The
breakthrough occurred just to the rear of the Phoenix’s starboard cargo bay, so
the Skeet brothers left the cockpit and made their way hurriedly to intercept them,
so they were unaware another raider had been splashed by the Tornado’s Plasma
Cannon.
However,
had they seen it happen it would not have altered their course of action,
because they had to tackle the intruders head on, and if they couldn’t fight
them off then they would have to leave in a life pod.
They met
the Raiders in the forward hold and killed three of them in the first exchange,
and then another five in the resulting skirmish, but then Zerrad took a Pulsar
blast to the abdomen, so Lyris threw a gas grenade into the hold which caused
panic among the intruders and Lyris took his opportunity in the resulting
confusion and dragged his stricken brother out through the door and closed and
sealed it behind him.
He had
propped Zerrad up against the bulkhead while he sealed the door shut but at the
precise moment, he finished he passed out and slithered down the wall.
“Come on
Zer, we need to get into a pod before they blast through”
Getting no
response from his brother he began dragging him, and this wasn’t easy as he was
a big muscular man and as he was unconscious, he was a dead weight and they
were 50 feet from the nearest pod, and that was not ideal as it was on the
starboard side, nearest the planet.
However, it
was “Hobsons Choice” as he probably didn’t have enough time to get to his
preferred option.
Lyris was
sweating and grunting as he dragged his brother two agonizing feet at a time,
not knowing if the cargo bay door was going to blow any second.
“Damn
Zerrad you’re heavy” he exclaimed as he neared the first life pod, and although
the raiders still hadn’t breached the cargo door, he was exhausted, so he hit
the button and the pod door opened.
After five
minutes of pushing and pulling he finally managed to get Zerrad into the pod,
which was just in the nick of time as there was a loud explosion and what had
once been the cargo door was now scrap metal and shrapnel filled the corridor
showering Lyris with debris, one sizable piece striking his temple and throwing
him into the pod, dazed and exhausted he managed to summon the strength to
close the door and hit the launch button before he passed out.
When the
life pod was spat out into space the Skeets were blissfully unaware of just how
close they were to Zandros or how quickly they were likely to burn up entering
the atmosphere.
Fortunately
help was at hand, with Merri at the helm of the Tornado and Malena deploying
the magnetic grapple and she had a vested interest in rescuing the Skeets
because although she had written off any kind of relationship between herself
and Zerrad as being untenable she now found that the likelihood of his
impending death had left her empty inside and for the first time she was struck
by the realization that Zerrad Skeet was more than a friend.
As the life
pod tumbled at speed towards certain death Malena’s head was awash with
emotions that she didn’t know she possessed as she began the decompression and
with every passing second, she wished she could speed up the process and then
after what seemed an eternity the flashing light changed colour.
“Lowering
ramp and deploying grapple array” Malena said
The array
was stowed in a compartment in the roof of the cargo hold and deploying it
involved lowering it down from its storage space and anchoring it to the floor.
“Any time
you’re ready Mal” she said “Don’t miss, we might not get a second chance, we’re
running out of space, fast”
“No
pressure then” Malena said
Lyris was
out for the count as the pod continued to tumble but Zerrad was drifting in and
out of consciousness but both men were unaware that Malena was poised to fire.
Fortunately,
she had an uncanny ability to calculate quite complex mathematical formulae in
her head so in the time it took her to inhale a breath she had worked out the
trajectory, angle, speed, and probability so on the exhale she squeezed the
trigger and there was a muffled boom, and the harpoon was spat out of Tornado’s
nose towards the tumbling life pod.
As soon as
Merri saw the grapple leave the ship, she had to ensure she didn’t deviate from
her course to ensure she didn’t influence the grapples trajectory.
For Malena
it was agony as she could no longer influence the outcome and just hoped that
she had got it right.
For the
Skeets there was no jeopardy, at least in as much as they were unaware of it,
although in reality they were desperately in it.
For Malena
the wait was agony, all she could do was to watch the image on the monitor
coming from the grapple camera and pray.
Closer and
closer it got, and the pod got larger and larger
“Come to
mama” she said and then the grapple struck but because the escape pod was
tumbling out of control the grapple plate struck the pod a glancing blow and
bounced off.
“NO!”
Malena shouted but then the tumbling that had caused the grapple to miss bought
it back in the path of the floundering grapple and it locked on, and the
grapple striking the hull marked the moment that Zerrad finally lost his fight
with consciousness.
“Contact”
Malena shouted and engaged the winch and Merri began to slow their forward
momentum but she had to decelerate slowly so as not to put additional strain on
the grapple cable and undo Malena’s good works.
It was a
slow process and Malena wished she could make haste, but she had to resist the
temptation and bide her time, but thankfully the moment came when the life pod
finally passed the threshold and into the cargo hold
“It’s in”
Malena shouted “deploying clamps”
“Ok quick
as you can” Merri said and engaged the engines
“As soon as
the door is closed, I’ll set a course for Alwi”
“Captain,
captain” Pulsat interrupted excitedly “Freighter moves”
“The
engines are engaged?”
“Yes
captain” he replied, “I can splash?”
“No not
yet” she retorted “How is it going Malena?”
“Closing
the door now, and …. Pressurizing” she said
When the
light went green, she opened the airlock door and rushed inside as Merri
steered the Tornado towards Alwi while keeping the Phoenix in sight.
When Malena
reached the pod, she quickly found the emergency release lever and opened the
hatch and took a deep breath before looking in.
“I’m going
in” she remarked, and she feared the worse as she put her head in through the hatch,
but her fears weren’t realized as the Skeet’s were inside, unconscious but
alive.
“They’re
alive” she shouted “They’re alive”
“Excellent
news” Merri said and adjusted the Tornados position to put the Phoenix square
astern of her.
“Pulsat!”
“I can
splash now?” he responded
“You can
splash now” she instructed “and when you’ve blown them to atoms go and assist
Malena”
So Pulsat
manned the Plasma Cannon, he and Vanzyl had been on the receiving end of a Scav
Raider attack and he had never had the opportunity before to exact revenge,
until that day when he raked the Phoenix from stem to stern, before he and
Vanzyl made their way to the cargo hold and helped to extricate the stricken
Skeet brothers from the life pod and move them into the sickbay.
The older
brother Lyris had a minor head injury while Zerrad had a Pulsar wound to the
abdomen so leaving only a debris field in their wake Merri made all speed back
to Alwi.
Lyris
regained consciousness quite soon after being carried to sickbay and his wound
proved to be superficial and there was no concussion, Zerrad on the other hand
was in a much worse way and would need better medical attention than they could
administer, so as the Tornado made maximum speed back to Alwi Merri radioed
ahead to Bagg and Shiyne to have a doctor meet them on landing while Malena sat
a Zerrad’s bedside holding his hand.
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