Sataal’s scientific knowledge. Her name is Kate Willard, your ticket to defeating Kal
vich.”
Marone threw back his head and laughed heartily. “You expect me to believe such an absurd claim? Anyhow, I should shoot you down now for blaspheming against our Supreme Ruler. You cannot keep your promises let alone deliver what I need. You give me one reason why I should not blast you into the next light year for all your ill promises and treachery.”
“She is Queen Leah of Graffa, the Chosen One.”
Chapter 21—M.I.A.?