Chapter 17
“This facility is my responsibility and I hold one thing sacred; my authority over all that occurs on this ship. You broke the rules, and for that you must be punished.” Captain Barras chided sternly as he clapped the dust from his heavy work gloves, the Callos stood in a tall canvas-like suit. To Miles he resembled a cowboy or a construction worker; to Garth and Lalia he resembled discipline incarnate.
“Release Galio Forrt. He hasn’t done anything wrong.” Lalia commanded.
“No. I make the commands.” Captain Barras warned, “You’re under arrest!”
The Captain reached for his gun and leveled it at his hips, firing several rounds down the corridor. Molten plasma burns dotted Octorl, his repulsors failed and he dropped to the ground. Garth turned to shoot, firing blindly at the three. He cursed out loud as one plasma shot burnt his hand; he dropped his gun in pain.
Miles snarled and released a pulse of light down the corridor; the pulse sent the three Callos flying down the hall. One of the guard’s head connected with the roof of the corridor, he fell to the ground without movement.
Lalia and Garth remained behind the cover of the indentation of a door way, Miles stood firm-footed in the center of the hall throwing blasts of white light at the remaining two Callos.
The loudspeaker blared:
“Detention Blocks: A, B, C, F, and K are unsealed. All personnel are needed on floor.”
Miles unrelenting fired wave after wave of light, the remaining guard buckled under the pressure and slid further down the hall slamming against the back of the wall. Captain Barras turned in shock, the guard who had slid down the hall was engulfed in a barrage of escaped prisoners each shouting in primal bloodlust. The Captain turned to face Miles who held an illuminated palm to his face:
“I won’t kill you.” Miles said through clenched teeth, the Captain dropped his gun. Miles then turned and ran to the door where Lalia and Garth hid. Garth slid a card through the access slot, the door slid open. Lalia pulled at Octorl’s arms and dragged the robot with them.
“This is madness.” Lalia exclaimed, “How did all of the prisoners escape?”
Garth checked the hall and saw a badly beaten guard stripped of his uniform, the sound of escaped prisoner’s feet echoed further away.
“I don’t know whether the riot is helping or hindering us.” Garth concluded.
Garth checked his burn, his skin was a mottled pink color, but he would be alright. He cringed slightly as he touched it, it definitely hurt.
Lalia fiddled with Octorl who rebooted and again started to hover, his repulsors weren’t as consistent, but he was operating.
They turned to corner to see an open detention block where several guards were firing upon the inmates. One inmate came behind the armored guard and bludgeoned him with a heavy-looking pipe, once the guard was on the ground a horde covered him, one happy inmate ran off with his gun; firing a pot-shot at another bystander inmate.
“Try to stay hidden.” Lalia whispered, the group then quietly inched along the catwalk on the second floor; they were close to Detention Block ‘D’. However, a burly prisoner wearing a guard’s helmet blocked their exit. Lalia raised her gun, but from behind the bars of the cell at Lalia’s side a hand shot through, grabbing her. The inmate hiding in the cell bit at Lalia’s arm, dropping the gun to the floor. Miles drew in breath to prepare an attack, but the enormous prisoner backhanded him, Miles was swatted over the guardrail where he dangled. Garth fired at the prisoner, Garth’s ancestral memory finally starting to be summoned. Lalia threw her long leg back between the bars crushing the ribs of the female prisoner behind the bars who let out a yelp.
Miles hung over the guard rail and tried to pull himself up, but in school he was never any good at doing pull-ups. Garth continued to struggle with the large prisoner, Garth leaped at the prisoner in an attempt to gouge-out his eyes. Garth held tightly to the prisoner’s uniform, the prisoner tried to slam Garth into the guard rail but both lost balance. The two toppled over the guardrail...
The prisoner landed hard with Garth on top of him, the booming sound of the giant impacting the ground silenced the whole block. Each of the frenzied prisoners averted their attention to the lanky Callos who stood on the body of the downed prisoner.
“Kill him!” One prisoner snarled above the silence.
The wave of enraged prisoners converged on Garth, one prisoner held above their head a gruesome-looking blade, but the prisoner was slammed by a blast of white light. Miles dropped to the floor from the guardrail, his feet hitting echoed nearly as loud as the fallen prisoner who collided with bars at the far end of the block.
“Kill him too!” Snarled the same voice.
Dozens of Callos prisoners descended upon Garth and Miles, Garth’s instinct overpowered his consciousness and soon he snapped elbows and gouged-out eyes of the unfortunate prisoners who fell on top of him. Miles acted as a windstorm, his energy blasts jettisoning unfortunate prisoners into the walls of the detention block. Lalia watched down in amazement as the two fought off the two dozen prisoners with deadly skill; Garth swung his leg around connecting with a prisoner’s jaw, only to wrap his leg around the prisoner’s neck with a twist effectively snapping it. Miles threw an uppercut punch with a short blast of light into a prisoner’s stomach hurling him face first into the ceiling.
Garth shouted through the din to Miles:
“Come on! We need to move on!”
