"What happens to that?" Marcin asked.
"Decommissioned," the solder replied. "As ordered."
Kolvin nodded. He liked knowing that no one else would suffer there as he and the others did. They were not the only ones there. Others who had been taken during previous missions had been kept on the prison ship. They were not in the same chamber of cells that he, Marcin, and Solkan were in. He did not know if they had been retrieved or not.
However, Zapier had said that this was the last ship. Perhaps that meant everyone else had made it out? That was the most logical conclusion.
The female's gaze ran over Solkan for a moment before she took a seat across from them all.
She pulled out a blaster and aimed it in their direction. "Now, you all play nice, and I won't have to use this."
"We won't do anything we're not supposed to," Kolvin said.
She raised her eyebrow.
"Vinka," called the pilots.
She stood and walked to the front of the ship.
Kolvin noticed that Solkan did not stop watching her.
"You know her?" he whispered.
"No."
The ship, which had been moving on a very steady course, started to lurch. And the Terran pilots began to panic.
Kolvin turned to the windows again, for he could not read their course headings.
A look out into space, and he saw the Terran prison ship he had been living on for the last five years start to explode.
The flashes hit him hard.
In a moment, he was back in battle. Fighting for his life. For the life of his fellow Rhimodians.
He curled into himself and covered his face.
If he could not see it, it could not affect him.
He took a few breaths.
"Are we in a battle?" Marcin asked.
He rose and attempted to get over to the window but couldn't. Out in space, there were flashes of light and bursts of fire as the prison ship slowly began to incinerate on itself. Fire burst from the shape until the oxygen in that area.
The last concussion blast radiated off the ship.
"Hold onto something," Vinka's voice came from the front of the ship.
Their ship shook as the blast hit them.
* * *
Kolvin openedhis eyes and was met by bright, clear, white light. He winced at first, the light overpowering him. His head pounded, pain throbbing. But it wasn't pain. It was something else.
"Ahh, good, you're awake," came a chipper male voice.
Kolvin turned toward the voice.
