“Why do you attack us? What harm have we done you?” Darren asked.
There was fighting in the corridor and most Drek soldiers had left the gallery to join it. Darren dropped his sword and slowly raised his hands, allowing the officer to approach and who fixed him with one beady eye.
“You’ll find out. If I let you live.”
But nobody was keeping an eye on Blayze, Darren assumed. He didn’t dare betray Blayze by drawing attention to him, ruining their one chance to get out of this by turning his gaze on his brother, who was on his feet, and in a flash had his arm round the officer’s short neck, throttling him, and the other arm forced the officer’s arm up his back, immobilizing him.
Darren pulled a knife from his boot with his good arm and held it to the officer’s throat. “Release the females or your officer dies,” he growled, but Drek burst in from the corridor and overpowered the brothers.
“Kill them now, Sir?” asked a Drek.
“No. We take them with us.” The officer brushed his arms and straightened his collar.
Darren, Blayze and Aelanna, Nayli and Kora were marched out as prisoners.
They were taken to the goods hold, where Drek had blasted a hole in the outer door to the airlock and forcibly boarded through a flexible tunnel. The party gathered round it, bunched up. That must have been the initial plasma bolt they felt.
The hole was small, only wide enough for a person, even a Drek, to pass through it. They had to get in line by one of the transporters, which were anchored to the floor by huge metal clamps over its fuselage.
The humans would have to crouch to get into the tunnel, and the big Dheltans would have to squeeze through. The Drek officer prepared for the transfer by ordering a couple of his men inside the temporary tunnel. Standing by it, he waved for the humans to move before the Dheltans.
Darren caught Blayze’s eye. They were side-by-side, wrists pinned together at their fronts.
“Girls in transporter,” Darren croaked in Dheltan.Most Drek spoke Ohirin but few knew the Dheltan language. Blayze gave a single, almost imperceptible nod.
Aelanna, Kora and Nayli stood ahead of them, held by one Drek each since there wasn’t room for more. The Drek released Aelanna, and pushed her forward to the arms of a waiting soldier in the tunnel.
“Now,” yelled Darren.
Overpowering the Drek, and shielding the females with his body, Blayze drove the girls back to the transporter whileDarren shouldered his way through Drek warriors. As soon as he heard the transporter door slam, he yelled, “Hold on to something, Blayze!”
With both hands, Darren yanked away the flexible tunnel and the Drek warriors were sucked out into space. Alarms started screeching and red lights flashed. He was almost sucked out himself, but the hole was blocked by the Drek officer struggling to save himself. Darren pushed off the officer, twisted round, and grabbed a bar attached to the bulkhead. Holding on for dear life, he booted the officer into space.
He held his breath while he drove an elbow through an emergency glass panel, but he couldn’t pull out the oxygen mask. He didn’t dare let go of the bar and there was no alternative but to hold his breath.
There was no air; it had been sucked out in a nanosecond, and with his hands tied together, he couldn’t hold onto the bar and put the mask to his face at the same time.
He hoped he could hold on until the repair bots arrived. They didn’t need air and they could help him. The girls should be alright. There was air in the transporter and if there wasn’t, they had access to helmets and oxygen.Where was Blayze?He prayed his brother was okay.
Chapter 19
Battle
Safe inside the transporter with Kora and Nayli, Aelanna heard the battle outside, and she prayed Darren and his brothers would keep safe. They had air to breathe, and Blayze had pushed them in there and told them not to open the door on any account. He said it more colorfully than that, and they wouldn’t have dared to disobey him due to his fierce tone.
After what seemed like hours but was probably only a few minutes, Blayze opened the transporter door and poked his head in.
“You can come out,” he said. “It’s over now. The invaders have gone.”
He didn’t look any worse for wear than a few cuts and bruises and his battle leathers were torn in places. He'd got away lightly, but Nayli flung her arms round his neck.
“My poor baby. Does it hurt?”
He attempted a smile. “My head’s killing me, where the Drek knocked me out.”
“Let’s get you to the med bay.”
Aelanna was looking for Darren, also for Kora and Lero. The enemy had gone, including the dead bodies. There were a dozen Dheltan warriors sweeping the area. She stepped over bright green blood, in places mixed with red, and she feared the worst.