Miles then yelled with an enormous pulse which sent the remaining prisoners backward. Garth opened the door and they walked through. The door sealed closed behind them, Garth typed at the security panel locking it.
Lalia called out to them:
“Good work. This is the right block; Galio should be right through here!”
Miles faced the second floor and gave Lalia a “thumbs-up”. The door behind her opened, behind her stood Alvar and several of his soldiers.
“Doctor?” He called. She turned to face him, a fist in the air. He caught it and with a knee to the stomach knocked her to the ground.
“I should have known you would free all of the prisoners!” He snarled in contempt.
Lalia began to crawl backward from him; Alvar raised his foot to kick her. Miles reacted quickly and slammed a blast of energy into the scaffolding they stood on, the metal snapped and Lalia rolled off down to the floor. Alvar unholstered his gun and began to fire,
“So there you are!” He shouted at Miles.
The door to Detention Block ‘D’ opened, nine soldiers in heavy armor with rifles leveled at Garth stood in the center of the block. Galio in the cell immediately behind them.
“It’s a trap!” Galio shouted.
Garth jumped towards the soldier closest to him, and ducked to avoid plasma fire. He slid on the slick floor of the block, the twisting of his legs knocked the soldier over, and with a quick motion he pulled the rifle from the soldier and bludgeoned him with it. Miles raised his arms to blast the soldiers, but he struggled to breath. Miles fell to the floor gasping for air.
A soldier approached the gasping Miles, but he was downed by a shot to the head from Lalia. Lalia stood in the doorway shooting and killing three of the soldiers while Garth struggled on the ground with one.
“Stop!” Alvar commanded.
Garth, Lalia, and the soldiers stopped fighting; Alvar stood near Galio with a gun pressed against his head. Garth bent down to help Miles sit up.
“I’m fine. I’m really weak though.” Miles whispered hoarsely.
“I will kill him unless you surrender that creature!” Alvar shouted, pointing at Miles.
“No, you should help us Alvar.” Lalia petitioned, “Your brother is wrong.”
“My brother is wrong!” Alvar agreed, “Out of fear he wants the creature eliminated. I will be the brave hero; I will kill the monster and be elevated above my brother.”
“Really? You are going to kill him to become a hero? That is what this is about?” Garth questioned in fru
stration.
“I will earn my brother’s favor.” Alvar finished a slight twitch of his lips.
At that the locked door behind Miles broke, a stream of angry prisoners burst through, the soldiers fired their rifles into the mob. Miles got to his feet and ran with Garth, leaving the slow Octorl behind. Lalia threw the rifle strap around her and followed after Miles and Garth.
“I will kill you! I must have favor!” Alvar shouted with an insane laugh, he then fired into the mob killing several prisoners, Galio whimpered in his cell behind him.
The shot that killed Galio rang louder to Lalia than the rest of the rifle fire. Alvar’s laughter rang out, he and his squad retreated through a side corridor, the soldier left to hold the rear held back the prisoners but was overwhelmed and eventually fell.
Lalia let tears run down her face as she ran, the two boys far ahead of her. Garth was leading them towards the emergency escape pods, usually used to jettison only the worst criminals. The pod was at the end of the hall but an armed Captain Barras stood before them, two dead prisoners lay at his feet.
“Don’t try to go any further.” He warned. “I am taking you to the Admiral.”
The three stood still, Lalia out of breath didn’t try to raise her gun at the Captain.
“We really just want to leave the ship. We didn’t want any of this to happen.” Lalia said in exasperation.
“Unfortunately, I am under the orders of the Admiral: you are a threat to the Convoy.” The Captain responded after a pause, he then checked behind himself and towards the corridor’s camera obscured by a metal beam.
“You have spared me.” He looked at Miles, “Though an alien species, and though I tried to kill you, you chose to let me live.”
Miles looked him in the eyes, the Captain broke the stare:
“I will let you escape. Know if you ever return the Admiral will have you killed.” The Captain took a step to the side to let them pass; cautiously they walked past him towards the cylindrical chamber attached to the corridor’s exterior.
Garth heaved open the lid of the pod, Miles flopped himself limply into a seat, Lalia jumped in and sealed the pod. Garth pulled the release lever, and the pod snapped from the vessel and floated away slightly. The thrusters on the top of the pod fired it towards the planet Aurrus.
Doctor Melric watched from the screens in the security hub, they were escaping to Aurrus; Alvar had failed. Melric pulled from the console his security authentication card; his Captain clearance afforded him control over the locks in the Detention Blocks:
“Damn prisoners couldn’t kill a kid, a doctor, and some alien. They didn’t even kill Alvar.” He slammed a fist on the console. He couldn’t tell who they had stopped to talk to in the corridor closest to the pod, but he was certain of their pod’s bearings. The festival on Aurrus began the next day; hundreds of Callos would be warmly invited to celebrate the approach to Phlasia with their Aurrus hosts. The convicts would have no problem in finding a suitable place to hide;
“I will have to draw them out.”