The answering retort from the shuttle's guns was thanks to T’arq.
“Where the hell did they come from?” T’arq asked, his usually easy-going voice now anxious. “I didn’t pick them up on radar. I can't put the shields up while the ramp’s down! Hurry!”
Laila lifted her head to watch over Zac's shoulder as the Xakul fighter bore down on them again. Her head bounced with every step until she was suddenly thrown to the ground. A tearing feeling ripped through her injured leg and she screamed in pain.
Zac's body covered hers as the ground around them was peppered with shrapnel, dust shooting into the air with every strike. She shoved at his chest, wanting to get free, but he held her still.
The Xakul ship shot past, the air clouded with dust. Laila coughed as she wiggled out from under Zac. He grunted, pushing himself up and staggering as he did so.
“Zac?”
He braced a hand against his side, his breath coming in gasps, his chest heaving. Laila grabbed him around the waist, taking a handful of his belt to steady herself, the two of them stumbling to their knees as his weight became too much for Laila to bear with her injured leg. Blood poured from the reopened wound in her thigh and she gasped in pain, struggling to hold Zac upright.
Domik raced towards them, grabbing Zac around the waist and half carried, half dragged him the final distance to the shuttle.
“Why do you have to be so big?” Domik huffed as he and Zac stumbled the last few steps, Laila struggling to her feet behind them.
“Oren? My pack! Where is it? It has the data drive!” Laila looked around frantically, having become disoriented.
“I have it!” Oren shouted, tossing the packs into the shuttle’s open door to slide inside the cargo bay.
“Hurry! It’s coming back!” T’arq's normally calm voice was becoming frantic over the comm channel. “They're almost on us!”
The tiny Xakul ship moved with incredible dexterity, dodging and weaving before leveling and sighting on the Taurean shuttle.
Time seemed to slow as Laila turned towards the safety of the Taurean ship and tried to run, ignoring the screaming pain in her leg with each step. It felt like she was dragging herself through mud; the short distance to the shuttle seemingly endless. With each step, agony speared her body. She gritted her teeth and screamed in pain, pushing with all she had to get to the shuttle's ramp. Dust sprayed up with each step, the stench of ozone in the air from the plasma weapon searing her lungs, grit filling her eyes.
Just a few more steps.
“I have a lock on them!” Oren's voice rang out, Laila watching as he balanced a plasma cannon on his shoulder and fired at the incoming Xakul fighter. The noise was deafening as the fighter disintegrated and catapulted overhead, debris scattering and barely missing the top of the grounded shuttle.
She watched as Domik heaved Zac's staggering form up the ramp to CJ, who grabbed handfuls of his shirt and helped drag him on board, Domik pushing as CJ pulled.
Just a few more steps.
Laila screamed in agony, pushing harder than she had ever before, relief flooding her body as her feet finally hit the metal of the ramp.
“There’s another one coming!” T’arq shouted over the comm.
“Go! Go! Go!” CJ ordered, grabbing handfuls of Laila's clothing to yank her on board, the shuttle lifting off with the ramp still lowered.
Oren, still not on the shuttle, grabbed the ramp with one hand and, swinging up, pulled his himself into the hold, slamming a fist on the button to close the ramp as he did so. He fell to the floor, chest heaving as the ramp slammed into place.
“Hold on! This is going to be rough!” T’arq's voice came through the shuttle's speakers.
Domik and Oren both grabbed a handhold and braced themselves in the small cargo bay, Zac reaching for Laila. They were tossed around as the shuttle left the surface, the Xakul still in pursuit.
The shuttle jerked as T’arq evaded the Xakul fighter's guns, the passengers sliding from side to side as he did. It felt like forever until the words they had all been hoping to hear came from the pilot.
“They've broken off. We should be ok.”
Laila had never been so relieved in her life. She closed her eyes as pain washed through her body. Her injured leg soaked in blood, the tourniquet having come loose during the rush to escape Elthea.
“Laila?” Zac's voice seemed to come from a long way away. It was such a shame that they couldn't be together. It would have been nice to have someone who understood what she did. He was everything she had ever wanted in a man.
Such a shame.
That was her last thought as she slipped into unconsciousness.
