The escape pods!
That's where they needed to go. Cael had just passed the door leading there. He turned to alert the females, but they were lostin the acrid smoke. Maybe it was possible to find them through the ship's computer in the pod room.
He backtracked and entered, his eyes watering. A set of blasters hung on the wall, and he grabbed two in case he needed to fight off the other Luciverian. Hopefully, he wouldn't have to fight off the other Zyranthian guards. They were still his people, after all.
The ship's interface awoke at his touch, showing an alarm for a breach in the coolant system.
"So that's what the idiot hit when he fired his blaster inside the ship," Cael grumbled.
The Zyranthian blasters were outfitted to stun another being but not cause damage to the ship. It was standard practice for anyone guarding materials aboard a ship sailing through space. What kind of rogue pirate was this stranger who acted so recklessly?
The door opened and Cael turned, blasters at the ready. He wasn't about to let the other guards take off with all the escape pods and leave the human females on board a dying ship. But instead of more guards, it was the intruder and the women.
Cael's eyes went to Midori's face.
"It's you, isn't it?" she asked, taking a step toward him.
Cael nodded.
"I suggest you stay back from the Zyranthian guard. He's pointing his blasters right at us," the intruder said.
"Actually, I think he's pointing them at you," the shortest female, Val, spoke up.
Cael liked her. She was spirited and had no trouble taking charge.
Another alarm blared over the initial warning, this one louder and more insistent. The ship shuddered, and the boom of an explosion sounded through the air.
"Evacuation pods, now!" Cael shouted. He pressed a button next to a pod, and its door opened.
Grabbing the closest female, he pushed her in the round pod and pressed the button again, sealing her in. It was April, Midori's sister, and by her banging on the small round window, she wasn't too pleased with Cael's life-saving actions. With a release, the pod jettisoned out into space and away from the deteriorating ship.
"Where did she go?!" Midori shouted. Her eyes stared through the window as the jettisoned pod flew away. Her voice rose an octave as she asked, "Where is my sister?"
Cale grabbed her arm and pulled her into another pod with him. "No time to explain. The ship is about to explode. This is the only way."
He threw one of his blasters on the floor, giving them a bit more room in the crowded space, and wrapped his three free arms around Midori's slight frame, pulling her close to him.
The black-and-white intruder nodded at Cael as the door to the pod shut. Cael hoped he understood the importance of getting the last female, Val, into an escape pod right away. He would have done it himself, but the intruder's body language suggested he felt protective of her. Maybe Cael had misjudged the male . . . maybe he wasn't there to sell off the women after all. Was it possible he was there to save them? The pod shot from the ship and into the vast darkness of space, leaving Cael to hope his instincts were right.
Their bodies floated with the lack of a gravity field, and Cael adjusted his arms around Midori, using two to hold her and two to brace their bodies against the pod so they wouldn't float around bumping their heads. He expected Midori to squirm in his arms and fight against him. Instead, she laid still and watched the ship grow smaller and smaller through the window.
Another escape pod jettisoned, followed by another. More pods jettisoned from the other side of the ship as it shrank away in the distance.
Hurry, brothers.Cael knew not all of his kinsmen might make it off the ship, be he hoped they would. All of those guards had been stationed there by Cael's uncle. They hadn't asked to transport slaves. They shouldn't be punished for the sins of their leader.
The ship was now a small dot in the distance, but its explosion filled the window with light.
"Oh no. All those poor people," Midori said, turning her head away from the window.
"I think most of them survived." Cael was touched by her compassion for her captors. "I noticed a great number of escape pods."
"I hope so," she said, and Cael squeezed her shoulders. "What happens now? To us?"
"The pod will search out a hospitable planet for us to land on. A homing device will alert others to our location, and then we'll be rescued."
"Rescued? That's what Captain Malgren said he was doing, and look how that turned out."
"Captain Malgren?"
