Chapter 28

Chapter 28

The patrol galloped past the storeroom, disruptors in hand. Brett watched them pass by through a crack in the door, waiting for the guards to disappear before he opened the door. Sticking his head out into the corridor, he didn’t see anything.

At this point, he wished he hadn’t broken the Szai. Even a weapon he could barely use was better than nothing at all. Trying to take down a Serparnian in body armor with only his fists was a great way to get killed.

Brett sprinted from the doorway, loping along the empty corridor leading deeper into the Serparnian Liberation Army’s fortress. Since running away from the duel with Slonix, Brett hadn’t found any sign of Robyn. For all he knew Streng might have already killed her or taken her in a shuttlecraft to some other location. But he couldn’t leave until he knew for sure.

A popular notion spouted by holonovels and the like was the concept of never leaving a fellow soldier behind. Brett had believed in this idea until the Dominion war. Then he understood sometimes you had to leave a soldier behind to spare the rest of the unit. For this reason Shawn Lichen had sacrificed himself and his crew, staying behind in spite of the loving wife waiting for him.

As Brett continued along the winding corridor, he had to admit to himself he might have left anyone but Robyn behind. If it were Babs instead of Robyn, he wouldn’t have hesitated rushing up to the hangar, stealing a shuttlecraft, and flying back to the Orion for backup. In a situation like this—alone and unarmed against dozens or even hundreds of heavily armed soldiers—that strategy made perfect sense. No one, not even the Starfleet admirals who’d court-martialed him, could blame him.

With Robyn, though, common sense be damned.

Clawed feet clicked against the stone floor ahead of him, signaling another patrol searching for him. Brett found another doorway, slipping inside an empty set of quarters that reminded him of the mining colony. Rummaging around the possessions of the room’s three occupants, he didn’t find any kind of hidden weapons. Of course he wouldn’t be that lucky.

“Sometimes you have to make your luck,” he mumbled.

He pressed against the doorway, watching the patrol march past in double-time. As the last soldier went by, Brett opened the door and grabbed the rearmost Serparnian from behind, clamping a hand over the guard’s mouth. With all his strength he dragged the guard into the room.

“Give me your weapon or I’ll break your neck,” Brett hissed into the Serparnian’s ear. The Serparnian complied, handing the disruptor to Brett. Using a pair of Serparnian leggings, Brett bound and gagged the guard. A low-powered shot to the guard’s rib section knocked him out to make sure he didn’t raise an alarm for quite some time.

Brett searched the Serparnian’s body, relieving him of a scanner and communicator that looked as if they came from two centuries ago. The communicator couldn’t punch through the jamming to reach the Orion, nor could the scanner pick up any sign of Robyn. No wonder they hadn’t found him yet.

This begged the question of why they didn’t turn off the jamming long enough to find him. Unless they were worried about someone finding them, like the Orion in orbit. Or perhaps government forces looking to strike back after the raid on the capital. In any case, none of this helped him find Robyn.

He left the quarters, the disruptor cool in his hand. If he had to use the weapon, he probably wouldn’t last much longer; the noise would surely bring everyone in the base on top of him. At least now he could take a few of them with him.

The corridor ended with a fork, one going left and the other right. He stood at the fork in the corridor for a moment, trying to decide which direction to take. The Serparnians hadn’t been courteous enough to label the corridors for him. A gut feeling told him to go right and since he didn’t have anything else to go on, he went that way.

Three steps later he heard the sound of footsteps behind him. This time he wasn’t so lucky as to have a doorway right at hand to duck into. He broke into a run, hoping to stay a few steps ahead of the patrol until he could find someplace to hide.

The footsteps behind him seemed to speed up. He didn’t know if this was his imagination or not, but soon enough he was into a mad dash to dodge his pursuers. They kept pace, perhaps gaining on him a little bit. Before long they would spot him.

Up ahead he saw a set of double-doors. A sliver of blue light came from the bottom of the doorway, indicating the room was occupied. He couldn’t risk going in there to find a whole platoon of soldiers on their lunch break.

Then he heard a scream unmistakably human. Robyn!

Without thinking, Brett threw his body against the doors, barging into a horrific scene. Robyn hung suspended a foot off the ground, arms tied over her head. A burly Serparnian, his putty-colored scales cross-hatched with pink scars, held a lash with a trio of spiked burrs at its end. He snapped this across Robyn’s midsection, the spikes raking across her skin like claws. This prompted her screams.

“You will tell me, Captain, or this will get very unpleasant for you,” Streng said.

“Go to Hell,” Robyn said.

Before her torturer could bring the whip back, Brett dropped him with a high-powered shot to the head. His corpse fell at Robyn’s feet. “That’s enough,” he said, pointing the disruptor at Streng. “Get her down from there.”

“This makes no difference. You will both die soon enough.”

“That may be, but if you don’t do it, you’ll go first.”

Streng glared at Brett and then did as he was told. Robyn dropped to the floor in a heap. She lay there unmoving, the rise and fall of her chest the only sign of life.

“Pick her up,” Brett commanded.

“What do you think you’re doing? There’s no way out of here for you,” Streng said. He picked Robyn up from the floor, pressing her body against his anyway.

“You’re going to get us out of here.”

“How do you propose I do that?”

“I’m sure you know about a back door. And I’m sure none of your underlings would dare shoot someone as important as yourself.” Brett pressed the muzzle of the disruptor into the back of Streng’s head. “At least for your sake you better hope they won’t.”

As if on cue, the patrol following Brett in the hall burst through the door. “Are you all right, General Streng?” their leader asked.

“He’s fine,” Brett snapped. “For now. Come any closer and he’ll end up like your friend over there.”

The patrol leader glanced over at the headless torturer. His troops raised their weapons. “You will not escape, human. There is nowhere for you to go.”

“Either you let us go or your beloved leader is going to be a pile of ashes. It’s up to you.”

The patrol leader considered this proposition. He lowered his weapon, as did the rest of his patrol. “You win for now, but you will not get out of here alive.”

“Prepare my shuttle for launch,” Streng ordered.

After the patrol left, Brett jammed the disruptor harder into Streng’s head. “You think I’m an idiot? They’ll all be waiting for us in the hangar now.”

“Of course. That’s why you won’t be leaving that way. There is another route away from here only I know.”

“That’s convenient.”

“This place has belonged to my family for generations, since ancient times.”

“Fine. Show us the way.” Brett turned Streng’s head towards his former henchman. “But you know what’ll happen if you betray us.”

The corridors leading deeper into the compound were deserted now. Brett had little doubt everyone was up in the hangar, waiting for them to arrive so they could spring whatever trap they’d cooked up. In time they would figure out Brett wasn’t going to show. By then he hoped to have enough of a head start that it wouldn’t make a difference.

Robyn stirred after a few minutes, her eyes widening as she realized her shoulder was pressed against Streng’s. She looked back at Brett, her eyes widening. “I thought I’d dreamed that,” she whispered. “How did you find me?”

“Blind luck. How else?”

“Thank you,” she said and then passed out again.

As in the palace, the corridors grew more ancient the farther down they went. Brett kept his fingers tightened on the disruptor, waiting for Streng to pull something. If he really did know the layout of this place, he could lead them into a dead end or a trap like Hurd had done. He might already have some of his troops waiting for them.

But Streng proved their was honor among thieves. The air became oppressively humid, drenching Brett in sweat after only a few minutes. A smell like fresh grass assaulted his nose. Then he saw a patch of light up ahead.

A doorway led into a jungle forest somewhere on the mountain’s slope. Beyond that lay the capital city and help. Brett shoved Steng forward to enter the forest.