Smoke rolls in through the doorway, thick and acrid. Through it, a droid’s amplified voice booms down the corridor, metallic and merciless.
“Lord Quldo demands the surrender of the human on board.”
A beat of silence.
“Comply… or die.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
I scramble up from the bed but quickly get tangled in the vines along the floor—the fog obscuring the narrow path through the room. I stumble, the width of the ridiculous skirt weighing me down.
When my knees slam hard into the ground, I can't take it anymore. I grab right below the highest most ruffle and rip off any of the fabric beneath it. I jump to clear the voluminous fabric before sprinting into the hall.
The smoke burns my lungs, so I drop to my knees and crawl in the shallow pocket of air near the floor. I can hear Mekkra's roar and the sound of a droid being cleaved in half by one of his blades.
“You’re right,” he calls into the smoke, his voice carrying through the haze like a challenge thrown at the void. “I don’t deserve her.”
For a moment the words hang there, heavy with something that almost sounds like regret.
“But understand this.”
His hand tightens around the weapon at his side.
“The universe could tear me apart atom by atom before I’d ever place her in the hands of a scrap-built tyrant like you.”
He gulps, and the smoke makes him cough, but he regains his composure quickly. His voice hardens into something immovable.
“So if you came here expecting surrender… you’ve come to the wrong corner of the stars. I'll kill you, Quldo, even if it I have to take myself out in the process!” His hoarse, dangerous laugh slips through the smoke.
"Mekkra!" I yell, unable to find him.
"Computer, ready Mae's ship—Starcroft, take her there," he commands.
A metal hand grabs me by the laces on my back and quickly lifts me into the air.
"No, leave me here!" I yell as I claw at the floor.
"Sorry, an order’s an order," Starcroft says as we whizz through the hall in the opposite direction of the fighting.
Before I know it, the smoke thins and we're crossing through the hull and into the cockpit of a sleek and small vessel.
My ship.
Starcroft deposits me into the captain’s chair at the center of the room. He pulls the safety harness over my shoulders and secures me with a click. A blue panel drops from the ceiling, and he places my palm there.
"Hello, Mae—destination?" the computer says so calmly, as if everything isn't being swept out from beneath my feet.
"I—I?—"
I don't know where I would go. I'm sure I could just say anywhere, or away, and we'd jet off with my billions to a new life.
I look down at my hand, the ring made of his bone is there, heavy despite its featherweight.
I can't leave him here to die, to fall away completely into his muddied mind.
"Computer, are there weapons on board?" I ask as Starcroft's eye blink in confusion.
"Yes, we have a stow of thirty blasters on board, all keyed to your bio-signature," the computer explains.
